Hopeless Wanderer

Carrie climbed into the passenger seat of Sidney's SUV and buckled up. She had been working for him for just over a month and she learned very quickly that he liked to speed when driving. She also learned exactly what he gets at a grocery store and to not talk to him when he is pissed off. Which seemed to be all the time. But she was happy to be receiving a paycheck and with her first check she bought herself an iPad Air so she could dump the lined notebook paper she was using to keep up with Sid's schedule.

When Sidney climbed into the driver's side in his suit, she opened up her iPad to go over what would be happening at the arena prior to the start of the game. "Jen texted me to let you know that NBC wants to interview you before the start of warm-ups. Mostly to congratulate you on winning the Art Ross."

"Okay."

"TSN requested you for their first intermission report. And Root wants you for the second. You'll be free the third. Dana said he got the blades for your skates and and new order of sticks came in after you left this morning."

"Good. I'll check them out when we get there." And then silence for the rest of the drive into the city. After a month of games Carrie felt she was starting to get a grip on what to expect when she would go to the arena with Sidney. But as they pulled into the parking garage and parked Sidney handed her his key.

"Last game of the series. You can drive home. I'll get a ride home when I am ready to come home."

"Oh. Okay." She placed the car key in her tote bag and shrugged off his after game plans.

"Could you make sure my suit gets back home? I brought a change of clothes."

"Yep." Carrie's phone buzzed and without considering that Sidney was moving out of the car, she checked the message from Jen. "Sidney!" She called as she clumsily climbed out of the car.

"Yeah?" He asked as he turned to see her stumbling with her bag and iPad.

"You've been given a reprieve. No pregame interview."

"Good, no interruptions to my routine!" And for a second Carrie saw a spark of amusement cross his face. "Come on. You can sit with my dad tonight."

"Okay," Carrie hesitated, wondering where he would be sitting and if her being there would be a problem.

"But you can't talk in there," Sid explained as they walked through the doors connected from the parking garage to the arena.

"I'm afraid to ask why and I have very little to say so talking shouldn't be a problem."

"You will sit in the media section. They have to remain absolutely quiet and if any one gets loud then that person is escorted out."

"Interesting. I'll be on my best behavior."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Sid said with an arched eyebrow.

Carrie rolled her eyes at the back of his head and muttered under her breath. She wasn't totally convinced that he actually needed a personal assistant, but it was a job and she wouldn't complain. Even if he was a bit terse and overbearing.

*****
"So the new assistant, how's that going?" James Neal asked Sid later that night as a group of players went out for a nightcap to celebrate their advancing to the next round. Sidney took a swig of his beer and contemplated how to answer.

"She does what I ask her to, for the most part she stays out of my way."

"We were kinda hoping to meet her tonight finally," James said as a few of the other guys nodded in agreement.

"Oh. No. No, no, no. You guys, she's not what you'd expect."

"She isn't hot?" Beau Bennett asked.

"What? Dude, she's my employee. I didn't hire her because of how she looks," Sidney explained.

"So she's not," Robert Bortuzzo piped in.

"I don't look at her like that. Like I said, she is my employee. We have a strictly working relationship, nothing more. But, I guess. I feel like she was hot before..." Sid trailed off. He didn't need to explain to his teammates what he had learned after the interview with Carrie a few weeks back. In fact, he hadn't even mentioned to Carrie herself that he knows she has been suffering. He chose to just let her do what he wanted her to do and not pressure her to talk to him, unless she wanted. The thing was, she hasn't wanted to talk.

It didn't help that his mood as of late had been less than desirable. He didn't even want to be around himself, it was that bad. So he was certain he was sending off some bad vibes around her, making her not want to be around him. He took another swig of his beer, slammed it down on the countertop and turned to his friends.

"Fuck it! I want to have a good time tonight!" Which caused the rest of the guys to shout in a chorus of 'yeahs' and express their agreement.

*****
After seeing Troy off to the airport, Carrie set up shop in the kitchen that night. Not that she was waiting up to make sure Sidney made it back alright, but because she couldn't sleep. She studied the email from her lawyer again.

She couldn't grasp exactly what the man had detailed in his email and decided she needed a drink. Turning towards the fridge she caught a glimpse of a wine rack with several brands of her favorite red and determined that Sidney assured her that she was welcome to anything in the kitchen.

She banged around the cabinets for a wine glass and through drawers for a corkscrew and within minutes was guzzling her first glass of wine. She finished it off and felt the stinging behind her eyes begin.

"Agh! This is ridiculous! I refuse to cry. Refuse to cry! Stop it now Carrie!" She demanded, reached for the bottle and poured another glass. "It's not like I should have expected something different. Of course 'Mr. I'm filthy rich, let me buy you over so we can get past the fact that I killed your family' would settle for an outrageous amount. He still deserves to be in jail the fucker!"

She scrambled around to her computer where her phone was sitting and scrolled through her contacts. She was seeking out her sister when the door to the kitchen slammed open startling her. She spun around to see a very drunk Sidney stumbling through the door with his lips attached to a leggy blonde wearing a barely there skin-tight dress.

"Oh my God!" Carrie squealed, making the passionate pair to break their kiss.

"Who the fuck is that? You have a girlfriend?" The blonde screamed.

"What...no? Wait," Sid stammered. He stood upright trying to take in the unraveling scene. "Are you crying?" He asked Carrie.

"Who the fuck is she Sidney? Is this why you never bring me here? You always take me to some cramped apartment downtown."

"No! Shut up. I don't know what the fuck is going on."

"Need me to call the cops?"

"Stop it Missy!"

"I'm so sorry guys. I'll get out of your way." Carrie quickly placed her glass in the sink, stuck the cork back in the bottle and gathered her laptop and phone. Without a glance at the pair who were no longer in a heated embrace, instead standing feet apart from each other, she scurried up the stairs to her little private corner.

Carrie sat in a chair near the window overlooking the back of the house and noticed a car pulling away. She stayed stationery when she heard a soft knock on the closed door.

"Carrie," Sidney called through the barrier. She walked over to the door and cracked it slightly.

"I didn't mean to ruin your night," Carrie said timidly. She had done so well staying out of his personal life.

"No. I shouldn't have brought that woman here anyways. It was good you were there," he gulped noticeably, "Do you want to talk?"

"Not especially," she hesitated, but Sidney didn't get the hint and stayed in the crack of her door. "Fine, come in."

Carrie resumed sitting in her chair by the window, but instead of looking out the window she watched Sidney mosey around the room uncomfortably.

"So."

"Yes?" Carried asked. She didn't know what he was doing, and he was still quite drunk.

"Why were you crying? Do you not like it here?"

"What? No! Listen, it's complicated..." She started.

"Is it because of your husband and son?" Sidney asked, the alcohol making him bold enough to say he knew about the accident.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know. You probably did a background check on me before I started."

"No, actually. I didn't. Jen told me a little bit." He collapsed on the edge of her bed closest to her.

"My lawyer told me that the guy who caused the wreck is willing to pay me an extreme amount of money."

"How much?"

"More than your yearly salary from the Pens." Sid's eyebrows shot up at the insight.

"Carrie, what are you going to do?"

"He's trying to avoid a trial. He thinks if he settles with me that I will forget that he killed my family. And that any criminal charges will be dropped." She sighed and dropped her face into her hands in an attempt to hide her shield her face from him and the tears falling.

"Who is your lawyer? He didn't settle did he? And how the fuck does this guy have that kind of money? No amount of money should be able to buy your way out of vehicular homicide."

"Are you even sober enough to digest all of this?"

"I sobered up real fast when Missy told me she wouldn't sleep with me again. She called me a liar and I'm pretty certain she is writing about our sexual relationship online somewhere. Don't worry," Sidney chuckled.

Carrie laughed through her drying tears and looked up at him. "Are you going to make me troll the different message boards to see what they are saying?"

"Hmm. Maybe. I'm slightly intrigued."

"R.J. and I had a running joke about you."

"What's that? That I'm gay? Wouldn't be the first time I heard that one."

"Not what I was going to say."

"Then what are you going to say?"

"Nope. Moment has past."

"Awe come on!"

"Why are you always so pissed off?"

"Uh, it's hard to talk about."

"If I can tell you about my trauma, you should be able to tell me about yours?"

"It's long."

"I've got nowhere to be tomorrow and neither do you."

"Damn you for knowing my schedule better than me."

"Spill it Crosby."

"Ugh! I have this fear that I am going to get injured badly and knock me out of playing ever again."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"It has nothing to do with the random woman who appeared at the first playoff game against Columbus?"

"You noticed?"

"Yes. It's my job."

"My ex-girlfriend. She is bugging to talk and be back in my life. I thought we could be friends, but she is an attention whore and just wants to be photographed."

"I can get rid of her. Apparently I repel women for you."

Sidney chuckled, suppressing his loud honk of a laugh. "Alright, moving on from our bullshit lives. How old are you?"

Carrie busted out laughing so loudly that Sid was startled slightly and recovered by laughing with her.

"You don't ask a woman how old she is!"

"But you work for me!"

"So?"

"Come on Carrie! I need to know!"

"I'm thirty."

"Oh, older woman. Nice."

"Your personal assistant perve."

"Touché. I'm 26."

"I know."

"Oh right, famous hockey player."

"Your jersey number tells your age, you drunk."

"Hey, you feeling more comfortable here now?"

"Getting there."

"I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Okay."

"Don't worry. You'll get your settlement, but don't let your lawyer give up on perusing the criminal charges."

"I won't. He's my brother-in-law."

"The guy who caused this mess?" Sidney asked incredulously.

"No! My lawyer! Go to bed. Get out of my room." Sid stood and stuck his tongue out. "Oh so mature. But I forgot you're just a child."

"Goodnight old lady!" He shouted through the door.

*****
Carrie finished running the vitamix blender the following morning when Sidney groaned at the entrance to the kitchen.

"What the fuck is that noise?" He asked as he collapsed in a chair at the island.

"Smoothie?" Carrie asked as she placed a glass full of a green substance in front of him.

"This looks disgusting."

"It will help with your hangover."

"I'm never drinking again. That's now part of your job. Don't let me drink." They both consumed their smoothies in silence for several minutes before Carrie spoke up.

"Hey, thanks for last night. I mean letting me talk. I can't..I can't do that with my family. They saw me at my worst."

Sid nodded as he sipped some more of his smoothie. And as he set the glass down he started, "I think the dynamic of our entire relationship changed after last night."

"I would think so. I nearly saw you have sex with a skank on the very counter you are sitting at."

Sid's face fell forward onto the countertop and he mumbled, "Never again, I was way too drunk."

"You've hooked up with her before?"

"A couple times at my old place in town."

Carrie chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, I just didn't peg you as the type to sleep with puck bunnies." Her laughter was only detected now by the continued shaking of her shoulders.

"Never again," Sid groaned and closed his eyes to shield them from the bright sunlight shining through.

"Yeah, right," Carrie said sarcastically as she walked out onto the back deck.

Notes

Thank you all for the comments! I hope you keep responding, I'd love to read what you think!