Chances Risked

I walked over towards James and Maggie, grabbed her arms and bent down, looking at her, she was in a daze, James was calling her name, Beau was calling her name, Kris, TK and Marc were around her trying to pull her out, nothing.

I took a deep breath and shook her a little, “Maggie,” she didn’t move, I shook her again, “Maggie!” she looked at me, I just looked at her, “Breathe.”

“He’s here,” she mumbled and I nodded my head, “He’s here, Sid.”

“I know, I know, look- Coach is handling it,” I said and she just looked at me, “You need to pull it together, Maggie.”

“He’s here, Sid- Who is he?!” she asked and I shook my head.

“I don’t know, Maggie- I don’t- We’re figuring it out,” I said and she just looked at me, “You need to pull it together, Maggie- We’ve got a game tonight.”

“Sid-“ James said and I looked at him and shot him a look.

I looked back at Maggie and she looked like she was going to cry. I sighed and stood up, pulling her with me, she gasped and looked at me wide eyed, I knew I was being a little harsh, but the only way to get her to calm down, is for her to think about something else, “Maggie, you need to pull yourself together, we’ve got a game against the Leafs tonight-“

“Sidney-“

“I promise you Mags, you will be all right, he can’t get you at the rink- I promise you that once you’re on the ice and just think about the game,” she just looked at me, “You’ll feel better, Mags- I promise you.”

Maggie looked down, he hands were on my arms, I could feel her shaking in my hands, I looked at my teammates, they were just shaking their heads, ‘…Is putting her in the game a good idea?...’ I thought, knowing that that’s what my teammates were thinking.

-Maggie-
‘…You can do this- Just breathe- Sidney’s right, just focus on the game and everything will be all right…’ I thought and then looked at my teammates around the locker room.

I got dressed in my gear and sat on the bench, there was a knock on the door and a head popped in, I was surprised and happy to see a familiar face, “Hey girl!” she smiled brightly and hopped into the room.

“Amber,” I smiled and stood up, hugging my cousin, “I didn’t know that you were here,” I said and she smiled and looked over towards Sidney.

“Sid invited me,” she said and I looked at my Captain and smiled.

“Thank you,” I said and he nodded his head, I looked towards Amber again, “How are you?”

“Ready to watch you kick ass,” she said and I giggled.

“I like her, bring her around more often,” Beau said as he came up behind me and Amber giggled towards him.

“Ok, so I know everyone in the room, except you,” Amber said and Beau gave that famous California smile.

“Beau Bennett-“

“Oooooooooh, you’re the rookie!” Amber said happily and I blushed.

“Oh? Depends- Good or bad?” he asked and I giggled.

“Yup, you’re definitely the one,” Amber said and I smirked and shook my head, “Apparently you’re very good at making my cousin laugh.”

“Yeah, then I’m definitely the one,” he smiled brightly and I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Where are you sitting?” I asked and she pulled out her ticket and looked at it. She handed it to me and I looked at it and saw that she was in section 101 row C seat 12, “Um, not entirely sure,” I giggled and she nodded my head, “Apparently you’re three rows up from the glass.”

“Yeah, I’m excited about that,” she said and I nodded my head, “We doin’ something after the game?”

“Sure,” I smiled and she nodded her head, “You’re place?”

“Pizza and wine?”

“It’s a date,” I said and she giggled and we high fived.

“Am I invited to this date?” Beau asked and I pushed him back a little.

“You? What about us?” James asked and I giggled.

“Girls only!” Amber said and I smiled and nodded my head, “Ok, I better get to my seat,” she said and I nodded my head and Coach walked into the room to announce that it was time for warm ups.

“See you later,” I said and she nodded her head and walked out of the locker room. I took a deep breath and felt a hand on my shoulder and saw that it was Sidney, “Thank you.”

He nodded his head, “Just take a deep breath and focus on the game,” Sidney said and I nodded my head and looked over towards James, who was just shaking his head.

We headed onto the ice and James skated over towards me, “You all right?” he asked and I just looked towards the ice and gave a slight nod of the head, “No you’re not,” he said and I sighed, “You’re thinking about him- You’re wondering if he’s here right now, aren’t ya?”

“I’m just freaked out, James,” I said and looked up at him.

“I don’t agree with Sid,” he said and I just looked at him, leaning against the glass, “You shouldn’t be playing, you should be fuckin’ hiding until we figure this shit out.”

“I’m not goin’ to hide, James,” I said and sighed, “But I don’t want to be alone either.”

“You fuckin’ won’t be!” he growled and I looked at him, “Even if one of us stay with you forever- You’re not going to be alone,” James said and I took a deep breath and nodded my head.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me- Any of us, Mags,” he said and I sighed, “We love you- You know we’ll do anything for you.”

“Than- I know,” I said and smiled towards James, “Did you ever think that we would ever be this close?” I asked and he looked at me confused, “Come on Nealer, you and I couldn’t stand each other- Especially when you were a Star,” I said and he chuckled and nodded his head, “Now we’re best buddies.”

“BFF’s forever,” he said and I giggled and nodded my head and he playfully pushed me.

-Sidney-
I pulled my teammate in for a hug, excited as hell to see that she had scored the winning goal of the night, even if it was in the final ten seconds and it was an empty net, we’ll take it, Maggie broke the tie and saved us from going into overtime.

“Nicely done, Maggie- Nicely done!” I said and Maggie smiled and nodded her head and I tapped my helmet against hers.

“Maggie score!” Geno smiled and Maggie laughed and I nodded my head, “Maggie win game!”

“I did all right,” she said and I smiled and then pushed back and we all headed towards the bench to pound fists with our teammates.

We finished the game with the final score of five to four; we all headed off of the ice, celebrating the fact that we had just won our seventh game in a row. Everyone headed into the locker room, I did a few interviews, looking over and seeing that some reporters were in front of Maggie, asking her some questions.

After we finished doing the interviews, showering and changing, we headed back to the bus that was going to take us back to the hotel. I don’t know if we did this on purpose, or it just happy, but we walked off the bus and crowded around Maggie, being sure to walk with her and make sure to keep a look out of anything suspicious.

The police were called after the situation and interviewed all of us and now the Toronto police were now going to have to get involved with the Pittsburgh police. They were talking to us so long that we almost were late to showing up when we were scheduled to at the rink.

We walked onto our floor and Maggie looked at every single door, letting out a breath when she saw that everything looked normal. I knew her cousin was going to come to the hotel to pick up Maggie, she just needed to go somewhere quickly and then she would be right over to pick Maggie up. The guys and I were starving and decided to get some food, though we were telling Maggie that we would wait for Amber, but she was telling all of us to go and she would just stay in the room and wait for Amber.

“Sid, it’s fine, I’m just going to stay in the room- Call Pat, I’ll be fine,” Maggie said and I sighed and looked around some of the guys were around us giving me a worried look.

“Mags, it’s fine, we’ll just wait for Am-“

“Sidney Crosby,” she said and I sighed.

‘…Here we go…’

“I’m going to be in my room, I’ll chain it and everything, it’ll be fine,” she said and I sighed, “Nothing is going to happen.”

“Maggie, you have terrible luck,” James said and she looked at him and I sighed.

Maggie’s phone went off and she looked at it, “See, “Amber’s on her way, she’ll be here soon, so just go, I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’ll be fine, guys,” she said and I sighed and nodded my head.

“All right, fine- Let’s go- Stay in your room until Amber get’s here!” I said and Maggie nodded her head and started to walk towards her room. When her door closed, I sighed.

“Are we really leaving?” Marc asked and I looked at him.

“We’ll wait outside, at least until she and Amber leave,” I said and the guys nodded their heads, “I don’t want to be far if that creep showed up.”