call it what you want

9. mistakes

What Keeley told her broke her heart. Rebecca sent a photographer out to try and catch incriminating pictures of her and Ted. She was setting Ted up to fail. Vic's favorite person in the world.

She was pissed.

—

The next weekend's game sucked, she eventually found Roy in the physio room submerged in a tub of ice water, lights off.

His head poked out of the water when Vic flipped the lights on, his voice more gravelly than normal, "Everyone gone?"

"Everyone except Dani. He's out on the field running drills."

"Pitch."

"Fuck you." She spun a chair around pulling it up next to the tub Roy was in. Subtly she stuck her hand in the water. "Holy fuck that is cold. You're gonna freeze your dick off." As she spoke she leaned forward on the chair running her hands through her hair before slipping it back into a ponytail.

"Can you just tell me I fucked up and then go?" Roy's voice was almost gone, he looked tired, exhausted even.

Vic sat up crossing her arms not looking at him, "You fucked up, but I'm not leaving."

"I lost us the game." He paused, staring ahead at the tv screen playing a recap of the game, "I'm a piece of shit."

"Easy." She warned crossing her good leg over her bad one, "You fucked up, big whoop."

"'Big whoop'?" Roy repeated, finally looking at her.

"Yeah. Big whoop." Her head turned slightly in his direction, him immediately looking away. "You bitching is like Beard doing yoga, I don't wanna see it or hear it." A comfortable silence fell over them for a moment as he sat with her weird analogy. After that silence turned uncomfortable she stood heading for the door, her cane tapping at her side. When she reached the door she turned again to face him, "You'll be okay." He stared back at her, giving her a soft nod. Her hand flipped the lights off and on.

A lopsided smile appeared on her face, "You look like a fucked up Oscar the Grouch."

—

A few days later was the 'Women in Football' photoshoot, it wasn't even going to be in a magazine anybody was going to read. Keeley had to drag her by her hair in front of the camera.

"I don't fucking like cameras Keeley." She was wearing the first of the outfits Keeley and her had put together.

Keeley put her hand on her back, "You'll be fine babe!" Her other hand brushing back a stray lock of Vic's hair that had fallen in her face. "You look fucking amazing, you look hot as shit, and you're going to fucking kill this!"

Vic didn't look convinced, her eyes scanning around the room at the lights set up, all the people, and cameras. All the lights reminded her of the fluorescent lights of the hospital, a place she never wanted to return to.

Keeley paused, holding Victoria's arms, "Look at me." She did as Keeley said, meeting her eyes. "You're going to be okay! You're gonna rock this shit!" Immediately Keeley wrapped her arms around V's waist, tucking her head into her shoulder. "I love you."

Letting out a sigh she wrapped her arms around Keeley's back.

"I love you too."

Later when they returned from the press conference Ted and Victoria were stopped in the office by Nate and Beard, who simply told them to have a seat.

They wanted to bench Roy. Ted put his foot down saying he wasn't going to do that before being summoned by Rebecca to her office, him leaving so quickly the girl never got the chance to agree with him. Eventually Beard, Nate, and Vic returned to their positions, the girl loading up her computer, planning the starting line up for the next game.