Word Count: 48,010
Summary of Events:
Joseph went to see the General Manager and talked with him about the situation with Charles and Chalmers. Chalmers went to see his counsellor — a mercifully brief meeting — and then went to the diner to help in the kitchen again just because. Alizabeth talked with Chalmers while they worked together before she ended up going into shock. Chalmers told one of his teammates about what happened before being told he was brought back into the lineup after five games scratched.
Excerpt of the Day:
"Perrot's out, MacKenna's in," Chalres said. "First two lines are the same, third line is MacKenna, Taylor-Kirby, and Awberry, fourth line is the remainder. No changes in D pairings."
Chalmers glanced over at Justin and Zachary; both of them looked thoroughly elated at the line promotion. Chalmers was glad to be playing again, and being paired with Justin and Zachary probably wouldn't be too bad, base on their performance with him in Calgary. . .
. . . Soon the guys were ready for warmup, Chalmers saw Justin and Zachary with their heads together like a pair of girls who were looking at their secret crush; Chalmers smiled and walked over to them, tapping their shins with his stick.
"You girls better not mess up your opportunity here," Chalmers said seriously.
Zachary and Justin startled, Zachary looking floored, Justin looking affronted; the rest of the room dissolved into guffaws and Chalmers slowly smiled.
"You did that straight faced!" "They even looked like girls!" "That was great!" various teammates called.
"The Powder Keg has a sense of humour, interesting," Cole said.
Chalmers turned and glared at Cole, then turned back to Justin and Zachary.
"I'm being serious, though; just think like you're playing on the fourth line and play like you're on the first." Chalmers said. "Speed, action, alertness."
Zachary nodded like a bobble head, Justin gave a single nod, looking with serious determination at Chalmers.
"Daddy Powder Keg," Cole said.
Chalmers turned again, taking his stick into his hands like he was holding a rifle, and pointed the butt at Cole's head. "You keep yakking and I'll powder keg your head off," he said.
Cole wagged his head at Chalmers as if challenging him. Chalmers tossed his stick to the side, dropped his gloves, and hauled Cole up the wall to be looking him in the eye by his armpits and got close enough that his nose was nearly touching Cole's.
"I'm not the only one who doesn't like you," Chalmers said. "I've heard tell you've been sent home from practise because of your mouth; if you intend to keep it, or any hope of an NHL career intact, you might want to close it if you don't have anything worth saying."
Cole's eyes blazed at Chalmers, his lips gathered, his jaw and neck muscles flickered underneath his skin. Chalmers locked his eyes on Cole's and stared at him, watching as Cole's eyes slowly changed from looking angry to looking quite fearful.
Chalmers released Cole, who dropped down heavily onto his seat, and took up his gloves and stick. He looked over at Cole, who briefly glanced up at him before returning his gaze to his knees.
"You're not bad on the ice, but your positive character qualities outside of it are severely lacking," Chalmers said. "No NHL team's going to invest in you if you keep up your behaviour, they don't just want on-ice talent, they want off-ice integrity.""
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