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

Chances Risked

Chapter Forty One

-Maggie-
“This summer is going by too fast,” I whined as I stood at the airport with Pat, he was dropping me off before heading back to Buffalo for the start of his training.

“I’ll see you in a month, babe,” Pat said and I nodded my head and pressed my lips against his, wrapping my arms around his neck and feeling his around my waist.

I giggled when he picked me up off of the ground and I wrapped my legs around his waist, “Love you.”

“Love you too,” he said and kissed my forehead and put me back on the ground.

“Take care of my babies!” I said, Pat was going to look after Jazz, Bella and Stanley while I was in Denver for training with Dana.

“Have fun with your cousin,” he said and I smirked.

“She’s probably gunna have more fun than me,” I said and he chuckled, “Call you when I land in Vancouver.”

“All right,” he said and pulled me in for a hug and a quick kiss, “Good luck with your training.”

Over two weeks had passed since Jordan and Heather’s wedding. Pat and I had gone back to Buffalo, traveled around the city, went to New York city for two days, traveled up to Winnipeg to visit Jon and saw some other Hawks when we went to Thunder Bay for Sharp’s cookout.

It was two days after Marc and Vero’s wedding and theirs was very beautiful and formal. I wore a tight gold strapless dress with nude pumps for this wedding. During the actual wedding part, I had a black lace shall around my shoulders, and then when we got to the reception, I took it off.

I traveled for almost nine hours, from Pittsburgh; I took a three hours flight to Dallas, Texas, where after waiting over an hour, I got my connecting flight that was going to take me to Vancouver, in about four and a half hours. When I arrived in Vancouver, it was close to one in the afternoon, I left Pittsburgh at about seven in the morning, but I needed to remember about the time change.

“Maggie!” I heard and turned my head and smiled when I saw my cousin jumping up and down next to her father, my Uncle.

“Hi!” I smiled brightly and held out my arms, watching her running over towards me and I laughed when she practically tackled me to the ground in the middle of the airport.

“All right Dana, get off her,” Uncle Jim chuckled as he walked over and held out his hand to help me up.

“Thanks,” I smiled and then hugged him, “It’s good to see you.”

“Missed ya, kid,” he said and I smiled and felt her wrap his arm around my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around Dana’s. We went to the baggage claim, but they were both surprised when I told them all I had was my carry on, “Where’s your gear? Other clothes?”

“Oh, I shipped them to Denver a few days ago, it was cheaper,” I said and Dana nodded her head, “Sid’s gunna pick them up for me.”

“Sid? Crosby?” Dana asked and I smiled and nodded my head, “Sidney’s in Denver?”

“Yup, we’ll be training with him, Matt Duchene, Jeff Carter and Jamie Benn,” I smiled as we headed out of the airport and towards Uncle Jim’s SUV, “And you’ll be training with Hayley Wickenheiser, I managed to snag a spot for ya- Though you’re not going to be always with me.”

“So will I train with you at all?” Dana asked sadly.

“Oh yeah, you’ll be with the boys and I about three times a week, the other three, you’ll be in the gym with Hayley- See, I already know what I need to work on and I can do the steps properly with the boys,” I said and Dana nodded her head, “Andy’s gunna show you how to properly workout, eat, and do what you need to do to play hockey.”

“Eat?” she asked and I giggled.

“Yeah, we’re on strict diets starting now,” I said and sighed, “From the time the season ends to now, I splurge, only time I can have junk food.”

“This is gunna suck,” she giggled, “No ice cream.”

“I know, trust me! I love oreos,” I said and Uncle Jim laughed.

“You sure you wanna do this, D? You do love ice cream,” he said and she smiled.

“I’m ready for this,” she said and I smiled.

“Good, we leave for Denver in two days, our training is two months after that, we’ll be there for a month,” I said and she nodded her head.

“So who’s this Hayley girl?” she asked and I smiled from the front seat and turned around.

“She’s a forward for the Canadian Woman’s hockey team,” I said and Dana smiled and nodded her head, “You’ll like her, I only see her during the summer, but she’s nice.”

“Is she your age?” she asked and I shook my head.

“No, she’s about thirty three or something, she’s older than me, but she’s really good,” I said and Dana nodded her head.

-Sidney-
“Where are you going?” Carter asked as I walked passed the kitchen, where he was making a sandwich.

“To the airport to pick up Maggie and Dana,” I said and he nodded his head.

“Who’s Dana?” he asked confused.

“Maggie’s cousin, she’s gunna be training with us,” I said and he nodded his head and I was out the door.

I’ve been in Denver for a few days; Maggie’s gear showed up yesterday and I picked it up and placed it in her bedroom. We figured that since Carter, Maggie and I were all going to be training with Andy and since we would all be here for the same amount of time, we would rent a four bedroom vacation house together. It was a nice huge house, enough room for all of us to do what we wanted to do; although, we knew that we weren’t going to be here a lot because we would be training. Since Duchene already lived in Denver, we understood why he didn’t want to get in on renting a house.

I drove to the airport and waited for Maggie and Dana in the baggage claim, staying in the corner and having the bill of my hat low. My phone went off; Maggie was telling me that she was here and that they were on their way.

“Sid!” I heard and smiled when I saw Dana coming at me. I chuckled when she hugged me and was a little surprised when she almost knocked me over from her excitement.

“Count yourself lucky, Crosby, she did knock me over when I landed in Vancouver,” Maggie said and I chuckled.

“I’m stronger than you,” I said and Maggie rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,” she said and I chuckled and gave her a small hug while Dana went off to wait for her bags, “How does the house look?”

“It’s nice, quiet, Carter’s there now,” I said and she nodded her head.

When Dana grabbed all of her bags, I walked over and grabbed the bag that I knew had her gear in it and then the long box that had her sticks. Maggie stole the sticks from me and left me to carry the heavy bag while Dana rolled her suitcase.

“Are you hungry?” I asked and they nodded their heads and laughed a little, I chuckled and nodded my head, we were going to stop for some food.

-Maggie-
“This is where we’re staying for a month?” Dana asked and I giggled and nodded my head, “This place is huge!”

“It’s pretty cool,” I laughed and Dana and I headed towards our bedrooms.

All four bedrooms were upstairs, two on one side of the house, two on the other. Sidney and Carter were on one side, sharing a bathroom, while Dana and I would share the other. Our rooms were directly across from each other and there was a door into the bathroom in our bedrooms. I smiled at the large bedroom, seeing the queen sized bed, dresser, TV, desk, closet, windowsill, balcony with a nice view of the mountains. I saw that my gear bag, sticks and suitcase with my clothes were already here and I would have to thank Sidney later.

I took a deep breath and collapsed onto the bed and turned towards the clock to see that it was almost two thirty. We had landed right before one, our flight leaving Vancouver right before six in the morning. From Vancouver, we flew three hours to Phoenix, was there for about forty-five minutes, before flying almost two hours to Denver.

I sent Pat a text saying that Dana and I were in Denver and I was about to take a nap because I was tired. My whole day in Vancouver yesterday was spent seeing family members that I hadn’t seen since Mike’s funeral.

There was a knock at the door and I opened it to see Jeff Carter, “It was a fifty fifty shot on which room was yours,” he said and I giggled and he pulled me in for a hug, “How are you Mags?”

“I’m fine,” I smiled and he walked into my room, sat on the desk while I sat on my bed and we caught up, not seeing each other since the Awards and we didn’t really get a chance to talk, “Congrats on winning the cup, ya lucky bastard.”