The Life of a Fan-Fiction Writer

Sid is not a robot

“She okay Sid?” Geno asked quietly. Lila still had her eyes closed and didn’t see Sid nod.

“The team doctor checked her out, says she just fainted.”

“That’s a first, never had a fan faint in the room.” Geno laughed quietly, and if Lila had opened her eyes she would have seen Sid’s signature smile she’d written about frequently in her fan-fiction.

“At least she didn’t fall on the logo, that would have been…” Sid shook his head, unwilling to describe the consequences one faced when they stepped on the logo in the room.

“Glad she’s okay, I’m going to head out now,” Geno said.

“I’m going to wait for her to wake up. I feel like I owe her an apology, since I’m the one who sent her, uh, story to the rest of the team.”

“See you at practice tomorrow,” Geno said and left.

‘Damn, he’s even nicer in person’ Lila thought, and realized she couldn’t pretend to sleep forever. After a few minutes, she convinced herself to open her eyes. Sid noticed her blinking and got the doctor’s attention. They both came over to the side of her bed, and the doctor helped her sit up.

“Nice and slow, there,” the doctor said, keeping his hand safely on her arm in case she took a tumble. He held up a light to look in her eyes and asked a few questions about how she was feeling.

“I’m fine, really. A little tired, but I’m okay,” Lila answered. The doctor nodded, satisfied with her recovery, and said she was free to go.

“Before you leave,” Sid startled Lila by reaching out to help her off the table. “I wanted to apologize.”

Lila was shocked. “I don’t think you’re the one who needs to apologize. I’m the one who should be begging for forgiveness from you, Geno, Olli-” her breath caught in her throat as she remembered hearing remembered Olli as she woke up earlier, or maybe she was just imagining it? “Really, the whole team.”

“And maybe Eric and Jordan Staal, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Teows, Brandon Sutter- especially him,” Sid continued, jokingly. “It’s okay, really, I get that fans write fan-fiction, and you probably don’t mean it personally.”

Lila nodded, still shocked that Sidney Crosby was in fact talking to her, and now trying to make a joke? Real-life Sid was not how she had made him out to be in her fan-fiction. ‘Of course’ she thought. ‘He’s an actual human being, not some hockey robot.’

“As I was saying, I wanted to apologize for forwarding your story to the entire team. Mario sent it to me, I thought it was entertaining so I sent it to the rest of the team. It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this, so I was impressed, and flattered, even if it wasn’t accurate.” He paused and leaned closer and said a little quieter, “You have taken some type of sex-ed class, right?”

Lila burst out laughing and her cheeks turned bright red. “Yes, I know it wasn’t accurate and probably medically impossible. But, that’s what people want to read: drama. I don’t even know where I got the idea. Part of it, I got from another story, but the rest is all my weird imagination.”

He looked interested in this other story, so Lila quickly stopped from from asking about it. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

Still stuck on the inaccuracies from Lila’s fan-fiction, he continued. “But how could someone be six months pregnant with twins and not realize it? Even if she was a bit overweight to begin with, I think it would show by then.”

Lila’s whole face turned crimson with embarrassment. “Yes, I know. I got the dates wrong, and I had to fit the olympics in there. I wanted the story to follow the game schedule accurately, I guess I’m anal like that.”

Sid nodded, he understood. “I appreciate that attention to detail.”

Lila smiled, not sure what to say. She was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that Sidney Crosby was talking to her, about her fan-fiction nonetheless.

“Again, I’d like to apologize. I didn’t know Mario was going to bring you down here, and show you to the whole team like that. If I had, I wouldn’t have shared your story with them.” He shrugged apologetically.

“Thanks, but, I still think I should be apologizing,” Lila repeated.

“No, we invaded your privacy and embarrassed you. Let me make it up to you. I can at least drive you back to your hotel, or something.” Sid offered, and Lila’s face got pale.

“I, uh, don’t actually have accommodations yet. I was told they would be provided, but I haven’t heard anything.” Lila said quietly.

“Umm, okay wait here, I’ll go check with Mario,” Sid said before leaving quickly.

‘He probably just wanted to get away from me,’ Lila thought, expecting Sid not to return. She hopped off the examining bed in the doctor’s room and looked around for her stuff. She had come straight here from the airport, so her suitcase had to be around here somewhere. She finally stepped into the hallway to look for it, and surprisingly saw Sidney Crosby walking around the corner toward her carrying her bright blue suitcase.

“Oh, I was just looking for that,” Lila said quietly as Sid got closer.

“Well, here it is,” he smiled awkwardly and held it up. “It was in Mario’s office. They’re having some issue with accounting and the card they used to book a hotel was revoked. There’s some convention in town, so everything’s booked.”

Lila looked at him for a moment and really hoped this was not going where she thought it was going. “So, I should just go home, right?”

Sid laughed, and Lila smiled, pretending she was joking. “No, Mario actually has something for you to do, so you’ll be here for a while.” He paused, and Lila could sense this was heading in a weird direction. “You could stay with me, until we find somewhere else. I have a guest bedroom my sister uses.”

Lila stared at him, waiting for him to laugh and say ‘just kidding!’ but those soft brown eyes she had written about stared kindly back at her. “You can’t be serious,” she said and started to laugh nervously. “This is almost exactly how it happened in the fan-fiction.”

Sid blushed and broke eye contact. “That’s not what I meant at all,” he stammered. “I didn’t meant to, um… I just felt bad. My girlfriend will be there, if that makes you feel better.”

Lila sighed. This was not fan-fiction, this was real life. #87 Sidney Crosby was not going to attempt to have sex with her. “Okay.”
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A/N: I started writing this about a year ago I think, maybe longer, so I’m not sure what I had in mind, but I think this is it? I’m not sure what season this is supposed to take place in, but I think it’s last year (2015-2016).

PS. I just saw Wonder Woman and it was AWESOME!