Stand By Me - Leah Williamson

Completely Irreplaceable

Leah's POV

Kameron lay there still, asleep cuddled into me, she looked more at peace now, less pain seemed to brace her face, I was so relieved, she'd let me take the lead. She was giving it all a chance, it didn't fill me with complete confidence, that would have been foolish, but it backed up my beliefs. 

I heard the door click open, and saw Alessia, Ella, Lucy, Jill and Beth walk in, all with worried looks on their faces, unsure of what to expect. 

"How is she?" Alessia asked, tapping her leg on the spot fueled by anxiety. 

"I mean I got her up, gave her a shower, got her changed and she's exhausted so she wanted a nap," I explained, all of their faces slightly lit up, the worry mildly fading. 

"Where is she?" Lucy asked.

I smiled, "Here," nodding my head to the sleeping girl who clung to me.

"Course she is," Beth laughed, but not in a joking way, it was filled with sentiment and warmth, she was happy. It was a happy sight to be fair, only hours ago she'd been completely unreachable, in a whole other world to us, and now she was here, connected to me quite literally as her fingers clung onto my jumper and her whole body curled into mine, I was guessing for a sense of warmth, she was shaking pretty bad earlier. 

They all came over to look at her, Alessia gently brushed the hair from her forehead, "she looks a bit better," she commented, a small smile on her face as she admired her best friend. 

"Yeah, she talked a little bit as well, couldn't seem to handle moving, but she's making progress," I told them, careful not to speak to loud to avoid waking Kam. 

"That's good, hey, anything is good," Ella commented, they were all just looking at her smiling. It wasn't much of a joyous smile, more hopefull and that they were so overcome with relief that Kameron had made an improvement. 

"I told them all the plan," Alessia stated, looking back at all the girls. 

I braced myself, "What do you guys think?" Not that I cared enough to change the plan, but I'd hoped they'd be on board, their support would be helpful, and I didn't want to cause any conflict within the team. I just couldn't let them do that to Kameron, even if they thought it was the best way, I had to step in and stop it. 

"I mean it's going to be difficult," Beth replied honestly, "But I think you've got it and we're all here to help."

"I think the Euros will be good for her if she can play," Keira spoke up.

Lucy cleared her throat, "Yeah, it will be something to get better for."

"I told her the plan was to get to training in two days, she nodded, so hopefully it should happen. It's something to work towards at least," I explained, looking down at Kameron, I was so proud at her for giving it a go, I knew how much courage it would take from her, but she'd always been the bravest person I ever knew. 

"That's good Leah," Alessia smiled, then letting out a small yawn. 

We were all exhausted, it had been a testing day, only now, I realized how tired I was but I wasn't going to leave Kameron by herself, it wasn't a risk I'd even think about taking, I had a promise to keep and more importantly a person to keep alive.

"So what's the plan for tonight? What are we all doing?" Jill asked.

That made me smile, they were all willing to help. It wasn't much of a surprise though, Kameron was loved around the team and these girls in particular were ridiculously protective of her. I think they'd seen Kameron going through dark times, and when someone is so low that they fail to protect themselves, you find yourself very quickly stepping in to protect them yourself, and that's what everyone here had done.