The Three C's

After being attacked by the guys, each of them hugging me tighter than the last, the girls and I headed upstairs to get ready for the dinner, taking Madelyn and Saddie with us, because just like Abby said, they’re dresses were messed up.

“Good thing I packed extra,” she said and I smiled, “Should have just had them come in play clothes, what was I thinking?”

“Ok, we have an hour before we need to be at the United Center,” I said and the girls nodded their heads.

“It’s a good thing there’s things called being fashionably late,” Emma said and I giggled and nodded my head.

“How are you feeling, Maggie?” Abby asked as she watched me take one of the pills that the doctor prescribed to Pat and I, we had to take it for a month to guarantee that the poison was seriously out of our system.

“I’m doing better, this is just-“

“I know, Pat takes them,” Abby said and I nodded my head, “It just reminded me and I wanted to know.”

I sighed and looked at them, “My muscles cramp up sometimes, but I’ve been doing pretty well,” I said and then headed over towards my closet and grabbed all of our dresses.

I wore a strapless light blue satin long dress, it hug me in all the right places and I really liked this dress. I knew me wearing it and standing next to Pat, it was really going to make his eyes pop. My hair and make up was already finished, I had gotten it done at the spa. I just had to slip on my dress, throw on my black pumps and then place my silver bangles Pat got me for Christmas and then the hockey necklace that Pat had gotten me for our first Valentine’s Day.

“You look beautiful, Maggie,” Abby said and I looked at her and smiled.

“Thank you, you do too!” I said, she was wearing a knee length tight black dress with silver pumps, they matched the clip in her hair and her jewelry. She was in the middle of helping Madelyn get her dress on, “Where’s Emma?”

“Bathroom, Troy had to go,” Abby said and I nodded my head, “He’s not happy about his suit.”

“I heard him crying,” I giggle and Abby smiled, “Well, you two look really pretty.”

“Thank you, Auntie Maggie,” Saddie and Madelyn said and I smiled and then walked over towards the bathroom and knocked on the door.

“It’s opened!” Emma called and I walked in and saw Troy standing on the counter and giggling as Emma tied Troy’s tie.

“Aw, he looks so cute,” I said and Emma giggled.

“I know, but I can’t get the stupid tie- Should have just went with the clip on,” she said and then sighed and placed Troy on the ground, “Go downstairs and get Jon to put your tie on, ok?”

“Ok,” he said and then headed out of the room, I ruffled his hair as he passed me.

“You look pretty,” I said, seeing Emma in a long flowing red dress that had lace covering her arms, shoulders and above her breasts.

“Thanks,” she said and then walked over and hugged me, “I love you, Maggie,” she said out of the blue and I hugged her back.

“I love you too, Em,” I laughed.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said and I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

“You’re smart, you’d find a way,” I said and then we walked out of the bathroom and decided to head downstairs to meet the guys who were hopefully ready to go.

-Kane-
When the guys had come, they placed their suits in the spare bedroom that was downstairs and when it was almost time to go, we were going to all get ready. I had my tux on and was fixing my hair in the hallway mirror when Troy came down the stairs with his tie in hand.

“Uncle Pat, do you know where daddy is?” he asked and my eyes widened.

“Um, Jon?” I asked and he nodded his head, “Try in the living room, buddy.”

“Ok, thank you,” he said and then ran passed me.

I watched him and then followed him, finding him run right over towards Jon and jump onto his lap, laughing and then I smirked, seeing a smile on Jon’s face. Troy help up the tie and Jon nodded his head, I figured out why Troy came down.

I walked up the stairs towards the master bedroom, hearing giggling and voices, I knew the girls were in there. Just as I was about to knock on the door to see if it was safe to go in, Maggie opened it and we almost bumped into each other.

“Whoops,” Maggie giggled and then looked up at me, “Pat, are you ready?”

“You look hot,” I smirked and Maggie smiled brightly.

“I know right,” she giggled and the girls behind her pretended to be gagging.

“Can I talk to you really quick?” I asked and she looked at me confused and nodded her head.

“We’ll meet you guys downstairs,” Abby said and then pushed Emma along and I watched them head downstairs.

“So what’s up?” Maggie asked and I looked at her, I wanted to ask her if she knew that Troy was calling Jon ‘dad’, but I don’t know why I couldn’t. I couldn’t make the question come out and when I thought about it, I didn’t know if it was going to hurt her.

“Nothing, I just wanted to see you before we left,” I said quickly and then grabbed her and pressed my lips against hers.

“Whoa, well,” she giggled and then pushed me off a little, “Wait until after, you have no idea how long it took to do this.”

“All right, I’m gunna hold you to that,” I said and she smiled brightly and nodded her head and then leaned up and pressed her lips against mine.

“COME ON LOVEBIRDS!” we heard from downstairs and then laughed a little and headed down the stairs.

She was in front of me and I just kept asking myself, ‘…How would she react? Would she be sad? It was her brother….’

-Maggie-
We all got to the arena, there were already teams there, Coach told us to go to the locker room, while the dates made their ways to the tables. We were all going to go in at once when we were announced.

Everyone sat in front of their lockers, it was quiet, we were just listening to the commotion outside, wondering what was going on. Coach came back in a few minutes later and told us to follow him, we did and walked over towards where we would come out onto the glass.

“Four weeks ago, a terrible thing happened to one of out teams, they were in recovery for two weeks, and slowly getting back to practicing,” the commission said, standing on the stage and looking out at the twenty nine teams and their guests, “I am happy to say that our team is back, so please stand and give a round of applause for the Chicago Blackhawks, for pulling through and showing us how tough they are.”

We all walked out onto the stage and looked out at everyone, I was standing in-between Pat and Sharpie, Pat had his fingers laced with mine and tucked behind us. Coach said a few words and then called Jon over to say some, but before he went to the microphone, I pulled him over.

“Make sure you thank the Hurricanes medical staff,” I said and Jon looked at me and nodded his head.

He went on and on about what it was like in the hospital, played a small tribute to the rookie that we lost and then looked at me and then back into the crowd, “And on behalf of myself and my teammates, we’d like to thank the Hurricane medical staff, for helping us on the ice when our mates were down and our staff couldn’t get to them.”

The guys and I started to clap, wanting the medical team for the Hurricanes to stand up and accept our thank you, soon the whole room was standing and clapping and I felt Pat bump into me and smile. Jon turned around and nodded his head towards me and flashed me a smile.

We left the stage and took our seats at the tables that were assigned to us, I was sitting with my teammates and their wives and girlfriends. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Dana sitting behind me, I looked at her and smiled and then finger tapped her. I saw that she was sitting with Jared, Eric and Jordan and I smiled towards them.

I got up and walked over towards Jordan, pulled him up and hugged him tight, “I hear I owe you my life,” I said and Jordan’s face turned red.

“No, I didn’t do anything,” he said and I smiled towards him, “Doc did it.”

“You pulled me over towards him when I stopped breathing,” I said and Jordan looked at me, “You helped save me too,” he just stood there looking at me, I kissed his cheek and wrapped my arms around his waist, “Thank you, Gronk.”

“Anything to help my favorite teammate,” he said and hugged me back, I giggled, remembering that when we were teammates, we confused that we were each other’s favorites, “Love you, Mags.”

“Love you too, Jordy.”