The Compromise

It was late, or it felt late to Sidney who was lounging on the couch watching the Monday night football game while Jess sat on the floor working on some sort of art project she wanted to do with her students. He found himself watching her more than the action on the screen as a sense of relief flooded over him. He had expected Jess to be downright livid with him, but then again she hadn't seen the fight or James afterwards. She may have been singing a different tune afterwards. And thinking back to the practice only made his skin crawl with anger again. He needed to forget about it. Stay away from the rink for a few days and just do workouts around home.

After their little tryst in their bedroom earlier Sid had finally forgone avoiding his phone. Most of his messages were from Kuni checking to make sure he made it home and that he was alright. After he got pushed off the ice he stormed into the locker room and changed to leave before the rest of his teammates could follow suit. He replied finally simply saying he was fine and then wasn't bothered again.

"What do you think?" Jess asked as she held up the project she was working on snapping Sid out of his thoughts. He sat up straighter, cleared his throat and focused on the green mesh with spiders and ribbon all over.

"You want to make those with your students?" Sid asked. The wreath looked awesome, but he couldn't imagine Jess having that much success with the kids in her class.

"No! It's a Halloween wreath to hang on our front door! You know, to make the place more inviting." 'Ah, that makes more sense,' he thought.

"Wait, you did all of that just now?"

"You were watching me," Jess stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, you, not what you were doing. It's amazing babe. I guarantee mom will want one."

"I can make her one, but we won't see her until the weekend before Halloween so maybe not one just like this." She set her project back down on the floor mumbling something about how she would never do something like this with her students and did he realize how expensive it would be to have thirty seventh graders do this. His shoulders shook in silent laughter at her and he slouched back against the couch again.

As Jess was cleaning up the mess she made on the floor, intentionally getting in the way of the television, the doorbell rang startling them both. Sid sat up too fast, aggravating his ribs.

"It's nearly 9! Who could that be?" Jess stood first and headed towards the door to answer not thinking like Sid to check the security camera to get a look at who was there. He watched the black and white screen on his TV and focused in on three men, but the angle they were standing and hats on their head made it challenging to see exactly who it was.

Sid watched as Jess opened the door, greeted them and allowed them into the house. "I guess we know them," he said to himself. He stood up and walked out towards the foyer to find Jess talking with Sid's coaches and James. She turned when she heard Sid approach and the look he expected to get from her earlier in the shower he got now.

"Excuse me guys, I'm going to go get ready for work tomorrow." She brushed past Sid and when he reached out to touch her she jerked away saying, "Not now Sid." He turned to watch her go into the kitchen where he knew she ditched her school bag after dinner. His heart raced as he knew she saw the severity if the situation and now he feared what was going to be said to him.

"Can we go to your office Sidney?" Tony Granato asked. He hadn't seen Tony or Dan since they both came to the hospital to see Jess. He hadn't expected to see them now and he wondered who got the two coaches involved. Sid nodded, and pointed in the direction of the room he used so infrequently and caught a glimpse of James as the three men walked ahead of him. He noticed immediately the red nose and swollen eyes and busted lip. Sid instantly regretted what he did.

Once inside the room the men found seats and an uncomfortable silence filled the air. Finally Dan cleared his throat and spoke up.

"I'm not the type of coach to get too involved in his players' personal lives. But when one calls me to say that two of his best players were beating each other and drawing blood in the process is when I need to intervene. I haven't said anything to Ray or Mario because I'd like to think we can resolve this issue before it spreads throughout the organization. Now, I would hate to think that all of this is over a girl."

"It's not," James piped up catching Sidney off guard. It most certainly was about Jess and James' inability to let go.

"Then care to explain to me why you guys were fighting? You two used to get along so well."

"I crossed a line and Sid reacted to it," James was vague. Sid was confused as to why James was saying this, almost as if he didn't want them to know what he said.

"I was out of line for reacting the way I did too though. I shouldn't have let my emotions get the best of me."

"We only want to be certain that the chemistry between the team isn't off when the season finally does start guys. You are teammates and this is really a family. When two family members fight it's hard to pick sides. We'd rather you save that energy for the opposing team, not each other," Tony spoke up.

"James can you step out so we can speak with Sid alone?" Dan asked.

"Sure," James stood and exited the room closing the door behind him.

When gone Sid waited to hear what his coaches had to say.

"Sid, James wants to be traded," Dan said candidly. "Do you realize if we lose him the second line could go to shit. He has been the only other player that can read Geno like you and I can't have my number one and number two stars on the first line together. You two have some serious issues that need to be worked out, and I think you're the only one who can convince him to stay."

'Well, fuck,' Sid thought.

**********

James followed the sound of Jess' quiet singing in the kitchen and found her with her headphones on sitting at the island grading some papers. Before when they were together he'd find her like this and start singing along with her until she noticed. It was moments like that he missed, but he knew he didn't miss her. Just the idea of one stable thing in his life. And he was jealous that Sid had that and not him anymore. But he was entirely to blame for it. And he knew that. Jess caught sight of him and gave him a sympathetic smile. She pulled her earbuds from her ears and invited him further into the kitchen.

"You look a hot mess," Jess said. He eased into a seat next to her and turned so he could see her.

"I didn't think he had it in him," James chuckled making his lip split open again. He bit on the open wound and tasted the salty blood drip into his mouth.

"I had no idea how bad he beat you up," Jess started. She fidgeted with a pink pen that was laying on top of the pile of essays she was checking.

"He clearly didn't tell you what I said," James said. He wasn't going to say it for fear that she too would hurt him in some way.

"No, he only said if I heard it I would have reacted the same way."

"Yeah, he's probably right."

"Then why did you do it? I thought we were past all of this. I thought we could move on and be friends and ignore everything that happened between us."

"I don't know," but he really did know.

"The last couple weeks have sucked. You've sucked. I was happy not knowing you messed up. We could have gone without ever having to point fingers at each other for something that happened in the past."

"You're not mad that I cheated?" Jess really wasn't.

"Why hold a grudge? I am unbelievably happy with where my life is and where it is headed. We were breaking up regardless of your indiscretions. I am mad that you tried to accuse me of doing it too."

"I know. I'm sorry for doing that. And I can't say its hard to see you guys together because I hardly see you two. And when I do you don't flaunt your relationship in front of me."

Jess didn't know what to say or how to respond to him. He looked almost pathetic sitting in front of her with his face a mess. She could be angry with Sid for being violent when it's not in his nature to do so, but she was slightly impressed that he had such a right hook. She looked back down at her abandoned school work when she started to feel uncomfortable looking at him.

"I want to be traded," James stared. "Then I will be gone and will no longer be a problem for you or Sid and this team. I wanted to blame you for all this drama, but it was really me doing it. And it needs to stop. I need to stop and maybe a city away from you will help me."

"But your game here is better than it's ever been James! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You made a deal, what would your mom think? Your dad didn't raise his oldest son to be a coward and run away." Jess stood from her seat and gathered her papers. She was done grading for the night.

"Jess, I'm not running away because I'm a coward. I just think it would be easier."

"So take the easy way out. Good for you James. Hope you win a Stanley Cup that way." She turned to walk away leaving him awestruck in the kitchen.

"What the fuck just happened?" He asked himself thoroughly perplexed. He shook his head as if that would clear everything right up and turned back towards the office. He was confronted much the same way as Sid was being confronted now by his coaches and knew that Pauly was completely behind calling Dan and Tony to get them involved.

**********

"So you want me to buddy up with him?" Sid felt repulsed at the thought. He was able to get along with James before everything went down with Jess, but now he wasn't so sure.

"Let him know you value his skill on the ice. But it wouldn't hurt to be nicer than you have been. Your behavior isn't you."

"It's hard for me when he goes for months with not so much as mentioning Jess to in the last three weeks just shocking her left and right. I went to skate today with the intention of being the bigger man and ignore him, but in the end I couldn't. And I lost it. And I feel bad. And for what it's worth I am certain that what I will hear from Jess will be far worse than the reprimand I am getting from you."

"We aren't reprimanding you. We are advising you to make things work with Neal on ice and the best approach for that would be to get along with him off the ice," Dan explained.

"Sid, I'm not gonna lie. I can see James' point for disliking you though. From an outsider's perspective and not knowing exactly how things worked out the way they have, you took his girl. He is hurt," Tony said.

"Yeah, I know. And that has sort of plagued us already, but to be perfectly honest the recent drama has been because he admitted to Jess that he cheated on her multiple times with a handful of girls."

"Well I guess my point is sort of moot now." Tony sat back in his chair an looked at Dan.

"Alright, we will let you go. Figure this out. You may have a whole season to do so, but you need to work like you only have a day or so. Who know when this nonsense is over, but thankfully we can't do any kind of trading until then," Dan said as he stood and moved towards the door.

They opened to see Jess running up the stairs and James slowly walking back from the kitchen. Sid felt his blood boil slightly, thinking James said something to Jess to upset her. And all he wanted was to get these guys out of his house and go make things right with her.

"Everything good?" James asked when everyone was crowded by the front door.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Dan said as he turned towards the door.

"Be safe guys. Nealer, want to meet at the rink around 10 tomorrow?" Sid asked.

"Yeah, sure. Sounds good," James hesitated. He looked warily at Sid, but agreed anyways. He followed his coaches out, climbed into the back of Tony's SUV and watched as Sid stood in the entryway watching them back out of his driveway.

Once the truck was out of sight, Sid closed the door and wandered through the downstairs turning off various lights and the television. When he trudged up the steps he took his time setting the alarm and wandered into the semi-lit master bedroom. Jess was lying on her side of the bed staring up at the ceiling. He stood at the foot of the bed watching her, willing her silently to look at him. When she didn't react to him being in their room, he climbed into bed hovering over her body.

"You're not mad at me are you?" He asked with large doe eyes.

She finally cracked a smile and shook her head, but a single tear slid down her face. "He wants to leave."

Sid rolled over to his side of the bed and sighed. "I know."

"We have to stop him." She curled into his side and wrapped her arm across his chest.

"We will. This is his team, nowhere else."

Notes