The Hockey Star and the Ice Princess (Complete)

Ch. 45 - Olympic Village

Rachel watched as the white ground came closer out the plane window as their plane landed in Vancouver. 

"If you had told me a year or two ago I was going to get a second chance at that gold medal I would've said you were crazy. I can't believe I'm really here, going to the Olympics again," she said, shaking her head with a smile on her face, turning to look at Cain. 

"I can believe it. You didn't get here by accident. I watched you work your ass off for a year to earn this second chance," Cain whispered, leaning over and kissing her cheek.

"Yeah. I definitely worked hard, but I wasn't the only one. If it wasn't for you and Coach Sumners I would've never made it here." She turned and looked back out the window and let out a sigh. "I just wish he was here to see it."

"Me too," Cain said quietly, slipping his hand into hers and kissing the top of it.

When the plane taxied over to their gate and finally came to a stop, Cain stood up and got both of their suitcases out of the overhead compartment. She took the handle of hers and started rolling it down the aisle, following behind him as he reached out and took her free hand in his and leaned down to give her a kiss. They walked through the airport holding hands and got the rest of their luggage from the conveyor belt before going through the large automatic sliding doors out to the spot where the Olympic shuttle was supposed to be picking them up and taking them to the Olympic Village.

As they were waiting for their shuttle photographers and reporters came up and started flashing pictures and asking them questions. Rachel still wasn't comfortable with the paparazzi but luckily Cain was much better at it than her. He smiled and answered their questions and was friendly. She stayed pretty quiet, saying a few words now and then but she just wanted to get out of there.

Finally a large shuttle bus pulled up and it had the Olympic rings on the side of it and she took out her phone and snapped a picture.

After they got their luggage loaded and sat down in a bus seat together, she got out her paperwork and read through her instructions again. She already had their room assignments. Cain would be staying in the Olympic village too because she had officially listed him as her athletic trainer, but they wouldn't get to stay in the same room together. He would be staying in a separate area and she would be rooming with other female figure skaters, because they chose room assignments based on sport and gender.

They made plans to meet back up in the cafeteria after getting checked into their rooms. Many of the athletes had already been here for a week so when she got to her room her roommates stuff was already all set up. Rachel knew from her experience at the last Olympics that she didn't want to get here too early because it would just be a distraction and she'd have more ice time and get a better sleep at home and she'd feel more prepared.

When she got to the cafeteria it was a huge room, similar to an airport hangar in size and there were rows and rows and rows of tables that were full of athletes from different sports. She didn't really know anybody so she decided to stand there and wait for Cain.

A few minutes later a guy walked up with shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was really tan and had a beanie on his head and was wearing a ski jacket and ski pants.

"What's up?" he said with a big smile. "My name's Sy. We have this game here where we try to guess what sport people play."

"Oh yeah? That sounds fun. What sport do you think I do?" she asked. 

"Hmmmm," he said scratching his chin and looking at her. "Speed skater."

"Nope. I'm a figure skater. I'm guessing you're a snowboarder."