Saved By Carli

XL

Sage's POV

Mom and Mal have been at each others throats all throughout the send off series and it's starting to ruin the team dynamic. Jill actually had to come ask me what was going on yesterday. Today is the day before the South Africa game and after lunch I take Christen away from everyone to talk to her.

"You okay?" She asks.

"No. My Mom and my girlfriend won't talk to each other."

"Yeah. I know."

"Can you get Mom up to Mal and I's room?"

"Yeah." Christen says and I grab Mal's hand and take her up to our room. She asks what's wrong, but I don't speak. I just point to our bed and she sits on it. A minute later there is frantic knocking on our door so I go open it.

"Sage what's wrong? Are you hurt? Are you sick?" Mom says in a panic and looks me over.

"I'm fine Mom."

"But Christen said you needed me."

"Sit" I say then point to the bed Mal isn't on and Mom does while Christen stands next to me."Okay whatever the fuck is going on between you two needs to stop now. I don't need my Mom and my girlfriend hating each other. This team also doesn't need two of its players to not communicate going into the biggest tournament of their lives."

"I'm not talking about this." Mom says.

"Me either." Mal says.

"Fine then I hope both of you can go with out talking, touching, kissing, or having sex with your girlfriends then." I say and Mal looks at me shocked.

"You can't be serious." Mom says and looks at Christen.

"Try us." Christen says.

"Now...are you going to talk or are Chrissy and I going to have to get a separate room?" I ask and Mom and Mal look at each other then nod. "Good. Chrissy and I will leave you two alone to talk." Christen and I then leave the room and go to Christen and Mom's room.

"I find it funny it took us saying we wouldn't have sex with them for them to actually talk." Christen says when we get into her room.

"Yeah...Hopefully they sort their shit out." I say as we sit on a bed in their room.

- - - - -

Carli's POV

Mal and I just sit there staring at each other for a while until she speaks up.

"I'm sorry. I know I fucked up. I didn't mean what I said." She says making me sigh.

"Mal I get you were upset, but you just can't say stuff like that with Sage...you know what made me the most mad at you?" I say.

"What?"

"You made her cry Mal. You made her feel like shit. You made her feel worthless. You made her feel the same way her biological mom use to make her feel."

"What?" Mal asks and she looks like she's going to cry so I go sit next to her and hug her.

"Mal her old mom use to talk to Sage about stuff and when Sage didn't answer the way her mom wanted she would verbally abuse her. Now what you said was nowhere near as bad as what her old mom said to her, but it still hurt her just the same and it brought up those memories...Mal everyday she would cry looking at pictures of you two."

"Why?"

"She loves you with everything she has and she didn't you think you cared. And honestly I didn't think you cared either."

"You think I didn't see Sage's tear stained cheeks everytime we Facetimed. I never asked her why she was crying because I knew I had caused it. I barely left my apartment until I saw Sage was doing better. I love her Carli and one day I'm going to marry her, with your permission of course..." Damn "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it." Mal starts to cry so I hug her tighter and run my hand up and down her back to calm her.

"Shh it's okay. I know you didn't mean it Mal. And I am sorry I've been so cold to you, but Sage is my first child and I want to protect her from any and everything." I say and Mal laughs.

"Yeah. Mama bear was out in full force." Mal says and we both laugh. "We good?"

"Yeah. We're good."

"Good."

"Come on let's go see if our girls will talk to us." I say and both of us laugh. We walk down the hall and into my room and see Christen and Sage cuddled together watching TV. The two of them notice us and look at us and don't say anything. "Ladies."

"And?" Sage says.

"We're good Sage." I say and she looks at Mal.

"We're good Sagey." Mal says and Sage smiles.

"Good." She says and gets up and takes Mal out of the room and I go lay with Christen.

"How'd that go?" Christen asks.

"It went good. We were both being petty."

"Yeah." Christen rolls onto her side and I follow so we are face to face. "Baby I know you want to protect Sage from everything in life, but sometimes you can't. Sometime you can only be there for her after it's happened. Sometimes the best protection is just being there for her whenever she does get hurt."

"Yeah I know..."

"Why were you so mad in the first place?"

"When we got back home after Mal and Sage had their fight Sage broke down crying. After she calmed herself she told me the whole fight reminded her of how her biological mom treated her and it brought up bad memories for Sage."

"What did her mom do?"

"Well one time she asked Sage what she wanted for dinner and when Sage didn't choose whatever her biological mom wanted to eat she got verbally abused and beaten. Sage said that when Mal said what she said that it brought up everything from her past and hurt her more."

"Oh..."

"yeah...Mal wants to marry Sage."

"Well damn."

"Thats what I said." I say then there is a prolonged silence.

"Baby?" Christen asks

"Yes gorgeous?"

"If we get married what will our kids call us?"

"Trust me there's no if we get married. It's when we get married. And I don't know what they will call us. We may have to ask Sage to help us. Why do you ask?"

"Well when you were in Paris for the draw Sage almost called me one of the M words and I guess it just got me thinking."

"Well when the time comes we will discuss it more. And I really do plan on marrying you one day." I say and Christen pulls me in for a kiss that quickly turns into a heated make-out session. We stay in our room for the rest of the day just enjoying each others company until bed.