The Day Has Come (Counting on Hockey #4)

Chapter 22: Corner

Tonight, the team plays the Bruins tonight. It's our first game against them this season, and I have a weird feeling about tonight's game. I have no idea why. The Bruins have been really good this year, and both teams are on a ten game win streak. We finally have some competition, but the Wild have to do their best to fend off Boston to keep our streak.

I arrive in my office and start to collect my things I need for the game. A notebook, three pens, a granola bar, and a recorder, in case I have to talk to anybody and I don't have time to write it down. I shove it into a small messenger bag I carry around the stadium, then head down to the locker rooms. Cole and the Wild are already getting ready, and I have to meet Noah for a quick conference, given permission by Coach Julien.

I ask Noah a couple of questions, then Coach Julien another couple. I thank them and they head back into their locker room. I walk back into the Wild's locker room and sit behind Cole, in his stall. It's perfect spot for me when everyone is rushing around, since I'm not in the way, and it's close to the middle, so I can hear everything that I need to.

I stay and chat with our head trainer, John, before I go out and take my spot in the corner behind the bench on the ice. The guys skate around, and before I know it, the anthem is played, and Noah and Cole come over to me. I stand in the open bench gate and give Noah a hug, and he skates off to take his place for puck drop. Cole places a kiss on my lips before positioning the helmet on his head and skates to center for puck drop.

The game goes as normal, though I still feel as if something is going to happen. I have this weird feeling that something is going to happen to our players. A hit, a bad check, a huge penalty, something.

We get to the second period, and the Bruins are ahead 3-2. Noah, and Zdeno Chara, scored a goal on us about five minutes into the first period. Coyle scored both of the goals for us, and they were both amazing shots. I take my normal notes, then my feeling gets stronger as the fifteenth minutes of the second period.

I watch the ice carefully as our first line, which includes Cole, skate out onto the ice. The Bruins first line switch out onto the ice as well. A Bruins defense man takes the puck and shred ice under his skates as he turns back towards our goal. Cole picks up speed and gets right up next to him. The Bruin tries to pass across Cole, but fails, letting Cole have possession of the puck. I watch Zdeno Chara carefully. It's him. He's the one, I think to myself.

Chara skates for Cole. I start to tap my foot anxiously. Cole is close to the boards and Chara is right behind him, trying to get his stick to the puck without tripping Cole.

"Get out of it, Cole", I murmur to myself.

As if in slow motion, Chara pushes Cole in the boards, hard. Cole trips and his head is the first thing to hit the board. The ref blows the whistle as Cole falls to the ice. He doesn't move and our other players on the ice skate over to him. Noah skates by, lifting the helmet off of his head. Even before our medic, Dr. Burns, rushes out onto the ice, I open the gate and slide/run over to Cole. Noah skates next to me to keep me from falling.

I fall to my knees next to Cole, and Dr. Burns helps me turn him over to his back. Everything goes silent around me. The sounds fade out, and all I can hear is my own heart beating. 

"Meredith", someone yells, in muffled voices. My hearing comes back to me. "Meredith".

I snap out of my trance. "What?"

"You have better hearing than I do. Can you hear anything through his equipment?" Burns asks me. 

I bow my head down to Cole's chest, placing my left ear over his equipment. With my minor in college for sports medicine, one of the first things my emergency medicine professor taught me was how to hear the heartbeat through hockey equipment. I try to focus on just his beat. It's light and slow, not a normal rate. It's tough in a stadium of ten thousand people.

"It's...It's slow. Maybe just below normal, not counting the activity", I say to him. He shakes his head in disappointment. 

The door in the corner of the boards opens and EMT's rush onto the ice. They pick Cole's unconscious body and drop it softly onto the gurney. The EMT's rush back off the ice and through the tunnels of the stadium. I stand up from the ice and I look back to see Noah, with the most grim face I've ever seen on him wear.

"Come on, Meredith", I hear Dr. Burns say from behind me. I turn and he's already heading back to the bench and through the tunnels. I nod to myself and turn to Noah, who still stares at me. 

"Come on. We should get back. You need to win this", I say to Noah, trying my hardest to smile, but it doesn't work. I walk back and Noah skates slowly beside me. Our team's players skate back to the ice and start where they had left off. We no longer have a first line center. 

I don't even think about anything else when I walk through the tunnels and into the Wild's locker room. I'm sure Cole is already in the ambulance, and it's my job to stay here until the game is over. 

I just need a minute.