***Author's Note: I am so sorry on the delay of this chapter. I had a few weeks of crazy real life stuff going on that kept me from updating. I have to admit this lockout stuff doesnt help with inspiration or motivation, but the super hot pictures/videos of Sid definitely help! Anyway, life is back to normal and I hope to get things moving along again. Thanks again for all the great reviews!***
Sidney Crosby rarely made mistakes but on the rare occasion he did, he didn't make the same mistake twice. That is why when a chilly Caroline awoke a few minutes before her 6 o'clock alarm, she found the other side of her bed empty and the smell of something sweet wafting into her bedroom. She dragged herself out of bed and padded to the bathroom to take care of her morning rituals. Smoothing down her errant curls that formed after a late night shower the previous evening, she made her way down the hallway of the single level home and into the kitchen where the broad naked back she had become accustom to faced her, the front of Sidney hunched over the stove top.
"Good morning," Caroline murmured, sleep still evident in her voice.
Sid jumped and turned to face Caroline, his hair equally in disarray and it was then Caroline noticed how much his hair had grown over the past month and a half.
"God, you scared me," Sid said smiling, and then gave a slight frown. "I was hoping to bring you breakfast in bed." He glanced at the clock on the microwave, "You still have 8 minutes before your alarm."
Caroline looked a bit dumbfounded by his words but recovered.
"I was cold. I lost my favorite heat source," she teased lightly, her face pinked by her words.
Sid outstretched his arms and Caroline crossed the room to fall into them. Feeling his heat surround her as his hold tightened, Caroline breathed in the distinct scent of Sidney.
After a few moments he pulled back and looked down at her, "Good morning," he said softly and pecked her lips. The slightly chapped roughness of his lips brushed against hers, warming her even more.
When they separated, Sidney turned back to the stove, flipping a blueberry pancake with a flick of his wrist.
"I will not burn these," he muttered as Caroline peered around him to see what was cooking.
"Pancakes during the week?" Caroline said happily, "What a treat."
"No repeat of yesterday, that is for certain," he said mostly to himself and Caroline just rolled her eyes knowing what a perfectionist he was. She went about gathering plates and napkins and poured orange juice and coffee; ignoring Sid's protests of wanting to "do it all." A few minutes later they were enjoying a sit down breakfast in the early morning of a Tuesday.
"These are insane," Caroline gushed as a blueberry popped in her mouth.
Sidney grinned, "Trina Crosby's recipe. Never fails."
Caroline looked impressed and he decided to keep to himself that the recipe was just add water pancake mix and two cups of blueberries. Hey, they were close to homemade.
Sid and Caroline discussed their evening plans and Caroline insisted that she would pick up all the ingredients after work, continuing to ignore the protests of Sidney.
"You don't make anything easy do you?" Sidney asked a glint in his eye.
"Nope," Caroline replied grinning and swallowed the last bite of pancake.
While Caroline showered, Sidney pulled on a pair of sweats, his hat and gloves and tackled the great outdoors. It had snowed the night before and he wanted to clean off her car and shovel her driveway before she left for work. He easily found a shovel in her garage and set to work. Sid hadn't shoveled a driveway since he was fourteen when a foot of snow covered the town of Cole Harbour on a regular basis. Back then it was at 5:30 or earlier, a necessary task to complete before his mom could drive him to the local rink for early morning practice. The air was bitter cold but there was a satisfaction with the simplicity of shoveling snow. He thought about her cheeks red and her eyes bright when she discovered what he had done. The look of adoration was worth the frozen nose hairs and the stinging eyes from the brutal cut of the wind. Sidney swiped a final brush of the scraper against the snow covered windshield when he heard a voice behind him.
"I love you, you know."
He could hear the smile in her voice. Sidney turned around and saw a bundled up Caroline looking so similar to that night she stood on the door step in Sewickley. Sure enough her eyes were bright and her cheeks were pink and yep, there was that look of adoration that rivaled hoisting the cup over his head.
"Yeah, I know," he replied smugly.
She looked at him expectantly.
He pretended to look confused, but gave in when he saw her look of outrage at his silence.
"Ha, ok. I love you too. Come here."
She dove into his arms and even in the harsh cold of Pittsburgh in January, he felt soaked in warmth as he kissed her goodbye.
Caroline had hoped for a quiet free period early that afternoon, instead she got a very hysterical best friend basically shrieking in her ear.
"I just can't believe that I am getting married in two and a half weeks and I haven't seen my maid of honor in over a week, despite the fact that she lives only five minutes away. Nor can I believe that said maid of honor has yet to have me properly meet her new famous and incredibly hot boyfriend. But I guess I'm just one of the little people these days, not important enough to talk to…you would think that since I will be old and married in 18 days that she would care to talk to me but…"
Caroline held the phone away from her ear, unable to listen to anymore of Sara's rant/guilt trip on how Caroline had been an absentee friend of late. The truth was that Caroline hadn't talked to her friend in days and felt terrible about it. It just seemed like there wasn't any time for…well really anything these days. The living together bet and the WAGs had taken up all of Caroline's already limited socializing time and her friend had suffered because of it.
"Sara," Caroline interrupted bringing the phone back to her ear and realizing that Sara had yet to take a breath. "Sara!" Caroline yelled into the phone.
Sara stopped talking. "What?" she asked testily.
Yikes, Caroline needed to do damage control immediately. She thought for a minute and hoped Sidney wouldn't mind.
"Do you and Shane want to come for dinner tonight? Sid and I are having the Fleurys over and I would love for you guys to join us." Caroline prayed this would appease her friend.
"Ohhhhhh, so you will have his friends over but you have all but forgotten about me—" Sara began a whole new rant.
"Sara. Please, just listen. I know I have been a crappy friend lately. I invited Marc and his wife because they helped us out a last week and I wanted to repay-" Caroline tried to explain.
"They helped you out? I fed your cat for 5 days and basically got you and the prince of Pittsburgh back together and you're not going to invite me over—"
"I'm inviting you now!" Caroline exclaimed into the phone, grateful she was alone in her classroom while her students were in gym class. "And you and Shane can have my seats for tomorrow's game too." Caroline hoped this would do it, she didn't have the energy to argue to Sara, especially when she was in a mood like this.
Sara's line was silent. "Ok," Sara finally relented. "We will be there tonight for dinner. Oh god, dinner with Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury! Shane is going to flip. Oh and wait till I tell the girls. What should we bring, what time should we arrive, oh my god what am I going to wear?"
Caroline relayed the necessary information to Sara and alerted her friend that she needed to go, but that she would see them this evening for the impromptu dinner party at Caroline's house at seven.
Hanging up, Caroline chewed at her manicured pinky, trying not to damage the perfectly polished pink.
Texting Sidney, she wrote: Invited Sara and Shane for dinner tonight, is that cool? Sara on a rampage, had to fix it. She threw in a smiley face for good measure.
Truth be told, she actually thought Shane and Sara would get on quite well with the Fleurys. Shane was an easy going guy, the complete opposite from Sara. Where Sara got worked up over everything, Shane was nearly passive to a fault. He was 6'2, 240, built like a linebacker. Bald with piercing blue eyes, he had caught the attention of Caroline's friend in the trauma center at UPMC nearly 3 years ago and now they would be marrying in nearby Ambridge, where Sara had grown up. Shane had played football at UPITT before a knee injury ended his football career and ultimately his scholarship. Rather than fall apart he transferred to a local vocational college and ended up at UPMC a few years later and met Sara. Despite their differences they were perfect for each other. Sara, regardless of her sometimes overzealous behavior was a good friend and a good person; she and Veronique had a lot of similar qualities and Caroline was confident they would be fast friends. It was kind of scary though. The idea of bringing groups of friends together. Were Caroline and Sidney at that point? Caroline still couldn't help but feel that one morning she would wake up and this would have all been a dream. Bringing friends together made it just so real. What happened when she and Sid weren't together anymore, would she still talk to his friends and vice versa? Caroline's stomach started to twist at the idea of Sidney no longer in her life. She thought about what the kids had asked. It was so ridiculous to even think these things, it was way too soon. Chewing on her tuna sandwich she had a sudden vision of sitting in a cold ice rink, little figures on the ice, Caroline cheering on the next generation of Crosbys. Setting down her sandwich, Caroline flushed as she hesitantly picked up a pen and wrote on the corner of her desk calendar in a flowery script, Mrs. Caroline Crosby. She looked at the name and felt like a seventh grader. She started to scratch out the name, when her cell phone buzzed.
Sidney had replied. For sure. I've seen Sara's bad side :s
Caroline smiled and her fingers flew across the screen filling Sidney in on Shane and Sara and the expectations of the evening. Finishing up, the bell sounded alerting Caroline to go collect her class, her wandering mind focused back to her students and not on some silly notion of a teenager.
Sidney had a pretty light day. Practice, conditioning, a few meetings with the front office and was back to Caroline's by four. Dressed for dinner, he found himself with some downtime and crashed on her couch flipping through the channels on Caroline's small television. He couldn't help but just wish for a second that he had his nice big screen TV with 1000 channels instead of the non-HD 25 incher he had tried to get accustom to. Channel surfing he nearly missed the flash of an ice rink and players on it. Clicking back he looked at the guide. NHL network. That hadn't been there a few days ago. He was certain, because it had been the day she was out with the WAGs and he found himself in the same situation and had prayed for an instant that she got that channel so he could catch up on some highlights and scores. No this was new. His heart swelled by the gesture and settled into her worn couch contentedly.
Not too long later Caroline arrived home, her hands filled with bags. Sid met her at the door took the groceries. Setting the bags on the counter, he pulled her close and gave her a proper greeting. Caroline pulled back.
"Wow, is this my day or what?" she said smiling up at him.
"Thank you," he said, a fond look on his face.
Caroline was confused.
"The hockey," he clarified and gestured back to the living room and the TV, "I know you don't get that channel."
Caroline colored immediately.
"Oh, yeah, well I thought it was the least I could do for all your doing around here. Now when you visit, you know there is something to watch…" she trailed off feeling embarrassed about her kindness. Sid just pulled her back into him and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.
He helped her unpack the supplies for the dinner party, pleased with the menu she had picked out. Flank steak with an Asian glaze, twice baked sweet potatoes and roasted broccoli. When everything had been organized, Sidney noticed a plastic bag that had not been unpacked. Reaching into the bag he pulled out a box and looked at it.
Silent his gaze shifted to Caroline, his eyebrows raised.
"Don't say a word," she said pointing at him. Less than a minute later, the new shiny toaster sat on her counter and the death trap sat at the bottom of her kitchen garbage.
Shane and Sara were the first to arrive.
Caroline had changed into her favorite maroon dress, while Sid was dressed in jeans and a navy button down shirt. Caroline had been peering into the saucepan trying to get the right consistency for the sauce, as Sidney looked over her shoulder with interest. Caroline held up the spoon to his lips and watched as his tongue darted out and tasted the glaze. She stared waiting for his response.
"Good," he replied grinning and Caroline looked pleased. The doorbell sounded and a quick look of alarm flashed across her face. Sidney stopped her before the anxiety could set in.
"Don't worry, its going to be great," he reassured her, his hand soft at her neck. Caroline nodded, wiped her hands and headed for the door, Sidney right behind her.
"Hiiiiii!" Sara exclaimed, pulling Caroline into her arms. Shane stood dutifully behind Sara, his hands filled with wine and dessert. Welcoming the pair into the living room, Caroline introduced Sidney.
"Sara, you know Sid." Caroline gestured weakly, not sure how these two would get on.
"Hiya Sid!" Sara said brightly launching herself onto him for a big hug. Sidney was used to overly excited fans but he was still caught off guard by the embrace. His hands came weakly up to her shoulder blades and gave an awkward pat. Caroline lifted her eyes to the ceiling, then smiled at Shane, taking the bottles and food.
"Hey polka dot," Shane greeting entering through the doorway, as Sara finally let go of Sid and stood there grinning.
"Hi Shane," Caroline replied, her cheeks slightly pink. As he passed through, his bear claw of a hand landed on her head and tousled her hair in affection.
Caroline made a face and smoothed down her hair as she introduced the two men.
"Hey man, nice to meet you," Shane's deep baritone and large presence made quite the impression.
Sidney easily returned the greeting, a genuine smile on his face as he outstretched his hand. They shook, Shane's grip firm on Sid's.
Caroline took coats and ushered everyone into the kitchen praying the night would go well.
"Smells great, polka dot," Shane called walking ahead of her as Sara followed, while Sid looked at Caroline in confusion at the nickname. Caroline just gave a look of "don't ask" and headed to the hall closet to put the jackets away. She met up with everyone in the kitchen, where Sara was already chatting Sid's ear off as she opened up a bottle of wine, while Shane dug through the refrigerator. He pulled out a bottle and looked at the label.
"Canadian beer...nice," he said to the room. Sidney desperate to break conversation with Sara, heard Shane and immediately walked towards the large man to bond over the bottle of beer, while Caroline slid in next to Sara before she could realize what had happened. They all chatted easily for a few minutes before the doorbell rang again. Sara got a somewhat maniacal look on her face as Caroline shot her a look to calm down and not be embarrassing.
The Fleury's entrance was a lot less enthusiastic than Shane and Sara's, as Marc-Andre and Veronique were pleasant but reserved at meeting the new couple. Caroline played part of hostess, as Sid, feeling much more at ease now that his friends had arrived, took drink orders and every convened in the living room. Shane and Sara sat huddled on the couch, while Veronique and Marc sat in an armchair, she in the seat, he on the arm of the overstuffed chair. Pre-dinner conversation went pretty well. Caroline had to say that despite Sara's initial excitement, she calmed down quickly and the whole thing felt very normal. Sid and the guys talked about football, hockey, Sid and Marc were even familiar with Shane's short lived career on the Pitt team. Caroline found no challenges in getting Vero and Sara talking, the two took to each other with more ease than Caroline anticipated. Sitting on the ottoman, Caroline watched as everyone chatted animatedly and she felt a heavy weight lift off her. She headed into the kitchen to check on things. She was just closing the stove when she felt the familiar presence come up close behind her.
"So far so good huh polka dot?" Sid said teasing.
Caroline turned into him and gave him a look.
"I hate that name," she stated plainly.
"Where did it come from?" Sid asked at the exact time Sara came into the kitchen to refill her wine glass.
"Where did what come from?" Sara interrupted causing Sid and Caroline to separate quickly.
Sara rolled her eyes at their modesty.
"Nothing," Caroline said at the same time Sid said, "polka dot."
Sara laughed then explained, "When Shane and I started dating, I lived here with Caroline. She had the worst polka dot raincoat that she loved. God, Caroline you wore that thing all the time."
"It was April, it was rainy." Caroline interrupted, then turned to Sid, "It was a really rainy month," she explained, her brows furrowed by his amused face.
" Anyway, Shane, well he could never remember Caroline's name, so he called her polka dot and it kind of stuck. It's cute." Sara finished smiling.
"It's not cute." Caroline muttered, "I still don't think he remembers my name."
"Not true," Sara protested and then called out across to the living room. "Shane, hey Shane, what's Caz's name?"
"…Catherine?" came the deep voice from the living room.
Caroline gave a pointed look, Sid laughed and Sara looked sheepish.
Luckily it was time for dinner.
The meal got rave reviews from everyone and the conversation flowed easily. When Caroline really thought about it, the whole thing was so bizarre, but if you didn't, it was just six friends enjoying an evening together, not caring about jobs, status or anything other than telling old stories and laughing.
The conversation soon shifted to weddings.
"So you guys got married this past summer?" Sara asked the Fleurys.
Veronique nodded. "Yes, in Montreal." She got a faraway look in her eyes, "it was beautiful," her accent thick and her voice wistful. "And you, you're getting married soon too?" V asked.
That was all Sara needed to launch into a very long and in-depth account of her and Shane's upcoming nuptials.
"Are you coming Sid?" Shane asked conversationally.
Both Caroline and Sara's eyes got huge, for very different reasons.
Sidney looked a little uneasy. "I'm afraid I don't even know when it is."
Sara looked outraged at Caroline, as Caroline shrunk in her seat.
"January 26th." Sara said stiffly to Sid. "But you don't have to come."
"Sara!" Caroline said, angry at her friend's rudeness.
Sara had the decently to blush. "Please don't be offended Sid, I would love to have you there, but…well its just it's my day and if you are there, then its just going to be…" she trailed off.
Sidney didn't need her to finish. He knew. He had been to enough functions over the years to know how the attention would shift to him and unless he had the proper resources it would turn into a circus. It wasn't new to him, he just felt badly not to be there for Caroline.
"We have a game that night," Sid said lamely looking from Marc-Andre for confirmation and then to Caroline.
Caroline couldn't meet his gaze as disappointment washed over her. She hadn't brought it up because she felt shy inviting him, but that hadn't stopped the small fantasy she had of them dancing at the reception and showing him off to Sara's horrible cousins. "It's ok," her voice high. "I'm going to be busy the whole day anyway."
An awkward silence filled the table. After a few moments, Caroline plastered a smile on her face and announced, "Who wants dessert?"
The conversation shifted to Marc-Andre and Sidney's upcoming trip to the west coast. Three games in eight days, LA, Phoenix and Colorado respectively. Veronique invited Caroline and Sara out on Saturday night for a WAGs get together that Sara nearly went nuts over. Sara's enthusiasm was so infectious that Caroline couldn't help but agree to go even though she was somewhat peeved with her best friend.
The rest of the evening went well, while the group never fully recovered the energy from earlier, it definitely seemed like a successful dinner party.
The last coat was handed out and Sara once again took Sidney in a full embrace, apologizing profusely about the wedding now that she knew he couldn't make it, she seemed to have a change of heart. Sid just smiled tightly, his arms lying limp at his side.
Once alone, Caroline made a bee line for the kitchen and began to scrub furiously at the pans in the sink, as Sidney brought in the last of the dishes. Coming up beside her, he watched as her hands moved at a frantic pace.
"Well that wasn't so bad," he joked lightly. Caroline just nodded and continued scrubbing. Sidney looked at her profile and the impassive look on her face. "You ok?" he asked, his hand coming up on her back. She looked at him, her eyes glassy and weak smile on her face and nodded again. He gently rubbed at her back, his hand sweeping up and down a few times before her face began to crumple and the tears began to slide down her cheeks. "Hey…hey, oh Care, it's ok," his voice low as he took her in his arms and she allowed herself to be surrounded by his comforting arms, her head lying against his chest, the tears beginning to stain his shirt. "Is this because of the wedding? I'm sorry, if I could I would be there, no matter what Sara says. I'd wear a mask if I had to, one of those fake nose and glasses things."
She laughed and choked into his chest and he pulled back, his thumbs on her cheeks, wiping her tears.
"It's not just the wedding," she said finally, her nose stuffy. She took a step back and avoided his eyes, her gaze fixed on the bright blue sponge sitting in the sink. Blinking away the tears, she explained, "my principal, my boss…well he, he spoke to me yesterday about…this." She gestured between the two of them. "And if it will be a problem with the kids and privacy and the media or something, I don't know, I mean media? This is Pittsburgh, not LA or something, anyway he doesn't want your high profile…ness, to compromise the welfare of the students. So I just need to keep everything low key at work, which means you can't visit…" her face began to crumple again. "You can't visit or if something happens with people coming to the school or something, well I could…I could lose my job." The tears flowed again as she felt embarrassed and angry about the unreasonable predicament Mr. Dixon had put her in. Sidney pulled her back to him, angry at her boss, frustrated with the situation but helpless to offer any comforting words.
"I'm sorry, Care," he murmured into her hair, his lips on the soft tresses.
"It's just…I feel like I'm finally ready to be open and public with our relationship and no one will let us," she sniffled as her shoulders lightly shook.
Holding her for a moment, Sid felt at a loss for words. The whole thing with her school seemed completely ridiculous. But when it came to kids, he couldn't fault anyone for being overly cautious.
Guiding her to a bench in the kitchen, he sat her on it and crouched down in front of her. She sat there looking a bit lost and feeling foolish at the emotional outburst.
"I'm sorry," she sniffed, "you don't need to worry about this stuff, it's silly."
"It's not silly." Sidney replied, his face soft as his eyes tried to find hers. He finally caught her brown watery look and tried to reassure her. "You need to talk to me about this kind of stuff, remember? We're a team now, we work this out together." His hands covered hers, his thumbs rubbing at the delicate skin of her small hands. "We will figure this out, I promise," his voice was strong and sure. Caroline looked into his eager eyes and felt herself strengthen by his certainty. The corners of her mouth turned up, "You're lucky you don't have to go to this wedding. It's going to be a spectacle. You should see the bridesmaid dresses…and I think there might be a group dance number involved," she joked feeling better. He grinned, "I wouldn't expect anything less," he stated and Caroline fully smiled. Sure, Sidney didn't have any answers, there was no magical fix it solution, but they would figure it out.
Together.
He smiled and leaned up towards her, his lips soft and sweet on hers. Pulling her up to her feet again he took control of her mouth, his hands on her dewy cheeks. She clutched at him as she felt all the negative thoughts flow out of her. She felt herself fall further and further into him, the only thoughts in her head being the feel of his hand firm on her bottom and the gentleness of his tongue as it slid slowly and lovingly over hers. Minutes later he lifted her bridal style, not breaking the kiss and carried her to the bedroom, the dishes, Caroline's school and Sara, the bridzilla completely forgotten.
Hours later, Sidney awoke to an empty bed and noises coming from kitchen. Languidly strolling into the dark kitchen, he found Caroline, clad in only his t-shirt, doing the dishes. Rolling his eyes for his benefit only, he strode up to her side. Picking up a dishtowel, he reached out for the clean but wet saucepan. She gave a sleepy grin and handed him pan.
Like he said, they were a team.