Fighting Society

she's okay, kiddo

"C'mon kid, let's head into the changing rooms"

Beth placed her hands on the young girls shoulders, slowly guiding her down the steps and directly to the changing rooms, deciding to miss the team talk, and the lap, to try and calm the shocked young girl. Her face was paled, and her bright blue eyes were wider than usual, her body trembling as they slowly made their way over to Leah's locker, the young girl simply sitting down in it, Beth opposite her.

"Jess? Hey Jessica? Speak to me kid."

It was as if Beth wasn't there, the young girl looking directly through her, clearly unaware to her question, or even her presence as she simply remained sat in the locker. Her body remained trembling in the space, as Beth moved over to turn the lights down in the changing rooms, in hope to see if got a response from the young girl, yet to no avail. She made her way back over to Jess, moving to sit next to her to wrap her arms around her, only to be met with the young girl ducking the movement, avoiding Beth before resuming her position of remaining where she was sat, looking directly forwards. The English forward only sighed, leaving the young girl where she was, hoping that all she needed was time to process.

The girls began to filter into the changing rooms, a sombre mood within the air, small discussions going on between the girls, all of them glancing towards the young girl, pale as a ghost. None of them tried to talk to her, or even go near her, the spaced out look in her eyes enough for them to know she needed time. It wasn't nice for any of them to watch Leah go down, and they could only imagine how it must've been for such a young girl to watch her older sister to go.

Beth made her way over to Viv, who had been on the field, in an attempt to get some kind of awareness of what had happened. In the rush of trying to protect Jess further, she was unaware of what injury Leah had even sustained, or what had directly happened, her focus entirely on getting Jess out of there. She placed herself beside her partner, who knew exactly why she had come over, whispering the answer over,

"None of us really saw to be genuine. It was a set piece, except it seemed the Ajax player had seemed to have seen it coming. She barged her body into Leah's, and she fell, hitting her head on the goal post as she fell to the floor. She was out for a bit, just kind of laying there, but when she was stretchered off she was awake and fine. Just kept asking about Jess, I promised we'd take care of her."

Beth could only nod at the Dutch's comment, taking a deep sigh as she went to lean her weight against her partner, her head on Viv's shoulder with her arms wrapped around her waist, the Dutch placing a soft kiss onto Beth's head as she went to speak.

"How's Jess?"

"I'm not sure. She watched Leah go down, and just started panicking. I ushered her in here, but she wouldn't let me touch her or anything. I tried to get her to speak, but it's like I wasn't even there Vivi, the poor girls just so out of it. It must've been hard for her to see."

Viv only nodded her head in response before standing up to offer her hand the Beth, a mutual agreement between the two that they'd be taking Jessica under their wing for a bit. Most of the other girls had silently filtered out, all of them still trying to process whatever had happened on the field, yet Jess hadn't moved an inch within the hour they'd been in the changing rooms. The two of them made their way over to the girl, Viv crouching down in front of her, moving to take her hands only to be met with the young girl moving them so she couldn't.

"Hi kiddo. You're going to come home with me and Beth tonight. You're going to stay with us overnight, it's okay, we have some of your clothes at our flat anyway. You'll be staying in our spare room, and we're going to go straight there from the grounds. Is that okay?"