Like a Damaged Nerve

“I’m gonna pop,” I groaned as I eased down onto the couch.

“You can’t until Auntie Katie gets her,” Jonny snickered from the kitchen.

“But I want to,” I huffed and placed both of my hands on my nine-month pregnant stomach.

“We both do, but… Can’t yet,” his smug smile came over him as he came into the room with a plate full of apples that he had sliced… and a whole new jar of peanut butter. Honestly, I could have done without the apples and just downed the whole jar of creamy goodness. But Jonny keeps telling me I need to have something else with it or our baby could develop a peanut allergy. He’s been like this throughout my pregnancy. I eat them just to make him happy…

Jonny and I found out I was pregnant shortly after we came back from our honeymoon. We tried to keep it quiet until the season started. By that time, however, I was nearly five months along. There was no hiding it at all. Of course we told our families and Jonny mentioned it to his team when we first knew. Our announcement was just a little late.

Throughout it all though, Jonny’s been so cute… and annoying at times. I expected him to be a little overprotective and cautious. When we found out we were having a girl though, everything changed. I’m pretty sure if he could wrap me in bubble wrap, he would. It’s been interesting to say the least in the Toews household… but I’ve been kind of bummed that I haven’t gotten to go through all of this with Katie.

She was due home in a few weeks… and my due date was next week. But now with the amount of discomfort I’ve been going through, I just want this baby out of me. It’s getting so hard for me to sleep at night and I feel so bad when I wake Jonny up because of it.

It’s the middle of February. Another season is quickly coming to a close. The Blackhawks are currently leading the Central division. The Blues have been nipping at their heels throughout the whole thing. It’s been stressful to say the least… but what hockey season isn’t?

“If I go into labor tonight, is everyone in Chicago going to hate me for taking their captain away?” I teased and nuzzled against Jonny’s side, knowing that the Hawks were hosting their rival from St. Louis.

“They’ll get over it,” he smiled and brought his large palm up to gently rub at my stomach. “But it’s not happening tonight,” he countered before pressing his lips against my temple.

I huffed loudly, making him chuckle. My head came to rest on his shoulder; my eyes watching a few large snowflakes fall outside the window. Silence fell over the two of us for the longest time.

Snow made me think of how excited Katie got whenever the flakes blew. And right by the window just so happened to be a few frames from the wedding. It was such a perfect day… obviously too perfect. I never experienced so many emotions in such a short amount of time in my life… until I got pregnant, but that’s a whole new can of worms.

Doing my best to blink back the tears, I turned over to hide my face into Jonny’s chest. I was hoping he didn’t notice, but from the way his arms tightened around me, I think he caught a glimpse of my glossy eyes.

There wasn’t much time for me to let Jonathan’s warming comfort wash over me. A knock rattled against the door. Without getting up, Jonny yelled for them to come in. Moments later, Kaner’s face peeked around the corner. A sniffle came out of me as I sat up out of Jonny’s arms.

“… Bad time?” he asked through a cringe.

“No, I’m just… pregnant,” I muttered as I ran a finger under each of my eyes; careful not to disturb the makeup.

“Obviously,” he chuckled and came in to sit down with us.

I sent him glare and fell back against the couch more. He put on an innocent grin that I would assume Katie would think was cute. He sat here and talked about the up coming game with his teammate. I wasn’t going with all of the discomfort I’ve been experiencing lately. There wasn’t any need for me to but in. But then the subject changed…

“Have you… heard from Katie lately?” Patrick questioned, speaking softly.

“No,” I answered, reeeeally not wanting to talk about this right now.

He nodded his head while a look of worry took over his face. Not knowing what else to do, I looked to Jonny. He’s good with stepping up in this leader role, right? He should know what to say. Of course, he just shrugged at me.

“I’m sure she’s fine. Communication is always inconsistent,” I came up with.

“But she’s supposed to come home. Shouldn’t we have heard something?” he pressed on.

“I don’t know,” I sighed, quickly growing irritated with this.

Over the years, I’ve grown to love Patrick dearly. But ever since Katie was deployed, he’s just been on pins and needles. He’s… not the same. It makes me sad to see this, but I know the only person that can’t help him isn’t here. To make it worse, his play on the ice has suffered. With him coming off of that big contract signing, the people of Chicago haven’t been too quiet about it either. The guy’s under a lot of pressure at the moment.

“Last time we talked to her though, she seemed to be in good sprites and excited to come home,” Jonny finally spoke up.

Yeah, last time we talked to her was a month ago. We could barely make out her smile in the mess of pixels that the video feed was. But she sounded excited. All I know is that I wanted her home. We have to wait a little longer for that though… and I pray she comes back ok.