The Compromise

Jess woke up Friday morning in another strange hotel feeling equally miserable as the day before. She landed in New York and found Sid's parents and sister waiting for her in baggage claim. They spent the day being tourists and wandering the city and Jess had completely forgotten that she had been sick hours before. She made it through Sid's return to the ice and celebrated with the crosby's after the game and still felt great.

So now, as she prepared to pack her bag yet again to move to a new hotel, she felt like she was going to lose her entire late night meal. She moved as quickly as she could to the bathroom but couldn't be bothered to close the door. As she was hugging the toilet she heard Taylor shuffling her feet along the carpet towards her.

"Hey, do you need anything?" Taylor asked. The girls had their own room next to Sid's parents. They were fortunate enough to get the same hotel as the team and only a few floors separated Jess from Sid.

Jess wanted to respond, but a new wave of nausea rushed over her and she turned her head back towards the toilet. A light tap on the hotel room door pulled Taylor from the bathroom. Jess could hear a quiet conversation between the young woman and a male, either Troy or Sid.

"We're going down for breakfast and I wanted to see if you ladies would like to join us?"

"I'd love to, but you may want to go if you want to play anymore of the road trip. Jess is losing her dinner in the bathroom right now," Taylor explained.

"She's what?" Sid asked and pushed through the door to find Jess curled up on the floor. She was too drained to move further. He clambered to her side and knelt down beside her.

"Go away," Jess moaned. She meant so he didn't catch whatever she had. He couldn't risk getting sick at this time.

"No, you're sick. I want to be here. What can I do?" He seemed frantic, she knew he didn't know how to respond to a girlfriend being so sick.

"You can go. I don't want you catching this," Jess said. She moved quickly but almost missed the toilet. Sid reached for Jess' hair and held it out of her face as she continued to be sick. He rubbed her back and looked to see his sister opening the hotel door again. This time his mom entered and came straight into the bathroom. He watched as she grabbed a washcloth and dampened it with cold water.

"Jess do you think you can make it to the bed? We can arrange a late check out and you can rest some more," Trina said.

Jess sat back on her knees and nodded. Sid helped her stand and ushered her back to her bed. After Jess was settled in bed, Sid moved the wastebasket to her side and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Trina draped the cool cloth against Jess' forehead after fussing for a feel of a fever.

"You don't seem feverish dear, could it have been something you ate last night?"

"I got like this yesterday before I left Whitby too. I figured it was the pizza I had with the Neal's. James texted me and said Becks was throwing up too."

"We probably should have taken it easy yesterday. You should have told us you had food poisoning," Trina started. Sid glared at his mother and she stopped hounding Jess. He turned back to Jess and perched up on the bed next to her.

"You probably should have stayed away from sushi last night," he smiled wanly.

"It's mercury poisoning," she half grinned at him.

"You probably should stay away from anything raw or cheese covered."

"I'll just avoid eating all together." Sid laughed and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on Jess's cheek.

"I have to go meet the team. Our bus leaves in an hour, we have practice at noon then I will come hang with you the rest of the day."

"That sounds great Sid," Jess mumbled into her pillow. She adjusted to be laying on her side and the soft pillow was making her sleepy. She could feel Sid's large hand running up and down her covered legs, and his body shift the bed as he stood.

"Love you babe," Sid whispered. It wasn't until then that she noticed he was dressed in his suit and his luggage was sitting by the door. She let sleep overtake her as Sid said bye to his family and walked out the door.

•••••••••

Sid skated off the ice and walked back towards the visitors locker room. He was beyond thrilled to be out on the ice and feeling no side effects from his concussion. He laughed at the ribbing Matt Cooke was giving to Nisky as he past them to his locker. He was even pleasant with the numerous reporters who wanted to talk to him about his return. As he was chatting with a reporter from the local paper he saw James walk into the room.

A silence seemed to fall over the room as all eyes focused on their fragile teammate. Even the media sensed it and hushed their chatter. And surprisingly none made a move to the newest addition to the room. Sid excused himself from the interview he was a part of and walked over to James.

"About damn time you got here," Sid joked as he jutted his hand out for a shake. James cracked a smile at his captain.

"Yeah, I just wanted to give you a break out there," James laughed and Sid shook his head at his teammate's lame attempt to crack a joke.

"Welcome back, looking forward to playing with you tomorrow," Sid said before the rest of the guys surrounded James to give him a hard time. After the commotion settled down and the media had been ushered out of the locker room, Sid found James wandering over to him.

"I want to thank you for what you did for me this last week," James said, "and apologize personally for everything that happened on Tuesday."

"James, it's no problem and don't worry about it. It was a misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion. How are you holding up right now?"

"I'll be alright. Being home put a lot of things into perspective for me. What are you getting into for the rest of the day?"

"Ah, hopefully my family made it to the hotel. Jess was sick this morning so they were getting a late check out."

"She was sick yesterday too. Strange." James plopped down next to Sid on the bench.

"She said Becca got it too."

"She wasn't throwing up, just complained about her stomach aching all day."

"Ah Jess must have misunderstood. She said she was the same. Jess got it worse than Becks then," Sid shook his head.

"Jess never gets sick so it's weird that she has been so bad lately."

"She'll never want to go to Canada again. Thanks man," Sid kidded as he slapped James' shoulder.

"Just don't give her Canadian pizza. Let's go, looks like the bus is rolling out," James followed his teammates as Sid finished tying his dress shoes.

••••

"Hey! You look better than you did this morning," Sid said as he walked into the hotel lobby. His family, Jess included, were checking into their rooms for the next two nights.

"I'm feeling better. I held down some toast and coffee at lunch," Jess seemed proud that she was able to eat lightly. Sid slid his arms over her shoulders an pulled her flush against his side. This was the most public sign of affection he had ever given someone, and he didn't care who saw. He missed her this week and knowing that her week off was spent traveling all over the north east made him feel bad for her. All the traveling did not agree with her but he admired her determination to be a support for James and still see him play through the weekend.

"Text me your room number. I'm going to go change then I will be down or up or wherever," Sid said. She beamed at him and nodded as he pulled away from their embrace.

He caught an elevator with Pascal and Craig Adams and listened halfheartedly to their conversation.

"Did you say Jess was sick Sid?" Pascal asked forcing Sid to focus on what was being said.

"Uh, what? Oh uh yeah. The past two mornings. But then she feels fine as the day goes on. It's weird."

"Sounds like morning sickness to me," Craig said.

"What?" Sid's ears perked up.

"You knock her up?" Pascal asked seriously.

"No! I mean...no! Absolutely not," Sid was defiant.

"Do you use anything?" Craig asked.

Sid hesitated because he knew they weren't always the best at remembering protection, but he did know Jess was dedicated to being on time with her birth control. "We don't always, but she is on the pill."

"Eh, maybe it is just the stomach flu or food poisoning. Don't want to alarm you kid." Pascal said. The elevator dinged indicating their arrival to their floor and Sid waited for his older teammates to exit the car.

But Sid was alarmed. He was terrified and he knew there was no way he could talk to Jess about it with his family around. He didn't remember following Pascal into their room, but he managed to do so. He changed his clothes in a breeze and turned to leave without checking his phone for the room number.

It wasn't until he was near the elevators again and being addressed by a family stepping off that he snapped out of his revery. He couldn't shake the idea that Jessica might actually be pregnant. He was considering how irresponsible that would be on both their parts, but knew that a baby would be well taken care of even if the parents aren't ready and the grandparents would be livid.

He chatted easily with the young boys that approached him and learned that they were from Baltimore and huge Penguins fans. He thanked them and their parents for their kind words and checked his phone. Jess had messaged him and called him twice. Had he really been out of it for that long? He hurried towards the stairs and took them two at a time. His family was three floors up from him.

He knocked on the door and walked right into Jess' arms when she opened the door.

"Taylor here?" He asked as she pressed a kiss to his neck. He heard a muffled no and closed the door behind them adding the chain to the bevy of locks already on the door.

Jess kept a tight grip on Sid's neck as he gently pushed her back to one of the beds.

"Let's talk," Sid said as Jess continued to trail kisses along his neck and jaw. He knew if he didn't stop her soon he'd be buried deep inside of her and while that sounded delightful, he knew he needed to talk to her about what was on his mind.

"Make it quick, Taylor left so we could be alone. Who knows when she will be back," Jess said as she moved from the bed they were on to the one closer to the window. Sid stayed on what he could only assume was Taylor's bed and turned to face Jessica.

"Alright, I'm just going to ask this because its been weighing on my mind," Sid began, "Okay. Don't get mad."

"Sid, I'm not pregnant," Jess said before he could ask. Sid looked like a deer in headlights. He was embarrassed to ask how she knew that was what he wanted to know.

"I mean, if you were I'd take care of you, you know," Sid stuttered. Jess started laughing and climbed to the edge of the bed facing Sid.

"You would?" Jess asked shyly.

"Absolutely!" Sid moved to sit next to Jess on her bed. "It might not be ideal, but you know I would." Jess gripped Sid's hand and rested her head against his shoulder.

"I know it looks suspicious, but I am meticulous with my pill. I never miss it and take it right on time every day."

"I know babe. You're not mad that I thought that are you?"

"No, because it ran through my head earlier too. But I checked and I am okay, no worries."

"So food poisoning?" Jess nodded. Sid pulled Jess down to lie next to him on the bed. "Let's just stay in bed like this the rest of the day." He was on his back with Jess curled around his side. She seemed to agree with him and he couldn't help but smile when he could hear her steady breathing indicating that she was already succumbing to sleep.

Notes