Two months later

"Why isn't Lucy here ?"

The whole locker room is silent.

School resumes tomorrow, after everybody got back to their home states in order to see their family and stuff. Even Olivia, who was invited to join the Johnston for Christmas. During that time, the Mewis sisters have obviously make each other understand what that fight was all about : Kristie was worried about Sam and didn't trust Lucy, but Sam caught feelings for Lucy before she left. And ever since she got kicked out of Sam's dorm, nobody has heard of her. Well, some teammates, yes, but she wasn't answering Sam's texts.

Laura Harvey, the Stanford coach, looks pissed.

"Nobody had a clear mind to force her to give you news ?" she exclaims, shaking her head. "I thought this teams was supposed to be like family... What happened to that spirit ?"

Another silence.

"Great" Coach Harvey lets out, shaking her head. "Now, how are we supposed to resume the season with our best defender out ? Uhn ? I swear to God, you guys better find out why she isn't here before next week, otherwise we'll have trouble on the pitch."

Everybody nod.

After Coach left, Leah gets up and immediately walks toward Sam. She makes sure nobody of the thirteen other girls hear her when she hisses :

"You must know where she is."

Sam frowns.

"Why would I know that ?"

"Because you guys obviously have a thing going on, and-"

"Had" Sam corrects.

Carson, who also saw the scene of Kristie slapping Lucy's face, puts her arm on Leah's shoulder to calm her down, as Sam looks at the ground.

"For fucks sake" Leah lets out, rolling her eyes.

Since her tone has been less quiet, some faces turn toward them. Sam tries her best not to decompose when she gets up, while Carson makes her a sign not to get this conversation to heathen up.

But Sam is done with all of that : she claps her hands so that everybody get their attention on her, before saying :

"Since all of you obviously are talking behind my back, I'm going to say that to all of you : I have no fucking idea where Lucy is. Yes, we had sex once. Yes, I got attached to her more than in a friendly way. But no, this is not my fault if she left. So stop fucking thinking I am the responsible here. Okay ?"

With that said, she burst out of the room, leaving everybody speechless, until Carson hits Leah's arm, shaking her head.

Great start of the semester, Cari thinks to herself, setting her jaw. I need to see where Lindsey is, because her not responding and Lucy disappearing is a very weird coincidence.

*

When Lindsey enters the room, everybody fall into silence.

She high fives Sonnett, before sitting in between Tobin and Allie. Kelsey, on the other hand, isn't far from them. The rest of the Bruins is sitting on their chair, looking at then, not understanding the nature of that meeting, or even where Lindsey did come from.

Kristie, the captain, who is by far the most annoyed of them all, shakes her head, before saying :

"Someone can finally tell us what the hell is happening here ?"

That makes the girls nod, but Kelsey smirk.

"You won't be disappointed." the goalie promises.

Before Kristie can argue any more, closely followed by Julie, Tobin stands up and says :

"Few months ago, when Solo died, we figured that there only was one way to make Ashlyn Harris stop chasing us and Stanford : make her believe there still is a cause she has to protect. That's when Lindsey came up with the idea to make Ashlyn believe that she was Hope's daughter, and not Abby.

"So those past months, Lindsey has been by Ash's side after classes and training, making sure she would not try anything against us. At first she was kind of skeptic about this whole 'I am her daughter' thing, but then, we asked Kelsey to provide us a false police file saying that Lindsey was Hope's biological - a paper that doesn't exist in Abby's case, because nobody knew Hope had a daughter.

"From that moment, all Lindsey had to do was remain by Ashlyn's side, making her believe that she was the daughter, and that their revenge needed to be on Lucy Bronze."

Kristie immediately gets on her feet.

"What ?" she exclaims, shaking her head.

"Yeah, she was the perfect target : she was working for Hope, kind of betrayed her, and then accidentally killed her" Allie pleads, nodding her head.

Some of the girls - who had no idea about the killing part - let some 'what' out, as Tobin is reinstalling the silence.

At least until Kristie breaks it again :

"What were you thinking !" she exclaims, as Kassey is slowly caressing her back to make her calm down. It works, because the blonde sits back down next to her almost-girlfriend (yes, she and Kassey are slow in the process), but is eager to continue : "I don't like Lucy very much, but Ashlyn is a psycho ! It's far too dangerous to risk her and Lindsey's lives like that ! If I had known before I would never have-"

"We know that" Tobin cuts her off, nodding her head. "That's why we didn't tell you guys. For your own protection."

"Excuse me" Julie interrupts them, quite angry. "Since when doing things on your own without your captain knowing is a good idea ? Or a good thing for the team's balance ? I think it is fair to say that we've been through so much together that we shouldn't be left out"

Tobin rolls her eyes.

"Can we at least finish the story before y'all yell at us please ?" Allie asks, annoyed.

Kristie shakes her head, beaten, as the protests slowly go away. Lindsey takes over from here, saying :

"Lucy and I got in contact two days prior the Christmas party where I left : we agreed on our plan. So the next morning, at 4 pm, she knew she had to be at that store so that Ashlyn and I could 'kidnap' her. She played her part well : pretending to be under her orders as soon as Ash mentioned Sam" she explains, taking a meaningful break to throw a death glare at Kristie, before specifically saying to her : "By the way, she really cares about Sam. She actually is in love with her, so next time, think before kicking out of your sister's dorm."

There is a silence, during which Kristie fires daggers at Lindsey.

Of course she is right : not everybody would get kidnapped by a psychopath to protect two teams whole of people, and most of them she doesn't even know. What a freaking goat, I hate her. Kristie's thoughts are making her calm down, as Kassey puts a reassuring hand on her leg.

Lindsey then goes on :

"Those past few months, Lucy went back to Manchester for Christmas, and the two of us just got in touch, trying to find a way to break down Ash's defenses. Since she thinks I am Hope's daughter and that I am by her side, we needed a new target. Since Lucy was now 'by her side', there only was one person left."

Another silence, during which Kristie only rolls her eyes. Allie ends the suspense by saying, while pointing at the person :

"Kassey."

Kristie immediately turns to the girl, while a united gasp takes over the room. Since the blonde is obviously beyond angry at this point, Kassey leaves her side to go and stand next to Lindsey, who wraps an arm around the girl's shoulders.

The brunette then says :

"Ashlyn is eager for revenge, and won't leave us alone until she is in a high-security jail : that's why we are going to steal her gun - the same model than the one that shot Hope Solo that night - with her fingerprints on it and hand it to the police. Then, we'll create a setup, a trap where Ash will fall high over heels, because nobody is a better villain than Hope Solo."

"Boom" Tobin lets out.

Everybody is in such a state of shock that nobody say anything. Kristie only exits the room, Kassey running after her.

*

"Kristie, wait, I-" Kassey starts.

But when she gets closer to Kristie, the blonde turns around and slaps her very hard in the face once.

"This is for hiding everything from me and this..." she yells, slapping her another time "... is for risking your fucking life !

"Kris-"

"For God's sake, Kassey ! I've almost lost you once already, and now you're telling me you're gonna leave an opportunity to Ashlyn to kill you ! Are you serious right now ? You know I can't take this."

"Please, listen..."

"No, YOU listen" Kristie yells, pushing her away. "I never fall in love, okay ? And when I do, holy fuck it's intense. If Ashlyn kills you, I will never recover ! And I want to-"

"Kris-"

"For fucks sake, let me finish !" Kristie interrupts another time, out of her mind. She pushed Kassey, harder this time, as the defender shuts her mouth. "Look, I want more with you, okay ? Not only sex and boring movies ! I want... I want to live stuff with you, explore the world, have an apartment, a fucking cat or something... I want to introduce you to my parents, I want you to come to boring family dinners, to be by my side..."

"I will be" Kassey says.

This time, Kristie shuts up and listens, her eyes full of tears.

Kassey takes advantage of that moment to take Kristie's hands on her own, before kissing the top of it, teary eyes as well.

"I'm doing all this for us, Kristie... For you. I don't want to spend my life fearing a psychopath, I want to spend my life by your side, only being afraid that you would not find me good enough, or that you'd develop a freaking allergy. For out story to develop, we need to get rid of that page first. We need to get rid of Ashlyn."

Kristie shakes her head.

"W-what if I loose you ?"

"It's going to be okay" Kassey whispers, a silent tear rolling down her cheek. "I swear."

The middy shakes her head again, overwhelmed. So Kassey pulls her closer, embracing her the best that she can.

It's going to be okay, she repeats to herself, not reassured at the moment.

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