The Three C's

Calling my Aunt and Uncle was a hard call, I was standing in the hallway in front of the ICU room, a room where all of the sick Blackhawks were being housed, waiting for Maggie’s parents to answer their phone. When they did, I heard my Aunt’s sniffles on the phone, “Hello.”

“It’s Dana.”

“How is she? We were watching the game? Are they all right? Is she all right?” my Aunt asked and I sighed.

“I’m not sure, I haven’t heard word of anything, I just know that since I was here, I should give you a call,” I said and then saw some of my teammates walking towards me.

“Your Uncle’s on the phone right now getting tickets to Chicago, hopefully we’ll be there by tomorrow,” my Aunt said and I sighed, “Will you keep my updated?”

“You know I will,” I said and then took a deep breath, “Let me know your flight plan.”

“Thank you, Dana.”

The phone conversation ended and I saw my Captain walk over towards me, “How are they?”

“I don’t know, no one has come out and given me information,” I said and Eric sighed and nodded his head, “What’s going on with the game?”

“It’s been postponed, they’ll let us know when the new date is,” he said and I nodded my head.

I heard my name and looked down the hallway to see that security were stopping people from coming through, I got a closer look and saw that one of the people was Emma. I rushed over towards her and told the guard to let her through.

“What’s happening? Are they all right?” she asked and I shook my head.

“I don’t know anything,” I said and Emma looked like she was going to cry, “Do you know what could have happened to them?”

“No, I know that they’ve been pretty angry the last few days-“

“Over the Senator’s son, incident?” I asked and she looked at me surprised and nodded her head, “Maggie told me- Do you think that the kid could have done this?”

“I don’t know,” she said and I sighed and nodded my head.

-Emma-
It was the next day, Abby, Dana and I were waiting outside of the ICU door with other family members, we had been here for hours and wanted to know what was going on with our loved ones. A few nurses and doctors had walked out of the room, but no one was giving us answers.

The Blackhawk Coach was leaning against the wall with Corey Crawford, they were just staring off into space when we head the Coach being called, we all looked down the hall to see a few parents of the players coming. The Coach sighed, pushed himself off of the wall and headed towards them. I’m pretty sure what he was going to tell them he was going to pull out of his ass, he didn’t have a statement ready and he didn’t have any useful information for the parents to make them feel better.

Dana got a text this morning from Maggie’s parents saying that they were on their way and would be in Chicago that afternoon. I know Jon’s parents would be here soon, but I didn’t have their number, so there was no way for me to contact them, I figured they would just call Wirtz and he would talk to them. Troy was asleep on my lap and I was so tired from lack of sleep, that I might fall asleep just by sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall.

The boys and Maggie had been in that ICU room for almost twelve hours and no one had heard a single thing. We were all pretty upset and just about to start a riot, when a doctor walked over and stood in front of the doors, asking for everyone’s attention. The doctor told us that only immediate family was going to be allowed to enter the room, all of the players were stable and that all would be explained. Two police officers showed up wanting to talk to the Coach and Crawford, hoping that either of them would be able to shed some light on this situation.

Parents and wives entered the room, Dana and I weren’t immediate family so we weren’t allowed in the room until Jon and Maggie’s parents showed up. I heard Dana’s name being yelled and we both looked up to see Nick, Maggie’s younger brother, running down the hall. He started shouting off questions, Dana said nothing, just stood up and pushed him towards the door, with his help, we could both get into the room.

I held Troy on my hip as Dana, Nick and I walked into the room, it was a little scary, individual rooms were made with curtains and crying from some mothers and wives were heard. I found Maggie’s name and walked inside and gasped, she was hooked to a tube and an IV bag, none of us still didn’t know what had happened to them.

“I’m going to go and find Jon,” I said and Dana looked at me and nodded her head and I left the little make shift room.

I found Jon’s room and walked inside, he was the same as Maggie, attached to a breathing tube and IV bag. I sat down on the chair, grabbed his hands and held it, just waiting for anything.

-Dana-
“What happened to them?” Nick asked for what was the fifth time.

“I don’t know Nick, she was fine before the game, she was fine half way through the first, but after that, it was like they all were slowing down,” I explained and Nick just sighed and grabbed his sister’s hand.

“Nicky, Dana,” we heard and turned away to see my Aunt and Uncle walking in, “How is she?”

“Stable,” I said and my Aunt walked to the other side of the bed and grabbed Maggie’s other hand.

“Any word on what could have happened?” my Uncle asked and I shook my head, “Let me go have a talk with the Coach.”

“I know there’s a press conference later tonight, I think that they’re going to release then what had happened,” I said and my Aunt and Uncle nodded their heads.

“We’ll be there,” my Uncle said while looking at his son.

I left the room and decided to go three doors down where Pat was, I opened his room and jumped a little, a man and woman were there, I assumed to be his parents. They looked at me confused and asked who I was, “Oh um, I’m just Maggie’s cousin, I didn’t know if you were here, so I wanted to check up on him.”

“Oh, um, how is she?” Mrs. Kane asked and I sighed.

“Same as Pat, I’m afraid,” I said and they nodded their heads.

I was turning to leave when Mr. Kane’s voice stopped me, “You said you were Maggie’s cousin? Does that make you Dana?”

“Um, yeah, that’s me.”

“Congrats at making the NHL,” he said and I gave him a small smile and nodded my head, “My son talks about you Marshall's all the time.”

“Your son is a good friend of mine, taught me some of his moves when I was still in high school,” I said and Mrs. Kane smiled.

“Let us know when Maggie wakes up,” Mrs. Kane said and I nodded my head and then left to head back to Maggie.

“Pat’s parents are here,” I said and my Aunt and Uncle nodded their heads and then my Uncle left the room, I assumed to talk to Pat’s parents.

When night came, my Uncle and Nick left along with some others to head over towards the arena for the press conference, there they were going to find out what had happened to the Chicago Blackhawks team. The news was all over the NHL, World News, Local news, everywhere. Fans, other teams, and other athletes of all kinds were sending their prayers for the players over the internet.

I looked at the clock on my phone and saw that it was after seven at night, the press conference would be starting. I turned on my phone and decided to use my data to watch this thing with my Aunt, we wanted to know what was happening to our loved ones.

-Nick-
My dad and I sat in the crowd and looked up at the stage, the NHL commissioner, the Blackhawks owner and Coach, along with the Police chief and one of the doctors sat in front of their own microphones and awaited questions from reporters and loved ones of the players.

During the press conference we learned that the players were poisoned via mouth consumption, the contents of the poison still unknown, they were still doing tests and trying to find something to fight the poison. The players were on anti-biotic and being watched over twenty four, seven.

As to how the poison got there, they believed that it was somehow placed in the players’ mouth guards, all the players except the goaltenders worn them, that’s why Crawford and Raanta weren’t affected. People asked who would do this, the police chief answered they had a suspect and we’re doing everything in their power to capture him, which meant that the suspect was still lose. The Commissioner announced that all of the Blackhawks games were postponed and hoped that the players would have a full recovery. The owner and Coach didn’t say anything during the conference, nothing of any use at least.

My dad and I left and headed back to the hospital, we found mom and Dana huddled around Dana’s phone, we knew that they had watched the press conference and mom looked like she was crying.

“I want to know who the son of a bitch was that poisoned our daughter!” my mother growled, “I can’t lose her too!”

“You won’t honey, she’ll be all right,” my father tried to comfort my mother, “She’s a fighter.”