I'll Find You

Coming Home

I've been stuck in motion
Moving too fast
Trying to catch a moment but it slips through my hands
All I see are long days and dark nights
I'm lost without you but I'm on my way, so hold tight
I'm coming home tonight
——Coming Home, Sheppard

February 21, 2018

Grayson felt good.  Somehow the stress of the last few weeks had melted away and he felt relaxed.  He got on the court and just kept shooting, finishing with 28 points for his efforts.

They'd won convincingly, four in a row now.  And he'd played well in each of them, was more comfortable, more like himself on the court.  He knew his time at Duke was winding down, but this was how he wanted it to end.

February 23, 2018

Cait finished the interview, looked down at the medals around her neck.  One silver.  And one gold. 

She'd done a lot of interviews over the last few days and in every one they'd shown the video of the entire Duke basketball team watching her Downhill run and then dog piling onto Grayson and Luke when she was in first place.  And again when it was clear that she'd won.  And they'd asked for her reaction.  Touched, humbled, but most of all, homesick.  She missed every one of them, but one a whole lot more than the rest.

She couldn't regret the past year.  Standing on the podium as they played the national anthem, as she watched them raise the flag, she'd realized that.  As much as it had been awful to be away from Grayson, she'd needed to prove to herself that she could overcome that injury, that she could put in the work to get past it.  She hadn't needed to prove she could win, just that she was tough enough, resilient enough to come back.

She'd finally realized that she didn't care so much about the gold medal.  Ironically, it was in the middle of winning one that she found out that the medals didn't define her.  But she needed to show everyone that she was strong enough to get back here.  Now she finally had nothing left to prove.  And she just wanted to be with Grayson.

She slid the medals off, put them in their cases. That was the last interview. The alpine events had finished up.  Sherry and Jennifer had left the day after her Downhill win. She'd stayed the extra two days, kept her promise. And now she just had one question. She turned to her father.

"Dad," she said quietly, "how fast can we get to Durham?"

Jack smiled at her, slipped an arm around her and pulled her close. "The plane is ready to go."

*****
It had been a totally stupid day.  His Instagram and Twitter had been hacked and they were dealing with a bogus report about Wendell being implicated in the FBI investigation.  He almost didn't want to pick up his phone, but as he slid into the ice bath, he made himself do it. 

Grayson glanced at his phone and was immediately glad he did.  He smiled at the text that was waiting for him after practice. On my way to the airport. I'm coming home.

*****
February 24, 2018

Cait willed the plane to move faster, wanted time to go faster.  Grayson had a game against Syracuse and she'd thought she wouldn't make it back, but with the 6:15 p.m. start time, it looked like there was a chance.  And she desperately wanted to be there.