Change (Patrick Kane)

19: And The Worst Part Is, I'm Still Hungry

Patrick's POV

I cleaned up the cut on her forehead, and we almost kissed. I shook myself out of my daze as she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me again.

"I'll take you back to your room," I whispered as I stood up. I helped her off the counter but kept her hand in mine.

I made sure not to wake Jonny up as Delilah and I left my room. We walked to the elevator in silence. I looked over at her once we were in the elevator and saw that on the outside, she looked okay. But then I looked into her eyes and noticed how scared she was. "Hey, it's okay," I tried to comfort her. "It's over and we're never going to see that man again."

She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Why- why were you out there?" She asked curiously.

"I uh, had to make a phone call," I said. "Why were you even up that late?"

"I couldn't sleep and decided to get some food. That was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life. And the worst part is, I'm still hungry." She shook her head in disappointment.

I couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. "We can order room service."

She cracked a grin. "Alright, room service it is. Hopefully it's better than their vending machines."

The elevator doors opened. "I'm sure it will be. Let's go."

---

Delilah's POV

We got back to Chicago after three more road games. They beat the Carolina Hurricanes and the Boston Bruins, but lost to the Pittsburg Penguins. They were all pretty upset to end the tour on a loss but from the practices I've seen, I knew they would bounce back.

I told Natalie all about the road trip, even the Tampa Bay incident. We hung out and went around town a lot. Needless to say, the next few days were pretty average.

That is, until, one home game when Patrick got injured.

They were playing the Wild, which was a tough team for them. Patrick got slammed into the boards and landed awkwardly. From my view in the stands, it looked extremely painful. I felt bad for him as he skated off the ice.

I couldn't just go back to the locker room to see how he was because, a) I couldn't get past the security guards, and b) I had a job to do. Nevertheless, after the second period I texted him to see how he was holding up. The rest of the game went poorly and the guys ended up losing 3-1.

It was a disappointing loss, but I knew they wouldn't get too beat up over it. I made my way back into my office with my camera. I put it back in its case and left the UC.

The next morning, I did my usual routine to get ready. It was only Tuesday so I still had a while to go until the weekend.

At work, I downloaded the pictures from yesterday's game onto my computer. I started making a video of all the highlights with the video footage that was emailed to me. I worked on that for most of the morning before getting a text from Lily asking if I wanted to go out to lunch with her. I said I would, and closed up my office.

As I was leaving, I noticed a familiar face. "Hey Sharpy, what's- whoa, what happened?" I asked, stifling a laugh.

He sighed and ran a hand through his now red-colored hair. "Duncan Kieth, that's what happened," he grumbled. Someone was in a bad mood today.

Realization dawned on me. "Oh, prank war. Gotcha. How did they pull it off?" I asked as we walked to the parking lot.

"He put red hair dye in my shampoo during practice, so when I showered afterwards... I ended up like this."

I couldn't hold it in any longer and I bursted out laughing. "Sorry, it's just too funny!" I said, wiping tears from my eyes.

He rolled his eyes but had a smile on his face as well. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Help me get them back now."

I composed myself and nodded. "I don't really know what we should do though. We all need to brainstorm."

"I'll make a group chat or something, we'll figure it out," he said as he began walking to his car.

I gave him one last wave before getting in my car and pulling out to get lunch with Lily.

When I came back, I was greeted with a frantic Corey Crawford. "Delilah, quick, follow me!" He urged.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"It's, um, an emergency!" He replied.

I raised my eyebrows. "What kind of emergency?"

His eyes darted around nervously. "Uh, well, someone's hurt! It's Patrick again, he hurt his leg when he slipped on the staircase today after practice. Come quick."

"Aren't there trainers here?" This was starting to get suspicious.

"Just follow me," he said before grabbing my arm and dragging me to the training room.

I walked inside and didn't see anyone. "Hey Corey, what's goin-" I was cut off by a huge bucket of cold water being dumped on my head. I immediately gasped and turned around to see a laughing Jonathan Toews and Niklas Hjalmmarson. "What the heck?!"

They hi-fived each other, along with Crawford. I looked down to see myself drenched in colors. "Did you guys put dye in this?!" I asked.

They laughed even harder. I'll take that as a yes.

"Double-whammy!" Jonny laughed as he referred to the Sharp prank that had happened no more than three hours ago.

"You dimwits do realize that I have to go back to work now, right?" I asked, but I had a smile on my face.

They nodded and began to leave. "Oh, and don't worry," Nik added. "The color doesn't stain."

Thank God.

I sighed and grabbed a towel from the training room shelves. I was wiping up the floor when Dan, the head trainer, walked in. "What happened in here?" He asked, taking in my drenched, blue appearance.

"Just your classic prank war," I responded with a laugh.

"Well, do you need a change of clothes? We have an extra trainers jacket you can borrow for today," he offered nicely.

"Could I use it?" He nodded. "Thanks Dan, you're a life saver."

He came back with a black zip up jacket with the Blackhawks logo embroidered on the left chest. "Here, hope you get those boys back," He smiled and handed me the jacket.

"Thanks so much," I said again before exiting and walking to the bathroom. I took off my white blouse, which was now soaking and blue. There wasn't much I could do about my pencil skirt but luckily it wasn't too wet. I put the jacket on and tried to dry my shirt a little under the hand dryers.

Realizing I wasn't going to get it very dry, I bundled it up in my hand and went back to my office, trying to figure out a way to get the guys back.