Page 57 of Offside

Zoe watched him come to the bench after the next shift. He gave her the normal update. She entered it on her tablet.

Hayes took a stick across the wrist late in the first. I brought him down the tunnel, checked the joint, and let him return after examining him. Eriksson opened the second with a skate problem that turned out to be a folded tongue, then blamed equipment staff for the tongue he'd folded himself.

I did my job, and across the ice, Bishop did his.

He didn't turn the first period into an argument with the contract offer. He didn't finish checks after the puck had moved or wind up from the point to prove the right arm could still rise. He closed space with his feet and used his body where the contact stayed low.

The Storm tied the game midway through the second. Bishop recovered a dump-in below our goal line as Buffalo's forechecker came through his right side. Bishop let the man commit, turned off his left edge, and moved the puck early to Garrett instead of carrying it into the hit. Garrett found Theo through the middle. Theo entered with speed and sent the puck wide to Nico, who scored under the goalie's blocker.

The score was one-one. Bishop didn't get the point, but he'd created the exit that created the goal.

Marchetti's letter existed somewhere between his laptop and Bishop's unopened email. The club's one-point-seven offer was out there. Park's access review remained unresolved.

None of it changed what happened on the ice.

Buffalo's defenseman pinched down the wall after the Storm failed to clear. Bishop forced the puck carrier outside, but the low shot left a rebound in the slot. A trailing forward beat Eriksson to it and put the second attempt over Kieran's pad for a two-one lead again with six minutes left in the third.

Reeves pulled Kieran with ninety seconds left, giving the Storm one final push.

Bishop held the blue line. The puck came around the boards too high for him to stop without reaching above the limit. He let it go rather than turn one desperate play into a new loss of strength, pivoted, and beat the Buffalo winger to center ice. He recovered the puck and sent it forward again.

The Storm got one final entry, but Theo's shot went wide. The horn sounded with Buffalo still ahead two-one. Bishop stood at the blue line for half a second after the play ended, then turned toward the bench without looking at me.

The visiting medical room filled quickly after the loss, every table claimed within minutes.

Vicki took Nico's cut lip while I began postgame checks on Hayes's wrist. Zoe waited at the open end of the room with Bishop's chart ready.

Bishop stopped before he reached her table and waited for her attention.

"Any acute change?" Zoe asked.

"No weakness, the same pain," Bishop reported. "I need ten minutes before the full check," he said. "Is that safe?"

Zoe looked at him, then at the clock. "Ten. If anything changes, you come back immediately."

"I'll come back if it changes," Bishop assured her.

He looked across the room at me. "Pryce. Can we sit down for a minute before she evaluates me?"

Hayes followed my attention. His wrist had held through the first set.

"You're cleared to shower," I told him. "Report any swelling before the bus."

"Got it," Hayes said.

I documented the result and handed the case to Vicki. Bishop waited at the door until I followed him down the corridor.

The arena had left an unused visiting-team meal room open down the corridor. At nearly eleven at night, the warming trays were empty and the lights over the buffet were off.

He set his phone on a table between two chairs.

"Marchetti sent the two drafts," he said. "I haven't opened either of them."

I remained standing. "I'm listening."

"Will you sit?" Bishop asked. "I don't want you standing over me."

I did as he asked.