Lady in RED || Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce

Cause that's just the way life goes

Pain was part of the job.

At least, that's what Travis had always believed. It came with the territory right, the soreness, the bruises, the tightness that followed every practice and game. But this? This hits different. This was betrayal.

His body wasn't just sore. It was fighting him.

He grunted, sweat dripping down the bridge of his nose as he strained through another set of resistance band pulls. His shoulder flared, white-hot, like someone had lit a match just beneath the surface. His arm trembled. His knees locked.

"Fuck," he growled, breath ragged, chest rising.

"Break," Sam his trainer said quickly, stepping forward from across the rehab space.

Travis ignored him and kept going. He needed to finish the set. Just one more pull. Just one more rep to prove he could. But halfway through the motion, his rotator cuff seized and the band slipped from his grasp. The sting shot down into his elbow. He bit back the yell.

"Kelce. Break means you damn well listen and stop." Sam's voice was firmer now. "Rest... Now!"

Travis let the band drop, chest heaving. He shook out his arm, lips pressed into a thin, angry line, and made his way to the bench by the windows. He sat, shoulder throbbing, and stared out across the courtyard beyond the glass. Bare branches scratched against the sky. Gray. Still. Dead quiet. Just like the silence that had filled their kitchen this morning.

He hadn't meant to snap. But he'd come home from a brutal  early morning session, exhausted, hurting, barely holding on. All it took was Taylor had asked him to take Rion so she could pee alone.  And he'd barked back at her. Snapped that he needed to cold plunge, like that was a noble excuse. The truth was he felt useless. He couldn't even hold Rion properly, not with one good arm. So he walked away, dismissing her, like a jackass retreating from everything he couldn't fix 

What came next was inevitable.

He'd walked up the stairs from their personal gym over an hour later to find Donna and Taylor sitting at the kitchen table. Ed was there too, leaning on the counter, silent but clearly looped in. Travis knew before he sat down what kind of talk it was going to be.

"I'm fine," he said before anyone could speak.

Donna reached for his hand. "You're not."

Taylor said nothing. Just watched him. Her eyes were heavy. Not angry, just... tired.

"Your heart never left that game," Donna said softly. "You didn't walk off that field, Travis. And your mind is still stuck in that moment. Don't sit there and tell me you're fine."

"I've been rehabbing," he shot back, his tone stiff with resentment. "It's part of the damn process."

Donna didn't flinch. Her tone was calm, but her eyes didn't waver. "No, honey. This is denial."

Travis's jaw clenched.

"And watch your tone with me," she added, her voice unwavering. "I've been on your sideline longer than anyone. I know the difference between pain and pride, and right now, you're bleeding both all over this house."

Taylor's voice broke through finally. "You said last spring this was it. One last run. And I supported that. I stayed quiet when the doctors cleared you. I let you go back when I needed you home. But this? This isn't worth what it's doing to you. To us."

"You think I don't know that?" Travis's voice cracked. "You think I don't look in the mirror and see it? You think I wanted to go down like that?"

"No one ever wants it end like this," Donna said. "But it happened. And now you have to face it. Rion needs a dad who remembers his name when he's fifteen. Jayden needs you at his games. Taylor needs a partner who's present, not broken."