Chapter 44

After all the excruciating waiting, the light brushes, faint touches and pensive stares, Toews seemed to have woken up in a big way. The team had gone to the ice by the time Elia had gone back into the locker room, so she had taken the short tunnel out the bench to watch the practice. Jon was standing in the corner of the box talking to Quenneville over the wall and looking at a clipboard. He looked so good dressed in dark grey slacks and a light blue button down. He would have looked just as sexy if he had stayed in his workout clothes though. Elia's gaze was broken as Kane stopped by to talk to her for a few moments. His parents were going to be in town for the week with his sisters for their spring break and wanted to see Elia for at least one game. And Amanda was going to meet them and wasn't ready to be alone for an entire game with them. Elia could do that.
“Hey, what're you doing?” Coach Q skated over to tell Kane to get back to practice. They skated off towards center ice to talk with the rest of the team. There was some drill Q wanted to do. Elia hadn't even noticed that Jon had walked up behind her. She felt his right hand on her hip and the buckle of his belt against the small of her back as he leaned into her.
“Uncontrolled zone entry,” Elia said, “What are you doing, everyone is going to see you!”
“So what?” Jon said back.
So what? Elia didn't know what, or why she didn't think it was a good idea.
“I just think maybe we should have some discretion since we don't really know what is going on,” she said.
“I know exactly what is going on,” he said, holding the clipboard in front of their faces and kissing her. Elia thought waiting for a couple weeks was bad? Toews had been waiting years. Waiting while she flirted with Burish, waiting while she got sucked into that Bruins thing. He didn't want to wait anymore. He didn't care if everyone knew. Actually, he would prefer if everyone knew. They heard skates on the ice coming closer to them and Elia pulled away. Jon pulled the clipboard down and stepped back a step. He started tapping the clipboard on the top of the gate to the ice. Patrick Sharp was skating past them, staring, a sly grin on his face. Elia noticed it, she remembered what Abby had said about Pat suspecting something.
Jon turned to Elia and asked her to come to the locker room with him. He took her hand and led her back through the tunnel. The room was deserted, even the equipment manager was gone. Jon set the clipboard down, and took Elia's face in his hands again. He started to kiss her, and one of his hands fell to her waist. His other hand went down to her waist, and he pulled her hips into his. Elia put her arms around his neck as he leaned in to kiss her along her collar bone. She could feel him getting hard through his pants. This was getting out of control.
“You're missing the practice,” Elia whispered.
“I don't fucking care,” he said assertively. His hands moved from her hips back to her ass.
“Uhh, you're body is amazing,” he said groaning. He slid his hands down further, under and bent at the knee slightly to pick her up. He walked them over to one of the benches and sat down, pulling Elia tight against him in his lap. With one arm behind her back holding her close he started to unbutton her jeans with the other hand while kissing her just above her breasts. Elia reached down to stop him.
“That is...just no.” She said, holding his hand. “Not here. Not now.”
“I have keys to the coaching offices,” Jon quickly said, pushing up slightly with his hips. Elia closed her eyes, holding in a moan as she exhaled. The doors to the hallway opened, Elia and Jon turned to see Dan Carcillo walking in. He stopped mid stride and stared at them gape-mouthed for a moment, before stepping slowly backwards and out the door again. They were lucky it had only been Dan. Elia turned back to Jon, looking him in the eyes and running her hand through his hair.
“I think we should take this slow. And be quiet about it. That's what I want us to do.” she said.
Jon looked a little taken aback. He sighed.
“Haven't we done that already ? What more is there to figure out?” Jon countered. He was concerned about her not wanting anyone to know. What did that mean?
“This is so great, and I am so happy, and I do want to do things with you, but once it gets out we are going to be scrutinized by the entire continent, and I just want to make sure that whatever this is, it's going to work before that happens.” Elia tried to form complete sentences but she was too nervous to process fully. The feeling of Jon's raging hard on between her legs wasn't helping bring clarity to her mind.
“Whatever this is?” Jon repeated back to her. Why did she keep saying that?
The door opened again, and Elia jumped up. Jon awkwardly crossed his legs and tried to lean on his hand with his arm across his lap. Dr. Harper and Dr. Terry, the team lead physicians, walked in to the room. Paul Goodman, the team strength and conditioning trainer followed. They were supposed to be meeting Dan Carcillo to discuss his ongoing knee injury recovery.
“He was here a while ago, but he said he was meeting you in the weight room?” Elia said, somewhat in a question. They all looked at each other and shrugged. Dr. Terry and Goodman started to walk out and head to the weight room.
“Oh, Jonathan,” Dr. Harper said, hesitating from leaving, “I know we had an appointment tomorrow, but while we are both here why don't we do your ImPact progress test today?”
“Sure, that would be fine. I felt great after I worked out this morning,” Jon said.
“What did you do?”
“The stationary bike for 30 minutes, some lifting. Everything in the schedule.”
“Sounds good, well, why don't we head over to training room?” Dr. Harper asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jon didn't move. “I'll meet you over there, I just have to do something. First.”
Harper looked confused, but walked back out of the room. Elia started laughing once he was out of the room. “You can't get up cause you have a huge boner,” she teased.
Jon eventually did get up to find Dr. Harper. Not before he had made sure Elia knew they were going to finish their conversation later, at home. At home, he said, as if they shared a home somewhere that Elia didn't know about. She walked back out to the ice and spent some time chirping Bolly from the bench, and later Q let her take some shots on Corey. When Jon still hadn't come back she walked past the trainer's room to wave goodbye.

In the afternoon she stopped at her office to get some work done and take some phone meetings. The band that was supposed to score her film had canceled again and needed to postpone. Elia was getting pissed about the situation. Yawn was a local band out of Logan Square and she felt she was doing them a huge favor with this opportunity. Yet every time she had scheduled them for the studio, they had backed out. She left every band member a scathing email, and even called the lead singer's girlfriend to leave her a bitchy message. They were running out of time. One more chance before she was moving on to someone else.
If the film was picked up for distribution at South by Southwest she would need to do some promotion. Kristen Stewart was already planning on going to the fest and had no problem representing the project. Jon Stewart wanted to book Elia on his show, and several magazines were interested in doing covers with her. On top of that, her fellow Cubs owners were requesting her presence at spring training in Arizona. Someone needed to reassure the season ticket holders not to give up their seats.
She called Kalah in to her office for any other updates.
“Jeremy Scahill wants to know if you would go to Somalia with him,” she started. Elia groaned.
“He specifically said go with him, not pay for him to go?” Elia asked. Kalah nodded, she was pretty sure he didn't say anything about financing the trip.
“Alright, what else?” She asked.
Kalah had been contacted by Matt Shott and John Pierce of the Coyotes, they were wondering if Elia would be interested in doing some commercial work for them. That could be fun, and if she already had to go to Arizona it wouldn't be out of the way. She told Kalah to get details on the project and find out what they had in mind. A professor at Columbia College inquired about Elia guest teaching a film class for a few weeks later in the semester. Kalah would forward her the email. Next, Jon Hutman from Plan B productions had sent over a list of locations for Blue Dolphins movie. They were looking at a small island off the coast of Vancouver, Hawaii, and Corsica. Casting had also sent a short list of actresses for the lead role. Kalah put a large manilla envelope on her desk to look through. Elia started to open it and asked Kalah to try and get Scahill on the phone for her.
“Oh wait, Kalah.” Elia said. Kalah took a step back into the office. Elia told her to close the door. “I need you to call Stacey, and tell her that I might be getting into another relationship. I'm not ready to confirm it in the press yet but I want her to be prepared. Tell her to contact Jonathan Toews PR and do her thing.”
“Jonathan Toews?...From the Blackhawks?” Kalah questioned.
“Yes. Now leave. And I want Scahill on the phone.”
She was still on the phone two hours later when Dan Carcillo walked in to the office. Seeing that she was on a call he sat down in a chair on the other side of the desk and waited. Elia made a gesture with her hands implying the person on the other line wouldn't stop talking. Dan got up and started looking around the office. There was a book shelf against the wall full of film books, a few pictures and awards. On the wall were posters from some of Elia's movies, her diploma from University of Chicago framed on the wall. Bachelor's of Science in Biology, Concentration in Microbiology. Dan gave her a thumbs up. He walked around to the other side of the room and took a guitar off the wall. Sitting back down he took his phone out and started tuning it.
“Sorry about that Brocillo, I was talking to someone in Kuwait and apparently I was lucky to catch him because he hasn't had very good phone access,” Elia said when she finally got off the phone. Dan just shrugged, engrossed in the guitar.
“This is a sweet guitar. Why do you keep this hanging up in your office? You're hardly ever here.” Dan said.
“You can have it if you want.” Elia said. It was a relic from a past relationship. A souvenir from Walk the Line. They hung out for a while as Elia finished replying to some emails, and listened to music. Dan had just downloaded some new music by Edward Sharpe, and Elia wanted him to listen to this band Gold Motel she had just heard about. Elia took a bottle of scotch out of her desk and poured them each a small glass.
“So, you and the Captain?” Dan asked. Elia sighed.
“Yeahhh, me and the Captain.”
“What's up with that?” he pushed. Elia shrugged, tipping her glass from side to side and swirling the golden liquid.
“Cause it looked like you'd be knocked up by now if you had chosen to wear a skirt today,” Dan said, smiling.
“I don't like how frequently I'm being referred to as preggers lately,” Elia replied, frowning, “I'm pretty sure that's one of those things like when you say Beetlejuice three times and he appears.”
“What do they teach you Americans in health class?” Dan asked laughing.
“That pizza is a vegetable,” she said in her best southern belle voice. They both laughed for a while, then there was a moment of silence.
“For serious though Cillo, it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I've thought about it. Not right now, but some day.” Elia said. Dan looked up from the guitar. “I love him.” She said firmly.
Dan sighed. “I have a feeling our next open mic set is going to be a bunch of love songs. You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs,” Dan started singing, strumming on the guitar. Elia laughed, “Is that the Moulin Rouge version?” He tried to deny it. He had never even seen that movie. If it was a movie, he didn't even know.
“Which is your favorite song?” she asked.
“I don't know any of the songs,”
“Which is your favorite!?” she started yelling at him.
“Fine! I was made for lovin' you baby, you were made for lovin' me!” he stood up and started singing. Elia screamed. “Oh my god let's write a hockey musical!” She immediately started texting Baruchel, and decided to throw Jason Segal in on it. Forgetting everything else she was supposed to do that day, Elia, Jay, Jason and Carcillo spent the rest of the afternoon working on the idea via google video hangout. It would be a loose adaptation of the Iliad. They had a rough idea of how each of the characters would play out and a very general plot outline. Carcillo and Segal would work on the music and lyrical aspect of the story.
Jonny called her around 7:30, wondering if they were getting dinner together. She wrapped up with Carcillo and the guys and drove by Jon's to pick him up. They picked up food at Sultan's Market on North Ave on the way back to her house. Elia set the food down on the cement dining table along with a binder of Dolphin pre-production notes. She excitedly told Jon about the new movie idea she had with Carcillo while they ate dinner. The corgi circled under their feet waiting for treats, and the cats had taken to following the dog around like little ducklings.
“Are you going to base a character on me?” Jon asked as he added passed a piece of chicken shawarma to Byfuglien.
“Maybe. Would you rather be an Odysseus or a Hector?” Elia asked, grabbing Jon's hand to stop him from further treating the animals.
“Psh, Achilles. And I want to be played by James Franco.” Jon rebuffed. Elia rejected this idea on numerous counts, most of all that James Franco was one of the creepiest men she had ever met.
“Then who would you cast as me in a movie?” Jon asked.
“I would travel back in time to 1966 and kidnap Paul Newman.” Elia said quickly. She thought a moment longer, “Although, if you two stood next to each other the world would implode from hotness. Basically it would be a supernova. Do you see how problematic it would be for me to ever write a character based on you?”
“Initially, no, but now I realize that it would literally be the end of the world.” Jon replied, astounded by the train of thought.
They finished eating and Elia started to clear the table. Jon picked up the binder on the table, “Wow you really got a lot of work done on it,” he said as he walked over to the sofa and sat down. Elia sat down next to him and explained that was for another other movie. He opened to the first page. It was a budget over view. Elia had penciled in some names and dollar amounts next to come of the categories, Greig Fraser next to cinematography, production design, art direction. He flipped through a few pages, stopping at a packet titled “Location Scouting”. All of the places were far away from Chicago. He looked over at Elia, who was playing with the dog.
“Hey. Can we talk?” he asked. Elia threw a dog toy across the room. Buff bounded after it, her ducklings following behind. She turned to look at Jon, a little reserved now, as if she anticipated something bad was about to happen.
“Yeah, of course.” she said finally.
“I want to be serious for a minute, can you do that?” he specified.
“I did that once, yes.” she replied.
“See that was already a joke.” Jon pointed out.
“Fuck, you're right. Okay. I'm ready.” She turned to face Jon, sitting cross legged on the sofa.
“What this is,” he motioned to Elia and himself, “On my end what this is is we're together, we aren't seeing anybody else. You're my girlfriend. Done. I'm not confused about that. Are you confused about that?” Elia bit her lip. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? It just seemed so fast and too sudden. They hadn't even tried dating first. They had just gotten to first base that morning. Twelve hours ago they were just friends.
“I am a little confused, to be honest. I mean, don't you think we should date a while, see how it goes?” Elia said.
“Why?” Jon asked.
“What if there is stuff you find out you don't like about me? Like, what if you are pro-Israel and I am pro-Palestine?”
“We already know we agree on that issue.”
“What if you're team Edward and I'm team Jacob?”
“What?” Jon asked, giving her a look of confusion. They had gotten to know each other so well over the past few years, he didn't understand why she was suddenly worried about these trivial things.
“Do you realize what it will be like when everyone finds out about this?” Elia asked sincerely. She could tell he thought it wouldn't be a big deal. He was the captain of arguably the most popular team in the NHL. But hockey was still only the sixth popular sport in the United States. He had no idea what real celebrity was. She was a top ten actress in the world. If it was confirmed she was in a relationship with Jon, they would have no peace. Even now people were snapping pictures of them around town, and it would be a thousand times worse if professional photographers moved in. Whcih they would if Elia Downs was dating another hockey player so soon after her last break up. The media never let couples be happy, they always found a way to twist pictures and words around in the worst way. It wasn't exactly conducive to a new couple trying to build a lasting relationship. If they weren't on a solid foundation of trust to start with, it could tear them apart. On top of all that she would have to buy curtains or a new house. Elia tried to explain it all to him, and Jon tried to explain to her that he could handle it.
“Why are you so afraid of this?” Jon asked her, stopping her mid sentence. She stared at him silently, unblinking, biting her lip again.

“Because if I fall for you, I'm falling all the way Jonny. And if I lose you it will be the worstthing that has ever happened to me,” Elia finally blurted out. Jon took her hand and pulled her into his lap. She put her arms around him and nestled her head into his neck. Jon held her tight, kissing her forehead. “Hey,” he said, looking down at him. She turned to look back, into his deep brown eyes. “You will never lose me. And I am never going to lose you.” He brushed her hair back with his hand, and resting it on her cheek leaned in for a kiss. “I already fell all the way,” he whispered, and kissed her again, longer. And in that moment, all her fears melted away, leaving only love and happiness.

Notes