The Lonely Hour

Chapter 2: Center Ice

Here he was, the same drill every time Patrick arrived to Johnny's Ice House. He would pull his white hummer up to the gate and roll his window down and little screams and "hi patrick" would ring into his ears. Patrick would take their sharpies and sign his name sloppy where they asked. Than the gates would open and Patrick would drive in leaving the fans behind for them to be in awe of him. Patrick was beyond thankful for his hockey career, for Chicago and for the fans but to him it always felt like something was missing. There was something inside that hockey wasn't fulfilling.

Patrick parks his hummer in his designated spot in between Andrew Shaw and Duncan Kieth. He tugged on the grey beanie, pulling it down further covering his forehead. Maybe October wasn't the appropriate weather for it but his hair didn't care. Opening the middle console, Patrick pulled out his ID before opening the car door and heading towards the rink. He flashes his ID to the tall stalky doorman and he moved out of the way to let the Hawks star in. Patrick turns down the familiar hallways before reaching the locker room. Jonny, captain of the hawks, is standing there putting on his chest pads and next to him is Andrew who is murmuring to him. Sharp is across the room bumping his head along to whatever music is coming out of his head phones.

Patrick heads to his stall where all his gear is hug neatly. Opening his seat, he finds his grey under armor pants and shirt were folded there. He took his time changing into them before he pulled his long socks over the pants. Patrick eventually pulled his hockey pants over it all and secured the suspenders to keep them up. He had got around to putting on the rest of his gear before he found myself sitting in his stall gazing out into space. But than Seabs, a defenseman on the team, bumped into him, knocking him off his train of thought.

"Come on, don't wanna be last do you?" He murmurs "Yea" Pat says softly before squeezing his lips into a small smile. He makes his way to the ice and takes a moment to look over all the fans that are gathered at the glass. Some were older women and men, young teenage girls and little boys half dressed in their hockey gear. As he's fixing his helmet Coach Q calls Patrick over to the bench.

"Hey can I ask you something?" He says in a hushed tone.

"Go for it" Patrick responded

"Can you stay after practice and help me with something?"

"Don't see why not" He answers back, he didn't see why not truthfully. Patrick had no where to go, maybe back home to his girlfriend but he knew inside of him he didn't want to.

He would do anything to not see her.

Practice flew by rather quickly. A few new drills but everything else was the same. As Patrick was making his way off the ice when Coach Q whistles at him.

"Just put the track suit on Kaner and hurry" he instructs. Patrick finds his track suit folded neatly on the bench. He strips down out of his gear and hangs it in the stall where the equipment team would tend to it. Pushing his wet hair back, he contains it with a Hawks hat. It was a rather simple design, black with the logo plastered in front, simple, just how Patrick liked it. One arm at a time he put on the black jacket. He zipped it up to the top and ran his hand over the little Hawks patch on the side of the zipper.

Once Patrick was all dressed he began making his way back to the ice. But instead of just Coach Q there, there were girls. Girls all dressed in hockey gear and dawning the same baby blue jerseys. A women in a track suit, much like his, had a whistle hanging loosely in between her teeth. She gives it one hard blow and all the girls turn in a second to give her their undivided attention.

He understood than, he was to help Coach with these girls. They probably all played just to play the game, nothing of national representation. A charity service is how Patrick looked at it.

He blocked out all of Coach Q's words until his eyes wandered over to Patrick.
"I also have a guest here to help" That was Pat's signal. He took the ice and he could see most of the girls faces light up and a few gasps erupted from them.

"Patrick Kane, number one over all pick of the Blackhawks-"

"Please I don't need the whole introduction coach" Patrick cut him off.

"Alright well we're going to do simple but very affective drills today. I wanna go through and tweak your lines and clean up somethings. At the end of practice we'll finish with a scrimmage"

"Start with line rushes?" Patrick questions him

"Starting with line rushes!" He shouts. Q and him move over to the side to watch the first line start. The center had stolen Patrick's attention. She was reading each play so well and her technique was mesmerizing.