Caitlin had her hand up calling for a cross from Katie. As soon as Katie made contact with the ball Caitlin knew it was a perfect ball and took off to sprint after it. Tracking the ball in the air, she had taken her eyes off of Katie so she didn't see her hit the ground, but she did hear her scream out in pain. The fact she could hear that over the roar of the crowd sent chills through her body. She didn't care that she had completely lost track of the ball and it sailed out of bounds. No In fact she was happy about that because it made the ref stop the game sooner and bring the medical team on. Caitlin didn't even realize she had run halfway across the field until she knelt down next to Katie and grabbed her hand.
"Hey hey it's just me." Caitlin said trying to get Katie to stop hiding her face in the ground. She realized she was crying but knew she wouldn't want the crowd to see.
"It's my knee. It hurts so bad." Katie said more to the medical team then to Caitlin. But gripped her hand back.
After some initial inspection they determined that she needed to be subbed off and asked if she wanted a cart. With as hard headed as Katie was Caitlin knew the answer before Katie even said it.
"No I'm walking."
Caitlin helped her up and with the assistance of one of the medics helped her to the sidelines until another medic came over and helped her the rest of the way over.
"I'll be with you the second this game is over. I promise. You'll be okay baby."
Caitlin whispered to her. Katie nodded in return but was concentrating too hard on holding in her tears to respond.
Caitlin was struggling a bit to focus on the last 10 minutes of the game, but luckily Arsenal hung onto the lead they had and won the game. Like promised, Caitlin sprinted off the field the second the whistle blew. Not even waiting for the team huddle or shaking hands with the other team.
She quickly made it to the medical room to find Katie crying on the medical bench.
"Hey darlin I'm here. Have they said anything yet?"
"No. They just took scans and said they would be back in a few minutes. Cait what if it's my A-"
"Hey nope don't think that way until they give you an official diagnosis okay."
Caitlin pulled a chair over and grabbed her hand letting them both sit in silence until the lead medic came back in the room. Katie couldn't read his expression and gripped Caitlin's hand tighter nervous of what he was going to say.
"Alright I have your scans back. Good news is you Acl and mcl are totally fine. Bad news is you have a meniscus tear. You will need surgery, but it's a much shorter recovery time than if it was one of the other two. You should be back before end of the season and we can get you into surgery day after tomorrow."
Katie was filled with both a mix of relief and sadness. She was happy she wouldn't be out a year, but she said would miss a good number of games and would need surgery. That was scary for anyone. She realized she had spaced out a little bit, overthinking everything the doctor had said when she realized that she wasn't holding Caitlin's hand anymore. She looked over to see her girlfriend writing stuff down in her phone. When she finally tuned back into the conversation she realized Caitlin was asking the doctor all sorts of questions and best ways to take care of her for the next two days before surgery and afterwards as well. If there was only one good thing to take away from this it was how her heart swelled when she saw Caitlin taking care of her.
The next two days weren't easy for Katie. It wasn't the easiest to move around and she relied on Caitlin for everything. Which Cait kept trying to tell her she didn't mind but Katie still felt like a burden. It wasn't until Caitlin finally sat down next to her and pulled her chin up with her thumb and index finger to make sure they were looking each other in the eyes and said, "I don't care how annoyed you get that I have to help you out with tasks you're used to doing on your own. I'm going to help you as much as I can until you are completely healed. Now you can either get used to it or be prepared to be annoyed for the next couple of weeks cause I'm not going anywhere, got it my love?" She finished with a quick kiss to Katie's lips.
Even tough and hard headed Katie couldn't fight the grin forming on her lips after being put in her place. "I'm sorry. I just hate being a burden."
"You aren't. I want to be here and help you."
"Thank you. And I apologize in advance for when I get annoyed again in the future."
Caitlin laughed in return and leaned in for another kiss letting this one linger longer than the first.
The day of surgery arrived and Caitlin knew Katie was a little nervous so she tried to be extra sweet throughout the morning giving her extra forehead kisses and hand squeezes.
"I promise I'll be right here when you wake up" Caitlin said right before the took Katie back for surgery and Katie gave her a soft smile before being pushed out of the door.
The nerves finally hit Caitlin when Katie was out of the room. She hasn't allowed herself to process Katie's injury yet because she wanted to be strong for Katie and they haven't left each others side until now. But the sound of Katie's scream had scared Caitlin more than she'd like to admit. She closed the door to Katie's hospital room and allowed herself to finally shed a few tears before calming herself back down. She ended up calling her mom who she knew would understand what she was feeling and helped her through it just in time for the doctor to come back and say surgery went well and Katie will be back to the room shortly.
The relief quickly swept through Caitlin's body. she saw Katie being pushed back into the room, still asleep but looking more peaceful than she had the past couple of days which made Caitlin smile. She positioned herself to hold Katie's hand and wait until her body woke up.
A little while later she felt Katie start moving slightly and looked up to see her eyes start opening.
"Hey baby girl how are you?"
"I feel great" Katie said groggily and clearly still drugged up
"Caitlin laughed and kissed her hand.
"The surgery went perfectly! You'll be healed up in no time."
"Woooooohooooo" was all Katie could muster up until she turned her head and looked at Caitlin again. "You know you are really pretty"
"I think that's the drugs talking babe. Why don't you try to sleep it off yea?" Caitlin said smirking.
"I'll sleep later. I want to look at my pretty girlfriend." Katie said clearly trying to fight her eyes closing again.
"Well sleep now and maybe your pretty girlfriend will give you extra kisses tonight."
"Ooh I like kisses"
"Cause you're a softie McCabe"
"Only for you" she whispered as sleep finally overcame her again.
