Captains Come First

Game day...versus Ottawa. Heather was feeling very nervous as she picked out her outfit. She wanted to look good but not make Jason think that he had a shot. She considered wearing her red dress from the last Ottawa game. It made her smirk at how angry Sid was over that. She chose a purple sweater dress with silver knee high boots. Walking into the arena she felt like a million bucks. "Hey Heather." Paul Martin greeted her. "Brooksie and I have something for you." He said ushering her into the inner sanctum, the dressingroom. He went to his locker and signalled Brooks over. "It's something for you to wear at our games." Paul said as Heather opened the plain white box.

"Oh my gosh! It's the ugly olympic sweater!" Heather said with genuine excitement. She secretly wanted one but couldn't bring herself to buy one as her heart belonged to Canada. "I love it guys!" She said as she hugged them both kissing them on their cheeks. "I'll wear it to every game...unless you guys play Canada." She laughed.

"I would've got you a Canada sweater." Chris Kunitz said as he walked by. "But I know how Sid feels about you in red." He joked. Just then Sid walked into the dressing room. He had kissed Vanessa on the cheek before leaving her. He took one look at Heather and nodded his head at her. Heather went to catch up to him.

"Sid we need to talk about last night. I can't thank you enough." She said.

"It was nothing, you'd do the same for me." He said without looking At her while he took off his suit jacket and began undressing to change.

"Sid I still love you." She said tears forming in her eyes as James entered the room. She didn't see him or the hurt in his eyes as he walked to his stall. His girlfriend could tell somebody else she loved him, but not even tell him yet.

"Heather if you did you wouldn't be with him" Sid said loud enough for the entire room to hear. The room stopped and looked at the two of them. Heather covered her face in embarrassment. "Come on, don't you all have better things to look at?" Sid asked holding his arms out as he took Heather into the lounge. "Heather you have me, heart and soul you have me." He said placing his hands on either side of her face. "I didn't just invite you to the Olympics for sex you know." He said to her.

"But I thought..." Heather started confused.

"You thought wrong." He said taking her hand. "Listen I'm sorry about the other night. I want you in Sochi. I couldn't imagine sharing this with anyone else." He said to her.

"Sid I just don't understand why you are so upset with me." She said.

"Really Heather? You don't know why?" He asked as she shook her head no. "Let me tell you why, that guy in there, the one that claims he loves you.."

"He does love me." She cut off "Yeah, whatever." Sid said waiving it off.

"Do you honestly think he will think twice about you while he's vacationing in some tropical island? Will you be on his mind while he screws some other girl vacationing with daddy's money?"

"Sid that's really not your business or concern." She said calmly.

"Heather, you've allowed yourself to get hurt over and over again. For once in your life take a look at the man in front of you." He said to her. Silence followed. Deathly silence. "Just so you know, I just broke my game day routine for you. If you don't realize that I love you now, you never will." He said to her as he held her cheek then walked back into the dressing room. Heather walked the corridors of the arena trying to make some sense of everything. She suddenly saw the familiar face of Vanessa. "


"He really loves you." Vanessa said with her arms crossed not looking at Heather. "I want you to keep away from him." She said suddenly turning her head to look at Heather.

"Excuse me?" Heather asked unsure what her problem was.

"This may be fake to Sid, but it's real to me. I have real feelings for him. Unlike you, I want to be there for him, to be the one he comes home to."

"I'm not saying you can't be." Heather shrugged. "If anything I'd encourage it."

"He talks about you in his sleep." She said giving Heather a stare down. "I'm pretty sure he asked you to marry him one night."

"Hold on...what?" Heather asked putting a hand out in front of her. "You've stayed overnight already?" She asked.

"I'm practically living there." Vanessa said with a sarcastic laugh. "That's why I'm so invested in this. If anybody is going to be Mrs. Crosby, it'll be me. Not some two bit whore the team hires to keep the players inline and paternity tests at bay."

"You bitch." Heather said throwing down her purse.

"Better a bitch than a whore." Vanessa said pushing Heather out of the way.

"At least I'm an honest whore and not a fake one for PR." Heather said getting closer to Vanessa.

"Fake? Fake? The sex sure didn't feel fake to me." Vanessa said with her hands on her hips. That was all that Heather needed. She slapped Vanessa across the face leading Vanessa to counter with pulling Heather's hair. The two wound up in a power struggle pulling on each other's hair and clawing at each other. They wound up just down from the game of two touch.

"What the hell is going on here?" Brooks yelled seeing the two girls fighting. Some of the guys stood back and watched, others were genuinely concerned.

"This bitch needs to leave my man alone." Vanessa said as Brooks and James managed to break the two of them up. Vanessa looked a little worse for ware with hair extensions falling out and stick on eyelashes falling off. Heather wasn't so great either her dress torn at the neckline and stockings shredded.

"That bitch was hired to keep your man happy. At his insistence! Is this really all over Crosby?" James said pulling Heather aside. "Heather are you alright?" He asked pulling her away

. "I'm fine James." She said not looking at him. "Just get ready for your game." She said to him as she walked away.

-----

During the game Sid managed to score a beautiful goal, despite his coldness towards James the two managed to work together. James was lined up vs Milan Michalek in overtime during a face off. Michalek leaned over and said to him "I saw your little girlfriend's cat fight before the game. That's what you get for taking Spezz's sloppy seconds." After the whistle went and the puck dropped James smashed him into the boards

. "That girl is better than anything your captain could ever get now." He said before skating away to score the winning goal. After the game Heather managed to avoid Vanessa and her wrath. She really didn't want to have to deal with that whole thing again. She just couldn't believe that Sid had already slept with Vanessa. Or even slept with her at all. He made it clear that this was not real, anything but. But why would Vanessa lie? What did she have to gain from it? "Ready to go babe?" James asked her as he walked out of the dressing room.

"Yeah." She smiled giving him a soft peck on the lips. "Nice game hotshot." She added smiling as he gave her bottom a little slap. They walked down the hallway where Vanessa and Sid came into view. "Hey James," Heather said turning to him "I'm really proud of your game tonight." She said beaming.

"Thanks babydoll." He grinned. As she pulled his head down to devour his mouth with hers. Sid and Vanessa just stood there watching in disbelief. Heather then pulled away.

"James, I love you." She said smiling at him happily.

"I love you too babydoll." He said as they walked out of the building together.

Notes