Chances Taken

It was the beginning of September; we were all back in Pittsburgh and ready to kick asses this year. Practice started a week ago and I learned that James, Geno and I were the second line and we were pretty good, if anything just as good as Sidney’s first line; although, we didn’t know when Sidney was going to be back. Geno was back, I was happy about that; I had kept in contact with him and Sidney all summer. They said that they were doing well, even saw them with Mike, Emma, Kris and I when we went up to Thunder Bay to visit some of the guys and have fun at Jordan’s house party.

After our pity party, we cleaned up our act, cleaned out our lockers, which was hard, talked to the media, even harder. We dealt with last minute stuff in Pittsburgh and everyone went their separate ways. Kris and I were going to be apart for about a week; Mike and I were going to head home back to Texas to see our younger brother, Nick graduate from high school.

Mike and I were so excited to hear that Nick was going to be attending Pittsburgh University in the fall instead of Boston. He wanted to be closer to his sibling, and we were glad to have him, he was going to be saving our parents a lot of money because he was going to be living in one of Mike’s spare rooms, instead of getting a dorm. Dad was a little disappointed that he wasn’t going to go to Boston, but he was happy at why he chose Pittsburgh, liking the fact that his three children were going to be sticking close together.

After a week, I left to go to Montreal to spend some time with Kris. We were there for about two weeks before we headed to the Caribbean to relax and have some fun. Most of the time it was spent in the bedroom, but no one was complaining. I was a little concerned about wearing a bikini, afraid to show the scar on my side, it was healed and a pinkish color soon would turn to white against my tanned skin. Even when I was at Jordan’s house party, the guys were coming up to me and saying that it was cool and that I should tell people I got attacked by a shark or something.

While we were in Thunder Bay, I ran into Sharp and his wife, Abby and their daughter, Madelyn. I was happy to meet them, Abby was pretty awesome and Madelyn was so cute. Of course after I ran into them, I get texts from Kane and Toews whining about how I went to visit Sharp and not them.

The Boston Bruins ended up winning the cup, beating the Vancouver Canucks. I was happy for them, but still pretty mad that we didn’t make it further into the playoffs. When July came, Kris and I parted so that Mike and I could head to LA to meet up with our trainer Eddie, he was going to make sure that our butts were ready for the upcoming season, and let me tell you, there were many sore nights and ice baths.

“All right, so our schedule,” Coach said and pulled out a sheet, “We’ll be heading to West Point tomorrow to begin training. Preseason starts on the twenty first; we’ll be home against the Red Wings.”

I saw the door open and smiled brightly when Sidney walked into the locker room, “Hey Coach.”

“Sid, glad to have you back,” he said and Sidney shook his hand, “All clear?”

“All clear,” Sidney said and I squealed and ran over towards him and jumped him.

“I’m so happy you’re all right!” I smiled and hugged him.

“Mags, I’m trying to get better,” Sidney said and the guys laughed.

“Let him breathe, Mags!” Kris said and looked at Sidney and gave him another hug.

“Good to have you back, Cap!” I said and slapped him hard on the back.

“Good to feel your hard slaps, Mags,” Sidney groaned as he flinched as my slap stung his back, “Missed you too.”

Coach went on talking about what he wanted to see this season and how training was going to go, I was really excited to be going to West Point, I was never there, but I heard that the Army College looked like a castle.

“So get some rest, we leave tomorrow and strength and conditioning starts the day after, be prepared,” Coach said and we all nodded our heads.

“I’m so excited!” I smiled and the guys laughed. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and packing for our five day adventure at West Point, New York.

The next morning, we all arrived at the Consol, parked our cars, got onto the bus and headed for the airport, where our plane was going to take us to New York. Another bus picked us up and drove over an hour and half to West Point, my face was pressed against the glass and I stared at awe at the beautiful castle like campus.

“Is there a dragon? Please tell me there’s a dragon,” I smiled towards Mike and he scoffed and shook his head.

“You’re a dork,” he said and I rolled my eyes.

We were going to be staying in one of the newer dorm buildings, partnered up like usual, Mike and I stuck together. We all grabbed our bags, there was a person there giving us information about the campus and then gave us the key to our dorm. I smiled brightly and headed for the building, Mike and I never really had the college life experience, always in class, but mostly on the ice. I had a dorm, but was never really in it.

Mike and I walked into our dorm and frowned at the concrete walls and two twin beds in the center of the room, “Hmm, I thought it would be more- Well more.”

“We’re at a military college, what did you expect? For it to be pimped out?” he asked and I scoffed and waved him off, but to be honest, I kind of was.

I sighed and walked over to the unclaimed bed, “Well, for starters, we got spoiled with hotels, this isn’t a queen bed.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Mike muttered, “If you wake up and find me on the floor, ya know why.”

“I might be on the floor with ya,” I said and he smirked, Mike and I liked big beds because we rolled around a lot, not able to stay in one spot for very long, “What time’s training?”

“Coach just said the alarm will sound,” he said and I nodded my head.

There was a knock on the door and Mike opened it to reveal Sidney, “So, do you guys find your room as depressing as we do?”

“Thank you!” I said and Sidney smirked and walked into the room, “What can I do for ya, Cap?”

“Well, I never got to see the apparently really cool scar,” he said and I scoffed.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I hear it’s like really cool,” he said trying to sound cool but he didn’t and I laughed.

“Aw sweetie, you were a nerd in high school, weren’t you?” I asked and Sidney rolled his eyes and smirked, “If you’re trying to get me to take my shirt off, all ya have to do is ask.”

“Mags!” Sidney said and I laughed when he face was bright red.

“You’re too easy Crosby!” I said and he playfully shoved me. I sighed and lifted my shirt and he saw the scar on my side.

“Does it hurt?” he asked and I shook my head.

“It burns every now and then, when I’m thinking about it, but no it doesn’t hurt,” I said and then felt Sidney’s fingers brush along the nine inch scar.

“And you and Nealer are all good?” Sidney asked and I looked at him, “I don’t have to worry about you two killing each other?”

“We’re fine Sid, not perfect, but we’re fine,” I said and Sidney nodded his head.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad that you’re all right, sorry I wasn’t there to help,” he said and I gave him a small smile and hugged him.

“You had your own issues to deal with, Sid, my cut was nothing compared to your head or Geno’s knee,” I said and Sidney gave me a sad look.

“You’re part of this team too, Mags, you matter whether you’re injured or not,” he said and then stood up, “We’re gunna be heading out for food soon.”

“Yeah, we’ll be there,” I said and Sidney nodded his head and headed for the door. The door closed and I looked towards Mike to see him unpacking, I started to unpack too and when we were finished, we heard the guys in the hall yelling for food. Mike and I looked at each other and smirked, “Guess that means we’re leaving.”

Mike and I left our room and headed out of the building and towards the bus, where it decided to take us to some burger place that was close to the campus. We were there for a while and ended up leaving full and happy memories of meeting some fans here, lots of pictures, lots of autographs and lots of laughs.

When we got back to the dorm it was dark, almost nine. Sidney recommended that everyone went to sleep because if they were on the team at the beginning of last season, they knew that it was a bitch to wake up in the morning.

Kris and I said goodnight and I went to my bed, already hearing Mike lightly snoring. I sighed and then laid on my back and stared up at the ceiling, I yawned and looked at the clocked to see that it was just after nine. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

It felt like I had my eyes closed for only a few minutes before I was woken up by a loud alarm going off. Mike and I fell out of our beds nearly having a heart attack. I looked out the window and saw that it was still dark out.

“What the hell?!” I growled and looked at the clock to see that it was five in the morning, “NO!!!”

“Fuckin’ kidding me! I want more sleep!”