Out of the Blue {Jonathan Toews}

Chapter 27

{Jonathan}

Two weeks later, we had advanced to the third round after triple OT in game seven. Today was the day Christine would finally be allowed to come home from the hospital.

At first, the antivirus didn't work and she had seizures until they tried a different antivirus. The second one caused her blood pressure and pulse to randomly spike, and she was constantly puking. The third one they tried actually worked.

Through the whole process, Christine slammed her ankle into something during a seizure and broke it badly. They had to perform surgery again.

So six days and three surgeries later, she was allowed to leave. She was weak, tired, and had no will to move or walk.

She decided to leave Chicago, which killed me. She wanted to be in Ohio with her family while she healed before she came back to Chicago to rehab. Our trip to my home Canada was already set back.

It had been four weeks since I saw her, and we were about to go into the cup finals against Pittsburgh.

"You ready for this, man?" Shaw asked as we walked into our arena.

"I guess I am," I replied with a small laugh. Christine was also taking a break from technology, because her step mom thought that would be best. That pissed me off. Christine's a grown woman, it's her choice.

But, because of her step mom, I had barely been able to talk to Chris, and I worried about her a lot.

"I know, man, you miss her," Shaw said. He pulled me into a hug and I hugged him back quickly before we stepped into the dressing room to prepare for game 1.

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After the game, which we won 3-1, the guys and I milled around in the room for a bit until we decided we should go home and get some sleep. As the door pushed open, I heard a familiar laugh. The guys cleared out and I saw Christine, standing there with her crutches.

"Chris," I breathed out, walking towards her.

"Ohh I missed you so much," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back and pulled her as close to me as humanly possible.

"How? What? When?" I teased. She grinned to herself and kissed my cheek.

"We can talk later, but a lot has happened and I have a lot to tell you," she said with a smile as she took my hand and gave it a squeeze before grabbing her crutches.

"Shall we?" I asked, holding the door open. She smiled up at me.

"We shall."

We went back to her house because Patrick wanted to have his girlfriend over. Her name was Amanda but since there was already an Amanda in the group of wives and girlfriends, she went by Mandy.

When we got there, there were boxes scattered around.

"They're Brianna's," Christine told me. "She's moving to Dallas to be with Tyler. He's gonna stick around in Texas because the baby is due in August."

"So you'll be here all alone?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"Not exactly," she said with a sly grin.

"Chris, what did you do?" I asked her. She gave a laugh and crutched over to the laundry room door. She opened it and out ran a dog that looked like a German Shepherd with another dog mixed.

"It's a German Shepherd Collie mix," she explained. "He's still a puppy, but he's potty trained."

"Where did you get him?" I said as I knelt down and scratched behind his ears.

"My sister and her boyfriend broke up and she claims she doesn't have enough time to take care of him," she replied.

"Does he have a name?" I asked.

"Not yet, my sister and her ex never got around to naming him."

"Hmmm," I wondered. The dog rolled over and I rubbed his belly.

"He likes you," she commented. I grinned.

"What about Bailey?" I asked, looking up at Christine. She grinned and crutched over to where I was knelt down.

"You like the name Bailey?" she asked in a baby voice. The dog rolled over and perked it's ears up.

"Bailey it is," I said. Christine smiled and put her hands on my shoulders. I couldn't wait until January so we could move in together.

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Two nights later, we had game 2. Christine insisted that she would come to the game, even though I wanted her to stay home and rest. She wanted to go and see the girls and watch me play, she told me.

"See you soon. Be safe, okay?" I said. She nodded and put her hand on my face as she gave me a kiss before crutching off the other way. I was reluctant to let her leave, but I pushed into the locker room anyway.

During warmups, Sharpie skated up to me, snowing my legs.

"I see Christine is finally back," he said with that million dollar smile. I couldn't help but smile back. He knew that she had had a serious issue, but he didn't know the extent of the surgeries.

"Yeah, she's feeling a lot better, and she went home to Ohio for a while to recoup," I explained. He nodded.

"I'm glad for you, man," he replied before patting me on the back and skating off to mess with Shaw.

I was glad, too. I knew that physical therapy would be another new challenge that we would have to deal with, but I knew Chris could do it. Even as stubborn as she was, I knew she'd push through.

It was a whole new feeling, knowing she was back in the crowd, cheering us on. I almost felt empty when she was gone, when I would look up and I didn't see her blonde head bobbing up and down in animated conversation. Now that she was back, a new energy surged through me, and it made me feel more determined than I'd been since her injury.

I was determined to bring home a Cup. For Christine and for Chicago.