Little Lasso || A Ted Lasso Story *Under Editing*

Prologue

"You know I'll always welcome you with open arms. If you want to come and stay with me, there's a place for you."

The airport was silent for the most part. Granted, the flight Leila departs from Kansas on leaves rather late- and in her defense, she needed to get to London as soon as possible. After hearing of the news from her relatives and getting a few calls from Beard, her gut told her that her uncle needed some support.

The brunette sat in a waiting area, anxious for her flight to be called. Leaning against her seat, Leila took a deep breath, trying to act like everything was fine as her phone call continued.

"I'm sorry it's so last minute," Leila spoke, her AirPods in her ears as she scrolled through yet another text Beard sent to her. "but we've talked about me coming to visit for a while now. I think it's time we make it happen. Things here aren't going to change too much with me going for a little while, and there is so much I want to fill you in on- but, I need to see you in person first."

It took a few seconds for a response to come. The stillness in the conversation was brief, unnoticeably brief to most anyone but Leila. She could hear the hesitancy like a referee's whistle cutting through the deafening silence of the airport; it almost felt stronger than the words that followed.

"Hey now, you could show up on my doorstep without any notice and I would make room for you."  Ted Lasso's voice spoke out, assurance flowing through his tone.

Leila couldn't help but hear a bit of doubt in his words, despite being comforted by them. Her eyes scanned the words on her phone as her mind flashbacked to Michelle and Henry coming home from their trip to London months ago. It wasn't a big surprise to Leila to hear about the divorce. However, she couldn't deny how strange it was to her she had talked to everyone but her Uncle Ted about the situation.

"I'm happy you're coming, kiddo."  He continued, "Trust me on that, alright?—But, I gotta go now, I gotta get the biscuits packed up before I head out. I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah, Uncle Ted," Leila responded, a half-smile on her lips as she read her text from Beard and closed the app. She would get back to him when she was done on her call.

"We should be boarding here soon, so I'll let you go. Enjoy biscuits with Rebecca and I'll let you know when we land." The assurance was mainly given to her elder, but internally she knew it was also for herself.

"Okay, Sweetie Pie. Hey- I love you." Ted's voice became notably softer at his final words. He always went out of his way to emphasize those words to her and always she appreciated the gesture. This time, though, there was something different in his voice. Leila couldn't fully make out what it was, but she could tell there was a huge load of genuine emotion behind them. Leila's curiosity grew at the notion before smiling at the term of affection, nevertheless.

"I love you, too, Uncle Ted." She hoped her voice brought him comfort as they both said their goodbyes and ended the phone call. 

Once she heard the call drop, Leila swiped her phone to open her text messages from Beard, wanting to go over their previous conversation.

BEARD

He says he's doing okay with the Divorce. I think he's trying a bit too hard to be okay though. 

Maybe it's just me but

Something just doesn't seem right to me, I guess.

Are you about to board your flight? Every time he asks me who I keep texting I have to tell him it's Jane and I don't like lying to him.

Leila read that first message,  and that was all it took for her to know Ted was struggling with something. She wasn't completely surprised. He's recently divorced with a son who lives across the world. That doesn't even bring in the stress of his job, and who knows what else has been going on she doesn't know about. While she didn't know all of the details yet, Leila was confident she would find out soon enough.

Her flight was about to start boarding. Leila was ahead of schedule for this trip, which was unlike her for the most part. She already had her suitcases through checking and went through security.

The early arrival at the airport was due to Leila's eagerness to get to London. She wanted to be the first person through the gates and on the plane.

She missed her uncle. Anybody who knew Leila's relationship with Ted knew how much she loved him and how unexpectedly rough it was for her in Kansas with him gone.

Granted, she was an adult now. The small, energetic girl, who used to be Ted Lasso's shadow as a child was now a grown, overwhelmed woman who was trying to figure out her place in the world.

Leila missed that little girl, who had everything ahead of her, filled with an immense amount of potential. Whatever happened to that girl? It was a question she had been asking herself a lot lately, her own struggles starting to take a toll on her.

Maybe that was another reason she was so desperate to get to London. Maybe she also needed help- maybe she needed to get out of Kansas. It wasn't something Leila liked to think about if she were being completely honest with herself.

All Leila knew was that no matter what, she was going to London to check on Uncle Ted. How long was she going to be there for? She wasn't sure. She pulled everything out of her savings account and used a vast amount of vacuum storage bags to pack plenty of clothes for her to have while she was gone (It even gave her room to pack extra pairs of shoes.) just in case her stay was going to be longer than anybody anticipated.

She was fine with it, though. Everyone who tried asking Leila how long she planned on being gone grew beyond annoyed at the 'I'm not sure, but it's whatever' attitude she'd respond with- but to her, it really was 'whatever'.  It wasn't like she had much in Kansas that needed her attention. Any school things she was doing were online, and if she needed she'd try to find a job while abroad. She did promise to her family to try and call as frequently as she could. Maybe not as consistent as Ted calls Henry, but consistent enough to not worry everyone.

It's not like she's going to move to Richmond, right? She just needs to take a break from Kansas, and she wants to check in on her uncle. She'd come back eventually. She just wasn't going to rush her stay, especially knowing that her uncle wouldn't kick her out.

The gate Leila needed was about to open. She opened up her phone one last time to text Beard she was about to get on her plane before making her way towards the gate. So many thoughts and emotions were running through her brain, unsure of what was going to happen once she got to London.

She approached her gate and scanned the plane ticket on her phone. As she walked through the gate, Leila smiled kindly at the woman who says a sweet 'enjoy your flight' as she made her way down the jet bridge.

She was anxious, given the uncertainty of what was in store for after she landed in London. Despite that, she was going to build her optimism up on her flight. After all, she's 'Little Lasso' and can handle anything that comes her way.