fool (lester averman)

chapter twenty-seven

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chapter twenty-six: goodbye

a/n:

and that's a wrap--

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While Rory has cried in front of her teammates many times, most of them have yet to see her like this.

Utterly inconsolable would be a good way to describe it as a whole. Her entire body shakes with quiet sobs and she petulantly wipes at her cheeks, another tear rolling down her face as soon as she wipes the last ones away; she hasn't been able to eat anything, her stomach tying itself into painful knots.

She just doesn't want to go home.

Averman lets her cling to him for a while, rubbing her back as they stand with the rest in the airport.

Her flight is the first of many.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay." He jokes, kissing her on the head. "You'd get tired of me if you spent any more time here, anyway."

"Don't say that. Don't you ever say that again."

Les' eyes widen as she, her face covered with tears, stops burying her face in his shoulder to glare at him.

"I'm never gonna get tired of you."

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to diffuse the tension."

She nods and rests her head on him again, and he turns to look at Luis with his eyes still wide. The other boy shrugs.

"Passengers for flight GA 642 to Detroit please go to gate 26."

Rory sniffles. "I guess... I guess I gotta go."

Averman nods softly, wiping her face as she pulls away from him.

She hugs all of them (barring Bombay.) Even Jesse, who huffs uncomfortably and stands ramrod straight as she does, and Goldberg, who doesn't complain but doesn't exactly hug her back.

Most of the interactions go the way she expects them.

Kenny hugs her back, almost so tightly that she can't breathe, and Luis tells her that he won't forget how to to stop, even if it means he has to drag his ass out of bed to practice every morning. The girls are all tears, even Julie, who had been managing to keep her cool until they woke up that morning. Dwayne's a little choked up, too, but he hides it beneath the rim of his hat when he asks her to visit him if possible. Fulton's hug is swift but warm and Dean awkwardly pats her back until she unwinds her arms from his waste.

Guy is kind, and Charlie's embrace lingers, and Adam begs her to remember to contact him because he's 'really going to miss her.'

(A sentiment that makes the tears worse, in retrospect.)

And then, all that's left is her goodbye to Averman...

"It's only a couple hundred miles, right?"

"Seven hundred." She corrects, her voice shaking. "Seven hundred miles."

"Hey, that's three hundred less than a thousand."

She laughs wetly even if she doesn't want to, and he rests his forehead against hers. Even if he's joking around, she can see the sadness in his eyes.

They call her flight again.

"Okay, I really have to go."

Rory pulls away from him after pecking his lips softly, grabbing all of her bags and backtracking from the group a bit.

"I'll, uh, I'll keep in contact."

She gets various nods. Connie tearfully waves.

As Rory turns around to walk away, she hears them all murmuring another goodbye. She gets maybe fifteen, twenty feet toward her destination before her name is getting shouted.

"Rory, wait!"

It's Bombay. When she turns, he's jogging up to her.

"Yeah, coach?"

He pulls a wrinkled piece of paper out of his pocket.

"What's this?"

"You have everyone else's contact information, but you didn't have mine." He explains. "I want you to know, kid, that you can always call me, okay? And every duck, new or old, is free to fly home when they need to feel safe-- if you catch my drift."

She nods and stuffs the paper into her pocket before hugging the man tightly.

"Thank you, for everything."

"Never forget what we talked about, okay?" Bombay says into her hair. "You're the sun, kid. You're the goddamn sun."

His words echo in her mind as she goes through security and boards her flight, and she closes her eyes to think about her friends and her boyfriend and Gordon Bombay as the plane begins to climb.

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a/n:

this is literally only eight hundred words because the second half of the chapter doesn't fit the theme.

comments and votes are super appreciated! they let me know that you guys like my writing and I cannot stress how much they motivate me to continue! thank you