Author's Note: Thank you so much for your comments. I love hearing what you think about the story and Cat and Sid. They are still in the honeymoon phase of course but there's a lot more story to come ...

The car is waiting for Lizzy and me when we walk out the door of our apartment building. I didn't know what to expect; a limo, a car. It's a black SUV with tinted windows. A man dressed in black gets out of the car and approaches us as we get closer.

"Cat?" The driver asks.

"Yes" I say with a smile.

"I'm Lizzy" she jumps in.

"It's nice to meet you Lizzy. Mr. Crosby has asked me to take you both to the Consol Energy Centre. Are you ready to go?"

We both nod to the man and he opens the back door for us. That's when it hits me; what will we do about a car seat for Lizzy. As I move closer to the car door, I can look in and see that there is a car seat set up.

"Mr. Crosby was very specific that you needed a car seat ma'am. Do you need help with Lizzy?"

I shake my head because I can't talk. I probably shouldn't be surprised that Sid thought of everything but he keeps surprising me. There is even a TV showing an episode of Dora and a Starbucks coffee for me. After settling Lizzy in her car seat, I lean back and drink my coffee. Lizzy giggles as Backpack starts dancing which causes me to laugh too. Before we know it, we arrive at Consol.

The driver takes us through a gate and to what looks like a loading dock. Someone opens the door when we've stopped.

"Hello Cat. Hi Lizzy. I'm Jennifer and I'll take you inside to Sid."

"Thank you" I reply and unbuckle Lizzy.

As we're following Jennifer, Lizzy holds my hand tight. She doesn't often get shy but this is an unfamiliar place and with unfamiliar people. This feels odd even to me. The last two times we were at Consol, we walked through the front doors. We follow a long hall and through a series of halls until we start to see Penguins posters.

"Sidwee!" Lizzy shouts and points to a poster of Sid.

"Yes sweetheart, it's Sidney" I tell her.

Jennifer leads us into a large room that has a horrific smell. It smells like something died in here and has been rotting for years. Jennifer must notice my wrinkled nose.

"It's the equipment. I'd like to say that you get use to the smell but you really don't. You just learn to ignore it. If you'll come over here please?"

Lizzy and I follow her to one of the benches where Sid's name plate is hanging. I also notice the tiny skates. This must be Sid's surprise: he's taking Lizzy onto the ice. There's also a small Pens jersey with Sid's name and number.

"Do you want to go on the ice Lizzy?" She doesn't understand so I simply smile; she'll understand soon.

I sit her down and exchange her boots for the skates then put the jersey on over her jacket. When she stands up, she's a little wobbly on her first couple of steps until she gets the hang of it. When she's steadier, she grins up at me. I take her hand and look at Jennifer.

"Ok Lizzy, Cat, follow me."

Jennifer leads us out the door and down a hall. It takes us more time than it usually would as Lizzy wobbles on her skates but she won't be carried. We come out of a tunnel, we're at ice level, and walk to the edge.

"Sidwee, Sidwee, Sidwee!" Lizzy cries out when she sees him on the ice.

Sid glances over at us and a huge grin breaks out over his face. He has taken off his helmet and all of his gear above the waist.

"Hello princess!" He greets Lizzy and bends down to kiss her puckered lips as we get to the ice surface. When he straightens, he smiles at me too so I pucker my lips as Lizzy did. Sid's smile widens and he leans in to peck my lips too.

"Hi" he says.

"Hi" I reply. "This is some surprise."

"You said that Lizzy had never skated so I thought we could have her first time here. We'll get you on the ice next time" he says with a wink. He looks at Lizzy now and asks "do you want to skate princess?"

"Sidwee, Sidwee!" She says to him and holds out her hands.

"We need to get you ready first" he tells her and then he grabs a small helmet for her from the bench. After it's fastened, Lizzy tries to walk onto the ice.

"Wait one moment Lizzy" he tells her and grabs something from the behind the boards. It's a metal thing that he puts on the ice in front of her. "Ok princess, hang on here" he puts her hands on the metal and I see what it is now. It's like a walker that the elderly use only it's small enough for Lizzy and made for the ice.

"Put one foot on the ice" he tells her and she does. "Now the other foot."

Lizzy looks up at Sid a little wary but follows his directions. When she's standing on the ice, she grins up at him and then looks back at me.

"Mommy, I'm skating!"

"Yes sweetheart, you're skating."

"Ok Lizzy, let's go" Sid says as he pulls the walker a little further into the ice. He gives her guidance as she tries to skate. First she walks on the ice so he shows her how to glide. That takes a little while to figure out. She has no fear though; she's willing to try anything that Sid tells her to but she keeps walking. The gliding idea doesn't really break through and, even when Sid demonstrates, she doesn't get it. Of course she's only been walking for a few years and now we're trying to add a whole new movement. It's interesting that neither Lizzy nor I are scared or concerned. I guess we both have that much faith in Sid.

She falls a couple of times but doesn't hurt herself since she's in snow pants and well padded. It's more like she slides to the ice than falls hard. Anyway, she is having so much fun. A few times she even has to stop what she's doing because she's giggling so much. Of course her giggles start Sid giggling. I love watching them together and the giggle-fest that usually ensues.

Sid gives up on the 'walker' and gets behind Lizzy to prop her up and basically pushes her forward. They make it the width of the ice and then half way back to the centre. Lizzy almost falls again but Sid has her firmly.

I can tell that she's getting tired and I'm about to tell Sid when he picks her up in his arms. He starts skating around the ice, looping in a large circle, and starts to pick up speed. The faster Sid goes, the more Lizzy giggles. It's so cute. I feel some trepidation as he continues to go even faster but then I remind myself that he's the best hockey player in the world. He knows what he's doing.

When they come back to the bench, Lizzy's cheeks are pink and she's still giggling.

"Mommy, did you see me? I skating."

"Yes baby, you were skating." I take Lizzy from Sid and we all walk back to the locker. Now that Sid is so close, I can tell that he smells just like that locker room.

"Yeah" he says. "This gear reeks."

He must have seen my wrinkled nose.

"You must take the longest showers to get clean and fresh" I say and we both chuckle thinking about our last two showers together.

As we enter the locker room, I look around and it's still empty. Sid must notice.

"It was an optional skate today and most guys worked out earlier. They're all gone."

I smile at Sid, he smiles back and then bends down to help Lizzy off with her helmet and skates. I'm left wondering again about Sid not wanting his team mates to meet me or us.

When Lizzy's ready, Sid says "I need to jump in the shower but I'll be quick and then we can have lunch, ok?"

"Sounds great; although there's no need to skimp on the shower."

"Ha ha ha. Ok, I'll show you where you can wait" Sid says and shows us to what he calls the players' lounge. We get comfortable while Sid leaves to shower and change.

"Cat?" I hear behind me. When I look, it's one of the guys who have come into the diner with Sid.

"Yes, I'm Cat" I reply.

"Nice to see you again. I'm Pascal. You must be Lizzy" he says turning to her. "I have a little girl who is your age. Her name is Lola. Would you like some juice?" He asks her and glances at me. I nod so he looks back at her.

"Yes" Lizzy says to him.

"Yes what?" I say to her.

She frowns for a moment then says "yes please" to Pascal.

"You have very good manners" Pascal tells her and turns to get her juice. When he's back and hands it to her, Lizzy glances at me then says "thank you" to Pascal.

"You're very welcome" he replies. "Don't worry" he continues looking at me. "Most of the guys are gone or in the showers."

Two things come to mind when Pascal says this to me. First, that Pascal knows that Sid doesn't want anyone to know about us. Second, Sid has told Pascal that we're dating. I don't know what to think now. Maybe I'm just thinking too much and should just go with it more.

Pascal says goodbye and Lizzy and I are alone again but not for long.

"Are my girls ready for lunch?" I hear Sid ask behind us.

We both turn around to look at him.

"Sidwee!" Lizzy calls out as she runs to him. Sid catches her in flight and holds her in his arms.

"Are you ready for lunch princess?" He asks her.

"Hungie" Lizzy answers him.

"And how about mommy? Are you hungry too?" Sid asks me.

Looking at Sid with still damp hair, a tight fitting long sleeve tee shirt and jeans makes me realize that I'm hungry for much more than lunch. I can tell that Sid sees my thoughts as his eyes narrow slightly and darken.

"Starving" I tell him.

We all put our coats on and Sid leads the way to the parking garage. We walk to a car that isn't his truck. Sid notices my confusion.

"I traded cars with Pascal" he explains. "He has a car seat and his daughter is about Lizzy's age."

I watch as Sid opens the back door and puts Lizzy in the car seat. I hadn't thought about the car seat for Lizzy either to Consol or leaving since we never drive. I'm so glad that Sid did.

The drive is short and I recognize the way to Sid's condo. Lizzy has been singing and talking non-stop. She stops when we enter Sid's apartment where she walks directly to the wall of windows.

"Like mother like daughter" Sid says as he puts his arm around me.

We both watch Lizzy put her hands on the window and her nose up against the glass.

I chuckle and say "good luck explaining that to your cleaning people."

"How do you know that I don't clean the place myself?" He asks.

I simply look up at him and arch an eyebrow.

"I love it when you do that" he lowers his voice. "It's sexy as hell" then he dips down to kiss me.

I forget everything except Sid until Lizzy bangs into us and yells "me, me, me!"

I look down and her arms are around Sid's legs and her lips are puckered. Sid chuckles, releases me and picks Lizzy up to peck her lips. Lizzy grins and cuddles into Sid's arms laying her head on his shoulder. I look at them and can't help wondering if Lizzy is missing out by not having a dad. I watch how easily she shows affection with Sid and wonder if it's because she's craving male attention. Maybe I am too. Then I see Sid nuzzle her neck which makes Lizzy laugh. It may be true that we crave male attention but our attraction isn't because Sid's a man; it's because he's Sid.

"What?" Sid asks and I see both he and Lizzy are staring at me.

"Sorry. My mind wandered. What's for lunch?"

"We're having Lizzy for lunch" Sid says and pretends to nip at her neck. Lizzy giggles and tries to wiggle out of Sid's arms. They both end up giggling again. Sid sounds as young as Lizzy when he giggles. I like this silly side of him.

When the silliness ends, we all head into the kitchen and put lunch together. Sid has chicken again but this time with squash and carrots; Whole Foods does really well with Sid I can tell. Lunch is a lot of fun. We have a brief moment of figuring out how to get Lizzie at the table so that she can reach; but, we move lunch into the living room and eat at the coffee table. We can all sit on floor. I'm thankful that Sid has hardwood so it's easily cleaned up. Lizzy is still working on tidiness.

We relive Lizzy's first time on the ice during lunch. She wants to be a hockey player when she 'gets big' just like Sid. It's so cute. She clearly has a huge crush on him with a bit of hero worship too.

After lunch is cleaned up, Sid surprises us both by bringing out a huge bag of Megablocks and we spread them out over the living room floor. We build towers and knock them down. There is lots of more giggling. When Lizzy and I team up to build a large tower, Sid knocks it down this time. Lizzy and I look at each other.

"I bet Sid's ticklish. What do you think Lizzy?"

She just giggles and then we pounce on Sid. Soon the three of us are rolling on the floor and we discover that Sid is indeed ticklish. After our tickle fight, we clean up the blocks and settle on Sid's sofa to watch a movie. It's one of Lizzy's favourites; Brave. Unfortunately, my very tired girl falls asleep shortly after the movie begins. She's curled up on Sid's lap.

"She's out" I tell Sid. "You can put her down if you want."

"No, she's ok here" he tells me. "What?"

"I don't know. It's been odd, not in a bad way, just odd to watch her with you."

"What do you mean?"

I don't know if I can adequately explain myself.

"Sid, Lizzy has had men in her life; at the diner and the Centre. She's never had one that she was close to, that she cared about. It's odd but really, really nice."

"And who cares about her too. I want you to know that Cat. What we have is new and undefined but I want you to know that I care about you both."

"Good because we both care about you too."

Sid smiles but his expression quickly becomes pensive.

"What?" I ask him.

"Can I ask you a question?"

I almost tell him that he just did but I can see that he's serious.

"Ok. What would you like to know?"

"I want to know about your life Cat. You said that your mom was a drug addict and you went into foster care. What was that like?"

"Sid, I don't talk about it because it's over. I'm not that person anymore."

"I get it, and I will let it go if you really want me to; but, it made you who you are today. You hear stories of, well, abuse and stuff in foster care. I guess, I don't know" and he trails off on a shrug.

He looks away now and I finally get it. He's worried.

"Sid, it was difficult. It was a nightmare. But there wasn't any abuse: emotional cruelty from my mother and often indifference by foster families but never abuse."

He looks pensive still but also relieved. I didn't realize that he was worried about this or else I wouldn't have shut him down so completely when he brought it up before.

"Sid, really, I got through it and now I'm here. How can I be regretful of anything when I look at her?"

We both look at Lizzy sleeping soundly. When we're looking at each other again, Sid reaches up and cups my face. It's so tender, so kind and so loving that it takes my breath away for a moment.

"I just want to get to know you better Cat. My purpose isn't to pry. Everything we are is where we come from and what we've made of ourselves. We all use our history, our experiences and the people in our lives to us who we are now."

I'm not sure I like where he's going with this; if I look back on my life and where I came from, who I came from, then I'm not much of everything. I lean back against the sofa and look at Lizzy still sleeping in Sid's arms. What if where I come, what I come from, affects her?

"Where have you gone Cat? You seem a million miles away."

How do I answer that question? The more I learn about Sid, I see that he had a pretty normal life growing up until he hit about ten, eleven years old when he was recognized as a phenom. His parents worked hard to keep him in hockey. They were a normal family. That's made him a great guy and as normal as he is extraordinary.

"Sid, I don't know what to say. I guess our pasts do make us who we are after all."

"I hope you know what I mean Cat. Sometimes, when you have a rough childhood, you use it to make your life better. That's what you've done Cat."

Oh, that's what he means. Oh.

"You're incredible Cat; truly incredible."

"Sid, that's really sweet. I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything. I only wanted to explain why I want to know everything about you. I want to everything about every part of you. The more I learn, the more I want to know Cat."

Ok, now this guy seems too good to be true but I'm going to do what I said; I'm going to stop thinking and go with it.

"I want to know about you too Sid. One of the things I've learned is that you are incredible. Lizzy will always remember today and her first skate with her 'Sidwee.' This is a wonderful memory for all of us. Sid, she was so happy today. I love to watch you together."

"She did have a great time huh?"

"Yeah she did. These Megablocks were a great idea too. She loves building things and putting things together."

"I didn't think that she would want to play video games and Duper's kids love Lego. When I went to buy Lego, they were too old for her so the guy at the store told me that these things are Legos for younger kids."

"Well she loves them. I'll have to get some for her now."

"Take these ones and I'll get more. I'm hoping that you'll both be spending some time here too."

Wow, now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. This is going fast. We hadn't been going out very long when we slept together and now Lizzy's heart is involved. I intended to avoid both of those things but here we are.

"Sid, things are moving really fast" I tell him.

He looks down and then back at me. "Too fast? Do you want to slow down?"

I think about that for a moment then reply "no."

Sid smiles, opens up his free arm and I slide in beside him. Cuddled in his arms with my daughter makes me dream a little of what could be. This is what it must be like to have a partner and not be alone. Lizzy and I are a family, we don't need anyone else to make us a family; but, having someone else to count on, to lean on, feels good.

Am I getting ahead of myself? Yeah, I guess I am. It feels good though to trust someone enough to let them in. I may still have reservations letting Sid and Lizzy get this close this soon; however, Lizzy has never been happier and I've definitely never been happier or more satisfied. Maybe this will work out.