Why Should You Care Now?

Wearing a black long sleeved dress that hit above her knees, Jordan was standing at her brother’s final resting place. It made her sick to think about that. Her dress had a V-neckline and had a twist around the bodice. That was the only detail to the black dress she wore. Her boots hit a few inches under the knee with a three and a half inch heel. Holding CT was the only reason she wasn’t in hysterics crying. Trying to be brave for the kids and for Emmy was the hardest thing she had to do. Emmy was going to receive the flag along with Corbin’s dog tags, but Emmy said that they would be handed over to her. It was what Corbin wanted. They had a two other pairs for Joey and CT when they were old enough to understand. Jordan wished that neither of them had to go through life without their father, but that was how it was and it wasn’t going to change.

When Emmy had come home from her mother’s house with the boys, they had a talk and came to an agreement. They would continue to live together under one roof until something changed, like Jordan getting married. That made Jordan laugh, she knew she wasn’t ready for that, even after all the time that had passed, Jordan didn’t think she could ever get married. But the house was a five bedroom so it wasn’t like they were cramped.

Making her way from the gravesite, Jordan had the kids in her car, not wanting to ride in the limo. It was too fancy for her taste. Waving to Emmy that both kids were secure in her car, Jordan watched as Emmy helped her mom and dad into the limo before getting in after them. Getting into her car, Jordan looked to see Joey’s usually happy face with a frown. It broke her heart, knowing that he understood that Daddy was in heaven watching over the family. By the time she pulled up into the driveway next to Emmy’s car, Joey was starting to fall asleep and CT was sound asleep. When she opened the door to get CT’s car seat, she saw Joey’s eyes open up. “Come on buddy, we can go take a nap in my room, okay?”

Nodding his head, he pushed the red button until it released the belt so he could get out of his seat. Then he walked over to the other side of the car and Jordan helped him out. Closing the door of the car, she lift the car seat in her arms and hit the alarm button as they walked up to the door. When she opened the door to the house, Emmy came and took the car seat from Jordan. “He’s already asleep. Joey and I are going to take a nap in my room.”

“People are going to be coming over,” Emmy reminded her. “Would you mind if I put the basinet in your room?”

“Not at all,” Jordan said. “Can you put the stuff for his next feeding on my dresser in case he gets hungry?”

Nodding her head, Emmy lifted CT out of the car seat and walked away as Joey took her hand and started walking to Jordan’s bedroom. She watched as he climbed on the bed and lay on the side closer to the window. Placing his head on the pillow he looked over at her. “Stay wif me, please?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said softly as she lay in the center of the bed. “Want me to sing to you?”

Joey nodded his head as Emmy walked in with the basinet that held CT. She placed the bottles and diapers and wipes and anything else CT might need for however long they were in there. As she left, Emmy shut the door behind her and that’s when Jordan started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. By the time Joey fell asleep, CT woke up. Carefully sliding off the bed, Jordan picked him up and he snuggled up against her chest. With a kiss to his temple, she lay back down on the bed with CT on her chest.

With the pillow under her head, Jordan let out a long sigh. Before she knew it she was fast asleep. How long she was asleep for was unclear since she didn’t even remember falling asleep. Hearing the constant knocking on the door, she turned her head to look at the clock on her night stand. It was going on four in the evening, with a heavy sigh she looked towards her side and saw Joey snuggled under the arm that wasn’t draped over CT. Closing her eyes, she hoped that the knocking would go away once the person realized she wasn’t going to answer the door. Closing her eyes so she could get some more sleep that she didn’t get the night before, Jordan heard the door to her bedroom open and then closed. Fighting the urge to see who came into her room, Jordan stayed the way she was.

“We shouldn’t wake her up,” the hushed voice of Brent Seabrook said as she felt the bed sink as someone sat down next to her. “Come on Sharpie.”

“If you keep talking then yeah, you are gonna wake her up,” Sharpie said in a soft reply. “She looks exhausted.”

“That’s why we should leave her alone and let her sleep,” Brent said, his voice not going above a whisper. “I don’t want to face an upset Jordan. She is magic hands and I for one don’t want that disappearing.”

Jordan felt a hand run down the side of her face before tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “Don’t worry Brent, I won’t punish you for someone else waking me while I should be napping,” Jordan said with her eyes still closed. With a sigh, she opened her eyes to see Brent walking to the foot of the bed and sat down. “Please tell me there is a reason the two of you are in my house.”

“Four.”

“Excuse me?” she asked as she held CT securely as she sat up on the bed. “What do you mean four?”

“Four of us came,” Patrick told her with a smile on his face. “Burr and Steeger are in the living room with your sister and her parents. Did you know that they are big hockey fans?”

“I’ve never met them,” Jordan said. “Until last night anyways. Wasn’t really how I would have liked to meet them.”

“How are you?” Brent asked.

“I wish people would stop asking me how I am,” she told them. “I just need time to adjust and not be judged for stupid mistakes.”

“You mean Tazer.”

Jordan looked surprised at Sharpie. “How did you know what I was talking about?”

“He was bragging to Kaner,” Brent told her. “Sorry.”

“Was he bragging that he let me drive while drunk?” Jordan asked, her eyes glistening with fresh tears. “Guys, I really don’t have the energy to talk about this right now.”

“We just wanted to come over and say how sorry we are for what happened,” Brent told her. “The guys are thinking about you.”

“What are they thinking about?” Jordan asked as she slid off the bed and placed CT in the basinet. “Are they thinking about how I slept with Jon or how emotional I was the other day? Or how it must be like to lose my brother and not even get to say good-bye?”

“They don’t think any less of you because of what happened with Tazer,” Sharpie told her as he grabbed her by the wrist and gently pulled her back to the bed. “The guys think he took advantage of you.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Jordan said as she lay next to Joey who was still asleep. “And I don’t mean just now, I mean ever again.”

“I guess, we’ll get out of here,” Sharpie told her as he leaned over her and kissed her cheek. “You’ll always have me and Seabs.”

Brent got off the bed and made his way over to her and also kissed her cheek. “We’ll come by later. I can’t stay away from your magic hands.”

There was no smile on Jordan’s face, not even a hint of one. The pain was starting to take its toll on her weary mind and body. She didn’t want to think about work, but she didn’t want to think about how her life was just falling apart. Matthew who was the love of her life and her brother were both gone and it made her sick, just thinking about it. Life was supposed to be happy after Matthew died. She had mourned for a long time, but it didn’t matter, the pain it seemed was going to stay for a while.

Two weeks and Jordan was on her way back to work. She’d be home a lot later since it was a game day and she had to stay later. She had delayed going back because she didn’t want to face some of the guys, she felt bad for never returning their calls, or answering their calls or answering simple text messages. The only ones that ever came around were Sharpie and Seabrook. They had stopped taking no for an answer, but the rest of the team didn’t want to push their luck with the woman who had just lost someone so close to her.

As she stepped out of her car, she gathered her hair into a high pony tail before slipping her Blackhawks’ hoodie over her shirt. She had just dropped CT off with Emmy who was only back to work part time, until the two of them sat down to talk about what was going to happen with her brother’s stuff. Emmy didn’t want to go through it because she wanted to be strong for her kids, but at night, when Jordan couldn’t sleep, she heard Emmy crying in one of the other guest bedrooms. She couldn’t stay in the room she shared with her brother. Too many memories at least that was what Jordan thought. But if she got home early enough, then she would tell her that she’d go through Corbin’s things and bring up the topic of switching rooms.

With a sigh, she put her bag on her shoulder and slammed her car door shut before setting the alarm. As she got inside the building she headed straight for the massage room to see her back-up. If he didn’t want to give the massages or maybe even just lighten his load and work on half while he worked on the other half. One thing was for sure, she wasn’t looking forward to seeing Jonathan Toews. If she could avoid him for another few days, or weeks or even months, that would be fine by her.

Knocking on the door as she stood in front of it in case someone was inside getting a massage. After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened and she saw Sharpie with a smile on his face. Brent was on the table as Sharpie came up to her and gathered her into a hug. “Welcome back.”

With a small smile on her lips she told him thank you before asking about the massage therapist. Brent couldn’t help the smile on his face. “That’s you,” he told her. “Magic hands, that guy couldn’t handle me and Sharpie. He took the next few days off and asked us to tell you that you aren’t allowed to leave again for that long.”

With a roll of her eyes she pulled the chart off the door to see the schedule. Looking it over she was happy not to see his name on it. “So only four of you need me today?” she asked, looking between the two of them. “On a game day?”

“You might be surprised with some of the changes that have happened around here.” Brent told her.

“Do these changes have to do with your team Capitan?”

“Possibly,” Sharpie told her. “Win or loose, some of us are going to take you out tonight.”

“That’s sweet and all, but I think I’ll pass,” Jordan told him as her cell went off. Looking at the caller ID, she smile disappeared. “Guys, this is a personal call, one I need some privacy for.”

Without another word Sharpie and Seabrook gave her a smile and left. Making sure they shut the door, Jordan answered the phone. “This is Jordan.”

“Ms. Taylor, this is Nurse Lee from the clinic, we have your blood work results.”

“Is it cancer?” she asked sitting down on the table.

“No, Ms. Taylor,”the voice said. “It seems to just be the end results of the flu.”

Letting out a sigh she had to admit that was the best news she had gotten. It was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. “But to make sure we’d like you to come in, in about three weeks.”

“That sounds good, I’ll call next week when I have my work schedule and make the appointment. Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly.”

“Have a good day.”

After hanging up the phone, she called Emmy’s cell phone. Just as she was about to hang up, Emmy answered.

“So the nurse at the clinic just called. It’s the end of the flu.”

“Are they sure?”

“Pretty sure, but they want to see me in three weeks to make sure it leaves my system. I was so worried that it was going to be something else.”

“Like what?”

“Cancer, swine flu, but it is only the regular flu. I mean I know I'm healthy so it had to be something.”

“Well that’s good. I’m gonna go take a nap while CT is napping and Joey is at school.”

“Don’t forget to drop Joey off for his play date with Andy, but don’t call it a play date, he screamed at me last night for calling it that.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Emmy laughed. “I’ll see you tonight. Do you think you’ll be out of there before dinner?”

“No and Sharpie says some of the guys want to take me out to dinner, so I may go out, but I’ll text you and let you know before the game.”

“Thanks.”

“Bye.” Jordan said hanging up her phone as there was a knock on the door. “It’s open.”

As the door opened she took off her hoodie and was surprised to see Jonathan standing there. His eyes looked at her face and then to the bandage on her wrist. He looked at her with a confused expression on his face. Jordan’s look became hard upon seeing him just standing there. “Do you need something or are you just here to gloat some more? Were your teammates not enough?”