Why Should You Care Now?

Having the entire day off was nice. Jordan had slept in and mid-afternoon she picked Joey up from school before deciding to take him to the park for a little while. Emmy had taken CJ to his doctor appointment. It brought a smile to her face as she watched Joey having so much fun at the park. He was mostly playing on the slides with a little girl the same age as him. Nothing could stop the smile on her face from growing. Her right hand went to her stomach where her baby was growing. She hoped that she could prove that she didn’t need anyone, but her family to raise a baby.

Knowing now why Jon disliked her so much when he knocked her over on the street before meeting her at the United Center where they’d be seeing more and more of one another. Her only escape from that was her brother and his family, but now that no longer included him. Every time she thought about that, it usually brought her back to think about Matthew. This was never how she saw herself, especially not pregnant with a hockey player’s baby. In a way, she always had her brother with her. After his death she got a tattoo of his name with wings on the outside and a halo above his name on her wrist.

Looking over at the slides she noticed the joy on his face. Small thing made him so happy, but when he didn’t get his way he had his father’s temper. That was one thing he probably would always have, just like his baby brother might have one day. When she told Joey that she was going to have a baby, he asked if they could take it back if it wasn’t a girl. That made both Emmy and Jordan laugh. Emmy had to explain that Aunt Jordan didn’t get a say in what the baby would be. When he started crying Jordan and Emmy were slightly concerned until they were able to calm him down enough so he could tell them what was wrong. When he cried that he didn’t want Aunt Jordan to leave. Jordan reassured her nephew that she and the baby would be staying in the house and that since he had been such a great help with baby CJ, she would need his help.

Watching Joey grow up made her wonder how her own baby would turn out. If the baby was around Jon would it end up with a dislike for her? But how could she keep her baby away from its father? That wasn’t fair to the baby, her or Jon. She was watching her nephews grow up without their father; it wasn’t something she wanted to do to her own child.

Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket, Jordan picked it out of her pocket. Glancing at the caller ID she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Hitting the ignore button, she walked over to where Joey had just got off the tunnel slide. “Joey, we gotta go, buddy.”

“Now?”

“Yeah,” she smiled at him. “And since you’ve been good, I’ll let you watch a Thomas movie if you eat all of your dinner.”

Making his was over to his aunt, Joey had a grin on his face as he grabbed her hand and they started walking to the gate to leave the park and to head to her car. As soon as they were on their way away from the park, Jordan started to think about what she wanted to have for dinner that everyone would enjoy and the only thing she came up with was pizza. Since it had been about a month since they last ordered pizza, she hoped no one would mind having it again. Once she pulled up into the driveway, she cut the engine and grabbed her bag before helping Joey out of his seat.

As soon as they were through the door Joey ran over to the living room. Jordan took her time and closed the front door before walking towards her room. Halfway there, she stepped on a small toy with her bare feet since she left her shoes by the door. “Joey, please come pick up the toys you left in the hallway!” she yelled as she made her way into her room. Placing her bag on the floor she walked over to her closet as there was a knock on the door that was still open.

Grabbing the shirt she wanted, she turned and looked at who was waiting for her to say something. Narrowing her eyes at the two men in front of her, she let out a loud breath. “This is my day off and I swear if you say his name or mention him or anything of the sort I will rip you a new one.”

“Would we do something like that?”

“Burish, every time something has gone wrong between me and Jon three of you jump in to try and fix it,” Jordan said. “I gave Jon the benefit of many doubts and I gave him a chance to prove that we could possibly work. If it wasn’t working for him then he should have said something instead of having his new girl in the locker room.”

“That’s his ex,” Sharpie said speaking up. “She surprised him with a visit. But he hasn’t really stopped talking about you.”

“That doesn’t make it any better,” Jordan said. “He hasn’t called or made any appointments with me for massages.”

“Would you take the appointments and not hand them off if he did?”

“That’s beside the point.” Jordan said as she made her way over to the box labeled ‘fat clothes’. Digging into the box, she knew what she wanted, she just wasn’t sure if it was in this box or in one of the ones in Emmy’s room.

“He’s not usually like this,” Sharpie told her. “He’s scared shitless.”

“And you think this is a cake walk for me?” Jordan questioned them as she raised her voice. “Do you honestly think I wanted to be pregnant? Because I got slammed one night and slept with someone who couldn’t care less about me?”

“Tazer cares-“

“No Patrick, his only care seems to be the baby,” Jordan said as she made her way over to her bed with the black sweats in her hand and sat on the bed with her back against the headboards while she crossed her arms above her pregnant belly. “That would have been fine, had he not done so much for me these past few months. I let him in and I got burned. I won’t let that happen again. No more.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the voice of Brent Seabrook asked from the door way as he held a giggling Joey upside down for a second before setting him on his feet. Joey ran towards the bed and crawled on it and made his way over to his aunt. Watching her nephew carefully, she unfolded her arms as he hugged her belly and Jordan ran her hand through his hair.

“Aunty Jordan not leabin’ us,” Joey told them. “She and da baby stays heres.”

“Joey, can you take them to help you pick out one Thomas movie to watch?” Jordan asked him. “Aunt Jordan needs a minute to change her clothes. Can you be a big boy and do that?”

“Yous follows me.” Joey told them after giving the baby a kiss.

Nodding her head, Jordan watched them leave and then shut the door. Taking off her clothes she put on her shirt that read Marine Sister. Then she grabbed the sweats that Emmy had worn when she was pregnant with CJ. After getting dressed she sat on the foot of the bed and just laid down. It wasn’t that she was physically tired it was more of an emotional roller coaster that was making her so tired. Jon hadn’t tried to call her once since she walked into the locker room. He barely looked at her, so she figured the other guys were letting him know updates. Running her hands over her face, she wanted to let out a scream. She didn’t want him to know how she was, he made his choice. Sitting up, she pulled herself up and headed to the door before one of the guys came looking for her.

As she made her way to the living room she heard the opening theme to Thomas. Joey was sitting in-between Adam and Patrick on the love seat, so she went to sit down next to Brent on the couch, but stopped and went to the kitchen before she forgot to order the pizza. Once that was done, she went and sat on the couch. Jordan watched the TV while the episode was playing. She knew the boys were taking glances at her, but she didn’t need to worry about what they were thinking. Joey was her concern right now. He needed to eat and go to bed so that he could go to school tomorrow. Half an hour after ordering the pizza, she heard the doorbell ring. She went to get up, but Brent put a hand on her shoulder and pointed to where Sharpie was already halfway there.

“I can pay for food, ya know.”

“We invaded on your day off,” Brent said. “So we are buying dinner.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Jordan said as she stood up. “Joey go wash your hands. Pizza is here.”

Shutting off the DVD player and the television, Jordan took the pizza boxes from Sharpie who wasn’t sure where she wanted them. Walking into the kitchen, she went to the cupboard and took a plate down before going to the silverware drawer and getting a fork and knife so that she could cut Joey’s pizza into pieces, just the way he liked. Placing the plate on the table-mat, she walked over to the fridge and took out the milk and set it on the counter as the front door opened.

“Jordan?” Emmy called out. “Are you here or did you take off with your hockey friends that I let in earlier?”

“Took off to Vegas with Brent and left Joey with Sharpie.”

“That’s always good,” Emmy said as she walked in with the carseat in her hand. “Has he been good today?”

“He was. I took him to the park and we watched some Thomas. And dinner is here and afterward he’ll take a bath and go to bed.”

“You are gonna be a great mother,” Emmy smiled at her. “You have been so good with Joey and even CJ.”

“I don’t have a choice,” Jordan reminded her. “The father is an ass so I don’t expect anything from him. He probably doesn’t want to be there when the baby is born.”

“You have the appointment tomorrow, right?” Emmy asked as she watched Jordan pour some milk into a cup that had Joey’s name on it. “Or is it next week?”

“Tomorrow afternoon,” Jordan said. “Maybe I’ll get to find out what the sex is. That way we can know if we need something besides the blue stuff.”

“It would be nice to have a baby girl,” Emmy smiled. “They have so many cute outfits.”

“But girls can’t play hockey in the NHL.” Adam pointed out.

“That might be a good thing,” Jordan said. “Plus my kid doesn’t have to follow what their ass of a father did.”

“What about the cool uncles?” Brent asked.

“How about we let the baby decide when it gets here?” Emmy suggested as Joey ran into the kitchen.

“Hi!” he yelled as he launched himself at his mother. “Aunt Jordan took us to da park.”

“Did you have fun?” Emmy asked, giving her oldest son a kiss before pointing to the kitchen table where his plate and cup of milk were waiting.

“Yeah.”

“Did you tell your aunt thank you?”

Instead of answering his mother, Joey put a piece of his pizza into his mouth and had a smile on his face.

“The plates are up there,” Jordan said taking a seat next to Joey at the table. “Take what you want.”

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Brent asked.

“I wanted pizza earlier and now it doesn’t look so good.”

“What does?” Sharpie asked.

“I’ll go and get something to eat when Joey goes to bed,” Jordan said as she watched Emmy take a fussy CJ out of his carseat. “Give him to his favorite auntie.”

“You’re his only auntie.”

“Which makes me his favorite,” Jordan smiled as she took CJ. “You are going to have your first cousin and since you are so close in age, I hope that means you’ll be able to get along.”

After Joey was in bed and asleep, Jordan was finally hungry enough to eat. She let her sister-in-law know that she was going to get something to eat and that Joey was asleep. She asked if Emmy wanted anything, but she didn’t so Jordan left with Brent, Patrick and Adam in Brent’s SUV. Jordan took the passenger’s seat before Adam could which caused the other two to laugh at his face.

“So where are we going?” Brent asked, directing his question to Jordan.

“Somewhere that has ice cream.”

“You got it.”

“So I need some honesty from you guys.”

“We are always honest,” Adam said. He paused for a moment as Jordan looked at him. “With you.”

“Why hasn’t Jon called me or tried to talk to me?” Jordan asked turning back to look out at the night through her window. “Are you giving him the information that he wants?”

“He asks about you a lot, but you were barely talking to any of us this week.” Sharpie said.

“And you ignored my call today,” Adam said. “So we made a surprise visit. Your sister in law was nice enough to let us hang out at the house as she left and you were on your way home.”

“I don’t want Jon to know anything anymore. No talking about me or the baby to him.”

“It’s still his kid too.” Brent told her.

“He’s the man that knocked me up,” Jordan said. “That doesn’t make him the father.”

“How can he make this up to you?”

“Breaking my heart after I felt so comfortable with him kinda made it go out the window.”

“I’m sure you don’t want to separate the baby and his father.” Patrick said.

“His?”

“Tazer’s first kid has to be a boy,” Adam told her. “Can’t let those genes go to waste.”

“I hope it’s a girl,” Jordan said. “We don’t need another Jon around here.”

“So you find out about the baby tomorrow?” Brent asked.

“Yeah,” Jordan said, a smile creeping onto her face. “I’m going during my lunch hour.”

“So are you actually going to find out or do you want it to be a surprise?” Sharpie asked.

“I have to know,” Jordan laughed. “Not knowing would drive me insane. I don’t know how some parents do it, but I want to have everything planned before the baby comes. Emmy is planning on having a baby shower. But I don’t know who she’ll invite the only people in Chicago I know are you guys and her.”

“So it’ll be a surprise,” Adam said. “Is that good or bad?”

“I trust Emmy,” Jordan said. “But I’m still slightly nervous about it.”

“You should be,” Brent told her with a smile. “You’re having a baby.”