Chapter 484: Danny XLIX—Getting Him Home
Well after everything that had happened to them, finishing the game in a tie didn’t seem so bad. After the buzzer sounded, the audience applauded and buzzed with the leftover excitement and novelty of the Joe Sakic fight. So at least the crowd was happy but as they skated to Patrick to give him a few taps on the pads, Danny kept rolling over in his mind how much better it would have been to at least get one extra point on that gap between them and Vancouver.
And what the hell had been up with Joe? Why would he have gotten himself plastered like that on the day of an important game? Joe just didn’t do things like that. What could have triggered it?
Ah the question of the day. They barely had enough time to strip off their sweaty gear when members of the press began trickling into the locker room. Bob Hartley took the first initiative in answering the queries about Joe Sakic’s bout of insanity, “You know Joe, he,” Hartley set his chin in thought and Danny and the rest of the team watched the coach, knowing his answer would become their answer. “He does not get enough credit for his passion you know? Like, uh, he’s passionate about the game and his teammates, and sometimes it happens you know that he just cannot tolerate people stepping on his toes. It happens to everyone out there.”
“But Sakic seemed a little off from the start of the game; did that have anything to contribute to the fight?”
“No,” Hartley said definitively, “I don’t think so, like, uh, well Joe is a professional you know, and his goal would have been to get the team ahead, and if he felt it necessary to fight, then the reason was good in his mind.”
“But why did he fight?”
“If you ask Todd Bertuzzi I don’t think he would tell you it was a fight at all, eh?”
Some of the press laughed and the subject magically changed to the team’s situation in the standings and how they expected to go into the all star break. Cue taken, to any reporter who caught him, Danny said the same thing as the rest of the team, Joe felt the need to fight, its part of the game, and no Joe’s erratic behavior before hand did nothing to contribute to it.
By the time he got himself showered and dressed, Dan felt completely exhausted and harried. Fortunately a more formal press conference sprang up involving Patty, Hartley and Footer so Dan found himself free to turn on his cell phone. Within a minute it rang. “Danny what on Earth!”
It felt nice to hear her voice; Dan sat down on the bench, “Hi, honey.”
“Danny I know you promised me not to fight but, Mr. Sakic! What? What happened? Is it the universe trying to balance itself?”
Dan laughed. “You know, honey, I never thought about it like that but I think you’re right.” And now he just imagined how Cecile must have reacted at home, the children just put to bed, watching the game, confident her Danny would not fight. She probably didn’t see that one coming!
“Goodness, Danny what happened? Why? I’m glad I had just put Mitchell to bed, he really would not have needed to see that!”
“Oh honey,” Dan grinned. “Joe’s fought before, it’s not that unusual, actually.”
“Did you see it?” Cecile asked in a girlish, curious voice.
“Oh right you’re interested in Joe’s fights but mine are just wicked right?” Dan couldn’t help but jab at her, he was only half joking.
“Daniel Hinote I told you before, I get afraid you’ll be injured!”
Danny grinned. Yeah he just needed to hear that. “No I didn’t see it, I wasn’t even an itch in the team’s pants yet, baby.”
“DANNY!”
Dan closed his eyes. “Sorry!” he gritted his teeth. “I’m going to blame Keaner for that one okay?”
“Oh…” Cecile said and let an oppressive silence take over the phone line.
“Really, honey, everything’s okay, Joe just needs to cool down and…”
“That’s good, poor Debbie, I wonder how she felt about it,” Cecile sighed. “You guys put us through a lot more than you think.”
“Oh have a little fun, honey,” Dan said. “I’m sorry you worry. But look, it’s bad enough you worry about me that you don’t need to be worrying over my teammates okay? Look come on, I even kept my promise to you, didn’t you notice? I should have been the one to get Bertuzzi, but I didn’t, that was for you honey!”
“Oh great!” Cecile said with a grim laugh. “It’s my fault Mr. Sakic resorted to violence to settle some sort of argument, that’s a dubious honor.”
Danny imagined her snake bitten little eyes, and he knew how thin her mouth would look and if he were at her side right now he’d scoop her up over his shoulder and make her scream for mercy, but he wouldn’t put her down until she started laughing. And then he would kiss her. “Hey, what can I say you ladies cause a lot of trouble.”
He could hear that beautiful smile in her voice when she spoke again. “I did notice you didn’t have a fight, Danny. Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you too honey, but…” Dan squinted at the doorway; some of the guys were collected there with somber faces. “I have to go it looks like things are moving here, I need to find out what’s going on. I’ll call you later?”
“Call me tomorrow, I’m sleepy.”
When Dan hung up the phone he got up and met Blake and Drury who were at the doorway. Most of the team were gathered in the wives room talking with the coach and rocking on their feet. “What’s going on guys?”
“We need someone to take Joe home.”
Dan grimaced. “Well Debbie can drive him can’t she?”
Blake nodded. “Yeah none of the wives are down here yet, I saw Joey though and he’s plastered, Danny, he’s out. And you know how delicate Debbie is, it might be better if she didn’t see him like this. Don’t you think? I mean she’s gonna make him sleep on the couch anyway and then he’s gonna wake up with the kids crawling all over him, think of the hangover Danny! So we need someone to take him.”
Danny shrugged, “Well why don’t you take him Robbie?”
“Pbbth!” Blake scoffed. “We already agreed guys with wives and families don’t have to, it’s either you or Tanguay.”
“Oof!” Tanguay replied. “I have Penelope to take care of.”
“Well what about Peter?” Danny asked helplessly realizing where this conversation was taking him. “He’s single and he’s got a huge penthouse, it would be perfect to take Joe to.”
Forsberg raised a finger to say something but Drury interrupted. “Joe’s been pissed at him enough as it is all day for even showing up in the team locker room, who knows what he’ll do to Pete punch drunk. He’ll probably do a lot more than have him sit in his lap.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Thanks Dru.”
“No problem.”
Danny sighed. “All right, I’ll take him. Where is he?”
“Passed out in one of the offices upstairs.”
Oh for the love of…
“How are we going to get him out of here?” Dan asked after he’d seen Joe with his own eyes. Sakic snored loudly, head on a conference table with chicken bones scattered around him. “Was he eating fried chicken?”
Blake
raised his eyebrows. “Actually,” he whispered. “I heard that
“Oh”
“He stinks though,” Blake wrinkled his nose. “We can’t send him home like that either. So you see, we need you Danny-boy.”
“Riiight…”
Thankfully, the defensemen took over the job of lugging Joe’s unconscious body out a back entrance and shrouded in so much stray linens that he looked like a duffel of extra equipment, albeit a huge amount of extra equipment. Dan gave them the keys to his car and he then went back downstairs to do damage control with Debbie, who understandably, wanted to know what had become of her husband.
“Danny this is ridiculous. I gave him some time to cool down, aye? Shouldn’t that have been enough? So he got in a fight, it’s nothing too serious, if he’s embarrassed about it that’s just silly. We need to get home!” Debbie frowned, her hands on her hips.
Dan licked his lips. Here we go. “Hey, Debbie, look Joe can’t really see you right now, it’s… well.” What the hell was he going to tell her?
“Why not?”
“Well he’s busy with…”
“Busy?”
“Yeah he’s with… with… well it’s kind of hard to tell you but…”
Debbie’s eyes widened and her hands went to her mouth. “Oh my God Danny are you trying to tell me he’s cheating on me? There’s another woman? Oh God is that why he’s been so bad in bed lately, he’s been putting out for….”
“No!” Dan exclaimed really hoping that the guys weren’t listening to that piece of information. “He’s not cheating on you, Debbie. Don’t worry.”
Debbie breathed out, “Oh then what is it? Danny it was a very good fight, I don’t mind fight’s hon, so I’m not mad at him!”
“Well Debbie he’s drunk.”
Debbie frowned. “What?”
Well next to Debbie’s original fears that didn’t seem so bad to say. Dan felt a lot better about talking to her. “Look, before the game he went out drinking with Kirk, and I guess he had a little too much. It carried onto the game so, yeah.”
“Drunk?”
Dan nodded. “Plastered really, I mean he reeks Debbie, it’s pretty bad, I don’t think you want to see him. I mean he smells like hockey, and beer and he’s acting really weird. It’d be better if he just slept it off. We’re just trying to do you both a favor, Mrs. Sakic.”
“Joe doesn’t drink that much,” Debbie said with squinted eyes.
“Well today he did.”
Debbie shook her head and Danny found himself wondering why women never believed anything they were told. Really, sometimes it seemed to him that they weren’t happy unless they actually heard the bad news they were craving for. Perhaps it had something to do with wanting to be right all along. “No, no, why would Joe just go out and get himself plastered on the day of a big game, Danny?”
“I don’t know!” Dan said shrugging his shoulders.
“Well you’re his teammate!” Debbie cried.
Dan jumped back. “Yikes! Debbie I don’t know really!”
“You must know! Why did he just go out and get plastered?”
“I don’t know maybe he’s not happy about something, he’s not telling us about it, really Debbie I don’t know!”
“Not happy?” Debbie whispered.
Dan swallowed. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with you.”
“Ooooo!” Debbie moaned covering her eyes, “It has everything to do with me. Why does it have to be my fault? Why can’t it be just another woman!”
Right, Danny could tell he wasn’t going to catch a break on this one.