The Three C's

“Maggie!” I heard and turned my head, smiling brightly at the sight of my cousin running towards me.

“Dana!” I laughed and caught her as she ran into my arms, “I missed you, kiddo.”

“I missed you too! I finally get to play against you!” she said happily and I giggled; “Now I can show you what I’m made of!”

“I’ve been keeping track of you,” I smiled and tapped her nose, “Don’t you worry about that! I’m ready for you tonight!”

“Maggie!” I looked and laughed at the sight of three of the Staal brothers running over towards me, pulling my into their triple layer Staal hug.

“Missed you, Mags!” Jordan said and I laughed and tapped his chest.

“Missed you too, Jordy!”

“So what’s this I hear you fucked with a politicians son?” Eric asked and I scoffed.

It was all over NHL and even made the world news, talking about hockey the Chicago Blackhawks team ‘attacked’ the Senator’s son in a night club for no reason and then refused to apologies about it.

“This fuckin’ dickhead!”

“Uh oh, here we go!” I laughed when Jordan said that, “Someone really pissed you off.”

“We’re in the club, I accidently bump into him and spill his drink, I offer to buy him another one, but he goes and start shit by saying that I can’t afford it, it’s top shelf whiskey, let the men fuckin’ handle this, kept calling me a piece of meat-“

“Oh no he didn’t!” Jared joked and I smirked and playfully pushed him.

“He did, and then when I tell him I’m trying to be fuckin’ civil here, he goes and says that I should do the civil thing and do my job and suck his dick,” I said and the guys widened their eyes, “Yeah, and then when I go to walk away, the guy grabs me and that’s when Pat punched him once and threatened that if he ever touched me, he’d kill ‘em.”

“Sounds like a fun night- What a fuckin’ shit head,” Eric said and I nodded my head.

“But then it gets better- The asshole comes to the arena yesterday and says he wants a meeting, threatens us saying that he can make our deaths look like an accident and that at this stupid meeting he says that he’s going to press charges on Pat and I for assault!”

“No way!” Jordan said and I nodded my head.

“We got lucky when one of the people from the public relations department witnessed the asshole bash his face into the wall and get a bloody nose- Pat and I were in handcuffs and everything yesterday,” I said and the guys and Dana shake their heads, “So now the douchebag has been proved to be a liar, now they’re looking into everything else- Hopefully this just all goes away.”

“Yeah, sounds like a lot of stress,” Jared said and I nodded my head.

The five of us talked for a little bit until it was time for us to head to our locker rooms and get ready for the game. I walked into our locker room to see the guys there getting undressed from their suits and getting dressed into their gear, I started to do the same. The staff came around with the jug of mouth wash for our mouth guards, we do this every game, put the liquid in a bowl in our lockers, drop our guards in there and pull them out and dry them before we go on the ice, it keeps them clean and makes them last longer.

Coach came in, gave us a speech, told us to be ready and play well against Carolina tonight, gave us a few pointers, and then before we knew it, it was time for warm up. Warm up soon turned into the game, I was standing on the blue line in-between Jon and Sharpie, the National Anthem was being sung and I just looked up at the flag. After we skated towards the center, I smirked towards Jordan who was next to me and watched as Jon faced Eric for the puck.

It was towards the end of the first period I was on the ice a lot, the score was two to zero, we were winning, and I even got an assist for Hossa’s goal. As I climbed over the boards to sit on the bench, I noticed myself getting pretty dizzy and I was out of breath pretty easily, I was never this tired during a game, at least not this soon.

I looked down the bench and saw Jon, Shaw and Keith all breathing hard, their heads against the boards; they were all on the ice a lot as well. I took a drink of Gatorade, wiped my face, my visor and waited for Coach to tell me to head back onto the ice.

By the end of the period, we went back into the locker room and listened to Coach tell us that he was happy with the two to zero, but noticed that we were all slowing down out there. He wanted to know what was wrong with us, one of the rookies muttered that they didn’t feel well, and Coach told him to go see Doc.

Coach asked if anyone else didn’t feel well, I wanted to raise my hand, I’m pretty sure we all did, but for that rookie to do that, just cost him the seat on the team, no doubt Wirtz was going to have him shipped back down to the AHL. Even if we’re sick, we’re told to suck it up and do our jobs.

The next period begun and I was on the ice again, the ref called for an offside, ‘…Oh thank god…’ I breathed heading for the bench, needing a drink, ‘…What the hell is wrong with me today?...’ On my skate towards the bench, I bumped into someone, “Sorry,” I muttered and felt a hand on my arm.

“Mags,” I looked up and saw Dana, “You all right, you don’t look so good.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You seriously look like you’re going to hurl- And you’re not the only one, you’re whole team does,” she said and I nodded my head.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” I said and then headed for the bench, took my squirt of water, practically hung onto the boards because I was a little dizzy.

I heard a crash and looked down to see my teammates looking over the boards, I couldn’t see what was happening, I laid my head on the boards because Dana was right, I felt like I was going to hurl. I heard my name and looked up, Kruger was looking at me and asking if I was all right.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” he said and I sighed, “Shaw just collapsed, they’re carrying him off now.”

I looked down and saw Doc and his assistant helping Shaw who looked as white as a ghost. I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. The whistle was blown and I headed back onto the ice, Keith, Oduya, Pat, Jon and I were on the ice. Jon lost the puck in the face off and we chased after it, I can’t remember what happened next, everything went black from there.

-Jordan-
Out of all my time playing hockey, I’ve never seen this before, one by one the Blackhawks were going down, they all looked horrible. We were on the ice, Eric, Skinner, Murphy, Faulk and I were on the ice, Toews lost the puck to Eric and were chasing after us on the ice when Kane went down and slammed into the boards. No one tripped him or was really anywhere near him, he just went down, Toews just stopped and held his head and suddenly I was bumped into.

Maggie was leaning against me, she was breathing hard and looking like she was going to fall to the ice, “Mags,” I called and dropped my stick to hold on to her because she was going down, “Hey! Mags, talk to me, are you all right?”

She didn’t respond to me, I gently laid her on the ice and knelt down next to her. I heard Dana yell her name and looked up to see her jump over the boards and skate over from the bench, “What’s wrong with them? Maggie! Maggie!” she yelled, shook her cousin, but we got no response from Maggie.

I took my gloves off and held my hand over her mouth and nose, I didn’t feel anything. I took my helmet off and bent my head close to her face, I didn’t feel a breath, “Fuck!” I yelled and then looked back, “Yo! She’s not breathing!” That seemed to get people’s attentions. I stood up, grabbed Maggie’s arm and started to drag her over towards our bench since the Blackhawks doctor and assistance were a little busy with everyone else, “Doc, she’s not breathing.”

“Maggie!” I heard and looked up to see Crawford, “What’s wrong? What’s happening to them?”

“How are you feeling?” Dana asked him and he looked at her confused.

“I feel fine, why?”

“You’re whole team is going down, how do you feel just fine?” I asked him and he looked at me confused.

“I don’t know,” Crawford said, “But I feel fine.”

I heard a gasp and looked down to see that Doc had managed to get Maggie to breathe again; she just rolled onto her side and started to cough up blood. My eyes widened and Doc and Eric wasted no time picking Maggie up and getting her off of the ice. The game was no doubt over because the Blackhawks didn’t have a team, something was very wrong and I just looked at Crawford and saw that he and the backup goalie were the only two players fine.

-Dana-
I quickly got undressed out of my gear and then into my workout clothes. I saw the ambulance show up and go for Maggie, I was going with them. When I went outside, there were a lot of ambulances out there, some being filled with the other Blackhawks, others that were as bad, were being looked at by the EMTs.

I sat on the bench and held my cousin’s hand, I looked at her engagement ring on her finger and wondered how Pat was doing. Tears started to form in my eyes when I just looked at her laying on the cot in pain, ‘…What caused this?...’