Chances Taken

“Maggie, hey, Mags, can you hear me?” her brother called as I managed to pick her up a little and pull my feet out from under her.

I heard her groaned and breathed a sigh of relief that she was awake. I threw her arm around my neck and stood up, pulling her with me. Her brother got her other arm and held her up.

“Mags, you good? You awake?”

“Pat?” she breathed.

“Yeah, you ok?” I asked and she stood up straight on her own and Mike and I slowly let her go.

“Mags?” her brother looked at her and I just watched her.

She was blinking her eyes and it looked like the color on her face was gone, “Whoa,” she breathed and then started to lean forward and I grabbed her and made sure she didn’t fall hard. She hissed and automatically grabbed her side and leaned forehead, her head on the ice and cursed. I moved my hand and saw that I had blood on it.

“She’s bleeding!” I said quickly and was pulled back as trainers got in next to her. I stood up and saw Letang on the ice, “What happened?”

“I don’t know, everything happened so fast,” he said while not looking at me.

“Kaner,” Jon called and I went over towards him, “She was shoved by Neal.”

“What?” I growled and he nodded his head.

“He was coming after me and Maggie was coming to get the puck but he pushed her aside and she slammed into Staal and went flying towards you,” he explained and I looked at him, Jon saw the blood on my hand, “I think she hit your skate.”

I cursed and watched as they managed to get Maggie to stand up and basically carried her off of the ice, I looked at the ice and saw the trail of blood that she left behind. I gulped and hoped that she was going to be all right, her teammates watching in worry as her brother and Staal handed her off to two trainers and she disappeared towards the locker room.

-Kris-
It was the end of the second period; it took a lot longer because we needed to wait for the ice to be cleaned and then Kane left to get Maggie’s blood cleaned off of his hand. We were heading off of the ice when Kane and Toews skated over towards Mike before he headed over, they told him something and then Kane nudged his head over towards our bench. Mike looked angry about something and then looked back towards the bench, I stood there looking confused. The refs came over and tried to break them apart, thinking that they were going to start fighting, but they didn’t.

Mike skated over towards me, “What was that about?” I asked as we were the last two off of the ice.

“I’m gunna kill Neal,” he growled and headed for the locker room.

When we got into the locker room, it was already a battle zone. Shouting was heard and everyone was crowded around each other. Coach walked in and he and some of the Assistant Coaches were trying to break up the fight. Mike and I sat down and I hurried out of my gear because I wanted to see Maggie, I thought that was the reason that Mike quickly got out of his gear too.

“What the hell is going on?!” Coach yelled as he pushed Jordan and James apart, Niskanen getting in-between them to make sure that Jordan didn’t go after him again.

“Because of you, Maggie got hurt! She’s fuckin’ hurt badly!” Jordan yelled and I watched as Mike cracked his knuckles and stood up.

“Mike,” I said and stood up, watching as he walked over towards James, “Mike!”

Everyone watched him as he walked over towards James and punched him hard in the face, “You fuckin’ told my sister that she doesn’t deserve to be here! You fuckin’ prick, do you know how hard she worked to make it into the NHL?!” he yelled and everyone stood in silence, surprised at what Mike was saying.

“What did you say?” I asked and Mike looked at me.

“That’s what Toews and Kane just told me,” he growled and then looked at James wiping his bleeding lips, “That was for saying that to my sister,” he said and punched him again, “And that was for getting my sister hurt.”

“All right, All right, Mikey, back up!” Coach said and pushed Mike back, “Go see you sister.”

I walked forward and put my hand on Mike’s shoulder and pulled him off to the side, pulling him towards the medic room where we could see Maggie. I opened the door and saw her lying on her side on the table, Doc was at the desk in the corner of the room. He looked towards us and stood up, we walked in, closing the door behind us.

“How is she?” Mike asked as he walked forward.

“Sedated, I had to stitch her up,” he said and we walked towards her, her gear was off, she was just in her sports bra and shorts, “I was just getting the bandage on her.”

We stood in front of her and saw that she was cleaned and stitched up. I sucked in a breath seeing her sleeping in front of us with a huge cut on her side, “What happened?”

“I’m guessing she caught the blade of Kane’s skate,” Doc said and I placed my hand on her arm that was tucked under her sleeping head.

“Is she in pain?” Mike asked.

“She was,” Doc answered and looked towards us, “She’s not in any now. Though I did measure the cut, needed to go on record,” he said and I nodded my head, “It’s a nine inch cut.”

“Did she lose a lot of blood?” Mike asked and Doc shook his head.

“Not enough to cause worry, but she lost enough to be very weak, she’ll be out for a few games,” he said and we nodded our heads.

Mike walked out of the room and was gone for a little and came back in with his phone, taking a picture and then looking at his phone, “Dad’s gunna wanna know,” he said without even looking at me, knowing that I was going to ask why he did that.

“Oh,” was all I said and ran my hand through her hair.

“Is she all right?” I heard and saw Coach walk into the room and came over towards her, looking at the cut, “Jesus.”

Some of the guys walked in and looked at her, cursing as they saw her cut. I watched as Mike walked over towards Maggie’s gear in the corner of the room. He picked up her jersey, looked at it, I saw the tear in the material and the blood coming down the side. Mike took the jersey and headed for the door.

“Mike! Wait!” I called, hoping that he wasn’t going for Neal again.

“You know what that is?!” Mike growled as he threw Maggie’s away jersey towards Neal. He caught it and looked at it, “I don’t know if you’re good with measurements, but that tear in the jersey, that fuckin’ cut in her side,” Mike took a step forward and I got myself ready to jump at him if he went after Neal again, “That’s nine inches. Almost a foot, she’s got a fuckin’ nine inch cut in her side because of you! This is your fault!”

“I didn’t mean-“

“I don’t give a shit what you did or didn’t mean to do! I honestly don’t, you have some kind of hit on the Hawks for whatever they did to your old teammate!” he growled, “Newsflash! You’re a fuckin’ Penguin now, not a Star!”

“Her injury is not my fault! I’m sorry she’s-“

“Not your fault?”

‘…Uh oh…’ I thought and started to see Mike growling.

“Mikey! Come on son, stop it,” Coach called from the office, but nothing was going to stop Mikey.

“Maggie’s injury is not your fault,” Mike said calmly and I took a step forward, “All right,” he said and then nodded his head.

I took another step forward, there was no way that he was all right with this, I was barely holding it back from killing Neal for what he said and did.

“So what you’re saying is that it’s not your fault that my sister almost bleed out,” Mike said and Neal nodded his head, I shook my head, “All right,” he said and shrugged his shoulders and laughed a little, “Then it’s not your fault.”

“Mikey,” Max called out and stood up, “He didn’t mean-“

“No!” Mike said and pointed towards Max, “This little shit says that it’s not his fault that Maggie’s in there with a nine inch cut in her side,” he said and looked towards Neal, “Well guess fuckin what-“ he moved so fast I couldn’t grab him. Mike grabbed Neal by the back of his neck and drug him into the medic room and pulled him towards the table that Maggie was on, pushing him forward and showing him the injury, “That’s what you fuckin’ did to my sister! So tell me again how this isn’t your fault!”

“All right, I think he gets it, Mikey!” Coach said and pulled Mike off of Neal, “Go get dressed! All of you get dressed!”

I walked towards Maggie and kissed her forehead and then rubbed her arm and headed back into the locker room to get my gear on and back out onto the ice to finish the game against the Blackhawks.