The Staal Sister

Dani:

The man was still unconscious on the ground when the police showed up. We began walking away, one of my arms around Talia and the other held the shirt that was pressed to my still bleeding face. Kris was shirtless still and had his warm hand pressed into the small of my back.

I gave the police my name and number and told the officer to contact me if he needed to talk to me. He said he would be in contact and was hesitant to let us leave but I was determined to get Talia back to her father. I already felt a connection towards her and I had only known she existed for like the past 20 minutes. I knew I needed stitches and I wanted someone to check Talia to make sure she wasn't injured in any way she wasn't telling us about.

We rounded the corner near the Garden and she started crying again. I pulled her tighter into my side and she cried into my shoulder. She must be so scared. This brought up emotion, reminding me of my past, but I swallowed it back down. I couldn't fall apart in front of her. It would only make everything much, much worse.

I was wasn't surprised to see Jordan sitting on a bench in front of the Garden, presumably waiting for me to come back. I took a deep breath and we walked right up to him. He looked up then looked back down, thinking we were a bunch of crazy Bostonians and not his sister and teammate. His head whipped back up and his eyes were wide. He jumped up.

"What the fuck!? Holy shit! Oh my God... Oh my God." Jordan pulled the shirt away from my face and started breathing heavily.

"It looks worse than it is." I tried to comfort him and he just continued to shake his head.

"DAN! GENO! MAX! SOMEBODY!" Jordan screamed at the top of his lungs and I flinched away and Talia cried harder. Kris glared at Jordan, whose eyes were fixated on the blood pouring down my face.

"You're scaring her." Kris scolded Jordan who finally looked over to the crying girl in my arms. His eyes softened.

"What... What happened?" Jordan calmed a bit but he wouldn't look at me.

"What's up?" Dan's voice sounded from behind Jordan. He moved to the side so Dan got a look at me. He ran over.

"What the fuck?" I guess that was the question of the night. I wasn't really worried about it before but now I was kind of freaking out. Was it really that bad? I couldn't even feel it anymore. Maybe it was adrenaline.

"I'm great. Kris, stay with Talia. I'll be back." I took off running toward the players entrance. I heard my name being shouted but I moved swiftly through the dark night.

I burst through the doors and didn't stop until I reached the Bruins locker room. I pushed through the door to find them laughing and some half naked. They went silent as they took in the sight of me.

I pulled away the shirt from my face and saw the white shirt was now almost completely a deep red color. Yup, I probably looked like a psycho.

"Princess?" Brad Marchand spoke up into the silence. I nodded and my eyes connected with the giant captain.

"Your daughter... She was with some guy... Kris and I..." It seemed as if my brain shut off and I couldn't form a correct English sentence. He jumped up anyway, and looked panicked.

"She's okay. Just shaken up." He nodded and grabbed my head and we ran back outside. I looked over and I swore I saw a tear roll down his face. The scariest thing for a parent was when something happened to your child.