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rsadelleThe only research I did for this plot bunny was TV show and Pittsburgh hotel related, so if you find yourself wondering if this matches up with reality in any way, the answer is probably no. The Russian version of The Nanny is, however, real, although I can't remember where I first read about it. The references to Estelle's baby cheeks come from this gifset where Flower talks about them. I stole plot points from at least two different stories I read in previous fandoms. This was more melodramatic in my head.
Geno is close enough to hear Tanger ask, quietly enough not to be heard from very far away, "Sid, do you have a stalker?"
Geno glances in the direction Tanger is just barely nodding. There's a guy watching them. Geno hasn't noticed him before, but maybe Tanger has.
Sid's lips thin out. "He's not a stalker," he says flatly.
After the guys close enough to be in on the conversation exchange a glance, Duper asks, "Sid?"
"Forget it," Sid says. "It's not important."
They drop the conversation, but Geno's pretty sure none of them forget about it.
*
Geno sees the guy three more times, and from the way the other guys take to surrounding Sid like an honor guard whenever they're going somewhere, he's pretty sure he's not the only one.
The guy doesn't approach them, until he does. There's a group of them, outside the rink, still hanging out because that's what they do after practice sometimes, and the guy comes right up to them. Right up to Sid.
Even the guys who weren't there before catch on that there's something going on, and the whole group of them gets quiet.
"Sid," the guy says.
"No," Sid says.
"Sid, come on. Will you just listen to me?"
"Listen to you? You left me!"
Geno's not the only one to flinch back from that. He's seen Sid mad before, they all have, but this isn't just mad. This is also so hurt that it cuts right down to the bone.
"So, no," Sid goes on. "If you have papers you want me to sign, you can send them to Pat, and he'll make sure I get them, but I'm not going to listen to you."
Paulie and James step around, both of them getting between Sid and the guy.
The guy looks at them, and then past them at Sid. "I'm at the Doubletree downtown. I'll be there until Tuesday if you change your mind." He leaves then, and the rest of them stand around for a moment, none of them knowing what to say.
Sid rubs his hand over his eyes and then says, still without looking at them, "He's not a stalker. He's my husband."
Geno's heard speculation about Sid ever since he's understood enough English to follow it. Sid has never talked to any of them about anyone he was dating, or anyone he's hooked up with, and in a locker room, that kind of thing leads to people wondering about him. But no one ever guessed he might have a husband.
Sid looks at the ground as he tells them, in a totally flat voice, about his husband. How they were friends in high school in Rimouski, how they kept in touch, how they fell in love, how they got married just after the end of Sid's first season in the NHL. How two weeks before they were supposed to come back to Pittsburgh, where Sid was going to be open about being married, he told Sid he didn't want to be his husband anymore.
"He just left," Sid says. "I tried to call him, but he wouldn't talk to me. We never actually got divorced."
It's terrible. It's a horrible story, and Geno's heart hurts for him.
"Who knew about it?" Duper asks softly.
"My parents," Sid says. "Taylor knew we were dating, but not that we got married. Mario and Nathalie, but not the kids."
"Colby?" Flower asks.
Sid shakes his head, and if even Colby didn't know, well, then it really was a secret.
No one seems to know what to say to that.
Unsurprisingly, it's Flower who breaks the silence. He throws an arm around Sid and says, "You're coming over."
"No." Sid shakes his head. "I'm fine."
"Okay," Flower says, even though none of them believe it, "but it's been too long since Estelle has seen her Uncle Sid, and your French is getting terrible."
Sid says something to him in French that's probably a rebuttal to that. Flower laughs, anyway.
"I'm calling Kris," Flower says as he pulls Sid away, "and telling him to bring Alexander over too."
Sid goes with him uncomplaining, leaving the rest of them to stand around and stare at each other.
"No one says anything to anyone about this," Duper says, and they all nod in agreement before going their separate ways.
*
Not only do none of them say anything about it, neither does Sid. Geno doesn't know if he changes his mind and goes to talk to his husband.
*
A couple of weeks later, Sid shows up for a game and goes through his whole pre-game routine grimly. He doesn't even give Geno much of a smile when they do their handshake before they go out. He plays like a beast, though. They win, and Sid himself gets three points. It doesn't seem to do much for Sid's mood. He holds it together for his interviews, but he's still not smiling after that.
Geno's sort of keeping an eye on it - half the team is - but he gets distracted when Flower brings Estelle into the room. She has the cutest, chubby baby cheeks, and Geno wants a chance to hold her.
Flower takes her straight to Sid, though, and Sid smiles, really smiles, for the first time all night. Well, if Geno can't get his chance to hold Estelle, standing back to watch Sid smile at her and press kisses to her chubby cheeks and say things in soft-voiced French Geno doesn't understand is almost as good.
Sid glances up to see who's standing around and then says, in that same soft voice, "I signed divorce papers today. It'll be final pretty soon."
Duper says something sharp-voiced and French to Sid that he immediately softens by putting his arm around Sid's shoulder.
Sid leans into it, making faces at Estelle as she grabs at his cheeks. "I'm fine," he says. "It's good, that it's settled now." It's not very convincing, and Geno isn't the only one who thinks so.
None of them say anything, though, and they let Sid make faces at Estelle until she starts getting grumpy and Flower takes her back.
Geno drifts in that direction in case she cheers up a little, and listens to the rise and fall of Sid and Duper's voices as they have an argument in French that both Flower and Tanger chime in on. Sid eventually huffs out an agreement, and he leaves with Duper.
Geno does get a chance to hold Estelle, just for a few minutes, and he makes faces at her and gets her to laugh before he has to give her back to Flower.
"Duper talked Sid into a sleepover at his house," Flower tells him. "We won't let him be totally withdrawn."
"Good," Geno says. And then again, "Good."
*
Sid seems to get better over time, or at least happier. If he ever talks to anyone else about his marriage and divorce, Geno doesn't know about it.
*
Geno's having a quiet evening in on the road, but pauses the show he's watching and gets up to answer the door. It's Sid, with a hopeful smile on his face, and Geno invites him in.
"Sit," Geno says, and Sid sits against the headboard next to him.
"What were you watching?"
Geno tips his laptop screen toward Sid. "Russian show. Can watch something else."
Sid shrugs. "We can watch this. You'll have to explain it to me."
Geno restarts the episode from the beginning and starts explaining the characters to Sid.
Sid looks at him suspiciously after a minute. "This is The Nanny."
"Yes," Geno says. "But Russian version. Better."
Sid laughs his ridiculous giggle. "Sure," he says. "Okay. Tell me what's happening."
Geno does, mostly. Mostly they end up laughing together at both the jokes and Geno's attempt to translate them. They watch a second episode, and then Sid knocks his shoulder into Geno's and goes back to his own room.
*
The next time Sid shows up at Geno's door, he makes Geno hand over his laptop so he can log in to his Netflix account and they watch two episodes of the American version of The Nanny.
It becomes part of their routine, hanging out in hotel rooms and sometimes at home in Pittsburgh, alternating between Russian and American versions.
Geno teaches Sid a few words of Russian, not enough, yet, for him to totally understand the show, but enough that he can pick out a few things here and there.
*
They don't win the Cup, but they have a solid finish to the season, and Geno goes home to Russia mostly satisfied with how he played.
*
Sid texts him a lot over the summer, the way he always does. Most of it is the same kind of thing he usually texts, things about training, or how nice it is to be home with his dog. At the beginning of June, he sends, Would it be cheating to buy Rosetta Stone and try to learn Russian?
Geno sends back, Not cheating. Hard work! )))))
*
In July, Sid texts, I went on a date. It was weird. I haven't done that in a long time.
Geno sits on that for a while, doesn't text back while he works out, showers, has lunch with his parents. Then he decides that if Sid is bringing it up, he can probably ask questions, so he sends both, Good to try! and Why not?
I was married, Sid sends back. It didn't seem right.
Geno looks at that, and thinks about what Sid told them about his marriage, and then despairs of Sid when he does the math.
Deserve to be happy, he texts.
Sid texts him back a single smiley face, because he never does more than one, and Geno feels like he's done his duty as a friend.
*
They pick up where they left off with the Russian and American versions of The Nanny after they get back to Pittsburgh. Geno can't help matching Sid's wide smile the first time he says, "I got that one!" before Geno can even translate the Russian joke for him.
*
Sid mentions, to a small group of them, when declining an invitation to go to Duper's for dinner, that he has a date.
"Oh, yeah?" Duper asks carefully.
"Yeah," Sid says. "I met her at a Little Penguins thing last week. Her niece was playing."
"Uh," Flower says, "her?"
"Yes?" Sid looks around at them and blinks. "Oh," he says. "I'm bi, not gay." He shrugs, suddenly looking uncomfortable with the conversation. "I haven't dated a girl since high school."
There's a split second of silence before Flower starts chirping him about his dating abilities, which makes Sid relax and laugh even as he protests.
*
Geno asks Sid, the next day, "Good date?"
"Yes," Sid says after a moment. "I think so."
"Good," Geno says. He pats Sid's shoulder. "Skills rusty, can ask for advice if need it."
Sid lets out a honking laugh and shoves Geno away. "From you? What do you know about dating?"
"More than you," Geno says. "You learn from Friends and Nanny."
Sid shrugs, unconcerned. "Ross and Rachel got together at the end. And so did Fran and Maxwell."
Geno points at him. "Spoiling the ending!"
Sid looks horribly guilty for three seconds before Geno gives himself away by letting his smile take over, and then he laughs and shoves Geno. "It's a sitcom. You know they always get together at the end."
"Sid find right person in the end," Geno says. It seems to be the right thing, because Sid flashes him a bright smile.
Sid nods. "In the end," he agrees.
Geno is close enough to hear Tanger ask, quietly enough not to be heard from very far away, "Sid, do you have a stalker?"
Geno glances in the direction Tanger is just barely nodding. There's a guy watching them. Geno hasn't noticed him before, but maybe Tanger has.
Sid's lips thin out. "He's not a stalker," he says flatly.
After the guys close enough to be in on the conversation exchange a glance, Duper asks, "Sid?"
"Forget it," Sid says. "It's not important."
They drop the conversation, but Geno's pretty sure none of them forget about it.
*
Geno sees the guy three more times, and from the way the other guys take to surrounding Sid like an honor guard whenever they're going somewhere, he's pretty sure he's not the only one.
The guy doesn't approach them, until he does. There's a group of them, outside the rink, still hanging out because that's what they do after practice sometimes, and the guy comes right up to them. Right up to Sid.
Even the guys who weren't there before catch on that there's something going on, and the whole group of them gets quiet.
"Sid," the guy says.
"No," Sid says.
"Sid, come on. Will you just listen to me?"
"Listen to you? You left me!"
Geno's not the only one to flinch back from that. He's seen Sid mad before, they all have, but this isn't just mad. This is also so hurt that it cuts right down to the bone.
"So, no," Sid goes on. "If you have papers you want me to sign, you can send them to Pat, and he'll make sure I get them, but I'm not going to listen to you."
Paulie and James step around, both of them getting between Sid and the guy.
The guy looks at them, and then past them at Sid. "I'm at the Doubletree downtown. I'll be there until Tuesday if you change your mind." He leaves then, and the rest of them stand around for a moment, none of them knowing what to say.
Sid rubs his hand over his eyes and then says, still without looking at them, "He's not a stalker. He's my husband."
Geno's heard speculation about Sid ever since he's understood enough English to follow it. Sid has never talked to any of them about anyone he was dating, or anyone he's hooked up with, and in a locker room, that kind of thing leads to people wondering about him. But no one ever guessed he might have a husband.
Sid looks at the ground as he tells them, in a totally flat voice, about his husband. How they were friends in high school in Rimouski, how they kept in touch, how they fell in love, how they got married just after the end of Sid's first season in the NHL. How two weeks before they were supposed to come back to Pittsburgh, where Sid was going to be open about being married, he told Sid he didn't want to be his husband anymore.
"He just left," Sid says. "I tried to call him, but he wouldn't talk to me. We never actually got divorced."
It's terrible. It's a horrible story, and Geno's heart hurts for him.
"Who knew about it?" Duper asks softly.
"My parents," Sid says. "Taylor knew we were dating, but not that we got married. Mario and Nathalie, but not the kids."
"Colby?" Flower asks.
Sid shakes his head, and if even Colby didn't know, well, then it really was a secret.
No one seems to know what to say to that.
Unsurprisingly, it's Flower who breaks the silence. He throws an arm around Sid and says, "You're coming over."
"No." Sid shakes his head. "I'm fine."
"Okay," Flower says, even though none of them believe it, "but it's been too long since Estelle has seen her Uncle Sid, and your French is getting terrible."
Sid says something to him in French that's probably a rebuttal to that. Flower laughs, anyway.
"I'm calling Kris," Flower says as he pulls Sid away, "and telling him to bring Alexander over too."
Sid goes with him uncomplaining, leaving the rest of them to stand around and stare at each other.
"No one says anything to anyone about this," Duper says, and they all nod in agreement before going their separate ways.
*
Not only do none of them say anything about it, neither does Sid. Geno doesn't know if he changes his mind and goes to talk to his husband.
*
A couple of weeks later, Sid shows up for a game and goes through his whole pre-game routine grimly. He doesn't even give Geno much of a smile when they do their handshake before they go out. He plays like a beast, though. They win, and Sid himself gets three points. It doesn't seem to do much for Sid's mood. He holds it together for his interviews, but he's still not smiling after that.
Geno's sort of keeping an eye on it - half the team is - but he gets distracted when Flower brings Estelle into the room. She has the cutest, chubby baby cheeks, and Geno wants a chance to hold her.
Flower takes her straight to Sid, though, and Sid smiles, really smiles, for the first time all night. Well, if Geno can't get his chance to hold Estelle, standing back to watch Sid smile at her and press kisses to her chubby cheeks and say things in soft-voiced French Geno doesn't understand is almost as good.
Sid glances up to see who's standing around and then says, in that same soft voice, "I signed divorce papers today. It'll be final pretty soon."
Duper says something sharp-voiced and French to Sid that he immediately softens by putting his arm around Sid's shoulder.
Sid leans into it, making faces at Estelle as she grabs at his cheeks. "I'm fine," he says. "It's good, that it's settled now." It's not very convincing, and Geno isn't the only one who thinks so.
None of them say anything, though, and they let Sid make faces at Estelle until she starts getting grumpy and Flower takes her back.
Geno drifts in that direction in case she cheers up a little, and listens to the rise and fall of Sid and Duper's voices as they have an argument in French that both Flower and Tanger chime in on. Sid eventually huffs out an agreement, and he leaves with Duper.
Geno does get a chance to hold Estelle, just for a few minutes, and he makes faces at her and gets her to laugh before he has to give her back to Flower.
"Duper talked Sid into a sleepover at his house," Flower tells him. "We won't let him be totally withdrawn."
"Good," Geno says. And then again, "Good."
*
Sid seems to get better over time, or at least happier. If he ever talks to anyone else about his marriage and divorce, Geno doesn't know about it.
*
Geno's having a quiet evening in on the road, but pauses the show he's watching and gets up to answer the door. It's Sid, with a hopeful smile on his face, and Geno invites him in.
"Sit," Geno says, and Sid sits against the headboard next to him.
"What were you watching?"
Geno tips his laptop screen toward Sid. "Russian show. Can watch something else."
Sid shrugs. "We can watch this. You'll have to explain it to me."
Geno restarts the episode from the beginning and starts explaining the characters to Sid.
Sid looks at him suspiciously after a minute. "This is The Nanny."
"Yes," Geno says. "But Russian version. Better."
Sid laughs his ridiculous giggle. "Sure," he says. "Okay. Tell me what's happening."
Geno does, mostly. Mostly they end up laughing together at both the jokes and Geno's attempt to translate them. They watch a second episode, and then Sid knocks his shoulder into Geno's and goes back to his own room.
*
The next time Sid shows up at Geno's door, he makes Geno hand over his laptop so he can log in to his Netflix account and they watch two episodes of the American version of The Nanny.
It becomes part of their routine, hanging out in hotel rooms and sometimes at home in Pittsburgh, alternating between Russian and American versions.
Geno teaches Sid a few words of Russian, not enough, yet, for him to totally understand the show, but enough that he can pick out a few things here and there.
*
They don't win the Cup, but they have a solid finish to the season, and Geno goes home to Russia mostly satisfied with how he played.
*
Sid texts him a lot over the summer, the way he always does. Most of it is the same kind of thing he usually texts, things about training, or how nice it is to be home with his dog. At the beginning of June, he sends, Would it be cheating to buy Rosetta Stone and try to learn Russian?
Geno sends back, Not cheating. Hard work! )))))
*
In July, Sid texts, I went on a date. It was weird. I haven't done that in a long time.
Geno sits on that for a while, doesn't text back while he works out, showers, has lunch with his parents. Then he decides that if Sid is bringing it up, he can probably ask questions, so he sends both, Good to try! and Why not?
I was married, Sid sends back. It didn't seem right.
Geno looks at that, and thinks about what Sid told them about his marriage, and then despairs of Sid when he does the math.
Deserve to be happy, he texts.
Sid texts him back a single smiley face, because he never does more than one, and Geno feels like he's done his duty as a friend.
*
They pick up where they left off with the Russian and American versions of The Nanny after they get back to Pittsburgh. Geno can't help matching Sid's wide smile the first time he says, "I got that one!" before Geno can even translate the Russian joke for him.
*
Sid mentions, to a small group of them, when declining an invitation to go to Duper's for dinner, that he has a date.
"Oh, yeah?" Duper asks carefully.
"Yeah," Sid says. "I met her at a Little Penguins thing last week. Her niece was playing."
"Uh," Flower says, "her?"
"Yes?" Sid looks around at them and blinks. "Oh," he says. "I'm bi, not gay." He shrugs, suddenly looking uncomfortable with the conversation. "I haven't dated a girl since high school."
There's a split second of silence before Flower starts chirping him about his dating abilities, which makes Sid relax and laugh even as he protests.
*
Geno asks Sid, the next day, "Good date?"
"Yes," Sid says after a moment. "I think so."
"Good," Geno says. He pats Sid's shoulder. "Skills rusty, can ask for advice if need it."
Sid lets out a honking laugh and shoves Geno away. "From you? What do you know about dating?"
"More than you," Geno says. "You learn from Friends and Nanny."
Sid shrugs, unconcerned. "Ross and Rachel got together at the end. And so did Fran and Maxwell."
Geno points at him. "Spoiling the ending!"
Sid looks horribly guilty for three seconds before Geno gives himself away by letting his smile take over, and then he laughs and shoves Geno. "It's a sitcom. You know they always get together at the end."
"Sid find right person in the end," Geno says. It seems to be the right thing, because Sid flashes him a bright smile.
Sid nods. "In the end," he agrees.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-21 05:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-21 04:04 pm (UTC)