The Quiet One

another one

we were on national break with England for the Arnold Clark cup. we had already played both Italy and Korea republic and now we were onto Belgium. it was the day before the match, and I was in my room relaxing after a long training session. Eli had come down with a cold and was in the worst part of it, meaning up every half an hour to Eli crying and not wanting to be put down. with him now being 7 months old you could only do so much, with keeping him hydrated, well fed and lots of rest. and with him being poorly he has been in the medic's room whilst I was training so he was warm and rested.

I was walking around the room trying to get him to nap as he decided he did not want one today, I had tried everything bath, changed him, fed him. he just did not want one. I gave up and put him in his pram with his blanket and dummy and went on a walk hoping he will fall asleep. we had a meeting about the match tomorrow, so I took the long way round giving him time to fully settle down so then when he sees the girls he will not nap. as I got outside the meeting room, I saw most of the girls walking in and handing about, Leah was resting on the wall and smiled when she saw me. she stayed still as I walked towards her.

"How are you" she asked.

"Exhausted he doesn't want to sleep I've been up all night and with training" I said looked at him and he was laid content looking at us with tired eyes and tears dried up on his cheeks.

"Here after the meeting, I can take him, and you go have a nap" she said.

"Are you sure" I asked.

"Yes, now come on" she said, and we are walking into the meeting room.me and Leah sat in the back of the meeting room as Sarina and the trainers started the meeting. the meeting had lasted about an hour, and we were all excused for the day.

"Jae, can you stay back please" Sarina asked and I nodded.

I looked towards Leah, and she took the pram with Eli now asleep in it finally, and she left the room. I walked towards the front, and I sat next to Sarina.

"How are you I know Eli has been difficult with him having a cold and I wanted to know if you're okay for the match tomorrow. I wanted to have your input on how you are before I finalised the starting lineup" she said.

"Honestly I am exhausted I wasn't expecting him to be poorly I mean this is his first nap of the day after this I'm going to go have a nap" I said.

"Okay so we will keep you out of the line up and line we will see how you feel tomorrow you have played a lot of minutes this season both for England and for Barcelona you deserve a break" Sarina said.

"Thank you" I said, and she nodded patting my back.

I got up and walked out the meeting room. I looked around and saw that nobody was there, I sighed and slowly walked up to my room. the walk there was nice and peaceful, I opened my room door, and nobody was there I walked over to the bed and collapsed onto it I took my shoes of and slowly fell asleep.

I slept through all the afternoon, and it got to seven in the evening before I woke up. as I slowly woke up and I looked around me and I saw Leah on the floor of the room doing tummy time with Eli. I laid there as I watched them play. Leah looked up and saw that I was awake. she sat up and brought Eli into her lap and he noticed I was there, there was a smile on his face, and he started to squeal. she stood up and brought him over to me and laid him next to me.

"Look at you happy boy" I said.

"He slept for about 4 hours" Leah said.

"And now why could you not have done that last night" I asked tickling him.

"I think he has gotten past the rough of it now" Leah said.

I turned to her, and I kissed her and said, "thank you."