Chapter Text
The alarm sounded off, waking her with a start. She had been dreaming, and the warm sunshine she had felt on her skin, making her so sure that she was experiencing reality, was replaced by the cool temperature in her bedroom. Even though it was June, the air was uncharacteristically chilly. Then again, maybe it was simply that she was no longer used to getting up in the dead of night. They had been training, to be sure, but it had been over two years since they'd had to abide by an Olympics-oriented regime.
Today is just the beginning.
It's not that she wasn't thrilled, because she was, she really was. As she sluggishly moved from the bedroom to the kitchen of her rented apartment, she felt the now familiar sense of purpose that had filled her heart almost a year earlier, and the barely unpacked boxes scattered on the floor didn't make her feel as sloppy as she had in the past few weeks.
Apartment hunting had been no walk in the park, and she still wasn't sure about the flat she'd decided on. She felt like she'd chosen it more out of exhaustion than conviction, too preoccupied with all the activities she was balancing in her day-to-day life to make a home in Montréal. Part of her knew that it wouldn't take much to turn the anonymous one-bedroom apartment into a relaxing haven; another part of her missed the apartment in London, which she had decorated to suit her taste, and that longing for home prevented her from replicating her interior decorating vision elsewhere.
Shoot, is that the time???
She got dressed in a hurry, which meant an all-black look in her book, no time to plan a sophisticated outfit. She knew that some of the other skaters back in Ontario had made fun of her for how impeccably dressed she'd shown up at every training session, the lighter version of the training regime she was about to embark on. Even though she always pretended that she didn't care, she let it get to her more than once. She hated such cattiness.
Thankfully, her focus would quickly shift to what was important to her... and to who was important to her. Her reflection in the mirror unwittingly blushed at the thought.
Focus.
She grabbed her coat and keys, and she rushed down the stairs. She decided she would make a pit stop at that cute coffee shop about block away from the rink, but she had to move fast.
She had discovered the place the last time her mother had come to visit her. She had moved in at the end of March, but her schedule had been so hectic since then, globetrotting to participate in show tours, that she had barely unpacked. Her mother had come to help her get properly settled in, but after hours of unboxing they’d felt the need to take a break, and Tessa had told her mother that she would finish by herself, even though she obviously hadn’t yet. They’d gone exploring the neighborhood, and they’d found the coffee shop quite close to where Tessa usually parked her car. The décor was pink, and quotes from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ graced the walls. She had instantly fallen in love with the place, perhaps because, in a way, she felt like Alice, thrown into a world that, albeit not geographically far removed from her own, felt quite foreign from a cultural standpoint. She had told her mother that she intended to hire a French tutor, and her mother had remarked that she ought to make sure her tutor was from Québec, because the kind of French they spoke in Montréal had nothing to do with the one spoken in Paris. They had spent a long afternoon there, and Tessa relished the memory.
When she got to the coffee place, the damper was still down. She wanted to kick herself for not realizing sooner that every other visit to the coffee shop had occurred at a much later hour. Her stomach started grumbling in protest. There was no other way around it: she would have to buy an energy bar from the vending machine at the rink. Basically, an admission of guilt as to her slow start. On the first day of the new training regime.
Great.
She parked her car and walked towards the entrance of the Gadbois Centre. The massive sports complex looked like a ghost town. Not only was it still really early, despite her tardiness, but the centre itself was located in a relatively remote area, and the dark, empty space surrounding it made the faint lights coming from inside the main building look like a shy lighthouse, kindly inviting ships to come under its protection. There was a lone security guard at the entrance, and he recognized her right away, letting her pass with a nod and a smile to go with it.
Inside, the complex looked even more ghostly. She could not hear the sound of treadmills draining the sweat out of its users, nor the soft chitter chatter that had accompanied her exit the previous times she’d been there.
The air in the room she got changed in, and would get changed in from then on, was mixed with the different fragrances the girls sprayed on themselves after their work-outs, perpetually so, Marie-France had told her when she'd first visited the centre a few months earlier. Being a little late has its perks, she thought. It was hard for her to make small talk so early in the morning, and collective silence made her feel awkward, so she basked in her accidental solitude a few seconds longer before finally getting up and making her way out.
As she moved towards the rink, and started hearing the all too familiar sound of blades whisking across the ice, she felt her stomach knotting up. She had forgotten to get something to eat from the vending machine, but in her heart she knew that her stomach's protestations had nothing to do with food.
There were so many skaters on the ice that it almost looked as if a competitive warm-up were underway. She knew Marie-France and Patrice trained a great number of teams, but seeing the extent of their workload with her own eyes was an entirely different matter, and she suddenly felt overwhelmed. She spotted Patrice, who gave her a warm, encouraging smile, and nodded towards the other side of the rink.
Her eyes wandered, and then she froze.
Marie-France was vigorously explaining something from the outer side of the boards, nodding her head and gesturing, but Tessa didn't notice.
There he was.
He had his back to her, and was deep in conversation with Marie-France, on the same ice as everyone else but unaware of his surroundings. Her mind went to the dream she had abruptly been torn away from by her rude alarm clock. She could almost feel the warmth of the sun on her skin, the sound of the gurgling river, and, most of all...
Marie-France waved at her, and gave Scott a nod to inform him of Tessa's arrival. He hilariously, yet gracefully, clicked the heels of his boots together in delight, and turned around at light speed to meet her gaze. The joy radiating from his face was so infectious, and she couldn't help but blush.
Before she could reach him, he rushed towards her and, still grinning like an idiot, enveloped her in the best bear hug she'd ever experienced. Given that all of Scott's hugs brought her back to life, this was saying something. She closed her eyes and took in his scent, which she had always wished she could bottle, so as to release it when she felt sad, lonely, or scared. As the tip of her nose brushed the crook of his neck, she was reminded of the first time Scott had seen her after her rhinoplasty. She had feared an unintentionally insensitive comment, but he'd simply given her an affectionate smile and a complicit wink. He had made her day.
He made so many of her days.
As soon as he released her, his brow furrowed:
"Have you eaten?"
He knew her too well.
"No..."
"Come with me... can you give us a second, Patch?"
She thought he would lead her to the vending machine, but he walked right by it, not letting go of her hand.
"Scott..."
She pointed at the machine. He smiled and kept leading her onwards.
"Trust me"
She smiled in return. Always, she thought.
He led her down a relatively narrow corridor, and she realized she had never been there before.
"Have you been exploring in my absence?"
He answered with a cheeky grin and opened one of the doors.
"Ta-da!"
It was a kitchenette. She turned to Scott quizzically, as he let go of her hand and crossed his arms with a cocky shrug, his face filled with anticipation.
"What are you up to?"
He feigned an innocent smile, shrugged, and turned to the fridge. As soon as he took out the cream cheese bagel, she was almost moved to tears.
This was 100% Scott, constantly surprising her with just how well he knew her, and showing her that he cared so much as to embrace the otherwise imperceptible nuances of her personality. She hug-attacked him, and he appeared to be taken aback, every muscle in his body tensing, because it wasn't like her to be so overt with her feelings. Even though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was smiling as soon as he hugged her back.
When she released him, he gently cupped her face.
"Are you OK?"
She nodded faintly.
"I thought that the first day of getting up so early again would be harder on you than on me, so I thought I’d get you something to eat, you know, just in case..."
He gave her a knowing wink.
"Thank you"
He smiled, and his hands left her face. He pointed at the bagel.
"You might want to warm that up..."
"Absolutely, but I don't want to keep you, I noticed you and Marie-France were talking..."
"Yeah, she has some new ideas for the short program, but Patrice said he'd rather focus on making sure we get the levels before we add more choreo. They're battling it out"
He grinned.
Ever since they'd moved to Montréal, Scott had made no secret to her of his amusement at Marie-France and Patrice's constant spurring. He'd told her that he admired the fact that their married coaches challenged each other on a daily basis, yet never faltered in their deep love and understanding for one another. Kind of like you and me, she'd thought.
"Well... I'm sorry I'm late"
"You're too hard on yourself Tess... the first day was going to be rough, we knew this"
"You seem more chipper than ever"
"I'm happy"
He said it just like that, like an innocent little boy. Her heart swelled, and at that moment she realized that she could turn the day around after all.
"I'm sorry, I just need to get used to all this again"
"Don't apologize, we haven't gotten to my after-lunch slump yet"
She could not help but laugh. His cocksure expression was his way of referencing their inside jokes. She loved taking pictures of him napping, usually after lunch, but one time, unbeknownst to her, he had noticed. The next day he'd pretended to be asleep, and he'd leapt up as soon as he'd heard her bracelets softly grazing her cell phone. She had screamed, more in delight than in shock, but he hadn't asked her to stop, in fact he'd lent himself to the most hilarious improvised photo shoot they'd ever done together.
"Earth to Tessa... are you sure you're OK?"
"I'm still half asleep, give me a few hours and I'll be a coherent human being again"
He looked at her quizzically, as if he were trying to uncover a deep-seated mystery.
"What?"
"We used to go to practice together"
"We did"
"There is no reason we can't go to practice together now"
"Wouldn't it be more of a hassle for you?"
Scott had found a place that was relatively close to the Gadbois Centre. She, on the other hand, had chosen a flat downtown, because she wanted to spend her free time without having to drive everywhere to do anything remotely interesting. She needed time to wind down, and she didn't want to spend a substantial portion of that time in a car.
"No, not at all. As long as I get to choose the music"
She smiled.
"Sure. Do I have to sing along?"
"Please don't"
She chuckled.
"OK, sure".