It Was Always Her (Preath)

Chapter 28 - Closure

Time jump: It's now early April, and the girls will be leaving national camp and go back to their NWSL teams. The US won the SheBelieves Cup and qualified for the Olympics, all without Christen Press, who's still in recovery.

**

Christen's POV

"You sure you got everything?" Tobin asked again, as she was about to take my bag out of the hotel room. I smiled at her, slowly nodding my head, and she sighed knowing she had asked maybe one too many times already.

"We're all set." I answered, and walked over to where she was now standing by the door. I pulled her close to me by her waist, causing her to drop the bag she was holding to the floor.
She smiled as her hands found their way around my neck, and she carefully removed some hair from the side of my face.

"God, I'm gonna miss you." She breathed out, looking down between us now. I quickly lifted her chin up with my hand, forcing her to look back up at me. "It's not that long." I assured her, trying to make it sound convincing, but she saw right through me. There's a couple friendlies coming up shortly, and then our teams will play each other in June. God, who am I kidding. It's way too long.

I'm traveling back to Chicago for the NWSL, while Tobin's going to Portland. I haven't played a game since the accident, but my coaches have faith that I'll play in the opening game for Chicago Red Stars. If there's any risk whatsoever, Jill won't risk it, but there's still hope and I'm trying to stay positive.

I've been doing much better lately, and there's really only minor details holding me back at this point. They're afraid letting me out there now and me getting more permanently damaged is a risk, and then the Olympics will be out of the question. Then again, they said I likely wouldn't play soccer ever again, and now the Olympics is something to worry about so I'll say that's pretty good news. I've been able to train with the best, being with Tobin and keeping the motivation going even though I haven't been playing games.

"Everyone's to meet in the lobby, I think the earliest flights leaves in a couple hours." Tobin spoke up again, and I noticed she was looking at her phone. Kelley had texted us, who had heard the news from Hope, so I'm not sure how official it was, but nevertheless I wanted to say goodbye to everyone.

"Okay, let's get these down there then." I pointed to our bags and picked up my own. Tobin looked slightly worried about me carrying it myself, she had been protective of me doing much other then recovering these past weeks, but I showed her I had control. If I wanna play in the Olympics, I sure as heck need to be able to carry my own freaking bag.

We walked downstairs and the lobby was packed with national team players and staff, bags everywhere at this point. The slightly chaotic feeling right before we leave anywhere might be one of my favorite moments, and I'll miss it. We travel a lot, it's definitely something we're used to, but somehow it always ends up a little hectic towards the ending.

"Press, I'm gonna miss you. Good luck this season." Kelley met us as soon as we entered from the elevator, and gave me a tight hug. I gladly accepted it, and dropped my bag so I could hug her tighter. As much as I was looking forward to go back to Chicago, I knew I was gonna miss these people like crazy.

"There you are, I got our tickets." Julie jumped up next to me, eager and in control as always. She handed me the ticket before she started searching the room for someone else, probably Alyssa who's coming with us to Chicago this season. She lit up when she spotter her and simply moved away with a smile.

"I'm glad you're staying with JJ, I'm pretty confident that she'll be in control." Tobin leaned closer to me and spoke, and I couldn't agree more. I smiled to her, just once again thinking about how much I'll miss her.