Forever and Always

Madison Square Garden. Madeline had been there so many times due to her father playing for the Rangers for a couple of years when she was growing up. Next to the Air Canada Centre she felt like MSG was her second home. She looked around, and memories flooded through her mind of her running after Tyler and Jack around the arena, up the seats, and in the stairs. She loved this place.

Where the ice should have been was concrete, they had broken the ice up until the Rangers played here again in the fall. And now there were thirty tables lined up, one for each NHL team and a stage where the players would come up and get their draft jerseys and a picture. "What are you thinking about?" Connor McDavid asked the Oilers dragged him here just like she was by the Maple Leafs. Make the new draft picks feel like home, fill them in on the roster and places to eat in their city, etc. She was one of the new faces of the Maple Leafs so it made sense for her to be there, and Connor well he was Connor McDavid, the new "next one" Sidney Crosby in his late twenties had relinquished the title to him when Connor got drafted to the Oilers two summers ago, now with a Calder trophy under his belt, and a couple great seasons he was putting the NHL on fire. And making guys like Alex Ovechkin, and her other peers look like chumps. "Nothing much, just the arena. I spent a couple years here and the draft always makes me sentimental." He nodded. “Yeah it’s weird that it’s been two years since I’ve been drafted, it feels like just yesterday.” She smiled at him. “Well I don’t think your doing too bad for yourself next one.” He laughed at her comment. “Well I’ll have to watch out for you this upcoming season Gilmore.” She smirked at him. “Yeah you’ll have to.” She whispered into his ear as she walked towards the Maple Leafs table.

Jack Eichel the guy in the shadows of Connor gave her a glaring look. “Jack you should probably change facial expressions, you don’t want your face to freeze like that.” She let out a little laugh; he was a huge jack (ass). She saw the Leafs table, Uncle Brendan (Shanahan) and her dad looking over various sheets of paper with the NHL logo on it knew one thing. They were going to stare at the NHL Combine results, and fantasy drafts until their name was called. “Finally Madeline you chose to show up.” Brendan looked at her as she took a bite of the hot dog she grabbed on the way here. “Oh don’t look at me like that, the Garden’s hot dogs are the best, they have been since we played here.” That’s where Uncle Brendan and her dad Tyler Sr had met playing for the Rangers. “True, I’ll have to grab one on the way out.” She grabbed her laptop from her Longchamp tote bag and opened it. Looking at NHL.com to make sure nothing new had changed that they didn’t know about. “We’re still the fifth pick right Dad?” Draft days were dramatic and teams were known to trade picks, and players for picks throughout the day. “As far as I know Mad.” She stared at her godfather. “Right Uncle Brendan?” He looked up at her. He was the President of the leafs, and GM. “Yes Madeline.” He was bluffing. He had the phone that was placed in the middle of each table, near him and she knew it was going to ring soon. Thirty minutes until draft time.

In the corner of her eye she saw Tyson at the Avalanche’s table. That was weird. Usually veterans of teams didn’t show up at the draft. Usually it was just recent picks in the last year or two and faces of the NHL. He was not a face of the NHL. “Why is Barrie here?” She asked the group of men surrounding her. “Heard he may be moved today. But I don’t know why he would show up.” Dave Thomas her fathers right hand man in the player development department mentioned to her. “Weird.”

Then she looked at Brendan, he was getting sweaty. “NO.” she yelled out. Brendan and her father both looked at her like she was nuts. “NO. NO. NO. NO.” She yelled out again. “What the fuck Mads?” Her father whispered trying not to bring any more attention to their table. The Rangers GM Glen Sather was looking over at them like she had three heads. “WE ARE NOT TRADING OUR FIRST ROUND PICK FOR TYSON BARRIE.” She shouted in a whisper. She knew if anyone else heard that she would be strangled. “You told her?” Brendan looked at Tyler. He looked at Brendan like he was the crazy one now. “Why would I tell her that? I am not out of my mind. And it’s probably never going to happen unless they give us their number one pick and a second rounder.” The Avs would move up from 19th to 5th. “IT’S HAPPENING!” She yelled as Glen Sather looked at her again. “Sorry.” She mouthed to Adam Graves one of the Ranger greats who played with her dad. “It’s happening.” She said. She looked at her dad. “I can’t believe you.”

She stormed off not being able to calm down. She walked into the Rangers locker room for a breather and ran right into Connor. “You needed a break too?” She sat down in Carl Hagelin’s stall. His name was plastered on it. “Yeah it’s nuts out there. I didn’t want to take away from the players day. What about you?” She curled up in a ball in the small stall and breathed in. “My dad and Godfather are trading our pick for my ex boyfriend. So me, my fiancé, my best friend who I had a fling with and my ex will all be on the same team.” He shook his head. “Wow. How would Aaron feel about that?” Oh Aaron. She forgot to even assess his feelings. He would be heartbroken. “It can ruin us.” She feared the worst. The demise of her and Aaron. Forever.

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