The Three C's

“You’re benching me!” Maggie growled as she looked at Coach, who was standing in the middle of our hotel room watching Maggie pace back and forth. I just sat on the bed and stared at my clearly upset girlfriend, “Why?”

“Because you need time for your ribs to heal-“

“We both know that I’ve played on busted ribs before,” she stated to him and he just looked at her, “Coach-“

“You need to calm down and I will NOT have you on the ice when you’re like this- It’d be different if this wasn’t an Olympic game- But it IS and Olympic game and fighting is usually frowned upon,” he said and Maggie growled and started to take deep breaths, “We’ll release that you were injured in practice and will be present in the next game.”

“So I’ll play in the Semifinals?” she asked and Coach nodded his head.

“Just stay here and relax, Maggie- That’s all I’m asking you to do- You’re lucky that it’s only one game, if the Russian Coach went to the Olympic board, you would have been kicked off the team,” he said and Maggie tensed.

“So I get attacked and I’M going to get kicked off the team?!” Maggie snapped and Coach just gave her a stern look.

“Maggie, you-“

“No! Be-“ I jumped off of the bed, ran over to her and slammed my hand over her mouth and turned her around, her hands on my arm.

“I’m sure all this arguing isn’t helping her calm down, so I’m just going to make her shut up and help her calm down so this doesn’t get any worse,” I said and Coach looked at me and then looked passed me and saw Maggie struggling in my arm.

“Watch it Maggie, don’t push me or you won’t play at all,” Coach said and then turned around and left the room and I let Maggie go.

She growled and shoved me a little, I snapped my head over at her and gave her a small glare, “Excuse me, but I think I just saved your ass from being benched again!”

“I shouldn’t have been benched at all!” she growled and I sighed and shook my head.

“He’s right, you need to calm dow-“ my eyes widened and I quickly jumped back as Maggie’s fist came at my fist, “Maggie!”

“Next person to tell me to calm down, I’m going to knock them out,” she hissed and I gulped, she was pissed and a little scary, she had just tried to punch me, ME!

There was a knock at the door and Jon, Sharp and Duncan walked into the room and looked at Maggie, who had started to pace again. Sharp chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, “You keep that up, you’ll make a hole in the floor.”

“Funny, Sharpie,” Maggie mumbled, clearly not amused.

Jon looked at me and I sighed and rolled my eyes, walking passed them and then sitting on the edge of the bed, just looking at Maggie. Jon leaned against the wall and looked over towards Maggie, “So what happened?”

“He benched me! Coach fuckin’ benched me!” Maggie growled and the three looked at me and I just rubbed the back of my neck, I knew she was going to act like this the second that I suggested that this was probably the right move to Praise.

“Why?” Duncan asked and I wished that he wouldn’t.

“Because I’m too fuckin’ tense!” she bared and the guys’ eyes widened, “He thinks I need to calm down- I’m fuckin’ fine!”

“Mags, maybe you should calm-“

“Let’s get a pizza or something!” I jumped up and randomly shout, having the others look at me confused.

“What?” Maggie growled.

“Just thinking out loud- Sorry,” I said and she turned around and I looked towards the three and started to mouth to them for them not to tell her to calm down. They just sighed and I rolled my eyes and plopped on the bed, ‘…This is fuckin’ exhausting…’

There was a knock on the door and Sharp answered it to see Van Riemsdyk, Kessel, Oshie, and Quick walk into the room and look to see the still upset Maggie. Oshie took a seat on the bed next to me and everyone pretty much stood around and watched Maggie pace.

“Mags,” Kessel started and I looked at him, “Ran into Malkin, he said that-“

“He gunna let me kill the fucker?!” she hissed and Kessel chuckled.

“Pretty sure that’s illegal,” he said and I sighed, “No, he said that Tikhonov was kicked off of the team.”

“Not enough,” she muttered and I’m not sure who heard that, but I definitely did.

“Maggie, just sit down, you’re gunna put a hole in the floor if you don’t sit still,” Quick said and I sighed, that’s what Sharp had told her when he walked in a few minutes ago.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled and then I watched her fists clench again.

“So, Praise said that we’re playing the Czech tomorrow night,” Oshie said, trying to change the subject but probably just made it worse.

“Have fun,” Maggie growled and out teammates looked at her confused, “Coach benched me.”

“Why?” Oshie asked and I looked at him and breathed for him to shut up.

“Because apparently I need to take a fuckin’ big ass chill pill,” she growled and the guys looked at me and I held up my hands.

“Maggie, is it your time of the month?” Oshie asked and everyone looked at him like he was nuts.

“What?!” Maggie hissed.

“Dude, you never say that to a girl,” Sharp said and Oshie sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m just saying, you need to calm dow-“

“Shut up!” Maggie hissed and I tried to stop him, but he didn’t shut up, so I jumped up because Maggie looked like she was going to punch Oshie, holding up to her promise. I wrapped my arms around her, pinning her hands at her side and pulled her out on the balcony and closed the door.

“Get some air Mags,” I yelled and the guys looked at me, “She told me the next person to tell her to calm down was going to get knocked out- Probably best if you leave so I can calm her ass down.”

“Just text us in the morning to let us know how she is,” Jon said and I nodded my head and watched them all leave the room.

Maggie and I were alone, I opened the door and let her back in, she glared at me and then just walked over towards the bathroom and slammed the door closed. I sighed and heard the water starting to run; she was probably going to take a bath.

-Maggie-
The boys played without me in the Quarterfinals and won against the Czech Republic with the final score of five to two. Two days from now, we were going to be playing Sweden in the Semifinals while Canada was going to be playing Finland. I felt so bad for Geno because since Russia lost to Finland in the Quarterfinals, they were knocked out of the Olympics.

The Semifinals were tomorrow, and if we won our game against Sweden and Canada won their game against Finland, then it’ll be 2010 all over again, Canada vs. USA for gold. Today were the finals for the women’s hockey and of course, Canada and USA were going for gold. Some of the guys and I were here, to watch the game, and cheer for our country, I noticed that some of the guys from Team Canada were here as well.

“I’m gunna head to the locker room, wanna go?” Kessel asked me and I looked at him and nodded my head, this was going to be my team if the countries didn’t agree to allow me to play on the men’s team.

Switzerland had play Sweden this afternoon and won the bronze, so it was going to be interesting tonight to see which women’s team won the gold. Kessel and I walked downstairs, I knew he wanted to see his sister and I wanted to see the girls, some of them my teammates from 2010.

We stayed until it was ready for warm ups, wishing them luck and telling them to kick Canada’s ass. I knew some of the girls didn’t like me too much, they were a little jealous because I was living their dream, but they were at least, well, some of them, were nice to me.

After we finished with the girls, Kessel and I headed back up to the suite that some of the guys and I were staying in. I spotted Pat leaning against the banister and came up next to him, he was looking down at the ice looking to be in deep thought.

“Penny for your thoughts,” I said and he sighed and looked at me.

“Coach is looking to bench me,” he said and my eyes widened, “I’m not playing well, I haven’t even scored a freakin’ goal,” Pat growled and I sighed and nodded my head, understanding what he meant, the only goal I had so far was the first goal in the first game, but that was it.

“I only have one goal and the rest assists,” I said and Pat sighed and nodded his head, patting my hand and I leaned against his side, “We’ll be fine, it’ll all happen in the last game, you watch,” I said and Pat smirked and nodded his head.

The game against Canada vs. USA started and throughout the whole game we all stared intently, cheering for our country and hoping that the women took home the gold. At first we thought they were going to do it, USA was up by two up until the last few minutes of the game. Canada tied the game just as the horn sound, USA was so close to winning, but now they were going into overtime, where seconds into the sudden death, Canada scored and won gold.

All of the guys and I leaned against the banister and stared down at the ice, looking at all of the disappointed faces on the girls, I sighed and shook my head, running my fingers through my hair and standing up straight, “That can’t be us,” I looked at the boys, “We can’t let that happen, we have to win.”

“We will,” Praise said and I nodded my head, “We have one more game until we play them- We’ll win guys.”