Proving Her Worth

~*~*~*~ Mallory’s POV ~*~*~*~

As the next two weeks of November flew by, I was fairly certain that I’d never been happier in my life. When the Hawks were on the road, Jon texted me throughout the day and while our conversations never got too deep, it was nice just to have someone to talk to again that wasn’t family. It had been years since I’d had anyone that I felt I could share bits and pieces of my life with. Just like I’d promised, for our third date I’d cooked and Jon and I just stayed in eating and watching a movie on Netflix. The Chicken Parmesan I’d made seemed to go over well with Jon and snuggling on the couch made me feel safe, something I’d never felt with a man before. When I woke up the next morning I was tucked into my bed and Jon’s scratchy handwriting was on a note next to the bed commenting on how I’d passed out mid-movie and that he’d text me when they got to Philadelphia the following day.

During the second road trip I’d started Christmas shopping and while deciding what to buy my family was hard enough, I knew that shopping for Jon would be nearly impossible if we didn’t have the talk that was lingering above us. He had started to use plural tones on occasion such as asking how we were instead of how I was when he called, but we still hadn’t actually talked about the baby I was carrying or how he felt about it all. Not knowing left me feeling insecure and anxious about letting him too close and I was sure he’d noticed my distance when my texts were brief the entire weekend.

## Jon’s POV ##

I was well aware of the fact that Mallory and I needed to talk about what both of us wanted moving forward. It wasn’t a conversation that could happen over the phone though and with three road games over the course of a week, it was the last thing I honestly wanted to get into with the little bit of time we did have together.

The afternoon before the Rangers game though it became evident that we couldn’t wait much longer. When I arrived at the arena it was clear that she was staying for the game by the fact that her office was locked but her things were still visible through the window on the door. Though I’d been hoping to see her it was probably best for my focus that I didn’t.

Still, as I sat down in my locker I couldn’t help but peek at the ultrasound picture, trying to figure out what I was going to say to her when I got the chance.

“Earth to Jon…” Hearing my name I looked up to see Sharpy standing above me, inquiring look on his face as he motioned to my phone. “I’d ask what that is but that would be a stupid question so instead I’ll ask why.”

Cursing under my breath I sighed, I was certainly an idiot for being stupid enough to get caught with the picture. Though my brain raced to come up with a lie, I knew that Sharpy would see right through it. Mallory was certainly going to kill me because she hadn’t told anyone other than her boss...not even her parents.

Grabbing my skates to sharpen them I motioned for Patrick to follow me after tucking my phone back in my pocket. The noise of the grinder would make it harder for anyone to hear us and once we were alone I found myself spilling all of the thoughts I’d been holding back the past month.

“This stays between us...not a word to anyone.” With the face that had gotten me my nickname in place I continued, voice as quiet as possible. “She hasn’t told anyone else, not even her parents so this can’t get out to anyone.”

Once Sharpy had motioned that his lips were sealed as long as I explained, I gave him what he wanted. “I’ve been seeing Mallory...from business operations.”

“And you knocked her up?” Sharpy was quick to jump in with the accusation and I ran my fingers through my hair as I quickly shook my head.

“She was pregnant before we started dating. It’s complicated.” There was no way I was even going to try to explain the whole sperm bank thing.

“So you’re dating a pregnant chick...how’s that going to work?”

“Honestly I don’t know. She and I need to sit down and really talk about it.” I whispered as I turned the grinder off, my skates as sharp as they could possibly be. “I think I kind of already adore that baby and I might just be falling for its mother.” With nothing else left to say as I tried to process my own admission, I headed back to the locker room to resume my pregame routine.

Admittedly, I wasn’t on my game the way I should have been, luckily Anisimov had one hell of a night and scored his first career hat trick. At the end of the game, I chipped in an empty-netter but was still frustrated with myself. Heading into the locker room I managed to avoid the media and instead quickly showered and changed before walking over to Mallory’s office in hopes that she was still here.

Her door was open and her light still on so I popped my head inside, all of the grouchy feelings fading when I saw her gathering up her things dressed in grey yoga pants, a Hawks sweatshirt, and hat and tennis shoes on her feet. She was adorable and rapping my knuckles against her doorframe I quickly moved to wrap an arm around her, kissing her gently.

~*~*~*~ Mallory’s POV ~*~*~*~

Sitting up in the executive suite, I could tell as soon as the puck dropped that Jonathan wasn’t fully there. An inkling feeling told me that it was my fault and that made a normally pleasant game just slightly uncomfortable. Thankfully, he’d at least scored the empty netter and I could only hope that a strong team win in combination with that would help his mood.

As I walked back to my office I shot him a text to see if he wanted to spend a few hours with me before we both crashed from exhaustion. Waiting in my office for twenty minutes with no response I figured that he wasn’t in a very good mood and gathered my things to take the L back home. As I grabbed my keys, I heard a rapping on my door and as I looked up, a strong arm wrapped around me and immediately I recognized its owner as he pressed his lips onto mine.

“Hey…” I murmured taking in the sight of him in his suit , our color palettes very similar except for his burgundy as opposed to Blackhawks red. It was hard to read his mood so brushing back a strand of hair I fought back a yawn, waiting to see if he’d speak. When he didn’t I knew that I had to say something.

“It’s my fault you were off your game tonight isn’t it?” Though it would hurt if he agreed, it was easier to get right to the point instead of delaying with small talk. After a moment in which his hand rubbed against my side he responded.

“Yes.” Hearing him agree, my stomach sunk and I felt like I was going to throw up at the same time. “I think we need to sit down and talk, figure out what we both want from this moving forward, clear the air.” What he was requesting was completely reasonable since we both knew it needed to happen but I was still absolutely terrified that like all of the men before him, he was going to pull away and tell me that he didn’t want to put up with all of my baggage anymore.

Not another word was spoken until we’d not only pulled into his parking garage, but entered his massive Chicago penthouse. Dropping his bag on the floor and urging me to set my things down as well, Jon moved to grab a water for me and a Gatorade for himself from his fridge. I’d never actually been to his apartment before and I couldn’t help but look around at each item, figuring out what they described about him. Honestly I was just trying to avoid getting lost in my own thoughts, knowing that it would end with me spiraling.

Overall, the space was exactly what I’d pictured him living in and after a moment I moved to the windows taking in the absolutely incredible views. My view was of the city itself but it honestly wasn’t very good, his however, it wouldn’t surprise me if he bought this based on view alone.

When he handed me my water I shot a strained smile his way before moving to sit on one of his couches, feet curled up under me. I need to hear what he had to say before I let myself say anything because if he was going to reject me it wouldn’t matter what I wanted. For a moment he disappeared before returning in sweats and a t-shirt himself and taking the spot on the other end of the couch, tugging my feet into his lap. Feeling my stomach twist because of the confusion of his mixed signals I sighed before speaking.

“Can you please start talking before I end up puking…” I pleaded tucking my hands against my stomach.

“Relax Mal…” Jon murmured, his fingers teasing over my legs. “Yes you were the reason that I was off my game tonight but only because I was trying to figure out what to say when we sat down to have this conversation.” I couldn’t tell if that was a good or a bad thing and did my best to mask my emotions until he continued.

“We both know that things are more...complex...because of the baby so let’s just ignore that for three minutes.” It was pretty much impossible for me to ignore my baby so I glared at him before giving into his request.

“Okay. For the next three minutes, I’m not pregnant. Continue.” I declared still confused and anxious.

“If there was no baby involved what would you want us to be?” He asked and while I didn’t really want to put my end of things out there, he’d done nothing the past month except be as supportive as possible and beyond good to me.

“I’d want to see where things go, let the feelings continue to develop.” That seemed like a safe enough response and when he nodded I let out a deep breath.

“And with the baby, do you feel the same?”

“I think I should be the one asking you that.” After all, I knew what I was getting into when I tried to get pregnant, he didn’t exactly sign up for all of this, at least not beyond a few dates.

“Will you answer me first?” He asked, his tone showing just an iota of annoyance at my avoidance of the question.

“Fine. Being pregnant makes me want to be a lot more cautious because it’s not just me that could get hurt, it’s my child and this baby means more to me than anything else probably ever could.” At the same time though, I knew I hadn’t been as cautious as I should have been so far, he made it really hard not to just give in to him.

“But you still want to see where things go?” He confirmed and when I nodded he seemed to relax a bit. “I’ll be blunt Mal...I never expected to get involved with someone that was pregnant, especially when it’s not biologically my baby.” What he was saying wasn’t really anything new but I needed to know where he was going with this, my hands shaking slightly.

“I never expected to get involved with someone that was expecting but…” Shifting from his spot at my feet, Jon moved and pulled me to stand face to face with him while he continued, his left hand cupping my face while his right moved to my stomach. “But you are unlike anyone else I’ve ever met. I want to share every post-game victory with you and just curl up on the couch after every loss. I want to be here as this baby continues to grow and I want to play whatever role you want me to in his or her life. I want to take you home to my mom and hang your ultrasound pictures in my locker for everyone to see. I’ve done a lot of thinking about how you being pregnant would impact a blossoming relationship and while we’ll certainly have to make sure that we balance our focus between us and the baby as equally as possible I want to pursue a future with you, with both of you.”

By the time he finished speaking, tears were pouring down my cheeks and I honestly didn’t know how to respond. How is it possible that such an amazing man actually wants to explore a future with me regardless of the fact that he didn’t help make the baby I’m carrying. There weren’t words to describe how I was feeling so instead I stretched onto the tips of my toes and pulled him down into a heady kiss, pouring out everything I couldn’t say with my actions.

“I think you should take me to bed.”

Notes

I honestly think this is one of the longest chapters I've written yet and I'm pretty proud of it. I'd love to know what you think. Especially of the pacing, I'm trying to get in all the big moments I have in my head while not making it seem too fast or too slow. Going to post the calendar I have for this story in the summary to make it easier to follow along.