The Three C's

“Happy Birthday,” Pat said as he smiled brightly, pressing his lips against mine and wrapping his arms around my waist.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing myself against him so that there was no space between up, when he pulled around I was smiling ear to ear, I looked at my fiancé, “Happy New Years,” I said and he chuckled and kissed my cheek.

Our teammates were around us blowing into their horns, cheering and celebrating the new year, 2015 was going to be a better year, I vowed to play better than the year before. It was a minute after midnight, and I felt myself being pulled from Pat’s arms and replaced with my teammates arms.

“Happy Birthday, Sparky!” Sharpie yelled as he hugged me and kissed my head.

“Happy Birthday, Mags,” Jon said as his arms wrapped around my neck and I wrapped my around his chest, he pulled back and kissed my cheek and I moved onto the next person.

My phone was blowing up, texts, tweets, insta, everyone wishing me a happy birthday. I looked at my watch, it was five minutes after midnight, my team and I had about eleven hours until we needed to be at the United Center to catch the bus to the airport. I looked at Pat and smiled, he was having fun, him, Andrew, Brandon and Corey looked like they were having a drinking contest.

I sighed and then walked over towards the doors that lead to the small balcony, I walked outside, closing the doors behind me and leaned against the banister. I rubbed my face and then looked up at the sky, for a cold winter night, there were some stars out, snow was falling a little, the moon shining in the sky, close to being a full moon.

My breath was seen when I sighed again, “Mikey,” I breathed and then dropped my head, looking down, it was our birthday, “Happy Birthday little brother,” I mumbled and then looked back at the sky, “I hope your proud of me, I’m really trying here,” I sniffled and then wiped away a stay tear, “I miss you, Mikey. Emma misses you, I know you would want to be here to get to know Troy- He’s just like you,” I laughed a little and then bit my lip and nodded my head, sniffling a little and then wiping more of the tears that fell, “I hope you’re at peace up there, enjoying your never ending Netflix, NHL network and porn sites,” I let out a laugh and took a deep breath wiping the last of my tears away, “I love you, Mikey.”

“Mags,” I heard and turned around to see Pat standing there looking concerned, “You all right?”

“Just staying happy birthday to Mikey,” I said and Pat smiled and nodded his head, walking out and wrapping his arms around me.

“I know you miss him,” Pat said and kissed my cheek, he must have seen another tear starting to drop, because he wiped it away, “He’s proud of you.”

“Thanks,” I smiled and sighed.

“How ‘bout we go home?” Pat asked and I looked at him confused, “We need to check up on Jazz anyways.”

I smiled and nodded my head; Jazz had come home the day before he had surgery to place his stomach back into place because it had flipped. We were keeping him separated from Bella and Stanley, it was tough, the three of them liked to stick together, but I didn’t want them to play around and him to get even more hurt.

Pat and I went back inside, said our goodbyes to everyone and then headed home, it took almost twenty minutes to get home, once Pat pulled into the driveway, we rushed out of the car, into the cold weather and into the house.

“Cold!” I shivered as I took my jacket off and rubbed my hands together.

“Well when you’re wearing that, I would think so,” Pat chuckled and I looked at him, watching him look me up and down. He was right though, my little long sleeve, sweetheart neck, mid-thigh sparkly dress wasn’t going to keep me warm.

“How ‘bout you go get a bath ready, and I’ll go check on Jazz?” I asked and Pat nodded his head, placed his hands on my waist, pushed me against the wall and pressed his lips against mine. I groaned when Pat’s knee slipped in-between my legs and pushed them apart, “Pat,” I groaned when he nipped at my neck, “Dogs.”

“Yeah, on it,” he breathed in-between nips and I groaned when his fingers slipped under my dress.

“Pat!” I barked when he bit my neck hard and he laughed a little. I giggled and then kissed his cheek, “Go check on the pups,” I said and he nodded his head as I started to walk away.

“Hey,” Pat was still holding me hand, “You really do look beautiful.”

“Thanks,” I smiled and then winked at him and headed for the stairs, “Don’t make me feel lonely, or I’ll start without you!”

“I’m hurrying!” he yelled and I giggled and headed into the bathroom attached to our bedroom.

-Kane-
“Son of a bitch!” Jon yelled as we walked into the visitor’s locker room pissed off, losing against Edmonton five to zero. We lost yesterday’s game against Vancouver three to two, but to lose to the Oilers, five to zero was incredibly embarrassing.

I looked over towards Maggie, she was rubbing her side, slowly taking her gear off and I remembered the hit she took in the beginning of the third period from defenseman, Mark Fraser. I didn’t exactly see what happened, I just saw her on the ground by the boards, slowly getting back up and then heading for the bench. I didn’t really get a chance to ask what happened, or more importantly, was she all right.

“Maggie,” I heard and looked up to see Doc calling her into his office.

I watched her take a deep breath and slowly stand up, making her way to the room, holding her sides as she went, ‘…That doesn’t look good…’

The reporters came in a little early to interrogate Jon about why our team was ‘horrible’ on the ice tonight. More went over towards Corey to find out what went wrong tonight, I felt bad for both of them. Of course one reporter noticed that Maggie wasn’t in the room and began asking where she was, which turned into ‘how many games is she out’.

“We don’t know anything about Maggie’s current situation,” Jon answered and then Coach walked in.

‘…Thank god…’ I thought as he ushered the reporters out of the room.

Someone of us who didn’t run for the showers when the reporter came in, just looked at each other. I sighed, stood up and headed for the showers, hoping that when I came out, Maggie would be out from seeing Doc and I’d be able to know if she was all right.

When I came out of showers, Maggie was still in with Doc, but Jon got some information, and Maggie, was not all right. Well, she had two broken ribs, she could play, but it would be incredibly painful throughout the whole game.

“I kind of figured that’s what it was,” Sharpie said and I looked at him, “The way she was walking and holding onto her side, I figured she broke something.”

“Will she play?” I asked and Jon sighed.

“Broken ribs, it’s up to the player,” Jon said and I nodded my head, knowing that. It’s not that severe of an injury for them not to play, but they wouldn’t play a lot and when they did, they would be in pain, “But I suggest her not to.”

“Same,” Sharpie said and I nodded my head, “Have her rest it off.”

“But it’s Maggie,” I said and the two nodded their heads, “She’ll say fuck it and decide to play.”

After everyone finished at the arena, Maggie showered and dressed herself, we headed for the bus, it was going to take us to the airport and we were going to fly home. Doc had taped Maggie up and gave her some painkillers; hopefully it would be enough for the flight home. It wasn’t.

On the plane, Maggie sat on my lap and tried to curl into a ball, but couldn’t. The pressure from the height was weighing down on Maggie’s ribs and she was in so much pain. I will admit that she wasn’t screaming or crying, tears were falling, but mostly her eyes squeezed tight and she had a death grip on my hand. Jon had ran up to the front of the plane to get Doc, he came back with some more painkillers, Maggie downed them and some water, all we had to do wait. About twenty minutes after taking the painkillers she was out like a light.

“What the hell did he give her?” Shaw asked as I sat Maggie in her seat and laid her head on my shoulder.

“I don’t know,” I said and Jon held a pill bottle in his hand, he was trying to read it, “Was that what Doc gave her?”

“Morphine pills,” Jon said and my eyes widened, “Shit that stuffs strong.”

“No wonder she’s knocked out,” Sharpie said and I nodded my head.

“Surprised she wasn’t delusional first,” Corey said and I chuckled first.

“Maybe she was,” Jon asked I looked at him, “She was imagining the pain being worse and then just passed out.

“Don’t tell me that,” I said and he looked at me, “I don’t like imagining her in pain.”

“You’re so whipped!” Shaw said and I sighed and flipped him off.

“I am, so deal with it.”