Better Than That

I watched as Jon went on the breakaway and I knew in my gut that he was going to score. I could barely hold in my excitement as Jon deked before shooting the puck up and over Miller's glove and hit the back of the net, making the goal light go off. Then I saw what I hoped I would never have to see; Leino leaving his feet and hitting the unsuspecting Jon head first into the boards.

Instead of celebrating the game winning goal of the Stanley Cup, I watched as Ryan Miller yelled something at his teammate before watching Kane go after Leino. The refs quickly broke the two apart while the trainers ran over to Jon who hasn't moved since the hit. Before anyone could stop me I jumped over the boards and ran over to Jon, however before I could get there I was held back by Roy.

"Jayden let the trainers work on him." Roy said to me. I nodded knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything anyways. Looking around the ice I noticed that every player from both the Blackhawks and the Sabres (except for Leino who was escorted off the ice) were all gathered on the ice watching in hopes for Jon to be alright.

The minutes ticked by and Jon still wasn't moving. I couldn't breathe the entire time I watched the trainers try and get a response from him. I watched as the EMT's came out on the ice with a stretcher. Q let me go in the ambulance with Jon, telling me the Clinton would take care of the equipment. The whole way to the hospital was hell, watching the love of you life laying there lifeless is torture.

When we finally got to the hospital, after what felt like hours in the ambulance, the doctors whisked him away for tests. I paced in the waiting room by myself until Jon's parents showed up.

"Have you heard anything?" Andreé asked as soon as they spotted me pacing.

"They don't know anything yet. They are still running tests." I barely got out before I broke down. Andreé immediately hugged me as she broke down as well.

A few minutes later the Doctor came out. "Jonathan Toews?" she asked causing Andreé and I to break apart.

"Yes" Bryan answered for us.

"Are you family?"

"We're his parents." Andreé explained. Then the Doctor looked over at me to answer her.

"I'm his fiancé." she gave me a small smile before continuing on.

"Please follow me." she lead us to a hallway before explaining the extent of Jon's injury. "Jon has suffered major brain swelling. We got the swelling to stop, but now we need to wait until it goes down."

"So is Jon responding now?" I asked hopeful.

"Unfortunately not. Jon's body put itself in a coma in order to put all the energy into healing his brain."

I felt my body freeze up and I couldn't breathe again. "Is there a way you can wake him up?" Andreé asked.

"No, he must wake up from the coma on his own. Once his body heals enough he should wake up." The Doctor politely explained.

"And how long will that be?" Bryan asked.

"It could be a day or it could be a month, it all depends on how long it takes his body to heal. Hopefully with our help the healing will go by at a faster rate." She explained before she was paged. "This is his room you guys may go in but please no more than 5 people in the room at a time." she quickly said before she rushed off.

I sat beside Jon for hours only leaving when I needed to go to Kane's summer house to shower and change. All of the Blackhawks stayed in Buffalo for the following week in order to be there for their captain. After a week they flew back home only to call every night for a status update.

The parade in Chicago was put on hold until the captain was back on his feet. However the Stanley Cup was brought into Jon's hospital room the day after the game.

2 weeks, 2 days and countless minutes after the hit I was sitting in my chair next to Jon holding his hand when I felt his hand squeeze mine. At first I thought it was a fluke and I was just imagining it, that was until I saw the beautiful brown eyes. Quickly I hit the nurses buttons, so they could check Jon out.

Jon looked at me confused. "Who are you?" I felt my heart drop into my stomach. I was about to respond when the nurse walked in with Doctor Free, the doctor that talked to Jon's parents and I the first night.

"Oh good, your up." the doctor smiled at Jon as she pulled out her flashlight to check his pupils. Jon just sat there looking utterly confused.

"Can you tell me your name?" the doctor asked noticing the confusing look on Jon's face as well.

"Um, I have no idea." Jon said now looking scared.

"Sorry Jayden, but you are going to have to leave right now." the doctor turned her attention to me. I nodded and headed out to the hall, taking out my phone to call Jon's parents and let them know that Jon was awake, however I didn't let them know that Jon doesn't remember who he is.

Twenty minutes later Andreé and Bryan were waiting with me out in the hall.

"Good news Jon is awake and alert." the doctor said a few moments later walking out of his room. "However he has temporary amnesia, this is common in coma patients. Something will trigger his memory but until than he wont remember much, if anything."

"So he is going to be ok?" I asked.

"Yes, everything but his memory seems fine and like I said before he will remember at some point." she explained.

"Oh thank god." I said finally taking a breath for the first time since the hit.

"Are there things we should do in order to help him?" Bryan asked.

"Actually yes there are." She said before going into an explanation. "We are going to keep him here overnight in order to do a few more tests and precaution measures. But after we release him tomorrow you should bring him back to Chicago and go to places he would visit routinely in order to try and trigger something."

"So we can tell him who we are?" Andreé asked.

"Of course, tell him who you are, stories of his past, and big moments of his life but leave out the details."

"Thank you." I said.

"Just doing my job" She said disappearing in Jon's room so she could do an couple more tests. She came out an hour later telling us we could go in.

"Hey" Jon said as soon as we walked through the door.

"Hi, Jon." I gave him a small smile.

"You must be Jayden." he said looking me over,

"Yeah" I said confused as to how he knows my name,

As if he read my mind he answered my question. "The doctor told me you were my fiance." He had a small smile on his face.

"What are you thinking?" I asked curiously.

"Just wondering how I was able to get a girl as beautiful as you." He blushed and I blushed as well.

"Lucky I guess." I joked and smiled back at him knowing that everything was going to be ok.

I introduced him to his parents shortly after and we just sat and talked until visiting hours were over. Doctor Free allowed me to stay, just like she did while he was in the coma.

The next day Jon was discharged early and we headed straight to the airport. "So I am going home?" Jon asked.

"You are going to one of your homes." Andreé explained.

"One? I have more than one homes?" he asked completely confused. Nobody had told him yet that he played in the NHL.

"You live in Chicago for most of the year because of your job but during the other part of the year you go back to your hometown." I tried to explain.

"So Buffalo is my hometown?" he guessed.

"No, Winnipeg is."

"Where's that?"

"Canada" I answered simply.

"Am I French-Canadian?" he asked.

"Yeah. How did you know?" I asked confused.

"I started speaking French when I was talking to the Doctor but I didn't know how I knew the language." he explained and I nodded as we boarded the private jet.

While we were in air for a while Jon started to ask questions again. "So you said I go to Winnipeg part of the year, does that mean I am a teacher and have the summer off?"

"With that body?" I joked which caused his dad to laugh but Jon just became even more confused. "No you 're not a school teacher you are a professional hockey player."

"Really?" he looked surprised. I nodded. "So that must mean I play for the Chicago Blackhawks.

"You are captain of the Blackhawks sweetie." Andreé added. Jon just sat in his seat in pure shock over the knowledge that he gained. The rest of the flight was quiet as Jon absorbed all that he has learned over the past day.

Once we landed in Chicago, Jon's parents went to a hotel in order to make Jon feel like he was more at home when he actually got to our house.

"Jayden?" Jon asked as I drove to our house.

"Yes Jon." I replied wondering what question he was going to ask.

"I'm sorry for not remembering you." I glanced over at him and saw the seriousness in his face.

"Jon, it's alright, I am just glad you are ok."

"But I'm not ok." Jon yelled and the quickly apologized for snapping.

"You may not have your memory but you are alive and that's all that matters to me." I told him honestly. "Besides new memories can always be made."

~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19

Waking up and not knowing who I was has got to be the scariest moment in my life. However I am not positive about that since I can't remember my life.

For the past two weeks I walked around Chicago going to a new place everyday. Today we were heading back to the United Center, however this time I actually get to go skating, since the doctors cleared me.

"Jayden!" I cheered barging through the doors of the guest bedroom where Jayden was staying.

"Jon what are you doing up so early?" Jayden's voice came from under all her covers.

"I'm going skating today." I said happily.

"If anyone questioned if you were actually Jonathan Toews, they wouldn't question it anymore." She joked as she climbed out of bed wearing a pair of pajama shorts and a sport bra. "We'll leave in a half hour, go get changed so we can stop for breakfast on the way"

When Jayden came downstairs changed we left. Spending this short amount of time with her, I could tell why she is my fiancé, she is so easy to fall in love with.

"What are you thinking about so hard over there?" Jayden asked as we laced up our skates in the locker room.

"Just worrying that I wont remember how to skate." I quickly lied.

"Don't worry, it will came as second nature to you." Jayden soothed before leading me out of the locker room and down a hallway to the ice. She just stepped on the ice and skated around like it was nothing while I stood by the bench.

"Hey Jon are you coming out here or are you just going to stand there and watch me skate all day?" Jayden yelled from across the rink.

I took a deep breath and stepped on the ice. Jayden was right it came to me like I did it a million times before. After taking a couple strides I stopped as the image of a packed First Niagara Center filled my mind. I was standing in the middle of the ice holding a microphone and a ring that Jayden was now wearing. I had the feeling of nervousness, but the love I felt for Jayden out weighed that feeling.

"Jon are you alright?" Jayden asked worriedly as she skated over to me.

"I proposed to you the day I got injured didn't I?" I asked her.

"Did anybody tell you that story?" I just shook my head. "Do you remember it?" Her voice turned from worried to hopeful.

"Parts" I said before explained everything that I had just remembered finishing with telling her about how much I love her.

"You what?"

"I remember how much I love you." with that said Jayden flung into my arms and kissed me passionately. With the kiss came back every other memory I had ever had.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry I did that, you probably still don't know who I am. But I was just happy that you remembered something." Jayden rambled her apology.

"Jayje, breathe." I said putting my hands on her shoulders.

"But I feel so b--, wait what did you just call em?"

"Jayje." I smiled know that she would put one and one together.

"So you remember now?"

"Every last bit." I said without the smile leaving my face.

~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19

Once Jon said my nickname I knew, I just knew that he remembered. We stayed on the ice for a little bit, just to let everything soak in before we called his parents because we knew things would get hectic again. And boy were we ever right. That night his parents came over for dinner. While the next day we went out to lunch with his teammates since all of them stayed in Chicago to wait until their captain got his memory back. Jon did a couple of interviews to let Chicago and the rest of the hockey world know he was alright. Later that night we picked up my family at the airport. They took the next available flight once they had heard the news about Jon, which was a good idea since Chicago decided to have the parade the next day.

"Jayden thank you for staying with em while I was injured." Jon said late that night when we were getting ready for bed.

"Of course Jon. I will do the same thing over again if need be, but I better not have to do it again." I told him honestly.

"I love you so much Jayden."

"Not as much as I love you."

~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19~19