‹ Prequel: Chances Taken
Sequel: The Three C's

Chances Risked

Chapter Twenty Five

“Baby, did you get any sleep?” Mom asked as she walked into my kitchen to see me sitting at the counting sipping some coffee.

“Not really,” I said and she walked over towards me, cupped my face and rubbed my cheek.

“You have to get some sleep, Maggie,” she said and I looked down.

“When are they moving him?” I asked and Mom sighed.

“We talked to the funeral director yesterday,” she said and I looked at her, “We’re going to fly him down tomorrow, we leave the day after.”

“When’s the funeral?” I asked, looking back down towards Stan that was lying on the ground in front of me, depressed just as much as I was.

“The ninth,” she said and I nodded my head, “Right in-between the break before the playoffs start.”

“Well, apparently Coach won’t let me back on the ice until I pull myself together,” I said and gripped my cup.

“Oh Maggie, I don’t think that he meant it like that,” she said and I looked at her sadly.

“I don’t know if I want to anyways,” I said and she looked at me surprised.

“You don’t want to play hockey?” she asked and I sighed, “Margaret Marie Marshall! Why would you say that?”

I snapped her a glare, “Don’t give me that mom,” I growled and then put my cup on the counter, slid off and walked towards the doorway.

“Maggie, come on!”

“Stop! What’s the point? It’ll feel all wrong,” I said and looked back towards her to see she looked heartbroken.

“Maggie, you’ve given you so much so that you could play hockey- You’ve accomplished so much-“

“But Mike-“

“Mike is gone, Maggie!” Mom yelled and I saw the tears start to form in her eyes, “He’s not coming back!”

“You don’t need to tell me that, Mom,” I growled, “I was there.”

“Maggie, I know you’re hurting, I know- You lost your brother, your twin, your best friend,” she said and I gripped the wall, “But I lost my son,” I looked at her sadly and sighed, nodding my head, “I know you don’t want to give up hockey, I know you’re just saying it because you’re hurting.”

“I’m going to check up on Emma,” I said, not really wanting to hear what was true. I didn’t want to give up hockey, but I didn’t know how I was going to play the sport that my brother and I shared a love of. I walked up the stairs and towards the room that Emma had herself locker in. Her parents were staying in the other guest bedroom while my parents were staying in my room and I was sleeping on the couch in the basement, “Emma?” I called and knocked on the door, “Can I come in?” I jiggled the door handle and found it to be locked, “Emma?” the door opened and I saw Nick standing there looking tired, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said and then opened the door and moved out of the way so that I could come in. I saw Emma asleep on the bed and looked towards Nick and saw his tired eyes.

“You sleep?”

“A little,” he said and I sighed, “You?”

“Not a wink,” I said and he pulled me in for a hug.

“Mom says we head to Texas in two days,” he said and I nodded my head.

“How is she?” I asked as I walked over towards the bed and sat down on the side, placing my hand on her side and looking at her.

“Not well,” he said and I looked at him, “She was getting herself so upset yesterday that she was getting sick.”

“We’ll have to take her to the hospital when we get to Texas,” I said and he nodded his head, “Has she seen her parents yet?”

“Barely, she doesn’t even want to leave the room,” he said and I sighed and nodded my head.

-Sidney-
We were in our locker room getting ready for our game tonight against the Bruins when Coach came in with a piece of paper and said that it was announced that Mike’s funeral was going to be held in Texas on April ninth. I knew that a lot of players were going to be going to this, a lot of people like Maggie and wanted to support her, not to mention that Mike, even though he could be pretty scary at times, he was a pretty cool guy and a lot of people liked him too. Coach told us that an email was sent to every Coach and they were supposed to pass on the news to each team.

We were having a little presentation tonight, Maggie wasn’t going to be playing tonight, but she was going to be up in the suite with her brother and father. We had new helmets that on the side had Mike’s number, our way of showing that we weren’t going to forget him.

During warm up, things felt weird, not only was it weird not having Mike on the ice with us, but it was weird not having Maggie’s happy energetic personality. I looked up towards the jumbotron and saw that they were showing her on the screen, she was sitting on the balcony in-between her brother and father.

I heard the door open and looked up to see Maggie walking in, she gave us a small smile and then came over and walked over towards me and sat down in-between Geno and I. I looked at her and she just sighed and rubbed her hands nervously.

“Mario wants me to be on the ice, apparently the Bruins are giving us something,” she said and I looked at her and nodded my head.

“It’ll be all right, we’ll all be right there with you,” I said and she sighed and nodded her head.

She sat with us quietly as we waited for it to be time to go onto the ice. When it was time, we headed onto the ice, Maggie stayed back until she was called onto the ice. The whole Boston Bruins team was on the ice, standing on the blue line, we came out and our team stood on the blue line. The announcer said that they were going to play a short video in memory of Mike, there was a picture of him on the ice and I looked sadly at the picture of our fallen friend and teammate. I looked up towards the jumbotron and saw that they were showing many of Mike’s moments with the Penguins, goals, fights, interviews, funny moments.

Maggie came out on the ice; she was in her jersey, jeans and had her skates on. She came up in-between Marc and I and just looked forward towards the Bruins. I took my glove off and looked towards Maggie, I saw her biting her lip, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

-Maggie-
At the end of the video I looked up and saw Tuukka and Chara coming over with a black and gold wreath with the Penguins logo and Mike’s number on it. I took a deep breath and watched as they brought it over. Chara didn’t say anything; he handed the wreath to Sidney and then pulled me in for a hug. I pulled back and he patted my shoulder and then I saw Tuukka pull me in for a hug.

“I’m sorry, Maggie,” he said and I gave him a small smile and nodded my head.

“Thank you,” I said and Tuukka gave me a squeeze again. More Bruins came over and said that they were sorry and gave me a hug. Lucic was last when he came up to me and pulled me in for a hug, say that he was sorry and that he would make Kokorin pay tomorrow when the Bruins played the Flyers, since Kokorin was still playing since the league didn’t know what to do, “Don’t get yourself in trouble, Looch.”

He just smirked, “You know I will.”

“I know,” I said and he patted my shoulder and then went back to join his head.

After the Bruins went back towards their bench, I felt my teammates hug me, I managed to gulp back tears and took the wreath and headed towards the door, stepping off of the glass and heading back towards the locker room. I walked over towards my brother’s stall and placed the wreath down, his gear stood there, ready for him to get ready for the game as if he was really here.

“Maggie,” I turned and saw Mario, “You all right?”

“I don’t know,” I said and he nodded his head and walked over towards me.

“I only asked you to do that because I heard you were friends with some of them,” he said and I nodded my head.

“I was all right,” I said and he nodded his head and then walked over towards me and pulled me into his side.

“I can’t speak as if I lost a teammate on the ice, so I don’t- I can’t begin to understand how that feels, and knowing that it was your brother, your twin, I’m sure you’re hurting more than the other,” he sighed, “But I do understand the loss of a love one, and I can tell you that is does get easier, you’ll never forget them, it’s hard, but it does get easier.”

“I don’t know how long it’ll take to get over this,” I said, looking down.

“Maggie, you’ll never get over this, this isn’t something that you get over,” he said and I looked at him, “You have to get through it, never forget your brother, who he was, what he did, never forget how much you loved him.”