Epilogue
“That’s five games in six nights,” Alex said, dropping the paperwork back on the desk.
He knew it was the only solution; didn’t mean he had to like it. Sweetings Arena had been out of commission for five weeks, and while the league had helped all they could, games had been lost. The proposal was that the five missing games that couldn’t be reorganized or played on third-party ice would be added at the end of the normal season, before playoffs.
“Is it doable?”
Alex thought about his team. They’d moved from arena to arena, always playing away, and it didn’t matter that Vaz had carried the wing when they’d lost Cody for the remainder of the season. The only bright side about the explosion was that Cody’s story had been lost in the mess of speculation and reporting about the chances for the team.
Not that it had disappeared altogether, but in the grand scheme of things it had been put to one side for later consideration. Alex would deal with it over the summer.
Their chances of a place in the playoffs were dwindling. They’d need to win four of the five final games to keep a wildcard place. Statistically, they were fucked.
Worse than that, emotionally they were destroyed. Every player was exhausted and out of sorts for one thing or another, and Alex had almost shut them all in the same damn room again after practice to knock their heads together. Vaz and Gooly were back to being Russian ice men, Rafferty was picking at Loki and Ryan, and they in turn were forgetting they were the core of the team. They didn’t have a backup goalie of any worth, and Drago would be exhausted with back-to-back games.
Not to mention that there were trade rumors around Ryan, and with the approaching trade deadline, Alex was just done with it all. Being captain fucking sucked balls.
The only bright spot in his life was Jo. She settled him. She was strong and certain, and he knew he’d made the right decision asking her to marry him. They’d talked about getting away in the summer break and eloping, but Alex wanted everything for her, and would agree to anything she wanted.
“What’s happening with Ryan?”
Coach did that eye-twitch thing; the one that Alex knew meant something was being planned.
Alex sat back in his chair. “You’re fucking joking,” he snapped. “The GM is trading Ryan? No.”
Coach held up a hand. “Alex—”
“No.” Alex stood up. “We pull up a wing from the Colts.” Their minor league team had some real talent there. “You leave Ryan here, and I will guarantee you that we’ll get a place in the playoffs.”
Now Coach stood. “You can’t promise that.”
Alex thumbed to a contact on his phone. “Get the team in here now.”
The door opened and twenty or so men, all still in uniform, squeezed into the office. There wasn’t enough room to breathe, let alone discuss anything important. But that wasn’t what Alex wanted to do. The time for discussion was long gone.
“We will make the playoffs,” he announced, and looked at Ryan, at Loki, Gooly…the entire team, one at a time. “This team will get us there. Anyone who disagrees or who isn’t willing to give two hundred percent to this can leave this room now.”
A few people shuffled, but only to look at the others. No one actually left.
“Team,” Alex said, softly.
“Team,” Ryan and Loki said at the same time.
Gooly looked at Vaz, and even though it was a glare, they both said, at the same time, “Team.”
The rest of them repeated the word, some quietly and then with greater enthusiasm.
“We’re going back on the ice,” Alex said. “And we’re going to fucking skate. Get out there.”
The players left, and the last person out, Ryan, shut the door. It was just Alex and Coach in the room.
“Leave Ryan alone,” Alex said. “He’s one of the strongest parts of this team, and you know that. Don’t let the management try to mend something that isn’t broken and, fuck, get a backbone and stop them messing with the Dragons so I don’t have to pick up the mess.”
“You can’t talk to me like that—”
“My team,” Alex snapped.
He wasn’t asking, he was telling. For what it was worth, he was captain, and his voice had to be heard in the organization for it to work.
Coach looked down at the papers on his desk, the proposal for the extra games, and notes scribbled on a pad with Ryan’s name at the top. He tore off the notes and pushed the sheet through the shredder. Then he stood and offered Alex his hand.
“Management won’t like it, but I’ve got your back.”
And then he added one word.
“Team.”
* * * * *
Jo settled into her seat.
The hockey press had labeled the Dragons making it to the playoffs a miracle, but she’d never doubted Alex or the men he called his team. The Dragons had scraped in with a wild card spot by one point, and tonight was their first game in the playoffs. They didn’t have home ice advantage, they were stuck on the west coast for games one and two, and they were up against the team that was expected to win the Stanley Cup, but somehow, that was okay.
Alex was captain to a team that had been through hell and made it out the other side.
“You okay?” Kat asked, and nudged her side.
“Excited,” Jo answered, tapping her fingers on her knee. The lights glinted on the ring on her finger; it was an understated twist of gold with one central diamond.
“Did you tell Alex you passed your exams?”
“I sent him a text. I don’t know if he’ll have gotten it. I didn’t want to interrupt all the things they had to do, but I wanted to tell him.”
The lights dimmed, the noise deafening as the Dragons skated out in lazy circles. The fanfare that followed was for the home team, a sea of jade and black rising from their seats as the home team entered the arena.
She wasn’t watching that team; she had her eyes firmly on number 25, the same 25 who was right in front of her at the glass. He made a hand-gesture for phone, then a thumbs up, and finally he blew her a kiss.
She threw him a kiss back, then sat back down next to Kat as he skated away. Ryan slowed down by the glass, blew a similar kiss to Kat.
The Dragons could win tonight, however unlikely it was given the skating and goal scoring from the other team.
They could lose.
Either way, Jo watched the man she loved line up for the national anthem, and she smiled so hard it hurt.
The heart of the team, the captain, looked confident, exchanging fist bumps with Loki, and then he was in final position for the face-off.
* * * * *
Alex looked left and right, checking everyone’s position, then nodded that he was ready. With Jo watching in the stands, a team that wanted to win, and an indescribable feeling of pride, he and his team were ready for this game.
He’d been ready for it his entire life.
THE END