Chapter Text
Kelley texting her not to come hurt Hope more than she would ever admit.
She had been standing in front of Kelley's hotel when she saw the text notification.
For a second she contemplated to ignore it, put the phone back in her pocket and pretend she didn't see it. But eventually she let go of the door handle and turned back around.
Hope wandered the streets from NY for a while.
The city was a special one for her. Not only does it hold many secrets of her father she will never get to know or uncover, it is also the city Kelley lives in while in season.
Instead of continuing to wander around a city she will never really understand Hope flags down a cab.
She books her ticket on their way to the airport.
Maybe it is time to finally deal with it all.
Less than a month has gone by since they last saw each other.
Hope refrained from texting, wanting to be fully focused on sorting out the mess she is in and not wanting to let her fear of losing Kelley causing her to back out.
Kelley refrained from texting cause as she wrote down in the letter, the ball is in Hope's hands. Although there might have been one or two drunk calls.
Seeing each other again prior to the New Zealand game wasn't easy on either of them.
Carli caught Hope staring at Kelley on numerous occasions. She also noticed Kelley lingering around after training to watch the goalkeepers.
Outside of training Kelley sticks around Alyssa, JJ and Moe.
Carli keeps close to Hope, feeling somehow it was her duty to protect Hope. Even though she had no idea what Hope needed to be protected from.
Her dear friend still hadn't spilled any details, Carli was very proud of herself for not asking and letting Hope come to her about it. At the same time it was killing her. Why didn’t Hope tell her that she married Kelley. How long have they been married? Who knows? Why did Kelley give back her ring? Are they still married? Those are just a few of the questions that are going around in her mind.
After the game, one where Kelley only played the last 7 minutes, Kelley saw something red from the corner of her eye. It took her all but 2 seconds to realize it was Hope walking towards her.
The two hug briefly
"Good game" Kelley compliments the keeper.
"Would you want to go out on a date with me?"
Now 3 hours later, Kelley is seriously doubting her answer.
Why did had said yes so quickly? Was it because of the rush of winning the game still going through her body?
Was it because Carli was glaring at her and she didn’t want to get on Carli’s bad side.
Kelley’s only kidding herself. She knows why she said yes. She’s still head over heels in love with Hope and she’ll do anything to get to spend as much time as possible with her wife.
When she packed her bag she didn't think she would be going out on a date so she didn't really pack anything fancy. She also forgot to ask Hope what she should wear (as in what they are going to do).
“For fuck's sake Kelley, you're going on a date with your wife, you shouldn't be nervous!” Kelley scolds herself. Except she was, big time.
Most of the team was out, and the ones that stayed in the hotel weren't walking around so Kelley managed to get outside without being seen.
Hope was waiting at the place where the team's vans were parked. But her wife is standing next to a rather fancy looking SUV instead of one of the vans.
She looked good. She looked nervous which in turn made Kelley a bit less nervous.
“You clean up nice” Kelley gives Hope a peck on the cheek before getting into the car. It is clear that Hope didn't expect that and she needs a couple seconds to recover. Once she does she checks and closes the passengers door while mumbling “thank you, you too”. She then makes her way to the other side of the car, telling herself to calm down and missing the way Kelley smirked. Kelley has already plugged in her phone and is looking for some songs to play before Hope has left the parking spot.
“Old Joey’s place? Oh man. I’ve been dying to come back here?”
“You remember?” Hope asks in surprise.
“Are you kidding me? I love this place. Apart from getting to see you, it was the only good thing of coming here and losing 2-0.”
Hope raises an eyebrow “That was 5 years ago. You remember all of your games?
“Well I did go to Stanford and I scored on you that game. Remember?”
“Nope you did not. It didn’t count. You were off side.”
Kelley raises an eye brow “so who is remembering all their games now”
“Only the ones with you in it babe.”
Kelley chuckles, “I knew it. Back then you were already head over heels for me. Why else would you include me in the group. Me and Ali (Riley) were the odd ones out- ”
“Pretty sure it was just you, I already knew Ali from international games and the Olympics in 2008.”
“Oh” Kelley pouts and runs to catch up with Hope.
And with that, they were just Mrs and Mrs O’Hara-Solo out on a date.
Kelley watches Hope. She’s sitting too far away to hear what she and Joey are talking about. It doesn’t matter though. Cause seeing Hope relaxed around people she doesn’t have to keep her guard up. It is a nice change. With the World Cup and Olympics coming up Kelley already fears that Hope, the relaxed one, won’t be around a lot.
God why is loving Hope so hard? Well actually loving her is real simple. Being with her is a bit more tricky.
Hope catches Kelley’s gaze. She smiles, turns her attention back onto Joey. Shortly after Hope makes her way back to Kelley.
“You ready to go?”
“Yes I am” Kelley says while interlacing her fingers with Hope’s.
On their way out the couple once again say bye to Joey and his daughter.
"Is it ok if we go for a small drive? I would like to show you something." And just like that, the entire atmosphere shifts. Kelley nods and let Hope lead her back to the car.
Kelley knows that she’ll finally get the explanation she has been waiting for a long time. She just wished tonight was not the night. She’s had a great evening. Just her and Hope, the Hope she fell in love with. Eating dinner, talking, joking, laughing, it has been too long since it was just the two of them.
“How do you even know of these places?” Kelley asks while taking in the sight.
“I joined a writing club when I first arrived here in 2009. There was this one writer who loved to walk around the city, looking for places where she felt at peace. She was a pretty good writer. I actually got to see a lot of the city because of her.”
“was?”
“yeah, she had a TBI. Ever since her mind hasn’t been able to come up with the same kind of stories as she wrote before.”
Kelley keeps on her gaze on the river, unsure of what to say. She does reaches out to take Hope’s hand into hers.
“Stay here, I’ll be back in 2 minutes. I just need to go get something form the car.”
Kelley nods, shifts a bit uncomfortable and decides to sit on top of the little wall, with her back to the river.
Soon her wife reappears, holding a cardboard box.
Hope hands Kelley the shoe box in silence.
The defender looks excited
She opens the box and with it the excitement quickly disappears.
Kelley grabs a few of the articles that are inside.
She just scans through the headlines.
"Hope, what is this?"
"Before I'm doing this I just wanted to remind you of who I'm."
This wasn’t easy for the keeper but it was her way of giving Kelley an out.
"Hope I know all this and this is not who you are, sure it is a part of your past but that is what it is, a part of your past."
Kelley wanted to add that she knows what the keeper is trying to do but it is not going to work because she loves her, but she couldn't. She couldn't
"You don't know all of it."
Kelley frowns her eyebrows before digging through the articles.
“Hope, I know all this! These do not define nor reflect who you truly are.”
The keeper shakes her head, “No you don’t. There is something else, something you don’t know yet, I should have told you earlier but... .”
Kelley looks through the pieces of paper, the last one seems much older.
‘Teen killed in car accident.’
Kelley scans the article, and she doesn’t see Hope’s name, nor does she see anything else that implicates the keeper.
So she starts over and reads it.
Still, she is not any wiser as to why the article is in this box, or why it is so important to Hope.
“We were both in no condition to drive, but she seemingly managed to do fine, or at least I thought so. Until I woke up again, the windshield shattered, some tree branches inside the car, my ribs were hurting like hell- ”
Hope closes her eyes for a second, as if she was pushing away a memory.
“She somehow lost control over the car and crashed. I called 911, and stayed with her. But once I heard the sirens coming closer and saw the lights , I told her to keep holding on, to keep fighting cause help would be there soon and then I ran. I had already signed with Washington. If I got caught drinking underage, the accident and all, they would have cancelled my admission and that would have been the end of my ticket out. I thought she would be fine.”
Hope has to take a short break to get rid of the tears and compose herself.
“In the morning I learned that she was pronounced dead on arrival by the paramedics. How is that even possible? There must not have been more than a minute between me leaving and the paramedics arriving. … I just don’t understand.”
Hope curses herself, she told herself she’d keep it together. And here she is, a mess.
With the way Hope acted with drunk driving, or just drinking and driving, it didn’t take a genius to know that she had some previous traumatizing experience. Kelley just never expected something like this.
“What has Jerramy to do with all this?”
“As I was running away, I bumped into him, at the time he didn’t know. He realized afterwards that that must have been where I was coming from.”
“Hope, he has no proof that you were there, plus as you’ve told me. There wasn’t anything you could have done to help her, was there?”
Hope shakes her head “No there wasn’t anything I could have done. But I could have insisted on letting someone else drive. I could have stayed with her. We could have not sneaked out. Jerramy hasn’t got any proof but he doesn’t need any. Just getting the story into the world is enough to end my career for good, after that, not even Laura is going to want me to play for her team. More importantly it might be the final straw and you finally realize you can do so much better.”