mlb imagines⚾️️? (OPEN)

Harrison Bader -requested-

PoetBeep

I take my place in the left-hand batter's box, taking a breath and digging my foot in the ground looking up from the plate and towards the pitcher.

The first pitch comes in hot, painting the inside corner. 0-1.

I look back at the dugout, my eyes meeting Harrison's bright blue ones. He and I have been dating for six months. We shouldn't be allowed to be in our relationship; the only reason we've been able to pursue it is that we were already dating before I was traded to play with the Cardinals.

He gives me a small thumbs up, and I smile. I step back into the box, awaiting the next pitch anxiously.

The pitcher releases the ball, and it was like every happened in slow motion. I could see the loose red trimming of the baseball's laces and the blue official MLB logo stood out bright.

Then it hit me; literally. I went down immediately, gripping my face in my hands. "Shit, you're bleeding," Austin Barnes, the catcher, kneels down in a panic.

Alex Wood, the Dodger's pitcher, runs to the plate. He frantically apologizes, ensuring me that that pitch was not at all intentional.

The trainer comes on to the field, and with only a few seconds of her looking at me, called for the gurney.

"Erin, sweetie, your nose is definitely broken, and it looks like the baseball may have shattered your cheekbone as well. You're bleeding a lot, so I'm going to put this gauze on your face."

While she's tending to me, the rest of the Dodger's field players - because my teammates were ordered to stay in the dugout - formed a circle around me, blocking the cameramen desperately trying to get a closeup of my injury.

They slide the board under my body and use it to prop me onto the gurney. The medics slide me into the ambulance cart to take me to the actual ambulance that I assume is waiting in the parking lot.

"Wait wait!" I recognized the shouts as Harrison's, but I was in too much pain to move from my side. "I'm coming with her," he says, climbing up into the cart next to me.

"Erin, can you hear me?" Harrison whispers, taking hold of my hand and leaning down so that he's closer to me.

I squeeze his hand because I was hurting too bad to nod or even try to speak.

"You'll be okay baby."

~

They lifted me out of the ambulance and into the ER, Harrison running right next to the paramedics. I'm put in a room immediately, ballplayer perks I guess.

"Are you her husband?" A nurse asks Harrison.

"No, I'm her boyfriend."

"I'm sorry sir, but you're going to have to leave. Imediate family only. We're going to be taking her into surgery shortly anyways to reconstruct her nose and the other broken parts of her facial structure."

He sighs but knows that the rules are rules. He leans over and grabs my hand, bringing it up to his lips and planting a small kiss on it.

"I love you, Erin, I'll be in the waiting room until you come out."

If the right side of my face weren't literally shattered, I would've smiled. This was the first time Harrison had ever told me he loved me, and I've known since the day we met that I loved him too.

I hold up my hand, tucking down my middle and ring finger, telling him I loved him too using sign language.

Without warning, they start wheeling the bed out the door, most likely to the operating room.

I wave goodbye to Harrison, already anticipating waking up from my surgery so I can see him again.