The Compromise

"You don't seem as excited this time as you were before," Jess noticed as she sat at the island in the middle of Sidney's kitchen.

He was leaning against the opposite counter facing his girlfriend and sister, both of whom were on spring break and staying at his house. His mother was floating back and forth between the stove and refrigerator as she prepared a feast for the family and some teammates. Jess was busy slicing up the last of a cucumber to add to the salad that she and Taylor were designated to make.

"I just want to be a bit more cautious. I got too wound up in the thought of returning that I didn't consider at first how I was feeling," Sid explained.

"Your adrenaline was really pumping son, but you are smart being a bit more cautious this time," Troy piped in as he entered the kitchen. He walked over and stood next to Sidney in order to be somewhat out of the way of Trina's cooking.

Jess noticed the resemblance between the two men and smiled. She got caught staring by Sid who sent her a sly wink and continued talking with his father.

Jess finished the salad and placed it on an empty shelf in the fridge. She knew dinner was still at least an hour away and she wanted to get cleaned up before she sat down to eat with the Crosby clan among others that would be arriving later. They had planned an impromptu dinner party to celebrate Sid's small victory. He was cleared to play on Thursday in New York. They were holding back this information from the media until after Sunday's game, choosing to be very coy with reporters after his extra long practice earlier that day.

Jess excused herself and made a beeline to Sid's room where her stuff for the week was. She didn't take it out of her suitcase when she arrived after school the previous day since she would be leaving Thursday for the short road trip with Sid's family. She would be exhausted the following Monday at school, but knew it would be worth it to see Sid skate out there on the ice in his uniform after being sidelined for four months.

She kneeled down and dug through her clothes looking for her jeans and a cardigan to put on when she heard the bedroom door creak open and Sidney walk in. He crawled onto the bed face down and didn't move for a solid two minutes. When he finally did move it was to gesture for her to come lie down with him.

Unable to resist, Jess climbed in and curled up next to Sid as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He turned his head, which had been resting face down in the pillow, towards her and smiled sleepily.

"Tired?" Jess laughed.

"I worked out real hard today!" Sid whined. He peaked through a slightly closed lid at Jess then abruptly closed his eyes. "I'm happy you will be here with me until I leave."

"Me too. Don't fall asleep!" Jess whispered loudly. Sid kept his eyes closed but drew her closer to him.

"But the bed is so nice and soft. And you're so nice and soft," he moaned as he nuzzled her cheek with his nose.

"Yes, but your guests will be arriving soon," Jess reasoned as she tried to wiggle out of his reach.

"No! Lie here with me just a little longer," Sid begged. Jess obliged and turned onto her back. Sid rested his head on her shoulder. She could feel his steady breaths on her neck. She needed to keep him awake because she knew if he fell asleep he would be out the rest of the night.

"Who all is coming over for dinner?" Jess asked.

"Ah, Geno, TK, Pauly, Tanger, Dustin, and Nealer." Jess tensed at the mention of James.

"You invited James?" She asked horrified. She hadn't seen him since before Christmas or spoken to him since the all-star break. And that was only to tell him congratulations on making the team.

"Things have been very calm since your birthday. And he didn't have plans. The girl he is seeing is apparently going out to celebrate a friend's birthday." Sid didn't seem to notice how tense Jess got at the talk of James. She started to relax when he mentioned James' love life. She was happy to know he was moving on. Maybe they could eventually be friends. Tonight was going to be the test.

"What are you doing this summer?" Sid asked out of the blue.

"I imagine just helping dad out at the store. To cover vacations and all," Jess said. She hadn't actually spoken to her father about working at his grocery store to pass the time, but she knew he would gladly let her if she wanted to.

"Come with me," Sid said.

"Alright, where are we going? And for how long?"

"To Cole Harbor. That is where I train. Maybe out to California where I never get noticed. I just can't imagine being away from you for three months," Sid explained.

Jess didn't know how to respond. She must have taken longer than Sid anticipated to respond because he quickly added, "Think about it babe. I hope I am still playing hockey come June. So it wouldn't be a long off season. But it could be as early as the beginning of May."

"I wouldn't be able to go anywhere until sometime in June though."

"Well, promise me we won't be apart the entire summer," Sid said. He opened his eyes and propped his head up to look at Jess.

"We will most certainly be together for a substantial amount of time this summer, I promise. I just don't know if I can do the entire summer."

"Ok, I can deal with that." Sid pressed a brief kiss to Jess' lips and started to return to his position against her shoulder when she started pushing him away. She managed to get out of bed before Sid could react. He turned over onto his side and said, "Wait, what are you doing?"

"I need to change before dinner! That's why I came up here to begin with." Sid threw out his bottom lip in a pout and Jess couldn't help but lean down and kiss it. She didn't anticipate Sid grabbing her neck and pulling her back down onto the bed with him. He wrapped his arms around her back to keep her from moving. She squealed and tried to pull away from his grip on her.

"Awe gross! Get a room!"

Sid pulled away from and the couple looked up towards the door. Taylor stood there looking repulsed.

"Technically, we have one," Sid interjected. Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Geno is downstairs. Prompt and ready to eat. Mom is trying to keep him at bay, but he is much larger than her so I imagine he could just flick her away from the food and go to town," Taylor explained. Sid flipped back against the pillows while Jess scrambled to the bathroom with her clothes.

Rolling out of bed, Sid called to Jess that he was going downstairs and followed his sister out of his room.

"Maybe next time you could lock your door?" Taylor asked as the siblings walked down the steps.

"Maybe next time you can knock before entering. You're lucky we were just kissing." Sid playfully shoved his sister when she met the ground to the first floor.

"Hey! Watch it!" She yelled. Sid just shrugged his shoulders and started towards the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Sid turned back to get the door leaving Taylor to continue on towards the kitchen by herself.

"Hey guys! Come on in," Sid greeted as he let the rest of the group into his house. He was rewarded with a chorus of obnoxious greetings and followed towards the kitchen where his family and Malkin waited.

Jess stood at the top of the stairs when she heard the doorbell ring. She watched as Sid answered the door not knowing how she was lurking not too far away. She watched as he welcomed his teammates into his home and caught a glimpse of James, standing taller than the rest of the group with a ball cap slung low over his ears.

James seemed to sense Jessica because he caught sight of her at the top of the stairs as the group started walking further into the house. He smiled a genuine and kind smile. One that made Jess smile broadly back at him.

He lingered at the bottom of the staircase. Jess took a deep breath and proceeded down the steps to face her ex for the first time in months. They had always managed to avoid each other if they were out with the team and their girlfriends and wives. Most of the time Sidney chose just going home rather than heading to the city's hot spots for lively entertainment and drinks which was just fine with Jess. She found she rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. And she was able to sidestep an awkward encounter with James.

But now they were standing face to face and it was beginning to become uncomfortable. Finally James spoke.

"You cut your hair," he observed. She had gone a bit shorter with layers.

"Yeah, I wanted a change," she said as she smoothed her hair down.

"I really like it. Makes you look older than 16," James laughed.

"Hey! I don't look that young,” she laughed back.

"Ha okay. Hey I wanted to apologize for any problems I may have caused by sending you those flowers for your birthday," James glanced away from Jess as he said this.

"They were beautiful, thank you. There were no problems. I know Sid said some things to you though," Jess added.

"Yeah, but it's cool. I can see where he was coming from. I stepped back and really thought about everything that has happened. And the most important thing is I want you to be happy. Are you happy?"

Jess cracked a smile at how sincere he was being. "I am extremely happy Jimmy. This feels entirely different than us."

"Then that is all that matters Jess." He returned the smile she was still projecting and walked away from her towards the noise coming from the back of the house. Jess watched him retreat and got lost in thought when she felt a pair of hands circle her waist.

"This feels different?" Sidney whispered.

"You were eavesdropping?" Jess asked in mock anger. She turned in his embrace to stare at him.

"I was going to come up to get you but you were already down here talking to him." Sid was embarrassed and she noticed how his ears were turning red.

"This feels incredibly different. Like this is exactly where I am supposed to be," Jess said as she pulled Sid to meet her in a kiss.

Sid pressed his forehead against Jess' and whispered, "I love you."

"Ditto. Now let’s go eat!" Jess pulled away from him and rushed towards the dining room where everyone was already seated. Jess found that the only two seats left were directly across from James. She went to sit hesitantly when Sidney came up behind her, pulled her chair out for her indicating to have a seat.

The dinner was relatively laid back with the majority of the chicken and potatoes being devoured by the group of hockey players. While the meal was winding down and the guys were chattering about the upcoming game against Boston Jess felt her phone vibrating. She reached for it to see that she had received several texts from James' little sister. All of them seemed frantic and all of them kept asking her to call Rebecca as soon as she saw the message.

Worried that the youngest Neal was in some sort of trouble and couldn't rely on her surly brothers or her parents she excused herself from the table and walked a safe enough distance away to return the phone call.

"Jessica?" A clearly shaken Rebecca asked.

"What's wrong Becca?"

"Is James still at Sid's?" Jess’ heart began to race.

"Yeah, he is. Do you need to talk to him?" Jess could hear the youngest Neal crying and some muffled voices in the background.

After some rustling noises another voice came through the phone. "Jess, it's Pete."

"Hey, what's going on?" She was getting more anxious as the time went on. She was dreading what the news was that she was going to be asked to tell James.

"Jess, our dad died."

Jess hung up the phone after speaking with James' brother and turned back towards the lively bunch in the dining room. Instead of walking back to her seat she walked to James, leaned down to his ear and whispered for him to come with her. She looked up pleadingly at Sid when she noticed he looked a bit miffed by her actions. His eyes softened when he realized she had been crying.

James was oblivious to what was going on but followed Jess with a shrug of his shoulders to his friends. They walked out to the sitting room that was never used and sat down.

"Jess what did you need to talk about?" Jess stood and started to pace. She was nervous telling him this, but understood why his siblings didn't want him to hear it on the phone. She finally sat down and reached for James’ hands. She clasped hers around his large fingers and squeezed before she began.

"Your dad wasn't feeling well earlier today so your mom took him to the hospital. He was complaining about chest pain. When they were running tests he went into cardiac arrest. I'm so sorry jimmy."

"But he's okay, right? Just in the hospital?" James asked, clearly not wanting to accept the news.

"No, he's not," Jess whispered. James stood and shook his head. He didn't believe her. He pulled out his phone and saw a message from his uncle telling him to call when he got a chance which he found odd because his uncle never sends him texts.

He dialed his mom, she answered right away.

"Mom, tell me it's not true," James said panicked. He was pacing around the room pulling at his disheveled hair. He had pulled his hat off as part of his pacing.

"Oh honey, it is. Jessica wouldn't lie," his mom said with tears in her voice. He could tell she was a mess.

"I'm on my way home," James said and hung up. His pacing didn't stop there. Aside from his pacing he had remained relatively calm until he hung up the phone with his mom. He turned to Jess.

"My dad's dead," James confirmed. And then he broke down. "He was just here last week! Now he's dead. How can that be? He was fine last week! Now I’ll never see him again!"

The volume of his voice and the hysterics coming from the room caused a small crowd form in the doorway. James had collapsed at Jess’ feet and was crying in Jess' lap as Jess rubbed his back and silently cried for the Neal family.

Sidney was the first to walk into the room.

"What can I do?" Sidney directed the question towards Jess. She jerked her head up when she heard him speak. Clearing her throat as an attempt to stop crying she spoke.

"Get online and look up the next flight out of Pittsburgh to Toronto." Sid nodded and started towards the doorway to retrieve his laptop.

"I'll do that, Sid you're going to need to call Mario and Ray. Let them know about James' dad," Troy said as he stopped his son at the entrance to the room. The men went about the business of securing a plane ticket and informing upper management that James would likely be out for the next few games. The rest of the guests filtered into the room, but remained silent. Jess looked around at James’ teammates and saw on their faces the grief they felt for their friend, crumpled on the floor crying.

"Jimmy, did you drive here?" Jess asked after several minutes of silence, moving her hands to his unruly hair. He shook his head no, and continued to shake with tears.

“I have secured two seats on a flight leaving at 12:30,” Troy said as he entered the room where everyone sat silently.

“Two?” James asked through his tears.

“Yeah, one for you and one for Jess,” he explained. Jess quickly sought out Sidney, who only shrugged and nodded in silent agreement that she needed to go too.

Notes