Sorry for not updating yesterday I was working last night and didn't get the chance to update. Here's a long chapter to say sorry. As always love any feedback and enjoy 😊
Keira's POV:
After breakfast, we had a brief team meeting, and a short team walk, before we got ourselves ready to leave and head to Wembley. Once we were out of the team meeting, Ellie hopped off Leah's lap, where she had been sat for the duration of the meeting, and came racing over to me and held up her hands to be lifted up. "Hi birthday girl", I said, as I lifted her up and settled her on my hip. Ellie smiled at me, as she rested her head on my shoulder, one hand holding my hoodie, the other clutching her Narla teddy. I walked us towards our room, to grab my bag, Lucy's bag and Charlie's backpack.
Once I had grabbed the bags I headed back down, this time with Ellie walking beside me. As soon as she spotted Lucy she went racing, and crashed into Lucy's legs, with a big smile on her face. Lucy bent down and picked her up, tickling her, causing giggles to erupt. I held out Charlie backpack to Charlie when she appeared and she raced off over to Leah. Lucy held out her hand and I went to give her her bag, but she waved that away, and reached for my hand instead. I gave her hand a squeeze as we made our way outside. I checked to see Leah and Charlie following behind us as we got on the bus. Once on the bus, Lucy led us down about halfway down the aisle, and we sat down.
Once on the bus, I turned to Lucy and leaned over and whispered "I love you". Lucy looked at me lovingly and looked around before leaning forward and pressing a quick kiss to my lips, before pulling away and whispering back "I love you so much Kei". I smiled and rested my head on her shoulder, and watched Ellie look out the window at everyone getting on the bus.
Lucy pulled out her headphones as the bus pulled away from The Lensbury and I picked Ellie off her lap, and entertained her on mine instead, so that Lucy could begin her pre match routine. Ellie giggled and squealed as I played hide and seek with her with her blanket, causing a few heads to turn, wondering what the noise was. "Sorry guys, we'll quieten down", I apologise, which Alex cut me off saying "no need, it's good to hear the giggles, she's clearly having a good birthday, and we need some good vibes". I smiled and nodded and Ellie grabbed the blanket, handing it back to me to continue our game.
As we pulled into the stadium car park, the nerves started to hit me. We were playing in a Euros final against Germany, at home in Wembley. Lucy must have noticed my nerves and grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers and giving my hand a squeeze, before leaning closer and whispering "we've got this Kei, enjoy it". I nodded and once the bus stopped I got Ellie situated on my hip before leaning over to Charlie. "Can you pass me Ellie's ear defenders ?", Charlie nodded and rooted around her backpack, before pulling out the ear defenders and handing them to me. "Thank you". Lucy put the defenders over Ellie's ears, and grabbed 3 face masks, handing one to Charlie, putting one on herself, and then leaning forward pressing a kiss to my lips before putting on my face mask on my face. Lucy grabbed my bag and one by one we got off the bus. As we were walking into the stadium, fans cheered and screamed our names in hopes we would sign things and take photos, but we were all in game mode.
I walked to the changing room over to my cubby with my jersey hung up in it, my shorts and warm up kit in it too. I let Ellie down and took my bag from Lucy, before taking Ellie's hand and leading her out to the pitch for our pitch inspection. Once we were on the pitch, I walked around with Ellie who was 'walking' her cuddly toy Narla. I watched as Charlie was being chased around the pitch by G, and Lucy who was chatting to Alex. I looked down when I felt Ellie tug on my hand, she was reaching up for me to pick her up, which I did but not without telling her "soon you'll be too big for mama to carry". Ellie shook her head, before resting it on my shoulder, and mumbling "mama cuddle". I nodded and held her tightly in my arms as I looked around at the current empty stadium, where in a few hours, it would be packed with people coming to watch us play and hopefully win. "Will mama and mumma win today Ellie ?", I asked, looking down at the toddler , who nodded and replied softly "win". I nodded and checked to see that she was clearly tired, having had no nap today. I slowly walked back to the group that had formed on the edge of the pitch. I stood next to Leah who smiled over at me and then looked down to then tell me "she's going to fall asleep any minute now". I smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of Ellie's head. I rubbed circles on her back, lulling her to sleep. I knew it would be a short nap, but at least she could sleep while we did our warm ups. On that note I walked over to Lucy and asked "while we warm up, who's going to look after the girls ?". Lucy smiled adoringly down at Ellie who was fast asleep against my chest and then looked back at me and replied "Jordan said she'd look after them in the changing room, and Sarina has no problem with it". I nodded and looked around to try and spot Charlie, instantly spotting her getting a piggy back from Rach.
We all started heading back into the changing rooms to get changed into our warm up kits. As I was tying up my hair, Charlie approached me with her backpack and said for the final time "I need to take Ellie to put her jersey on". I smiled and Charlie carried her little sister away, following Leah, which was odd. When they came back, Charlie and Ellie both had hoodies on and Lucy exclaimed "aren't you going to show your jerseys when you walk out with us ?". Everyone who heard looked over at Charlie who smiled and replied "yeah, but we're not walking out yet, so you'll just have to wait, wonder who we're wearing". I laughed at Charlie's response, and took a sleeping Ellie back, still clutching her teddy in her sleep. I fixed her hair before leaning down and whispering "mama loves you so so much". I carefully stood back up and stood swaying with her in my arms, while I waited for Jordan. I sidled over to Lucy's cubby and stood in front of her while she tied the laces of her boots, before looking up at me and smiling. "Jordan better not wake her up, you know what her and Charlie are like when they're together", I said to Lucy as she stood up, fixing her hair. "Don't worry I'll have a stern word with both of them", Lucy replied with a smile. Everyone started heading out, and I watched as Jordan came walking into the changing room, wearing a Mead 7 shirt. Charlie raced over to her and jumped into her arms, causing Jordan to stumble slightly. Lucy glared at the two of them. "You've to be quiet Charlie, Ellie is asleep, can you do that ?", Lucy asked Charlie seriously. Charlie nodded and went to grab her iPad to show Jordan the game she is forever playing, while I gently passed Ellie's sleeping figure to Jordan and myself and Lucy quietly left the changing room, catching up with the rest of the team for warm ups.
After warm ups we all made our way into the changing room, where we were met with the cutest sight, Jordan was sat cross-legged on the floor of the changing room, while Ellie was sat opposite her playing with her Narla teddy, and Charlie was lying on her stomach next to Jordan doodling on her iPad. Lucy bent down and swooped Charlie off the floor, causing her to shriek. Ellie looked up and immediately spotting me, scrambled off the floor and came racing over to me. Jordan got off the floor and wished us all good luck, and left the changing room to get to her seat. When Lucy put Charlie down, Charlie looked at both of us with a grin and asked "you wanna see our jerseys ?". We both nodded along with a handful of the team, wanting to see what jerseys Charlie and Ellie were wearing. Charlie glanced over at Leah and said "Le helped me to sort them, I hope you like them", before taking off her hoodie and Leah stepped over to me to take off Ellie's. I looked at Ellie's jersey, than Charlie's and than back to Ellie's and looked at the back to see Bronze Walsh 24. I delightfully turned around to see Lucy hugging Charlie tightly both of them with big smiles on their faces. "What's the 24 for ?", G piped up, causing Charlie to turn around and smile "it's a 2 and a 4 for mum and Kei's number and it just so happens to be Kei's city number too". "You and Ellie are like our 24th squad members too", Leah piped up. Everyone grinned and nodded as I joined in their hug and whispered to Charlie "I love you Charlie Tough Bronze Walsh". Charlie replied by hugging me tighter. Our family hug turned into a team hug, when the whole team joined in, along with whispering of "we got this", "let's win this" and "it's coming home".
Soon enough it was time to walk out. I had changed into my kit, proudly wearing it again for the final time this summer. I looked over to see the rest of the team sitting in their cubby's getting their electrolytes in them. I grabbed an energy supplement from one of the coaching staff and swallowed it, managing to keep it out of Ellie's reach. Sarina announced it was go time, so those of us in the starting eleven got into the line, while the subs passed us by, giving us high fives on their way to the bench. I held Ellie on my hip and turned around to do my pre-game ritual with Lucy to see Charlie holding Lucy's hand with a big smile on her face. "Thank you for the present Mums", Charlie grinned up at us both. Me and Lucy smiled and Lucy pulled Charlie into a side hug, before giving me a pinky promise and a kiss. Ellie leaned over wanting to give Lucy a hug, which was a quick one, as Leah began leading us out onto the pitch. It was an amazing feeling walking onto the Wembley pitch, with my daughter in my arms about to play in a Euros final against Germany, with the stadium packed with people all here to watch us play. The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and like nothing I'd ever experienced. I tried to soak up as much of this moment as I could, and I looked to see Ellie waving at the now filled seats. She was still holding her Narla toy, which I had forgotten to hide before we left the changing room, but to be honest it didn't really matter, and it was almost like Narla was here in spirit, meaning the whole family was together again. As I stood in line between Lucy and G, waiting for the national anthem, I looked around immediately spotting our families stood together, and whispered to Ellie "who do you see Ellie ?". Ellie smiled and started listing off everyone she could see "Nana, jojo, Granny, pappy, jordy, ...", the list going on, making Lucy smile beside me as she listened to Ellie telling me who of our families she could see. When both national anthems were over, we all huddled over near the side of the pitch, getting last minute tactics and I handed Ellie to Diane, and me and Lucy said our quick goodbyes before we got into game mode and into our positions. Let the game begin !