I'll Find You

Go Harder

Everybody doubted me
Overcame adversity
Only made me stronger
And it's my time, not waitin' any longer
Guess I have no choice but to go harder
——Go Harder, Fluent ft. J. Harris

February 17, 2018

Grayson sighed as he glanced at his phone.  A text from Scheyer letting him know the media staff wanted to talk to him before they left for Clemson.  And they didn't want him to comment on the previous night's events until they did. He rolled his eyes at that. It wasn't like he was in the habit of talking to reporters when he didn't need to.

He'd slept in a bit but he was going to have to get moving. He made his way downstairs just in time to interrupt Luke and Rae in the middle of a steamy kiss in the kitchen. 

"Jesus," he grumbled, walking around them to get to the coffee maker.  "Can't you two confine that shit to the bedroom when I'm here? I'll be out of the way in a little while."

Rae giggled but Luke just shot him a glare.  "At least we actually have clothes on." 

Grayson rolled his eyes at him and headed to the fridge, but Rae extracted herself from Luke and waved him away.  "I'll make you some eggs," she said.  "You go talk to him.  He wants to know how Cait's doing."

Grayson sank down at the island and related most of their conversation from the night before, at least the part before she'd called him 'daddy'. Luke didn't need to know what they'd talked about after that, but at least Cait had been laughing. 

"Althea Gibson?  Are you fucking kidding me?"  Luke was incredulous.  "She's put herself through and year and a half of hell because of a sixty year old quote from Althea Gibson? Where does she come up with this shit?"

"To be fair, I don't think that's the only reason," Grayson pointed out.  "She really does love skiing.  And she wants to win."

Luke just shook his head and let out a breath.  "I'll try to call her in a little while.  Should be right before she goes to bed.  She's got Downhill training tomorrow, right?"

"Yep, for the next three days.  Then the actual event," Grayson sighed, picking at the eggs and fruit that Rae had placed in front of him. 

"It means that she'll be back soon," Rae caught his eye and smiled. 

That made Grayson smile in return. 
*****

The short trip to Clemson was a bit less raucous than usual, and Grayson actually got to relax for a little while.  At least, he did once he reassured the freshies that Cait was fine. 

The media staff had been sympathetic that morning, but just warned him to be prepared for questions about Cait. Although her teammates had said that they loved her competitive fire and that she'd been an incredible asset throughout the season, some media outlets were determined to make an issue of the incident. 

Grayson had told them that he wasn't about to back away from it.  Cait had been publicly supportive of him and he wanted to do the same.  And he'd decided how to handle the question.  It might not be the canned responses that they had given him, but he'd deal with any fallout from that later.

They arrived in time to do a walk through and then got to the hotel for a team dinner.  Grayson got to spend an hour or so with his dad, which was nice.  It was strange to have just his dad and not his mom there.  He realized that they were like a cohesive unit to him and that made him smile.  He was so fortunate to have them.