A Ship in Harbor is Safe

"How's Jordan's foot?"

Athena looks up and stares at Max, who is leaning onto the counter. "How'd you get in here?"

"Sid let us in," Max says, looking over his shoulder, "I brought Geno to meet you."

Her eyes widen as she looks down at her outfit -- a pair of skinny jeans and a sleeveless red blouse. She moves some of her fallen curls out of her face, "I look like shit, I shouldn't be meeting anyone right now."

"You look fine," Max smiles.

"I've been at work all day, I look like shit."

Max's eyebrows furrow, "when did you get a job?"

Athena straightens up when Sidney walks into the room, with a man who easily towers over him.

"Geno, this is Athena," Sidney smiles, pointing at Athena.

The petite woman smiles at the tall, Russian stranger. She blushes when he leans down to wrap his long arms around her. And the blush only intensifies when he begins speaking.

"You much more pretty than Sid said."

She smiles, gently rubbing his back with her hand, "thank you, Geno."

"She smells nice, too, doesn't she?" Max smirks.

Evgeni nods as he pulls away, standing up straight.

"So, where did you get a job?" Max demands, crossing his arms.

Athena blinks, "I work at a boutique downtown. I just started a couple of days ago."

Sidney shakes his head, looking at Max.

"Are you guys staying for dinner?" Athena inquires as she carrying the full cutting board over to the stove.

Both men look at Sidney, who stares at Athena with wide eyes. All three men answer at the same time.

Athena looks up from the pan, "was that a yes or no?"

Evgeni and Max say yes again, and Sidney just slowly bows his head in defeat.



"Dinner was delicious, ma belle. If your gig downtown falls through, I'll hire you as my personal chef."

Athena smiles, "thanks, Max."

"You cook very good." It was the same phrase he'd told her before, multiple times. "Thank you."

She smiles again, meeting him halfway for a hug. "Thank you, Geno. And you're very welcome."

Sidney opens the door for Max and Geno. "Now that we've practically spent the day together, you two can leave."

Athena holds back a laugh.

"Don't act like you don't enjoy our company, Crosby," Max rebuts.

The Captain nods, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Sid. Bye Athena." Evgeni smiles as he waves at Athena.

"Bye, Geno." Sidney says before closing, and locking, the door. He presses his back against the door.

Athena walks up to him, pressing him back into the door and gently kissing him. "If I would've known they were gonna stay, I wouldn't have said anything."

Sidney shakes his head, "that was all Max."

She giggles, shaking her head and slowly backing up. "Is Geno's English normally that... broken?"

Sidney follows her, speaking as they begin to climb the staircase. "No, he was really nervous tonight."

Athena climbs onto the bed and lies facedown, across the bottom.

"You gonna sleep like that?" Sidney chuckles, leaning back against his pillows. When Athena doesn't answer, he lays his feet over the backs of her knees.

She blinks, quietly yawning and listening as ESPN begins sounding from the television.

"Are you really asleep?" Sidney asks after about five minutes of watching SportsCenter.

Athena slowly cracks her eyes open, "yeah, I'm gonna come lay down."

Sidney smirks when Athena closes her eyes again, lying in the same spot.

Athena slowly moves back and stops when Sidney's feet are on her lower back.

"You're getting up now?"

She nods and climbs out of the bed when Sidney lifts his feet up. She disappears into her closet, coming back in a V-neck and a pair of shorts. Wordlessly, she climbs onto her side of the bed and lies under the covers.

When Sidney looks away from the television screen during the commercial break, Athena is curled up in fetal position and sound asleep. He smiles, looking back at the television.



"Hello?" Athena groggily answers her phone.

"Are you still asleep?"

She nods, "yeah."

"Athena, it's almost noon."

Cracking her eyes open, Athena looks over her shoulder.

Sidney is still in bed, with one arm over his head and the other over his face.

"That's cool."

A voice in the background of the other line makes Athena's eyebrows furrow.

"Yeah, she's still asleep."

"Tell her to stop being like Jordan and get her lazy ass up!"

Athena furrows her eyebrows.

"Did you catch that?"

"Tell Eric that I'm not listening to him."

"She's not listening to you, babe. Go play with Parker."

"Parker's napping. And she better listen to me!"

"Why is he napping? He's not supposed to nap this late, he's not gonna sleep tonight."

"Tell him he's not the boss of me."

"She says you're not the boss of her."

Eric grumbles something.

"What'd he say?"

"He said he'll show you 'boss of you'."

"Yeah, yeah... all bark, no bite."

Tanya laughs.

"What'd she say?!" Eric demands.

"She said all bark, no bite. Would you please go away?"

"Tell her that I'll show her all bark, no bite next time I see her scrawny little ass."

Athena giggles, biting her lip.

"Go. Away." Tanya carefully pronounces each word. After a minute, she begins speaking again. "I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever."

"Yeah, it has been a while."

"How's Jordan?"

Athena shrugs, "I've only seen him, like, twice."

"Why?"

"I don't know... we seem to argue every time we get together."

Tanya makes an understanding noise, "have you talked to him in the past few days?"

"No. I haven't even talked to Jared for about a week. I’ve been working and just… hanging out." Athena glances over her shoulder, to see Sidney in the same position he was before.

She clears her throat, "I guess he left Heather."

"You guess?" Athena feels awake now. "You can't just guess something like that, Tanya."

"I didn't hear it directly from him. Jared told Eric."

Athena shakes her head, "shit. Why would he do that?"

"I don't know." Tanya sighs, "I was hoping you would know."

Shrugging, Athena sighs. "He's training again, so I should see him sometime or another... I'll see what I can figure out."

"Eric's gonna try and talk to him next weekend when he’s up there for the game.”

Athena nods, "we'll figure it out. I'll let you go so Eric can bother you some more."

"Gee, thanks. Try not to go back to sleep."

"I'll try. I'll talk to ya later."

"Have fun," Tanya laughs.

Athena hangs up, setting her phone back on her nightstand.

"What's going on?"

With a sigh, she turns to face Sidney. "I guess Jordan left Heather."

"Did he tell you that?"

"No, Eric's wife did."

Sidney shakes his head, moving his arm to look at Athena. "They aren't stable. They break up about once a month."

A laugh escapes Athena's mouth, "yeah."