A/N: Sorry for the long wait between chapters again! I went home for Thanksgiving and now I'm finishing up the semester. This was another tough chapter to write because the way I wanted the story to go ended up evolving into something else, as often happens when I write haha. But please keep reviewing! Thanks for all of your reviews so far, they're seriously so helpful and I love the positive feedback on my hard work!

I woke up in a panic, naked and alone in Sid's bed. I checked my phone, and the time read 8:14 am with no other notifications. My mind raced, and I spiraled into a tornado of regrets and memories and feelings I didn't know I still felt and broke down again, getting up to atleast put my panties and bra back on. I crawled back in bed and hugged the pillow, and picked up my phone again, calling Chelsea to have her hopefully calm me down.

It rang four times before she picked up, and I felt bad calling so early on a Sunday, but I needed someone to talk to. Badly.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, knowing something must be up if I was calling before my usual wake-up time of 10:30.

"I slept with Sid," I cried, tears uncontrollably soaking the pillow beneath my right cheek.

"Oh…oh my god. Are you okay Charlie?" I couldn't respond, I was practically paralyzed by everything I was feeling. "It's okay…it's okay. Just calm down. Where is he right now?" She asked.

"I don't know," I said between sobs. "I just woke up and he wasn't here and I don't know what to do."

"He's probably just downstairs, but you need to get yourself together before he comes back. Tell me what happened, if you think you can." Chelsea's voice was calm and I tried to mimic her unwavering voice on the phone as I took a few deep breaths, attempting to slow my breathing and the tears continuing to fall from my tired eyes.

"I don't know, we just came back from the game last night and we just both wanted to do it I guess. We went upstairs and that was it."

"He wasn't mean to you, was he? He didn't pressure you into it?" She sounded a little angry, but she had a right to be.

"No, no. He was really sweet. He is really sweet. I just feel horrible, I shouldn't even be crying. It's a good thing."

"I know you, Charlie, and I know you wouldn't have done it if you absolutely didn't want to. If you wanted to, then there's nothing to freak out about, there's nothing to worry about and it's a good thing. It's a really fucking good thing. But… I know you're thinking about Tyler, and you need to stop it. There's a reason why you're not with him and you're in Pittsburgh right now. I get it, but there's a reason why Sid is the first person you've had sex with since...everything, and not Tyler."

She didn't beat around the bush with that one, that's for sure. This is what I called her to hear though, and it was frustrating that I needed someone to tell me that but it was true. The last time I had sex was before I lost the baby and it was with Tyler, obviously. But after that, I couldn't do it with him. I don't even know why, I would just freeze up or cry as soon as we were about to, and he would get mad and we would fight and it was a never ending vicious cycle until we finally called it all off in June. Or I called it off… however you look at it. But I didn't freak out last night until after, and I didn't even really know why I cried, or why I'm crying now. It was just monumental I guess. It was a big deal to me, and I think I was crying because it was sad to think about how everything I had gone through over the past year was because I made a stupid decision and had sex with Tyler. But Sid isn't Tyler. At all.

"I know. I know. I wanted it, I really did. I just have a lot to think about," I answered, after staying silent for a moment.

"So…wanna share any dirty details?" Chelsea asked, after finally warming me up.

"Chels! Oh shit, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later. Love you."

I heard Sid's footsteps in the hallway and hung up the phone quickly, trying to wipe my eyes, which I'm sure were red and puffy and covered in tear-smeared makeup. He opened the door, wearing athletic shorts and a tshirt, and instantly looked worried.

"Are you okay?" he asked, coming to sit next to me on the bed.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"You know you're really bad at hiding how you feel," Sid smiled, wiping at the wet makeup under my eyes with his thumb.

"I know," I said through a weak smile, and leaned into him, his arms embracing me warmly.

"I made breakfast if you're hungry," Sid said, pressing his lips to the top of my head.

I nodded, and he grabbed me a t-shirt and some boxers from his drawers for me to wear instead of my pants and sweater from yesterday and I followed him downstairs. We ate breakfast fairly quietly at the island, but not awkwardly. I think we were both just completely exhausted.

"What time's your flight again?" Sid asked after swallowing a mouthful.

"It leaves at 4:30 I think," I responded, realizing that I actually had to go back to Boston.

"Oh so we have a little time. Can I take you somewhere?" His question was ambiguous to say the least.

"Uh, sure. Where?"

"I guess you'll have to see when we get there," he responded, smirking, getting up and clearing our plates.

"Can I shower?" I asked, a little nervous for what he had planned.

"Of course," Sid answered, lightly laughing.

I reciprocated the smile and retreated to the guest room where I showered and got ready, doing my makeup and dressing myself in light washed jeans, a cream tank and a chocolate brown cardigan. I looked at all the nice clothes I packed, thinking I'd need to wear dresses and heels all weekend, and appreciated the fact that I have been able to just be normal. I slipped on some gold flats and headed back out into the kitchen where Sid met me, after also showering. He wore a navy quarter zip over a gray t-shirt and some jeans and his Penguins hat, looking equally comfortable. He looked down at my feet, and I quickly became self-conscious.

"…what?" I questioned, his eyes meeting mine.

"Do you have socks?"

I tried to search his eyes for an underlying reason for why I would need socks, but I nodded and headed back to the guest room where I changed threw some socks on and slipped on some brown lace up boots instead. I returned to the kitchen, where Sid gave me a more approving look, and we grabbed our coats before heading out to the Lexus.

"So you're not gonna tell me where we're going?" I asked, probing, watching Sid drive intently, his left hand on the steering wheel. He glanced over to me before he answered.

"Not if you're going to keep squirming like that," he laughed again, and I realized I was anxious but didn't know it was obvious.

I readjusted myself in my seat and kept my eyes on the road ahead of me, trying to think of all the places we could be going. I didn't think I'd have 40 minutes to think about it though, and by the time we pulled up to our destination, it clicked. We were at a place called the Iceoplex, and I didn't have to think hard about what we'd be doing here. Sid pulled around to the back of the ginormous complex, and surprisingly there were only a few cars in the large parking lot. He put the car in park and pulled the key out of the ignition.

"So, can you skate?" Sid didn't really wait for an answer before he hopped out of the car.

"Maybe," I answered, and walked beside him through the doors. This was about to get interesting.

The place was huge, and housed more than just an ice rink, but Sid led me through a few corridors to the locker room where the Penguins geared up before practice and showed me around a little. He had a pair of skates there, which he grabbed before leading me to the skate shop for a pair of rentals. He greeted the guy at the counter like an old friend, which I'm sure they were to some extent, and told him I needed a pair of skates.

"What size do you wear, hun?" The man, whose nametag said Tim, asked.

"7's should be good," I answered, and Tim fetched me a pair of figure skates, which I looked at wide-eyed. "Any chance you have hockey skates in women's sizes?" I asked, feeling like a bitch, but neither Tim nor Sid would know any better.

"Of course, I'm sorry, I just…" Tim sort of trailed his thought off while he traded the figure skates for a pair of hockey skates. Much better. Sid looked at me slightly shocked, but he looked impressed – pleased, that I hadn't just taken the figure skates. He slipped Tim a ten-dollar bill and gave him a quick nod.

"Hockey skates, eh?" Sid's thoughts were churning, I could tell, and we walked to the stands to get our skates laced up. I'm sure he thought I was just going to try to impress him with the hockey skates, and that I didn't actually have any experience on them. We had the place to ourselves, and I wondered if Sid had arranged this, which I'm sure he had.

"You think a girl has to wear figure skates?" I teased back, tightening the laces on my right skate.

"Not at all, I just didn't take you for the hockey skate type."

We were laced up and ready to hit the freshly zambonied ice that shone under the bright fluorescent lighting above. The skates weren't perfect but they would work, and I felt comfortable keeping my balance on them as we walked toward the rink. We stood at the open panel in the boards and Sid held out his hand for me to take as I stepped over the threshold, and we took our first steps out on the glassy surface.

"You okay?" Sid asked before releasing my hand.

I smirked at him and took off on the ice, letting go of his hand and showing off a bit. Sid skated slowly toward the center of the rink, following in my direction, just laughing at himself.

"Of course," he said softly, thinking out loud. I skated back to him, and found myself in his arms. He planted a soft kiss on my lips and held me there.

"Let me guess, left wing?" His guess was close, judging by my footwork from the laps I did around the rink.

"Right wing," I corrected through a toothy grin, and kissed him again. I felt like I had definitely won this one.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sid seemed a little disappointed that he hadn't figured it out himself, but it was cute, and a good way for him to learn more about me.

I played around with him, and stuck out my hand. "Hi, I'm Charlotte Williams and I'm starting right wing all four years for the BU women's hockey team," I joked, and he obliged, shaking my hand.

"Well nice to meet you, I'm Sidney Crosby, center and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins."

We both laughed, and skated along the boards. "You never asked," I said, and it was a fair point, which Sid acknowledged.

"I'll be right back," he said as he skated back toward the open board. He disappeared into the locker room and returned with two sticks and a puck, exactly what I was expecting, and held one of the sticks out for me to take. I rolled my eyes at him slightly, jokingly, and took it.

I could tell he wanted to see if I could keep up with him on the ice, which I could do pretty well actually. Maybe he was going easy on me, but the nets at either end of the rink were both getting some good use, and I gave him a chance to see how good of a skater I actually was, and pulled some stick handling tricks, until he completely showed me up with his famous pyramid trick after getting a few more pucks. Done.

We had probably been there for almost two hours before we became aware of the time, and at 12:45 decided that we should probably get on the road back to Sewickley. I returned my skates back to Tim and Sid dropped some stuff back in the Penguins locker room before we got back in the car and on the road.

We got back to Sewickley around 1:30 after a chatty car ride, and after Sid unlocked and opened the door, I fought to get my boots off my feet in the mudroom. I could feel Sid moving closer behind me. Closer and closer until he was right against my back, tucking my hair to one side so he could kiss the skin on the right side of my neck.

"Sid, I…" I tried to protest. "I need to get packed."

"Hmm?" His voice vibrated against my skin, and I melted, but turned around to face him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he held my hips, slipping his hands under my shirt so his cool palms were on my warm flesh.

"We should really talk about all of this," I suggested, knowing completely well that we needed to figure out exactly what this was.

"All of what?" he asked with a smirk, and kissed me intently, trying to distract my mind from thinking about the logistics of things and steer it in the direction of his bedroom.

"You know what," I pulled away, giving him a knowing look. As much as I wanted to just jump back in bed with him, I knew better than to get into this too deep before laying down some boundaries or atleast establishing a definition of what we were.

"I know, I know. I just don't want to talk; I only have you to myself for another hour." Sid's expression turned from playful to serious very quickly, and so did mine.

"Please? It won't take long and we can talk while I pack so if there's time left…" I rubbed his arms while I talked, and his face perked back up at my proposal.

"Fine," he grumbled, and followed me into the guest room that I never even slept in so I could gather my things and we could try to figure this out.

I picked up my scattered clothes and shoes and got them into my little suitcase as best as I could. Sid took a seat on the bed, which honestly looked like it had never been slept in before, and watched me quickly fold things and shove them into the bag.

"You know I like you, right?" His voice was soft.

"I like you too," I admitted. "A lot."

"So what is there to talk about?" Sid asked again, trying to get this over with and I raised my eyebrows at him in response.

"What do you want this to be?" I just needed to know so my head would stop spinning.

"What do you want this to be?" Now he was just being difficult, but I kept myself from completely exploding at him with all of the emotions stirring within me.

"You know it isn't easy for me to be here," I said half under my breath, and I saw him tense up out of the corner of my eye as I shoved some shoes into my bag. Maybe it was a little harsh. It was true though. I hadn't told anyone except Chelsea that I was leaving, nor had I really known what I was going to do here. I definitely hadn't expected to sleep with Sid… I didn't regret it but I certainly wasn't prepared for it. Maybe I just needed to stop thinking so much and just do what feels right… but I don't even know what that is anymore.

"So why did you come?" Sid was very stiff all of a sudden, and I definitely struck a nerve.

I looked at him for a minute before gathering my thoughts. I could feel pressure building in my eyelids, and I pushed the tears back, trying to seem strong and confident in front of Sid, even though I really wasn't. "Because I trust you, and that doesn't happen often. So when you asked me to come here, I trusted that you knew what you were doing too."

He stood up and got close to me, and put a hand on my cheek, trying to calm me down a bit. I relaxed a little, and stopped avoiding his eyes and met them with mine.

"I like you. I really do. And you know just as well as I do that having a relationship with a hockey player isn't easy. I want to get to know you more and see you more and I can't stand the thought of you leaving here so soon…" he paused and his words started to send a jolt of fear through me that made my skin crawl. "But you need to get back to Boston. For right now. I'll still call you and send you flowers and be cheesy if that's okay with you because I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. But maybe we could work this out. We'll give it time and see what happens."

I processed everything he was saying. So he didn't really want a relationship, or to jump into one at least, but he really liked me. He wanted me. Of all people? That was just such a bizarre thought to me, because I thought I was purely damaged goods. But we would see what this could be. Eventually, maybe. Is that right?

"I can't get hurt." I said under my breath.

"Which is why I can't promise you something more than what this is right now. But we'll see where this goes, okay?"

I got up on my tiptoes and kissed him in agreement with his proposal, and he kissed me back fully.

"Okay," I reiterated, and finished packing loose ends into my bag.

He kissed me again, leaning into me so the backs of my legs were forced against the guest bed. I knew where this was headed, and there was no harm in it, so I started to lay down, and he followed, our lips locked and hips engaged in some flirtatious grinding. I could feel him hard against me, so I unbuttoned his jeans so my hand would fit down his pants, grabbing his length and stroking it as his lips wandered from my lips to my neck and collarbone. He groaned quietly against my skin, sending a quick shiver through my body. I pulled my hand out of his pants just long enough to tug his shirt over his head and he undressed me with relative ease, helping tug my pants off and then his. I honestly felt so comfortable with Sid, and when we both realized that there weren't any condoms in the guest bedroom, he scooped me up in his arms against his broad, warm chest and set me down at the base of the stairs so I could follow him to his bedroom once again.

Sid laid down and I crawled on top of him, nipping at his lips and sucking hard on his neck. His hands wandered down my sides to my hips and my ass, then down my thighs. His right hand traced along the outline of my inner thigh, and found my clit with his index finger. My breath hitched and he started rubbing in circular motions, forcing my muscles to tremble and my body to lean into every movement. I could feel his smile on my lips as I kissed him, but realizing we didn't have much time, I grabbed a condom from the drawer.

"I wish you could stay." Sid's voice was sincere as he tore the foil packet open.

"Me too."

I sat back on his legs as he slid the condom from the tip of his erection to the base, and I practically couldn't stand waiting anymore. I wanted him completely, and he knew it. He pulled me to him to kiss me and then rolled me over, getting himself back in position between my legs. Sid wasted no time thrusting himself inside me, and I practically yelped.

"Sorry, are you okay?" He asked before continuing.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I smiled eagerly and kissed him again as he worked to set a pace.

It was fast and hard, and our breathing was rushed and our sweat melted together. We rolled over so I was on top, and without really breaking our pace, I fucked him as he rubbed my clit, and I was worried I was going to come at just his touch, but my body shuddered as I lifted and lowered myself down on him, riding him until I felt the change in his breath and his movements became desperate. I literally couldn't hold it in any longer, and as I came with him still inside me, it was the last thing he needed to be sent over the edge, and both of our moans filled the room. I collapsed on top of him for a minute before Sid pulled out and slid the condom off, gathering the motivation to get up and throw it away.

"We should get on the road, I don't know what traffic will be like."

….

After a traffic-logged drive back to the airport, we finally made it there around 3. I'd have just enough time to get through security and I could check in quickly because I didn't have to check a bag and could just check in at one of the kiosks. Dreading our goodbyes, I waited as Sid came around to open my door from me. His Penguins baseball cap somewhat shielded his identity but a couple people pointed fingers as they carried their luggage from the curb. I unbuckled and got out of the car, Sid reaching for my suitcase in the backseat. He popped out the handle from the top and extended it for me to hold, but instead I wrapped my arms around his thick upper body, and his arms quickly closed around me. He pressed his lips to my forehead, their warmth welcomed in the cool September air. I breathed in his scent and rested my head against his chest for as long as I could before he started to pull away.

"Have a safe flight, okay?"

"I will."

I hated this. I really did. I flipped Sid's hat around so it was backwards and I kissed him a couple times before forcing myself to break away, or I wouldn't be able to leave.

"I'll call you later. Bye, Charlotte."

"Bye Sid," I practically choked out his name, worried that I would cry leaving him. He kissed me once more and I walked into the lobby of the airport.

I checked in, got through security, and to my gate with only a few minutes to spare before I boarded the plane. The flight was relatively painless, except for the ache I felt about leaving Sid and Pittsburgh and the crazy few days we spent together. But when I got off the plane, I headed to the parking deck and picked up my Audi and made the drive home to Cambridge in about a half hour with traffic.

I pulled up to my Brownstone and my heart sank. As I turned onto my road, I could see a black Maserati sitting in front of my house. I stopped my car a few houses ahead, unsure of whether I should even bother going home or if I should just drive to my parents' house. But I sucked it up, and parallel parked my Audi behind the luxury car, half wishing I could just crash into it. There was no one in the driver's seat, but I had a feeling my spare key would need a new hiding place – something I had meant to change in June.

I left my suitcase in the car and only carried my Dooney bag through the now-unlocked front door. I didn't even need to take two steps into the house before I saw him.

"What are you doing here, Tyler?"