YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM BOTH

Chapter 13

Sidney had tried all he could to get Karen to calm down but she kept getting up to walk around. It had been an hour and a half and they hadn't heard anything. Karen imagined the worst and it showed on her face enough to scare Sidney. He got up and walked over to her, holding her still.

"Baby, if they are going to get it fixed right it's going to take a while."

"I know but what if something happened. He could have crashed or they found more tears or..."

"Stop" Sidney brought his hands to her face to steady her "your dad is a fighter and will pull through this."

Karen was about to respond when she saw the doctor come out and over to them "is everything alright?"

"Everything went fine. After we got in, we found another tear and got it all repaired. He is resting comfortable and should be moved to ICU in a half hour."

"Thank you for everything" Karen said as the doctor smiled and left them alone.

"See baby" Sidney said kissing her head and she melted into his arms.

"Ok, you were right. I'm going to call mom and let her know" she said excusing herself and walking outside. After a few minutes, Karen walked back inside.

"Everything ok?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, mom feels better knowing he's out of surgery but she won't really be fine until she sees him."

"Since there's nothing more we can do tonight, how about we all head home" Sidney said putting his arm around her.

"I can't leave until I see him to make sure."

"Yeah me too" Britnie chimed in "I want to see if he's ok." The guys nodded and the four of them went up to ICU to wait. The nurse let two go at a time and Britnie went in first with Jordan.

"How about when we're done here, I follow you home and sometime tomorrow you can get your things from your grandmother's house" Sidney mentioned while they were alone.

"Um, I need to do some things first."

"Karen, I meant it when I said I wanted you back home with me. I'm not going to change my mind about this."

Karen smiled and brought her hand up to his cheek "I know and I'm glad you want me to come back but when all this happened dad and I were in the middle of dinner. There's food left on the table and the kitchen's a mess. I can't leave it for mom to deal with, I need to go clean up."

"Ok, how about I come with you and we'll get it done in half the time?"

"Sid, you have practice in the morning. Why don't you just head home and I'll come back sometime tomorrow."

"What's going on? Is there another reason why you don't want to come home?"

Karen never got to answer as Britnie and Jordan came out and told them they could go in. They told them they were going to head home and said goodbye. Karen walked into the room with Sidney behind her and she hated seeing all the machines her dad was hooked up to. She walked over to the bed and took her dad's hand into hers.

"Hey pudding pop" he said opening his eyes.

"Hi daddy" she smiled at him.

"Um, pudding pop?" Sidney asked curiously.

Karen turned her head and glared at him "that name ends up in the locker room and I will take away your ability to play hockey."

"Understood baby" he said kissing her head "how you feeling dad?"