We Got Married

Later that evening the Collins prepared a party in a bar for them. The place was packed with extended family and close friends only, they didn't let the media inside the bar especially the Pens TV and WGM crew. They understood that the family wanted the privacy to celebrate without a headline news about them getting drunk and partying.

The party was in full swing. The music blaring loudly, people getting drunk and dancing on the dance floor. Even Sidney was nursing a bottle of beer to loosen up, it was a very rare opportunity after all to go to a party where no one will take a picture of him drinking and making up stories about it but Cassandra, who was in legal age to drink here in Canada stick to sparkling water.

"You really don't drink?" he whispered to her since it will be impossible for her to hear what he was saying with the loud music.

She shook her head in answer.

"Even just beer?"

"I don't like the taste of beer."

He nodded, beer don't really taste good after all.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked.

"I don't dance."

"We danced in the charity event before!" she reasoned frowning.

"I can do slow dance but not like that." he said pointing towards the dance floor, where people were grinding to each other.

"You're right." she chuckled watching the people she knows dancing on the dance floor.

"You two look like a real couple." Daniel, her younger brother said. The kid rarely talked and reminds him so much of their mom although he look more like his dad.

She was never been a good liar so she immediately panicked internally at what her younger brother said. It doesn’t matter if it was only an assumption or he can see through them. She suddenly felt like everybody knows about them.

He felt her tensed up beside him and avoid eye contact with her brother. Shaking his head at how much of a bad liar and easy she freaked out he responded to Dan. "Really? Thank you, that's a great compliment. We must be doing the right thing then." he said it to Dan but he was looking directly to her blue eyes that was full of anxiety. Placing his hand on her knee under the table he squeezed it for assurance that everything was fine and she got nothing to be anxious about. "Do you think they'll mind if we head out?" he asked her.

"I don't think so besides I still had an early rehearsal tomorrow for the show."

"Let's find your parents and say goodnight."

"Alright." she turned to her brother. "We'll be going."

He just nodded to them but Sidney felt like he was looking pass through them. They stood up and searched for her parents, there was some relatives or friends that will stopped to talked to them telling them that they watch their pilot episode blah blah blah, most of them were drunk already so they just smile and politely said they have to go.

When they found her parents they were sitting with her uncles and aunts talking in the far corner of the bar.

"Mom. Dad, we're heading out, I still got a morning rehearsal tomorrow." she told her parents when they approached them.

"Okay, drive safely." her mom told her, after hugging her parents and relatives they said their goodbye to them.

Walking out of the bar, they headed to the her navy blue, F-150. When he saw her truck this afternoon he can't believe she would drive something like that after seeing her Maserati in Michigan. She told him that she'll let him drive again just like the last time, when they went to their garage they certainly have the best collection of vehicles.

"Where’s your car?"he asked as she started towards her truck.

"My truck is right here." Like always when guys saw her truck, their eyes got big, their mouth dropped open some, and they gave her the ‘you gotta be kidding me’ look. She expected it, liked it even.

“That’s your truck?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I expected your car to be something like a sports car again.”

“Why, cause I’m a girl?!”

“No, well, maybe…that’s a big damn truck!”

"I like it big." she shrugged.

"Um… you might want to rephrase that." If he didn't know her better he might think that she was giving out innuendo or she was flirting with him but it was Cassandra, yet he can't help but give her words a double meaning.

"Why?" she asked tilting her head confused, oblivious and too innocent to understand her own words.

"Never mind."

"Never mind I'll find someone like you." she sung. It made him laughed, "Sorry, that's my biggest problem right now, I can't stop singing."

When they reached her truck he opened the door, helping her to get inside the truck then went to the other side to get in the drive's seat.

"I'm staying in the hotel." she told him .

"Why are you staying in a hotel?"

"That's what I do when I'm on the road." she gave the directions to the hotel she and the cast of the ice show stayed in.

"Is it like, you superstition?"

"I guess you can call it something like that."

"But you believe in superstitions?"

"Of course, I came from a family of hockey players after all."

"There's no need for you to worry if people started thinking we look real." he said, wanting to talk about the incident with her younger brother.

"It's hard not too. I tent to over-thing and over-analyzed things." she said obviously still distressed about it.

"I know, but people will say it all the time as time goes by and you have to get use to it. You can't freak our when a reporter said we look real together." She nodded getting his point but it really scared her, Dan only saw them together today to state something like that. As if he was reading her mind he continued, "He was probably only complimenting us."

"I never keep a secret from my family before so I just don't know how to react to that." they arrived at the hotel but instead of getting out of the truck he killed the engine and stayed to talk to her some more about this.

"Me either, and I'd love to tell my mom about us."

She started playing with her wrist watch avoiding his stare, "I don't know. If my mom finds out she'll go ballistic over it." her voice was full of guilt.

"Look at me." he told her lifting her chin to face him and looked at him straight on the eyes. "Does your mom doesn't like us?"

"She does. She just think it's a bad timing to do this in the midst of Olympic season."

"She will be against us if she finds out?"

"I… I think so, she said it will be better to left dating on the sidelines and focus on my goals."

"Is she the reason why you never dated before?"

"No! It's my choice."

"But influenced by your mom's opinion?"

"My mom just warned me about it. The rest are my decision!" she was glaring at him, obviously mad that he was accusing her mom for controlling her but despite them arguing she didn't yelled at him she stayed calm and collected. If it was other woman he was sure they'll be yelling by now.

"Look, my dad told me the same thing but I never let that stop me from dating a woman I like."

"I'm sorry. I'm scared that anyone might find out about us." she paused playing with her wrist watch again. "I mean… What are we doing? Are doing the right thing breaking rules and keeping secrets from our parents, which we never done before? Is this really going to work out? What if we messed up? What if we fight? Can we still continue doing We Got Married if that happens?" she knows she was blabbering to him but she felt like she needed to let all of her anxiety to be said out loud to make her somehow felt not alone thinking about those things. When she looked at him he was grinning, which made her frown, how can he grinned at her while she felt like she was in the voyage of crying? Everything seemed to be out of her control and she never wanted to feel like that ever again yet here he was grinning. "How can you grin like an idiot after all I just said?!"

"I'm glad to know you're thinking a lot about us too."

"What?! Of course I am!"

"I don't know, I'm just following my gut instinct because it feels right to me. I can’t believe I decided to start rebelling now that I'm twenty-five." he chuckled trying to lighten up the mood but it didn't work.

"I just don't want to hurt my mom. I'm sure she was hurt when I quit ice dancing to pursue single's."

"Come on, I'm sure she's proud of you and all of your achievement. You won the Olympic gold medal she never had. We'll figure it out." he took her hand, kissing the inside of her wrist to reassured her.

She liked that he said "We'll figure it out." not "It's okay." or "It's alright." or "Everything will be fine." because those four words were a reassurance that despite everything was unsure and scary, time will come and things will fall into places because they'll make it work. "Thank you." she told him.

"For what?"

"For being understanding and patient with me." she said staring straight through his eyes.

"I didn't do all of that to be thanked. I did it because I care about you, about us."

"Still, I never thought anyone will be that… caring and sweet to me." she said lowering her head, blushing at what she was telling to him. She might be brutally honest at times but she never express her emotions openly to people, even to her own family. She never unload to anyone because she think that was unfair for the other person and it was her problem in the first place, it was up to her how to resolve it. Her whole life she only had one goal, which was to win the Olympic gold medal but after reaching that goal everything seemed to be easy and pointless to her. Success left her feeling empty and lost, something she never expect to feel.

"You deserve to be treated that way." he leaned into her to kiss her. His lips were so warm against hers, he was so gentle to her as he caressed her cheeks softly. She placed her hands to his that was holding her cheeks, just simply enjoying the feeling of cherished by a man. When they pulled apart, his brown eyes were staring intently through her blue ones. "I never cared this way to any women before. I don't want to mess up. I want this… I want us to work out."

She never give into any man's advances to her before because her mother always told her that they just want to take advantage of her and they will be a distraction from reaching her dreams and goals. But with Sidney everything feels right and good. Making it hard for her to distance herself from him from the very start. Sure, she had a crush on him but she had a crush to other guys before like Jason, even became close friends with him yet she never wanted more from him like the way Sidney does to her. Lost in the depths of his eyes she can only manage to nod her head as a response.

He got out of the truck and open her door. They walked to the hotel hand in hand then rode the elevator heading to her hotel room in silence. When they reached her hotel room they both stopped in front of it.

She looked up at him with a guilty expression on her face, "I'd like to say I'm sorry in advance because I can't come to your birthday."

"I know, I understand." he told her. He checked her tour schedule right after it was released so he knows it was totally impossible for her to be on his birthday. At first it was only disappointing but now that they were officially together it was sad. He really wanted to spend his time with the cup with her but she got a tour to do to and he truly understand that she was busy.

"I'll make it up to you when the tour comes to Halifax!" she exclaimed clasping her hands together under her chin, giving him her adorable wide-eyed smile.

"Your gift had to be special!" he teased her.

"Um… okay." she said playing with the strapped of her bag. He was starting to recognized her habit of playing with things when she didn't want to tell something.

"You already had a gift, didn't you?" his grin grow bigger then turned to laughter when she looked up to him looking like a deer caught in the headlight. "You did already had a gift for me."

"Yeah." she answered, smiling awkwardly.

He leaned down to her to kiss her again but the door behind her suddenly opened and he immediately moved away from her rubbing the back of his neck, standing awkwardly while she looked down on her flats kicking the floor innocently.

Their interrupter was Katrina, she cleared her throat. "Did I interrupt something?" she asked teasingly as a sly smile formed to her face.

"Nothing! I'm just saying goodnight to Cassy." he answered, sounding a bit defensive.

Katrina raised her eye brow, obviously not believing him so she turned to Cassandra. "Can you give us a minute?" Cassandra told her best friend pushing her inside the room and closing the door behind her.

"That was close."

"It was, good night!"

"I'll see you tomorrow at lunch with your family. Good night!" he gave her a peck on the lips even though he wanted to kiss her for hours then he walked down the hall towards the elevator.



She watched him disappeared down the hallway then opened the door of the hotel room she was sharing with Katrina.

"OH MY GOD! You two are not about to kiss when I open the door, are you?" she yelled excitedly with her French accent.

"No." was all she said, she was afraid that if she said another word it will be the truth. She directly went to the bathroom to take a shower then get ready for bed.

"No? It looks like you two are!" she yelled.

She stripped off her clothes and grabbed the towel then went inside the shower stall. After her shower she changed to her sleepwear . Letting her wet curly blonde hair to dry on its own while she brushed it as she walked out of the bathroom.

"You didn't answer me!" Katrina throw a pillow at her but she easily caught it. hugging the pillow with her left arm, she sat down on her designated bed.

"I already answered you."

"Engagement ring, finally!" she tackled her on the bed taking her left hand then started screaming he head off. "It look so pretty and so you!"

"Thank you, but I can't breathe and my eardrums were now broken too, you know."

She got off of her but still grinning from eye-to-ear so widely at her. "You're so lucky with Sidney Crosby!"

Cassandra smiled genuinely, "I know."



It was quarter to twelve when Sidney, Austin and Cedric was able to came back to the Collins' house for the family lunch after their hospital visit with the cup this morning. When they arrived Cassandra was already there, helping her mom cooking their lunch while Daniel and Benedict fix the table.

"Oh man! We'll be the one to wash the dishes!" Cedric whined.

"I'll soap you wash." Austin told his younger brother sitting down on the couch with their dad.

"How was the hospital visit?" their dad asked.

"The kids at the pediatric cancer section was really happy to see the cup again." Austin answered.

"It's sad Ed never see the cup." Cedric stated, referring to their youngest brother that died due to cancer at the age of eight. His statement filled the room with uncomfortable silence.

"You shouldn't brought that up, Cedric." Cassandra's voice broke it, coming from the kitchen wearing only a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers , sounding mad at her twin brother for bringing it up.

Cedric glared at her but kept his silence as if it was an old argument between them. It surprised Sidney since Cedric never knows when to shut up and the topic made him felt like an outsider of their family since it was none of his business.

"Enough of that topic." their mom told everybody, coming out of the kitchen.

"Come on, let's eat lunch." their dad stood up from the couch heading to the dinner table.

Sidney sat beside Cassandra on the dinning table as they eat lunch silently.

"Sidney, you're coming to Cassy's ice show tonight too, right?" Benedict tried to lighten the mood.

"That's right, I haven't give your passes yet." she gasped, clasping her hands together remembering it. "I bring it with me. I'll give it to you later." with that the silence was broken and they started talking normally again. They never made him felt out of place, occasionally they would asked him questions or talked about something that he can relate.

After lunch the family sat down on the living room watching a baseball game. Sidney was sitting next to the long side table, full of family pictures. "Cedric look girly in this picture." he said to Cassandra, who was sitting beside him.

"That's me." she told him. In the picture she was wearing a prince costume for a school play, her role was the prince. She forgotten the reason why she played a role of a boy though.

"All this time I always thought it was Cedric!" he said in disbelief, which made her giggled. "You two look so a like when you were younger."

"Yeah, we are. Want to walk outside?"

He nodded, they both stood up from the love seat they were sitting in then headed out of the house for a walk. She intertwined her fingers to his as they walked beside the lake quietly. If she was not worried that her family might caught them holding hands then he guess it was fine. The silence was comforting to him, he liked that they can just walked hand in hand without needing to say something to each other, they don't have much moments like this when they were filming since it might bore the audience.

"I checked your tour schedule last night. It will be two weeks before we see each other again." as much as he loved their silence, their time together today was ticking. Tomorrow she'll be on Toronto and he'll go back to Pittsburgh. It upset him, how it will be harder for them to find time for each other alone with out the camera following them all day long.

"Yeah, then another three weeks afterwards and the tour is over."

"But training camp will start by that time."

"I can always come to Pittsburgh every weekends while at training."

He stopped walking, she turned to faced him as to why he stop but he enveloped her in a hugged and she hugged him back as well then he kissed her on the forehead, her favorite kind of kiss from him.
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Next chapter Episode 8 - The Best Gift Comes From The Heart