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

Chances Risked

Chapter Eighty Four

James and I were laughing as we skated to each other hugged each other and he tapped his helmet onto mine, “You’re such a copy cat, Mags!” he teased and I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

Less than two weeks had passed and we were now in the middle of the third period of our final regular season game. James, Paul and Kris were back from their injuries, we were just waiting on Sidney, who would hopefully be back soon. The Penguins were number two in the league and had already clinched a seat in the playoffs; number one in our division and conference, Pat wasn’t letting me forget that they had won the President Trophy for being number one in the league.

We were in our final regular season game against the Hurricanes, this game was Jordan’s first game back in Pittsburgh and currently the final score was six to three, less than six minutes in the third. James was teasing me for copying him because the two of us had both scored hat tricks. It was almost rare to see a hat trick in a game, but it was definitely rare to see two in one game. James scored his in the third period and then a minute later, I scored mine.

By the end of the game, the final score was eight to three, Brendon Morrow and Matt Cooke had scored the other two goals. James was named number one star, I was number two and Geno was the third star for all of his assists. After the game, we all headed back into the locker room, James and I were interviewed for our two hat tricks and then we headed for the showers, changed and then headed back towards the ice. We stood along the inside or outside of the boards, looking up towards the screen because since this was our last regular season game, they wanted to make a little video for the fans to show our appreciation.

The guys were smiling brightly and playfully shoving me because I had a big part in putting this last minute video together. We had come out just in time for the video to start and this was going to be the first time the guys were actually going to watch it.

“Hey guys, it’s Maggie Marshall, I just wanted to take the time to thank all of you fans for all of your dedication to Pittsburgh Penguins and everything that we do and accomplish is because of you! You’re our fans and most definitely appreciated!”

On the screen it was showed of me standing in a sound booth with headphone, I standing to see Imagine Dragons Radioactive. The footage went back and forth to me singing the song in the booth and then footage of what the guys and I have accomplished throughout the season, on and off the ice. I felt arms around my shoulder and smirked when I saw Geno on one side and Pascal on the other.

The guys were laughing when a clip of me in the middle of a pushing and shoving match against the one Sabres rookie because he wanted to show off his toughness, but it didn’t end well for him, one punch to the chin and he was out. More clips were shown of the goals we accomplished and then the song ended with me walking away from the mic, I was in my jersey and Don’t Start the Party from Pitbull automatically started with fans dancing in the stands, or standing to cheer for us winning a goal or game.

I stood next to Beau and we were laughing and dancing to the song, I was so happy that I wore dress pants and a nice blouse with flats. After the video a select few fans were going to win our jersey, the same jerseys that we wore during today’s game, and I was excited to see who won mine. Marc was in front of me, on the ice and looking back towards Beau and I and laughed.

“Always like to party, eh, Mags,” I heard and turned around to see Sidney there, I gasped and threw my arms around him, happy to see my Captain, “It’s good to see you too,” he laughed, it had been a while since I had seen him because he was constantly going to one doctor’s appointment to the next to make sure he was healthy.

At the end of the video, the chain nets that were hung to protect the fans behind the net were dropped so that we could throw free t-shirts towards the fans while the staff sets up the carpet and table for us to take pictures with the fans who won our jerseys. There was a huge stack of shirts on the table and some of us grabbed handfuls of them and headed towards the penalty boxes to throw them at some fans. Of course the guys had better arms than me, so they were getting them further than myself.

I started to head towards the other side of the ice because I felt bad, because they weren’t getting any attention. I felt someone come up behind me and saw Kris ad he gave me a small smile, I just nodded my head towards him, we were trying to be friends, I knew it was hard, but if we were teammates, we needed to get along.

After all of the shirts were gone, we headed back over towards the board and wait. Some of the guys were wearing their jerseys; I was just going to hold mine. I sat on the boards, Beau was in front of me, his back to me and I had my arms around his shoulders and leaning against him, waiting for my number to be called. Beau was going to go towards the end, even though he was nineteen, they had called him up from Wilkes-Barre, he actually didn’t play in today’s game, same with Bortuzzo. With my being forty six, I was going to go towards the end, or at least in the middle.

Brooks Orpik was called and I knew that I was going to be next, Simon Despres was going to be after me for forty seven and Joey Vitale was going to be after for forty eight. As soon as Orpik took the picture with the teenage girl, they headed over towards the table so he could sign the jersey and I smiled as a cute old man was next in line, he was mine.

My name was called and I smiled, hopped off of the boards, holding my jersey, walked onto the carpet and towards the old man, coming over with his walker. I smiled brightly because it was so cute, “Hi!” I smiled and shook his head.

“It’s an honor meet you, Ms. Marshall,” he said and I giggled.

“Maggie, please.”

“Ernest,” he said and I smiled and we stood next to each other and I held the jersey in front of us.

We posed for the picture and I felt his hand on my back and then my eyes widened and I gasped when I felt his hand on my butt and he let out a squeeze, the guy had to be in his seventies and I let out a surprised laugh and looked towards him to see that he was smiling proudly.

“Ernest!” I said surprised and he gave me a toothy grin and we headed over towards the table and I looked back towards my teammates to see them laughing and even some fans that were behind us were laughing. I signed the jersey for him and gave the old man a kiss on the cheek and sent him on his way. I headed back to my teammates smirking and shaking my head.

“Grandpa got his game on!” Marc teased and I rolled my eyes.

“You gunna let him get to third base?” Beau teased.

“Ew, gross,” I said and playfully shoved him before heading off of the ice and back towards the locker room. I just walked, let out a little laugh and shook my head.

“What’s up?” James asked and I sat down next to him, he was sitting talking to Matt.

“You two missed it,” I said and they both looked at me, “I got this old man, and while we were taking the picture, he grabbed my ass.”

The two burst out laughing and I held my face and shook my head, of course everyone else in the room wanted to know why they were laughing, so they explained and soon everyone was laughing.

“It’s all right, kid, it was probably on the old man’s bucket list to cop a feel,” Paul teased and I rolled my eyes.

“Thanks Paulie,” I giggled and he smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

-Kane-
The guys and I were a little disappointed in losing our final regular season game with the final score of three to one. We played in St. Louis against the Blues and I will admit that they put up a fight. We were all in the locker room, someone turned the TV on to the NHL channel to see who all won their games tonight, I knew that Maggie had a game.

I was tying my tie when I felt Jon tap my shoulder, I looked towards him he was looking at the TV, I saw Maggie on the screen and saw that she had scored a hat trick tonight, her third career hat trick. I sighed, ‘…She’s been playing a hell of a lot better than me…’ I thought and tried to remember when the last time I actually scored more than one goal in a game, ‘…I need to step up my game in the playoffs…’

The announcers came onto the screen and they were laughing, “And not only did Maggie Marshall get some action during the game, she also got some after. Let’s take a look,” the one announcer said and I looked at the TV confused.

“And there goes Maggie, it’s her turn to donate her jersey a fan- And her fan is Ernest Fitz, came all the way from New Jersey with his sons to see this game. We pulled some strings for him because he hoped to get Marshall- Oh!” the announcer was laughing, “Look at that!” the camera showed the old man moving his hand down to Maggie’s ass and squeezing in, I chuckled and shook my head, hearing some of my teammates laugh.

“Better be careful Kaner, looks like you’ve got some competition!” Sharp teased and the patted my shoulder and I smirked and rolled my eyes, watching the screen as Maggie laughed as she helped the old man in the walker over to the table so she could sign the jersey.

“You’re gunna have to tease her when you talk to her later,” Jon said and I nodded my head, “If you don’t, I definitely will!”

“Don’t you worry, I will,” I chuckled and then finished up getting dressed and we started to leave the locker room to head to the bus, we were staying at a hotel tonight and going back to Chicago tomorrow.

We were scheduled to play the Wilds in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in three days. As we cheered on the way over to the hotel about winning the Presidents’ Trophy for being number one in the league, I couldn’t help but wonder if we went all the way, won the Stanley.

‘…Will Maggie come to the game? What if we were playing her for the cup?...’ I thought about it,
the finals, Pittsburgh vs. Chicago, girlfriend vs. boyfriend, ‘…I’ll feel bad, but, in the end, we’ll both either accept the win or loss- If it comes down to the Penguins playing the Hawks in the finals…’