Chapter Text
Today was exhausting, but productive in a way that only feels meaningful because we were together through all of it.
Garrett and I spent the day watching his teammates play another game without him. Two games now. And even though he tries not to show it too much, I know how hard this suspension has been on him. Hockey is everything to Garrett. Sitting on the sidelines while everyone else fights out there is probably driving him insane.
But even then, he keeps pushing himself every single day. Training harder, showing up for his team however he can, constantly thinking about what he’ll do once he’s back on the ice. And honestly? Watching him handle all of this only makes me admire him more. He never stops trying. Never stops caring.
And the Hawks? They’ve been incredible lately. Saying I’m proud of them would honestly be an understatement.
Now we’re back in his room, tangled up in his bed after hours of talking, laughing, and making out like neither of us wanted the night to end. My fingers keep running through his hair while his hand traces lazy circles against my back, pulling me impossibly closer every few minutes. He holds me so tightly I can barely breathe sometimes, but I love it anyway. His hugs make me feel grounded. Safe. Like nothing bad can touch me as long as I’m here.
I know part of him is still thinking about the team, though. About what happened. About how he can help while he’s stuck watching from the sidelines. And no matter how many times he tells me otherwise, guilt still creeps in sometimes because he stepped in for me.
But Garrett just keeps reassuring me over and over again that none of this is my fault. That Delaney being an asshole has absolutely nothing to do with me.
And somehow, when he says it, I believe him.
And he’s right. That’s what my mom said too.
Still, I can’t help it.
Delaney has already taken too many things from the people I love, and I don’t want him to take anything else.
This is Garrett’s life. And I don’t want it taken away because of me.
“You’re doing it again,” Garrett sighed softly, still tracing lazy circles against my back.
“I’m just thinking,” I admitted honestly.
“Haven’t you had enough thinking for today?” Garrett murmured. “Why don’t you rest, Wellsy?”
His hand slid up to my cheek, gently turning my face toward him until I finally looked at him properly.
Even now, even after everything, he looked calm. Like he was more worried about me falling apart than the suspension hanging over his own head.
“I just think…” I hesitated, quieter this time, like lowering my voice would somehow make the truth easier to say. “We should tell the other guys. About what he did.”
Garrett’s expression shifted slightly, though he stayed quiet.
“They’re playing against St. Anthony’s next game,” I continued. “And they should know before Delaney tries to provoke someone again.”
For a moment, Garrett didn’t answer.
His thumb brushed slowly across my cheek while his eyes stayed fixed on mine, thoughtful and tired all at once.
“I know,” he finally said.
“But if we tell them now, they’re gonna go into that game angry. And angry players make stupid decisions.”
“He humiliated you, Garrett.”
His jaw tightened slightly at that, but he shook his head anyway.
“That’s not what I care about.”
“Then what do you care about?” I asked quietly.
Garrett exhaled slowly before pulling me a little closer against him.
“You,” he answered without hesitation.
The sincerity in his voice hit me harder than I expected.
Because Garrett always did this—always found a way to make me feel like I mattered more than the mess around us.
“I just don’t want this to blow up even more,” he admitted. “The team’s already under pressure. If they find out what Delaney said to you…”
He trailed off, but he didn’t need to finish.
I already knew.
The Hawks loved Garrett. And if someone crossed him—or me because of him—they wouldn’t let it go easily.
Still, the uneasy feeling in my chest refused to disappear.
“What if he does it again?” I whispered.
Garrett’s arms tightened around me instinctively.
“He won’t,” he said firmly.
“And if he does… I’ll handle it better next time.”
I just nodded because I know he will.
But I think keeping the other guys in the dark will not make things better.
And I think we should stop Delaney before it’s too late.
I just finished my shift at Malone’s, and usually around this time Garrett is still at training while everyone else heads back to the hockey house.
This is my chance now.
I’d been thinking about it all day—about telling the guys what happened with Delaney, and what they should know before he does something stupid again.
So I rode my bike to the hockey house and went in without hesitation.
I was here often enough that it didn’t even feel like visiting anymore. It felt like walking into a second home.
The moment I stepped inside, I heard noise coming from the kitchen. I followed it immediately.
Tucker was cooking like he usually did, Logan was staring at a glass of water like it had personally offended him, and Dean was rummaging through the fridge like he was on a life-or-death mission.
“Hey, Wellsy!” Tucker greeted first. “G’s not here, but he’ll be back in a minute. You eat yet?”
Before I could even answer, another voice cut in.
“Sup, Wellsy! You mind opening the microwave? Kinda got my hands full here.” Dean nodded toward it without looking.
I sighed, walked over, and opened it for him.
“Thanks,” he said quickly, already pulling something out.
I cleared my throat.
“I have something to tell you guys.”
That made all of them pause at once.
Logan straightened immediately, setting his glass down. “You sound serious.”
“Yeah… it is,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “It’s about the incident with Delaney last time.”
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Even Dean stopped chewing. Tucker turned off the stove without saying a word. Logan’s expression sharpened like he was suddenly fully awake.
And just like that, all four of them were looking at me.
Waiting.
I swallowed, suddenly more aware of how heavy the room felt.
“But I need you guys to hear me first,” I said quietly, looking at each of them one by one. “And I need you to promise me that when I tell you this, you won’t dwell over it or do something stupid because of it.”
The room stayed completely silent.
“This happened years ago,” I continued. “And I’ve worked really hard to move forward from it. I’m okay now. Or… better, at least. So I don’t need you guys carrying this around forever, okay?”
Slowly, they all nodded.
Even Dean looked unusually serious.
I took a shaky breath.
“So… I grew up in the same town as Delaney. Ransom, Indiana.” My fingers twisted together nervously. “Back in high school, I went to this party celebrating senior year and…” I swallowed hard. “I drank from a cup he spiked.”
The words alone made my throat tighten.
For a second, I almost stopped there.
But I forced myself to keep going.
“He raped me that night.”
The kitchen went deathly still.
No one moved. No one spoke.
And somehow, that silence made it easier to continue.
“What’s funny is…” I laughed weakly, though it sounded broken even to my own ears. “I remember all of it. Vividly.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“I shouldn’t have remembered anything because of what he put in my drink, but I still remember not being able to move.” My voice shook despite my efforts to steady it. “I remember trying to stop him and my body just… wouldn’t listen. I remember screaming so loud, but nobody heard me because the music outside drowned it out.”
The words started falling apart after that.
“And I—”
I couldn’t finish.
Dean crossed the room before I even realized he moved, wrapping his arms around me tightly.
For once, he didn’t joke. Didn’t interrupt. Didn’t say a single word.
I grabbed onto his forearms instinctively, grounding myself before forcing the rest out.
“Afterward, I called a cab and went home,” I whispered. “I told my mom everything.”
My eyes burned.
“But nobody believes a girl that easily.”
No one in the kitchen moved.
“His friends lied for him,” I continued quietly. “And his mom—she was the mayor—used her influence to get my dad removed from his job. People in town started calling my family liars. Some of them stopped talking to us completely.”
“And my family suffered a lot because of it,” I admitted, anger slipping through despite how calm I was trying to sound. “They had to pay for legal fees. For my therapy. And his family even sued us for emotional abuse…” I laughed bitterly under my breath. “So we had to pay them too.”
The disbelief on their faces only made the memory feel heavier.
“And he’s still out there,” I said quietly, voice tightening. “Walking around like the world owes him something.”
No one interrupted me.
No one even moved.
“And during the game…” I continued, softer now. “The one where Garrett punched him—Delaney said something about me. That’s why Garrett hit him.”
Dean’s arms tightened slightly around me at that.
“I’m telling you this because I don’t want you guys walking into that next game blind,” I whispered. “Delaney likes provoking people. He likes hurting people when he knows he can get away with it.”
The silence afterward felt unbearable.
Not empty.
Heavy.
Logan stared at the floor so hard his jaw visibly clenched.
Tucker looked completely frozen beside the counter, one hand still gripping the edge of it tightly.
And Dean…
Dean looked furious.
Not loud furious. Not dramatic furious.
The dangerous kind.
The kind that sat quietly behind his eyes.
For a long moment, nobody knew what to say.
Then Logan suddenly stood up so fast his chair scraped harshly against the floor.
“That son of a bitch,” he muttered, voice shaking with anger.
Tucker immediately rubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus Christ…”
Dean still hadn’t let go of me.
“I’m gonna kill him,” he said quietly.
“Dean,” I warned immediately.
“No,” he snapped, though his voice cracked halfway through it. “No, Hannah, are you serious right now? He—”
“I know,” I whispered quickly. “I know.”
The kitchen fell silent again.
“Honestly, G didn’t deserve all this suspension bullshit,” Logan muttered angrily, running a hand through his hair. “That motherfucker deserved worse. I would’ve strangled him myself.”
The tension in the room remained thick and suffocating.
Dean still had one arm wrapped tightly around me like letting go meant risking me falling apart again, while Tucker looked seconds away from punching a wall just from hearing Delaney’s name.
I inhaled slowly before speaking.
“Delaney wants this reaction,” I said firmly. “He thrives on it. Every time someone loses control because of him, it just feeds his ego even more.”
The room quieted slightly.
“And honestly?” I continued, looking between all of them. “You guys getting suspended or throwing away the season because of him is exactly what he wants.”
Dean’s grip on me loosened just enough for him to lean back slightly and properly look at my face.
“You shouldn’t have had to carry this alone,” he said quietly.
Something in his voice almost made my chest ache.
I shook my head gently.
“I wasn’t alone,” I said softly. “Garrett and Allie knew. And now you guys know too.”
My eyes flickered toward all of them one by one.
“And what matters to me now is seeing you guys beat his ass where you’re actually best at it.” A small smile tugged at my lips. “On the ice.”
That finally earned the faintest reaction from Logan, though the anger in his expression still lingered underneath.
I swallowed hard before continuing.
“I just…” My voice softened slightly. “I don’t want the next game turning into a disaster because Delaney decides to run his mouth again.”
Dean’s jaw tightened instantly at the mention of him.
“He won’t touch you again,” Dean said immediately, his voice low and certain.
“Yeah,” Logan agreed firmly from across the room.
“Not happening,” Tucker added just as seriously.
Then, before I could even react, both of them crossed the room and pulled me into a hug at the same time.
“I’m so proud of you, Wellsy,” Tucker said softly, squeezing me tighter. “You’re seriously the bravest person I know.”
That completely broke whatever composure I still had left.
A small sob escaped me before I could stop it, and I pressed my face against Tucker’s shoulder for a second, overwhelmed by everything all at once.
The anger.
The fear.
The relief.
But most of all, the overwhelming gratitude sitting heavily inside my chest.
Because despite everything that had happened—
I found them.
People who cared.
People who stayed.
People who made me feel safe again.
And maybe for the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel like I was carrying everything alone.
After the emotional disaster of a conversation, the atmosphere in the apartment remained quieter than usual.
The heaviness never fully disappeared.
But it shifted into something else now.
Something steadier.
A shared understanding. A silent determination lingering between all of us.
No one was joking as loudly anymore. No one was yelling at the TV or throwing insults around like usual.
Still, somehow, the apartment felt warmer than before.
I ended up helping Tucker cook dinner afterward, mostly because I needed something to distract myself with before my thoughts swallowed me whole again.
Thankfully, Tucker didn’t protest this time.
Instead, he handed me vegetables to cut and occasionally bumped his shoulder against mine dramatically whenever he thought I looked too quiet.
Meanwhile, the others cleaned up around the apartment. Logan washed the dishes while Dean silently helped set the table, though I still caught him glancing toward me every few seconds like he needed visual confirmation that I was still okay.
The normalcy of it all felt strange after everything that had just happened.
But comforting too.
Like maybe healing didn’t always come through huge moments.
Maybe sometimes it looked like this instead—
Cooking dinner with people who loved you enough to stay.