Oh Captain, My Captain

Chapter One Hundred Nine
-Alex-
“Hello my babies!” I cried as I got down on the ground and had Sarabi, Zeus and Nina run over towards me and attack me with kisses, “I know, I know, I missed you too!”
“Sarabi’s been staying in your room a lot,” Mel said and I looked at Sarabi to see her whining and wagging her tail all over the place.
“Did you miss mommy? Mommy missed you so much!” I said as I wrapped my arms around Sarabi’s stomach and she fell to the ground and continued to lick me, “Ok, ok, white flag, white flag!” I yelled but Sarabi and Zeus just kept coming at me, “UNCLE!!!” I heard my friends laughing hard before they decided to save me and pull the two dogs off of me.
After being stuck in the hospital for a little over three months, I was finally able to come home. The Championship is only a week away, and it look to be that my cousin and I were going to be facing off for the cup, well at least my team will be, I still haven’t been cleared for contact. Boston and Pittsburgh were going to be going at it, it was going to be huge, ESPN was constantly going at it.
“What are you going to do, Alex?” Max asked as I hopped up onto the counter and flinched at my soreness.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to be cleared for the cup?” he asked and I nodded my head.
“I’m going to be on that ice, fighting for the cup alongside you guys,” I said and he smirked and nodded his head.

-Sidney-
I woke up the next morning to find that I was in an empty bed. I had stayed over Alex’s last night to make her first night at home a little bit more comfortable. I looked at the clock and saw that it was after seven in the morning and I sighed. We had practice at eleven and I was hoping to see Alex before I left. I figure she was downstairs with the dogs, but when I got down there, all I saw was Mel and Sam having a cup of coffee.
“Where’s Alex?” I asked and they looked at me and shrugged, “You didn’t see her?”
“I just got down here,” Mel replied and I looked at Sam.
“Sam here,” Sam said and I walked down the stairs and looked to see that Alex’s car was still there.
I sighed as I looked through the front door to see that everyone’s car was there, ‘…Where is she?...’
“Sid!” I heard and ran back up the stairs, to see Mel looking at me, “Her bag is gone!”
“What’s going on?” Geno muttered as he yawned while coming down the stairs.
“Alex is gone,” I said and Geno looked at me surprised.
“Where’d she go?” he asked and I pointed down towards the ground to see that her bag was gone, “She’s at the arena.”
“Probably,” I said and looked at Sam, “Will you wake James up?”
“Sure,” Sam said and then headed down the stairs.
“Go get dressed Geno,” I said and Geno turned around and headed up the stairs and I followed him.
We got dressed and then walked downstairs to see that James was up and ready to go. We piled into my car with our bags and headed towards the arena.
I pulled into the parking lot and parked my car and saw that Marc’s SUV was there, “Flower’s here.”
“You think Alex called him?” James asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
The three of us walked into the arena to hear music blaring through the speakers and pucks being shot into the glass. We threw our bags onto the ground and then walked towards the ice to see that Marc was in the net in practice gear while Alex was practicing her shooting.
“Come on Alex! Move faster!” we heard and turned to see Vero sitting on the bench.
“Vero,” I said and she turned her head to look at us.
“Hey guys, I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice that she was missing,” she said and I smirked, “We’ve been here since six.”
“Why?”
“Alex misses the ice,” she said and I nodded my head.
“How is she?”
“A little- Ok, a lot slow, she’s definitely not up to even seventy percent of her old self,” Vero said and I sighed and leaned against the boards watching Alex. Alex was bent over and I knew that she was breathing heavily, “She’s getting frustrated because she has to get her body back to the physical peak it was at before.”
“Come on, Alex! Faster!” Marc yelled edging Alex to continue.
“Hey guys,” we heard and turned around to see Coach standing there, “I got a call from security saying that someone was here.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine, what are you looking at?” he asked and we moved out of the way to show Alex practicing with Marc, “I’ll be damned.”
“She’s going to prove everyone wrong,” I said with a smirk on my face, ‘…I’m proud of you, Alex…’
“She just started her shooting, she’s been doing warm ups and suicides all most of the times,” Vero explained and my eyes never left the ice.
Hours went on and Alex never gave up, she kept pushing herself, and I saw her between those hours go from maybe a fifty five to a seventy five. I smirked as I saw my girl slowly making her way back. I sighed though when I realized that she was definitely not going to be ready for the cup. She wanted to be one hundred percent back, that wasn’t going to happen in a week.
Some of the guys that were here had climbed over the bars and were sitting in the standing watching through the glass as Alex practiced hard with Marc. When the others showed up, Coach told them to wait on getting dressed and just for them to sit in the stands as well. Alex was well aware that we were here; she just ignored us and concentrated on her hockey.

-Alex-
I don’t know how long I had spent on the ice, but I know this past week, I’ve never put my body through as much work as I did then. I knew I wasn’t one hundred percent, but I was here enough to play the cup that was tonight. The Penguins and the Bruins were going to be facing off for the 2014 Stanley Cup. Brandon and I, well hopefully me, were going to be going up against each other for the greatest prize of all. Our family was flying up and going to be sharing a box suite with my dad and friends. Even if I wasn’t going to play, they wanted to be here, and if I didn’t, then I was going to be in the box with them.
“It’s gunna be all right, Alex.”
“I’m so scared,” I said as I looked to see that Sidney was next to me leaning against the wall.
“Stop fidgeting, you’ll be all right,” Sidney said and I looked back towards him and whined. He laughed and then held out his arms and I walked into them, “Everything is going to be all right.”
“I hope so,” I muttered and felt him kiss my head.
“Alex,” Doc called from his door and I turned around.
“Alex!” I heard and turned my head to see that the guys were running down the hall.
“We wanted to be here,” Kris said as he was in front of the others.
“Thanks,” I said and then walked into Doc’s office, leaving my nervous teammates outside the door.
“I see you have my records,” Doc said and I nodded my head and looked around the office, “You all right?” it looked different, the walls were a different color, the door was replaced, it had a different feel to it. I haven’t been in this room since the attack, and still walking in here was hard, only reminded me of what happened to me, “Alex?”
“What?” I said, snapping myself out of my thoughts.
“Are you all right?” he asked and I nodded my head, “You sure?”
“I haven’t been in here since-“
“It’s all right, we can do this somewhere-“
“No, it’s all right! Let’s just get this over with,” I said as Doc nodded his head and looked over my x-rays, MRI, blood test, everything.
When he was finished looking at the paperwork, he poked me with pointy objects, tapped my knee with a hammer, worked my muscles around, did everything he was supposed to do to make sure that I was well enough to be on that ice.
“Am I cleared, Doc?” I asked looking at him with hope in his eyes, “This is my last chance.”
Doc sighed, that’s never a good sigh, “Alex, your muscles are still weak. The poison did a number on them.”
“I’ve practiced so hard for this moment! I know I’m not a hundred percent, but I’m far enough along that I can hold up in the game! Doc, I don’t care if I’m not able to play anymore, but let that happen after this game!”
“Alex, I’m sorry, but I can’t clear you,” he said and I stared at him not knowing what to say, “Don’t look at me like that, I’m trying to do this to help you.”
“It’s not working, Doc!” I yelled, “I’ve worked my ass off for this moment, I came back to prove to everyone that I could, I did it to show everyone that a girl can play this sport, that I can come back from a tragedy!”
“This wasn’t a hockey injury, Alex!”
“I still came back! I’m not a quitter Doc! I can do this!”
“Alex, I know that, but I’m sorry, there’s just too much damage.”
“No, Doc, I need to play this game tonight, it’s not a want,” I stated and then stared at him, “I NEED to play tonight.”
“Alex, I’m sorry.”