"So," Sunny said as he and Joe took their seats in what was, in Sunny's opinion, the ideal section of Rogers Arena, 105, nearly equidistant from both goal posts and just high enough to see all the action without being sprayed by ice or getting rattled by players crashing into the plexiglass. It still amazed him that Joe was able to maintain two season's tickets in this section, it must have cost a fortune. "Who are we playing tonight?"

"You don't even know?" Joe asked with a smirk. "Are you sure you're a fan? Am I going to regret giving you my seat?"

"Hey, I'm wearing this, aren't I?" he protested, gesturing to his Canucks jersey, which he'd bought oversized on purpose to be able to slip on easily over his turban. "Anyway, it's been a busy week, and I'm still recovering from a gunshot, give me a break."

 Joe took a sip of his beer and said, "Relax, I'm just joking with you. Actually, you'll get a clue if you see the jerseys the guys over there are wearing. It's the Habs."

"Oooh, it'll be a full house, then." Before Vancouver got the Canucks, the NHL team most Vancouverites supported was the Montreal Canadiens, nicknamed the Habs (from the French, habitants, early settlers of Quebec,) mostly because they were the only other Canadian team worth supporting aside from the Toronto Maple Leafs (not leaves), and everyone not in Toronto hated the Leafs. Whenever the two faced each other at home, the crowd was split between the die-hard Canucks fans and the still loyal Habs fans. It was going to be an exciting game, just for the energy of the fan rivalry, which was very good-natured.

"So, when do you think you'll be able to take off the sling?" Joe asked.

"Not sure. The stitches are still in. Maybe when they come off. Luckily no bones were broken when the bullet went in, and it was a through and through."

"And the busy week thing, are you starting your duties as Councillor yet?"

"Next week's the inaugural meeting, but I've been sent a lot of documents to read ahead of time, to get up to speed on procedure, current business, committees, that sort of thing."

Joe grimaced. "I don't envy you all that reading."

"You're more of a hands-on guy, I know." He opened his bottle of water and took a sip. "Are you sure Lauren's okay with you coming tonight?"

"Are you kidding? She practically pushed me out the door!" Joe exclaimed, chuckling. "She's been feeling smothered by my attention, apparently. If she wasn't injured and Al wasn't in a coma, I'd be worried she was getting up to no good right now."

Sunny gasped. It was the first time Joe ever admitted what Rachel, Lauren and Al had done while he and Sunny were at these games. "Is this why you've finally come back, because you feel safe enough to do so?"

Joe shrugged and said, "Well, at first, hockey was done for the summer. Then, by the time the season started, I was living with Joanie and nursing her back to health; I didn't think I could leave her alone. It was different with her; she only had me in the evening because her mom came during the day. Lauren has--"

"Rachel," Sunny finished for him. "Because Rachel and the kids are still living with you."

"Yeah."

"How is it having her there?" Sunny asked. 

"It's better now that Al's not there, that's for sure."

"I know the two of you have also had a complicated relationship."

"That's an understatement." Joe considered his words for a moment and sighed. "She and I... did it again, with Lauren, just a few weeks ago."

Sunny knew this already; Rachel had confessed it to him, being uncharacteristically candid after years of keeping secret her relationship with Lauren, and then her relationship with Lauren and Al. Still, he was shocked Joe would admit it to him. The man was usually a closed vault.

"That must have been..." Sunny searched blindly for the right words. "... interesting. I take it Al didn't know before he went into the coma?"

Joe shook his head. "You want to know what's more interesting? Lauren was pregnant with Al's baby at the time, and they were both about to tell me, but I mistook the meeting for an invitation to a threesome... I know it sounds crazy, but that's what I thought, and they played along so they could then make me believe the baby was mine."

This was something Rachel had also told him. Sunny pretended to be shocked, although he didn't have to pretend very hard. "Holy shit," he breathed. "Lauren is pregnant?"

Joe's face fell. "Uh... no. Not anymore. She lost it after the accident."

"Oh." This was something he didn't know, and he'd been itching for an update, but not this. "I'm sorry. Even if the baby wasn't yours, I'm sorry it didn't make it."

"I'm not," Joe said, and Sunny couldn't help flinching. "I know it makes me sound like an asshole, but can you imagine how I would have felt if it came to term, and I found out it wasn't mine?"

Sunny sighed in resignation and nodded. "Yeah. You're right. Still, this can't have been easy for any of you."

"It hasn't. Lauren and I were just at the marriage counsellor this morning, working on this. This, and the fact that she told me she kissed Al back in 1981."

"What?!" Sunny squawked. "How did that come up? Has she just decided to confess everything bad she's ever done to you?"

"She claims she just did it to make him feel better after he found out Rachel had moved away."

Sunny shook his head in bemusement. "When was this? He'd already moved away, hadn't he?"

"Apparently you were at a Vaisakhi parade, and I was away with my dad somewhere. It was just the two of them."

Sunny thought he remembered that parade. "Oh. Right. My sister wanted to learn martial arts, and I asked Lauren if her dad would teach her; she ended up doing it herself."

Joe blinked in surprise. "Oh! Huh, I'd forgotten about that. Anyway, I thought it wasn't as innocent as that, and implied that memory of her made Al fall for that Agnes woman, you know, the one you guys apparently met at the hospital?"

"Oh, yeah," Sunny said. He thought about it a moment and said, "I don't know, the two aren't that similar. Sometimes you're just attracted to someone for who they are, not for reminding you of someone else."

Joe thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "You're probably right."

The game began with the National anthem, and Joe and Sunny stood in silence while the large bearded man with an opera singer's voice belted out the lyrics. After they sat back down, and the two teams readied for the face-off, Sunny said, "As long as we're being each other's confessors today... isn't that the term you Catholics use for the priest in the confessional?"

Joe nodded, eyes wide in amazement. "It is. I feel bad that I haven't learned much about your religion, Sunny."

Sunny shrugged. "I didn't make an effort to learn yours. Most western religions' vocabulary exists in popular culture as figures of speech, it just entered my head through osmosis. If you want to learn about Sikhism, buddy, it's all on the Net now, just Google it."

"Maybe I will. Anyway, you were about to confess something?"

"Yeah. Tej told me something that I haven't been able to get out of my head."

Joe frowned. "What's that?"

"She said she had sex with Rachel and Lauren back at Harrison Hot Springs."

To Sunny's surprise, Joe nodded. "Yeah. Lauren told me."

"And this..." Sunny stammered. "This was something you just decided to keep from me?"

Joe grimaced and said, "Buddy, at the time I was dealing with the near destruction of my marriage; the last thing I wanted to do was screw up yours. You and Tej have the most stable relationship I know of, and I didn't want our shit to infect you."

"Too late for that," Sunny grumbled.

"To be honest, I was surprised," Joe said. "I didn't know your wife swung that way."

Sunny huffed. "Neither did I. Apparently, when Lauren kissed her that night she and Al were drugged, Tej couldn't stop thinking about it, and Rachel and Lauren were all too willing to satisfy her awakened needs."

Joe patted Sunny's shoulder and said, "Can you blame them? Your wife is a beautiful woman. But I am sorry about that, and I can't help thinking that all of our problems began with that fucking party; if Lauren and Al weren't drugged, she wouldn't have kissed Tej, at least. Then again, if I hadn't invited Joanie to Harrison Hot Springs, Lauren wouldn't have gotten angry enough to invite Rachel and Tej up to our room and let off some steam."

"That really was a shitty thing for you to do, Joe. I'm sorry, but I have to be honest about that."

Joe shrugged and said, "I'll admit it was, but at the time I was already suspicious about Al and Lauren, and I wanted to see if bringing Joanie would flush them out; ultimately, it did."

Sunny groaned and said, "Tej only confessed what she did because I'd confessed to her about kissing Jasminder that night at the warehouse. It completely blew me away. Hers is the bigger infidelity, and even though I'm angry about it, I can't help feeling jealous of her."

"Of her?" Joe asked, confused.

"She got to be with them. Actually, if I'm being honest, I'm jealous of you and Al, too. You all got to have them."

"Rachel and Lauren?"

"Yes! Are you that surprised I'd be attracted to them?"

Joe frowned and said, "I guess I wouldn't but... I mean, you have Tej."

"Yes, and I count myself lucky every day I'm with her, but still, I guess, if I'm honest, I've been attracted to those two ever since we were kids; I just never spoke up about it because you and Al had already planted your flags, so to speak."

"Jesus," Joe said. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, I never fantasized about marrying them, or anything, not like you already were with Lauren, but my interest in girls started with Rachel, for sure, and when Lauren moved to our street, I connected with her in a different way; we'd both been bullied because of how we looked, the colour of our skin. I couldn't help being attracted to her because we shared that, especially after she threw Francis O'Rourke to the ground."

"Huh. That was the same day I knew I had a crush on her too, because she consoled me after the principal dragged me through the school by my ear."

"Huh. Yeah, I remember that. You weren't there to keep the bullies away, that's why Lauren had to intervene with Francis."

Joe shook his head. "We're all just one big incestuous group, aren't we."

Before Sunny could answer, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the number. It wasn't one he recognized, but he had a lot of clients, and this might be one. "Excuse me," he said to Joe as he stood and made his way to the end of the row. He answered as he climbed the stairs to the concession area, where he hoped it would be quieter.

"This is Sunny Parhar."

"Oh, hello, Mr. Parhar," said a woman's voice. "This is Agnes Chu, I don't know if you remember me--"

"Agnes! Of course I remember you. How could I not, you're a blast from Al's past. Please, call me Sunny."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, am I interrupting your dinner? There's some noise in the background."

"No, not at all, I'm at a hockey game, but I can talk, just let me make my way to a quieter place."

She waited patiently as he walked until the din of the game, the cheering and the organ music faded away to a manageable level. "There, that's better," he said. "How can I help you, Agnes?"

"Well, I was hoping I could take you up on the offer you made on Monday. I'm working right now, but it's auxiliary work, so I never know how much I'm making in any given pay period. I'm saving up to be able to afford rent, but you know how it is in the Lower Mainland."

"I do indeed. My wife is a real estate agent, so she's well versed in property valuation, at least in New Westminster."

"So, you can understand I can't afford to hire a lawyer right now. You may have guessed I had to leave my situation rather quickly, and my access to any savings I had before, in a joint account, is limited."

"Say no more, Agnes. I'll do my best to help."

"Thank you so much. It was lucky I went to visit Al that night and ran into a mutual friend."

"Your association with Al is incidental. My sister was murdered by her husband--"

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!"

"--and so I've made it my mission to help women leave bad marriages."

"Well, thank you again, whatever the reason you're helping me. Would you like me to make an appointment?"

"Normally I would, but I don't think you want to wait until Monday."

Agnes was silent for a moment, then she said, "How did you know?"

"This isn't my first rodeo. I think you called me tonight because something happened since you met me on Monday."

She exhaled shakily, and he knew she was just barely holding it together. "Yeah. I think my husband's close by, now, and he knows where my parents live, and that we're living there. I'm worried he'll just come one day and make trouble, he's capable of anything. My parents are old, they wouldn't be able to hold him off."

"Do you have a restraining order against him?"

"I don't, but even if I did, I doubt that will make him stay away."

"Okay. Have your parents make sure all their doors are locked, and have nine-one-one ready to dial. Can you meet tomorrow?"

"Uh... let's see... I work during the day... auxiliaries almost always work weekends... but I can meet after six, if you want. I was thinking of coming to see Al again, anyway, so we can always meet at the hospital."

"Done. Let's do that. In the meantime, I'm going to have a think about what we can do about your living situation. You need to be somewhere he can't locate you."

"Okay. Thank you so much, Sunny."

"My pleasure, Agnes."

"Enjoy your hockey game."

"Will do. Good night."

She hung up, and Sunny put his phone away and went back to his seat. Joe looked up at him and said, "Who was that?"

"Agnes Chu. I'm representing her pro bono."

Joe smiled at him and said, "You're a good man, Sunny, my boy."

"Don't praise me yet. I'd like us all to meet at the hospital tomorrow after six, and I might be roping you all into helping her." 

Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you just read, please hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Click on "Continue reading" to see how Rachel's experiment with a little visitor works at the hospital the next day.