Chances Risked

“Maggie,” I heard as I stood in my parents’ kitchen in Texas. I turned my head and ran over, Pat stood in the doorway, “Hey, I got here as soon as I could.”

“Thanks,” I said and wrapped my arms around his chest while I felt his arms around my neck and he kissed my head.

“I just came from the hotel, there’s a lot of teams here,” he said and I looked at him surprised, a small smile on his face, “A lot of people to support your family, Mags.”

“Jon didn’t come with you?” I asked and he shook his head.

“He’ll be here later on,” Pat said and I nodded my head, “Your mom let me in.”

“I’m happy that you’re here,” I said and Pat cupped my face and gently pressed his lips onto mine. He pulled back and then kissed my forehead and hugged me again.

“I just wish I was able to get here sooner,” he said and I nodded my head.

A week had passed, regular season was over, Mike’s wake was tomorrow night and then the funeral was the next morning. I knew that my teammates were in town; they had gotten here yesterday and already came over to show that they were here.

“I have to go,” I said and Pat looked at me, “Emma has a doctor’s appointment, she’s been getting sick a lot and my mom doesn’t think its morning sickness.”

“You want me to go with you?” he asked and I shook my head.

“I’ll come to the hotel after,” I said and he looked at me and nodded his head, “I think Em would-“

“It’s all right, babe, I understand,” he said and I looked at him and nodded my head.

“Thanks,” I said and Pat kissed my head and then pressed his lips onto mine again.

-Kane-
I was back at the hotel, some of the guys were in our room watching some movie, well, I don’t think we were really paying attention to it. It was almost five hours since I saw Maggie, she was taking Emma to a doctor’s appointment, but I was surprised that I hadn’t heard from her yet.

“Pat,” I looked towards Jon, “Maggie says she’s hear, where’s your phone?”

“Charging right here,” I said and looked towards the nightstand to see that it wasn’t there, “Where’d it go?” I asked and leaned over the bed and sighed when I saw the phone on the ground. I picked it up and saw that Maggie had texted and called me a few time, “Shit.”

“She’s waiting in the lobby,” he said and I jumped out of the bed and headed for the door. I knew that a few teams were staying in the same hotel that we were staying in, hell, some of the Maple Leafs were on our floor. But I was surprised to see some Penguins, I was even more surprised to see Letang talking to Maggie in the lobby, ‘…What the fuck is he doing?...’

I stopped and looked at them, Maggie was leaning against the pillar, Letang was standing in front of her talking to her. I walked over and Maggie saw me first, “Pat,” she said and I gave her a small smile.

“You ready?” I asked and she nodded her head, I looked at Letang, he was looking at me, a look of clear annoyance on his face.

“I’ll see you later, Kris,” Maggie said and then grabbed my hand and started to pull me along. When we got into the elevators, the door closed and she let out a deep breath and I looked at her, “Thanks.”

“For what?” I asked and she looked at me and sighed.

“I know he’s trying to help me with Mikey, but, I don’t want him to think that something can happen,” she said and I nodded my head and laced my fingers with hers and pulled her into my side.

“It’ll be all right,” I said and then kissed her head.

-Maggie-
I think if I heard ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ one more time, I was going to scream. I understood and appreciated why they were all here, and it seemed like someone was here from every team, or the whole team, every team except the Flyers. A wake is supposed to be only two hours long, this wake ended up lasting almost five hours because so many players, friends, family, league members had shown up. The street was blocked off because there were so many people, so many cars, more buses though. The police were there to help with security, some media was there trying to catch whatever they could.

As soon as everyone except my parents, little brother, Emma and Pat left, I breathed a sigh of relief. Pat was sitting in one of the chairs waiting for me; he and the other hawks had shown with my teammates before the doors even opened. Almost five hours later he was still there, sitting there just watching as each person went by.

I walked over towards Mike, he had flowers on the lover half, people had brought personal things or flowers. Pictures were in his coffin, I looked at him, happy to see him in his Penguins jersey, he was wearing his silver medal from the 2010 Olympics, he looked like himself, he always hated wearing suits. The only thing that he wasn’t wearing that he always wore was his golden cross necklace that Mom had given him when he got into the AHL, like most players having necklaces, that was his good luck charm, the reason he wasn’t wearing it, was because I was, I wanted something to remember him.

“Maggie,” I heard and turned my head to see Pat coming up behind me, his arm slipping around my waist.

“I miss him,” I said and then looked towards Pat, “I miss him so much,” I said and Pat wrapped his arms around me and I started to cry again. I heard my name again and turned my head to see Dana, she had flown in from Vancouver with some of my other family members, “Dana.”

I knew I had seen her before when she was coming through the line, but I didn’t get to hug her as long as I wanted to. She had her arms around my waist and I wrapped my arms around her neck and laid my head on top of hers, since I was taller than her.

“I’m here for you Maggie,” Dana said and I gave her a small smile and nodded my head.

“Thanks, Dana,” I said and she looked up at me sadly.

“There were a lot of supporters here,” she said and I nodded my head, “I saw a lot of teams, Milan came up to me.”

“Did he?” I asked and saw that she was trying to hold on her excitement.

“I thanked him,” she said and I nodded my head.

“I did too- Pretty sure my whole team did,” I said and she giggled a little.

When the Penguins played the Bruins, we won with the final score of five to three. The next day the Bruins played against the Flyers, less than a minute into the second period when the Bruins were up by two, Kokorin and Lucic were on the ice together for the first time that game. Throughout the first period, Chara was trying to start something with Kokorin, but the refs were always right there to stop it. So when Lucic got his chance, he took it, he picked a fight with Kokorin and kicked his ass. I think I smiled brightly for the first time since Mike’s death when I saw that Lucic had KO’d Kokorin after three or four punches.

“Pat’s waiting,” Dana said and I turned my head to see that Pat was sitting on the chairs talking to Nick, Pat was patting Nick’s shoulder, “I like him.”

“Yeah,” I said and nodded my head, “I do too.”

-Sidney-
We were all back at the hotel, just coming back from dinner after leaving the wake. We needed to be up early tomorrow for Mike’s funeral in the morning. As I passed the little sitting area on the floor we were on, I heard people talking. I stopped and leaned against the wall, hearing James, Kris, Geno, Kunitz and Pascal’s voices, they were talking to someone and leaned my head over to see that they were talking to Kris.

“Tanger, I know that she’s letting you in just a little- But remember, it is just a little, and it’s only because she needs comfort for her brother’s death,” Pascal said and I sighed and turned the corner, walking over towards them, they didn’t notice me.

“Look, I think I still have a shot with her, we were talking before, she was-“

“Kris, you need to stop,” James said and I came up behind them, “Sid?”

“I overheard,” I said and everyone looked at me, “What’s going on?”

“Kris wants to try and get back with Maggie,” Pascal sighed and I looked at him and shook my head.

“We talked about this, man,” I said and he shook his head.

“We were connecting again, she was letting me in,” he said and I sighed.

“She’s upset and vulnerable, her brother just died and you think it’s all right you to be taking advantage of her,” I said and he shot up and looked at me.

“I’m not taking advantage of her, Sid! I don’t plan on making any moves, I just want to talk,” he said and I sighed.

“If the only reason you came to Texas was to try and get back with her and see if you have a chance, then just go back to Pittsburgh,” I said and he looked at me, “I’m not sure if Maggie or Kane would appreciate you trying to get her back.”

“Kane is the one taking advantage of Maggie! The fucker was after her while we were still going out! He was chasing after her-“

“But did Maggie ever do anything?” I asked and he glared at me.

“For all I know, Maggie could have been cheating on me with him before I made my mistake,” he said and I glared at him and watched as my fist collided with his cheek.