Fire & Ice - Chapter 18: Chapter 18

After our trip to visit Cassie's home town last weekend Cassie seemed lighter. It was like the last few walls she had up around herself have come down. Just watching her full of life put a smile on my face. While I was at the rink at practice I asked the owner if he knew about any sled hockey teams in the area or leagues even. When he came back with a list of a few leagues and teams and a place to get a new sled I thanked him so much.
I didn't tell Cassie about the information I got because this week went by so quickly and before I knew it I was suiting up to get ready for our first home game against Ohio State. I knew today would be a rough game as Tatiana has been running her mouth online. The Ohio State social media team has been eating up our rivalry and I had a bad feeling about the game tonight. Not only was it Halloween, the guys team is hosting a party tonight and most of our team is going. I don't know if everyone is as dialed into this game as I am. I know one person out of sorts could lead to the downfall of our unbeaten season.
As I pulled on my home reds and grabbed my helmet I was ready to go all out for this game. I made sure my eye black was on before walking down the tunnel to take warmups with my team. I tried to pay no attention to the team on the other side of the red line and go through my warmups. For the first time this season our game was a sell out and I could hear the gentle roar of the crowd as we skated around for practice.
Practice went by without issue and before I went back down the tunnel I was able to find Cassie in the stands cheering me on. I pointed to her and gave her a wave before hopping off the ice and walking down the tunnel.
After my initial freak out about my love confession, Becca and Stacey have been peppering me with more questions about my relationship with Cassie. Even though I usually kept my relationships private, I opened up a bit more about it to them. After a really long phone call with my mom and an even longer conversation about my feelings with Dr. Ellis, they both thought that being more open about my relationship will be helpful for me to try and shake the long lasting effects of my father.
As we got together in the locker room I pulled my helmet off my head and looked around the room. Most of the other women here were talking about the party tonight and the nagging feeling in my chest continued to grow. I clenched my jaw and took a few deep breaths as coach Decker came into the locker room and went over a few last minute things before the game started. When he was finished we all got ready and walked down the tunnel into the arena to be greeted by the sellout crowd.
Coach Decker called out my line to take the opening faceoff and we all hopped over the boards. I skated over to the faceoff circle and was meet with Tatiana. She smirked at me as I got close.
"Ready to get embarrassed?" Tatiana asked and bent down.
"Speak for yourself Tat." I said as the referee dropped the puck and I won the faceoff from her. I passed it up to Toni and she took it up into the offensive zone while I pushed myself away from Tatiana.
Our game plan is going to be for me to just be glued to Tatiana's side at all times. It's going to be rough but I'm up for the challenge. With all the shared history we have, I know that I know all of her tricks and I wasn't going to let her score today, not in my house.
The first shift on the ice was uneventful as we were just trying to get a feel for how physical this game was going to be between our teams. So far things weren't too bad but I know that can change at a moment's notice, and it did as I tried to get off the ice. Tatiana gave me a good shove that sent me flying into our bench and it almost caused a fight right out of the gate. I gave her glare as I took my seat on the bench.
The first period went by and watching from the bench as our other lines went out onto the ice I could tell most of them were distracted. But then all the distractions finally caught up with us as Ohio State scored with 5 minutes left the in first. Coach Decker was yelling from the bench at our team as Ohio State came by after their high fives.
The rest of the period went by without a goal and we went into the tunnel down a goal. As we got into the locker room I was fuming. Tatiana was constantly on my ass and it made it hard for me to get anything going offensively but the rest of my line was having some success in getting shots on goal while the rest of our team was getting pummeled by Ohio State. I finally had enough.
Just as we all got to our lockers I pulled my helmet off and almost threw it into my seat before looking around the room.
"We are here to play a game, what the hell was that? Everyone is distracted and nobody was playing good at all. Now we are down a goal against Ohio State and they are only going to get worse as the game goes along." I yelled. Everyone looked taken back at my outburst but I didn't care.
"If this is because of the party later tonight, none of us should be going. These games are important, especially because we are going to be seeing them in the playoffs. We need to set the tone. This is our house and I won't let them come in here and out play us." I yelled at everyone.
It looked like everyone was finally starting to get the message and they seemed to get dialed in for the rest of the game. Coach Decker came in and gave us some pointers on players and new plays to run before we were all heading back down the tunnel for the second period.
Things seemed to turn around for my team in the second period. It looked like the fight was back into the team. But it didn't translate to goals. My team was able to get Tatiana off my back long enough for me to make a few good plays but Ohio States goalie was better this game then the first time we faced her. She stopped all our shots and we went back down the tunnel still down by a goal. I tried not to let my frustration with the team show when we got to sit in our lockers but Coach Decker beat me too it. He let us have it for our sloppy play and when he was done yelling Coach Jackie came in with some new plays for us to try in the third. We need two goals to win the game so we needed to score quickly into the third period to give ourselves a fighting chance against Ohio State.
With some more fight in us we went back down the tunnel to the ice for the third period. I didn't even let coach call out which line would take the opening faceoff. Once I got onto the ice I wasn't coming off. I went right into the circle and was met with Tatiana once again. Overall, we have won an even amount of faceoffs this game and I needed to win this one off the bat to set the tone for the third. The referee came over and got in between us and got set to drop the puck.
"You could never take losing on home ice Mac, ready for another one?" Tatiana asked. I clenched my jaw and grabbed my stick harder and didn't respond. The referee dropped the puck and I got the puck to Becca on the wing to take into the zone. Just as we were getting out of the circle I made sure the referees weren't looking at me and I gave Tatiana a hard shove down onto the ice when she wasn't expecting it and took off into the zone.
Just like I thought, the crowd went nuts and I heard a lot of yelling from Ohio State's bench about the non-call but I didn't care. I had an opening as I skated into the zone. Toni saw me coming in hot and past me the puck. Just as I got the puck to settle down on my stick I looked up and saw Ohio State's goalie was at the top of her crease. I picked my shot and pulled my stick back to shoot the pick and let the puck fly. The puck hit the back of the net and the crowd went crazy as I started to slow down.
As I came around the side of the goal I was still going pretty fast and I had to really dig my skates into the ice to try and stop and not go full speed into the boards. Just as I started to turn to get back to my team I saw someone in white fly in right behind me, not trying to stop. The next thing I knew I was crunched into the boards with a stick to my ribs and I fell right to the ice as the wind was knocked out of me. It took a few second to get a breath in and when I started to get up from the ice Marissa was kneeling in front of me.
"You okay McKenna?" Marissa asked as she helped me to my knees.
"Yea, the wind got knocked out of me." I said and coughed and spit up the flehm from my lungs. When I did, that's when I tasted the blood in my mouth. Marissa pulled the snaps holding my face guard in place and pulled my helmet off as I took a glove off.
"I think you bit your lip when you were hit." Marissa said and looking at my lip. "You need to get to the bench so I can look at it better and clean it out. Can you stand?"
"Yup, I'm good." I said and slowly got to my feet. Once I was standing again I turned to face the ice and found a lot of sticks and gloves on the ice along with a few of my teammates in the penalty box.
"What the hell happened?" I asked and picked up my glove from the floor taking in the seen.
"Everyone went after Tatiana for hitting you, come on Mac, to the bench, go right down the tunnel so I can look at your ribs too." Marissa said and grabbed my helmet from the ice.
I skated towards the bench and looked up to the crowd and saw Cassie standing on a bleacher with Chad's arm wrapped around her. I gave her a thumbs up before throwing both of my arms up to pump up the crowd a little bit before I got off the ice and went down the tunnel. Marissa had me clean my mouth out and she saw where I bit my lip. There was nothing we could do for it but just replacing gauze to keep the blood from going into my mouth. My ribs will definitely be bruised the next few weeks but with some extra padding I'll be back out the ice without issue.
Once I was cleaned up Marissa let me go back down the tunnel to the bench and I took a seat. Coach filled me in on the penalty's and where he wanted me to go for the rest of the game. Once I had my orders and my line mates were released from the box I joined them back on the ice. They were happy to see me back on the ice and we went right back to work. Stacey took over trying to guard Tatiana while I just tried to be the play maker. We were hoping that because Ohio State thought I already scored the first goal that I would be pressing to score a second so they would double team me, leaving one of my teammates open to score.
It didn't take long for our thought to be put into action. Tatiana came off Stacey and rush right towards me and left her wide open. I made sure that Tatiana and the Ohio State defender were both on me before passing the puck towards Stacey. She pinched in from the blue line and fired a rocket of a shot right on goal that the Ohio State goalie could not stop. The puck sailed right into the back of the net and the arena went crazy. Our line quickly got off the ice after the goal was scored to avoid Ohio State from starting anything.
As the time continued to count down our defense stepped up. After the second goal was scored Coach Decker pulled me from my line and had me ride the bench for a while. He didn't want to risk anything else happening on the ice between Tatiana and I. Things got a bit hairy during the last two minutes of the game as Ohio State pulled their goalie. Their team ended up getting a lot of shots on net but none of them got past our goalie. We were all pretty excited when the final horn sounded and we won the game. We definitely didn't deserve this win but we worked hard for it. Tomorrow is going to be another tough game and hopefully my team will be able to pick it up.
After we got back into the locker room we all started to change and hit the showers. It didn't take long after the game for me to start to feel the pain in my ribs and once I got into the shower I saw the damage first hand. The skin on the lower left side of my rib cage is already an angry purple and I know it will only get worse tomorrow.
When I got out of the shower and got dress Marissa wrapped a bandage around my ribs to help keep them stable and told me to ice it a lot tonight. She finally sent me on my way with the speech of it something doesn't feel right to call right away and I grabbed my hat and left the locker room. Most of the girls were still going to the party tonight but all I wanted to do is go back to the dorm and relax. As I came down the tunnel I saw Cassie pacing with a nervous looking Travis standing next to her. Chad was even with them standing right behind Cassie trying to not to watch down the tunnel.
"Hey" I said and all three of their heads turn to me. I barely made it a few more steps before Cassie came running towards me. She through her arms around my neck and sighed once I wrapped my arms around her waist. After a few more moments Cassie pulled her arms away from my neck and used her hands to cradle my face. Her thumb very carefully ran just under my split lip before her eyes connected with mine.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice sounding like it was on the verge of tears.
"I have a nasty bruise and it hurts to breath but I'll live." I said and gave her a small smile to try and convince her I was alright. Cassie's eyes bounced back and forth between mine before she sighed and leaned in to give me a gentle kiss on the lips.
When Cassie pulled away from the kiss she backed up a bit and Travis moved right in her place. He looked me over himself before pulling me into a hug. When he pulled away from me I was also greeted by Chad. It looked like he was trying to settle his anger as he pulled me into a quick side hug. I just accepted the hug and when it was over I returned to Cassies side. I took her hand in mine and we slowly made our way towards the exit. But of course as we got to the doors we saw that Ohio State was waiting for their bus back to their hotel for the night.
"Oh fuck" I mumbled but it was no use, we needed to go past them to walk back to our dorm room.
"Well look who it is, the resident superstar." I heard Tatiana say and push past her teammates that were trying to block her.
"Have a good night Tat" I said and tried to walk past her but there was no use.
"Oh where you going superstar? You sure have a lot to say on the ice but once we get off you go all quiet. Nah that's not how I remember you. Back home you were a real hot head. Oh wait, that was until your daddy bumped your head."
I saw red. I pulled my hand away from Cassie and got right in Tatiana's face. She had this smirk on her face like she was begging for me to take a swing at her.
"You really need to learn how to shut your mouth Tat before I beat your ass again or have you forgotten about the party?" I said trying really hard not to swing at her.
"McKenna, let's go" Just like a siren call, Cassies' voice broke through my anger and I slowly let out the breath I was holding to feel the sharp pain in my side. Just as I took a step back both Chad and Travis stepped in front of me as Cassie pulled my hand into hers.
Cassie didn't say anything but just tugged on my hand a little bit more to get me moving away from the situation. When we got a little bit farther down the block the pain really came rushing back and I wrapped my arm around my stomach. Cassie noticed right away and put her hand on my back to force me along the side walk to get back to the dorm faster.
It didn't take too much time to get back to the dorm room and once we got inside Becca, Stacey and Toni were all waiting by our door. They didn't say anything as Cassie pushed me off onto Toni to get the door open. Once it was open we all walked inside. Toni and I walked over to the couch and I slowly sat down.
I closed my eyes and tried not to let Tatiana's comment about my father get to me. It wasn't working so well though. When I opened my eyes Cassie is sitting in front of me on the coffee table. She didn't say anything but lean closer to me and started to lift my shirt. Once she got it where she wanted Becca held it in place. Next Cassie started to undo the wrap and after she got it off all three women gasped at what they saw.
"Mac, I really think you should go to the hospital to make sure none of them are broken." Cassie said before placing a bag of frozen vegetables against my ribs.
"Same, I don't really think there should be a debate about this McKenna, this looks really bad." Toni said and held an actual ice pack to my ribs.
Before I could response there was a knock at the door and Stacey went off to answer it. When she came back it was with Travis and Chad in tow.
"Mama B wants you to go to the hospital, like now. If you don't, she will be on the next flight out here to take you herself." Travis said.
"It's Halloween, don't you guys know how crazy a hospital ER is going to be tonight?" I asked trying to get out of this hospital trip.
"I'm going to call Marissa; she will be able to get you in their quickly without being noticed." Toni said and handed the bag she was holding off to Stacey.
"Let me see" Travis said.
Cassie's eyes connected with mine and I nodded. She pulled the bag away and so did Stacey to relieve the angry bruising.
"You are so going." Travis said after he got a look at it.
It was decided and I had no choice in the matter. Toni came back a few minutes later saying that Marissa is going to come pick me up and that she already had everything set up for us. Cassie put the wrap back on my chest and Chad returned the frozen vegetables to the freezer so they would stop melting. As everyone got ready to go Cassie squeezed my hand and I looked at her. She looked nervous and worried and something was on her mind.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Unity Point Hospital is where I was after the fire. As much as I want to be there for you, I can't go back there Mac, I" Cassie's voice cut out and I pulled her into me.
"Sh, it's okay Cas, it's all good. I won't be there long and I'm coming right back here to you." I said in her ear.
"I'm sorry Mac, I'm sorry" Cassie said.
"Don't apologize, I'll be right back Cas, Toni and Travis will come with me to the hospital while Chad, Becca and Stacey stay here with you. I won't be long." I said trying to calm her down.
Chad was able to help me with that and I was grateful. He took Cassie in his arms as Travis helped me off the couch. Toni helped me into a jacket and we left right after that. Marissa was waiting for us when we got downstairs. The drive to the hospital didn't take long. We pulled right up to the ER entrance and got out. I barely made it two steps before a nurse came over and forced me to sit in a wheelchair.
True to Marissa's word we got in right away and I was brought in to be looked at by a doctor. He took a few moments with me to find out what happen and to take a look at the bruising that seems to keep getting worse every time I look at it. He was gentle when he pressed into the areas around the bruise and it took everything in me not to cry out in pain.
After he was done with his examination he put the order in for some x-rays to make sure nothing is broken. While he stepped out the same nurse who wheeled me into the hospital came back into the room and wrapped a hospital bracelet around my wrist. Once it was in place she took a few vials of blood to be tested as well. Travis actually stepped into the hallway to call my mom again to give her an update. He came back in when the nurse was done with the blood draw and I got to talk to my mom for the first time since the hit. I could hear her voice was thick with emotion and wanting to come out here and be with me through this but I powered through the rest of the phone call and told her I would be okay.
The call didn't last long because the nurse came back to wheel me off to get the x-rays done. It only took a few minutes to do the x-rays and we went right back to the same room I was originally in. Toni and Travis started to talk hockey while we waited for the x-rays to come back and all I wanted was to talk some pain killers and get some sleep. While we were waiting my nurse came in and gave me two big ice packs for my ribs and that helped me numb up the area.
Just as the door opened again a few minutes later all our phones started going off. I watched as Toni pulled her phone and mine out of her pockets and red over the alert.
"Holy shit, NCAA just suspended Tatiana for tomorrow's game." Toni said.
She started to read the press release while the doctor pulled a computer over to my bedside. Marissa came over and the doctor started to go over the x-rays with us. The x-rays didn't find any breaks or fractures or any issues internally, but the doctor wanted to be overly cautious and scheduled me for a CT scan of my chest to make sure there is no bleeding anywhere and to get a better picture of everything going on. The doctor actually waited as Travis helped me up into the wheel chair and came down to the CT room with my nurse.
It didn't take long to get me where they wanted me on the table and into the machine I went. This wasn't my first time being in one and it probably won't be the last. The scan only took about 5 minutes to complete and when I was done my nurse wheeled me back to my room. Once I was back in bed Toni filled me in on everything that happened with Tatiana. NCAA players safety has been watching her play since our first game together and has seen her violent hits, not just on me but also against every other team she has been playing. She leads the league in plenty minutes from those hits too. I guess tonight was finally the straw that broke the camel's back. Tatiana will be suspended for tomorrow's game and their next two games. Hopefully this will teach her to stop playing so aggressively.
The results of the CT scan took another hour to come back. By the time the doctor came back in it was already pushing midnight and I just wanted to sleep. He took a good long look at the CT scan and confirmed there is no breaks, fractures or internal bleeding. He confirmed that I have three bruised ribs from the impact but other than that, everything looked okay. I'm also out again for the next two weeks to give myself time to heal. Once all of that was taken care of he gave me a prescription for some pain killers along with some breathing exercises he wants me to do to get some full deep breaths.
After all the paperwork was signed I was allowed to go home after making a follow up appointment with him for two weeks. By the time we got into the car and on the road it was after 1am. It took all the energy I had left in me to stay awake for the ride back to the dorm. Marissa parked right up front and Travis and Toni both helped me out of the car and up to my dorm. Everything was dark when we got inside. Chad and Cassie are both passed out on the couch with a blanket wrapped around them. We quietly made our way to my room and I asked Toni if she could tell them team what is going on with me. She agreed and Travis gave us a moment so Toni could help me change out of these clothes so I don't smell like hospital.
When I was done Travis came back with a water bottle and the pain killers. Once I got them down they both helped me into bed and propped me up a bit and made sure my phone is plugged in charging before they left me drift off into sleep.