Onward and Upward

eighteen || pother

pother : a commotion or fuss

After another two months of games with the United States Women's National Team, Georgia was drained. Thankfully, the NWSL Championship had been pushed to October for the national players. All the NWSL teams had their substitutes in for the games that their national duty members were out for, and the Utah Royals were up in the second place spot once again, going for a back to back championship title. In the two games leading up to the playoffs, the national members were back with their respected teams, and Utah had clinched another home playoff game against the Portland Thorns.

It had been a rough couple games, but Utah Royals FC came out on top once against, becoming 2018-2019 back-to-back champions. They had won against the Seattle Reign for their second title, and now it was over again until March. Georgia still did not have a break with her work as a paramedic, for now that the season was over, she was working day shifts and double shifts at the firehouse to make up for all the time she had been away for. It was going to be the same scenario next year with the Olympics, but hopefully Antonio were to be home by then. He said he hoped to be back and done in June or July next year, but he had also warned her that they might keep him a few extra months to help out with training at the base. Although she did not want him to have to stay those extra months, she knew it was only another few months, nothing they could not handle. She had only gotten to see him twice since he left for Afghanistan last year, so a few extra months was not going to feel like anything.

She had visited her parents once a month when she had a weekend off from the firehouse, but other than that, she basically lived at the Fourth. She had three more shifts until she was off for the weekend, and that weekend she was heading to her parent's house for early Christmas since she was not able to get the week off. She was the low man on the totem pole, so she got stuck working the holidays that year. She did get New Year's Eve off, though, and Kelley had invited her to her yearly party, which consisted of their teammates and family, and since she knew it would be impossible to get a flight so last minute to Portland, she figured she would ring in the new year with her makeshift family.

The bells went off in the firehouse and she sprung up from her cot, listening to the address overhead and hearing that it was just an ambulance house call. Person in distress calls were the ones that were typically easy to handle, every once in a while a little hectic. Robert got into the passenger seat while she got in the driver's seat. He allowed her to drive because she knew all the shortcuts around the city and they had one of the best call response times in the city. She turned the sirens on and went towards the given address, which seemed familiar to her. They pulled up to the house, Robert grabbing the ambulance bag and the two of them heading up to the front door, careful not to slip on the ice covered sidewalk.

"SLC Fire Department!" Georgia called against the door.

"It's open, we're in the kitchen!" They yelled in response. She twisted the knob and entered the house, Robert following behind. They navigated their way to the kitchen, seeing blood on the wooden floor as soon as they stepped inside.

"Oh thank God it's you, GJ." Becky said, holding a now blood soaked towel on Zola's hand.

"What the hell happened?" She asked, motioning for Becky to step away from her boyfriend. She and Robert went to work instantly, Georgia slowly peeling away the blood clad towel to reveal a deep cut on the back of Zola's hand. It went from his thumb to pinky, and a bloody knife lay on the counter.

"Kitchen accident. I was cutting up up potatoes for dinner, and, well..." He trailed on as they cleaned out the blood and wrapped his hand tightly with gauze. She had gotten an IV started, looking around on the floor to see how much blood he had lost. He looked weak, but it did not seem like much, but she looked to her teammate as Robert stood to jog back out to the back of the ambulance and get the stretcher.