Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

It was early December Viviane and Veronique were navigating slowly through the corridors of Consol Energy Center. The wives and girlfriends were meeting prior to the game to discuss everyone’s role in the upcoming charity events such as the annual player’s basket auction.
Marc-André and Sidney usually were the first one’s to arrive for their pre-game ritual and today the girls decided to drive with them. Vero carried the totes of both of them while Viviane held both hands of the now 10month old Anakin. He was very awake and happy for every foot he walked. The little boy had grown into an almost exact replica of his dad. His dark brown curls peeked out under the toque he was wearing and the world’s tiniest Penguins jersey read a proud #87 DADDY on the back.
His short legs reduced their speed to a minimum and made up for the time they were to early.
Arena workers were rushing through the halls and members of the Pens’ staff passed them every once in a while saying “Hi!”

“Dadda” Ani suddenly squealed and pulled one hand out of Viviane’s grasp reaching out for his father who had appeared in the hall way with his famous pre-game-sandwich.

“Hey there little man.” He said rushing towards them and squatting in front of his son.
Ani smiled, pulled back his other hands and reached for the sandwich with both hands.

“Oh nononono no, that’s Daddy’s food. You can’t have that. You don’t want daddy to starve right.” Sidney spoke to his son handing the bread to Viviane. Early they had decided to keep Anakin as far away from sweet and unhealthy food as possible. And peanut butter and strawberry jelly were both sweet and unhealthy.

Sid stretched out both arms and allowed Ani to walk some steps on his own before safely arriving in his father’s embrace. He wrapped both arms around the boy and stood up adjusting him on his hip.

“Hi Vero” he greeted his team mate’s fiancé engulfing her in a one armed hug. “Good to see you.”

“Hey babe.” He smirked at his wife, softly kissing her with his free hand at the small of her back.

Viviane mustered him sharking her head at his appearance. Tight black Under Armour pants, white socks pulled up right under his knees, running shoes, his team jacket and some cap facing backwards. The outfit made him look easily 5 years younger than a suit did. She smiled at him, kissing him one more time before handing back his sandwich and motioning him to set Ani down.

“We have to get to the suite for the WAG’s meeting and we have to get going if we want to arrive in time. You have seen our light like speed.” She joked. “Plus we wouldn’t want to mess with your routines so….”

Sidney just nodded and turned his attention back to his offspring.
“Ani you be a good boy to mama?” he softly poked him into the stomach what caused the toddler to squeal and nodd. “Daddy will score you a goal okay?”

“Dadda goooaa…” he mimicked. Sidney beamed at his son’s voice and his smile was almost as big as Flower’s when Anakin’s small hand patted onto the team’s logo on his fathers chest bubbling: “Penuin, penuin.”

These days ‘penuin’ was Anakin’s favourite word. Ever since Sid, ‘Hodo’ and ‘immi’, also known as Jordan Staal and James ‘Jimmy’ Neal, had taken him to the zoo and the two part time uncles tried to teach him the word penguin, it was stuck in his head.

Sidney ruffled Ani’s hair one more time before pulling the toque back on, set him down and disappeared behind the next corner.

Slowly the girls wandered on and kept chatting.

“Is it just me or do you seem to be a lot happier lately?” Vero asked after a while mustering Viviane.

“Yeah… life is good. Knock on wood since we came home from the hospital things with Ani were easy. I mean the rough nights are over, he’s sleeping them at one piece most of the time and he hasn’t gotten sick yet. And other than that, Sid and I had some not so good phases this summer but those days are behind us and we’re happy.” Viviane explained without going in too deep. Sidney never wanted to know anything about the person she was with in summer and for the sake of Sid’s and Max’s friendship, Viviane and Max had decided to keep it that way and to forget about it. Both had realized that feelings were never involved so it was easy for either one to be around the other one.

“That’s nice. You seemed a little off when you were in Montreal this summer and in the preseason.”

Viviane just nodded and they walked along in silence. At some point Ani got tired of walking and she picked him up. Soon they reached the box they were meeting in but still were one of the first one’s around.

After talking with Nathalie Lemieux for a while the box filled up and soon all the regulars were there. The girls decided on when they’d hand in the baskets and who would decorate the one’s of the single guys. The annual Christmas skate was quickly set as they decided on a date and Mario, the lone man in the room, said it was good to go and the rink was free. Everyone would bring some food and sweets and Nat took it on her to hire a Santa for the kids. The WAG’s pulled their Secret Santa card’s, knowing that the guys did the same.

Soon the boys hit the ice for the warm up and most of the girls took seat in front of the box to watch their men.
Viviane pulled the earmuffs out of her tote so Ani’s sensible ears wouldn’t hurt when they got home. The little boy sat on her lap, leaning against her and ate some small banana pieces while he watched his dad skate around.

It was the first game of a back to back series against the Rangers starting in Pittsburgh, ending in New York the next day.

Both Lundqvist and Flower were on top of their game when the Pens won by one goal at the end of the night every one was happy.

Anakin had fallen asleep at some point during the third period and Viviane tried to carry him down without waking him up.
Most of the dad’s came out quickly before hitting the showers knowing that the younger kids were way past bed time. Soon guys like Cookie, Duper, Adsy or Johnny came out still half dressed in gear to say goodbye to their kids.
Viv and Vero sat on a couch knowing that Sid and Flower always took the longest because the media constantly raped them… not literally.

After a while the door swung open and the tall French Canadian walked out still dressed in pants, pads and skates.
Vero jumped up, pulled herself up to the tip of her toes to somewhat match his height and greeted him saying good bye at the same time. It took a few more minutes until Sidney, sharply dressed in his jacket, his hockey pants and his beloved yellow crocs, stepped into the hall. He walked over to her and looked at his sleeping son.

“Good game Sid.” Viv greeted him and pulled him into an embrace.

“Thanks. That goal was for you guys.” He winked at her.

“Ya sure. He was pretty excited about it. Almost thought he’d jump off of my lap but other than that he behaved well.”

“That’s nice.” Sid was happy to see how well Ani dealt with the excitement and hectic at the rink. First they had been hesitant to bring him out on a regular base but it didn’t seem to have a huge impact on his sleeping pattern and it seemed like he enjoyed the buzz. Sidney dug into his pocket and pulled out the car key. Viviane would drop Vero off at her and Flower’s house while Marc-André’s car stayed at the rink so the boys could drive home when they came back in the following night.

Gladly she accepted the keys, kissed him goodbye and wished him good luck, a safe trip and a good night. He promised her to text as soon as he landed in New York. Sidney said goodbye to his sleeping son and together with Marc-André disappeared into the locker room.

In the parking lot, Viviane set Ani into his seat and the girls drove home.

“So should we start doing some Christmas shopping tomorrow? I have so many presents to get this year. Don’t ask me how I did that last year.” Viv laughed when they stopped at a red light.

“Sounds awesome. I only have to work until noon so what about 2pm?” Vero suggested.

“Great. By then we’ll have had lunch and Ani will have napped. Also we will be back in time for the game.”

“Nice so you pick me up around 2 as soon as he is awake?”

“Okay.”

Viviane pulled into the Fleury’s drive way and headed home soon after. Anakin slept through the entire drive and didn’t wake up when she carried him into the house. After changing him and herself, cleaning up a little and freshing herself up in the bathroom, he finally woke up a little and she carefully brushed the few teeth he had. By the time she put away the toothbrush, he was fallen asleep again. Viviane turned on the monitor, laid him into the crib and crawled under her covers. About 90 minutes later Sidney wrote her and they texted back and forth for a while until she fell asleep.