Things Aren't Always What They Seem

***18***

Charlotte's brother was known for throwing parties and Charlotte was usually there to clean up his dirty work and make sure he survived while keeping some kind of order to things. She'd been babysitting his ass for a few years, the only highlight was meeting Jon. She only agreed to help her brother out because she loved him and she knew he hadn't quite grasped the concept of growing up yet. It certainly wasn't to watch his friends get drunk and make passes at her. In fact, she dreaded that.

As much as she didn't want to see anything happen to her brother, she didn't want to be involved in this aspect of his life anymore. She had told him that his summer kick-off party was her last. She would be starting college and depending on Jon, might be moving to Chicago. She didn't want to babysit her older brother anymore, when he wanted to grow up, he would. Simple as that.

Charlotte knew what to expect at this point. He was friends with the local hockey kids and the crowds were usually jocks and athletes, most of whom thought they were God's gift to the earth and assumed any girl they wanted to sleep with would want to go to bed with them in return. Though plenty showed interest in Charlotte and made drunken passes, she never looked twice at them.

When Charlotte heard a knock on what had become her room when she stayed at her brothers, she gave the okay for whoever was on the other side to enter. She assumed it was Jon, whenever he was around he was there to be with her and only he would come to her room.

"Hey, what are you up to in here," she looked up and saw her brothers friend, Tom, walk into her room and not Jon like she had expected. He had a beer in his hand and by the look of his face and the way he stumbled on in, she could tell he was drunkity drunk drunk. He placed his beer bottle on the dresser as he walked in further.

"Not a whole bunch of anything special," she answered with a side-eye glare. She'd known Tom for years as he was one of her brother's closest friends but he never sought her out. "Are you lost or something," she joked.

"I didn't know it was a crime to come say hi," he laughed as he walked in further. Charlotte got up from her desk and walked away from the computer where she was looking up apartments in Chicago and different schooling options. People thought it was crazy that she'd move to another city for a guy she wasn't dating but to her it made sense. She'd do anything for Jon and when he asked her to consider moving and going to college by him she thought it made perfect sense.

"No," Charlotte smiled and shook her head. "I didn't mean it like that." She walked to him and gave him a quick hug. "I'm just not used to getting visitors up here other than Jon."

"Yeah," Tom lifted his head and looked around her room not entirely pulling away from her. "Where is he anyway? Isn't he always at these shindigs with you?"

Charlotte nodded her head and let out a little laugh. "Yeah he normally is. He isn't here yet, I think he's coming in a bit."

"Ah," Tom inhaled and slowly raised his head with his hands still perched on Charlotte's waist. "What are you doing up here all by yourself then?"

"Just looking at some things and listening to music." Though Charlotte could feel the beat of the music downstairs through her floor.

"You know," he said as his grip on her waist tightened. "I've gotta tell you, I've had a thing for you for a while now."

"Oh?" Charlotte looked up at him and held her breath suddenly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I mean look at you," he said more serious. Charlotte could feel his fingers creep up every so slowly and rest on the skin of her lower back underneath her shirt.

"Well," Charlotte swallowed and felt her body going a little numb. "You should probably get back downstairs before everyone wonders where you are."

"Come on," Tom breathed out as he slowly started to push her backwards towards the bed. "It's just me. Let's have a little fun."

"Tom stop. Please get off me," Charlotte pleaded and tried to push him away from her as she felt the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed.

"Come on," he breathed again only this time into her neck as he started to kiss along it. He took the hem of her shirt between his fingers and started to lift it upwards as her back hit the mattress and she felt his weight on top of her. Charlotte could practically taste the intense alcohol seeping from him as he moved his lips up from her neck to her jaw and tried to kiss her lips.

She didn't stop pushing him and trying to get him off her but he was much too strong for her. She could feel his erection as it pressed into her through his jeans and felt the tears poke at the corner of her eyes. He didn't ease up as he pushed up her shirt and grabbed at her breasts. "Tom stop! Get off me!" she pleaded louder but her voice was too shaky to scream.

She closed her eyes and pursed her lips tight and she felt his hands exploring her flat, bare abdomen and bra-covered breasts. She was having a difficult time squirming, his strength was too much for her, and just as she was about to accept her fate she suddenly felt Tom rip away from her.

She heard commotion and when she opened her eyes she saw Tom thrown into the wall with Jon throwing punches at him. Tom was big-- bigger than Jon-- but Jon had adrenaline and sobriety on his side.

"If you ever fucking go near her again I'll fucking murder you!" he screamed at Tom as he pushed him out of Charlotte's room and literally pushed him down the stairs. He ran back into Charlotte's room where she was perched on the edge of the bed shaking and trying to reassemble her clothing. Jon ran to her and grabbed her face in her hands, simultaneously wiping away her tears and pushing her long blonde locks back. "Are you okay?"

Charlotte looked up into his eyes and couldn't figure out what to say. "I- he...I don't..." she started sobbing into his chest as he pulled her close to him and she held onto him as if she'd die if she let go.

"I'm here," he comforted her. "I'm not leaving you. You'll stay with me tonight, you're not staying here."

She pulled back and looked at him, not saying a word just nodding her head.

"That was your brother's friend wasn't it?"

"Yeah," she whimpered out. "Tom."

"Where is your brother?"

"I- I don't know. Downstairs probably. Tom came up here and...you saw what happened."

Jon's jaw tightened and he took a deep breath. "I'll be right back," he growled with his fists clenched as he turned around and ran down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" she yelled after him. "Wait," she followed him to the top of the stairs and watched from the bannister as he ran down the stairs through the crowd and found her brother.

"Do you know what your asshole friend just did?"

"Woah," he stuttered out. "What's wrong?"

"Tom just fucking tried to rape your sister," Jon yelled giving him a shove. "If you'd fucking grow up maybe you would have been able to do something about it. Charlotte's not your babysitter and she won't be here tonight or at all anymore." Jon wanted so badly to hit him but he was too disgusted. He turned and ran back upstairs and wrapped his arms around Charlotte. "Get your stuff," he demanded as he looked her in the eyes. She nodded and did what he told her to. He grabbed her hand and held onto it tightly as they walked out the door.

Charlotte sat in the passenger seat of his car and looked at Jon-- his eyes never left the road but the look on his face gave away just how angry and concerned he was.

"Thank you," Charlotte whispered. "I'm okay. You don't need to be so angry anymore."

He breathed out heavily and then inhaled deeply. "Charlotte he almost fucking raped you," he screamed. "You're coming with me to Chicago. Fuck! You're not going to anymore of his parties or his house in general. You're not. I don't care if I have the right or not to tell you what to do but if anything happened to you I would die."

Charlotte swallowed and nodded her head. She didn't say anything she just looked down at the ground uncomfortable with how serious this night had become. She listened to his words and couldn't help but think to herself how much she didn't care what anyone said about her moving to Chicago, being wherever he was was the right choice for her.

***Present Day***

It had been three days since Jon went to the concert with Charlotte. Three long days since he admitted to himself what he'd always known-- he was in love with her.

As hard as it was to be around Patrick and Charlotte before, it was a million times harder now. Jon couldn't stand the sight of his teammate and the simplest solution he could come up with was to just not talk to either of them. It was much easier said than done when it came to Charlotte. It was killing him to pull away from her but he had to. She was marrying someone else-- and not anyone else-- his friend, his teammate. There wasn't anything Jon could do about it.

He thought back to all the times he wanted to tell Charlotte how he felt over the years and why he never did. Each time he'd want to be honest with her about his feelings, he'd look at her and realize it was too much of risky move. He thought he could delay it; that he could bury those feelings away and just keep things as they were so he didn't lose her-- he figured there'd always be time later on. Now that he saw just what his lack of proactivity led to, he hated himself for it. He'd thrown himself into other women and random one nighters, but sex-- even with Rose-- never really meant anything to him.

Everyone was going out to the bar, including Charlotte and Patrick. There wasn't a game, it was just a casual outing but Jon needed to endure their togetherness nonetheless. He knew that Charlotte could sense his coldness towards her but he didn't offer any explanation as to why and when his phone rang he debated not answering when he saw her name flash across the screen.

"Hello?" he answered begrudgingly.

"Hey." She was slightly uncomfortable and he could sense it.

"What's up?" he wasn't being friendly, he was trying to not be a huge douche on his end. It was a nicer way of asking her why she was calling him.

"You're going tonight right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," she trailed off. "Um, well since we live close I was thinking you could pick me up and we could drive together. I'll drive back with Patrick-- he's going to meet us there. Is Rose going?"

"Yeah," he responded callously again. Rose was going, it was going to be the first time Jon saw her since she got back from what he knew to be a modeling gig.

"So, is that a 'yeah' we can drive together or a 'yeah' she's going? Or both?"

"Whatever," he sighed. "Yeah I guess so."

"What is your problem lately?" she asked louder and clearly losing her patience with him.

"Nothing," he shrugged keeping up his facade on his end of the call.

"Clearly you have an attitude and I don't know why anymore."

"I'm fine." His voice was cruel and distant.

"Whatever Jon," she sighed. "Don't bother doing me any favors. I'll just see you there later." She didn't say bye or wait for him to answer, she hung up and he was left with a knot in his stomach.

When he got there he saw Charlotte sitting with the other guys and their girls but noticed immediately that Kane wasn't anywhere to be seen. He glanced at Charlotte and saw the hurt expression on her face. He quickly nudged Duncan Keith and leaned a little closer to him to be discreet. "Where's Kane?"

He shrugged. "Dunno man. Should be here soon." Duncan looked at Jon and wrinkled his brow. "Where's Rose?"

"She'll be here soon," Jon responded quickly and swallowed. "Hey Keith," he nudged him again. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

Jon shook his head and exhaled. "I think...I think Rose is cheating on me."

"Wow," his eyes widened as he looked at Jon. "You serious?"

Jon nodded. "I don't know if I'm right. I just have this feeling something isn't right. Like, even her gig that made her miss the wedding. I haven't seen her in a while, I don't know. Just seems fishy. She's been acting weird and it's just shady. I can't explain it."

"Have you talked to her about it?" Keith asked Jon as Jon's eyes followed Charlotte as she got up and innocently followed Brent Seabrook on the dance floor. He was struck with momentary jealousy but knew he was the least of his worries.

"Nah," Jon shook his head not only to respond to his question but to snap himself away from Charlotte. "I don't know what to say. I've been thinking about ending it anyway. Don't say anything, please."

"No," Duncan answered solemnly. "I won't repeat that." Jon knew that he could trust Keith and patted his shoulder. "Thanks man."

"You should talk to her though. Or at least see if you can get some kind of evidence to bring to her, you know." Jon looked at him as he was about to walk away but took a deep breath and thinking before answering.

"I thought about that but I don't really want to get into the dramatics of it all. I'm not going to hire a private investigator or anything. If I come across something maybe, but I don't know." Jon rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. His cheeks were getting warm.

"Can I make an observation?" Duncan asked him as Patrick Sharp stood up and left his wife to join the conversation. Jon nodded as he looked at Sharp. "It doesn't seem to me that you really care all that much."

Jon shook his head and looked at him. "I do. Of course I do."

"For someone who thinks his girl is fucking someone else behind his back, you're acting way too calm."

"What's this?" Sharp looked between the two of them with a wrinkled brow. "Rose is cheating on you?"

"I don't know," Jon answered quietly. "I don't have hard proof or anything. It's just a gut thing."

"And I don't think he cares," Duncan answered as he looked knowingly at Sharp.

Sharp didn't say anything but he slowly nodded his head and looked back at Keith. "I see."

"What?" Jon asked confused as he noticed Seabrook come back to the table without Charlotte. His eyes darted around the room until he found her. She was leaning against the wall in the back by the bathrooms with another guy-- a guy he didn't know-- and this dude was a little too close to her.

The two other guys could tell Jon's attention wasn't on them and they both turned their heads to see what had Jon so distracted. "Who's that?" Jon asked them without taking his eyes off Charlotte.

"Beats me." They both shrugged.

Jon watched Charlotte squirm against this gorilla and saw the look in her eye. He'd seen that look before and watched as Charlotte awkwardly pushed out of his grip and tried to escape from the wall but he had her cornered and he quickly pulled her back into him. His heart beat faster as he saw this guy wrap his fingers around the back of her neck and before either of the other guys could say anything, Jon burst through them and ran to the back where Charlotte was cornered and ripped the mystery douche off her.

"Hey," the stranger protested pissed off.

Jon pushed him back and stood protectively between him and Charlotte, who still had her back pressed against the wall. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Not your business."

"It is my business. This girl is my business. Get away, or you'll be wishing you hadn't come here," he said sternly.

The guy shook his head and turned away not looking to fight with Jon any further. As soon as he turned away Jon spun around and went to Charlotte who was still pressed against the wall. "What happened?"

"I was dancing with Brent and we finished up and I had to pee, so I came back here and this guy was out here when I came out. He asked me to dance and I said no but he kind of cornered me. I didn't really have good position to get away from the wall and he caught me off guard so I was stuck." Her breath was hitched in her throat as Jon's hands were pressed against the wall on either side of her and she could feel his body against her, his eyes drilling into hers.

"You're okay?" Jon swallowed feeling his heart pound in his chest. He wondered if she could feel it too.

"Yeah I knew you guys were over there. I was banking on someone coming over here to help me before he was able to do anything else. I didn't know if it would be you or not, but I knew someone would have my back."

Her words were meant to sting and they definitely did. "What's that supposed to mean?" Jon asked still defensive like he had been with her the last few days.

"Nothing," she rolled her eyes and went to brush by him but he pushed her back against the wall again and looked at her. "It doesn't matter if we're in an argument or not, if anything happened to you I would die. I told you that a long time ago and I meant it."

"You would?" she breathed out never breaking their eye contact, her heart pounding just as hard as his against her ribcage.

"You're my best friend," he said quietly but sternly. His face was so close she could feel the warmth of his breath against her face.

"Yeah well you haven't been acting it lately," she shot right back, her chest rapidly rising and falling.

"People grow apart," he said coldly though he didn't pull back from her.

"I guess so." She wasn't about to drop her attitude when he was treating her the way he was. Their eyes were still locked and Jon broke their gaze for just a moment as he looked down at her lips and quickly back into her eyes.

"What's going on?" they heard a third voice coming from behind Jon and they both jumped. "Everything okay? The guys told me what happened," Patrick interrupted authoritatively intentionally meaning to startle them and make Jon pull away from Charlotte.

Jon backed up and glared at Pat before he walked away. "She's all yours man." There wasn't a friendly bone in Jon's body at that moment.

"You okay baby?" Jon heard Pat ask Charlotte as he walked away and noticed Rose was now there waiting for him with the rest of the group. He shook his head-- it didn't sit right with him-- and thought the timing was odd but didn't give it another thought as he caught his breath and sat down at the table leaving Charlotte to be with the guy she'd chose to be with.