O Captain, My Captain.

"GO, GO, GO SID!" Aubrey yelled from the bench.

A couple of the guys sitting next to her raised their eyebrows and gave her suspicious looks but at that very moment, the only worry running through her mind was making sure Sidney laid the puck in the back of the net to give the Pens the lead. It was now midway through the third period and the guys had gotten off to a slow start yet somehow managed to even score at two with goals from Jokinen and Nealer. No doubt the second line was working their asses off, but Aubrey wanted to see Sid score. After their conversation earlier, she was almost certain that he needed some type of confidence booster and a goal against one of the teams he hated most would do the trick. With the clock winding down ever so quickly, a Sidney goal would almost ensure winning the game and the faster they could win, the faster they could get the hell out of Detroit.

A couple more seconds ticked by and Sid's line quickly skated towards the bench, their faces flushed and eyes filled with desperation. They almost looked irritated and Aubrey knew exactly why. There had been several chances in their shift to convert plays into goals but everything they tried seemingly made it nowhere near Howard in the Red Wings zone. Suddenly the bench was filled with tension and no one really knew what to do or say. A loss to Detroit would put a major damper on their current five-game win streak and they would slowly inch their way down the leader board of the Metropolitan Division.

Aubrey glanced over when she saw Coach Bylsma inspecting Sid's wrist out of the corner of her eye. He motioned for her to come over and take a look as he began to draw up plays for the next shift. She quickly zigzagged her way down the bench, almost running into Nisky, to tend to Sidney and what she assumed to be his aching wrist.

"What's up?" she asked crouching down in front of him.

"My wrist is starting to hurt again," he gritted his teeth and held his wrist out.

"Has it been bothering you the whole game?" she began to kneed into his wrist trying to pinpoint the sore spot again.

"No. I landed on it funny when Zetterburg slew-footed me. Fucking asshole."

Aubrey could tell that he was starting to grow impatient just from the way he was sitting. He was shifting from side to side, eyes never losing sight of the puck. He let out a frustrated grunt when he saw Duper, Kuni, and the rest of his line hopping over the bench and taking the ice. Even in one of his most heated moments, she still found it be incredibly attractive and gave him a little smirk. His passion for the sport he loved was sexy and Sid sure had a whole hell of a lot of it.

"Come on, Aubs," he peered up at the clock. There was three minutes left and one of the Wings was being sent to the box for a tripping penalty. Two solid minutes of 5 on 4 play and the Penguins easily had the upper hand. They didn't lead the league in Power Play Goals for nothing.

"I'm trying, Sid, but-" she was cut off.

"But what? We're so close to winning this damn thing. I just wanna get out there!" he snapped.

"I think your wrist is a little more than just twinged," she said matter-of-factly.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Sid said, eyes still glued to the puck.

"Something much more serious is going on with your wrist," she spat. "And I would highly recommend getting a second opinion on it before you go back out there."

"Get a second opinion? Isn't that your job to check it out for me? Aubs, I don't have time for this shit. I need to get back out there!" he hissed.

"I understand that," she said sternly. "But there's a possibility that it might be broken and you don't wanna injure it even further."

"You don't understand," he practically growled. "I once played half a season on a broken foot. I think I can handle a little bit of wrist pain."

She rolled her eyes. She understood his frustrations but there was no need to take them out on her. Dirty Dan had been the one to beckon her over to take a look at his wrist, not the other way around.

"Fine," she patted his knee. "Do what you need to do."

"Is he good to go?" Bylsma was now making his way over to where Aubrey and Sidney were pow-wowed on the bench.

"There's a possibility that it may be broken so I would advise against it," she stood. "But he thinks he can play through it."

"Think you can go out there and score?" Byslma asked looking directly at Sidney.

"Yeah, coach. It's not giving me too much trouble anymore," he rolled his injured wrist around for emphasis.

"There's 20 second left on the power play. GO!" Bylsma screamed as Sidney hopped over the bench and rejoined his teammates out on the ice.

Aubrey recomposed herself and was getting ready to make way towards the other end of the bench when Dirty Dan reached out a hand to stop her.

"Not so fast," he said.

"Im sorry, sir?" her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"I thought his wrist was just tweaked? Now it's broken?" he questioned.

"Sid mentioned something about falling on it funny when Zetterburg slew-footed him and when I took a look it was starting to swell like it had been injured further," she said. "It might not necessarily be broken but it's definitely sprained. I just didn't want him going out there and run the risk of hurting it more."

"Relax. He's gonna be fine," Bylsma could tell how visibly upset she was. "There's 50 second left of play. He's gonna finish this game out then go get X-rayed. This is his job. His job it to play through pain."

"I know, but-" she was cut off by the sound of loud "boo's" coming from the audience. When she looked over to see what it was for, she saw Sid, Geno, and Brooksie all wrapped up in a celebratory embrace.

"He did it!" Bylsma pumped his fist in the air, tossing the dry erase board that contained most of the plays on the ground. "About fucking time!"

Aubrey gazed up at the jumbo-tron that hung above center ice. When she saw who was credited for the goal, she knew exactly what Dirty Dan was referring to. Geno's twelve-game goal drought had finally come to an end and the Penguins had nearly won it with only six seconds left in the period. As frustrated as she was with Sidney, she desperately wished it would've been him who had sent it flying past the low glove of Howard, but was excited for Geno nonetheless. She could tell how anxious he was to finally get something going seeing as though it was so unlike him to go goal-less for so long and was happy that some of that anxiety had subsided.

The final buzzer sounded and the rest of the bench skated out onto the ice to show Flower their appreciation before heading back into the locker room to get cleaned up. The guys knew they only had about an hour or so to shower and suit up before they hopped on the plane to fly back to Pittsburgh. The less time they spent fucking around, the better. The team wanted to get the hell out of Detroit just as much as Wings fans wanted to see them leave.

As the guys started filing into the locker room one by one, Aubrey noticed Sid was slowly making his way back to the bench, holding a firm grip on his wrist. He hung his head low and she could tell that he was in serious pain. When they were finally in arms-length of each other, their eyes met and he gave her an icy glare.

"Coach wants you in for an X-ray as soon as we get home," she announced.

"Thanks," he said coldly, brushing past her to join the rest of his teammates to get washed off.

"You're welcome," she turned to follow him.

"For what?" he stopped and whipped his head around.

"For looking out for you?" she spat. "I told you not to go back out there and look what happened. Hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?"

"Feels great actually," he said dropping his wrist. "We got the fucking win didn't we?"

"I was just trying to do my job," she said softly.

"And I was just trying to do mine," he said harshly.

Without another word, he regained his composure and turned around heading back towards the locker room. Aubrey stood there, arms folded across her chest, a look of sadness washing over her face. She had only seen this side of Sidney when the team was going through rough losing streaks and she couldn't stand to see him act that way. She hated it even more so now that it was directed at her. How could he have gone from spilling his heart out about his past relationships earlier in the day to snapping at her for just doing her job?

'This is gonna be a long flight home,' she thought before making her way down through the tunnel to join the rest of the team.