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Against all odds, Neil Josten is alive. Apparently, that’s all the luck the universe is willing to give him because he can’t seem to stay out of the hospital. The problem is that now he actually has someone in his life who cares enough to be upset when they aren’t informed that Neil is in the ER.
The first time it happened, it wasn’t Neil’s fault. He was a few months into his fifth and final year at Palmetto State. He was still adjusting to the cousins graduating, but he was going to be okay, he knew that.
He had gone out to pick up some snacks for himself and Robin. He didn’t bother getting in his car because he was in the mood for a run anyway. That was a mistake.
Neil decided to cut through an alleyway. He’d run through that alleyway a hundred times without an issue, but that could only last so long. Halfway through the alleyway, Neil found himself surrounded by a group of men.
“Shit,” Neil whispered to himself.
It happened so quickly that Neil barely registered most of it. The largest of the six men moved first. He grabbed Neil’s neck and the others were quick to follow. Neil made the mistake of trying to fight back and learned all too late that one of them had a knife. They took his wallet and his phone and once they decided there was nothing left to take, they left Neil on the pavement and ran for it.
Neil forced himself up from the ground, ignoring the way his spliced gut screamed at him to stay still. He looked down at his abdomen where blood was leaking through his shirt. He managed to get himself to a store across the street and pushed the door open before he collapsed from the pain. He heard the lady working at the front desk call 911. He wanted to tell her to call David Wymack, but he didn’t waste his breath.
The clerk stood next to Neil while they waited for an ambulance. She kept telling Neil to stay awake, which Neil found annoying since he was very much awake.
“I’m fine,” He kept saying. It’d been a long time since he had used that line and it was still capable of convincing no one.
Next thing Neil knew, there was the familiar screech of sirens and he was being pulled into a stretcher. He thought it was an overreaction because he thought he was fine. He’d been through worse and this was nothing Abby couldn’t fix. Something he told the EMTs many times on the ride to the hospital. They didn’t know who Abby was, but they weren’t amused by Neil’s lack of concern for his wound or his lack of appreciation for their care.
At one point he attempted to stand up just to prove he could and it wasn’t such a big deal. However, the second he tried to stand, a sharp surge of pain shot through Neil in all directions from where he had been stabbed. One of the EMTs told Neil to stay still, but the other just smirked at Neil’s pain.
They wheeled him into the hospital and into a room. Neil was more annoyed than distraught about being stabbed. They stitched him up and left him in the room to recoup. They refused to let Neil go until they were sure he was okay. Neil wasn’t sure how they measured that, but it took too long for his taste.
Robin would be worried about Neil and he hated the idea of upsetting her. He’d been gone for nearly two hours, she would know something was up.
“Let me call my teammate,” Neil said to the nurse checking his stitches.
The nurse ignored him. Neil wanted to rip out his stitches just to prove a point. What was that point? Neil wasn’t sure, but he was sure he hated this nurse. He kept pressing the “nurse” button, hoping a new one would come in, but every time it was the same angry man. The nurse was just as disappointed to see Neil as Neil was to see him.
“There’s a phone up at the desk, go use it if you can walk,” Was the only response Neil was ever able to elicit from the man. He said it with a sneer, not even bothering to try to hide how much he was enjoying Neil’s pain.
“Fuck you,” Neil spat. He swatted the man’s hands away from his stitches and against all of his body’s signals, managed to stand and slowly limp over to the desk outside his room. Spite was always a strong motivation to Neil. It hurt like a bitch, but Neil refused to show it. The nurse stared back at him, unimpressed, but didn’t demand for Neil to return.
The lady working at the desk was a complete 180 from the nurse Neil had been dealing with. She had the biggest smile Neil had ever seen, and Neil was friends with Jeremy Knox, so that meant a lot. When she noticed Neil was clearly in pain, her smile went away, “Oh, sweetie, oh my, you shouldn’t be up.”
Neil ignored that remark and instead, said, “I need to use the phone.”
She quickly reached for the phone and handed the handset to Neil. Neil recited Robin’s number to her and he waited as the phone dialed. Robin picked up before a second ring could come.
“Hello?” Robin’s voice came through the shitty hospital phone.
“It’s Neil.”
“Neil, where are you?” She asked. Neil could hear the panic in her voice.
“I need you to pick me up from Richland Hospital,” Neil said, trying his best to cover the pain in his voice. For the most part, it worked.
“Why are you in the hospital?”
“I’ll explain later,” Neil said and handed the phone back to the lady. The lady helped him back into his hospital bed. Neil saw the scowl she sent the nurse and Neil decided she was his favourite person in the hospital.
It was a ten minute drive to the hospital, but Robin got there in five. When she hauled herself into Neil’s room, she was gasping as if she had run up all seventeen flights of stairs to get here.
“What the fuck happened, Neil,” She demanded between pants.
“I got stabbed,” Neil said it so casually that even the shitty nurse was shocked by his tone.
“Fuck, Neil,” Robin said.
Neil quickly went over the details and Robin listened. Thankfully, Robin was in agreement that Neil should leave. The two of them rallied until the staff conceded and provided Neil with a form to sign that basically said,“If you die it’s because of your own stupidity, we tried,” and Neil signed it without a second thought.
Neil slung his arm over Robin’s shoulder to take some of the pressure off of his beaten up legs and punctured gut. His arms were scratched and would no doubt bruise within a few hours, but it helped. Robin had taken Neil’s car and used the spare keys he had given her. He got in and they rode in a comfortable silence.
Robin didn’t take him back to the dorms. She took him to Abby’s office and practically shoved him into her care. Thankfully, it was a few days from winter break and they didn’t have any games coming up soon.
A week later, Neil was still sore, but he could walk without wincing so he counted that as a win. His face had a few bruises on it and his neck had the imprint of a hand on it, but otherwise, he was fine.
The Saturday morning following the beginning of the break, Neil heard a knock on his door. He opened it to find Andrew standing, a backpack slung over his shoulder. Neil smiled at the sight of him. Andrew, on the other hand, did not appear pleased to see Neil.
“The fuck happened to you?” Andrew asked, voice steady, but Neil could hear the tiniest bit of concern in it.
Neil thought about lying, but he was speaking before he could even debate with himself, “I was in the hospital.”
It wasn’t the answer to Andrew’s question, but it was enough for him to put it all together.
“Who?”
“Just a group of guys,” Neil said, choosing to leave out the part about the knife. He wasn’t sure what kind of reaction Andrew would have. The last time someone had sliced Neil was his father and Lola, and Neil had never seen Andrew look so murderous.
Neil wasn’t sure how to take Andrew’s silence. Mostly because he couldn’t see his face since he was already walking into Neil’s room.
“You should see the other guys,” Neil said, a pathetic attempt at humour.
Andrew’s expression wasn’t amused at all when he turned to face Neil, “If I do, I’ll kill them.”
Neil knew that Andrew wasn’t kidding. It’s a good thing that Neil barely remembered what any of them looked like and probably couldn’t ID 4/6 of them if his life depended on it.
Andrew’s anger went away quickly, though. When Robin came back to the dorm to find Andrew there, she was ecstatic and immediately began rambling about anything and everything that had happened in his absence since a few weeks ago.
They gathered at the TV and watched a movie. Robin picked since the other two couldn’t give less of a shit over what they watched. The movie ended and they chatted for a little bit before Robin called it a night.
When the two of them were alone in Neil’s room, Andrew’s hands were on Neil. Not the way Neil would have liked. His hands were searching for any signs of injury. When he pulled up Neil’s shirt to see the half-healed stab wound and stitches, he gently ran a finger over them. Neil knew Andrew wouldn’t hurt him, but he still tensed as Andrew’s finger grazed the cut.
“Next time, put that phone of yours to good use and call me,” Andrew said.
“They took my phone. And my wallet. I should probably cancel my cards,” Neil said.
Andrew was done talking about this and opted to kiss Neil instead.
The second time it happens, it’s kind of Neil’s fault.
He’d finally graduated and now he’s on a pro team. Unfortunately, he was separated from both Kevin and Andrew, but he was happy to be where he was. He and Andrew visited each other pretty regularly and Kevin was quick to call Neil after his team had a game to point out Neil’s flaws during the game. After all those years, Neil had learned to take it as a compliment that Kevin cared enough to critique at all, but it was still ever so slightly aggravating.
He was heading down to practice, but was also talking with Coach Mueller about last week’s game. Normally, Neil was a decent multitasker, but his legs decided to betray him that afternoon. Actually, it was his shoelaces. Andrew and Robin both constantly warned Neil about it, but he never noticed they were even untied, too busy going over plays.
The rhythm of his feet came to an abrupt halt by him stepping on one of his shoelaces. He lost his balance and was too far from the railing to catch himself. His coach tried to reach out to grab him, but he was a fraction of a second too slow. Neil fell down the better half of a flight of stairs with little grace. The side of his head was the first to hit the ground.
“Shit, Neil,” Coach Mueller cursed, and practically flew down the stairs to reach his player.
Neil lifted his head up from the ground to press a finger to where his head hit the ground and grimaced when his fingers came back red and bloody. Coach Mueller helped Neil off the ground. Neil almost lost his balance as soon as he was up, but Mueller steadied him.
“We need to get you to the ER,” Mueller said. Neil was about to protest that he could just go see the team’s nurse, but remembered that she was out of town for the week.
“I-” He was about to argue how his ego was more hurt from the fall than the rest of him was, but Mueller was quick to shut him up.
“-Josten, you’re bleeding and probably have a concussion, I’m taking you to the ER.”
Mueller ignored all Neil’s attempts to brush off the injury, especially since the fact that he couldn’t walk in a straight line was not helping his case. Eventually, Neil shut up and just got in Mueller’s car. Neil sat with his arms folded across his chest like a child.
Mueller called his assistant coach and told her he would be missing practice. When asked why, Mueller just cited that Neil was an idiot. The assistant coach didn’t ask any more questions.
By the time they got to the hospital, Neil’s head was pounding so hard he could taste his thoughts, but he refused to say anything to Coach Mueller until the doctors and nurses were present. He explained how he fell and listed off his symptoms and the nurse got to work on his cut. It wasn’t quite deep or large enough to warrant stitches, but still needed to be cleaned and bandaged.
The doctor concluded that, yes, Neil had a concussion and should be off the court for at least two weeks. Neil finally found his voice to protest, but Mueller was quick to shut him up with a threat to keep him off a month if he argued.
“That’s not fair,” Neil said petulantly, but made no sign of arguing further.
The nurse bandaging Neil up tried to make Neil feel better with meaningless reassurances that he would be back on the court soon. This nurse was nothing like the one Neil had dealt with the last time he was in the ER. This nurse was much younger and she actually listened to Neil’s requests. She probably would have let him leave right there and then if he asked really nicely. Coach Mueller was the one who refused to allow Neil to leave until he had been surveyed and placed under watch for hours.
Hours later, Neil was still in the hospital and Mueller was still making sure Neil didn’t leave. He had nothing to say to his coach and his coach seemed more than fine with that. Neil liked Mueller, but he did think the coach was a little bit of a baby. Maybe Neil was just used to Wymack’s look the other way approach. (Neil called Wymack later and Wymack called Neil an idiot and agreed with Mueller, to Neil’s chagrin)
If Neil’s brain was not concussed, he would have noticed the group of girls across the hall whispering as they stared at him for the last half hour. When he did finally notice and made eye contact with them, they forced their eyes away from Neil. A few minutes later, there were photographers swarming Neil’s room, bombarding him and Mueller with a million questions. Coach Mueller did his best to fend them off, but that wasn’t enough to stop their flashes from going off. Neil winced at the sudden bursts of lights. Security ushered them away eventually.
“Okay, people know you’re here. Let’s get out of this place,” Coach Mueller said to Neil. Mueller pressed a button for a nurse and told them he was signing Neil out. The nurse was reluctant, but respected their decision. She explained to Neil what he was supposed to do in the next few weeks, but Neil was in no state to remember anything she was saying. Coach Mueller did, so it was okay.
“Press has no boundaries. Someone in the hospital? Yeah, let’s go berate them!” Mueller said, voice dripping in sarcasm. Neil didn’t respond, but nodded along.
Neil was used to press as a Fox, but ever since he signed with a pro team, it started to infiltrate into his everyday life. He would get recognized a few times a week out of state, but in state, it was a daily struggle. Neil appreciated the fact that he had fans, but the whole idea that people were watching him all the time was still strange and uncomfortable territory. The FBI and Moriyamas watching over him was more than enough for Neil, thank you very much.
Mueller dropped Neil off at his apartment building and warned Neil to take it easy. Neil begrudgingly agreed, not that he had much of a choice, and headed up to his apartment. His neighbours were used to Neil’s presence by now, but still sent him quick glances as they observed his new accessory of a bandage. Neil ignored them, too tired to explain anything.
The second his head hit his pillow, Neil fell asleep.
Neil woke up to a pillow hitting him in the chest. He jolted up, which was a bad idea because his head felt like it was going to come off. He finally focused his eyes and found that Andrew was standing at the head of his bed. Andrew’s expression was more disapproving than normal.
“Care to explain?” Andrew said, throwing his phone onto Neil’s bed. Andrew had finally upgraded his phone, but not by choice. Everyone on his team was required to use the phones provided for them, and to Andrew’s dismay, they were the newest models available. Didn’t stop Andrew from treating it like it was his old $20 piece of trash phone though.
Neil picked up Andrew’s phone and read the headline of the article it was open to. It read Neil Josten Hospitalized! Exclusive . The headline could have been more creative, but Neil didn’t say that to Andrew.
“I fell down the stairs and got a concussion,” Neil confessed. Andrew almost looked amused by this.
“Shoelaces?” Andrew asked, but he sounded like he already knew the answer. Neil’s silence was answer enough.
Andrew didn’t say anything else and moved to inspect Neil’s head. He peeled back the bandages to expose Neil’s new addition to his collection of wounds. It was already beginning to scab, so Andrew put the bandage back as he had found it.
Neil glanced at the clock in his room and realized it was almost noon.
“Is Dean not furious that you’re missing practice?” Neil asked. Dean was the captain of Andrew’s team. As far as Neil could tell, Andrew respected Dean, but still found him boring.
“If you care so much about me missing practice, maybe stop doing stupid shit and making me come here,” Andrew deadpanned.
Neil smiled as he shamelessly responded, “But then I wouldn’t get to see you.”
Andrew huffed at that, “100%,” He leaned down to kiss Neil. They were far beyond the point in their relationship where they had to ask permission to do things like kiss or touch. Andrew pulled away from Neil just long enough to say, “Fucking call me next time so I don’t find out about it on the news.”
Neil barely managed a nod before he was ravaged by Andrew’s lips again.
The third time it happens, it is definitely Neil’s fault, but he maintains that he has no regrets.
Neil had managed to get on the same team as Andrew. The two men were living together in an apartment with their two cats. It was bliss.
They had an away game tonight. Andrew and Neil both knew their team was going to be fine, but Neil was less sure that Andrew would be fine.
“You’re sick, just stay home,” Neil said. Hypocritical coming from Neil of all people.
“I am not sick. I don’t get sick,” Andrew said. His voice was stuffy since he couldn’t breathe through his nose.
“Breathe through both your nostrils and then get back to me,” Neil said.
Andrew tried to give Neil an agitated look, but it was hard to be intimidating with his red and sniffling nose. Neil handed Andrew a tissue and Andrew just stared back at him for a moment, then looked at the tissue like it was a sasquatch. When Neil didn’t give up, Andrew snatched the tissue and blew his nose as quickly as possible, like if he did it fast enough, Neil wouldn’t notice. His movements were far too sluggish, even at full health.
“‘Drew, you’re in no state to defend the goal,” Neil said, grabbing the box of tissues from the kitchen and bringing it to where Andrew was sitting on the couch in the living room. Andrew’s slow reach for the box was the confirmation Neil needed that Andrew would stay home.
“I hate you.”
“There’s leftover veggie lasagna in the fridge,” Neil said before leaving.
He drove over to the court in Andrew’s car. The Maserati was a calming presence for Neil since Andrew couldn’t be there himself. When he met up with the rest of the Hawks, they looked confused by Neil’s solo arrival.
“Minyard?” Coach Ramirez asked.
“He’s sick,” Neil explained to her.
Ramirez sighed, but waved it off as inconsequential, “It’s a good thing we’re playing Georgia today. As long as you six back there,” She pointed to where the team’s backliners were sitting, “Don’t fuck up, we’ll be fine.”
The team was still optimistic about their chances since the Georgia Bulldogs hadn’t won a single game the whole season, but that sounded a little too familiar for Neil to be completely confident in their chances. That was the same attitude people had towards the Foxes. Not having Andrew in goal was definitely not preferable and the rest of the team knew it, but having a sick and irritable Andrew in goal was just twenty red cards waiting to happen.
The team piled onto the bus. Neil sat alone because his usual seat partner was missing, but the rest of the team made sure to include him in their conversations. Neil had gotten better at talking with them, but it still didn’t feel natural. Neil thought back to the first time he talked with Andrew for hours on the bus. They weren’t Andrew, though, so this was to be expected.
Neil knew they were almost there because Dean stood up and whistled to get the team’s attention. The bus quieted down quickly. Dean gave his usual motivational speech have fun, don’t let your guard down, don’t do anything stupid . Neil didn’t miss how Dean made a point to make eye contact with Neil at that last part.
They got off the bus and were ushered by security into the stadium. The crowd was a mixture of boos and cheers as they walked onto the field and started their warm-ups. Coach Ramirez called them all back into a huddle and went over the other team’s stats and dos and don’ts.
“You see number 13 over there?” She pointed to Georgia’s tallest and beefiest, “He’s nicknamed Goliath, don’t get crushed by him.”
The team knew this already, but she made sure to reinforce it anyway.
The buzzer sounded and they all filed onto the court as their names were called. The home announcers at least had the courtesy to attempt and act excited when they announced the Hawks. Neil noticed the smile on his mark’s face when he noticed their usual goalkeeper was absent.
Neil was playing the first and last quarter. The first quarter went by alright. Georgia shot for the goal a total of six times and managed to land three of them. It would have been a tragedy, but Neil managed to score four of the five shots he made and Dean managed three. When Neil’s sub went on for him, the score was 7-3, Hawks’ favour.
Second quarter, the score didn’t budge in either direction and Neil was both frustrated and relieved. Ramirez seemed content as long as they didn’t let the Bulldogs score.
Third quarter, the bulldogs scored. Then they scored again, and again.
“We’ve gotten too reliant on Minyard,” Ramirez commented. Neil agreed, but knew better than to say anything in front of the other defense players.
The hawks’ strikers scored once. By the time Neil got back on the court, the score was sitting at 8-6. The Hawks were ahead, but the margin was too small for Neil to feel comfortable. Ramirez had given Neil and Dean permission to go all out in the last quarter to lock in their victory.
The Bulldogs, realizing they had a shot to close the gap and go into overtime, gave it their all. Neil fought tooth and nail for the ball, but barely ever had it.
Three minutes left on the clock and the score hadn’t changed. The Bulldog striker fired for the goal, but he was too far to get a quick shot and the Hawks’ goalkeeper deflected it easily, and smashed it down the court, landing across the court, a few inches away from the wall.
Dean had two Bulldogs manning him so Neil made a break for the ball. Neil saw that Goliath was also running for the ball. His size slowed him down enough that Neil could get to the ball first and shoot, but not enough for Neil to evade him.
The goal lit up red, but Neil’s feeling of satisfaction was cut short by Goliath ramming him into the wall. Neil heard a crunch inside of him and cursed. He tried to get to his feet but his trampled legs wouldn’t cooperate.
“Call it!” Neil heard Dean yell out to him. Neil, for once in his life, admitted he was in too much pain to continue, and raised his racquet up in the air with one hand. A buzzer went off and the game came to a pause. Neil’s teammates raced to carry him off court and his sub ran onto the court to take his place.
Exy was a fairly aggressive sport, so there were always medics on standby, but they concluded that Neil needed to be sent to the ER to get some x-rays. Neil would have objected if he could speak without wincing.
Neil thought about calling Andrew, but the hospital was the last place someone as sick as Andrew should be, so Neil refrained. Either Andrew would get the whole hospital sick or his weakened immune system would pick up a new bug there.
Doctors went in and out, all of them telling Neil he was very lucky that he hadn’t broken anything. Yeah, Neil was a pillar of good luck. At least Neil could find comfort in the fact that the Hawks won 10-7.
As soon as Neil could take deeper breaths without feeling like he was going to collapse, he insisted he was okay to go. Coach Ramirez had called Neil, telling him that the rest of the team was leaving on the bus, but that she would pick Neil up from the hospital when he was ready.
Neil called her and told her he was good to go and she was at the hospital ten minutes later. She didn’t look very convinced that Neil was okay, but knew it was no use saying it out loud.
“What’d Andrew say?” Ramirez asked.
“I didn’t tell him,” Neil said, “Don’t want him to worry when he’s already sick.”
Ramirez wasn’t really a talker and that was good, because neither was Neil, unless he was instigating fights. Ramirez gestured for Neil to put on some music and Neil turned on the radio. It was automatically set to AM and Neil didn’t bother changing it.
The drive was three hours, but Neil fell asleep half an hour in, so it went by in the blink of an eye. Ramirez woke him up by snapping a finger in front of his face.
“Have fun explaining your limp to him,” Ramirez said. Neil looked around as best as he could with his stiff neck and realized they were at his and Andrew’s building. Neil slowly got out of the car, making sure not to let any of his grunts out. He quickly thanked Ramirez and shuffled into his building. Normally, Neil would take the stairs because he wasn’t fond of being in tight enclosed spaces with strangers, but he opted for the elevator.
When Neil got to his door, he searched his pockets for his keys, but came up with nothing. He had left his keys in his duffel bag, which was back in Georgia’s locker room. He knew one of his teammates would have brought it back for him, but was still annoyed. He knocked on the door twice, knowing even if Andrew was asleep in his room, it would wake him. Andrew was a terribly light sleeper and neither one of them liked to think about why.
After a few seconds, Neil could hear shuffling behind the door and then a very disheveled Andrew opened the door. Neil tried his best to walk in normally, but found out it was too late. Neil could only see half of the TV screen where he was standing, but recognized the image of him on a stretcher.
Andrew was in his face before Neil could turn around. His illness prevented him from looking angry like he had intended, but it was still enough to make Neil’s skin crawl.
“I watched the game,” Andrew said casually, but his tone grew more intense as he continued, “That was a pretty fucking stupid move going between Goliath and the wall.”
“But we won!” Neil exclaimed, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips, but he stopped himself.
“Junkie,” Andrew said. All the heat was gone from his voice and Neil let himself smile at that.
“What percent am I at?”
“300,” Andrew said.
Neil pretended to look offended and shuffled into the bathroom to take a shower. Andrew followed him into the bathroom and Neil didn’t resist. It reminded him of when Andrew helped him shower in his freshman year after he’d been mummified with bandages. The look in Andrew’s eyes told Neil he was thinking of the same thing.
“I should be taking care of you, you’re the one who’s sick,” Neil muttered.
“Someone has to take care of you and you’ve made it clear it won’t be you,” Andrew said in response. He helped Neil shrug out of his gear. Neil stepped into the shower, but Andrew didn’t follow him. He left Neil alone to wash himself off.
When Neil was done showering, he found Andrew sitting by the window of their bedroom, smoking.
“Ramirez said you should stop that, it’s bad for you,” Neil said.
Andrew didn’t miss a beat before saying, “You should stop getting yourself put in the hospital, it’s bad for you,” he pressed the end of his cigarette against the windowsill to put it out. If Andrew wasn’t the walking embodiment of influenza, Neil would have kissed him. Neil settled for grabbing his hand while they tried to sleep.
The fourth time it happens, it’s Neil’s fault, but not really.
Neil was on a run. He had invited Andrew to come with him, but Andrew just kept eating his ice cream, so Neil took that as a no. His teammate Louise told Neil he should try listening to music while running, so he took her up on it. It was all going fine until Neil didn’t hear a car honking as he ran through a crosswalk.
The driver had slowed enough that Neil wasn’t sent flying, but not enough for Neil to remain upright. The man driving, ran out of his car and raced to Neil.
“I’m so sorry, oh my god, did you not hear me honk?” He said. Neil wasn’t sure if it was an apology or an accusation. He supposed both.
“It’s fine,” Neil said. He tried to stand, but wasn’t expecting his leg to give out under him. He went crashing down onto the street once more.
“Come in, I’ll take you to the hospital. I’m Jerry,” He said, extending an arm for Neil to leverage himself on. It’d been nearly a year since Neil’s last stint in the hospital, and Neil was not eager to make a return anytime soon, but the man was nothing if not persistent.
Neil went out of annoyance rather than actual concern for his leg. If it did turn out that he couldn’t play Exy anymore because of this, Neil would be more than annoyed at Jerry. Okay, he could have been paying more attention to his surroundings, but legally, he had the right of way, so Neil refused to admit he was at fault.
“Can you move your leg?” Jerry asked as he frantically drove to the nearest hospital. Neil nodded and showed the man. He had to grind his teeth to prevent the yelp of pain that wanted to come out.
It took around fifteen minutes to reach the nearest hospital. Jerry assisted Neil in walking. Neil could put a bit of weight on his leg without wanting to scream, so he took that as a positive sign. He remembered Andrew’s instructions to call him the next time Neil wound up in the hospital. Neil reached into his pocket to search for his phone, but found that it had been destroyed upon impact in the accident. It was just a block of cracked glass and metal.
Andrew had gotten a new phone number a month ago because it bothered him that Cass still knew his number. Neil hadn’t thought to memorize it, so asking to borrow Jerry’s would do him no good. Hopefully, this wouldn’t take too long and Neil could just pretend he lost track of time on his run.
Neil went through the familiar process of getting checked in and having tests run. It was more of a bother than anything else at this point. Jerry didn’t follow Neil past the waiting room. After waiting for an hour, the doctor came in to tell Neil that his leg was bruised, but otherwise fine. He probably said something about taking it easy and observing it for the next few weeks, but Neil stopped listening as soon as the doctor said nothing was broken.
“Thanks, doc,” Neil said. The doctor hadn’t finished talking yet, but Neil had finished listening. He swung his legs off the hospital bed and tested putting his weight on the bruised right leg. It stung, but not as much as it had an hour ago.
The doctor didn’t try to stop Neil from walking away, so Neil figured it couldn’t be that bad. He walked in a slightly-concealed limp-fashion out of the hospital. Jerry was nowhere to be found, so Neil assumed he had fled. That left Neil to limp home on his own.
“Fucking peachy,” He muttered to himself.
Neil realized once he had started walking that he was only half sure how to get home. The street names were familiar, but everything else felt new. At least he could take pride in knowing he hadn’t needed to go to the hospital since they moved in. Actually, no, that wasn’t true; he’d been to a hospital, only it was in a different state. Neil wandered down a few streets, occasionally circling back to the hospital. It took four tries before Neil found a familiar landmark to guide him home.
He spotted the Italian bistro he and Andrew ordered from once. He wasn’t sure what time it was because his phone wouldn’t turn on and his watch was never set to the right time anymore. He left the apartment around noon and could see that the sun was going to set soon.
Now that he knew how to get home, it made the process faster, but his limp did not. He made it home what felt like an hour later, but was probably only half. He opted to ride the elevator up instead of taking the stairs. Neil prayed no one else got on as he rode up, and his prayers were answered.
He dug around in his pockets and pulled out his key and jammed it into the keyhole. He twisted the key and pushed the door open. Andrew didn’t look up from the TV as Neil walked in.
One of the cats came up to Neil and purred against Neil’s leg. That got Andrew’s attention. He turned his head to glance at Sir Fat Cat McCatterson, but his eyes landed on Neil’s leg.
“What happened?” Andrew asked, pointing at Neil’s leg.
Neil looked down at where a nasty bruise had started forming from his shin to thigh.
“I got hit by a car,” Neil said quietly, but Andrew heard. His eyes widened ever so slightly, which for Andrew, was equivalent to screaming in shock. Neil tried to lessen the severity of the situation by saying, “The guy who hit me took me to the hospital. I tried to call you, but,” Neil pulled out his smashed phone and showed it to Andrew.
“Did you limp all the way home?”
There was a right answer to this question, but Neil didn’t want to lie to Andrew, so he sheepishly said, “...Yes.”
“Idiot,” Andrew said. He let out a tiny sigh and motioned Neil over to the couch he was sitting at. Neil obliged and did his best to hide his limp as he approached the couch. He wasn’t fooling either of them.
Once Neil’s ass hit the couch, Andrew grabbed Neil’s heel and pulled his bruised leg onto his lap. Neil stayed quiet as he let Andrew’s searching eyes examine the bruise. It was only beginning to form, but it looked awful already. Neil could almost make out part of Jerry’s license plate from the bruise.
Apparently, Andrew decided Neil was okay because he shoved Neil’s leg off his thighs and resumed watching the TV. Neil was about to get up and go shower, but Andrew’s voice froze him in his tracks.
“No more runs with music,” Andrew said, still facing the TV. Neil nodded, knowing Andrew couldn’t see it. Andrew continued, “And memorize my number.”
“Yes sir,” Neil did Andrew’s mock salute. Neil guessed Andrew could see it in his peripheral because the corner of his mouth tugged upwards ever so slightly.
The fifth time, Neil will say it’s his own fault if it makes Matt feel better.
The Foxes from Neil’s freshman year keep in touch. Nicky won’t let them not answer his texts, but it’s been years since all of them were in the same room together. All of them had come to Germany for Nicky and Erik’s wedding. They all decided to come a week earlier to spend some time with each other, like the old days.
It’s like the old days, except so much is different.
Kevin smiled, even in the absence of reporters. Kevin brought Thea along and she made him smile. He was still arrogant and demanding, but he was a thousand times happier than Neil ever remembered him being.
Nicky is still Nicky, but he’s Nicky on his own now. Neil only ever remembered Nicky being attached to the cousins and trying desperately to hold his family together, grasping at straws, but now Nicky is living for himself. He still cares about his cousins with every fibre of his being, but has learned to let go. It helps that the twins have sorted some of their issues out on their own.
Aaron, through gritted teeth, remained civil with Neil. He even engaged him in conversation about the weather. He also didn’t make any comments about Nicky, Andrew, and Neil’s “sinning”. In fact, he actually smiled when he saw how happy Nicky was with Erik. Katelyn really softened him up, Neil thought.
Dan was still happy with Matt. The two of them had gotten engaged a few weeks before and Dan was very excited to show off the ring to anyone she came across. Rightfully so, because it was beautiful. Matt, unsurprisingly, was still clean.
Renee and Allison surprised Andrew the most, is what he told Neil. Andrew and Renee were always relatively close with each other, and he insisted there was something going on between the two women. Neil, oblivious to anything regarding relationships, responded with a confused glance between the two. He made sure to make note to keep an eye on them for the rest of the week.
Wymack and Abby came together, and got teased relentlessly by the ex-team for it. Nicky, in a mocking voice, said, “We’re not together.”
Betsy Dobson arrived and greeted Andrew with a hug. The rest of the group (save Neil and Aaron) looked at the scene with dropped jaws.
All this to say, Neil was glad to be with all of them again.
On their second day in Germany, Matt offered to give Neil fighting lessons again as a joke. Neil agreed, to Matt’s astonishment.
“I thought Renee already taught you how to use knives,” Matt said.
Neil shrugged, “I don’t always have knives. Plus, it could be fun.”
Matt reluctantly went along with it. They found a gym nearby and rented out a private training room for an hour.
“Okay, remember what I taught you? Your thumbs?” Matt demonstrated the proper punching position with his own hand. Neil nodded and mimicked him.
Matt looked Neil in the eyes, in silent question. Neil nodded at Matt to begin. Matt lunged forward and extended his arm forward. He expected to be met with the nothingness of the air, but he felt his knuckles burrow into Neil’s jaw.
Neil fell back from the impact. His hands had flown to cup his jaw, so he landed flat on his ass.
“Fuck, Neil,” Matt dropped down to check his friend’s face. Matt twisted Neil’s face toward him and grimaced at the sight of blood spilling from Neil’s jaw. Neil groaned and some blood escaped from his mouth, “Did you lose a tooth?”
Neil shook his head lightly, “Bit the inside of my cheek.”
Matt winced at the mere thought of it. He had the urge to chide Neil for not dodging the blow, but decided against rubbing salt in Neil’s wound. But in his defense, he taught Neil to always dodge. Matt continued his inspection of Neil’s face and soon ruled that the cut was too deep to dismiss and dragged Neil to the hospital. The gym staff was not happy with either of them, but Matt didn’t speak enough German to understand their curses.
“I don’t need to go to the ER,” Neil mumbled unintelligibly, trying to minimize any movements in his mouth or jaw.
Matt stayed quiet. His grip on the steering wheel was iron clad and Neil was certain he might just compress it into a flat line.
“I won’t tell Andrew,” Neil said, knowing exactly what Matt was thinking, his words came out muffled and slurred, but Matt could understand him well enough, “I’ll tell him I tripped on a flight of stairs.”
“Think he’ll believe that?” Matt said. It was more of a retort than a question, but Neil just shrugged.
“You better hope he will.”
The waiting room of the hospital was packed and Matt’s inability to speak a lick of German didn’t help expedite the process. Neil’s jaw prevented him from being able to speak properly, but the nurse was fairly patient. She sent Neil in and Matt followed him. She said something to him in German, but he couldn’t understand so he opted to ignore it completely.
Painstakingly, Neil made it through his initial discussion with the doctors. They concluded that Neil needed stitches on the outside of his jaw and possibly the inside of his cheek.
The procedure was done right there in the hospital room. Neil was numb from the anesthesia, so he couldn’t feel anything being done to him, but Matt’s face was indicative that it was not a pretty sight. Neil had gotten stitches in the past, but having Matt next to him made it a thousand times worse. Matt had always been quite protective over Neil and his tolerance for Neil’s pain was practically nonexistent.
Neil tried his best to glare at Matt. If Matt noticed, he didn’t show it.
The procedure ended fairly quickly and Neil was free to go.
“Can you talk?” Matt asked once they stepped out of the hospital.
“Yeah, still numb, it’ll hurt later,” Neil said slowly, careful not to tug at his stitches too much.
After they got in the car, Matt apologized approximately a thousand times and Neil told him approximately a thousand times that it was fine. The drive back to their hotel was long enough for the anesthesia to wear off for the most part.
Matt must have noticed because he stopped apologizing so Neil would stop wincing everytime he had to reassure him.
“I need to go pick up the girls, you okay getting up yourself?” Matt asked.
Neil nodded.
Matt pulled over in the passenger dropoff section at the front of the hotel and Neil got out of the car. Matt mumbled one last apology before Neil closed the door.
Neil didn’t like the feeling of returning to Andrew with a new injury and the familiarity of it did nothing to dissolve the tension in Neil’s shoulders. He took the stairs up to their room on the seventh floor and swiped his keycard against the reader of his door.
Surprisingly, Andrew was not there. Neil saw that Andrew had left his knives on the bedside table and concluded he must have gone out with Aaron and Katelyn. It meant that Andrew would probably be in a pissy mood when he got back, but it was still huge that he went in the first place. Neil couldn’t help but smile at that and immediately regretted it when a seering jolt of pain shot through him from his mouth.
Neil took this moment to check his appearance in the bathroom. His stitches ran along the bottom of his jaw in a jagged line, a few inches under what was left of his scar from Lola in Baltimore. The stitches inside his mouth were harder to get a look at. After three attempts, Neil gave up, not wanting to pull the stitches.
He figured he had a while to kill before Andrew would be back. He decided to forgo his plans to go on a run and chose to take a nap instead.
Taking a nap was harder than Neil expected. There was no good side to lie on. The left side of his face had stitches along his jaw and the right side was where he had clamped down on the inside of his mouth. Eventually, he managed to drift off to sleep lying on his back.
Neil awoke to the sound of the keycard reader beeping. A glance at the alarm clock next to him told him he had slept for nearly two hours. A yawn threatened to escape his lips and Neil forced his mouth to stay closed while the sensation washed over him.
Andrew stepped into their room and his eyes landed on Neil’s eyes. They quickly trailed over to the bottom half of Neil’s face.
“Explain,” Andrew said. He made his way over to Neil and reached out for his jaw. Neil braced himself for pain, but Andrew took his jaw in his hands so gently that Neil barely felt it. Andrew looked at the stitches and waited for a response from Neil.
“I fell down the stairs again,” Neil murmured.
Andrew quirked an eyebrow at Neil, “Stairs aren’t shaped like this.”
Neil stayed quiet.
“You were out with Matt today, right?” Andrew said it like it was a question, but they both knew perfectly well that Andrew remembered Neil informing him of his plans last night. The look on Andrew’s face told Neil that he had pieced the puzzle together.
Andrew reached over Neil to the bedside table to grab his knives. Neil was about to protest, but Andrew slipped them into the safe in their room and flopped back onto the bed and reached for the TV remote.
Neil remained silent, but was happy to snuggle into the warmth of Andrew next to him on the bed. Andrew, who would have pushed Neil away a few years ago, moved his arm so that Neil could rest his head in the crook of his neck.
Andrew flipped through a few channels before deciding on one. Neil fell back asleep and only woke up when Andrew got up to brush his teeth. When he returned to the bed, he pressed a chaste kiss to Neil’s lips and pulled the blanket over himself. Neil had already slept too much during the day to fall asleep again for a few hours, but was happy to lie next to Andrew.
The next day, they all gathered for breakfast. Neil made sure to check that Andrew’s knives were still in the safe before leaving their room. Andrew made a point of holding Matt’s gaze for a second too long when they first saw each other. It was kind of funny to look at since Matt had a foot on Andrew, but was still trembling with fear.
They all sat down and Andrew chose the seat next to Matt. Andrew and Neil were seldom the types to engage in PDA, if ever, but Neil gripped Andrew’s hand. He wasn’t sure if it was to hold him back or comfort him, but Andrew didn’t let go, so Neil didn’t either. It made it tricky to eat, but he didn’t relent (Neil also noticed that Allison and Renee sat a little bit closer to each other than usual).
Ten minutes into lunch, and Matt had relaxed enough to join the conversation. The group was talking about a celebrity couple that Neil didn’t recognize the names of. Neil was a little bit thrown by how well it was going. There hadn’t been a single insult tossed, not even from Aaron. Even Andrew put in his two cents.
The next day, Renee invited Andrew and Neil to go to a botanical garden with the girls and Matt. At the mention of Matt, Andrew agreed, not offering Neil room to decline.
Andrew made sure to walk next to Matt the entire time. Again, Neil reached for Andrew’s hand and squeezed it occasionally. Matt slowed down and sped up to avoid being right next to Andrew, but it was of little use.
The night before Nicky and Erik’s wedding, at their shared bachelor party, Andrew sat next to Matt again. Matt squirmed for a little bit, but soon had enough drinks in him to let his guard down. It would have been the perfect opportunity for revenge, but Andrew didn’t try anything all night.
Andrew, Neil, and Renee were the only ones sober enough to drive. Renee offered to drive Nicky and Erik home, so that left Neil and Andrew to bring the others back to the hotel. Neil assumed Andrew would take Aaron, Katelyn, Kevin, and Thea. Instead, when they got to the cars, Andrew called for Dan, Matt, and Allison to join him. Andrew held the passenger door open and locked eyes with Matt. Matt, too drunk to refuse, but sober enough to be wary, slowly got in.
Kevin shrugged and gestured for the others to follow him to Neil’s rental car.
Neil drove behind Andrew to the hotel and escorted the drunkest of the group back to their room (ahem, Kevin and Thea). He glanced at Matt and was relieved to see he was in the same state that he was before getting into the car with Andrew.
Once all the drunks were safely in their rooms, Neil and Andrew returned to their own. After the door closed behind him, Neil turned to Andrew, “You’re being awfully reasonable about this,” he gestured to the line of stitches adorning his jaw and inside of his cheek.
“I’m always reasonable,” Andrew said, “But also, it’s more entertaining to watch him squirm when he thinks I’m after him all the time.”
During the ceremony of Nicky’s wedding, Andrew took a seat next to Matt. Neil took pity on the man part way through and while Andrew was in the bathroom, told him that Andrew wasn’t going to hurt him. It did little to dissuade him from his anxiety, but he stopped flinching everytime Andrew moved.
The sixth time it happens, it’s 100% Neil’s fault, but he blames his mouth, not himself.
Neil made it through almost two years without an ER worthy incident. Kevin, Neil, and Andrew were all on Court. Neil could finally breathe easier now that he’d guaranteed a way to pay back Ichirou. Though, that came at a steeper price than 80% of his pay.
Neil had almost forgotten how painful it was to be teammates with Kevin Day, but now he was on a team full of Kevin Days. Andrew thought it was funny, but it infuriated Neil to no end. He was surrounded by people passionate about Exy like himself, but they were all just as judgmental and critical as Kevin. Actually, Kevin was soft spoken compared to some of the other players.
Even Kevin seemed to be getting annoyed by his teammates’ constant criticism of everyone’s performance.
“You’re finally getting a taste of your own medicine and you’re realizing how much of a dick you are,” Neil said to Kevin as he was thumbing through a rack of blazers.
“I was not this insufferable,” Kevin huffed.
Neil rolled his eyes and grabbed a few more articles of clothing to try on.
Kevin had brought him shopping for their upcoming Exy banquet. Neil was wise enough not to argue, because even he knew that none of his clothes were fit for an international banquet, but still felt very out of place in such a fancy boutique. Andrew declined their offer to come along because, he said, verbatim, “Taking Neil shopping is like taking a fish to the desert.”
Kevin followed Neil towards the changing rooms and took a seat in one of the chairs.
Neil tried on close to ten different suits, but Kevin rejected them all. Neil resisted the urge to snap at Kevin and returned to the changing room to put on his own clothes again. Kevin informed one of the employees that they didn’t find anything they liked and handed her a few bills for her troubles.
Kevin hauled Neil a few blocks down and the whole process repeated itself multiple times.
They left the second and third store, empty handed and four hours of their lives gone.
The streets were relatively barren for a Thursday afternoon. Neil was half listening to what Kevin was saying. It was something about Neil’s footwork on the court, but Neil was distracted by the feeling of eyes on him.
For the last three minutes of their walk back to the first store, Neil noticed a man across the street who had been following them and glancing in their direction.
“Il y a un homme de l'autre côté de la rue qui nous suit,” Neil whispered to Kevin. It was the first instance in a long time that Neil needed to use his French to speak with someone. Kevin paused for a second, but quickly continued walking at a faster pace. Neil followed in his steps.
Out of the corner of his eye, Neil could see the man adjusting his speed to keep up with them.
“Il nous suit définitivement,” Neil whispered. Kevin whimpered.
He looked at Kevin for a second, and when he glanced back in the direction of the man, he was gone. Neil scanned around the area quickly and felt his pulse hammer when he noticed the man was crossing the street over to his and Kevin’s side.
As the man approached them, Neil was able to get a better look at him. Kevin was the one to recognize him first, “Lucas Malvern,” he whispered.
Lucas Malvern was a backliner for the Ohio Hounds, and a regular in their county jail. He and Kevin had a very tense past, with their teams being constant rivals and Kevin always managing to outsmart him on the court. It probably didn’t help that Lucas was rejected from Court.
Neil hoped the years had soothed his resentment, but the look on his face told Neil otherwise. Kevin grabbed Neil’s arm, a silent plea for what? Neil didn’t know. Neither did Kevin.
“Kevin Day,” Lucas Malvern spat as soon as he was close enough for them to hear.
“Lucas,” Kevin greeted the man through gritted teeth. Kevin’s grip on Neil’s arm grew tighter with each passing second.
Lucas sneered at Kevin, then at Neil, “Aw, you and your boyfriend having a date?”
Neil glared back at Lucas. The public was not aware of Neil and Andrew’s relationship, for all they knew, the two hated each other, but Kevin and Thea were public knowledge. She even had the ring to prove it.
“Idiot,” Neil said. Kevin whipped his head in Neil’s direction, as if to scold him, but words failed him.
“Excuse me?” Lucas’ sneer morphed into a menacing scowl.
“One too many balls to the head?” Neil said mockingly. Kevin’s grip on Neil’s arm tightened even more, in warning, but Neil yanked his arm free, “Kevin and Thea are engaged, you dunce. Maybe you’re not familiar with the term because no one loves you, but-”
Lucas cut Neil off by pulling a gun out from the inside of his coat, “Don’t you fucking say another word. I was trying to talk myself out of killing you, but you just used up all my willpower,” he hissed.
Neil felt Kevin stiffen next to him. Neil had seen a lot of death in his time. He had seen a lot of killers as well. Lucas was an aggressive, egotistical douchebag, but he wasn’t a killer. Having a gun pointed at him wasn’t enough to dissuade Neil from running his mouth.
“You wouldn’t. You don’t have the guts,” Neil said, his voice dripping with condescension.
Kevin’s jaw dropped, and he would have slapped Neil if he weren’t too petrified to move.
Neil held Lucas’ stare as he fumbled with his gun, “Coward.”
Apparently that was too much because the gun went off with a loud bang and Neil felt the intrusion of a bullet. Neil barely registered Kevin tackling Lucas and discarding the gun from his person.
Kevin looked up from where he was using his knees to pin Lucas to the ground and his eyes widened when he saw Neil’s shoulder. The fabric of Neil’s shirt slowly began to turn red. Kevin eyed Lucas for a second, and once he was sure that the man was unconscious, he reached into his pocket for his phone to call 911.
Neil was still in shock. He looked from the side or his shoulder to where Lucas was lying on the ground. Neil wasn’t dead, so he supposed he wasn’t entirely wrong that Lucas wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or shock, but he didn’t feel any pain where he had been shot. At least, until he tried to move his arm.
“Fuck,” He cursed and froze before he could strain his arm anymore.
Kevin hung up, but didn’t put his phone away. He pressed a few buttons and placed the phone back up to his ear, “Andrew.”
Kevin explained what had happened and told Andrew to meet them at St. Benson’s Hospital. Neil couldn’t hear Andrew’s response, but judging by Kevin’s wince, it wasn’t great.
It took a few minutes for the ambulance to arrive. During the wait, Kevin stripped off his shirt to wrap around Neil’s shirt to act as a makeshift tourniquet. Kevin was freaking the absolute fuck out, and Neil had to be the one to calm him down.
One of the EMTs recognized them and was distraught at the thought of his favourite Exy striker (sorry, Kevin) being injured. The other was cold, but efficient and called in for extra units because Kevin failed to mention that Lucas was passed out on the ground in his 911 call. They hauled Neil into the ambulance and began applying pressure to his wound.
By now he had calmed down enough to return to what he was best at: chastising Neil.
“You couldn’t have just kept your fucking mouth shut. It’s just like with Riko,” Kevin said.
“Riko’s dead,” Neil said.
“That doesn’t mean you need to go out there antagonising people who already hate you and want to kill you,” Kevin was shouting now. One of the EMTs shushed him. Neil couldn’t help but smile at that.
Kevin kept to himself for the remainder of the ambulance ride, and pouted in the corner.
They wheeled Neil into the hospital so quick that Neil felt like he was on a rollercoaster. He was quickly surrounded by doctors and nurses. Kevin followed behind them, lightly jogging to keep up.
Neil couldn’t tell you what happened if he wanted to. The doctors did some stuff. They got the bullet out and Neil felt oddly empty when they did, but he wouldn’t dare say that in front of Kevin. The only thing Neil could say for certain was that Kevin was pissed the whole time.
Once the doctors and nurses were finished, they left Neil in a room on a hospital bed with Kevin. Neil didn’t know when, but at some point Kevin had acquired a new shirt.
“You could have gotten us both killed,” Kevin said, less angry, and more desperate, “We very narrowly escaped the Moriyamas, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe. You need to be more careful. What if I couldn’t tackle him? You’d be...you’d be,” Kevin trailed off as if he couldn’t bring himself to think of it.
Neil wasn’t sure how to respond. This was a side of Kevin very rarely seen. He was being sensitive and caring. The best Neil could come up with was, “I’m sorry.”
They sat there for almost an hour, not saying another word. Kevin’s eyes were glued to the TV on the wall, and Neil was preoccupied by his own thoughts. The doctors had told him he was lucky. He would be able to make a full recovery quickly, but had the bullet been a few inches to the right, he probably would have died. They always told him he was “lucky”.
Kevin left the room and told Neil he was going to the cafeteria to get something to eat, “Try not to get killed while I’m gone.”
Neil had been in the hospital for over an hour, and almost forgot that Kevin had even called Andrew. Not a minute after Kevin left the room, Andrew appeared. He barely even looked at Neil.
He tossed a small black box in Neil’s direction and it landed in the middle of his hospital bed. Neil used his unshot side to reach for the box and opened it with one hand. He had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing it correctly.
Inside of the box, surrounded by shiny and soft velvet cushioning, was a silver ring. Neil pulled it out from the box and stared at it for what felt like an eternity before looking back at Andrew. Andrew was holding a matching ring in his hand.
“Once you’re cleared we’re going to the courthouse and getting married. Yes or no,” Andrew said it so casually that he could have been asking Neil what he wanted for dinner. Still, it made Neil’s heart lurch in his chest and his toes tingle.
“Yes,” Neil responded quickly. Andrew doesn’t smile, but he smiled at Neil.
Andrew walked over to Neil and grabbed the ring from his hand and slid it onto his left ring finger. He did the same with his own ring on his own hand. Neil was certain that he would bleed out from his shoulder because his heart felt so full that there must have been gallons of extra blood.
His eyes kept darting between the ring on his finger and Andrew’s. Marrying Andrew. Despite all of Kevin’s beratement, if Neil could do today over again, he wouldn’t have changed a thing, because he was going to be marrying Andrew Minyard. Maybe, the doctors were right and he was lucky.
Kevin returned to the room with a tin of jello and a comically small spoon. He was a little thrown to see Andrew, but shrugged it off. He was even more thrown to see the ring boxes and their hands. He did not shrug that off immediately.
“Did you two just?” Kevin said with a mouthful of green jello.
“You’re going to be our witness,” Andrew said.
Kevin just nodded, reclaimed his seat facing the TV and continued eating his jello.
The doctors insisted that Neil should stay back for another few days as he recovered, but their warnings fell on deaf ears. The few hours Neil had to wait following Andrew’s “proposal” were the longest of his life and he once watched a man be dismembered.
Andrew drove them to the courthouse. Neil didn’t comment on the fact that he was speeding because it meant they would get there sooner. Kevin was less tolerant of Andrew’s reckless driving, but Andrew ignored all of Kevin’s orders.
“I can’t believe I’m getting married the same day I got shot,” Neil said.
“If you didn’t keep ending up in the hospital, I wouldn’t have to marry you just to be able to know when you get hospitalised,” Andrew said.
“Well, if that’s what it takes to marry you, then I have no regrets,” Neil said, a little too proud. The corner of Andrew’s lips tilted upward microscopically, but Neil noticed.
“You guys are weird,” Kevin said, mouth still full of jello.
“How did you get more jello?” Neil asked. Kevin ignored the question and ate his jello.
Andrew and Neil don’t tell any of their team members they got married, and Kevin doesn’t say anything either. They both wear their rings, but their team members are always too preoccupied to notice. They only find out when their coach sees the change in their paperwork weeks later.
“Neil Josten-Minyard?” He asks, perplexed. Neil just nods and holds up his hand to show off his wedding band. Andrew mimics the motion.
Their team is absolutely astounded. Half of them thought that it was a joke when Kevin told them that Andrew and Neil were in a relationship, but they now realize it clearly wasn’t.
The news finds out a week later when Neil is on a talk show and the reporter notices his ring. He and Andrew had had a conversation the night prior about what Neil should say regarding the topic, and they decided they were both fine with the truth.
“So who’s the lucky lady? Have you set a date?” The reporter asked.
“The date was a month ago,” Neil said. The crowd erupted in gasps. Neil waited for them to quiet down before continuing, “And it’s not a she. You know him, it’s Andrew.”
The reporter looked puzzled, “Andrew Minyard?”
“Andrew Josten-Minyard,” Neil corrected. The crowd went absolutely wild.
Andrew and Neil are trending on Twitter for a week. At least, that’s what Kevin tells them. Neither of them have Twitter or know enough about it to understand what trending means.