Chances Taken

-Maggie-
“Here, here, here!” I called to Sidney as I was left wide open. Sidney passed it to me and I caught it, Mike and Orpik were heading right at me, I took the shot towards Fluery and almost made it.

The whistle was blown and Coach skated over, “In no way should Marshall have been wide open, you guys need to start picking it up, especially when we’re on a god damn powerplay!” Coach yelled and I caught my breath and looked over towards my brother, “Flower, nice save. All right guys, do it again, we need to get better while on powerplays! Crosby, two minutes!”

Sidney nodded his head and then headed towards the bench, we were going to practice our powerplays, when our team, Team black, is a man short. Kunitz, Letang, Engelland and myself against Team White, Staal, Cooke, Dupuis, Orpik and Mike. There was Team Yellow and Light Blue.

We practiced and practice until Coach thought that we had enough and told us that we could go. We showered and changed and then headed out.

A month had passed since the magazine incident and I noticed that things were a little different from Kris and I, he would act differently around me, almost as if he didn’t really want to be around me anymore. I would always shrug it off and tell myself to never mind it and focus on hockey, the preseason was starting in a week and we needed to be ready when we play against Detroit.

After practice I headed home with Mike, we were all right after our argument that day and he noticed that nothing really was going on, he was really just an overprotective brother. Mike dropped me off, he walked with me to get his dog when we heard barking, it wasn’t the normal barking that Jazz and Stanley did when they heard us coming. I rushed to the door and opened it to see that there was some blood on the ground in the doorway, like there was a fight in my house.

“Jazz! Lilly!” I called as I dropped my bag and ran into the house, not knowing what I was going to be expecting.

“Stan!” Mike called as he followed after me.

The first place I looked was upstairs in my room, some of my things were on the ground, like they bumped into my nightstand so hard that the things fell off, no dogs though. I called for my pups as I ran back downstairs, Mike called my name and the urgency in his voice almost made me sick. I ran to see that he was in the living room, Stanley was on the ground bleeding all over my hardwood floor.

“What happened to him?” I asked shocked as I knelt beside Mike and petted Stanley’s crying head.

“I don’t know, I gotta get him to the vet,” Mike said and I nodded my head, jumped up to grabbed a sheet from the closet upstairs, came back down and wrapped it around Stanley’s bleeding neck, “One of your dogs did this.”

“I’ll find them,” I said as Mike picked Stanley up and went out the door, ‘…Oh my god…’ I panicked as I called for my dogs and ran all around the house, “Jazz!” I called and heard whining as I ran back down the stairs, “Jazz?!” I found him behind the couch that was pushed against the wall, “Hey baby, come here, it’s ok, Momma’s home, come here,” Jazz crawled over toward me and I noticed blood on his face, he had a bite mark on his face and he was bleeding a little, “Baby, what happened?”

I kissed his head and then put him in his cage so that I could find Lilly and I was hoping that she’s not the one who did this. I had been giving her the medicine and she had been getting better, but the doctor was right, she was starting to turn a little violent and would snap at normal times. She’d charge at Jazz, but she never bit him.

I called for Lilly again and then noticed that the door that went into the garage was opened, I walked over there and flicked on the lights, “Lilly?” I walked in and grabbed the large flashlight that I kept on the shelf next to the door. I shined the light in the dark places, nothing, I got onto the ground and shined the light under my SUV, growling, “Lilly?” I snarled at me and ran. I jumped up and then jumped onto the hood of me car. She was barking and snarling, “Lilly, what’s wrong?!”

I panicked, she had the rage symptoms, she was the one who hurt Stanley and Jazz and she was trying to hurt me too. I took a deep breath and grabbed my cell phone out of my back pocket and called the only person that I knew might possibly come over.

“Hello?”

“Kris! Kris! Kris!”

“Mags slow down, what’s-“

“I need your help like right now!” I yelled into the phone and then climbed onto the top of my SUV when Lilly tried to jump onto the hood.

“What’s going on? I’m out with some of the guys,” he said and laughed at something someone had said.

“That’s nice, but I need help!” I said and Lilly was barking at me and trying to jump up, it made me jump and scream a little and I cursed when I dropped my phone, “Lilly stop this!”

-Kris-
I was out to lunch with Sidney, Jordan, Tyler, Max and Geno, we were laughing at something Jordan had said when my phone went off and I saw Maggie’s name pop up. I will admit that I’ve been trying to avoid her because I didn’t want anything awkward going on and she was my teammate after all. I sighed and saw the guys looking at me.

I rolled my eyes and answered the phone, something was wrong, there was panic in her voice, and after she said she needed help and then didn’t say anything after that, I knew something wasn’t right.

“Where are you going?” Sidney asked as I grabbed my wallet and threw some money onto the table.

“Something’s wrong at Mags’ place,” I said and the guys jumped up from the seats, threw down money and we were out the door, taking our cars to Maggie’s house. We pulled up on her street and saw that the door was opened a little, I parked my car and ran in, the others behind me.

The first thing we noticed when we got home was blood on the ground, “Whoa, what the hell happened here?” Max asked and I walked in and looked to see Jazz in his cage, he was clawing at the door to get out, he had blood on him.

“Where’s Lilly?” I asked as I looked around.

“Lilly? Where the fuck is Mags?” Jordan asked.

“Mags?!” Geno called out.

“In here!” we heard her yelled and followed her voice, “Watch out! Watch out!” she yelled as we got to the garage door and saw Lilly coming at us. Jordan slammed the door closed just in time, Lilly almost got us.

“What was that?!” Sidney yelled.

“Her dog went psycho!” Max said and I looked at Maggie to see that she wanted to cry, not because her dog was attacking her, because Lilly was sick and there was nothing that she could do.

“Her dog’s got that rage disease,” I said and the guys looked at me.

“Mags has a dog like that why?!” Jordan asked and I shook my head.

“It wasn’t always like that, damn thing was afraid of her own shadow,” I said and looked at Maggie to see her looking for something, “She just started giving her dog medicine that’ll calm her down but the doctor said that the dog might turn to rage instead of how a normal dog would act.”

“Damn,” Sidney said.

“Where Mikey?” Geno asked and I should his head, “I call him.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Sidney asked and I shook my head not knowing.

“She looks pretty safe on top of the SUV,” Max said and I sighed.

“Yeah but, for how long.”

“Look,” Sidney said, “There’s a door back there, where does it lead to?”

I saw the door in the garage and started point towards it, “Mags, where does it lead to?!” I had to yell because the door muffled my voice.

“The backyard!” she yelled and I nodded my head.

“Max, Staalsy, come on, let’s check it out,” Sidney said and he and the other two headed for the back yard.

“Tanger!” I turned, Geno was coming back, “Mikey at vet, Mags dog attacked his dog.”

“Fuckin’ Christ,” I muttered and looked back towards Maggie, Lilly was trying to jump onto the hood of the SUV. After at least ten time there, Lilly did it, she got onto the hood, “Mags!” I yelled and opened the door, “Come on!”

Maggie jumped off of her SUV just when Lilly was about to take a bite at her. I pulled her back and into my arms as Geno slammed the door closed. Maggie fell to the ground and I went down with her and hugged her, she was breathing heavily and shaking a little.

“Guys we came up with a plan!” Jordan yelled as he, Max and Sidney came back, they stopped and looked at us, “Aw man, it was really good too.”

“Kris got plan too,” Geno said and we all jumped when Lilly was jumping at the door snarling and barking.

“I’ll call animal control,” Sidney said and pulled out his phone.

“Are you all right?” I asked Maggie and she nodded her head and then shook her head and leaned it on my shoulder.

“I don’t know what to do,” she breathed and I saw blood on her hands and shirt.

“Did she bite you?!” I asked and the others looked down.

Maggie picked up her hands and shook her head, “She bit Stanley and Jazz, it must be their blood.”

“You know what has to happen, right?” I asked her and she nodded her head and looked like she was about to cry, I sighed and held her tighter and looked up towards the guys. Geno’s phone went off and he said that Mike was calling him, I looked back down towards Maggie, ‘…Mags, I’m sorry. I’m just glad I didn’t ignore that call. Fuck this isn’t good…’ I thought as I noticed that I could see down her shirt and saw her black bra. I looked away and dug my face in her hair and noticed that her hair smelled good, ‘…Think of something else, think of something else…’ I kept think in hopes of not embarrassing myself right here.

“Mike’s on his way, Stan in surgery, need stitches,” Geno said and Maggie sighed and nodded her head.

“They’re sending a van over to pick up Lilly, Mags,” Sidney said as he walked over and bent in front of her, “You all right?” she nodded her head, “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Thanks guys,” she said and we all nodded our heads.

Sidney helped her up and then walked her over to her kitchen, I stood up and walked over towards the door, looking down at Lilly just sitting there and growling, ‘…Poor pup, you probably don’t even know what you’re doing…’