Tartt

Part 7

Isabelle felt so embarrassed. She was embarrassed that she ran, that she scared everyone and had Jamie so worried. When she woke up, Jamie was in the living room of the hotel room. She debated whether to even open her eyes or just stay asleep. It would be easier than having to face the whole team after yesterday.
After a little while of debating, she forced herself up onto her feet and trudged into where Jamie was. He looked up to her instantly on hearing footsteps.
He gave here a gentle smile and patted the sofa next to him.
"Heya kiddo. You slept okay?"
Isabelle nodded but didn't make any attempt to go and sit by Jamie.
She avoided eye contact with him, which he picked up on quickly.
"We don't have long 'til the coach leaves, would you like me to get Keeley to bring your stuff from her room?", Jamie offered.
"Yes please.", Isabelle replied.
It was quiet for a moment. Jamie looked at Iz, but she still didn't look at him.
"Iz?", she finally glanced at him, "You don't have to worry or be nervous or embarrassed or anything, alright? The team love you, why else would they have done everything to try and find you yesterday?", Isabelle tried to brush it off as being polite because Jamie is their teammate, but he wasn't having it, "Iz, they care more than you realise, you know?"
"Really?", she muttered.
"Really.", Jamie reassured her.
About 5 minutes later, someone banged on the door. Jamie got up to answer, and Keeley appeared with Isabelle's backpack. She strode over to Isabelle who was sat on the sofa, knelt down and pulled her into a tight hug. When she pulled back, she looked Isabelle in the eyes.
"We're so glad that you are back home safe.", she smiled, "Roy is outside, is it okay if he comes in?"
Isabelle nodded and Keeley disappeared again, reappearing shortly with Roy.
They both sat on the coffee table opposite her. They were quiet until Roy piped up.
"Ted... he feels awful. He'd like to talk to you, but only when you're ready to.", Roy explained slowly while Isabelle considered, "He didn't mean to scare you, he really didn't. The whole team was so relieved to hear when you were back safely, Colin won't shut up about brainstorming what we can do to make you feel comfortable.", Roy chuckled and Isabelle smiled a little.
"See?", Keeley said, "Nothing to worry about."

The bus was leaving at 10AM so Jamie made sure to have Isabelle ready and there before everyone else, just to try and ease her nerves. Isabelle settled in the same seat she arrived in, and Colin arrived shortly who greeted her with a big smile and a hug. He didn't say anything about last night as to not remind Isabelle. Slowly the rest of the team rolled onto the coach, each finding their seats. Isabelle didn't even notice Ted get on, but flinched a little as his voice called out to make sure everyone was there.
She spent the journey sat next to Jamie on the row seat opposite Colin and Isaac, but switched over to sit sideways on Colin's lap so she could play games on his phone and talk to Jamie at the same time. She spent about an hour playing fruit ninja with Colin, as Isaac teased her that her eyes were turning square for playing for so long. After a little while of chatting, she curled up back in her seat and slept for a while.
Colin looked over at Isabelle sleeping peacefully with Jamie's arm around her.
"She okay?", he asked Jamie.
"She will be.", he sighed, "I don't know how she's going to be with Ted though."
Jamie was worried about how Ted and Isabelle's relationship would be affected. He knew Isabelle didn't have it easy with her Dad, and having Ted snap at her bought back those memories, he just hoped they wouldn't stick and that Isabelle could forgive him and try to forget.
When the team pulled up at Richmond, everybody cheered and did the Richmond chant, making Isabelle laugh.
They decided to rewatch the match together in the press room on a projector. Jamie had some physio work to do, so left Isabelle with Keeley and Roy. They were sat at the back of the room, Roy's phone pinged, and he read the text and looked over at Keeley and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and leant down to Isabelle.
"Iz? Ted was wondering if you would be able to talk to him? Roy will take you? He'll protect you, he's scary.", she joked, "I promise.", she said turning serious.
Isabelle took a deep breath and nodded.

Roy took Isabelle over to Ted and Beard's office by the locker room, giving her encouraging words all the way. They walked in and Ted looked over and smiled at Isabelle. Beard smiled at her with a little wave and excused himself after giving Ted an encouraging nod.
"Hey Isabelle.", Ted said gently, he got up slowly and pulled Beard's office chair round and closer to his. He gestured for her to sit down, she looked up at Roy for approval who nodded and smiled at her.
"I'm here.", he said reassuringly.
She perched on the chair and fiddled with the strings on her hoodie (well, Jamie's hoodie).
"Isabelle... I can't apologise enough for shouting at you the other night. I never meant to scare you. I wasn't feeling... well, and I didn't mean to act that way, I shouldn't've done that.", he paused, "I know... that you're Dad used to do the same, and scare you. I want you to know that I never meant to. I'm sorry."
Iz sat for a second.
"Are you feeling better now?", she whispered.
Ted thought for a second at what she meant by that, and realised that night at the bar he said he wasn't 'feeling well'.
He smiled at her, "Much better."
She looked up at him and smiled a little bit back.
Ted took that as a step closer to being back to normal and was happy with that.
Roy and Isabelle returned to the press room, where Iz ran and leapt on Colin, making him jump, as the others laughed. He smiled and pulled her into a hug as they watched the rest of the match. She got a little bored at parts, so they ended up just whispering and giggling the whole time. Iz felt much more settled than before, the whole team could tell and this made them happier.
Jamie finished his physio session and went to pick up Isabelle to take her home. Roy updated Jamie on the meeting with Ted, Jamie was happy to hear about Isabelle's progress. She said her goodbyes to Roy, Keeley, Colin, Isaac and the rest of the team and the pair left.