The quiet and crazy life of Tessa Hartman and Kelley O'Hara

She's one tough cookie.

October 2020. Emily's POV.

It's been 10 months since Tessa had that bite on her arm, and just recently she returned for her first match since her injury after extensive rehab. From what I watched, she looked like she hadn't missed a step. But then Kelley and Andi mentioned she was struggling within a few minutes of coming on the field.

Right now, I've been called up for some International friendlies and it's weird not having Tessa here. I miss her quite a lot, and can't wait till she's perfectly healthy. Then I'll have one of my pranking buddies back. There were some changes to the team though, Alex was out with her maternity leave, a few new young players were called up, and as mentioned, Tessa was absent.

We were doing some press today and I was doing an interview which went well as every other one does until I got asked about Tessa. "How's Tessa's arm doing? Is she set for a full time return or is she not ready yet?"

My mood just completely faltered after being asked that. I just figured I'd do my best to answer it.

"She's just having a rough time coming back. I reach out to her all the time and tell her that everybody misses her. We miss her, and I miss her as a teammate and player because she's a cornerstone for our team. For now we're waiting for her to say 'Okay I'm ready.' So it's whenever she's ready."

"So has she been training a lot recently?" The interviewer asks.

"Yeah, she's been training hard and keeping active since that's something all of us have encouraged her to do while being on the mend."

Later on in the day half of us hung out in Christen and Pinoe's hotel room and saw Kelley on her phone, "Kel! How's Tessa doing today? I messaged her earlier today and heard nothing back." Tobin asked.

"Same as always. But she seems like she's in good spirits today."

"Hey, she's one tough cookie. A cat with 9 lives." Pinoe responded

"Yep, she is immortal in my books," I said while sitting down. Majority of us were having a laugh and Kelley happened to tell me something funny that Tessa said to her one day which made me laugh even more.

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Tessa's POV.

"Oh, come on!" I exclaimed as the Bengals scored another touchdown against the Raiders.

I've been a fan of the Oakland Raiders since I was a kid, mainly since they were my home team. Well, I should be calling them Las Vegas Raiders since they moved to Las Vegas earlier in the year, but I still call them Oakland Raiders. It sounds better to me and it's something I grew up with.

This season, and their previous seasons, were not good. Kelley and a few others kind of tease me for liking them sometimes as a joke, but I don't care.

I had my first match back recently against OL Reign, I went on in the last few minutes and I was gassed within a minute. I guess this infection really did screw me over big time. Oh well, next year I'll be back, and I've still got my eyes set on making the Olympic team for Tokyo.

It was halftime for the match I was watching, so I went outside to kick a ball around for a bit. The hot Washington D.C sun was shining, the sky was a clear blue, no cloud in sight. I wonder how everyone else who has been called up is doing. I know Alex and Servando are getting the hang of being parents now and I'm so happy for them, they deserve it.

Speaking of Alex, after I went back inside, I grabbed my phone and called Alex. Figured I'd have a catch up.

"Tessa! How's it going? You doing okay?" Alex answered.

"Yeah, I'm doing okay. How's parenthood treating ya?"

Alex sighed, "Oh, you know, Serv and I have got the hang of it. It's actually quite fun. Maybe you and Kelley could have a kid of your own one day."

I chuckled, "I don't know Alex, haven't thought that far yet. Besides, I know Kelley will probably want one later down the line, but me? I'm not too sure."

"Hey, well, if you ever do. I'll just say that you two would make awesome parents."

"Thanks Lex."

We both chatted away for roughly around a few hours and before I knew it, Kelley's calling me. So I quickly ended my call with Alex and answered Kelley. She told me about her day, all the funny stuff that I'm missing out on which makes me definitely miss being with that group of girls.

**********

Happy new years everyone! :)