The Middle

I was so happy to see the huge smile on Ryan’s face when I told him he could leave the hospital. He still had no idea where we were going. He kept asking me. I wouldn’t say a word.

After a bazillion questions from Ryan and a 15-minute drive for the hospital, we finally arrived at the United Center. I looked over at Ryan, his eyes lit up when he was the front of the building. He turned to me.

“Is this Patrick’s surprise?”

I smiled. “Partially, he doesn’t know we’re here, though. So really it’s a surprise for both of you.”

We walked into the arena hand in hand. I couldn’t get the smile off of my face, and neither could Ryan. I didn’t know what I was more happy about: the fact that I made Ryan so happy or the fact that we’re going to surprise Pat.

We got into the building with no problems, and Ryan had asked for something to eat. After waiting in line for 20 minutes, Ryan had a slice of pizza and a bottle of water. I had figured that since the pizza was probably breaking the rules, I’d go healthy with the beverage.

When we got to our seats, Ryan began to get more and more excited. He didn’t know that the seats were front row, right against the glass beside the Blackhawks bench.

The Hawks had just come out to warm up, when Ryan turned to me.

“Hey, can I surprise Patrick?”

I raised my eyebrow at him, not sure how he’d be able to, but seeing the smile on his face, I couldn’t say no.

“Sure, if you can get his attention.”

Ryan pushed himself up against the glass. He had waited for Pat to come closer, since all the Hawks were skating right past us. When Pat came up, Ryan banged on the glass. I didn’t think it would get his attention. Ryan was screaming at the top of his lungs. Pat had looked in our direction, but didn’t really take note of who we were. However, once he skated about 10 feet away, he turned around. Clearly, Ryan did get his attention. He skated right up to the glass in front of us and smiled. Ryan waved at him like crazy, yelling “SURPRISE” while I smiled looking in between Pat and Ryan. Pat skated away and the game began shortly after.

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After the game

I looked over at Ryan, he was getting tired. He had been screaming and cheering on the Hawks the entire game. Every time Pat had a free second on the ice, if he was near us, he’d look over and smile at us. Ryan was overjoyed to be able to see his idol play the sport he loved in person. His dream finally came true. I was overjoyed to make that happen for him.

During the 2nd intermission, someone came up to us and gave us passes to go backstage to meet the team. I knew that Ryan couldn’t stay out much longer after the game had ended, but I couldn’t say no to him.

As soon as the game wrapped, the Hawks won 5-3, Ryan couldn’t move faster to try and get backstage. He had no idea where he was going, but he just wanted to see Pat again.

“Ryan, we have to wait, they’re probably busy with interviewers.”

Ryan turned around and rolled his eyes at me.

“Claire, come on. This is a once in a lifetime thing for me. I want to see Patrick.”

I just shook my head. We ran into the man who gave us the passes. He led us to a small room where he said we would be meeting the team.

“Claire, what’s taking so long?”

I turned to Ryan.

“Buddy, I told you, they talk to reporters after games. You know this, you’ve seen the post-game interviews.”

He nodded with a frown on his face. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the door opened.

“Hey guys!”

Ryan ran up and gave Pat a huge bear hug. Pat chuckled and hugged Ryan back.

“Congrats on your 3 points tonight. The game was awesome.”

Pat smiled.

“Well I scored a goal for two of my new favourite people.”

He looked over at me and smiled.

“Now, now. I don’t know if we’re that important.”

Ryan scoffed and turned to me.

“See, Claire, I told you he likes you.”

My cheeks flushed.

“You never told me that, Ryan. Now, let go of Patrick so he can relax.”

Ryan giggled and let go to Pat. Pat walked up to me and gave me a huge hug.

“You knew about this all along, didn’t you?”

He whispered in my ear. I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. He was smiling a huge smile. I nodded.

“Well, I asked yesterday when you and Ryan kicked me out of the room.”

He nodded and gave me another squeeze. We both looked at Ryan as the door opened again. Three more players walked into the room. Ryan remembered Jon, but the other two he had never met before.

“Hey Jon.” Ryan walked right up to him, giving him a high five.

Jon smiled, “hey buddy. You enjoy the game?”

Ryan nodded.

“Oh yea, I loved it. Claire surprised me and we both surprised Pat.”

My cheeks flushed as Pat raised an eyebrow at me. Jon also looked over at me. I wanted the subject to change, and I think Pat noticed that.

“Hey Ryan, I know you probably know who these two are, but here’s Dan Carcillo and Brent Seabrook.”

Ryan shook their hands and I could tell he was getting tired. As he continued talking to the players, I pulled Patrick aside.

“Hey, I think it’s almost time for me to take Ryan back to the hospital.”

“NO! I don’t want to leave yet. I haven’t met the rest of the team.”

I looked at Ryan, and even through his tiredness he still managed to pull off the puppy face. As much as I wanted to give in to it, I couldn’t it.

“Ryan, I’ll bring some of the other guys up to the hospital after a practice someday soon, okay? But you need to head back to the hospital now. Claire pulled a lot of strings just to let you come here.”

Lordy, I could see myself falling for this man I thought to myself as I watched Pat convince Ryan to come with me.

“Is that true, Claire?”

I nodded.

“Yea, buddy. I had to ask a bunch of people just to get you out of there today, but they gave me a time limit. It’s almost up.”

Ryan put his head down, but he understood. He waved goodbye to the guys and Pat walked us out. As we walked down the hallway, we noticed the team was lined up along the wall waiting to meet Ryan. I looked over and smiled at Pat.

“Did you do this?”

He smiled.

“I shot Tazer a text while you were talking to Ryan and he gathered up the team.”

I gave him a hug and watched my little brother shake the hands of the entire Chicago Blackhawks, including the Coaches and staff. He walked up to me with a armful of signed memorabilia. I’ve never seen him so happy.

“Claire, look! The Hawks are awesome! They gave me tons of stuff.” He had a huge smile on his face.

“I see that. Wave goodbye because it’s time to go now.”

He turned and waved at the team behind him. I did the same and Pat walked us out to the back entrance of the building. Pat was about to come outside with us, but I stopped him. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head.

“Nothing’s wrong, Pat. It’s just a little cold outside, and you’re in half or your gear.”

In my mind, I was really nervous about Ryan and I being seen with him. There would probably be talk about me being his girlfriend, or someone could make up something about Ryan. More than anything, I was worried about how that would make Pat look. He looked down at his attire, chuckled, then looked back up at me.

“I guess you’re right, although I know there’s more to it. Text me when you get back to the hospital just so I know you got back okay.”

I nodded and Ryan and I both gave Pat hugs goodbye as we finally left the United Center. It was becoming more and more clear how tired Ryan was getting. He had handed me the gifts he received from the team and his pace slowed right down.

Just before we reached the hospital, Ryan had fallen asleep in the car. I didn’t want to wake him, but I had to.

“Ry, buddy. Wake up. We’re back at the hospital.”

He stirred before opening his eyes.

“Claire.”

I looked over at him.

“Yea buddy?”

He reached over and gave me a hug.

“Thank you.”

I smiled and could feel tears spring to my eyes. I knew how happy this made him, and I was overjoyed to make his night one he would never forget.

Finally deciding to allow him to fall back asleep, I carried him back into the hospital. He woke up just before I got to his room. I put him on the ground and we opened his door.

“What the hell?”