You Had Me From Hello

I woke up turning over and looking at the clock, just after 3. Evgeni’s arms were wrapped around my waist loosely but I slowly unwrapped them so I could sit up. I looked around the silent room trying to figure out what had waked me up. Everything had seemed normal so I laid back down and his arms immediately wrapped around my torso again.

Almost as soon as I closed my eyes a sharp pain worked its way through my stomach. I let out a small gasp as I flinched in pain. The man beside me stirred ever so slightly as the pain continued to shoot through my lower abdomen to right above my belly button. I pulled on the elastic of my underwear trying to relieve any pressure from that area but nothing helped.

Another sharp pain shot through my body as I pushed away from Geno pulling my legs up to my stomach trying anything to stop the pain. A loud cry escaped from my mouth as the pain started to get worse and worse with every breath I took. Evgeni shot up from beside me looking down at me. Panic immediately etching itself noticeably on his face. “Babe,” he started but not before another sharp pain ripped up my belly button another cry rang out through the silent house.

Evgeni shot up from the bed quickly putting on a pair of pants from the floor and throwing a shirt on. Short frantic knocks sounded at the door as I pulled my knees tighter to my stomach. He opened the door revealing his mother and father both with worried looks on their faces. In normal situations I would be extremely embarrassed to be seen with tears running down my face in just a large shirt and underwear but my mind was sent elsewhere as another pang came and more tears flooded my vision.

I heard Russian being spoken frantically by all three parties as he came over and began to put a pair of my jeans on my legs. “No, no” I muttered out desperate not to have anything tight near my stomach. His eyes shot up to me as I grabbed my stomach. His mother came over from the door grabbing a pair of sweatpants and slipping them up my legs the waist was tight so she spat something quickly to Geno in which he responded by pulling hard at the waist band until there was a loud ripping sound and the draw string came easily out.

He picked me up an arm under my back and another under my knees as he quickly made his way down the stairs and into the garage his parents hot on his tail. Climbing in the back of his large SUV he shut the door holding me tight to his chest, soothingly rubbing his hands through my sweaty hair. His father jumped into the driver’s seat, his mother into the passenger’s and before I knew it we were on the road, Geno giving directions to his father in quick and desperate sounding Russian.

He handed his mother his phone speaking to her in rapid Russian again as she looked at the device like it was some foreign object. Roughly he grabbed the phone and dialed a number handing it back to her as she placed it to her ear and talking rapidly once the receiving end of the call had answered.

Looking down at me I could see the tears in his vision. The pain still constant but not as horrible as the pangs that had been occurring at intervals I raised my hand to touch his cheek. “Everything be okay” he cooed slightly as he leaned down to touch his lips to mine before I placed my head in the crook of his neck and another wrench seemingly attacked my stomach, I whimpered slightly as I closed my eyes wishing the pain away.

Before I knew it the car was stopped and Geno was out the door, me in his arms, running towards the doors of the emergency room. As soon as he stepped into the bright room a pain shot through my stomach I cringed tightly against his chest and the waiting room went silent. He bounded up to the front desk at which a worried, shocked nurse stood waiting for him to come over. “Name?” the lady asked calmly as he stopped in front of the window.

“Madison Carlow” he began trying to steady his breath. “What happened?” she asked and he looked at her like she had three heads.

“She in pain!” he practically shouted at her, a hand appeared on his shoulder as he was pushed out of the way and Sergei Gonchar appeared to his right. He sent me a small smile as he looked at the lady talking quickly to her. I winced into Evgeni’s chest for what seemed like the millionth time tonight, this pain had to have been the worse for I screamed out, sobs escaping my mouth and almost instantly everything went blurry, then black.

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There was a slow constant beeping somewhere and I couldn’t figure out where. It was annoying, undeniably the most annoying sound I had ever heard, nothing compared to the soothing voices I had been hearing. I waited, hoping it would stop, but it continued. My eyelids felt heavy as if I hadn’t slept in days. My stomach hurt, in sort of a sore way, like I had just finished a million sit ups. Though I felt like shit I needed to stop that beeping, whatever it was. I was about to push my eyes open when a soothing voice began.

“Belle” I felt a hand cover mine. “You’ve got to wake up” The voice, laced with emotion and a thick French-Canadian accent over powered the annoying beeping. “Evgeni is just dying here, watching you like this. I finally convinced him to go home and get some sleep. I made Sidney go with him so he would actually sleep and not just sit and mope.” Memories flooded my mind, the pain, the crying. It all made sense now, I was in the hospital, that constant beeping, that was a heart monitor.

He took a deep breath and continued. “When Geno called me yesterday morning and told me they were taking you in for surgery I wasn’t sure if I could drive here safely. I walked into the lobby and half the fucking team was here.” I could picture all the guys crammed into a tiny room. “Oh god, and Vero. She was a mess, walking into the lobby in a pair of Flower’s shorts and a Montreal Canadians jersey. I’ve never ever seen that girl without make-up.” He paused for a long second and I felt a hand on my head. “All of that gorgeous brown hair gone” he spoke sadly.

The door opened and another voice filled the room. “How is she?” his thick Russian accent made goose bumps rise on my arms. Max let go of my hand and stood from his place. Two lips found mine and I pushed myself, opening my eyes only to shut them quickly to block out the light. There was a light gasp in the room and I opened my eyes again to see the two most amazing brown eyes staring back at me.

“She’s up” I heard Sidney’s girly voice and giggle fill the room. “She’s up! Doctor she’s up” I heard him yell a bit loud as Maxime sent me a small smirk from the corner of the room.

“Shut up Sidney! You’re so loud” my voice sounded week and almost foreign to me. Geno ran his hand over my head, my own hand shooting up. “My hair!” I practically screamed as the doctor came into the room a clip board in his hand. I soft, but sharp pain ran up through my stomach and I immediately brought my hand to my stomach to find a bumpy, rigid scar across my lower stomach. “What happened to me” I barely spoke.

The doctor looked at Geno who took a deep breath. He nodded sheepishly over to the doctor. “Madison, those sharp stomach pains you were having Tuesday night, those were caused by a small tumor in your lower stomach.” I drew in a deep breath as I stared at him. “You have stomach cancer, it’s in the second stage” he looked down at his clipboard before coming over and checking my vitals. “You’re lucky we caught it when we did, it could have been much worse.

“With the permission of your parents we operated early yesterday morning, the tumor is gone now, but you’ll need to go through some pretty intense chemotherapy to make sure that the cancer is completely killed.” I looked up at Geno as if to ask him if this was really happening, the tears in his eyes confirmed my fears. “You should make a full recovery and be cancer free, you have a life to like Madison, and it’s my job to make sure you can live the full of it.

“As for your hair, we had to make a small incision right above your left ear, instead of just leaving you with half a head of hair it was decided to shave the whole head” I cringed slightly at the thought. “It was going to happen sooner or later” the doctor told me. “You should be able to leave in a day or two, we’d just like to monitor you as a precaution. I’ll be back later” he told me as he walked out, followed by Max and Sid.

“I’m sorry” I spoke to Geno as he looked into my eyes. “I’m sorry for putting you through this, it’s almost playoff time. You shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

He silenced me with his lips and I relaxed in his touch. “Baby, it not your fault. You should not think is. You deal with this. I love you, we make it through this. Together.” He was determined in his speech. “I love you, forever and always. Nothing change that.”