One For All and All For Soccer | Lauren Cimorelli x USWNT

Nine

Ashlyn's POV:

In an instant, we were standing up, making our way to where the doctor was.

"Is this her family?" The doctor asks and a bunch of sighs follow.

"Her family lives halfway across the world in South Africa. We're the closest thing she has to a family over here," Alex exclaims earning nods from everyone here. The doctor sighs and looks like he's hesitating and then Jill speaks up,

"Please just tell us. She's on the national soccer team and we need to know what's going on," Jill says and the doctor finally nods.

"Alright, well with Lauren's shortness of breathing and tight chest pains we took her up for a few scans and discovered that her arteries in her heart have started to block up with plaque. When plaque builds up, it narrows your coronary arteries and decreases blood flow to your heart. The decreased blood flow caused Lauren the chest pain she was experiencing. We have diagnosed her with coronary artery disease and we need permission from her caretakers or the people responsible for her to perform a coronary artery bypass surgery immediately to restore blood flow to her heart," The doctor told us. Nobody said a word as we all were in complete shock at what the doctor had just said. Christen looked so guilty so Tobin went over to hug her.

"Do the surgery now," Jill says and the doctor nods before walking away. Worried yet shocked glances were shared while the doctor walked away and I saw Ali's eyes begin to fill with tears, I quickly made my way over to her.

"Ali, what's wrong?" I ask her in her ear while I pull her into my arms, stroking her back while she places her head into my neck.

"I'm just s-so worried. She's too young for this," She says while her voice breaks in between words.

"Aw babe, I know. But she's a fighter, she's going to overcome this, okay?" I tell her and hug her tighter. Ali then pulls away and wipes her tears away with her hand as I give her a sympathetic look.

"We should go see if Chris is okay," She tells me and gestures to where Christen is. During our hug, Christen obviously had made her way to a chair, she was crying and gently rocking herself back and forth while her head was in her hands and her knees pulled up to her chest. Tobin and Alex were around her, comforting her the best they could and stroking her back.

"Yea," I respond back to Ali and intertwine my hand with hers while we make our way over to them. Ali kneels down in front of Christen and untangles our hands. She places her hand on Christens knee as I make my way to the chair by them.

—

Christens POV:

I can't help but feel like this is all my fault. I should have been more stubborn when telling her not to go to practice. If I made her stay back, then this would have never happened.

I feel a bunch of hands rubbing my back and then a hand on my knee which makes me look up. It's Ali and it's obvious she's been crying too. I put my legs down and wipe my tears away with the back of my hand. Ali pulls me into a hug while stroking my back.

"It's all my fault Ali," I whisper to her. She pulls away and looks me in the eyes.

"No it's not Chris. No one could have seen this coming, okay? Lauren is so strong, I know she's going to get through this. I know it." She tells me and I give her a slight smile.

"It's not your fault. It never will be," She says and I nod and then pull her into another hug, comforting each other as I rest my head on her shoulder.

"Oh my gosh, I forgot to call Lauren's family." I pull away from the hug in guilt and quickly glance for my bag around the room.

"Don't stress Chris, Jill already did. I think Christina and Michael are already on their way," Ash says and I nod, a sigh of relief escaping my lips as I slump back into the chair.

"Come on Christen, the surgery is probably gonna take a long time and you need rest," Tobin then says and I nod, knowing I won't win this one. I don't want to sleep because I'm too worried but I'm also so tired I feel like I could sleep for at least a year. Tobin comes over and sits on the free chair next to me, she puts her arm around me as I rest my head on her shoulder, hearing lots of 'awws' come from around the room. I shake my head while smiling before I fall into a deep sleep.

—

"Chris, Chris, wake up." I slowly open my eyes to find Alex poking me and shaking me awake. I rub my eyes and look around. Most of our teammates are still sleeping so I look at Alex in confusion.

"The doctor has news. Help me wake up everyone else?" She tells me and all of the tiredness has quickly erased as I feel a sudden urge of anxiousness. I quickly stand up, making Tobin wake up in the process. I give her a small smile before telling her the news, she then instantly wakes up and helps us wake up everyone else. Ash is trying to wake up Ali and Alex is now on Pinoe while Tobin is waking up Morgan and Mal. Once everyone is awake, we go over to the doctor who is waiting for all of us at the desk.

"Is she okay?" I ask in a rush, all of my fear taking over my body. My hand begins to tremble, Tobin notices and places her hand in mine while looking over at me and giving me a smile.

"The surgery went great. She's still waking up now but you can all see her however our visiting rules are two at a time so you can all take turns in visiting her. I will lead you up there now," As soon as we all knew she was okay, a bunch of exasperated sighs followed with a bunch of 'thank goodnesses' muttered. All I could do was Thank God that Lauren was okay.