I Will Remember You

What the... Puck?

"What do you mean you can't go?" I half screamed into my phone. "Ross, we've had these plans for weeks!"

"Dammit, Rae," he yelled back, sending a jolt through my chest, "I told you I can't go because something came up!"

"Ross, I'm getting sick of this! You realize that we haven't done anything alone together for more then ten minutes in over a month?" I fired back.

"There's nothing I can do about it, Rae, I'm sorry," he sighed, clearly frustrated with my lack of understanding. "My parents need me to come home."

"Again? For the third time in two weeks? Ross, you live in Nevada, not Pennsylvania!" I argued. This excuse was getting a bit ridiculous.

"I should think you would understand, missing your parents and everything," he shot back and that did it for me.

"Fuck you, Ross. I can't believe you would even say that," I snarled. When he tried to interrupt I said, "Don't bother trying to call me, text me, see me, or anything because I don't want to hear it. We're done," I said and before I could hang up the phone he said something that completely broke my already fractured heart.

"Whatever, I guess I won't have to hide the fact that I've been with other women anymore, then," he snapped and hung up, leaving me standing in the middle of my room, mouth hanging wide. I cannot believe that just happened...

I got ready for work in a daze, our last fight playing through my mind over and over again. I couldn't believe it was over. I couldn't believe he had actually been cheating on me! I couldn't believe I hadn't seen the signs. I couldn't believe he would sink as low to mention my parents. I couldn't believe any of it.

Before I realized what was going on, I was walking into Mellon Arena, working my second game in four nights. The second half of the season had started and the fans were dismally pouring. The Penguins weren't doing so well this year.

With everything going on in my mind, it took me awhile to notice anything going on around me. So naturally, I didn't hear anyone shouting "Duck!" until it was too late. A sharp pain shot through my head as something very hard and very solid collided with my skull just above my left eye. I felt something warm trickling down the side of my face and my knees began to wobble. I heard scared voices around me, but all of them seemed so far away. Time seemed to move in slow motion as I collapsed to the ground. I brought a hand up to my face to wipe away the liquid that I couldn't see. I heard shouting and soon everything disappeared.

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"She's going to be just fine, just give her body some time to heal itself," a male voice said from somewhere to my left.

"Is there going to be any permanent damage?" I heard another voice, also male, ask from my right, much closer than the other voice. I heard a few whimpers from my right. My throat felt scratchy and I wanted to speak to these people surrounding me but my brain was stuck in a haze and I was comfortable. My feeble attempts to open my eyes gave way to my desire to remain in this heavenly state.

"It's too soon to tell," the man who was farther away answered and I heard something else; a sob. "But we're doing everything we can to make sure that she will live."

"Well, I should hope so!" replied the other man angrily. I wanted to open my eyes and tell these people that I was okay but somehow I knew if I opened my eyes my own personal heaven would disappear and I would never be able to get it back. I felt something warm slip its way into my hand. It took me a few seconds to realize the warm thing was another person's hand. I mustered all of my strength up to squeeze their hand, to show them I was here, and failed miserably. That is, I thought I did until I heard a muffled scream.

"She's here! Oh, Rae, Raya, please, please wake up sweetie!" a woman cried and I wanted to cry with her. "Look, Jim, she's crying!" she said to one of the men. "She can hear us! Oh please, wake up, we love you, Rae," she continued crying until I felt something heavy on top of me. Then my body started to shake.

"Honey, Lara, come on," I heard the man say softly and the shaking suddenly stopped. "Let's go sit with the kids for awhile," I heard him say and the crying faded away to silence.

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I slept for what felt like only a few seconds when another faint sound interrupted my bliss. I was just about to settle back into my peaceful state, but then the sound turned to a voice. Something in the woman's voice sounded familiar and I struggled harder than ever to open my eyes. I couldn't understand what this new woman was saying, but I somehow recognized her voice. I willed my eyes more than ever to open as I heard her fighting with the other man who was in the room. Come on, open! I yelled in my mind. A third man's voice entered the argument, this one familiar as well. You can do it, just open your eyes! I yelled louder this time. Finally, a fourth man's voice entered the argument, this one I did not recognize at first. But when I did, my eyes shot open in surprise, completely on their own.

"Wait," I croaked, my voice sounding like it hadn't been used in years. Silence filled the room immediately. "Why are you here?" I asked, my voice sounding stronger by the syllable. Evgeni Malkin stared at me in disbelief.

"Have you been awake this whole time?" he asked and I had to admit, his English had gotten a lot better.

"No, I've been here but not awake," I tried to explain. "Now you answer my question, why are you here?"

"I'm the one who hit you with the puck," he replied, his gaze dropping to the floor. "My parents quite fond of you and came here to check progress," he continued.

"I don't know what you're even talking about," I said and his gaze returned to my face. "I'm in Chicago, why are you here? What puck? What's going on?" I began to panic.

"Raya, what year is it?" a doctor asked me, appearing at my side. I looked at him, suddenly very confused.

"It's 2007," I replied matter of factly. I could tell as soon as I said it that I had said something very wrong. Every face in the room fell and turned to look away from me. "Where are my parents, I'd like to talk to them," I demanded, all of a sudden feeling very scared and very alone. No one answered me. "Where are my parents?" I asked again, louder and more firm.

"Raya," the doctor said gently, taking my hand in both of his. I jerked it away and glared at him. He sighed before saying, "Your parents have been dead for almost two years."

With that statement, I lost it. They couldn't be dead, I had just seen my mom and dad before I fell asleep. This was some kind of reality TV show or something, right?

"You're lying," I snapped and tried to stand up only to fall to the floor. My legs weren't working right. The doctor made a move to help me but I glared at him and he stopped. The Malkins just stood and watched uncomfortably. Their son looked at me with something close to pain in his eyes and I knew he was trying to cover it up.

"I'll go get your guardians," the doctor said after a few painfully awkward seconds. He returned a minute or so later with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Lara. They lived in Pittsburgh so it only added to my confusion.

"Oh, Raya!" my aunt exclaimed and ran to embrace me. I hugged her awkwardly. I wasn't very close with either my aunt or my uncle. When my mom left Russia with my dad, my aunt cut off almost all ties with her sister. "We're so glad you're okay."

"It's nice to have you back with us, Rae," my uncle smiled timidly at me. I just continued to stare at him. Why was he calling me Rae?

"Where are my parents?" I asked in a monotone voice. My aunt and uncle exchanged an uncomfortable look. "What's going on?"

"Sweetie," my uncle began and put an arm around my waist to lead me to the bed so we could sit down. I jerked out of his grasp and remained standing with my arms crossed.

"Your mom and dad," my aunt started but then started crying. I pursed my lips coldly and began tapping my foot in impatience.

"They were killed in a shooting a few days after your sixteenth birthday," my uncle explained. Even hearing this, I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

"I don't believe you," I snapped. My whole body was shaking but I couldn't understand why.

"Honey, we know it's hard for you to understand this right now, but you had an accident and your memory might take a while to restart," my uncle continued, looking at his hands now.

"What kind of accident?" I asked.

"Puck hit you in the head," Malkin spoke up suddenly, causing all of us to jump. We had almost forgotten that him and his parents were still in the room.

"How?" I asked, looking directly at him now.

"You weren't paying attention. I mishit puck and it hit you," he explained and I strained to understand him. "It is 2009, not 2007," he added as he fought to contain a smirk and I glared at him. I turned to face my uncle and aunt again.

"I want to see them," I stated with apathy. They looked at me, clearly confused as to what I wanted to see. "I want to see my parents' graves," I clarified and they exchanged another look.

"Do you think that might help her get some of her memory back?" my aunt asked, turning to look at the doctor. He simply nodded his head.

"It's a possibility," he said. "In a lot of our head trauma patients visual aids help the healing process and we've had some really remarkable success stories because of this."

My aunt and uncle looked at each other before looking at me again.

"One of us will take you to Chicago as soon as you're out of the hospital," my uncle finally said.

"I will take her," Malkin said, again surprising us. I spun around so fast I lost balance and fell to look at him with a shocked expression on my face.

"Why in the world would you want to take me to Chicago, I don't even know you," I asked, completely horrified that this stranger wanted to take me to Chicago.

"I feel bad for hitting you," he shrugged his shoulders, not meeting my eyes. I glared at him. "You mean much to my family," he added, looking towards the man and woman beside him. "We want to help."

I don't know what it was that made me agree, whether it was the sincere look in his eyes, the half smile playing at the corner of his mouth, or the cute accent, but without a second's hesitation, I was nodding my head.

"Okay," I said so faintly I don't know if he even heard me.

"We leave day after next game," he told me before leaving the room abruptly. His parents smiled at me and followed.

"We're going to keep you over night just to make sure that you're okay and then if everything goes okay we'll release you tomorrow," the doctor told me but was looking at my aunt and uncle. The three of us nodded in unison and he left the room.

"Raya," my aunt began but I cut her off.

"Get out," I snapped, shutting my eyes. "Now."

I heard movement and opened my eyes after a few more seconds. My room was empty. I slipped into bed, praying that sleep would give me some answers, or better yet, that I would wake up and this would all be a bad dream.

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"Raya, run!" my mom screamed at me as I turned around to look at her. My father was dead and we were next. "Go!" she yelled louder and with more urgency in her voice.

I sprinted with all I had to the nearest pay phone. I dialed 911 and waited frantically for someone to answer. They barely had spoken before I rushed into my emergency.

"Please, you've got to help, my father, he was shot and now they're after me and my mom!" I cried.

"Miss, please calm down, just tell us where you are and we'll have units there as soon as possible," a woman told me. I took a few sharp breaths before speaking again.

"I'm by a blues bar in Chicago, please hurry!" I wailed, telling her the street name as I looked around frantically for any sight of my mom or the men chasing us.

"We'll be there as soon as we can," she said but I was already hanging up. I sat down in the phone booth and started to cry, head in my knees.

A knock on the glass made me jump. A scream left my mouth and suddenly I was back in the hospital bed, breathing heavy, like I had just run a race. A cold sweat had formed on my forehead and tears were streaming down my face.

"What the fuck?" I whispered to myself as the nurses came running in to see if I was alright.

"What's wrong?" one of them asked. Tears threatened to spill at any moment so I did the natural thing.

"Nothing, just a nightmare," I lied quickly. They checked a few things then left me to go back to sleep.

As I laid in bed trying to sleep, the horrible truth hit me. My parents were gone. Forever.And there was nothing I could do to change that, no matter how bad I wanted to. I pulled a pillow from behind my head and let out another scream as tears poured from my eyes. My sobbing shook my whole body. I cried myself to sleep for the first time in my life.