The Compromise

It was September 17th and James was anxious to get into the locker room for the start if training camp. It had been a month since he had last seen Jessica or Sidney for that matter. And he had no way of contacting Jess. She had failed to reply to his emails, and she deleted her Facebook and twitter accounts. Not that she ever really used either of them. And her phone number changed so he couldn't call her.

He wanted to talk to Sid. He didn't care if anything had happened between him and Jess, he just wanted to know that she was okay. And if he could talk to her. And would she want to maybe go to grab a cup of coffee. He needed to know that she was happy.

But Sid wasn't in the locker room when he arrived. In fact, there were only a handful of players. He realized he was rather early and the possibility of finding out how to reach Jessica made him that way.

"Hey Geno have you seen Sid?" James asked his line mate as he settled onto the bench next to him.

"He with Coach down hall," Evgeni Malkin replied and continued to get changed for practice.

James just nodded his head and felt butterflies form in the pit of his stomach. He stared towards the direction of the coaches' offices and waited. He didn't change. He just sat and waited.

Before long Sid came out with Dan Bylsma and Chris Kunitz and walked towards the locker room. James had not attempted to put his gear on. He needed to talk to Sid first. When the three men reached the locker room James was on his feet and walking towards Sidney.

"Can we talk?" James asked Sid who didn't notice his teammate approach.

Hesitantly Sid agreed and the two walked back down the hallway Sid just came from. When they were out of ear shot from the rest of the team.

"How is she?" James asked.

"I guess she is doing okay." Sid shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"What does that mean?" James was irritated by Sid's blasé attitude.

"I haven't really talked to her in a while," Sid commented.

"Wait, I thought she was living with you?" James was confused. It had only been a month, how could she already be out of Sid's?

"She did for a few days. Until she could find a place she could afford to rent. But she got a job offer without really trying and she moved." James contemplated Sid's words.

"I want to see her, can you give me her number so I can call her?"

"Yeah, yeah I can do that." James was relieved that Sid didn't refuse him that.

"So have you seen her place? How's her job and school?"

"I didn't help her move. Her parents came and grabbed the rest of her things that couldn't fit in her car. And I haven't had time to drive down to see her."

"Wait, drive where? She's in Pittsburgh still right?"

"No, she moved back to West Virginia." And everything else Sid was saying just faded out. James was lost. He felt the walls closing in on him. He needed to get out of there. He pressed his back up against the wall, bent over at the waist and tried to compose himself.

"James! Are you alright?" He heard Sid shout. He saw feet coming towards them, but all he wanted to do was sit down. He couldn't breathe.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," James spoke softly before closing his eyes and seeing black.

A few hours later James woke up feeling petite hands rubbing his back. He noticed he was lying on a bed and jerked up into a sitting position.

"What the hell?! Where am I?" James forgot to take in his surroundings and who it was that was with him.

"You should lie back down James." He shifted to his back and thought he saw an angel. She was actually sitting on the other side of his bed, in his bedroom. How he got there, he didn't care. He was just amazed that she was there with him.

"Jessica," James said. He wanted to hold her and tell her he never should have let her walk away. He wanted to tell her the past month has been a nightmare. He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed her fingers and pressed her palm against his cheek. He smiled against the touch of her cool skin. "You're here."

"Of course I am. You scared your teammates with whatever stunt you pulled," she laughed. He thought it was a beautiful sound.

"Did I scare you?" James whispered. He rested his head against his pillow and turned on his side to get a better look at Jessica. He never once let go of her hand. He was relieved that she never pulled away from him either.

"Of course you did Jimmy. You know I care about you," Jess said. She lay down beside him and rested her head next to his on his pillow.

"Just care?" James looked at her with wide eyes. A small smile spread across her face.

"Because I haven't stopped loving you," James said when she didn't respond first.

"You know I love you too," Jess hesitated. Butterflies again.

"I feel like there is a but in there somewhere," James said. He chewed the inside of his lip, nervous about her follow up.

"But we can't just go back to where we were before. I don't know what happened but my trust in you and faith in us faltered when I moved here. And I can't say it was you, because I have some emotional problems of my own that I need to deal with and I am. I need to get my self confidence and independence back before I can be serious with anybody."

"Nothing happened with you and Sid?" James immediately regretted asking the question, it really wasn't any of his business.

"If something had happened you wouldn't really have a right to be mad. We aren't together," Jessica reminded him. He swallowed a lump forming in his throat. He knew she was right but it didn't mean he wouldn't be sad.

"Nothing happened James. He is one of my closest friends now, but he will never be anything more than a friend. He values your friendship too much you know. He's downstairs with Geno worrying about you," Jess said. The reassurance appeased James. He close his eyes when she ran her hand across his cheek.

"How are you feeling?" Jessica asked.

"Better now that you are here," James circled his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. She felt cool against the rest of his body.

"Well you are burning up. Let me get you some Tylenol and thermometer," Jessica said. She made to get out of bed when James tugged her back down to him.

"Don't leave me, please," he said distraught.

"I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back." James let her go so she could retrieve the items mentioned. After a few minutes he felt the bed shift again and opened his closed eyes to see Jess ready to take his temperature. He allowed her to fuss over him and play nurse to him, something he wouldn't have let her do in the past. When he felt sick he wanted to be left alone. But this time it was different. He needed her to take care of him.

"Just as I thought, you have a fever. How the heck did you get sick?" Jess asked. James shrugged his shoulders and took the two pills Jess handed him.

"I haven't really been eating well, or taking care of myself. And sleep really hasn't come to me easily for the last month or so. I've just been run down. I guess my immune system is making me pay for it now."

"Oh James, why did you do that?"

"I wanted to run after you that day and tell you I am stupid. But I thought by breaking up it would help you. It just pushed you further away from me and I regret I ever did it. I tried to call, email, Facebook, twitter, but you were gone." James shielded his eyes with his forearm revealing his Neal tattoo.

He felt Jess' cool fingers run along his new ink. He knew she probably didn't like it, but he did it on a whim with his brothers just two weeks ago. What caught him by surprise was feeling her lips press against it.

"This is incredibly sexy," Jess whispered as she studied the scroll across the inside of his bicep. He moved his forearm so he could watch her facial expressions and smiled when she kissed his tattoo again.

"You like it?" She nodded. "Will you stay with me tonight?" She nodded again. She settled against his side and wrapped her arm around his chest.

"So your family probably hates me huh?" James asked. He felt Jess' body shake as she laughed silently.

"No, they realized it was mostly me." He gave her a sympathetic look. She continued, "Oh! And I am teaching at my old grade school now. My old sixth grade teacher needed a Language Arts teacher and got in contact with me through my sister."

"You love it, huh?" She nodded and smiled. He studied her face.

"Where are your glasses?"

"On the nightstand with yours. I can barely see you right now unless I get really close!" She leaned forward and touched her nose to his making him laugh. She pulled back when James tried to kiss her. He was slightly embarrassed, but recovered quickly and asked his next question.

"So you're living back with your folks?"

"I just got my own condo to rent. It's cozy and hidden away from a lot of people. It's quiet and I absolutely love it!"

"I can't wait to see it." James realized he shouldn't assume that her being here meant they were getting back together, but he wanted to be in her life in some capacity. She sat up slowly and they studied each other.

"We can't go back to where we were James." His heart sank. "But I would love it if we could date, again." James smiled at her last statement.

"Okay, so we date. So I have to woo you again, eh?" She threw her head back and laughed. He smiled, he absolutely loved the sound of her laugh.

"Just knowing that I can see you, and talk to you and hold you is a huge weight off my shoulders." James rubbed Jess' arms. She threw her body on his and squeezed a hug tightly out of him.

"Ditto."

Notes