Finally Breathing

~ Chapter 34 ~

Christen's POV
I awoke in a daze, hot sunlight streaming through the curtains behind my bed. I felt exhausted, completely drained. Sleep had somewhat abandoned me last night, the day's events replaying over and over as I feared the worst. Even when I finally drifted off to sleep I could hear the echos of screams: pain, hunger, despair.

I couldn't imagine what I'd have done if Sky never came back.

"Morning Moms." She stretched beside me, a small, content smile painting her bruised face.

Mom. To this day it made me proud to call her my daughter. She's incredible. That's the thing about Sky; despite the gashes, the pain, the bruises, she always knows how to be happy.

"Morning Sky." I laughed, tickling her back so that she would get off my arm, which had now grown numb with the amount of time that she'd been lying on it. I wasn't even aware of the tingling sensation until she'd rolled onto my stomach.

Training had been postponed until 3pm, which gave us about 2 hours to get ready, eat, and meet the rest of the team in the lobby. Sky had been told that she had to wait at least 3 days until she trained again, per concussion protocol, meaning she was only coming along to watch. In truth, she was coming so that Tobin and I could be sure that she was safe. Yeah, the leader of the 'RDC' or whatever it was was dead, but that didn't mean we could assume her safety. In fact, it probably made the guy's friends even more hungry to get at her.

~~

"Tobin, yes!" I screamed, calling for the ball as i made a diagonal run into the box, just ahead of Kelley who was defending me. In fairness, we were all playing badly today, the sleepless night and stress of the day before catching up to us as we sprinted across the field. That didn't ever stop squirrel though. Kelley was on fire, making this the only opportunity for me to score in the whole game.

"TOBIN!" I yelled again, finally forcing her to look away from her fancy footwork. She glanced at me, before turning away and playing it safely back to Emily who returned it to Tobin. She took a bad touch, letting the ball roll into the path of Alex, who placed a tidy finish into the left bottom hand corner, just past Ash's outstretched hand.

I wandered over to Tobin, to console her and also to let her know that I was there. Normally she would find me with ease, so this was unusual. Maybe it was Sky, who was sat high-fiving Alex on the sidelines, laughing about something.

"You okay Tobs?" I questioned, unsure of what was making her so quiet and uncomfortable.

She turned away, swiftly flicking the ball off the ground into her hands, and wandering over to place it back on the centre circle.

"Um Chris? I'm not sure this is the right time."

I shifted to see Kelley on my right, looking uncertain about the situation. Glancing back to Tobin, I saw a tear roll down her cheek as she walked over to grab her wattle bottle from the dugouts. What was going on? Was it me? I'd tried to be as supportive as possible yesterday, but I was worried about Sky too. How could any of what happened be my fault? Or maybe she was upset about something else. If anyone would know, it would be Kelley.

"Kel what's going on? Please. I feel like I've done something wrong."

She looked at me, her eyes creased with worry and upset. "Can we talk after training Chris? It's unfair to do this here."

To do what here?

"Okay?"

~~