Chapter 29

“So you haven’t seen a doctor in Pittsburgh?” her doctor asked as she pressed the cotton ball to the inside of Mya’s elbow. For her part, Mya was doing her best to keep her eyes averted from the needle that had withdrawn the blood from her arm. She wasn’t sure which was worse, the needle or the blood, but either way, she was feeling far from well.

“Dr. Gilroy, do you have any idea how much it costs to just see a G.P. down there? I personally can’t wait until Obama’s medical plan starts kicking in,” Mya mumbled, replacing her doctor’s pressure on the cotton ball, bending her elbow up.

“So you haven’t talked over your other symptoms with anyone?” Dr. Gilroy raised her eyebrow at Mya who stared back at her, uncomprehending.

“Other symptoms?” Mya went through her mental notes and shook her head. “Upset stomach, headaches. What else am I supposed to be feeling?”

“You said the headaches go away when you eat?” the doctor shook up the test tube before labelling it and placing it in a tray and turning back to her patient. Mya stared back at her and then shrugged.

“Well yeah, and I guess I’ve been really thirsty...oh! Oh my god. Do you think I have diabetes?” she asked, reeling at the thought of having to cut herself to check her blood sugar.

“Well that’s a definite possibility, but maybe there are some other symptoms we can explore before we go there,” Dr. Gilroy continued, leaning against the wall and watching Mya squirm with an amused look on her face.

“Okay, I don’t get it. What is up? Is this some kind of pay back for not doing my pap smear or something? I told you I was in Pittsburgh and...what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Do you have any other symptoms you want to ask me about? For instance,” her doctor smiled and tipped her head to one side, considering her patient, “do you find that you’re urinating more frequently than usual? Have you been running a low grade temperature? And have you had any...tenderness anywhere?” Mya’s hands raised reluctantly towards her breasts. It wasn’t a big thing, she thought to herself. The girls often became a little painful at that time of the month. “How about when was the last time you had a regular period? And I don’t mean just some spotting that didn’t even require a tampon?” Mya’s mouth fell open and a sound of shock and exasperation escaped her throat.

“No...no way,” she mumbled, ticking off her mental checklist and quickly coming to the same conclusion. “Oh fuck...no way.”

“The test doesn’t lie,” Dr. Gilroy retrieved the clear specimen jar from behind her back with the tiny litmus paper in it and raised the paper to eye level. “Those two lines appeared pretty quick.” Mya stared at the positive test and felt her heart leaping into her throat, cutting off her air. “So when was your last period?”

“Fuck...I don’t even know...I’ve had all this stuff going on and...oh shit,” Mya groaned, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes.

“So I take it this isn’t good news?” Dr. Gilroy said more quietly, putting the test aside and snapping off her gloves before pulling up a stool to sit in front of Mya who continued to stare at a spot on the wall as she shook her head.

“No...this is so not good. Oh god...he’s going to think I’m trying to trap him. Oh shit...oh fucking shit. This is so amateur hour. I’m on the pill...and not the little one either. This isn’t supposed to happen,” Mya complained, gripping the edge of the exam table hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“Well you know the pill isn’t one hundred percent effective. Even as good as they are, condoms aren’t full proof either and some men’s swimmers are definitely more active than others so if he’s in good shape taking plenty of vitamins....”

“Oh yeah, he’s fucking superman. Of course he’d have fucking super sperm...oh fucking shit! I just got this job and he’s so fucking amazing...this ruins everything,” Mya continued to complain, tears now streaking down her face. She felt her doctor’s hand settle on her knee and looked down and across at her, sniffing and wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

“Sometimes things happen for a reason. Don’t discount this right away Mya. Maybe it’s not as bad as you think it is.”

“Oh it’s bad...you have no idea how bad it is, how bad everything is,” she sniffed, shaking her head and wishing she had a pair of ruby slippers to click together to get the hell out of this situation.

_______________________________________________________

Sidney clicked his phone shut, glad for once, that he had contacts everywhere. Mya hadn’t answered her phone all night and he was beginning to be worried. Not that he didn’t realize she was busy and not that he wasn’t glad that she understood he had a lot on his plate and was willing to give him time and space, except he didn’t really want that time and space right now. He wanted her, in the worst way, which was probably not the smartest decision in the world if you believed that a guy wasn’t supposed to expend his energies in the sack the night before a game.

Fortunately that was an old wives tale that he didn’t subscribe to, anymore anyway. He was pretty sure that was one of those things that coaches and trainers told rookies in hopes of keeping them from coming to the rink hung over and about as useful as a wet towel. A little old fashioned missionary position wasn’t going to sap his energy. Well...not that much.

And now that he knew which B&B Mya was staying at Sidney could also look forward to sleeping in a decent sized bed. He was used to his Queen sized bed at home and not that it wasn’t a perfectly good mattress but the last time he’d slept in a single he’d probably been sixteen and...well it wasn’t his first choice of sleeping accommodations.

That and he missed Mya like crazy and it wasn’t just the sex either. Just having seen her in the hall, just to be able to touch her....

Sidney whistled to himself as he slid into the cab that pulled up outside of the athlete’s village. It wouldn’t be long now.

_______________________________________________________________

“I said I didn’t want any dinner brought up,” Mya sniffed, as she opened the door a crack, expecting to see the lady of the house trying to tempt her with yet another casserole, but instead she found Sidney, grinning back at her from beneath his red and white team Canada toque, his face glowing from the cold outside, his caramel coloured eyes sparkling with little boy excitement.

She thought about closing the door in his face, but that was only putting off the inevitable. And besides, she thought belatedly as she left the door open behind her and headed back towards the bed that she’d been hiding in all afternoon, she’d gotten far enough in her decision making process that she knew it wasn’t fair to make a choice like this without at the very least telling him. Not that he would have the final say, she told herself as she wrapped herself in the thick down comforter, pulling it up to her chin.

If she even told him now.

She could wait – should wait- until after the tournament. He didn’t need to have this to worry about on top of the pressure of the entire country on his shoulders.

“Are you getting sick?” he asked, hanging back near the door and watching her anxiously as she grabbed a tissue out of the box and blew her nose noisily.

“No,” she muttered, adding the wad of Kleenex to the growing pile beside the bed, realizing just what this must look like, and he, probably having come looking for a quickie before he had to be back for curfew had probably hoped for something out of Victoria’s Secret than Florence Nightingale. “Not sick...not exactly.”

“You’ve been crying,” he said more quietly, closing the door behind him and crossing the room to sit beside her on the bed. She felt his hands on her shoulders and part of her wanted to wince, to withdraw but she didn’t. After all, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

“PMS,” she muttered, but as soon as he lifted her chin with his hand and forced her to look into his eyes she knew that he knew that she wasn’t telling the truth.
“Did you go see your mom again?” he asked, his gaze anxiously searching hers’. Shaking her head, Mya let out a long sigh.

“I did go see my dad and that was...interesting but it’s not that either. Just...it’s just nothing. Don’t worry about me. Worry about Finland,” she suggested, reaching up to run her fingers along the strong line of his cheekbone, almost like she wanted to memorize his face. After all, as soon as he found out what really had her so upset, he’d be heading for the hills as fast as he could.

“How can you even say that? Look at you...I’ve never seen you like this My. What the hell happened? You didn’t get fired for that thing with the US jersey did you? I know those fuckers take that shit seriously but I swear if they fired you I’ll fucking make some calls and they’ll fucking find out....” Mya couldn’t help but smile at her white knight coming to her rescue. It was sweet, beyond sweet but he was so far of course it was funny...almost. She held her hand over his mouth and kissed the tip of his nose, shaking her head.

“I didn’t get fired...yet,” she sighed as she thought of having to tell them that she’d need maternity leave...that is if she decided to keep it...which she hadn’t, not yet.

“Yet? What happened? Did some player say something to you about us? Was it Kane? I’ll kick his ass. I’ll shove that fucking mouth guard where the fucking sun doesn’t shine,” Sidney continued, his earnestness tugging at Mya’s heartstrings.

“Shut up will you? It’s not him or anyone...exactly. Oh fuck,” she sighed, dropping her head into her hands. He was going to keep asking. She could see that. He was like a dog with a bone. Of course he was. That was how he played, with dogged determination and a never say die attitude. If she lied he’d see through it, or he’d find out eventually anyway. When she had to tell him, when she couldn’t lie any more or when it became too obvious to hide. Either way, it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to just put him off.

Her mother had always told her that honesty was the best policy. It didn’t feel like it, she thought as she looked up into those melted butterscotch eyes fringed with long dark lashes. He was waiting for an explanation, and part of her knew that he deserved one, but most of her wanted nothing to do with telling him something that would send him away. Not that she could blame him for leaving. This was the last thing he needed, now or in his life at all. She’d already complicated his life more than she’d meant to and now this....

“Mya...spit it out. You’re starting to fucking freak me out now. Is it...the headaches...is it...is it cancer?”

Mya blinked, and almost smiled. Cancer? Well of course, with his history, his fiancée and her Aunt...of course that would be where his train of thought would lead him. That would be his worst case scenario.

“No, no it’s not cancer,” she replied, almost managing a smile as she saw the relief in his face, his full pink lips parting over his teeth as he took in a deep breath and blew it out. Sort of the way he did when he was settling himself over the puck before a shootout, easing his muscles, clearing his mind. Mya wished she could do the same. Her muscles were bunched tight. Her brain was filled with pros and cons and fears and worries. Not least of all was this; telling him.

“Then what sweetheart? What can possibly be so bad?” he asked, reaching up to brush her hair back from her face, leaning in to cover her lips with his. Mya closed her eyes and let him kiss her. He was such a good kisser. She loved how soft his lips were, how they moved gently but firmly over hers’. She loved kissing him. She was definitely going to miss this. “Babe?” he whispered, his lips moving to brush her cheek as he drew her against him, wrapping his strong arms around her. “Tell me. Whatever it is...it can’t be that bad.”

Mya wondered what his second worst case scenario might be. Was he wondering if she’d cheated on him? Was he thinking she was going to break up with him? Or maybe he thought there was some kind of sex tape a la Paris Hilton? She wondered if he was even thinking of this possibility at all.

Taking a deep breath, she squirmed out of his arms and reached tentatively for his hand, wanting the comfort of his touch but not wanting to anchor him down when he turned to run which she’d decided he would. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind about that.

______________________________________________________

She was freaking him out, really freaking him out.

At least it wasn’t cancer. For a minute there he hadn’t been able to even breathe thinking about losing her. He couldn’t think about that. That was...well that was unthinkable.

Whatever it was, as long as it wasn’t that, he could deal with it he told himself as her hands hovered above his and she turned those tear filled green eyes on him. Even if she was going to leave him for Robert Pattison or that other bad ass vampire guy she liked from that TV show. Maybe he could talk her out of it, he thought hopefully as he watched her square her shoulders.

Okay buddy, he told himself firmly as she blew out a breath, whatever it is, you can take it.

“I’m pregnant.”

He wanted to say ‘is that all?’, but the fear in his eyes made him bite back the words as they sprang from his tongue. He couldn’t hold back the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips, however, or the relieved, near hysterical laughter that bubbled up in place of the words he wanted to say.

“Don’t....How can you laugh?” she asked, staring at him, wide eyed. He wanted to apologize, knew he should. She’d obviously not taken the news as well as he was, but he couldn’t help it. He laughed, and wrapped her up in his arms, burying his face in her strawberry scented hair.

“I’m sorry,” he finally managed, “but if you knew what I thought you were going to say...I’m sorry it’s just...this is great.”

“Great?” she asked, pushing him away enough that she was looking up into his face, clearly disbelieving. Her green eyes red rimmed and swollen from crying, her cute little nose puffy and raw, her cheeks tear stained.

“I love kids. I want a mess of kids, everyone knows that,” he told her, cupping her face in his hands and kissing the red and raw tip of her nose. “You already know that I want to be with you My,” he added more gently, searching her worried gaze and trying to impart his relief and joy to her with a grin he couldn’t wipe from his face. “I want this with you. I want us, together. This is...it’s...great.”

He was beaming. He couldn’t help it. Even while she shook her head and looked at him like she thought maybe he’d lost his freaking mind, he just grinned at her. A kid. His kid. It was freaking great news as far as he was concerned.

“So you’re not...you’re not mad?” she asked, her worried gaze continuously searching his as if she was waiting for the mask to disappear and the other shoe to drop.

“No,” he shook his head and gathered her back into his arms, holding her tight against him. “God no. I’m fucking happy My,” he whispered in her ear, feeling his pulse beating hard in his veins, his heart hammering in his chest, like it had when he’d won the Cup. This was sort of like that, he decided. This was almost as good.

“I thought...I thought you’d think I’d done this on purpose,” she stammered, sniffing against his shoulder, her arms locked hard around him like she was trying to hold him down, like she was trying to stop him from floating away. He was just about happy enough to. “I thought you’d think I was trying to trap you.”

“Trap me?” he held her at arms’ length and searched her tear stained face as she brushed at the big, wet tears that rolled anew down her cheeks. “You already have woman. I’m fucked. I’m done. I’m yours all fucking ready, or had you not fucking figured that out already?” She shrugged her shoulders and ducked her head, shaking it minutely.

Sidney sighed and leaned forward to press his lips to the top of her head as he reached into his pocket for the little box he’d been carrying around for more than a month. He’d been waiting for the right time and while this didn’t feel exactly right, she obviously needed to know how much she meant to him and he couldn’t think of a better way of saying it.

He took the small velvet box and placed it in the palm of her hand. She looked up at him, her eyes impossibly wide and shook her head.

“Don’t do this. Not now, please,” she whispered, trying to put the box back in his hand.

“What do you mean, why not?” he asked, refusing to take the box and forcing her fingers gently around it instead. “I love you My, you know that. You knew I was going to ask eventually. You had to.”

“Just...just not now, please,” she whispered insistently. “Not just because of this, because I’m...even if it’s not because of that, just not now. I’ll always think it was just because of this,” she sniffed, shutting her eyes tightly and looking away, holding the box out towards him.

“But I have the ring already My. I’ve had it for ages and I promise it’s not just because you’re pregnant,” he insisted, wrapping his hands over hers and around the box. “I want this My. I want us to be together, forever. Please...please take it.” Her eyes opened and she looked up at him with a mixture of tenderness and fear that made him want to hold her tight and keep her safe, and then she shook her head.

“I love you. I do and...and I can’t believe I’m saying this but...please just don’t ask this now. Not now. Just...let’s pretend I never saw this and...just take it back Sid, please. For me...take it back and...and ask me some other time.” Sidney felt his chest tighten, felt his heart skip a beat, and felt his head swim.

“Are you saying...no?” he asked breathlessly , steeling himself for her reply.

______________________________________________________________

Mya smiled then, or at least she tried to. It wasn’t easy to do considering she was still crying and her emotions were all over the place. She was happy and scared and worried and sick to her stomach all at the same time. But she smiled as best she could and reached up with her other hand to cradle his cheek briefly, letting all of her love for him flood her face as she looked up at him.

“No, I’m not saying no,” she promised, her heart fluttering in her chest as she considered what he had almost asked her. “I’m saying ask me another day. Sometime when I haven’t been crying for hours and I don’t have snot hanging out of my nose and no make-up on and I’m in something a little...sexier than pj’s,” she added, watching relief saturate his face for the second time.

“I think you look kind of cute in your pj’s,” he smiled down at her, finally taking the small velvet box out of her hand and putting it aside on the night table, for now. He kissed her then, a soft, gentle kiss that turned her insides into melted ice cream. It was a kiss that said ‘I love you’ and also said ‘I want you’ at the same time. She returned the kiss with the same fervour and pulled him down on top of her at the same time.

She didn’t feel sexy. She didn’t even fell particularly pretty at the moment, but she did want him.

No strike that, she thought as she felt his hand cup her breast. She didn’t just want him. She needed him. She needed to know that he wanted her, that he still wanted her. She needed to know that even if she wasn’t going to be that sexy, motorcycle riding stripper that he still wanted her and it seemed that he did.

He moaned, deep in his throat, and his body pressed down against hers, rubbing urgently against hers in a way that made it more than obvious that he did want her, very much. For her part, Mya reached down, sliding her hand down between them to feel her need for herself, wrapping her hand around his erection as best she could through his nylon track pants. He moaned again, his hand squeezing her tender breast hard enough that it made her catch her breath. Not that she’d stop him, she knew as she squeezed back in a way that made him gasp.

“I want...I want to be inside you,” he whispered, his tongue circling her ear, making her shudder. “Will it...is it okay?” he asked, pulling back to look down at her, holding himself over her, worry filling his hazel eyes.

“It’s okay. She’s all safe inside here,” Mya whispered back, letting go of him and pulling up her pyjama top to pat her still flat stomach.

“She?” he asked, rolling on to his side and placing his hand gently over top of hers’.

“Well, she or he, I guess. I’ve just...I guess I just think girls are more trouble,” she added with a grin that he matched. He gazed into her eyes then with a look that stole the breath from Mya’s lungs and made her eyes well up again.

“Yeah, lots and lots of trouble,” he whispered, kissing her softly as he took her hand and slid it down beneath her pyjama bottoms and placed it over her clit, using his hands to guide hers’ to the spot that made her moan and shudder and arch off of the bed.

Chapter 28

“You’re still holding onto that thing?” Fleur asked quietly from his spot beside Sidney in the dressing room at GM place. Nodding, Sidney turned the small velvet box over in his hands before having it plucked out of his grasp by the inquisitive defenseman beside him.

“Oh my god, you could put someone’s eye out with this thing,” Phaneuf howled loud enough that the entire room, normally full of loud, raucous chatter before pre-game skate, fell silent.

“Let me see that,” Phaneuf’s teammate, and Sidney’s linemate for the Olympics, Iginla took the small box and, smiling, shook his head before handing it back to Sidney. “Shit man. Must be serious.”

“It is,” Sidney responded quietly before putting the box back in his bag.

“What’s that?” Getzlaf laughs from across the room, holding his hand up to his ear and making a face. “I think I hear girls throwing themselves off of the roof of buildings all across the country.”

“Not funny,” Sidney sighed, zipping his bag shut and trying to ignore the, by in large, good natured ribbing. He couldn’t exactly say it wasn’t true, extreme maybe, and hopefully not true, but possible. Not that word had to get out that he was engaged. Not that Mya was the kind of girl to scream something like this from the rooftops anyway.

“I thought you were going to ask her on New Year’s,” Flower asked, his mask held loosely in his hand. Sidney shrugged and grabbed his own helmet.

“It wasn’t the right time.” Sidney replied, donning his helmet and breathing through the butterflies in his stomach as he caught sight of himself wearing the red and white of the National uniform.

“So when will it be the right time?” Flower asked, to which Sidney could only shrug.

“I guess I’ll know when I know.”
____________________________________________________________

Her mother had been one thing, but as Mya sat across the small kitchen table from her father, she was glad that Sidney was across the city about to face Team USA. That would be tough, but nowhere near as hard as this was.

Glancing up at her father’s strong, impassive face, Mya felt herself shrink. She felt like she was five years old again and was about to get a spanking. Her hands even curled around the edges of the chair just as they had when she’d been younger. She’d always made him pull her off of the chair, kicking and screaming. This time though, her mother wouldn’t be here to save her, wouldn’t be here to pull him off of her.

Mya looked down the kitchen at the woman standing at the sink with her glass of chilled white wine. She was only a few years older than Mya was now, with long blonde hair that reached to the middle of her back, perky breasts and an ass you could bounce a quarter off of poured into a pair of jeans that were practically indecent. She’d been one of her father’s university students and just looking at her made Mya sick to her stomach.

Her father didn’t look like the type to be robbing the cradle. He didn’t have the gold chains and he wasn’t driving around in an arrest me red corvette. He wore tweed and cashmere and drove an Audi. He taught economics. Not exactly a sexy subject.

How he’d ever ended up with Bridgette....

“I went to see mom yesterday,” Mya said quietly, turning he attention back to the quickly cooling volcano cake in front of her, caramel, not chocolate, just another indication that her father didn’t know anything about her anymore. Not that he ever had.

“Good day or bad day?” her father asked, scraping his plate loudly, a sound that made Mya wince.

“Good I guess. She was out of bed but...when’s the last time you went to see her?” Abandoning her plate, Mya looked accusingly across the table at her father who had the temerity to look shocked at her tone. He gave her that raised eyebrow, the ‘how dare you’ look and it worked just as it always had, making Mya squirm in her chair.

“I visit your mom,” he said with a glance down the kitchen that Mya followed with her own eyes. She watched the young woman smile at him, like they were sharing some kind of secret and then Bridgette put the tea towel down and disappeared toward the living room. Mya heard the TV going on, followed by Green Day blasting through the speakers before she turned it down. “I do visit your mom, every week at least once,” her father continued once they were alone, though he got up from the table, taking her plate and his and walking towards the sink. Mya turned in her chair so she could watch him but didn’t offer to help. He wouldn’t have accepted the offer anyway. He didn’t consider her family now. Not here. Now she was a guest and she felt it in the cool, off hand way he spoke to her.

Without his little blonde girlfriend in the room, it seemed more like old times. She could picture the two of them, her mom and dad, standing there in the dim light of the kitchen, she handing him wet dishes, he making lude comments that would make her laugh. She could almost hear that laughter now. It made her throat tight.

“But you’re divorcing her,” Mya pointed out, hearing the childish, petulant tone in her voice but couldn’t control her tone as she thought about the email he’d sent her. FYI, I’m starting divorce proceedings. Just thought you should know. She’d practically destroyed her apartment after reading it. It was bad enough, knowing about his little piece of ass but to be so cold as to cut her mother out of his life.

She watched her father’s hands pause on her plate and she waited for him to turn and come back to the table, to face her, to explain. But he merely resumed the motion before sliding the plate into the dishwasher.

“I don’t expect you to understand it,” he finally replied, in that same calm, cool manner that he taught economics in, as if it was just a fact he was passing on and not turning her world upside down. She watched him turning the taps off and drying his hands on the tea towel before turning to pour himself another cup of coffee. Decaf, yet another new thing in the house her mother would never have stood for. She waited for more, for the self righteous explanation, for some announcement that would make sense, but he only slid the carafe back in place and turned to lean against the cupboard, staring down into his cup.

“If you mean poopsie out there, then no...I don’t get it,” Mya replied caustically. She watched her father’s gaze become unfocused as he looked in the direction of the living room, his head tilting like a robin’s listening for a worm beneath the grass, and then he sighed, his big shoulders rising and falling with his breath.

“I loved your mother,” he said, holding his hand up as soon as Mya began to argue, shaking his head when she sputtered and fumed at being silenced. “That woman in that hospital is not your mother. If you were in my position, you’d understand.” Mya bit down on her tongue to impede the tirade that threatened to spill forth. Her father had always been a hard man to please, always quick to rile and strict but this...this took the cake.

“You’re right,” she replied, sounding calmer than she felt. “I don’t understand because that woman as you call her might not be my mother right now, but she is your wife. Do you know...when I was there all she could talk about was you? She might not remember me but she damn well remembers you. She loves you.” Mya stood, scraping her chair back on the expensive tile, her hands shaking as she grabbed her coat from the back of her chair.

Her father didn’t make a move to stop her. He barely looked up from his coffee which he slowly stirred with the utmost attention. Mya stared at the top of his head, still covered with thick dark hair, grey showing only at the temples. She looked at his big hands, the indent from his wedding ring showing where the gold band should have been if he was any kind of man at all.

This was the man she’d come back in hopes of some kind of approval. Now she wasn’t sure why she’d bothered.

She opened her mouth to leave him with some kind of sarcastic parting comment, but decided against it. Slipping into her coat and pulling the keys from her rented car out of the pocket, she turned and headed for the door.

There had to be someone more...worthy to watch the hockey game with.

_____________________________________________________________

It felt strange not to be getting into a suit and tie after a game. They were playing for their country now, Stevie Y had pointed out, it wasn’t just a job anymore. This was for all the marbles and he wanted the guys in their Olympic gear at all times, on the ice and off. Still, it felt strange to be reaching for a hoody and toque and not a shirt and tie.

“I can’t believe you pulled Kane’s mouth guard out and threw it into the net,” Phaneuf laughed, patting Sidney firmly on the back. “That was fucking hysterical.”

“Well I don’t mind if someone tells me they can skate rings around me, I mean prove it but...at least take the fucking dummy out of your mouth when you say it,” Sidney mumbled but grinned as he said it. It had been sort of funny, right up until he’d been sent to the sin bin for it. “Thank god he didn’t score on that one.”

“No worries little buddy,” Iggy laughed, tapping Sid’s shins with his stick. “We wouldn’t let that happen. That was too fucking worth it.”

“Yeah I think I owe Brodeur a beer for that,” Sidney noted, thinking about the diving save the big goalie had had to make to stop Kessel and Kane from scoring on the power play.

“Well you’re coming out with us aren’t you? We’ve got to raise a beer or two on that one,” Phaneuf offered, but Sidney shook his head.

“We have a game tomorrow,” he reminded the big defenseman, but was only greeted with laughter from the rest of the guys.

“It’s only Germany,” Eric, the eldest of the Staals and the only one to make the team, informed him. “I’m pretty sure even if we’re still drunk tomorrow that won’t be a problem.” That was unlikely to happen, Sid knew. Even if they threatened to, all of the guys wanted to win the gold too badly to actually do something like that. Still....

“I think I’ll skip it,” he replied, leaning over to unlace his skates.

“Let me guess, that cute reporter girl of yours?” Thorton asked from across the room where he was sitting, looking very relaxed in nothing but a pair of bright yellow y-fronts. Sidney had done his best not to make it too obvious that he was watching when she’d been interviewing his fellow players but maybe he hadn’t done quite as well as he thought he’d had.

“Speaking of her, is she really the one from that youtube video?” Heater asked, passing by in a towel, heading for the showers. Sidney stared straight ahead, but he could feel the burn begin in the tips of his ears.

“You sit at home and watch youtube videos? God are you sad or what?” Iggy replied for him and Sidney glanced up at him, relieved.

“Oh like you don’t,” Heater pulled the towel from around his neck and snapped it towards Iggy who grabbed his own towel and then the fight was on. Sidney felt relief flood his body as he watched them and then he turned his attention back to getting into his Olympic gear.

He did want to celebrate, he thought, just not with the boys.
_____________________________________________________________

“So you heard it folks,” Mya began, turning back to the camera with a bright smile that she had to force. “From Pittsburgh’s own blue eyed boy, Ryan Malone. This was a tough one, but Team USA has big plans for their next opponent. Back to you Dan.” She waited until the light went off on the camera before letting her expression return to the careful blank stare she’d been wearing since she’d left her father’s house.

She’d enjoyed the game, it wasn’t that. She’d been one of the only reporters to leap to her feet when Sid had made that toe drag past Ryan Miller. She felt her heart swell when he’d turned towards the team Canada bench with a victorious fist pump. That had all been good. It was just the remnants of the feeling she had after seeing her dad, of not being able to tell him about Sidney, about her new job. It was that niggling feeling that wouldn’t go away that she still needed to hear that he was proud of her and that, she hated. She didn’t want to feel like she needed or wanted his approval and she didn’t think it was likely that she was ever going to get it – ever.

And yet he could sit there with that blonde ditz waiting on him night and day and she was supposed to be okay with that, she thought reproachfully as she handed her microphone over to her sound guy. She should have said something, she scolded herself, instead of sitting there and pretending she didn’t see it. Of course she’d known about it, about her, ahead of time and that had helped, but she still should have said something.

She thought about calling him now, telling him just what she thought of his cutesy poo live in but she let go of her phone in her pocket. It wouldn’t do any good. It would make things worse in fact. If they could get worse, she thought with a scornful smile as she pulled the Team USA jacket off and tossed it next to the cable the camera guy was winding up.

“Hey, isn’t that bad luck or something?” he called after her, but Mya only shrugged and grinned at him.

“I certainly hope so,” she called back, wrapping her team Canada scarf around her neck and reached for team Canada jersey which she had carefully folded and put aside before the interviews. Her crew just laughed and went back to their work while she tugged the red and white jersey over her head.

“Me too.” Mya’s head popped out of the top of the jersey to see Sidney standing in front of her with his toque pulled down over his forehead, protecting his wet hair from the cool air and for the first time in hours, Mya found herself smiling. “So, when do I get my interview?” he asked, reaching out straighten the hem of her jersey, letting his hand casually brush her hip which sent a shudder across her skin.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said quietly, pitching her voice low so only he could hear. “I don’t think I have any questions that aren’t x-rated.”

“Really?” he grinned, biting down on his bottom lip as his gaze roamed discretely over her in a way that made Mya catch her breath. “And just what kind of questions would those be?”

“Well let’s see,” she smiled, leaning closer, so that her lips were almost brushing his ear. “What would you say if I told you that I wasn’t wearing any panties?”

“Damn,” he breathed, chuckling as she withdrew to a respectable distance. “I think I’d say that there’s an equipment room down the hall,” he added, reaching out to hook his little finger with hers’. “And I’d say that I missed you last night.”

“Ummm My...we have remote from the speed skating oval to get to?” Kevin, her cameraman called, looking at the two of them a little more closely than Mya knew was good for either of them.

“I’d better go,” she muttered, feeling suddenly shy, and feeling her cheeks burn as Sidney grinned back at her.

“I guess I’ll just have to keep missing you then,” Sidney sighed, looking a little disappointed but his grin only wavered for a moment. “Unless....”

“Unless?” she replied hopefully.

“Unless you have room in that big bed of yours at that B&B?” he asked flirtatiously, leaning in to whisper in her ear. It was ridiculous to feel this way, but Mya felt herself blush as she pulled back away from him. How was it that he could still have her stuttering like a school girl?

“I think...I mean I guess could make room,” she stammered shaking her head at herself and at him while he laughed.

She wanted to kiss him, desperately. She wanted to have him hold her and make everything else go away, but she couldn’t, they couldn’t. Not here. Not with all of the prying eyes around them, press, other players, other athletes. She understood it. It didn’t make her want it any less.

“Later then,” he said, with a grin that was so contagious Mya knew she was laughing like an idiot, blushing and stammering and that it was probably completely obvious to everyone around them that they weren’t just talking casually. She watched him turn and walk away and couldn’t keep the grin off of her face. Damn it was good just to watch him walk away. Just that vision alone made her feel better about life in general.

“You coming or what?” Kevin called.

“I’m coming. Shit. What’s the fucking hurry?”

Chapter 27

“So am I going to meet your family while we’re here?” Sidney asked as reached for her hand. Mya wiped her clammy hand down the side of her pants before sliding her hand into his as she eyed the approaching figures of his parents with trepidation.

“We’ll see,” she replied quietly, trying to decide if the smile she was forcing would make her look pleasant or maniacal. She heard Sidney’s deep sigh but was thankful that he didn’t have time to belabor the point as his bear of a father had pulled him into a handshake that looked like it would crush the metacarpals of a smaller human being. His son seemed to handle it like a seasoned pro. Mya watched nervously as Sidney greeted his father, whom he’d warned her was apparently either going to pretend she didn’t exist or was going to be openly hateful. His mother, on the other hand, who looked like a church mouse in comparison to the barrel-chested Troy, beamed at her son and at his girlfriend and pulled them both into a warm hug.

“I’m so glad to see him settling down. I worry for him around some of those boys,” Trina admitted in a whisper before she let Mya go. Mya felt her own smile grow warmer as she pulled back from the woman who was still glowing in her son’s presence. She felt a pang of jealousy that threatened to close up her throat but she managed to keep smiling all the same.

“So, son, are we gonna kick some US ass today or what?” Troy asked, doing exactly as his son predicted he would, ignoring Mya’s presence altogether, but just as she was about to allow herself to fade into the background, for his sake she told herself, she felt Sidney’s arm slide around her waist and felt herself pulled protectively and proprietarily against his side.

“Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Mya.”

Mya felt herself stiffen though she couldn’t stop herself from grinning like an idiot. Girlfriend. It sounded so official. She’d never heard him call her that before and even though she was wearing his promise ring and he’d told her he loved her, somehow this made everything so much more real.

Troy glowered at her but Mya just kept grinning and almost broke into out and out giggling when she felt Sid’s arm tighten around her waist. As hard as it was to have Troy’s piggy little eyes glaring at her, she imagined it was much worse for Sid to have his father behaving like a petulant child. Parents could be so embarrassing; Mya thought to herself. That was something with which she could entirely sympathize.

“Nice to meet you,” Troy grumbled finally, pushing his meaty paw towards her. Mya looked down at his thick, oversized hand and wondered how many seconds it would take to crush her fingers. She put her hand in his anyway and gave him her biggest, brightest stage smile. For his part, Troy made a noise in his throat that the rest of his family obviously recognized as some kind of ascent, as they all turned to head out of the Airport Terminal.

“Lunch?” Sid asked, looking over at his mother with a satisfied Mona Lisa smile on his face.

“Do they have good food in the athlete’s village?” his mother asked, the same sort of secretive half smile gracing her face as she tucked her arm into her son’s.

“No, well...yeah it’s okay but Mya knows this some great places around here. We thought you might like to try some Indian?” Sidney turned to look at her and Mya felt her knees go weak. He had his family around him and he’d won some kind of battle with his father and now he was looking at her like he was so glad she was here and all she could think was...fuck I love this man.

_____________________________________________________________

“I just ate too much and it was spicy and your dad was staring at me like he was trying to make my head pop off with the power of his mind,” Mya insisted as she took the tissue Sid offered and wiped the blow back off from around her mouth before leaning back against him. He was still holding her hair back and now reached with his free hand to feel her forehead for a fever. “And you can cut that out too,” she insisted, brushing his hand away. “I wouldn’t come anywhere near you if I was sick.”

“First the headaches, now you can’t keep anything down...My, I’m worried,” Sidney began but she only shook her head and then winced at the movement.

“It’s stress. Not all of us can be calm and cool and collected all the time,” she sighed, turning to bury her face in his chest. Sidney wrapped his arms around her and held her there, on the floor of the bathroom in his room in the athlete’s village. She wasn’t supposed to be here. If Yzerman found out....

Well it was a good thing that Nash was down in the village looking to hook up with some figure skater or something Sid thought as he ran his fingers through Mya’s long dark hair. Not that he thought Nash would say anything. He didn’t seem to be the kind of guy that would snitch on a teammate. Besides, Sidney was pretty sure he was going to have to bunk with one of his teammates at some point if Rick actually managed to score.

“You can stay, if you want,” he offered but Mya just shook her head.

“Have you seen the size of the kiddie beds you have? No thanks. I think I’ll go back to my king size bed at the bed and breakfast thanks,” Mya replied with a chuckle as she struggled to get up onto her feet.

“Speaking of which,” Sidney began, helping her up and turning her to face him. “Why, if your parents live here, are you staying at a b & b?” Mya made a face and then shrugged, turning away and reaching for his shaving kit. He watched her pull out his tooth brush and toothpaste and made a mental note to stop at the store they’d provided for the athletes in the village and get another toothbrush.

“You’re not going to leave that alone are you?” she asked quietly as she squeezed the toothpaste onto the brush, glancing back at him in the mirror.

“Well now you have me worried, like maybe you’re hiding some kind of weird mutation in your family tree or something,” Sidney replied, trying to keep things light so that she wouldn’t shut down, like she did every other time he tried to bring up her past. Mya had begun to brush her teeth and now looked back at him in the mirror with narrowed eyes. “Like someone with an extra toe or...something like that?” he muttered, wondering if he’d come a little closer to the mark than he’d intended.

Mya finished brushing her teeth and even added some mouthwash before she spat and rinsed out the bowl, taking her time, like she was thinking about her response. Sidney waited, silent, wondering just what had her so concerned. Could she really think that he was that shallow, that ego centric, that he’d really care if some kind of physical deformity actually did run in her family? Did she really think that little of him?

“Okay,” she said finally, putting his toothbrush down and shutting off the water before turning to face him, her expression carefully veiled. “Tomorrow, after your practice, I’ll meet you outside the rink. I was going to do my dutiful daughter act anyway. You may as well tag along.” Sidney tried to read the guarded expression on Mya’s face but she wouldn’t meet his gaze, not quite. Finally he reached out and tipped her face upwards, his grip just strong enough to make her look at him through narrowed eyes.

“If there’s something you’d really rather I not see...,” he began but Mya only shook her head and with an acerbic laugh shook her head.

“No...no you should see. You should know what you’re buying into,” she replied with a heavy sigh, pressing her lips briefly against his before inching around him and heading for the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sidney watched her go, watched the door close behind her leaving him with his imagination swimming with images of circus side show freaks.

___________________________________________________________________

It looked like a nice apartment from the outside. Mya always thought that as she walked up the street towards it. It looked like a nice neighbourhood with tree lined streets and cheerfully painted terraced apartments and it was, for the most part. It was only as you got to the alarmed doors at the front and saw the wheelchairs lined up outside in the sun that you would begin to realize there was more to this place than just a place to live.

If you could call it living, she thought uncharitably as she felt Sidney go very still as they waited for the doors to slide open and admit them, the antiseptic tang of bleach mixed with the underlying stench of sickness and death. It made her skin crawl. It always did.

She could feel Sidney’s eyes on her but she could barely make herself look ahead. She could barely make herself walk through the doors of this place. She couldn’t worry about him now or what he was thinking. This was hard enough for her as it was.
She felt his hand curl around hers’ and just for a split second she felt better, like she had back up, like she had a wing man, but then she heard the whoosh of the automated doors closing behind her and that brief respite was replaced the same overwhelming nausea that she always felt as she walked past the security station and the nurse’s station, past the visiting area where the more mobile patients sat listening to someone play on a piano.

Of course most of the inmates, she didn’t think of them as patients, not these ones who still could get up out of their beds and interact with their limited world, were older, gray haired and wizened. That was one of the reasons she’d fought against putting her here. What would her mother have in common with these old people?

It didn’t matter though, as it turned out, she thought as they turned the corner and walked down a dimly lit corridor, past rooms filled with patients who no longer left their beds hooked up to monitors that told the nurses by beeps and alarms if their comatose patients were alive or dead. Sometimes that was the only way you could tell.

“Hi mom,” she called out, forcing a smile onto her face as she walked through the last door, dropping Sidney’s hand as she crossed the floor to place a soft kiss on the top of the head of the emaciated woman in the rocking chair by the window. She was up today. That meant she was having a good day. She waited the long, agonizing moment it took for her mother to drag herself out of her dark little dream world she was in and turn her grey blue eyes toward her.

“Oh!” her mother smiled and Mya felt her heart leap in her chest. It must be a good day. “Myrna, is school out already?”

“Yeah...yeah for today,” Mya nodded and brushed her mother’s sunken cheek with her hand. Maybe it wasn’t such a good day after all. She thought she was her Aunt...her Aunt who was dead. “How are you? Did you watch any of the Olympics on the TV today?” Mya turned away from her mother to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes. She doesn’t recognize me anymore, she thought as she busied her hands making the bed, folding the afghan that lay at the end of the crisp white hospital bed, fluffing the crunchy hospital pillows. She’d known this time would come and she had been away for a longer this time.

“Oh...oh Frank...Myrna you didn’t tell me Frank was here.” Mya turned to follow her mother’s gaze, and saw Sidney standing in the doorway, watching the two of them with wary eyes. Frank was her father. She wondered when he’d last bothered to visit. She opened her mouth to correct her but it always confused her more when anyone did that. It was easier to play along, to keep her happy in her imaginary world. The last time she was happy, when she’d been a teenager.

“That’s right. Frank’s here to see you,” Mya beckoned Sidney in and watched his brow furrow as he crossed the room, holding the bouquet of flowers they’d stopped to buy on their way here before him like a shield. She watched her mother take the flowers and bury her face in them, a huge happy grin on her face and couldn’t help but wonder if her father had ever bought her mother flowers. She couldn’t remember ever seeing any in the house, none that hadn’t been grown lovingly by her mother in their yard. She always brought her mother flowers. They never failed to make her smile.

“Oh Frank, these are lovely. Did you bring over any new records to listen to?” her mother asked, beaming up at Sidney who looked helplessly towards Mya.

“Not today, did you Frank. But he brought a book to read to you, didn’t you...Frank?” she said pointedly, glancing over at a chair and then back at her mother with a raised eyebrow. He’d wanted to come, the least he could do was play along.

“Ummm that’s right. Mya...Myrna said you like Maeve Binchy?” he asked quietly, dragging the chair next to her mother and holding the book out he’d had under his arm. Her mother beamed and it tore at Mya’s heart to see the adoration in her mother’s eyes when she looked at Sidney. She couldn’t imagine her mother ever loving her father that much. She must have though, at one time, she thought as she watched Sidney settle into the chair and open up the book and begin, patiently, to read to her mother.

Mya glanced at the picture of her father on her mother’s bedside table. It was a picture of him taken when they’d just begun dating, leaning against his black Trans Am with the golden screaming eagle on the hood. His dark hair was slicked back and he was wearing a black leather jacket and dark jeans. A real hood. A greaser. Mr Cool.

Mya picked up the photo an looked down at the boy looking back at her from the inside the frame. He’d been hard on them all, strict and unforgiving. As far as she knew, the last time he visited her mother was the day they’d brought her here after...after she’d wandered away from the house in the middle of the night in her nightgown.

Putting the picture back in its’ place, Mya fought to keep the bile down that crept up her throat. They’d fought then. A wild, screaming fight full of accusations and horrible things they couldn’t take back. That’s when Myrna, her Aunt, had told her it was time to leave, time to stop putting her life on hold to take care of her parents. She was too young to be doing that.

Maybe she had been but still....

Mya turned back to watch her mother’s hand close gently, but possessively around Sidney’s. She watched him go still, heard his voice falter mid sentence. But then he smiled and gave her mother’s hand a squeeze and tears rolled down Mya’s face. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw her mother so exquisitely happy.
_________________________________________________________________________

“That was what you were so worried about?” Sidney asked quietly as they walked out of the building. Mya turned her tear stained face up to his and they stopped in the middle of the parking lot as she tried to speak through her tears.

“That? You say it like that was nothing and that....That is my mother and she doesn’t even know who I am...do you have any fucking idea what that fucking feels like?” she asked, tears streaming down her face.

“No,” he replied quietly, cupping her face in his hands and pressing a soft kiss to her furrowed brow. “But I think what you did...are doing...is all you can do for her My. It’s not your fault.”

“I know that, don’t you think I know that?” she sniffed, stiffening as he tried to wrap his arms protectively around her.

“No I don’t,” he whispered into her hair, feeling her gradually relaxing against him until her arms wound around his middle and her cheek rested against his shoulder “I think you probably think you should be looking after her but you couldn’t...not all the time and...well she doesn’t know you’re not there so...I know you probably feel bad but it’s not like she can miss you.” He held her close, tightening his grasp on her as she struggled against him. He knew that she probably didn’t want to hear what he was trying to say but he knew he was right when he said it.

“I’m hundreds of miles away from her. I miss her...I miss her all the time,” Mya sobbed, slamming her hand against his chest. “You don’t know...you have two fucking moms with Nathalie...I don’t even have the one I have.” Sidney tried to think of something motivating to say but he came up empty and decided that the best thing he could probably do for her was exactly what he was already doing, and that was just to hold her. “I can’t even call her, you know?” she sniffed finally, wiping her nose with the back of her hand before looking up at him, her green eyes red rimmed. She looked exhausted. He nodded, realizing this was probably the most vulnerable she’d ever been around him. Even when she’d been in that holding cell, she’d been tough and resilient. Not now. Now she was shaken to the core, and this was the first time he felt like maybe she really needed him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, brushing a tear away from her cheek before lowering his mouth to capture hers’. His chest swelled as she clung to him, her lips moving eagerly under his. “And if you thought this was going to scare me away My...it’s just not going to happen.” She gave him the ghost of a smile and then dropped her gaze from his.

“That could be me...will probably be me...,” she began but stopped when his fingers cupped her chin and forced her gaze to meet with his.

“If that ever happens, I promise you that you will never end up in a place like this and I promise you...I will never leave you My...never.”

Chapter 26

**First and foremost thanks for the patience. I don't normally take this long to write a chapter but I had a lot of running to the loo this week & yeah I get that that's too much info, but I wanted to put it out there in case this doesn't make sense.


“Merry Christmas,” Steve grinned, clinking his mug of rum and eggnog against Mya’s as he joined her on the couch, wearing his brand new festive socks and matching Ho Ho Ho red sweater. “Another year, we’re still here.” Mya laughed and took a sip of her eggnog, making a face at how strong the beverage was. “Lightweight.”

“It’s ten in the morning,” Mya reminded him, accepting the stocking he dropped into her lap.

“Egg...that’s breakfast isn’t it?” Steve countered, promptly turning his stocking upside down and dropping the entirety of its contents on to the couch between them. “Besides, I’m pretty sure it’s five o’clock somewhere.”

“Just tell me there’s an orange in here somewhere,” Mya coughed, digging more carefully into her stocking, pulling out the usual Playgirl magazine that her Aunt had filled her stocking with ever since she was sixteen, much to her mother’s displeasure. It made her smile, despite the sting of missing both women at this time of year. Still, at least it seemed by the package under the tree that had arrived some time the day before, she hadn’t been entirely disowned. So there was that.

Mya pulled the obligatory mandarin orange and began peeling it, careful to keep the peel in one piece. That was supposed to be good luck wasn’t it, she thought to herself. Or was it just to get that elephant shape?

“Okay, maybe I should get you some coffee, preferably the heavily caffeinated kind,” Steve mumbled, giving her a shove with his foot and bringing her back to the present. “Who are you and what have you done with Mya?”

“What? I’m not allowed to be...contemplative?” she asked, blinking at him sleepily.

“No, and especially not on Christmas day. You’re usually bouncing off the walls. What is with you?” Steve replied, still looking over at her like she was someone he didn’t recognize.

“I’m tired. I’m allowed to be tired aren’t I?” Mya replied, hiding a yawn behind her hand. Steve narrowed his eyes at her and then shook his head as he pushed himself back up onto his feet and headed for the kitchen.

“Not as long as the reason is what I think it is,” Steven called back from the kitchen. Mya grinned, though she felt the tips of her ears begin to burn at the idea of her Uncle knowing about her sex life. “Is it what I think it is?” he asked, peeking around the corner and grinning at her which only caused Mya’s entire face to heat up.

“He stayed last night, if that’s what you’re trying to ask,” Mya muttered, trying to hide behind her mug but another sip of the spiked egg nog had her looking for somewhere to spit out the vile liquid in her mouth. Whoever thought that alcohol goes in milk products...she thought to herself, putting the mug down on the coffee table and pushing it as far away from her as she could. She was decidedly thirsty but that was just not going to do it.

“I could tell by all the bling,” Steve smiled and lifted his eyebrows as he slid back onto the sofa beside her, “must be nice to have a sugar daddy.” Mya opened her mouth to argue but shut it again. He was being facetious and she was being oversensitive.

Speaking of which....

Mya pinched the bridge of her nose and screwed her eyes shut. That pain in the back of her head was back. She’d had it for a while at the club and the day before....

“I need something to eat besides this orange,” she grumbled, spilling her gifts and his onto the floor as she rose and then promptly stumbling dangerously close to the Christmas tree before Steven caught her. She found herself looking up into his concerned face and felt the flat of his hand on her forehead.

“When’s the last time you ate something? How long have you been having these headaches? Are you drinking enough water? How late were you up last night?” Mya chuckled and pushed her uncle away, fending off his well meant ministrations.

“What is this – twenty questions? Holy shit Sherlock Holmes. Just get me some fucking toast and quit grillin’ me,” Mya laughed, stumbling to the fridge and pulling a bottle of water out of it, twisting off the lid and gulping half of it down before leaning back against the counter. “Mmmmuch better.”

“So it’s like that is it? Hung over and hormonal. Sometimes you remind me so much of....”

“Yeah yeah, less talking, more toasting,” Mya laughed wiggling her way up onto the counter and reaching over to open the cupboard where the bread and crackers and other snack foods were kept. “Ohhh chips,” she smiled, reaching for a bag of Herr’s Boardwalk salt and vinegar chips.

“Hormonal...,” Steve muttered, causing Mya to turn and glare at him. “What? You’re denying your pms’ing?”

“Why is it you men always go there? A woman wants salt and it’s all about her vajayjay? Christ,” Mya muttered, ripping the bag open and reaching in for a handful of crunchy salty goodness, closing her eyes to enjoy the sheer bliss of the salt dissolving on her tongue. “You guys just wish you had a biological reason to eat whatever you want.”

“We do. It’s called watching Football. Speaking of which, where is your boy toy today?” Mya opened her eyes and stared at her uncle, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head.

“He plays hockey. Now I know you Americans have a tough time understanding ice sports....”

“I know who he is and exactly what he does. I’m just not interested in anything that’s not a blood sport,” the one time Marine said, grinning. He was baiting her and Mya knew it, but now that she had some sustenance going into her stomach, she felt up to having a good old fashioned argument.

“Blood sport? Let me tell you about this guy that used to play for the Pens named Jarkko....”
___________________________________________________________

“Put that thing away, you’re going to blind someone with that thing,” Cookie laughed as he walked by with a roll of tape in one hand and three sticks in the other. “What is that, two carats?”

“Three,” Sidney corrected him quietly as he placed the platinum set cushion cut diamond ring back in its box.

“Tabernak!” Sidney looked up at his friend and teammate and then down at the small velvet box in his hand. “Merde Sainte! Sacrament! What is wrong with you?”

“Leave him alone Max,” Jordy sighed, stowing his runners beneath the bench before reaching for his skates.

“Why? Just tell me why? Why must you forever be trying to tie yourself to the first pussy that comes along?” Max insisted, standing over Sidney, his thick hands rolled into fists that looked more like mallets used to break down walls than fingers. Sidney turned the small velvet box over in his hands thoughtfully. He had his reasons. He didn’t expect Max to understand.

“I thought you were over this Talbo,” Flower piped up, a toothy grin on his face, the exact opposite expression to the dark thundercloud that filled Max’s eyes. “I thought you were coming around to our way of thinking. Nice girl, cooking, cleaning, warming our bed....” Flower’s grin faded around the edges when Max turned his dark glare on the pale young goal tender.

“This is him we’re talking about,” Max growled in Flower’s direction, “not good little Catholic boys like you,”, and as he so often did when faced with any act of aggression that wasn’t on the ice, Fleur slunk silently away. Sidney watched him go as if he was watching his best friend disappear off in the distance forever. The last thing he needed before a game was yet another one of Max’s tirades. Usually Fleur could distract the stocky forward and he knew the only other hope lay in the long haired defenseman sitting across the room but Sidney knew damn well there would be no help coming from that corner.

“Ease up Max. Save it for the game,” the older, and thank god, wiser Cookie tapped Max on the back of his shins but Max didn’t waver.

“No I will not fucking ease up. C’mon! Who’s with me here? Why does our captain have to pussy up every time a cute piece of tail goes by and gives him a fucking wink? Sacre crisse! Por fucking quoi? Why can’t you just fuck the girls like the rest of us do?” Sidney glanced up at his heated line mate and then back down at the velvet box. He hadn’t the first clue why he couldn’t enjoy a one night stand like Max seemed to. He just knew that he couldn’t. But he didn’t get a chance to open his mouth and tell the furry Frenchman that. Not before the other hirsute Frenchman put his hands on Max’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze.

“Mon ami...I don’t know how, exactly to explain to you but...elle n’est pas d’aucune fille ordinaire. Elle est quelque chose différente tout à fait. If he loves her...well it’s no wonder,” Tanger said, his voice quiet, strained as he looked over Talbot’s shoulder and met Sidney’s gaze. “I know exactly how he feels. Exactement.” Tanger gave him a nod and then turned and walked out of the room, heading for the ice.

Sidney watched him go, not entirely sure what to make of the quiet defenseman’s words, except that he couldn’t imagine...no, he didn’t want to imagine what he felt like. Looking back down at the small velvet box in his hand, all Sidney did know was he couldn’t lose her. He might have slept, breathed and ate hockey before, but now...now he couldn’t breathe without her and the last week...being away from her had only cemented that sentiment in his mind.

Turning his attention back to Max, Sid felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he slipped the box back into his bag before standing and putting his hands on his friend’s shoulder pads just where Tanger’s had been.

“I’m sorry you don’t get it Max but you know, it’s not going to be pretty when you’re ninety and chasing college girls around a bar you know?” He grinned at the idea of it and then gave Max’s cheek a gentle slap before turning to head out of the room himself, whistling all the way.
__________________________________________________

Mya lit the last candle and then stepped back to survey her handiwork. She’d spent her first pay check on this dinner and all the accoutrements. The vanilla and jasmine candles, the baseball steaks, the new push up bra and matching thong from Victoria’s secret and last, but not least, the new little black dress. It was actually very tasteful, for her, she thought as she blew out the match and turned to run it under the tap before tossing it in the garbage.

He’d texted to say he’d come to her after the game and Mya had felt her heart flutter in her chest. She’d been just about to go on air, just about to set up the game and she hadn’t been able to keep the grin off of her face as she talked about how his scoring streak was still intact heading into the Olympic break.

Speaking of which, she thought happily as she stuck her head in the oven to check the colour of the crust on her home-made apple pie, her tickets were sitting on her new boss’s desk. She’d only been working at the station for a couple of weeks but they’d decided to send her to Vancouver to do the coverage. It was pretty freaking unbelievable and she couldn’t wait to tell Sidney. Not that he’d have time to see her there. After all he was going to be under an unbelievable amount of pressure to get the gold medal.

Still...Mya grinned to herself as she looked around the darkened, candlelit room. There was always the opportunity for a quickie in the athletes village. How naughty would that be, she mused as she fidgeted with the linen napkins on the table and straightened the chargers for the umpteenth time.

She was nervous. It had been a close game and Sid had rung a couple of shots off the crossbar and had taken an undisciplined penalty in overtime that had cost the team the game. That being the case, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen when he walked in the door. Would he be moody but willing to be cheered up or would he inconsolable? Either way....

Mya picked up the simple blue cardboard box, faded and tattered at the edges with the intertwined gold B’s in the top corner, and opened it. Running her fingers lightly but lovingly over the thick gold band inside, Mya thought about her grandfather and felt the sting of tears filling her eyes.

Christ she missed the old man.

Her grandmother’s rings sat beside it, too tiny for her own finger. But maybe one day, she thought putting the lid back on the box and putting it back on the table beneath her napkin. Maybe one day she’d have a daughter who would be a little more demure and diminutive. Her grandfather, on the other hand, had been a big man, a man who used his hands, a man who when he held you made you feel like you were being hugged by a grizzly. Sid had hands and arms like that she though, smiling to herself. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought her grandfather’s ring might fit him perfectly.

That was, if she got up the courage to ask him the question that was flitting around in her mind like a bat in an empty belfry.

Did women actually do this, she wondered as she peeked into the casserole staying warm on the top of the stove. Did they pop the question? And more importantly, was Sidney old fashioned enough to be offended if she did? Or would he be relieved to have the pressure off of him? Or...god forbid, would he say no?

Mya felt her stomach clench at the thought of his turning her down. Maybe it was too soon, she decided, her hand hovering over the napkin hiding the box from sight.

On the other hand, even if he did say no, the thought of which made her stomach hurt, at least he would know she was all in, she was committed and most importantly that she was ready to do whatever it took to make this work. He’d given her the promise ring and she just wanted to give him something that said ‘mine’ just as much as the ring on her finger did.

Not that he’s be able to wear a wedding ring in public, she realized, her hand sweeping the napkin away as she reached for the box....

Mya’s head snapped up at the sound of a knock on the door. Too late, she thought, her heart beat doubling as she replaced the napkin over the old, frail box. She’d just have to leave it there and hide it later, maybe between courses.
____________________________________________________________

He’d tried, ever since he’d left the ice, he’d tried to shake the irritation at the loss. It wasn’t just that they’d lost though, Sidney knew. It was that he felt responsible.

No, not felt, he corrected himself. He was responsible. Not only had he been unable to put the biscuit in the fucking basket but he’d taken that stupid, stupid slashing penalty in the first few seconds of overtime.

He’d been getting better at corralling his emotions, controlling them, channelling them into his play but every once in a while....and Ruutu knew his buttons damn him. He’d been ignoring the feisty Fin’s chirping for the entire game but when he’d tripped him on the way back to the bench and there was no call....

Let it go, he told himself as he found himself in front of her door. He’d promised her that he’d come after the game and he did want to see her but the right thing to do was probably turn around and go home, call her and apologize. If he explained about the game, which she’d no doubt seen the highlights – make that low lights – considering she’d have to go over the game on the news tomorrow....

He knocked on the door, his hand moving before his brain had made the decision, and as soon as he heard her moving on the other side of the door, he felt his heart begin to race. His body knew what he needed, even if his brain didn’t fully grasp it.
No sooner had she opened the door than he had her head cradled in his hands and his lips had captured hers’. He kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in a year, like if he didn’t he die and that was exactly how he felt. Like if she didn’t take away the pain he felt in his chest, didn’t help to ease the dishonour he was feeling he’d go insane.

He pushed the door closed with one hand and slid the other down over her breast and felt her gasp into his mouth. His body reacted accordingly and he pressed his groin against hers’ as their tongues duelled for supremacy. Not that he was going to let her get the upper hand, he knew, as he slid his hand down between them and began to push the hem of her dress upwards.

She threw her head back and gasped as he slipped his fingers into her panties and slid them inside of her. He found the pulse in her neck and fastened his teeth around it as she whimpered and pressed down against his hand, her muscles pulling at him, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as pumped his fingers into her.

As satisfying as it was to have her shuddering and whimpering, it wasn’t what he wanted and soon enough, Sidney grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him down the hall and pressed her down onto the bed. His heart was leaping in his chest as he stood there staring down at her and it was on the tip of his tongue to apologize but something in her eyes stopped him.

She gazed up at him, her teeth digging into her full bottom lip, and the look in her eyes told him that not only had he no need to apologize, but that she liked it. He stood there at the end of the bed, stock still, while she lay on the bed before him and ran her hand slowly, achingly slowly, down over her breast, her stomach and lower still until it was inching northward again, taking the hem of her dress with it. Sidney licked his lips as he watched her hand disappear beneath the waist band of her panties, but as much as he wanted to push her hand out of the way and drag her panties off of her, he got the distinct impression that she didn’t want his help and that this was all for him.

He let his jacket drop to the floor and loosened his tie, his gaze fastened to the movement of her fingers beneath the black satin thong, which, from time to time, moved just enough for him to see a flash of smooth, pink skin. It was hot and fucking painful at the same time and he couldn’t get his shirt unbuttoned fast enough and ended up pulling it over his head, balling it up and tossing it impatiently across the room before reaching for the buckle on his belt.

She was getting the upper hand, or he was giving it to her or...or...fuck it. It didn’t matter. He’d forgotten all about the fucking game and that was why he’d come here in the first place.
______________________________________________________________

Mya licked her lips as his six-pack appeared beneath the hem of his shirt. Her gaze followed his skin, inch by solid inch until his shirt sailed, in a wadded up ball, over her head. He reached for his belt then but she wasn’t done teasing him, which, in his present mood, was probably a dangerous thing and yet she couldn’t resist. He was even more handsome than usual when he was angry. His eyes flashed more gold than brown, like a lion on the prowl and heat radiated off of him in waves.

Pressing the ball of her foot against his hands, she stilled them and then ran her foot up over his abs and then down again. Down, down over his erection that strained and twitched against his suit pants. Biting down on her bottom lip to silence the moan that bubbled up in her throat as she rubbed her clit in slow circles, Mya wrapped her leg around the back of Sidney’s thigh and pulled him toward her.

“I want to watch you,” she whispered as he leaned over her, looking turned on and pained all at once.

“W...watch?” he stammered, as he leaned down as far as he could without kneeling on the bed.

“What’s good for the goose...,” she grinned up at him, whetting her bottom lip with her tongue and then letting her eyes fall closed and sliding her hand down, pushing the satin thong aside.

He moaned then, and Mya imagined his gaze following the movements of her fingers as she dipped them inside of herself as she pulled her knees up and apart to achieve a better angle. When she opened her eyes again he was standing there in front of her, his cock rock hard, and with that upward angle that made it stand up almost straight against his stomach. It was a challenge to make herself look up into his hazel eyes and away from his nearly perfect body.

He looked...sheepish. She couldn’t think of any other word for it as she watched his hand gradually, slowly curl around the width of his cock. He didn’t want to do it, but she could tell he didn’t want her to stop either. He’d already had a bad day, she decided, holding her free hand out to him by way of invitation. She wasn’t going to be the one to torture him further.

He lay down beside her on the bed and leaned over to place a tender kiss on her lips that belied the heat and passion clearly blazing in his eyes. She, in turn, took his hand and guided it down between her legs while she struggled out of her dress.

It was her turn to moan as his fingers took up the work hers had just been doing, except that his were thicker, stronger and with the addition of his lips and teeth at work on her neck, Mya felt herself descending quickly into the abyss.

This was when her body felt like it became one huge g-spot, as if he could touch her anywhere and she would cum immediately for him. He’d learned her body so well, she was almost sure that all it would take was for him to whisper it in her ear and she would cum.

As it was, his teeth digging through the fabric of her new push up bra to find her nipple did it. Her body arched off the bed and she cried out, her nails digging deeply into his back.
____________________________________________________________

He loved to slide inside of her when she was still riding the edge of the orgasm, her body still taught with the strength of the spasms, her muscles clenching tightly around his dick. He had to breathe and concentrate in order not to have her pull him over the edge, but fuck it felt good! She was so warm and wet and soft all at once and it was easy to forget all about the shitty game and concentrate on making her make those little noises, making her whimper, making her writhe beneath him.
With his hands behind her knees, he pressed her legs wide and back and found that sweet spot that made her breathe quickly, that made her dig her fingers into the quilt and toss her head from side to side, her eyes screwed tightly shut. She was close again. He could feel it.

Using his shoulder to keep her legs in place, he reached down to stroke her clit and watched her bite down on her bottom lip as she squirmed. Pressing harder , Sidney withdrew, almost entirely, until just the head of his cock remained inside of her and still he could feel her muscles clutching hungrily at him.

“Nooo,” she moaned, her eyes snapping open to look up at him with angry eyes. “Don’t stop. Please.” With a chuckle he obliged her, thrusting deep inside of her and she rewarded him with a long, high pitched cry as her body bucked beneath his.

This time he couldn’t hold back, though he wanted to. He wanted to keep going but it felt too good and his body answered hers the only way it knew how. With a deep groan, he spent himself within her, his entire body shuddering with the strength of the orgasm.

No wonder they called it the ‘little death’, he thought as stars swam in the way of his vision. He almost felt like he was outside of himself, like his heart had stopped, like he couldn’t breathe, like the world had stopped around him.

He curled around, his body still quaking, and held her close, nuzzling her hair, and let the warmth of her body and the languid feeling of his muscles relaxing after a strenuous work out pull him towards sleep. He had, after all, played over twenty minutes and his body knew it, even if his mind did not.

She, on the other hand, seemed to have a different agenda altogether.

He felt her fingertips running along the length of his thigh, light, gentle brushes and even as relaxed as he was, as tired and as close to sleep, his body reacted, stirring back to life. He thought about playing possum, lying there with his eyes closed, breathing slowly and evenly and hoping that she would think he was asleep, but her breathy chuckle as his cock came to attention told him it was no use.

“You’re going to have to do the work this time,” he sighed, rolling onto his back.
It was her turn to oblige him, and she straddled him, lowering herself down over him until he was sheathed inside of her. He watched his cock disappear up inside of her. Watched her freshly waxed pink skin meet his and groaned.

She leaned forward, letting her hair fall around his head like a canopy and she grinned down at him.

“I love you,” she smiled, nipping at his lower lip.

“I fucking love you,” he whispered back, reaching around to get a firm grip on her shapely ass, holding her down over him. “Don’t fucking move. I swear I’m going to cum again.”

“You mean like this?” she answered with a grin, sliding forwards and back and tilting her pelvis against his, making little circles with her body still pressed firmly against his. Sidney moaned and shook his head.

“God…so good,” he sighed, pushing up against her and into her. “God it’s so good I think I’m going to stroke out,” he added, sliding his hands up and around her until he was cupping her breasts, stroking them, rolling her nipples between his fingers. “What is it you’re supposed to smell right before you have a stroke? Toast?”

“Oh my god, oh my god, my pie!”

Sidney watched Mya jump off the bed and run out of the room with a certain amount of amusement mixed with an acute feeling of loss. Grudgingly he pushed himself up and looked down at his aching, engorged cock.

“Sorry buddy. Me and my big mouth,” he muttered, glancing down at his pants sitting in a heap on the floor before dismissing the thought of getting dressed again so soon and merely following the sound of her curses out into the kitchen.
______________________________________________________

“Damn, damn fuckity damn,” Mya cursed as she pulled out the scorched pie. It was less a pie than a big block of cinders now and the casserole had bubbled over. Looking down at her ruined dinner, Mya felt tears welling in her eyes. Her perfect night…ruined.

“Don’t cry babes.” She felt his hands on her arms, his lips on curve of her neck as he peered over her shoulder at the ruined meal. “I wasn’t that hungry anyways.”

“Don’t lie,” she sniffed. “You’re always hungry after a game.”

“There must be…I don’t know, popcorn or chips or….”

“You don’t eat junk food!” Mya snapped, tugging herself free from his grasp and turning to toss the pie into the garbage. “I wasn’t even sure you were going to eat any of the pie but I wanted to do something nice for you for once. Not just have you come over for sex,” she added, snarling at him and turning to avoid his outstretched hand. She didn’t want to be coddled, she wanted to be angry.

“I don’t just come for sex and you know it,” he said quietly, walking past and through her defences, even when she tried to push him away. Somehow he still managed to gather her into his arms and press her close to his chest, cradling her head in the curve of his neck. “You know when I tell you I love you it’s not just because you let me in your bed.” She nodded, sniffing against his shoulder, but her hands were still clenched into fists against his ribs, refusing to hold him, to hug him. Not while she was still angry and disappointed. “And I don’t need you to cook me nice meals…I mean it’s nice if you do but I don’t need that either. We can always order in and when we have our own place….”

“Our own…what?” Mya looked up at him and found him smiling down at her.

“What do you think we’re doing here? I gave you a promise ring My. I love you. I want to spend some time getting to know you still but…I see us together long term. Don’t you?” he asked quietly, brushing a tear away that spilled down onto her cheek. Mya nodded, not trusting herself to speak. “Good, as long as we’re on the same page. Little shit like this…,” he glanced at the casserole and then back at her, “are just not important.” She nodded and sniffed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt the ache of another one of her headaches coming on.

“I just had all these plans for tonight. I wanted it to be special,” she sighed, leaning her forehead against his chest.

“It is, as long as we’re together,” he responded quietly, kissing the top of her head. His hand slid beneath her chin but Mya steadfastly refused to raise her eyes to meet his. “My…are you sure there isn’t something…else going on?”

“No, no, just…I get these headaches,” she mumbled, pulling back from him and rubbing at her temples which had begun to throb painfully.

“Headaches?” he asked, pulling her hands away from her head and peering at her with concern clearly marked on his face as he tried to search her gaze. “Have you been to the doctor about this?” Mya waved him away and turned to lean on the counter, closing her eyes tight.

“They're just headaches, everyone gets them,” she mumbled, gripping the edge of the countertop as hard as she could as she sucked in a ragged breath through her teeth and wondered if this night could possibly get any worse.

“I could get you in to see the team doctor if you wanted,” Sid offered quietly, placing his hands gently on her shoulders and leading her back towards the bedroom. Mya shook her head, though even that small a movement sent a sharp pain ricocheting behind her eyes.

“I’ll be fine…I just…sometimes if I eat something they go away,” she managed to mumble as she crawled onto the bed and rolled herself up in the quilt. She listened to the pad of Sidney’s feet down the hall and took a deep breath. It was probably stress, she told herself. New job, finishing her thesis, missing her parents, dating a big hockey star….

She managed to smile to herself for a moment and then decided against even that much flexing of her facial muscles and settled into her deep breathing exercises while she listened to Sidney clanging and crashing around in her kitchen.
______________________________________________________

Headaches.

Sidney couldn’t help it. He wondered if that was how it had started with Randi. Had she had headaches? He couldn’t really remember. Towards the end, sure he remembered once or twice, but had it been the cancer or the medication?

He was jumping to conclusions. Getting ahead of himself. It was a headache. She was upset. He shouldn’t read anything into it. She’s made this dinner, baked a pie and it was ruined. She was just upset. It was a headache; that was all. It was perfectly natural. He got them. His mom got them all the time.

At least he hoped that was all it was.

So if that’s all it was, why did he suddenly have this ache deep in his gut?

Chapter 25

“Could you two stop it? You’re seriously putting me off my food,” Max complained loudly as Mya nuzzled at Sidney’s neck. She was sitting on his lap, having found that sitting on the stool next to him was just not nearly close enough in the loved up mood she was in.

“I find it hard to believe that anything can put you off your feedbag Superstar,” Jordy laughed, slapping Max on the back and stealing a wing off of his plate as he passed. Blush may have been closed to the public, but the management had made an exception tonight for the man who had freed their employees and so the Pens were taking advantage, including the married men, some of whom had their wives with them. Not Jordan though.

“I can’t believe Tish let you out,” Mya laughed, slapping the tall forward’s hand away from the bowl of pita chips that she and Sidney were sharing. Pita chips, slightly healthier than regular chips and the only thing on the menu that he would eat besides the Caesar Salad and even that had to come without the croutons.

“He probably escaped out the window and shimmied off the roof,” Max replied, pointing one of the wing bones accusingly at his friend. “She’ll probably show up here screaming like a banshee and then we’ll all be in trouble.”

“Wow, so bitter Max. I thought he was supposed to be the funny guy on the team,” Mya noted, shaking her head at the stocky forward even as she tried not to laugh at him. She was doing her best to forgive and forget his actions of the night before as it seemed that Sid had either entirely forgotten, or had that gift to just get over shit like that. That was something that seemed to come with having a penis Mya had noticed.

“Mr. Grumpy needs to get laid,” Sidney noted bluntly, shooting Max a look that told Mya clearly that he had not, in fact, forgotten a thing.

“C’mon! You’re telling me Superstar has trouble with the ladies?” Mya teased, which earned her a dark look from Max.

“A guy has other needs aside from getting his rocks off,” Max mumbled, causing everyone within hearing distance to fall silent. “What?” Max grumbled, mid chew, looking around at all the gobsmacked faces staring back at him. “You think I don’t look at you and Mya and Jordy and T and wonder what I might be missing out on?”

“Honestly? No,” Sidney replied glancing at Mya who was still staring at Max, jaw slack.

“I thought you loved being a man whore. I thought you were proud of it. I thought that you hated that all the boys were pairing up on you,” Mya shot back at him to which Max only rolled his eyes.

“And a guy can’t change his mind?” Max mumbled, half under his breath, grabbing another chicken wing and biting vicously into it. “What?” he growled, his lips smothered in buffalo sauce as he returned he look of stunned disbelief with a look of his own that clearly said he’d discussed this topic about as much as he was willing to for the moment.

“Well if you’re serious,” Mya began, giving Sidney’s hand a gentle squeeze before slipping off of his lap and heading towards Max before turning and heading to the dj booth. “Marti, you back there girl? Get your pasties on and come out here.” The sexy and curvaceous Latina emerged from behind the beaded curtain wearing not much more than a red bikini and a smile. Max, who had taken up his usual seat at the very end of the catwalk looked up from his plate of wings and nearly choked. “Yeah, didn’t think you’d seen Marti yet,” Mya mumbled to herself as she hit play on the cd she’d just put into the disc drive.

She didn’t head back to the comfort of Sidney’s arms though. Instead, she headed behind the stage where she found Hannah putting the finishing touches on Tish, who was poured into a slim fitting black latex dress and matching thigh high boots.

“Holy shit mama. I am so hating you for losing the baby weight that fast,” Mya gushed as she carefully hugged Jordy’s wife.

“Well it’s not all gone but this sort of sucks it in and damn, I look fine,” Tish grinned at her reflection in the mirror, cupping her breasts in her hands. “And I may as well enjoy these while they last too.”

“Jordan is going to shit his pants,” Mya agreed as she shimmied out of her jeans in favour of a bright, neon green latex elf outfit, complete with matching pointed hat and striped knee socks.

“The things we do for our men huh?” Tish asked as she carefully applied a set of fake eyelashes, leaning towards the mirror, which nearly resulted in her considerable cleavage coming loose from her dress.

“Well, they do some pretty great things themselves,” Mya smiled to herself, thinking of the way Sidney had erased that heart from the shower door.

“Ah, that must mean he’s given you your prezzie,” Tish said in a way that said she knew exactly what that present would be.

“Oh, you mean this?” she replied, flashing her ring nonchalantly in Hannah’s direction, who promptly let out a whoop like a kid on Christmas morning on finding a puppy under the tree.

“That better not be all he’s given you,” Tish responded, arching her eyebrow in the mirror as she glanced at Mya’s reflection.

“No?” Mya asked, feeling her heart flutter like a caged bird in her chest.

“No,” Tish replied with an eloquent smile.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Look at him. It’s like he’s never seen a pair of tits before,” Jordy chuckled as he slid onto the bar stool next to Sid, who was also watching Max with a certain amount of amusement.

“You have to admit, she is pretty damn hot,” Sid replied, finding something fascinating in the bowl of chips in front of him when Max shot him an evil glance.

“This, from the guy that just bailed his woman out of jail? I’m shocked. I didn’t think you even noticed other women now,” Jordan teased, elbowing his friend in the ribs. Sid shrugged, taking a sip of his coke and whiskey.

“I’m off the market. Not blind,” Sid replied coolly, much to Jordan’s amusement.

“Oh, like you’d dare even look at another woman with Tish around? Where is the mouth that roars by the way? I can’t believe she’d miss this,” Sidney asked, stirring the ice in his drink thoughtfully. He was beginning to wonder where Mya had disappeared to. They only had a few more hours before he had to meet his parents at Mario’s and he still had things to say, not to mention a trunk full of presents to give her yet.

“I think she’s afraid to leave the twins with her parents. She thinks her mother will sell them on the black market or something,” Jordan replied with a grin.

“How’s that going, the Asian in laws?” Sidney asked, wondering why it was that Mya never mentioned her family. Why she wasn’t disappearing somewhere to be with them. He made a mental note to ask her.

“Tish made it pretty clear if they started talking in Cantonese around me that she’d kick them out of the house,” Jordan nodded to himself, looking pretty proud of his wife. “They’ve been pretty good so far and you should see the shit they got for the twins. Holy fuck! It makes the prezzies that my parents brought look like shit you’d buy at Walmart or something.”

“And what is wrong with Walmart, exactly?” Fleur asked, grinning at the two of them as he tossed a card in front of each. “And here I am, with K-Mart gift certificates.”

“You’re not,” Jordan’s mouth turned down in a disappointed frown and both Sid and Fleur just about pissed themselves laughing.

“Mon dieu. As if. Do you think Vero would allow such a thing to occur?” he asked, shaking his head and reaching up to muss the blonde forward’s hair. “Moda, of course. Vero practically owns everything from that store.”

“Sweet,” Jordan grinned, offering his arms to the diminutive goal tender, who only narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips as he shook his head. Sidney gripped his ribs sure that he was about to pull something when Max let go a long high pitched whistle, before jumping out of his seat and giving the dancer, who was now walking away from them all, a standing ovation, which reminded Sid that Mya was still missing.

“Does anyone know where Mya went?” he asked, glancing around, specifically at the table where Tanger was sitting on his own, nursing a beer. One of these days he hoped the defenseman would forgive him, but it didn’t look like that would be happening tonight.

“Up here boys.”

Sid looked up to find Mya, Tish, Vero and Oskana looking down at him from the stage, wearing.... Well it could have been worse he thought to himself, though he had to blink and rub at his eyes before he could believe what he was seeing.

“Once more,” Mya cooed, kneeling so that she could brush her fingertips down his cheek until the pad of her thumb came to rest on his bottom lip, though it was hers’ that was sticking out in a classic pout. “Don’t be mad. The girls have practiced so hard.” Shaking his head, Sid found that he was laughing and not at all upset.
Hell, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been naked in front of most of his teammates before.

“Woooohoooo! Will you look at my Baby Momma!” Jordan had leapt to his feet and was cheering wildly, clapping and bouncing on the spot like a high school cheerleader. “My wife is hawwwwt!”

It might have been true, and Geno and Flower certainly seemed to agree as far as their significant others were concerned. For his part, Sidney only had eyes for Mya and as the first notes of “Santa Baby” filled the room, Sidney thought he could have been given worse Christmas presents than this.

___________________________________________________________________

Staring at the crackling Yule Log on the TV, in the dark, wearing his new sweater, with the woman he loved cuddled in his arms, Sidney couldn’t help but think that this had to be one of the best Christmases he had ever had. He didn’t even allow the knowledge that he would have to leave this little piece of heaven soon ruin the moment. Closing his eyes, he felt his heart beat slow and paced his breathing with her slow, deep breaths. He could sleep, for a little while, before he had to go and play happy families.

“Sid?” Mya mumbled, her voice low and drowsy and partially muffled by her cheek being pressed against the cashmere sweater she’d bought him. He looked down at her dark glossy hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head in reply. “I just...I’m so happy right now. I love you,” she added, her words nearly lost as she tried to stifle a yawn but lost. The flickering light from the TV caught the diamonds in her ring and Sidney found his gaze locked on her hand as she lifted it to cover her mouth.

“Me too sweetheart,” he whispered, capturing her hand and lifting it to his lips, pressing his lips to the back of her hand before placing it back on his chest, over his heart.

“I wish you didn’t have to go at all. I wish we could spend another day, just you and me,” she continued, snuggling closer, though he wasn’t sure it was possible to get any closer than this. At least not with their clothes on and though that was tempting, he kind of liked just being like this, relaxed. Calm. Quiet.

“I don’t have to go yet,” he reminded her, cradling her head gently in his hand and pressing it back to his chest. “Go back to sleep.” She nodded and he felt her settling against him once again but only for a moment before he could feel her stirring again and he looked down to find her lifting her hand so that the diamonds in the ring caught the light again.

“I love my presents,” she added, sounding genuinely pleased as she reached to tug on the one carat diamonds in her ears, before settling back against him.

“And I love mine,” he agreed, sliding his hand down over the smooth satin of the black baby doll she was wearing, which she had modeled for him as soon as they’d arrived at her apartment. There were other, equally enticing pieces of lingerie in several boxes that were now stacked beneath the purple tinsel tree beside the TV. Just because she was giving up stripping didn’t mean she was going to go back to wearing cotton granny panties she’d promised.

Sidney smiled contentedly. They were good presents and he was going to have a good time trying them out. People were always complaining that he was hard to buy for.
‘What do you buy a millionaire who can buy himself anything?’ Mya had done a pretty damn good job he thought as he looked at the mound of wrapping paper peeking out of the garbage bag near the door and then down at the stack of books topped by the iPod under the tree. It gave him a strangely warm feeling in his chest to think of all the time she’d taken to download all that music and all those videos just for him.

And it wasn’t just stuff she thought he should like, it was stuff he did like. It was stuff that he’d hummed along to on the radio but hadn’t known the name of the group. It was stuff other guys played in the locker room or the weight room that gone him going but he’d never had the time to go looking for. It was stuff that he’d meant to download but just never actually had the time to actually do it.

She knew him. She got him. And she loved him. How fucking cool was that?

__________________________________________________________________

He was warm, like an electric blanket. No, strike that. He was like a giant hot water bottle that she could wrap herself around and go to sleep as comfortable and warm as a bug in a rug.

Bug in a rug? Where did that come from, Mya thought as she lay, contented, wrapped in Sidney’s arms. She could hear the crackle and pop of the Yule Log on the TV behind her and that, mixed with the sound of his steadily beating heart, had Mya yawning, barely able to keep her eyes open.

Well, that and she’d ridden him like a prize race horse almost as soon as they’d walked through the door.

Mya grinned to herself and cuddled closer to him. He’d liked his Christmas presents, a lot. Actually she hadn’t been sure which he’d liked more, the stuff from Fredericks of Hollywood or the iPod. He’d really been like a kid on Christmas morning, tearing through the carefully wrapped presents, sending paper flying in every direction. He’d actually pouted when she told him he could only pick one of the outfits for her to wear for him tonight. But he had spent a long time scrolling through the playlists she’d loaded onto it.

That had been as good any present, Mya thought as she yawned again. Watching him be really happy. She got the distinct impression that he didn’t get that many moments where he could just really lose himself like that.

Turning so that she could look up at him, resting her chin on the back of her hands where they rested in the middle of his chest, she looked up into his boyish face. He was leaner now than he had been back in the summer when she’d first met him. Paler too. He also looked exhausted and that made her feel just a little guilty. She hadn’t left much of him for his parents.

“Babes...maybe you should go home, to your own bed? Get some actual sleep?” she suggested, giving him a little shake. He opened one and looked down at her like she’d just said something in Swahili. “If you stumble into breakfast with a sore back from sleeping on my couch, Mario will have my ass, not to mention what your mother will think.”

Sidney’s arms slid from around her as he shifted his weight to his elbows and pushed himself up into a seated position, still blinking sleep from his eyes.

“If you’d said something about my dad, I would have ignored you,” he muttered, giving her a half smile as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Well I’m pretty sure from what you’ve said I don’t stand much of a chance winning him over unless your mom and Taylor have my back so I thought I’d try and get you to them in one piece so they don’t hate me too much,” Mya replied, shimmying up so that she could sit across his lap. “But only if you think you’re okay to drive.”

“Is that your way of asking me to stay?” he asked as his smile widened, his gaze sweeping eagerly over the black satin ensemble. It was tempting, damn tempting to keep him to herself, to stay hidden away from the world, together, making love all day, but Mya shook her head and pushed herself to her feet.

“You should go,” she sighed, reaching for one of the throws she’d left on the back of one the chairs and drew it around her shoulders to keep the chill at bay while she walked him to the door. Funny, she thought, even knowing he was going made the place suddenly feel empty.

“But I don’t want to,” he moaned, coming up behind her, brushing her hair aside and pressing his lips to nape of her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. Mya closed her eyes and leaned back against him. She opened her lips to agree but she felt something cool and slippery fall between her breasts and was too shocked to speak as she tried to step back away from it but only found herself in his arms.

Sidney chuckled as she squirmed in his grasp, and eventually Mya stilled as he lifted the pendant in his hand so that she could see it. It was another heart, a big one, the size of a silver dollar, maybe larger, and made entirely of diamonds, except where a pair of red horns and a tail had been added.

“For my little devil,” he whispered in her ear, his breath warm where it tickled the back of her neck, “merry Christmas sweetheart.”

Mya felt the weight of the pendant fall between her breasts and then his hand sliding over her breast until the palm of his hand brushed over her nipple. Sucking a sharp breath in between her teeth, she leaned back into him and reached up wrap her arm over his neck, urging his lips toward the spot on her neck that made her whimper when he found it.

“This isn’t getting me to my own bed any faster,” he whispered in her ear, his hand gently massaging her breast while his other hand, she could feel, was working at the zipper on his jeans.

“Well, we can make it quick,” she sighed as she felt his cock slide up against the smooth fabric that barely covered her ass.

“I never want to make it quick with you,” he hissed, as his other hand now slid beneath the fabric of the teddy and found its own breast to play with.

_________________________________________________________

She was sleeping soundly, her soft lips slightly agape, her hand clutching the corner of the pillow he’d recently vacated. She looked worn out, but truth was, he knew if he woke her now, she’d be able to go at least another two rounds, whereas him....

Sidney smothered a yawn with his hand. He was done in. He was going to be taking his life in his hands just driving to Mario’s but if he didn’t leave now, he wasn’t going to get showered and shaved in time for breakfast. Sniffing near his pits, Sidney made a face. There was definitely not going to be any avoiding the shower.
Still, he thought as he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on her temple, it had definitely been worth it even if the last time he remembered being this tired was after being up nearly thirty six hours after they’d won the cup.

Pocketing his keys, he tip-toed out of her bedroom and into the living room where he shut off the TV and its’ Yule Log, turned the lights out on the Christmas tree and gathered his presents. He smiled as he slid the iPod into his other pocket. He planned on plugging that in as soon as he got into the car and cranking it, hoping that would keep him awake long enough to get home and into his shower. Then he just had to stay awake long enough to play nice with his father.

He’s promised her not bring her up to his parents and if his father did bring her up, to ignore it. For her, he thought to himself as he pulled the apartment door shut behind him. For her he’d turn the other cheek – today. After that...well, he wasn’t about to make any kind of promises. Because after today, well, he didn’t know how long he was going to wait until he put the other ring he’d bought when he’d been out Christmas shopping on her finger.