Baggage Claim

“How are you feeling about tonight?” Pascal asked Sid while they took a water break in between drills. They were playing the Blackhawks for the second time in the preseason and they had gone into a shootout in the first. Their next game against the Bluejackets didn’t go in their favour but they had re-evaluated and switched things up and they seemed to be ready to push onto tonight’s game, hopefully coming out of it with another win.

“Pretty good,” Sidney said nodding his head taking a swig from his water bottle. “I feel like we’ve tweaked what we needed to from the past two games, but I mean everyone is still getting used to each other and there were a lot of new faces out there the other night,” Sid noted, looking around at all the new guys on the ice. There had been some players that had really stood out to him and was impressed with their level of play.

“Well hopefully we can pull it together tonight, eh?” Pascal said nudging Sid in the shoulder. “Especially since you have someone coming to watch you,” he said smirking at Sid.

“Friends,” Sidney said, shaking his head and putting his water back on the bench. He skated off back into the middle of the ice waiting for the rest of them while Pascal followed.

“You can’t even tell me that you’re not going to put on your Crosby charm tonight, there is no way that you two are only “friends”,” Pascal said trying to do his best air quotes with his gloves.

“Talking about the babe Sid’s got living with him?” James asked as he skated up to the two.

“No,” Sid said rather annoyed at the conversation.

“She’s coming tonight,” Pascal informed James.

“Ooohh,” James said making a whistling noise.

“You guys a fucks,” Sid said shaking his head and laughing at them. Bylsma blew the whistle bringing all the guys to the center ice to talk about tonight’s game, ending the conversation between the three. Tonight had been the only game that Brooke had been able to make and Sid was pretty excited that she was coming to watch him. He was starting to feel a bit anxious about her being there tonight and it wasn't something Sid was used to. He was annoyed with how much the guys were going on and on about Brooke but he really didn't want them to know about it yet, not when it was so new. He was starting to worry that tonight may be the best idea.
…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!” Kayla, and one of the male nurses that Kayla had introduced Brooke too, Alex, yelled as Brooke made her way into the clinic. She was beyond surprised and wasn’t expecting anyone to know it was her birthday.

“Oh my gosh,” Brooke said grabbing her chest, trying to get her heart to calm down. “Wow,” She breathed, looking at the balloons and the cake that they were holding.

“Happy birthday Brooke,” Kayla exclaimed as she pulled Brooke into a tight hug. Jake walked in behind them with a bouquet of flowers and Brooke turned around surprised to see him.

“Happy birthday little one,” Jake said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet. Her heart fluttered a bit, being so close to him and she could feel her cheeks reddening as he set her down

“And obviously you leave the best for last, Happy Birthday girl,” Alex said pulling her into a one armed hug.

“Thank you guys so much,” Brooke said still shocked.

Jake handed her the flowers. They were beautiful, filled with her favourite gerbera daisies in different shades of pink and orange. Jake had been stopping by the clinic more frequently to talk with Brooke and they had become quite good friends. Kayla would never fail to mention how much he was into Brooke, but she always ignored her and moved onto a different topic or task.

“We should go out for drinks tonight after work,” Alex suggested.

“I would love to, but I already have plans tonight, what about Friday? That way we really don’t have to worry to much about how we feel the next day.”

“I’m down, we’ll make a night of it, I need to find some new eye candy anyways, the only one in this hospital is straight and unfortunately one of my friends,” Alex said narrowing him eyes in Jakes direction. They all laughed at Alex, understanding his pain.

“Sorry dude, I only have eyes for one person and unfortunately for you, she shaves her legs and doesn’t have a beard.”

“Oh, whatever, I look good so I don’t care,” He said putting his hand up at Jake. Brooke shook her head at them and walked around to the other side of the desk to put her stuff down. “Anyways, I have to go do some rounds so I’ll see you guys for lunch, by lovelies,” he waved as he walked out into the hallway.

“I should probably get going too, have a patient in about fifteen minutes. Have a great day beautiful,” Jake said winking at Brooke before waving goodbye to Kayla. Brooke’s mouth hung open slightly, a little flustered from his actions.

“Well that wasn’t him flirting with you at all,” Kayla said sarcastically winking at her. Brooke glared at her as she started to unpack her bag taking out her laptop and a file folder. “So what are you doing tonight?”

“I’m going to the Pen's game,” Brooke mumbled while turning on her laptop.

“Oh that’s cool, who are you going with? Did your parents come down or something?”

“Uhmm no, I’m actually not going with anyone, I know someone on the team and he got me a ticket,” Brooke said, really not wanting to talk about it in more detail but she knew that Kayla wasn’t going to drop it there.

“Oh my god, that’s awesome, who do you know?” Kayla eagerly asked.

“oh I don’t think you’d know him,” Brooke was trying to play it off, but it really wasn’t going to work.

“it’s probably like Sidney Crosby or Marc Andre Fluery or someone,” Kayla said jokingly getting up to get some papers out of the printer.

“Ha ha yeah,” Brooke laughed, not looking at Kayla.

“It is isn’t it,” Kayla almost yelled.

“Shhhh, keep it down,” Brooke looked up over to where two people were sitting in the waiting room, looking in their direction.

“Sorry, sorry,” Kayla said sitting down and turning to Brooke.

“I know Sidney Crosby, well actually I’m living with him,” Brooke explained earning a gasp from Kayla. Brooke braced herself and turned back to her computer. The 100 questions were about to start any second now.

“That’s really cool, and it should be an awesome game tonight, hopefully they win for your birthday,” Kayla said squeezing Brookes arm and smiling at her. Kayla knew that she obviously didn't want to talk about it and turned back to answer the phone as it started to ring and Brooke was once again surprised. Most people, when given news like that, would go nuts, but Kayla kept amazing Brooke with how down to earth and sincere she was.

“Maybe, next time I could get you a ticket too, so I don’t have to go alone and look like a loser,” Brooke suggested when Kayla got off the phone.

“That would be awesome!” Kayla said giving Brooke a megawatt smile.

“Good morning Brooke, good morning Kayla,” Dr. Leviey greeted them as he walked into the clinic.

“Good morning,” They both said back in unison.

“Happy birthday Brooke,” He said as he looked up from the mail sitting on the reception desk for him.

“Thank you,” Brooke said smiling up at Dr. Leviey. She had only been working with him for a little under a month and she had really grown to enjoy her time learning from him. He had taught her so much already and she was really enjoying the specialty.

“Mr. Codwell, we’ll be with you in a few minutes, just hold on tight,” Dr. Leviey said turning around to one of the men sitting in the waiting room who smiled back at him and waved. “Brooke, I want to talk to you about the case before he comes in so follow me to my office.” Brooke nodded her head and grabbed her note pad before she got up to follow him into his office.

She closed the door behind her and sat across from him chair behind the desk As Dr. Leviey hung up his coat. “Mr. Codwell had come in to see me in the middle of august with constant congestion which was accompanied by soreness around the eyes and across the sinuses. He had had quiet a few ear infection in the months prior to being referred to me and when he finally went to see his family physician, he had begun to develop a growth protruding from his soft palate. So when I assessed him, it was obvious that he had a tumor growing in his sinus cavity I just didn’t know how large it was, where else is had been spread to and how far along the cancer was. I sent him for an MRI and I received his results last week. His cancer has spread into the bones of his sinuses which I expected but it has also spread to the lymph nodes in his neck and it seems to be quite large. It doesn’t look like it has spread into any surrounding organs but I’m going to send him for another MRI today to see if it has progressed since the last scan.”

“So his survival rates are around 50%?” Brooke asked trying to figure out all of the information he had given her.

“Correct,” Dr. Leviey said, taking a seat in his chair and opening up Mr. Codwell’s patient file sitting on his desk. “Now I’ve been studying the case for the past couple of days planning out possible treatment options for him but I would like you to research his condition the best that you can and come up with what you would think would be the best possible form of action to help him beat this, alright?” Dr. Leviey asked, taking a sip from his coffee.

“Yes,” Brooke replied, excited for the challenge.

“Okay, I’ll go out and bring him in.”
…

Brooke had left the hospital at around four after all of the patients for the day. Dr. Leveiy told her to go home to celebrate her birthday and to get started on her plan of action for her research. Kayla told her to have fun at the game tonight and helped her bring out her flowers and balloons to the car.

When Brooke pulled into Sidney’s driveway she was shocked to see his range rover was still sitting there. She pulled into the garage and decided to make two trips for her stuff rather than trying to lug it all in at once. She had stopped at the university library before coming home to grab a couple of medical journals and had actually been able to find one that Dr. Leviey had written himself. Unfortunately the books weren't the lightest nor the smallest things so her hands had been quite full.

Brooke opened the door leading into the house and walked into the kitchen. She heard feet shuffling down the stairs as she set her stuff on the counter. “Hey,” Sidney said as he tied his tie.

“Hi,” Brooke said cheerfully and she got up on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek. She had rushed out of the house this morning before getting to see him that morning so she wasn’t expecting to see him before his game at all. She figured that he had tried to stay home as long as possible to say happy birthday to her in person. Sidney smiled slightly and took a couple of steps away from her, still concentrated on his tie.

“Who are those for?” Sidney said nodding towards the flowers sitting on the counter.

“For me,” She said walking over to unwrap them and put them in some water. “You probably don’t have a vase, do you,” Brooke said scrunching up her mouth in the corner.

“No, I don’t. Who are they from?” Sidney asked, sounding a little grumpy and cold.

“A friend from work, Jake,” Brooke said, looking through his cupboards looking for a tall enough glass to make do for now.

“hmmm,” Sidney said picking up the card that was still attached to the wrapping paper. “Have an amazing day, love Jake” Sid read aloud and tossed the card back onto the counter. Brooke turned around to look at him, not having even read the card herself.

“Well, I guess I’m going to have to go out and buy a vase before your game so they don’t die,” Brooke said re-wrapping up the flowers and grabbing he card from the counter.

“So he obviously likes you,” Sidney pointed out.

“He’s just a friend, he was just being nice,” Brooke said shrugging her shoulders.

“He 100% was not just ‘being nice’,” Sidney said, sounding irritated. He walked over to the fridge and took out a water bottle.

“Well what does it matter, I’m not interested in him, I’m interested in you.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter. If you’re coming to the game, the ticket will be at the ticket office under my name, but you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” He said before heading to the door.

“Do you not want me to come Sid?” Brooke asked sounding a little hurt.

“It’s up to you, it doesn’t really make a difference to me. I’ll see you later,” Sid said before walking out the door to the garage and closing it forcefully behind him. Brooke stood there confused about what had happened. He had seemed really excited when he had asked her to come his game last week and she was excited to go but now it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with her and didn’t want her there anymore.

“Happy birthday to me,” Brooke said before she headed towards the stairs to go up to her room, dropping the flowers in the garbage can as she walked by.
…

Sidney closed the door behind him, almost slamming it and walked into the garage. He felt like an ass but he was pissed about the guy giving Brooke flowers and the fact that she kept them pissed him off even more. Why would some guy just randomly be giving her flowers if there weren’t together, and he knew they weren't together. It wasn’t like she was into him either, she had admitted that she wasn't but he was still angry nonetheless. He walked past Brookes car, noticing that she had balloons in her back seat thinking that is was a little strange. He walked to his truck and got in, slamming his door shut thinking about why she needed balloons and it hit him, “Shit.”

Notes