Trouble for Me

Jonathan:
Nicole fell asleep while the rest of us were wondering if we were going to play or not. Coach was talking to the doctor to see if Nicole could come with us. I know she wants to come, but I don't want to risk anything. Having experience with injuries in hockey I have learned not to rush them. Coach was done talking with the doctor and came over to all the guys. "So? Can she come?" "The doctor says yes. Let's just watch out for her, we don't want her to be out for any longer." "Right." We waited until she was awake to tell her and we got all our stuff and headed to the plane.

When we got to Chicago we went straight to the rink. We all walked in to the locker room. I had to help Nicole because she couldn't walk too well. All the guys stopped in the locker room and were silent. I stepped in front of them all. "Guys what's going on?" I finally saw what they were shocked to see. "What are you doing here?" "I play for you guys. Coach Quenneville made the call this morning. He switched me with him this morning." He pointed to a stall that had a name plate above it, yet to be taken down. "Don't think you will be accepted by all of us right away." "I don't expect that, and Nicole I am so sorry. I never meant to do anything that I did to you. What happened in the hotel room, I didn't plan any of that." Nicole went with a trainer to get some ice. All the guys sat in there stalls and coach came in. "Ah I see you guys met our new member, Beau Bennett." "Yeah, coach can we just have like a team meeting thing today for all of us to talk instead of practice?" "Sure Jon, as captain I will agree with what you think the team needs." coach left and we had a some what team bonding meeting.

"I just don't understand why you did that stuff Beau? You seem like a great guy, but why would you do that?" "I don't know. I had anger issues and I don't know where any of the abuse came from. I got help and that's why I was shocked when Kane wanted me to hurt her in the hotel room. He wanted me to beat her again, and I refused." "That how you got the shiner?" "Yeah. I took some body shots too." He showed us the bruises he had on his abdomen, they were bad. "Well, I am glad you didn't hurt her again." "Oh I would never. Never again." Nicole came back in and sat way back in her stall and wasn't talking to any of us. She seemed upset. It was silent for a few minutes until Beau spoke up.

"Nicole. I am so sorry. This is my fault. I trusted Patrick and i should have known something bad was going to happen. If I could switch places and I could have the fractured ribs I would, just so you could play. That would only be fair after what I did to you." Tears were rolling down her face when she turned to face us all. "I accept your apology. I made a mistake trusting him too. But, I deserve this. The bruises and fractured ribs, I needed to learn my lesson." "Nicole, you don't deserve that. Not from me or Pat or anyone. The way I treated you was wrong and I wish I never did that. You are such a great girl and I am ashamed of the way I treated you." "Maybe your right, but we all have to learn the hard way sometimes. You learned by having to go through counseling and I learned through two fractured ribs and some bruises." They hugged and made up.

We started rebuilding our team. What I learned today about Beau was he was just a guy who made a mistake and wanted to make it right, but because of who he trusted in trying to fix the mistake it became worse. He really didn't mean to hurt Nicole at all. He made a dumb choice. I know Nicole would love to be out there tonight to get her revenge, but Beau, the guys, and I will have Nicole in our thoughts the whole game. Tonight will be the first night our team has to play against Kane and I can say we are highly looked forward to it.