Never Again

** PATRICK'S POV **


The rest of my day, after seeing Lacey, went by fairly quickly yet not quickly enough. It went by quickly due to my pre-game nap, which always seems way too short. That's the beauty with naps, though. When a person sleeps, time passes unknowingly to them and when they wake up, it's kind of like they time-travelled. Or at least that's how I feel when I wake up from a nap, especially today. I got back to my place by noon, after stopping by my favorite diner to grab a quick sandwich for lunch. I fell asleep almost immediately after I sat my tired body down on the couch and when I woke up again, to my surprise, the clock on my bedside table read 5:00 pm. Usually my naps aren't that long, but I guess I was extra tired today. Maybe my body knew that Lacey was coming to watch tonight, so it wanted to recharge itself as much as possible to ensure a solid performance. I've been in a kind of slump lately, only having 3 goals and 1 assist in the last 7 games. I was hoping that Lacey's presence would be my good luck charm that would allow me to finally break my slump and have a great game. I didn't have to be back at the rink before 6:30 so I decided to try and fall back asleep but my body was too wired with the thought of seeing Lacey later, so it looks like I had to kill time the good old fashioned way, which is by playing Mario Kart so I can kick the other guy's asses next time we play as a team.

After a few unsuccessful rounds on rainbow road I realized that I couldn't sit still for much longer, so I decided to send Lacey a quick text to confirm that she'd still be coming and head to the United Center early to get rid of some of the excess energy that was flowing through my body.

[i] Me: Hey, just checking that you're still coming to my game tonight. :-) [/i]

As per usual with Lacey, I didn't have to wait long for a reply. I've always understood the dangers of texting and driving or reading a text and driving, but I simply did not have the willpower to not look at my phone.

[i] Lacey: Yes... if this class will ever end. It feels like it's been going on forever, but once forever ends I'll be there as soon as I can. [/i]

My mom always enforced not to text while I was physically driving a car, but she never said anything about sending a text out at a red light so that's exactly what I did. I had given Lacey two tickets to the game, and it finally occurred to me that she might invite her best friend to go with her.

[i] Me: Great, that's what I was hoping to hear. Are you bringing your friend Grace with you, or are you coming alone? [/i]

This time her answer was delayed by a few minutes so I assumed that she was taking some notes in class because I knew how seriously she took her education. It was one of many things that I admired about her, a girl who knew what she wanted and worked hard to get it was definitely a turn on. I never thought I would ever say that, because usually one night fucks aren't very intelligent but I've gotten used to the idea of Old Patrick leaving and a new, sappy, caring Patrick coming in instead. I wasn't completely comfortable with the New Patrick yet, but I knew that Lacey made me very happy and that for the time being, I'd like to stay with her. When my car pulled in to the player's underground parking lot, my phone vibrated again and I opened the message as I was walking through the arena's front doors.

[i] Lacey: I was going to invite Grace but then I decided against it so I could spend more time with your friends instead of my own, so I'm coming by myself. But I have to head home now, so I'll see you soon! xox [/i]

Another huge grin overtook my face as Lacey proved once again how selfless she is. She could have easily invited Grace to come to the game with her to make the whole situation significantly less awkward, but she didn't want the other girls to think less of her so she's willingly putting herself in an awkward situation for me. I made a mental note to thank her when I saw her later, and I went into the player's gym for a little pre-game treadmill run.

♦ ♦ ♦

After my pre-game workout and when all the guys were ready to go, Jon, my usual locker neighbor, scooted a little closer to me on the bench. And by a little closer, I mean too close for comfort. "Err, Tazer, what are you doing? We have a game to play in.." I trailed off to look at the digital clock above the locker room door, which was counting down the seconds until we were needed on the ice. "2 minutes and 32 seconds." Jon's reply came in a low chuckle. "I know, but a little birdie told me that you now have a [i] girlfriend [/i] who is going to be in attendance tonight, and I just wanted to tell you that as your captain, who is concerned for your hockey well-being, I am prohibiting you to look in the direction of your seats until you've scored at least 5 goals on Crow in warm up." My face must have fell in an immediate pout, because he laughed again and kept talking. "I know it's exciting for you, but if you want to impress her you have to focus from the get go. Besides, knowing you, you'll now make it your goal for your first five shots to go in and then you can look at her all you want. Until the puck drops for real, then it's game time. You got it, bud?" I laughed at how accurately Jon was able to read my mind and predict my plan of lighting up Crow 5 times in a row within a minute of the warm-ups starting. "Yeah, I got it. Thanks Jon," I said as he lightly patted my shoulder pads and scooted away from me. I looked up at the digital count down once again, and made my way out of the dressing room as it read 30 seconds.

I skated around the ice and immediately the feeling that I've spent my entire life loving went through my body. Some guys listen to rock music to pump themselves up before a game, but I just have to listen to the sounds of the arena to get myself going. In my opinion, there's no better soundtrack to hear than the sound of the cool arena air swooshing around you, the sound of skates breaking on the ice and the sounds of hockey sticks moving with a puck on them. When you combine all of these sounds, I feel at home and completely relaxed, ready to accomplish whatever task I set my mind to. For now, my task was exactly what Jon told me to do: light up Crawford five times. We ran through our usual drills, starting with us skating with the lines on the faceoff circle before ripping a shot. I was able to score two goals like this, which was impressive because those shots are taken from outside the goal-scoring slot. We then moved on to two-on-ones, which is really kind of useless for the defensemen because the goal of the drill is to warm up the goalie, not have the shot taken away from him. I got one goal on these drills, but that's mainly because 3 out of the 4 times that I did it, I wasn't the guy to take the shot. Finally, we moved on to shoot outs, and I lit Crow up like a Christmas tree. Bing, bang, boom. I got my five goals, and it didn't go unnoticed. A puck hit my leg from across the rink, and I saw Tazer wink at me and give me a thumbs up. I couldn't help but think how much the fans will love that. They live for me and Jonny doing 'cute' things, and I'm 100% sure that the clip of Jon winking at me would be shown over and over again on any channel showing sports highlights.

I finally let myself look in the direction of where Lacey should be sitting. Abby and Elina were both in their seats, but the one next to them, the one that should be filled with Lacey's petite body, was empty. They caught me looking and gave me a questionable look which silently asked 'where's your girl, Patrick?' and I shrugged. She said she'd be here, but she never said she'd be here on time for warm-ups. I dismissed her absence for the time being, and wrapped up my warm-up. Before I got off the ice for the zamboni to go over it one last time before puck drop, I looked back up at the seats, disappointed to still find it empty of the girl who was slowly stealing my heart.

♦ ♦ ♦

As per my captain's request, I spent the game focused on the puck both on the ice and on the bench. I figured that Lacey would show up sometime before puck drop, so I didn't think twice about it. I just allowed myself to play with the energy flowing through me which stemmed from the thought of her being there to impress, and I came out flying with two goals in the first period to give us a 3-1 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers. The second period went on much the same as the first one, with no goals scored on either side. My back check was solid though, thanks to my extreme focus. It was halfway through the third period when Sharpie was next to me on the bench, that my attention was brought back to my season seats. "Kaner, when you asked Abby to look after your girl, that was for tonight, right? Because there's no one in your seats and Abby looks confused as hell." I nodded at him, and turned my head to the seats around 10 rows up from the player's bench and my face fell when I saw that he was right in saying that they were empty.

In that moment, I felt the Old Patrick coming back to me as my body was lit on fire from anger. Was she really going to stand up [i] the Patrick Kane [/i] at one of his hockey games? Who the hell does she think she is? If she thinks that she's too good for me, then chances are that I'm too good for her. I guess I started swearing and mumbling my angry thoughts behind the bench, and Sharpie was once again the voice of reason. "Pat, if she's as great as you told Abby she is, then I doubt she's standing you up. You told me she goes to law school, right? Maybe she got caught up with some homework that she forgot was due tomorrow. Don't assume the worst about her until you know what happened, alright?" I lifted my head from its slouched position on the bench to look at him in the face. "How are you so wise, Sharpie? No offense, but you kind of come off as an idiot to me," I said as I playfully nudged him in the ribs, another clip that would surely be played repeatedly on sports shows for the next week. "I have a wife, Kaner, and she's taught me that most of the time, things aren't always what we assume them to be. If I never communicated with Abby whenever I thought things like what you're thinking right now, we probably wouldn't have made it past the two month mark. Just talk to her first, okay? See what's going on before you get mad at her." With that, Sharpie hopped on the ice for his next shift, leaving me to think about what he said.

When I let his words sink in, worry started to sink in as well. I suppose it was possible that she got caught up with homework, but I texted her a few hours before the game and she said that she was still coming. I thought of the thing I liked most about Lacey: her selflessness. She wouldn't do something to intentionally hurt someone else's feelings, never. She's far too kind and she cares about the well-being of others more than she should. The more I thought about where she could be, the more worried I became. My nerves started acting up and I couldn't wait to get off the ice and text her to see where she was. Unfortunately, my nerves and worry ended up costing us the game because I was -3 in the second half of the third period, making the final score 4-3 for the Flyers. Guilt overtook my system as the crowd left disappointed that we blew a two goal lead in the third, and the sad look on the guy's faces made me feel guilty too. I let myself sulk for a minute before my mind went back to the worry that has been sitting with me ever since Sharpie pointed out that Lacey didn't show up. I ran to the locker room as soon as I could, and sent her a text.

[i] Me: Where were you tonight?? I kept looking up in hopes to see your pretty face, but it was never there. [/i]

I expected a reply rather quickly, and was surprised when I took off all of my equipment and still didn't have one. I opted to send her another text, thinking that maybe she was sleeping and the constant vibrations would wake her up.

[i] Me: Lacey? Where are you? I'm starting to get worried, are you okay? [/i]

I wanted to laugh at the idea of me 'starting' to get worried, because I was way past 'starting' to get worried. I was beyond worried. I wanted nothing more than for my phone to vibrate and for her name to pop up on my screen. I met with the media outside of the dressing room, hoping that when I was done with them there would be a reply waiting for me, but there wasn't. Not a single notification was on my screen, and it instantly haunted me. All I wanted was to press the home button on my iPhone and see a green icon with the name "Lacey" next to it, but all that was there was the time. I sent one more text before getting in my car to go home for the night.

[i] Me: Lacey? Please call me. Please. [/i]

♦ ♦ ♦

When I got home, my exhaustion from the emotions I've been feeling all night was finally catching up to me. I wanted nothing more than to plop in my bed, close my eyes and forget about everything. I wanted to forget about the loss, I wanted to forget about the guilt that came with it, and I wanted to forget about Lacey, but that simply couldn't be done. Everywhere I looked; there was something to remind me of her. The heated blanket she got me was sitting across my legs, and the lavender incense she introduced me to was burning on my bed side table. I couldn't even go in my bathroom without thinking of the bath that she forced me to take a little over a week ago. The bath that started everything. I tried to close my eyes and fall asleep, but I just couldn't. I had a bad feeling deep down, and I needed to hear her voice. I decided to try calling her, in hopes that she would either answer or that her voice in her voicemail message would ease my worries. I pulled up her contact number and hit the green 'call' button, and let it ring.

It only rang for only two rings before the rings were cut off by an automatic message. "The number that you have dialed is no longer in service. Please verify that you have dialed the right number, and try again."

"The number that you have dialed is no longer in service. Please verify that you have dialed the right number, and try again."

"The number you have dialed is..." I cut it off by hanging up on it before it could repeat its message for me a third time. I had a bad feeling that something wasn't right, but I couldn't decide if something wasn't right between [i] us [/i] or if something just wasn't right in general. I jumped out of my bed and got dressed as quickly as I could, making my way towards the front of my condo and grabbing my car keys from the bowl I leave there, and I sped the entire way to Lacey's apartment in hopes to make whatever was wrong, right.

When I got there, I was prepared to knock on her door but that wasn't necessary because it was already slightly open. I knocked anyway, hoping to alert her of my presence without scaring her. "Lacey?" I called out, my eyes scanning the place for any sign of her. "Lacey, are you home?" I cautiously took a few steps deeper into her apartment, still looking for any sign of her. She wasn't on the couch, and she wasn't in her hallway. Her place wasn't very big, but it didn't need to be since she was the only one living there. I walked by the kitchen and saw red stains on the counter, dripping on to the floor. Upon further investigation, I realized the red stains were made of blood.

Blood.

Blood means injury.

Panic set in as I realized the potential severity of the situation.

Please, God, let Lacey be okay. Please.

I kept walking deeper in to her apartment, my eyes briefly scanning her bathroom and finding it empty. That left one room left, and the door was closed: Lacey's bedroom. I went back to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife I could find before I carefully and slowly opened the bedroom door as quietly as I could, preparing myself to fight whoever might be on the other side. The optimistic side of me was hoping that Lacey had escaped, and that the intruder would be on the other side of the door for me to take care of.

I opened the door and quickly saw that the optimistic side of me was wrong. I let the knife I was carrying drop to the floor as my hands flew up to cover my mouth. Before me, on the bed, laid Lacey's naked, mangled body which was completely covered in developing yellow bruises, as well as dried blood sitting on her nose.

Notes

Hey guys! Sorry for the last cliffhanger there, but this story needed a little drama. I know that this is still kind of a cliff hanger, but I'm hoping that it'll hold you guys off for the day because I have to go to work and I don't have the next chapter written yet, but I'm hoping to write it when I get home! So expect an update either tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks to all the readers, commenters, and subscribers who take the time out of their days to read this. It motivates me to keep going. :)
Happy reading!!!
-S