Game X-overs 1. Chapter 1

_I've never seen this kind of love  
The kind that won't wash away  
And then leave you in the dark_

_I would die for you  
I would die for you  
I would die for you_

_I've never kissed a sweeter mouth  
I've never been swept away  
It's what dreams are made up of  
Don't you know I could not survive  
Without you in my life_

_Jann Arden_

**Chapter 1**

Two pairs of white patent leather shoes, child sized, stick out from beneath the floor length curtain. The old floorboards creak as a man slowly approaches. Golden curls hide behind the head of a cheap carnival bear's head. Blood seeps along the floor like a live thing. The white, patent leather shoes shuffle back until they can go no further. _Mommy said not to get the new shoes dirty._

"Come out, come out wherever you are."

_Mommy said not to make a sound._

"I know you're in here sweetheart. Come out and see what Uncle Tony has for you darlin'." _Don't like Uncle Tony, his beard scratches. Mommy said not to move._ "Ah there you are." The curtains twitch. Little fingers grip the bear tighter and little blue eyes squeeze shut.

"No…you…don't."

A blast makes little teeth dig into a soft, full little lip. A heavy thud makes tiny white patent leather shoes jump. The curtains fall back. A large hand slides slowly to the floor. A gun falls with a loud clatter and skids harmlessly away.

The wail of sirens fills the sudden silence.

* * *

"I swim. I'm a swimmer. I don't know anything about kids." A bystander would be forgiven for thinking of her as being in her late teens. With her hair pulled back into a simple, practical pony tail, without even a trace of makeup and wearing a track suit, the young woman following the social worker down an industrial looking, dim hallway could pass for one of the teenage girls sitting in office from which they've just emerged. "She hardly even knows me. I think she's seen me at like…one birthday and I think maybe two Christmases."

"Are you saying she'd be better off in a stranger's home Miss James?" The social worker with her wire rimmed glasses, her utilitarian bun and her severe features doesn't even glance over her shoulder at the woman behind her. Her square heeled, tan, comfortable looking shoes make a loud sound on the linoleum floor.

"If they know something about kids, probably," the young woman mutters, half under her breath. She knows the woman with her identity card and her clip board hears her though. The woman's shoulders square under her beige cardigan and she hears that 'tsk' sound the woman's been making ever since Cody James walked into her office. The middle aged government worker stops, turns abruptly on her heel and faces the young woman with pursed lips. The expression on the social worker's face makes Cody want to find some place to hide.

"You'd be amazed, Miss James, at what the call of blood will do. I once heard of a five foot nothing ninety pound woman lifting a car off of her child." The vaguest hint of a smile tugs at the corner of the woman's thin lips. She has those lines around her lips that suggest that she smokes, although none of the usual reek of tobacco clings to her twinset. "The police say that your sister used the her very last breath to pick up a gun and kill the intruder before he could murder your niece. Maternal instinct is an amazing thing isn't it?" It was on the tip of Cody's tongue to say she wouldn't have a clue, that her uterus didn't have a ticking clock inside of it but those and every other caustic thought she'd had since she'd been unceremoniously dragged out of bed by the RCMP officer at the door was immediately erased by the sight of the little girl with the golden Shirley Temple curls and the big blue eyes framed by long dark lashes clutching a bright blue well loved looking teddy bear.

"She hasn't spoken a word since the police took her away from the scene." The woman with the clipboard stood in front of the door, not obstructing the view of the little girl who appeared to be doing her very best to be invisible. Cody stared at her niece and realized quite suddenly that it didn't matter anymore that she hadn't seen her in almost a year. Becka needed her. "One of the officers packed a couple of bags for her," the woman tapped her pen against the sheet on the clipboard. That much was obvious. There were two gym bags on the floor near where the Becka was sitting on one of those tiny, brightly coloured, plastic toddler sized chairs. "I assume yours are out in your vehicle." Bags…? Cody tore her attention away from her niece long enough to fix the social worker with a non comprehending stare. "They did explain to you about the witness protection program when they brought you here…?"

"Witness protection?" Cody's mouth fell open and she stared at the woman who was now looking back at her over the gold rims of her glasses. "I have a meet next week. I have training tomorrow morning…. Witness protection, I can't go into…. You said my sister killed the perp." Cody did her best to keep her voice low, so that it wouldn't carry through the observation window to her obviously already shell shocked niece.

"She did but Tony Rosa was a high ranking member of the Hell's Angels and your sister's boyfriend was an IS and your niece is the only eye witness and the Angels don't like leaving witnesses behind. And, to be honest, we don't often get the chance to speak with actual witnesses to a gangland killing like this." Cody turned to face the source of the voice, a grizzled officer in full uniform. She looked down at the gun on his belt and then at the badge on his jacket. "It's for her protection, and, because you're her only living relative, yours as well."

"So that's it? My messed up sister and her fucked up junkie pimp boyfriend get hit and my whole life gets sucked away, just like that?" she asked and immediately realized just how selfish it sounded.

"I'm afraid so," he replied with a genuine smile that said he sympathized. He'd probably seen a few people reacting to the same, bad news. "I have two tickets on a plane to Pittsburgh for this afternoon." Cody blinked. She hadn't really thought about it, but now that she had to, she was imagining some cabin in the woods somewhere, not a big industrial city across the border.

"Pittsburgh," she repeated, trying to wrap her head around it.

"And we've lined up a position for you…we find that it helps with the assimilation process," he added in a softer voice, like he expected her to react badly.

"I swim," she said simply. "I don't know how to do anything else. Literally, nothing."

"We can work with that," he promised, holding out a manila folder. "Personal trainer. I thought that was something you could handle."

* * *

"How's the head?"

He was getting bored of the question. Actually the question was starting to irritate the shit out of him. It was giving him a headache.

"I was good this morning," he answered honestly. "Not so much now. It comes and goes." The big man across the mahogany desk nodded sagely, as if that was exactly the answer he'd been expecting.

"And the visit home," the man asked, "did that help?"

"I hate not playing," he answered simply, shrugging his broad shoulders and then dropped his head. He knew that his mentor would understand. They both loved the game in equal measure. He knew there were days that the big man with his sky blue eyes missed being on the ice as much as he was missing it now. "I want to skate."

"We were talking about some off ice training," Mario ignored the statement, just as Sid knew that he would. He tried not to let it bother him but it did but then again, a lot of things seemed to be getting under his skin lately.

"Yeah, about that," Sid began only to have Mario hold up his hand and give him an impatient look. Sid sighed, but held his tongue.

"I know how hard it can be to keep motivated under these kinds of circumstances," the big man continued and Sid did his best not to roll his eyes at the understatement of the year. "I thought that a little something different might help so we've brought on a swimming coach." Sid looked up from beneath the brim of his baseball cap and waited for the other shoe to drop. When Mario continued to silently level his blue eyes at him Sid closed his hazel eyes with their gold flecks and shook his head. "You swim in the summer, you like to fish, you like the water…we thought it was worth giving a shot." Now Mario was waiting for an answer, but that old adage, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all, was keeping Sid silent. "I would like you at the pool tomorrow morning, nine," Mario sighed and picked up his pen and went back to the stack of paperwork on his desk, which was his way of dismissing his star player.

Sid knew better than to argue. Not that there was a hell of a lot of point. He couldn't jog, that made him see stars and they weren't going to let him skate that much was obvious and he had to do something to keep in shape.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Katie?" Cody looked down at her brand new driver's license and wrinkled her nose.

"Having something close to your own name makes it easier to remember," Special Agent Roth gave her another one of his patented empathetic smiles that did little to make Cody feel better. She reached up to run her fingers through her now dark mocha coloured hair and nodded. If she argued he'd only tell her that it was for her own good, again. "Now with Rebecca…."

"You can't expect her to remember all this," Cody held up the new birth certificate along with the rest of the paperwork that was meant to cover their tracks.

"Reba, Rebecca…," the agent was trying to be positive about everything but Cody rolled her eyes.

"She's been called Becka or Becks since she was born…but we'll try." It was the best that Cody could offer. They were about to leave her with a toddler who hadn't spoken in days in a pokey, empty old craftsman house in a strange city without a single soul that she knew to help. She was finding it hard to be positive about much.

"You'll start at Trees Hall tomorrow as an assistant to Marian Clark, the woman's coach. I know you're not much older than most of the girls there but…it helps with the cover and she's…well she did some training with us so she'll be someone you can talk to," he continued with another one of those smiles that was beginning to lose its intended effect as he handed her an identity card and a swipe card that she assumed would get her into the Olympic sized pool at the university. "You'll be able to put in some training of your own," he added with a wary glance at her. For her part, Cody squared her shoulders and did her best not to think about losing the rest of the season and maybe the rest of her career. That was selfish. Her niece needed her and after all, blood was supposed to be thicker than water. "And you'll be meeting with your private client…," Agent Roth pulled out his iPhone and turned it around to show the schedule to her.

"Every other day? What am I supposed to do with Becks while I'm doing all this?" Cody glanced at where the little girl was seated on the floor in front of the TV, apparently enthralled by Dora the Explorer with her thumb firmly planted in her mouth and her other hand holding tight to the same carnival teddy bear that she dragged with her everywhere.

"That's where I come in." Cody looked over at the female agent who had been, thus far, standing near the door, uninvolved and seemingly uninterested in the conversation. The woman smiled, a warm, encouraging sort of smile as she crossed the floor and went to sit on the arm of the lived in leather sofa. "My name is Cathy and I'm here to work with Reba." At Cody's perplexed expression the woman's smile broadened. "I have a degree in developmental psychology and through the Agency I've worked on a lot of cases like this one." As Cody watched, the woman's blonde pony-tail swung as she got up and walked over to Becky and squatted near her. The black pant suit and crisp, tailored white shirt made the woman look hard but the expression in her eyes as she looked at Becka said the exact opposite. "She's in there. She just doesn't want to come out yet, and who can blame her?" The agent got up and walked back over to retake her perch on the edge of the sofa. "We'll start slowly, ah hour in the morning while you're training and then I'll take her to the day care at the university and you can pick her up from there."

"Day care? Do you think that's a good idea? All those other kids?" Cody glanced at her niece and lowered her voice. "She kinda freaks out at loud noises now and she was rocking on the plane and I've never seen her do that before."

"Actually that's not so unusual but it is something we can work on," the agent smiled encouragingly. "One day at a time."

* * *

It felt strange being on campus. Not that he stood out in his warm up gear and a gym bag slung over his shoulder. In fact, he looked like a lot of the other students. What felt strange was he had no idea what their lives were like and as he walked amongst them Sidney couldn't help but wonder, if things had been different, what it would have been like to go to class, earn a degree. They probably all envied him, but he envied them. He envied them their freedom, their ability to come and go as they pleased, study what they want and stay out all night if they chose.

Mostly he envied them their anonymity. As he walked towards the sports complex, Sid kept his head down, the beak of his ball cap casting a shadow on his face. He couldn't just go anywhere. He couldn't even stay out all night like some of the guys on the team did. That was the downside to being Captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the face of the NHL. People…well, his agent, his parents, Mario…they told him that it was a fair trade off for being financially comfortable for the rest of his life.

At times like this, he really wondered.

Pushing the doors to Trees Hall open he was assailed by the smell of chlorine and a moist sort of heat. This had to be the right place.

Hitching his bag up onto his shoulder, Sid walked past a group of guys in one piece racing suits and goggles who would have made his teammate Jordan and his brothers look small. He followed their wet footprints to the change room and dumped his bag on the floor.

He didn't have any high tech gear like those guys had and despite his friend Max's urging, he wasn't going to wear a Speedo. Pulling out a pair of black board shorts, Sid laid them on a bench and then reached to pull open one of the lockers. He felt a little like he was back in high school as he pulled out a personal combination lock one of the Pens trainers had given him and twirled the combination to open it; nine, seven, eight, seven.

Sitting on the bench, he undid his right sneaker and then rolled his sock down and put it inside. He repeated the actions with his left sneaker and then put both on the bottom of the locker. Unzipping his jacket, he hung it in the stall, and then tugged his t-shirt over his head, carefully folding it and placing it inside, on that little shelf where he'd stashed his lunch back in school. His track-pants followed, and then, with a careful look around to be sure that there was no one to film him or snap a picture with their phone; Sid shimmied out of his boxer briefs and into his board shorts. After pushing his bag inside, he closed the locker and twirled the dial on the lock and slipped his feet into his familiar yellow crocs.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself and then headed through the showers and out towards the pool. He hadn't swum anywhere but Mario's pool and the lake back home in…well, maybe since Shattucks. He rubbed absentmindedly at his arms as he stood on the edge of the deck and looked around. Glancing down at the waterproof watch he'd purchased for when he was out on his Sea-doo back home, he furrowed his brow. He was on time, so where was this swim coach?

* * *

Cody pulled her body through the water, using both legs to kick like a dolphin, aiming her hands straight ahead of her like the head of a missile. The water was quiet around her. None of that splashing and hollering that had been associated with the senior mens practice earlier. She'd just been timing laps, walking back and forth along the side of the pool, yelling out times as the swimmers had taken their breaths. It had been pretty boring.

This, this was better. Her body sang as her muscles moved and stretched in ways that at once were familiar and yet, with all of the changes, all of the tension over the last few days, the exercise felt novel and not at all like a chore. She could hardly remember now why she'd complained so much about getting up at six in the morning to go to the pool to do laps. Especially after being stuck in a plane for hours and then setting a kid's bed and bookshelf….

Breaking the surface of the water, Cody took a lungful of air and then reached forward. The crawl was the easiest and fastest stroke. It wasn't her specialty. Not that she was bad at it, but it wasn't the stroke that had won her a bronze medal in the last Pan American games. It was one of the best warm up strokes, but she promised herself as soon as she made the turn at the wall, she'd change it up and do the breaststroke, maybe she'd even speed up a bit.

This was her favorite, her forte. She loved the way the water skimmed over her head as she pushed through the water and how there wasn't all that kicking and splashing. The stroke felt natural, the water calm around her. She could do this stroke for an hour if she wasn't trying for speed but she didn't have that kind of time.

Now when did the coach say her private 'client' was coming?

Cody's hands met the wall and she slowly let her feet sink to the tiled bottom, where she stood up and peeled back her goggles.

"Are you Kate Irving?"

Cody rubbed at her eyes, blaming a combination of the tight, fogged goggles and chlorine for the image standing on the deck in front of her. He had the body of Ryan Lochte and the face of Michelangelo's Cupid.

"Oh damn," she hissed. When they'd said it was a hockey player she'd assumed it would be just some college kid in need of extra conditioning not the premier hockey player, maybe in the entire world. "Hi," she waved uselessly.

"I'm…." He began to introduce himself but there wasn't much point.

"You're Sidney Crosby," she told him and he nodded, but didn't smile in that self depreciating way that she expected. The superstar embarrassed and humbled by being recognized.

"I am," he stated simply and then held his hand out to help her out of the water. Cody stared at his hand, at the thick fingers and the strong, substantial wrist and muscular forearm. Unfortunately that also led her gaze directly to his six pack and the tight, dark spirals of hair that lead from his navel to the waist of his board shorts.

Embarrassed, she forced her gaze back to his hand and accepted his hand out of the water. As soon as her feet were flat on the deck she dropped his hand and tried to ignore that it felt like he might have broken hers'.

"So, you're here for some training," she reached for the towel that she'd left draped over the edge. She rubbed her arms and then bent to rub off her legs. It was too hard to look at him in all his thickly muscled, amazingly, deliciously handsome glory. Besides, she told herself, they were both there on a professional level. This wasn't a date.

"I'm broken, apparently," she heard him mumble. She looked up at him and found him staring straight ahead, looking exceedingly unhappy to be there.

"Oh yeah?" she stood up and draped the towel over her shoulder.

"Yeah," he nodded again, just once and then she was sure she saw just the briefest hint of a smile cause the corners of his full mouth to turn up, "concussion." He pointed to his head and then shrugged one, massive shoulder. "I'm not allowed to do strenuous work outs."

"Ah," it was her turn to nod. "Well a lot of people find swimming therapeutic when they can't do any real weight bearing. So…what can I help you with?" She watched him look skeptically at the pool and was suddenly reminded of being in high school gym class with a room full of teenage girls who had just been told they had to play touch football. "We could just swim laps," she suggested casually. "Sometimes it's easier to get motivated when you have someone to do it with you." Just like a sullen teenager, the young hockey phenom shrugged his massive shoulders and made a sort of grunting noise that Cody decided to take as agreement. Cute but not very talkative, she made a mental note as she eased her toe back into the water. "So crawl? Butterfly? What's your thing?" When he stared blankly back at her, she feigned the motions, waving her arms in the air until she felt more than just a little foolish and let her arms fall back to her sides.

"I swim at the lake…I don't know…I guess," he shrugged those massive shoulders that looked like they were meant for swimming and then looked sheepishly at the pool. "Crawl?" He looked back at her, perplexed, and just for a moment Cody had to fight the urge to grab his cheeks and pinch them he looked so adorably young and naïve in that moment.

"So maybe we can occupy your time with learning a few strokes," she beamed at him and then hopped sideways into the pool. "You look like you'd be great at the butterfly." She bit back the part about how broad and round his shoulders were and how massive his chest was. _He probably knows that_, she told herself as she watched him sit down on the edge of the deck and ease himself, gingerly into the pool; _he probably doesn't need me to tell him. _

_

* * *

_

Max and Jordy would have been rolling around on the deck beating the hell out of each other just to be the first one to talk to her Sidney mused as he stuck his head under the hot water of the shower and rinsed the chlorine from his short, dark hair. Most of her teammates would have had several crude things to say about the skin suit that had hidden nothing from the imagination.

For himself he hadn't thought much about her body, not that he hadn't noticed the feminine curves, they were pretty hard to miss, but there wasn't much point in getting caught up in pretty girls, not now when he wasn't playing. Mario's wife Nathalie had hit the nail on the head when she'd compared him to a bear with his head caught in a honey jar; angry and blind to everything around him. He wasn't exactly good company at the moment.

Although he had to admit that, right this minute, he felt good. His muscles felt warm and stretched. It had felt good to use them after being forbidden to for so long and she'd been right about it being therapeutic. He felt more relaxed than he had in days, maybe in weeks and wasn't that exactly what the doctor had ordered?

Sid turned his face up into the spray and concentrated on the way the water felt beating down on his skin. There'd been days recently where he hadn't been able to enjoy something as simple as taking a hot shower. The water had felt like needles on his skin. He'd barely been able to stand it for two minutes. In comparison, standing under a cheap shower head with lukewarm water running down his face and chest felt like heaven.

It was only the commotion caused by a rowdy group of what looked to be freshman that tugged him back to reality. Shutting off the water, Sid grabbed a towel and, keeping his head down, went to his locker and spun the lock. His muscles tensed as the young men around him laughed and joked amongst themselves. He expected, at any moment, to be recognized, to be asked to pose for pictures, to have to smile and behave as if he hadn't a care in the world. That was another one of the downsides to being Sidney Crosby. He rarely got to eat his dinner while it was warm when he went out to eat. He never got to see the beginning or the end of a movie. He understood that people were excited to see him and he tried not to hold it against them, but sometimes, in a situation like he was in now, it was a bit harder to smile and pretend he didn't mind the invasion of his private time.

The first thing he did was to put on his ball cap and pull it down low. The second thing he did was to shimmy into his briefs, pulling them up under the towel. Only then did he start to relax, by inches. The young men didn't seem to be taking any notice of him. One or two gave him a sideways glance when he pulled his Penguins RBK equipment bag from the locker to put it beside him in the bench. '_Way to draw attention to yourself dummy_' Sid ridiculed himself as he dropped his sneakers to the floor and tugged his socks out.

Right foot first, just like when he put on his skates. It felt good to do these like this, normal. He was a slave to his routines and it felt good to be doing something that was close to what he would do if he was at the rink.

Of course it would have been better to actually be _at_ the rink.

Zipping his jacket closed, he rolled his trunks up in the towel and put it in the bag and then hitched the bag up to his shoulder. It felt like a lucky escape that none of the students currently surrounding them had intruded upon his space. _Maybe my luck is turning around_, he thought to himself as he weaved through the students, feeling almost invisible. It was a really good feeling. He'd have to thank that Kate Irving chick…and maybe Mario too. Maybe this swimming lark wasn't so bad after all.

Making a mental note to do just that, Sid pushed the door open and walked out into the hallway, already thinking about grabbing fish taco on the way home when he stopped, mid step. _Now that_, he thought to himself, _Max would be all over_. Painted on jeans, knee high soft looking brown boots and an even softer looking amethyst coloured sweater with a deep v-neck that show cased milky white skin and more than just a hint of cleavage. Best of all, an abundance of dark, luxuriously shiny russet coloured hair curled around her shoulders and fell softly onto her cheeks.

She was the exact reason that TK, Jordy and Max could almost always be found handing out pizzas at Student Rush ticket nights. Young, impressionable, gorgeous girls who were used to eating cup a soup and mister noodles who practically clawed each other's eyes out for a chance at steak and lobster and the chance to sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets and say they'd fucked a professional athlete.

Sid grinned at the thought of college co-eds fighting one another over a Cheshire Cat grinning Max when she turned to look his direction, an already warm smile broadening and hazel eyes filling with light. He cursed his lack of chick radar as Gronk would call it as he realized that he'd just been ogling his trainer.

Feeling his entire face get hot, Sid tried his best to get his expression under control as she dropped her own bag on the floor and turned towards him. He was trying to think of something to say, some way of explaining why he'd just been staring at her like she was some kind of prized heifer in a four H show when she walked right past him like he wasn't even there at all. Sid looked down at his hands as if he was expecting to see them fade before his eyes, as if he really was becoming the invisible man.

"Hi Reba. Did you go to the park with Cathy?" As Sid watched, Katie picked up a little girl with a riot of blonde curls and big blue eyes that reminded him immediately of Jordan's. The little girl nodded mutely, her thumb stuck between her full pink lips, her round cheeks pink from the cold outside. She looked like one of Raffaell's cherubs. "Ready to go home?" Again, the little girl nodded, still looking quite serious, but Katie's smile widened and Sidney found himself smiling too. How could you not smile at such a beautiful child?

"Should we get some hot chocolate on the way home?" the other woman asked and the little girl turned her head and smiled, ever so briefly around her thumb and nodded a little more enthusiastically. "Okay then, let's go."

Sid watched them go, wanting to follow them, wanting to go and do whatever made that little girl smile but he stayed where he was until they were already outside and lost in the crowd of students and then he turned and headed towards the other parking lot, to go home, alone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Fuck!"

Sid sat bolt upright in the dark, gasping for breath, his t-shirt clinging to his chest, soaked in sweat. The sheets were tangled in his legs, which meant he'd been skating in his sleep again and that made sense considering he'd been having that dream again, the one where Steckel was chasing him, wielding a stick that looked more like an axe. Only this time it was different. This time he wasn't just skating in a game with his teammates around him. This time he'd been skating towards someone.

Rubbing at his eyes, he tried to clear the visions from his head. He'd lost count of how many times he'd been hit in his career. He knew it had been a lot but he didn't think about all those hit. This hit, the hit he couldn't actually remember, was haunting him.

"It's just because you want to play," he told himself as he swung his legs around and put his feet on the floor. He padded across the room in the dark to the bathroom and turned on the tap. He let the cold water run over his hand for a minute and then stuck his head beneath the flow and let the icy water cool the back of his neck where he could still feel the Cap's player's malevolent stare.

It had been on purpose. He'd watched the video and he didn't care what Steckel or anyone else said about it. The Cap's players had been hunting him that night. Hell, Green had tried to pull his head clean off earlier in the game and of course it hadn't been the first time he'd been targeted. He'd developed a sort of sixth sense when it came to bigger players bearing down on him at speed. Most of the time he'd brace himself or step out of the way or even jump over them when they tried to slide tackle him as if they were in some kind of rugby game, but an open ice blind side shoulder to the head hadn't been something he'd been prepared for.

Sure, he'd been watching where he'd directed the puck so maybe he had to bear part of the blame but he was still pissed that there'd been no fine, no suspension for the hit. Everyone who had watched the video agreed that the hit had been clearly intentional. Other hits that had been clearly unintentional had still resulted in at least two game stretches for the offender. Steckel was still playing. He wasn't.

Sid turned off the water and stood there, his head still hung over the sink dripping, and tried to remember the last part of the dream, before his head spun around and felt like it was coming off. This time he hadn't been just watching where he'd directed the puck, he'd been looking up ice at someone but…who? Shaking his head and sending droplets of water everywhere, he lifted his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

_Am I losing my memory_, he asked his reflection, frustration and fear in his eyes. His hands gripped the sides of the sink hard as he tried to force the dream to replay in his waking mind.

_I was skating, I kicked the puck and then I looked up ice and…and…?_ Sid squeezed his eyes shut. It was gone, whatever or whoever it was, it was gone now, but this time instead of leaving him in a cold sweat, he felt hot, flushed and…and vaguely energized. He felt like he'd been about to do or see something good, something positive.

Bringing his fist up and then slamming it down on the porcelain sink, he cursed. It was there, right at the edge of his vision but he couldn't quite get it. It was like the hit itself. He could almost remember but not _quite_.

His head began to throb. Trying to force his brain to think wasn't helping anything. With a sigh, Sid turned and padded back to his bed and crawled in, pulling the sheets up to his chest. He lay there, staring up at the ceiling and wondered if he was going to have to count sheep to get back to sleep. It was usually difficult, damn near impossible to get back to sleep after one of these dreams. Natalie had suggested thinking about something positive, something he was looking forward to. With another sigh, Sid turned his thoughts to the last thing he'd enjoyed, swimming, and that conjured thoughts of his swim coach and those thoughts erased any cooling effects the water had provided.

That damn racing suit covered as much as a pair of shorts and a tank top would and yet it didn't stop him from imagining what was underneath it and what it would feel like to touch her skin, to kiss her full mouth while he tangled his fingers in her dark hair. With a groan, Sid slid his hand down his chest and into his boxer shorts. A little relief might help him sleep he hoped as he wrapped his hand around his cock and closed his eyes and let his imagination take him away.

* * *

Cody reached for the remote and turned down the sound. Not mute. That might alert her niece that she was being listened to and as long as she knew that, Becks didn't make a sound. Right now, however, the little girl _was_ talking now. In fact, she seemed to be having an entire conversation.

On tip toe, Cody crept down the hall and then flattened against the wall outside of the little girl's room.

"Mommy said not to move. You moved." The voice didn't sound like Becky's and at the same time, it did, but as if she was trying to make a man's voice.

"The floor was dirty. We're not supposed to get our shoes dirty. It makes mommy mad." That was definitely Becky's voice, or at least Cody was fairly sure that it was. After all, the last time she'd actually heard words come out of the little girl's mouth had been…what, maybe Christmas? And what was with the Royal We? That was a bad sign wasn't it? Maybe all she had was a couple of college classes in Psychology but words like dissociative disorder and multiple personalities were now popping into her head.

"There is no mommy. Mommy's gone." Cody winced. She'd tried to explain her sister's death to the little girl. She hadn't been sure if she'd said the right things, if what she'd said had made any impact. Obviously it had but the funny thing was, she couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

Cody's stomach tried to send her dinner back up the way it had gone down. It was just beginning to sink in that she was responsible for the little girl in that room.

She'd done everything not to end up like her sister, not to end up the moody, pregnant drop out teenager and it hadn't been easy. Not when she'd been shuffled from group homes to foster homes and back to her alcoholic mother. It hadn't been easy. She'd had to get herself to the pool every morning, had to scrounge together the money for new swimsuits and entrance fees. But she'd done it because she hadn't wanted to end up like her older sister.

Now here she was, with a little girl that had lost her mother and was now talking to herself.

Maybe she should talk to someone about that, maybe Cathy.

No, that would be a bad idea. They put kids with issues in care. Even if they didn't, there would be social workers and visits from family services and they might want to put her on drugs, chemicals that might alter her personality, might fuck up the rest of her life.

No, she wouldn't allow that. That little girl was not going into the system, unless it was over her dead body.

Taking a deep breath and plastering a smile on her face, Cody rounded the corner and beamed down at the little girl with her mother's big blue eyes.

"Hey, so is this a tea party?" The little girl nodded, mute again. "I'd love some tea. Do you think I can have some?" Becky nodded and reached for the little plastic tea pot, upending it into the empty plastic cup and then offering the equally empty sugar bowl. Cody took it and carefully measured out two empty spoonfuls and then took a long, imaginary sip. "Mmm, warm tea, so good." Becky beamed and that, Cody decided, was a very good sign.

* * *

Sid squeezed his eyes shut. The minute he did he heard the click of the doctor shutting off his pen light. He'd failed the test at the first hurdle and he felt like screaming, except that wasn't something that the Captain of the Penguins would do. Even if the doc didn't say anything, he was willing to bet someone out in the waiting room would tweet something about him going Hulk and wrecking the doctor's office.

"So still light sensitive himmm?" Sid nodded, listening to the scratching of the doc's pen on the paperwork in front of him, no doubt marking down what a girl he was being about all this. It was a fucking headache. He couldn't believe he was still going to be kept from playing. "And the lethargy? Still experiencing that?"

"Yeah, I guess." That was a ten dollar word he'd had to learn in the past month. It meant that he didn't want to drag his ass out of bed even more than usual; that he really didn't want to do anything with the exception of wanting to play and that he wanted to do, badly.

"And the headaches?" Sid watched the doctor ticking off the boxes that would keep him off the ice and he was sorely tempted to lie. The only thing that stopped him was that he'd promised his mom that he wouldn't. His life was more important than hockey, or at least that's what everyone kept telling him.

"They come and go," he shrugged.

"And the severity?" The doctor looked at him over his glasses and again he shrugged.

"Depends. I don't know, mostly they're just headaches, not migraines." He wasn't one of those guys who got migraines. Not like Flower or Tanger did when they were so stressed and wound up that they couldn't see straight. He knew what they were but this wasn't like that. "Just sort of…I don't know. They're nothing I feel like I need to take anything for." He was adamant about that. He'd heard about Eric Lindros and his ten aspirin an hour habit and that was something he was going to avoid.

"Mmm." The doc nodded and scratched something else on his pad. Sid thought that it felt like he was signing the order that would send him to the gallows. '_I've watched too many spaghetti westerns on TV lately'_ he thought to himself as he watched the doctor's pen sweep across the page. "And how are you…otherwise?" the doc finally asked, looking up at him with the same sympathetic expression that everyone seemed to be wearing around him. Shit, it was like someone in his family had died.

"Okay I guess. I'm a little tired of sitting around doing nothing," Sid replied honestly, "and answering the same questions over and over," he added in a tone he tried to keep monotone. The doctor was just doing what he was paid by the club to do. It wasn't his fault that he wouldn't be the last person to ask him these questions today.

"Didn't Mario suggest some light work outs?" Sid sighed and nodded his head.

"The swimming thing?" The doc raised his eyebrow and Sid shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it was better than I thought. I'm going again after this." The doc nodded as a sly smile spread across his face.

"It's good for you to get away from the rink. I'm glad that's working for you." Sid wanted to tell him that it had only been once, that there was no guarantee that it would work again today but he kept his opinions to himself. The doctor would probably only attribute any negativity to residual pain or something else that would make them suspicious that he was holding out on them. "I guess we'll see you next week." Sid couldn't contain the groan of disappointment as he slipped off of the examination table and onto his feet. "I know it's tough but this isn't something you want to take any chances with son," the doc added, in that father's knows best sort of way that made Sid grind his teeth.

"Next week," Sid grumbled and, grabbing his coat and bag, walked out of the office.

* * *

"No, no you're right. There's no excuse for violence," Cody nodded, one eye on where Becky was being helped into her jacket by the other day care worker. "There's no chance there was some kind of…no," she didn't finish her thought as the younger woman narrowed her eyes at her. "I'll speak to her about it. She's been through a lot lately. I did explain the upheaval and the move…," she added, leaving out that the little girl's mother had been shot dead in front of her. That wasn't part of the story. "Should I…should I apologize to the boy or his mom or…?"

"Just take Reba home Miss Irving. We'll see how it goes tomorrow." Cody nodded and held her hand out towards her niece who smiled up at her, as if she hadn't just hit another kid with building block. Cody took her hand and nodded to the woman before turning her back on the day care worker who was still watching her with a disapproving glare.

"I'm sure the little shit deserved it," she whispered to her niece whose grin widened. Cody gave her a wink and Becky laughed. "Now, what are we gonna do about you? I have that private lesson…do you swim?" she asked, almost sure the answer was going to be no. She laughed when her little blonde curls bobbed enthusiastically. "Well okay then. Let's go see if we can find you some water wings."

* * *

Sid looked down at his watch and then back at the scene in front of him. That little girl he'd seen a few days ago was sitting on the edge of the pool, clapping as Kate slipped under the water and did a handstand in the shallows. He watched her shapely legs slowly appear out of the blue water and couldn't stop his imagination from picturing them wrapped around his waist, wondering if they were as smoothed as they looked. He wondered if he should turn away and go back into the changing room, if he was intruding upon a private moment but he couldn't look away.

He hadn't done it on purpose, thought about her over the last few days, but every once in a while as he'd been sitting and doing nothing, her smile and her laugh had crept into his consciousness. He'd try to dismiss those thoughts, tried to turn his mind to something else, but before he knew it, there she was again, invading his brain. Worse, thoughts of her were waking him up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and this, he thought as she executed a pair of elegant scissor kicks, was not going to help matters.

He was about to turn and go back into the dressing room when she surfaced, to the applause of the blonde cutie in the water wings. She sketched a shallow bow and laughed, the sound filling the big empty space around them. He was mesmerized. He couldn't move. It was like he'd been super glued to the spot.

She turned to swim towards the ladder and caught sight of him and stopped, bobbing in the water and smiling, like she was actually happy to see him. Sid held his towel in front of him, knowing that he was showing all too clearly that he was more than happy to see her.

"Is it okay if my niece joins us?" she asked as her arms and legs moved in unison, treading water, as he stood there, nodding like one of his bobble heads they gave away at the arena.

"Yeah, sure…I like kids." He wondered if he sounded like some kind of pedophile. He kind of thought he did and knew that if she didn't turn her back so he could get in the water without her looking that he'd look like one too.

"My ummm, _friend_ should be here to pick her up but she was kind of a naughty little pumpkin at day care today, weren't you Reebs?" The little girl nodded and grinned and continued to kick her feet in the water. "Anyway I thought we'd start today with something relaxing…like floating."

"I don't float," he said, turning his back to her as he climbed down the ladder and slid into the water.

"Sure you do," she replied, looking at him, incredulous.

"No, no you don't understand," he said, shaking his head as swam towards her. "I sink like a stone. I don't float."

"Everyone floats," she insisted, wrinkling her nose at him. "Look." She turned to the blonde, blue eyed girl sitting on the edge of the pool in her water wings and held out her arms. The little girl dived towards Kate, into the water, no fear. "Float," she said and the little girl laid on her back, her arms wide, her eyes closed, looking for all of the world like she was asleep, except for the self satisfied smile on her face. "She floats," she pointed out. Sid shook his head.

"She's got water wings," he replied adamantly.

"C'mon, everyone floats," she insisted. "Put a brand new born baby in water and it will kick its' legs and swim to the surface. It's natural, just like floating. _Everyone_ floats."

"I don't," he said, shaking his head.

"Just…just lie back," she insisted, tilting her head to one side and staring at him expectantly. He stared back at her, defiant. He didn't want to do it. He was going to sink and she'd laugh and he really didn't want Kate to laugh at him. "Just try it," she said impatiently, rolling her eyes, "I'll hold you up, I promise. I won't let you drown." Sid sighed and shut his eyes and then, slowly, reluctantly, he allowed himself to lie back in the water. He felt her arms slide beneath his back, her body pressing close to his. "There," she said and he could hear the smirk in her voice. "Now, isn't this something you should be doing? You know, relaxing and not over thinking things?" It was true. He was supposed to be trying to unwind, rest, let his brain just relax. Not that there was really any chance of him truly relaxing with her breasts brushing along his ribs. "There, you're doing it. You're floating." He realized that he couldn't actually feel her arms beneath him. All that he could feel was the rocking of the cool water beneath him.

"Huh," he looked up to find her standing there, near him, smiling down at him with an 'I told you so' look on her face. "I guess I am."

* * *

Cody couldn't stop grinning. For one thing, a millionaire hockey player with the body of Adonis was playing Marco Polo with her and Becky and for another thing, her niece was squealing and giggling and that was definitely something worth smiling about.

"Marco!" he called, spinning in slow circles in the shallow end with his eyes squeezed shut and his hands held out in front of him.

"Polo!" Cody called back before sinking just below the surface and swimming away from him just as he reached her. She surfaced a few feet away and watched him patting the water blindly. She laughed and shook her head. The game had been his idea but she still couldn't get over the idea or the fact that his sullen almost sulky nature had seemed to transform so completely around Becky. He obviously hadn't been lying; he did seem to really like being around kids.

"Marco!" he called again and this time he began to walk right towards where Becky was clinging to the wall, making her way around the edge of the pool. Just as he was about to reach her, Becky produced a high pitched squeal and dove away, splashing and kicking up a shower of spray in Sidney's direction. He coughed and wiped at his face but instead of looking annoyed at being splashed, he was laughing.

He was truly adorable when he laughed, Cody decided. There was no way it was phony in any way. A grown man wouldn't make that high pitched giggle if he could help it. Listening to it made her want to throw her arms around him and squeeze him until he couldn't breathe. If he had any idea how good it was to see Becks laugh….

"Marco!" he called again turning now towards where she was standing, just a couple of feet from him.

"Polo," she called back and then waited as he strode towards her, his wide chest cutting through the water like one of those ships that cuts through the arctic ice making a path for smaller ships to follow. Cody's gaze roamed over his broad, round shoulders and along his thick, muscular arms and imagined being held by them. She wondered what lucky girl got to do more than wonder about that.

Just as his fingers were about to brush her shoulders, she ducked beneath the water and dodged away from him, slipping one finger just beneath the top of his shorts and snapping the waistband. He turned and started heading towards her. She watched his powerfully built legs move beneath the water and couldn't help but to think of the force he could generate with them. That thought made her stomach clench and sent a tingling sensation between her legs.

He stood, his feet shoulder width apart and she couldn't resist it. Swimming between his legs, she surfaced just behind him, tapping his shoulder and then diving away again as soon as he started to turn. She heard him curse as she dove beneath the water and couldn't resist doing it again, grabbing his calves as she did to give herself an extra push. She broke the surface of the water, laughing as he spun around, capturing her shoulders in his massive hands.

Cody caught her breath as his eyes opened. His eyes were light golden brown with hints of real gold and gem green. They were eyes that she knew she could get lost in, eyes that mesmerized, hypnotized.

"You're it," he told her in a low voice that was almost a whisper.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she agreed, though she didn't want him to take his hands off of her. She wanted him to do more than that. She wanted him to kiss her, and almost as if he'd read her mind, Sidney looked down at her mouth, like he was studying it which made her look at his mouth. She couldn't remember ever seeing a man with a mouth as full and as soft as his looked. "You're supposed to say Marco," he whispered and, after a long, silent moment, she nodded.

"Marco," she called softly.

"Polo," he answered, without moving, without taking his hands from her shoulders. She stared at him, at his mouth, wondering if his lips tasted as good as they looked.

"Polo," a little voice called uncertainly behind her, reminding her that this wasn't about her hormones or the half empty queen sized bed she had to look forward to back in that empty craftsman bungalow.

"Marco," she called a little more enthusiastically and then, very reluctantly turned and swam towards Becky who started giggling again, pushed off from the wall of the pool and kicked enthusiastically as she swam away.

* * *

"That was fun," Sid shifted his bag on his shoulder as Kate knelt in front of her niece, doing up her jacket. Niece, he was relieved about that and he wasn't sure why. He liked kids. He liked _that_ kid, even if she wasn't much of a talker, maybe because. "I'm used to joking around with the boys at practice. I've been missing that."

"How do you feel?" she asked, glancing at him over her shoulder.

"Good," he answered automatically, not realizing that he meant it until he'd said it out loud. He did an internal audit. Head felt fine. He didn't ache anywhere. He didn't feel like he needed a nap and he was actually starving. "Do you wanna get lunch or something?" he asked suddenly, because he was hungry and he didn't want to go home yet, not when he was feeling like this. He wanted to do something, use this energy he had to do something. It was a full minute, maybe more when he realized she hadn't answered. He reprimanded himself for moving too fast, for assuming that she would want to spend time with him, assuming she was like every other girl and wanted to be with him. "I'm sorry. Of course you have things to do," he began, only to be silenced by her reaching back and digging her fingernails into his leg.

"Shhh," she commanded and he did. He fell silent and then followed her gaze to where a guy was standing near the doors to the pool.

"Do you know that guy?" he whispered, making note of the bleached worn denim, torn at the knees and the dark hooded sweatshirt with the flames up the sleeves. He felt immediately possessive, defensive of her. Was this guy some kind of ex boyfriend? Had he beat her up? Sid's free hand balled into fists.

"No," she replied quietly. "But he was here before. Don't you think he looks kind of…out of place?" she asked. Sid considered the stranger for a moment and then shrugged.

"I don't know…maybe." He did look a little older than some of the other students but then Sid had to consider what little he knew about college. He glanced back down at Kate who was still watching the guy, though she was trying to be covert about it as she tugged mittens on her niece. "Why?" he asked.

"I've…he's been here before. I just…I mean you read about things like this right?" she hissed, standing up but keeping a grip on her niece's hand. "Freaks, watching girls change and stuff," she added with another wary glance towards the door. Sid nodded like he understood, thinking that if you were a woman, a mother or in this case an Aunt you probably did have to be more aware of strangers. It made him think about his sister, far from home at Shattucks. He made a mental note to send Taylor an email when he got home.

"At least let me walk you to your car," he offered. She smiled and nodded. He offered his arm. She stared at it for a moment, like he'd grown a third appendage and then slipped her arm into his. Together they walked down the hall and he pushed open the door. Sid glanced over at the guy and found him watching them. Kate was right. Something was definitely off about the guy.

Once they were past him and had merged with a crowd of students, Kate looked gratefully up at him.

"Thanks," she began, but as he opened his mouth to tell her that it wasn't necessary to thank him she continued, "You must think I'm paranoid but…if anything happened to her…," she shrugged and fell silent. Sid nodded. He imagined that it was kind of like when Taylor came to stay with him. If he ever so much as caught Max or Jordy or any of the sex crazed maniacs that were his teammates looking at her sideways, he'd be forced to kill someone.

They walked until they got to a non descript grey five or six year old Volvo and then she slid her arm from his and started to fish in her pockets for her keys. He considered asking her to dinner again but decided against it. She'd probably have to find a sitter and it was short notice and even though he didn't have a headache now he might in an hour or so and then he wouldn't be very good company anyways.

So instead he stood behind her with his hands in his pockets and watched whiles he loaded her niece into the booster seat in the back, waiting for her to turn around again.

"Day after tomorrow?" he said hopefully. She nodded and then turned and walked around the car, sliding into the driver's seat and starting the ignition. He waved and watched her back out of the space before he turned and headed to the far end of the lot where he'd left his Land Rover. When he glanced up at the doors to the pool as he passed, he noticed the stranger was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

There was something wrong. The front door wasn't just ajar and it wasn't like the place had been tossed. In fact, as her gaze swept the room, Cody didn't think that anything was even out of place and yet she felt sure that someone had been here, someone that meant them harm.

"Stay right here," she hissed to Becky, putting a hand on each of the child's shoulders as if she could force her feet to stick to the floor by sheer will. "Don't move, you understand?" She waited for the little girl to nod, making her bright blonde curls into her eyes before Cody turned and, reaching for the bear spray in her purse, headed down the hall on tip toe.

The old house creaked and groaned in the wet weather, causing her to jump at every sound, sure that she was going to turn around and find some knife wielding masked boogey man bearing down on her. She reminded herself to breathe, that passing out before finding the machete carrying psychopath was not going to help keep herself or Becky alive but her heart was racing so hard that she was having trouble catching her breath and she was afraid that she was breathing so loud that whatever shaggy haired drooling nut job was waiting to kill her was going to find her just by following the sound of her wheezing.

She was debating calling out, doing the old '_who goes there'_ routine, but when she rounded the corner into the kitchen, the room was empty.

But something was out of place.

There was an empty glass beside the sink and a ring of water around it. Cody froze and looked around the room. There were no other signs of anyone having been in that room and yet she knew there had. She herself had used a mug with breakfast and Becky's glasses were plastic.

"Shit," she hissed as she pulled her phone from her purse and hit the speed dial the agents had set up. She strode back down the hall and beckoned for Becky to follow her, holding one finger up to her lips signaling for silence.

"Katey?" Just hearing Agent Roth's voice made her feel better.

"Someone's been here, in the house," she told him as she ushered her niece back outside and towards the car.

"Someone broke in?" he asked and she was sure she could hear him grabbing keys as he got up from behind some small desk inside a cramped cubicle where pictures of his kids adorned the walls.

"Obviously. I mean…there's no sign that anyone did but…someone was definitely in there." She was beginning to doubt herself as she opened the car door and motioned for Becky to climb inside.

"Is Cathy there with you?" the agent asked and Cody stopped mid motion before closing the passenger door all the way.

"No…no and she didn't show up at the pool either. I thought…maybe she was with you that you guys were on some kind of…special case or something," she muttered, shutting the door and leaning against it. There was silence on the other end o the line. The kind of silence that suggested Agent Roth was covering the phone with his hand or at least holding it away from his face as he told someone else the news. Cody's skin crawled.

"Okay, get out of the house," the agent instructed her in a tired, resigned sort of voice, "we'll be right there."

* * *

"I'm not sure that the doc would approve. Watchin' TV in the dark man? Can't be good for the noggin."

Sid didn't have to look to know who was coming through the door. He'd known when he heard what sounded like a herd of elephants coming up the stairs.

"Not really watchin' it honestly," Sid replied, blinking to bring his tall, gangly blonde teammate into focus. He'd been thinking about Kate and about kissing her, about holding her close and feeling her soft skin beneath his fingertips, exploring her….

"Shit man, are you spacin' out? Is that one of the uh…one of the symptoms or whatever?" Jordan asked as he slid over the back of the sofa and promptly took up two thirds of it. Sid pushed the overgrown kid's feet off of his lap as he shrugged.

"Just thinking," Sid sighed, reaching for the remote and turning down the volume.

"Why?" Jordy asked, digging his fingers into the bowl of mixed nuts on the table and bringing a fist full up to his face. Sid stared at his friend and smiled. The giant had the metabolism of a teenage boy.

"I met a girl…a woman…whatever," he muttered, feeling his entire face get hot when a big shit eating grin grew on Jordan's face. "Don't...don't look at me like that. We both know I'm not going to do anything about it." Jordan sighed and his face fell.

"Oh yeah. You haven't been out with us for a bit. I forgot how fucking useless you are." Jordan grinned while Sid reached over and tossed a handful of nuts at him. Jordan just picked them up off of his chest and popped them in his mouth. "So I thought you were a fucking…whatchamacallit? Invalid, yeah. Where are you meeting chicks? Let me guess, it's a hot nurse at the hospital, right?"Sid shook his head and then went back to staring off into space. Now he was picturing Kate in one of those sexy nurse uniforms girls wear on Halloween.

"She has a kid," he found himself telling his friend almost like he was thinking out loud. "It's not _her_ kid. It's her niece," he corrected himself as the big blonde forward opened his mouth to speak. He knew what Jordan would say, why get involved with a chick with a kid when there were hundreds of girls with no ties at all absolutely gagging for it. "She doesn't speak…well hardly ever," he smiled as he thought about the little girl with the blonde ringlets.

"So this chick you met has a retarded kid she looks after that's not hers? Dude…." Sid narrowed his eyes at his friend and shook his head.

"She's not retarded, loser," Sid picked up a pillow and hit his friend as hard as he could. "She's…I don't know, shy I guess. Whatever, I like kids." He'd always thought that he'd like to have a big family, lots of kids, a whole hockey team of his own; his, adopted kids…didn't matter.

"Please tell me she's got tits like a stripper," Jordan asked hopefully, holding his hands out like he was cupping a pair of triple G's. Sid shook his head. Jordan didn't even really care. He wasn't even a breast man like Max was. He was more of an ass man. Sid liked to think his desires were more; well the words tame and vanilla came to mind. When it came to women, he wasn't as all about the physical as some of his other teammates seemed to be.

"She's…I don't know…athletic." Jordan rolled his eyes and shook his shaggy mane. He'd heard it before and Sid knew that he, Max, Kris and TK harbored hope that one day their tightly wound, highly controlled Captain would cut loose and do something crazy, like date a porn star. The thought made him smile. They'd probably have him committed for it too.

"Well maybe getting laid will be like some kind of magic pill and make you better," his friend said with an honest look of hope on his face. Sid snorted and then tipped his head back and laughed. "What? It's possible right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sid grinned and then reached for the remote and turned the volume back up while Jordan grabbed the bowl of nuts and pulled it into his lap and turned his full attention to the screen.

* * *

Cody watched the door to the diner, one hand on the can of bear spray in her lap while the nails on her other hand drummed on the table. She gave a quick encouraging smile to her niece who was happily and industriously digging into a banana split, which seemed to be doing the job of distracting her from her Aunt's anxiety.

The diner was where she'd been told to wait but despite the fact that the place was packed full of students throwing back cheap burgers and fries, Cody had herself convinced that they had been followed and that one of the supposedly innocent looking students in their Penn U shirts, Steelers or Penguins jerseys might pull a gun at any moment and splatter her brains on the wall behind her.

"Want some?" She was so unused to hearing her voice that Cody didn't react at first, didn't realize it was her that was being spoken to. It was only catching the melting ice creams dripping onto the middle of the table out of the corner of her eye that dragged her attention off of the front door of the diner and back to Becky. The little girl was holding up a spoonful of almost entirely liquefied vanilla ice cream, and one of the cherries.

"Thanks pumpkin," she grinned, blinking back tears as she realized that Becky had actually spoken directly to her again. Leaning across the table, she sucked the ice cream from the spoon, cherry and all. Becky flashed a huge, honestly happy grin and then went back to scooping the melting ice cream into her own mouth while Cody watched. If anyone tried to hurt her….

Cody's chest suddenly tightened and eyes welled unexpectedly. Brianna. She hadn't really given her sister much thought. They hadn't been close, hadn't really ever bonded in the way that sisters were supposed to. Hell she hadn't even got hand me downs, hadn't had her sister teach her how to put make up on, hadn't talked about boys. Other than Becka being dropped in her lap, she hadn't given her older sister's death much thought. She did now as she watched a line of chocolate sauce dribble down Becky's chin.

'_Way to go'_, Cody sent up a silent thought to her sister, a sort of thank you for saving the little girl's life. 'I'll do the best I can', she added, reaching over to wipe the sauce from her niece's chin. She was just sticking her thumb in her mouth when she remembered the cherry and pulled the tied stem out of her mouth.

The one thing Bri had taught her to do. Cody grinned as she put the now pretzel shaped stem on the table.

"Impressive." Cody looked up to find Agent Roth standing at the end of their table. He looked so completely incongruous to the rest of the crowd in the diner that she laughed as she slid over. She almost expected the theme song from Men in Black to start playing. "It's all clear," he began, reaching across the table to take the last cherry that was sitting in a sinking mound of chocolate ice cream. "Agent Keith…Cathy sends her apologies for freaking you out. She'd brought by some books and games for you two and was just getting a drink when she thought she heard someone outside. She went to have a look when a car took off, she followed…. Anyway, turns out it was just kids," he continued with what Cody assumed was supposed to be a comforting grin. "So you're good to go back. Unless you want to go to another safe house, which could be arranged though it might take some time," he added looking down at the phone in his hand like he really didn't want to use it.

"No…no, it's fine," Cody sighed, taking her other hand off of her can of bear spray for the first time in an hour. "More upheaval isn't good. She hit another kid in day care with a block," she added in a whisper with a sideways glance at her niece who had pulled her bowl closer to her and was eyeing the Agent in his black suit with distrust.

"Well, like I said, I'm sure it's fine to go back. We'll step up the drive-bys, have a marked cruiser come by once an hour, just for peace of mind," he added with a strained sort of smile that clearly said he didn't think it was necessary but that he was expecting her to argue the point, to be a hysterical little woman. Cody almost felt like arguing, like telling him that they could look after themselves but the bulge under his coat reminded her that he had a gun and all she had to protect herself and her niece was a can of bear spray.

"Thanks," she nodded and silently added another item to her shopping list. In the good 'ol U S of A she could buy a gun at Walmart tomorrow. "And the guy that was hanging around outside of the pool?" she asked, thinking about the way the man's beady eyes had followed them and the chill she'd got up her spine when she'd seen the flames on the man's hoodie.

"Sent an agent by, asked around…," he shrugged and Cody was certain she saw in his eyes that he did think he was dealing with an over reactive woman prone to fits of hysterics and paranoia. "Keep an eye out. Let us know if you see anything else suspicious but…I'm sure you're fine. Both of you."

Cody didn't agree but she smiled and nodded anyway. She decided that tomorrow she'd get a gun and the next time she thought she was being watched, she'd stick a magnum in the guy's ribs and ask her own questions.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"No, both hands." Cody corrected her grip on the pistol, putting one hand beneath the other and then she took another deep, steadying breath.

"Like this?" she asked, closing one eye and concentrating on the target down the lane, aiming for the shadow man's head.

"Now you've got it," Cathy patted her shoulder and Cody squeezed the trigger. She felt the vibration through her arms and into her shoulders. It felt good. It felt…well fucking powerful.

"Fuck yeah!" she grinned at the hole she could see in the target. "Hot damn!" She turned and grinned at the agent standing behind her.

"Empowering isn't it?" the woman said, holding her hand out for the gun. Reluctantly Cody handed the twenty-two back. "You sure you want one of these in the house?" Cathy asked. "I mean with Reba in the house? Like it or not, accidents happen," she added with that mother knows best social worker expression on her face.

"I don't intend to keep it where she can get it and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have it than be dead," Cody stated positively, still looking at the gun. She hadn't expected to like the feel of it in her hand but that didn't mean she was going to go around waving it in people's faces. "I saw a gun locker that has a code lock. That's how you guys keep yours at home, right?" She'd probably seen it on one of those crime shows she liked to watch but Cathy nodded as she took the clip out of the gun.

"Keep them like this. That's the safest thing to do. The clip slides in easily," she added, demonstrating. Cody heard the sound when the clip slid into place before the agent put the safety back on. "Safety on until you're sure you're going to use and then, and only then, point it only if you mean to use it. A gun is only a deterrent if the person you're aiming at believes that you'll pull the trigger." Cody smiled and nodded.

"Anyone comes in the house that I don't invite there can consider their balls targets," she grinned as the agent slid the clip out and then handed the two pieces back, separately.

"I had no idea you were inviting anyone," Cathy gave her that expectant sort of look that said she wanted to hear all about it. The sad thing was there was nothing to tell.

"If…if I invite anyone," Cody put the gun into the case and the clip beside it before closing the case and zipping it shut.

"So that means you're planning on inviting someone," the agent mused as she leaned against the half wall that divided the shooting lanes. "Anyone in particular? Anyone you'd like me to check out before you do? I can get pretty much any information you want, tax records, SAT records, dui arrests….?" Cody bit her tongue. It was only wishful thinking on her part at this point but she was also pretty sure that if she did ask, there wouldn't be any information to find on Sidney. Not only would any school or tax information probably be off limits to the US authorities but she was pretty sure that he was otherwise, pretty squeaky clean.

"How about I let you know if I find someone that I want to invite around. Right now, I'm pretty focused on getting Becks out of her shell." Cathy nodded as they both turned to head out.

"Still having trouble with the name change?" the woman prompted, to which Cody could do little but nod in agreement.

"It's hard enough getting her to talk without changing her name, at home at least. I try my best to remember when we're out in public," Cody added a little more defensively than she meant to. "She is making some progress, right?" she asked, glancing sideways at the agent who smiled and nodded.

"She is," Cathy agreed. "You seem to be doing a great job with her. You should be very proud of yourself. I know this isn't easy. You've given up a lot to keep her safe. She'll be grateful one day." Cody nodded but swallowed the first response that came to mind, which was '_only if I keep her alive until then'. _

_

* * *

_

Sidney looked down at his watch. The pool was empty and Kate was nowhere in sight. He'd been a few minutes early but now she was definitely late.

He'd been looking forward to this all day, which in and of itself was a bit pathetic he thought, and now he was feeling crushed by her absence. '_Shit man, you're sad'_ he told himself, but it was Max's voice he heard in his head and that made him smile. He didn't even have to be around the guys anymore to know exactly what they would say to him in any given situation.

He stared down at his feet which were ankle deep in the pool. He never really thought about how pale he was during the season. It was a given. He spent almost all of his time at the rink and the gym and no one expected a hockey player to look like some gorilla from the Jersey Shore. Still, he seemed to be even more transparent than usual. At least in between morning practice and evening games he and one or more of the guys would go out and do something. Unless, of course, they were in some Canadian city, in which case he'd be stuck inside playing on his PSP.

Where were the guys today? Normally he'd know the schedule off by heart but for his own sanity he'd taken it off his fridge. When all he wanted to do was play, it sucked to know exactly what he was missing every time he got up to have a glass of water or grab a piece of fruit. Was it New York, New Jersey? Nowhere warm, so he wasn't missing much there but still….

"Sorry we're late." Sid looked up to find Kate standing over him, not wearing her usual bathing suit and cap but in her street clothes. She did have on those boots again but she also had a red toque with a white pom pom pulled down over her dark hair and a red and white striped scarf wound around her neck. "I'm not really in the mood to swim today and…well I have my niece with me again and she really, really wants to go to the zoo, dontcha squirt?" Sid looked over at the little girl who nodded, her sparkling blue eyes wide and watching him with hopeful interest. "I don't suppose you want to come?" He found himself grinning and as soon as he nodded, the little girl squealed, launched herself at him and threw her arms around his neck. Taken off guard, Sid sat there, not sure what to do and then, eventually and carefully, he folded his arms around her small, slight back. He looked up at Kate who gave him a grateful smile.

"I don't think I've actually been to the zoo," he told her honestly as Kate's niece unwound herself from him and, almost as if she remembered that he was really a stranger, backed up stuck her thumb in her mouth and went back to watching him with those huge, round eyes of hers'.

"Really?" Katie looked shocked. "Darn…I was hoping you'd be able to be a kind of guide for us. Beck…Reba's not really great with strangers…or she isn't _usually_," she corrected herself, shining another one of her amazing smiles down at him as he struggled to his feet.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out right?" he beamed back at her. "I mean, one Polar Bear is pretty much like all the rest…right?" She nodded and then, he was almost sure, she started to let her gaze fall down to his bare chest, catching herself at the last minute and blinking as she met his gaze again.

"You sure you're up to this?" she asked with a quick, sideways glance, down at her niece. "I mean...she asked if you could come but I'd totally understand if you didn't want to." Sid wasn't sure, but he thought she was the one looking hopeful now, or was that just wishful thinking? He had been almost sure last time they'd been here that she felt something too, even if it had just been for a moment but, as the guys would remind him time and again, his experience with women was, to say the very least, limited.

"Like I said, I don't think I've been and...yeah, I'm up for it," he replied and wondered if he sounded a little too eager. After all, she wasn't asking him out. In fact, he told himself firmly, she was probably only feeling guilty about jamming out on a paid session. That was all there was too it and making anything more out of it was...well, in Gronk's words, amateur hour. "I'll just...I'll get changed...two minutes," he promised holding up two fingers like she needed more of an explanation that what he'd just said. Shaking his head at himself, he turned and headed for the dressing room.

* * *

She'd had her doubts when Becks had announced that she wanted to be taken to the zoo and she wanted that 'cute boy' to come with them. Cody had been packing her swimsuit and towel and Cathy had been trying to put Becky's My Little Pony back pack on her, but the little girl had been steadfastly refusing to cooperate.

It wasn't that her arm had to be twisted too hard to be talked into going to the zoo instead of swimming. She'd had to toss a handful of Pamprin down her throat just to get her ass out of bed and the idea of putting on a swimsuit when she felt bloated and a lot like staying in bed didn't exactly appeal. Still…asking Sidney Crosby if he wanted to spend the day at the zoo…well, that had filled her with a similar amount of trepidation.

No Cody was trying to remember the last time she'd seen Becky skip and she was thinking maybe never. Not even last Christmas, when she had unwrapped the easy bake oven that Cody was still sure she was way too young for. Now, as she looked down at her niece skipping beside her, she felt her heart swell.

"Polar bears!" Becky suddenly screamed and pointed at the exhibit they were coming to. Cody was about to let go of the little girl's hand but instead of running ahead, Becks reached for Sid's hand. Cody felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest as she waited, expected him to rebuke the little girl's innocent and enthusiastic offer. It would wipe the wide, exultant grin from her niece's face if he did and she silently hoped that he would somehow know or guess that.

She watched a multitude of emotions flash behind his hazel eyes hidden in the shadow created by the bill of his ball cap, which he was currently wearing, pulled low over his handsome features in an attempt at anonymity. Not that it had worked. She'd seen the double takes, heard the urgent whispers and turned around once or twice to see a phone being held up to take a picture of the famous forward. She hadn't really thought about the compromising position she had asked him to put himself into until the woman at the ticket kiosk had gasped when he'd handed her his credit card. Now Cody was all too aware of just how profound Becky's request was to him, no matter how innocent the child's actual intent. Cody was already formulating the explanation she was certain she would have to give when Sidney took Becky's hand and winked down at her.

"Swing me!" Becky demanded, jumping up and down.

"Ready?" he asked, grinning over at her. Cody nodded. "Okay. Here we go. One…two…three!" They swung her high in the air and Becky screamed with delight.

* * *

It had been a good fucking day. When was the last time he'd taken a day to do…well something like this? Be a tourist, do…nothing. Enjoy just…being. He'd even had a hotdog, and some of Reba's cotton candy and he hadn't thought about his head all day. _'I guess this is what the doc meant by getting away from the rink'_ he thought to himself as he smiled at nothing in particular.

"She's tired," Kate explained as they had to stop for maybe the fourth or fifth time as Becky began to drag her feet. "I'll have to carry her."

"Let me," he offered, turning to scoop the child up and hold her on his hip like he remembered his mom doing, like he'd seen Dupes and some of the other guys on the team do with their own kids.

"Piggy me," Reba yawned and then laid her head against his shoulder, her tiny hands gripping his jacket as her eyes fluttered closed.

"Okay squirt, you're the boss," he told her as Kate helped to swing the child around to his back. Her little arms nearly choked him but he didn't mind as he adjusted her weight. "I think she had a good time," he whispered to Kate who fell in step beside him as they headed towards the car park.

"She'll sleep tonight, that's for sure," she replied with a grin. They walked in silence side by side for a minute before he felt her eyes on him. He glanced over and she quickly glanced away. His blood suddenly felt warmer in his veins and the smile he had already been wearing got bigger. "Thanks for today. I didn't really think about…well your fans," she added tilting her head to indicate a pair of young women whose eyes had suddenly got very wide, wide enough that he could see the big wad of bubblegum in one girl's mouth.

"Honestly, it was my pleasure. Just part of the therapy, right?" he asked, partly in fun and partly because he was hoping that she would admit that she'd enjoyed the day enough that he could ask her to do it again; only maybe next time without the tiny chaperone.

"I do what I can," she said instead but the sideways glance she shot in his direction told him that the way he was thinking was on the right track. He was just wondering if she would prefer sushi or Italian when they got to their cars, her Volvo parked beside his Land Rover. It didn't take a mechanic to tell something was wrong with her car.

"Son of a…." She managed to edit the curse before it came out of her mouth but he couldn't blame her for wanting to let the expletive fly. Her front two tires were absolutely flat and, as they circled the car, so were the rear two.

"That doesn't look like a coincidence," he offered, not very helpfully as he turned to look at his own vehicle, which, he was grateful to see, looked untouched.

"It's not…shit." He turned to see her pulling her phone from her pocket and, holding up her finger to ask for a moment, she walked a few steps away.

"Wot's wong?" a sleepy voice asked in his ear.

"Something's wrong with your Aunt Kate's car," he explained, opening the back door to the Land Rover and then turning so his passenger could scramble inside. "She's just calling a tow truck." At least that's what he hoped she was doing as he watched her pace back and forth, gesticulating wildly as she whispered into her phone. "Aunt Katie will be right back," he added, trying to comfort the child who was now beginning to make the sniffing sounds that portended a tantrum.

"I want Aunt _Cody_," the little girl insisted, her big, sapphire blue eyes starting to fill with tears. Cody? Sid shook his head. _Must be some kind of pet name_, he thought, turning the name over in his mind, deciding that it sounded enough like Katie that a nick name was the most likely explanation.

"She'll be right back squirt," he repeated, wishing he was the kind of guy that kept snacks in his car; that he had something, _anything_, to distract the normally happy child and stop her from crying.

"I'll have to call a tow truck…," she grumbled as she returned to stand in between their vehicles but her gaze was nervously taking stock of their surroundings. "It's probably just kids but…." She fell silent and then heaved a huge sigh. "Look," she turned her gaze to meet his. "Why don't you go? We'll be fine here. I'm sure the tow truck won't take long and…."

"I'm not leaving you here waiting in the cold," he insisted, opening the passenger door for her. "Give me your keys, I'll get the booster seat out and then I'll have your car towed to a guy I know and it will be back at your place in the morning," he added, giving her what he hoped was a positive and encouraging smile. "Okay?"

"I really appreciate the offer but you really don't want to get involved in this," she muttered, all the while looking longingly at the leather passenger seat inside of his Land Rover.

"I insist and besides," he added, giving her a conspiratorial wink "if this has something to do with some pain in the ass ex boyfriend, I think I could probably take him," he added, flexing his bicep, which, as he thought about it wasn't really that worthwhile considering the heavy wool pea coat he was wearing. Still, Katie finally cracked a smile.

"Well…I guess if you insist."

"I do," he added, holding his hand out for her keys. With another sigh, she put them in his hand and he felt it again, that sudden jolt of electricity charging up his arm through his veins that he'd felt the other day at the pool. "I'll uh…I'll get the booster seat," he mumbled, tearing his gaze away from her shocked one so that he could turn his back on her and take a deep breath to clear his head.

* * *

"I'm sorry about the way the day ended," he said as Cody tried to unlock the front door of the house. Her hands were shaking. They'd been shaking ever since she'd seen the car sitting on all four of its' rims. Worrying about being responsible for a Canadian icon getting shot because he was in their company had done nothing to make her feel any better either.

"I'm sorry you had to come all the way out of your way to bring us home," she apologized as soon as she got the door open. She turned around and offered, with open arms, to take the sleeping burden from his arms but he just slid past her and into the house. She watched him go, trying her best not to stare at his ass the entire time which was a task easier said than done considering it reminded her of a big, ripe peach that she wanted to sink her teeth into.

"Right?" he asked as she closed the door behind them.

"Yeah," she replied, following him down the hall. "Left again," she directed and then followed him to the end of the hall to the door with the Dora the Explorer growth chart on it. He gently kicked the door open and Cody leaned in the door way to watch him tenderly lay his burden on the pink and purple bedspread. Becky grunted like a little pig and promptly curled into a ball, her thumb in her mouth. Sid stood over her for a long minute and Cody's chest ached at the sight of him looming protectively over her charge. Having a man in the house, no matter how anti feminist it sounded, felt safer than being without one.

"She's a good kid," he whispered finally as he turned and followed her out it into the hall. Cody pulled Becka's door partially shut and then tip toed down the hall after him.

"Thank you," she said as they reached the junction between the dining room at the front of the house and the short hall to the front door. This is where, to be hospitable, she should ask him in, but it wasn't safe here for him and she wasn't about to get involved with a anyone, let anyone get close to them, no matter how crazy fucking hot he was or how sweet. "I haven't seen her that happy in…well…I'm not sure when."

"Well I had a great time to. We should definitely do something like this again soon," he offered brightly and Cody got a sudden vision in her head of an eager puppy barely able to contain a sit stay as his gaze held hers'. In his eyes was a message that he wasn't exactly suggesting a trip to the petting zoo. The woman in her that was in a new strange city with no friends leaped at his words and was just like a puppy in a pet shop window, jumping and barking for attention. The wary old guard dog who had glanced in the rear view mirror the entire way home trying to decide if they were being followed overruled the puppy.

"Oh…I'm sure you have much better things to do than hang around us," she said, trying to be diplomatic.

"You'd be surprised," he mumbled, shrugging. "Since the injury…yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd rather hang out with you than sit at home by myself." He didn't wait for her to argue again. He took two steps forward and then she felt his hand on her arm. She wanted to look down at it, to see if he could wrap his whole hand around her arm but he was too near and besides, she couldn't make herself look away from his gold bronze orbs. "I'll see you soon," he said confidently and then his full, soft lips were brushing her cheek as he brushed past her, leaving her standing in the hallway as if frozen to the spot, her heart hammering like an air hammer in her chest while she listened to him pull the door closed behind him.

"I almost thought I was going to have to go out one of the windows." Cody slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that scratched its way out of her throat as Cathy appeared from the kitchen, a steaming mug of something in her hand. "Well, if you were going to start making out with Sid the Kid I didn't want to cramp your style."

"Jeeezusss," Cody put a hand out to the wall to steady herself. "I think I'm having a heart attack."

"Sorry kiddo, but I thought announcing my presence might interfere with the romantic moment," the agent added with a sarcastic smirk. Cody rolled her eyes. "Besides, you didn't look like you wanted to hear about your car when he was kissing you."

"He didn't kiss me," Cody muttered, though it was taking actual effort not to reach up and touch the spot on her cheek where his lips had touched her skin. "So…what the hell was that about? The shit with my car?"

"The agency is picking up the car from the mechanic your boyfriend had it sent to," Cathy continued to tease despite Cody shooting her a warning look. "They'll dust it for prints. We'll know better in the morning. Meanwhile, there's an unmarked cruiser across the street and I'll stay the night. I hope someone just didn't like Swedish cars but…we may have to talk about moving." Cody shook her head as she accepted the fragrant cup of tea from the agent's hands.

"I'd hate to do that to her," she sighed as she took a sip that tasted of peppermint and something slightly floral.

"I know, but I'd hate to see you both dead."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Kovalev?" His hand curled into a fist and his teeth ground together. "Are you trying to tell me something? Is there something I don't know? Am I done, is that it?" He looked across the wide mahogany desk at the man sitting behind it, feeling like he was in the Principal's office being expelled for something he hadn't done.

"With you and Geno out, we had to do something," Shero begins but it isn't to him that Sid is looking for confirmation of what he already knew.

"It's precautionary," Mario was giving him that encouraging smile but his crystalline blue eyes lied. "No one can replace either of you. You know that. Bringing Kovy back...you know that without Gonchar here Geno's been at sixes and sevens." The big man was trying to deflect his concern but the lead weight in the pit of Sid's stomach wouldn't allow the lie to sit comfortably.

"Am I done? If I am you should just tell me," he told his mentor, trying to hold the gaze of his mentor who was acting like a shy girl on a first date, looking at everything and anything but his star player, the face of the franchise. What nails he hadn't already bitten off were now digging into Sid's palms. His head was beginning to throb.

"You know this is a day to day thing. We're not going to rush it and you're not going to do what Savard did last year," Mario said in that father knows best tone, finally levelling his gaze which meant he was finally saying something that he meant. "When you're ready you'll come back. That might be next week, but it might be next year and we all have to be okay with that." Now Sid felt like the one that was being admonished and he slid down in the leather chair. Mario wasn't saying anything that he didn't already know. He just hated hearing it.

"I could play," he began but he could hear the lie in the whine of his own voice.

"What do the doctor's say?" Shero sounded like kid that had just been told Christmas had been moved up a month and when Sid looked over at the General Manager, hoping that he was on his side he almost laughed. The little man looked like he wanted to bounce and clap his hands together he was so happy.

"They _say_ he hasn't passed the tests yet," Mario said in a matter of fact tone of voice that said that the discussion was over before it had started. "They also say that he shouldn't be hanging out at the rink, which, by the way, is something Dan is also saying." Sid didn't need to look over at Mario to know that his blue eyes would hold both mirth as well as criticism. He didn't need to be told, again, that he was being a pain in the ass. He also didn't need to tell Mario how much it was killing him not to be out on the ice.

"I'm bored, okay? Being cooped up in the house...I need something to do," he argued with a quick glance at the stacks of paper littering Mario's desk. There had to be something he could be given to do.

"I'd heard the swimming was going well." Sid felt his entire face go up in flame and slid further down into his chair. There was no way he was going to tell them that Kate was the reason he'd been awake so early and at the rink doing the 'light workout' that he was allowed to do. Right now there were only two things on his mind and only one of them had anything to do with hockey.

"I still need something else to do," he muttered, knowing he sounded like a sulking child, because he felt like a sulking child.

"You should get away. Take some time. Go home." He knew when his mentor said 'go home' he didn't meant to his new, big empty house. He meant Cole Harbour. He glanced up at Mario and he knew that the expression on his face would read 'hurt'. He couldn't believe he was being sent away, like he'd done something wrong. "If it helps you to get into a better head space, to relax, it's worth a try. We want back on the ice as badly as you want to get back," Mario said more quietly and Sid could do nothing more than nod. He'd do anything to get back on the ice.

"I'll think about it," he agreed, because somehow it was important to him not to give in right away and besides, he'd have to tell Kate if he was going to go and if he really was going to go there wouldn't be any more opportunities to put off asking her out. This would be it.

"Let us know what you decide to do," Shero told him as Sid got up out of the oversized leather chair.

"I will," he promised and then he turned his back on the conspirators and left the room.

* * *

"So _nothing_? You can't say one way or the other?" Cody's hands hadn't stopped shaking since they'd found the car sitting on all four of its rims. There had been only one upside to this 'message', or so she'd thought, and that had been that there would be clues to who was sending it and now, Agent Roth was sitting in front of her telling her they didn't know any more now than they had two days ago. "No prints? No DNA? No note in the glove box?" She looked at the two agents sitting in front of her and felt like screaming when they both looked back at her like she was some kind of ignorant, whining child.

"It's not like those CSI shows. These things take time. If there had been any DNA, which there wasn't any but yours and Reba's, it would take weeks to get any kind of conclusive hits from it. And no, there were no identifiable prints. Whoever did this was wearing gloves, which is the reason we're here. That means it wasn't just kids. Whoever did this didn't want to leave any evidence behind which means that we're dealing with pro's here." The two agents looked at one another and then the Agent Roth continued. "We're going to arrange another location. We just need a day or so and then..."

"A day or so?" She realized as soon as the words were out of her mouth that she'd shouted them. She glanced around at the college kids in the large cafeteria with its' high ceilings and winced. No one was staring at them. In fact, most of the people at the tables closest to them didn't so much as pause in their conversations. "We could be dead in a day or so," she added in a lower voice, through clenched teeth.

"We have a car parked right across the street and if you'd like Agent Keith to continue staying in the house...," he paused and looked at his partner who shrugged her shoulders.

"That's up to you Katie, you tell me what you want to do. There's a safe house, it's not much but we could get you there in an hour if you really feel threatened." Cody felt her mouth drop open. 'Threatened?' She supposed to these agents having someone slash your tires was nothing but to her, it said '_I have a knife and I can do this to your throat'._

"I don't know... I mean, this is where you're supposed to tell me what to do." They seemed to think she was going to be fine. They were taking all of this lightly, like she was making a mountain out of a mole hill but... "If you think we're fine I don't really want to uproot her." Cody thought about the way that Becka had sung to herself last night in the tub and had splashed happily with the new tub toys that they'd bought, how the little girl was finally coming out of her shell. If they moved again, would she backtrack and fall silent once again?

"We really think if we were dealing with the Hells Angels, if they know where and you are, you'd be dead already," Agent Keith said with what Cody knew was supposed to be a comforting smile. Funny thing was, she didn't feel comforted by it at all.

"If something else happens, say, an escalation to actual death threats by phone or mail...," Agent Roth began but the look on Cody's face silenced him.

"How likely is that? Like you said, if they want to kill me or Becka or both of us they will," she muttered, pushing away her untouched sprout and shrimp salad sandwich. She'd been looking forward to it. She wasn't hungry now.

"If they're just trying to intimidate you, then they'll probably continue to do stuff like leaving you with flat tires, or, like Agent Roth was saying, they'll leave a note or maybe try to call you. The fact of the matter is, we're not far and you've got round the clock surveillance and they'll know that. We're pretty sure you're safe," Cathy said, reaching across the table to put her hand over to of Cody's. Cody stared down at the woman's hand with her French manicure and her thin, tasteful gold band. It didn't look like a hand that could do much to keep her safe.

"Well...one more thing...one more and then I'm gonna want out of this city," Cody grumbled, grabbing her bag and, rolling her eyes at the confident smiles the Agents turned up towards her, she headed towards the pool.

* * *

She was beating the water with her arms and legs like it had done something to her and she was trying to teach it a lesson. If he'd been allowed to, Sid knew he'd be on the ice doing the same thing with a bucket of pucks and an empty net, or maybe Flower. When he was in a mood like this, he could shoot pucks until he couldn't raise his stick over his waist anymore. He wondered what had put her in the mood that had her tumbling at one end of the pool and going straight back to beating the water into submission. He wondered if he had the stones to ask her.

'_And what would you do if she told you_?' he asked himself as he slid his feet into the water and slowly lowered himself into the cool embrace of the pool. He liked to think that he would put his arms around her and she would let him hold her while they talked it out. On the other hand, he was pretty sure she would probably tell him it was nothing and clam up. Just like she had done the other day at the zoo every time he'd tried to turn the tables and ask her anything about her life.

She was a master of changing the subject, he'd noticed; especially when it came to anything to do with Reba. Oh she'd talk about general things, like how the tiny little girl could happily eat her weight in ice cream or how she could throw a tantrum over going to bed on time, but ask about her parents and blam! The walls of steel came down, Kate's eyes would go blank and before he knew it, they were talking about giraffes or brown bears.

'_Not that it matters'_, he reminded himself as he pushed off from the wall and started swimming slowly, the breast stroke that Kate had said she found relaxing. He was probably going to leave for Cole Harbour in a day or two. Go sit on the edge of his wharf stare at the ice or something brain numbing like that. He couldn't let himself think about a girl, no matter how pretty and mysterious she was or how much of every single night since he'd met her he'd spent thinking about pressing his mouth to hers' or stripping her out of the racing suit she was wearing now, kissing every single solitary inch of bared skin until she was shuddering and calling out his name.

Maybe that was why he had to go back home. Maybe he needed to get away from her too. Away from everything and anything that was stressing him out. He just needed to clear his head, he told himself as his hands reached the wall and he stood, his feet on the bottom of the pool. He shook his hair out, like a dog coming in out of the rain and looked over to find her hanging onto the floating lane dividers and grinning at him.

'_Or'_, he thought as he grinned back at her '_I can try and find out more about her_.'

"Hey," she called, pulling her goggles up over her swim cap. "How's the noggin?"

'_Better for seeing you'_ was what sprang to his lips but instead he said, "about the same. Where's the squirt?"

"Day care. She's stopped hitting boys with bricks. I told her it's easier to get ants with honey," she grinned and then suddenly disappeared beneath the water. He waited, wondering where she was going to reappear and then he felt her hands on his ankles and shuddered. If she had any idea what she was doing to him... "Race you?" she gasped, breathless as she bobbed to the surface.

"Get ready to lose," he laughed, launching himself into the water like a torpedo. He thought he could hear her laughing somewhere behind him as he slid beneath the surface of the water. He was regretting not coming up with some end game to the race, some sort of prize as he began to reach hand over hand, kicking his legs hard as he pushed himself through the water. What would it be, dinner? Club? Letting him make mad, passionate love to her all night long?

Sid nearly choked on the mouthful of water he inhaled as he started to laugh. Like there was a chance in hell that he would ever be as forward as, oh, say Max would. Yeah, Max would make that bet and not blink an eye. That shit would never come out of his mouth. Not in a million years.

His hands hit the wall and he surfaced, still coughing only to find her not only finished, but out of the water and squatting at the edge of the pool over top of him.

"Shit," he gasped shaking his head.

"Well, it's a good thing you already have a gold medal in hockey because if you let a girl beat you in the pool..._agh_!" He had a hold of her ankle and sent her sailing over his head and into the pool with one tug.

* * *

Her internal dialogue felt like it was coming from a parent, except she'd never had much of an example when it came to that. Maybe it was more like a teacher, no, a swim coach. It was definitely like one of her swim coaches, only this time it had nothing to do with breathing or the arc of her stroke, it had to do with amazingly sexy and handsome hockey player in the changing room next door.

As she ran her fingers through the tangles of her hair, she was admonishing herself for flirting with him. Not that it was really possible not to. '_How could I not?_' she asked herself as her imagination formed a vision of his thickly muscled, solid body under the spray of the shower, his skin glistening under the water, his hands making suds go...

'_Stop_!' she commanded herself and winced as her fingers got caught in a particularly snarled mass of hair. '_You can't drag him into this'_ she reminded herself. Her life was fucked up enough without having to think about his safety on top of everything else.

"Oh yeah, imagine telling him the truth about why your tires got slashed," she mumbled sarcastically under her breath. One of the girls who was just getting into her race suit glanced up worriedly at her. Cody shot her a 'mind your own business' look and grabbed her brush from her bag and began to tug at the knot.

There was no doubt in her mind that Sidney, the Greek God Adonis, Crosby could snap his fingers and any woman in this entire city, hell, for that matter most of the women in all of North America, would immediately get naked and spread the pink. Why in the hell would he want to get involved with a woman on the run from the Hells Angels with a kid in tow?

'_Better just forget about it before you make a fool of yourself'_, she told herself as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

"Besides, we're probably not staying here," she added out loud and then, catching a puzzled look reflected in the mirror from one of the girls behind her, she giggled and tossed her hairbrush back into her purse and then grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

* * *

Sid glanced at all of the faces of the students around him as he waited outside the changing room, looking for Kate. He was determined to at least get her to go for coffee with him. That would be a start and then maybe next time there was a new Italian restaurant that Tanger had told him about. Maybe they could try that together.

But then he started to think about Reba and how it might be hard for Kate to get a sitter. He thought about Vero or Heather and wondered if Kate would be open to him arranging a sitter and..., '_and you're getting ahead of yourself buddy'_ he laughed to himself as he shuffled his feet nervously and glanced out from beneath the brim of the ball cap he had pulled down low over his eyes.

She was taking forever to get changed. Flower was always complaining about how long it took Vero to get ready, even just to go to a game. For himself, Sid had often wished he had that problem. He's also wished for someone, besides Mario's wife, to make him his pre-game meal, to lay out his suit and to wear his jersey while covering her eyes during the shootout.

With a glance down at his watch, he started getting the sinking feeling that, rather her being late it was he that had missed her. His shoulders rounding with disappointment, he started to head towards the double glass doors that would take him out to the parking lot. If he hadn't still been keeping a hopeful eye out for her, he would have missed the guy in the black hoodie with the flames up the arms. It was the same guy that had been waiting outside last time, the one that had made Kate so nervous.

Sid glanced sideways at him, the way he would watch an opposition defenseman out of the corner of his eye. He saw the bearded man glance in his direction, but Sid kept his head down and continued towards the parking lot, scanning the cars for any sign of Kate's Volvo. It was always possible that the guy was stalking him and not her, although his stalkers were usually a lot younger and female Sid thought as he stopped and knelt down, feigning tying his shoe.

Keeping one eye on the tall, dark scruffy stranger, Sid noted that the man stopped almost as soon as he had and was now studiously looking at the ticket machine for the parking lot, but was not reaching for a wallet or change.

"Shit," Sid cursed under his breath as he got up again and scanned the parking lot, finding her swinging pony tail a couple of rows ahead of him. He tried to slip in between two SUV's, hoping that he could lose the biker type and catch up with Kate in time to warn her but as he emerged in the next row, he saw her getting into her car and her stalker sliding behind the wheel of a rusty, banged up old Trans-Am. "Fuck!" he cursed as he sprinted towards his own vehicle and threw himself in behind the wheel.

A million scenarios played out in his head. The guy could run her off the road, or just pull up beside her, pull out a gun and blow a hole in her head. Of course he could also follow her all the way to the house and then...

The Trans Am changed lanes in front of him and he was forced to slam on his brakes. He cursed a blue streak and reached for his phone. Should he call 911 or some of the guys and have them bring some baseball bats?

Did the guy know he was following him? He had to, Sid thought as he slammed his hand against the steering wheel. His Land Rover wasn't exactly unobtrusive. And what did he think that he was going to do anyway? Sure he could hold his own in a fight on the ice with guys who didn't really want to hurt him but this guy? This guy could make his concussion look like child's play.

He was about to hit Max's speed dial when Kate's Volvo dove off the highway, heading towards a mall parking lot. '_Good girl'_ he thought with a feral grin as he watched her slow down to a crawl, with her blinker on. The Trans Am roared, sending a plume of blue smoke out its twin tail pipes and then left two streaks of rubber as it headed further down the highway.

Sid slowed the Land Rover and took the same turn off. He kept far enough back that she wouldn't see him, although he could see here innocently bopping her head to what had to be some energetic music, her pony tail swinging. He turned into the parking lot but headed for an empty spot a few rows away from the spot into she nosed the Volvo. He scanned the parking lot, watching the mothers and their kids getting out of minivans and working moms in their suits rushing into the grocery store for that one item they'd forgotten. He watched her get out of her car, slipping her keys into purse and pulling out her iPod. As soon as her ear buds were in, her pony tail started to sway as she walked towards the front doors of the department store.

He waited until Kate was safely inside and then scanned the parking lot again. The Trans Am was nowhere in sight. He waited a few minutes, expecting to see the brown and gold late seventies muscle car roar into the parking lot, but it didn't. Not for all of the twenty minutes it took her to come back out and make her way back to the Volvo and drop her bag on the passenger seat.

Satisfied that he'd done his good deed for the day and that she wasn't in any immediate danger, while also making a mental note to drive by her place later on his way to Halo night at Max's, Sid backed the Land Rover up and headed back out of the parking lot.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Hey rugrat, come on. You're gonna make us late," Cody yelled over her shoulder as slid her finger into her key ring and picked her keys out of the bowl by the door. The poor kid was about as easy to wake up and get moving on a Friday as she herself was; which was not at all.

"Coming!" came the irritated call from down the hall and she could picture her niece's usually angelic face screwed up into a frown as she listened to her drag her feet down the hall. Shaking her head but with a smile on her face, Cody reached for handle on the front door, pulling it back, letting in a blast of frigid air.

"Put your heavy coat on, it's cold," she called back and heard a grumble in response. Chuckling to herself, Cody reached for her own scarf, hanging by a peg by the door and was just reaching for Becky's when something she barely saw out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. A clearly dead bird lay stiff on their doorstep, it's feet curled in an obvious sign of rigamortis, its eye blank and lifeless. "Awww poor thing. Did some nasty kitty do this?" she said to it quietly as she reached for the newspaper to scoop it up with before Becky came around the corner. The last thing she needed now was an inconsolably crying child; they were running late enough as it was. As she slid the paper beneath the tiny, fragile form she noticed something around its beak, something shiny that glinted in the early morning winter sunshine. "Shit." Cody dropped the paper and the bird skidded down the stairs.

Standing, she scanned the street. There was no car, no one standing anywhere she could see. The street was silent and empty, no one walking their dog, no birds in the trees. She felt goose bumps rise on her arms and it wasn't the winter temperature doing it.

Digging her cell out of her pocket and keeping an eye out for any movement on the street, she walked slowly down the steps and then knelt next to the tiny inert form. Her hand shook as she reached forward to turn the bird's head towards her. Its tiny neck was obviously broken and its head flopped back towards her at an odd angle, almost making her scream as it's black, beady eyes seemed to stare accusingly at her.

'_Shit girl. It's dead. Get a hold of yourself'_, she told herself sternly as she forced her hand back towards the little black bird. "Fuck...oh Bri." Her sister's class ring was wedged onto the beak of the sparrow, effectively holding it closed. The message wasn't lost on her but on the other hand, all Cody could think of was how her older sibling had saved like Scrooge from her dead end job working at the Dairy Queen drive-thru to earn the money for that ring. It had been her pride and joy. Well, apart from Becks, Cody reminded herself as she hit the speed dial for Agent Roth's number. Finishing high school at eight months pregnant had been a feat that Bri had been proud of. Cody hadn't been impressed at the time, but now...

"Katie?" She almost didn't react to the name, she was so far into the past but Cody shook herself and brought her focus back to the present.

"There's a..." She paused. If she said there was a dead bird on the front step he'd think the same thing she had when she'd first spotted it. "Someone's left my sister's class ring on the doorstep."

"You sure it's hers'?" he asked, making her grind her teeth together. Cody used the end of one of her keys to pull the bird closer so she could examine the markings on either side of the stone.

"Well, unless you can suggest another way that an Argyle class of 2008 ring got to Pittsburgh and why it was specifically left for me to find...," she snarled back, sitting back on her heels. "Look, I was about to take B...Reba to day care but that's not happening now." Cody stood up and scanned the street again. "Send someone...whatever CSI team thing you want but I'm not leaving the house and neither is she. Find us somewhere else, some place safe. Now," She snapped her phone shut and then got up to go back into the house. Becky was standing in the doorway, her Dora the Explorer back pack in her hands, her bottom lip jutting out. Cody took a deep breath and then plastered a happy grin on her face. "Come on kiddo. We're calling in sick today. Do you want to watch Veggie Tales or Elmo?"

"Max and Ruby!" Becky squealed, her big blue eyes lit up and she dropped her backpack to clap her hands together.

"You got it squirt," Cody beamed down at her, picking her up and pulling the door shut behind her. "Popcorn or ice cream?"

* * *

"I don't know mom, I think flying might not be a good idea," Sidney mumbled into his phone, keeping his head down as he walked past groups of milling students.

"_Well Mario said_...," she began and Sid shut his eyes just for a moment as he shook his head and breathed a sigh. Mario...he meant well but sometimes he pushed too hard.

"I know mom, and I know what the doctors say too but...I don't know. I had a good day yesterday and I think I'm just gonna stick around here for now." He'd almost said _'stick around her_' which made him smile. If he told his mom that he was sticking around the Burgh for a girl, his mother would think he'd bumped his head _again_.

"_Well I guess you know best_." Now she sounded hurt and now he felt like a bad son. She'd probably been looking forward to getting some unexpected alone time with her son and Sid knew damn well he didn't spend enough time with his parents as it was, even though both of them were welcome anytime they wanted to come.

"You know how important it is to me to be with the guys," he began and then winced at the whining tone that had leaked into his voice. What was that power that his mother had to turn him into a homesick eight year old at the drop of a hat? "Mom, I'm just going into the...uh gym," he lied as he winced again. He wasn't usually the kind of guy that lied to his mother but then again he wasn't the kind of guy that normally went swimming in anything other than a backyard pool so, he told himself, he was just avoiding opening up a whole can of worms. "I'll call you later, promise," he added, trying to regain some good son points.

"Alright Sidney. Take care. Love you."

"Yeah, love you too mom," he replied, trying to sound bright and happy. It would make her worry less. Not that he wasn't feeling either of those things. In fact the closer he got to the pool, the bigger the smile on his face got.

After all, he was her knight in shining armour. She had to agree to go out with him now. He'd been thinking about her all day. No, that wasn't right either. He'd been thinking about her ever since...well really since the day they'd met.

And of course she was late, he thought as he glanced at his watch and then looked around at the students going in and out of the dressing room. There was no one in the pool and he'd thought arriving late on purpose would make them arrive at the same time.

He wished he had her number, call her. Maybe she was having car trouble, was stranded somewhere and he could pick her up. Do the whole knight in shining armour thing again.

"Jesus, believe your own hype much Crosby," he laughed at himself as he started to head towards the Mens dressing room. '_Not to mention invested much'_ he accused himself as he shook his head at the direction his thoughts always seemed to take when he thought of her, of protecting her. "From what though?" he thought out loud. Some shadows she was always jumping at? Or some ex boyfriend who couldn't quite let go? "She wouldn't date that creep," he continued to talk to himself as he put his bag down on the bench and began to spin the lock on the locker in front of him.

"You here for Katie?" a voice said from behind him; a deep, baritone voice that made the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"And if I am?" he asked without turning around, wishing like hell he had a stick or something else to use as a weapon.

"She called in, sick or that kid was sick, I don't know. Anyway, you can still have the pool if you want." Sid glanced over his shoulder at the spotty faced kid with the square jaw and the overbite who was grinning at him. "Hey, you're..." Sid nodded. "Can I have an autograph man?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem." He couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice but that was nothing compared to the way his heart felt in his chest.

* * *

"I don't know what I thought," Cody began and then sighed. "Yeah, actually I do. SWAT and guys in hazmat suits brushing everything for prints," she snapped as she paced back and forth in the living room. "Not you two and a fucking shoe box," she added, aiming a withering look at the two agents currently taking up space on the sofa, the dead bird in what looked exactly like a shoe box and her sister's class ring in a sandwich bag.

"And you'd want us to attract that kind of attention here becauuuusssee?" Agent Keith, Cathy opened her eyes wide and stared up at Cody as if she was trying to prompt a first grader in a spelling bee.

"Like it matters if you had the whole god damn fucking army sweeping the front yard for land mines," Cody spat back. "They obviously know that I'm...that we're here. I mean that ring, around the bird's beak...pretty 'speak no evil' don't you think?" she added, looking from one agent to the other while they both stared, blankly back at her. "What? You don't think that's the message?"

"That might be just where it fit," Agent Roth offered, unhelpfully. Shaking her head and continuing to pace, Cody strung together a number of choice curse words under her breath.

"Look," Cathy put the lid on the box as if she was being put off her coffee by the small, feathered package, "even if it was, and we don't know that for sure, it was sort of a...suggestion more than a threat. I mean, it wasn't a horse's head in your bed am I right?" Cody stopped pacing and shut her eyes, begging silently for patience.

"You're fucking kidding me right? I don't know about you, but I don't really need any more of a hint than that." Cody pointed at the box and then looked at both Agents. "Either you get me and my niece the fuck out of here, or I do, in which case, whenever Becky decides to talk about it, if she ever does, you won't know and it won't help you. Do I make myself understood?" The agents looked at each other and then back at her.

"We'll have to get authorization," Agent Roth began and Cody just growled in response.

"We'll uh...take this back to the office and we'll be back in touch, soon," Agent Keith promised, gathering the box and the evidence bag with her sister's ring in it and stood. Agent Roth picked up his cup and started to drink and Cody growled again. "Come on Al...let's go. Sooner we leave, sooner we come back."

* * *

"This isn't pathetic, right?" Sid asked no one as he turned onto her street, a bag holding a pint of Ben and Jerry's and a box of microwave popcorn on the passenger seat, two dvds in the console beside him and a thermos full of Nathalie's chicken soup in one of the drink holders. "Friends do this," he reminded himself encouragingly as he slowed to a stop in front of the house. The address had still been in his GPS. That wasn't stalking or anything, he didn't think. Sid stared at the front door. His palms were sweaty on the steering wheel and his mouth felt dry. "Shit, this isn't a first date ," he admonished himself quietly, ignoring the voice in his head that sounded a lot like Max telling him to go ahead and pussy out, back out of the driveway and go home. "Grow a sack Crosby," he said firmly as he put the transmission in park and turned off the ignition. Before he really did pussy out, he grabbed the dvds and put them under his arm, took the bag in one hand and the thermos in the other and slid out of the SUV.

He was almost up to the door when a cute little face plastered itself up against the picture window at the front of the house and a pair of big blue eyes stared back at him. He grinned back at her. He couldn't help it. Reba was a cute kid.

"Sidddwheeee!" she called clearly through the glass, slamming her hands against it before turning and disappearing. He could hear her footfalls on the wood floor as she ran around to let him in.

So much for the element of surprise he thought as she wrenched open the door and threw herself at him, wrapping herself around his legs.

"I uh...heard you were under the weather. I brought soup," he explained to Katie as she appeared at the front door, leaning there with her arms crossed, looking down at him with a bemused expression on her face.

"We're not sick," Reba explained in a hushed tone as she grinned up at him. "We're playing hockey!"

"Hookey, honey. We're playing hookey," Kate explained with a laugh and then stepped aside. "But I like soup, so you can join us...if you want," she offered and something in her eyes made Sid's heart leap against his chest wall.

"I brought ice cream too," he told her as she held her hand out for the bag as he struggled to pull his leg along with Reba still clinging to it like a monkey.

"And we loooove ice cream, don't we squirt?" she grinned down at Reba who nodded enthusiastically but continued to cling to his leg as he mounted the steps. "Oh and movies, we like those too don't we baby girl?" Reba let go of his leg and reached for the dvds, snatching them from his hand and running into the living room with them.

"I ummm, I brought Monsters Inc...for her. I mean I like it too but I uh...I brought the Notebook, thought maybe we could watch it later?" he offered and watched as Kate's eyebrows went up. "I mean, if you want," he shrugged and glanced away, sure that he looked as pathetic as he sounded to his own ears.

"Sounds like you thought of everything." Her hand slid into his and he stared down at their entwined fingers and wondered if his hands felt as sweaty to her as they did to him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"You've seen this before." Cody blinked and then turned to see Sid watching her. "You were...somewhere else just then," he pointed out. "If you want me to go..."

"No, sorry just...you wouldn't even believe what a stupid day it's been," she explained, wishing she could tell him everything that had actually happened. He had one of those faces, open and honest with eyes that said whatever you told him wouldn't go any further than right here. She opened her mouth to tell him and then thought better of it, and shook her head. "How's the head?" she asked, purposefully changing the subject.

"It doesn't hurt when I'm with you." It had been one of those questions, sort of like '_hi how are you_' that you ask to be polite, because it's what you do and she'd fully expected the usual response of '_fine_'. She'd definitely hadn't expected _that _and as she turned to see a bright pink tinge creep up his thick neck and into his cheeks, she realized that he hadn't expected to say it either.

'_Now what do I do_?' she asked herself as they stared down the length of the couch at one another. It had been bad enough, the few times their fingers had brushed when they'd simultaneously reached into the bowl of popcorn she'd set between them, but this was not inadvertent, maybe unintended, but the expression in his eyes said he meant it, every word.

Part of her brain told her to ignore it. The same part of her brain that had wanted to ignore his big, expensive SUV in the driveway and pretend not to be home, until Becks had given the game away. She didn't want to drag him into the hell that her life had turned into. Flirting was one thing, but actually getting involved with someone would mean coming clean about who she, who _they _were and what they were actually doing in Pittsburgh and the chances that he wouldn't run screaming out the door once he knew...

On the other hand, the other part of her brain was screaming '_Oh for fuck's sake, he's gorgeous, jump him!'_ It had been a while and she was inclined to listen to her libido. Especially with him sitting there in a t-shirt that was screaming for mercy at the width of his shoulders and was sitting so flat against his chest she could count every ridge in his six-pack. Not to mention the way he was filling out those jeans. The seams of the dark denim were stretched to the limit over his massive thighs and if she looked one more time at his package...

"I'm friends with this spring board diver, or I was...," she began, flexing her fingers which had begun to tingle at the thought of running through his thick, dark hair. "She hit her head, kind of got clipped by the board when she didn't clear it," she explained, remembering clearly the sound of Lisa's head when it had contacted her skull. She'd felt sick to her stomach when she'd heard it and worse when she watched her friend's body fall like a rag dog into the pool. "She had a concussion. It was pretty bad, stitches too, but she liked it when I gave her a head massage. I could...I mean if you wanted I could...," she flexed her fingers again and then patted her lap.

'_What are you doing_?' the part of her brain that knew where this could lead asked in a huffy sounding voice, while the other part of her brain was already turning down the lights and putting on music that, in her brain, sounded a lot like _'bwa chi chi waa waa'_.

Was it her imagination, or did he move the bowl of popcorn and toss himself down on the couch, his head in her lap, in about half a second? He crossed his ankles and threaded his fingers together in the middle of his massive chest and closed his eyes. Sidney Crosby was completely and entirely at her mercy.

Cody's hands shook as she reached in to dig her fingers into the thick, dark hair on the top of his head. It was soft and silky, like he'd just recently washed and conditioned it. Not a lot of guys took the time to do that. They all would if they knew how it felt to a woman's touch. Having been a swimmer her entire life, she was careful to only use the best products, even though most of the time she wore a swim cap. All that chlorine had done horrible things to her hair. It took a lot of good, deep conditioning to make it as soft as his hair was now.

He let out a little grunt, and his full, soft, pink lips turned up at the corners as she pressed her fingers down into his scalp. Glancing up at the TV, she was glad that they were missing this part, the part with the rain and, well, what came next. She didn't need any prompting to want him to press her against a wall and ravage her. Looking down at his meaty fingers she was already imagining what it would feel like to have him run his fingers over her skin.

"Do you miss it?" she asked and the twitch at the corner of his mouth told her he knew what she was asking about.

"All the time, everyday," he admitted with a sigh.

"Could you go back now?" she asked, not because he didn't flinch or wince at anywhere she touched, but for more purely selfish reasons than that.

"Maybe," he frowned, his eyes still shut. "I know there are guys who've played worse off than I am now but...there's still times when I can't even be in a room with the lights on, you know?" Now he did look up at her and Cody caught her breath, like a soundless gasp as she looked down into those gold and bronze eyes. She nodded, not only because there was no way to actually form words with him looking directly at her, but because she was afraid if she actually did speak what would come out of her mouth would be something like '_are your lips really as soft as hubba bubba?_' "I don't want to go back until I can play...well, like I know I can. I don't want to half ass it. Until then...well the guys will just have to keep doing what they can," he sighed and then his eyes fell shut again and only then could she take another breath.

"It must be hard to watch," she offered, her gaze tracing the scar bisecting his chin, the one above the corner of his lip and lastly, the way his long eyelashes curved as they fell softly onto his cheek.

"Yeah, I pretty much hate it," he grinned suddenly, his full lips pulling back over white teeth and Cody felt her heart stop suddenly. Damn the man didn't even have to do anything to be sexy. A totally sincere and unguarded toothy grin and she was reduced to a pile of wet clay, literally putty in his hands. "You know though," he opened those glittering orbs of his again and reached back with one hand to brush her arm with his fingers, stilling them on his temples, "with your swimming, I mean, and your niece."

'_Can he see my heart beating_?', she wondered, '_and does it look like it does in the cartoons where it's all heart shaped and sticking out of my chest?'_ He didn't wait for her answer, which was probably a good thing as Cody was fairly certain it would have come out sounding something like ''. He merely used his superior strength to pull her down to him, his other hand slipping into her hair as their lips touched.

* * *

It was awkward and in no way satisfying as a first kiss, but it didn't matter. It got past all of the _should I's_ and _can we's_ and all of the other questions that had been plaguing him since he'd made the decision to come here tonight. It was 'yes' to so many questions and it silenced the rest of the doubts in his brain as he got to his knees and held her face in his hands and pressed his mouth against hers' and felt her hand slide up his back until she was holding onto his shoulders, her nails digging in as he urged her lips open and reached for her tongue with his own.

His body, that had felt like it had been put in stasis for weeks, suddenly felt alive, every nerve ending and every receptor shooting off like fireworks all at once. For a moment he thought it would happen, the headache, the blinding shooting lights behind his eyes would come back as the blood coursed through his veins like a dam had been released somewhere in his body, but it didn't. As he eased her back on the couch and gently manoeuvred his body over hers', all he felt was her lips and the soft press of her breasts against his chest and his overwhelming need pressed against her stomach.

Damn, he was like a twelve year old with a Playboy. He was practically humping her leg as he slid his hand up under her t-shirt, cupping her breast in his hand. She moaned into his mouth and pressed her hips up against him. This was going too fast but there was no way he was turning back now. The thought of this, of being with her, had been one of the only things that had gotten him through these past few weeks.

He slid his hand beneath the satin cup of her bra and rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and she gasped, tipping her head back and arching her neck invitingly. He kissed every pale centimetre, feeling her pulse jumping under his tongue as he sucked at her fragrant skin until she cried out his name.

He liked the sound of it. He liked the way she said it. Not as much as he liked the way that her niece did, Sid thought with a smile as he rolled her t-shirt up to bare her breasts to his eyes, his tongue and his teeth. He made a long, slow sweep of his tongue around the pink, uneven skin of her areola. Her fingers dug into his hair and he wished, for the first time in a long time, that he had more of it, that he hadn't been keeping it short. Running his tongue over the hard yet yielding pebble of her nibble, he felt her entire body press up against his and heard her release a low pitched whimper of submission.

He moved his mouth to her other breast and repeated the successful formula and was again rewarded with a sound that he felt through his entire body, his cock throbbing painfully against the restraints of his jeans as he pressed it against her hip. He could ignore it. He'd had years of training in ignoring his own physical needs.

"Little eyes." Barely pausing, Sid tugged at her nipple between his teeth. "Hey, little eyes, watching." She tugged at his hair, as much of it as she could get in her hands, forcing him to relinquish the prize in his mouth long enough to look over the arm of the couch.

"Oh...damn," he hissed, meeting the anxious gaze of a little blue eyed girls with pig tails the colour of corn silk wearing a pale blue onesie with pink feet, worrying at the thumb in her mouth and holding tight to a bright blue teddy bear. "Uh hey squirt," he called out, pushing himself up and off of Katie in one smooth motion so that she could slip further down the couch and make herself respectable. After all, he only had to hide himself below the waist. "Can't sleep?" the little girl shook her head. "Nightmare?" She nodded, her big blue eyes reminding him of those pale little statues Nathalie had around the house. "Want me to read you another story?" Another nod and then the wet popping sound of her thumb being removed from her mouth as she held her head out towards him.

* * *

As if he hadn't already been playing the maracas on her ovaries, watching him sitting on the edge of that little bed, reading the 'Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream' was like having an entire mariachi band do the meringue on her fallopian tubes. That he'd already volunteered to do it once had made her want to hug him until he turned blue. Doing it twice without being asked? Well if she hadn't already thought about taking him to bed and doing things to him that would make his mother blush...

"Better?" he asked and Becks nodded, her eyes already fluttering closed as she yawned and snuggled into her pillow. As Cody watched, he tugged her covers up and planted a soft kiss on the little girl's forehead and, of course, one for the bear too.

Before he had a chance to turn around, Cody snuck down the hall, leaving her t-shirt behind like a crumb to follow. Shrugging off her bra, she hooked that on her bedroom door and then pulled it shut as she hopped on first one leg and then the other as she kicked her jeans into the corner of the room.

Grabbing a box of matches, she quickly lit the dollar store candles she'd stuck into the empty bottles of equally cheap wine that had been her only company on the long winter nights she'd spent watching old movies or re-reading Maggie Shayne romance novels. Just as the door opened, she slipped beneath the down comforter and did her best to look as doe eyed and alluring as she imagined those heroines did when their buff and burly heroes came to their rescue.

He stood in the doorway for a moment, her t-shirt and bra in his hand, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to cross the threshold, like he'd suddenly gone back to being the shy boy she'd met weeks ago. She was about to say something cheesy like '_I promise not to bite, unless you ask me to_' when he stepped into the room and quietly closed the door behind him and then leaned back against it.

"You don't have to do this," he began, looking at her mostly through his long, dark lashes. "I mean, with little ears down the hall..."

"When she's out, she's out like a light," Cody offered him an encouraging smile, touched by his thoughtfulness and what appeared to be a case of honest to goodness performance anxiety. Not that there was a chance of there being any chance of being disappointed with him. Not from what she'd already felt and experienced.

"I uh...I just have to go get something out of my jacket," he mumbled, turning red as he draped her t-shirt and bra over a chair by the door.

"If you mean these," she called after him before he had a chance to open the door again. "I found them in the bag with the ice cream."

* * *

He had already been turning pink but now his entire face was suffused with heat and colour as she held up the box of condoms he'd bought at the Seven Eleven. Unlike Max, he didn't announce the fact that he was planning on getting lucky every time he bought condoms. In fact he'd had some in the car but when he'd checked the expiry date he'd ended up tossing them.

"No pressure, right?" she said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"I didn't mean to presume. I mean I hoped, obviously...but ummm," he looked over at her and her entire face lit up as she grinned at him.

"Get _over_ here," she giggled and then promptly disappeared under the covers.

Sid tugged his t-shirt off and threw it behind him as he reached for the top button on his jeans. He hesitated, trying to decide if he should leave his underwear on, wondering if she had and glancing around the room to see a pair of white cotton panties bunched up with her jeans. Digging his thumbs into the waist band of his jeans and boxer briefs, he pushed them both down and stepped out of them and then sat on the edge of the bed to roll off his socks.

He felt the soft press of her body against his back. It felt soft and warm at the same time. Her mouth felt hot and wet on the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and leaned back into her, sighing as her fingers dragged slowly up his chest, making him shiver.

Shit, she'd barely touched him and he was aching and hard. How many times had he lain awake thinking of what this was going to be like? Had she? Had she thought it would be like this or the way so many of the girls that he'd been with, all flowers and candles and silk sheets?

He knew none of the other guys worried, or cared much for that matter, if the women they had sex with got off but he'd never been that cavalier about it. It wasn't his competitive streak or even that he was worried that he'd end up with the kind of reputation some of the other guys probably had amongst the women that showed up at places like Diesel or Lava. He was too choosy, too worried about stage five clingers for that. It was exactly because he was more selective than the other guys, because he only went this far with women that he liked, because he wasn't into the one night stands that he wanted this to be more than a roll in the hay.

"Are you sure?" he asked, reaching up to press his hand over hers' where it rested on his shoulder. '_And what if she says no now genius_?' he asked himself as he felt her lips pause at the nape of his neck and then withdraw.

"Give me your hand," she whispered in his ear as he felt the mattress move beneath him. He let her take his hand, let her lead it slowly down and back until he felt the smooth skin of her thigh and then...oh Christ then, the hot, wet heat of _her_.

She gasped as his fingers slid into the smooth slick core of the valley between her legs and her other arm came around his chest like a vice. Like if she didn't hold onto him she'd fall. He pressed his own hand against the one that was pressed flat against the centre of his chest and wondered if she could feel his heart beating for her. "Oh god," she gasped and pressed her forehead to the back of his head as he slid his middle finger over that magic button, the pearl in her treasure chest.

"Lay down," he whispered against her cheeks as he leaned back, wanting her mouth. Her pupils were dilated as she looked down at him, her hair loose and falling around his face like a chocolate waterfall. He let go of her hand and she slid it up to cradle his chin as she pressed her lips over his. Like the first kiss, it was awkward and not exactly what he wanted but his cocked throbbed appreciatively anyway.

And then she was gone, her body peeling away from his. He heard the rustle of the sheets as she lay down as he finished tugging his socks off and then he joined her, aligning his body with hers, on his side so he could look down at her, so he could watch.

She brought her knees up as he slid his hand down over her breasts, taking a moment to cup each of her perfectly shaped tits, to run his thumb over the plump pink nipples just to make her shudder. Then he slid his hand down over her stomach, over her smooth shaven mound and down between her thighs and watched her eyes fall closed and her sweet lips drop open as he slid his fingers up and inside of her.

Mother of God she was wet! Her juices oozed over his hand and his fingers came out dripping with them. Her entire body went similarly liquid as he scooped that juice up and pressed it over her clit, wetting her entire slit until it was pink and gleaming. He looked down at her pussy and watched his fingers disappear inside of her as she raised her hips up off of the bed and pressed her pussy down against his hand.

She whimpered as he took one of the hard little pink nubs into his mouth and sucked at it, swirling his tongue around it while he fucked her with his fingers, pressing them up inside her, searching for that elusive spot that would bring her, would make her come undone. Even as his cock ached painfully, reminding him that it wanted in on the action, he knew he wouldn't give in to his own needs until he'd brought her at least once.

* * *

He had no idea, Cody was certain as his thick fingers pressed their way up inside of her, how easy it would be to make her come completely apart. She reached for his mouth with her own, partly to stifle her own cries and partly to do something other than lie there twitching and gasping like a fish out of water. His tongue tasted slightly salty, slightly buttery like the popcorn they'd been sharing.

His tongue was forceful, like his fingers, like his hand and she gave in, letting him lead, melting beneath him and finally giving up as his mouth moved back to her neck, to her breasts, leaving her clenching her teeth in an effort not to cry out as the first wave hit her. What came out of her mouth was nonsense, sounds and words strung together and forced out through her teeth as her body bucked and shuddered and finally stilled.

When she opened her eyes, he was looking down at her, watching her, with a gleam in his eyes and a bemused smile on his lips. For a moment she thought he was done, that he would slide into her and take his own pleasure now that she'd had hers', but instead, he started again, his fingers moving in slow, deliberately soft circles around her clit that, in no time at all, had her biting down hard on her bottom lip with her back arched off of the bed as he brought her again.

The third time, she clung to him, her nails digging into his back as he used his long, thick fingers on that spot deep up inside of her that made her cum and cum again until she begged him to stop and he lowered her back down. She was limp, and out of breath and then the tears came.

He held her tight then, her face buried against his neck as she hiccupped and sobbed through the last orgasm and only as it began to subside, and just as she got some control over her breathing he slid up inside of her, making her breath catch in her throat.

God All Mighty he was big. Not just big, but long and thick and with him holding her like this, it almost felt like there wasn't enough room. She could feel him pressing up against her pelvic bone and by his sharp intake of breath, she thought so could he. For a long, agonizingly sweet moment they held still, joined to the hilt and unmoving, wrapped in each other's arms. Then he moved.

It was a push up, his biceps, pecs, delts all strained as he moved over her and then reached back and pulled her knees back gently but firmly towards her shoulders. His next thrust was deep and they both groaned in unison at the satisfying sensation.

"Fuuuuck," he hissed into her ear and then withdrew quickly, leaving her once again gasping for breath as he reached over her to grab the box of condoms. He dug his meaty fingers into the cardboard and ripped the box wide open, shaking its' contents out onto her stomach. She grabbed the line of square foil packs and ripped the first one open with her teeth and reached for him, slapping his hand away when he tried to stop her.

She rolled the latex down over his thick erection, noticing how she couldn't close her hand around the girth of him and then looked back up at him to find him watching her from eyes that had gone dark with hunger and need. With one hand still around his dick, leading him back inside of her and the other pulling his lips down over hers', Cody laid back on the bed. She gasped into his mouth as he stretched her to near painful limits and then, as she wrapped her legs around his, they began to move in unison.

"Holy...holy fucking shit," he breathed as their gazes locked. It had never been like this. She'd been with guys, mostly guys from the swim team, but it had never been like this. There had been a lot of grunting and it had always been over before she'd ever felt _anything _like she'd already had with him. There had never been the tidal wave of hormones, pheromones, endorphins and serotonin that now had her feeling laid wide open.

He saw her. As he moved over her, his gaze holding hers like he was daring her to look away, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he saw _her_, the real her and not the one she put on, not the always happy and smiling Katie, but the Cody she'd been trying to hide...and she hated herself. That's when the tears started again and not the kind that had erupted before when she'd barely been in control of her bodily functions. These were tears of pure shame and she hid them against his neck, holding on for dear life.

"Do you want me to stop?" he breathed, his body stilling atop of hers'.

"No," she whispered back, sniffing, her eyes squeezed shut. "Hell no," she told him, trying her best to sound like the happy go lucky Katie he wanted her to be. "Harder," she added, internally cringing at the thought but needing to be punished for bringing him into this mess that was her life without telling him the rules.

"You sure?" he whispered, pulling back and cradling her face, his bronze gold eyes searching her face. She lied. With all of her being she lied. She smiled up at him and nodded and then offered her mouth and pushed herself against him, begging his body to do what she wanted.

* * *

There was something wrong. He knew it even as he kissed her and pressed himself harder inside of her but then again he was too far gone. He wanted to stop, could have, maybe, except that he was already so close and she was so god damn tight and wet.

Then there was the fact that she was meeting him thrust for thrust and every single sound she made, every squeak, every whimper, every stifled cry turned him on so fucking much that he couldn't stop. Not once he started, and then the haze came down and he stopped thinking about anything except how fucking good it felt.

Then she fell apart. One minute her heels were digging into his ass like she was a rodeo cowboy and he was a bucking bronc and then the next minute she was holding onto him for dear life and balling like a baby as her entire body clamped down around his and pulled him over the edge, sucking him dry as he pressed his mouth over hers' to stifle his cry of pure, unadulterated pleasure.

"I'm sorry. Shit, did I hurt you?" He'd done it before. Gone a little too far, pushed a little too hard. Even with all the foreplay some girls couldn't take his size. He knew it, but he'd forgotten himself. It had been so good.

"No, not you not...," she buried her face in his neck and he held her against him, pulling the quilt up around their shoulders. "It's just been such a messed up fucking day. I just...it was...it was so good and I...," he felt more than heard her sigh before she looked up at him. "I wasn't expecting this...I'm sorry."

"Sorry we did this or...?" He was searching her face, worried she was going to ask him to leave when all he wanted was to stay, right here, holding her like this.

"No...this, _this_ was good," she smiled up at him and then put her cheek on his chest. "This feels safe. I like this," she whispered and curled up against him.

"Can I stay?" he asked and found the words tickled his tongue, like drinking champagne. He'd never done it before, never stayed the night, but he wanted to now. He felt like she needed him here, that they both needed him here.

"Please?" she replied, looking up at him with eyes made silvery in the moonlight by her tears. Nodding, he wrapped her in his arms and held her close and closed his eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The house was old. It creaked and groaned throughout the night. They were sounds that Cody had gotten used to. She knew the difference between the rumble of the fridge and the sound of the fan on the old gas heater unit starting up. She recognized the sigh of slightly sagging floorboards in the hall and the hiss of the toilet filling. She had even trained herself to listen for the sounds of Becky's footsteps heading down the hall in the middle of the night, the slight 'shoosh' of her blanket being pulled behind.

She lay awake now, listening to the rustling sound coming from the living room and knew they weren't sounds the house made on its own.

Rats? She hoped not. Their naked pink tails grossed her out.

She'd seen a cat once, out by the garbage can and that had got pretty noisy when she'd yelled at the thing, but this noise was coming from inside the house.

Cody slid from beneath Sid's arm and just as carefully slid a pillow into her place. He snorted in his sleep, made a face and then went back to softly snoring, a contented smile on his peaceful face. She allowed herself a moment to admire the width of his naked back as she pulled his t-shir over her head and then she turned and knelt beside the bed and began to turn the dial on the lock on the front of the gun safe.

The door swung open at the end of the third turn and Cody reached for the gun with one hand and the ammo clip with the other. She was just sliding the clip home when she heard the sound of heavy boots walking down the hall.

"I don't fucking think so," she hissed under her breath as she got to her feet and turned, settling the gun in both of her hands, her arms held straight out in front of her just like Agent Keith had shown her, pointing it directly at the doorway. He was big, a fucking giant that had to duck as he walked into the room. A naked razorblade swung from one ear, a golden hoop from the other. His head was shorn and his bald dome caught the moonlight as he faced her. So did his dark beady eyes, and the gold front tooth. "Fuck, you're a fucking caricature," she laughed, surprised at how calm she felt. Her hands didn't shake. Her palms didn't get clammy.

She surveyed the sleeves of tattoos that covered both of his arms, trying to memorize as many of the works of 'art' as she could so that if she had to, if she didn't put a big fucking hole right between his eyes, she'd be able to identify him later.

"Like what ya see sweet cheeks?" the man growled, a hunting knife appearing in one of his hands. There was a word spelled across his knuckles. She thought it said KILL but she wasn't sure.

"I just had no idea they piled shit so high," she grinned back at him, pulling back the safety.

"I gots a message fo ya," the Neanderthal grinned right back at her. "You needs to keep yo mouth shut or I kills the kid." Cody shook her head. It was kind of insulting to have some goon who'd obviously not made it out of the third grade trying to make her quake in her fuzzy slippers.

"Well that wouldn't be too smart." Cody clamped her mouth shut. She'd almost added that Becks was the one being protected but if they didn't know that, then she didn't need to tell them. "And who says I let you live to go back to your...grand dragon, big poobah...what do you call your greasemonkey boss?" Cody didn't wait for the oversized drooling moron to answer. Instead, she dropped her aim from the middle of his chest to his kneecap and pulled the trigger. The gun's kick was harder than she had remembered it being at the range, but it was the sound of the blast that made her stagger backwards, blinking as her ears began to ring. '_Oh so that's what the earmuff things are for_' she thought to herself as watched the Ogre stagger and his mouth form curse words she should have been able to but could not hear. "Take this message back to your boss. I'll go down swinging and I'm definitely not going alone."

* * *

Sid woke to see Kate standing on one side of the bed wearing his t-shirt, one eye squeezed shut and a determined set to her jaw. She was holding a gun. He was about to ask what kind of weird, kinky sex game she was into when he heard heavy breathing and rolled over to see what looked like something off of Outlaw Bikers standing in the doorway.

No, that wasn't right. The guy was filling the doorway. If there had been any light he'd have blocked it out. As it was, Sid could make out a barbed wire design tattooed on the side of the guy's chrome dome and a gold tooth when he grinned. The only guy he knew that was as imposing and as fucking scary as this guy was the Ranger's resident boogeyman Boogaard and Derek Boogaard had nothing on this guy.

"Like what ya see sweet cheeks?" The guy grinned and licked his lips as he leered at Kate's bare legs. Sid was swinging out of the bed, putting his feet on the floor when he heard Kate laugh behind him.

"I just had no idea they piled shit so high," he heard her say and then he heard the click of the safety being taken off and then he decided not to stand in the way. He felt like a fucking coward but he rolled onto the floor and tried to wriggle under the bed.

He could see the headlines now; 'Star Player Dies in Gangland Murder'. This was why he didn't date. Even the seemingly 'normal' ones turned out to be stalkers or worse...

"I got a message fo ya. You needs to keep yo mouth shut or I kills the kid." Clenching his hands into fists, Sid cursed how useless he felt. Whatever kind of psychos Katie had dated before him, that kid down the hall did not deserve to die in some kind of deranged murder suicide.

She was calling the big tatted up biker names, even though Sid was silently pleading with her to just placate the big grease monkey while he tried to think of how he could get by the guy, get down the hall and get Reba out of the house and into his vehicle and get the hell out of here. '_If the kid wasn't already terrorized she will be by some big naked guy grabbing her_', he reminded himself and started to reach for his jeans.

That's when all hell broke loose.

He couldn't believe how loud the shot sounded in that small room. He wasn't even sure, at first, if that's what the sound was, but then he saw blood erupting from the guy's leg and he didn't need much more evidence than that. The guy dropped the knife to grab his leg and Sid launched himself across the floor to grab it.

'_And what are you going to do with it now genius_?' he asked himself and then turned around to see Kate staring at him, wide eyed, the kind of shock on her face that he'd seen on guys when they get really hurt out on the ice. She was white and he could see her pulse racing in her neck. The gun was hanging from her hand like she was going to drop it.

Part of him was relieved that she wasn't as tough as she had sounded. Part of him wanted to yell at her to suck it up because after all, the guy wasn't dead, just writhing around on the floor cursing and making all kinds of promises about what he was going to do to them when he got up.

"C'mon!" he yelled at her and grabbed his jeans with the hand that wasn't still holding the double edged hunting knife. Kate blinked and then climbed across the bed to where he was jumping into his jeans. Not bothering to zip them up, Sid held his hand out to her and felt her palm slide over his, warm and somehow reassuring, and then they both hurdled the guy as best they could and rand down the hall.

Reba was sitting in the middle of her bed, clutching that cheap blue teddy bear, wide eyed and eerily silent. He'd expected her to be crying or screaming but, as he scooped her off of the bed, she was like a china doll, so still she didn't even reach to put her arms around his neck like she'd done all those times before. She just continued to cling to the damn bear and didn't make a single sound.

"What the fuck is going on?" he hissed as he turned to find Kate scooping clothes out of Reba's dresser. "We don't have time for that," Sid growled. She looked down at the bag in her hand and then back at him. "Whatever we need we'll buy," he told her more calmly. "Now _c'mon_."

* * *

There hadn't been time to even take Beck's booster seat out of the Volvo so Cody held her on her lap as Sid gunned the engine and sent the SUV careening down the dark side streets and out of the sleepy neighbourhood. She could hear the wail of sirens not far behind them. She was glad they hadn't stayed to try and explain to the local constabulary why there was blood all over the floor. She was sure that no matter how badly she'd winged the goon, he wouldn't be there when the cops pulled into the driveway.

She didn't even have her phone, couldn't call her so called protectors. Not that they'd done much to protect them. She'd been glad, as she drifted off to sleep in Sidney's arms that they bumbling agents hadn't come back and walked in on them. Now she wasn't sure if she was glad they hadn't moved them to some other house, some other city. In fact, as she pressed her lips to Becka's temple and whispered that everything was going to be okay, she thought they were better off on their own.

"Are you going to tell me what the f...what happened back there?" Sid asked finally as he merged onto the freeway. The midnight traffic was sparse but she felt better to have all the other cars around them.

"I was going to tell you," she began, glancing over at him, at his smooth bare chest so pale in the reflected light of the oncoming headlights, his muscular arms tensed, his hands gripping the steering wheel hard enough she wondered how it hadn't crumbled into dust. "I should have told you but...," she turned away and stared out the passenger side window.

"I don't care who you dated before Kate but if you've got a protection order against some violent ex con don't you think you could have given me a heads up?" he snapped back at her. Cody smiled. If only it was that easy.

"My name's not Kate," she replied quietly. "It's Cody...Dakota James and this is Rebecca, but I always call her Becka don't I pumpkin?" she cradled her niece's head against her shoulder and stroked her fingers through her soft blonde hair. "And we're in the witness protection program." She expected the silence. It didn't bother her when he continued to stare straight ahead, his teeth worrying at the corner of his lip as he digested what she'd said. It felt good to finally say it, to tell someone the truth. "I wanted to tell you, before," she continued after several minutes of silence, "should have told you...before...you know," she added, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she felt the tender ache between her legs. She glanced over at him. He was still chewing on his lip and staring at the traffic in front of him. They had slowed down though. "I'm sorry. I _couldn't_ tell you before and no matter what you think right now, I really didn't want to drag you into this."

"Did you do something...are you some kind of...have you been in trouble?" he asked, glancing over at her, at them both, his copper and gold eyes coming to rest on the top of Becka's head before he turned his attention back to the road.

"No," she answered quickly and then put her hands gently over Becka's ears. "She watched her mother, my sister, and her boyfriend get murdered. We're hiding...I guess not very well." She waited then and watched while he mulled over her answer. He didn't have to believe her and she had no evidence to prove that what she was telling was the truth. He could pull over any minute and leave them both by the side of the road. She just hoped that she was right in how she felt about him, that he wasn't the kind of guy to do something like that.

"So when that guy said he had a message...," Sid's voice trailed off as he turned to look at her. "Someone worse than that knows where you are." Cody nodded and then so did he. "Then I guess I'd better get both of you somewhere safe."


	10. Chapter 10

_sorry about how long this took to get up but I had to get to my bonus this week and so I had to concentrate and I can't ever do that and think about a certain hockey player with hazel eyes..._.

**Chapter 10**

His fingers had been flying on his blackberry but now they were still on the steering wheel as they sat, parked on a dark side street. He'd circled the block a few times, just to be sure they hadn't been followed. Maybe he was being paranoid but he'd been pretty sure the same dark sedan had followed them off the turnpike. He'd lost them when he'd started taking short cuts through Sewickley.

Or maybe he was just paranoid, but maybe that was a good thing, a good habit to get into.

'_You're really gonna do this aren't you?_' he smiled to himself as he looked over at where Kate...no _Dakota_ was curled up on the passenger seat, her knees pulled up to her chest, fast asleep. Becky, somehow that was easier to remember, was asleep in the back seat, thumb in her mouth and that neon blue teddy bear of hers' snuggled into her side.

He was scared out of his mind but somehow he couldn't erase this stupid grin from his face. This was crazy and it felt like something out of a movie, something no one would believe if he told them, and yet he didn't want to do the one thing he was pretty sure would be the only thing anyone would tell him to do. He didn't want to run from this crazy, dangerous, fucked up situation. He wanted to stick by her, by both of them.

"There she is," he breathed, releasing the breath he'd been half holding ever since he'd sent the text to Mario's eldest in the middle of the night. He and Lauren had grown pretty close while he'd lived with the Lemieux's, despite her teenage mood swings, but his request had to have set off alarm bells and he'd half expected not only Mario's big black SUV but the local cops, maybe and Army tank or two... Dakota yawned and rubbed at her eyes and then peered out at the approaching compact car.

"Who?" was all she asked, glancing down at her bare legs and then back at Becka's still form in the back seat.

"A friend, it's fine," he gave her an encouraging smile and then opened the door as Lauren's little red mini pulled up beside his vehicle, shut off the motor and turned out her lights. "Hey, thanks for coming," he said quietly, scanning the dark street again. The last thing he wanted was for any goon that looked like the one that Dakota had winged following Lauren back to the Lemieux's mansion.

"Gonna tell me what this is about?" the dark haired girl asked as she handed him a pair of non descript shopping bags out the window, "and why you're wandering around naked at two in the morning?"

"Do you have the passport?" he asked, glancing into the bags to see his own jeans and t-shirts neatly stacked inside along with some of what had to be Lauren's own yoga pants, t-shirts, socks and shoes.

"Yeah, I kinda need that back and if you're planning on blowing up a plane or something...," she began, grinning at him but he could see the real concern in her eyes. She was a lot like her dad. He could smile and say everything was going to be fine but he wasn't the best poker player that Sid had ever met.

"I'll make sure you get it back, I promise," he told her, turning to hand the bag of Lauren's clothes into the parked SUV. Lauren's gaze followed and then her eyebrows went up and her eyes got wide.

"Oh my god. You got caught by her husband and now you have to get her out of the country!" Lauren hissed conspiratorially but with this expression on her face like she couldn't wait to tweet the news to her friends.

"Something like that." He didn't correct her. That was certainly something that had crossed his mind when he'd first followed that guy that followed Dakota from the pool. "Thanks for this Laur, I owe you one."

"Yeah, a date with that new James Neal guy. He's cuuuute!" she gushed and he laughed. He hadn't really met the guy yet. In fact he hadn't met him since the last time his fist was connecting to the guy's face.

"When I get back, I'll see what I can do," he promised, though if the guy had half a brain he wouldn't go anywhere near the owner's daughter other than to say hello.

"So where are you going?" she asked. Dakota must have disappeared back into the SUV. Lauren was no longer looking over his shoulder and he could hear the Land Rover creaking and moving around which meant she was probably getting dressed.

"I'll let you know when we get there. Watch your facebook," he promised and then reached into the bag and pulled out one of his Property of work out t-shirts. He was grateful to have something almost warm to pull over his head. He was beginning to shiver out in the cold.

"Fine, don't tell me. Whatever. When I get back and get grounded for being out in the middle of the night, I'll let Mario know that you were sneaking around with..."

"You're the expert at getting in and out of the house without your dad knowing and if you do tell him I'll make sure to remember that time that you had Max over to the house when we were all in Vancouver," he reminded her and she promptly rolled her dark eyes at him.

"Fine, whatever. Good night Sidney," she sighed and rolled up her window.

He watched until her little car was out of sight before climbing back into the vehicle. Dakota was wearing a pair of those tight black yoga pants and a black t-shirt that was, by the look of it, a size too small. It tugged appealingly across her full breasts. Sid licked his lips and did his best to ignore the signals his body was suddenly sending though it was next to impossible to stop the images filtering through his mind of her body and his linked, of the way it had felt, the way it had made _him_ feel.

"Friend?" Dakota asked quietly, staring straight ahead into the darkness. Sid did his best not to smile. They hardly knew one another, were spending their first night together and she was jealous.

"My landlord's daughter," he explained, starting the engine, "and before you ask, no, never." He watched as a she tried to hide a smile by ducking her head quickly to the side. "Ready?" he asked and she nodded, tugging her seatbelt across her lap.

"Where are we going?" she asked as he heard the click of her belt being fastened into place.

"You'll see."

* * *

"Whoa...you have your own _plane_?" Cody stared through the chain link fence at the private jet that was lowering its stairs to the tarmac.

"No, I wish" Sid laughed quietly as he settled Becka into his arms and against his chest. "We're just renting this."

"Oh my god...I can't let you do this," she hissed, grabbing the back of his shirt and tugging on him. Renting a car was one thing but she couldn't even fathom what the cost of renting a private jet would cost.

"You _can_ and besides, where else do you think we're going to get a flight this early in the morning?" he asked, quietly, turning so that Becky's curls brushed against Cody's shoulder. "Look with this...with my head thing, everyone's been telling me to get out of here for a while, go somewhere where I can relax. That's all we're doing, getting out of the city. Okay?" The way he looked at her, Cody knew that if he'd had a free hand he would have touched her face. As it was, the expression in his eyes did the same thing and she felt her heart skip a beat as he smiled encouragingly at her.

"How am I supposed to repay _that_?" she asked as the jet revved up, the roar of its engines waking Becky who whined and pressed her face against Sidney's chest.

"I'll think of something," he grinned suddenly and Cody felt her entire face suffuse with heat. "Coming?" Cody nodded and followed him through the gate. The security nodded at him and when she offered their passports, her hands sweating at the idea of trying to pass for an eighteen year old, the guard merely waved her through.

"I guess if Sidney Crosby says I'm okay...?" she whispered to him as they walked across the tarmac towards the waiting plane.

"There are a _few_ benefits to being me," he smiled back at her and winked and Cody thought her legs were going to give out beneath her. She would have sworn before that he had had no idea of the affect his body and his classical good looks were having on her. Now she wasn't so sure.

Cody followed him up the stairs and into the plane and then stopped. She stared at the plush leather seats and the dimmed mood lighting.

"_More_ than a few benefits, damn," she hissed, to which he chuckled as he placed Becky carefully on one of the seats, making sure both she and Blue were carefully buckled in.

"I guess I'm used to this kind of stuff now. I don't even think about it," he said quietly, pressing a brief, light kiss on the top of Becka's head. "So," he said, turning to her and reaching for her hand and then guiding her to a sort of bench that looked like a big leather sofa near the back of the plane, "how are you doing?" Cody thought about it as she sank down beside him and allowed him to wrap his arms around her. Laying her head on his chest and curling her legs beneath her she closed her eyes.

"I don't know. I don't know what to think. None of this feels real," she whispered, letting herself melt into his warmth, into how safe his embrace felt.

"At the risk of sounding a bit like a greeting card, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you've been doing more than your fair share of thinking lately, so why don't you take this opportunity, now that we're about to go waaaay up in the air where bikers can't follow on Harleys or in old Novas and just relax," he whispered into her hair. Cody smiled and nestled further into his body.

"You do realize that when you do stuff like that I have a hard time figuring out if I'm dreaming all this right? I mean you're not bad to look at, you can rent a private jet by text and I don't know if you know this but," she added, opening one eye to look up at him, "you're kinda hung like a water buffalo. So you can see where I'm having difficulty with this all being real." He turned crimson and shook his head, making a noise deep in his throat that suggested both discomfort and embarrassment.

"You think too much. Close your eyes and when you wake up, everything will be different," he promised and she was too worn out and exhausted to argue.

* * *

"Sir, we're here."

Sid didn't remember falling asleep but he knew that he must have. He blinked up at the co-pilot and nodded and then tried to move but Dakota was like a dead weight across his lap.

"Dakota, honey, wake up" he ran his fingers through her hair and then along her cheek. She wrinkled up her nose, scrunched her eyes shut and made an unhappy noise. He couldn't help but smile as she tried to curl her body into an even tighter ball, ignoring him so she could go back to sleep. "C'mon, I promise once we get there you can go right back to sleep if you want and I guarantee that it will be a lot more comfortable to sleep in a big bed with pillows and..."

"And you?" she asked in a small, sleepy voice.

"And me," he whispered, leaning over her and pressing his lips softly against her temple. "Besides there are little eyes," he added in a whisper as he looked up into Becky's big, innocent blue eyes. She was standing right in front of them, her thumb in her mouth, her teddy dragging beside her on the floor of the plane. "I think someone wants off the plane."

"Hey Becks...did you like your plane ride?" Dakota asked sleepily. Becky shook her head, her thumb still firmly planted in her little pink lips. "Okay...then let's go," she added, sitting up, stretching and yawning. "Where..._where_ are we anyway?" she asked, turning to face him, still bleary eyed.

"Dakota, Becky, I'd like to welcome you to the Bahamas."

* * *

"This is...amazing," she breathed as she stood in front of a floor to ceiling glass wall as they watched the sun come up over the turquoise water of the ocean.

"I'm glad you approve," he whispered into her hair as he came up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist. "I thought about taking you back to Cole Harbour but then..."

"But then you thought you didn't want to endanger your family," she finished his sentence. "You did the right thing," she added before he even got a chance to say otherwise. He sighed and then pressed his cheek against hers'.

"You're right, there was that but I also thought of the farthest place we could go and some place we could _both_ relax and I've been here a couple of times and there really isn't anything to do here but chill, sit on the beach and get a sun tan. Plus I thought shortshanks might like to build some sand castles." Cody leaned back into him and sighed.

"You're doing it again, being too fucking good to be true," she mumbled. She heard him sigh and his arms tightened around her ribcage. "You don't know us. You don't know what kind of danger you've put yourself into by being with us. Don't get me wrong...I can't believe how lucky I am...we both are that you haven't run away screaming. I know I wanted to when I found out about...," she nodded towards Becks who was sitting at the end of one of the beds, her eyes glued to the television screen in front of her. It turned out that they had Rolie Polie Olie, even in the Bahamas. "I'd understand if you did," she added, craning her neck to look up into his eyes.

"I'm not a quitter," he replied and laid a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth. "Besides, I'm growing pretty fond of both of you," he added, kissing his way down her neck to her shoulder. "I guess there's no chance she'll zonk out again soon?"

"Doubt it," Cody sighed, closing her eyes and tipping her head to one side to give him better access. "But I could really use a shower," she added with a playful grin as she slid his hand up to cup her breast.

"Will she be okay on her own for a few minutes?" he asked and she could feel, against the small of her back, that he liked the idea.

"Don't get me wrong," she whispered, spinning around without letting go of his hand, "I wouldn't normally condone using the TV as a nanny but...it can't hurt every once in a while, right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she backed towards the bathroom.

"We do it with Max and Jordan all the time," he laughed, following her with a big, happy grin on his face.

"Why do I not doubt that even one little bit?" she smiled, and then subconsciously reached up and covered her mouth. It didn't feel right to smile. She'd shot someone and now she'd dragged possibly the best hockey player in the world, the pride of an entire nation, into the quicksand that was her life.

* * *

"What?" he asked, closing the bathroom door behind him and locking it. "Your smile just disappeared," he added, moving to press his body against hers' and reaching up to brush his fingertips down her cheek. "I like it a lot better when you're smiling. You don't do it often enough." She leaned her cheek into his hand and looked up at him, her arms going around his waist, her hands sliding up under his shirt to touch his warm skin.

"I put you in danger. If something happens to you…." She shook her head. She couldn't even bring herself to say it. "They'll lynch me outside the Hockey Hall of Fame," she added, her eyes closed. She couldn't look at him. She knew if she did she'd come apart and the Bahamas, what little she'd seen so far, was too much like heaven to waste time crying over something she couldn't control.

"I could have walked out. I could have left you there with that…guy." She felt his thumb slowly and softly running along her cheek and thought how good it felt, how safe she felt right here, with him. "I'm not the running out kind of guy Dakota. You don't even have to tell me everything that's going on, if you can't or…even if you don't want to but…I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, unless you tell me to."

One minute she'd been radiating relief, a calm happy vibe making her skin glow and putting that happy little smile on her face that he'd only seen, briefly, a few times. The next minute she'd gone quiet, almost as quiet as her niece and he could see her closing in on herself, like the petals on a rose at dusk.

He tipped her lips up and covered her mouth with his own. She didn't melt into him, not at first. She even resisted a little, keeping her lips pressed firmly together as he used his tongue to suggest she open them. Then he slid both of his hands into her hair and dug his fingers into the thick dark mane and tugged her head back. Her lips fell open and she sighed as he kissed her, as he rolled his tongue over hers' and used the full length of his body to push hers' up against the wall. He felt her nails dig into his back, reopening the wounds that were still fresh from the night before. He'd be wearing her marks on the beach tomorrow and he knew he'd wear them with pride.

Sliding his hands free from her hair, he reached for the hem of her t-shirt, grabbing it and pushing it up over the breasts that had been teasing him ever since she'd put Lauren's shirt on. Cupping her breasts in his hands, he felt her nipples growing hard in his palms and slid his hands around until he was rolling the hard little peaks in his fingers until she was moaning and grinding up against him.

Her hand slid between them and pressed against the front of his jeans. Groaning, he pressed back, eager to have her hand curled around him and even more eager to feel himself inside of her tight, hot entrance.

"I. Want. These. Off!" she growled as she tugged at the top button on his jeans as he bent his head to suckle at her breasts. He felt her tug the zipper down and then he groaned as her hand slid down behind the thick fabric and her fingers curled around his width. It was purely involuntary, a reflex of some kind, but his teeth closed on her nipple and that made her hand squeeze down hard around his dick. They both gasped but neither let go. She grabbed a handful of his hair but didn't pull up. She held him there and slid her other hand down to cup his balls.

"Damn," he hissed, letting her nipple slip out of his mouth and lifting his head enough to press his mouth against her neck, tasting her skin while leaning against the wall. It was hold onto the wall or fall down, all the blood having rushed quickly out of his head. "I want you so bad," he whispered against her skin, kissing his way up against her neck.

"And you think I don't?" she sighed, grabbing his hand from her breast and guiding it down over her stomach and down the front of the yoga pants. She was hot and wet and she whimpered as he slid his fingers along her dripping folds and up inside of her. "Yessss. Shit yessss," she gasped, her grip tightening around his balls.

Sid pressed the pad of his thumb against her clit like it was the 'fire' button on his PSP and he had Max in his rifle sight. Her whimper became a high pitched cry and she began to try and climb his leg like a horny Jack Russell.

He'd never been one for talking during sex. For the most part, sex was like doing weights, necessary and sweaty but not something that required having a conversation. Now he whispered in her ear all of the things he wanted to do to her. How he wanted to pound her pussy until she screamed, until her pussy was so wet h slipped out and then he wanted to cum on her tits. Sid couldn't believe the things that were coming out of his mouth. It was like he was channelling Max and yet he couldn't help himself. He wanted to fuck her. Not make love. Not be sweet or gentle or take his time. He wanted to fuck her so hard she wouldn't be able to walk straight for at least a day.

"Now," he said hoarsely, using both hands to drag the tight fitting yoga pants that had been driving him crazy down over her hips and then lifting her onto the edge of the sink. She pulled the t-shirt over her head and he tugged the pants the rest of the way off and then pushed his jeans down over his hips and aimed his rock hard cock at her slit. "Oh fuck," he groaned looking down at his, swollen, angry looking dick and then at the pink, slick and swollen lips of her pussy. "I don't have anything...I mean we left in such a hurry and I didn't think to ask the driver to stop at a pharmacy or anything," he apologized, his dick already retreating at the thought of losing.

"What kind of Four Star resort is this?" she grumbled, using her heel to push open one of the drawers just beneath the sink and reaching towards the other one with her hand. "Mmmm, it's your lucky day Captain," she grinned, revealing a row of condoms, a tube of toothpaste and two toothbrushes. "Looks like they knew we were coming, or at least you were," she giggled. Sid opened his mouth to say something, he wasn't sure what, but all other thoughts vanished from his brain as she ripped the foil package with her teeth and then used both hands to slide the rubber down over his cock.

He thought, just for a minute that he'd go off right then and there, like the dweeby teenager hiding behind his cool exterior but as her hand guided his cock into her tight entrance, he took a deep breath and recovered control.

"Fuck you're so tight," he moaned, screwing himself slowly inside of her. They both watched him disappear, centimetre by centimetre, until his entire length had disappeared into her. He slid out, just as slowly, his cock gleaming with her juices and then used the head of his dick to press on her clit. She cried out and grabbed the edge of the sink like she was afraid of losing her balance. This time his own hand did the work of guiding his cock back into her and then he let go of his hard fought control. "Hold on," he told her and felt her arms and legs go around him and then, using the edge of the countertop to compensate, he began to fuck her, using short hard strokes that made her gasp and made him blind.

"Do it Sidney, fuck me baby," she gasped, digging her nails into the back of his neck. If she drew blood he didn't care, couldn't feel it. All he could feel was her body pressed to his and her cunt milking his cock. He wasn't going to last. She was too hot, too tight, too wet. It felt too damn good and he'd been alternatively thinking about and dreaming about when they'd made love last night and he'd almost started to think that it had been a dream.

It hadn't. It was real and it was so _fucking_ good.

He looked at his own reflection in the mirror, at the small bones of her vertebrae, at the dimples at the small of her back. He watched his face transform into a grimace, saw the beads of sweat break out on his forehead as he tried to hold out. She had to go first. He would _not_ go until she had cum at least once.

"I want to feel you go," he told the reflection of her back, the swell of her hips, the round of her shoulders. "Let go, cum for me."

"Sooo close," she promised, panting in his ear as he slammed into her. He found her mouth with his, kissed her hard. He rolled his tongue around hers and then drew his mouth off of hers to kiss his way down to her collarbone, down to her breast, letting go of the edge of the counter to lift her breast to his mouth. He bit down on her nipple, gently rolled his tongue over the hard little pebble of pink skin and then bit it again. "Ahhhh fuck!" she cried out, digging her nails into the top of his head just as her pussy clamped down hard around his cock and sucked at it like a mouth.

"Oh...holy...fucking...shit!" he groaned as his balls tightened and then let go in one long explosion that made his knees weak and sent spots spinning around his head.

* * *

She was sure of it now, and it scared the shit out of her. She had never, not even one time, felt like this with a boy or a man. Not one, Cody thought as he pressed his damp forehead to hers and panted like he'd just sprinted a hundred yards. His massive chest heaved and his cock was still contracting inside of her as her entire body continued to tremble with aftershocks.

"Wow," he whispered, letting go of the counter to reach up and touch her face. His fingers travelled softly over her features like he was a blind man trying to read her face. "That was...intense."

"I guess a little danger is good for the libido," she suggested with a grin, nipping at his thumb as it travelled slowly over her bottom lip.

"No way...I mean yeah, maybe but...this was...it was something don't you think?" He was being honest, she could tell by the earnestness of his handsome features but she didn't quite know what to say. If she said 'yes' then she was admitting that her heart was beating like a pair of hippy's bongos. If she said 'no' then she was basically saying that she was only using him for his money and his muscles. She liked his muscles. She ran her fingers along his bicep, felt it flex and jump under her hand and then turned her gaze to meet his.

"You probably shouldn't say that. In fact you..._we_ probably shouldn't get...attached at all," she told him quietly. "If we have to leave...if you're in danger at all and I have to make that call," she continued, only to have him cover her mouth with his. He kissed her until she stopped trying to talk. When she stopped trying to speak, he pressed his fingers over her mouth and stood there, smiling at her.

"I'm kind of a gut instinct guy and my gut tells me that you need me, you and Becky both need me and that...that I think I need you too," he whispered, and then slid his hand from her mouth and replaced his fingertips with his lips in a long, soft kiss.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"This one or this one?" Cody held up two child size swimming suits, one pink with a design of yellow rubber ducks and the other light blue with a yellow peplum. Becky looked at one suit and then the other, shook her head and made a face. "Pumpkin, you can't go to the beach in your jammies." Pushing out her bottom lip, Becky crossed her arms defiantly across her chest and stared straight ahead.

"How about a bikini? Like your Aunty Dakota?" Cody turned to see Sidney holding up what looked like some macramé in one hand a bright blue and white polka dot child size bikini with frills and bows on it. Becky clapped. Cody shook her head but couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was the first sign she'd seen since they'd left the house in the middle of the night that Becky hadn't entirely disappeared back into her shell. "Here ya go squirt, go put it on," Sid handed Becky the hanger and gave the little girl an affectionate pat on the head before sending her in the direction of the changing rooms. Cody watched her golden hair bounce as she skipped away, bear in one hand and brand new swimsuit in the other.

"You're so good with her," she sent him a grateful smile, which he answered by waving the teensie weensie bikini in front of her.

"She's easy to please. Me, on the other hand, I think I've been called high maintenance. But I believe I can be appeased..." Cody fingered the ropey fabric doubtfully and raised her eyebrow at him.

"You weren't very easily appeased this morning," she reminded him, shifting from one foot to the other to ease the ache between her legs. He hadn't lied when he'd whispered that she wouldn't be able to walk for days.

"I didn't hear you complaining," he whispered, holding the bikini up in front of her and giving her a long, appraising look. "In fact I think what you said was '_yes please more, more'_," he added in a hushed tone, his lips almost gently brushing her cheek. Cody grinned and then ducked her head. The woman at the cash register was giving them that look, like they were a pair of young lovers on honeymoon and she thought they were adorable.

"Stop it," she hissed at him, giving him a playful shove.

"Then go put this on and I'll go put on a pair of board shorts and we'll go sit on the beach, in public so that all I can do is look," he grinned in a way that she assumed was supposed to be lecherous but only turned out to be sweet and a little comical. "Oh yeah, I'll look. Yeah," he added, giving her another long look, "I _am_ gonna look."

"Okay, you need to go away and you need to stop that...," she said pointing to his mouth, which she really wanted to kiss. His grin just grew. "Oh god, okay, I'll put it on just to torture you," she snorted, grabbing the hanger out of his hand and stomping off towards the changing room. "How you doin' in there short stuff?"

* * *

Sid pulled Dakota's phone out of his back pocket as he browsed the rack of board shorts. It had been vibrating like crazy for the last five minutes. It was Max.

"Fucking finally dude" he breathed, ducking out of the store and into the bright sunshine.

"_Well I've been trying to get near the place but it's crawling with les gendarmes mon ami. What have you got yourself into_?" Sid sighed and nodded his head. Of course it was. Someone would have heard the shot and reported it.

"She's got a jealous ex, that's all," Sid lied, though he wasn't sure why. Dakota could be on wanted posters all over Pittsburgh by now. Not that any of the guys would know who she was...

"_Okay, I get that but there's a serious CSI situation going on here. There's guys in black suits talking into their sleeves and I'm pretty sure I've seen a few guys going in their wearing plastic booties over their shoes. Seriously mon ami, where are you and what in the hell is going on? And who's this Cody_?" Sid ground his teeth together. He'd considered just calling from the phone in the room, but then her phone had just been sitting there on the table and it seemed a safer bet. Sid considered telling his friend everything. After all, he was the one who'd asked Max to go into a crime scene and find his phone and get all of them some clothes. Things could be replaced, Dakota and Becky could not. It just wasn't worth the risk.

"Yeah, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about," Sid mumbled quietly. His phone was the only thing he had really wanted to retrieve and not for the phone numbers on it though he hoped the other guys would understand if their numbers got out. It was just that they'd know he had been there and he knew that he was far easier to track than the girls were. "Look, could you wire me some money?" The credit cards would have to go. He probably hadn't carried cash for years but...

"_Money? Mon ami, have you hit your head again? Your bank account could swallow mine and not even notice_," Max laughed but Sid knew that the disparity in their pay cheques wasn't something that his friend and teammate held against him.

"I know it's just...well, we left in a hurry. I don't have anything on me." His wallet had been in his jeans, which was a good thing but it wouldn't take long for them to start tracking the withdrawals on his account and then...

"_I know you're good for it, and if not, I know where Taylor is. I'm sure your mom and dad would pay a hefty ransom, non_?" Sid laughed. Troy would tear Max limb from limb, slowly and methodically, if the cocky Frenchman so much as looked sideways at his daughter, never mind kidnap her. He couldn't even imagine the carnage his father would unleash if Max ever so much as laid a single finger on daddy's little girl. "_Where do I send this loan to and how much do you need?_" Sid opened his mouth but shut it again. How much did it cost to live in a four star hotel in the Bahamas? He'd always just handed over the plastic and then shoved the bill somewhere in his bag without looking at it.

"A grand or...or maybe two?" he asked, cringing. It sounded like a lot but it might not even be enough...

"_I know how you like to eat mon ami, je vais le faire un même trios. But do me a favour, if you need more, call Flower, he makes more, d'accord_?" Sid chuckled and turned back into the store.

"I'll text you the address of the hotel but, do me a favour Talbo, keep it to yourself. So no tweeting that I'm on vacation or something," he instructed, doing his best to sound imposing and threatening. Not that, even with his very best captain's '_I mean business'_ glare, Max ever really took him seriously.

"_Parole de scouts_," Max laughed and then there was silence on the other end of the line.

Sidney sighed. He understood a little of what Dakota had to be feeling about dragging him into this situation but he considered it their situation now and not just hers. At least he had confidence his friends could take care of themselves.

"You coming out of there?" he called to the dressing room.

"Not until you get me a beach towel and some kind of cover up to put over this thing." Dakota called back.

"Then let me come in and see," he called back, smiling. He caught the clerk giving him that look that said he'd better not get any ideas about doing anything in the changing room. Too late, he already did.

"No way, it's been a long winter. I look like a ghost!" she called back.

"You'll come out wontcha squirt?" he called, knocking on the door of the other dressing room. There was no reply. Not that that was unusual. Becky didn't talk much. "C'mon short stuff. The sooner you and your Aunt come out of there the sooner we can build a giant sand castle."

Sid walked over to a display of sunglasses and picked out a pair of round blue plastic child's size sunglasses that would match Becky's bikini. He was looking for a pair for Dakota when he felt her body press against his back. He closed his eyes and counted to ten and thought about the funk from Jordan's gym shoes.

"Hide me," she giggled, wrapping her arms around his middle. He put the glasses down and reached back to find bare thigh and bare rib cage. He smiled.

"Let me see," he started to turn around but she only reached up to cover his eyes.

"No, I'm hideous," she insisted.

"Not possible," he growled back. "I've seen you without a bikini remember," he told her, letting his hand find the yarn like fabric of the bikini bottom and began exploring the knots at her hips with his fingers.

* * *

"Sidney!" she danced away, giving his still denim clad ass a firm smack. She did her best to cover what seemed like miles of bare skin in comparison to what her usual racing suit covered, but as soon as he'd turned around, his hands were peeling hers' away and his eyes were roaming over her body with that greedy, appraising look. The smile his full mouth curled into said he liked what he saw.

"Every guy on the beach is going to envy me," he whispered hoarsely.

"They all do already," she corrected him, turning to grab a colourful beach sheet off of a pile near the register and began wrapping herself up in it. "Come on Becks! We've got to get a shovel and pail and flip flops and...," she turned to the clerk who was standing behind the register. "Do you know where we can get those?" The woman began to write something down and Sidney walked over to listen to the direction while Cody tugged the door of the changing room open to retrieve the clothes she'd been wearing. For a brief moment she considered asking the clerk to throw them out. But then she remembered the way Sidney had looked at her when she'd put them on and balled them up in her hands instead, making a mental note that when they bought some actual clothes to get some skinny jeans. "Becks do you need some help in there? Want me to tie a knot?" Pulling the door open she'd expected to find her niece with a look of consternation on her face, her little lips puckered, her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to tie the halter top but instead, the change room was empty.

Cody looked around the little room, as if she expected her to appear in a corner somehow, as if her pyjamas that were lying on the wood floor would somehow reanimate and fill with her little body. She even ran her hand along the bench against the back wall of the changing room as a sense of panic made her pulse jump and her breath catch in her throat. Picking up her onesie pj's Cody held them to her chest and backed out of the changing room.

"Sid," she called him quietly, still staring at the empty space in front of her. "Sidney!" she called a little louder, her voice, her hands shaking.

"What is...," his voice trailed away as he stared at the same empty stall. "Shit," he cursed. She turned to him and saw the same panic in his eyes. '_No_', she said to herself, '_she's supposed to be with you. You're supposed to be my rock_.' She didn't say it out loud. She blamed herself first. Becky was her responsibility. Hers'. "I was gone for a minute...a minute," he repeated, looking around the store and then back at her, earnest and concerned.

"You...you left?" Now she was going to blame him. She trusted him. He was going to look after them, both of them. How could he have left them?

"One minute. I was outside the door," he explained. "No one could have got past me. There wasn't anyone around."

"Why?" she asked, blinking rapidly as tears began to fill her eyes.

"I had to make a call," he growled, turning away from her and scanning the store again. "Did you see her? The little girl, blonde hair," he began, looking over at the clerk who smiled and nodded, pointing at a display on the far wall that included an aquarium full of exotic fish. Becky was standing in front of it, in the polka dot bikini, thumb in her mouth, her teddy bear in one hand, dragging on the floor at her feet as she stared up at the fish. Cody felt Sid's hand curl around hers' and they both stood there for a moment, taking deep breaths, letting the panic fade. Blinking away her tears she looked up at him and found him looking down at her apologetically. "I won't do that again," he promised and she nodded, accepting his apology and giving him a silent one of her own. "Go get her. I'll pay for this stuff."

Cody nodded again and then weaved her way through the clothing racks until she was right behind her niece. Running her hands through her golden curls, Cody let the relief ease the tension in every muscle of her body. The idea that someone might have walked in and just taken her... '_Now you're getting paranoid'_, she told herself firmly. '_No one knows you're here. You're safe. Safe'. _

"You shouldn't wander off pumpkin," she said softly, going down to one knee so she could press her lips to the soft, warm cheek of the little girl she never believed she could love so much. "You kinda scared me. If you want to look at something, what do you do?" she asked. The little girl turned a pair of very serious blue eyes on her and smiled.

"But pretty fishies," she said and pointed up at the aquarium bubbling away. Cody nodded.

"I know baby girl, but you come get me and we'll both look at the fish, okay? Or Sidney, you can get Sidney too," she added with a quick look over her shoulder. He was just putting his credit card back in his wallet. "You like him right?" She suddenly needed reassurance that it was okay to be with him too, that the little girl trusted both of them. Becky nodded her head without looking away from the fish tank. "That's good."

"What's good?" she heard him ask and then watched him do the same thing, run his fingers through Becky's wheat coloured hair as if to reassure himself that she was real and safe.

"Fishies!" Becky shouted enthusiastically and then turned to him, arms out to be lifted. Sid laughed and swung her up in the air before turning her around to face the tank.

"So you like fish squirt? I bet there's some fish out in the ocean. Wanna go swimming with me?" Becky's eyes were huge as she nodded silently at him. "Okay, let's go."

* * *

"Bigger!" Becky demanded as Sid added another formed pail of sand to the sandcastle that was now almost as tall as he was.

"Bigger?" he asked, staring at the at least five foot tower of sand. "I don't know..."

"Bigger!" she demanded again, but this time she crossed her chubby little arms across her chest and her bottom lip jutted out as she stomped her bare feet in the sand.

"Big mistake," Dakota laughed from her view point on a towel not too far away. She shook her head at him as he held one of the colourful plastic buckets out towards her. "Nope, you said you'd help her, I never did. I said I'd be right here, _reading_," she reminded him, holding up one of those bodice ripper dime store novels they stick by the check stand at grocery stores. They'd bought fruit and crackers, juice and water to bring with them. She'd bought magazines, sun block and that book.

"Bigger!" Becky demanded again and, with a sigh, Sid got to his knees and began to fill the bucket again, patting the sand down with the little plastic trowel to make it stick together.

"Sucker," Dakota laughed but when Sidney looked over, the expression in her eyes was far from disparaging. In fact, besides gratitude he thought he could see the same emotion that he'd been wanting to give voice too since he'd held her in his arms in the shower, her body leaning back against his, fitting with his. He was falling for her, big time, and he was pretty sure she felt the same way. It certainly helped that Becky had him wound tight around her little finger.

"You should come help," he called to her, eyeing a bucket full of water he'd pulled out of the sea a few minutes earlier.

"Get sand in this bathing suit? Let me think. Mmmm no thanks," she smirked and went back to reading. Sid held one finger up to his mouth and winked at Becky who promptly covered her mouth with both hands and even then barely held back the squeal that seemed to leak through her fingers.

Sid crept quietly towards her, his bare feet making no noise on the packed sand. Standing over her with the bucket, he debated his actions, but only for a moment before tipping the sun warmed water over her and then he turned, dropped the bucket and sprinted for the water, only pausing to pick Becky up in his arms to use as a human shield.

He heard Dakota scream and then he heard her hot on his heels as he splashed into the oncoming waves. Laughing, he held Becky out towards her and ducked his head behind the little girl's squirming body.

"You wouldn't hurt her," he called out, backing deeper into the water.

"You're right," Dakota called back and then there was silence. Sid peered around Becky and Dakota was gone.

"What the fu...? Hey!" His shorts were around his ankles and Becky was laughing hysterically as Dakota surfaced right in the circle of his arms and took the squirming bundle out of his hands. "Too easy Crosby, too easy," she grinned at him as he tried to pull up his shorts, feeling his cheeks burning as he looked around, expecting iPhones to be snapping away everywhere he looked. Fortunately, though the beach was fairly packed, no one seemed to be paying any attention to them.

"I'll get you back," he promised and Dakota just grinned back at him. "What do you think squirt? Should Aunt Cody get a spanking?" Becky nodded enthusiastically, of course and Sid grinned treacherously at Dakota who began to shake her head and back away.

"Noooo, you wouldn't," she breathed, not looking nearly as cocky as she had a moment ago.

"Do you think I would Becks?" he asked and she clapped and nodded and kicked her feet.

"Spankies! Spankies!" she shouted.

"You little rug rat! You're supposed to be on _my_ side," Dakota cried as the little girl squirmed to get free.

"Put her down Dakota and take your lumps like a good girl," he growled playfully while Dakota continued to shake her head and back away. Sid spotted the wave coming in, the wake from a passing boat, and knew that she didn't see it. He held his ground and let the water do the work. Dakota stumbled as the wave hit them and Sid snatched Becky out of the water, putting her under one arm while he grabbed Dakota with the other and dragged her, kicking and cursing him, up to the beach. He dropped her on the towel and put Becky down and then kneeled on the sand beside her. She went to get up to her knees but a firm hand on the centre of her back kept her down and so she turned and gave him an evil glare.

"You wouldn't," she insisted again, but Sid only smiled down at her and then tugged one of the knots loose on the hip of her bikini bottoms. "Hey!" she squeaked and reached to stop him, but his reflexes were faster and curvaceous bottom was already bare and his other hand already falling towards it.

The sound of his hand meeting her tender bare skin echoed loudly across the beach as did her squeal of protest. Her reflexes were nothing to be sneezed at either as she got to her feet, grabbing the towel to wrap around her waist and grabbing her bikini bottoms out of the sand.

"I can't believe you did that," she snapped, her pretty cheeks blazing in the sun.

"Even?" he asked and she nodded, her bottom lip jutting out reminding him of her niece who was now looking at both of them like she was expecting a fight. "Good," he said quietly, getting to his feet. He put his hands on both sides of her face and looked at her soft lips, her round cheeks and the freckles that the sun was bringing out. He had to fight the urge to say the words that immediately sprang to his lips. "Now will you help with the sand castle?" he asked quietly instead, touching his lips to hers' in a brief, gentle kiss.

"I guess," she mumbled against his mouth and he felt her arms go around his waist and her body press against his. He kissed her again, a little more firmly this time and then felt another body, a smaller one, press against his legs, and when they both looked down, Becky was hugging their legs and grinning up at them both.

"Bigger!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Oh my god...did you taste this?" Sid looked up from cutting his steak and watched Dakota licking her lips. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"That's why I told you to order it," he smiled, slipping the dripping morsel of meat into his mouth and chewing it slowly.

"Yeah but...oh my god," she closed her eyes and licked her lips again. Half of him wanted her to stop doing that but the other half of him sort of enjoyed the torture. "No, you have to try this," she repeated, holding her fork out towards him. He shook his head.

"All that cream...no. I can't," he explained, staring at the prawn and pieces of crab on her fork slathered in a rich white wine and cream sauce. He'd had the seafood crepe once, during the summer and then followed it with bananas Foster. "Not during the season."

"You're not playing," she reminded him, leaning forward and makings small tight circles with the fork in front of him. With a groan of defeat, he gave in and let her feed him. He let the rich creaminess fill his mouth and groaned again.

"I never eat stuff like that," he sighed, staring at the thick crepe and the mess of white sauce on her plate.

"I thought you could eat, like, whatever you wanted to because you work out all the time," she gave him that look, where her eyes travelled up his arms and over his chest and then slowly up to his mouth like she was imagining him naked. He felt heat creeping up his neck and into his face. He should have been used to it by now, to women looking at him like a side of beef. He wasn't.

"I don't take chances with stuff like that. There's some guys I play with that drink and eat whatever and...I can't," he shrugged.

"Control freak much?" she grinned across the table at him.

"Maybe," he replied and then turned to look at Becky who was stirring her food around on the plate in front of her. "Don't like that as much as you thought you would?" he asked and she immediately dropped her spoon, crossed her arms and shook her head. "Do you want some of mine?" She eyed his plate speculatively and then nodded.

Picking up his plate, he started to spoon his mashed potatoes onto her plate when he got that feeling, that sort of prickling sensation at the back of his neck, that he was being watched. This was exactly what he'd been hoping wouldn't happen, that he would be recognized, that someone would take his picture and put it on their facebook page or tweet it and then they'd know where they were, whoever they were. Cursing under his breath he tried to decide how much it would take to make them stop, to not take the picture. As he was turning he was hoping for a pair of older tourists, the kind without iPhones or Blackberries that automatically posted to a Twitter account.

"We're very sorry for the intrusion..." Sidney plastered his best meet and greet smile on and offered his hand but the woman behind him put her hand on his shoulder instead. "We just wanted to say that you're such a lovely little family and your daughter is so well behaved." Sidney shot a look across the table, expecting Dakota to try and explain but she just smiled appreciatively at the older couple.

"Th...thank you," Sid nodded at them and then reached over to cup his hand protectively behind Becka's head. "She _is_ a good kid."

"I'm three," Becka beamed and held three fingers up as the woman with the blue rinsed curls not unlike her own patted her cheek affectionately.

"Are you? And how do you like your vacation with your mom and dad?" Sid held his breath and sent a nervous glance towards Becky who just kept smiling up at the grandmotherly type pinching her cheek.

"We built a huuuuuuge sandcastle," Becky stretched her arms above her head. "It was waaaay bigger than me," she added for emphasis.

"Good for you. Well, keep enjoying yourself. Nice to meet you," the woman added as her husband guided her away. Sid breathed a sigh of relief even as he continued to nod and smile as they walked away and he literally felt his shoulders sag as the weight of being the one recognized slid off of them

"You're not as hot as you think you are Crosby," Dakota grinned at him, reading his mind. It was kind of crazy how she could do that.

* * *

"That was kind of close," Sid sighed as they walked out of the restaurant, hand in hand in hand. Cody nodded but when he glanced over at her, across the gap that Becky created between them, Cody couldn't help it. She was barely holding herself back from breaking into fit of giggles. "Hey, I thought they were going to say she doesn't look like either one of us," he added, looking very serious and seriously concerned.

"People don't do that anymore," she told him with a grin. "What did you think they were going to do? Say this guy doesn't look like your daddy and take her?" She knew he'd thought he'd been recognized and she could tell just by the way he was holding himself that he was still thinking that he'd blown their cover. For herself, Cody couldn't quite wipe the grin from her face and it wasn't just because the great Canadian phenomenon hadn't been recognized. It was because that couple had really thought they were a family. She'd started to remember what it felt like to be in a family today.

"Does she?" he asked with a somewhat sheepish glance in her direction.

"Look like her biological dad?" Sid nodded. "Yeah, she does. She definitely does." As they stepped off of the sidewalk and down onto the beach, Cody let go of Becky's hand and, tousling her hair, sent her scampering off ahead of them while she reached down to slip out of the new sandals that were pinching her feet. "I try not to but sometimes when I look at her, I can see him y'know?" she began and then realized that of course he didn't know. How could he? She still hadn't told him what had happened, let alone anything else about her, nothing _real_ anyway.

"Does she look like your sister?" he asked, reaching for her hand as she dug her toes into the still warm, white sand. Cody shook her head.

"Maybe if her hair darkens up a bit, like ours did," she glanced over at him. "You didn't think this was my real colour did you?" He shrugged, like it didn't matter to him either way. Cody filed that away for later. It had taken her a while to get used to her new reflection in the mirror but she was kind of used to it now. "Bri…my sister she always said our hair was the colour dirty dishwater. Not blonde and not brown, maybe in between but nothing that anyone was gonna wax poetic about. I didn't care of course because mine was under a swim cap all the time," she added with a smirk. "She definitely has his hair. Bryce, the golden boy," she sighed, poking at a pebble on the sand with her toe. "She has his eyes too."They walked in silence for a while, their arms swinging loosely together.

"Does he know? I mean...about your sister?" he asked, leaving the rest of the question unspoken though Cody knew what he was thinking.

"He never wanted her. Well...I shouldn't say that. He never wanted to be a dad. Whatever there was between Bryce and my sister...it wasn't something permanent and it was never intended to be. Actually," Cody smiled at the memories as they came back to her, "Bri was kind of...carefree I guess would be the nice way to put it. She wasn't into being in a heavy relationship or anything but when she found out she was pregnant, she wanted her. She was going to keep her, no matter what anyone said. Giving her up or having an abortion...she never considered it an option. Bri changed like that," Cody added, snapping her fingers. "She suddenly took everything seriously, including getting Bryce to sign away his parental rights. She went to a lawyer, all by herself, got the forms and she paid for a notary herself... I mean this was a girl who couldn't get her homework done on time but that changed too. She wasn't going to let them kick her out of school for getting knocked up either,"

"Sounds like you looked up to her," Sid noted, glancing sideways at her. Cody shook her head with a rueful smile.

"Not really, no," she admitted with a shrug. "At the time I was pretty pissed with her actually. We had these foster parents at the time that, for a change, weren't just about collecting an extra cheque. I mean, they came to my swim meets, helped with my homework, bought me a new swimsuit...I was pretty happy there, especially compared to some of the nightmare places we'd been shipped to before but...they didn't really want a pregnant teenager and social services didn't want to break us up. Y'know, sisters and all." She waited for him to react, expecting him to disapprove, but he kept his council, remaining silent as they headed towards the water's edge. "I guess I didn't really appreciate her," Cody admitted.

"Sometimes we don't appreciate the people closest to us." Sid squeezed her hand and then pulled her around to face him. "You're great with Becky. I think your sister would appreciate that."

"Not as great as you. She never came out of her shell until we met you," Cody told him honestly, feeling suddenly vulnerable as he reached up to trace her lips with his fingertips. "

"Like I keep telling you, she's a good kid," he told her quietly, his gaze focussed on her mouth. Cody slid her arm around his back, her sandals dangling behind him as his lips drew closer.

"And like I keep telling you," she whispered as he body swayed against his, the surf twining around their ankles like a purring cat, "you don't even have to be here."

"Actually, I think you're wrong about that," he whispered, his lips almost touching hers', "I think you're both pretty stuck with me now." His eyes looked like molten gold in the moonlight and his arms felt like a boa constrictor contracting around her. His breath tasted like good tequila and rich ripe fruit. Her heart felt like it was trying to escape the cage of her ribs.

"You don't know what you're saying," she breathed. His only reply was a cocky sort of crooked smirk that she almost didn't see before he covered her mouth with his.

* * *

He stared at the ceiling, counting imaginary sheep, going over past games in his head, anything to stop obsessing about the body of the woman in the bed next to him. He'd completely understood when Dakota had insisted that she be able to keep an eye on Becky and after the scare in the morning, he felt just as protective over their tiny charge, but the fact that there was a little girl with little ears in the room but that didn't make it any easier to ignore Cody's warm, soft, smooth skin or the fruit scented smell of her hair.

"Are you awake?" he asked, his hands still folded flat on his stomach despite the fact that he only had to reach over, just a few inches, and he would be able to run his fingers down her arm, hold her hand.

"Mmmhmm," she mumbled, not convincing him that she was actually on the verge of sleep and giving him hope that she was finding their current situation as frustrating as he was.

"Do you think she's asleep?" he asked, rolling onto his side so he could fit himself against her. His knees fit into the back of her knees, his chest pressed against her back. Sliding his arm under the sheets, he slid it over her waist.

"We can't," she whispered but the curve of her ass pressed back against him and her hand reached for his. Their fingers laced. She sighed.

"We could have another shower," he suggested, burying his nose in her hair. She smelled like warm golden sunshine and some kind of exotic flower he didn't know the name of.

"That would wake her up _too_," she scolded him but he could hear the smile in her voice.

"I thought you said she slept like a log," he complained, doing his best not to give into the visions of all of the possible ways he could resolve his current frustrations.

"I said that when she was in another room, down the hall and I thought my head would explode if I didn't see you naked," she hissed back, a giggle quickly turning into a sigh as he pressed his lips to the nape of her neck.

"So what do you suggest because I'm pretty sure something of mine is going to explode if I don't get inside of you _soon_," he whispered into her ear, grinding the very obvious evidence of his desire into the small of her back.

"Shhhh," she squirmed, letting loose a half whimper half giggle as she tried, unsuccessfully to scramble away from him. He held her against him with one arm.

"_I_ can be quiet, I think _you're_ the one who has trouble with that," he whispered against a spot between her shoulder blades, using his body to roll hers' onto her knees. Using his powerful thighs to press hers' apart, he positioned himself behind her, on his knees between her knees, his hands around her waist.

* * *

"Sidney." His name came out a strangled cry, half muffled by a pillow she grasped in both of her fists. Slowly he slid her panties down until the flimsy lace was stretched between her knees. He felt her leg tremble as he slid the back of his hand up the inside of her thigh. His other hand loosely gripped her waist, reminding her to be still as he slid his fingers into her warm and surprisingly wet entrance. He bit back a groan as cock strained against his tight boxer briefs.

"I've wanted you all day," he whispered as he bent down and pressed a kiss to the middle of her back and slid his other hand up to capture her breast, feeling her nipple hard and ripe against his palm. "I've wanted to feel your tight pussy squeezing my dick," he moaned, rubbing his erection against her thigh.

"Sidney...we _can't_," she whimpered but her pussy pressed back against his hand, asking for more. He groaned as her thigh pressed against him. It almost hurt but felt so good at the same time.

"If you tell me you don't want me," he began but she was already shaking her head. "We can be quiet," he insisted, sliding his now sticky fingers up the slick valley of her pussy lips to her clit. She groaned and then bit down on the corner of the pillow. "Please Cody," he begged, pushing his boxer briefs down to free his dick. It bounced up, eager to bury itself inside of her.

"Outside," she hissed, crawling away from him and sliding off of the bed, kicking her panties off and heading for the sliding door that would lead out onto the sand.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he watched her reach to pull one of their beach towels off of the back of one of the chairs by the little table in the corner of the darkened room. He glanced back at the small, still form, her golden curls sticking up above the sheets.

"I _can't_ be quiet," she snapped, unlocking the door and tip toeing out onto the concrete patio. With one more look back at Becky's rising and falling chest, Sidney followed.

Watching him walk towards her as she lay on a towel on the hard packed sand, it felt like she was dreaming. '_How could anyone that perfect want me?_' she asked herself as he got to his knees beside her, his hand reaching to cradle her cheek affectionately as he looked down at her like he was touching something precious and fragile.

"This isn't real," she whispered as he lowered himself to lie beside her, all of his muscles flexing and rippling in the moonlight, looking more like some kind of trashy romance novel cover hero than a serious young athlete, she thought as leaned on his elbow so that he was still over her, looking down at her like she was a banana split and he wasn't sure what part of the sundae he wanted to start eating first.

"You know I've completely fallen for you, don't you?" he whispered as he brushed her cheek with the back of her hand. Cody shook her head because she knew that heroes don't fall for white trash, foster kids. They fall for Hollywood Starlettes with fake boobs or country music divas with big hair. "I haven't been as happy as I've been all day with you and Becky...in...maybe in never," he told her before lowering his mouth to cover hers' in a long, soft, toe curling kiss that made her entire body turn into liquid in his arms.

"Not real," she repeated again as he moved his body over hers' in one fluid movement so that he hovered over her, the tip of his long, thick hard cock positioned just at her entrance. They both looked down at it, watched it slide gradually into her folds, disappearing by inches until they're hips met and he let out a long, feral growl.

"Does that feel real to you?" he asked, his voice hoarse as his forehead just touched hers and his gold flecked eyes stared down at her, daring her to say otherwise.

"Yesssss," she hissed, her nails digging into the solid, ropey muscles of his biceps, lifting herself off of the still warm sand to meet his next thrust.

"Fuck you feel good," he whispered in her ear, his arms suddenly closing around her shoulders like a vice, holding her body solidly against his as he slid himself entirely into her until their bodies were moulded together. Cody gasped and wrapped her legs around the back of his, reaching to grab a handful of his thick dark hair as her other hand dug into the meat of his back, holding on for dear life as their bodies rocked in unison, hers filled to the point of bursting, of being ripped asunder, but the sharp edge of pain only served to heighten the pure sweet sensation of being driven to the edge of pleasure and held there. "Cum for me Cody," he whispered against her neck, his teeth digging into the skin where her jaw met her neck, "let go for me." It would be easy to do, her entire body was already pulsating in time with the beating of her heart, with the rush of blood through her veins. She was already close, but she wasn't ready to go down, not yet.

"Cum with me," she hissed back, arching her neck, giving him more to bite and lick and kiss.

"I...I can't," he groaned, sliding one hand loose from around her back and slipping it between their bodies, his long thick fingers working their way in between the lips of her pussy to press against her clit. Cody cried out and her body bucked beneath his, pressing up against him. Her heartbeat sounded like a bass drum in ears. If he did that again she wouldn't be able to hold back and the cool water licking at their feet had no chance of cooling her jets. "I didn't bring any...umm, protection down," he admitted through clenched teeth. He was fighting for control. She knew how close she was, knew that he'd been aroused longer than her and knew that it would take one mammoth act of will power for him to ride the wave of her orgasm and then pull out. The fact that he was willing to do that had her digging her fingernails deeper into his back and scalp.

"Do it," she whispered, pressing her lips tenderly to his temple, "I want to feel you let go inside of me." His entire body went still and hers cried out in protest, her legs tightening around his massive thighs, her heels digging into the backs of his knees as she tried to pull him deeper into her. Doing a very impressive one armed push up, Sidney was suddenly staring down at her, his serious gaze studying her face.

"Are you sure?" he asked for the second time in the last half hour. Cody nodded and slid her hand down to cradle his cheek.

"I trust you," she whispered, meaning more than those words could convey but she knew he could likely read her true feelings in her eyes, in the same way that she was almost sure she could read his. He opened his mouth, as if he was going to argue and then closed his lips and pursed them in a determined sort of way and then he began to move.

Cody gasped and not just because his thick, strong fingers had begun to work on her clit again but because the view was so fucking extraordinary and the resolute and yet tender expression in his gaze had melted away every last icicle in her heart. She kept her hand on the smooth skin of his cheek, their gazes locked as they moved together, each daring the other to look away.

She felt it, the tightening in her abdominal muscles, the pressure in the small of her back, the sort of butterflies in her chest and knew she wasn't going to last another minute, especially not with the way his hip bones were grinding against hers' and the fact that his cock seemed to swell within her, stretching the thin muscular walls past any point they'd been taken to before. With hard, shallow thrusts he was driving her closer and closer to the edge and she could tell, just by the way he was breathing, the sort of controlled panting that almost drowned out the sound of the ocean licking up on the beach that he was close to.

"Ready?" he asked, his pupils having grown to the point where his eyes almost looked entirely dark except where the moonlight caught the gold and emerald flecks that made his eyes hazel and not brown. She nodded, knowing she wouldn't be able to form actual, recognizable speech at this point, especially not with his fingers rolling her clit between them. With one, curt nod he slammed his body into hers', once, twice and then she was screaming his name, her nails digging into his back, her back arched off the towel, her eyes screwed tight. She felt like she was riding a lightning bolt, like she'd licked a car battery with the engine running. Her body went rigid and shook like a dried fall leaf in the autumn wind at the same time. She barely heard him roar but she felt his one, last, hard thrust that had him buried inside of her, his cock throbbing as he emptied his balls into her.

* * *

The tears came again and just as he had last time, Sidney held her tight in his arms as she dame down from the heights of the orgasm. He was still breathing hard himself, his head aching a little from lack of blood, little points of white light dancing at the corners of his vision. He was going to have a headache, he knew it. He hadn't had one for days, but this was the kind of exertion that the doctors had been warning him out. Not that it mattered. Not that he would take it back now, undo it in any way.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair, no more able to stop the words from escaping his lips than he was able to stop breathing. She hiccupped and then turned her still tear filled gaze up to search his. "I know we haven't known each other very long and I know I don't know a lot about you but...I know how I feel," he told her earnestly. She nodded and sniffed, and then smiled as she reached up and just barely touched his face with her fingertips. It was an invitation to a kiss and he needed no more urging than that to cover her mouth with his and kiss her back into the towel, his body pressing hers down into the sand.

Her lips parted invitingly and he flicked his tongue out to greet hers. She whimpered into his mouth and then their tongues twined rolled over one another's, even as his body awoke again with the aching need to be inside of her once more. Her thighs parted readily for him and he needed no guidance at all, his cock like a heat seeking missile finding her core and slipping slowly inside until their hips met. Then they began to move.

Slowly, achingly slowly, in perfect rhythm with the waves ebbing and flowing on the beach, their bodies met and parted and met again as they gazed at one another with absolute awe and wonder in their eyes.

"I've never felt like this. It's never been like this," she whispered against his mouth. He agreed whole heartedly, and wordlessly, kissing his emotions into her, against her. He'd heard that expression, 'you'll just know', that there would be something that would just make it clear when the right one came around. He'd never believed it. The logical, calculating part of his brain had told him that love was something you worked at, that grew and changed and maybe it would but right now it felt like he'd been hit by a train and as he came with a shudder and an animalistic cry into the curve of her neck, he didn't have a single doubt in his mind that it would never, ever feel better than this moment, right now.

"Wow," he whispered as he kissed her cheek, her mouth. He'd never get tired of kissing her he decided as he rolled her body into his, holding her close as she trembled in his arms. So this was the difference that some of the guys talked about between fucking and making love. He understood now. "I love you," he repeated again, kissing her forehead and then nuzzling her cheek until he could feel her muscles pulling her mouth up into a grin.

"I love you too," she admitted, her lips warm against his cheek and he pulled her close, holding her hard enough that he was half sure he was hurting her, but he just couldn't let go. He wanted to hold her like this forever and not let go, it felt so good, so right. "I'm cold Sidney," she whispered, pressing her hand flat to the middle of his chest and giving him a nudge, "and we should check on Becky." He nodded, giving her one last squeeze before reluctantly untangling himself from around her and getting up, holding his hand out to help her do the same. She picked the towel up with her free hand and gave it a shake before wrapping it modestly around herself and looking up at him and giving him a shy smile. "Thank you for bringing us here." Sidney wrapped her in his arms and held her again, for one long moment, breathing in the smell of sunshine that still clung to her hair and then he let her go and offered his hand instead.

They walked back up the beach, into the softer sand and then up onto the concrete pad. The sliding glass door was slightly ajar. He was sure he'd closed it.

"No," Dakota hissed, freezing as she stared at the door. It took a moment for him to look beyond it, to the fact that the light was on in the room. "Nooo," Cody repeated dropping his hand and pushing the door wide.

Becky was gone, or at least her sheets and quilt had been tossed aside and she wasn't in her bed. Sidney turned to look down the beach. If she'd woken up and got curious...

"Becky! Becks!" Dakota cried out, ripping the sheets entirely off the bed and then searching through them as if the little girl might have shrunk in the night and become lost in the sheets.

"Just take a breath," Sid said, half to himself as he looked down the expanse of white sand towards what, a moment ago had seemed peaceful, glassy water that now looked murky, menacing and black. "Try the bathroom." Dakota almost ripped the doors off of the hinges and managed to pull half of the shower curtain off of its rings as she frantically searched, finding nothing.

"No. No. No!" Dakota screamed, pounding her fists into the wall and then she turned, her eyes blazing and pointed at him. "This is _your_ fault."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The room was swarming with cops and investigators and each and every one of them had suggested both gingerly and firmly that Dakota leave the room, get something to eat, go get some tea, anything to get her out of the way. Each time one of the men in uniform did, she looked him right in the eye and told him to '_go fuck himself'_.

"The bear is gone," Sid reminded her again, squatting in front of her, trying to draw her attention to him and off all of the uniformed men who were buzzing around the room like so many bees and do very little. That was the part that was pissing her off. She wanted someone to do something but no one was letting her do anything. "That's a good sign." Slowly she turned her gaze to meet his, and just as she'd done the two or three other times he'd tried the same tactic she just looked at him for a moment, incredulity and simmering rage in her gaze and then looked away. She hated him right now, and he was okay with that. He kind of hated himself too. He'd been selfish, wanting time with her alone, but he'd also thought they were, that Becky was completely safe.

Sid reached for her hand, wanting to soothe her, to comfort her, but as soon as he had her hand, she pulled it away like his skin was poison and put her own back on her lap and sat there, staring straight ahead, eerily still.

Sid went back to pacing. She wouldn't let him sit with her, hold her, comfort her and she obviously wasn't going to comfort him so he paced. He had to do something physical. He'd offered to search the beach with some of the other police men but they'd told him to stay with his 'little woman' where he could be of some use. Except he wasn't being of any use to Cody and he felt as guilty as hell and he wanted to find Becky more than anyone here...well, everyone except her Aunt who kept giving all of the men surrounding them dark, threatening looks.

"Look, let me at least search the hotel. If she wandered down a corridor...she liked the elevators," he tried to explain, remembering how she'd made faces at herself in their mirrored interiors, "she might just be riding up and down and..."

"Yes sir, you did mention that," one of the dark skinned men with the smooth voices replied condescendingly, smiling to show all of his teeth. "We'll leave the hotel staff who know the hotel and all of its entrances and exits to that though hmmm?" he replied, patting Sid's shoulder and then going back to barking orders into his radio. Sid's hands curled into fists and he clenched his teeth together.

"Then let me join the search on the beach," he demanded again, only to have the big man give him that same tired smile and shake his head.

"Why don't you sit with your lady there sir? She looks like she needs a little comfort." Sid bit back the stream of f bombs he wanted to lace his next comment with and instead turned on his heel and went back to pacing.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" Dakota's voice rose over the hum that all of the men's voices had created and Sid turned to see her standing at the end of what had been Becky's cot where she'd been excited to 'camp out' in, her eyes blazing, nostrils flaring. "Why isn't anyone doing anything to find my niece!" she shouted, picking up the nearest thing to hand, which was one of the brightly coloured plastic buckets they'd used at the beach, which she then tossed against the wall in frustration.

"I assure you ma'am," the officer who had just been so patronizing with him now turning around to be equally denigrating to Cody, "I have officers scouring the vicinity. She's only a very little girl, she can't have gotten very far." Sid hadn't ever really seen the look that was on Dakota's face now, but he had seen similar expressions on players right before they'd entered into the kind of fight where they weren't just trying to boost team morale but where they were in it for blood.

"Tell them," she snarled, her gaze holding his making it crystal clear that this was more of an order than a suggestion. It had been his idea to call the local police and his idea not to tell them why they were here.

"She might just have wondered out to the beach," he pleaded, knowing the minute he told the Bahamian police that she was in the witness protection program that they would all be handed over to the American Consulate and likely the FBI and that would mean..., "you don't know that's what's happened."

"Tell them!" she snapped, fury making the light in her eyes look like there were flames dancing behind her irises. He opened his mouth to protest but shut it again just as fast. She was right. They were responsible for that little girl; this wasn't the time to keep secrets.

* * *

She hadn't wanted this responsibility, hadn't wanted the intrusion on her life, hadn't wanted to feel anything for a little girl she hardly knew but she did, Cody knew as her nails bit into her palms, drawing blood as she watched Sidney explain their situation to the constable or detective or whatever the tall man with the beady eyes who kept looking at her as if she was something he'd found on the bottom of his shoe.

She was glad Sid looked uncomfortable doing it, glad that he was squirming and looking nervous as the big man glowered down at him. She hadn't wanted to feel anything for him either, had not wanted him to get past her defences for exactly this reason. The minute she let her guard down something bad happened.

It had always been like this. After the first foster home she'd taught herself not to get too close, not to let emotions override her judgement, not to feel. For years she'd been a master of keeping her distance, even if that meant that everyone on the swim team thought she was aloof, a bitch. It didn't matter, as long as her heart was safe.

Now it wasn't. Now it was in pieces and she had no one to blame but herself.

'_Should have said no when they told me to take her'_, she told herself as she stared down at the half moon shaped wounds in the palms of her hands. '_Should never have let him in the house that night_' she added, glancing up at where Sid was obviously still trying to explain who she really was despite the passport the Commander had in his hands. He'd made her feel safe, thought that he had made them both safe, but then she'd just been ignoring that little voice in the back of her mind that had been trying to remind her that she couldn't trust anyone but herself.

'_I could go now'_ she thought, for one fleeting moment and then realized that she had nowhere to go. She was stuck on a an island where she knew no one and the only two ways off meant having a passport, which she didn't have. Not a real one anyway.

'_Besides, I can't leave her now'_. She didn't really have to tell herself that. She knew it. She could not leave Becky behind. She would not. She'd made a conscious decision to keep her safe. She'd let her down in one, brief moment of selfish madness. It wouldn't happen twice.

"Do you have a current picture of her?" Cody blinked up at the big man towering over her. She was about to shake her head when Sid offered her phone to the man. He'd asked someone to take a picture of them at the beach in front of the sand castle. The memory of the warm sand under her feet and the tower of packed sand behind them almost made her smile. "Who took this?" the man's deep voice dragged her back to the present. She looked up blankly at Sid, trying to bring the woman's face to mind. All she could remember was a big straw hat and a pair of those giant Jackie O shades.

"Just someone on the beach," Sid shrugged, like details didn't matter. They mattered now.

"A woman," Cody said, shutting her eyes, trying to remember the figure behind the phone when they handed it to her. "Big hat," she added, holding her hands out from her head to demonstrate the width of the brim, "big sunglasses," she continued, holding her hands up in front of her eyes, making circles between her thumb and forefinger. "Plain black one piece...," her voice faded as the image completed itself in her brain. "Holy fuck. Agent Keith." Cody turned her gaze up to meet Sid's but of course he just looked back at her, waiting for her to explain. He hadn't met the agents, if they were agents at all. "I need to speak to someone at the American Consulate, right now."

* * *

"Tell me again," the man in the cream coloured linen suit who looked like he could have stepped off of the silver screen and not out from behind a desk smiled encouragingly at Cody as he offered her a sweating glass of unsweetened ice tea. '_Americans and their unsweetened tea'_, Cody thought uncharitably, didn't they know that you give sweet tea for shock?

"I'd met them right away, well him, Agent Roth as soon as I got to Pittsburgh," she explained for the second time. A sketch artist had already taken her description of both of the Agents and had left, to go complete the sketches she assumed, or send them to the FBI. "They met me right off the plane, took me to a house...," she shrugged and looked back at the man who just kept on smiling at her and nodding, making her want to tell him more, except that there wasn't any more to tell. "I don't know. I got in touch with them whenever...well, whenever I was scared or thought someone had been around." Sid reached for her hand again and she snatched it away without looking at him. She had to focus. Becky needed her to focus. He was just a distraction. She kind of wished that he'd just leave.

"So, there were never any other agents?" he asked and Cody shook her head. The man smiled thoughtfully again and nodded and then went back behind his big desk. His drawn out silences, his thoughtful looks were beginning to make her angry. She wanted to go back to the hotel. She was actually pretty pissed that he'd insisted on their coming to the consulate at all. If Becky wandered back to the room and they weren't there... "And no one else ever answered the phone when you called them?" Again Cody shook her head and again the man just smiled and nodded.

"Look, I've had a lot of contact with official agencies in my life," she began with a sideways look towards Sid who was sitting next to her, watching her with this pained, concerned look on his face that made her roll her eyes, "but I've tried my best never to have to have any kind of contact with cops so, I don't know, they seemed official to me. Nice suits, nice car...I don't know what else to tell you."

"But you didn't call them when the intruder threatened you?" the consulate official ignored her accusation as he sat down behind his desk and steepled his long, thin fingers. They were all bony knuckles and Cody couldn't stop staring at them.

"I thought we should get out of the house right away, that was my idea," Sid offered, and this time when he reached for her hand he didn't let her take it back. He squeezed her hand tightly and held it in both of his, letting her know that he wasn't going to be letting go of it any time soon.

"But they didn't immediately contact you?" the man raised an eyebrow and Sid and Cody looked at one another and then shook their heads.

"No. I guess I hadn't really thought about that but...no, no one called," Cody confirmed and then man took a deep breath and then nodded, as if it was all coming together for him, which, Cody thought, she hoped he'd share because she was confused.

"And this is the phone they provided to you?" he asked, holding up her phone which he had asked to see as soon as they arrived. Cody nodded, knowing she was starting to get to the end of her rope with this twenty questions bullshit. It was only Sid's hand squeezing hers that was stopping her from marching out of this room right now. If she didn't start getting some answers soon... "We traced both of the numbers you were provided for these 'agents'," he made the term sound sarcastic and then smiled like he had said something amusing. Cody frowned. "Neither number works now. I'm afraid, Miss James that a deception has been committed here and I'm afraid that I believe, as I think you do now, that your niece has not merely walked away from your room at the Bimini."

She'd known it, in the back of her mind, she'd already known it. Still, hearing it said out loud and by an actual card carrying official of the American government made it too real and despite clenched teeth and a silent vow that she wouldn't, Cody burst into tears.

"So what do we do now?" Sid asked for her. She was mad and wanted to stay mad at him but couldn't help but shoot him a grateful look for asking the question that she couldn't voice through her tears.

"Unfortunately all I can say is wait here where we can guarantee your safety and I know that's not what you want to hear," the tall man said, getting and moving around his desk to squat down in front of Cody because she wouldn't, couldn't look up at him. "The police here are very good, and our people are at the airport and at every marina, but the most important thing is that Becky's description is with every one of those people. We're going to find her Miss James. I have a good feeling about this."

* * *

The consular's name was Gordon Andress and he turned out to be a wealth of information, or at least he was willing to pass on the information the FBI was sending on the people that had posed as Agents, who, it turned out, were more likely to be affiliated with the Independent Soldiers gang posing as FBI agents which should have been a good thing, according to Gordon. It should have meant that they were trying to protect both Becky and Dakota. Unfortunately it also meant that if the Hells Angels were aware that is who they were, that they'd have followed them to the island.

That turned out to be Sid's fault, in a roundabout way and for that Cody had gone back to not speaking to him, which was why he was sitting on his own while Dakota was pacing and biting her nails and swearing under her breath while he watched, feeling totally powerless.

"I was kinda freaked, you know, guy with a gun," he reminded her for the second time, his comment earning him the same, angry glare that it had the first time. She did stop pacing though. "I'm sorry I left my phone behind. I'm sorry if that's what led them here," he repeated, which only earned him an eye roll, right before she went back to pacing and gnawing on her fingernails. "Dakota," he sighed and then got to his feet and reached for her, pulling her hand away from her mouth. "Cody, you can't keep punishing me." Her eyes were cold when she met his gaze but she kept her mouth shut, didn't so much as bat an eyelash. "I'm not going to stop loving you just because you're pissed and trying to push me away because it's the only thing you think you can do." She looked down at his hand on her arm and then up into his eyes and gave him that look, the look that said '_stop touching me'_ and that warned that if he didn't she'd make him. He didn't let go. "I love you and even if you really hate me right now, I think you really love me and I know you think that you can go through this alone but you are going through this _with_ me." She regarded him for one long moment and then shrugged off his hand and took a step away from him.

"If we hadn't been doing...what we were doing, she'd be safe and not with some scary biker gang kidnappers," she snarled at him and then stuck what was left of her thumbnail into her mouth and went back to chewing. The action reminded him so much of the way that Becky sucked on her thumb all the time that Sid had a hard time not smiling, but he knew if he did, it would probably earn him a slap.

"They'll get her back," he told her, feeling confident though he wasn't sure why.

"Maybe," she replied, with her back to him, "but do you have any idea how damaged she'll be?" she asked in a small voice. He didn't and she knew he didn't. He also realized, with a tightening of his chest that with all the moving around she'd experienced in her life that she probably had a nightmare playing in her head.

"She's a good kid, a bright kid and she knows that you love her," he told her as tenderly and as firmly as he could. "They say kids are resilient. I guess you'd know." She lifted her gaze to meet his, her eyes filled with tears.

"How can you be so fucking positive right now?" she asked, her bottom lip trembling slightly. Sid smiled, not too much, as he pulled her back into his arms.

"I'm the captain of the team remember? It's my job to keep the guys spirits up. And as your boyfriend," he added quietly, pressing his lips to her forehead, "it's my job to remind you that sometimes good things happen to good people."

"My boyfriend huh?" she whispered, her body melting into his.

"If you'll have me," he grinned, rubbing her back gently. She lifted her face to his and for a moment h couldn't read her expression but a gentle smile broke across her face and then she laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry again. He felt guilty for feeling relieved that she didn't' hate him for the moment even if she might hate him again later. At least, for now, she was allowing him to be there for her.

"Sorry to interrupt." Sid looked over his shoulder to find the consular officer holding the door to his office open a crack, "but there's a little girl at the airport that matches Becky's description."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

It would have been easy if it had been Becky. Cody had pictured the reunion in her mind a hundred times on the brief drive to the airport, heard her niece elatedly calling out to them and jumping into his arms, making them a happy family again, making everything alright. It would have been better than getting to the airport, walking through the mostly empty, cavernous terminal behind a row of men armed with semi automatic weapons, nerves on edge, torn between hoping for the best and expecting the worst and finding out that it hadn't been Becky, that it was just a little girl that had wandered away from her mother. A little girl that had had stick-straight strawberry blonde hair, not golden curls and had already been re-united with her own tearful family.

Now Cody had retreated into herself and was sitting in a nondescript grey chair near arrivals staring at petrified piece of gum on the floor. She could hear people talking around her, could even pick out Sid's worried tone near her, but all she could really hear was her sister's voice in her head reminding her that she'd promised to look after Becky, that she'd let her down, let them _both_ down.

"I suck," she berated herself, sitting on her hands because she didn't know what else to do with them.

"You don't suck." Sid's hand was on her shoulder, his fingers dug into the stiff muscles causing her to wince. The most talented masseuse in the world would not be able to work the knots out of his shoulders right at this moment. "And don't..."

"Don't tell me not to blame myself," she hissed menacingly at him, turning one scornful eye up to meet his gaze. "I do, and so should you." Those full lips that begged her to kiss them were suddenly pursed and his forehead creased as his eyes got dark.

"We'll find her," he told her and it was clear to Cody that he meant it when he said it. She wished she could believe it but the fact was she didn't.

"You all keep forgetting one thing," she muttered, turning her attention back to the bright pink wad of gum on the floor, "they don't want her alive."

"We aren't dealing with child killers," Gordon sat down beside her and reached for Cody's knee. Unable to escape, she leaned away and crossed her legs in the other direction leaving his hand hanging in mid air. "They're only hoping to gain control over the situation. Harming Becky is only going to make things worse for them and they know that." Cody nodded but his words didn't erase the darkly disturbing images in her head. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that Becky will suddenly turn up somewhere," he continued in the same, low, soothing voice that she knew was supposed to keep her calm. She felt so calm she felt like she could stick a knife in his throat without blinking. "This is probably just their way of ramping up the pressure on you."

"Well colour me intimidated then," Cody replied quietly. "At this point if they return her to me, unharmed, I'll get fully tatted up and ride around on the back of a Harley holding onto some fat guy with one of those t-shirts that says '_if you can read this the bitch fell off'_," she added caustically.

"I don't think it will come to that ma'am," a deep, warm brandy tone of a voice snagged her attention and Cody turned in her chair towards its source. "I found this one in the duty free asking for ice cream."

* * *

"Sidwheee!"

Falling to one knee, Sid held his arms out just in time to have Becky launch herself into them, teddy bear and all. Hugging her tightly to his chest he felt his eyes fill with tears of relief. He hadn't wanted to let himself go to the dark side, but he'd felt the same disappointment when they'd arrived at the airport to find out that they'd been on a wild goose chase. Looking over Becky's head at Dakota, the palpable disbelief mixed with love and relief made his heart swell in his chest. Cody did a great impression of a mama bear.

"I think somebody else missed you too kiddo," he whispered into her golden curls as he got to his feet and walked around the bank of chairs to put Becky into Dakota's lap. "We were so worried about you," he added as Becky turned to wrap her arms around her Aunt's neck as Dakota buried her face in her niece's hair. He stood back, just watching them for a moment and then Cody held one arm out toward him. Telling himself not to sob like a girl, Sid fell to his knees and wrapped both of his girls up in his arms.

He pressed his lips to the top of Becky's head and then to Dakota's tear stained cheek. He'd thought losing game six in the Igloo had been the worst night of his life. If this wasn't worse it was a damn close second he thought as he held onto two people who had become his whole world in what seemed like a very short time.

"Who took you?" Cody's trembling voice finally asked the question he knew that all the men who were doing their best to give them some privacy while keeping a close and protective eye on them wanted to know as well.

"Cathy," the little girl answered as she knelt on Cody's lap and reached for her bear which had fallen on the floor when she'd made a grab for Dakota's neck.

"That b...," Cody managed to censor herself and take a deep breath before she cursed. Sid admired her reserve in that moment. "I'll kill her with my bare hands."

"It's okay. Nice man tell her me and teddy not go on plane without you," Becky explained, leaning forward to wipe away some of Dakota's tears. "Don't cry Aunty Cody."

"A man? What man?" Sidney asked quietly, his hand steadying her as she turned and reached for him again. He felt her little arms slide around his neck and Cody nodded as Becky slid back into his arms.

"Him," Becky pointed to a dark haired man who was standing not far away, his arms pinned behind him, held between two Bahamian police officers.

"Oh my god," Dakota hissed, "it's the guy from the pool."

* * *

The first thing she wanted was her gun in her hands so she could put a bullet in his face. It was her first and entirely visceral reaction. It took a moment for her to fathom what Becky had actually said.

"_He_ brought you back..._here_?" Cody asked quietly, searching her niece's face for any sign of fear as she looked up at the big man with the skull tattoo on his neck and the '_Ride it like you stole it_' t-shirt straining across his obviously well built physique. Becky nodded and smiled up at the man whose whole appearance, at least to Cody, screamed shaggy haired stranger. He was exactly the kind of guy she'd been warning Becky to run from on sight. "Why?" she asked the stranger as she put Becky down on the floor and, keeping a tight hold on her hand, walked towards him. She noted that he wasn't struggling and the relaxed way he was standing suggested that his two guards weren't keeping a particularly tight grip on him, which meant they didn't think that he was going to try and escape.

"My name's Ken and I'm a friend of Bri's," the man said quietly. "When I heard what happened...when I went to see if Becks was okay...if she was going to go into care...well, let's just say I wasn't going to let that happen." Still wary and still keeping her guard up, Cody had to admit that she was already mentally awarding this Ken guy brownie points.

"How did you follow them?" Gordon asked, motioning for the guards to let him go. As they unlocked the handcuffs and Ken rubbed at his raw wrists, Cody tried to read his face, his body language. Was he a threat? Was he lying?

"I saw you leave one morning with the cops and you were pretty easy to follow from there," he told Cody directly. "I'm sorry, by the way, if I scared you at all but you don't know me and I wasn't sure you'd believe me if I just walked up and offered to be your guardian angel or whatever." Cody nodded. She was pretty sure that she would have called the cops if he'd done more than just stand around and watch them.

"So when you followed them...?" Sidney asked, taking a protective stance behind her. Cody turned to look up into his face to see that he was not just wary but angry.

"Yeah, well...I guess I wasn't ready to believe that just because you're advertised as a good guy that you were," Ken shrugged and then held his hand out towards them. "You've definitely proved that you have their best interests at heart." Cody looked at Ken's hand and then back at Sid who was likewise staring speculatively at the outstretched appendage.

"So is that why you weren't around when that guy came busting in the other night?" Sid asked quietly, his glance sliding slowly up from Ken's hand to his meet his gaze with an expression that held a clear warning; give the wrong answer and he'd be breaking that hand, not shaking it.

"Yeah, I figured between the agents parked across the street and you...she was in good hands. Sorry 'bout that." As Cody watched the two men shook hands, grudging smiles on both of their faces.

"Wait...so you knew this guy was watching me?" she asked, turning to look at Sid.

"Well I thought he was stalking you actually," Sid owned up with a shrug. She wanted to stay mad at him, mad at them both, but the little display of male hormones had made that almost impossible. "Thanks for bringing her back," Sid added more softly, placing his hand gently on top of Becky's head. She looked up at all of them and beamed.

"Yeah, well I wasn't there for Bri...I guess it was the least I could do," Ken shrugged. Cody was about to ask him what he meant by that when the consulate's agent reappeared.

"We've got some questions for you about the people with Becky," he said in a tone that said it was serious but he didn't want to scare the little girl. "And we'll send a detail back to the hotel with you two." Ken gave them both a smile and then followed the police and the consular officer away. Cody watched them go and then felt Sid's arms slide around her waist.

"I think we could both use some sleep right about now," he whispered in her ear.

"Mmm," was her only answer as she leaned back into the width of his chest and blew out a long, slow breath of relief.

"Can I have my ice cream now?" Becky asked, tugging on Cody's hand.

"I don't know, what do you think?" she asked, without looking back at Sidney. "Do you think there's any place open this early in the morning for ice cream?"

"I guess we're about to find out," he chuckled as he pressed his lips to her temple and then unwound himself from her to reach down and swing Becky up onto his shoulders. "What kind do you want squirt? Bubblegum or Rocky Road?"

"Liquorice!"


	15. Chapter 15

_happy bunnies and egg shaped chocolate da_y

**Chapter 15**

"You have to trust someone sometime," he said gently, his hands on her shoulders, her back pressed to his chest as they watched Becky, her bear and her spade and pail following the Consular's children and nanny down the path towards the beach.

"And what if someone takes off with her again?" Cody hissed. Sidney felt the tension in her shoulders and dug his fingers into her tanned skin, trying to loosen the knots that had formed there. She hadn't slept. She'd kept vigil over Becky the entire night, which was the reason for the nanny and the armed guards.

"They have guns. I'm pretty sure they'll do a better job protecting her than we could," he told her sincerely. He wasn't the kind of guy that thought guns where fun, that wanted to take a rifle out on the back porch and shoot at cans. Still, he had to admit, as he watched the two men in uniform with the semi automatics following the kids down to the white sand, that he felt relieved. "You need to sleep Dakota," he reiterated, trying to turn her back into the house. She refused to move.

"She's _my_ responsibility," she insisted. Sidney sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the back of her head.

"Just for a little while, just let go and…."

"That's what I did last night. Look how well that turned out," she grumbled. It hurt. Not that he blamed her for once again sticking the knife and reminding him of the result of their sneaking out onto the beach, but now that Becky was back with them and safe, he'd hoped she'd remember the more positive features of the evening.

"And what good will you be to her if you just crash because you haven't eaten, haven't slept?" he asked her, his grip tightening on her upper arms. He felt her shoulders sag and softened his tone as he bargained with her. "Just sleep, just for a little while, then we'll go down to the beach and join them, okay?" He could tell she was going to give in right before she said anything, just by the way that she finally leaned back into him. "Come on," he whispered and turned her back into the compound.

The consular's villa had an open courtyard and at its heart a tall fountain made up of frolicking dolphins spitting water high into the air. The music created by the water bubbling was meant to be both soothing and cooling. As Sid guided her past the fountain, up the stairs and into the rooms that Gordon had insisted they stay in, he hoped the fountain would have its desired effect on Dakota.

That and the fact that the house was far safer than their remaining at a hotel and besides, Gordon and his wife had children Becky's age. More importantly, Sid thought, the FBI wanted them to be somewhere they could keep an eye on them, now that the agency was really having them watched.

He glanced across the villa's courtyard to the man in the dark suit, so conspicuous in the mid morning heat. The visible bulge of the man's side arm under his jacket was meant as a deterrent to intruders but it was just another reminder that though they were guests, they were also under guard which was just another reason to get Cody inside where she didn't have to be reminded that they were being protected from forces that seemed intent on taking her niece.

The room was cool and dark, the big California king sized bed made up as if he hadn't slept in it last night, '_or was that this morning?'_ Sidney yawned as he closed the door behind them. He'd slept, yes, but fitfully, knowing that Dakota was next door in the adjoining room, sitting on the corner of Becky's bed, watching over her like an avenging angel.

Sid smiled to himself. '_There might be guys with guns outside'_ he thought as he watched her run her fingers along the edge of the rattan foot board of the massive bed, '_but I'd hate to cross her right now'. _

"Will you stay with me?" she asked quietly but with no emotion in her voice. Her back was to him, rigid and erect. Her body language told him she didn't want to ask, didn't want to admit that she wanted him to stay, that she felt afraid or weak. He almost felt bad knowing that despite her outward show of stoic calm, she was probably terrified. He felt worse that he was almost glad about it.

"I keep telling you," he whispered as he came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist, "I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

She didn't want to want him. Didn't want the first thought upon seeing that big bed with the invitingly soft down quilt and plump pillows to be his now tanned body, naked on top of all of that white and raspberry French provincial damask.

'_It's just my brain telling me to take a break'_ she reasoned with herself as she ran her fingertips along the woven bamboo footboard. He was right about the guards and right that she needed sleep. She could barely keep her eyes open as it was. Had she been sitting out in the warm sand she knew herself well enough to know that she'd probably already have been wandering aimlessly in the Land of Nod.

What she didn't want was to be alone. She hadn't wanted to watch Becky, no matter how happy and untainted by her ordeal she seemed, wandering off with strangers, but neither did she want to be left with no one but strangers to call if she needed help. She could feel Sidney watching her, knew that he was probably waiting to be, no, _expecting_ to be summarily dismissed.

"Will you stay with me?" She hated being the weak woman, hated that she felt like she needed him here to feel safe, but she knew as she felt the press of his massive chest against her back that even one of those big brawny military types with their dangerous looking guns wouldn't make her feel as safe as she did with his arms around her.

"I keep telling you," he whispered into her ear, pulling her back against him, "I'm not going anywhere." It was what she wanted, maybe even needed to hear but she knew that wasn't why he was saying it. They were in this together, that's what he was trying to let her know, that she wasn't going through this ordeal on her own. She ought to be grateful, she knew that, but she was too tired to be courteous.

She also knew he wasn't after sex. To some guys a girl in a room with a bed meant sex. She knew Sidney wasn't that kind of a guy. She wanted sex though. Not to be close to him, although that had its charms of course, but just to take her mind off of what they'd been through, off of what her life had become.

She reached back, snaked her arm around his thick neck and encouraged his lips lower. He resisted but only as long as it took her to reach back with her other hand and cup his manhood in her hand. She had to ask, but only once.

Cody shut her eyes and did her best to shut out everything but the feeling of his lips on her neck, on her shoulders and his hands moving up her rib cage until he was cupping her breasts. She didn't want to talk, didn't even want to hear him utter a single sweet nothing and she was relieved that he seemed to sense it or at least he was keeping his mouth shut for now. She wanted oblivion.

As soon as she felt him harden against her hand, heard him moan into the curve of her neck as she stroked his thickening erection through the fabric of his shorts, she let go and curled her hands around the footboard of the bed and spread her legs. They could get naked later, for now she just wanted to feel him up inside of her.

This hadn't been the reason she'd chosen the light weight sundress from the consular's wife's closet but it served its purpose well as Sidney dragged the material up over her hips with one hand and tugged her panties down with the other. She wasn't ready, far from it, as he began to push his way into her but that was sort of the point. The discomfort that made her draw a ragged breath through her teeth and dig her nails into the braided bamboo made her forget why they were here, that there were bad people coming after them, that she'd maybe met the man of her dreams, who, the minute he wised up, would run as far and as fast as he could from them both.

Going up on tip toes seemed to help, or at least helped enough for him to slide completely inside of her until she could feel his powerful thighs against her ass. She felt him pause and knew, before he said it, that he was going to ask something sweet like was she alright. The only answer she could give to that at the moment would either end in a fight or in tears and both of those was what she was trying to avoid right now, so before he could utter a single syllable, Cody pressed her ass back against him and begged, no, _demanded_ to be fucked like a whore.

"Just fuck me Sidney," she hissed, pressing back against him, "fuck me like I'm no one, like I'm just one of those sluts that you fuck to get your rocks off. _Please_." She didn't need to see the expression on his face to know that he probably didn't like it but she didn't care if it went against everything he stood for. This wasn't about him. This was what she _needed_. "Do it," she growled and heard his answering snarl as he withdrew almost entirely and then stuffed his cock balls deep inside of her, making her wince. "Yesss," she gasped and pressed her forehead to the back of her hands and pressed back against his next thrust, "harder, _harder_."

It hurt, but only for a few more thrusts and then her body turned traitor and she felt her own juices running down the insides of her thighs. Despite his considerable length and width and how tight she was from this angle, it started to feel good, started to feel like was making love to her boyfriend and that wasn't what she wanted.

"Hit me, call me a whore," she demanded. She felt him pause and sent an angry glare over her shoulder. His eyes were big and round and she knew that the sweet boy from a small town in Nova Scotia was unlikely to have ever called a woman names in his life. "I've heard you swear a blue streak you fucking son of a bitch. Use me, please, just do it." She watched him open his full, soft lips to argue but as Cody felt a tear escape the corner of her lips she saw him square his shoulders and a sort of uneasy resolve cloud his gaze.

"Shut your mouth bitch," he hissed and as she watched he raised one hand off of her hip and brought it down on to her ass with a stinging slap. Just for a moment she saw the sweet boy inside asking if he'd done alright and she shot him a grateful smile. "Do you like that you...you whore?" he asked, smiling back at her and raising his hand again, "do you want more?"

"Yesss," she begged and turned her face away as he brought his hand down with the resounding sound of flesh meeting flesh. "Yes, fuck me, yes please."

* * *

He awoke hours later to sun streaming through the shutters, his body drenched in sweat, alone in the big empty bed. Sidney rubbed at his eyes and then looked around the room again, at the rumpled sheets next to him. He felt the pillow next to him. It was still warm with a little slime trail of drool she'd left behind.

He listened, closing his eyes as he tried to sense her, but there was no sound from the adjoining room or the en-suite. Tossing the thin sheets aside, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, got up and crossed the room. He didn't really expect to find her in the bathroom, but he checked anyway, just to be sure.

Picking up his shorts and t-shirt from the floor, he pulled them both on and then slipped his feet into the flip flops by the door. He knew where he'd find her. He didn't bother to stop until he was halfway down the bath to the private beach, until he could see her standing watch from a spot at the end of the walkway, the wind lifting her dress and wrapping it around her legs as if it was caressing them.

She didn't startle when his hands circled her upper arms and pressed his lips to the nape of her neck. She'd tied her hair up, understandable in the warm wind but his hands itched to pull it down, to run his fingers through it.

"Did you sleep?" he asked gently as he felt her lean back into his arms.

"Yes, some, thank you," she replied without taking her gaze off of the group of children working industriously at a sandcastle under the watchful eye of both the nanny as well as the guards. "You wouldn't think anything had happened to her," she added as they watched Becky turn over a pail and pat it with her plastic shovel, a big grin on her face.

"Kids are pretty resilient," he told her, pressing his lips to her cheek. "She's a pretty happy kid and she's strong, like you," he added, trying to be encouraging. Cody didn't answer but she did lean her cheek against his hand on her shoulder which was a good sign, he thought. "A few more days of building sand castles in the sunshine should go a long way to making things better."

"We can't stay here forever though," she sighed and then turned to look up at him with a weary expression that Sid immediately wished he could erase, but he knew it was only a matter of days, if that long, before he'd have to go back to dealing with reality, with his injury and to watching his team play without him.

"We don't have to go yet though," he said, as much to himself as to her. He kissed her cheek and then let his hand drop down to seek hers. She looked up at him, gratitude mixed with the threat of tears in her eyes. "That castle looks like it needs a little work. Think we should go and help?" he asked. She nodded, the beginning of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Giving her hand a squeeze he lead her down the path and onto the white sand.


	16. Chapter 16

_Big yahooo for the Nucks. Now I just need the Pens to put Tampa down like a mad dog!_

**Chapter 16**

"_Mon ami, when are you coming back to the land of the living_?" Sid watched Cody roll the dice and then move her game piece down a snake. Becky clapped and then reached for the dice. Snakes and ladders, he hadn't played since he was a kid and only then maybe once or twice. All his games had been out on the ice, or down in the basement. He'd never had much time for board games.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you could see what I'm looking at," Sid smiled to himself as he leaned against the wall, watching his little family.

"_Well we are all excited to meet what you're looking at_," Max replied and Sid could hear Jordy and Duper in the background agreeing and adding their two cents worth. None of which was worth repeating and all of which was word.

"Yeah, about that," Sid sighed and turned and headed out onto the terrace. "I'm wondering if you...well maybe Duper, cuz let's face it, what do you know about kids, could do some uh...kid proofing at my place."

"_**Kid**__ proofing_?" There was no ignoring the incredulity in Max's voice.

"Yeah, she's coming home with me...fuck, I don't have to explain myself to you. Just...I kind of need to have that done before I...before _we_ get home." He couldn't help but smile when he said it.

"_So, this is the same chick that had the whole CSI thing going on in her house_?" Max asked.

"Yeah, did you hear anything more about that?" he asked, wondering if he was going to get home to a pile of messages from his agent and from Mario.

"_There was nothing in the press if that's what you're worried about, which is kind of funny when you think about it considering how many cops were crawling all over that place_." Sid felt a lead weight lift from his shoulders. "_So a kid, huh? Boy, when you jump_..."

"Hey, I don't tell you what to do with your stage five clingers, so do me a favour Talbo, don't tell me what to do with my life, deal? Just put Dupes on, okay?" He'd have to answer to them when he got back to the rink but he wasn't going to do it over the phone.

* * *

She tried to hide it behind both of her little hands but it was the third yawn that Becky had tried to stifle in the last few minutes. Cody had let her stay up long past her bedtime only because of what had happened, because of her own guilt and because Becky had seemed like she was never going to run out of steam. But this time, as she rolled the dice, they practically dropped out of her fingers and barely rolled an inch.

"I think we'll finish up this game and then you, little missy, are going to bed," Cody reached across the board and ruffled her niece's blonde hair. Becky made a face, but didn't argue, which was only more evidence of how tired she was.

"I'll read you a story." Cody turned to see Sidney returning to the room with phone in hand. He looked worried. She sent him a concerned look but he shook his head, just once, but enough to know that whatever it was, it didn't concern them right now.

"I don't have any of my books here," Becky pointed out as she sent her game piece up another ladder.

"Ah but I've got books in my head," Sidney told her, scooping her up off of the floor and into his arms. "Have you ever heard a story about a hockey sweater?" he asked her as he carried her, uncomplaining through the open door that joined their rooms. Cody watched them go, her heart swelling at the sight, even with that little voice whispering in her ear that it wouldn't, couldn't last. She acknowledged the voice and then told it, summarily, to fuck off, at least for now.

She scooped up the dice and the game pieces and then folded the board and put all of it in the box and put the box back in the cupboard by the television. She thought about turning it on, looking for some cheesy dance or music show to distract her, and then thought better of it.

Instead she headed to the bathroom, washed her face, brushed her teeth and then leaned in and turned on the shower. She could still feel sand between her toes but that wasn't really why she wanted to stand beneath scalding hot water. She'd been doing her best to convince herself all of this wasn't somehow her fault, but even having Sidney punish her hadn't managed to erase the feeling that seemed to stick to her skin, the creepy crawling sensation that she had somehow been tainted by each and every selfish action she'd committed since she was a teenager that had lead to her sister's death, to Becky being an orphan and to her almost being kidnapped.

She'd failed to check the identities of the so called agents who had offered to protect them. '_I should have known_' she criticized herself, '_they did some stupid shit. I knew better._'

Stepping beneath the scorching hot water she grabbed the loofah from its hook on the tiled wall and began to scrub at her skin until it began to turn a sort of cooked lobster red as she thought about all of the times that she'd put her niece into jeopardy. '_I should have just let her go into foster care'_ she berated herself, '_she probably would have been better off'_.

The first good decision she'd made was letting Sidney into their life, she thought with a half smile, her skin tingling at the thought of him. But even he had his downsides and not just that he'd tempted her into joining him out on the beach and leaving Becky alone, although she was still angry at herself and at him for that. The worst part about Sidney, Cody decided, was that eventually he was going to leave them. It had to happen. It was as probable as day following night. He was...well, he was Sidney Crosby, which was pretty damn close to Superman but he wasn't Mother Theresa. Eventually they would have to go their own way, or, if the FBI chose, she and Becky would end up somewhere else under assumed names or...Or she would go back to Vancouver, to streets and neighbourhoods she knew, around people who knew her, where she might have a better chance at seeing danger coming. Either way Sidney was just going to be another person that disappeared from Becky's life and that too would be her fault Cody rebuked herself silently as she peeled away layers of skin from her legs and arms.

"She went out like a light." The shower door opened and Sid stood in its frame with a big, fluffy white towel held open in his arms. One glance at the way his gaze swept over her and despite his ability to school his features it was evident to Cody that her red, raw skin shocked and worried him. Turning off the water, she stepped down onto the bath mat and let him wrap her up like a human burrito. "It's not your fault. You need to stop blaming yourself," he whispered as he held her in his arms, as if he was reading her mind. She remained very still, considering whether or not to ask how he knew or if she should refute his claim. "I play with a bunch of perfectionists and I'm probably the worst for blaming myself for a loss," he added, turning her to face him. "This is gonna be a little pot calling kettle black but...you've got to let it go Dakota. You can't change the past, no matter how much you want to. I know, there's been plenty of times I've wanted to but...no time machine, unfortunately," he smirked, though the expression in his eyes told her he didn't consider this any laughing matter.

"I just keep thinking...," she began but he reached up and pressed two fingers to her lips to silence her.

"There's your problem. You need to just _stop_ thinking," he whispered and then pressed his lips to hers'.

* * *

He slipped the towel from around her shoulders and let it fall and when she started to raise her arms to cover herself, he pushed those away too. He kissed her and ran his hands over her soft, warm skin.

"I can help with that," he told her and meant it, but this time it was going to be on his terms. Not like it had been this afternoon. Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her out to the bed and laid her down on the white sheets. Her eyes glimmered with tears that he could see she was doing her best not to let them escape. "Don't think," he reminded her again, and then tugged his t-shirt over his head.

Her gaze blazed a trail across his shoulders and then down his chest. He usually didn't like it when women looked at him like he was nothing more than a side of beef but in this moment he didn't mind, as long as it meant she wasn't thinking about being the worst Aunt ever.

"You're beautiful," he told her, his own gaze roaming over her curves. She started to shake her head but he just smiled. "You _are_. Every time I look at you I think damn, she is _so_ hot."

"You are so full of shit," she grinned back at him. It wasn't a lie, far from it, but he'd been fairly certain that it would make her smile.

"Do you think I'd sleep with someone who was ugly?" he asked, crawling up onto the bed beside her.

"I think that bump on the head you took has seriously affected your judgement." Her giggle turned into a sigh as he ran his fingertips over the curve of her hip and down into the valley of her waist and then across her stomach.

"I think you're still thinking," he whispered before pressing his mouth down over hers and sliding his hand down into her pussy.

She gasped as his fingers slid over her clit. She moaned when he slid two fingers inside of her and then dragged them back up and over her clit again. He felt her fingernails dig into his shoulders and smiled. He was pretty sure she was well on her way to being unable to think.

Sidney kissed his way down her neck and over her collarbone and finally slid his lips over her nipple and sucked it into his mouth. Her nipple hardened under his tongue and he heard her suck in a ragged breath as he pressed the flat of his tongue over the hard little ridges around the pebble of her nipple and then tugged her nipple between his teeth. Her juices began to flow faster as he slid his mouth over her other breast and repeated the process. Sliding his fingers out of her pussy, he licked her gleaming juices from them and grinned.

"I've been wondering if you taste as sweet as you look," he told her, licking his fingers clean and then sliding slowly down the bed, placing gentle kisses along her belly and then on the insides of her thighs before spreading the lips of her pussy with his fingers. He heard her whimper and looked up to find her stuffing the corner of one of the pillows in her mouth. Chuckling, he pressed the flat of his tongue over her clit and slowly dragged it upwards until he heard her moan and felt the muscles beneath his fingers relax.

He'd wanted to do this the first night they'd been together, had thought about it long before that, but he'd been so eager to get inside of her. Now they had the time to explore, to try things they hadn't before and he had all night to make her cum and cum again.

Max had demonstrated it, but as Sidney tried to make his tongue do a wave motion against her clit, his tongue didn't seem to have the dexterity that Max's did and he ended up lapping at her clit like a kitten would a bowl of milk. It had the same effect and soon Dakota was writhing on the bed, digging her heels into the sheets and he could clearly hear her cries, even though they were stifled by the pillow.

Her juices were really flowing now and Sidney got bolder, trying out the alphabet game he'd heard Tanger talk about in the dressing room. He spelled his full name out, all three names and was promptly rewarded by her heels drumming against the mattress and her nails digging into his scalp as she urged him on.

Coming up for air, Sidney blew out a long, slow breath across her clit and slid two fingers up inside of her, searching for that spot he'd found before that made her go off like a roman candle. He pressed his fingers upwards and, as he watched, her eyes rolled back and her mouth fell open and she let out a long, high pitched wail.

He glanced back towards the door that led to Becky's room but it remained closed and, as he listened for any stirrings on the other side of the wall, he heard none. He sincerely hoped that Cody was right, that Becky could sleep through an earthquake, because he wasn't planning on that one being the only orgasm her Aunt had tonight.

* * *

Cody lay, gasping like a carp out of water, on her back as Sidney kissed his way back up her body, paying particular attention to her breasts, licking and suckling at her nipples until she thought she was going to cum just from the feeling of his tongue brushing over them. Finally, however, the solid length of his body was pressed along hers and he reached for her lips with his.

If her entire body had not already been on fire, that kiss was like tossing a lit match into a vat of gasoline. His tongue curling around hers' and the hard length of him pressed against her stomach, she felt almost deranged, clawing at his shorts, wanting to rip them just to get at him. She wanted him inside of her and she wanted it now.

Chuckling, he helped her pull the zipper down and pushed the shorts down over his hips, but when she reached for him, when she tried to slide her hand down the waistband of his boxer briefs, he shook his head.

"I want you on top," he urged her quietly, rolling on to his back and kicking his shorts off so that he was lying there, in front of her, his sizeable member hard against his stomach. She reached to touch it, barely stroking it and he moaned. Reaching into the bedside table, she dug for the box of condoms. "Don't you think it's a bit late for that?" he asked sincerely. Cody blinked but continued to stare at where her hand had just closed on the box. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself, but he was right, of course. They'd already had sex, twice, unprotected. "I love you Dakota, whatever happens, I'm here." For what seemed like the tenth time that day, she turned and faced him with tears in her eyes. "I mean it Cody. I love you," he repeated and reached for her, pulling her down until their lips met and he kissed her, and kept on kissing her, even while she reached between them and guided him inside.

If she'd thought it had felt good before, with her prone over him, with her clit pressed to his pelvic bone, Cody was already gasping, her head reeling, pulse jumping. Gently, Sidney urged her up onto her knees and, grasping her hips in his big hands, pressed his full length up inside of her.

With her hands pressed flat against the middle of his chest, Cody began to move, slow up and down movements, each of which set of a series of fireworks in her brain. He was touching things inside of her, filling her in ways she'd never imagined and each down stroke stole her breath away.

She was close, sure the next up stroke would send her sailing over the edge and then she felt his hands slide slowly up her ribcage until his meaty paws were covering her breasts, her nipples stroking over the calluses in his palms. Cody threw back her head and let out what sounded like primitive howl.

"Oh sooo fuuuuucking goooood!" she cursed, letting his hands hold her up as she reached back and arched her back, changing the angle as she dug her fingers into his muscular thighs, or tried to, which was next to impossible considering they were like cement pillars. She panted as he rolled her nipples between his fingers and her brain fizzled and popped like an old radio as she came again with the sensation of being ripped open from her clit up to the back of her eyes. "Siiidnnneeeeee!" she howled and fell forward against his hands. Their gazes locked as she slid her hands up to his wrists, curled her fingers around them and held on.

"That's it baby, don't think, just feel," he growled as he raised his hips, pushing himself up into her until she thought there was no way to take anymore of him.

"Harder," she panted, pulling his hands harder against her breasts, leaning into his hands and pressing down on him at the same time. She raised herself up, until she could just feel the head of his cock inside and then slammed her hips down, pressing the breath form her lungs and tearing a groan from his. The next time he met her half way down and as their bodies met she shuddered and moaned his name. The next time it was his turn to lay there, almost inert as he gathered his breath.

The moment he'd gained control, however, he rolled her over onto her back, pinned her to the bed and spread her legs, wide.

"I'm gonna fuck you," he whispered, pressing her knees as far back as she could bear, "just as soon as you tell me that you love me." She stared up at him, that little voice in the back of her mind warring with every emotion she was feeling in that moment. "Feel Dakota, just feel," he whispered, holding himself just inside of her, teasing her, knowing she couldn't do anything about it.

"I want you," she whimpered, her nails scratching uselessly at his chest and arms. "Please Sidney," she added pathetically.

"Tell me Cody, tell me, but mean it," he growled hoarsely and let her see how much it cost him to stay like this, not to give in, not to shove his cock home where she knew he wanted to be as much as she wanted him there. "Please Cody," he added, his plea clear in her eyes.

* * *

"You know it," she whispered, biting back the words.

"No, I don't or I wouldn't ask," he sighed and then turned his face away. Suddenly he felt like he was going to cry and he hated that he felt as helpless as a mewling kitten. How had this happened, he wondered as he drew back, pulling in on himself and away from her. How had he become so needy?

"Sidney?" Her voice was small and held a note of surprise as he turned entirely away from her. He felt the bed move, felt her hands on his shoulders. He tried to shrug them off but she held on, wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his back. "This is hard for me," she whispered. He nodded. He knew it, or he knew part of it and guessed at the rest. She didn't trust him or anyone else and she had plenty of reason not to. He wanted her to though. He _needed_ her to. "If you left...," her voice trailed off and he could hear the words in his head that she wouldn't say. '_If you left it would be awful'_. It was good, but it wasn't the same thing as love. "I'd be hurt but Becky...she'd be devastated," she added quietly, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. "I'm scared of that more than anything."

"You think I don't want her?" he asked, turning his head to look at her.

"I don't see why you should but no...I guess I don't _know_ that," she sighed and pressed her forehead to his. "You're...you're fucking Sidney Crosby. You don't need this chaos in your life. The thing is I wouldn't even be mad at you if I woke up in the morning and you were gone. In fact, I'd totally understand but Becks...," her voice trailed off as she thought about the shut down expression in the little girl's eyes the day she'd picked her up from the social worker's office. "I have to protect her too."

He nodded and then dropped his head into his hands. He knew things were complicated. He knew she had every reason to withhold her feelings from him. In fact, he knew she had every right to hide her heart from him. It hurt though. It hurt a lot more than he wanted to admit.

"I didn't expect to fall for you, both of you," he told her honestly, his head still in his hands, "but I think you should know that the other day, when Becky was gone...just...I would catch a bullet for either of you." He held his breath. He almost expected her to laugh. He certainly expected her to argue, to tell him he was insane. She did neither, well...not exactly.

"You're crazy." He could hear the smile in her voice but it none of the sarcasm he was waiting for.

"No," he sighed, lifting his head, "but I think this bump on my head and all this time away from hockey has made me see straight for the first time in my life. You two have made me smile and made me relax and made me think about stuff other than hockey for the first time in my life and...and I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you." He turned and looked into her eyes and everything he wanted was there as her eyes filled with tears and then she kissed him and he felt his heart swell in his chest.

"I love you," she whispered, against his mouth.

"Thank fucking god for that," he whispered back and then kissed her back onto the bed.


	17. Chapter 17

He'd woken with a pounding behind his left eye, the feeling that someone or something was trying to drive a railway spike through his head. It hadn't been this bad since that first morning after the Tampa game, after he'd woken up for the second time with a throbbing head and churning gut. He wasn't nauseous now, but he would be if he got up, if he tried to eat.

She seemed to sense it, or saw him wince when she opened the curtains. Either way, the curtains were quickly and tightly drawn and when Cody came back from the bathroom wrapped in a gauzy white robe she had two Advil and a glass of water which he took gratefully. She took the glass back and then reached with her other hand to run her fingers briefly through his hair.

"Stay in bed today?" she asked in a whisper. He was about to argue, say he'd be fine in a few minutes, but the door swung open and Becky burst in, already in her swimsuit, her pail clutched tightly in her chubby little fist.

"Sidwheee come make castle?" she asked, beaming up at him. He winced and his stomach rolled threateningly. The little girl's enormous blue eyes searched his face and she frowned. "Sidwhee sick?" she turned and looked up at her Aunt who reached down and ran her fingers through Becky's curls.

"That's right. So that means we have to be very, very quiet," Cody explained, "and it also means that Sidney won't be able to help with the sand castles today." Becky didn't try to hide her disappointment as her little shoulders drooped and her bottom lip trembled, but she nodded anyway and turned to leave the room. Sidney watched Cody guiding Becky away and sighed. The guilt made his stomach churn but for the first time it wasn't about Flower and Jordy and Max and the boys. Now it was about a little girl who, unlike his teammates, couldn't be expected to understand that a jackass had hit him in the head, on purpose, and there were just going to be days like this.

He hadn't had a headache like this for weeks, maybe months, Sidney thought as he closed his eyes and pulled the comforter back up to his chin. He'd actually started to believe that he was better, or at least well on the way to recovery. A few more days of surf and sand and Dakota's body moving rhythmically beneath his and he'd be able to return to the Pens locker room and the team.

He could already hear his doctor 'tsking' away about how he'd overdone it last night. Just the thought of how many times he'd brought her shuddering in his arms made Sid smile, but that made his head hurt worse.

Turning onto his stomach Sid buried his face in the pillow and cursed loud and long. It hurt his head but letting it out made him feel better, for a moment or two anyway. Now that she'd admitted it, now that he felt in the way she'd curled up against him and allowed him to hold her as she slept, he'd wanted to spend the day proving in every little way that he could think of how much he loved her. Now he was stuck in the dark, with a jackhammer in his head, hating his life.

'_Tension just makes it worse'_, the doctor had warned him and with that warning in his head, Sidney rolled onto his back, closed his eyes and tried to think of nothing at all. The only problem was he couldn't shut his brain off, as much as he wanted to, and he couldn't seem to ignore the voice in the back of his head that was telling him he was fucking up.

Not just by staying in bed and not just by disappointing Becky either. That voice that wouldn't shut the fuck up was telling him that he was making a mistake and that this was a dream world and it didn't matter how he felt now because once they were back in the Burgh it would all be different.

Sidney rolled onto his side and stared at the closed curtains. He wanted to tell the voice to shut up, that it was wrong, but the pounding in his head that told him that he was human and broken also reminded him that he'd never made a relationship work, not when he was playing hockey and he wanted to play hockey again, very much.

* * *

She watched her like a hawk, like a protective mother bear, looking for a single nuance, any momentary change in expression that would hint that Becky's seemingly happy go lucky exterior was in any way masking symptoms that would need to be dealt with. The more she watched from her towel on the beach, having not so much as flipped a single page in her book, the more Cody was beginning to think that her niece was as resilient as Sidney seemed to think that she was.

She didn't cry when one of the other kids took her pail, she did put a handful of sand down the back of his shorts and then ran away laughing. She didn't shy away from any of the guards when the big men were forced to coral her when her hunt for seashells took her too far from their comfort zone. She giggled when they picked her up under their arm like a sack of flour. There was no sign of the rocking that Cody had seen on the trip to Pittsburgh. No night terrors. No wet sheets. She seemed...perfectly normal.

"If you look hard enough you might start seeing things that aren't there." Cody looked up to find Sidney standing over her, towel draped casually over his round shoulder, a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap pulled down low over his sunglasses. "She's fine Codes, and if she's not...we'll deal with it as it comes." Cody shrugged and returned her attention to the where Becky was skipping along the very edge of the water, shrieking whenever the water swept up and over her toes.

"We huh?" Cody moved over to make room for him as he knelt on the sand beside her.

"You're not gonna start that again," he sighed and though she couldn't see his eyes, she imagined him rolling them behind the dark lenses of his Ray-Bans.

"I just can't imagine you having time with all your...superstarness," she teased, reaching over with her foot to push against his. That earned her the briefest shadow of a smile.

"If it'll make you feel any better," he said quietly, his hand sliding over hers', "we can take her to the best doctors in Pittsburgh and if they're not good enough..."

"I'm sure they are, will be," she insisted, quickly catching on that he wasn't in a kidding kind of mood. She glanced sideways at him but he was staring straight ahead. Not at the girls playing in the sand, just...ahead. "Still no better?" she asked, pitching her voice low.

"It's better...ish," he mumbled, wincing as one of the girls let out a high pitched squeal as a bucket of water was dumped over her head.

"You don't have to be out here," she told him as he withdrew his hand and pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. The sight of all those muscles working was enough to make her catch her breath. The way his jaw worked as he clenched his teeth...that made her worry.

"I'm fine, okay?" he snapped, an irritated tone in his voice that made it very clear he didn't want to talk about it. Cody flinched and then climbed to her feet.

"Good, I'm glad," she mumbled and sent a sideways glance his direction. "Is there anything that I can...do?" she asked, reaching over to brush her fingers along his thigh.

"No, fuck...no one can do anything," he snarled, continuing to stare straight ahead, his jaw clenched, anger written in every tensed muscle in his body. Cody let her fingers fall away from his leg and onto the beach towel.

He had every right to be cantankerous, she told herself, considering the obvious strength of the symptoms of his head injury that currently had him staring broodily at the water. Not that they'd every really discussed the topic. She knew. Everyone in Canada and any hockey fan in the States knew about the subsequent hits that had laid the greatest player in the game low.

"We could talk about it, about what you're feeling?" she suggested, almost under her breath.

"Don't wanna talk," he snarled back, teeth clenched, snarling like some kind of crazed wolf. It hurt, stung. After everything that had happened in the last few hours, it felt hard to believe that he would shut her out like that. One look at the tense way he was holding his jaw told her that there was no use arguing the point.

Even so, she decided as she got up, walked down the beach and crept up behind Becky, she didn't have to like his tone and she didn't have to keep him company while he sulked.

"Gotcha!" she laughed as she grabbed her niece and swung her up in the air. Becky let out an ear piercing screech and part of Cody felt bad about that, but part of her didn't.

* * *

"_You knew this might happen_," the doctor's voice on the other end of the line was firm but gentle. Sid mused that he thought he was probably using his bed side manner, soothing but honest.

"Yeah, good days and bad," Sid replied with a sigh, sitting back on the bed, letting himself sink into the pillows and closing his eyes.

"_It would be helpful to be able to run some tests, do a CAT scan_," the doc continued and Sid nodded mutely. He'd been a lab rat so long he never protested when someone wanted to poke holes in him or send radioactive isotopes coursing through his body. "_I'm fairly certain nothing's changed_," the doctor continued and Sid didn't need to hear the rest to know what he'd say.

"Yeah, I know, better to be safe than sorry," he mumbled, letting his head loll forward.

"_It happens infrequently but brain bleed do occure_...," the doc began but Sidney ignored the doctor's worst case scenario. His head hurt, yeah, like hell, but that wasn't the worst of it.

"What were the other symptoms I was supposed to let you know about?" Sidney asked quietly, rubbing at the tightness in the back of his neck.

"_Other symptoms? Like nausea, vomiting_," the doctor began but paused when Sid let rip a frustrated growl.

"No! I mean...y'know, the mental stuff." He was doing his best not to snap at the doctor the way he had at Cody. That was why she and Becky were eating with the Consular and his wife and he was sitting alone in their room. Not that he blamed her for avoiding him. It had to be confusing to be his whole world one minute and tossed aside like a toy that had lost its lustre the next. Not to mention her wanting to shield Becky from the angry wolf.

"_Are you having problems remembering things_?" the doctor asked in a way that made Sidney picturing the older man in his white coat pulling out a checklist and licking the end of his pencil, ready to start ticking boxes.

"No, not like that like...moods or whatever," Sidney curled his free hand into a fist and slammed it into a pillow.

"Anxiety, depression, restlessness," the doctor began naming off the symptoms, "_mood swings, intolerance to stress, emotional incontinence..."_

"Yeah, that stuff," Sid's eyes popped open as he recognized the way he was feeling, "Didn't you say it was like being bi-polar or something?" he muttered, trying to explain it. The doctor made a sound, one of those thinking sounds and Sid did his best to show a little bit of patience while he waited for the answer.

"_Maybe if I understood the context_," the doc finally prompted him. This was the part where Sid was glad he wasn't sitting in a doctor's office with the older man looking at him over his bifocals. He squirmed enough without having someone actually watching him do it.

"It has to do with a woman," he began with a sigh.

* * *

Becky had wanted to sleep over with one of the Consular's daughters. It had taken every last ounce of faith that Cody had to send her across the courtyard in her pyjamas, her bear tucked under her arm. She watched her go until the Consular's wife, one of those Betty Draper types in a twinset with pearls and heels, waved and shut the door.

"She'll be fine." Cody shut her eyes and leaned back into Sidney's now familiar arms. He had a bottle of wine in one hand. "Let's go for a walk," he suggested.

"Sure that's good for your head," she replied, maybe a little bitterly. He'd have been better at the small talk at dinner and his absence had been noted.

"It _is_ better now and I'm sorry for being an ass earlier," he said, kissing her temple and managing to sound truly remorseful. She was glad he didn't say '_if he'd been an ass'_. It saved her from having to correct him.

"Don't we need glasses?" she asked, looking down at where his free hand was stroking along her arm.

"I won't tell if you don't." His chuckle was masculine and throaty but there was a certain edge to it that set off alarm bells in her head.

"I'll just get something to put on over this," she said, looking down at the light sundress she was wearing. It had been the kind of warm that makes your skin moist but now there was a wind coming off the ocean that was sending goose-bumps up her arms.

"Here," he whispered, sliding a dark hoodie from under his arm and handing it to her. Cody unfolded it and smiled. It was one of his, a black and gold Penguins hoodie. It would fit like another dress, but it would be warm. With a shrug she pulled it on and zipped it up to her chin. The sleeves hung over her hands but that was okay. She didn't really want to hold hands with him right that moment anyway.

He didn't seem to notice, or at least he didn't remark on her crossing her arms in front of her chest as they started down the path to the beach walking side by side. The only sound was the ebb and flow of the waves licking the beach. She'd thought it was a comforting sound before. Tonight it was a lonesome sound.

She kicked off the ballet flats she was wearing as they hit the sand, considered carrying them and then left them on the edge of the walk way. She could feel, even if she couldn't see the agent following near behind them. If they weren't going to let anyone kidnap them, she supposed they weren't going to let anyone steal her cheap flats either.

"So, bad headache today?" she asked as she dug her toes into the sand. The sensation of the still warm sand underfoot made her think of that night they'd snuck out of their hotel room. She wanted to be able to smile at the memory of what they had done together out on the sand. She still couldn't.

"Yeah." His monosyllabic answer made her tense. She glanced sideways at him. He was looking down, at his feet.

"We have to go back soon, don't we?" Cody asked as they walked. He didn't reply. It was answer enough. "Are you worried about playing? Or about us?" she asked quietly, trying to read his expression. Sometimes he was easy to read, like when he smiled, or when he looked at her the way he had this morning when she'd woken up in his arms. Now though, as he stared out over the black inky darkness, she had no idea what he was thinking, except that it wasn't about her, or not specifically.

"Maybe a little of both," he admitted quietly before finally stopping and turning to look at her. "I am worried about going back," he paused and then sighed, finally reaching for her hand. This time she let him take it. He ran his thumb along her knuckles. "When you said you didn't think that I'd have time for you...I want to make sure that I do. I...I don't know if I'm good at this. I mean...I want to be but I'm afraid I won't be."

"Are you...is this the 'it's not you it's me' speech?" she asked, her heart racing, pulse jumping.

"What?" he looked startled, flushed. He stared at her, unblinking for a long moment and then, finally, shook his head. "No. Fuck...no. No...I mean...I'm just saying that if, when we get back, if I turn into an asshole...it's not you."

"See it _is_ the 'it's not you it's me' speech," she muttered, staring down at their joined hands.

"I said _when_ we get back. I want you to come back to Pittsburgh with me and I don't mean back to your place and my place but...I want you to come back _with_ me. Dakota...I want you, _both_ of you to move in with me."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Her golden curls were covered by a little straw sunhat with a band of daisies around its brim as Sidney carried Becky's sleeping form towards the big dark vehicles waiting a stone's throw from the bottom of the stairs of the jet. It was the middle of the night, just as it had been when they'd left the city. Cody followed closely behind, keeping her head down. Her hair, freshly dyed midnight black, was pulled into a pony tail and mostly hidden beneath one of Sidney's baseball caps. Just one more concession they'd had to make to the FBI in order to make their return to Pittsburgh feasible. That and the order of a ten foot high metal security gate for his property that was already in a gated community and the hiring of a professional security team, two of whose members would be driving the vehicles idling on the tarmac.

Cody looked up into the serious gaze of a very tall, very burly man with a dark complexion and acne scarred face. He smiled, showing a row of perfectly white teeth. His unexpectedly warm smile made her flinch.

"We're going to take very good care of you ma'am," he nodded. Cody knew her eyes were wide but she nodded back and then stepped into the back seat of the SUV and slid across the wide leather bench. Sidney went to hand Becka to this stranger. Cody made a sound of distress and reached for her niece. The big guy might have been hired help but that didn't mean she trusted him.

With an understanding but tired smile, Sidney handed Becky to her but as soon as he sat down Becky climbed across the seat and back onto his lap. Cody didn't take umbrage. If she had a choice it's where she would be too.

"Home," Sidney reached over to give her hand a squeeze. The word should have conjured images of safety, security, warmth and peace. Right now, in the middle of the night surrounded by men in dark clothes with bulges that let everyone know they were armed. She might have felt secure, for the moment at least, but with that there was none of the warm fuzzy feelings that the word should have created. "It'll be alright," Sidney added, giving her hand another squeeze and sending an encouraging look her direction.

Cody nodded and tried her best to smile but all of the warnings that the real FBI agents had given them before they had left still had her stomach in knots. There were serious men who were seriously hunting them to seriously kill them and big muscle heads with guns was no guarantee of their safety, not if someone really wanted them dead. It was kind of a lot to take in.

"You're crazy," she breathed, not for the first time. Sid's smile grew.

"For you," he replied with a wide, toothy grin. His eyes crinkled and he laughed when she made a face at him and stuck out her tongue.

* * *

He paused at the foot of the stairs, listening to the sound of voices above them. At that moment he wished he wasn't carrying Becky in his arms. He heard Cody's sharp intake of breath behind him, knew her pulse would be racing just like his was. He wanted to call out to the big man with the gun standing outside the front door he'd just closed. He wondered if that would scare off the intruders, if they'd run outside and get gunned down in his driveway.

That would certainly make for an interesting story for the morning Gazette, he thought as he took another step up. He was glad the stairs weren't old, that they didn't creak and that he'd had a carpet runner put on them to stifle the sound of his shoes on the hardwood.

There was a light on, he could tell as he reached half way. '_Fuckers'_, he thought grimly, '_I wonder if they've eaten the food in my fridge too?'_ He turned and handed Becky silently to Dakota. The little golden haired angle stirred in her sleep and then tucked her head under Cody's chin and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

"Stay here," he whispered and then turned and headed slowly up the stairs, trying to stay as silent as he could.

"About fucking time you got home, mon ami." Sid stopped, his foot hovering above the top stair. A grin broke out across his face.

"Jesus Max, you scared the shit out of me," he laughed, exhaling the breath he had been holding as he saw Max's head appear above the back of the couch wearing a grin that could only be described as one the Joker in Batman would wear right before doing something unspeakable.

"Someone had to be here when you got back. Welcome home Cap!" his friend exclaimed as he climbed over the back of the couch, right before another head sheepishly popped over the back of the couch as she readjusted her glasses and made an unsuccessful swipe at fixing her bobbed dark hair which had the look of having had fingers run through it, at the very least.

"Making yourself at home, I see," Sidney pitched his voice low as Max thumped him on the back in welcome.

"Well what was I supposed to do? Sit and watch movies _by myself_?" Max asked, looking crushed by the very thought. Sid found himself grinning. It was good to know some things never changed. "Besides, your new nanny, très jolie, non?" His smile erased, Sid groaned. Had it been Flower waiting up for their arrival, this wouldn't have happened.

"Maaaxxx," he moaned but couldn't complete his complaint as a pair of blue eyes fluttered open and looked up at him.

"Teddy?" Becky asked and then yawned wide.

"Right here," Cody appeared beside him to pull the bear out from under his arm. He offered to take her but she shook her head. "I've got this," she continued with a bemused glance towards Max. "Which way is her room?"

"We set up her room down the hall," Max replied brightly, as if he hadn't just been caught shagging the babysitter. "Vero painted some really cool Winnie the Pooh stuff on the walls I put up the border. Flower just hung the mobile," he added, with his best butter wouldn't melt smile on his face. "You must be Dakota. Creature's been telling us all about you."

"Creature?" Cody raised an eyebrow as Sid leaned in to press a good night kiss to Becky's round, warm cheek.

"I'll explain later," Sid sighed watching her turn to head down the hall.

"I'll help," the nanny that Nathalie had hired, having gotten herself straightened out suddenly appeared at Cody's side. He felt himself stiffen, waiting for Cody to curtly dismiss the woman who had to be around their own age but with a roll of her eyes in his direction she nodded and both women disappeared around the corner.

"Je ne résiste jamais à une grosse belle derrière," Max shrugged and Sid grinned back at him. It was nearly impossible to stay mad at Max.

"It's good to be back," he sighed, following Max to the couch and letting himself fall into it. He closed his eyes for a long moment to allow the familiar scents and sensations of home begin to ease the tension that had manifested itself in a slow, dull throb at the back of his head.

"So, CIA, FBI, what's next, a tank on the front lawn firing shots at curious puck bunnies?" This was the reason Max was one of his best friends, Sid thought as a smile crept across his lips. No matter what was happening, Max somehow managed to find a way to lighten the mood. A vision of a tank that shot pucks like a slap shot from the point filled his imagination.

Not that he'd ever really partaken in the line up of puck bunnies in the way that say Jordan and Max had but Sid shook his head. "No more puck-fucks. Not for me," he sighed and then leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands so he could rub his temples. His head was really beginning to ache.

"She must be really something, this mob moll of yours," Max prompted. Sid raised his head enough to look over at his friend to see if he was making fun of him and he could tell by his raised eyebrow that Max was, kind of, but there was concern in his friend's blue eyes too.

"She is," Sid replied quietly but firmly. "She really is."

* * *

She'd never had a room like this. She was sure that Becky had never had a room like this. Dakota made a mental note to thank anyone and everyone that had obviously put in time and energy to make a room as welcoming and as gorgeous as this one was. As soon as she turned on the overhead light, she felt like she was standing in the middle of the hundred acre wood, including what seemed like real tree branches fanning out over the small bed like a protective canopy with hidden fairy lights blinking on and off like fireflies.

"Wow," she whispered looking around at the various murals that covered each of the walls containing the familiar characters from the stories, Kanga and Roo, Owl, Tigger and of course Pooh with his jar of honey. "Someone did a lot of work."

"The guys mostly did the tree and the lights and filling in but Veronique...that's Marc Andre's girlfriend, she did most of this." Cody didn't turn to face the young woman who was hovering anxiously in the doorway behind her, mostly because she couldn't help but sort of enjoy the nervous energy coming off of her. It was kind of cruel but she wanted the girl to squirm, just a little. "Ummm I'm Mel and I am soooo sorry about what happened, you know...before."

Dakota put Becky gently down on the small bed and started to peel the old fashioned patchwork quilt down around her as her niece grumbled and turned over onto her side, her teddy clutched tightly to her chest. Once she had her under the quilt, she bent over her, tugged off the sun hat and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"From what I've been told," she replied quietly, "Max can be quite...," Dakota hunted for a long moment about the right word, tried to remember how Sidney had described his incorrigible friend.

"I think the word you're looking for is irresistible," Mel sighed and Cody turned to find the woman smiling though her face had turned a deep shade of rose.

"Mmmm, not sure that's what I was going for, but I'll take your word for it," Cody chuckled as she lead the woman out of the room and turned out the light. "I'm not going to make you promise it will never happen again," she continued once the door was closed part way behind them, "but the only reason I haven't bounced you down the stairs on your head is that Sid's boss recommended you for this position and...well, we don't have a lot of people that we can trust right now," she added, searching the woman's face for a long, silent moment. She had a pleasant face, open and honest looking with bright eyes and an infectious smile. "I guess what I'm asking is, can you keep the..._Max_ thing separate from looking after my niece? Nothing can distract you and I mean nothing," she added seriously.

The woman, Mel, nodded and after a moment, so did Cody. '_Not that I trust her'_, she told herself as she indicated that she'd follow the woman down the hall, '_but I think I'll fall down dead if I don't sleep soon_,' she thought as they both rounded the corner to find the boys deep in conversation.

"So you're _not_ ready to play?" Max was asking and Sid was shaking his head. Cody felt her chest tighten. She knew he wanted to, that he would rather not be giving that answer, but she also knew that he'd been seeing white spots dancing in front of his eyes for the best part of the last day.

"Not yet," she answered for him. He shot her a grateful look as she slid onto the arm of the couch and reached for his hand. "You just need a little more time, dontcha babe?" she added quietly.

"Yeah, maybe in a week. I'll see the doc tomorrow and I guess I'll know better then." She watched him send a more confident smile to his friend. "But first and fucking foremost I need to sleep and you need to take the baby sitter home," he added and then winced but this time, she could tell by the smile that quickly followed that he wasn't in pain. "I mean her home Max, _her_ home." Max feigned a shot direct to the heart and collapsed back on the couch and played dead. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Do what you want," Sid grumbled but smiled at his friend. The woman, Mel, turned crimson. "Just have her back here before practice tomorrow."

* * *

"I'm sorry about Max," Sidney sighed as he stepped out of his jeans and left them on the floor beside the bed. Cody let her gaze roam lazily up his thickly muscled legs to his bare, smooth skinned torso. It was a nice view, even if she knew she was far too tired to do anything about it.

"From what you've told me about him, I'm not sure I would have expected anything less," she mused as he turned out his bedside light and slid beneath the quilt, tucking his body in next to hers'.

"He can be pretty...persuasive," she heard the smile in his voice as he slid his arm over her waist and tucked his knees in behind hers', "but if Nathalie says she's great..."

"We'll give her a chance," she finished his thought and heard his relieved sigh right before he pressed his lips to her shoulder. "Glad to be home?" she asked as the warmth of his body and the heavy comforter began to lull her to sleep.

"Ask me again tomorrow," he yawned. Cody closed her eyes and nestled herself down into the warm clean sheets. The house was quiet and dark. The only noise was the slow, even sounds of Sidney breathing.

"Everything will be okay, right?" she asked in a whisper as she laced her fingers in his and pulled his hand up beneath her chin.

"I sure as hell hope so," he answered, pressing his lips to the back of her neck. "We'll start figuring things out in the morning," he added like a promise in a voice that trailed off into a long yawn and then she felt his hold on her tighten as he too nestled himself further into the sheets. "Guards outside. Go to sleep. Worry...tomorrow," he mumbled and then she heard his breathing slow and deepen as his body relaxed heavily against her own. Taking a deep breath Cody closed her eyes again and matched her breathing to his, emptied her mind and let sleep take her too.


	19. Chapter 19

_I've been suffering__ from a couple of ailments but that's really not a good excuse for not getting this out sooner. I always have trouble with "in between" chapter necessary to fill in information and move the plot along but they always seem to take longer to write for me. Hopefully the next chapter will come out quicker. _

**Chapter 19**

Cody watched him back down the marigold bordered driveway and out onto the street. The black BMW X5 paused in front of the house, the passenger window rolled down and he waved up at them. Cody didn't wave back. He was clear on her feelings about his going to the Pens early morning practice with Max and leaving her and Becky with a number of armed men whose names she didn't even know. Becks, on the other hand, waved and then blew a kiss. Sidney pretended to catch it and press it to his cheek, much to Becky's delight.

"Come on squirt, we'd better get inside." Becky watched, on tip toes so she could see over the railing of the deck, until the SUV disappeared around the corner and only then did she offer her hand and allow herself to lead back inside the house and out of the early morning Spring drizzle.

"So what do you want to do today?" the babysitter nanny who had arrived with Max wearing the same clothes she'd been in the night before, asked, as she squatted to get to Becky's height. "Paint? Play a game?"

"Zoo."

"Becks we talked about this," Cody began with a sigh, reaching down to tug gently on one of the little girl's pig tails. "We're kind of stuck in here, for a few days at least," she added with a glance towards the solid wall of humanity just outside the sliding glass door to the deck. There was another one just like him just inside of the front door and one in the backyard. There were two more parked a little ways down the street. She knew they were there for protection but she felt a little like a prisoner all the same.

"I want to go to the zoo!" Becky stomped, her hands curled into fists on her hips. Cody didn't blame her niece. She didn't want to be stuck inside either and it did seem somehow worse after spending a week with her feet in warm sand and hot sun baking her skin.

"Maybe in a couple of days," Cody replied patiently though her tone suggested that her patience was not exactly boundless.

"I could take her," the babysitter, Cody had to think about her name for a moment, Mel offered brightly. "I'm sure the guards would come and it's public, people around. We'd be fine," she added and Cody knew that the young woman was doing her best to do exactly as she'd been hired to do but as helpful as that was, it was too soon.

"Not today Becky," Cody said sternly and did her best not to immediately melt as soon as the little girl's bottom lip began to quiver. "I'm sure we can find something just as entertaining here," she added, trying to soften the blow.

"I _hate_ you," Becky spat back, her blue eyes narrowed, her cheeks puffed out, her usually full lips pressed into an unhappy, thin line. "You're not my mom. You're not the boss of me." It was to be expected. In fact, Cody had expected this to happen long before now. That, of course, didn't make it any easier to hear. Still, she'd had her answer prepared for some time now.

"No, I'm not your mom but your mom did put me in charge of you so yeah, I am the boss of you young lady whether you like it or not. So no, no zoo today. Maybe tomorrow, if Sidney can stay home with us, deal?" Becky peered out at her from beneath her long lashes and for a moment Cody thought her niece was going to talk back, expected her to but instead, she slowly dropped her hands from her hips and let out a long, sad sigh.

"Promise?" she asked, her plump cheeks red and tears glittering in her blue eyes.

"No baby, I can't promise but we'll see, okay? That's the best I can do."

* * *

"Shaving cream in my skates, very original," Sidney sighed, withdrawing his foot from his skate and staring down at his foam covered toes.

"Awww we just missed you Creature," Jordy laughed and then ducked as Sid aimed a wad of clear sock tape at him.

"You sure you're up to this?" Coach Dan appeared in his track suit, holding the bright yellow jersey out towards him that warned his teammates that he was off limits for contact.

"Honestly, I'm still having good days and bad days but I want to see how it feels," Sid admitted as he got to his feet and walked into the hall to hand his skates to one of the training staff.

"We'd sure like you back this season," the Coach continued in that way that Sid knew he was asking but didn't want to put any pressure on his star player. "Think you're up to it?" Sud wanted to say yes and wanted to mean it. The truth was a little less certain.

"Well you know I want to," he answered trying to sound more confident and enthusiastic then he felt, "as soon as I can."

"Have you seen the doc yet, since you got back?" the Coach asked hesitantly and Sid knew he'd been caught. Of course it should have been the first thing he should have done but he'd just wanted to feel the ice under his feet. Coach Dan didn't miss much and he nodded and smiled. "Go see the doc, _if_ he clears you _then_ you can skate," he sighed and put his hand on Sid's shoulder. Sid hung his head and blew a breath out through his teeth. He'd been _that_ close.

"No problem coach," he sighed, hung his head as he dropped his skates on the bench and then headed down the hallway. He pushed the door open, without knocking, to find Letang face down with one of the trainers digging his elbow deep into his shoulder blade. It looked mildly painful but the noises that Tanger was making sounded like they could be coming from a whorehouse. "Your back, again?" he asked as the defenseman turned his head to peer at him through a veil of his dark hair.

"Just spasms," Tanger's elfin grin shone through, "I'll be fine once the doc sticks me," he added. Sid looked over his friend's back to see the doctor filling a syringe with what he assumed was some kind of muscle relaxant. He'd had to have a stitch or two in his life but he wasn't a fan of needles and also didn't need to see Tanger's bare ass as the doc lifted the towel away to push the needle into the small of his back. "So are you back?" Kris asked through clenched teeth.

"I guess that's up to the doctor," Sid replied. "I'm here for the test."

"Well you're looking tanned and rested," the doc smiled welcomingly as Tanger pulled the towel around himself and hopped down.

"I hope I'll see you out on the ice, d'accord?" Kris grinned and Sid nodded. He hoped so too.

Sid took Kris's vacated spot on the examination table took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, like he was about take an important face off. He watched the doc pick up the pen light and just seeing that instrument was sort of like having Ruutu bearing down him at full speed from across the ice. `_Concentrate'_ he told himself firmly, `_you can do this_.'

"So, any headaches in the last few days?" Sid smiled brightly and shook his head.

"Nope, feel great," he lied. The light shone in his eyes and Sid willed himself not to blink.

"Neck stiffness? Nausea?" Sid followed the light with his eyes. It made his stomach roll. He was glad he'd skipped breakfast.

"Just a little food poisoning, bad clams I think," Sid continued to weave his deception with a smile on his face. The doc put the pen back in his pocket and smiled indulgently at his patient.

"You see, a little time away from the rink was worth it." Sidney nodded and kept smiling like he was doing one of those meet and greets. His cheeks were actually starting to hurt. "Well, I don't see why you can't start with some light workouts, maybe on the bike and see how it goes." Now his grin got wider and it was real. It felt like Christmas morning and the first day of school all at once. He had to fight the urge to hug the gray haired man in front of him.

"Yeah, sure, I'll let you know how that goes," he tried to sound nonchalant as he slid off the table to his feet.

"No skating Sidney," the doctor called after him.

"Yeah, okay," he agreed `for now' he added silently as he slipped out into the hallway and practically sprinted to the workout room.

* * *

Cody peeked out the kitchen window when she heard the vehicle pull into the driveway. He looked up at the kitchen window as soon as his feet hit the pavement, a hundred watt smile on his face.

"Someone looks happy," Melany pushed her red gummyperson game piece three spots ahead on the Candy Land board and tried not to look hopeful that Max would come inside.

"Mmmhmm," Cody replied absentmindedly. He certainly didn't look like someone suffering from a migraine, which is what she'd expected on his return. She watched him lean into the car and say something to Max, who laughed. They both certainly looked to be in good moods.

"Pay attention, your turn!" That was certainly more than could Cody could say for herself as she pulled a card and stared down at the two coloured blocks on it. Becky had been a tyrant all day. "You move for me," she said and glanced back out the window again. The two men were still talking animatedly, excitedly.

"No! That's not how it works!" Becky whined. "It's your turn. You _have_ to do it!" Biting her tongue Cody moved her game piece to the appropriate square and then turned back to look out the window. The black Beamer was gone.

"Havin' fun squirt?" From nowhere Sid appeared, pressing a kiss to the top of Becky's head, making the little girl squeal with delight. Cody felt a tiny pang of jealousy that hers had not been the first kiss but it only took a moment for him to turn and grab her face in his hands and press a long, lingering kiss on her lips that left Cody blinking up at him as he grinned down at her. "You got this?" he asked, turning to Mel who nodded, wide eyed. "Thanks," he grinned and then offered his hand to Cody who stared at it like she didn't quite trust it. "Coming?" he asked, and the throaty tone of his voice made her shiver.

Putting her hand in his, she let him lead her away from the table, down the hall and into his...no, their bedroom, where he closed the door and locked it. She was about to ask why, why he seemed so happy and why he'd brought her here but before she could give voice to either question, he pressed her back against the door and claimed her mouth with his.

"I missed you," he whispered hoarsely, his hand sliding up beneath the thin fabric of her t-shirt until he was palming her breast.

"Liar," she hissed back, her arm snaking around his waist she could grab hold of his ass. "They let you skate didn't they? That's what you're happy about, not seeing me." He tried to look offended but couldn't wipe the smile from his face. Giving her another quick, less desire filled kiss, he slid his hand from beneath her shirt, took her hand and lead her to the bed, flopping down on it and pulling her over top of him.

"Not skate but they let me work out, which is a step in the right fucking direction," he sighed happily as he impatiently pushed the hem of her shirt up until she took the hint and drew it over her head and tossed it aside. He slid his hands slowly up her rib cage until he was holding her breasts in his hands, slowly rolling her nipples between his thumb and forefinger with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so...," she studied his face for a long moment, looking for the right word as she covered his hands with her own and leaned into them, "content." His smile grew, making him look much like the cat that got the cream.

"Oh I think you have," he growled at her, lifting his hips so that his happiness was unmistakable. Cody bit down on her bottom lip.

"We shouldn't," she sighed, not letting go of the grip she hand on his hands, holding them against her breasts. Her nipples were growing hard against the palms of his big hands.

"That's what the nanny is for," he replied with a deep, throaty chuckle as he pressed his growing, hardening erection up against her. "I want to celebrate," he told her, his smouldering gaze holding hers' as if he was daring her to say no. "I want to celebrate with _you_," he added with a playful growl, using his size and legs to roll her over and pin her beneath him

"Mmmm celebrate away," she grinned up at him and then giggled as he bent to kiss her neck, his throaty rumblings making her shiver.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Max was skating slowly backwards, Becky's mitten covered hands in his own, and they were both grinning. The reverberation of their laughter filled the mostly empty arena. The only other sounds were his own breathing and the metallic hiss of his skates digging into the fresh ice. Sidney careened around a cone as he guided a puck around the next cone, doing his best to keep his attention focused on the net in front of him. It wasn't easy and not just because of Becky's high pitched squeals of delight, but because he kept catching sight of Dakota out of the corner of his eye watching him from the bench.

He couldn't remember the last time he was this content.

The twine in the back of the net bulged and Sidney sent a wave of snow in after it as he skidded to a stop. Today was a good day. He hadn't had to lie to get onto the ice. He didn't have a headache, and even now, after skating hard for at least forty minutes, there was no sign of either the dancing white spots or the dull throbbing ache that were the usual precursors to the migraines he'd been suffering lately.

"Good to know you've still got it." Sidney grinned at the Coach as he skated slowly back towards where he and the trainer were waiting with their stop watches and calculating gazes.

"It's what he does, he's sick like that," Max interjected and Sidney found himself laughing with something like relief flooding through his veins.

"You think you'll be ready by Tuesday?" Sidney wanted to say he was ready now, could play tonight but knew he wasn't quite in game shape. Not that he was sucking wind, but when he stepped on the ice in front of the fans he didn't want any doubts in his or anyone else's minds.

"I think so," he replied modestly instead though he couldn't hide the eager grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth. He couldn't wait to play.

"Oh I can't wait til you take some face offs. My f...," Max caught himself before he let the f-bomb fly and everyone grinned. "My shoulder thanks you mon ami," he added with an elfin smile.

"I can't wait to take some face offs. I can't believe how much I've missed just...this," he shrugged, leaning on his stick, taking a deep breath of the cold air and blowing it out. He could smell his gloves, his own sweat and even the ice itself. He'd missed this.

"Pull me!" Becky tugged at his jersey and Sidney grinned down at her.

"Wanna go fast?" he asked and watched her blonde curls bob up and down. He handed his stick to the Coach and offered Becky his hands. She looked at his gloves and then back up at him with a look of such consternation that everyone laughed. "You don't like my gloves?" he asked, shaking one of them off and holding it towards Max who also gave them a look like he wanted nothing to do with them.

"They're big," Becky replied plainly, still eyeing them suspiciously, "and they're kind of stinky," she added in a whisper, looking up at him, her big blue eyes wide as if she expected to be scolded. Like maybe stinky was a curse word.

"You're right, they are kind of stinky," he agreed with her in the same sort of whisper, bending towards her, "so I'm gonna give them to Uncle Max, okay?" She nodded and grinned as if she already knew the joke before he'd done it which made doing it even more worthwhile. "Right Max?" he said, quickly turning to his friend and shoving the palm of his glove over his mouth, giving him a good old fashioned face wash. Max cursed, in French, and started to skate away. Sid and the Coach both skated after him, much to Becky's pure delight.

"Help me Becky!" Max screamed like a little girl as he sped past her, picking her up with both hands as he did and swinging her high in the air. Becky giggled and screamed, kicked and squirmed.

Sid slowed to a stop in front of the bench.

"Come on," he held his hand out towards Cody who shook her head.

"I do better with water that's _not_ frozen," she laughed and then leaned in to press her lips to his. He savoured the kiss. He'd never brought a woman to the rink, not on a practice day. It felt luxurious.

"Just once around the rink, for me?" he asked, giving the hand she'd placed between his a little tug. Cody shook her head again.

"I can't," she blushed and turned her face away. She had to be so strong so much of the time, these little moments of weakness made him love her more.

"Get up, sit on the wall," he directed her, patting the ledge in front of her. She looked at the ledge of the boards dubiously and then, gingerly, slid up onto it and swung her legs over the side. Sliding his arms beneath her, Sid cradled her against his chest and then let himself glide backwards. She squeaked and glanced uneasily nervously down at the ice. "I won't let you fall," he promised her, studying her face as she reached up and brushed her fingertips over his lips. His heart squeezed almost painfully in his chest.

"Too late Crosby," she whispered, laying her cheek against his shoulder, "waaay too late now." Sid pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead and grinned to himself as he skated slowly into the corner.

"If you can do that you can play Creature!"

Chuckling, Sid nodded but didn't reply to that or any of the kissing and other more suggestive sounds his teammates arriving for regular practice were making from the bench.

"Can I stay Coach?" he asked, looking hopefully towards where Dan was standing, leaning against the boards near the penalty box.

"Yeah, I think you can handle it," his Coach gave him an encouraging smile and a wink as he skated by.

"You don't mind waiting a little longer, do you?" he asked and felt more than saw Cody nod. "You're the best," he sighed and pressed another kiss to her temple.

"No, _you_ are. That's why _they_ need you back," she giggled and tightened her arms around his neck so that she could look up at him. "You're not just _my_ hero," she added for good measure as he came to a stop in front of the bench. But before he allowed her to slide back down to her feet, he captured her mouth with his and pressed a long, soft kiss against it while he ignored the wolf whistles and cat calls.

* * *

Becky had begun watching the full practice with interest, her attention rapt, blue eyes following the movements of the boys who had become, after a few short weeks, her extended family. After an hour though, she'd gotten restless and started to whine about wanting to go home and wanting something to eat. Cody couldn't blame her. Her own stomach was rumbling, reminding her that she'd only grabbed a piece of toast on their way out the door this morning. Sidney's fully loaded western omelette had taken much of her time and the rest of it had been taken up by struggling to get Becky bundled into something warm enough to spend this much time in the rink when it was sunny and getting warm outside.

"Just a few minutes more," she mumbled, hoping that her words were true as Sid and his teammates left the ice and headed into the passageway towards the dressing room.

"I'm hungry now," Becky's bottom lip had begun to tremble and now she crossed her arms and bent her head down, looking decidedly unhappy.

"I have an energy bar but I suppose that's not really something good for someone her age." Cody looked up to find a slender, soft spoken dark haired young woman rummaging through her purse just behind her. "I think I might have some Reese's Pieces in here somewhere...they're Marc's favourite," she continued to explain, her long, straight dark hair falling over her eyes as she dug deeper into her Marc Jacobs bag. Not only did Cody feel under accessorized by her own small knock off purse but now she felt like she was less prepared too. "Here, I knew there had to be some," the young woman held out the orange box towards them, her brilliant smile shining. "He can be such a baby if his sugar gets low."

"Thank you, you're a life saver." Cody took the box and opened it, shaking a few of the brown, orange and yellow pieces into her hand and dropping them into Becky's own small hands that were eagerly cupped together in anticipation.

"Please, we WAG's have to stick together," the young, very pretty young woman held out he hand. "I'm Vero and I'm really sorry that I haven't introduced myself before now but you've kind of had these...gorillas around," she added in a purposefully lowered voice which she partially hid behind her other hand as she looked at the one guard that was standing two rows up and at the end of the aisle. A couple of months ago they'd never have let them leave the house with less than three of them but now they sometimes even sneaked out without them if they were just going out for milk. Cody nodded as she put her own hand in Veronique's.

"Sidney can be so over protective," she mused, using the cover story that he had insisted on when it came to the other guys on the team. "I'm glad he seems to be getting over it," she added with a conspiratorial wink. Vero's grin got even wider and brighter and then she laughed, throwing her head back and covering her mouth with her hand in what looked like a self conscious behaviour. Sidney had said that both the goalie and his long time girlfriend were shy.

"Well I'm glad he's getting over it but you should still keep a look out for some of those girls that wait outside. No matter how nice they look, most of them are psychotic _bitches_," she added in a sideways whisper as Cody tipped more candies into Becky's outstretched hand. "And don't let any of the press talk to her," Vero added, her soft accent somehow soothing as she spoke. "They talked to Jack once, that's Cookie's son, and made him sound like an unholy terror. Not that he's not," she added with a sudden grin that reminded Cody all at once of her boyfriend's brilliant smile.

"No one's getting near her, if I have anything to say about it. But thank you," Cody ran her hand through Becky's golden curls and felt heat emanating from the little girl as she chewed happily on the peanut buttery goodness. "Damn," she hissed, and leaned forward to press the back of her hand to Becky's forehead. "Damn, damn."

"You swore!" Becky gasped and pointed up at Cody who didn't bother uttering her normal apology.

"You've got a fever. We need to get you home." She glanced down towards the tunnel, knowing there was no way Sid would be showered and changed, not yet.

"Pas un problème," Vero shot out of her seat and began to dig for her keys. "Text him, telling him I'm taking both of you home or...," she stopped and looked down at Cody, "do you want to have him send up the doctor?"

"Oh no," Dakota shook her head as she scrambled to her feet. "I'm sure it's just the sniffles, something like that. When there's guys with tendon tears and broken bones, a case of the sniffles is hardly worth his time," she added with a grateful smile, digging her phone out and texting Sid as she followed Vero up the stairs. "Besides, he'll be able to go out for lunch with the boys now."

"And I won't. I hate watching Jordy and TK eat, merde," Vero shuddered as she led the way up the stairs. Cody glanced down at the little girl whose hand she was holding. Fortunately Becky didn't seem to know the curse word in French. "We're parked right beside you," she added as they walked towards the elevator that would take them down to the players' private parking below the arena. "The only hitch might be getting your booster seat into the back of the Lambo," she added winking down at Becky, "but maybe we just won't tell anyone, just this once, d'accord?"

* * *

"Dude you've known her like what, a couple months? Jeez, you can't be serious?"

Sometimes Sid wondered if Jordan was going to be the perpetual bachelor like Max, especially times like right now when he was looking for a little support from his friends over this very important decision.

"I almost asked her out there," Sid hooked his thumb back towards the ice. "I was, like, this far from just blurting it out," he told Flower, who was the only one of his teammates not looking at him like he'd just grown another head.

"But there is no rush, oui?" the soft spoken goaltender paused mid step to put his hand on Sidney's arm. "She's not...?" he looked around, saw a local sports reporter watching them from down the hall and gestured with his hands in front of his stomach instead.

"No...shit! Is that what you're waiting for with Vero?" Sid asked pointedly, giving his thin framed friend a shove that sent him careening against the wall. "It just feels right with her. I can't explain it. I think the only thing that stopped me out there was that I don't have a ring." It had been right there, on the tip of his tongue. He'd nearly blurted it out when Cody had said she was way past the point of falling for him. Every time she said something like that, he could feel every single word getting a strangle hold on his heart.

"Wow, wow." Max just kept muttering under his breath and shaking his head.

"What? What's your two cents? You must as well tell me, they have," Sid grumbled as they passed the guard outside the door to the parking lot.

"I just thought I would never see the day that the great Sid the Kid wanted to fuck someone more than he wanted to stick his wanger in The Cup." Sid punched his friend as hard as he could in the arm and then shoved him when he only laughed. He was about to give him another shove, send him into the side of Cookie's Expedition when, just out of the corner of his eye, he caught a movement between the cars. Despite the best efforts of the arena's security firm, sometimes over eager fans snuck in and waited for autographs here. It hadn't happened since his and Cody's private guards had been watching the place but now that they were down to only two...

BAM!

"?" Jordan was flat on his stomach and Max was crouching low beside Cookie's oversized family mover. It had sounded like a backfire, and if he hadn't been in close proximity with an actual gun shot in the last few weeks he might not have known but...

BAM! BAM!

Sid's heart raced as he saw the head and shoulders of the guard that was supposed to be with Cody and Becky aiming across the parking lot. He followed the line of the big man's aim just in time to see Dakota being manhandled into an idling minivan. She was struggling, giving the two men who were trying to push her in the side door one hell of a time as she kicked and bit and squirmed.

He was half way across the parking lot before he had time to process what he was doing. He half heartedly hoped one or two of his teammates were following on his heels but he didn't look back to see. He just kept running until he could almost reach out and grab her. Almost, except just as he reached the van he saw her tumbling forward into it, head first as the van door closed almost on his fingers. He was staring at the beige metallic paint that told him he'd failed when he saw the gun out of the corner of his eye. He didn't have time to turn and look at it before he saw the muzzle flash and then he was spinning around, falling face first onto the concrete.

"Cody." She'd been taken. He could hear the wheels of the minivan squealing on the smooth pavement of the underground parking lot. "Becky." He didn't know where she was. Maybe she was already in the van. Maybe she was gone too.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

She couldn't sit up, not all the way, and her back ached from being hunched over but the make shift cage with the chicken wire and wooden pallets didn't allow for room to move around or get comfortable. Not that there was much chance of that. They'd taken her shoes so her feet were cold and they'd only given them one small bottle of water and most of that was Veronique had already drunk. Not that Cody blamed her in the least. First of all, she didn't belong in all of this mess, she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and secondly, she'd been crying pretty much the entire time so she needed to replenish her fluids. Her mouth was dry though and her lips felt chapped but she ran her tongue along her bottom lip instead of taking another drink. Who knew how long it would be before she saw more water.

"It's gonna be alright." Cody ran her fingers through Vero's long, soft black hair, trying to be comforting. She wasn't at all convinced that was going to be the case. These guys had guns and were sure as hell a lot more proficient with their weapons than that meathead biker they'd sent after her a few months ago. They also had balls. They'd been taken in broad daylight, with security cameras everywhere from a spot surrounded by security. These guys meant business and something in the pit of her stomach told Cody that it was probably pretty unlikely she was getting out of here alive.

Cody looked around the small, dark, rancid smelling basement. At least she thought it was a basement. She remembered stumbling down some stairs to get here and it was cement or stone maybe, no windows, no light source. Maybe a cellar or a bomb shelter, she thought as went back to breathing through her mouth, though that only took the edge off of the smell of mold, decay and something worse that she didn't want to try and put a name too. She was afraid it was days' old dead meat and she was even more afraid it was human.

"They're going to look for us, right?" Vero sniffed and Cody immediately nodded.

"They already are," she tried to smile down at the pale, fragile woman whose head was in her lap. She hoped it was convincing because she knew that they, the FBI, cops, someone was definitely going to be looking for them. The only hitch was these people didn't seem to be the types to worry much about being sought or found and at that moment she doubted that either of them was going to live long enough to be here if they did.

"I'm cold," Vero snuggled closer, pulling her knees up to her chest and Cody was momentarily glad of the heavy fisherman's sweater she was wearing. Her thin cotton leggings were doing nothing to keep her ass warm but that had already gone numb so she wasn't thinking too much about it. Veronique, on the other hand, had only been wearing some kind of light sheath dress that Cody was willing to bet cost an arm and a leg and was probably silk and was obviously doing nothing to keep her cell mate warm.

Cody ran her hands down Vero's bare arm rapidly until she got the smallest hint of a smile from her new friend. She was collateral damage, Cody thought to herself as she smiled back at her, it was the least she could do.

"Someone will come soon, you'll see. They'll bust through the door just like on Criminal Minds and save us. We'll be on TV, and Marc will realize that he's made you wait too long to get married and have a big fucking ring in his hand when you see him." Vero's smile got broader, which was the intention of Cody's little speech. She didn't really believe any of it, but it sort of made her feel a little warmer to think about a swat team breaking in here and saving them. She just hoped that wherever Becky was that whoever was coming would save _her_ first.

* * *

"Sidwhee?" He felt one of his eyelids being manually pulled open and then he saw her angelic little face above his. He tried to lift his arm, to reach up and touch her face but it felt too heavy, like it weighed about a thousand pounds, and it hurt, it hurt like hell. "Sidwhee, wake up," she insisted, poking him in the middle of his chest, her little finger stabbing him like a knife, making him suck in a sharp breath. That hurt too.

"Rebecca! Get off of him! I told you that he's hurt." Sid recognized the babysitter, Mel's voice and tried to shake his head, tried to tell her that it was okay, that Becky could climb all over him if she wanted. He was just glad to see her.

"No! It's time him to wake up, now!" the little girl added and Sid thought he detected more than just a note of alarm in her voice. He heard panic. He heard fear. Even when she'd been taken before, in the Bahamas, she hadn't seemed scared. He raised his other hand and touched her golden girls. It took some effort and it hurt a bit, but he managed it and the momentary look of relief on the little girl's face was entirely worth the pain.

"Hey, squirt. Boy am I glad to see you," he told her honestly. He tried to sit up but a sharp pain, like a lightning bolt going through his chest made him stop moving. He gasped and shut his eyes again. He'd hurt before, the high ankle sprain, his front teeth getting broken, the two cracks his head had taken but nothing had ever hurt like this. "Fuuuuck!" he hissed and tried to breathe through the pain. "Jesus Christ what the hell happened?"

"You've been shot mon ami." Sid turned towards the familiar voice to watch Max pick Becky up off of the bed and put her gently down in a chair beside the bed. He remembered the muzzle flash and vaguely remembered waking up in an ambulance so the fact that he was in a hospital bed or that he'd been shot wasn't much of a surprise. "I think you've got some explaining to do, tu ne penses pas?" Sid nodded but winced as he did that and little white lights shone in front of his eyes. Another one of his headaches was coming on. "Use the button," Max put something in his hand and pressed his thumb over it and less than three seconds later something warm was coursing through his arm and the next thing he knew everything hurt a little less and he almost felt like he was floating.

"Where's Cody?" he asked, blinking his eyes open and scanning the room. Becky had made her way back to his bedside and was climbing back up onto the pristine white sheets.

"We don't know mon ami, that's the truth," Max said quietly, reaching for the little blonde bundle that was trying to curl her way into his side.

"She's fine," he whispered, running his fingers through her soft golden curls. "Is...someone _is_ looking for her, right?" he asked looking at Max and then at then at the babysitter. They seemed pretty inseparable but that was a question for another time. Right now there were far more pressing matters on his mind.

"Like I said, mon capitaine, you have a lot of explaining to do. There have been cops, FBI, CI fucking A... I knew that woman of yours was in some kind of trouble but now you've been fucking shot do you mind telling me what the fucking hell is going on?" Sid covered Becky's ears as best he could, despite the immediate and blinding pain it caused him and narrowed his eyes at Max who rolled his and shrugged by way of an apology.

"Tell you what squirt, I'm kind of hungry, why don't you take Mel and go find me a chocolate bar or something, okay?" Nodding, Becky looked very serious as she climbed down off of the bed and then offered her hand to Melany who took it and lead her out of the room. Sid waited until the door closed behind them and then he turned to Max. "You better sit down. This is going to take a while."

* * *

"No, no!" Vero's eyes were wide and pleading as the man in the ski mask tried to tug her out of the cage. Cody held fast to one of her arms but she knew that this was one battle of tug of war she wasn't going to win; especially not if the man behind him with the gun decided to point that thing at her. "I don't know why I'm here, I don't anything, s'il vous plaît!" Tears were streaming down the other woman's face and Cody felt the hot sting of tears filling her own eyes. She was sure it was in some kind of kidnap survival handbook somewhere that you should not let them separate you and so she clung to Vero's hand, even as it began to slip from her grasp.

"Leave her alone. She doesn't even know me. Please," she begged on the other woman's behalf. If she got killed in all of this, well, it was to be expected. If Veronique was tortured or died because she had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, Cody knew she'd never forgive herself.

The man merely grunted and tugged harder, yanking Veronique's hand from hers' and out of the cage, kicking the cage door shut behind him. The man with the gun drove the lock back into the hole in the ground and then waved the gun at her which she supposed was some kind of threat. Cody didn't look at the gun. She watched Vero being dragging her across the cold concrete floor and then pushed, staggering, up the stairs towards a golden glow of light. She could hear her begging and pleading until she heard a door slam followed by the metallic scrape of a lock being put in place.

Cody pulled her knees up to her chin and tried to muffle her own sobs. Her pulse was racing and her heart was hammering hard against her ribs. When she'd shot the intruder into their house, she'd been afraid but adrenalin had gone a long way to subduing her fear. That and having Sidney there, having him take charge of the situation, of getting them out of the house had helped. Now she was just terrified.

She shut her eyes and tried not to imagine a medieval torture chamber complete with a rack, pillory, iron maiden and foot screws. Instead she did her best to imagine warm sand beneath her, the smell of salt water and the feel of Sidney's mouth on hers', his body pressing her down, claiming her.

"Will I ever see you again?" she asked in a whisper as hot tears slid down her cheeks and she began to tremble.

* * *

"It was a straight through and through," the doctor in his mint coloured surgical scrubs with his bright shiny stethoscope hung around his neck explained as a nurse carefully changed the dressing on his shoulder. "Which is good for you," he added with a measured smile that Sidney knew was supposed to be encouraging. "That means no structural damage, which would take months to get over. However, there was some tearing of the muscle and obviously a lot of tissue damage and loss, which will take a good deal of rehab to correct but in your condition, I'm guessing that isn't something that will be new to you." Sid shook his head and then winced as the last layer of padding was peeled painfully from the wound.

"It looks worse than it is," the nurse whispered as she dropped the blood covered gauze onto the table beside her. The surgeon took her place and pressed at the clean unmolested skin around the wound. Sid sucked in a sharp breath.

"The trick is to keep an eye out for infection. With g.s.w.'s there can be a lot of debris in the wound. Obviously we've done our best to cleanse the entire area but we'll keep an eye on you for another night and then you should probably visit your personal physician every few days for a week or so but I'm confident that you're not looking at anything long term." Sid nodded again and did his best not to wince when the nurse began to tape up the wound again. "You'll want to keep that arm stable for a few days, make sure he gets a sling," the doctor added and then turned and left without another word. Sid watched him go and then let out a sigh of relief that was echoed by one from both Max and Mario, who had followed the surgeon in.

"That's a relief eh boss?" Max grinned like he'd just scored a goal or made a big hit and Mario nodded.

"Still, I think this is something we should keep out of the press. I've spoken with the surgical team and we'll get you out of here through the laundry exit and you'll be back staying with us for the foreseeable future," Mario added very seriously. "You gave us a hell of a scare there son."

"What about Cody? Is there any news?" Sid asked, looking from his friend's face to his boss's serious expression. The two men exchanged a look that made Sid's heart sink. "Tell me...whatever it is...I need to know."

"There's no news," Max began and then Mario put his big hand on the smaller winger's shoulder and Max, for once in his life, fell silent.

"Vero is also missing," Mario told him and Sid felt his heart stop beating in his chest. "The police, the FBI...they're turning the entire city upside down Sidney. They're doing everything they can but...it's been two days and they say..."

"After forty-eight hours the chances of finding them alive are slim," Sidney completed Mario's thought and then shut his eyes and for the first time in his life, began to truly pray.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"Is this really necessary?" Sid could hear the buzz of the press scrum in the next room. Dealing with them was the last thing he wanted to do right now. Not that there was much he could do besides wait for updates from the FBI, which had been the same all day; nothing to report.

"You were about to rejoin the team," Coach Dan reminded him quietly but firmly, "now you're not even practicing. We have to tell them something." Sid hung his head. Coach was right but that didn't make the doing of the chore any easier. "Two minutes. I know you're head isn't in it but if you can just do this for the rest of the guys..." The Coach didn't need to finish his speech; Sid was already unhooking his sling. As far as the press were concerned the only change to his status had to do with his concussion and nothing else.

Wincing a little as his right arm had to support its own weight for the first time since he'd gotten out of bed, Sid took a deep breath. '_At least I won't have to smile'_ he thought to himself. Anyone who knew anything about hockey knew how much Sid loved and wanted to play. The fact that it was the first round of the playoffs only made it worse. No one would be surprised if he couldn't force a smile, even a fake one.

A couple of the guys looked up and greeted him with wary smiles as he walked into the room. The guys on the team knew but he could trust them with his life. There was a chance he was going to have to.

As soon as he sat down at his assigned locker, every single camera in the room swung in his direction. That was something he was used to but at that moment he wished it had only been one or two. At that moment he wished he wasn't SidneyfuckingCrosby and that no one cared why he wasn't going to play tomorrow night.

"So no practice today Sid?" Normally it didn't bother him when the local sportscasters behaved like they were on a first name basis, like they were friends. Today he had to fight the urge to ask them to call him Mr. Crosby or at the very least use his whole name. '_Jeez where did that come from?_' he wondered as he nodded at the guy asking the question.

"No the truth is I've had a setback." It wasn't a lie; it just wasn't the truth...exactly. "It's disappointing, obviously, but it's something that I was told to expect, uh, that could happen."

"So does that mean you're out for this round?" another reporter asked. He hated to do it, to lie to the fans but he shrugged, which was stupid because it hurt like hell to do.

"This is something that could last a few days or longer. Obviously I'm hoping to be back sooner but the guys are doing a really great job and I'm obviously excited for them. I'm going to do everything I can to support them in any way I can." It was an answer full of clichés but then that was something he was known for so it was unlikely any of the reporters would notice if he was even less forthcoming than usual.

"Is there any truth to the rumors that you're out for the season?" Sid glanced up sideways from beneath the brim of his baseball cap and did his best to look shocked.

"Well if there is, it's news to me," Sid replied, doing his best to smile despite the nagging pain in his shoulder and the fact that he was outright lying and the way a few of the local reporters shifted around and wouldn't look him directly in the eye told him they knew it too. "Obviously I'd play if I could," he added, looking from one reporter to the next and hoping that they believed him.

"Okay gentleman, that's it for today." Sidney gave Jason, the communication coordinator a grateful look as he redirected the group's attention to an exhausted looking Max who immediately started fielding questions about Flower's absence from practice. While they were suitably distracted, Sid slipped out of the room and immediately pulled out his phone.

He wasn't even hoping that the cops or the FBI would call. He was praying that Cody would, that she'd call and say she was fine, but there were no messages and no missed calls. Sidney stared at the blank screen on his phone and ground his teeth together.

"Wherever you are," he whispered under his breath, closing his eyes and mentally sending strength and hope to the other end of the invisible but what felt to him like a very real string from his heart to Cody's.

* * *

She was drowsing when they came for her. She couldn't really sleep, not on a cold concrete floor and besides, she was afraid to and she was still hoping that they'd bring Vero back and she wanted to be awake when they did. That's what she was hoping for when she heard their footsteps, as she pushed herself back up to a sitting position. She was still hoping for it right up to the point where a large hand with the letter H-A-T-E tattooed across the knuckles reached in and pulled her out of the makeshift cage.

Cody stumbled and fell, scraping her knee. Tears sprang to her eyes but she willed them back as she got to her feet and followed him up the crumbling stairs to a smaller room with no windows and a bare light bulb hanging in the middle of the room over a metal chair.

"Sit." Cody started to turn to see who had spoken, knowing it wasn't the burly biker type whose meaty hand was currently digging painfully into her shoulder, but before she could she almost landed on her face as she was pushed towards the chair.

"Jesus fuck," she coughed as she put her hands on the seat of the chair and pulled herself up. "Who the fuck do you people think you..." She was suddenly on her side, on the floor, her cheek stinging from a back handed slap. "Shit," she whispered to herself, raising her hand to her cheek and reminding herself not to cry. These assholes could kill her, she decided, but they were not going to make her cry.

"What do you know about Tony Rosa?" Now Cody did look over her shoulder at the deep, resonant voice barking the orders. She'd expected a big man with a handlebar moustache in a wife beater and sleeves of tattoos running up his arms. Instead there was a man with slicked back hair in a sharp, well tailored suit, shiny wing tipped shoes and a Rolex.

"Who's Tony Rosa?" she asked as she struggled to her feet, brushed off her knees and got back on the chair. The man in the suit pulled a face and raised his hand. She didn't want to flinch but she did. "I don't know okay? I don't know who that is," she snapped. Maybe if she was angry she wouldn't cry.

"She was your sister, right?" he asked, tilting his head to one side and looking at her with this mocking expression on his face. "The bitch who tried to kill him, that _was_ your sister, right?" he asked in the kind of acerbic tone that said he knew the answer but just wanted another excuse to hit her. '_Okay'_, she thought, bracing herself, '_as long as it's me and not Becks and not Vero, then okay.'_

"Was this Tony Rosa guy that killed her? My sister?" she asked, letting herself feel the pain for her sister, letting that pain straighten her spine and lift her chin.

"She owed us money," he continued as if she hadn't asked a question at all, circling her slowly, like a predator, like a shark circling a boat full of blood. "Her and that loser fuckwad boyfriend of hers' owed us money. Do you have that money?" Cody watched his shiny shoes. It was easier, somehow to believe that someone wearing expensive shoes like that wouldn't want to spill her blood all over them.

"I don't have a job anymore, thanks to you and your henchmen," she replied as sarcastically as she could muster, "so no, I probably don't. Unless it's like fifty bucks which I can probably muster. I think I have that much in my change jar at..." Her head snapped back so hard she was almost facing the other direction. She saw stars. She almost expected to see tweety birds flying in circles around her head. There was a ringing in her ears. There was blood in her mouth.

"You think you I'm fucking around here?" he hissed in her ear, grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling her head back painfully so that she had no choice but to look him in the face. "Do I look like a funny guy to you?" Cody shook her head as much as she could with most of her hair in his fist. "Your sister and her jerkoff boyfriend owed me ten large. You'd better have that kind of cash or your little niece is gonna buy it. Do I make myself clear?" Cody blinked at him in disbelief.

"What, do they make dime bags of pot out of solid fucking gold now?" she asked, mostly under her breath but his bellow of laughter let her know that he'd heard it. Cody wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and it came away red. She ran her tongue along her teeth, looking for a loose one.

"Dime bags, that's rich," he snickered and then his fingers were digging into her shoulders as he shook her. "Your whore of a sister and her boyfriend robbed me," he snarled, his nose pressed against hers'. "I don't take kindly to being robbed." The first response that sprang to her lips was caustic and it took every last ounce of will she had left not to let it escape her lips. Instead, she took a shallow breath and looked him right in the eye.

"Well she's dead, so, I'm pretty sure she got that message." A slow, dangerous grin crept across his broad, fish like lips and then he let go of her hair, tipped his head back and laughed. Cody watched him nervously. This was exactly what the crazy guy did in the TV shows right before he went postal and killed everyone. Her stomach flipped and then tried to force its way up into her throat. She swallowed and willed herself to be calm. '_Better me than Becky'_ she reminded herself silently.

* * *

"Where's mommy?"

Sid glanced in the rear view mirror and then looked down at his hands clenching the steering wheel. Not once in all of the time he'd known them had he ever once heard Becky mention her mother. Of course it would happen now, when Cody wasn't here to help field this particular question. He knew that the little girl had been told, but what did death mean to a child?

"She's in heaven, watching over you." He was fairly certain that Cody didn't much care for religion of any kind but he'd been to church a few times in his life and he had his own beliefs and that was one of them. He hoped that she wouldn't mind him saying something like that to her niece.

"Nooo," Becky drummed her feet and stared out the window. "Where's Cody mommy?"

'_Oh hell'_ he thought to himself as he hit the accelerator pedal and turned the SUV onto the highway. It made a certain amount of sense that she'd confused at some point but now he really didn't know what to say.

"I'm not sure pumpkin'," he replied honestly, "but there's lots of people looking for her." That was something he kept telling himself, over and over again. It still didn't make him feel any better but he hoped it might help her.

For a few minutes they drove in silence and Sid started to relax. Well, as relaxed as he'd been able to get over the last couple of days, which only meant that he was breathing and not holding his breath and grinding his teeth. He pulled into the driveway and up towards the big empty house. He'd only just gotten used to having someone here, having dinner cooked for him and someone to hold hands with in front of the TV and now the house looked like it wasn't even lived in, as empty and dark as it had when he'd just bought it.

"Is she dead like my mommy?"

Sid's heart froze in his chest as he pulled the emergency break and watched, in the rear view mirror as the garage door closed behind them, leaving them in darkness. He dropped his forehead down onto the back of his hands and stayed that way while he tried to catch his breath.

"Fuck I hope not baby girl. I really fucking hope not."

* * *

She couldn't see and not only because it was dark. Both of her eyes were swollen shut and even though she held her hands out in front of her, Cody knew it was unlikely they'd break her fall. She skinned her other knee and this time she let out a cry of pain and anguish as she fell. He wasn't there to hear it and she was too tired and now far too scared to care if the goon tossing her into the cage went back and reported it.

"Tout va bien." A pair of hands grabbed her and gathered her from the floor. She let out a second cry but this time the sound that came from her mouth was one of surprise and happiness, no, joy.

"Veronique?" she reached for the woman's face and felt it's sharp angles and ran her fingers through the woman's long, silken hair. There were mats, tangles in it now but it was definitely her. "Are you alright?" she asked, running her fingertips over the woman's smile, remembering the innocent cupid's bow and finding it intact, not split or swollen like she knew her own was now.

"Oui," the woman whispered, running her own fingers over Cody's ruined complexion. "Better than you by the look of it," she added, tipping a cool water bottle to Cody's lips. She told herself not to but she couldn't help gulping the cool liquid greedily. Her throat was burning. Her mouth tasted of nickel.

"It doesn't matter," she told her friend when she finally produced the courage and fortitude to push the bottle away. "They don't have Becky. That's all that matters. The fuckers kept asking me where she is," she told Vero and smiled, even though it hurt like hell. "I won't tell them," she added. "I don't care if they _do_ kill me."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

It was night when they came back for her. She didn't have a watch or a window but her internal body clock told her that she should be sleeping when they dragged her out of the cage. She felt Vero's grasp slip away, heard her calling softly after her as she went limp in their hands and made them drag her across the floor. She pulled free of their grasp at the foot of the stairs and they were forced to carry her. That, however, meant that they dropped her very unceremoniously in the small room instead of propping her up in the chair. Her breath was pressed out of her lungs and she gasped like a guppy out of water, right up to the moment that she was kicked in the ribs and suddenly she couldn't breathe and curled around herself biting through her lip to try and hold back the pain.

"Where is she?" Cody smirked and shook her head. He could break all of her ribs, she wasn't telling him shit. "You've got a real fuckin' death wish, don't you?" He poked at her tender ribs with the toe of his shoe. Cody grimaced but swallowed the whimper of pain she wanted to release. "Just tell me where the girl is and you and your friend can go free." Cody rolled her eyes, or at least she thought she did. It was hard to tell when it hurt just to open them.

"Fuuuck you," she croaked and then tensed, preparing for another kick that didn't come. She listened to the sound of his footsteps as he paced slowly around her. She heard him stop, waited for the next source of pain, for him to kick her or pull her hair but he just stood behind her, so still she could hear him breathing.

'_This is it'_, she told herself, taking a deep breath as she heard the sound of the safety being taken off of a gun. She had a moment, just a second of surprise that he would be the one to do it, to spill her brains all over his fancy shoes. She hadn't heard his henchman come in and as she strained to, she still couldn't hear anything but his breathing, and now her own, sharp, shallow breaths while she waited for the slow motion movie, for her life to flash before her eyes. It didn't happen. '_Damn'_, she thought with disappointment, '_I was looking forward to that'._ Becky's big blue eyes flashed in her imagination, her dimples, her slightly gap toothed grin. Cody tried to hold that image in her mind but it quickly morphed into a scene that made her smile.

Sid and Becky on the beach and that crazy big castle they'd built. It was okay, she decided, if she didn't remember anything else, if this was her last thought on earth. That had been almost a perfect day.

"I love you both", she whispered, sending out as powerful a mental hug to each of them as she could as she felt the cold steel of the muzzle of the gun being pressed to her temple.

"Both who?" he growled, his voice close behind her, the smooth taste of expensive scotch on his breath,

"Fuck and you," she hissed back with a grin on her face. She didn't even flinch when he cracked the back of her skull.

"Pretty smart mouthed for someone who's about to die," he reminded her, pressing the muzzle of the gun to the side of her head. She should be terrified, she thought with a certain amount of detachment. She should be shaking and crying and pleading, if not with her captor then with God, making some kind of promise that if he'd just get her the hell out of here she'd go to church every Sunday or something. '_But we both know that's bullshit right?'_ she mused silently. It felt strange to feel this calm when she knew she was about to die. "Last chance," he growled, pressing the muzzle of the gun harder against her skull. "Tell me where she is."

"No."

* * *

"That's not how you do it."

Sid looked down at the pancake in the pan in front of him. It looked fine to him and he'd followed the directions on the box. He was actually pretty proud of himself.

"Whaddyamean?" he asked as he watched Becky tug her bright blue plastic step stool up to the stove beside him.

"You have to give it toes," she explained, reaching for the measuring cup he'd used to ladle the batter into the pan. "It's a monster foot. It has to have toes," she repeated very seriously as she carefully ladled five small dots of batter along the top of the pancake he'd poured. "There, better," she handed him the cup and then climbed down and went back and climbed up onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

Sid stared down at the pancake and smiled. Cody must have done it like this for her. His smile dissolved as he thought about that, about her standing right where he was standing now in nothing but one of his old ratty t-shirts, her hair pulled back into a simple pony tail, fresh faced making them all breakfast. If he closed his eyes he could still smell her, the vanilla cupcake scent of her warm skin and the ripe scent of June strawberries in her hair. It made his chest ache.

"You should probably turn that over now," Nathalie appeared at his side and held her hand out for the flipper thing. Sid shook his head. Until he was told otherwise, Becky was his responsibility. He flipped over the pancake on his own but took the plate that his boss's wife offered. He'd taken their offer of help but not of their home. If Cody got free, if she came back, she would come home...come _here_ and he'd...no, _they'd_ be waiting.

"How's that squirt?" he asked as he slid the plate in front of her. She looked down at the pancake and then up at him, clearly unimpressed.

"Where's the strawberries and the whip cream?" He opened his mouth to argue but quickly closed it. Her mother was dead, murdered right in front of her, then she'd been kidnapped and now the only family she had in the entire world was missing and she was living with strangers, well, relative strangers. If he spoiled her a little bit he didn't think it was a bad thing.

"Coming right up," he grinned and shrugged when Nathalie rolled her eyes and shook her head.

He was shaking the can of aerosol whip when one of the guards, the man he recognized as the one who'd driven them here from the airport, rounded the corner still talking into his phone. He paused, watching the man as he signed off.

Something was clearly up.

"You asked me to keep you informed," the man's deep, gravelly voice filled the sudden silence as Sidney nodded, mute. "I don't want to get your hopes up," the man added with a furtive glance over Sid's shoulder towards Becky, "but the FBI has been tracking a suspect, a high ranking member of the HA and he took a trip last night out of the city...," the man's voice dipped to nearly a whisper as he leaned towards Sidney. "He went to an abandoned factory and didn't return to his hotel last night. They're going in to investigate. I just thought you should know."

"I want to go." It was out of his mouth before the thought actually formed in his mind but even the small flicker of panic from the part of him that knew that it was a stupid idea couldn't overcome the overwhelming urge to be there.

"You'd just be in the way," Nathalie said quietly, putting her hand on his arm as if that gentle touch could stop him from bolting from the house this instant. "They'd have to worry about you too. Just let the men do their job and I'm sure they'll let us know the instant they know anything."

"Mrs. Lemieux is right," the guard nodded and gave Mario's wife a grateful smile. "We don't even know that they'll find anything there but if they do, they'll let us know right away." Sidney shook his head. How could he just sit here, eating pancakes when they might be freeing Cody right now?

"Even if they do find her there," the guard added in a firm tone, putting his hand on Sid's shoulder and pressing down, as if that could hold him in place, "they wouldn't let you see her. She would have to be checked out by medics and then they'll want to ask her some questions...by the time they do all of that, we'll have you wherever they tell us to be." He didn't like it, and it went against every competitive cell in his body, but he nodded and turned back to the stove, staring down at the empty pan in front of him.

"Ummm where's the whipcream?"

"Right," Sid looked down at the aerosol can that he was still holding in his hand. She needed him here. If she was out there, if she was still alive, she would be banking on him looking after things at home. He would not let her down. "Coming right up," he put on his best smile and tipped the can over her pancake and sprayed a mountain of the stuff onto it until she giggled and told him to stop. Nathalie was right behind him with some out of the can strawberry pie filling. Where she'd found it or how it had gotten into his house, he had no idea but the wide eyed grin on Becky's face was all he needed to square his shoulders, take his protein shake and watch her dive in as he tried his best not to run down the stairs and dive into his car.

He'd have to settle for calling Flower. At least then they could pace the house together.

* * *

"Uh boss, we've got company."

Cody cringed as she heard the shot go astray, as she listened to the sound of it pinging off of the concrete floor beside her head as her captor turned towards the intrusive sound of one of his lackeys opening the door with a scraping sound that could have easily been included on an creepy Hallowe'en special effects album.

"Can't you see I'm busy here?" the mob boss growled at the voice behind them and Cody wondered, just for a minute, if the guy peering in the door was more frightened of him than she was. The thought made her smile for one, brief moment. "Take care of it you fucking idiot!" She heard the door slam behind them and that, more than the sound of the gunshot right beside her head, made her jump.

"Just do it," she demanded, hating that a tear had leaked out onto her cheek. She wanted to be brave and defiant. She didn't want to bargain and plead with this asshole but most of all, she really didn't want to give in to the fear that had her heart hammering against her chest. "Fucking do it already," she snapped, reaching blindly behind her and grabbing a hold of his wrist, pulling the gun muzzle back towards her, this time turning to face it and pushing it against the centre of her forehead. "Do it!" she repeated and knew that tears were now streaming down her cheeks. It wasn't that she wanted to die, far from it, but she didn't want to tell him where Becky was either and if this went on much longer...

The sound of muffled gunshots somewhere in the near distance made them both freeze. She could feel his hesitation all the way down the barrel of the gun. She could feel his body turn back towards the door. Part of her brain told her that she was saved, if only she could hang on another minute or two. The other half of her brain was sure that white knights only rode to the rescue in fairy tales and in Hallmark TV movies. She was going to die, here in this small, concrete room and no one was going to save her.

"Fuck." His voice was strained and low and as she looked up the barrel of the gun, peering out of her swollen eyelids, Cody watched him watching the door and even as she tried to hang onto the gun, he pulled it from her hand as easily as taking candy from a baby. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream at him to get it over with but she also couldn't help looking at the door, hoping it would crash open and men in Kevlar vests with assault rifles would burst through. "Stay here," he growled and she opened her mouth to ask where he thought she was going to go just as the butt of the gun came down on her temple and the whole world went black.

* * *

"Becks," Sid reached forward with his good arm to gently draw her hand away from Cody's bruised and battered face. He remembered her doing the same thing to him when he'd lain in a hospital bed just like this one but he hadn't looked like that.

"But she has to wake up," Becky turned and gave him a pleading look, her bottom lip jutting out and trembling.

"She will baby girl," he promised, running his fingers through her golden curls, partly as reassurance to her and partly because he very much wanted to run them through Cody's long dark hair to reassure himself that she was real, except that he was afraid to touch her. She looked so broken and small with her dark livid bruises a stark contrast to the bleached white hospital sheets. He was afraid if he touched her he'd hurt her even more and he wouldn't do that, not for all the tea in China.

Becky turned back and stared at her Aunt and he could see, in her solemn expression, that she was willing Cody to open her eyes. He felt the same way, except for the part of him that could clearly see that her body badly needed rest.

"Come on squirt let's go get something to eat. We'll come back in a little bit. Maybe she'll be awake by then." He didn't actually believe it in the same way that he could hardly believe that she was actually alive, in that bed, close enough for him to touch.

"No! Want to stay here." Becky curled into Cody's body and laid her cheek on her Aunt's stomach and stared up at her face. She'd been afraid to look at her at first with her swollen, split lip and the cuts carved into her cheeks and her darkly, grotesquely swollen black eyes. She looked like something out of a horror movie, Sid supposed. She looked beautiful to him. He knew about black eyes, that in a few days the swelling would go down and her lip would heal and maybe she'd have a couple of scars that would lighten over time. The most important thing to him was the gentle rise and fall of her chest that said she was alive and breathing. The rest was cosmetic.

"Do you want me to get you something?" He looked back to see Flower standing in the doorway. He had dark circles under his eyes but that unsinkable smile of his lit his face. Vero was in the next room, a little dehydrated, a little thinner than normal but otherwise she was fine.

"No, I'm good," Sid smiled as he watched his friend nod. Flower opened his mouth to say something else, but Sid shook his head. Gratitude should be saved for the swat team that had saved them both and maybe for Cody, who obviously had taken the worst of it. Flower nodded and headed back into the hall, probably back to Vero's room. Sidney watched him go, wondering if, as the Captain of the team he should go over, pay his respects, check on her. He knew that part of the reason he wanted to was to hear how bad it had been, to know something about what they'd been through so he'd know what he was dealing with.

He glanced at Becky, but she'd shut her eyes and he could tell by the slow rise and fall of her small back that she'd fallen asleep. It had been hours. He didn't blame her. She wasn't going anywhere and he could just go next door, check on Vero and...

"Tell him he'd better marry that girl." His heart leaped in his chest and he turned slowly, almost thinking he hadn't really just heard that rasp, that he'd turn around and she'd still be inert. He saw her hand first, the one with the tube attached to it, gently stroking through Becky's hair. He followed it up to her face and saw her bruised, split and bloody lips almost curl into a smile. "She's stronger than he thinks."

Sid was frozen for a moment watching her lips move, almost sure he was dreaming it and that his imagination was playing tricks on him. But then her hand moved again and this time she reached out towards him. It seemed to take forever to make his own hand move, to reach out towards her, but then he felt her hand slide between his own and his heart leaped in his chest.

"I love you," she whispered and he saw her trying to open her eyes to look at him and his heart broke a little.

"I fucking love you so fucking much," he whispered hoarsely, barely able to make a sound past the huge lump that had formed in his throat as he moved to her side, bringing her hand up to his mouth and kissing each scraped knuckle, each tiny abrasion on her hand.

"You'd better," she tried to smile again and it looked like it hurt, "because I almost died for you. For both of you," she added with the hint of a smile tugging at her mouth. Sidney felt the hot sting of tears. He wanted to tell her that he'd have taken her place, would have gladly taken every single blow for her but he couldn't make the words come out. Tears streamed down his face. He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried. "I'd do it again," she whispered, giving his hand a weak squeeze, "for this." He nodded and put his hand over hers' on top of Becky's head and then leaned in and gently brushed his lips over hers'.

"Don't though, okay?" he whispered, kissing a spot just above her right eye that wasn't bruised or cut. "Don't leave me again, ever, promise?" She nodded, and winced just a little at the movement. He knew what that was like.

"Can you...come in here, with us?" she asked in a whisper, glancing at the safety bar. As if anything or anyone could stop him, Sidney lowered the bar and climbed in beside her and put his arms around both of his girls and held them tight.


	24. Chapter 24

_I need your thoughts. I had more ideas for more drama in this story but now that I've written this chapter it feels kind of complete. Thoughts?_

**Chapter 24**

"Safe?" The word tasted strange on her tongue and sounded unreal. She gripped Sid's hand and felt his reassuring squeeze in return. The FBI agent in his black suit with his shades pushed up on his forehead and his identity shield still in his hand nodded.

"With the death of Mario Rosa we feel confident that any immediate danger to you and your niece has definitely past and it's doubtful that anyone from the Angels that might take his place as the head of the organization would have the same personal vendetta against you. I'm not saying to let your guard down entirely but yes, we think that you will be safe now." Cody shook her head. It didn't seem like it could be possible.

"So I can just...we can just do anything, go anywhere?" she asked, looking and feeling doubtful. The agent smiled and nodded.

"That's right ma'am, business as usual. Or in your case, start your life here like nothing ever happened." Cody felt her cheeks get warm as Sidney gave her hand another squeeze. There was no threat of their sending her home to Vancouver. Not when Sidney Crosby had just told them that she was his girlfriend. '_Fiancée'_ she rolled the title around in her head as she glanced up at him. That word was like a bright and shiny brand new coin that she wanted to rub her fingers over the embossing of and wanted to keep in her pocket and not spend right away. "The Agency does apologize that we were not adequately able to protect you ma'am," the agent added, his warm smile disappearing, replaced by a solemn, all business expression.

"You protected my niece," she reminded him, "and she was the witness after all. If she'd been taken instead..." Cody let her voice fall away. She didn't want to think about what might have happened had Becky been in her place in that cage in that basement. Sid's other hand sliding over hers told her that he wasn't eager to think about what might have been either.

"We want you to keep us on speed dial, obviously, and feel free to contact us if you receive any kinds of threats or if you see something that concerns you in any way," the Agent handed them both a card with several emergency contact numbers on it. "I hope you won't need it," he added, holding his hand out to Sidney who only freed one of his hands to shake it. "Take care." Sidney nodded and then put his hands protectively around Cody's again so that the Agent could only pat her shin gently before he turned and headed out of the room.

"That wasn't how that should have happened." Cody looked down at his hands surrounding hers' and smiled.

"Are there _rules_ for these kinds of things?" she teased, glancing up at him and tried to raise a single eyebrow. It hurt a little but she did it anyway.

"Of course there is," he replied quickly. "There's supposed to be flowers and music and I should have had the ring, which I do, by the way," he added, turning to sit on the edge of the hospital bed, facing her. "It's at home," he added in a whisper as he looked down at their hands. "Just so you know that I didn't just blurt that out. I meant it, every word of it."

"Okay, so get down on one knee." She waited for him to look at her, for him to appreciate what she was saying. He looked back at her quizzically and then one corner of his mouth turned up.

"Yeah?" he asked and his grin broadened as she nodded. "You don't want to wait for the ring and the flowers and the...?" Cody shook her head.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not really the flowers and trinkets kind of a girl," she whispered. Giving her hands a squeeze, Sid leaned forward and pressed his lips to the center of her forehead. He let go of one of her hands and slid off the side of the bed and then he looked at her, searched her face. She waited while he gingerly got down on one knee. Still holding her hand, he pressed his lips to the back of her hand.

"When I thought...when I let myself think you might not come back," he coughed, like it was hard for him to even say the words, like he had to force them up through his throat and out of his mouth, "I couldn't imagine it. I mean, I know we haven't known each other than long but...you and Becks...you're everything to me. I...," Sidney looked up at her, tears glimmering in his hazel eyes. "I love you and the thought of being...of waking up without you...of not having you to come home to...I can't Dakota. I don't want to. So...will you put me out of my misery and promise that you won't ever leave me again?" The answer bubbled up from the center of her chest and did a happy dance on the tip of her tongue but she didn't blurt it out, as much as she wanted to.

"Are you sure?" she asked instead and his brow furrowed.

"Yes," he replied hoarsely. He cleared his throat and blinked rapidly and then got up off of his knee to stand beside her, looking down at her and searching her face.

"But look what I just put you through," she whispered, emotion getting the better of her as his free hand reached out to gingerly cup her cheek.

"Yeah, look at what you did," he smiled down at her, a single tear escaping to slip down his cheek. "I've had guys take beatings for me before but fuck, not like this," he added in a hushed venerable tone, his fingertips barely brushing over her bruised cheekbone. "I've never met a woman as brave and loyal as you Dakota. I just want the chance to spend the rest of my life trying to make _this_ up to you, trying to be deserving of you." Cody turned her head and kissed the center of his palm.

"Better go home and get that ring then."

* * *

"You look fine." She'd been in the bathroom for longer than usual. Cody hadn't been kidding around when she'd said she wasn't a high maintenance flowers and trinkets kind of girl. All of the flowers the other guys on the team had sent she'd had the nurses give out to other patients and every last one of the balloons Max had brought when they'd arrived to bring her home she'd had him take down to the children's cancer ward. She hadn't wanted a fuss, she'd said, not even the special candlelight dinner that he'd had planned. She'd just wanted to come home. But now, as he stood behind her in the semi dark of their room, seeing her despondent expression as she gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, Sid knew there was some vanity in there somewhere.

"I look like I've been through a meat grinder," she sighed, turning her face and staring at her profile. Most of the swelling had gone down over the few days they'd kept her in the hospital but the ribbons of flesh her assailant's rings had dug from the flesh of her cheeks and the fading bruises that were beginning to turn a sickly yellow green definitely altered her appearance. Having seen her when she was nearly unrecognizable, however, to Sidney she already looked almost like herself.

"You're beautiful," he whispered, closing the gap, sliding his hands up her arms until he was pulling her back against him while he pressed his lips to the soft, fragrant and unblemished skin beneath her ponytail. "I'm so glad you're home." He felt her hands cover his, felt her body sway back against his. His head swam with the scent of the lavender bath oil she'd spent an hour soaking in. Her skin was still warm and so soft.

She made a contented humming noise as he kissed his way across to her shoulder and didn't struggle when he undid the towel and dropped it to the floor. Her hands guided his up to cup her breasts and their gazes met in the mirror.

"If it's too soon just say so." He didn't want to stop, his body was aching for hers', but he hadn't asked if there'd been more than beatings and the last thing he wanted was to hurt her more.

"Please," she whispered as she closed her eyes and laid her head back on his shoulder.

He could take her right there, he knew as he kissed his way up the curve of her neck. He could slide his pj bottom down, press her forward over the sink and ease his way inside of her but that wasn't what he wanted now, wasn't what he'd been day dreaming about since he knew she'd been found.

"Come on," he whispered, lacing his fingers with hers and turning to head back into the bedroom. He led her to the bed and waited while she climbed up on it before he checked the new lock on the door. He'd wanted Max and Mel to take Becky but Cody hadn't wanted to let her niece out of her sight. That didn't mean that he wanted any unwelcome visitors right now. He slid the bolt home and then turned to see Dakota already almost entirely hidden beneath the sheet that she was holding up nearly to her chin.

The shake of his head was purely internal as Sid crossed the carpeted floor and climbed onto the bed. He didn't even try to pull the sheet down. Instead he reached up and behind her and pulled the elastic holding her hair back free. Then, running his fingers through her still damp but silken hair, Sidney leaned in and kissed her. He reminded himself to be gentle. He could feel the rough edges of the scab that dissected her bottom lip as his mouth moved over hers and heard her sharp intake of breath as his body eased hers down onto the bed. He'd seen the still darkly purple bruising along her ribcage and the boot print on her back. He knew he would have to be careful, but he knew how those kinds of injuries felt and how to avoid making them worse.

It felt a little like the first time. They were as tentative as strangers as he patiently waited for her to relax into him, for her to give up her death grip on the sheet. He waited for those little signs that said she was okay, that _they_ were okay.

* * *

She wanted him. She wanted to climb him like a jungle gym. She wanted him to press her down into the mattress and fuck her like a twenty dollar whore. She was also terrified. She was afraid he'd hurt her. Not like...not the way that _man_ had. She knew deep in her bones that Sidney would never hurt her like that. She was just afraid that they'd be doing it and it would be incredible and suddenly it would just hurt and they'd have to stop, that he'd be upset.

She tasted the metallic tang of her own blood as her mouth opened beneath his and his tongue swept over hers'. Cody started to pull back but Sidney didn't let her. He held on, ran his tongue over her lip and then kissed his way across her jaw and began to nibble his way down her neck. With a moan she let go of the sheets, her shield, and reached up to dig her fingers into his thick dark hair.

She sucked in a ragged breath when his weight transferred further down her body but that momentary sharp pain was quickly dulled by the feeling of his lips and teeth worrying at her nipple through the thin cotton sheet. She could feel every scratch, every contusion, and of course the three broken ribs but none of that discomfort was anything compared to feel of his lips sucking her nipple into his mouth, or better than that, the press of his erection against her leg. There had been hours, long dark hours when she'd been in that cage that the thought of his, of being in his arms again, had been the only thing that had got her through the next few minutes, the next hour.

"I want you inside me," she whimpered, kicking at the sheets, now eager to erase the barrier between them.

"Soon," he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss on her sternum before kissing his way down the midline of her body, placing butterfly kisses around her belly button.

"But I...," she began but was quickly silenced by the warning his gold flecked eyes gave as he stopped just below her navel and looked up at her.

"You wouldn't let Max make a fuss at the hospital. You wouldn't let me take you out to dinner. You _will_ let me do this," he added sternly, sliding down the length of the bed and dragging her by her heels with him. She had every intention of explaining that she still looked like the creature from the black lagoon but her words turned into nonsensical sounds and then into a wordless cry as Sidney pressed the flat of his tongue against her entrance and very, _very_ slowly licked his way upwards.

"Oh god," she gasped, arching her back and tipping her head back. Her entire body became one raw nerve and her brain turned into an explosion of sparks as if it had become the bumper of a tail dragger. She hiccupped as he sucked her clit into his mouth, whimpered when he blew his warm breath across it and lost all ability to make speech at all when his tongue turned into an inch worm and crept slowly up and down and across it.

Cody shoved her knuckles in her mouth. It was either that or scream the entire fucking house down and just maybe wake the entire neighbourhood. Her heels drummed the bed. Her free hand pounded the mattress, but he held her there, staring over the edge and into the abyss, but he wasn't quite ready to push her over; not yet.

Everyone knows the term 'whistle while you work'. Sidney hummed. He hummed and vibrated and sent her teetering, arms wind milling as she fought to save herself from falling and every time she tried to, was about to, he would only come up for air with a playful grin on his face and then begin it all over again, blowing warm air across her so sensitive skin and leaving her helpless but to do anything else but bite down harder into her own skin and watch, wild eyed, as he slid one and then two fingers up inside of her while he made wet, warm circles with his tongue around her feminine pearl.

Cody reached back for a pillow and pulled it over her face. If she died, suffocated herself, she didn't care. She was going to die happy and he'd have to explain to the authorities why his fiancée was naked and spread eagled on his bed with a grin a mile wide on her face.

She felt the dip in the mattress, just barely, as his body curled in next to hers. She felt the heat of his skin, the hard solidness of him, but mostly she felt his fingers still working in and out of her heated, slick core. His free hand pulled the pillow out of her hands and she was forced to look up into his green and bronze eyes as he gazed down at her, watching her, enjoying seeing the effects of his ministrations on her. He leaned on his hand and stared down at her as she whimpered and shuddered as he forced her to climb back up the steep cliff just to send her falling over the edge again.

"Sidney...please," she begged, reaching out and pulling uselessly on the tree branch of his arm. As if she could budge an immovable object, especially one that was so clearly enjoying the view.

"I like watching you cum," he told her, his voice deep and thick with desire. Cody let go of his arm and reached instead for a handful of his dark hair and tried to pull his lips down to hers'. She caught sight of the two carat diamond solitaire on her hand and stared at it, at the way the white gold band and brilliant sparkling princess cut stood out in strict contrast to his thick, dark waves. It still didn't seem real. _He_ still didn't seem real.

"Why?" she asked and forced her gaze back to meet his.

"It's my job," he replied, leaning in and capturing her lips with his. She let him kiss her, because it felt good, because it meant the solid width of his chest pressed against her own and because it meant the work his fingers were doing slowed. But as he came up for air again, she shook her head.

"No," she cupped his face, dragged her hand down the sharp line of his cheek and then, as she let her hand fall away, turned it so that her ring was in his direct line of sight. "Why this? Why me?" Sid pressed his lips to her hand and took her hand in his and pressed it back over her head as he moved his body to hover above hers'.

"Because I love you, because you're my brave and beautiful Cody," he told her, carefully and gingerly nudging his way inside of her. Cody sucked in a jagged breath. Not because it hurt, but because the opposite was true. It felt amazing. It felt right. He fit her. He filled her completely. "You make me want to be better at everything off the ice. I want to take care of you, be with you and have you with me, always." He began to move in long, slow strokes that stole her breath with their perfection. He took her other hand and laced his fingers with hers and pressed that too above her head as they moved together, as he held her gaze and she did her best to breathe even though the air seemed suddenly very thin and lacking in oxygen. "Tell me it's felt like this with anyone else," he dared her as he slid his entire length into her, until she could feel him touching places within her that only he could reach. Cody could only shake her head. There was no point in lying. He knew. They both knew. "Cum with me," he whispered, dipping his head down and capturing her lips again.

Cody was already spinning down the chasm, his tongue twining with hers and his quickened, shallow thrusts only made her spin faster. She raised her hips and dug her heels into the tree trunks of his thighs and did her best to meet him thrust for thrust. She was going to go first. She only hoped to last long enough to bring him with her.

* * *

It hurt. It hurt like hell. It felt like a fire heated brand was being shoved through his shoulder but Sid clenched his teeth and fought through the pain like all of his years on the ice had taught him to do. Sweat dripped into his eyes and his arms started to shake, but he ignored the muscle fatigue and the sharp thrust of pain. She was close, again, and he was close and he wouldn't let a little pain ruin this moment. He held her gaze and threw his hips forward, his body meeting hers with a solid but wet sound and she cried out. It was a sound that was as beautiful as the songs of celestial choirs to his ears.

"That's it baby," he hissed through clenched teeth as he swung his hips forward again, ramming himself into her once, twice and then a third time that made her eyes roll back in her head as she called out his name. His balls tightened almost painfully as her body tightened around his and with a shudder as his arms gave out, he emptied himself into her with a grunt that was part relief, part pain.

"Oh my god, you're hurt." He was lying on top of her, knowing he was probably causing her untold pain as his deadweight pressed against her broken ribs, but Cody didn't seem to notice that. Her fingers had already found the raw, puckered flesh of his shoulder. "You didn't tell me...you never said anything," she muttered in an angry tone as her fingers carefully probed at his wound.

"It's nothing," he sighed as he carefully rolled off of her and reached to gather her to him but she pushed him away and straddled him instead.

"It's clearly more than nothing," she snapped, smacking his hands out of the way when he tried to pull her down to him. "What is that?" she asked as she turned her eyes, blazing, to meet his. "How did you get that?" He thought, for just a moment, that he'd lie and then he thought he would try to sugar coat it but looking up into the fury in her eyes, he decided that the truth was his best and only choice.

"I took a bullet when I tried to stop them...when they took you." It sounded better than being shot, less violent somehow. Cody's gaze searched his and then she went back to looking at the puckered pink skin left behind by the surgery to close the wound.

"I didn't even know you were there," she said quietly, reaching out to gingerly stroke the skin around the wound. Sid reached up and took her hand and brought it to his lips.

"I would have rather they'd taken me. I would have gladly taken your place," he told her honestly. When he thought about what she'd been through, rage boiled in his veins. It was a good thing for him that the snakehead was dead because Sid wanted to kill him for every single cut and bruise on her body. "This _is_ nothing," he reiterated, waiting until her gaze met his again. "Honestly I wish there was more so I could say I did something."

"You took a bullet...for _me_," she whispered, her gaze turning tender as she settled herself onto his chest, laying her chin on the back of her folded hands as she regarded him with an expression akin to wonder.

"I'd take a hundred bullets for you. For both of you," he responded honestly, his fingertips once again finding the angry red furrow on her cheek. "So when you ask me why...that's why. I've never felt like throwing myself in front of a bullet for anyone else. A puck or two, maybe," he added with a wink when she rolled her eyes.

"Had a lot of call to take a bullet have you?" she asked sarcastically, pushing herself up and sliding her body further down his until he could feel her wet, warm folds surrounding his cock. He groaned. He was tired, it had been a long day, but there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to say no. Not when she looked down at him like she was now, like he was everything in the world in that moment.

"I'm hoping not to get anymore practice than that," he replied, reaching for her hips and then letting out a long, low groan when she rotated them slowly, rubbing against and over him.

"Well then I guess there other things you could spend your time practicing," she grinned as she cupped her breasts, holding them high and together like an offering. Sid moaned as his cock stirred back to life.

"Yeah, I guess there is," he coughed as he watched her tug on her nipples, her gaze holding his.

"That's good," she replied with a lascivious grin, "because I had this thought...more of an idea really when I was cooped up with Vero and...," she threw her head back and laughed when he felt his eyes get wide. "Yeah, you wish...well, actually Flower is kinda cute..."

"Evil woman!" Sidney used his size and strength to roll her over and pin her beneath him. "No. No sharing. Not ever."

"Awww!" she complained and then giggled when he fell on her like a starving man on a piece of bread.


End file.
