What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

"I shouldn't have gone out after the game. I shouldn't have." I cried, burying my head into my hands, letting the tears freely fall.

"It'll be okay Adam. She'll pull through." A soft voice said as it's owner patted my back and then proceeded to shake my hair.

Leah has been a gift from God from the moment she arrived at my house. She helped me with Avery, comforted me, and provided me with the support that I needed. I don't say anything, instead I just cry.

"Adam, baby the team is here." Leah whispers in my ear a couple minutes later. I slowly lift my head and sure enough, the concerned faces of all my team-mates are looking at me.

"Hey guys. Thanks for coming." I mumble, not looking any of them in the eyes. None of them say anything, they just stare at me. Suddenly, I am ashamed. Ashamed that I am the guy that we always joke about in the locker room, the one who gets their girlfriend pregnant out of wedlock. Ashamed that I left my girlfriend while she was pregnant. And most of all, I am ashamed that they are watching me now as I cried, something a tough guy like me would never do.

"What exactly happened Adam?" The voice of Gregory Campbell asked, breaking the sickening silence. I look up at my team mates for a moment before I started to recall the last few hours of my life.

Flashback...

"Hey, so are you going to go out with us or not?" Shawn Thorton asked as Adam put on his coat.

"Man, I'd love to but I can't. Leah's got a doctor's appointment that I have to go to." Was the reply. Shawn just nodded and Adam picked up his bag and walked out of the locker room.

Seeing the time when he got into his car, Adam decided that he had enough time to go home and shower before Leah's appointment.

"Avery! I'm home!" Adam called out when he walked into his apartment. Getting no response, Adam just shrugged and made his way to her bedroom to check up on the young adult.

When he got to her room, he saw that she wasn't there.

"Avery?" Adam called out. His only response was an almost inaudible moan coming from the bathroom. Swiftly walking towards the bathroom door, he flung it open and nearly passed out from the site that he saw.

Blood was everywhere. All over the floor, walls, and toilet. The room itself looked like a crime scene. And then on the floor laid the cut up body of Avery McKinley, a now bloody razor in one hand and an empty bottle of pills in the other. Lying on her bloody chest was a single sheet of paper with two sentences scribbled on it.

"I've had enough. I'm done." Was what the scribbled black ink read, words that were barely legible because there was so much blood on the paper.

Once he got over the shock of seeing the girl he had grown up with in a state like this, Adam quickly dropped to the ground to check for a pulse. There was one, he found, but it was very faint. Whipping out his cell phone he called 911. After confirming that an ambulance would be there soon, he hung up and called the one person that he knew could help him in a situation like this.

"...and now here we are. Turns out she OD-ed and severely cut herself on her arms, legs, and stomach. I haven't heard her condition yet though, they immediately brought her in for surgery. It's been three hours guys, I'm starting to get scared." I barely got out that last part.

"It'll be alright Quaider. Avery seems like a tough girl, she'll pull through." Patrice Bergeron said to me as he patted my back.

"That tough girl persona is just an act though. You should've seen her before I left for the game today. She looked so...so...so vulnerable. It was scary. I don't think she has the strength to pull through this guys." I informed them somberly. All the guys just stared at me in silence, not knowing what to say or do for none of them had been in a situation like this before.

"She WILL be alright Adam! You just have to believe in her," Leah encouraged me.

I turned my head to look at her.

"I can't Leah. If this was the old Avery, I would have believed she will pull through this in a heartbeat. But, she's not the same Avery anymore! She hasn't been since her accident! She'll never be the same ever again!"

With that, I got up and left the room, not wanting to look at my team mates sympathetic faces any more. As I was walking down the hallways, a nurse came up to me.

"You're here for Avery McKinley right?" She asked very timidly under my menacing glare.

"Yes. Why what's wrong?" I asked, my glare dropping to a look of concern.

"Well, she's stable and it looks that if she wakes up, she'll be okay and there will be no problems."

"What do you mean 'if she wakes up'?" I questioned fearing the worst.

"She's uh...well she's lapsing in and out of a coma." The nurse told me.

"Oh God...oh my God, Avery." And then I felt my own world going black.