Her Knight

Why do you love me

Carli's family left in the evening to go home since they've been here almost all day. I managed to convince the nurses to let us stay overnight with Steve as we have to catch our flight in the morning. I look to my left and see Carli has fallen asleep curled up in the chair. I stand up from my seat and grab a blanket we were given and place it over her body.

"Thank you," Someone says from behind, I turn my head to see Carli's dad awake. I send him a small smile letting him no it's fine.

"I haven't seen my daughter this happy in a long time and I've got a feeling you're to thank for that," He says gesturing me over to his bed. I sit down on the end of it and he grabs ahold of my hand.

"she has a twinkle in her eye that got lost when she started playing soccer at a more serious level, I remember her as a little girl being so excited to play with all the boys but when she got signed, she lost that excitement, it all became about training the hardest, being the best so she could get a spot on the national team. I thought when she finally earned that place she would fall back in love with the game. She takes everything she does so seriously that she never gets to experience the fun in it. I think she's started to fall back in love with not just the game but life since you came around. So again thank you for giving me back my baby girl" Steve says, I'm in tears by the end of it not realising I had this effect on Carli.

"enough of the soppy stuff, I need to get some sleep" Steve says making me laugh, I leave him be and head back to me seat in hopes to get some shut eye before the flight tomorrow morning.

- - - -

"Thank you for taking me to see him, I don't think I could have focused on the game if I hadn't seen him" Carli says as we step off the plane.

"Stop saying thank you mama, seriously, it wasn't a big deal, I'm just glad it helped," I say, happy that she's feeling somewhat better.

"Mike said he's out there somewhere," Carli says as we look around the terminal for Mike our driver. I spot him in the corner leaning against the wall.

"Over there by the wall," I say pointing him out. We walk over to him and he takes our bags off him.

"I hope your trip was okay ladies," He says as we walk out to the carpark.

"It was great thank you Mike," Carli says as are bags are packed into the trunk.

"We should be back at the hotel in about 30 minutes so make yourself comfy," He says as we set off back to everyone else.

The ride back is fairly quick, Carli slept the whole way while I looked out at the scenery that passed us by. The game is tomorrow and I'm hoping that Jill might give me some playing time but I know to not get my hopes up too much, this is only my first camp so I can't expect much.

As we're dropped back to the hotel, a bunch of the girls come out to greet us.

"Where the hell have you two been, you didn't come down to dinner last night and next thing we know is Jill saying you went back home," Christen says a little angry. I just look at Carli to answer knowing it's not my place to say.

"Look, it was a last-minute trip back to my home town because I needed to see my dad," Carli says to the small group of people that came out.

"Is everything alright?" Julie asks concerned

"I got a call a couple of days ago saying he collapsed and had a heart attack in the garden, I need to see if he was okay so I could focus on the game tomorrow," Carli explains

"Why didn't you tell any of us when it happened," Becky says holding onto Carli's arm.

"Because I thought I could deal with it on my own, but I couldn't. Hayley was with me the whole time though so I wasn't alone Becky don't worry" She says pulling her fellow captain into a hug.