Their teammates weren't blind to the events that happened at the World Cup. They heard all the rumors about Katie and Caitlin possibly being together, but neither girl had admitted anything to anyone yet, so no one pushed too hard into digging up the drama that occurred.
Katie and Caitlin had both agreed they weren't quite ready to tell anyone. But they knew it was going to be a struggle to not give it away. Their relationship was new. All they wanted to do was be near each other all the time, but had agreed that they could only be near each other during warmups which is what was normal for them. They always stretched together and were next to each other in line drills. That had always been the case and wasn't going to change so their teammates shouldn't expect anything.
The first day of practice at camp seemed to go okay. No one seemed to be staring at them or giving them any weird looks trying to figure out what was going on between them. To celebrate getting away with keeping everything hidden for one day Caitlin returned to her room early and waited about 30 minutes before Katie slipped away to join her, without being detected sneaking into her room successfully. They spent the evening together as any other new couple would, with their hands all over each other trying to learn every last inch of each others bodies.
Caitlin woke up first the next day completely refreshed and satisfied from the night before. She looked over to see Katie slowly waking up, but then saw her face grimace.
"You okay?" Caitlin asked quickly
"Yeah just had a sharp pain in my side it's fine now. That was weird."
Katie seemed to be better after that as they headed to breakfast, from different directions of course, and joined their teammates.
Katie seemed okay while they were biking to the field and then didn't seem off during warm ups either.
Caitlin didn't think back to her side hurting again until about 30 minutes into practice. Defenders were separated into their own drill on the other side of the field when Caitlin heard a coach yell at Katie to pick up the pace and stop slacking.
In her four years with the team she had never once heard a coach k at Katie for not giving it her whole effort. For a second she was concerned, but then the cocky thought of maybe she just wore her out too much last night popped into her head. Yeah that had to be it, Caitlin had just been too much for Katie to handle she thought as a sly grin formed on her face.
About 10 minutes later, Caitlin and the forwards were grabbing water when she risked a glance towards Katie hoping the others were too distracted in their own conversation. But the moment Caitlin looked over was a moment she'd never forget. She saw Katie running through a drill when all of a sudden she stopped, grabbed her side, and then fell to the ground.
Caitlin had dropped her water and was sprinting over before the coach had even blown his whistle to get the medics attention.
"Katie! Katie baby can you hear me?" Caitlin hadn't even considered others were around as she grabbed Katie's hand and watched as her face was full of pain, looking close to passing out.
"Fuckin hurts Cait"
"What is it?" She said happy that the medics were finally there ushering her to move out of the way slightly as Katie pointed to her lower right side.
The medics immediately knew what it was as Katie painfully described what she was feeling and where she was pointing.
"It's gotta be her appendix. We gotta get her to the hospital now."
"I'm coming" Caitlin said without a chance for debate. The medics called an ambulance. In the seven minutes it took for the ambulance to show up all their teammates had seen how the only thing that seemed to comfort Katie's pain slightly was Caitlin's support. Caitlin made Vic go run and grab their phones and a different pair of shoes, so at least they didn't have to go in their cleats.
Caitlin didn't release Katie's hand the whole time and stayed in the waiting room the whole time as Katie had immediate surgery to have her appendix removed. It was a quick surgery and went on without any issues, so Katie was quickly back in her hospital room.
Caitlin crawled into the bed with her, careful of her stitches and held her tight as Katie slowly woke up from the anesthesia.
Soon enough the girls started to come in clearly having just finished up practice and gym session.
"You okay Katie?" Stina asked first
"Yeah allll bettterrrr" Katie responded clearly still high from the medication.
"So do you two have anything to say to us?" Steph asked while winking and staring at Caitlin.
Caitlin got nervous as she didn't know exactly what to say, but clearly they couldn't hide it anymore especially with their current position of Katie basically curled on top of her. But lucky for Caitlin, Katie had no problem spilling their secret now that she was a little under the influence.
"We are datinggg caits my girlfriend! She's so pretty" Katie said while leaning over to give Caitlin a sloppy kiss on her cheek before grimacing again after moving her stitches too much.
"Doctor said not to move too much Katie" Caitlin said trying to push her into place.
"Yes we are together. It's really new we were waiting for the right moment to tell you all. But I guess Katie's appendix had other ideas."
"Well I think you two will be cute together" Steph said smiling at the couple as Katie slowly started to fall asleep clearly not being able to fight the medication any longer.
The other team members seemed to all agree and gave Caitlin and a sleeping Katie a smile and nod in approval. Eventually everyone had left, except for Caitlin, who continued to hold Katie tight to make sure she was comfortable all night. She gave her one more forehead kiss before drifting off to sleep herself.
