A Storm Is Brewing

A Different Angle

Leah POV

"Fuck sake! C'mon! What are we training for? A kickabout down the local park?"

We sighed, all of us making our way back into the tent. This was the hard part of playing in different climates, but it was all in the mind. Find something you want to focus on, think about it, and suddenly your time is up.

So I thought of them. Both of them.

With just fifteen minutes left on the clock, all of the girls were cheering each other on and making jokes about what we were all focusing our minds on. My laughter was coming from deep within my stomach; the smile on my face was coming directly from my heart; and my brain was feeling at ease. Despite the activity, I felt genuinely happy; it felt like all the vulnerability, the fear, and the endless working alongside Sophie to make things work had finally begun to show reward, and my reward was doing the thing I love, thinking about the person I love, and knowing that my heart would expand in a few months to give someone new love.

Life waits for no one, though.

I caught Sarina from the side of my eye walking towards me with concern on her face. I wondered lots of things, but nothing could've prepared me for what was to come. The look on her face was enough to force the other girls into a deadly silence, with every eye in the room focusing on the footsteps Sarina was taking towards me. My eyes briefly caught Georgia's, with a subtle nod and a weak smile cementing in my mind that I would likely be receiving some kind of bad news.

"Leah, can you come with me?" Sarina spoke softly, trying to offer a reassuring smile, but her body wouldn't let it happen.

I nodded, unable to come up with words that could articulate the questions I wanted to ask. The second we stepped out of the tent, the phone was passed to me with a simple, it's your Mum. My first thought was my grandparents; if it was something to do with the baby, Sophie would call me. Letting a breath out, I lifted the phone to my ear, and my world crumbled when I heard Sophie's voice in the background, riddled with pain, tears, and fear.

"Mum? Mum, what's wrong?"
"Leah, you need to come home. You need to come home right away." Mum said softly.
"What's wrong?"

Sarina interrupted us for a second to tell me that they had already organised that the team plane would fly me home right away, with a car already waiting for me. I rushed with the phone, not knowing who it belonged to, grabbing my bag from my room, and lifting the teddy from my bed.

The plane journey home gave me a chance to fully reflect on what was happening and to acknowledge that I was likely returning home to grieve for my unborn baby. I wondered what I would say to Sophie and how I would comfort her while my own heart was broken. I knew she would find a way to blame herself, and I began thinking of ways I could shift that blame onto myself—anything to make it easier for her.

I pulled out my own phone, opened our message thread, and read through the messages we had exchanged in the last 24 hours, trying desperately to rewind the clock to another time, to any time. One text stood out more than others, one I read and reread throughout the flight.

Sophie
I miss feeling your hand on my stomach, I can't wait to feel that safe again. I miss you, and I love you x

That's where I should've been, with her right now with my hand on her stomach, begging our little one to pull through and making both of them feel safe. I wondered if Mum would stay with her or if her parents would get there before it happened; not that I knew what was actually happening, but I had images in my head, completely fabricated and none of them positive.

I pulled up my photos, scrolling through them initially to find the picture I had taken of her maternity file but instead being hit by memory after memory. The first photo I clicked on was taken just a few days before I left. Sophie was standing with her arms around McCabe, who was standing with her hands on Sophie's bump. I smiled at the photo, unable to stop my mind from going back to the day my teammates found out about the baby in the first place.