Rescue Me (Sidney Crosby)

Chapter Forty Five

Today was the day, today was the day that we had to purposely lose against the Islanders to keep our families safe, not to mention ruin our chances in getting into the playoffs. Two days have passed since that day, and yesterday was spent coming up with plans on how we're going to ruin this game. Everyone was absolutely disgusted with it, but we had to do it. I was completely pissed with Allie for making the team go through this and when I talked to Tyler, asking her where she was and why she still hadn't come to visit Julie, all he said was that she was gone. Allie had ran without so much as a goodbye. I knew most of the guys were angry with Tyler, he was sticking up for her, and I didn't understand why, no one did, I don't even think that he knew why.

I sat in my bed, leaning forward and resting my elbows against my knees and holding my faces. The game was at seven, I had twelve hours until zero hour and I was scared. I still couldn't believe that I had to lead my team to a rigged defeat. I felt the bed shift and looked over to see that Julie was awake. I looked at her and then gave her a small smiled. Mildred and Harold were on the road with Josh and Conner, and would call to check in every few hours, but I told them not to tell us where they were and that everything would be explained when we tell them to come back.

"Hey," she said as she sat up and then moved herself so that she was sitting behind me.

"Hey," I muttered as I felt her arms wrap around my waist and she laid her head onto my back, "How's your leg?"

"Better, it's sore," she said and I nodded my head, "What are you thinking about?"

"Tonight."

"Sid," she sighed and then kissed my back, "Win the game, you won't get into the playoffs if you lose."

"I can't Julie, we'll be putting everyone in danger if we do," I said and then turned around so I was facing her, "And I can't have that on my shoulders."

"Sid, what makes you think that they won't try this again?" she asked and I looked at her. Julie sighed and then rubbed my arm, "When he finds out how much money he's gunna get, what makes you think he won't pull something like this again for more money?"

"I-" I didn't know what to say, she was absolutely right, I didn't have a clue. I sighed and then shook my head, "I don't. I don't know what to do, Julie."

I felt her slide onto my lap, being careful of her leg, and then she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek, "Do the right thing, Sid."

"What is the right thing?"

"Win the game," she said and I looked at her.

I sighed and then pressed my lips against hers and rubbed her sides and trailed my lips down her neck. I leaned Julie back against the bed and towered over her, staring down into her beautiful eyes. Her hands were on my neck, and then I threw my head back and groaned when I felt them move down to my chest and then back up and down my arms.

"Come 'ere, Sid," she muttered and then pulled me down onto her and I smirked as I pressed my lips against hers roughly and brought my hands up to her hair and ran my fingers through it.

-Julie-

I was so nervous, everyone was so nervous, the guys hadn't had told their girlfriends or wives so that they could enjoy the game, but here Vero and I were sitting on the couch staring at the screen holding hands and praying that this game went over smoothly.

Pascal's wife already asked us why we seemed nervous, she told us this was going to be an easy game, it was against the Islanders of course. Too bad we couldn't tell her the truth.

I had gone into the locker room before the game to try and talk some sense into the boys, I wanted them to win the game, but they weren't. I knew they appreciated me telling them to screw this Boris guy and to win the game, but I guess too much was on the table for that to happened.

So here we are, the middle of the second period and the Islanders were up by two, the announcers hadn't noticed anything suspicious, he was just saying that the boys seemed a little off today, like their heads weren't in the game.

I had noticed in the beginning of the game that there was a man three private boxes down from us, he sat on the balcony and watched the game, he wore white, while his four goons around him wore black, this was Boris, this was the mob guy.

I looked down towards the ice and saw that Marc had just let another puck go past him, and that meant that the score was up by three, '...Ok guys, stop, they're gunna be saying something, make it look like you're just having a bad day...'

-Vero-

It was the end of the game and the boys had lost, but they managed to score two goals to make the loss look believable. I told the girls five minutes before the game was over that we should get down there to comfort them, but then held Julie back when everyone started to leave the room.

"I wanted to get them out for that guy tried to pull something," I said as Julie and I were the last in the room.

"You think he'll try to pull something even though he got what he wanted?" Julie asked and I nodded my head, "We'd better get out of here."

"Yeah," I said and then we opened the door and looked into the hallway, "Clear, come on."

Julie and I headed passed the mob man's door, because we needed to get to the elevator that was going to take us to the bottom floor. But as we were about two doors down from his, his door opened to reveal a big man, he looked at us and smirked.

'...Crap...' I thought as I grabbed Julie's wrist, turned around and started to rub down the hall, a little hard to do when wearing heels.

"I told you not to wear those things!" Julie said as I found myself being drug along the hallway, towards the elevator.

We made it into the elevator and quickly closed the door. I was leaning over breathing heavily and I saw that Julie had slumped to the ground and was holding her thigh.

"Shit, that was a lot worse than I thought it would feel," she muttered as she started to rub her thigh.

The door dinged telling us that we were on our floor, I took my heels off and then stuck my head out to see that the coast was clear, '...Here I am running for my life, with a friend who's already been shot. Perfect...'

"Ah Christ, I'm bleeding," I heard Julie say and turned around to see that there was blood on her thigh.

"You open it?"

"Yeah," she said and then sighed.

"Come on, we need to get to the boys," I said and then helped her stand up and we walked out of the elevator, only to hear heavy footsteps coming from the stairwell next to us, "Move it!"

Julie cursed again and we ran, well, Julie had that awkward run, but we heard the door open just as we were turning around the corner and saw the sea of reporters, "Go," Julie said and we started to swim our way through them, hoping that we lost the guy in the process.

-Sidney-

No one said a word as we were in the locker room, we had done what we had to do, it was over. The season was over, and I was making sure that I was getting Julie and Josh the hell away from here. It was a good thing that I had gotten Julie and Josh passports a few months ago, and I smirked to myself as I remembered the little argument that Julie and I had about it, but look who was right all along.

I finished in the locker room and walked outside to see that the wives and girlfriends were all there and they were all waiting to hug us and tell us that everything was going to be all right, but when I saw Julie, when I saw the pain in her face, something wasn't right.

I walked over towards her and placed my hand on her arm, "You all right?"

"They're here, Sid," she said and I looked up and around to see nothing but the waiting media.

I looked back towards her and saw that she was holding her thigh, "It hurting again?"

"She opened her stitching," Vero said and I looked down to see that Julie had moved her hand and saw the blood.

"Come on," I said and ushered her into the locker room and covered her eyes because some of the boys weren't finished changing.

"What the hell, Sid?"

"Trouble," was all I said and then ushered her into Coach's off and into Doc's office.

"What can I do for you, son?" Doc asked as he wrapped Brandon Sutter's ankle because he twisted it today.

"Can you stitch Julie up again?" I asked and he looked back and saw the pain on her face and then nodded his head.

"They out there?" he asked and I nodded my head.

"Perfect," Sutter muttered and I sighed.

"I'll be back," I told Julie and then sat her down on the chair because we had to wait until Doc was finished with Sutter.

I walked back into the locker room and some of the guys looked at me.

"What do you mean, trouble?"

"They're out there," I said and some of the guys sighed and then quickly gathered their things.

"What about the media?" Kunitz asked.

"They won't do anything because the media is out there, but get them in here," I said and then guys nodded their heads and then I watched as the guys opened the door once everyone was dressed and let the women in.

"Where's Julie?" Vero asked and I pointed towards Doc's door and she was gone.