‹ Prequel: Chances Risked
Sequel: Life's Chances

The Three C's

Chapter Forty

“Oh, I’m always going to love Cali weather,” I smiled brightly as the team and I walked off of the plane, having a game tomorrow night against the Kings. We walked into the airport, and I was with my team, I heard my name and turned to the side and smiled brightly, “MOM!!!”

“Oh! There’s my baby girl!” Mom cooed as she ran over towards me and hugged me, my teammates walked over towards their mothers.

The Penguins usually did a father’s trip, but decided to switch it up and have the mothers come out to see a game and spend some time with their children and their teammates. I was in my mom’s arms, it always felt good to be there, made me remember what life was like before I grew up. She kissed my head and I looked towards Beau and laughed, his mom had cupped his face and was kissing him all over, I wasn’t the only one enjoying his pain.

Coach had gathered everyone, we took two buses to the hotel and placed our luggage in our room, everyone was sharing a room with their mothers’. Mom sat on the bed and took a deep breath, “So Maggie, what do we do now?”

“Um, I don’t know about you and the other mothers’, but we need to head to the rink to practice,” I said and she nodded her head, “It’s really good to see you, Mom- Really, it is.”

“It’s good to see you too, baby,” she said and then stood up, hugged me against and kissed my head, “How are you?”

“I’m doing all right,” I said and mom nodded her head. There was a knock at my door and I sighed, “I’m coming!” I yelled, knowing that it was one of my teammates telling me it was time to go, “I’ll see you later mom.”

“All right, love you.”

“Love you too,” I said and then walked into the hallway and saw Paul Martin walking down the hall, “Paulie!” I squealed and then jumped onto his back; he chuckled and grabbed my legs, “Yay!”

“You can be a little kid sometimes, Mags,” he laughed and I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck.

We walked into the elevator, someone yelled out to hold the doors, since Paul’s hands were full, he used his leg to open the door and we saw Kunitz, Craig Adams, Jussi Jokinen and Beau.

“Get all the lipstick off of ya, Sunshine?” I asked and the guys laughed and Beau flipped me off and I laughed and stuck my tongue out at him.

“What are you doing, Maggie?” Jussi asked and Paul let out a laugh.

“Piggie back ride,” I smiled brightly and Kunitz laughed and patted Paul’s chest.

“When’d you become Maggie’s bitch?” he asked and Paul scoffed.

“You tellin’ me that if she jumped on your back, you wouldn’t give her a ride?” he asked and I laughed and Kunitz rolled his eyes.

“Boom bitch,” I smiled brightly and then we waited for the doors to open to walk out of the
elevators, or be carried out.

“Maggie? What are you doing?” I heard and smiled towards Sidney, “Legs broken?” he chuckled and I smirked and shrugged my shoulders.

We headed to the rink, dressed in our gear and headed out onto the ice to practice. Everything went well, we were only there for about two hours, the Kings were going to come to practice a little.

“You looked good out there, Mags,” Sidney said and I gave him a small smile and nodded my head.

We headed into the locker room, showered, changed into regular clothes, I was the first one finished, just throwing my jeans, sweatshirt, flats and then putting my hair up into a high messy bun. I threw my glasses on, grabbed my bag and then headed out of the locker room, the first to leave. My bag was thrown in the pile, and I headed down the hallway to wait for everyone on the bus.

I heard someone walking ahead of me, I looked up seeing someone’s back and stopped, knowing the person walking away from me, “Kris?” I breathed, knowing that hair, that body figure anywhere, “Kris!” I yelled out and he stopped and turned around, “Oh my god,” I breathed, this was the first time I was seeing him since I visited him in the hospital, “Kris!” I yelled and ran at him, jumping up into his arms and hugging him, “You’re really here!”

“I missed you Mags,” he chuckled, hugging me, “How are you?!”

“Me?!” I gasped and looked up at him, “What about you?!”

“I’m fine- I’m better, I’ll be back soon,” he said and I gave a small smile.

“I’m glad you’re all right,” I said and Kris gave me a smile, “You had me really scared.”

“They told me you’re the one who got help,” he said and I looked down, knowing my eyes were starting to water; he cupped my face and made me look at him, “Thanks.”

“I’m just happy you’re all right,” I said and Kris nodded his head, “I ya, I better get going,” I said and Kris nodded his head.

“Yeah, I’m just looking for Catherine and Alex,” he said and I looked at him, “They came along too.”

“Oh, well, if I see them, I’ll send them this way,” I said and Kris nodded his head, that’s when I noticed he still had a hand on my cheek, “I’ll see you later.”

“All right,” he said and I turned around and walked away, taking a deep breath and shaking my head.

I headed for the door, opened it and when I heard an ‘uff’ and when the door didn’t open all the way, I gasped and pulled the door back, opening the other one, “I’m so sor-“ I froze when I saw Catherine in front of me, she was holding her son, Kris’ son’s hand, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s fine,” she said quickly and then opened the door and walked into the building.

I sighed and then turned around, “Catherine!” I called back and she stopped and looked at me, “Is he ok? Is he doing better? We’re all worried about him.”

She sighed and then nodded her head, “He’s doing better, though, it’ll be a few more games before he’s back on the ice,” Catherine said and I nodded my head.

“Thanks,” I said and then turned around to walk towards the bus.

“Maggie,” I turned my head, “I never thanked you for saving him!”

I shook my head, “I didn’t save him, I just got help- The doctors are the ones who saved him.”

“They wouldn’t have had a chance if you didn’t get them,” she said and then gave me a small smile, turned around and walked away, I watched her and her little two year old walk away from me.

-Kane-
“Dude, calm down,” Jon laughed as he sat next to me on the flight, my leg bouncing in anticipation to the plane landing.

“I’m calm.”

“No you’re not,” Sharp laugh, “You practically have a hard on goin’ on there.”

“Fuck off!” I growled and then sighed and looked at my watch; we still had another hour until we landed in Pittsburgh.

The two hour flight took forever and when we finally landed, I couldn’t get off the plane fast enough, heading to the bus first in line as if it would make everyone move faster so that I could take the rental car and meet up with Maggie. I hadn’t seen her in about two weeks and I was so excited to see her, it was late Saturday morning and we were flying in for our game against the Penguins tomorrow night.

We got to the hotel, Maggie texted me saying that she had just gotten to the arena, just getting back from Columbus, the bused back. She told me that by the time I got to her house, she would be there and that we would be alone since Bennett and Maatta were apparently going somewhere else. Maggie didn’t give me the details on how she got us to be alone and I didn’t ask.

I drove so fast to Maggie’s house; I’m surprised I didn’t get pulled over for speeding. When I pulled into her driveway and saw her garage door closing, I smirked, knowing that she just gotten home. I ran out of the car, up the driveway, to her front porch, pulled out my keys, she had given me the front door key a while ago and opened the front door.

Everything was going well, I had a plan that I was going to surprise her, sneak up behind her, but that whole surprise was ruined as soon as I opened the door and remembered that she had a security system. ‘Front door open’ rang throughout the house and then I closed the door, ‘Front door closed’ then rang out.

“Hello?” I heard Maggie’s voice, she turned the corner and I smiled brightly at her, “Pat!” she yelled and then ran at me, jumped in my arms, pushed me against the door and pressed her lips against mine.

I missed this, I missed her lips, her body, I missed her. We didn’t say a word after that, barely made it up the stairs. I threw her onto her bed; she fiercely ripped my clothes off, my tie, my button up, my undershirt. I was turned on when she growled at the fact that she struggled with my belt.

-Maggie-
I giggled at looked at Pat, I was lying on my stomach, the sheet loosely wrapped around me, Pat’s fingers gently glided across my exposed back and I loved the feeling of his skin on mine. He moved closer to me and then kissed my shoulder and I smiled up at him.

“I love you Maggie,” he breathed and I leaned my head up and pressed my lips against his.

“I love you too, Pat,” I moaned against his lips.

“I’ve got something to tell you,” he said and I looked at him confused, “Well, something to show you.”

“All right,” I said and Pat leaned off of the bed to his jacket, he pulled it onto the bed and pulled out a piece of paper from the side pocket. He handed it to me and I sat up, grabbed Pat’s button up off of the floor and button three buttons and looked at Pat. I took the paper and opened it, the Blackhawks logo was the first thing I noticed, “This- This is-“

“The petition went through,” Pat breathed against my ear and I looked at him, jumping up and wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my lips against his. He laughed and pulled back, cupping my face and wiping my happy tears with his thumbs, “You can come to Chicago, be a Blackhawk, my teammate, you can be we me, we can be together.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I want all of that,” I laughed and then pressed my lips against his again, truly happy for the first time in a long time, for the first time since Mike died.