Baggage Claim

Sidney had grabbed one of Brookes bags from her once he had told her that he had parked in the parking garage and started to head towards the door that would lead them to his truck. They walked in silence until they got into the elevator where Sidney broke the ice. “How was the flight?” He asked as the doors closed and he pressed the button to the second floor.

“Uh it was good, a lot shorter than I’m used to but it was a smooth flight,” Brooke said politely. The two were never very talkative with one another. They actually tried to avoid talking to each other and had never really gotten along as teenagers. Brooke had found it pretty surprising when she had gotten a text from Sidney telling her that he would come and pick her up the day her flight got into Pittsburgh. There is no way she would have asked him for a drive let alone tell him she was going to be in Pittsburgh but leave it up to her mother to tell her best friend, Trina, that Brooke would be living there.

The elevator ride had been short but the atmosphere had turned rather awkward between the two fairly quickly. Once the doors opened, Sid motioned for Brooke to exit first, and he followed behind her. “My car it just over there,” Sid pointed out to Brooke heading towards a silver Range Rover. He opened the truck putting her luggage in the back for her.

“Thank you,” Brooke said when he took her bag from her.

“No problem,” Sid said as he closed the lift gate smirking. She rolled her eyes at him and walked around to the passenger door. She could tell that he wasn’t thrilled about having to come and pick her up but she wasn’t thrilled about it herself and she had never asked him to do any of this. She would have been more than happy taking a cab to her hotel and never having to communicate with him while she was there. They both got into the truck and when Brooke turned to buckle her seatbelt, she noticed how impeccably clean his truck was. For a guy, it was pretty impressive she had to admit. Crosby was full of surprises today.

“I really like this truck, my dad was thinking about buying a newer model than the one he has at home” Brooke said trying to fill the awkward silence as Sid navigated his way to the exit.

“Yeah, so do I,” Sid said in a very monotone voice.

“Wow, okay,” Brooke said with a cold tone as she crossed her arms and looked straight ahead. Sid Chuckled and shook his head. “What?” Brooke asked, becoming irritated.

“You really haven’t changed, have you? Still the same uptight, emotional girl you were when we were younger,” Sid said turning to look at her. They had reached the gate and Sid rolled down his window to put the ticket in the machine. Once the gate lifted, he pulled forward and waited until it was clear to pull out onto the road. Brooke sat there glaring at the side of his head, wanting to punch him for what he had just said but knew that he would win if she did.

“Why did offer to come pick my up when we both know that you would rather be doing anything else than coming to get me,” Brooke asked very seriously. She figured she already knew the answer to her question, his mom made him, but she just wanted to hear him say it. Instead she was shocked by his answer.

“I was new here once, I didn’t know my way around. I wasn’t going to make you take a cab when I would have just been sitting around the house or working out anyways. Just seemed like the logical thing to do,” Sid said shrugging his shoulders. He turned to look at her seeing the shocked expression in her eyes. Brooke and Sidney both focused their attention back on the road. Brooke felt a little guilty for jumping to conclusions but their track record didn’t really but them on the friend page.

“Well thank you,” Brook said, folding her hands in her lap, “you know, for coming and getting me, it was nice to have a familiar face greet me here.” Sid nodded his head and seemed to relax a little bit. Not gripping the steering wheel quiet as hard so that his knuckles were white. They drove for a couple more minutes before Sidney decided to speak.

“Were you not going to tell me you were in Pittsburgh for four months?” He asked turning slightly to look at Brooke. Her face blanched, draining of all colour. Had it not been for her mother, Brooke would have gone on living without telling him.

“Uhm, to be honest, no I wasn’t,” Brooke said. She figured there was no use lying to him. “I figured that with me being here to work and you having the season starting soon, that there really wouldn’t be any time for us to say ‘hi’ let alone pretend that we wanted to have dinner together,” she explained turning to look at Sid’s reaction. He sort of nodded his head a little bit contemplating how he was going to reply. Brooke felt a little terrible for not even considering it but she wasn’t going to lie to him, and what was he going to say anyways if she had told him that she was in Pittsburgh? ‘Oh okay, well hope you like the city,’ there really was no point to telling him.

“So what department are you working at in the hospital?” Sid asked completely changing the subject.

“I’m mentoring a ear, nose and throat surgeon for the semester,” Brooke answered. She had been attending John Hopkins Medical School and she was in her last year. She would be picking an area she wanted to specialize in by the end of her year and Pittsburgh had one of the best ear, nose and throat units in the US and Brooke was lucky enough to transfer to the school.

“That will be interesting, I know a couple of the guys have gone in to see doctor Leviey after breaking their noses because they have breathing issues,” Sid explained.

“That’s who I’m working with actually, he’s one of the best in the field.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll be seeing some of the guys going in a lot more in the next couple of months now,” Sid said smirking. Brooke was a little confused about what he was talking about but just let it go, not interested in really knowing. “When do you start at the hospital?” Sid asked.

“Uhh, on the second of September, so in a week.”

“So you don’t need to go there now, right?”

“No, but if I do, I can just walk there, the hotel isn’t too far away, only about a ten minute walk,” Brooke pointed out, Sidney was turning onto a bridge going over river into what looked like a very nice neighbourhood. “This doesn’t look like down town Pittsburgh.”

“That’s because it’s not. This part was all my mom, not me. She wasn’t too thrilled that you were staying in a hotel and threatened to break parts of my body that I need in order to play if you weren’t staying in my house while you were here.”

“Sid that’s a really, really bad idea” Brooke said turning towards him. She had a sick feeling in her stomach and she knew that them living together was most likely going to lead to one of their deaths. They had made it through the drive in a civil manner but living in the same house would most likely prove to be too much for their patients.

“Look, so do I but you’ll be at the hospital most of the time, I’ll be on the road in the next couple of weeks. It will be like you have the house to yourself most of the time.” Sid pulled up to a gate and put in a number opening it, allowing for him to drive up the driveway.

“I don’t have a car yet, either so there’s flaw number 500 in this plan.” Brooke said getting angrier by the second. She loved Trina for thinking about her but she really wanted nothing less than to live with Sidney.

“You’re dad already took care of that.”

“He what?” Brooke snapped turning to glare at him. Sidney parked his truck in front of his garage and cutting the engine.

“Look, I’m about as thrilled about this as you are, but again, I have an empty house, there is no reason for you to be living in a hotel for four months. It’s fine, we’re both adults, I’m sure we can find a way to make it work so we don’t kill each other.” He said turning to look at her.

“Fine,” Brook said gritting her teeth and getting out of the truck. She was feeling nauseous sitting in close proximities to him and needed fresh air after hearing all of the wonderful change of plans to her time in Pittsburgh. Stepping out of the truck, Brooke got the chance to look at the huge house standing in front of her. She had heard off handedly from her mom that Sid had been building a house here but she hadn’t seen any of the pictures from the finished product. Sidney Crosby had once again impressed her in less than twenty-four hours.
…

Brooke was up in the guest bedroom unpacking her bag when her phone started ringing. She went over to the bedside table where she had left it to charge and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hello honey how was your flight?” Brooke was greeted with her mom’s voice.

“It was good, oh by the way, thanks for telling me you arranged for me to stay with Sidney, the last person I wanted to be thrown into this situation with,” Brooke said as sarcastically as possible.

“Brooke, there are way worse things that could have happened. This way you’re not alone in down town Pittsburgh and your father and I don’t have to worry about you as much. We were thrilled when Trina suggested it,” Her mother explained.

“You all need to realize that we’re adults and can take care of ourselves and that we have lives that we need to live. I feel like I’m intruding on his space and you know we don’t get along fantastically,” Brooke said rubbing her forehead. She had gotten a headache shortly after arriving in the house and the Advil hadn’t been doing its job. “Look, I gotta go, I need to finish unpacking and figure some things out for the hospital. I’ll call you when I get a chance,” Brooke said hanging up before her mother could answer. She was annoyed with her parents and Sid’s and felt like she was being forced into a situation that she had no control over.

Brooke sat on the edge of her bed and closed her eyes. It was only three in the afternoon but she felt like it was midnight. She was exhausted from the flight and unpacking and the drama of the day was wearing her down. When she stood back up she realized that it looked like a tornado had gone off in the room having not hung anything up or put anything in drawers. “Time to move in, I guess,” Brooke said to herself grabbing the clothes off the bed and heading towards the dresser.
…

Sidney had gone out for a run but before leaving the house he had popped his head into Brooke’s room just to let her know. She had been sitting in the walk in closet, organizing her shoes telling him she was almost done and was going to have a shower once everything was put away.

When he walked up the stairs after taking his running shoes off he had heard the water stop running and the curtain sliding across the metal bar. Sid figured he should probably hurry to his room so he wouldn’t run into her in the hallway but she was quicker than he had assumed and stepped out of the bathroom just before Sid had passed the doorway. Brook was wrapped in a towel with her blonde hair pulled to the one side. “Oh geez, you scared me,” Brooke said grabbing her chest. Sid was speechless and looked down at her barely covered body.

“Uhhh,” Was all Sid could get out before he decided to make a b-line toward his bedroom at the end of the hallway and shut the door behind him. “Fuck,” Sid said under his breathe once in the privacy of his own bedroom. He felt stupid for acting like a teenager seeing a girl for the first time, especially when it was Brooke. He had seen her a million times in her bathing suits when they were growing up and some of them had covered a lot less than what the towel had been covering just then. But that was the teenage Brooke. This was the twenty-six year old Brooke who stopped his breath when she walked up to him in the airport. The twenty-six year old Brooke who had become one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen in his entire life. Sid shook his head and decided that he needed a shower now after all of that. A long, cold shower.

Notes

Kinda rushed but wanted to get the first bit out of the way.
Thanks for reading!!!! :)