Hands pulled me up. Kieran was crying. Hayes was screaming. Bishop slammed into me hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
And then Theo was there, grinning so wide it looked painful, eyes bright with tears and joy and exhaustion.
"Cap," Theo said, breathless. "We fucking did it."
I kissed him.
Right there. On the ice. In front of sixty thousand people and every camera in the building.
Theo made a surprised sound against my mouth, then melted into it—one good hand fisting in my jersey, holding on like I was the only solid thing in a spinning world.
The crowd’s roar doubled. Tripled. The noise was physically painful.
I didn't care.
I’d spent years hiding. Performing. Pretending.
Not anymore.
When we finally broke apart, Theo’s face was wet. "I love you," he said, barely audible over the chaos.
"I love you too." I pressed our foreheads together. "Thank you for not giving up on me."
"Never." Theo’s smile was incandescent. "You’re stuck with me forever, remember?"
"Best thing that ever happened to me."
The locker room was pandemonium.
Champagne sprayed everywhere. Someone had a speaker blasting music at illegal volumes. Kieran stood on a bench belting out an off-key victory song. Hayes dumped an entire cooler of ice water over Coach Reeves, who just laughed and hugged him.
I stood in the middle of it all. I was soaking wet, bruised, exhausted, and happier than I’d ever been in my life.
The Stanley Cup sat on a table in the center of the room, gleaming silver, impossibly huge. I’d dreamed about this moment since I was six years old. I’d pictured it a thousand times—what it would feel like to finally touch it, lift it, claim it as my own.
I’d never imagined I’d do it as myself.
"Speech!" someone shouted. The room picked up the chant immediately. "Speech! Speech! Speech!"
My throat tightened. I looked around at my team—these men who had known me for years, who had accepted me without hesitation, who had fought beside me and won.
"I don't have a speech prepared," I admitted. My voice came out rough. "I thought if we won, I’d have something profound to say. Something captain-worthy."
"Just say what you’re thinking," Theo said quietly from beside me.
I looked at him. Then back at the team.
"Ten years ago," I started, "I decided the only way to survive in this league was to be perfect. Controlled. Untouchable. I thought vulnerability was weakness. I thought if anyone saw the real me..." My voice cracked. I cleared my throat. "I thought I’d lose everything."
The room had gone quiet. Even the music seemed to dim.
"But I was wrong." I met Kieran’s eyes, then Hayes's, then Bishop’s. "Hiding made me a smaller person. A worse captain. And it almost cost me..." I glanced at Theo. "...the most important thing in my life."
Theo’s hand found mine. Our fingers laced together.
"This championship doesn't belong to me," I continued. "It belongs to all of us. Every single person in this room fought for it. Bled for it. And you did it while knowing exactly who I am. You didn't ask me to be perfect. You just asked me to be honest."
I had to stop. I had to breathe through the tightness in my chest.
