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

Chances Risked

Chapter Twenty Eight

-Maggie-
“Fuck,” I growled and then pulled another puck over and shot it, too wide, “Fuck,” I growled again and then pulled another puck over and then shot it, cursing again when it hit the post. I threw back my head and wanted to scream out of frustration. I sighed and then tried to shoot another puck, shooting it too high. I took my hand off of the stick and took off my glove, looking down at my shaking hand and cursed, it was starting again.

‘…That’s it, follow me…’ I thought as I saw Kokorin skating towards me, it was my job to keep him distracted while James, Geno, Matt and Mike could try and get a goal. Something went wrong though; Kokorin seemed to catch onto our plan.

Mike had the puck and I watched as Kokorin headed right for my brother, I wanted to scream his name to warn him, but my voice wasn’t working. It happened so fast, Kokorin shoved Mike into the boards and then skated him down until his head hit the beginning of the glass.
He collapsed to the ground, “MIKEY!!!”


Over and over and over I would see that, I would see it until someone was able to pull me out, or until my own memories gave up on me, gave me mercy and let me get back to reality. I don’t know how many times I saw it, but I opened my eyes and found that I was on the ice, on my hands and knees breathing heavily, tears coming down my cheeks.

I heard blades hit the ice and sighed, someone was here. I saw skates appear in front of me, “Go away, Sid, I’m not in the mood.”

“You honestly think I’m going to let you just sit there looking pathetic,” I heard and my eyes widened and I snapped my head up.

“Mikey,” I breathed and saw Mike looking down at me giving me a hard look, “I thought-“

“You’re fuckin’ ridicules, Maggie,” he said and I glared at him, “Get your ass up, get your head in the game and show the fuckin’ NHL, the god damn world what the Marshalls’ are made of!”

“You’ve got a lot of nerve telling that to me,” I growled and Mike shook his head, “You left me!”

“You think that was my choice?!” he yelled and I was taken back, “You think I wanted to leave you? To fuckin’ die?! Mags, I’m never going to be able to hug you, never going to be able to marry the love of my life, to hold my kid-“

I had tears forming in my eyes at I looked at him, “I miss you so much, Mikey.”

“I miss you too, Mags, but you need to get back out there,” he said and I shook my head.

“I can’t,” I said and then looked up and shook my head, “I can’t.”

“Why not?” he asked and I looked back at him, “Are you scared?”

“Mikey-“

“Are you?!” he asked and I sighed.

“I’m terrified.”

“Good,” he said and I looked at him confused.

“How is that good, Mikey?!” I asked and he sighed.

“Because that means that you’re close to creating a new name for yourself,” he said and then smiled at me, “When they looked at you or me, they saw the other half of the Mighty Twins,” he said and placed his hand on my shoulder, I looked at it, I saw it there, but I couldn’t feel it, “Now it’s time for Maggie Marshall to be known as Maggie Marshall, fuckin’ hotheads badass bitch that plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins.”

“I don’t know if I can-“

“You can!” he said and I winced, “You can do it Maggie, I know you can!”

“I don’t know how to play without you, Mikey! We’ve never been apart!” I said and he sighed and cried.

“Maggie,” he breathed and I looked at him, “I’m never going to be apart from you,” he said and I choked out a sob and covered my face, “Do yourself a favor, Mags,” he said and I didn’t look up, “Go back, don’t give up on yourself, you can do this.”

“I’ll try,” I said and looked up towards him, “I’ll try,” I said again and he nodded his head, “I’ll do it for you, Mikey.”

“Do it for yourself,” he said and then bent down in front of me, “You do that for yourself,” he sighed, “And do me a favor.”

“Anything!” I said and he looked at me intently.

“Look after Em, look after my kid,” he said and I choked out another sob and nodded my head, “I love you, Maggie.”

“I love you too, Mikey,” I said and reached out to hug him, but it felt like I was hugging air.

-Sidney-
It’s been a week since the funeral, everyone was back to practicing, some games started today for teams, others started tomorrow. Our first game in the 2012 playoffs was going to be against the Flyers, and they started tomorrow night.

A few of us walked into the arena for optional practice, while some guys were going to be lifting or working out, others were going to be on the ice. I walked towards the locker room and was about to walk in when I heard a puck hit the post. Kunitz was behind me and looked at me, we both heard it. I walked into the locker room and looked inside to see who could be here, I only saw Marc getting ready to put his gear on.

“You the only one here?” I asked and he looked around and nodded his head, “Who’s on the ice?”

“I don’t know, I got here a few minutes ago,” he said and I looked back at Kunitz and walked back into the hallway, seeing Marc opening the door.

“I’m gunna go see,” Kunitz said and I nodded my head and watched as he walked over towards the ice.

“Hey guys,” I heard and turned to see Jordan walking towards us.

“Hey-“

“SID!” I heard Kunitz yell and I looked back towards him to see him heading out onto the ice. Marc, Jordan and I ran over and looked to see that Maggie was on the ice, she was lying face down on the ground.

I cursed and got onto the ice, with sneakers it was a little harder, I ended up just sliding myself over and then getting onto my knees next to Maggie, “Mags!” I called and started to skate her a little, “Mags!”

“Is she having another flashback?” Jordan asked as he knelt down behind me.

“I don’t know,” I said and then turned her over and had her leaning against me, “Please don’t be drunk,” I said because since she got home, I’ve caught her bombed a few times.

“She’s shaking,” Marc said as he looked at Kunitz holding her arm up, “I don’t think it’s ‘cause she’s cold.”

“Mikey,” Maggie breathed and I looked down at her.

“We need to get her off the ice,” Jordan said and I nodded my head and then threw her arm around my neck and then started to pick her up, the guys there to help me so that I didn’t fall.

We got off the ice and headed for the locker room, I saw Pascal and Cooke coming down the hallway, when they saw us, saw me holding Maggie, they ran over.

“What happened?” Pascal asked and I shook my head and walked into Doc’s office and laid her on the table. She was only in jeans and a t-shirt, her cheek was red from when she was lying on the ice, “She having another flash back?”

“I don’t know, maybe,” I said and then sighed and leaned my hands against the table and looked at her; her shirt was wet from lying on the cold ice. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.

“What is she doing here?” Cooke asked and I shook my head, “Thought Mario wanted her to see- What’s his name?”

“Andy,” I said and Cooke nodded his head, “She’s supposed to.”

Andy was our team psychiatrist, he was there to help us through our stressful careers, talk us through if we were going through multiple games with no points, suddenly was off our game, depressed about an injury, but for Maggie, he was going to help her get through her brother’s death. I knew that some of the guys were talking to him about it; they wouldn’t admit it, hell I was talking to him about it.

“I don’t smell booze on her,” Jordan said and I nodded my head, “Congrats Mags, first time you’re sober in five days.”

“Staalsy,” I said and he sighed and nodded his head.

“Sorry,” he said and I looked down at Maggie, her eyes were closed, but I could see them moving behind the lids.

“How are we supposed to get her to wake up?” Kunitz asked and I looked at him and shook my head, I didn’t know.

“I don’t know, Kane said that she had a few when he was with her,” I said and then sighed and pulled out my phone, “I got his number, let me see how he managed to bring her back.”

I walked into the other room and sat on the bench in front of my stall, I sighed and placed the phone to my ear and listened to it ring a few times, “Hello?”

“Kane, it’s Crosby,” I said quickly and there seemed to be a pause, “Hello?”

“Yeah, sorry, what’s up? Is Maggie all right?” he asked worriedly.

“Um, we think she’s havin’ another flashback,” I said and heard the door opened and looked to see Kris walking in. he nodded his head to me to say hello and walked over towards his stall, but looked in Doc’s office and then ran in, “How did you pull her out?”

“I basically just held her and told her it was going to be all right,” he said and sighed, “It took a while but I just kept calling her and she finally came back, longest one was almost an hour.”

“Fuck, are you serious?” I asked and he sighed.

“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty, her mom was crying and her brother was freaking out,” he said and I ran my hands through my hair, “Look, I have a game tonight, I would be there-“

“Naw, it’s all right, we’ll get this,” I said and sighed, “We’ll figure something out, thanks.”

“Have her call me,” he said, “When she comes back, I mean.”

“I will,” I said and then hung up and saw Marc walking out.

“Kris got her back,” he said and I looked at him confused and then jumped up and ran towards the door and looked in to see Maggie was clinging to Kris and he was holding her and whispering something to her. I sighed and looked towards the others to see that they all had mixed looks on their faces, “Sid,” I looked towards Marc, “What are we goin’ to do?”

“We have to figure something out,” I said and then rubbed the back of my neck, “Have her fight through it, I don’t know-“

“No, I mean about Tanger,” Marc said and I looked at him, “Is it wise to let him get close to her again, he might think-“

“Come here,” I said and pulled Marc out into the other room so I could talk to him in private, “You were there when he said that Kane was after Maggie when they were together,” I said and sighed, not sure where I was going with this, “Do you think he was right?”

“Right?” Marc asked confused, “You think Maggie cheated on him?”

“I mean,” I sighed, “I don’t know, Mike did say that they talked a lot and Maggie did go out to dinner with them when we were in Chicago-“

Them, Sid,” Marc said and I looked at him, “She went out to dinner with not only Kane, but all of the hawks- And when we were at All Star, she was never alone with him, always had Toews or Keith with ‘em.”

“Is there a chance that she might have?” I asked, “I mean, when we talked, she said she didn’t start having feelings for Kane until he showed up for Christmas- Well, until New Year’s.”

“Look, I will admit that she did move into a relationship with him pretty fast, but I don’t know man. I’m not on anyone’s side for this, Tanger made a huge ass mistake and he’s paying for it, but- Look if you’re suspicious of something, just come out and ask her.”

I chuckled and looked at him, “I’m gunna get punched or slapped whether it’s true or not,” I said knowing that if I asked Maggie if she cheated on Kris first, she wasn’t going to take it well.

“I don’t know, Sid,” Marc sighed and looked towards Doc’s office, “Mags’ just doesn’t seem like the type to cheat.”

I looked at him and then sighed, “Did Tanger?”