Page 54 of Face Off

“Mikey?” A voice pulled me out of my thoughts again.

I lifted my head to see Madi frowning. She sat next to me and looked pointedly at my wrapped ankle.

“What happened?”

I sighed. “You saw?”

“Yeah. I wanted to come down and check on you sooner, but when you came back for the third, I realized you were planning on playing through.”

I nodded. “It’s not that bad. I just tweaked it.”

She bent over and unwrapped it without asking. After pulling down my sock, she froze. It was angry. Red and swollen.

“Mikey.” Her voice matched the despair I felt. “Come on.” As she stood, she took my hand and pulled me out to the hall. I struggled not to limp, but no one gave us a second glance. Luckily, this wasn’t unusual behavior for one of the members of the Pride. We went to the training office where Amelia was putting things away.

“Hey.” She looked confused. “What’s up?”

“He needs an x-ray,” Madi said, pushing me further into the room and closing the door behind us. “Possibly even an MRI.”

Amelia nodded and pointed to the sectioned-off area I was all too familiar with. She laid the lead blanket over me and positioned the machine. “Do either of you want to fill me in?”

She stared down at my ankle that was now nearly double its normal size.

“He has a malunion from the break last season. He reinjured it tonight, and I want to know what the damage is before letting him out of my sight.” Madi was in full boss-mode.

Amelia shot me an annoyed look before going behind the wall. “It would have been nice if someone included me in on this, since I do happen to be the team trainer. Injuries are kind of my thing.”

She stepped back up to me and took away the blanket. “Come on.” She didn’t even look at me. Great. Now I had two of them mad at me.

Madi was already sitting at the desk, clicking through the images, waiting for them to load. Amelia didn’t even tell her to move. They were both too upset at me to care about who was really in charge here.

“Sit up here.” Amelia pointed to the padded table in the center of the room and walked to the freezer for an ice pack. She shot me a glare before wrapping it in a towel and placing it on my ankle.

Madi groaned, and Amelia spun around. They hunched in front of the screen, blocking it from my view, not that I knew what to look for.

“Great.” Amelia shook her head.

“At least it isn’t fractured,” Madi pointed out.

“Not yet.”

They both faced me.

“You need to have surgery,” Madi urged.

“You need to stay off it.” Amelia crossed her arms.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not.”

Madi looked at me before sighing and turning to Amelia. “There’s some stuff with management going on.” She filled her in on the details, while I stared at the ceiling, praying I woke up from this nightmare.

“Mikey, I’m so sorry.” Amelia approached the table with far less venom in her eyes. “This isn’t fair, and it sucks, and I hate that it’s happening to you, but––”

“I need to think about retiring,” I finished for her.

Madi frowned, and Amelia wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“I know. I realized that.”