Chapter 39

The days began to pass in a blur, the Pens won most of the November games and before I knew it December was here. It was already 11th December and I was at the game watching the Pens play against the Islanders when Tyler got a bad hit, he went off the ice and did not return so I made my way down to the locker room to find him with the team doctor. They ran various tests on him, took x-rays etc. before he was told that he had injured his knee in a bad way and would be put in the injured reserve list for the next few weeks. I knew tonight would not be good.

The Pens won the game 9-2 so needless to say they wanted to go out and celebrate and despite being told to stay at home and rest Tyler insisted on going out too.

We all made our way to Diesel and went straight to the VIP, the guys all went straight to the bar except Tyler who gave his order to Sid and came down to sit with us girls, he was given crutches so he was hobbling about and he managed to get his leg up when we found somewhere to sit, I knew he was in pain but he was so angry with himself for getting hurt.

As the evening progressed the boys all got drunker by the minute, Lorna was up dancing with some of the people from the office, one of the guys was flirting with her and I could see Sid getting really annoyed so I went over to him to calm him down, every time I see him drunk I am reminded of the night he hurt me and I am so scared of him doing the same thing to Lorna.

I stood in front of him as he stood looking out at the dance floor, the dance floor is set lower then the remainder of the room so I stood just at the top of the few steps leading down to it.

“Hey Sid, how are you?” I ask in a friendly tone. This music is loud so he leans down to speak in my ear.

“I was great until my girlfriend decided to flirt with some bloke right in front of my face.” His voice was even angrier than his expression and I could smell the alcohol on his breath, this was not going to turn out well.

I turned to look at Lorna who was laughing as she ran her hands through her hair. I could tell she had had too much to drink but she was enjoying herself, she would never cheat on Sidney, she loves him so much.

“Sid, she is having fun, she would never do anything to hurt you, she is drunk just like you are.” I put my hands on his arms which turned out to be a very bad idea.

“Gill for fuck sake, why do you insist in sticking your nose in everything that has nothing to do with you, do you not remember that we had this discussion before and I told you under no uncertain circumstances to stay out of my business.”

I took my hands off him and went to turn away, “I really don’t like the person you turn into when you are drunk Sidney, if you dare lay a hand on Lorna you will not even know what has hit you.”

I turned my back to him and before I could react he pushed me with full force, I fell down the steps and landed awkwardly and instantly knew something in my foot was broken. I looked up at Sidney and could see that suddenly he was very alert and knew exactly what he had done, the music stopped and people were coming to help me.

“Gill” Sid said as he leaned down to me. “I am so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Just get away from me” I growled as I tried to stand up and failed miserably. Suddenly I saw Tyler there handing me his crutches.

“Here, take these, I have only had one drink so I will take you to the hospital.” I shook my head no.

“You need them Tyler, I will not be responsible for your injury worsening because of me, get Geno and see if he will help me up and out to the car.”

Someone got Geno and I watched as Tyler spoke to Sid, I could not hear what was being said but I knew that he was threatening him, the look on his face was pure hatred and it scared me, I had never seen Tyler so angry and I cannot be responsible for causing a rift between him and his team captain.

I felt a presence beside me and noticed that Geno had appeared.

“Hey Geno, can you please help me up and support my weight until I get to the car, it is just parked down the street.” I ask as I look into his big brown eyes.

“You no walk Gill, I carry.” His broken English gets me every time even through the escalating pain. He picked me up bridal style with no particular effort and carried me out of the club, as soon as I was off the dance floor the music started up again as if nothing had happened.

Once we reached the car he placed me in the passenger’s seat and went round to Tyler who was getting in the drivers seat.

“I drive TK, you hurt, I no want you in pain, I no drink.”

“Thanks Geno.” I hear Tyler saying before climbing in the back of the car.

“Gill, what happen?” Geno asks and before I got a chance to answer Tyler spoke.

“That fucking idiot Sid pushed her, that is the second time he has hurt her, I let it go the last time because Gill made me promise not to hurt him saying that she could handle it herself but he is not getting away with it again, this time he pays.”

They both discussed it further, each getting angrier so I switched my mind off, closing my eyes I drifted in and out of sleep not sure if I am in shock from the excruciating pain or if I am just tired, soon we arrived at the hospital. Again Geno carried me into A&E and I was seen straight away, I am guessing that was to do with the fact that Tyler Kennedy and Evgeni Malkin were in my company.

They x-rayed my foot and they confirmed my suspicions that indeed it was broken, there were actually 4 bones broken and 2 fractured bones and they estimated that I would be in plaster for approximately 6 months. ‘Great’, I thought to myself.

They plastered me up and handed me some crutches and I instantly started laughing. I hobbled out to the waiting room to Tyler and Geno and was still giggling to myself.

“What on earth can you be laughing at?” Tyler asks as he hobbles over to me.

“Look at us” I answer. “You get injured and need crutches, a few hours later I end up with a broken foot and also end up on crutches. We are some pair.”

Geno and Tyler too started laughing as they see the funny side of us both getting hurt.

Geno took us home and said that if we needed anything to give him a call. He is a good guy.

I switched on my mobile phone to see that I had loads of missed calls and messages from everyone asking if I was ok.

I called most people back with the exception of Sidney and Lorna, I didn’t know how to deal with that so I decided to wait until the morning.

Tyler and I curled up the best we could in bed.

“I am sorry I wanted to go out tonight Gill, if I had not been so stubborn and just went home to rest like I was told then this would never have happened.” Tylers eyes were full of worry and I knew he was blaming himself.

“Tyler, don’t be silly, you wanted to go out and celebrate with your friends, I understand that. I never for one moment expected this to happen. While we are talking about this I want to say something…

“Please don’t get angry with Sidney, he is your team captain and no matter what he does to me you cant let that get in the way of your game and the way you play with him. I know it hurts you a great deal to see him hurt me but believe me it would hurt me a hell of a lot more if this hurt you and your game. Please just leave it and let me deal with it.”

“It is not going to be easy Gill but I understand what you are saying, Geno and I talked about it when we were waiting at the hospital and we need to swallow our anger and keep being professional, I am going to tell him that I am not happy with him but because he is the teams captain I will keep my anger at bay but if he dares to hurt you again Gill I am not sure how I will react.” His voice was raising and I knew he was going to have a hard time controlling this.

“You can talk to him about it, I don’t mind that but please keep the threat off the end of it.”

We changed the subject and somehow managed to fall asleep and let me tell you, sleeping with a cast on has to be one of the most uncomfortable ways to sleep.

Chapter 38

As I sit in my home office I hear my mobile phone ringing, I follow the noise as I could not remember where I left the phone and when I eventually find it the ringing has stopped and it beeps to signal I have a message.

“Hey hunny, so I guess you are not talking to me, I am not sure what I have done wrong but I would really like to see you, if I don’t hear from you in the next half an hour I will just see you after the game tomorrow but I would like to come round tonight. Anyway, talk to you soon hunny, love you.”

I called him back laughing at him being so worried for no apparent reason.

“Hey” he answered almost immediately “is everything ok?”

“Everything is fine, I could not find my phone and once I did you had already left a message. If you are coming round can you bring some food with you, I can’t be bothered cooking and my guess is you have probably not eaten all day.” I ask trying to sound cheery.

“Na I have not eaten, sure I will go and get some pizza and head round, can I sleep at yours? Are you angry with me?” His voice is still worried.

“I am not angry, I just don’t take very well to people who feel sorry for themselves when they are ill due to their own stupidity and I had to look after you all last night, take everyone back to their hotel rooms and put them to bed even after I had a busy day at work and still had to get up early and do another long day while you guys slept it off not even remembering the fact that I got very little sleep because I was so worried that you would all choke on your own vomit! Right, rant over, I will say no more about it, go and get some pizza and I will see you soon.”

I felt bad for having a go at him but drunk and hungover people are something that I can just not cope with very well, being someone that does not drink a great deal it is hard being a round people who do.

Tyler soon arrived with pizza and we sat and ate and when we had finished Tyler turned to face me.

“Gill I am sorry, I never realised just how bad we were last night, I never meant to be an arse and I am sure that if the other guys knew about you looking after them they would be so apologetic too, I never meant the night to get so out of hand, I think it all just came back to us about the cup being taken away from us by Detroit after we were so close to making our dreams come true. I am so sorry Gill.”

“Look Tyler, please don’t worry about it, it is in the past.

“I never got the chance to tell you that my family is coming over at Christmas, I don’t know all the details yet but they will most likely be staying here.” I try to push to the back of my mind about the night before, I was not angry as such, I guess I am just too much of a worrier.

“Oh wow that is cool, I can’t wait to meet them, I will meet them wont I?” His eyes are wide with anticipation, his infectious grin spreading across his face.

“Yeah, you will meet them, I will probably try to get them tickets for a game when they are here but if I were you I would not be getting too excited, they don’t exactly approve of me.” I settle down into him knowing that it will probably be a long night as I explain my history with my family.

“Why do they not approve of you, is it because of me?” His face is full of worry again.

“No, they didn’t even know about you until today, we don’t exactly keep up. When I was still back in Scotland I had a long term boyfriend when I was at university but he cheated on me and it broke my heart, he tried to get me not to break up with him but I couldn’t stay with someone who did that to me, well my Mum and Dad sided with my ex and they could not understand why I did not want him back, they were really angry with me and things were pretty tense. To take my mind off my broken heart and unsupportive parents I looked into starting my own company, I spoke to some advisers and they told me that if I was to open a publishing company in Britain they would be very surprised if it was to make a profit and therefore I could not find anyone to fund the business. I looked into the publishing industry in more detail and realised that if I wanted this to work then I had to come to America so I re-wrote my business plan, went back to the advisers and they agreed that this was the best way forward, ideally they wanted to me go to New York but as much as I liked the city I didn’t want to stay there, when I first said Pittsburgh to them they initially shot me down but after they looked into it a bit more they agreed and we set the ball rolling. I went to my parents house that night and explained to them what we were doing and asked them if they would like to move with me if everything worked out.

“My brothers girlfriend was pregnant at the time and everyone was pretty excited and so I was accused of trying to steal the lime light from them, they went completely mad at me and said some pretty horrible things so I packed my bags, spoke to the my advisers and left for Pittsburgh without telling anyone or even getting in contact and no one looked for me until a few months later when my visa was accepted and my the offices were getting built.

“I wrote a letter to everyone and told them that the company was to open within the next couple of months and that I hoped that they could see things from my point of view. I set up a trust fund for my nephew and sent over some things for him, I eventually got a letter in return telling me that he was fine and they gave me a picture of him. I had never heard from them again until I checked my email the day we arrived in Detroit.

“It breaks my heart to think that they hate me, I never wanted things to be like this, they are my family and I love them but they hurt me so badly and I am dreading seeing them. Little Cameron is already nearly 2 and I have never seen him, we all used to be so close, my mum knew everything there was to know about me and they took it all away from me.”

I looked up at Tyler, tears streaming down my face and he was looking at me with so much emotion, I knew that he was hurting for me.

“Gill, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to dredge up the past, I hope everything will be ok when they are here. The fact that they are coming over at Christmas is a good sign, maybe they want to make amends.”

We talked for a while longer before heading off to bed for a good nights sleep but my night was riddled with nightmares, I needed to stop thinking about the up and coming visit or it would drive me insane.