Outlasting Karma

Chapter 4

Jo slipped out of bed as the red alarm clock numbers hit 2:00 AM. She made her way silently out of the room trying her best to avoid waking up Alex. Jo made her way down the hallway to the staircase.She took the stairs 2 at a time only slowing down when she reached the main floor. She put her hoodie up as she walked past the reception desk hoping to avoid recognition from the desk receptionist or from the cameras.

She made her way out the front door of the hotel and turned down the street. Jo spent almost half an hour walking around and making random turns to check that nobody was following her. At 2:30 on the dot Jo stepped through the backdoor of a gas station that was closed for the night. Jo sat on a crate and waited for the Israeli woman to arrive. They had arranged for her to arrive 15 minutes after Jo to avoid anyone seeing them enter at the same time.

At 2:45 the Israeli walked into the gas station coming face to face with Jo.

"Hello Jo"

"Hey Ziva"

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It's been 3 days since Jo's meeting with Ziva and Jo is doing her best to focus on the scrimmage that is going on right now. She's playing as an outside midfielder working with Tobin in front of her and Kelley behind her. Jo watches as the ball gets played around the defense, moving to Kelley. Kelley lifts her head to check for the next play. Tobin checks down the side line while Jo moves into the center. Kelley sends the ball up to Tobin who one touches it to Jo who then starts dribbling it up the middle.

Jo dodges Julie before sending a ball over the top to Alex who was making a run. Alex takes one touch to bring it down and another touch to take a shot on frame. Alyssa managed to get a touch on the ball and send it out for a corner. Jo sets up on her spot at the top of the 18. Tobin sends in a beautiful corner and Jo runs in to get a head on it. She makes solid contact with the ball and manages to send it into the back of the net. It was a beautiful goal but Jo ran into Alyssa in her attempt to get to the ball.

Alyssa's fists made contact with Jo's head moments after the ball did. They both landed on the ground followed by Becky who had also gone for the ball. As she fell, Becky's knee landed in the middle of Jo's back with all of Becky's body weight behind it. The field was silent for a few seconds before it erupted in chaos. The medics were running onto the field while the players huddled around the injured players.

Becky was the quickest to get up, walking off the slight pain in her knee. Alyssa was next. She was going to need an ice bath to avoid major soreness, but other than that she had only gotten winded. Jo stayed down. There was a cut running through her eyebrow from where Alyssa's fists had made contact. The cut was bleeding profusely despite the medics attempts to stop it. Fortunately her back felt as though it was just going to be sore with maybe a bone bruise along her spine. She seemed perfectly aware so the medics were optimistic about the cut just being superficial.

Vlatko had the players take a break while the medics continued to attend to Jo. They kept pressure on the wound, but the cut was going to need stitches. They loaded Jo into the team van along with Alex for the drive to the hospital. They were in and out of the hospital in less than a half hour with Jo needing 17 stitches to close the wound on her head. The doctors were confident the wound was only superficial with them quickly clearing Jo stating that she never had a concussion. The stitches would come out the day before the first game leaving Jo available to play in the game, and the doctors had cleared her for practices.

Ellie was waiting in the hotel lobby for Jo to arrive having been in contact with the soccer player while she was at the hospital. As soon as Jo walked through the door Ellie ran to hug the girl stepping back in surprise when Jo let out a grunt of pain.