Chapter 22

The next few days passed and with the Pens starting the playoffs at home, that gave Sidney and Karen more than enough time to spend together.

The team had a late practice one day and Sidney would get home about the same time as Karen. He had not stayed to talk or work out extra so he ran out of the arena and headed home. As he pulled up to the house, he noticed Karen's car and smiled to himself as he parked beside her. His smile soon faded when he saw he just sitting in her car. Sidney got out and almost ran to the driver's side, lightly knocking on the window. Karen slightly turned her head and moved to roll down the window.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Sidney asked seeing the wetness on her cheeks.

"I couldn't take it anymore."

"Ok, that could lead to a lot of possible things that happened. Why don't you get out of the car and we can head in to talk about it?'

Karen just noddded before rolling up the window. Sidney opened the door and helped her out, bringing her into his arms.

"I quit Sid" she whispered.

Sidney pulled backed and looked into her eyes "what?"

"Oh I know you're happy and want to jump around so you might as well go do it and get it over with" she said wiping her eyes.

"I think I'll reserve it for after you tell me what happened" he said leading her inside the house. They walked into the living room and sat on the couch "so, what happened and at what time did you quit?"

"I waited until after my shift. Made them pay me for the whole day" she smiled.

"Understandable."

"Well for starters, they said that I had taken way too much time off and they were revoking my vacation I had put in for August to spend the month with you in Canada."

"Can they truly do that?"

"Yeah apparently. Then when that bitch was telling me about it, she couldn't contain her smile as she told me which pissed me off more. Then they tried to tell me that I wasn't getting all my work done in the alotted time, which was bullshit. I had never left anything undone before leaving for the day. Then they tried to make me sign a write up saying that my not getting along with the bitch was being disrespectful towards a fellow outfitter and my attitude was a problem within the group."

"Ok wait, didn't you tell them how rude and disrespectful she's been towards you?"

"Yeah but they tried to play it out that when she was like that she was having a bad day and shouldn't be counted as her fault."

"You didn't sign the write up did you?"

"Hell no, I'm not THAT stupid."

"Never said you were baby" he said rubbing her back.

"So I picked up the paper to read it, then I ripped it up and threw it up in the air. Told them to kiss my ass and went to grab a few things off my cart that was mine and left."

"Do you regret it? Is that why you were still in your car crying?"

"I don't regret it Sid. I was crying because I was so pissed as I drove home, it just hit me after I parked the car." Karen let out a long sigh and turned to look at Sidney "I want to be your wife Sid. I want to stay in bed in the morning curled up to you until you have to get up for practice. I want to be here when you get home. I want to be able to head to Canada with you when the season ends and not manage my time to only see you from two weeks to a month out of three. I want to start our family. I want..."

"...to be the wife you think you should have been from the beginning" he said as she nodded. "I don't want you to end up hating me in the long run when you get bored and think you should be working."

"I would have only hated you if you forced me into quitting. I got fed up with all the drama and bullshit and favortism that went on and on for years. You said it yourself that I haven't been happy about getting up and going into work for the day. I was ready to leave, I just needed the push and they decided to push to far."

Sidney took his finger and moved her hair behind her ear "I'm proud of you baby. And not only am I proud of you for standing up for yourself, I love you for wanting to be my wife and get things going to start our family. That means more to me than you bringing an income into the house."

"Besides, I may not be done working at all. I think I just need a break to concentrate on what's more important to me and my life...and that's you." Sidney leaned in and met his lips to hers for a soft kiss.

"I think we need to celebrate. How about I take my beautiful wife out for dinner?"

"Well my sexy husband, I think that is a great idea." They shared another kiss before relaxing for a little bit then got ready to head out to dinner.

They sat in a back booth at Olive Garden and Karen felt better about what happened earlier at work.

"I'm glad you guys got home ice for the playoffs. I get you home for a few days."

"Yep, and you can go in with me and hang around until I'm ready to leave afterwards."

"With no obligations to need to only get an hour or two of sleep before getting up the next day."

"Well, that might still happen if we win and celebrate after we get home until dawn."

"That happened whether I had to work the next day or not."

"True" he said getting her to laugh "besides if you're itching to work, there's always my foundation you could help out on."

"Yeah I could. If I start to feel suffocated, I can just plan autograph sessions to get you out of my hair for a few hours."

"Or...maybe I could talk to Ray and see if he needs an extra set of hands to help him out in his office. Maybe even Coach Dan could use a secretary on some days."

"Trying to get rid of me already?"

"Yeah, forgot how peaceful it was from when I got home until the time you did. I guess I saw that fade away and panicked."

"Well that was painfully funny...no wait, that was just painful." Sidney just smiled at Karen who returned the same smile back. She knew everything was going to be alright and couldn't wait to see everything else fall in place.

An hour later, they got home and Karen went to check the messages off the machine. There were 8 new calls and she hit the play button.

"What the hell happened today? Call me" Diane said in a shocked voice.

"Why aren't you answering your cell phone? I want details about today" Natalie said.

"Get off Sidney and answer your damn cell phone" Natalie left another message to get Karen to laugh at.

"Yo Siddo. Heard you finally got the old ball and chain back in the house. Way to be the man. You can tell me the details at practice tomorrow." Max's voice rang out and Karen shot Sidney a look.

"I know, I will kill him for you tomorrow" he said kissing her head.

"Congrats Kiki. Diane called and said you gave it to that bitch. Too bad you couldn't kick her ass before you left. More time to spend with that sex machine you call a husband...yum yum." Karen laughed as she looked at Sidney rolling his eyes.

"I'll kill Sheril the same time you kill Max."

"Then we'll meet back here and give all the details."

The next two were from his dad and agent and the last one from an another person at work who wanted to know what happened. Karen grabbed the phone and first called Natalie before putting it on conference and dialing both Sheril and Diane. The four friends talked and Karen told them what happened. Diane of course told them what the rumors were flying around to still perceive her as the bad guy but the majority knew better and knew Karen was the victim. They made arrangements for the first game of the playoffs before hanging up.

"So, what did the girls have to say?"

"They were proud that I finaly stood up to them and Diane told me all the things a few people were saying. She said that when she went to work tomorrow, she would set people straight. But I really don't care, a lot saw how she treated me so if she needs to feel all big and mighty let her. Just shows how pathetic she is."

Sidney wrapped his arms around her waist "I've missed that smile."

"Its been out, what do you mean you miss it?"

"You have a range of smiles baby but this one shows how truly happy you are."

"Because I am home with you."

"How about we head to bed and I keep that smile on there for the rest of the night?"

"I like that idea." Their lips met for a kiss and Karen squirmed out of his grasp, running upstairs. Sidney locked up before following her and showed her how truly happy he was that she was where she wanted to be.