The Compromise

Over a week had passed since Sidney whisked Jess away from James and aggressively showed to her that he was the one she was supposed to be laughing with, talking closely with, dancing provocatively for. Of course he never told her about his jealous feelings, he didn't need to bother her with them. He knew she was loyal and loved him and he had to understand the history between the two former lovers.

As he settled into his first class seat, his mind wandered back to that night where the intimacy flew out the window and they went at it like wild animals. His back stung the next day when he showered only to find that Jess left scratches all over. By now they were gone so he didn't need to worry about being teased. Although it probably wouldn't be such a bad thing considering he had been teased for being such a prude in years past.

He had to admit, drunk Jess was a lot of fun. He never expected sex with her to be anything less than intimate, and while they still shared sweet endearments when they finally made it to his bed, as he fulfilled her desires they were both loud, vulgar and completely unhinged.

He suppressed a smile, thinking of how loud Jess was that night was making him think of doing it again when they see each other next. He was currently flying back to Nova Scotia to spend the week with his parents and to see if his trainer would be willing to spend some time in Pittsburgh. He was having a difficult time convincing Jess to spend the summer traveling with him and he was trying to formulate a course of action to bring her back to Pittsburgh, for good. He figured he could visit home while she was still in school that way when she is finished for the summer he could take her on a vacation away from all the weird drama that had surrounded them.

He was going to miss her while he is gone. The last week he was spoiled because he spent it curled up on her couch or in bed with her. When she was at school he cooked for her and they spent the cool evenings hiking through the lush covered trails around her place. It was a nice change of pace from the hectic life he leads during the season. Even in the offseason he doesn't take much time to slow down and relax a bit. But the last week with Jess allowed him some time to forget hockey and contracts and what the team did wrong to get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. He loved that about her, she was able to make him open up in different ways than just hockey. He knew this wouldn't be his only trip home for the summer, but he planned on having Jessica with him on the next ones.

•••••

Sid found his mom standing near the luggage carousel waiting for him and looking for his bag.

"Mom!" Sid said loudly. She spun around and opened her arms to her eldest child.

"Ah baby boy! I'm so glad to have you home!" Trina said as she squeezed Sid around the shoulders.

"I missed you mom. I'm glad to be home. Where is dad?" His dad usually came with his mom to pick Sid up.

"He is at the hospital with Nana. He said he will see us at home later. I thought we could grab some lunch before heading back home," Trina said as she laced her arm with her son's and lead him towards the exit.

"Sounds great mom. How is nana?" He thought of how he should visit his grandmother before he leaves next week.

"As well as can be. She goes for her monthly check-up and dad wanted to be there to hear what the doctors say."

"I understand." They continued towards the parking lot to Trina's car making small talk and catching up on everyday life in the family. He was relieved his mom didn't bring up the horrible end to his season, instead focusing on talking about Taylor and how she was handling boarding school.

"She only has a month left mom, then she will be home." He squeezed his mom's hand that rested on the armrest. "Where are we going for lunch?"

"I figured we could get something closer to home. Less likely being bothered so much."

"That's fine with me. I won't protest the chance of having privacy." He leaned back against the passenger seat and watched the scenery in silence as his mom told him story after story about his sister and cousins. His mind wandered to Jess when he realized he hadn't told her that he landed. He reached for his phone just in time to feel it buzz in his pocket.

"Sorry mom, it's Jessica," he explained as he interrupted the story of his little sister going to some formal dance.

"Hello?" Sid said as he gave his mom an apologetic look.

"Hey! Well, are you home yet?" Jess asked.

"I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm on my way now. Mom picked me up."

"Ok, you just never called and I was worried."

"Are you on your break?" Sid asked noting that it was still before lunchtime.

"Yeah, I am. Just wanted to check on you. Oh and to tell you that James called me asking if I'd like to go to dinner with him. I guess he is golfing in some tournament with my brother and brother-in-law?"

"Oh, so are you?"

"I think I might meet up with them when they are done. But I wanted you to know."

"You know, I golf too."

"I know. I just think that you may intimidate my brother still. He gets star struck whenever you are around still. Give it a little time. Okay? And I'll say something to him."

"Yeah, ok. Mom and I are stopping for some lunch so I'll call you later. Or you call when you're done with dinner or something."

"I will Sid. I miss you."

"Me too babe, love you."

"Love you more," Jess said and Sid looked back at the screen of his phone as the call ended then pushed his head against his headrest.

"Everything okay?" His mom asked as she pulled into the lot of a local eatery the crosby's know they won't be bothered at.

"Just a little jealousy that I don't know how to deal with," Sid explained hopping out of the car and walking over to the entrance of the restaurant. He held open the door for his mom and followed her inside. The hostess seated the pair quickly and away from any other patrons on purpose.

A they settled into their booth, Trina abruptly closed her menu and studied her son. "Want to talk about it?"

"No and yes." Sid pretended to be studying the pages of the menu, when really he was thinking of his girlfriend out to dinner with her ex, a guy on several occasions admitted he still had feelings for her.

"Well, I won't push you. But this will be the only time you get to talk about this before your father is around," Trina pointed out. Sid knew it too. He didn't need his father lecturing him on how a girl interfered with his game.

"It all started when Neal's dad passed away." He paused to allow for the setting to take shape. "You know how Jess was sick? We thought it was food poisoning?"

His mom nodded, recalling the week in tri-state area of New York. "We found out that Monday that Jess was pregnant."

"I'm going to be a grandmother?" Trina shrieked but quickly bit back anything more as a waiter came over to take their orders. After the waiter left Sid looked at his mom who was anticipating a response from him.

"You were going to be." Sid fiddled with the paper napkin at his place setting, he didn't want to make eye contact.

"Oh Sid, she didn't have it taken care of," Trina's voice was filled with a sorrow for her son.

"No! Nothing like that. But she miscarried. We had only known for a week that she was pregnant and we went for the first ultrasound and they couldn't find anything."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Then Sid just started unloading on his mom.

"Much better now. It was hard at first. I didn't know how Jess would react because she wasn't anticipating a pregnancy anyway. She scared me afterwards though. She was so quiet and almost zombie-like. She barely slept. I wasn't focused on hockey at all. I was constantly worried about her. And it wasn't fair to the team or to either of us. I couldn't be with her every day. And she refused to tell anyone. Part of me thought it would just have been easier if she were closer. But now things are better except I'm nervous now for some reason. Like I got really possessive of her last weekend when we were out to dinner with the team and extremely jealous of James when he was talking to her. And I have this sick feeling in my stomach now because she is going to dinner with him tonight. And she has never given me a reason to not trust her, but ever since the miscarriage I've been completely high strung around her."

He finally looked at his mother, she was giving him a knowing look with a huge grin on her face. "What?"

"I am really happy that you have finally let your guard down and learned to love something more than hockey. I was starting to get worried."

Sid looked puzzled, "Uh, thanks? I guess?"

"I wouldn't be scared of James that's for sure. I'm completely in your corner in that battle. I think Jess is too. And considering what you two have had to go through in your short relationship I am certain that has only solidified your relationship more. But can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." He fiddled with the straw in his water cup.

"Why aren't you guys being smart and using protection?"

"Jess is on birth control. And before you start thinking like dad, she isn't trying to get pregnant to take my money or something obscene like that."

"Sid, I don't think like your father. If she is on the pill then how?"

"She was on an antibiotic for a sinus infection. "

"Cancels out the pill," Trina said knowing.

"Yeah." Their food came then and they ate quietly, keeping all thoughts to themselves and their conversation light.

"Why is Jess going to dinner with James?" Trina asked as they ventured out towards her car.

"Something about him golfing with her brother today."

"Oh I see. Well let's go home and see Sam. And we could use some fish for dinner tomorrow evening."

He smiled at his mom's attempt to make him forget about how he felt jealous. He hoped it would pass, but the thought of Jess being near James only made his skin crawl. He didn't like feeling like this.

****************

Jessica rushed out of her classroom towards Amanda's at the end of the day. She was beginning to panic about the plans she made and she hoped her friend could talk some sense into her.

"Hey, so I feel like the most horrible person in the world right now."

"Why?" Amanda asked as she locked her door and the two started out towards the faculty parking lot.

"I know I was right in telling Sid about my plans with James, but he sounded so sad when I told him! I should cancel."

"Jess, it's not like you're going alone. Hell, you're going to a sports bar and your brothers are going to be there too. Sid will have to get over it."

"Maybe I should just bail. I'm not really interested in fighting with Sid."

"Him getting mad over this just doesn't seem like his style though."

"Yeah, it's not. I don't know."

"Listen, you're at a good place with both guys. One is just a friend and the other is your future baby daddy. And both are hot, so why not spend time with them."

Jess laughed loudly and said bye to Amanda as she climbed into her car. She reached for her phone to check if she received any texts or calls. She had a bad feeling that Sid was stewing over her plans to see James. But she didn't have time to worry about that, she told her brother she would meet them at the restaurant at 4:30 and she needed to run home to change first. She would call Sidney when she got home from dinner.

When she pulled up to her building, however, a familiar black car was parked in the visitor spot near her door. She glanced at the clock to see that it wasn't quite 4 and got nervous that James would show up at her place. This wasn't what was planned and she felt nervous with his presence.

"What are you doing here?" Jess asked by way of greeting James when they both climbed out of their cars.

"David had to take Sophie to swim and Delaney was sick so Jason went home to help Lisa out." He strode up beside her. "I didn't want you to show up at the restaurant and no one be there."

"You guys could have called or something." She jerked her door open and allowed for James to go in first.

"Yeah, but I was looking forward to seeing you." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to look at her. "Is he mad?"

"What? No! I don't think so. He has no reason to be." Jess was caught off guard that James was able to read her so well. Her demeanor changed then, she started to relax and realized he wasn't there for any malicious reason.

"Do you still want to get something to eat?" James asked after a very pregnant pause between the two.

"Ah, yeah let me change first okay?" James nodded his head and turned to sit in her armchair. Jess started for her bedroom to change when she felt her phone vibrate. Glancing at the screen she saw Sid's face.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hey, I know I said to call me after dinner, but I wanted to hear your voice." Jess smiled and leaned against the wall in the hallway.

"I thought you were mad at me," Jess revealed.

"Why would I be mad? Nervous maybe." Sid admitted.

"I don't know, I just don't want you to think that since you're away I'm running around with James. You know, out of sight out of mind."

"Well you kind of are, but that's beside the point." Sid's tone was snippy. Jess didn't know how to respond to him so she but her lip and refrained from saying something she might regret. "Have fun by the way. Where are you guys going?"

"I don't know," Jess whispered, eyes filling with tears. She knew she should have cancelled. She knew Sid had been feeling insecure for some bizarre reason.

"What’s wrong?" Jess heard a concerned voice ask from her left. She waved him away and walked into her room closing the doors behind her.

"He's there?" Sid exclaimed.

"He was down here golfing!" Jess found her voice. She let the tears fall finally as she spoke loudly.

"I thought you were meeting him somewhere Jess."

"Sid stop. Why are you acting like this?" She slouched down and sat on the floor of her bedroom.

"I don't know okay? I'm worried."

"Sid you can't keep some tight reign on me. I can't function like that. I've never given you reason to not trust me! I love you so much, but I can't do this."

"What are you saying Jess?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should take a break."

"You want to break up?"

"Yeah, I think it will be best." Jess waited to hear what he said back, regretting how she sprung this on him. She didn't really want to break up, she just wanted some space. What better way to test their relationship while he was visiting his parents? She waited a few more seconds.

"Sid?" She asked. It was then that she discovered he had hung up.

Notes