Our Goodbyes

It was a nice sunny afternoon when men were unloading various things from a fairly decent sized white truck and into an apartment complex. First a black leather couch, then a large 55 inch LG plasma TV, next was piano and then the bed. This continued until it was late in the afternoon.

Ella James stood in the middle of the living room of her new home surrounded by hers' and Sidney's things. She sighed after instructing the mover to put the box he was holding into the next room. Fixing her stripped shirt, Ella felt someone wrap their larger hands around her waist and rest there head against her shoulder.

Instantly, a smile graced her lips and she laughed. "What are you doing Crosby? Isn't it a little too early to try and seduce me?" she joked.

If you ever told Ella that she would meet the most amazing man that cared about her completely, she would have laughed at you. She was thankful that she decided to suck up her pride and make the call to her Grandmother and Grandfather. If she didn't she probably would not have been able to spend the most amazing summer of her life with the most amazing guy.

She had to admit though that she was completely surprised when Sidney asked her to move to Pittsburgh with her with only having known her for a month. They had been through so much over the summer; he helped her come to terms with her rape and was even there to help her move on. Ella couldn't have been more grateful.

After informing her Grandparents that she decided to move to Pittsburgh with Sidney instead of going back to New York, they were happy. Norma and Frank didn't want Ella to go back to New York where they knew she'd be alone. If she wasn't going to stay in Cole Harbour with them, they were more than happy with her decision to move-in with Sidney in Pittsburgh.

Sidney laughed, his chest vibrating against her back. "Just resting, I mean I've been lifting so many heavy things today," he said and pouted.

Ella stepped forward and turned to face a pouting Sidney Crosby. She grabbed his cheeks and pinched them. "My poor baby," she said in a baby voice and kissed him lightly on the lips. "You have the biggest lips, it's almost alive," she teased him.

Huffing, Sid crossed his arms against his chest. "That's mean."

"Hm," Ella shrugged. She moved closer to Sidney and wrapped her arms around his midsection, her head against his chest and Sidney returning her hug. "Thank you, for everything. You have no idea how much I love you," Ella whispered.

Sidney closed his eyes and pulled her closer to him. For a moment he let himself imagine that she was saying that she loved him romantically instead of platonically. "I love you too," he whispered back, but he meant it in a completely different way Ella did.

Over the summer, Sidney's feelings for Ella grew to the point where he could honestly say that he was in love with her. He tried to just stay friends with her and ignore his feelings, but the more he spent time with her the more his feelings grew. She was an amazing person, both inside and out.

He kept his feelings to himself, much to the dismay of Jessica, because he knew that with everything that happened to Ella, she wasn't ready to enter a romantic relationship with anybody. If a male, aside from himself and Frank, would so much as even touch her hand Ella would freeze up and sometimes blank out.

"I'm glad you decided to come with me."

Ella nodded against his chest and sighed. "Me too, I'm glad that you asked me to come with you. Are you sure that I'm not being a burden though? I mean I'm pretty much mooching off of you, I don't have a job."

"You're not a burden. If I didn't want you to move with me, I wouldn't have asked you to come with me," he reassured her and ran his hand up and down her right arm, grazing her various tattoos.

*

"Sid, stop!" Ella squealed when Sidney flicker her nose.

The two were sitting on the floor of the living room on a blanket eating their take out. They had yet to buy a dinning table and made plans to get them, among other things, tomorrow bright and early. They had a full day ahead of them the next day and were just enjoying their free time together before everything got hectic with Sid's crazy schedule and furniture hunting.

"Aw come on, you know its punishment," he said as they played a game of cards.

"But, you're cheating!" she retorted and stood up to stretch. "Here," she offered, taking Sidney's empty box of food and threw it in their temporary garbage disposal. "Seriously," she began and turned around only to bump into Sidney's chest. "Wow there, Shrek."

Sid pouted. "Do I look ugly to you? How can you call this face Shrek?" he asked and pointed to his face cutely.

She laughed and lightly slapped his chest. "You're a very cute ogre," joked Ella and stood on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek, making Sid blush slightly. "So, you're going to have to let me buy some things. I mean I still have a lot of money from working at Rudy's" she told him with finality laced in her voice.

Shrugging, he just smiled down at her. "Okay, you can buy your clothes," he said simply.

Ella narrowed her eyes at him annoyed. "But I don't need that much clothes anyways!"

"Exactly!"

"Sid, come on. You're being unreasonable," she begged him as she followed him into the master bedroom, where there was one mattress on the floor and various shapes and sizes of boxes surrounding it.

Sidney looked at the predicament and blushed when he realized they only had one bed and it was the bed he slept on when he lived with Mario and his family. "I'll sleep on the floor," he mumbled and went to one of the boxes to get his clothes.

Ella shook her head and grabbed Sidney's hand before he could walk away. "Why? We can share the mattress. Besides, it's yours anyways," she said and tilted her head innocently.

Blushing a darker shade of red, Sidney nodded and left the room the change in the bathroom. Quickly stripping out of his dirty clothes, he changed into more comfortable basketball shorts and a t-shirt he walked back into the room.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Ella standing in nothing but a tank top and boy shorts. His neck started to heat up as she turned to look at him, surprise and embarrassment evident on her face.

"Um, I don't like sleeping with shorts or pants. I hope that's okay with you," she mumbled looking at her clothes. "God, what am I saying? I'll go put some pants on."

"No!" Sidney said quickly, catching Ella off guard. He cleared his throat in embarrassment. "I'm mean, it's fine, I don't mind," he stumbled over his words and gulped.

Ella nodded and went under the covers first, followed by Sid, who closed the lights first. "Hey Sid, thanks for everything," she said before dosing off.

Sidney sighed, knowing that she fell fast asleep. "Goodnight and I love you," he whispered before going to sleep himself.