No Soul

“Sid?” Kris asked, sticking his head into Noah’s nursery, giving his captain a curious look as he bounced his young son in his arms. Noah’s face was pink and pouty and Sidney looked worse for wear as he faced his defenseman.

“Noah’s sick, he has a temp. It’s probably really serious.” He looked utterly distraught as Noah tried to sleep in his arms.

“How high is his temp?” Kris asked as Emma wandered out of her room already dressed in her nightgown, ready for her sleep over at Jordan’s house with Phoebe. Brianna was feeling under the weather and was having a hard enough time taking care of Arianna and Lisette while Vero was back in Canada visiting family.

“Ninety-nine point eight.” Sidney said, eyebrows furrowed together while Kris hoisted Emma into his arms, brushing her hair back softly as he kissed her forehead.

“Um, I don’t know if that qualifies as a fever. Doesn’t his temp have to be at least a hundred degrees? Isn’t it that the temperature have to be more than a hundred point four?” He asked, pushing his hair back from his face, reminding himself that he needed to get a hair cut.

“But what if it goes higher? We have to go.” He looked seriously distressed.

“I’m sure Phoebe is more than capable of taking care of her.” Kris stated. “Do you have any acetometaphine?” He asked.

“Uhh.” Sidney looked around the nursery. “I don’t know.”

“Come on, load him up, we’ll drop them with Phoebe and he’ll be fine. We have twenty minutes to get on the bus.” He insisted, glancing at his watch. “We really gotta get rolling.” He insisted. Sidney sighed, not liking the sound of it but he knew he had to leave and they didn’t have a lot of time to spare. Loading Noah into his car seat beside Emma, Sidney handed him a cold juice box, hoping to cool it down as well as hydrate him on the ride over to Phoebe’s.

“Hello there Crosby family.” Phoebe greeted with a smile, she had been preparing to have the twins at their house all week, child-proofing locks and outlets, stocking up on juice, crackers and even made a batch of pre-made Tollhouse. “Uh oh, someone’s not feeling too hot.” She frowned upon seeing a pink-cheeked Noah. Taking him into her arms, Emma ran into the house after kissing Sidney and Kris goodbye.

“He needs some Motrin or something, his fever was high but I think it will come down. Take his temp every twenty minutes and maybe put a cold washcloth over his forehead to cool him down – or maybe a cold bath!” Sidney rattled off, pushing Noah’s curls off of his face.

“Don’t worry about it, Sid. My next door neighbor that I’m good friends with is a nurse, so if it gets bad, I’ll have her check him out.” Phoebe insisted. “I will take good care of the babies.” She added, “you go and win some games, okay?” She asked, patting his arm. Sidney nodded,

“Okay.” Sidney nodded, still not very convinced. He gave Noah a lingering kiss on the forehead before thanking Phoebe again and heading out the door with Kris. “Call me.” He insisted. Phoebe nodded, watching him leave.

“All right buddy, let’s see what we can do.” She said, kissing his forehead and bringing him to the bathroom, grabbing some of the children’s Tylenol they had for when Parker visited, reading the back and giving him the correct dose. She saddled him up with a cool towel and a spot on the couch with cartoons on the television, rubbing his little back while Emma sucked on a juice box and enjoyed a cookie.

Taking his temperature periodically, Phoebe frowned upon seeing that the toddler’s fever was climbing over the past two hours and decided to ring her neighbor. When Phoebe’s friend and neighbor didn’t pick up the phone, she realized what had to be done.

“Fuckin’ a.” She whispered under her breath as Emma huffed upon finding out she’d have to get back in the car when she didn’t really enjoy being in the car. “I know you don’t wanna go babe, but Noah is sick and he needs to see a doctor.” Phoebe insisted. “If you come with me to the hospital, we can get a treat on the way home! How does that sound?” Emma eyed her suspiciously for a moment but nodded nonetheless.

Phoebe swore again under her breath when she realized that Sidney didn’t leave the car seats with her and she had a tiny panic attack when she decided that she needed to forego the seats to get Noah to the hospital. Driving very under the speed limit, she finally arrived at the ER, bringing Noah in on her hip and holding Emma’s hand. Explaining her situation to the nurse, they brought Noah up to the pediatrics level.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Joe.” The working pediatrician introduced himself. “Hi buddy, how are you feeling?” He asked Noah who then hid his face in Phoebe’s neck, gripping onto her shirt like his life depended on it. After a little struggling, the doctor took all of Noah’s vitals and wrote him a small script for a toddler-friendly medicine with a slightly higher concentration. “I know it’s easy to panic but the truth is, it’s recommended not to bring feverish toddlers in until they’ve broken one-oh-four. But it was good to bring him in if you weren’t sure.” He insisted. Phoebe thanked the doctor and they headed back out to the car, getting ice cream cones through the McDonald’s drive-thru while Walgreen’s filled Noah’s prescription.

Arriving back home, Noah had a few smiles to spare over his ice cream and Phoebe even managed to get him to take his first little spoonful of his medicine without a fight. She only hoped that he could get better over the next few days while Sidney was gone – even if she knew she couldn’t keep the fact that Noah had to visit the hospital under wraps for that long.

Reaching the house, Emma headed straight to bed in one of the guest rooms that Phoebe and Jordan had put two twin beds in specifically for Emma and Noah. One little bed was blue while the other was pink with toddler friendly toys and a nightlight that cast stars and planets over the walls.

Phoebe cradled Noah to her chest, pacing around the family room and lightly humming as she pat his back, rubbing it to soothe him as he slowly fell asleep. Checking his temperature one last time, he had dropped a solid two degrees, making her breathe easier as she tucked him into bed with a small fan at the foot of his bed just in case, opting to put him in a baggy t-shirt of Jordan’s instead of his flannel pj’s that Sidney had packed.

Phoebe nervously fiddled with her cell phone, it was going on two in the morning and she was hesitant to call Sidney. Changing her mind, she called a different number, leaving a voicemail. Crawling into bed, she snuggled up to Jordan’s pillow, missing him in their bed knowing that he was much better suited to be watching the kids over the few days that the Penguins were on the road.

The next morning, Mario Lemieux frowned as he listened to his voicemail from Phoebe, knowing that he was going to have to call Sidney to tell him about Noah’s trip to the hospital. Thankfully, the Penguins game that day was an early one and he he decided to hold off on speaking to Sid about Noah until after the game.

To say that Sidney was not pleased in the least was an understatement. Phoebe was not picking up her phone and he was not feeling quite right getting ready for the game that afternoon without knowing how Noah was feeling. The last he had checked, Noah’s fever was still climbing. Sure, he trusted Phoebe to take good care of Noah and Emma, but he needed to hear it from her that Noah was all better, or at least on his way to feeling better.

Somehow he managed to get through the game with minimal distractions, but he was still itching to call Phoebe as the home team called off their three stars. Changing in record time and refusing any contact with the media, he dodged onto the bus that would take them to the airport for their next destination, pulling out his phone to see a text from Mario informing him to call as soon as possible.

“He what?” Sidney all but roared. “To the hospital?” He fumed after Mario had finally informed him about Noah’s adventurous night.

“Sidney I need you to calm down. Phoebe took him to get looked out, his fever is already back down to ninety-nine and he’s acting just fine. He’s a little sleepy but Phoebe is taking good care of him.” Mario tried to explain to Sidney who was already on Marc-Andre’s iPhone, booking a flight back home.

“I’m coming home.” He shook his head. “I’ll talk to Dan and I’m coming home.” He said finally before ending the conversation. He hated talked to Mario like that but there was no coming between Sidney Crosby and his children.

He just hoped his team and the fans could understand his actions.

•••

“Are you sure about this?” Jasmine asked as she stood in Sidney’s doorway. They had been on six dates in the last four weeks and for the first time, Sidney suggested that they take Noah and Emma out with them.

“Sure I’m sure.” Sidney nodded, reassuring her with a soft kiss on her lips, liking the way her skin turned rosy from his lips on hers. It wasn’t a conventional relationship by any means – she was taking classes, he was on the road and always busy with the kids but they found time for each other and he had to admit that he could really see himself falling for her. She was someone who didn’t look at him differently, having more money than God and already toting around two three-year olds. Never mind the legion of millions of fans and the teammates that were essentially his family.

“I just… I don’t want to confuse Emma.” Jasmine insisted. “I mean, they’ve only been living with you for so long and now there’s me and…” She was a little flustered as she searched for words.

“Jas, please, I promise. Everything will be fine.” He took her hand, leading her into the house where Noah and Emma were both sitting at the dining room table, attempting to color in the lines in the new coloring book from uncle Max.

“Hi Daddy.” Emma swung her legs back and forth as Noah’s tiny brow furrowed in concentration, tightly holding the blue crayon in his hand. “Hi Jasmine!” She chirped, causing Noah to look up at his father’s friend, a blush coming across his pale, porcelain cheeks.

“Hi Emma, hi Noah.” Jasmine smiled, glad to see the twins after not having seen them in more than a week. “Can I color, too?” She asked. Noah nodded excitedly, patting the seat of the chair beside his as he scooted a piece from the book to the spot as well. “Thank you, sweetheart.” She smiled, dropping a kiss on his head and taking the empty chair.

“So you two goobers, we’re going out for special dinner tonight, where do you want to go?” He asked, stroking Emma’s bangs back from her face. He had taken them for a haircut the other day and the woman at the kiddie salon gave him a few tips for taming their hair – his curls weren’t nearly as bad when he was that young.

“Jumbo’s!” Noah cheered excitedly, speaking of his favorite Primanti’s sandwich.

“I was thinking of something a little more special, maybe something dressy?” Sidney said, catching Jasmine’s eye as she helped Noah color in the suit coat of a character on his coloring page.

“Oh,” Emma cooed. “I can wear a dress?” She asked, looking up at her father who was watching her intently color on her page, doing a pretty decent job. Sidney nodded.

“Sure sweet pea, you can wear a dress.” He insisted, excited to try out a new hairstyle that he had learned from a YouTube tutorial aimed at Dads who had a hard time with their daughter’s hair. “So why don’t we finish up coloring, I’ll run you two a bath then we’ll get ready fairly soon, I bet you’re hungry, huh?” He asked, knowing full well that the last time they had eaten was a dish full of goldfish and cup up fruit a few hours ago.

“Yes I am very hungry.” Noah nodded dramatically, making Sid giggle which in turn, made Jasmine giggle.

As promised, shortly after the twin’s bath, he wrapped Emma up in her pink bathrobe, sitting her down between his legs with his laptop open at his feet with the YouTube video playing. He carefully followed the instructions and couldn’t have been more proud as he looked down at the two braided pigtails that just barely brushed the tops of her shoulders.

“Beautiful, baby!” He grinned excitedly, kissing her lips loudly as he helped her into her little white tights pink dress, even going as far as to fasten a little flower onto the end of one of her braids. “Wait, let me get a picture or Uncle Max will never believe me.” He insisted, snapping a few photos of her on his iPhone and sending them off to Max and Brianna.

Noah was much easier to get ready, helping him step into his tiny khaki pants and working the miniscule buttons on his dark blue button up.

“Very dapper, No.” Sidney insisted, taking the twins downstairs to find Jasmine cleaning up the crayons and playing with Tank, the fabric of her black pencil skirt slightly restraining her as the little bulldog nipped at her fingers to play with him.

“Oh Emma you look so pretty! Did Daddy do your hair?” Jasmine was genuinely surprised as she was usually the one to put Emma’s hair into a little bun at ballet, or at least helped with the fifteen clips that Sidney piled in her little curls. Emma nodded, hiding her face in Sidney’s neck as Noah reached for Jasmine. Sidney tried to keep the thought from his mind but at that moment they almost looked like a little family going out for a nice dinner together. And for the next split second, he wished it was true.

The short ride to Hyde Park Prime Steak House on North Short Drive went by quickly but it was a nice restaurant in the area that some of the few local celebrities frequented and he knew that the possibility of photographers staking out the restaurant was high.

Carrying Emma in on his hip, his free hand held onto Jasmine’s while her free hand held onto Noah’s hand. Noah was having a grand time, waving to people who braved the heated patio for a drink now that it was a few days away from December first.

He could hear the familiar sounds of the shutter-clicks, it was a sound that at this point in his life was unmistakable, but he was ready, he knew that there was a strong possibility of this happening.

“Hi! Hi!” Emma greeted the hostess who was more than happy to seat the group, bringing two booster seats with her so that Emma and Noah could both enjoy their dinners.

Sidney and Jasmine each ordered their steaks as well as two children’s meals for Emma and Noah who had Jasmine enraptured with a conversation about their Thanksgiving meal at Mario’s house a few days prior. When the conversation hit a lull after the waiter had dropped off the drinks, Sidney cleared his throat.

“Em, No, how would you feel if Jasmine spent more time hanging out with us?” He asked, making Jasmine hiccup on a sip of her glass of wine.

“Like how?” Noah asked, tilting his head and looking more like Sidney than ever as his honey-obsidian eyes searched his father’s.

“Well Daddy and Jasmine are very good friends that like to spend time around each other.” He explained, knowing better than to spring the word “girlfriend” around them. Emma looked at him blankly for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and reaching for her milk.

“Okay.” Noah chirped, beaming up at Jasmine who blushed at how precious he was acting.

A big goofy grin spread across Sidney’s lips as he looked to Jasmine who sat next to him at the square four-person table. He wanted to take her hand across the table, he wanted to kiss her and practically burst at the thought of how perfectly everything seemed to be falling into place for him but he knew that for a while at least, they’d need to keep things under wraps.

Now that he was starting to promote for the Winter Classic, he was extending his point streak to ten points, and he was working harder than ever to be super Dad, he couldn’t afford to be mixing it up with the media and all the things they were capable of stirring up.

Besides, he knew that once he went public with Jasmine, there was no going back.