offsetting minors | s. crosby

Family History

I'm exhausted but I have no complaints when Sidney announces that he's going to spend the night, claiming that the team's got a day off tomorrow before they leave for their trip to California. Plus, we've both gotten pretty comfortable tangled up on this couch and it would be a shame for either of us to have to move.

"You can stay," I agree easily. "But I'm warning you, Crosby. My alarm is going to go off at six A.M. and if I don't get a decent amount of sleep because of you I'm gonna be really pissed off."

"I'll be a perfect gentleman, promise." He holds his hand up like a boy scout and the overly serious look on his face is comical as he pulls me up from the couch and we head to my bedroom. I make a quick job of washing my face and getting ready for bed, and by the time I come out of the bathroom, Sid's already changed into a pair of shorts that I guess he had with him and he's made himself comfortable in my bed.

I climb into bed beside him. The setting is incredibly domestic, and it throws me a bit. We'd only met a couple weeks ago- so why did it feel like this was the most normal thing in the world, having Sidney Crosby waiting for me in bed?

"I'll even take you to the hospital in the morning," Sid offers. "I haven't seen Justin since his surgery and I want to make sure he remembers his favorite hockey player."

My mood drops at the reminder of Justin all alone in his hospital room. "He's doing better than he was a few days ago, and his memory is coming back, which is awesome but we're concerned with what's going to happen when he's ready to leave the hospital. He'll need someone to take care of him, and he'll have to come back into the hospital pretty often for checkups and treatment. That god-awful woman who fosters him should be in jail, not allowed to look after those kids."

Sid seems concerned at this as well, and I know that Justin's situation is hard for him to wrap his head around. "What is CPS saying?"

"They're saying that because a formal complaint was never filed against her as a guardian, they have no reason to keep him from going back there. As his doctor, I could technically file a complaint for him, but I'm not sure if it would do more harm than good. Kids his age aren't as likely to be adopted as the younger ones and I don't want him to get churned back into the system. Trust me, it would feel like the end of the world to him."

At some point, my voice trails off to a whisper as I liken Justin's experience to my own as a child and I can tell that Sidney notices my change in demeanor. 

"What do you mean?" He asks with a brow raised. "Is that- were you in the system as a kid?"

I give him a small, harsh laugh, though nothing about the situation is very funny. This is about to kill the mood for the night for sure- and I might potentially scare Sidney Crosby from ever wanting to see me again, though I guess there's no point in keeping my family history a secret when I'd never made an effort to hide it from anyone before. "Yeah, I was about his age. I bounced around for two years before I was adopted by a family who moved me to Texas. The only good thing they ever did for me was make me bust my ass in school so I could get into college somewhere far, far away."

Sid's arm comes around me and it's the most comforting touch I've felt in a while. "You did pretty well for yourself."

My hand comes up to rake through my hair frustratedly. "I don't want Justin to have to go through the same thing- that's why this is so hard for me. I worked like hell to make something happen for myself, because I knew that it would have been what my mom wanted for me but I've seen the same situation destroy so many of the people I knew in the foster homes."

"Those kids didn't have someone like you looking out for them. Justin loves you, he told me the other day before his surgery that he wanted to be a doctor like you when he grows up."