Under The Sheets

T.J laid in bed next to her and cuddled deep into the bed, cocooning his body in the mess of blankets.

"C'mon, honey." She smiled, running her fingertips up and down his back under his shirt. "You have to get up at some point."

"I don't want to," T.J mumbled. "My head hurts."

"That's what you get for being out all night," She smiled. "You came home at 4 in the morning!"

"But it was fun," T.J mumbled into his pillow.

"Well have your fun now because in a few months it will all be over!" She laughed, kissing the back of his neck.

"E, let me sleep." T.J whined.

"Nope," She laughed. "You have to get up. We're back to Minnesota soon! Are you excited to go and see your family?"

"I am," T.J nodded, rolling over. "I haven't seen them since Christmas."

"That long? Then it's about time you saw them!" She smiled.

T.J nodded. He watched her as she stood up and walked to the bathroom for a shower. He smiled at her long legs. He liked the way his shirt clung to her slender body. She was tall, just about as tall as him. Her dyed black hair up in a messy bun. This was his favourite look on a woman. Especially his woman.

He looked around the bedroom and looked at all the tiny little trinkets and baubles around making it look like a woman had actually be in the house.

He thought back to a few months ago when he and Eden were first moving in. The plan had been to make it look grown up and 'modern'. T.J had no idea what it meant to make a house look 'modern', he had all intentions of just letting her do what she wanted.

That was until her father showed up and took her away from him. He replayed that day in his mind over and over again. His plan to get her back was to win the playoffs and go with Patrik back to Sweden to "win" Eden back, but no such luck.

"Mr. Anderberg, please." T.J begged, walking towards Eden's father. "You don't understand-"

"Understand? What is there to understand?" The man asked, turning and facing T.J. "You lured my daughter away from me and got her pregnant so she would stay here! Education was supposed to come first. I knew this was a bad idea. I should never have trusted her."

"Lured?" T.J repeated. "I didn't lure Eden anywhere!"

"Don't," Patrik warned, putting a hand on T.J's shoulder. T.J shook his once best friend off and turned his attention back to Fredrik Anderberg.

"Don't touch me," T.J glared at Patrik. "Get away from me."

T.J pushed passed Patrik and walked towards his and Eden's bedroom. He saw her rushing about their bedroom packing.

"What are you doing?" T.J yelled, pulling her clothes back out of her suitcase. "You're not leaving with him."

"T.J, I have to." Eden sobbed. "I don't have a choice."

"Yes, you have a choice!" T.J replied, grabbing hold of her wrist. "Please, don't leave me."

"I have to," She repeated, crying.

"You're pregnant with my baby! You can't just leave me like this," T.J stated. "Let's think of a plan! We can go and fight this! He doesn't own you!"

"This isn't about ownership," Eden whispered, shaking her head. "This is about a broken promise."

"No, this is about a man so obsessed with controlling your life he can't see when you're happy. This is about a man who has a chokehold on his daughters' lives because he's so scared of them running away and abandoning him like your mother did," T.J stated.

"T.J, don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"Harder than it needs to be? Eden, he's taking you back to fucking Sweden!" T.J yelled. "If you think I'm going to take this laying down, you're out of your mind."

"Stop!" Eden yelled. "Just stop. It's useless, T.J."

"Useless?" T.J asked. "You don't want to stay with me?"

"No, I do." She sighed, walking over to him and putting her hands on his face. "I love you and I want to stay here with you, but you don't understand. I have to leave with him. He's my Dad."

It had been about three, almost four, months since Eden had left St. Louis. He had missed her every day, but he had needed to move on. He needed to have his mind taken off of his girlfriend and baby who were both somewhere in Sweden. Eden would have only been about five months pregnant at this point. Just showing. T.J wondered what she looked like.

T.J smiled. He would bet anything that she looked beautiful. He bet that pregnancy suited her well. How she rounded out, how she would glow. He wondered what her cravings were like. He wondered if it was a girl or a boy she was carrying. He wondered what she'd name it.

"T.J?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, Emily?" T.J asked, snapping out of his daze. He looked over at the woman standing in the doorway, waiting for her to speak.

"Your shower spray isn't working again," Emily replied.

T.J nodded and got up off of the bed and went to the bathroom to fix it. He had met Emily a month and a half, almost two months ago at a party. She was fun and easy to be with. He was taking her home with him to Minnesota. Partially because he didn't want to face his family alone for the first time without Eden. It was a conversation he was not looking forward to.

Yeah, thanks Dad. The flight was great. No, this is my new girlfriend Emily. Well, no. Eden and I didn't break up necessarily. Her father, an angry, american hating Swede decided to come and take her away from me and go back to Sweden. Oh, Eden was pregnant, too.

"Thanks, hun." Emily smiled, rubbing his shoulders when he fixed the shower for her.

"Welcome," T.J nodded.

"Are you all right?" Emily asked, rubbing his tense shoulders.

"Yeah, fine." T.J nodded and walked away, going to his kitchen.

It wasn't that T.J didn't like Emily. He did. She just wasn't Eden. T.J missed Eden so much, and Emily helped fill that void. T.J knew that Emily wanted a relationship with T.J like the one he wanted with Eden. He couldn't give it to Emily. Hell, he was still figuring out a way to get to Sweden and get Eden back. Patrik had already left and they weren't really speaking.

T.J still hated Patrik. Obviously "hate" was a strong word, but he hated Patrik a great deal for what he did. T.J knew it would take a lot for him and Patrik to get back to the place they were before this whole thing happened.

Until then T.J was just going to take his girlfriend back to Minnesota with him for some much needed away time.

"T.J!" Emily yelled. He didn't even have to start walking, she was already in front of him in a towel and holding something.

"What?" He asked, staring at her with wide eyes. She looked crazed.

"What the hell is this?" She asked, holding up Eden's ultrasound picture.

"That's an ultrasound," T.J replied, taking it fro her.

"I know what it is! What I don't understand is why you have one sitting in your bathroom drawer!" Emily yelled.

"Because I'm having a baby, Emily." T.J replied. He didn't want to tell her that, but he knew it would happen eventually.

"With who?" Emily asked.

"My last girlfriend," T.J replied. "She left about three months ago to go home to Sweden. She's about five months pregnant by now."

"Have you spoken to her?" Emily asked, calming down when she saw how hurt T.J was.

"No," T.J replied, shaking his head. "Not since she left. I haven't heard anything from her."

"I'm so sorry," Emily replied.

"Thanks," T.J nodded. "I'm going to go shower now."

He gave her hips a pat and then walked towards his bathroom. He put the ultrasound back in it's place in the bathroom drawer beneath the sink. A day didn't go by where T.J didn't think about Eden and the baby, he wondered how they were. He wondered if he was ever going to get to Sweden to see them and get her back.

Sometimes he wondered if it was just a lost cause. He wondered if he should just let it go and start having a real relationship with Emily. He wondered if Eden would ever come back or if he should go to Sweden at all. He had no real obligation to the baby. Well, other than the fact the he wanted to be involved.

This was the dilemma that plagued T.J Oshie every day of his life for the last two months.

Should he stay? Or should he go?