Chances Taken

Reality was back, the All Star game was over, leaving North Carolina behind, keeping the memories and parting with new friends. We few back to Pittsburgh where we automatically went back to practicing for our away game against New York that was to be held two days later.

I cracked my neck and rocked back and forth on my skates as I looked up towards the American flag, listening to the national anthem in Madison Square Garden. I looked to my left and right, standing in the middle of the starting line for Pittsburgh, Mike and Kris to my left, while Geno and Pascal to my right.

The first period started, Geno won the puck and passed it to Pascal who headed towards Lundqvist, Mike and I trailing behind him. Pascal’s shot the puck, but it bounced off of Lundqvist, I picked it up and shot it at him and we darted forward. The puck was covered, the whistle was blown and the pushing and shoving begun. Mike Del Zotto shoved me hard and I tripped over one of the Rangers’ that fell to the ground and I fell onto his back, which caused more pushing and shoving.

I picked my feet up and saw that I had fallen on Marc Staal, turning my body and pushing myself off the ice, I saw that he was slow to get up, “You all right?” I asked and he looked at me and nodded his head and then got up. I saw that Geno was getting close with Ryan Callahan; I sighed and walked over towards him and pulled on his jersey, “Come on, G.”

We went to the face off and tried again, Callahan won the faceoff and the puck was shot down towards Marc. I kicked into the ice and skated ahead of everyone, Marc had the puck waiting for me and I went behind the net and stopped, looking ahead of me and finding a path. I growled when I couldn’t find one in time because Del Zotto was coming at me. I passed the puck towards the boards and it bounced off and was picked up by Mike.

Coach called for a line change and Mike and I headed for the bench, quickly jumping over and watching Kunitz and Rupp heading onto the ice. Pascal jumped over in time for Lovejoy to go onto the ice and I plopped on the bench in-between Mike and Orpik.

The buzzer went off and the Ranger fans cheered, the Rangers had just scored and were ahead by one. I sighed and leaned forward to watch the game as I waited for my turn on the ice again. The wait was longer than I thought, but Jordan, Geno and I headed onto the ice, replacing Craig Adams’ line.

Geno won the puck and headed for the Rangers’ net, the puck was passed to Jordon who was on the opposite side of the ice. I kept my eyes on the puck, something I regret doing. I didn’t see what happened before I was trampled to the ice and I hit it hard. Whoever was on top of me, we slid into the boards and I groaned as pain shot through my body. The whistle was blown and I pushed myself onto my elbows and tried to turn to see who was on me, but I couldn’t see.

“You guys all right?” I heard and looked up to see two Jordan’s skating towards us.

“When did you get a twin?” I asked and he bent down and looked at me and then the person on my back.

“G? You all right?” Jordan asked and I heard a groan and felt the heavy weight starting to be lifted from my back.

“I think I threw my back out,” I groaned and laid my head on the ice, “What happened?” I started to push myself off the ice and onto my hands and knees, I felt my lip wet and spit onto the ice to see blood, ‘…Perfect…’ I went to get up again, but the whole rink started to spin and I seemed to lose my balance and fell over, good thing I was only on my hands and knees.

“Mags,” Jordan called and I took a deep breath.

I heard curses and then heard Geno growling in Russian, he sounded like he was in pain.

“All right kid, where does it hurt?” I heard and pushed myself up and leaned back onto my eyes, moving slowly and keeping my eyes closed, but that didn’t work. I blinked my eyes a few times and tried hard to see straight, but there was double of everything, “Maggie,” I looked at him and flinched when he held up his hand because it looked closer than it really was. I heard another trainer talking to Geno, helping him with whatever was wrong with him, “Help me get her up, Staalsy.”

I felt hands on both of my arms, I was being picked up and I leaned against one of them to support myself, “You all right?” Jordan asked and I blinked a few times.

“I think,” I said and took a stride forward, but everything was spinning again and I almost went down but managed to catch myself, taking my glove off bending over and pinching the bridge of my nose because a headache was forming.

“No you’re not,” Jordan said next to me and I felt him start to push me towards the bench while Jack, the trainer helping me, guided me there.

I was helped to the locker room and collapsed onto the bench in front of my stall, taking my helmet and gloves off and holding my head. The door opened again and I looked up to see that two of the trainers, Jack and Eric were helping a limping Geno into the room and bringing him to the medic room. When they had Geno in there, Jack came back over towards me and bent down in front of me.

“Is the room still spinning?”

“Yeah,” I breathed and he picked my head up and shinned the light into my eyes, which made me flinch.

“Headache?”

“Forming.”

“Nausea?” he asked and I breathed.

“No,” I said and he nodded my head.

“Do you remember hitting your head?” he asked and I thought back and tried to see what happened.

“I think when Geno hit me, but I can’t remember, I didn’t see it coming,” I said and he nodded his head and then walked away, only to return a few minutes later with two pain pills and a bottle of water.

“I don’t want you back on the ice for tonight, undress and take it easy,” he said and I sighed and looked down, “You might have a concussion and I don’t want it to get worse by taking the risk of you going back out there.”

“All right,” I growled and then stood up to get undress and head for the showers, “How’s G?”

“Might have blown his knee,” he said and I bit my lip and looked down, it could be a career ending injury.

I sighed and slowly started to take my gear off; I placed it into my locker and grabbed my shower bag and headed for the showers. I walked towards the far end stall and walked into the first part, placing my sweats and shirt there, not bothering to change into my dress until later. I turned the water on and let it warm up, leaning my head against the wall and taking a few deep breaths.

-Kris-
The first period was over, the Rangers being up by one; we all headed back to the locker room to find out if Geno and Maggie were all right. When we got there, I looked towards her stall and sighed; her gear was hung up, which meant that she was out for the rest of the game.

I went to my stall, took my skates and gear off and headed for the medic room, Geno was on his back, hands on his head and the trainer was looking at his knee. The only other place I knew her to be would be the showers. I opened the door to the shower room and heard the water running. I found the stall she was at and knocked on the door, “Mags?”

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

“Can I come in?” I asked and then looked around to make sure I wasn’t followed. The water was turned off and I heard her walking around, the door opened and she had her towel wrapped around her, “You ok?”

“Jack thinks a concussion,” she said and I sighed and wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest, lying my head on top of hers, not minding that water was dripping onto my shirt.

“I’m sorry,” I said and kissed her wet hair.

“I didn’t even see it coming,” she said as she relaxed against me, “My head is still pounding.”

“How long are you out?”

“I don’t know, they’re gunna look at me when we get back to Pittsburgh,” Maggie said and I nodded my head and kissed her forehead, “You’d better get back in your gear,” she said and I sighed. I pulled back and cupped her face, rubbing my thumbs on her cheeks and feeling her hand on my arm, she turned her head and kissed my hand, “Do your best.”

“I try,” I smiled and then pressed my lips against hers and then leaned my forehead onto hers, “Don’t get worse.”

“I’ll try,” she said and I kissed her head again and then watched as she went back into the shower and I headed out of the shower room.

Mike stood up from his stall and looked at me, “She all right?”

“Maybe a slight concussion,” I said and he sighed and sat back down.

“Can I kill him now?” Mike growled.

“No!” Coach yelled and Mike sighed.

“He hurt Mags and Geno!” Max said and I sat down next to Jordan and started to put my gear back on.

“How’s G?” I asked and Jordan looked at me and shook his head, “How long will he be out?”

“They don’t know yet, maybe the season,” he said and I sighed.

So Maggie and Geno were out for injuries, injuries caused by the same person, the question now was, what were we going to do about it?