Nathan’s POV

“No! You say goodbye Jonathan Drouin!” a voice snarled, just as the tip touched the skin on my neck.

I watched in surprise as Jo fell to the side and slumped on the ground. Dolphi and Jaydrien stood to there. Dolphi had a book in her hand and she had it in a position, like she’d used it to knock Jo off. I was bewildered now, as I gazed up at my rescuer?? The psychologist and her “boy toy.”

“What--?”

“Jo’s got no control over me! Not anymore! I thought he was a friend...but he’s just a jealous douchebag!” the redhead growled. She kicked Jo in the side rather hard. She was pissed off. “Drouin, you DICK!!”

Jaydrien stepped forward and grabbed her. “Stop. You’ve made your point. Let’s get the others and call the police!”

She nodded and gave the rookie a reassuring smile and kiss on the lips. I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked at the lifeless Jonathan Drouin. The knife had actually somehow scraped his skin, but it wasn’t deep. It was just like accidentally slicing your hand while cooking. He would awaken and be super pissed off. I decided to grab the weapon just in case.

As I looked at it, my breathing stopped and my blood ran ice cold. It wasn’t a knife. It was the dagger that Gabriel had held in the hallucination and then in real life. That sparked my curiosity. Was there even more behind this than I knew now?

I shook my head, choosing not to get worked up about it. I glanced up to see Dolphi demanding the pairs of henchmen to release the others. They listened to her and eventually Gabriel raced toward me and threw his arms around me. I saw Jonathan and Patrick ran for one another and watched as the Captain lifted his partner up like a fairy tale ending and then spin around happily, before setting him back down and planting a massive kiss on his lips.

Val, Tyler and Jamie reconciled as well. Tyler patted the Russian, who was grinning that classic grin of his, on his head.

After a little bit, Dolphi apologized to the Blackhawk couple and Val and me. She’d been ordered by Jo to “scar” us and make sure we were permanently damaged. And we were, but her apology and the truth seemed to make things better. Even if it was only a little bit. She also explained how her and Jo had put something in our water that kind of kept us in here and that was why we hadn’t been able to leave.

While that didn’t exactly sit well with me, I was glad to find the truth out.

“What should we do about the Lightning rookie though?” Jamie questioned.

We all looked at the limp body. He still hadn’t recovered yet, but I gave it five more minutes. An idea suddenly popped into my head.

“Hey, Dolphi, (I thought it was finally okay to call her by her name without the threat of being punished) you still have one of those long ropes in your office?”

She smiled and bolted off to her “office.” She returned a few seconds with the rope. She bound Jo’s wrists together behind him and then wrapped the other end of the rope around his ankles. She dragged him over to the wall and sat him against it, just as - sure enough - he blinked awake.

“What the hell--traitor!” he barked, as he discovered what was going on.

“You got no control over me anymore, Jo. And you certainly don’t have the upper hand here anymore!”

“Bitch!”

“Dick! Asshole! Bastard! The list goes on and on with what you are, dearie!”

She ruffled Jo’s hair and then walked back to Jaydrien, who sent the Lightning rookie a sour look. I saw that Jo was struggling to break free from the ropes, but was as pathetic as Val and I had been. Dolphi kissed the Blackhawk rookie once again and they both flipped Jo off. I was really liking the two of them all of the sudden. I looked at my Captain, who was smiling at me.

“Should we get out of here?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, one second. You can’t go anywhere yet though, Nathan,” Dolphi spoke. “Let me get you all the antidote and then we can get the hell out of here!” She darted off yet again and returned with five pills - the antidote. She passed them around to us and we quickly swallowed them.

Tyler, Val, and Jamie were the first to try it out. They bid their farewell and walked out. Success! The rest of us followed them and as soon as Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane walked out, locked in a kiss with one another, they pulled back and freaked out.

“What the hell Jonny?”

“What the hell yourself, Kaner?”

“Ewwww!!” they both chimed in unison. “We like each other but not like this!”

I figured that they were back to the way they’d came to the psychologist’s office as. After a few seconds though, Patrick grabbed Jonathan’s hand.

“I only want to hold your hand, not your lips, buddy.” He flashed a sweet smile at his friend.

“Right. Let’s promise never to lock lips ever again!”

“Amen!”

“We’ll see you at practice Jay!” the Captain remarked. “And don’t you dare bring up the kiss or you’re a dead man!”

And with that they walked off, hand-in-hand.

“Kazer!” Jaydrien sighed the “ship” name of the bromance. He rolled his eyes again and then smiled at Dolphi. “Come on, I’ll show you Chicago and we can hang out!”

The psychologist looked happy and she giggled and followed Jaydrien, slapping him on the behind as they walked off. I looked away, glad the Blackhawk group was gone. Geez.

It was just Gabriel and me.

“We should stay here and wait for the cops to get here. Let’s get Jo and bring him out here.”

I nodded. He was right. He may be young and handsome, but Gabriel Landeskog was all Captain. He was just as wise as Jamie Benn or Jonathan Toews. Or even Sidney Crosby. He was the best friend I could have and I was proud to be an Av with him!

We walked back into the now-empty building and we found Jo still struggling in the ropes. we both grabbed him and brought him up to his feet. He glared at me, but said nothing. I had nothing to say back. We were not friends and we would never be friends again. He’d hurt me, more than I’d hurt him. And at least I had hurt him accidentally and then apologized.

We forced him back outside, just as the cop car pulled up. The uniformed man took the Tampa Bay player from us. They took off the ropes and replaced them with handcuffs. As soon as they untied the end from his ankles, he lashed out. He kicked out and managed to nail me in the crotch.

“Fuck you MacKinnon!” he snapped.

Gabriel caught me, as I crumpled toward the ground. He comforted me over to the side and we watched as Jo was shoved into the backseat by the pissed off officer. Then they zoomed off with him inside.

The pain from Jo’s kick stung like a hell, but I eventually recovered. Gabriel asked if I was okay and I told him I was fine. We made it back to the AAC, where Tyler, Jamie and Val were. As it turns out, the team was just about to leave too. We quickly caught up with the others.

When I looked back, I saw the new friend I’d made, the Dallas Stars’ baby Russian player, waving at me. He had that smile on his face and I couldn’t help but smile and wave back.

Luckily, that wasn’t the last I saw of the Russian or the Stars. Believe it or not, Colorado had them on the schedule a good seven times. And we would have another game in two weeks. But by then, you can assured that Valeri Nichushkin and I, Nathan MacKinnon, would be back to normal and lighting lamps on the ice with our boys!

And though we were best friends off the ice now, “Nichy” and I were not friends on the ice and we knew that. But we could still chirp and have our fun. Right?

Notes

HAHAHAHAHA, you didn't think I'd kill Nathan did you?? Nah...
This is a strange psychologist, but she's kick ass!
Man, I'm so bummed that my poor baby Russian isn't going to play this year. Poor sweetie...I wish I could teleport to Dallas and be with him to keep him company and care for him. But next year, y'all watch out, cause Nichy's going to show EVERYONE!! Kinny too!! :)


Next up: Last chapter and a happy ending for Kinny and Nichy...