Hurricanes in Pittsburgh?

Chapter Thirty Two
"Time out!" Coach yelled and then looked at me, "Switch out!"

I nodded my head, stood up and threw my mask on, skating onto the ice and seeing Marc coming over towards me. He apologized and I gave him a small smile, "Not your night, Flower, it's all good," I said as I patted his back and headed to the net and got myself ready.

Fifteen games, the whole month of March, we won all our games, we had a serious streak going, then we had to lose a home game against the Sabres last night, four to one. Coach had thought that I was in the net enough, so he had Marc in, it wasn't a horrible loss, but it was still depressing that our streak was gone. Now were in the middle of an away game against Rangers, Marc wasn't playing because he had taken a puck to the eye last month and his vision still wasn't back yet. It was the middle of the second period, the score was six to one, I sighed, we were going to have to get the puck a lot if there were any chances of us making goals.

By the end of the game, we had lost six to one, it was a depressing loss, and no one was really saying anything in the locker room. I looked at our new players, Douglas Murry, Brendon Morrow and Jarome Iginla, it was their third game playing with us and they were getting along great with the others. I looked at Iginla, he was suppose to go to the Bruins, everyone thought that, hell, he even thought that, but then, hours before he was suppose to leave the Flames to move to Boston to become a Bruin, he changed his mind and wanted to become a Penguin. Needless to say, when we play Boston, a lot of people are going to be pretty angry with him. I heard the team even had his jersey ready for him and everything.

When we finished showering, changing and looked like we were ready to go, Coach announced that we were going to be getting another new player, he wouldn't tell us who. No one said anything, but I could tell that another new face, wasn't needed; we were a strong enough team as it was.

'...I wish Beau was here...' I thought as I grabbed my stuff and threw my bag onto a cart where some of the other guys' bags were. The crew was going to take our bags back to the bus that was going to take us to our hotel. It was late and we were all tired, we had an afternoon flight back to Pittsburgh the next day.

"Jen, you coming out with us?" James asked and I shook my head.

"I have dinner reservations with Marc," I said and the guys nodded their heads, I was excited to see my brother.

Sidney was still in the hospital, going through more surgeries to fix his jaw and teeth. We went to see him in the hospital after his first surgery; I stood in the hallway, not having the nerve to actually go in. Some of the guys had joked about how his perfect smile was gone and I smirked a little.

We got back to the hotel, the whole bus ride was quiet, a few conversations here or there. I sat with Geno all he did was stare out the window. I was in my room when my phone went off, I looked to see that it was Marc, he was telling me that he was in the lobby.

I walked out into the hallway and saw some of the guys looking like they were getting ready to head out onto the town.

"Have fun guys!" I said and James waved to me.

"You too, Jen!"

I walked onto the elevator and headed into the lobby, curfew was at one, so I had about three hours to spend time with my brother. I smiled brightly when I saw him standing in the lobby.

"There she is!" he said and I walked over towards him and wrapped my arms around his chest and dug my face into his shoulder, "I missed you Jen."

"I missed you too, Marc," I said and then felt him kiss my head, I looked up and saw the fading bruise of his eyes, “How is it?”

“It hurts a little, it’s hard to drive,” he said and I sighed.

“Should you really be driving then?” I asked and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Really?” I asked and he smirked.

“Doc didn’t tell me that I couldn’t, I can see, just not as well as my other eye,” he said and I nodded my head.

"Ready?"

"Yup," he said and then linked arms with me and we walked out of the hotel and over towards his car.

On the drive down, Marc was asking me so many questions, but avoiding the big topics, how was Beau and what’s going on between Sidney and I. We pulled in front of a restaurant and got out; Marc handed his keys to the valet and headed towards the door. Marc had his hand on my back as we walked in, the hostess smiling brightly when she sees us.

We were escorted to the back of the restaurant, a place where it was a little bit more private, actually it was really private because we were the only ones back there. We both turned the wine down and ordered a beer and then looked at the menu.

“Dinner’s on me, so get whatever you want,” he said and I smirked and rolled my eyes.

“I know what I want,” I said and placed my menu on the corner of the table.

The waiter came and brought a bread basket, we didn’t touch it, we placed our orders, grilled chicken penne vodka for me, some kind of salmon for Marc.

Marc looked around the area, we were alone, he took a deep breath and looked at me, “So-“

“Oh, here it comes,” I said and Marc looked at me sadly, “I was waiting for it.”

“What’s been going on Jen? Not once have you talked about Bennett,” he said and I sighed.

“I don’t know what’s going on between us, he was sent back down and I haven’t seen him in almost a week. I’ve been so use to having him around, I forgot that empty feeling I had when he wasn’t there.”

“Well you talk on the phone, right?” he asked and I shook my head, “Text?” I shook my head, “Skype?” I shook my head, “What the hell? Jen, why?”

“Because he’s mad at me,” I said and Marc sighed, “Last Thursday after the game, he had come back up to see me play my first game in a while, after that we met some of the guys at the club, everything was fine, Beau was suppose to leave early in the morning to head back to Wilkes-Barre. We got home around three and I took Candy for a walk, well during my walk, four guys come up to me and basically try to kidnap me,” I said and Marc gripped the table and gave me a hard look, “Then out of nowhere, Sidney shows up and scares these guys off-“

“Wait, Crosby?” he asked and I nodded my head, “What the hell? Is he following you?!”

“Shhh, keep your voice down,” I muttered and Marc sighed and rubbed his face, “I don’t know, he said he was taking Kennedy home because he was drunk. Sidney came closer to me and asked if I was all right, but I backed away, we argued a little and then he just kisses me, again.”

“What?” Marc growled, eyes wide with anger.

“Yup, I know,” I said and then sighed, “It’s my fault Beau’s mad at me, when I got home, I should have told him right away, I didn’t- I waited just before he was going to leave,” I sighed and looked off to the side, “I debated with myself the whole time he was there on whether to tell him or not.”

“Jen, you should have told him-“

“As soon as I got home, I know, I know! I regret not doing that. I know he’s mad at me for that, he has every right to be,” I bit my lip and Marc placed his hand on top of mine, “I don’t like this feeling, I don’t like him not being here.”

“Do you love him?” Marc asked and I looked at the table and nodded my head, “When’s your next game?”

“Friday, it’s a home game against the Rangers,” I said and Marc sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he said and I looked at him confused, “You’re going to be mad because you’re going to lose again,” Marc said and I scoffed and threw a piece of bread him.

“In your dreams! We’re going to make this beautiful comeback from this embarrassing defeat,” I said and Marc laughed and shook his head.

“After the game, drive to Wilkes-Barre, talk to him,” Marc said and I gave a small smile and nodded my head, “You two are good together, I don’t want to see you sad like this.”

“I know,” I said and he patted my hand, but we then pulled apart when our food showed up.

-Marc-
“How was dinner?” Lindsey, my wife asked as I walked into our condo, she was curled up on the couch watching some late night TV.

“Good, I need to call Eric,” I said as I kissed her forehead.

“That bad, huh?” she asked and I sighed and nodded my head.

“She’s depressed and needs to leave Pittsburgh before things get worse for her,” I said as I leaned against the armrest and looked at my wife.

“What about that Bennett kid?”

“They’re- I don’t know what they are, but they’re fighting- Well not fighting, more like not speaking to each other because Bennett’s angry that Crosby kissed Jen again and she didn’t tell him right away- but she knows that she’s a fault there,” I said the last part quickly so that Lindsey didn’t make a comment.

“At least she knows,” she said and I nodded my head.

“I have to call Eric, I’ll talk to you later,” I said as I kissed her head and then walked towards the back of our condo towards my office.

I sat in my chair and dialed my older brother’s number, turning on my iPad and then pulling up the Penguins schedule.

“Hey man, talk to me, what’s going on?” Eric said and I sighed and placed my phone down and put it on speaker.

“When does Jen’s contract expire with the Pens?”

“Uh, I think she signed a two year one, why?”

“She needs to seriously either come to the Rangers or Hurricanes, she’s gunna crack soon,” I sighed and scrolled down to the month of April’s schedule.

“She told you this?” Eric said and I heard Jordan’s voice in the background.

“No, but you can see it on her face, she’s physically and mentally exhausted,” I said and then saw that after the Rangers play the Penguins on Friday, they don’t have another game until Tuesday and it’s against the Hurricanes, “Dude, she’s gunna be heading your way next week.”

“Yeah I know, mom’s have a big dinner, making all of her favorites because she hasn’t seen Jen in a few months,” Eric said and I nodded my head.

“Yo Marc, how’s Squirt doing? She there?” I heard Jordan ask.

“She’s hangin’ in there,” I sighed.

“Well, Jokinen is being traded to the Pens,” Eric said talking about Jussi Jokinen, one of his teammates, “So she’ll at least have a familiar face with her.”

“He could be our spy,” I heard Jordan say.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I muttered.

“I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow,” Eric said and I nodded my head.

“All right guys, I’m heading to bed, talk to you later, tell everyone I said ‘hi’,” I said and then hung up the phone after the guys hung up.