Chapter 28

this doesn't happen too often, back to back chapters on back to back days, but hey! when a girl has an evil plan the words just all come in a rush



“I can’t believe you finally made it!” If it had not been for her general size and the fact that her back was aching, her ankles were swollen and she had to pee, Tabby would have launched herself into her friends’ arms. As it was, Mel and Trina gathered her into a group hug and all of them jumped up and down and squealed like happy pigs rolling in mud.

“We thought we’d give you Christmas day with your folks at least,” Mel replied finally, after they had disengaged themselves only enough to link arms as they walked through the arrival terminal. “So, did you get some good prezzies? I don’t see a ring on it yet?” Tabby groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Oops,” Trina laughed, sharing a grim glance across Tabby’s body with Mel. “Looks like you’ve hit a sore spot there.”

“It’s not…I mean…I don’t care…not really,” Tabby began, not really sure if she was trying to make herself believe it or her friends. “It’s just…well I’ll show you when we get back to the car but, let’s put it this way, I don’t think that he’s used to buying stuff for women.”

“Uh oh, sounds like someone’s in the dog house for more than not putting a ring on it,” Trina snorted as they found their way out onto the sidewalk where a long, black stretch limo was waiting. Mel slid in first, with Tabby crawling in after her and Trina following, tucking her long legs beneath her on the plush bench as the driver closed the door behind them.

“Look at this,” Tabby sighed, grabbing a bag she’d left on the floor of the limo out of which she pulled a black lacy teddy, and not the kind of scratchy cheap nylon kind from Frederick's but a well made basque from Agent Provocateur with intricate embroidery and sexy sheer mesh paneling. Both Mel and Trina whistled but Tabby continued to look as nonplussed as she had when she’d pulled it out of the box on Christmas night. “What’s wrong with this picture?” she asked, holding it up to herself so that it was painfully obvious that the provocative piece was not made for a pregnant woman.

“Well maybe he was thinking about after the baby’s born,” Mel suggested, a hopeful tone in her voice that suggested she didn’t really believe a word of it.

“This would never have fit me before I became a beached whale,” Tabby moaned, stuffing the offensive piece bag in the bag.

“I’ll have it,” Trina grinned, making a grab for the bag. For a moment Tabby held the bag just out of her friend’s reach, but then shrugged and handed it to her.

“Jordan has been looking forward to getting back at you for leaving him handcuffed and naked for all his teammates to see. Maybe that will keep you from being punished too severely,” she added with a chuckle and a shake of her head. Trina just grinned wider, which caused both Mel and Tabby to roll their eyes.

“So don’t tell me that was all he got you?” Mel asked and Tabby shook her head as she held out her hand. “Oooh, pretty!” Mel took Tabby’s right hand and both she and Trina bent over it, examining the gold band and the three stones set in it.

“My birth stone, his and an aquamarine for the baby,” Tabby explained as her two friends gushed over the size of the stones and the thickness of the band.

“That’s gorgeous,” Trina exclaimed as she sat back. “Not an engagement ring, but really nice.”

“And expensive looking,” Mel added, giving Tabby an encouraging smile. As if it mattered how much he’d spent on it. At least it didn’t to Tabby.

“But you should have seen my face,” Tabby explained as she ran her thumb over the stones and thought about how hard her heart had beat when he’d pulled out the small Tiffany blue box with its’ patented silver bow and put it in her hand. “I thought…I mean if you’d seen the box, you would have thought so too, right?” Tabby searched her friends’ faces and both of them nodded and looked appropriately sympathetic. “I mean, it’s so stupid, because you know me. I’m not the 'bling-bling' girl and I’ve never wanted the big white wedding or any of that shit. That’s not me but…but when I saw the box and my mom had been going on and on about how we should be married…I just assumed and then…and then this,” she sighed, running her hand over the stones again.

“It’s super pretty but really disappointing,” Trina filled in the words that Tabby hadn’t said out loud and a silence fell over the group of women until Tabby felt Mel’s hand on her arm.

“Maybe, after the whole ‘break’ thing, he’s just taking the time to make sure that you two are solid,” she suggested and Tabby nodded. That was very like what she’d been telling herself. The problem was, she hadn’t managed to convince herself yet.

“Or maybe he’s like Prince William and he’s going to make you hang around for seven years,” Trina added skeptically, earning her dark looks from both Mel and Tabby. “What? I’m just saying it’s a possibility. Don’t jump down my throat. He’s the one that gave you that,” she said, pointing to the three stoned ring on Tabby’s hand, “instead of a five carat diamond.”

“Maybe I should phone Jordan and make sure he doesn’t bring the fuzzy cuffs,” Tabby grumbled but Trina just grinned back at her.

“That’s okay, I brought my crop and a paddle and….”

“Don’t,” Tabby squealed, holding up her hands and squeezing her eyes shut against the image that had sprung into her mind’s eye of the big blond forward with rosy ass cheeks. “Don’t tell me anymore. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Mmm, I wonder if Johnnie’s into any of that?” Mel asked as if she was thinking out loud and the girls fell into a fit of giggles.
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“So, did you do it?”

Sidney glanced up from the text he’d just gotten on his blackberry as Flower dropped into the seat next to him on the plane and shook his head.

“And don’t look all smug,” Sid admonished the dark haired goaltender when Marc grinned. “I didn’t chicken out and it has nothing to do with that whole macho French thing you and Max were going on about, making her sweat either,” Sid added glumly. “I just…it wasn’t the right time, that’s all.”

“So mon ami, what is that now, une fois, est que deux fois que tu ne l’as pas demandé de t’épouser?” Marc manages, just, not to laugh as he poses the question that makes Sid slump further down in his seat.

“I couldn’t ask her in front of everyone…what if she’d said no?”

“Tabby?” Sid looked up to find Max peeking over the top of the seat in front of him with a quizzical look on his face. “She’s your baby momma, of course she’s going to say yes…or is that oui, ah oui, oh Sidney oui!” Rolling his eyes at Max’s sex noises, Sidney looked back down at his blackberry.

“Well she has her friends in town now, so unless I do something for New Years….”

“Friends? What friends?” It was now Jordan’s turn to peek over the seats, this time from behind Marc, looking like an eager puppy.

“Yeah, those friends,” Sidney sighed out loud, holding his phone up so that Jordan could get a good view of the photo that Tabby had just sent of her and her two buddies at the Penguins store, stocking up on jerseys. He hoped it had been taken in a dressing room, considering that in Trina’s case, she looked to be wearing very little besides a pair of knee high boots and Jordan’s jersey.

“Daaamn,” Gronk groaned and disappeared from view, with Sidney’s phone.

“Why not do something for New Year’s? We’ll be in New York right? Bring her up there, go to some fancy restaurant, drop the ring in some champagne….” Max suggested while both Flower and Tanger rolled their eyes and made gagging noises.

“Ne l’écoute pas,” Kris mumbled, shaking his head at Max, which made his hair fall into his dark eyes “He only dates whores. What does he know about romance, au sujet a courtiser une jolie femme?”

“Je suis très romantique! Nous Québécois savent tous sur les romantisme!” Max argued and that started an argument between defenseman and the forward that Sidney decided to ignore. Neither of them had ever had a steady, real relationship as far as he knew. There was little point in listening to either of them.

“Do you want to marry her?” Marc asked as Sidney reached for PSP, hoping that a game of Medal of Honor, killing some people, even hypothetically might help him feel better.

“Yeah,” was his one word answer, though it came out more as a grunt than an actual word.

“Then just ask her mon ami, et je pense que Max et raison, je crois qu’elle va dire oui.”

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“This is your place?” Trina had the window rolled down and had stuck her head out into the breeze as the limo pulled into the driveway.

“I know, it’s way too big for just us. Even when he’s born, there’s too much room. I’m terrified of what hide and seek will mean in this palace,” Tabby replied with a sigh as she rubbed at her stomach. Junior had been playing hacky-sack with her bladder for most of the ride home.

“Yeah but it’s nice,” Mel chimed in as the limo slowed to a stop. “I mean, other than the hooker on the corner,” she added, scrunching up her nose as she peered out the opposite window.

“Hooker?” Tabby slid down the seat to look. “Please don’t tell me it’s that girl again,” she added, half under her breath.

“You guys don’t have gates?” Trina hissed as she slid out of the car and stood, staring at the woman who was standing near the front door of the house, staring back at them.

“There was but Sidney wanted some higher ones and then there was a problem with the contractor…you don’t want to know,” Tabby mumbled, leaving her bags behind for the driver to retrieve as she took Mel’s hand and allowed her friends to help pull her out of the car. “This had better be good. I have to pee.” Grumbling curse words under her breath, she strode towards the woman, but stopped when she realized what was just behind her, a stroller. “Oh holy fuck,” she hissed, stopping dead in her tracks, about ten feet away.

This woman had the same sort of cheap look about her that the last one had, with obviously dyed black hair and cheap, dry looking hair extensions that fell to the middle of her back. Unlike the first one, this woman had nicer clothes, designer jeans that looked like they were painted on and an expensive looking leather jacket. She was wearing too much make up, Tabby thought, lipstick a shade too bright, and the kind of false eyelashes that made her eyes look like they were ringed by spider’s legs.

“Hey bitch, you’re on private property,” Trina called out, making herself useful. The woman didn’t even flinch. ‘She is a hard faced cunt’ Tabby thought as tried to peer around her to see what was in the stroller.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” the woman asked, her gaze focused entirely on Tabby. For a moment it felt a lot like she was being given that once over that a man usually gives, that whole up and down while he undresses you with his eyes. Except the woman in front of them raked her gaze over her like she ripping off her skin with a sharp blade. Tabby shivered. “You are,” the woman decided with an evil looking smirk. “He wanted to call me something…some name.” She looked thoughtful for a moment and then her nasty looking grin widened. “Tabby, am I right?”

Tabby heard Mel gasp behind her and she was sure she could hear Trina’s knuckles cracking beside her. For herself, she could only hear the sound of her own heart, beating hard and quickly, in her ears. Her first thought, when she managed to catch her breath, was ‘don’t answer that’. Her second thought was ‘I’m going to kill her and then I’m going to kill him, slowly and painfully’. She didn’t say either of those things.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” she asked, hoping that she sounded cooler and calmer than she felt.

“Is that his?” the woman asked, ignoring Tabby’s question and pointing at her swollen midsection. Tabby’s hands went protectively around her stomach but she didn’t answer the question. She just stared back at the woman who was sneering at her. “I guess he didn’t want to use protection with you either huh?”

“I’m going to ask you this one more time, bitch,” Tabby said carefully, taking a deep breath as she did. “Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want?” The woman continued to smile, that cat that got the canary look on her face that made Tabby’s skin crawl.

“I have a message for Sidney,” the woman grinned, showing teeth that weren’t exactly straight, red lipstick on the tips of her two front teeth. She moved around behind the stroller and brought out a large, manila envelope. “You’ll make sure he gets it, won’t you sweetie?” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue like honey from a spatula. Tabby stared at the official looking stamp on the front of the envelope and found that her feet would not move. She felt Mel reach for her hand, but she couldn’t make her fingers uncurl from the fists they were clenched in. She found herself staring, mute, as the woman pushed the buggy towards them until she could look down at the contents, at a round little face that looked up at her from beneath a pink blanket with bunnies and kitties all over it.

Trina reached out and snatched the envelope from the woman’s hand but Tabby never looked at her again. She couldn’t drag her attention off of the tiny bundle. Not until the buggy rolled down the driveway to a car waiting on the street, an older, five liter mustang that had seen better days.

“I’ll kill him,” she said quietly, as she watched the woman load the tiny child into an infant seat. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

Chapter 27

“Merry Christmas everyone!”

Where he’d got the elf outfit, Sid was almost frightened to ask but he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Cookie in green tights. Even better was the sight of his wife, Michelle, in a matching red outfit. Ever since Gonch had signed with the Sens and the club had decided not to resign Billy G, Cookie had taken on the role of the grizzled veteran and over all father figure so it was nice to see him in his more natural role of cut up. He couldn’t be the class clown. After all, that role had long belonged to Max. At least since Army left.

The sight of ‘Santa’s little helpers’, however, recharged the waves of nausea emanating from his stomach. Tabby’s parents and brother had arrived this morning. His parents would be somewhere in the building and he’d have to bring them home. Normally spending Christmas day with his parents was something he looked forward to. Not today.

“Cheer up, might never happen.” Cookie grinned as he handed him a box tied with a lime green ribbon. Sid stared down at the present and sighed. “Hey,” Cookie leaned in and hissed in Sid’s ear, “not that there’s anything wrong with it, but if you really don’t want to deal with having a kid, I know a guy who knows a guy if you know what I mean.” Sid knew he was joking but he also knew that his old man was likely to say, if not exactly the same words, something at least similar and it he felt his entire body tense in response.

“Sure, we can have her kidnapped and sell her to some sheik in Arabia or something,” Jordan added unhelpfully. He’d bitten his tongue, over and over, knowing that some of the guys just said shit, that it didn’t mean they believed what they were saying, that it was just hazing and that he needed to let it roll off his back. But after what Bettman had said, had threatened to force him to do, Sid’s patience had been worn thin.

“I can’t wait,” he said simply, looking first Cookie and then Jordan in the eye. “I honestly can’t wait to be a father.”

“If your father lets you live long enough to see that day,” Jordan reminded him and Sid felt the tension in his body grow.

“Hey, Joyeux Noël,” Max interjected, “let the guy breathe. Can’t you see he’s in love?” Sid aimed a grateful smile his friend’s way even as his shoulders drooped as he worried about what his father was going to say. He’d begged his mother to pave the way, to break the news to his father. She’d been thrilled, of course. He just wished everyone could be a little more fucking positive about his situation. “Are you going to open that?” Sid stared down at the box. A quick look around the room told him everyone was either getting the same thing, or at least something similar, so, with a shrug, he tugged at one end of the ribbon.

The ribbon fell away and he slid his finger beneath the tape, planning to carefully open it, only to have Jordan grab the package out of his hands. Sid and Max exchanged a furtive grin and shook their heads as the tall blonde ripped into the paper like an impatient and excited three year old on Christmas morning.
“Hey, I got a fucking iPod. This is cooool.”

Sid stared at the object in his friend’s hand, but even tilting his head from one side to the other didn’t make it any clearer what Jordan was holding.

“Give it to him, sheeit.” Cookie grabbed at what was in Jordan’s hand, pulled it out and pressed it into Sid’s hand. It was cool to the touch and surprisingly heavy for something so small.

“Wow,” he said quietly as he turned over the solid silver rattle, listening to the musical sounds coming from it as engraved words caught his eye. He traced the letters with the pad of his thumb, his initials linked with Tabby’s on one rounded end of the rattle and just the word baby at the other end. “Thanks guys.” He felt a little choked up as he raised his gaze to meet Cookie’s.

“I know we’ve been giving you hard time,” Cookie began.

“But we’re all fucking proud of you for doing the right thing. Plus, we like Tabs, she’s good for you,” Max completed the thought and Sid found himself unable to say another word.
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“Nice score sis.” Tabby raised a single eyebrow at her brother and he just grinned at her as she took his empty plate and headed for the kitchen. “When do I get to move in?”

“Leave your sister alone,” her mother sighed, getting up to follow her daughter into the kitchen. “It is a very nice house,” she agreed with her son as she took the plate out of Tabby’s hands before she could put it directly into the dishwasher.

“I don’t love him because he’s rich mom,” Tabby said quietly and her mother merely shrugged as she went over to the kitchen sink to wash the plate before it went into the dishwasher.

“Still, I never thought you’d land on your feet quite this nicely,” her mother replied as she turned back to hand her daughter the plate. Tabby thought about just putting it in the cupboard, just to see what her mother would do, but reminded herself that it was Christmas and things were already stressful enough without intentionally starting something. She told herself that her mother couldn’t help the way she was. That didn’t mean she had to like it though.

“Things could still go horrifically wrong mom,” Tabby answered thoughtfully, thinking about that woman in the driveway. The one she still hadn’t asked Sidney about.

“Yes I’d noticed he hasn’t put a ring on your finger,” her mother answered dryly, with a meaningful glance toward Tabby’s naked hand as she reached for a glass in the cupboard. Tabby flinched and withdrew her hand, switching the glass to her right hand as she did.

“Mom, don’t be old fashioned,” Tabby snapped before ducking her head into the fridge to hide her expression while she swore under her breath.

“I know you’re going to tell me that people don’t do that anymore, but they do,” her mother told her firmly while Tabby rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth.
“Especially young men like Sidney who have a reputation to protect,” her mother added as if she’d practiced the speech and Tabby was willing to bet she had, on her father no doubt, on the plane, all the way to Pittsburgh.

“Don’t you start too,” Tabby mumbled as she poured herself a glass of orange juice. It gave her wicked heartburn but she’d been craving it lately. “The fucking league told him the same thing, and I can’t believe they think they have the right to tell us what to do, so…just leave it, okay mom?”

“You almost sound like you don’t want to marry the boy?” Her mother made it a question and raised her eyebrow as she regarded her daughter with a look that clearly said she didn’t and wouldn’t believe that was true and of course it wasn’t but her mother was honestly the last person Tabby wanted to talk to about this.

“The whole marriage thing is just some kind of convention anyway,” Tabby lied while doing her best to sound convincing while she also did her best to keep her expression neutral. “You know I’ve never been that girl pouring through Bridal magazines planning her wedding down to the last detail. I don’t really care. Besides, I’m as big as a planet. I was just saying that to Sidney…I could totally have moons orbiting me now,” she added, brushing her hand over her swollen mid section. “Were you this big when you were having me?” she asked her mother, artfully changing the subject.

“Not with you, with your brother, maybe,” her mother replied, falling for it, or dropping the subject while she moved forward to place her hands on either side of her daughter’s belly button and started into her other favorite subject of the day, the horrors of stretch marks and child birth while Tabby did her best to smile and nod and act like a dutiful daughter.
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“I told you to go ahead and get into her pants son, not make her pants bigger.” Sid tried his best not to roll his eyes as his father gave him one of those paternal pats on the back. ‘And he wonders why I never brought girls home,’ Sid thought as he nodded, all the while biting down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from telling his old man just where and how hard to shove his opinions about his girlfriend and her condition. At least he didn’t seem pissed off about it, which Sidney felt marginally positive about.

Glancing over at where his mother was now peeking into the oven, he felt worse for Tabby. This was a lot to ask, entertaining both his family and hers’, especially with the way she’d been feeling.

She’d pronounced herself officially ready to have moons in orbit around her stomach just the day before, staring at herself in the mirror after getting out of the shower. He couldn’t exactly remember from biology what stage Tabby was at or what it should or should not look like. All he knew was that her skin had this sort of glow about it, and that her breasts were full, firm and high and even with the swell of her stomach that was now taking on an almost translucent look as her skin stretched to accommodate their child nestled in her belly, he still wanted her.

Even now, watching her wary eyes following the conversation between their two mothers, part of him wanted to drag her into their bed and lay her down and place himself between her thighs with her ripe belly pressed against his flat one, her legs over his arms. He wanted to nestle his cock deep inside of her and hear her sigh, watch her fingers twist the sheets as she gripped the quilt, watch her bite down on her full bottom lip until she couldn’t hold back any longer and her eyes flutter shut as she cried out his name.

“Earth to Sidney, come in Sidney.” Blinking back to reality, Sidney stared at his sister while she rolled her eyes at him. “Wow…you really have it bad huh?” He didn’t reply. He knew he didn’t need to. He didn’t have much of a poker face. “So have you asked her yet or what?”

“Asked her…what?” he took the bag of brightly wrapped packages out of his sibling’s hands and turned to begin stowing them under the tree, where they’d stay until after dinner.

“Okay, be obtuse, whatever” Taylor landed on the couch like she thought it was a trampoline and it was Sidney’s turn to shake his head at her. “I mean, I’m assuming this is the one you were shacking up with back home, then I’m guessing this is more than just hot sex.” Sidney glanced up from the presents he was stacking and gave her a look that he hoped made it pretty clear that he wasn’t up to discussing his private life with his little sister. “I mean, I guess it doesn’t look like she’s got a gun to your head or anything,” Taylor continued without waiting for an answer.

“She hasn’t, no one has,” Sidney hissed under his breath. He was getting a little tired of everyone assuming that Tabby had somehow ‘trapped’ him by getting pregnant. He was pretty sure that if anyone had the right to feel that way, it was Tabby. “For your information, I love her and I’m happy that she got pregnant, okay?” He shot his younger sibling a dark, and he hoped threatening look which she blithely ignored, as she often did.

“So if you love her so much how come you haven’t put a ring on it?” Sidney’s hand paused, mid air, above one of the gaily wrapped packages and he turned to glare at his sister. “What? I’m just trying to look out for my niece or nephew. I mean, I think being born a bastard is still pretty déclassé, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think people really care about that, no,” he replied slowly, his hand hovering over the small box wrapped in metallic silver paper with the sapphire blue ribbon.
“Oh well, as long as you don’t ask her in front of all of us,” Taylor added, making a retching noise and sticking her finger down her throat.

“Would there be something wrong with that?” Sidney asked, picking up the small box and weighing it in his hand.

“Yeah, totally,” his sister replied as she got back up to her feet and stretched, her hands over her head. “Like, way to put a girl in a position where she looks like a total bitch if she says no in front of everyone right? Like you’re forcing her to say yes,” she added with a yawn. “Not that I’m saying she’d turn you down bro but… anyway, it’s not very original either,” she added with a grin before turning on her heel and heading out of the room. Sidney stared after his sibling and then looked down at the diminutive package in his hand.
Taylor was probably right, Sidney thought bleakly as he withdrew the package from beneath the tree. It might seem like he wasn’t sure of her answer, which he wasn’t, he thought as he sat back on his heels and stared up at the tree with its twinkling lights and gold star on its uppermost branch. Vero was always bugging Flower for a ring. Jordan’s high school sweetheart Heather had practically threatened to cut his dick off if he didn’t propose. Tabby…she never said anything. Not a single hint. She didn’t so much as leave a copy of a bridal magazine in the bathroom for him to find.
She loved him. He believed that. But maybe she didn’t want to marry him. Being a realist, Sidney was beginning to think that he had to face that as possibility and so, for the third, or was it the fourth time, he pocketed the small package and dragged himself to his feet as he heard his mother calling him from the kitchen.