Baggage Claim

“Hi, I’m looking for Brooke,” Brooke over heard her name being called while she read through a patients file, making notes while she read. Brooke popped her head up and took her glasses off when she looked over to the reception area to see who had been asking for her. When they made eye contact Brooke smiled at the guy she had met in the elevator two weeks prior.

“Jake, hey,” Brooke said getting up from behind the desk and walking over to him.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Jake asked flashing Brooke a mega watt smile.

“I’m good, starting to get the hang of things here, what about you?” Brooke said returning the smile. Brooke had seen him around the hospital when she had gone to visit patients but it had only ever been a smile or a quick hello.

“Yeah, things can get a little hectic around here, but it’s been pretty good other than I haven’t had too much time to talk to this one really beautiful girl,” Jake said, leaning against the counter. He was wearing a back long sleeved shirt with a pair of blue scrub pants that Brooke had come to learn were part of the physiotherapist’s uniform. Brooke had to admit that even in hospital clothing, Jake was still unbelievably attractive. Brooke blushed slightly but reminded herself that he could be talking about someone else completely and she shook her head.

“Oh yeah? pretty busy life i take it,” Brooke said teasing him a little bit. Jake chuckled and Brooke couldn't help from looking at his amazing green eyes.

“Well, that’s what I’m trying to do now. I was wondering if you were free to come and grab a coffee with me in the cafeteria,” Jake asked, hooking a thumb in the direction of the door. Brooke smiled and looked down at her watch. She had about half an hour until her and Dr. Leviey would be meeting with a post-op patient but she decided against it.

“That sounds really great, but I have a couple of appointment that I need to sit in on in a couple minutes. Sorry. How about a rain check?” Brooke suggested pulling the file she had been holding into her chest.

“I’ll have take you up on that, see you later” Jake said smiling as he patted the desk and headed towards the doorway. Brooke stood there with a dumb smile on her face and watched him walk out. She covered her face with her hand and shook her head.

“You are probably the luckiest girl I have ever met,” Kayla, the nurse sitting behind the reception desk said. Brooke and her had been getting to know one another and Brooke rather liked her. Brooke tended to sit out at the front desk rather than in her office to read over some of the patients files and they normally chatted about different things.

“I’m also probably one of the only girls for saying no,” Brooke said going back around the desk to sit down in her chair. Brooke rested both of her elbows on the desk and held her head in her hands.

“You know, if he’s not your type, I could always take him off your hands,” Kayla suggested while getting up to put some paperwork in the filing cabinet. Brooke laughed opening up the file that was sitting in front of her and ran through the case. She hadn’t said no because she didn’t want to have coffee with him. She just really didn’t know if she was in the position to going on something as small as a coffee date with anyone. Things with Sidney were new and confusing and neither one of them had really set out any ‘rules’ pertaining to what their agreement was. But regardless of what was going on between her and Sidney, she wasn’t the kind of person who necessarily played the field. and she really only wanted Sid. She was a one-guy kind of girl, and if Sidney wanted to see other girls than he was free to do so, Brooke didn’t have any claim over him. Not that she would be all too thrilled with him being with another girl but-

“Brooke!” Brooke jumped in her seat when she heard her name being called. She turned around to see Dr. Leviey poking his head out of his office door calling for her while she was wrapped up in thinking about Sid.

“Sorry, sorry, I was, uh pretty intrigued with this case,” Brooke said getting up and walking down the hall into his office.

“It’s alright, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Brooke shook her head, smiling and sat down in the chair across from Dr. Leviey’s. “I just called you in here to let you know that our appointment for 3:30 has been canceled and you’re free to head out for the evening since it’s a Friday with a little bit of nice weather to still enjoy for September,” Dr. Leviey said replacing his glasses back on his nose and picking up his pen to add a few more notes to his papers.

“Are you sure? I though we were going to the children’s wing to check on your surgery patient at four,” Brooke asked. The little girl had been one of the first patients that she had seen on her first day and had been interested in watching her surgery taking place on the following Monday.

“The neurologist had unfortunately found a couple more tumors, one large one sitting on her frontal lobe and two others at the base of her skull near the spine. They have her scheduled for surgery tonight so her visit has also been pushed back, they are also going in to try and remove some some of the fluid that has built up in her brain due to the pressure of the tumors so as of today, she is a day-to-day patient for us,” Dr. Leviey explained. Brooke sat there a little stunned. They had gone to visit her periodically through out the past two weeks checking to make sure that her initial tumors located in her sinuses had not become any worse and that they were still on track to be removed by Dr. Leviey. Brooke felt a pang of disappointment for the young girl and her family trying to understand how they must be handling the situation. “Besides, you have a diner to get to tonight don’t you,” Dr. Leviey asked looking up from his papers. Brooke mustered a small smiled and nodded her head.

“Yes, I do, thank you. I’ll see you on Monday,” Brooke said as she stood up from the chair and headed out of his office. She knew that bad news was part of her job. She knew that not every patient was going to have an easy go at it, and there was going to be some patients that wouldn’t make it regardless of how small their diagnosis was or how minimal their surgeries were. There was always going to be hardships of the job. She just wasn’t necessarily ready for it to happen. There really isn’t a way to brace yourself for the situation. Brooke walked back up to the front desk and gathered her things before saying goodbye to Kayla for the weekend and headed down to the parking garage.
….

“Hey, what are you doing home so early?” Sidney asked when he looked up to see Brooke walk into the kitchen. Sidney was grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge after having worked out in the backyard for a couple hours.

“Canceled appointments,” Brooke explained shrugging out of her coat. She looked a little preoccupied like something was bothering her and was kind of out of it.

“Is everything okay?” Sidney asked walking over to her side. Brooke looked up at him and smiled.

“Yeah, everything is good. I think I’m just going to head upstairs and change and then lay down for a bit before we go,” Brooke said getting up on her tippy toes and planting a kiss on his cheek. Sidney watched her walk out of the kitchen and decided to give her her space. He would go up in a little bit to see if she needed anything.
...

Broke got up to her room and closed the door. All she wanted was to change into some comfy clothes and snuggle up in bed for a bit. She found a pair of her yoga pants and a baggy yoga sweater and walked over to stand next to her bed. She ran her finger over the comforter and frowned slightly knowing what she wanted. She turned around and headed out of her room and down the hall where she reached the bedroom at the end of the hallway.

Broke hesitated at the doorway but knew that she was being stupid and pushed the door open the rest of the way. Once inside she closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed, pulling the comforter down before climbing up into the middle. The sheets smelt like a mixture of laundry detergent and Sidney. It wasn’t long before her breathing became slower and Brooke’s eyes became heavy. She gave into the sudden tiredness that today had brought her and fell asleep in no time.

….

Sidney had gone back outside to workout for about another hour before coming upstairs to have a shower. He figured that he would check on Brooke before he got in to see is she was okay. When he got to the top of his stairs he saw that her door was open and walked over to poke his head in. “Hey, how are you…you’re not in here,” Sidney said looking around her room. He walked back out into the hallway and looked to see that there was no one in the bathroom and looked back down the stairs. He didn’t think that he had heard any noise coming from the living room but went to check anyways. “Brooke,” Sid called out as he made his way to the living room but was met with an empty room. He looked out the front window to see that her car was still in the driveway and assumed that she had probably gone for a run while he was out back.

Sid made his way back up the stairs and to his room when he noticed that his door was closed. He shook his head wondering why he had closed it in the first place and opened it and walked in. Once he looked at the bed he was shocked to see that Brooke was curled up fast asleep under the covers. She looked so peaceful and a lot less tense than she did when she had first come home. Her hair was sprawled out across his pillow and her hand was reaching out for the side that he normally slept on. They had only slept in his bed a couple of nights but Sidney couldn’t help but smile at the fact the it seemed like Brooke was reaching out for him.

Sid had a quick shower and threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt before he climbed into his bed to lay down with Brooke. He tried his best not to wake her, wanting to give her a little bit more time to rest but wasn’t so lucky when he saw her stir. “Hey,” Sidney said softly brushing some hair off of her face.

“Hey,” Brooke said in a sleepy voice with a smile coming across her lips. “Sorry I invaded your bed,” Brooke apologized looking down at herself wrapped up in his sheets.

“It’s fine, I would have come any layer with you if you wanted", pointing the pillow she was hugging. Brooke smiled, placing his pillow back up at the top of the bed.

“You’re not quiet as squishy, but I’ll remember that for next time,” Brooke said running her finger lightly up Sid’s toned forearm. It gave him goose bumps when she touched him, causing him to react to her touch.

“ Feeling better?” Sidney asked while Brooke focused her attention on her fingers. She nodded her head yes and let out a sigh, pulling her hand back the her body and looking up at him.

“Just some crappy news about a little girl but I’m okay now. Thanks for asking,” Brooke said pulling Sidney in close to her for a kiss. They were becoming more comfortable with kissing one another casually but it was still exciting for them when they did. Brooke pulled away and rested her head on the pillow while Sidney ran his hand up her side and looked down into her eyes.

“No problem, especially it I get that kind of a thanks,” Sidney said smiling down at her. Brooke smiled back, happy that he was enjoying this just as much as she was. “Are you still up for going to Marc’s house or did you wanna just hang out here tonight?”

“No, I still want to come, it should be fun” Brooke said sitting up.

“Yeah, most of the guys will be there with their families and girlfriends.” Sidney explained, trailing off slightly when he said the word girlfriend. Brooke knew that they weren’t at that point yet, no where near close, especially for a guy who was scrutinized for every aspect of his life in this city and knew what that would entail for them, or her in this case.

“And friends,” Brooke said giving his hand a squeeze. Sid smiled at her slightly, glad that she was acting okay about it.

“I know we haven’t really talked about it much, well I guess us, but I just want to kind of put it out there that we can’t really act like we’re together in front of everyone. I want this to work out between us and for that to happen the rest of the world really can’t be involved yet.” It hurt Brooke a little bit when he said it out loud but she totally understood. She was happy that he wanted things to work out between them and she knew that it was obviously going to take some work, like all relationships, but theirs was going to take more because of who Sidney was.

“Sid, I get it, I’m on board, I’m not really a fan of people knowing about my life anyways,” she said reassuring him. “ I’m going to go get changed, meet you down stairs?” Brooke asked and Sidney nodded his head in reply. Brooke leaned up to kiss him quickly and headed out of the room. Sidney didn’t know how he had gotten so lucky for this to be going so smoothly, especially with Brooke but he was glad that it was with her.
….

Sidney pulled up to Marc’s house, noticing that there were already quite a few people there since the street was lined with cars. Sid had tried to fill her in a bit regarding his teammates and what to expect but she seemed excited and eager to meet them. “You ready?” Sidney asked reaching for the door handle.

“Not quite,” Brooke said causing Sidney to stop and look at her. Brooke looked out around the truck to see if there was anyone around and leaned over the middle console meeting Sidney’s lips with hers. Sidney wasn’t expecting her to kiss him and was a little shocked when their lips first met, but quickly started kissing her back until Brooke pulled away. She smiled up at him, “Now I’m ready,” she said before hopping out of the truck and walked around the front. Sidney climbed out, still a little taken a back from what had just happened and pulled his hat a little lower to try and cover any reddening on his face.

“Are you just going to keep surprising me with these kisses or should we head back to the house so we can pick up where they left off,” Sidney said, turning to smile slightly at Brooke while guiding her to the front door.

“I like option two, but no, I wont be surprising you with anymore today, I just wont be able to do it for a while and I wanted one last one before it was too late,” Brooke said turning to smile at him. He shook his head as he opened the front door allowing for her to go in first and closed the door behind them. They walked through the house to the back door where they were met with Marc’s wife Veronique who was grabbing a tray from the kitchen.

“Sidney!” She yelled once she saw him. Wrapping an arm around his shoulders to give him a hug while balancing the tray in her other hand.

“Hey Vero,” Sidney said hugging her back. “Vero, this is a family friend who’s going to be living with me for a while, Brooke,” Sidney said turning towards Brooke, “And Brooke this is Veronique, Marc’s wife.”

“Oh, call me Vero, it’s so nice to finally meet you! Marc was telling me about you, that you’re a medical student at the hospital, that’s amazing,” Vero said placing a hand on Brooke’s arm. Her energy was infectious and Brooke liked her immediately.

“Oh wow, thank you, your home is beautiful by the way, I’ve only seen a small part of it and I’m already in love with it,” Brooke said looking around at the kitchen.

“Well I’ll have to show you the rest later, but I have to get this out to the guys who are grilling. Come, they’re all asking where you’ve been Sid,” Vero said heading out the door. Brooke followed behind with Sidney close but not too close behind her. There were quiet a few people right on the back deck but more people out on the back lawn. They made their way over to the barbeque where Marc, Pascal and Paul Martin were standing. Marc was holding his daughter who seemed very close to falling asleep against his shoulder and Pascal was manning the grill.

“Sid, you finally showed up,” Pascal said slapping him on his shoulder.

“Yeah, guys this is Brooke, a family friend and Brooke this is Pascal and Paul,” Sidney said introducing her to the two men, “ And you already know Marc, and this is his daughter Estelle who I haven’t even really had the chance to meet yet,” Sidney said grabbing out for her hand. Brooke couldn’t help but want to ‘awe’ at Sidney acting adorable with the baby but kept it to herself.

“She’s beautiful,” Brooke said looking at the baby. Brooke had a soft spot for babies and loved working with kids.

“Thank you,” Vero said as she took the baby from Marc, “I’m actually just going to go but her down so I’ll be back in a bit,” Vero said excusing herself from the group.

“So Brooke, how did you get stuck living with Sid, I’m sure he must be loads of entertainment,” Pascal asked playing with Sid. Brooke could tell that sid looked looked at him differently and had a different kind of relationship than what Sid had with the rest of the guys. Almost like Sid sort of looked up to Pascal where to Brooke, it almost always seemed like the other way around.

“Guess just an unlucky day for me when I got here,” Brooke said shrugging her shoulders causing the rest of the guys to chuckle.

“I like her,” Pascal said to Sidney.

“Yeah, yeah, let me go introduce you to everyone else,” Sidney said pulling Brooke away from the guys.
….

Sidney had managed to introduce Brooke to the rest of the players and their wives and girlfriends by the time that the food was ready. Vero had pulled Brooke into the house to show her around after they had finished eating and were still nowhere to be seen.

Sidney had been sitting talking with James and Geno when Marc pulled him away to come get a beer with him. “So how have things been with Brooke?” Marc asked, obviously trying to find out if anything had happened between the two.

“Uh, good, the same as the last time you asked” Sidney said nodding his head. Marc Looked at him with narrow eyes and a smile.

“You guys slept together didn’t you, and don’t try to lie to me Crosby,” Marc said causing Sidney to take a sip of his beer.

"No we didn't," Sidney said trying his best to make it believable.

"Sure, you're secret's safe with me man," Mark said winking at Sid earning a glare from his captain.

“Hey, what are you guys talking about,” Brooke said as she walked up behind them. Sid and Marc smiled at her as she approached them.

“Just about how refreshing it is too see that Nealer didn’t bring another new girl around this year,” Marc said tipping his cup in James’ direction. “That kid has made some questionable choices let me tell you,” Marc said gaining a laugh from Brooke.

"Vero sent me out with this for you," Brooke said hanging him another beer.

“Are you ready?” Sidney asked, turning to Brooke. She nodded her head, looking tired regardless of her nap from earlier and Sid finished his beer. “Well thanks man, I think we’re going to head out. I’ll see you at camp on Monday,” Sidney said shaking hands with Marc.

“See you then, it was nice seeing you again Brooke,” Marc said.

“It was nice seeing you too and thanks for dinner,” Brooke replied waving as her and Sidney retreated to the back door. Brooke and Sidney both said goodbye to Vero, thanking her as well for dinner and Brooke and her both made plans to get together in the coming weeks. Sidney said goodbye to his teammates and they walked back to the truck. Once inside Sidney put his key in the ignition and started the truck turning to look at Brooke.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Sidney said as he pulled away from the house. Brooke turned and smiled at him resting her head on the headrest.

“Thanks for bringing me, I had fun and I really enjoyed meeting all of them,” Brooke said turning to look back out the front window. “Pascal is really funny, I feel like his accent adds to his stories,” Brooke said smiling thinking about it.

“Yeah, he’s a pretty funny guy sometimes,” Sidney said nodding his head.

“He cares about you,” Brooke said turning to look at Sid again.

“And what makes you say that?” Sidney asked turning to look at her when they pulled up to a red light.

“Just the way he talks about you, you can tell he thinks highly of you and almost talks like a father would about his son. He talked about some pretty amazing things that you’ve done and also mentioned a few little funny tidbits that I promised I’d keep to myself,” Brooke said with a cheeky grin.

“I really don’t think I want to know,” Sidney said chuckling as he shook his head.

“You know what sounds like a great idea?” Brooke said, sitting up in her seat as the got closer to the house.

“What’s that?” Sid asked, as he pulled onto his street.

“That when I fall asleep tonight, you’re there beside me this time.”

“I think I can do that,” Sid said as he pulled into the driveway. He turned off the ignition and unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the truck. He went around the front to open Brooke door for her, helping her out of the truck. Wrapping his hands around her waist, Sid pulled her into him and kissed her lightly. "I'm glad you're still here Brooke," Sidney said as he pulled away.

“Me too Sid.”

Notes