Chances Risked

-Kane-
I know why Neal called me, some baseball player was hitting on Maggie and she didn’t like it, Neal didn’t like, I certainly didn’t like it. So as soon as we hung up the phone last night, I bought a ticket to Pittsburgh and flew in this morning, renting a car and coming straight here. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing though, this guy was flirting with her, right in front of everyone as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and Maggie was just trying to ignore it.

“So I don’t want any rough housing on the ice,” the Coach said and I leaned against the boards next to Emma.

“So if we wanna get rough, we should go somewhere else, huh?” I heard him mutter to Maggie and she just looked at him.

I glared at his back and clenched my fists, ‘…I’m gunna kill ‘em…’

“So I’ve divided into teams, half Penguins, half Pirates. I know we said Penguins versus Pirates- But let’s face it boys, hockey’s a lot harder than baseball,” the Coach said and I smirked.

“That’s debatable,” someone said, probably a Pirate.

“All right, white jersey’s verses black jerseys, when I call your name, come get your color,” he called, a clipboard in his hand, names were called and I waited to see whether or not this guy would be on Maggie’s team.

I didn’t know what was worse though, the fact that he couldn’t have been or that he wasn’t on Maggie’s team. I had mixed emotions when Maggie was picked for team white and the guy wasn’t; although, anger was one of those emotions when I saw him pout that he wasn’t. Neal looked at me and I just had an angry look on his face.

‘…If he touches her, I’m gunna kill him…’

-Maggie-
Things were starting to piece together and I was starting to realize Pat’s surprise visit, I knew it wasn’t a surprise, someone had called him for this very reason, Watson’s constant hitting on me, ‘…I just don’t know who called him…’ I thought as I looked at James, Matt, Paul, Vitale, Beau and Sutter, anyone of them could have called him, ‘…James is the only one who has his number- But any of them could have gotten Pat’s number off of James- Or even Sid!...’

At the end of the little game we had with the Pirates, I was so happy that not once during the three periods, was I on the ice with Watson. Sidney didn’t play, he just watched with Coach and Geno and I were named the Captains of our teams. Before the game we had a half hour to come up with possible plays and I was happy to have Kunitz, Sutter, Beau, Paul, Kris and Marc on my team. There were seven Penguins on each team and seven Pirates, not everyone wanted to play and we were all right with that. Geno, Pascal, James, Jussi, Bortuzzo, Engelland and Vokoun were the Penguins on team white.

The Penguins were all in their locker room while the Pirates were in the visitors’, I was sitting at my stall, no one other than Marc and Vokoun really needed to shower, we didn’t work up a sweat. The door opened and Emma walked in, Troy in her hand.

“Ok, so was it only me or did that- What’s his name again?”

“Watson,” Beau said and Emma looked at him and pointed towards him.

“Yeah, that dude! Was it just me or was he openly flirting with you, Mags?” she asked and I rolled my eyes, “Like he wasn’t trying to hide it or anything- And in front of Pat too!”

“Yeah, I didn’t appreciate that,” Pat said from next to me and I looked at him.

“So which one called you?” I asked and he looked at me.

“What?” he asked and I looked around the locker room at my teammates.

“Which one of them called you?” I repeated the question and looked back towards him.

“Mags, no-“

“I did,” I heard and snapped my head towards my left to see James looking at me, “I called him.”

I don’t know if they thought I’d be mad or something, I stood up and walked over towards him, “Thanks,” I said and kissed his cheek and then smiled towards Pat and nudged him to follow me, “I’ll see you boys for tomorrow’s game.”

“Try to have some energy!” Sidney yelled as we headed out the door and I listened to the guys laugh.

“Jerks,” I muttered, a smirk on my face and I was shaking my head as I felt Pat’s fingers lace with mine. When we were down the hallway I looked towards Pat, he was just looking down, “I’m not mad.”

“Really?” he asked and I shook my head.

“No, I’m happy I got to see you- How long do I have you?”

“Just tonight, I leave early in the morning, I’ve got a game too,” he said and I nodded my head, “What are we doing tonight?”

“I just want one thing from you,” I said as I stopped and leaned against the wall, pulling him towards me. He smirked and pressed his body against mine, his lips were inches from mine.

“What would that be?” he chuckled, his lips brushing against mine.

“Just hold me tonight,” I said and looked at him, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” he said and then cupped my face and pressed his lips against mine.

“Whoa!!!” I heard laughing, “They couldn’t even make it home!” I turned my head and saw Pascal walking with Kunitz, Marc, James and Sidney, “Mags, are you gunna have any energy tomorrow?”

“Shut up, Duper!” I laughed and walked over towards him and playfully started to punch him over and over, he just laughed and grabbed my wrist and pulled me in to hug me.

“I got her!” he yelled and Marc started to tickle me and I was laughing so hard, if Pascal wasn’t holding me tight, I would have fell to the ground, “We’ve got a kicker!”

“White flag! White flag! Uncle! Uncle!” I was yelling, but no one was giving up.

“All right, all right, give it up boys, I’m sure she wants to spend the time with the hawk,” I heard and saw Coach walking down the hall.

Pascal let me go and I punched his arm and he laughed as I ran back towards Pat, because he was going to grab me again. I stuck my tongue out towards them and Marc darted for me, so I started to run down the hallway, hearing laughter behind me. As I came to the end of the hall, I ran right into someone and looked up to see the Pirates; I had collided with two of the players, whose names I couldn’t remember.

“Sorry,” I laughed and stood up and went to help them up, but they stood up on their own.

“Mags! Ya klutz, watch where your running!” Marc yelled as he caught up to me and I glared at him.

“I wouldn’t have ran into them if you were chasing me!” I laughed and trying to punch Marc, but he moved out of the way and poked my side, “Asshole.”

“What’s going on here?!” I heard and turned to see Tony walking towards us and I sighed, not really wanting to deal with him.

“Just ran into each other- Literally,” the one said and chuckled.

“Mags!” I heard and saw Pat coming over, “You two like literally darted,” he said and chuckled as he came closer and I saw him tense when he saw Watson, “What’s up?”

“Maggie here ran into the Pirates- Literally, she bull dozed them over,” Marc said and Pat chuckled, but I knew it was forced as he walked over, and I think, just to prove a point to Watson, he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

I looked over towards Tony and saw his eyes looked on Pat, just to make sure nothing happened, I looked towards the Pirates and smiled, “Well it was nice meeting you- Hope you had a fun time playing some hockey.”

“Yeah, thanks for letting us come- Hope you had fun playing baseball,” the two said and we shook hands and I looked towards Tony.

“Nice meeting you,” I said quickly and he nodded his head towards me.

“Ready?” Pat asked and I nodded my head, he laced his fingers with mine and we headed down the rest of the hallway and out the door into the parking garage.

-James-
Pascal, Sidney, Kunitz and I were heading down the hallway, catching up with Maggie and Marc who darted, after Marc was chasing her.

“So you really called Kane?” Sidney asked and I nodded my head, “Why?”

“You didn’t see Watson flirtin’ with Mags yesterday, she looked really uncomfortable- Besides, I’m sure the two missed each other,” I said and Sidney nodded his head. We continued down the hallway until we just saw Marc and three Pirates, Watson being one of them, Marc was talking to him, “Where’s Mags?” I asked and Marc looked back towards me.

“Kane stole her away,” he said and we all chuckled.

“We gunna have anything tomorrow at the game?” Pascal asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

“Probably,” I said but didn’t really know for sure.

“Thought you said you were her boyfriend,” Watson said and he looked at me.

“I never said that,” I said, I could feel my teammates eyes on me, “I just said she already had a boyfriend- Never said that I was it- You just assumed it! She’s just a teammate and friend.”

“You all treat her more than a teammate or friend,” he said and I glared, because the way that he said it, I didn’t like it.

“You’re right,” Sidney said and he stepped forward, “She’s more than a friend or teammate.”

“What is she? You each take turns with her or something-“

“Tony!” his teammate hissed.

“No,” Pascal growled, “We treat her like family- She’s like a sister to all of us and if you say something more I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

“We’ll beat the shit out of you,” I corrected and just looked at the Pirate.