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Macklin Mark Crosby is born on the 16th June 2006, to a medical student mother and a professional athlete father. The day of his birth bright with the mid-summer sun yet cool, with a strong seaside breeze flowing through the window of the labour room of the same maternity ward both of his parents were born in.
His birth would be one of the only times all 3 were ever together.
Macklin's parents had met and conceived Macklin during their final nights out before returning to responsibility. His father prepping to head into his first season, his flight to Pittsburgh was in a couple of days, and so he was using his last vestige of freedom before becoming the face of a franchise and sport to get drunk as hell and drown his fears. His mother, a couple years older than his father, was on summer break after finishing her MCATs, and now as summer reached its end, was preparing to head off to study medicine at Harvard. A prodigy, she had focused all her life and energy into her goal of medicine, skipping years of schooling to start college early. And so, with the air of a last hoorah before falling further into the medical school spiral, she and the few friends she had collected through her time in Cole Harbour, had headed out into the clubs to party.
Both parties got disastrously drunk, both letting loose for the last time in a long time, and it was then, with both being egged on by their similarly inebriated friends, that the two got to chatting, and then ended up tangled up with one another. It wasn't until the next morning, as they both woke up beside one another, sharing a hangover, a headache and a bedsheet, that they realised what had occurred, and, as they both lay there, naked, they decided this would never happen again and went their separate ways.
It wouldn't be until December of the same year that Macklin's father would find out the fruit of that one-time union.
The hockey season didn't stop, not even for major holidays, so he didn't go home for the festive period, instead staying in Pittsburgh to work and train. The Penguins were on a good swing, looking much more positive then last year and with their growing young additions, they were developing into a very dangerous group for other teams to play against. It led to general jovial atmosphere at the training facility and the Igloo, Sid almost constantly in a positive mood, one that very few things were able to squash.
Until he received the phone call.
It happened at Flower's house, him and a few other teammates around at the house to watch whatever game was on and to enjoy the Christmas festivities. It was as he was sat around, enjoying the atmosphere of the team around him, that his phone rang. Not thinking much of it, he let it ring out, planning to look later, much too enthralled in the story one of the defensemen is telling. The ringing stops eventually, but it just as soon picks up again. Two calls in such quick succession is not a common thing for him, and so he looks to see the caller ID. The name of one his friends from home stares back at him. The same friend that had dragged him out all those months ago, out to the bar, and who encouraged him to get as drunk as he did, egging him on to talk to the intimidatingly intelligent lady at the bar. The same night that led to a one night stand he wasn't too eager to remember.
It was that exact moment, though he didn't know it then, but looking back on it, it was that moment, on the couch, that his old life died and his new one was birthed.
He picks his phone up, swiftly moving out of the room, heading to Flower's hallway, far enough away to be away from the nosy eyes of his teammates, before answering it.
There is a baby.
It's his.
Sex once, even in a drunken stupor, was enough.
Sidney Crosby has conceived a child.
Sid doesn't remember much after that, how the rest of the phone call went, if his friend said anything more. The next thing he remembers, coming out of the haze and confusion, is Flower's face above his own, flitting around him as he spoke in increasingly worried tones, switching from predominantly English to French as his panic grew. Once he saw that Sid seemed to be tracking his nervous flitting, he let out a sigh of relief, before pinning Sid with a stare that asked for answers and now.
Sid needed to think of something, and fast.
"You have...you have a lovely ceiling."
"No chance, Sid. Start talking."
Well, it was worth a shot. No chance he was getting anything past the Quebecois goalie, it was literally in his job description.
He starts talking.
Sid learns very quickly, over the next few minutes, that Marc-Andre Fleury is an incredibly hyper-competent man when you ask it of him. If you give him a task, a goal, a problem, he will solve and plan and coordinate like no one else. It made Sid give credence to the rumours he had been ignoring, about the Quebecois network within the NHL, who ran full on information operations when they felt the need. And Flower clearly felt the need, with the amount of information he was giving Sid, before clearly seeing that Sid was in over his head and pausing. Letting Sid come to the realisation that had kept being put off since he got off the phone, first by fainting and then by listening to Marc-Andre.
Sid had a new life now. A new direction to his journey that he never, in all his life, accounted for.
Somewhere out there, there is a women pregnant with a baby he helped put there.
Sid can't believe it.
It's almost enough to send him spiralling, but Flower once again proves his brilliance by keeping Sid on track, pulling him into a room just off the hallway, a spare bedroom apparently, as he pulls Sid along and places him on the end of the bed. He begins to ask him questions, in a calm and measured tone, listing plans and to do lists and people that need to know.
The two of them build a plan, one that has Sid returning to Flower's house, alone this time, a few days after Christmas with his one night stand's number locked in and saved in his phone. They Flower wanted to call earlier, but Sid refused to kill someone's Christmas cheer, and so they waited until it had begun to die down. In the meantime, Sid gave Flower the run down on what had happened in Cole Harbour over the summer and what his friend had passed along when he rang him back, how the mother of their child arrived back into town with a small baby bump. Someone who had seen her, one of Sid's friends that had been out that night with them, who didn't play hockey and as such had many less concussions then the median average of the guys Sid usually hangs out with, had very quickly figured it out and broached another friend to bring this information to Sid.
And now he was here, sat in his teammates living room, preparing to ring the mother of his unborn child and have a conversation about it. What on earth was his life. The phone only rung a couple of times before being answered, her voice ringing from across the line in the organised, calm and steady manner that had drawn Sid to her in the first place.
What followed was a detailed and extensive conversation, in which she covered everything that had happened since they had last seen one another and then moved on to what was set to come. As she lay everything out, all of the medical details and birthing procedures, Sid and Flower, who was listening over Sid's shoulder, stared at one another in horror. They had both gone through sex education, but listening to it all be laid out, in incredible detail, by someone who was studying it and was soon to be dealing with it, led to a whole new appreciation for women.
Both felt the need to call their mothers after this phone call finished.
It was only after the completion of the detailed medical debrief that the true central issue of the pregnancy came to the front of the conversation. What to do now.
Between a professional athlete and a medical student at one of the best schools in the world, neither of them had much in the way of spare time, and it was only set to get less as they both got further into their job and studies. Macklin's mother was quick to let it be known that she had very little interest in raising a child, she had worked away her childhood to get where she was and she wasn't prepared to let her plan take a hit because of a drunken mistake. It was an opinion that Sid could respect and understand, after all, had he not done the same, sacrificing his childhood to be the best of the best.
But, Sid couldn't fully separate himself from the idea of having a child. He had always wanted a family, at some point. What that family looked like, he had never been sure, if he would get married young and have kids like a lot of hockey players, or wait until he was retired to settle down, all he knew was that the idea of having someone to care for, children to raise and love, it called to him. Sid loved being able to teach kids and they in turn seemed to flock to him, his chicks, having one of his own would be a dream come true. And while it was earlier than any possible plan he had considered, this almost seemed like fate, an opportunity given to him by the world. And, he decided, he was ready to take it head on. Even if that meant doing it solo.
When he told her this, she seemed surprised, as though she was expecting something else. Perhaps a disinterested father, leaving her with a child she didn't really want and the implosion of her career plan. Instead, she was given the reminder that the man before her, the father of the child growing in her, was Sidney Crosby. A man already building a reputation as a gentleman in a brute's sport, of course he wouldn't fall in line with a lot of the stereotypes of hockey players.
Once it was clear both of them were on the same line of thought, they both locked in on building a plan. Flower sat back and watched this, watched as these two prodigies in their respective fields put their minds together and built a concrete plan. One that would protect her career and set Sid up to become a single parent. It would be hard to do, requiring more people to be let in on the fact that Sid was becoming a father before he turned 20. While she didn't want to, she decided to take a year off from medical school, knowing that the fact she had been pregnant in medical school, if she was found out, would follow her throughout her career. Especially if the child also seemingly disappeared after she gave birth. Instead, she took the rest of the year off, sighting a family emergency to defer her year, and would spend the rest of the year building up volunteering work and other things that would look good on her applications and CV, before Sid also convinced her to take up some hobbies while she had the time.
On Sid's side, he would pay for the two years of medical school that were messed up for her, he tried to get her to agree to him paying for the whole thing but she fought him incredibly hard and he barely got her to agree to let him pay for the years that he had caused her to have to repeat. He would let a few people in on what had happened, mainly his parents and the Lemieuxs. He would also then have to begin looking for a house. While he loved living at the Lemieux's and would likely have stayed for a couple more years if this hadn't happened, he couldn't expect them to accept him bringing a new-born into their home. He would also have to look into nannies and childcare options, he knew it was early but he travelled a lot and wanted to have someone ready, someone who he could trust to have the best in mind for his child and who would be discreet and prepared to sign an NDA.
He didn't know it as he made that plan, sat in Flower's living room, but all of those problems and plans would become a non-issue when he told the Lemieuxs he was going to be a father. Mario and Nathalie were ecstatic for him, their children also excited to have a new child in the house. When he asked for any recommendations for childcare, both of them had looked at him like he was insane and told him that he wouldn't need any, that Nathalie would take care of his child, alongside their own. When he asked how that would work, as he would be travelling to drop his kid off from wherever he moved, the two also made it clear that there was no expectation that Sid move out of the house, That they would welcome Sid and his child in their house, always. Even if he were to move out, they would always be welcome back.
Sid may or may not have teared up hearing that.
Back in Flower's living room, the plan was coming together, the two parents finishing off the small details until the plan was a fully formed beast, one with multiple options and failsafes in case anything changed.
And so, the plan was put into action, medical school deferment paperwork put in, conversations with parents and work parents were had, and soon Sid and the mother of his child were deep into their plan and the child was growing. Months passed and at the end of the Penguins' season, Sid headed back to Nova Scotia to meet up with his family and his trainers, but also, on the down low, to meet with her. At this point, the child was due any day, both of them were simply waiting for the feeling or the call, respectively.
On the morning of June 16th, both of those things came to fruition, as she went into labour. Sid was called and quickly made his way to the labour and delivery ward, set to be there for her, to support her. While the two of them had no interest in rekindling their romantic relationship, once they had got past the having a child problem, the two had grown to be good friends. Both shared each others fears about expectations from others and themselves, about being labelled as gifted young and what all of that entailed for them as adults.
She laboured fairly quickly, and soon enough, before either of them knew it, a baby's cry broke through the room. The doctors checked everything over before announcing that they had a boy, before passing the child over to his mother.
Sid had a son.
She held him for some time, seeming to say hello and goodbye and a million other things in one look, before looking at where Sid sat beside her and gestured him to come closer.
She placed him in Sid's arms and he simply stared down at him. At the young boy in his arms. At his son. Tears of joy stream down his face as he looked and saw the next stage of his life.
She let him soak it all up and collect himself the slightest bit one can do when holding your child for the first time, before asking him the most important question.
"So, what's his name?"
Sid looks up, looking at his friend, who had given him this gift, and now looks at him with kindness and patience as he cries.
"Macklin. He'll be called Macklin."