Chapter 45
She felt the warmth of his chest against her bare back and wondered if she was really awake. Was it a dream? Was this consciousness? His left arm was under her neck, his right arm around her waist with his hand somewhere next to her breasts. She felt the weight of his body as he leaned up against her, his right leg angled between hers. They had laid everything bare last night, their feelings, their hopes, and finally their bodies.
She remembered the gentle way he had lifted her shirt over her head, and carefully unhooked her bra. The rush of adrenaline as he took her in his arms and she felt his skin against hers for the first time. The feeling of his waist between her legs as he lay on top of her, and the friction of denim on denim. Taking the pants off had been more difficult than shirts. Then back on top of her. Two thin pieces of fabric between them, not enough to disguise every line and contour of his hard cock as it rubbed against her. There could be no more waiting. Elia had reached down, and pushing his briefs away she took out his member. Jon didn't hesitate or wait for another signal. He pushed back, pulling Elia's feet together so he could slip off her panties, and quickly parting her legs once again. He ran his hands down the course of her body before lowering himself down again. She felt the tip of his cock brush against her. He looked down at her, and she nodded, sliding her hand around his butt and pulling him towards her. In to her. She ceased to be. He ceased to be. There was only the moment now. It started out slowly, a gentle rhythm. But the excitement grew, and so did he, and the thrusts got harder and deeper. He lifted one of Elia's legs over his arm towards the end, allowing him in even further. Then faster. He had leaned down to kiss her neck when he came. She felt him throbbing inside of her, and his whole body fall on her, and then she was screaming and digging her nails into his back as she arched into him.
That was how they had fallen asleep. Somehow they had gotten into their current position. Elia was afraid to open her eyes. Afraid it was all in her imagination, which often ran away with her. How long had she been lying there awake? But Jon was waking up now, and she felt him stretch behind her. His hand pressed against her stomach now, and then felt down the side of her body. She leaned back and looked up, straining to look at Jon's face. He rolled onto his back, giving her more room to turn over.
“Good morning,” he said with a smile. Elia lay her head on his chest now, smiling. “Good morning.”
“You look beautiful in the morning light,” Jon said, putting his hand on her cheek. “What do you want to do today?” he asked.
“Be with you,” she replied sleepily.
“All day?” he asked. She nodded.
“Those were my plans too.” he said.
“I also want to go to extreme trampolines, they have whole rooms of trampolines,” Elia added.
“We are never going to that place.” Jon said quickly.

They started the day by taking the dog for a walk, heading south on Milwaukee Avenue to get coffee at Wormhole. Breakfast at their usual place. Shower, shower sex, real shower. Elia was hungry again by then and they swung by Glazed and Infused for a donut on the way to the Blackhawks' practice. Over the course of the morning they had mutually decided not to announce their relationship until the end of the season. This way it wouldn't distract the team and they wouldn't have to worry about the press until the off season. There was something different though, and everyone noticed it. Dave Bolland thought Elia was high. He could swear her eyes were bloodshot and her pupils were too big. He kept staring into her eyes. It kept making Elia laugh, which didn't help. He had finally stopped asking Elia if she was stoned when she started to eat her snack and exclaimed “Duuuude, Kaner, you have to try this ham and cheddar donut it's so fucked up.” Bolly maintained that no sober person would eat such a creation. Jon yelled at Elia for trying to feed Kaner a donut right before practice, but couldn't stop smiling the entire time. It was at that point that Pat realized what had happened, but before he could say anything Q pulled Jon aside. Dr. Harper was pleased with his progress and had cleared him for light skating that day. The day just kept getting better.
Elia watched the practice from the stands, texting with Abby the entire time. She was getting dinner at Japonais with the rest of the WAGs before the game later and invited Elia to join them. She wasn't sure what her plans were with Jon for the evening. He might want to be at the UC early for pre-game stuff now. She was right. After practice Jon told her he was going to need to be at the stadium two hours prior to game time. She wasn't surprised, it was part of his normal schedule when he was playing. He wouldn't be sitting on the bench though, and planned on joining her in the box suite for the game. Since they were pretty close, and neither had been there before, they spent the rest of the afternoon at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It had been a mild winter in Chicago, but it was still a long winter, and the gardens of the conservatory were a welcome relief from the grey and brown outside. It was truly like a tropical paradise, with tall ferns and palm trees, ponds and small waterfalls. There was a moderate amount of people there, but it was easy to steal away behind the trees to sneak affectionate hugs and romantic kisses.
They took a trip to Jon's condo afterward so he could pick up some clothes and personal items. He planned on staying at Elia's for most of the week. There was just enough time for a nap before they both had to get ready and leave again. Jon told Elia he had always looked forward to plane rides with Elia because she was sure to fall asleep. In fact, it was something he had noticed early on, that Elia fell asleep all over the place. He had always tried to be there when she did, to be the one she leaned on. He had always been a little jealous, actually a lot jealous, that she had spent so many nights on Kane's side of the room. Now he would always be the one to hold her at night.

She changed into a simple long sleeved taupe shift dress from All Saints, with tall boot socks to her knees and a pair of Fryes. She did a side braid across the front then pulled her hair back into a bun.

"You're wearing that to the game?" Jon asked, watching her walk out if the closet.
"My boyfriend is going to be there," she said flirtatiously. Jon smiled, and walked over to kiss her.

Elia left shortly after Jon did to meet the ladies at Japonais. The wags loved Japonais. Elia sat towards the end of the table, between Dayna and Abby, and across from Elina, Jana and Kelly. At the other end of the table were the younger girls, Amanda C, Sylvie, Chaunette and Kruger's girlfriend. Kane's girlfriend was nowhere to be seen, which was disappointing since Elia needed to talk to her about which game they were going to later in the week. More disappointing was Abby not letting Elia hold "the Nugget" as she had taken to calling the baby. If they were lucky she would sleep the entire way through dinner. The women were talking about a charity event they were doing later in the month, around St Patrick's day. They asked Elia if she would participate. She agreed. Amanda asked her to volunteer at an animal shelter later in the month, that was fine too. Elia turned the tables on them and asked if anyone wanted to go read to kids on the south side with her and Joakim next week. Chaunette agreed to come with.

Elia rode with Abby on the way to the UC. She wanted to have some girl talk time before they got to the game. Patrick had decided he wanted to host a charity golf tournament over the summer and of course Abby was left to do the planning. It was going to be back in Thunder Bay, not in Chicago. Elia volunteered to help her coordinate, or at least send her Kalah to work on her behalf.
“So, guess who got tazed last night,” Elia said, grinning at Abby. At first Abby didn't understand the reference, but as soon as she realized Elia didn't have a run in with a police officer she freaked out. How could Elia have kept that from her all day? Abby was incredibly excited that Elia and Jon were together. She also agreed that it was probably best to keep it quiet for now. There was potential for a lot of backlash from fans when it came out.
“What do you mean?” Elia asked.
“Just...The female hockey fans are very territorial. And you already had a high profile relationship with Marchand,” Abby started to say.
“So you think there is going to be a sloppy seconds situation happening here?” Elia asked.
“Well, it's assumed truth that you were with Bissonnette too—I believe you that you weren't--so I was going to say sloppy thirds. But you get the idea.” Abby added.
“Thanks for that Abby.” Elia said sarcastically. She had never really faced backlash from a relationship. A little bit, maybe, when she dated Hayden Christiansen. Girls would sometimes yell mean things at her at premieres, but that was before social media. He was probably the closest she had come to dating a celebrity 'heart throb'.
“Wait, are people mean to you Abby? Because I will find them on the internet and publicly shame them, which is the internet version of beating someone up.” Elia said.
“Not really. But I know Elina gets down about it sometimes.” Abby replied.
Elia could see how Elina might rub people the wrong way if they didn't know her. She was surprised that Elina would let something like that bother her though.
“The haters can come at me, I will not be made to feel bad about who I have and/or have allegedly slept with. Actually, I found out the other day that I have a legion of fans on twitter that refer to themselves as Downers.” Elia said.
“Like beliebers and swifties or whatever they're called?”
“Yeah, we live in a crazy world.”

They pulled into the United Center parking lot next to Elina's car, and Elia helped get the baby stuff out of the car. She was impressed with Abby's physical strength. Just carrying the bag with the diapers in it was giving her shoulder pain. The game hadn't started yet but most of the WAGs had already arrived. Elia tried texting Amanda G to see if she was coming, but hadn't gotten a response. Elina was doing her usual thing of taking pictures with everyone. She was in love with Elia's outfit, but thought Elia had chosen the wrong lipstick color. Luckily, Elina had plenty with her and picked one out of her Chanel bag to put on Elia. She had to admit, the color did pull it together better. Elina was some kind of style genius. “Abby next,” Elia suggested. Abby was not happy to be volunteered for an impromptu makeover but sat still for it none the less. As everyone sat down to watch the game, Elia listened as Sylvie and Amanda C were giving Chaunette advice on how to handle being a WAG. This would be Corey and Bickell's second year full year so they were experts now. Abby and Elina had overheard them too, and exchanged amused looks with each other.
All the women were surprised when Jon walked in a few minutes into the first period. Everyone started chatting at him and asking him what was going on. Abby moved down a seat to let Jon sit next to Elia. He seemed uncomfortable surrounded by all the WAGs. Sitting next to each other, he sent Elia a text, “Hey, do you want to go sit with the Kanes?” Elia didn't want to ditch Abby, so she showed her the text. Abby shooed her away, and said she would text her to come back if she got bored. Jon and Elia walked arm in arm down the hallway to a stairwell that would take them down to the 200 level. As soon as the doors to the stairs closed Elia turned to stand in front of Toews, putting her hands under his suit jacket and smiling. He looked down at her, grinning, “Do you think I brought you here to make out?” he asked. Elia nodded. “That wasn't my plan at all. Okay fine, but only for a minute,” he relented. When they finally got to the next floor Jon stopped Elia, “Alright, before we go out I need to tell you something so you don't say anything awkward. Kaner and Amanda broke up.”
“What?! How long have you know this? And why?”
“Hey, you're the one that wanted to make out. I don't know why they broke up, he didn't say and I didn't ask.”
“If you didn't want to make out, you shouldn't have shown up looking all hot. And next time you need to get more information!”
Now it made sense that Amanda wasn't answering Elia's texts. She thought they were friends too though. Patrick must have done something stupid. Unfortunately, with his family in town, it was going to be hard to get it out of him. Maybe his sisters knew something. Elia didn't want to bring it up, and nobody in the Kane family did. They either didn't know yet or weren't going to talk about it.
Watching the game with Jon at the UC was just as uncomfortable as watching it in his living room. The Hawks struggled through the first period, getting out shot by the Rangers and letting in a goal. Pat Sr.'s game commentary seemed to provide some relief to Jon's inner anguish somehow, as if his words gave healthy expression to Jon's rage. When he was actually sitting in his seat, he held Elia's hand under her jacket draped between their two seats. The second period was slightly better, with Andrew Shaw scoring, but the team was still playing sluggishly. The Rangers started off the third with another goal, but the Blackhawks came back to score three in a row. New York put one more in the net but it was too late. The Hawks won. As everyone stood up to celebrate at the end of the game. “I've got to head back to the locker room,” Jon said, putting his arm around Elia's waist and gazing into her eyes, smiling. She could tell he wanted to say something, but he didn't need to. She knew what he meant. It was horrible being out injured, but he was glad he had her to be there for him.

For the next week Jon continued to skate with the team at practice. He wasn't taking any contact, but his doctors had been pleased with his progress. It was always tough to watch a guy go through an injury. Harder still when it was someone Elia cared as much about as Jon. He wasn't the type to tolerate sitting out either. He was prone to fits of anger and restlessness. Especially in the middle of March when he had to stop skating again. It should have been hard on their relationship, but it wasn't. Getting there may have been difficult, but being together came as naturally as breathing. Loving Jon was the easiest thing Elia had ever done, even when he was stressed or being a pain in the ass. And she had realized that he had seen her at her worst, probably multiple times, and had always been there in the end. She had put her trust and her heart in his hands and didn't look back.

They hadn't talked about anything relationship-wise since their first night together, but it had felt like they were on the same page since then. At least, it felt that way from Elia's perspective. It wasn't until the end of March, when Elia was preparing for her trip to Arizona, that someone's lingering doubt started to surface.

Notes