Crushed

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After realising that the scream came from Leah, I immediately get up and rush over at her. I don't know what happened but she is holding up her hand. Beth and Ella are also coming over at her.

"Le, what happened?" I ask. I look at her hand. It's completely red and looks very bad. She looks up at me and I see in her eyes in how much pain she is.

"I was going to change the weights and then it just fell down on my hand." She quickly says. She bites her lip and closes her eyes. I take a look at the weight that fell on her hand. It is a pretty heavy one. I still don't get how that could just fall down. Normally it has to be secured good so something like this doesn't happen.

"Show me your hand." I say at her. She shows me her hand and just as I reach my hand out for her and touch her with my finger, her face flinches and she pulls back.

"Sorry." I say. Her fingers are swollen.

"It hurts so bad. I'm sure all my bones are crushed." She says with a shaky voice.

"What happened here?" Julie joins us.

"Not you now. Can you please not talk to me for once?" Leah says at her. I understand her at this point.

"I just want to know what happened." Julie says.

"A weight fell on her hand." Beth says.

"What? How could that happen? Didn't you secure it right?" Julie looks back at Leah.

"I don't know. It's not my fault." Leah says a bit more angry now.

"No one said it's your fault, Le. Come on, I'll bring you to the medical staff so they can take a look at your hand." I say. I want to take her hand but I'd rather not do that now. Instead I lay my arm around her shoulder and pull her away from Julie. I see that Leah is still angry and in much pain. She still walks with me. She quickly stops which confuses me. She goes around me and switches to the other side. Then she takes my hand with her healthy hand.

"What was that?" I ask with a smile. It was kind of cute.

"I want to hold your hand." Leah mumbles. I want that too. I feel how tightly she is holding on to my hand and I know in how much pain she is right now. Her hand really looks very bad.

"I swear it was Julie." Leah suddenly says.

"No, why would she do something like this?" I say. I don't think that anyone could hurt someone like this on purpose. How should she even do this? She would have to manipulate the device Leah was using.

"She wants me away from here so she is alone with you." Leah explains.

"I don't think so. Stop thinking about that and get your hand checked first." I try to stop her from getting too angry. We walk to the medical room. I stop in front of the door.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" I ask. Leah is still not letting go from my hand but she isn't answering straight away. "I can wait here." I add. I think she is a bit embarrassed for going in there while holding my hand.

"I'll go alone." She says a bit hesitantly.

"Okay." I nod. Leah slowly lets go from my hand. I feel that she wants to keep holding my hand. I give her a small kiss on her lips.

"You will be okay, baby." I whisper at her. "I'll wait here."

"Thank you." She says with a weak smile and then goes into the room. I stay in front of the door. I wish I was in there with her and could support her. I hope it isn't too bad and she doesn't have to leave. I don't want to be here without her. She probably won't be allowed to play. I keep walking up and down in front of the door while waiting for Leah. It takes quite a while and I wish I could just open that door and go into the room. It feels like hours pass by.

          

After a long time, Leah finally comes out of the room. Her hand is completely covered in bandages and a splint to protect her hand. Her face also doesn't look good. I look at her and wait for her to tell me.

"It's bad." She says.

"What?"

"4 fingers and the back of my hand are broken." She tells me. "At least my thumb is fine." She adds and shows a thumbs up. I have to softly chuckle at that for a second. She is in so much pain but still manages to joke around and make me laugh. I step up to her and hug her.

"Can you still stay here?" I ask.

"I don't know. I can't play." Leah answers.

"Maybe you can still stay and just train a bit." I hope so hard that she can stay here. We just arrived yesterday. I don't want it to end like this.

"I don't want to be here without you." I mumble.

"I know. I will talk to Sarina." Leah says. She gives me a kiss on my forehead and smiles at me.

Leah went to talk to Sarina while I wait with Beth in the hallway. It doesn't even take two minutes until Leah comes back.

"That was quick." Beth laughs.

"Sarina said that she wants to talk to you as well." Leah says at me. I get confused at that. Why does Sarina wants to talk to me? I didn't do anything.

"Uhh what did you do?" Beth teases me.

"Nothing." I feel innocent. I can't remember doing anything wrong. I get up to go with Leah.

"Did she say anything?" I ask her.

"No just that she wants to speak to both of us." Leah says. She also seems to be confused. I really hope that I didn't do anything wrong.

We knock at the door and Sarina asks us to come in. She smiles at us as we come in.

"Please take a seat." She points at the chairs in front of her table. We do and sit down. I'm nervous for what she will say.

"Did we do something wrong?" I ask because I can't keep it in.

"We will see about that. Leah, what happened to your hand?" Sarina asks. Leah tells her what happened and what the medical staff said. Sarina looks concerned.

"So I won't be able to play and that is why I originally came here. I wanted to ask you what I should do now." Leah says.

"She could stay and still train apart from playing." I suggest.

"So the point why I wanted to speak to both of you is because Julie came here this morning and told me that you" Her eyes shift to Leah. "Would distract Emma here at camp. I don't want that. I understand that you two are having a relationship and maybe want to spend some time together between trainings but I don't want you to be distracted or not concentrated. I don't care what you are doing with each other as long as you are showing your best on the pitch and I need to make sure that this is the case." Sarina says. Fuck. Julie really went to her and told her about what she saw. I thought she just said that to provoke Leah. I can see how angry Leah gets as she hears that.

"She is lying. She has been trying to portrait me as the bad guy the entire time which is why she is doing this now. I know my personal feelings shouldn't matter here but this is something personal. It's something personal for Julie and that is why she is doing this. No one of us is distracted in any way." Leah explains. I agree but I don't think that she should tell Sarina about the situation with Julie.

"What do you mean by that it's personal for Julie?" Sarina asks.

"She doesn't want me around. She doesn't like me." Leah just says. Luckily she leaves out the fact that Julie kind of is in love with me.

"Maybe it would be best for all of you if Leah would go back to Arsenal to get her hand taken care off and rest a bit. Emma could focus and Julie could do her job." Sarina says. I don't want that.

"Is that really necessary?" I ask since I really want Leah to stay.

"It is. I want to keep this professional and something tells me that you can't stay professional if we all stay here." Sarina says. I hear Leah sighing. She doesn't say anything else. She probably doesn't want to argue with Sarina but I know she isn't happy. I also don't want to talk against Sarina and upset her in any way but I also don't want Leah to leave.

"Alright." Leah just says. We just have to accept that decision now. It's just a few more days. I can do that.

We leave Sarinas office again and go back to our room. We don't talk on our way there. Leah starts to pack her things in her bag already.

"You should take Louis with you." I say at her to break the silence.

"Are you sure?" Leah says.

"Yeah he should be rather home than here." I say.

"Okay." Leah nods.

"Are you okay?" I ask and come next to her. She seems so absent and quiet.

"No I'm not. My hand hurts, I can't play, I have to leave and Sarina thinks I'm distracting you. I feel like no one wants me here." Leah says with a broken voice. I sit next to her and wrap my arm around her.

"That's not true. I want you here. Sarina probably just wants to be sure that you rest your hand. We will see each other again in a few days and you can have some quiet days with Louis at home. I will call you every day, I promise." I say at her. She leans against me a bit more and I stroke her head.

"Am I really distracting you?" Leah asks.

"No. I wanted what was about to happen in the closet just as much as you. It's not your fault." I say. I don't want her to blame herself.

We got everything ready and packed up all of Leah's and Louis stuff. I hate that they will leave. I never was away from Louis for that long before. I bring them outside where the car is already waiting for them. We walk past Julie in the hallway. She doesn't even really look at Leah. Leah still stops walking.

"Hey." She calls at Julie since she already passed us. Julie stops and turns around.

"What?" She asks.

"I hope you're happy. You made me leave. Congratulations." Leah just says at her and turns away. Julie doesn't say anything else and just continues to walk. I still don't think that Julie did this to make Leah leave but I won't say that now.

We go outside to say goodbye. I hate this. I hate goodbyes. Leah is holding Louis in her arms and he looks at me. I lean down to him and kiss his cheek a few times.

"Bye honey, we'll see each other in three days. I love you. You just spend some days at home with mummy and take care of her. You cuddle her for me." I say at him and stroke through his hair. I look up at Leah. She has a smile on her face. I feel a tear in my eye but quickly wipe it away.

"Don't do too much with your hand. You should rest it." I say at Leah.

"I will." She says.

"And call me if something is wrong or ask your mum to come over." I say and Leah nods. I step up to her and just grab her face to pull her in for a kiss. I make this a pretty long kiss. I wish I wouldn't have to pull away again.

"I love you." I say.

"I love you too." Leah smiles at me.

"I'll miss you."

"Call me if Julie makes you feel uncomfortable." Leah says.

"She won't. Everything is fine." I say and peck her lips again. I look into her eyes and sigh.

"I should go." Leah whispers.

"I know." I whisper back. Leah gives me another kiss and quickly licks over my bottom lip. I have to laugh at that.

"See you in three days." She says.

"See you in three days." I repeat. Leah goes into the car and I keep standing there the entire time. I see how she waves at me through the window and I feel how my eyes get teary again. I look down. I wish camp was over already. This isn't the typical camp that I used to love so much. Now I have to be without my wife and my baby.

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