O Captain, My Captain.

"Well we're home," Sidney said unbuckling his seatbelt walking around to the trunk of his car to grab his gear.

"This is your house?" Aubrey asked in amazement stepping out of the car.

None of the lights on the outside of the house were lit up, which Aubrey assumed was to ensure his privacy, but from what she could make out in the darkness, the house was beautiful. It stood three stories high with a modest brick frame. As they walked up to the side of the house, he punched in a code on the side of the garage and one of the doors slowly hummed to life and began to raise. It was a three-car garage that could accommodate cars of all different shapes and sizes but since he only had the Range Rover, he only used a third of the garage space. The other two thirds were used, to no surprise, as a miniature concrete hockey rink. There were two goals set up on each end and an assortment of sticks were lined up on the wall in between the goals. A mesh bag filled with what seemed like hundreds of black pucks hung from the ceiling and he had five pairs of skates aligned perfectly along the floor. It was everything Aubrey had ever imagined his house would be and she hadn't even seen the whole thing.

"Yep. This is where you can find me when I'm not at Consol or on the road," he said as he walked up next to her, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"It's gorgeous," she said, not being able to fathom the fact that she was standing in Sidney Crosby's garage.

"You're easily fascinated aren't you?" he smiled. "If you think this is gorgeous, wait till you see the rest of the place."

"You play basketball?" she pointed at a basketball hoop that sat in the driveway adjacent the garages, completely ignoring his previous comment.

"I occasionally like to shoot some hoops."

"Wow and you think you really know someone," she teased. "I thought your life revolved around hockey and nothing else?"

"For the most part that's true," he laughed. "I got it during the lockout when we weren't really allowed to do anything with hockey and I needed something to keep myself active since I couldn't be at the rink. Some of the guys like to come over and we'll start a pickup game."

"Are you any good?"

"I'm better than Kuni I can tell you that. Poor guys so short he can't guard anyone. Do you play?"

"Like you're a fucking giant yourself," she jabbed. "Back in high school I was decent. I got a few scholarship offers to go play basketball at like smaller D2 schools but I always knew I wanted to go to Pitt and you have to be like crazy good to play on their women's team. Plus there was just something about being a college female basketball player that just didn't sit well with me."

"Afraid people would question which team you played for?" he joked.

"You've got jokes, Sid. Haha but that was a big part of it I guess."

"Hey I get it."

"Plus I always knew I wanted to be a physical therapist and I don't think I could've managed that on top of basketball," she said.

"Being a physical therapist has always been your calling?"

"Oh totally! I love the idea of being able to help heal people," she exclaimed. "But hey, whatever pays the bills, right?"

"You're absolutely right," he said rubbing his arms. "Hey wanna head inside? It's a little chilly out here."

Aubrey hadn't realized how long they had been standing there, let alone how cold it was outside. There was just something about talking to Sidney that put her mind at ease, which surprisingly wouldn't have been the case 12 hours ago. But truth is, she was nervous. She had no idea what his plans for "hanging out" were but she had a pretty good idea. As soon as she followed him inside that modest, three story house of his, who knows what could happen. The uncertainty was thrilling yet terrifying all at once and as her stomach did somersaults inside her body, an anxious feeling washed over her.

"You okay?" he asked sensing the uneasiness in her body language.

"Yeah. Just thinking," she gave him a weak smile.

"Thinking! You're always thinking. Do you ever stop?" he laughed.

"Yes, Sid," she gave him another quick smile, this one much more confident. "So are you gonna be a gentleman and show me inside or what?"

Her mind immediately went back to the conversation she had had with her sister earlier in the evening before the game. 'Sidney Crosby is just his name, nothing else' Chelsea had reminded her. She could do this. Sid was just a normal guy who wanted to be treated like every other normal human being. So what if everyone associated his name with the NHL, he had been the one to ask her to hang out tonight, so that had to count for something right?

"Right this way, Miss Kettering," he held out his arm and she linked hers through his.

He turned the brass knob on the inside garage door that led to what appeared to be his laundry room. Clothes were strewn everywhere, some dirty some clean, and it reeked of sweaty hockey gear.

"Cover your nose," he warned. "I wasn't really planning on having company over later so I didn't get a chance to wash any of this stuff."

Her hand immediately flung to her nose and she clamped her nostrils shut. She didn't think anything could smell worse than the locker room post-game or post-practice but this was a close match. 'Well I finally found his first flaw' she thought, thinking it would be seemingly impossible to pinpoint anything that was wrong with the man.

"You weren't planning on having company later?" she questioned. "Then why did you ask me to hang out?"

"I'll be honest with you, Aubs, that was a spur of the moment decision," he said leading her to the connecting room which happened to be the kitchen. He shut the laundry room door behind them in hopes that that would block out some of the stench.

"What do you mean?" her brows furrowed looking confused.

"I don't know. I'd been meaning to ask you to hang out for awhile but never found the right opportunity to pop the question," he said shyly, looking down at the floor.

'Hold the fucking phone. He's been meaning to ask me to hang out for awhile? Has he had feelings for me this whole time?' she thought to herself. She was tempted to ask but didn't want to make him feel anymore awkward. She could tell how hard it was for him to admit that and didn't want to push him any further.

"Well I'm flattered," she said whole-heartedly.

"Flattered?" now he looked confused.

"Yeah that you've been contemplating when the right time to ask me to hang out would be. It's cute."

"Well I'm glad you think it's cute, but it's the truth. I don't know, Aubs. I'll be honest ever since the day I first met you, I've wanted to get to know you but never really knew how to broach the subject," he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I don't know. You always seem so focused on your job like you didn't wanna get anymore involved than what you need to and I could never tell if you would be willing to, ya know, get to know me. But after our conversation this morning, I figured that was as good an indicator as any to 'go in for the kill'," he made air quotes around 'go in for the kill'.

"You're adorable you know that?" Aubrey said stepping in for a hug. "Lucky for me what's her face fucked it up and she wasn't invited to hang out with such an awesome guy."

"I thought we agreed I was done with her?" he hugged her back, pulling her into close to him with his large, muscular arms.

"Sorry I forgot," she looked up but before she had time to process what to say next, his face was slowly leaning down towards hers and she shut her eyes, mentally preparing herself for what was going to happen next.

And in one split second, his lips were locked on hers with no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon.