Chapter Text
They don’t discover her until they are back at Palmetto State and are unloading the gear. Matt sees her first; a curled up figure in the shadow of the undercarriage. He quickly gets Dan, “Dan’ll know what to do!” and Wymack.
The monsters have already made their way into the Foxhole court, ready to drop their gear and head to their beds. But the sudden peace of post-game sleepiness is broken when they see Wymack running into Abby’s office with a figure in his arms.
They are immediately on alert, with Matt and Dan being bombarded with questions. Eventually Dan says, “Enough! We found her stowed away under the bus with the gear. We don’t know who she is, but she is injured, and semi-conscious. So let’s just let Abby handle it alright?” That shuts everyone up for a second and the room descends into uncomfortable silence.
After about 10 minutes, Wymack comes into the lounge. Dan stands and the other foxes look up with rapt attention but he only has eyes for one man, his son.
“Kevin” he mutters quietly. Kevin’s head shoots up from where he was laying back against the couch. His eyes widen and then turn to slits immediately, when he sees the expression in his father’s face. The others notice too. Wymack, usually calm, is pale, and looks visibly shaken.
“Kevin, it’s, um, it’s Kathryn.” He finally says, a distinct wobble in his usually calm voice.
Kevin’s face blanches. He shoots to his feet and pushes past Wymack, knocking over a side table stacked with his history books in the process. He doesn’t even stop, or turn around. The team has never seen him so single minded (which is saying a lot, since he is always single-minded about Exy).
Neil turns to the cousins but they look as mystified as he feels. No one in the room seems to know what is going on. They all stare at each other, wondering what this could mean.
----
Kevin’s heart was pounding too loud in his ears. This was impossible, there had to be some kind of mistake. He continued sprinting through the hallways, making his way towards the small nurse’s office. He rounded the corner into the doorway and froze.
There, on the bed, was a face Kevin hadn’t laid eyes on since he was 12 years old. He still remembers the last words she said, the tight pain he had seen on her face, but her, constantly optimistic, telling him, “It’ll be okay, I’ll be back soon!” That soon turned into never again, or so he thought.
His feet gave way and suddenly he was on the ground, kneeling, looking up at her. He took in all of her, and it was painful too. First, her gnarled knee, scarred and puckered, and not at all right, then to the bruises lining her thighs beneath her black shorts. He looked at her hands, small, pale, shaking. Blood was crusted under her nails like she tried to claw her way out of a fight. And finally, he forced himself to look at her face. Bruising lined her throat like a dark collar leading to her heart shaped face. She had a scar running from the base of her chin to her nose, long and white, but the bags under her eyes looked fresh.
They were technically twins, but they did not closely resemble each other. While Kevin took after his mother, Kathryn inherited her fathers darker eyes. She had the same dark hair as him, but it was thicker, and wavier. The only trait they shared was a healthy splattering of freckles across their noses and cheeks. Kevin remembered coming to Palmetto State 2 years ago, and Wymack opening the door felt like a punch to the gut. They looked so similar.
The siblings met eyes for the first time in 9 years, and something broke in Kevin. He saw it in her face too. Silent tears ran down her cheeks, and she started shaking uncontrollably. She mouthed his name, her throat too bruised to properly function. That shocked Kevin back into his senses. He quickly rose, and brought Kathryn into a tight hug, burying his face in her long dark hair. It still smelled musty and damp like the nest and he squeezed tighter. He would never let her go. He would never lose his sister again.
Abby sucked in a tight breath, “Kevin, you need to give her space to breathe. She’s injured.”
Kevin pulled back and carefully set Kathryn up on the pillow of the bed. He studied her closely again, and saw the pain in her eyes. Kevin was too stunned to say anything. He just stared at her and she stared back.
Wymack finally made his way back into the room, and it was evident he had been crying. Kevin understood how he felt. If he wasn’t so exhausted from the game, he was sure that he would be a puddle on the floor. At the moment though all he felt was numb disbelief. Abby carefully placed her hand on Kathryn’s side, and winced as the small woman sucked in a painful breath, her face contorted in pain.
“She has 3 broken ribs.” Abby stated, “The bruising here,” she indicated towards her neck, “is severe enough that she won’t be able to talk for at least today. I gave her medicine to bring the swelling down, but until that kicks in, I am afraid her communication will be rather limited.”
Abby swallowed hard, then looked at Wymack. She spoke low, “I think we should run a kit on her as well.” Wymack blanched but nodded solemnly.
“What?!” Kevin shot to his feet. “Why does she need that?” He looked at his sister, who had turned her eyes away from him. She was peering down at her clasped hands in her lap, still shaking. Abby eyed him softly, trying to explain, without making the situation worse.
“We are just trying to determine the extent of Kathryn’s injuries, Kevin. This is the best thing we can do to help her.” Kevin didn’t hear anything else. His blood ran in his ears, and he backed up against the cold metal door. He was sure he looked like a cornered animal but he couldn’t stop his racing thoughts. If Kathryn was alive, alive this whole time, hidden away in the nest somewhere, then Riko had to have known about her, had to have had access to her.
The thought alone brought bile to his throat. He made a strangled sound and turned to blindly pull the door open. He made it down the hall to the locker room, the other teammates peeking worriedly out of the lounge. Nicky’s mouth hung open, and Dan started after Kevin, with a look of worry on her face. Kevin couldn’t face them. He ducked into the locker room, stumbling towards the closest stall, making it to the toilet before he emptied the contents of his stomach.
He heard footsteps following him into the bathroom. Kevin couldn’t allow them to see him like this. It wouldn’t do. He was KEVIN DAY. In between heaves, he turned and locked the stall behind him, just in time to see Dan’s bewildered face, and Andrew’s seemingly impassive one round the corner.
----
Thankfully, his teammates stopped outside the stall, they didn’t try to force their way in. He heard hushed conversations between Dan, Renee, and Andrew. He couldn’t make out the words, as his body convulsed again, and he was dry heaving bile that burned his throat and his eyes.
Worn out, he sat against the cold time wall and tucked his head between his knees, crossing his arms to cover his face. His thoughts ran a hundred miles an hour with memories of his sister, so different looking from the skeletal woman he had just laid eyes on. His sister, always so full of life, so competitive, so eager to show him up. Now, a shell it seemed.
He couldn’t tell if it had been a minute or an hour, but he lifted his head and tried to steady his breathing. He was Kevin Day. He couldn’t hide in a bathroom stall forever throwing a pity party. He winced at those words. He didn’t cry often but when he did, it all came crashing down, along with the mocking words of the master. “Kevin Day, throwing a pity party again. How disappointing. I did not train you to be weak.”
Kevin tried to push those thoughts back and focus on the now. The cold tile underneath and behind him grounded him. He looked around the space and noticed that the voices were gone. He could see only one person outside the stall. They were sitting parallel to him, legs stretched out where Kevin’s were hugged to his chest. He recognized the dark baggy jeans, the heavy combat boots. The other man didn’t say anything, as per usual, just sat and waited.
Kevin knew he would have to bite the bullet eventually, and with a small click he unlocked the stall door and let it swing open. Andrew gazed lazily at Kevin, but Kevin could see through the unbothered mask at genuine concern hidden in the goalkeeper’s face.
“Where are the others?” Kevin rasped out, his voice hoarse. Andrew didn’t answer immediately, instead reaching to his side and handing Kevin his water bottle. Kevin took a grateful swig, washing down the taste of bile with cool crisp water. He looked back at Andrew expectantly.
Andrew sighed, “Coach went into the lounge to debrief them. None of the others would leave without knowing what was going on.” He picked at his nails, seemingly oblivious to the tears and snot stained face that was staring back at him. Of this Kevin was grateful. Of all the people to be here, Andrew wouldn’t comment on Kevin’s appearance or disclose his breakdown to the others.
“They should be heading out soon back to the dorm. I told them not to wait on me.” Andrew continued. Kevin was silently grateful that the goalkeeper had corralled the other teammates away from him. Them seeing him like this would irrevocably damage any facade of control or prestige that he had worked so hard to craft.
Andrew seemed content to sit in silence by his side. Kevin felt so weak and powerless next to him. Andrew, who never broke down, (Kevin knew this wasn’t true, but he was trying to bolster himself) Kevin opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again uselessly. Andrew shot him a curious look, and that spurred Kevin on.
“She’s my sister.” he blurted out. Andrew raised one eyebrow, but then moved his hand in a keep going gesture. Kevin couldn’t look at him when he talked about this. This was too personal, too raw. So he turned to face the stall, his spine pressed into Andrew’s shoulder blade and continued.
“She’s my sister, my twin” he repeated. “I was told, he told me… Riko told me, that she was dead. She had, HAS, this heart defect that is dangerous. If she overexerts herself, her heart could just, stop.” Kevin took a shaky breath. He pulled his arms around the back of his neck, cradling himself from the world.
“When we were 12, she had an accident on the court. Or she made it seem like it. I knew her too well. She knew if she kept playing Exy, her heart would give out. So she did the only thing she could do. She got hurt. Really bad. I don’t know how she did that to herself, but she did.” Kevin reached down and touched his left knee.
“Her knee was bent at the wrong angle, and I remember the medics taking her off the court. She told me, she said, she would be okay. That she would be back. And I believed her.” By the end, Kevin’s voice was just a whisper.
Kevin didn’t realize he was crying again, but his shoulders throbbed as they shook uncontrollably. He felt so broken, so weak. Strong hands pressed down into his shoulders in reassurance. But, that couldn’t be right, there was no way Andrew would show that much affection. Kevin looked over his shoulder through his tears, and saw that Wymack, no, his dad, had replaced Andrew behind him, and was holding onto Kevin’s shoulders. His own eyes were glassy as well. And that broke the dam inside Kevin. He turned into his father’s chest and sobbed earnestly. Wymack stroked his hair with one hand and supported his back with the other. The two men sat huddled on the floor for a while, sharing in their deep grief.
Eventually, Kevin pulled away and looked up into his father’s eyes.
“She’s going to be alright” the coach croaked out. “Abby has her now. We are going to take her back to Abby’s house. Do you want to come with me?”
Kevin, too tired for words, just nodded his head. He looked around, but Andrew had vanished, it was just Kevin and his dad. They stood shakily, Kevin stretching out his aching limbs and made their way to the car. The drive to Abby’s was a short, but silent blur for Kevin. He promised he wouldn’t let his sister out of his sight ever again.