Chances Risked

-Maggie-
“Welcome back, Maggie,” Coach said as I walked towards the locker room.

“Thanks, it’s great to be playing again,” I said and turned my head to see Pierre McGuire walking towards me, “Hi Pierre!”

“Maggie! How are you? Feeling better?”

“Definitely,” I said as I stood in front of the Penguins locker room. It was time and I was so happy, tonight was the Islanders game and I was so ready for it, it felt so long since I’ve played.

“So I hear that you have some new teammates,” he said and I smiled and nodded my head.

“Yeah, I haven’t met them yet, but I’m really excited to meet them,” I said and Pierre nodded his head, the microphone was in my face and the camera was in front of us. While I was gone, the trade deadline had happened and we had traded some rookies and draft spots for Sharks, Douglas Murray, Stars, Brendon Morrow and Flames, Jarome Iginla. And for Iginla, we thought for sure that he was going to go to the Bruins, but were surprised to hear that he was coming to Pittsburgh.

Pierre asked me a few questions and when it finally ended, I felt his hand on my shoulder, “Well listen, we appreciate the time, good to have you back in Pittsburgh, Maggie.”

“Happy to be back, Pierre,” I said and then turned around and pulled on to locker room door and found it to be locker, “Uh,” I put both hands on the door handles and pulled them a little, locker, “Well, uh,” I laughed a little and tried one more time, ‘…Nope locker- What the fuck?!...’ I thought and turned around and saw Pierre still filming.

Pierre looks back at me, “Gone for a week and they don’t even let her back in!”

I laughed and patted his back, “Well looks like I’m staying here with you, Pierre- Got anymore questions?” I laughed and he looked at me and looked back at the door.

“Yeah, let’s run some more while Maggie’s locked out,” Pierre teased and I saw a staff member come over and unlock the door and I peaked my head in to hear some of the guys laughing, “Looks like they played a prank on the number one female Penguin.

“Oh, I’m so gunna get them back for this,” I smiled brightly and Pierre laughed and I waved towards him and walked into the locker room and crossed my arms over my chest and raised my eyebrow, “Really?”

“What?” Flower laughed and I playfully glared at him.

“You know what I’m talking about!” I laughed and Flower smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“Maggie,” I heard and turned my head to see Douglas Murray standing next to me, “Nice to meet you on the same team.”

I giggled and shook his head, “Welcome to Pittsburgh.”

“Definitely different than Dallas,” Brendon Morrow said and I looked at him and smirked.

“Well, we’ve got two that can prove that to you, eh,” I said and looked towards James and Matt, who were smirking.

“Eh?!” all the Canadians laugh and I rolled my eyes.

“We’re converting her from ya’ll to eh,” Sidney said and I giggled and waved him off, walking over to my stall and starting to get my gear on.

When the time it was time to head onto the ice for warm ups, I jumped onto the ice and skated around our side of the ice, looking over and seeing the Islanders on the other side. I felt a tap on the shoulder and turned my head to see Sidney skating up next to me.

“You sure you’re all right?”

“I’m all good,” I smiled brightly, “Doc cleared me and everything.”

“Good, happy to have you back, Mags,” Sidney said and I smiled and we knuckled bumped and then started to shoot pucks towards Vokoun, who was in the net at the time.

I skated a little while, shot some pucks towards the net, leaned against the boards, watching some of the guys stretch, I turn my head and see Beau come up next to me, “How come I never see you stretch on the ice?”

“I stretch before I get into my gear,” I said and he nodded his head.

“I know, I see you, but how come not on the ice?”

“Look around Beau, what do you see?” I asked and he looked around.

“Fans?”

“Men,” I corrected and he looked at me, “Look at what positions we need to do to stretch properly,” I stated and Beau looked towards me, “Pretty sure I don’t want people I don’t know, let alone the other team to see that. It’s bad enough they look like sex positions- People don’t need to be seeing that and then,” I thought of the right word, “Embarrassing themselves in public.”

“Fuck,” Beau muttered and I looked at him to see his face was red.

“You perv, you’re fuckin’ picturing me doing the positions now!” I growled and slapped his shoulders.

“I’m sorry!” he laughed, “I never thought of it like that way- I’m sorry! You shouldn’t have said anything!” he said and I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Idiot.”

When warm up was finished, we headed off of the ice and back into the locker room, during that time we finished up on everything we needed to do. Towards the end, Coach came in and said that Geno, James, Kunitz, Paul Martin, and Niskanen were going to be opening and Vokoun was going to be in the net.

I was on the ice watching as the game start, Geno won the face off and was heading down the ice passing the puck between James, Paul, Kunitz and Matt. When their shift was over, Sidney, Pascal, Kris and Brooks and I jumped onto the ice and Kris quickly picked up the puck and passed it to me. I saw and opening and shot it towards the net and cursed when I lost it. The puck was picked up by Tavares and I growled and stole it back and shot it towards Brooks. He shot it towards Sidney, I think he meant to pass it to him, but that’s not what happened. Everything happened so fast, Brooks shot the puck and Sidney was on the ice, and he hit the ground hard.

“Sid,” I breathed and skated over towards him, looking over towards the bench to see Eric, one of the trainers coming out, I skated over towards him and helped him over towards Sidney. Pascal and I stood next to Sidney as Eric threw the towel over Sidney’s mouth and I gasped when I saw blood on the ice. I bent down and placed my hand on his back and then saw a tooth on the ice, ‘…Fuck, he got hit in the mouth…’

“Can you move, Sid?” Eric asked and Sidney started to move, Pascal moved me out of the way and helped Eric stand Sidney up and then we watched as Sidney was pulled off the ice and I turned my head towards the stands and listened to the Islander fans cheer.

I growled and glared at the Islander fans all around, “Fuckin’ pathetic,” I growled and Pascal looked at me.

“Don’t worry about them, Mags,” Pascal said and I looked back ahead of me and saw Tavares looking at me.

He was good friends with James and Stamkos, I gave him a small head nod and then turned back towards my teammates and skated over towards the bench, Coach was talking to Doc.

“What happened?” Kunitz asked.

“I hit the puck too hard and it went too high and hit Sid in the face,” Brooks said and I looked at him to see him looking down ashamed.

“It was an accident Brooksie,” I said and he looked at me and I patted his back.

“Ok guys,” Coach came into the middle of the line, “I want Neal, Geno, Mags, Tanger and Paulie on the ice, thirty seconds and then…” Coach went on to naming line, the whistle blew, I looked over towards the spot where Sidney went down and saw everything was cleaned up, “All right, everyone got it?” we all nodded our heads, “Good, go!” Pascal and Brooks climbed over the boards and James, Geno and Paul came out onto the ice, Kris and I were already on the ice and ready for this game to continue on, but I couldn’t help but worry how Sidney was.

When the first period was over, no one scored and we headed back into the locker room to find out that Sidney was taken to the hospital and most likely had a broken jaw, which made Brooks feel even worse. The room was quiet and just put my headphones in and kept to myself. I placed my hand on my necklace, over the charm that Mike once wore, ‘…The anniversary is in two days…’ I thought and just sighed; I couldn’t believe that it was almost a year since Mike had passed away. Sidney had gone down right in front of the same spot that Mike had gone down, ‘…Everyone needs to stay away from that spot…’

“You all right?” I heard and looked to my side to see Beau looking at me, I nodded my head and I took a headphone out and looked at him, “You sure?”

“Fine,” I breathed and then turned around and faced my stall, looking inside and seeing the picture that I hung of Mike and I, he was carrying me on his back, it was during the first strength and conditioning that we had done with the Penguins up at West Point. I had my arms wrapped around his neck, we were both in black Penguins shirts looking tired and sweaty, we had just finished a long game of soccer with some of the guys. I sighed and looked down, we had both looked so happy; it was hard to believe that it was a year and a half ago.

“The days come up, eh?” James asked and I nodded my head not looking at him, “Monday,” he said and I looked at the picture again, “April first.”

“I still wish it was just some big sick joke,” I breathed and James patted my shoulder, “Sidney’s hurt almost a year after Mike- That’s fucked up.”

“It’s just a coincidence, Mags,” James said and I looked at him, “Sid’s not going to be like Mike- He’ll be fine, it’s just a jaw problem.”

‘…It’s still fucked up…’ I thought and moved the charm back and forth against the chain, ‘…If this is fate messing with me- Reminding me about Mike’s death- Fuck you…’

Coach came back into the locker room and told us to head back out onto the ice. It was time for the second period and we needed to win this game, we needed to win it without Sidney, or the media was going to go nuts. They were going to say that the Penguins were nothing without Crosby, and as Assistant Captain of this team, I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Geno, Beau, Engelland, Matt and I were on ice, I looked towards my fellow Assistant Captain and grabbed his jersey and pulled him down, “We need to win this game- Or the media’s gunna have a field day and say that we’re useless without Sid.”

“I know,” Geno said and nodded his head, “We win, we be fine.”

‘…I hope you’re right, G…’