Mal Pugh

Part 8

Jill quietly knocked on the door and Tobin went over to answer. Upon Jill entering, she saw Mal, asleep, snuggled between Christen and Alex. She also noticed a rather upset Kelly leaning onto Alex. She forgot how good of friends Kelly and Dansby were. She walked over to Kelly and embraced her into a hug as the girl cried. Jill stood there and rubbed the girls back. Jill had always been close with Kelly. Jill asked how Mallory was. Nobody replied, everyone just looked at the sleeping girl. It was even evident in her sleep that she was so distraught and in pain. Just then, Jill's phone rang, it was the USWNT manager calling, Jill's boss.

"Girls I need to take this, I will see you tomorrow morning. Also, before I forget to mention, everyone in this room has the next week off." Jill told them while putting her phone call on hold.

"What about Mal? You think she's gonna be ready by then?" Carli asked with concern.

"Honestly, I don't know. I'm going to tell her to take as much time as she needs. My first concern is making sure that she's ok." Jill told them as she walked out the door.

"I think now would be a good time to wake her up. We should spread out and give her some space though." Kelly said as she stood up from the bed and sat on the empty one on the other side of the room. Everyone agreed, Christen and Alex should wake her up. Christen began to rub slow circles on the girls back while Alex called her name. Mal made a frustrated noise and rolled over to face Christen. She hid herself against the woman to block out all light and noise, and to seek to comfort.

"Mal, you have to wake up and eat" Christen whispered into her ear. Mallory didn't reply. After 10 minutes of trying, and no success, they decided to bring the food to her. Christen prayed her self off of Mal slowly and stood up. She made the girl sit up and stuffed pillows behind her. They brought the tray up and set it over her lap. Mallory was a ghost again, it felt like she wasn't even there. Christen walked to the bathroom and went inside. She had decided to take a quick shower before dinner because she was drenched in Mal's sweat. Mallory heard the door close and looked around for Christen who was nowhere in sight. She began to panic. Her breathing got heavy and she had tears running down her face. Carli was the first to notice. She ran over to Mal and attempted to comfort her but nothing worked.

"Mal, Mallory, it's ok she's just in the shower, she will be out soon" Carli spoke into the girls ear gently while rubbing her back. Mal's breathing still didn't slow. Carli did the only thing she could think of. She pulled the pillows out from behind Mal and sat behind her and gave her a hug. Mal immediately began to calm down. Her breathing slowed and she now seemed more focused.  Julie pulled up a chair next to Carli to help her out. The two women, wanted to give the others a break while they ate dinner. They had been with Mallory all day and they were exhausted. Julie helped Mallory unwrap the silverware and kept an eye on her to make sure she ate. Julie noticed Mallory's eyes starting to droop after eating only 1/3 of her food. Julie watched as the girl slowly fell asleep and leaned back against Carli. At this point, Christen came out of the shower fully dressed and ready to eat dinner. The rest of the women had waited for her to eat. Christen noticed Mallory was already  sleeping against Carli.

"Oh my god, she must be so exhausted. Did she eat anything?" Christen asked while getting her sandwich out of the bag.

"Barely" Julie replied as she looked into the bowl.

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2 hours later, at 10 pm Mallory woke up. Carli was behind her still. The only difference was the TV was on now. She watched Tobin select the ESPN channel. She knew as soon as she clicked it that the women wanted to watch a replay of their soccer game from earlier. At this point, everyone knew Mallory was awake but nobody wanted to disturb her, she seemed calm.

"Should we grab all of your guy's stuff?" Christen asked Tobin.

"That would probably be a good idea, we can all sleep." Tobin replied. Christen said they should  take out all of the trash from dinner then she can help them carry all of their  back up to the room.  2 minutes after everyone left, there was a knock at the door. Julie decided to go to answer it. It had been Lindsey and a few other girls. They brought up a chocolate shake for Mal, her favorite. Julie stepped into the hallway to talk to the girls. Inside, Mallory and Carli watched the TV. Mal still sat in front of Carli, leaning on her. Just then, the announcer from the game said something that Carli dreaded. He began talking about Dansby. Carli could feel the breath taken out of Mallory as this happened. Suddenly, the news clips appeared on the TV showing the accident. Next to it, a picture of Dansby and Mal. The announcer explained that this is why Mal and several other players weren't at the game today. Mal was freaking out at the point. She became sobbing so hard. All Carli wanted to do was turn off the TV but all of Mallory's weight was on her and she couldn't get up.