Home.

Three weeks and Mollie hadn't heard a single word from Sidney.

No call, no text, nothing.

She had heard through the grapevine, also known as Mario and Nathalie that Sidney felt "awful" and "didn't mean it" but those were things she'd like to hear directly from the horses mouth.

The horse however, was too busy playing hockey to think about saving his relationship. So when the Penguin's took an embarrassing first round exit out of the playoffs Mollie saw a glimmer of hope that Sid would finally reach out.

He didn’t.

But of course, the phone works both ways only Mollie really had nothing to say to him. Well, she did but the old saying "if you have nothing nice to say then just say nothing at all" kept her from making any contact with the boy.

So she kept quiet and kept herself busy, in the time that had passed she had taken her finals, sat for her medical boards, accepted her position at John's Hopkins, and found a new place to call home in Baltimore where she'd be moving in just 13 short days.

Now all she had left to do was to graduate, which she would be doing today. She and the 32 others in her cut-throat major could soon call themselves medical doctors, eight hellacious years of college later.

However, what Mollie didn’t know was that in the audience of said graduation amongst hundreds of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, sat Sidney Crosby.

He was too afraid to sit with the Holden's and the Lemieux's but he couldn’t bring himself not to be there for this moment in Mollie's life. This was huge, and not the first time he had sat through one of her graduations, although this time he was glad it wouldn’t be for a class of over 600 and outside in the hot May sun.

So there he sat in a cramped auditorium surrounded by people he didn’t know trying to blend in awaiting the graduates to file in in those funny looking hats.

When he heard the pomp and circumstance Sidney's head began to move like it was on a swivel, where was she? He searched and searched the sea of black robes and green sashes until he saw the small girl wedged between two much taller men, the fluffy black doctoral hat on her head adding a few inches to her height. The smile on her face was large, proud, and much more Mollie than the way he had seen her last.

Soon the graduates took their seats and speeches were given one right after another. They discussed topics Sidney could barely fathom and used words he had never even heard of before, things Mollie could probably discuss in her sleep.

She was always too smart for her own good and they had made quite the pair the hockey player and the medical student.

Sidney zoned out for the rest of the talking looking around the room and avoiding making extended eye contact with the area where he had spotted Mollie's family. Her father, Dr. Elliot Holden was a nice man who loved Sidney but it was safe to say he probably wasn’t his biggest fan right now and his wife, Renee probably wasn’t either. When the first line of grads stood to make their way to the stage Sidney was suddenly nervous, possibly more nervous than Mollie who was excitedly bouncing in her high heels.

The president read name after name beginning with A and eventually making it to H, when Mollie was the next one up it was like time stood still.

"Doctor Mollie Eloise Holden, magna cum laude, residency: John's Hopkins Hospital. "

Cheers erupted from the corner of the room where Elliot, Renee, Mario, Nathalie, and Mollie's younger brother Pierce were now standing and clapping. Sidney, throwing caution to the wind joined them standing alone in his own row clapping his hands together loudly and proudly.

Mollie shook hands with the three men on stage and accepted her diploma a blush creeping up her cheeks as her family took it upon themselves to be the most embarrassing in the entire room. As she exited the stage she noticed that the cheering had come from not one but two sections, the larger of the two had sat down but she caught a glimpse of the lone man before he took a seat.

When she saw that it was Sidney standing there alone looking like a fool she nearly ran into a photographer on the way back to her seat. He had come to her graduation. No text, no call, but there he was watching one of the most important moments of her life unfold.

Forty-five minutes later caps were thrown and it was official; they had all done it, they were graduates of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, class of 2013. Mollie followed her fellow classmates out of the auditorium taking in the freedom of personal space as she walked outside onto the cobblestone pathways of the school's grounds. Clutching her diploma holder tight in her hand she waited for her family to appear.

Group after group came through the building's double doors but as usual Mollie heard her family before she saw them.

Her mother, Renee came through the door spotting her only daughter with ease half running towards Mollie with her arms wide open, "Oh, honey we're so proud of you!!"

The woman squeezed her so hard she felt like there would be handprints on her shoulder blades, "Thank you, mom. For everything."

"You're so welcome, sweetie. Now, go hug your father he's trying to act like he didn’t tear up during the ceremony."

Elliot Holden had in fact teared up during the ceremony, but unlike during his daughter's white coat and hooding ceremonies the tears never left his eyes. Not that he wasn’t proud of her, because he was, he was so honored that his little girl had followed in his footsteps of becoming a medical doctor just as he had done with his father.

Medicine was the Holden family business.

"Hi daddy," Mollie smiled up at the man from beneath her big cap a grin like the Cheshire Cat across her face, "Do I look any different?"

"I can't say that you do, Dr. Holden." The man winked at his little girl before wrapping her in his arms. "So proud of you, Molls."

After hugging her father Mollie stepped back falling into a conversation with her little brother, Pierce. As she spoke with the red-headed first year medical student she saw a commotion happening at the door. There was a lot of pointing going on and then she heard it, a man's voice proclaiming that "There's Sidney Crosby!".

She wasn’t the only one who heard the man as all five of the Holden's and Lemieux's turned in time to see Sidney exiting the building all eyes on him.

Nathalie looked from him to Mollie then back to Sidney as Mollie's face was blank and Sidney's was full of fright. "Mario, go help him!"

She shoved her husband's shoulder who looked at his wife then to Mollie who still showed no expression before quickly walking over to where Sidney was being bombarded with autograph requests, "Sorry everyone, Sid we've been looking for you." Mario nodded his head over to where the rest of his group was.

Sidney, quick on his acting smiled following Mario out of the crowd of people, "Sorry, I don’t know how I lost you all."

Dragging Sidney away Mario told him with a stern tone, "I know that you two are a mess right now, but it can't hurt to say congratulations to Mollie before you leave."

"I don't think she wants to see me." Sidney confessed which earned him a nice glare from the older man as they walked.

"Then you shouldn’t have shown up here today, Sidney."

In Mollie's head time was moving incredibly slow as it felt like she had been watching Mario and Sidney walk her way for ages. But in reality it had only been seconds. The closer he got to her the more frantic she began to feel. He was close enough now that she could see he was wearing her favorite suit combo, a heather grey suit with a white undershirt and navy blue tie. She could also tell just by the way his hands were knotted in fists as he walked that he was nervous, he was always so nervous around her father.

Today he had good reason to be.

Her parents knew everything, their house had been the place she ran to after the big fight, her mother had listened to her cry herself to sleep that night and had been the one to help her set up everything she'd needed for the big move to Baltimore.

Her parents didn’t hate Sidney by any means, they just weren't too fond of him at the moment.

They could never hate the boy from Cole Harbor, he had been around far too long, embedded himself way too deep into their family for this to ruin it all.

This just meant maybe, just maybe he wasn’t meant to be their son-in-law after all.

"Sidney," Elliot, who was always the first to speak, extended his hand to Sid as soon as he was within range, "We weren't expecting to see you today, figured you'd gone home to Canada already."

Like shaking hands with a vice grip Sidney smiled through the pain at Elliot, "Change of plans, Dr. Holden."

"There seems to be a lot of those happening lately."

Mollie stood beside Nathalie tensing up as she watched this scene unfold feeling just a tad bit of sympathy for Sidney as he faced her parents moving from her fathers handshake to her mother's hug. As she pulled him in Mollie could see the woman's lips moving close to his ear. She knew the things the woman was whispering couldn’t be good.

And they weren't.
"You have a lot of nerve showing up here today, Sidney." Renee told the boy her voice smooth and sweet as usual unlike the words she was saying, "What with no contact in nearly a month?"

He had no idea what to say to her because she was absolutely right. He was stupid for coming to this event without so much as a phone call but he did have a reason, a method to his madness. He needed to tell Mollie something, and it needed to be said in person.

Stepping away from Renee's grasp Sidney stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his pants catching the eye of Pierce Holden. He gave the 23 year old a simple head nod before turning his attention down the line of people until he found Mollie's gaze. "Mollie, can we talk?"
Mollie was still processing his question when her mother interjected, "We have reservations soon, maybe now isn't the time."

Weeks ago was the proper time but now they didn’t have weeks, they only had days, 13 days until she left the city, even fewer before the boy left for his home country of Canada.

"I drove separately. I'll just meet you at the restaurant, mom." Mollie shocked the adults around her and herself allowing Sidney to walk with her towards her car. They were silent as they approached the student parking lot where Mollie had left her Jetta parked for the last time. With the silver car in sight Mollie flashed its lights, "Are you going to talk or not?"

"I'm sorry." That's all he said and Mollie laughed continuing towards her car pulling her cap off her head as she went. Waiting for him to go on she tossed the cap and diploma holder onto the trunk of her car pulling the zipper of her gown down as she stared back at Sidney. "And, I just want you to know that I, I don't want you to give up your dream for me."

"Good thing because I leave for Baltimore in 13 days."

"That soon, huh?"

Shrugging her way out of the silky black fabric Mollie tossed the gown into the pile of things on her trunk, the breeze feeling wonderful as she stood there in her white sundress, "Let's just get this over with, Sid. We're not fooling ourselves or anyone else for that matter."

"Mollie," his voice was soft, her name just above a whisper, he knew what she meant and he knew she was right, he just didn’t think he'd be breaking up with this girl ever let alone in a parking lot. Sidney watched as she pushed her fingers through the brown curls that were flowing around her shoulders, her nervous tick, she always played with her hair. "we, we don't have to do this."

"But we do, just the idea of me being four hours away set you off. I can't be in a shitty long distance relationship and try to start my career, something's gotta give."

"And it can't be your career." Mollie watched him close his eyes and suck in his lips after admitting what he had always known deep down, her career would always come first.

And so would his.

"You wouldn't give up on your career either, Sid. I know you wouldn't, especially not for me." It was the truth and they both knew it. Mollie leaned against the back of her small silver car, "And for the record? I'd never ask you to."

"I know you wouldn't, and I'm sorry, I really am, I never should have asked you to give up your dream. It just came out."

This had all just come out.

But it had been brewing under the surface for quite some time.

Pushing herself up off the car Mollie gave him one last half-hearted smile, "I should get going."

"So this, you and me? We're," Sidney stepped closer towards her hoping the close proximity would maybe change her mind.

"We're, I'm sorry Sidney, but we're over."

And there it was, the words he never wanted to hear from Mollie's mouth had officially fallen. And for the first time maybe ever Sidney Crosby felt heartbroken from a reason other than hockey. He watched the girl gather her things from the trunk avoiding eye contact with him any further as she tossed her things into the car's backseat.

"Mollie, wait."

Sniffling hard Mollie tried to suck in all of the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes, like a fool she looked back at him. "What?"
"I love you."

That was a last stich effort, his hail Mary pass, pulling his goalie in the third period, but Sidney knew it couldn’t save him.

She saw straight through him.

"Goodbye Sidney, take care of yourself."