CHAMPION

27 - Finally

2 Weeks Later.

Flip hadn't felt so at a loss since his parents died. It had been years since but the lingering thought of his mother and father had never left him. The day of their car accident had felt like the worst day of his life, and mostly it still was. But he didn't know which was worse, loosing his parents unexpectedly as a young adult, or sitting across from your still form in a hospital bed.

Their death, Elizabeth leaving, his own battles with his mental health - all of it had crushed him. But seeing your face so lifeless, your body limp and your face pale was terrifying.

The nightmares hadn't stopped and he had lost count of the times he would see you in his subconscious and all the ways which had haunted him. The image of you laying crumpled on the ice as a steady pool of crimson settled on the surface haunted him.

Even now as he sat in that arm chair, desperately praying - reciting the Hebrew he learned as a child, he felt haunted by the absence of you. People and doctors had come and gone in the week since your last seizure, but all he could focus on was you.

Flip had only been home to pick up some of his and your belongings once or twice but he would always speed down the highway back to you. He didn't want to leave you in case something happened.
It was no lie that he feared your death. The thought alone terrified him. Knowing that you would leave him without having the chance to speak to you, to comfort you or to tell you that he loved you... he would never forgive himself.

In a way he was thankful for the time he had spent in that armchair, because it made him realise how much he needed you. How much he missed all the silly things that you would do, they way you would braid his hair or try and paint his toe nails, the way you would sing and dance whenever you cooked or cleaned around the house, the hours you would spend trying to teach him how to do jumps or lifts on the ice.

But above all else he missed the way you loved him. And the way he loved you back ten times harder.

He loved you.
He loved every single piece of you.

Why had it taken him so long to realise it? Why now when he was unsure if he would ever get to say those words to you did he realise just how desperate he was to tell you.

When he wasn't worrying about you, we was desperately trying to figure out how this happened. Ice Skates don't just bend out of place on their own, and Jeremy's looked like it had basically snapped in half.

But he was pulled out of his thoughts by the ringing of his phone, moving quick to stop the noise so he didn't disturb you.

"Hello?" He whispered having not looked at the caller id.

"Flip where are you?" Couch Trapp all but seethed down the line. "The press conference starts in 15 minutes and you're not here yet. This is a big fucking meeting Flip, this could get us a new NFL contract, we could actually have a chance of making it..."

"I'm not coming." He said simply, right now hockey wasn't on his mind in the slightest.

"What! I hope you're just messing with me."

"Y/n is still in the hospital. She hasn't woken up. I need to be here for her." Flip said as he looked over to you.

"This is your career Flip. You've worked your whole life for this. This could be the greatest opportunity you ever get."

"You're wrong. The greatest opportunity I've ever gotten is getting to be by her side. And I'm not going to leave her now when she needs me the most."

He took your hand in his and placed a kiss against your knuckles gently.
"If the promotors want me that bad, they won't mind. There will be other press conferences and I'll be there when I know she is okay. The team will do perfectly fine without me Coach, just tell them I have a family emergency and I need to be here." After that he hung up the phone and switched it to silent, not wanting to be disturbed.