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The mascot toy thing immediately went into the trash. He didn't regret that for a second. Seriously, what a condescending thing to have to suffer through after such a stupid loss. A stupid loss that was completely his fault.
He almost wrenches the medal off his neck and adds to the trash heap before he thinks better of it and keeps it around his neck. There will probably be more press to do after this, more questions about this game and their absolute failure of a performance. It'll probably be seen as unsportsmanly if he showed back up in Colorado sans medal. He should keep it around, at least for a little while before it mysteriously goes missing.
That's what Nate reaolves to do and the metal is tossed into a drawer somewhere pretty much as soon as he touches down at home after a long and sullen flight. Should he have maybe talked to Cale and Devon a little more? Maybe, but heck, he wasn't their captain and he had training to get back to. Because the only way to make this better was to improve. And after that defeat (that major fuckup), he sure as hell wasn’t going to waste his time socializing again.
He doesn’t think about the medal (outside of stupid media scrums and chirps from USA players), until he's all the way back in Nova Scotia again, meeting up for summer training with Sid at his crusty (affectionate) old gym.
As he puts his hand on the door in anticipation of stepping through this time time though, he hesistates, knowing what would await him in an alcove dug out right there in the hallway. Sid's trophy cabinet, with all his accolades and triumphs lined up neatly in a glass display case. The trophy cabinete with all his accomplishments sans the one glaring reminder of a failure that was this last olympic's silver.
Because that so-called award did not deserve to be there amongst Sid's many accolades, marring Sid's glorious record with its ugly reminder of their failure (his failure to his idol and best friend). If Sid has any sense, it would collecting dust like the one Nate had abandoned somewhere back in Colorado. And if wasn't...
Nate's grip on the door handle hand gone knuckle white. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to see. In truth, he hadn't felt like he could face Sid again after that loss, if he could even bring himself to show up here again after how badly he'd failed his friend. Sid wouldn’t have missed that empty net.
But he was already here, so he yanks the door open and resigns himself to walking past the trophy case. It'll probably be fine as long as he's not looking at it.
He manages about halfway down the hall before the a glint of a silver medal catches the corner of his eye. He turns before his better judgment catches up to him. There, glinting along the back wall of the display case, silver under the flourescent light was the Sid's 2004 World Juniors medal. Oh yeah, he had forgotten about that one. Of course Sid's career hadn’t always been golden.
Daring himself to look up, he flicks his eyes up the rows of international wins to find the Olympics medals, lined up at the top. Sid's clearly had to move some stuff around to make space for it, because there it was, their 2026 Olympic silver, hanging in chronological order right next to his golds. It looked completely at home, glittering under the lights next to other accomlishments, neatly pinned and tucked along the back wall. Nate oddly felt his breath get caught in his throat.
"Nice right?" Sid's voice nearly makes him jump out of his skin, having no idea when his friend snuck up on him. "I wasn’t really expecting to add anything to this again so we didn’t really leave a lot of room, but I think we made it work with the spacing."
Not being able to help letting out a snort at Sid's ridiculous self-deprecating comment, Nate allows himself to calm down as he continued to stare at the medal as he partly watches Sid in the reflection in the glass. He wasn’t quite ready to face Sid yet. "You kept it," he mumbles dumbly, not quite sure what else to say.
A soft chuckle sounds at his side and Nate can see Sid's teeth flash white in the glass. "Of course I did. It's a win isn't it? In fact, I think this is it, the big one. How I know I really made it."
That's when Nate's incredulousness finally wins out against his anxiety and he turns to give his friend-idol a dirty look. "Don't joke. You know we screwed that one up."
Sid's eyes are soft an warm as he holds Nate's gaze, making him squirm. He immediately regrets daring to face Sid.
"Do I?" His gaze turns challenging for a moment before it softens again, his expression turning rueful and sympathetic. Nathan hates sympathetic. But Sid has already turned back to face the cabinet. "I don't think so. I don't think anyone screwed anything up. I think we played a hell of a game. Not winning, that's just going to happen sometimes." Nate grunts but doesn’t say anything.
"You want to know why I think this is the one that proves I made it?" He doesn’t wait for Nate to answer. "I was injured, I couldn’t play. But 24 guys stepped up and told me they'd play. Not for Canada, well, also Canada. But each and every one of them said they were doing it for me. And they played the greatest hockey game I've ever seen in my life. Probably the three greatest hockey games I've seen in my life, just to get me to semis, then finals. For me. I don't think I could ever ask for a greater compliment than that." Nate sees him turning towards him in the glass and resigns himself to looking directly into those large doe eyes again.
Sid's eyes are bright and full of love when he meets them this time. Nate realizes his own is starting to well up. "All those years bringing hockey to kids, teaching hockey school - all I've wanted was to share my love of hockey, to play hockey with good people - I've been so so lucky. I couldn't have asked for a better team. To have so many amazing players look to me and say 'you're worth playing for'..." The brightness in those brown eyes start turning wet as well. "...yeah, I think that's how I know I really made it."
Nate stares at him, then tries not to sob as he rubs at his eyes. They really did play a hell of a game. "You...you should really tell the guys this..." Something in him shakes and he wonders if he's been holding in a breath he didn’t know about.
"I did. But I don't think a single one of you believed me back then, thinking I was just trying to console you."
"I - we -"
Sid's right. They were all way too distraught back then, too busy spiralling about all the ifs and ands of their loss. But looking at Sid's trophy case now...
Nate digs out his phone. "I'm going to send this to the guys." He glances at Sid for approval. "And what you said. I think...I think they'd really appreciate that."
Sid nods and smiles. "Sure. I hope so." His gaze flicks back to the silver of the 2004 World's Junior. "Flower was really distraught I wanted to hang this one up too. But I'm still proud of it. We got unlucky back then, just like we did here. I still think he did amazing though, like you guys did. And look, next year we got gold."
Nate lowers his phone from where he was snapping a photo of the dispat, frowning ruefully at Sid. "Yeah, but that's worlds. This...could’ve been your last olympics, and we let you down."
Sid holds up his hand and wags his finger at him. "Again you did no such thing. Made me proud is what you did. I know I love winning, but in this case, even if Canada didn’t win..." His lips quirk into that crooked grin that pulls up just bit higher on the right side, "...I think I did."
Finally, Nathan finds himself managing to pull his lips into a smile as well. Sid punches him in the shoulder. "Go bring it home next time."