I wasn't sure what would feel better, but when I heard that she was awake, the relief that came with it was greater than I expected.
Wendy called around four in the morning when I was getting ready to head to our morning skate. I was fucking tired from the game last night against St. Louis, but when my phone rang and I saw it was the hospital, I answered.
"Are you serious?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
"Yeah, she came out of it last night, but we wanted to give her some time. Then when she started to come around she wanted to know how she got to the hospital."
"And you said?" I pressed for more information as I walked toward my bathroom.
"I said Superman brought her in."
I laughed, throwing my towel on the tile floor in my bathroom. My eyes caught the city below Trump Towers, quiet and still asleep. My lips curved, knowing the one person I wanted to wake up was finally awake.
"Seriously, what did you say?"
"I told her a man brought her in and then she asked to meet him," Wendy said, amusement in her voice. I wasn't sure if she was fucking with me.
"Oh."
"What's with you?"
"Nothing." I tried to play it off, but I was freaking out a little, and Wendy didn't miss a beat.
"Well, are you going to come see her or what? She's awake now."
I really wanted to ask Wendy what color Ami's eyes were and if she had said anything else, but I didn't. "Oh, uh yeah, we play Anaheim tonight. I'll come by after the game."
"Okay, I'll let her know. Good luck tonight."
"Thanks." I hung up before I said anything else that would give me away. I was kind of glad there was a game tonight because it'd give me more time to think of what to say to her.
All through the morning skate, and after what Leo had said to me, I couldn't stop thinking about Ami. I should have been preparing for the game and thinking of nothing but the Anaheim Ducks and how we could beat them. We hadn't seen them since game twenty four and they had beaten us 0-3. That wasn't happening again if I could help it.
During practice, Leo and Remy were talking about their night while slapping pucks at Cage, and before he could recover, they'd slap another one at him.
Skating near them, I leaned on my stick, watching, waiting for Cage to react to them. He'd let them do this as sort of a warm up, but right when they weren't expecting it, he would slap one back at them.
"You know that feeling when you're on acid and the world stops just to fuck with you? That's what it was like."
Remy gave Leo a concerned look and then slapped another shot toward the net. "Never did acid," he said in his rough voice this early in the morning. "I really worry that with the hard hits you've taken, and your drug use as a kid, you might not have any brain cells left."
Leo yawned. "I've got some left." He took cover behind me when Cage took one off the face mask. He knew what was coming.
Sure enough, Cage took a puck and fired it back at us, nailing Remy in the back of the head.
Leo skated over to me after warm-ups and asked if she was awake. He knew they'd taken her off the medicine.
I said yes, and he knew then I'd be no help in that game.
As it turned out, I was more than on my game that night with two goals, three assists, and ten minutes in the penalty box.
After the game, I didn't go out with the boys. Instead, I did what I had been doing for the last nineteen days.
The five-minute drive to the hospital went slower than it had in the previous weeks because, for once, there was this anxiety that had settled over me, knowing that I would finally meet her.
What would I say?
Should I ask about her family?
No. Stupid idea. Let her talk.
What if she can't talk?
What if she doesn't want to see me?
No, that wasn't true. Wendy said she asked for me.
Wendy was just getting ready to leave, dressed in street-clothes, when I walked in. It was late. She probably just wanted to get home.
"Has the doctor seen her since she woke up?"
"Yes, he said she has no memory of the few hours leading up to the attack, as well as the entire attack itself. She doesn't remember."
Nodding, my next question was, "Did you tell her who I was?"
Wendy gave me a grin as she walked to Ami's room with me. "I told her your name, but no, I didn't say that you were a hockey player or anything. That's your business."
My arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into me. "Thanks. I appreciate that."
"Does that mean you'll take me to dinner soon?"
I gave her another smile. "Sure."
I wasn't lying. I would take her to dinner. Going home with her was another story. I knew I couldn't do that again.
The anxiety of actually meeting Ami, now that she was awake, was written all over my face. Wendy noticed and asked, "What's going on with you?"
"I don't know…what if I'm not who she expected?"
"Believe me, she's pretty cool, and any girl would be lucky to be saved by you." Wendy gave a nod in the direction of the room. I smiled, giving her one last look before she left.