WIP Amnesty: girl!Crosby/Ovechkin babyfic (5000 words, Explicit)
The summary for this story was going to be "Sydney Crosby is a hockey player, not a mother," but it was kind of a disaster in a lot of ways. I still like some of the bits of it, as story bits if not as story bits about Syd. Part of the idea for this story was that Syd never quite gets (at least in the parts I wrote) that Alex is in love with her.
Beating the Caps at home feels good. The team got two points, Syd got three, and it's a good way to end the week. That doesn't mean she wants to go drinking to celebrate.
"One drink," Geno bargains.
"We can go to the place with that Riesling you liked," Flower adds.
It's a little tempting, but there's no way Syd's getting out of there with just one drink. "I need food and sleep," she says, "not wine."
"Can go to place with food," Geno says.
Syd makes a face at him, but if they're willing to change their plans based on her, she's probably going to end up going out with them. Syd's directing her face at Geno while they turn a corner in the hallway, so she doesn't see Ovechkin until he pushes away from the wall.
Geno and Ovechkin greet each other with a flurry of Russian, and then Ovechkin says, "Hello, Syd." He glances at Geno and Flower. "Would you like to have dinner?"
[I can't remember what the rest of this scene was. I think it was going to be the four of them going out to eat, with Geno and Flower coming along to more or less chaperone, which Syd is both annoyed by (she doesn't need a chaperone) and pleased with (she doesn't know what she would talk to Ovechkin about if it were just the two of them).]
*
It's late. Syd hasn't calmed down from the game enough to go to bed, even though she knows she should, but she still isn't expecting her doorbell to ring. She really isn't expecting to see Ovechkin on her front porch.
"What do you want?"
"Can I come in?" Ovechkin doesn't wait for her agreement before he muscles his way into her house the same way he muscles his way into space on the ice.
"I didn't say yes," Syd grumbles, but Ovechkin's grinning at her and supposed rivalry on the ice or not, she isn't afraid of him. "What are you doing here?"
Ovechkin leans against the wall and- And checks her out. So blatantly that even Syd - she knows people think she's oblivious, and they're right when it comes to this sort of thing - can tell.
"Sydney Crosby," he says in that boyishly charming way he has, "you are a magnificent hockey player."
It's true, and she just took her team to a win over his, but she doesn't see what that has to do with him being in her house and looking at her like that. Syd crosses her arms over her chest.
"You are also a beautiful woman."
In an instant, he has her face cupped in his hands and he's kissing her. He's a really good kisser. He's bigger than her, but he's not using it in a bad way. He's just there, solid and steady and kissing her for so long she forgets there's any reason she shouldn't just put her arms around him and let herself be kissed. She does remember, eventually, when her tongue finds the gap in his teeth. Then she pushes him back. He doesn't go far.
"Ovechkin, what are you doing?"
Ovechkin's hand creeps up the back of her neck, into her hair. "Making a move," he says. He kisses her neck, making her shiver.
Syd pushes him all the way away. "Is this because we beat you?"
"Sydney," he says. He's still smiling at her.
Syd crosses her arms over her chest. "Ovechkin."
She's serious, but he laughs and says, "Sydney Crosby." He gets into her space again. "You scored a shorthanded goal and had three assists. You are so hot." He dips in and kisses her neck. "You never notice I flirt with you?"
Syd flushes. She has noticed. Or she's noticed he flirts when they run into each other at events anyway.
"You flirt with a lot of girls." She's seen him do that at events too.
"Lots of girls," he agrees. "But only one Sydney Crosby." It's said so earnestly and sweetly that she almost believes him.
"Sydney Crosby," he says again, his voice curling around her name. He says it again, getting close enough to her that he can kiss her, even with her arms folded between them. He really is good at it, enough that she unfolds her arms and holds onto him instead.
Syd isn't the kind of blushing virgin people think she is, but she doesn't get many chances for sex with other people. Everyone knows who she is, and guys who don't know she plays hockey get everything about how to treat her wrong.
"I'm not just some girl," Syd says, and immediately feels stupid for it.
"I know," Ovechkin says. "You're a hockey player. One of the best."
"One of?" Syd can't help but laughing. His answer, though, and the way he smiles at her only half faked outrage is good enough her. She pushes and pulls at Ovechkin until he's kissing her the way she wants to be kissed and she can get her hands under his shirt. He pushes back, and gets one thigh between hers, pressing into her just right.
"Ovechkin," she gasps.
"Alex," he says into her neck. "That's what you're going to yell later."
That sets off every competitive instinct Syd has, and she sets to making this as good for him as he's making it for her.
They're halfway undressed when he says, "You're a hockey player. Too heavy to hold against the wall. Couch or bed?"
"Bed," Syd says. "Condoms upstairs."
"I have condoms."
Syd stills. "You thought-"
"I always have condoms," Ovechkin, Alex says, as if that's any better.
"Couch," Syd says. "It's closer."
Alex doesn't stop touching her the whole way there, and he only stops touching her when they get there to put on the condom.
"You need to be on top?" he asks.
Usually, with people she doesn't know, yes, but to Alex she says, "No." Crazy as it is, Syd trusts him to be on top.
Alex touches her first, rubbing her clit in a way that sets off sparks under her skin. He slips one finger into her, spreads her wetness around. "Sydney Crosby," he says softly.
"I think you can-" Syd's voice breaks when he enters her. "You can call me Syd."
Alex looks hazy, lost, and he bites his lip before he starts to move. "Syd. Can I call you baby?" He smirks at her. "Sweetheart?" There are more words, too, Russian ones she doesn't know sprinkled amongst the English, and he keeps moving, smooth strokes in and out of her, winding her up.
Syd makes a face at "Muffin?" and Alex laughs until she slips her hand between them to rub against her clit. Then everything falls away from his face until it's just desperate want.
Syd knows how he feels. She's so close. Her stomach tightens, and she brings her knees up, holding him closer between them. Alex kisses her, thrusts into her harder, not letting up on her because she's a girl, letting her take it because she's a hockey player.
She comes like that, his mouth on hers and her fingers on her own clit.
Alex tears his mouth away from hers and groans. He thrusts into her a few more times, and shouts when he comes.
"You didn't say my name," he says.
"Maybe you weren't that good," Syd says, even though he absolutely was.
"Syd," Alex crows. "You're learning to chirp."
Syd shoves him off of her. "I always knew how to chirp."
Alex laughs and goes away - she can hear water come on in the downstairs bathroom, so condom and cleanup, probably - and when he comes back, he kneels down next to the couch and kisses her for a really long time.
"I have to go," he says before she's really ready for him to. "Team, you know."
Syd pats his face. "I know."
Alex kisses her palm and follows the trail of clothes toward the door. Syd expects that to be it, but he comes back to the couch and bends over to kiss her one more time before he leaves.
Syd always gets sleepy after sex, but she realizes after a few minutes that she's naked in her living room and no less than three teammates have keys to her house, and the front door is unlocked anyway. She stumbles to lock the door and drags herself upstairs to bed.
*
Syd half expects it to be something she can sort of forget about (except for how good it was) and half expects Ovechkin to brag about it in a way that gets back to her.
What she gets instead is Ovechkin knocking on her hotel room door the night before they play each other in DC.
Syd blinks at him. "Ovechkin."
"Alex," he says, leaning into her in the doorway. "Can I come in?"
Syd looks both ways down the hall, then ushers him in quickly, before anyone else can figure out he's there. He kisses her before the door is all the way shut.
*
Syd gets to captain her own team for All-Star Weekend, and she wins the puck toss to get first pick. They need a goalie, so she takes Flower first. [OTHER CAPTAIN] takes [GOALIE]. On the third pick, Syd grins into the cameras and says, "Because I want to play with him instead of against him, Alex Ovechkin."
Ovechkin grins at her, takes his jersey, and throws his arms up and does a slow turn once he has it on. Even Syd laughs at him.
She's not laughing when he knocks on her door that evening and says, "Always knew you wanted to play with me," when she answers it.
"You're good," Syd says. "It might be All-Star Weekend, but I'm still planning to win."
Alex laughs and kisses her. "Syd, Syd, Syd, why so serious? It's hockey. It's fun." He unbuttons her dress shirt and peels it off of her, then seems to register what he's seeing. "Sydney Crosby," he says with such delight that Syd looks down.
Syd tries to cross her arms over her chest when she realizes that he's looking at her bra - white and lacy, the kind of thing she only wears when she won't be dressing or undressing in a locker room - but he pulls them down.
"Gorgeous," Alex declares, with enough sincerity to make Syd blush.
Syd bites her lip, but she pops the button on her slacks. "The panties match."
Alex wastes no time in getting her pants off, then steps back to stare at her. Syd's used to being looked at - it's part and parcel of being a hockey player, doubly so for being a female hockey player in the NHL - but not like this. Guys she sleeps with just want sex.
"Alex," she says after it goes on longer than she's comfortable with.
Alex shakes his head like he's shaking himself out of it and puts his hands on her. "You are the most beautiful hockey player."
Syd flushes. "Have you seen the [COUNTRY] women's team?"
"Yes." Alex takes one of her hands and puts it over his cock. She can feel how hard he is under his dress pants. "You are the most beautiful."
*
They play the Capitals one last time in the regular season, in DC. They lose, and Syd hates it, even if they're already guaranteed a playoff spot. Syd always hates losing. The day off tomorrow means everyone else is ready to go out to forget it, but Syd scowls and turns them down. She probably would have done it anyway, but tonight she thinks she probably has plans. She goes back to her room, strips, changes her underwear, and puts her pants and shirt back on.
She's working her way through levels on on her PSP when the knock finally comes on her door, and she lets Alex in.
The first thing Alex says is, "I'm not sorry you lost."
"I wouldn't like you if you were," Syd says without thinking about it.
Alex's face slides into a slow grin. "Sydney Crosby," he says. "There are no girls like you." He kisses her before she can say anything.
Syd pushes his coat off and undoes the buttons on his shirt. She doesn't want to talk about hockey. He's good in bed, and she just wants him to make her forget that his team was better than hers was on the ice tonight.
She's looking at his chest, pushing his shirt aside so she can touch his skin, when he gets her shirt open, and she feels it when he takes in a deep breath.
"Syd," he whispers. "You're wearing my colors."
Syd lets the shirt drop behind her and takes off her slacks so he can see that the panties are the same red as the bra.
Alex runs his hands over her shoulders, down her sides. They linger over the lace at her hips. Syd doesn't have to ask if he likes it. The way he's staring at her tells her that much.
Alex pushes her back, tips her down onto the bed, and kisses her neck, the swell of her breasts above her bra, her stomach, her hip. His fingers linger at the edge of her panties, but he doesn't try to take them off. Instead he pulls the crotch aside and licks into her.
It isn't something he's done for her before, but he's good at it. Really good at it. Syd finds herself gasping and saying his name, even before he hooks his fingers in her waistband and gets her panties off so there's nothing in the way.
He flicks his tongue over her clit, and he has one hand splayed over her stomach, keeping her in place, and it's all a blur of sensation until she comes and he stops eating her out to kiss her instead.
"Alex," she says into his mouth. "Alex."
He kicks his pants off, gets a condom, and rolls them over so she's on top. He watches her, eyes hot on her body, while she rides him. Syd tries to get herself off again, but Alex knocks her hand away and does it for her.
He draws her down for a kiss after, and she lets him before it all becomes too much and she has to move off of him.
Alex gets up to deal with the condom, but comes back to lie down next to her.
"You can't stay."
"Not all night," he says. "But I stay for a little while," he runs a hand down her side, "I get to look at you, and then we do this again."
Syd blushes. "Do you want me to put the panties back on?"
Alex's face lights up. "Yes." He hands them to her, and Syd wriggles into them. She's not sure what she should do now - she's not the kind of woman who poses in her underwear - but Alex is leaning up on his elbow, so she just lies there and watches him watch her.
*
She eats a light lunch, drinks two bottles of Gatorade, and heads to bed for a nap that's refreshing right up until she wakes up and really thinks about the fact that playoffs are almost over. Playoffs are almost over, and she hasn't gotten her period, and, yeah, stress can mess with it, but it's so far after she's been out of the playoffs that it shouldn't be anymore.
Sydney Crosby can't just wander into a drugstore and buy a pregnancy test. She can't ask anyone else to do it for her either. She lies in bed in a state of silent panic for a while, before she finds her phone and calls her doctor. Not the team doctor, but the one she goes to for annual exams.
*
Syd doesn't go home after her appointment, and she doesn't go back to the rink. She tells everyone who asks that she's just laying low after the playoffs and taking a break. They don't need to know anything else for now.
Her doctor calls her two days later to tell her that the blood test confirms it, and that Syd should come in to talk about her options.
Syd gets in her car and doesn't quite know where she's going until she ends up parked in Mario's driveway.
"Hi, honey," Nathalie says when she opens the door. "I didn't expect to see you today."
"No," Syd says. She tries to smile, but knows it falls short even before she sees the way Nathalie reacts to it. "I need to talk to Mario."
Nathalie lets her in, and directs Syd to Mario's home office.
"Syd." Mario smiles at her, and gets up to come around the desk to hug her. It's the kind of thing he does whenever she drops by, but this time she bursts into tears as soon as his arms come around her.
"Jesus, Syd. Whatever it is, it's going to be okay."
He can't know that, but she appreciates him saying it, and she pulls away, tries to stop crying, wipes her eyes with the heels of her hands. "I'm pregnant."
Mario sits down hard. "Syd."
"I know," she says. "I know, and I know it's stupid. I was careful, but not careful enough, I guess, and I know you took a chance on me, and now I don't know what I'm going to do."
"First of all," Mario says, "you're going to sit down." They sit on the couch instead of the chairs on either side of his desk. "Secondly, whatever you do, the Penguins organization is going to be behind you one hundred percent. I'm going to be behind you one hundred percent."
*
Talking to Mario snaps Syd out of her disbelieving daze, and she sits down to really think it out. She's pregnant. She's going to have a baby. Or she's going to have an abortion. That seems like the easier route. If she has an abortion, she can still skate, and she can go into the next season just like normal. No one but Mario and her doctor will ever know about it.
That twinges her guilt, though. It's her body, but she's not the only one who had a hand in this. Syd's used to being the captain of a team, taking them all into account.
Instead of calling her doctor to make an appointment, she buys a ticket to DC.
Alex answers his door in sweats and a t-shirt. Syd can hear Russian in the background, his parents probably, and he's trying to hold back the dog, so it takes a moment before Alex looks up at her, dog successfully restrained, and grins.
"Sydney Crosby! Come in."
Syd does, and the dog noses at her until Alex sends it away.
"I need to talk to you," Syd says.
Alex raises his eyebrows. "My parents are home, but we could-"
Syd frowns. "Actually talk." She looks in the direction of the sounds of conversation. "Alone."
"So serious," Alex says, but he takes her into a room she doesn't notice beyond the fact that the door closes and she can be alone with Alex.
He tries to kiss her, and as much as she knows she would like that, Syd doesn't let him. They end up close anyway, his hands at her waist and hers on his chest keeping him back.
"I didn't- That's not why I came here." Syd looks down, away. "I'm pregnant."
Alex doesn't breathe for a moment, Syd can feel his chest not moving.
"Syd," he breathes. "Syd, we're having a baby?"
Syd doesn't look at him, takes a step back. "I don't know. Alex, this is- I'm a hockey player."
"Can still be a mother." Alex steps forward, and he puts his hand on his stomach. "We can be hockey players and parents."
Syd blinks away sudden tears. "We live hours apart, and we're on the road half the year. We can't-"
"We can." Alex slides his hand around her back, pulls her in so her head is on his shoulder. "You and me, we're the greatest hockey players of our time. We can do anything."
Syd laughs into his shoulder. "I don't know if I can," she says after a minute. "I don't know if I can be a mother. All I want is hockey."
Alex cups her face and looks right into her eyes. "Then I be mother, and you be father."
Syd tries to turn away. "I'm serious."
"Me too."
*
[There would be more story here.]
*
Syd reads a couple of books about being pregnant, so she's kind of prepared for it when the second trimester has her wishing Alex weren't so far away, or she knew someone else she could hook up with.
She has to settle for taking care of things herself. She finds herself thinking about Alex most of the time, and not just the sex. Sometimes she thinks about the time she wore his colors, and the way he touched her after. Not her breasts or her ass, but the muscles of her legs, her abs, her shoulders. Like he was still seeing her as a hockey player.
*
[There would be more story here.]
*
Syd's laptop is set up on the rolling table, where she can shove it away when she needs to, and she's streaming games for too long. The nurses keep telling her first babies always take a long time, but it's not helping, and neither are the announcers who won't stop talking and just let her watch some hockey. If she can't be on the ice, she wants to know what other people are doing.
"Now the Capitals," one of the announcers says, "have lost their last three games, and they're going out tonight without one of their strongest players, Alex Ovechkin."
"That's right," the other one says. "Ovechkin was skating this morning, but he's not here now. There's been no statement from the Capitals, leaving a lot of people wondering where he is."
Syd shoves the table away as another contraction hits. Syd's used to pain, but hockey is nothing like this.
The contractions get closer together, eventually. In the middle of one of them, she hears her dad say, "Ovechkin," and when it's over, she looks up to see Alex looking thunderous in the doorway of her hospital room.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" Syd asks. "You have a game."
"I have a-" Alex doesn't look any less furious, but he crosses the room and edges Syd's dad out of the way without hurting him. "You didn't tell me it was time."
"You have a game." The next contraction hits just as Syd says it, and Alex takes her hand.
"Squeeze," he says, and she does, as hard as she can. It doesn't make the pain any better, but it gives her another focus.
"Sydney Crosby," Alex says after, and he manages to make it both affectionate and angry. "Of course I choose the birth of my child over game."
Syd can almost feel the way her parents look at her, and she's almost grateful for the next contraction that distracts them from that particular revelation.
Alex is- Alex is Alex, cracking jokes and using her full name and holding her hand the whole time. And after, when the nurse hands her their son, tears slide down his face.
Syd gets out her phone and has her dad take a picture of her with the baby that she can send to her team. Alex takes the baby next, and the nurse takes a picture for Alex to send to his parents. Syd's parents insist on their turns to hold the baby after that.
"Move over," Alex says.
"I'm a hockey player," Syd says. "There isn't room for both of us."
Alex shrugs. "We make it work." He shifts her over carefully, and ends up sitting mostly behind her.
Syd's dad gives the baby back to her, and takes a picture of the three of them.
"He needs a name," Syd says.
"Alexander," Alex says.
Syd rolls her eyes. "No."
"Mikhail."
"No. And no hockey players either."
"Nikolai."
Syd looks at the baby. "Nikolai. Nikolai Crosby."
"Nikolai Ovechkin."
"Crosby," Syd says firmly. "Hello, Nicky Crosby." She does put down Ovechkin as his middle name on the birth certificate.
Syd sends her parents back to her place to get some sleep, Alex puts Nicky in the crib, and Syd takes a well-deserved nap with Alex sharing the hospital bed with her.
She's awake again, Nicky fed and sleeping in her arms, Alex at her back, when the door to her room opens and the doorway fills with her teammates.
They get stuck there while Geno and Flower, the first ones in, stop and stare at Alex. Everyone else pushes at them, and eventually most of her team, Dan, and Mario file into her hospital room and don't seem to know what to say.
Syd turns to Geno, because he's the one she has to make this up to. "This is Nicky. Nikolai. Do you want to hold him?"
Geno does, because Geno can't resist anything small and cute.
"You probably missed the game," Flower says, "but we won."
"That's great." Syd smiles at him, and asks questions until they all loosen up and tell her about it. They keep looking at Alex like they're remembering to keep some things back, but they also pass Nicky around, once Geno consents to let someone else hold him, so it could go worse.
They have to leave eventually, and then it's just Syd and Alex and Nicky again. Alex takes Nicky, and he has that same look Syd's seen on so many of her teammates' faces when they look at their kids. She doesn't think she gets that look when she looks at him.
"I have to go," Alex says. He gives Nicky to Syd. "Can't miss another game."
Syd's going to miss at least a month's worth before she's even close to ready to go back. She almost hates Alex for a moment, for getting to play hockey when she can't.
Alex bends to brush a kiss over Nicky's forehead, and to kiss Syd, softer than he ever has before.
*
[This is where a lot of the story I didn't write would go. Syd moves in with Alex in DC so they can both be with Nicky while she's getting back into game shape. They also hire Galina, a bilingual Russian-English nanny.]
*
Some days she leaves the rink so furiously angry with both of them for what they've done to her body. She doesn't have her own space, so she locks herself in the master bedroom and lies very still on top of the comforter until she calms down. Only once does Alex bother her, when he has a game and needs to get to his suit. He bangs on the door until she gets up, walks to the door, and opens it, every movement precise and controlled.
"You-"
Syd cuts him off. "Get your suit and get out." She doesn't look at him, just waits for him to leave before she locks the door and lies down.
She stays there through dinner, and only gets up when she knows everyone else will be busy watching Alex's game. Then she goes downstairs and makes herself a meal she eats in the relative quiet of the kitchen with the background of Tatyana, Mikhail, and Galina alternately reacting to the game and explaining it to Nicky.
Syd goes into the living room and hangs around in the doorway to watch Alex score a goal in the last two minutes of the game. Tatyana and Mikhail cheer, and Galina holds up Nicky's hand for a high-five.
When the game's over, Galina brings Nicky to Syd. "Do you want to get him to bed?"
Syd doesn't, but she takes Nicky anyway. She knows his bedtime ritual well enough to get it right - he's going to be a confused kid, she thinks, having five different adults doing things just a little bit differently - and he goes down easy, even with everyone else's excitement over the game.
Syd's not tired, but she doesn't want to go downstairs. She leaves the bedroom door unlocked and goes to bed. She's still lying awake in the dark when Alex gets home. She can hear him greeting his parents downstairs, the click of the door opening when he checks on Nicky, the hesitation before he turns the bedroom doorknob.
"I'm awake," Syd says.
Alex shuts the door and crosses the room to turn on the lamp next to his side of the bed. "Did you watch? We won." He hangs his coat in the closet, and crawls up the bed so he's hovering over her, legs on either side of hers, hands on either side of her head.
"I saw your goal in the third." Syd lets a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "It was a beauty."
Alex leans down to kiss her, but she turns her head away from him.
"Syd?"
"I'm going home."
Alex slides off of her to sit on the bed. "I thought your training is going well."
Syd sits up. "I need to go home. I need to be on my ice, with my team."
The corners of Alex's mouth turn down, and if she weren't so certain about this, Syd might feel bad about ruining his post-game good mood.
"Nicky and Galina can stay with you, but I need to be in Pittsburgh."
"I leave for a four-day road trip tomorrow." Alex gets off the bed and starts undressing. Syd tries not to watch. She sees her team undressing in locker rooms all the time, but it's different when it's Alex in a bedroom they're sharing.
"I haven't bought a ticket yet," Syd says. "I can stay until you get back."
"Okay." Alex changes into sweats and leaves the room.
Syd leaves his lamp on, turns away from it, and tries to go to sleep. She doesn't hear Alex come back, even though he's sleeping beside her when she wakes up in the morning.
*
[And then the rest of the story would be the two of them figuring things out and eventually ending up in some sort of long-distance relationship where Nicky and Galina go back and forth but mostly stay with Alex.]
Beating the Caps at home feels good. The team got two points, Syd got three, and it's a good way to end the week. That doesn't mean she wants to go drinking to celebrate.
"One drink," Geno bargains.
"We can go to the place with that Riesling you liked," Flower adds.
It's a little tempting, but there's no way Syd's getting out of there with just one drink. "I need food and sleep," she says, "not wine."
"Can go to place with food," Geno says.
Syd makes a face at him, but if they're willing to change their plans based on her, she's probably going to end up going out with them. Syd's directing her face at Geno while they turn a corner in the hallway, so she doesn't see Ovechkin until he pushes away from the wall.
Geno and Ovechkin greet each other with a flurry of Russian, and then Ovechkin says, "Hello, Syd." He glances at Geno and Flower. "Would you like to have dinner?"
[I can't remember what the rest of this scene was. I think it was going to be the four of them going out to eat, with Geno and Flower coming along to more or less chaperone, which Syd is both annoyed by (she doesn't need a chaperone) and pleased with (she doesn't know what she would talk to Ovechkin about if it were just the two of them).]
*
It's late. Syd hasn't calmed down from the game enough to go to bed, even though she knows she should, but she still isn't expecting her doorbell to ring. She really isn't expecting to see Ovechkin on her front porch.
"What do you want?"
"Can I come in?" Ovechkin doesn't wait for her agreement before he muscles his way into her house the same way he muscles his way into space on the ice.
"I didn't say yes," Syd grumbles, but Ovechkin's grinning at her and supposed rivalry on the ice or not, she isn't afraid of him. "What are you doing here?"
Ovechkin leans against the wall and- And checks her out. So blatantly that even Syd - she knows people think she's oblivious, and they're right when it comes to this sort of thing - can tell.
"Sydney Crosby," he says in that boyishly charming way he has, "you are a magnificent hockey player."
It's true, and she just took her team to a win over his, but she doesn't see what that has to do with him being in her house and looking at her like that. Syd crosses her arms over her chest.
"You are also a beautiful woman."
In an instant, he has her face cupped in his hands and he's kissing her. He's a really good kisser. He's bigger than her, but he's not using it in a bad way. He's just there, solid and steady and kissing her for so long she forgets there's any reason she shouldn't just put her arms around him and let herself be kissed. She does remember, eventually, when her tongue finds the gap in his teeth. Then she pushes him back. He doesn't go far.
"Ovechkin, what are you doing?"
Ovechkin's hand creeps up the back of her neck, into her hair. "Making a move," he says. He kisses her neck, making her shiver.
Syd pushes him all the way away. "Is this because we beat you?"
"Sydney," he says. He's still smiling at her.
Syd crosses her arms over her chest. "Ovechkin."
She's serious, but he laughs and says, "Sydney Crosby." He gets into her space again. "You scored a shorthanded goal and had three assists. You are so hot." He dips in and kisses her neck. "You never notice I flirt with you?"
Syd flushes. She has noticed. Or she's noticed he flirts when they run into each other at events anyway.
"You flirt with a lot of girls." She's seen him do that at events too.
"Lots of girls," he agrees. "But only one Sydney Crosby." It's said so earnestly and sweetly that she almost believes him.
"Sydney Crosby," he says again, his voice curling around her name. He says it again, getting close enough to her that he can kiss her, even with her arms folded between them. He really is good at it, enough that she unfolds her arms and holds onto him instead.
Syd isn't the kind of blushing virgin people think she is, but she doesn't get many chances for sex with other people. Everyone knows who she is, and guys who don't know she plays hockey get everything about how to treat her wrong.
"I'm not just some girl," Syd says, and immediately feels stupid for it.
"I know," Ovechkin says. "You're a hockey player. One of the best."
"One of?" Syd can't help but laughing. His answer, though, and the way he smiles at her only half faked outrage is good enough her. She pushes and pulls at Ovechkin until he's kissing her the way she wants to be kissed and she can get her hands under his shirt. He pushes back, and gets one thigh between hers, pressing into her just right.
"Ovechkin," she gasps.
"Alex," he says into her neck. "That's what you're going to yell later."
That sets off every competitive instinct Syd has, and she sets to making this as good for him as he's making it for her.
They're halfway undressed when he says, "You're a hockey player. Too heavy to hold against the wall. Couch or bed?"
"Bed," Syd says. "Condoms upstairs."
"I have condoms."
Syd stills. "You thought-"
"I always have condoms," Ovechkin, Alex says, as if that's any better.
"Couch," Syd says. "It's closer."
Alex doesn't stop touching her the whole way there, and he only stops touching her when they get there to put on the condom.
"You need to be on top?" he asks.
Usually, with people she doesn't know, yes, but to Alex she says, "No." Crazy as it is, Syd trusts him to be on top.
Alex touches her first, rubbing her clit in a way that sets off sparks under her skin. He slips one finger into her, spreads her wetness around. "Sydney Crosby," he says softly.
"I think you can-" Syd's voice breaks when he enters her. "You can call me Syd."
Alex looks hazy, lost, and he bites his lip before he starts to move. "Syd. Can I call you baby?" He smirks at her. "Sweetheart?" There are more words, too, Russian ones she doesn't know sprinkled amongst the English, and he keeps moving, smooth strokes in and out of her, winding her up.
Syd makes a face at "Muffin?" and Alex laughs until she slips her hand between them to rub against her clit. Then everything falls away from his face until it's just desperate want.
Syd knows how he feels. She's so close. Her stomach tightens, and she brings her knees up, holding him closer between them. Alex kisses her, thrusts into her harder, not letting up on her because she's a girl, letting her take it because she's a hockey player.
She comes like that, his mouth on hers and her fingers on her own clit.
Alex tears his mouth away from hers and groans. He thrusts into her a few more times, and shouts when he comes.
"You didn't say my name," he says.
"Maybe you weren't that good," Syd says, even though he absolutely was.
"Syd," Alex crows. "You're learning to chirp."
Syd shoves him off of her. "I always knew how to chirp."
Alex laughs and goes away - she can hear water come on in the downstairs bathroom, so condom and cleanup, probably - and when he comes back, he kneels down next to the couch and kisses her for a really long time.
"I have to go," he says before she's really ready for him to. "Team, you know."
Syd pats his face. "I know."
Alex kisses her palm and follows the trail of clothes toward the door. Syd expects that to be it, but he comes back to the couch and bends over to kiss her one more time before he leaves.
Syd always gets sleepy after sex, but she realizes after a few minutes that she's naked in her living room and no less than three teammates have keys to her house, and the front door is unlocked anyway. She stumbles to lock the door and drags herself upstairs to bed.
*
Syd half expects it to be something she can sort of forget about (except for how good it was) and half expects Ovechkin to brag about it in a way that gets back to her.
What she gets instead is Ovechkin knocking on her hotel room door the night before they play each other in DC.
Syd blinks at him. "Ovechkin."
"Alex," he says, leaning into her in the doorway. "Can I come in?"
Syd looks both ways down the hall, then ushers him in quickly, before anyone else can figure out he's there. He kisses her before the door is all the way shut.
*
Syd gets to captain her own team for All-Star Weekend, and she wins the puck toss to get first pick. They need a goalie, so she takes Flower first. [OTHER CAPTAIN] takes [GOALIE]. On the third pick, Syd grins into the cameras and says, "Because I want to play with him instead of against him, Alex Ovechkin."
Ovechkin grins at her, takes his jersey, and throws his arms up and does a slow turn once he has it on. Even Syd laughs at him.
She's not laughing when he knocks on her door that evening and says, "Always knew you wanted to play with me," when she answers it.
"You're good," Syd says. "It might be All-Star Weekend, but I'm still planning to win."
Alex laughs and kisses her. "Syd, Syd, Syd, why so serious? It's hockey. It's fun." He unbuttons her dress shirt and peels it off of her, then seems to register what he's seeing. "Sydney Crosby," he says with such delight that Syd looks down.
Syd tries to cross her arms over her chest when she realizes that he's looking at her bra - white and lacy, the kind of thing she only wears when she won't be dressing or undressing in a locker room - but he pulls them down.
"Gorgeous," Alex declares, with enough sincerity to make Syd blush.
Syd bites her lip, but she pops the button on her slacks. "The panties match."
Alex wastes no time in getting her pants off, then steps back to stare at her. Syd's used to being looked at - it's part and parcel of being a hockey player, doubly so for being a female hockey player in the NHL - but not like this. Guys she sleeps with just want sex.
"Alex," she says after it goes on longer than she's comfortable with.
Alex shakes his head like he's shaking himself out of it and puts his hands on her. "You are the most beautiful hockey player."
Syd flushes. "Have you seen the [COUNTRY] women's team?"
"Yes." Alex takes one of her hands and puts it over his cock. She can feel how hard he is under his dress pants. "You are the most beautiful."
*
They play the Capitals one last time in the regular season, in DC. They lose, and Syd hates it, even if they're already guaranteed a playoff spot. Syd always hates losing. The day off tomorrow means everyone else is ready to go out to forget it, but Syd scowls and turns them down. She probably would have done it anyway, but tonight she thinks she probably has plans. She goes back to her room, strips, changes her underwear, and puts her pants and shirt back on.
She's working her way through levels on on her PSP when the knock finally comes on her door, and she lets Alex in.
The first thing Alex says is, "I'm not sorry you lost."
"I wouldn't like you if you were," Syd says without thinking about it.
Alex's face slides into a slow grin. "Sydney Crosby," he says. "There are no girls like you." He kisses her before she can say anything.
Syd pushes his coat off and undoes the buttons on his shirt. She doesn't want to talk about hockey. He's good in bed, and she just wants him to make her forget that his team was better than hers was on the ice tonight.
She's looking at his chest, pushing his shirt aside so she can touch his skin, when he gets her shirt open, and she feels it when he takes in a deep breath.
"Syd," he whispers. "You're wearing my colors."
Syd lets the shirt drop behind her and takes off her slacks so he can see that the panties are the same red as the bra.
Alex runs his hands over her shoulders, down her sides. They linger over the lace at her hips. Syd doesn't have to ask if he likes it. The way he's staring at her tells her that much.
Alex pushes her back, tips her down onto the bed, and kisses her neck, the swell of her breasts above her bra, her stomach, her hip. His fingers linger at the edge of her panties, but he doesn't try to take them off. Instead he pulls the crotch aside and licks into her.
It isn't something he's done for her before, but he's good at it. Really good at it. Syd finds herself gasping and saying his name, even before he hooks his fingers in her waistband and gets her panties off so there's nothing in the way.
He flicks his tongue over her clit, and he has one hand splayed over her stomach, keeping her in place, and it's all a blur of sensation until she comes and he stops eating her out to kiss her instead.
"Alex," she says into his mouth. "Alex."
He kicks his pants off, gets a condom, and rolls them over so she's on top. He watches her, eyes hot on her body, while she rides him. Syd tries to get herself off again, but Alex knocks her hand away and does it for her.
He draws her down for a kiss after, and she lets him before it all becomes too much and she has to move off of him.
Alex gets up to deal with the condom, but comes back to lie down next to her.
"You can't stay."
"Not all night," he says. "But I stay for a little while," he runs a hand down her side, "I get to look at you, and then we do this again."
Syd blushes. "Do you want me to put the panties back on?"
Alex's face lights up. "Yes." He hands them to her, and Syd wriggles into them. She's not sure what she should do now - she's not the kind of woman who poses in her underwear - but Alex is leaning up on his elbow, so she just lies there and watches him watch her.
*
She eats a light lunch, drinks two bottles of Gatorade, and heads to bed for a nap that's refreshing right up until she wakes up and really thinks about the fact that playoffs are almost over. Playoffs are almost over, and she hasn't gotten her period, and, yeah, stress can mess with it, but it's so far after she's been out of the playoffs that it shouldn't be anymore.
Sydney Crosby can't just wander into a drugstore and buy a pregnancy test. She can't ask anyone else to do it for her either. She lies in bed in a state of silent panic for a while, before she finds her phone and calls her doctor. Not the team doctor, but the one she goes to for annual exams.
*
Syd doesn't go home after her appointment, and she doesn't go back to the rink. She tells everyone who asks that she's just laying low after the playoffs and taking a break. They don't need to know anything else for now.
Her doctor calls her two days later to tell her that the blood test confirms it, and that Syd should come in to talk about her options.
Syd gets in her car and doesn't quite know where she's going until she ends up parked in Mario's driveway.
"Hi, honey," Nathalie says when she opens the door. "I didn't expect to see you today."
"No," Syd says. She tries to smile, but knows it falls short even before she sees the way Nathalie reacts to it. "I need to talk to Mario."
Nathalie lets her in, and directs Syd to Mario's home office.
"Syd." Mario smiles at her, and gets up to come around the desk to hug her. It's the kind of thing he does whenever she drops by, but this time she bursts into tears as soon as his arms come around her.
"Jesus, Syd. Whatever it is, it's going to be okay."
He can't know that, but she appreciates him saying it, and she pulls away, tries to stop crying, wipes her eyes with the heels of her hands. "I'm pregnant."
Mario sits down hard. "Syd."
"I know," she says. "I know, and I know it's stupid. I was careful, but not careful enough, I guess, and I know you took a chance on me, and now I don't know what I'm going to do."
"First of all," Mario says, "you're going to sit down." They sit on the couch instead of the chairs on either side of his desk. "Secondly, whatever you do, the Penguins organization is going to be behind you one hundred percent. I'm going to be behind you one hundred percent."
*
Talking to Mario snaps Syd out of her disbelieving daze, and she sits down to really think it out. She's pregnant. She's going to have a baby. Or she's going to have an abortion. That seems like the easier route. If she has an abortion, she can still skate, and she can go into the next season just like normal. No one but Mario and her doctor will ever know about it.
That twinges her guilt, though. It's her body, but she's not the only one who had a hand in this. Syd's used to being the captain of a team, taking them all into account.
Instead of calling her doctor to make an appointment, she buys a ticket to DC.
Alex answers his door in sweats and a t-shirt. Syd can hear Russian in the background, his parents probably, and he's trying to hold back the dog, so it takes a moment before Alex looks up at her, dog successfully restrained, and grins.
"Sydney Crosby! Come in."
Syd does, and the dog noses at her until Alex sends it away.
"I need to talk to you," Syd says.
Alex raises his eyebrows. "My parents are home, but we could-"
Syd frowns. "Actually talk." She looks in the direction of the sounds of conversation. "Alone."
"So serious," Alex says, but he takes her into a room she doesn't notice beyond the fact that the door closes and she can be alone with Alex.
He tries to kiss her, and as much as she knows she would like that, Syd doesn't let him. They end up close anyway, his hands at her waist and hers on his chest keeping him back.
"I didn't- That's not why I came here." Syd looks down, away. "I'm pregnant."
Alex doesn't breathe for a moment, Syd can feel his chest not moving.
"Syd," he breathes. "Syd, we're having a baby?"
Syd doesn't look at him, takes a step back. "I don't know. Alex, this is- I'm a hockey player."
"Can still be a mother." Alex steps forward, and he puts his hand on his stomach. "We can be hockey players and parents."
Syd blinks away sudden tears. "We live hours apart, and we're on the road half the year. We can't-"
"We can." Alex slides his hand around her back, pulls her in so her head is on his shoulder. "You and me, we're the greatest hockey players of our time. We can do anything."
Syd laughs into his shoulder. "I don't know if I can," she says after a minute. "I don't know if I can be a mother. All I want is hockey."
Alex cups her face and looks right into her eyes. "Then I be mother, and you be father."
Syd tries to turn away. "I'm serious."
"Me too."
*
[There would be more story here.]
*
Syd reads a couple of books about being pregnant, so she's kind of prepared for it when the second trimester has her wishing Alex weren't so far away, or she knew someone else she could hook up with.
She has to settle for taking care of things herself. She finds herself thinking about Alex most of the time, and not just the sex. Sometimes she thinks about the time she wore his colors, and the way he touched her after. Not her breasts or her ass, but the muscles of her legs, her abs, her shoulders. Like he was still seeing her as a hockey player.
*
[There would be more story here.]
*
Syd's laptop is set up on the rolling table, where she can shove it away when she needs to, and she's streaming games for too long. The nurses keep telling her first babies always take a long time, but it's not helping, and neither are the announcers who won't stop talking and just let her watch some hockey. If she can't be on the ice, she wants to know what other people are doing.
"Now the Capitals," one of the announcers says, "have lost their last three games, and they're going out tonight without one of their strongest players, Alex Ovechkin."
"That's right," the other one says. "Ovechkin was skating this morning, but he's not here now. There's been no statement from the Capitals, leaving a lot of people wondering where he is."
Syd shoves the table away as another contraction hits. Syd's used to pain, but hockey is nothing like this.
The contractions get closer together, eventually. In the middle of one of them, she hears her dad say, "Ovechkin," and when it's over, she looks up to see Alex looking thunderous in the doorway of her hospital room.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" Syd asks. "You have a game."
"I have a-" Alex doesn't look any less furious, but he crosses the room and edges Syd's dad out of the way without hurting him. "You didn't tell me it was time."
"You have a game." The next contraction hits just as Syd says it, and Alex takes her hand.
"Squeeze," he says, and she does, as hard as she can. It doesn't make the pain any better, but it gives her another focus.
"Sydney Crosby," Alex says after, and he manages to make it both affectionate and angry. "Of course I choose the birth of my child over game."
Syd can almost feel the way her parents look at her, and she's almost grateful for the next contraction that distracts them from that particular revelation.
Alex is- Alex is Alex, cracking jokes and using her full name and holding her hand the whole time. And after, when the nurse hands her their son, tears slide down his face.
Syd gets out her phone and has her dad take a picture of her with the baby that she can send to her team. Alex takes the baby next, and the nurse takes a picture for Alex to send to his parents. Syd's parents insist on their turns to hold the baby after that.
"Move over," Alex says.
"I'm a hockey player," Syd says. "There isn't room for both of us."
Alex shrugs. "We make it work." He shifts her over carefully, and ends up sitting mostly behind her.
Syd's dad gives the baby back to her, and takes a picture of the three of them.
"He needs a name," Syd says.
"Alexander," Alex says.
Syd rolls her eyes. "No."
"Mikhail."
"No. And no hockey players either."
"Nikolai."
Syd looks at the baby. "Nikolai. Nikolai Crosby."
"Nikolai Ovechkin."
"Crosby," Syd says firmly. "Hello, Nicky Crosby." She does put down Ovechkin as his middle name on the birth certificate.
Syd sends her parents back to her place to get some sleep, Alex puts Nicky in the crib, and Syd takes a well-deserved nap with Alex sharing the hospital bed with her.
She's awake again, Nicky fed and sleeping in her arms, Alex at her back, when the door to her room opens and the doorway fills with her teammates.
They get stuck there while Geno and Flower, the first ones in, stop and stare at Alex. Everyone else pushes at them, and eventually most of her team, Dan, and Mario file into her hospital room and don't seem to know what to say.
Syd turns to Geno, because he's the one she has to make this up to. "This is Nicky. Nikolai. Do you want to hold him?"
Geno does, because Geno can't resist anything small and cute.
"You probably missed the game," Flower says, "but we won."
"That's great." Syd smiles at him, and asks questions until they all loosen up and tell her about it. They keep looking at Alex like they're remembering to keep some things back, but they also pass Nicky around, once Geno consents to let someone else hold him, so it could go worse.
They have to leave eventually, and then it's just Syd and Alex and Nicky again. Alex takes Nicky, and he has that same look Syd's seen on so many of her teammates' faces when they look at their kids. She doesn't think she gets that look when she looks at him.
"I have to go," Alex says. He gives Nicky to Syd. "Can't miss another game."
Syd's going to miss at least a month's worth before she's even close to ready to go back. She almost hates Alex for a moment, for getting to play hockey when she can't.
Alex bends to brush a kiss over Nicky's forehead, and to kiss Syd, softer than he ever has before.
*
[This is where a lot of the story I didn't write would go. Syd moves in with Alex in DC so they can both be with Nicky while she's getting back into game shape. They also hire Galina, a bilingual Russian-English nanny.]
*
Some days she leaves the rink so furiously angry with both of them for what they've done to her body. She doesn't have her own space, so she locks herself in the master bedroom and lies very still on top of the comforter until she calms down. Only once does Alex bother her, when he has a game and needs to get to his suit. He bangs on the door until she gets up, walks to the door, and opens it, every movement precise and controlled.
"You-"
Syd cuts him off. "Get your suit and get out." She doesn't look at him, just waits for him to leave before she locks the door and lies down.
She stays there through dinner, and only gets up when she knows everyone else will be busy watching Alex's game. Then she goes downstairs and makes herself a meal she eats in the relative quiet of the kitchen with the background of Tatyana, Mikhail, and Galina alternately reacting to the game and explaining it to Nicky.
Syd goes into the living room and hangs around in the doorway to watch Alex score a goal in the last two minutes of the game. Tatyana and Mikhail cheer, and Galina holds up Nicky's hand for a high-five.
When the game's over, Galina brings Nicky to Syd. "Do you want to get him to bed?"
Syd doesn't, but she takes Nicky anyway. She knows his bedtime ritual well enough to get it right - he's going to be a confused kid, she thinks, having five different adults doing things just a little bit differently - and he goes down easy, even with everyone else's excitement over the game.
Syd's not tired, but she doesn't want to go downstairs. She leaves the bedroom door unlocked and goes to bed. She's still lying awake in the dark when Alex gets home. She can hear him greeting his parents downstairs, the click of the door opening when he checks on Nicky, the hesitation before he turns the bedroom doorknob.
"I'm awake," Syd says.
Alex shuts the door and crosses the room to turn on the lamp next to his side of the bed. "Did you watch? We won." He hangs his coat in the closet, and crawls up the bed so he's hovering over her, legs on either side of hers, hands on either side of her head.
"I saw your goal in the third." Syd lets a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "It was a beauty."
Alex leans down to kiss her, but she turns her head away from him.
"Syd?"
"I'm going home."
Alex slides off of her to sit on the bed. "I thought your training is going well."
Syd sits up. "I need to go home. I need to be on my ice, with my team."
The corners of Alex's mouth turn down, and if she weren't so certain about this, Syd might feel bad about ruining his post-game good mood.
"Nicky and Galina can stay with you, but I need to be in Pittsburgh."
"I leave for a four-day road trip tomorrow." Alex gets off the bed and starts undressing. Syd tries not to watch. She sees her team undressing in locker rooms all the time, but it's different when it's Alex in a bedroom they're sharing.
"I haven't bought a ticket yet," Syd says. "I can stay until you get back."
"Okay." Alex changes into sweats and leaves the room.
Syd leaves his lamp on, turns away from it, and tries to go to sleep. She doesn't hear Alex come back, even though he's sleeping beside her when she wakes up in the morning.
*
[And then the rest of the story would be the two of them figuring things out and eventually ending up in some sort of long-distance relationship where Nicky and Galina go back and forth but mostly stay with Alex.]