(Press' POV)
This is not where I expected us to be on a Friday night. If anything I would want to be out, with Toby, or with JJ, or even with Mal. But no, that's not where we're headed, even though Tobin and JJ are both next to me.
We're in Dawn's car, speeding behind the ambulance that took Mal. I look over at Tobin and she's looking out the window. I look over at JJ and find her looking at me. She gives me a small, reassuring smile, and puts an arm around me. I lean in, and she sets her head on top of mine. "It's gonna be okay," she whispers in the darkness.
We pull up to the hospital and JJ keeps her arm around me. Tobin gives me a small smile as we approach the desk. "Mallory Pugh?" I asked.
"Are you family?"
"We're the closest thing she's got here, she's traveling for soccer and her biological family is very far away."
"Alright fine, room 509."
"Thank you."
The four of us ran to the elevator and got in. We sprinted to her room where a doctor was already. We had to wait outside the door for a while. Not all the players had come, some stayed back, since there were a lot of us. However five minutes later Allie, Alex, and Moe were with us.
As everyone else say down, I was pacing back and forth. JJ eventually told me to calm down, wrapping her arms around me. Eventually she got me to sit in between her and Tobin. Toby kissed my forehead. "Mal is gonna be fine," she whispered in my ear.
A doctor came out and he looked troubled. "You can go in to see her now, she's awake. I need to go run some tests that we took."
We nodded and Tobin pretty mush pushed me into the room. Mal gave me a weak smile. "Hey Mama," she rasped, before tearing up.
I crawled into bed with her. "Shh, shh," I told her, holding her close. "Oh my poor baby. Don't worry, we'll get you out of here soon."
She nodded weakly and fell asleep on my chest. I smiled down at her as the doctor came back in. He gave us a smile and motioned for us to come outside.
We sat in more chairs in a different room. The doctor stood in front of us. "Well, unfortunately, Mallory is going to be having a rough couple of weeks," he said. "She's got a bad combination of pneumonia and bronchitis."
My eyes went wide. "We'd like to keep her for a couple days to run a few more tests, if that's alright."
"That's fine," I said, sighing. "Can I go see her?"
"Of course."
We went back into Mal's room. I kissed her forehead and pulled back from the heat. Mal yawned. "Get some sleep kiddo," I whispered. "We'll come see you tomorrow, I promise."
Mal nodded and dozed off. Tobin kissed her head before we left. We all piled back into our two cars and drove back to the hotel.
That night I didn't get a lot of sleep. I tossed and turned in my bed, replaying scenarios in my head. So many different things could happen to Mal that night. Apparently I woke Tobin up, because around midnight I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me. "Go to sleep," an obviously annoyed and tired voice said. "The kid is going to be fine, she's a fighter."
I nodded against her chest and finally fell asleep.
...
I woke up around eight that morning. Tobin was already up and we went down to breakfast. Morgan told us that she and Allie were going to see Mal. I wanted to go with them, but JJ and Tobin told me to stay back with them and have some fun to get my mind off stuff for a while. I finally gave in to Tobin's adorable puppy eyes.
Since it was an off day, we decided to go out for Starbucks. JJ and I were telling Tobin about a time when we were in Chicago, when someone thought we were dating. "And we were in the park," JJ said. "And Chris had her arm around my shoulders because I was having an awful day."
"So this guy walks up to us," I continue. "And says, 'Hi, can I get your picture? I'm trying to get pictures of local couples for this paper I run.'"
"And Chris and I kindly explain that no, we aren't dating, just really good friends. That's when he recognizes us. He starts apologizing so much I thought his mouth might fall off. I think he's afraid of Zach."
Tobin laughed along with us for a minute before she paused. "I just have one question."
"Ask away," I teased.
"Was this before or after you guys lost to the Dash?" (Anyone else watch that game last night? It was epic!)
She gave me a playful smirk and I hit her arm. "You're so mean!" I whined.
She smirked again. "Hey you were the only goal," she pointed out. "Work harder JJ."
JJ laughed and stuck her tongue out at her. We finished our coffees and decided to go out to the field we had been working on for the past few days. We kicked it around for a while and Alyssa even came out to work on her stuff. We tried to kick stuff past her. Some stuff got past but not a lot. After about an hour of kicking and juggling, we decided to call it a day. I planned on seeing Mal soon anyways.
When we got back to our stuff I noticed my phone had a missed call from Morgan and a text from Allie.
<Allie>
Call us when you get a chance
I noticed that both were from less than fifteen minutes earlier. I clicked on Moe's contact and put the phone up to my ear. "What's up Moe?" I asked.
What she told me next terrified me. "We'll be there asap."
(Moe's POV)
Allie and I decided to go visit Mal in the hospital. While Press, JJ, and Tobin went out, we were going to keep the kiddo company.
We went back up to Mal's room and found her already awake. She was playing some game on her phone when Allie knocked on the door frame. "Hey guys," she rasped.
"Hey kiddo," we both said at the same time.
"Press got pretty stressed about you last night," I told her. "So Tobin and JJ are taking her out for a little while. For this reason, we have come to keep you company! I mean we were coming anyways but this just gave us an extra reason."
She giggled and smiled at us. "Cool," she said. "So, what do you two want to do?"
"Let's play a game," Allie suggested. "I brought Life, it's in my backpack."
We both gave her weird looks. "What? I'm always prepared."
I rolled my eyes. "Sure, sounds good," Mal laughed.
We set up one of those lap tables on Mal's bed and then began to set up Life. We played a few times before Mal got tired. We told her to get some rest and that we would be back soon.
...
When we came back Mal was still sound asleep. Allie and I messed around with our phones for a while before Mal's coughing brought us back to reality. We both rushed to her side as it got worse. She covered her mouth with her hands. When she finally stopped, she brought her hands down and Allie and I gasped.
Her hands were covered in red.
We called a doctor and they told us to wait outside while they made sure she was okay. This was when I called Press. When she didn't pick up Allie texted her. About fifteen minutes later she called me back.
"What's up Moe?" she asked.
"Um, something's wrong with Mal. She coughed up blood."
"We'll be there asap."
She then hung up. Ten minutes later I saw her, Tobin, JJ, and Alyssa running towards us, followed by Dawn and Jill. We all waited for the doctors to give us the news on our youngest player. I saw that Press was silently crying so I wrapped my arms. "Oh Mal," she whispered.
Soccersoftball2 hmmm, what is that, race four that I've won? I believe so. I win!
