Always Something There to Remind Me

“Mom!” Aiden yelled. “Hurry up! Dad’s gonna be here to pick us up any minute! We can’t be late!”

“We have plenty of time,” I answered, zipping up my suitcase. “Your dad always picks us up early,” I continued as if on cue, Sid walked in the door.

“See! I told you!” he cried, running down the stairs.

“Did you finish picking up all of your toys?” Aiden shook his head. “Sorry, but we’re not leaving until you finish picking them up.”

“But Mom!” he said, looking to Sid for help.

“Sorry, I can’t help you,” Sid said. “Moms always end up winning. Hurry up, and the sooner you pick up your stuff, the sooner we can leave.”

“Fine,” Aiden huffed, stomping back up the stairs to his room.

“Stubborn, just like his mom,” Sid chuckled, coming over and wrapping his arms around my waist, planting a kiss on my cheek.

“Excuse me? I’m pretty sure you’re a lot more stubborn than I am,” I said, shooting him a playful glare.

“I’m not the one that refuses to tell our son about us. It’ll be easy, we just have to sit him down…”

“Sid.”

“I know, I know,” he cut me off. “You’re doing what you think is best for him, what if we split up, blah blah. But, it’s not like we just met each other. We’ve been doing this for over a month now, and we were obviously together before, or he wouldn’t be here.”

“I would hardly call knowing each other for three months and sleeping together once ‘knowing each other.’”

“Three months in which the only time we left each other’s side was to sleep and when I was at the draft. Hell, we spent more time together than some married couples do. You weren’t just some random fuck either, I loved you. I still love you. Those feelings haven’t gone away in the four years you’ve been gone, and they won’t be going away anytime soon. It sounds like you’re just waiting for an excuse for us to break up, and if you keep thinking like that, then it’ll happen. You’re going to have to trust me. Besides, I may have accidently told Taylor.”

“Accidently?”

“Well, she was talking about this kid that asked her out on a date, so I was doing the whole big brother thing and she started teasing me, so it sort of just slipped out. Don’t worry though, I swore her to secrecy. I told her that I knew where she hid all of her old diaries and I wouldn’t hesitate to give them to our parents if she told anyone, so we’re good for now.”

“Okay,” I said after a few seconds.

“Thank you,” he said, giving me a kiss on the lips this time.

“But,” I started.

“Great, of course there has to be a ‘but.’”

“Only if you win tomorrow.”

“Are you serious?”

“Just think of it as a little added incentive,” I said with a smirk as Aiden came running back down the stairs, practically dragging us out the door.

_______________________________♥♥♥♥♥

I thought game seven against Washington was tough, but that game looked like a piece of cake compared to game seven in Detroit. My stomach was in knots before the game even started since this game would be for all the marbles. I tried sitting, which lasted all of five minutes, in which my leg was bouncing up and down at warped speed. I tried standing, which only led to me pacing back-and-forth around the suite. Had Vero and Mel not been doing the same thing, I’m pretty sure the rest of the wives and girlfriends would have thought I was psycho.

After Max scored the first goal in the beginning of the second period I managed to calm down a bit. That lasted a grand total of four minutes. I cringed as Franzen hit Sid into the boards and catching his leg, leaving him barely able to get off the ice.

“Mom, is dad going to be okay?” Aiden asked, looking like he was about to cry.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine hun.”

I hoped he would be fine. Not that I didn’t think the rest of the team could get it done, but with the Wings only having to worry about shutting down Geno now, their job might be a bit easier. I let out the breath I had been holding when Max managed to score again about five minutes later, giving us the 2-0 lead.

Thankfully, Sid was back out on the ice at the beginning of the third. He didn’t take a shift though for a while, and ended up sitting on the end of the bench afterwards. The Wings’ play started to pick up not long after, which is when the fingernail biting started. Two-goal leads were some of the hardest to keep. Lord knows how many times I’ve watched a team give up a two-goal lead late in the game and end up losing it. Sure enough, Ericsson managed to cut the Wings’ deficit in half with about six minutes left. After he scored, the Wings seemed to gain a new life.

When the two teams lined up for a face-off in the Penguins’ zone with seconds left, I started sweating. Detroit won the draw, and got a shot off, which Marc thankfully stopped. When the puck flew back out and I saw Lidstrom closing in on it, I closed my eyes, having flashbacks of Max’s game-tying goal with 3 seconds left during game five last year. The next thing I know, there’s a loud roar around me, and Aiden’s jumping in my lap, screaming in my ear “we won mom!”

The next few minutes were a blur as everyone in the suit ran around hugging everyone else. Everyone was tearing up and smiling at that point, but when Sid finally raised the Cup above his head, those smiles grew even wider. Trina and Taylor were bawling as they watched Sid skate around before handing the Cup off to Guerin.

I grabbed Aiden as the crowd in the suite started to make their way toward the ice. We eventually made our way down and into the bench with the rest of Sid’s family and the Lemieuxs. The smiles and tears continued as Mario raised the Cup, and then gave it back to Sid. After Sid passed it on to someone else, he skated over to the bench with a huge smile on his face. After hugging the rest of his family, he scooped Aiden out of my arms before grabbing my elbow and leading all of us back to the locker room to continue the party with the team, ignoring the media on the way.