I'll Be Right Beside You

The next four games went similarly to the first against Washington, causing Dan to sit Cam out for the first few games of the season. She was a wreck at home, and I was a mess trying to figure out how to get her feeling better. It was turning into a vicious cycle of her almost being okay, playing against a team who wouldn’t do so much as look at her, let alone play against her, and then her throwing herself into work outs and exhausting herself, just as her Uncle had mentioned had happened to her before she came to Pittsburgh. I’d almost driven her to the hospital twice because she looked like death warmed over, she was exhausting herself and not giving herself enough time to recuperate before pushing herself to her limits again.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Rob?” I asked, my voice shaky. I’d been working up the nerve to call her Uncle for about an hour.

“Yes,”

“It’s Jordan. I um, I wanted to talk to you about Cam,” I told him, and his silence let me know he thought something was up.

“Of course, what is it?”

“I’m really worried about her,” I admitted, needing to take a deep breath to calm myself. “When you came down for that game and told us about what had happened… I’m scared she’s getting into that habit again.”

“You’re sure?” he asked, panic evident in his tone.

“Not a hundred percent, but she’s been working herself to the bone lately, and not eating the way she normally does, I’m just really scared,” my voice nearly cracked, and while I tried to get a hold of myself it wasn’t working all that well.

“I’ll see if I can get some time off work and come down,” he immediately offered.

“No, I don’t want you going out of your way! I’m just in need of some advice,” I insisted, and he took a moment to compose himself. I hated feeling like I even had to ask her Uncle, I mean, I knew Cam well enough that I thought I should know what to do; but being unsure of myself was something that had seemed to happen a lot since we'd got together. That and I hated making Rob worry; he always seemed to have more than enough on his plate in the first place.

“I don’t even know what to tell you… keep an eye on her and see if you can’t help her ease up her schedule – make sure you’re helping her eat properly and distract her so she can rest,” he suggested. We talked for a few more minutes before hanging up, and I knew I was no closer to having an answer than I was before, but I felt a little better knowing that her Uncle had an idea of what was going on and that I could go to him for help if I needed to.

Cam walked into the living room about ten minutes later, sitting down on my lap and wrapping her arms around me as she snuggled up and into my embrace. I rubbed her back, feeling sick as I realized that I could feel the outlines of her ribs and her spine. She’d been losing weight, even though she’d been trying to keep it up, I knew her inability to eat properly right now was the culprit.

“Feeling better?” I asked, receiving nothing more than a shrug in return. I kissed the top of her head, knowing better than to push. She reached for the remote, and I felt myself bristle as she turned it to SportsCentre.

“Cam,” she ignored the warning in my voice, and as I’d been afraid of a segment about her came up. Her lack of point production, the ‘outrage’ about her being a girl, the amount of penalties she’d been taking as well as the fact she’d been a healthy scratch for a few games. I quickly turned off the TV, wishing I could’ve kept her from seeing it, but knowing she wanted to know what was going on.

“I needed to see it Jordy,” she told me quietly.

“I know babe, it’s just hard to watch,” I replied. She nodded, before kissing my cheek. I captured her lips with my own, kissing her slowly. We hadn’t really been intimate since all of this happened, and I missed it. She responded, turning so she was facing me and straddling my lap. I wanted this to go where it seemed to be, but at the same time I felt like I was taking advantage of her situation.

“Jordy don’t stop,” her voice was a whisper in my ear, making me moan against her neck. I picked her up and carried her to my bedroom, laid her down on my bed and then crawled on top of her, kissing her a little more roughly.

We laid in each other’s arms for nearly an hour afterward, enjoying the closeness we’d both been missing over the past few weeks. I rubbed her back, my fingers making invisible patterns across her skin, while her blue-grey eyes seemed far off for a while, before taking focus, and then slowly her eyelids appeared to get heavier.

“Go to sleep sweetheart,” I murmured, kissing her temple and shifting so that she was sprawled across my chest rather than just beside me.

“I don’t want to, I’ve missed this,” she responded, kissing my neck softly. I nodded, my grip on her tightening as my body responded to the feel of her lips against my neck.

“Me too sweetheart,” I agreed, eagerly tipping my chin so I could kiss her. She giggled, the sound like music to my ears as I slid my hands down her frame and gave her ass a squeeze, which made her yelp.

“Jordy!”

“What?” I asked, playing dumb before chuckling and kissing her again. It seemed that our drowsiness had disappeared, and soon our hands were roaming each other again, and I rolled back on top of her with a long kiss, before sliding inside of her. She gasped, clinging to me as we paused for a second to get used to each other. It was something that we still had to do every time, even though we were quite used to each other now.

It was soft and slow this time, filled with gentle kisses and soft caresses, the kind of sex I would have never imagined myself truly enjoying a year or two ago.

“I love you Jordan,” she told me as she pressed herself to me. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her back against my chest, her bare skin warm as her body fit perfectly to mine.

“I love you too Cam,” I answered, kissing her again before we settled in to go to sleep.