A/N: This is all fiction and lies!

Chapter 469: Modo XXV–Good Plans

“And like I said, I cannot express to you how much you have helped this team, and I cannot wait until we have a successful playoff, eh?”

Modano blinked, Pierre had a dead pan expression, a poker face, and he froze in place, standing still. That morning Pierre had invited him out to breakfast downtown, a thank you for getting a deal done swiftly, and an icebreaker to their friendship, as he put it, which if he allowed him, would be as close as family. It seemed neat enough to Modano, but throughout the breakfast, Pierre would throw in a line or two, a note, he never signed players this quickly before, no not ever, not until after the playoffs, because in the playoffs, watching their performance is when he decided on how useful the player was to the team. Yes he had broken with tradition, his own tradition, this would be new and exciting, and as he put it, no one got very far in any enterprise if they were not at least a little bit of a gambler.

The breakfast good, the atmosphere great, Modano felt welcome and comfortable but now a bit of nervousness crept inside him. Very politely, Pierre had been informing him the entire time, that he expected nothing less than double his investment for this gamble. Gamble? How could I be a gamble… I’m Mike Modano!

Of course Mike knew his own worth and it surprised him to be taken at anything less than brand name. Not in the least did he feel insulted, more accurately, he felt somewhat in awe. Pierre Lacroix in such gentlemanly terms had tossed a challenge down for him, even after last night’s performance, even after his past history; he still wanted Modano to prove to him, that he wasn’t a mistake.

It felt nice to have a challenge, in fact it heartened him, and this was where he could earn his money. “We’ll have an amazing playoffs,” Modano nodded, and then he held out his hand to Pierre, “We’ll bring it home.”

Pierre smiled and patted Modano on the shoulder, a warm pat, a fatherly pat and Modano thought of how everyone called him Papa. He belonged to the family now, he belonged! He watched Lacroix leave the restaurant, a man with his hands in his pockets, and flashing ebony shoes. He would love belonging here!

Being an off day, Modano pondered calling up Alex or Danny, maybe Peter, they could play some pool, drink some beer, celebrate his new contract. Should he tell them he’d signed a contract? Sports center that morning was already speculating that Modano’s poor performance since “the trade” would have him on the Rangers by the deadline and that Pierre Lacroix has been fielding offers for him for days. Not likely, Modano grinned at the television. It would be nice just to keep it to himself for a little bit longer.

After the morning, Mike went grocery shopping, happily signed a few autographs and grinned cryptically when one man asked him if he had packed for New York. As he was putting his groceries away he saw the scrap of paper tacked to the corkboard, the phone number. Yeah, he plucked it off the board and fiddled it between his fingers, well he had promised Alex. He could just imagine putting off another day and Alex grabbing him aside, and informing him of his latest traumatic or at least mildly irritating encounter with a certain, Phil Keating.

“Hey I’m busy right now leave your squawk at the beep,” Keating’s cheerful answering machine declared.

Leave your squawk? Modano grimaced. “Yeah, hey, Phil, this is Mike Modano and a friend of ours suggested that I give you a call so if you’re still interested in getting together sometime then call me back at…”

The phone picked up.

“Hey Mike, Phil here!”

Modano grinned wondering if Phil had been lounging by the phone with nothing better to do, maybe he’d been hoping for Alex to call him, perhaps a sort of romantic individual. “Yeah, Phil, so Alex tells me you’re a pain in the ass?”

Keating laughed and Modano felt a little better, most of all he loved someone who could have fun. “Sure I am but he loves me anyway.”

“You think?” Modano replied, “Because all he does is bitch and moan about you to me. He’s losing his hair.”

“Eh all he ever does is bitch and moan,” Keating said smoothly, he had a joyful, deep voice and Modano felt his palms dampen, this one could be trouble. “And he’s losing his hair anyway, he’s a cute kid.”

“Yup,” Modano agreed, “So I’m free today if you’re interested in anything, I have no idea what Alex is up to but if you’d like to settle…”

“Hey sure!” Phil said merrily without a hint of coyness, “Want to get lunch or dinner? I know some good bars too if you just want to hang out and have a drink.”

Bars? Modano thought about it, he could just imagine a city this small in comparison to Dallas; it wouldn’t be so easy to just disappear in a bar, to slip through the cracks. People notice and talk here, and he didn’t know exactly how Phil felt about his lifestyle, but Modano didn’t really want to jeopardize his newfound spot on this team. “Hey how about pool instead? You know Wynkoops or something?”

“Even better,” Phil said gamely. “Four sound about good? I’m doing some last touches on a story here, so I won’t be available really until after three thirty.”

“Sure that’s…”

Click.

Modano hung the phone up and scratched his chin. Well that went easily enough. He rubbed his damp palms together and felt a little dry in the mouth. Getting a drink of water didn’t quite calm the nervous scrape in his throat and his stomach felt a bit unsettled as well. Really, he reminded himself, this was only an introductory date, not even a date really, just two guys getting together to play pool. He didn’t know how far he wanted to go with Phil and he didn’t know what Phil had planned for him.

One thing he knew for certain was that he did not want a repeat of Hull, and he did not want a repeat of Peter Forsberg. That auburn haired nit wit had to be the lowest point of any relationship he’d ever had, if it could even be called one and if Phil seemed anything like Peter, Mike resolved to get away from him as soon as possible.

Just the thought of Peter turned Mike’s gut over, flipped it around and he closed his eyes tightly. Never had he felt so cheap, so used, so…. He opened his eyes, God he couldn’t believe he was that angry still! How could he be that angry still when they’d only shared a matter of hours, frantic hours in the dark? Even with Brett, he felt hurt but not this burning anger!

Well he couldn’t let it get in the way of his date…erm meeting with Phil. He would just not let it bring him down. And he needed to celebrate with someone! Flopping down on his couch he dialed Alex’s number.

“Hey, Modo,” Alex said happily, no doubt taking advantage of his caller ID.

“Alex,” Modano replied, “You’ll be glad to know that Phil Keating won’t be bothering you anymore.”

“Oh really?” Alex replied.

“Yup,” Modano grinned, “I just set a date with him a minute ago, you’re free.”

“Thank God!” Alex breathed.

And Modano could only agree.