Dreaming Out Loud // Jonathan Toews, Chris Kreider, Nathan MacKinnon

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois, September 2, 2019

"Chicago P.D., you are under arrest for the abduction of Tanner Glendale, anything you say or do will be held against you in a court of law," Detective Jacqueline Hale holds up her badge as her eyes narrows in on the man in front of her.

The man's eyes wanders from the cop in front of him to any possible escape routes around him. Jacqueline stays firmly in her place, already aware of the fact that this criminal is plotting for a way to make it out of this zone unscathed. She has been at this for quite a while, long enough for her to be able to predict a criminal's move every time she closes in on them.

Two officers appear from behind just as the perpetrator prepares to lounge towards the similar direction. One of the officers takes out the handcuffs from his belt and starts locking his arms together while the other one holds him in place. Jacqueline smirks in success and casually strolls back to her parked vehicle at the entrance of the alley.

As she gets inside her car, she can hear the man scream profanities at the other cops from the other end of the alleyway. She grins to herself in satisfaction and closes the car door behind her. Just as she starts the car, her phone starts ringing. Jacqueline picks up her phone and raises her eyebrow. Just staring at the contact information raises some confusion.

"Patrick, you better have one helluva good reason to call me on the job or help me god, I will find you and cuff you to your bed – and before you start making suggestive comments..."

"I think someone took Tazer!" Patrick, the man at the other end of the line, interrupts in midst of her angry rant.

Jacqueline stops upon hearing the nickname of her boyfriend and she suddenly feels bile form in her throat. She prays to god that Pat is trying to play a prank on her. She is a detective from the missing persons department so joking about her boyfriend's abduction is no way to get a laugh out of her—or of anyone involved.

"What do you mean someone took him?" She questions, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

Her blood is pulsing at this point. She finally closed the case she had been working on for nearly a month and now, she has to worry about a possible abduction of her boyfriend.

"I don't know, man, I went into your apartment to find him and he's gone and there's shit everywhere!" Patrick exclaims.

Jacqueline knows that he is not fooling around at this point. She can sense the panic in his voice and not even a fool like him can pull it off in a joke. Besides, Patrick knows what will happen to him if he ever takes a joke too far with her.

"So there's a sign of entry?"

"If a sign of entry means your tipped over coffee table and no Tazer then yeah," he sounds irritated and impatient with her at this point.

Jacqueline curses under her breath and steps on the gas pedal to back out of the alleyway. She places one hand on the steering wheel, pressing the phone closely to her ear with the other. She can feel herself panicking as well. Jon's best friend sounds pretty serious for someone who is always immature and cheeky.

"Are you still at the apartment?"

"Yeah, do you want me to stay until you get here?"

"Please, I'll be here in five, no guarantee I won't break a law or two. Stay put, Kane," she hangs up the phone quickly and takes a rapid left turn at the sign of a red light.

The car beside her honks loudly at her but she ignores the notion and turns on the fastest route to the apartment. On her drive back, a few more vehicles honk at her. At this moment, Jacqueline is trying not to think the worse. This can all be a misunderstanding. If someone has really abducted Jonathan, she guarantees that she will find the perpetrator.

Jacqueline loves her boyfriend very much and would rather not have him taken for leverage or for any reason at all. They have been dating for three years now, so someone would take him for leverage if they have a vendetta against her. She has caught her fair share of criminals and uncovered some things that were not meant to be uncovered. It is possible that she has enemies, and if they study her life enough, they know exactly how to get to her.

She is afraid that she is the reason he is taken from the apartment, and she begins placing the blame on herself. If she can have him back in the apartment, safe and sound, she will promise to quit her job. No matter how much she loves the feeling of saving the day every time she closes a case and finds the victim, she loves Jon more.

Jacqueline parks her car directly in front of the complex, ignoring the scowling doorman. She pushes past him and sprints her way up the stairs. They are on the fifth floor, which means that she has to go up ten flights of stairs to get to her shared apartment with Jonathan. She ignores the minor exhaustion kicking in by the time she got to the third floor and continues running up.

The elevator takes way too much time, or else she would have taken that option. Besides forcing herself to run up ten flights of stairs gives her something to do other than stand idle in the elevator thinking the worse. She has been running around and chasing a criminal all morning, so her stamina is not exactly up to its full potential. Despite all that, Jacqueline feels the adrenaline course through her veins. This is Jonathan in danger. The love of her life is probably abducted. This is a different animal that Jacqueline has to mentally and physically prepare herself for. She swears she will do anything for him, and the thought of him missing makes her heart race, and not in a good way at all.

When she finally makes it to the fifth floor, she sprints down the hall and tries to manage her breathing. Her heart is racing, pounding a thousand miles a minute as different drastic thoughts runs through her head. She cannot even begin to put her detective hat on at the thought of someone taking and wanting to harm her boyfriend. Jacqueline reassures herself that all she has to do is enter the premises and figure everything out from there.

She kicks open the entrance to her apartment and walks inside in a much slower pace than she had been using. Panting, she slowly approaches the living room area, noticing the fallen coat rack by the door and the shattering of a vase. The house is at its messiest and its eerie silence is worrying her.

"Pat?" She calls out, afraid that whoever took Jon might have taken his friend too.

She is met with silence. Paranoid, Jacqueline pulls out her glock from its holster on her belt and holds it in front of her as she carefully walks over to the bedroom area. The living room is empty, despite its mess, and she can see a shadow by the door of the master bedroom. She knows there is someone there, and whoever it is might have abducted the two hockey stars.

Counting to three, she kicks open the almost closed door and holds her gun at the general direction of the shadow, finger ready at the trigger. The second her eyes falls on the figure at the other end of her gun, her whole composure relaxed. The other pair of eyes stares in a mixture of fear and amusement. Jacqueline's moment of relief and relaxation did not last long. Instead, it is replaced by a look of anger.

"What the hell, Jon? You know you can't just call up freaking Patrick Kane and pull this shit! Did you know how worried I was? I thought someone took you. I was so fucking afraid that you'd end up locked in some cage or something, and you just pulled this shit and I wish you were locked up in a cage and..."

"Marry me."

Shaking her head in midst of her second rant of the day, she snaps out of her anger and looks up at her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips. Jonathan Toews blinks at her innocently as he reaches for something in his hoodie pocket. Jacqueline turns the safety back on and places her gun on the carpet floor in her shock. She stares at him, still in daze.

Jonathan pulls out a dark velvet box and slowly opens it. He holds the box out for her to see, forcing a shaky gasp out of her. Her widened hazel eyes falls upon the glistening object and she tries to compose herself. The ring inside the velvet box is beautiful, the most beautiful she has ever seen and she wants more than anything to see it on her finger.

"Jonny..." she breathes out.

Her heart is still beating rapidly, but for a different reason. She has never gone from anger to shock and then to bliss in such a short period of time. Jon has the power to control her emotions drastically, and that is one thing she loves about him.

"It's a yes or no answer, Jack, I would love to have one right now," he chuckles nervously.

Jacqueline squeals a bit and throws herself at him in one swift motion. The two tips over onto their king sized bed naturally, resulting in Jon losing grip of the velvet box. Laughing, he reaches for the box and takes the ring out from it.

"Is that a yes?"

She leans down to give him a hard kiss on the lips.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," she says quickly.

He reaches for her left hand and slips the ring into her fourth finger. Jacqueline stares at the beautiful diamond ring on her finger with teary eyes, unable to believe that this is happening to her right now. Sometimes she has a heart of steel. She is a bit rough, naturally influenced by her occupation, but she is a complete mush when it comes to the brunette man in front of her. She is a hopeless romantic who cannot believe she is going to get married to the love of her life.

"Thank you," Jonathan whispers to her, giving her a soft kiss on her forehead.

Jacqueline grins as she extends out her ring hand for them both to see. Jonathan links his fingers into hers and rubs his thumb against the back of the ring band.

"You're an asshole, you know?" Jacqueline murmurs.

Jonathan rolls his eyes and uses his free hand to push her bleach blonde hair behind her ear.

"Don't be so dramatic, Mrs. Toews."

Jacqueline shoots up from her position above him, earning a concerned look from him.

"What?"

"Say that again?"

"Say what?" he is beyond puzzled.

Jacqueline wraps an arm around his neck when he sits up to face her, pulling him closer to her. She presses her forehead against his and caresses his cheek with her other hand.

"Call me Mrs. Toews again, I like it," she gently brushes her thumb against the bottom of his lips.

Jonathan smirks at her and delicately pulls her hand away from his face.

"Mrs. Toews."