Chapter 15

The next day, Sidney had practice but no game. Karen saw where the Women's USA team was playing and told him she wanted to watch them. He didn't deprive her of that but he had some things to do with the team before their game tomorrow night. She grabbed her jersey from when she played and headed to the arena, only to be met by a familiar face.


"Karen? Oh my God, it can't be you."

"Cammi?" she smiled and hugged her friend "I haven't seen you in ages."

"What are you doing here?"

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"I'm married to Sidney Crosby, going on almost two years come April."

"No I didn't know that, congratulations" she said hugging her again.

"Thanks."

"So, did you come in for just him?"

"And to take in the Women's games...have to continue to support our girls."

"I hear that" Cammi said then got called "I need to go provide the pre-game and intermission reports. Why don't you come with me and watch the game there and we can catch up? That is if Sid's not here with you."

"Nope, by myself and I'd love to" she said walking with her talking on the way.

During the game, the two best friends caught up and when it was over made plans to get together for dinner. The settled on a place and time before leaving each other.

When Karen got back to the hotel, she saw Sidney with his parents and Taylor in the lobby walking over to them.

"Hey baby" he said kissing her "have fun today?"

"Yeah I did."

"Good, but you need to go change."

"Why? Something wrong with what I'm wearing?" she said pretending not to know what he meant.

"You're married to me and you're wearing a Team USA jersey."

"Well I can pretend to not be married to you while I'm here" she said getting a look from him "besides, read the name on the back...it's my jersey from when I played."

"Will you at least not wear it when we're together? Please baby."

"Don't beg or anything studly. I know this is a big deal for you but when I go to support my girls, I have to represent."

Sidney brought her in closer to him "I know baby and I'm sorry for overreacting."

"You're not overreacting Sid. You're just proud of your country like I am. My heart lies with you during all this" she said sneaking in a quick kiss.

"I always knew it was. Why don't you go change cause we are going to head out for dinner."

"Um, there's a small problem with that."

"Baby, we can have our private time later" he whispered.

"Not where I was going but good to know where your mind is" she said laughing. "I ran into Cammi Granato and we made plans for dinner. All you guys are more than welcome to join us but we thought it would be nice to have dinner and catch up some more from earlier. Do you mind?"

"No, I guess not" he said with a little dejection in his voice "where you two going?"

"We are meeting at La Conner at 7p."

Sidney's frown turned into a smile "that is where we're planning to go."

"Yeah right."

"Dad?" he called over to Troy to get his attention "where we going for dinner?"

"La Conner Seafood and Prime Rib House" he told them.

Karen just saw Sidney smile "smartass."

"What?" he said laughing.

"Let me go change and I will meet you back down here in 15 minutes."

"Want me to come along?" Sidney said trying to be sly.

"If you do, it won't be 15 minutes. Be patient until tonight stud" she whispered then kissed him before going to the elevator and heading to her room. As she promised, 15 minutes later, Karen was back in the lobby and they all were heading out to dinner with another tagalong, Flower.

They got to the restaurant and Cammi had gotten there just as they did. Karen made the introductions and they sat down.

After talking and telling stories from their playing days from '96-'98, everyone was laughing and having fun.

"So Karen, do I dare ask who you're pulling for?"

"Well if I don't say Canada I think I may be divorced by morning" she said getting everyone to laugh again.

"You can pull for Team USA baby, just not when they play us" Sidney told her with a smile.

"How did you two meet? I forgot to ask earlier Karen."

"Which version do you want?" Flower chimed in.

"There are two versions?" Cammi asked confused.

"Yeah. There's one where Sidney is the man or the one where Karen schooled him at his own game" he said getting a stare from Sidney. "What? Dude, you know I'm right."

"Ok, I'm confused" Cammi said.

"I ended up back in Pittsburgh when I got back with you after the Olympics in '98. Well fast forwarded to April 2008 and Stacy came to visit with some of my other friends. The girls and I went to the arena and had the security guard call to ask Mario if we could play around on the ice for a bit. Well it seemed these two and three others were still on the ice working on some plays when we came on the ice."

"To make a long story short" Sidney started "we decided to play a friendly game of 4 on 4 and needless to say the girls won."

"With the winning move by me. I faked Sid out and got passed him, shot on Flower and netting the puck."

"You didn't fake me out baby" Sidney said in a stern tone.

"I faked him out" Karen whispered to Cammi to make her laugh.

"So after the impromptu game Sid, you asked her out?"

"Actually the other way around" he said pointing to Karen.

"What?"

"Mario invited me to dinner since I hadn't seen him in a long while and after dinner, I asked Sid if he wanted to go meet Stacy and the gang at Pops with me."

"So you pursued him?" she asked with a smile.

"I didn't pursue him" Karen said matter-of-factly.

"She pursued me" Sidney said in a whisper to Cammi to get everyone to laugh.

"Anyway, we dated and after a year Sidney proposed to me on our one year anniversary, at center ice after a game with Philly."

"But what she didn't know is when she said yes, we got married right then and there."

"Seems he had it all planned out."

"That is a cute story you guys."

"Yes, they're so cute that it's sickening at times" Marc said to get everyone laughing. They continued their conversation and after an hour, they all headed out and parted ways. Karen and Cammi made plans to talk again before the games were over.

A few more days had passed and the last game before the medal rounds took place with Canada winning and advancing into the Gold Medal game against Team USA. Karen was happy for Sidney to have a chance to win a Gold Medal but she still felt torn that she would be rooting against the US.

After going out with the team to celebrate, Sidney walked Karen back to her hotel sensing something being wrong.

"You going to tell me what's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong. I'm happy you get to experience the game to win the Gold."

"But at the expense of playing the US. I can tell your happy for me but unhappy with who its against."

"I'm not unhappy you're playing the US, but in a way I feel like I'm not being true to my home country since I'm pulling for you to win."

"Baby, you know I would never ask you to do something you don't want to."

"I know but it feels right to root for you."

"How about this, if you want to root for the US I will not hold that against you. But how about if I score a goal, you promise to cheer for me."

"You know I would regardless..."

"But" Sidney said interrupting her.

"What if the US wins and you see me cheering?"

Sidney was quiet and just looked at her before looking away "I don't know. I don't know what I'd feel like if I saw that."

"How about we just not worry about this until we see how the game plays out" she told him walking passed him.

Sidney grabbed her arm before she could get away from him "Karen, I'm not going to be mad about this. I know you love me and I know you want me to win more than anything in this world. Cheer for whoever is in your heart to cheer for."

"Thank you" she told him with a smile "are you going to be able to stay for a while?"

"You didn't even have to ask me that." Sidney took her into his arms and held onto her while their lips assaulted each other. He snuck out his tongue and ran it across her lips begging for entrance, which Karen obliged letting the kiss go deeper. They took their time undressing each other before lying on the bed. Karen smiled when Sidney pulled down the covers and he let her get in before climbing in beside her. They turned to each other kissing and just feeling each other's body. Karen loved how he was taking it back to when they were first dating by putting her leg over his. He brought his hand up to breast and lightly squeezed it making Karen arch her back into his touch. Karen moved her hand inbetween them and massaged Sidney cock getting him hard. Sidney removed her hand and grabbed his cock, entering into her. Karen rolled onto her back and brought Sidney with her, moving her legs to wrap around him. Sidney looked deep into her eyes and moved the stray hair from her face as he leaned in to kiss her. He started out slow and kept the pace going until they couldn't stand it and Sidney went faster bringing them both over the edge. Karen held onto him when he tried to move off her and smiled realizing she loved his weight on her. Sidney brought his head up and looked at her "we haven't done that in a long time baby."

"I know, I thought we forgot how to make love that way" she smiled at him.

"I don't think we've ever forgotten, we just found a way to be us. But if I do say so, we need to always find our way back to beginning."

"I definitely agree to that" she told him before they met for a sweet kiss. Karen let him go and he rolled off her, pulling her to his body. "I do want you to win Sid."

Sidney just smiled and kissed her head "thanks baby." They laid there for another hour and a half before Sidney reluctantly got up to get dressed. Karen was about to get up too but he told her to stay in bed and he'd let himself out. After he was dressed, Sidney leaned down and kissed her passionately and whispered I love you before leaving the room. Karen rolled over onto her back and sighed hating that he couldn't stay with her.