Forever Chicago

I awoke the next morning tangled in Jonathan’s arms. Last night had gotten crazy.

I carefully slipped out of bed and into the kitchen to find Paige stooped over the kitchen counter.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi,” she said, “way too much alcohol last night.” She said sipping coffee.

I laughed, “What happened to Riley and Ben? I never saw them again after we introduced them.”

“I don’t know,” she said, “I never saw them again either.”

I picked my phone up of the counter to see a text from Riley.

Going home with Ben, pray for me! Ahhhhhh

“Oh my Gosh!” I yelled.

“What? What?!” Paige said.

I handed her my phone, “Oh my God!” she yelled with a mouth full of cereal, “Tell her to
come over!”

“Okay, okay!” I said.

OMG, come over we want to know everything!- Kodie

On my way…- Riley

“Okay she’s on her way.” I said setting my phone down.

Only a few minutes passed before Riley burst through the door, still dressed in her clothes from last night.

“How was your night?” I asked as she sat at the kitchen island with Paige and I.

“I like him.” She smiled, “Like a lot.”

“Did you…………?” Paige smirked.

“No,” Riley said, “Not yet.”

“Yet?” I smiled.

“We have a date after Friday’s game.” Riley beamed with delight.

“Oh, I’m at the hospital during that game.” I sunk remembering my work schedule.

“No!” Riley whined, “You have to go to the game, who am I gonna talk to?”

“Paige you’re not going?” I asked turning to her.

“I have a shoot in New York.” She said shaking her head.

“You’ll be fine, hang out with Abby, all the wives are really nice.” I said.

“So what did you guys do?” Paige asked.

I laughed, while Riley blushed.

“We kind of just hung out, he’s so sweet.” Riley.

“Aww, the kids in love.” I said nudging her shoulder.

“Not yet,” she blushed, “maybe though.”

“Morning.” Jonathan said as he came up behind me kissing me on the cheek.

“Hi” I gently laughed, “What time is your practice.”

“An hour, where’s Kaner?” he asked.

“Asleep,” I said.

“Hung over.” Paige added.

The guys left for practice around 3, leaving Paige, Riley and I alone for a few hours.

“So what did you guys talk about?” Paige asked, as we sat around the living room, nibbling
pizza.

“Well, we talked about hockey, and work and stuff like that.” She said.

After seeming lonely for so long, it was good to see Riley excited about someone.
…
I kissed Jonathan as he prepared to leave for his Friday night game against the St. Louis Blues.

“I wish I could go.” I said and he held me tightly.

“I wish you could to.” He said kissing me harder.

“Good luck.” I said as I kissed him one more time.

“Love you.” He said as he slipped out the door.

I pulled on a pair of scrubs; it was nights like tonight that made me want to quit my job.

The droned on as I sat at the front desk.

“Kodie,” Jeannie said, “There’s a little boy in the back who needs an x-ray.”

I got up and walked to the x-ray room, where a little boy sat with his leg flat across the table.

As I placed a sticker over his chest after a routine x-ray, and cast, I heard a loud commotion at the front desk.

“We need more nurses!” I heard Jeannie yell.

Rushing out to the front room I watched as a stretcher was rolled through the automatic doors. The stretcher was completely surrounded by EMT’s and nurses.

As the stretcher rolled past me I was mortified to catch sight of the patient.

“Jonathan?” I breathed as the stretcher was pushed past me into the ICU.

“Jonathan!” I yelled as they pulled the stretcher away.

“Kodie!” I heard yelled behind me.

I turned around to see Riley running toward me.

“What the hell is going on?!” I yelled.

“He got pushed head first into the post.” She said.

“Where is he?” Patrick Kane said as he ran through the door, Paige trailing behind him.

“ICU” I said.

“Kodie we need you.” Jeannine said popping her head out from the swinging doors.

“Kodie,” she said as I approached, “ I know this will be hard, we can ask another nurse if you don’t want to-“

“No,” I cut her off, “Where is he?”

We filed into an exam room where tons of nurses and doctors surrounded an unconscious
Jonathan. My eyes moved from his lifeless legs, to his chest that I had fallen so soundly asleep in last night, but when I got to his face, I nearly broke down.

The entire right half Jonathan’s face was soaked in blood, he was bruised and bloodied, and broken. I desperately wanted to curl up next to him and make it better.

Staring out Jonathan laid out on the table was too much to bare.

“Kodie we need gauze.” Someone yelled.

I sprinted from the room to grab gauze from a supply room. The only way I would be able to get through this was to pretend Jonathan was just a normal patient, and not the man I shared my entire life with.

After hours of running back and forth from the room getting supplies, setting up IV’s, and running blood tests, it had finally set in. My patient was Jonathan. It wasn’t some random stranger who needed stitches or an x-ray. He was my soul mate, and he needed more help than I could give him.

I sunk down against the wall outside his hospital room, and let the tears I had kept inside for hours now, roll down my cheeks.

“Kodie?” I looked up to see Jeannie standing over me.

“We’re ready to talk to friends and family.” She said.

“Okay,” I said standing up and wiping the tears from my face.

Jeannie, Jonathan’s main doctor, and I walked into the waiting room, where unbeknownst to me, relatively the entire team and coaching staff had arrived.

“Jonathan Toews.” Jeannie read off his clipboard, almost the entire waiting room stood up.

Patrick Sharp, Kaner ,Paige Ben Smith, and Riley stood in front.

“Jonathan had severe head trauma, we won’t know how severely he has been damaged until he wakes up.” The doctor said coldly.

New tears formed in my eyes.

“Kodie.” Riley said taking me into her arms, “He’s gonna be fine.”

“He’ll pull through Kode.” Kaner said.

“I gotta get back to the room.” I said wiping my eyes, “you guys should go, we’ll be fine here.”

“No way,” Sharpie said.

“Yeah, not until he’s awake.” Ben Smith said. I forced a smile through tears as I turned to
return to Jonathan’s bedside.

I sat down next to Jonathan’s bed holding tightly onto his hand.

“Please wake up Jon. I need you.”

Notes

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