45. Lee

CHAPTER 45

LEE

"Man, I'm glad we decided to commute in together. I'm bushed." Lee leaned back in the front passenger seat, rolling his head toward Drew.

"Me, too. I like having you all to myself as we sit in traffic for who knows how long." Drew chuckled, glancing at Lee with a smile. "That was some game. How are you feeling? Anything hurt?"

Lee assessed, shifting his body around and curling his hands into fists. "Good. Maybe a little tender where Collins landed on me when we came down in the end zone, and he scratched up my arms trying to get the ball."

"That was a hell of a catch. You won us the game… again." Drew flashed him another grin, then sighed with relief as the traffic eased. "Finally. Text Mac, will ya? Let him know we'll be there soon."

Lee looked out the window and gauged how much longer. "Feels weird to be going past my place and then backtracking toward the stadium." He pulled out his phone and opened his contacts.

Ten minutes.

They sat in silence with Lee not wanting to disturb Drew in the still heavy traffic, but the drowsiness he'd been feeling had ebbed with the anticipation of seeing Mac. They had a plan: party with the team for an hour or two before heading back to his apartment and celebrating in a whole other way. The "strip each other's clothes off and get naked" kind of way. The "fall on the bed" way. The "I'm going to?—"

"What the fuck?" Drew shouted, pulling into the diner's lot and hitting the brakes hard, stopping in between two rows.

Lee twisted in his seat, glancing around, clicking his seatbelt off, and had the door already half open as Drew put the car in park. The crystalline shatter of glass splintered the air. Lee launched himself out of the car and toward the shadowed figure who'd thrown something through the diner's window, shattering it.

He pounded pavement, but the slap of his feet must have tipped off the miscreant, who took off running. Lee shouted for them to stop, but when they didn't, he kept right on going. When the criminal's hood blew off and long, scraggly dirty blond hair streaked behind him, Lee had a name. Troy.

"Oh, hell no. You're not getting away this time," he gritted out as he booked it down the block. He put on a burst of speed, closed the distance, and didn't even think, leaping for and tackling Troy to the ground.

He pulled back his arm to punch Troy, kicking and squirming and yelling beneath him, and only stopped when someone grabbed him. "No!" they shouted loud enough to penetrate the swoosh of blood rushing in his ears.

Lee looked up at the circle of blue uniforms, several with guns pointed down at Troy. "Fuck." He scrambled off of Troy, letting the police handle the arrest. Sitting on his butt with his arms wrapped around his legs, Lee panted. Numbly, he noticed he had red-tinged fabric around a gaping hole in the knee of his slacks. Lee hadn't even felt getting torn up, but as the adrenaline wore off, pain crept in. Knee, elbow, shoulder, hip, all down his right side. When he finally gathered enough of his wits, he glanced around and realized they were on the sidewalk in front of the police station. He started laughing.

"Holy shit."

"I know, right?" Carey said, standing next to him. "Ran right toward the station. Like ‘Here, officer, I was a bad boy. Lock me up.'" He snickered as he shook his head, then offered a hand up to Lee. The moment he went up, he almost went right back down, woozy and nauseous. Thankfully, Carey was right there to grab him.

"Medic!" Carey shouted, holding Lee tight around the chest. He slowly lowered him all the way down.

A paramedic detoured from his run past them. He took one look at Lee and dropped to his knees to assess him.

"Was someone injured at the diner?" Carey squeaked, looking that way.

"Yeah. Glass caught one of the employees. Cut them up and they fainted."

"Lee?" Carey gazed at him.

"Go," Lee said, rubbing his shoulder. Seeing the paramedic's name, Michaels, on the guy's jacket reminded him of Coach Mike. Lee groaned. "Coach is gonna have my ass."

"Aren't there team rules against doing foolish things?" Michaels asked, pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting open Lee's pant leg. "You got some dirt and gravel in here that's going to need to be cleaned, but otherwise, it's pretty superficial. I'm sure your team doctor is going to want to check you over."

Katy jogged up to them and, with a cry of dismay, knelt beside Lee. She carefully touched his cheek. "Mac got hit with some of the glass. He has a few cuts on his face and arms, minor stuff, but he fainted and hit his head on the floor when he landed. Drew doesn't think it's a concussion, but we're going to take him and you, I think, to the ER. Drew's already called Dr. Rosie, and she's going to meet us there."

Lee slumped. He hated emergency rooms, but knowing Dr. Rosie would be there to expedite his case took the edge off his anxiety. "Okay. Who's driving?"

"Me," another paramedic said, hauling a gurney over. "Gotta be all official."

"Drew's with Mac, so I'm gonna ride with you. Momma and Daddy are going to close up the diner and meet us there. I can't believe it. In all the years we've been open, we've never closed except for Christmas, and now twice in a week." She moved out of the paramedics' way.

"Sorry," Lee mumbled. "It's my?—"

"Oh, hush." Katy reached out and patted his arm. "It's not. It's Troy's fault, and mine for getting involved with him in the first place. I hope they lock him up and throw away the key. Good riddance." She mimed a key turning and then tossed it over her head.

They got Lee onto the gurney, buckled him down, and loaded him into the ambulance. With the lights flashing, they got to the hospital in record time. They wheeled him into the same bay as Mac where Momma Connor hovered, looking for all the world to be fighting back tears. When Katy went and hugged her, the waterworks broke.

Lee had barely a moment to take in Mac's injuries. A couple of cuts on his face, a few more on one bared arm. A larger piece of glass was lodged in his upper arm and would need stitches if it went deep enough. So not as superficial as Katy had said.

Two nurses came in and transferred Lee to the bed, and by the time the paramedics left, an ER doc had arrived, escorting Dr. Rosie into their space with Drew on their heels. Dr. Rosie came straight for him while the ER doc checked out Mac. Drew rocked in the middle, his head swiveling back and forth, taking it all in.

"This is not the way to get out of practice, Lee," Dr. Rosie chided, examining his knee injury and then rattling off the supplies she'd need to a nurse. "Where else? Shoulder?"

Lee nodded. "And hip." He lifted his arm to point and winced, cutting the movement short.

"Don't move. I'll help."

"I'll do it," Drew jumped forward to help Lee remove his suit jacket and button down, while across the small divide, Momma Connor aided Mac. Lee was pretty hyped that Mac was getting as much preferential treatment as he was. It would have sucked to be taken care of while his boyfriend waited hours to be seen.

It still took a couple of hours to get their wounds cleaned and stitched, for head CTs and shoulder/hip X-rays to be taken and analyzed. Finally able to get up and stretch, Lee groaned as every muscle protested.

"You report every day, including Tuesday, to me before you do anything. Drew, Cutter, and I will work up a plan to make sure you're healing right. I won't let you play if I think there's a problem. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lee said, peering down at the much shorter, yet stern Dr. Rosie.

Her gaze softened as she grabbed his arm. "Try not to be a hero off the field anymore." Dr. Rosie made a noise of discontent. "In front of the police station." She shook her head, clearly exasperated, as she left, loudly reminding him, "Tomorrow. Sleep in. I don't want to see you until noon at the earliest."

"I'll be there," he called back, turning to help Drew steady Mac. "Looks like we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow."

"You do," Mac said.

"If I have to be there, and Drew has to be there, we're not leaving you home." Lee linked his hand with Mac's. "I made a commitment to you, and you," he added, cupping the side of Drew's neck. "We're in this together, and no way am I leaving you home right now. And speaking of home…"

"Yes, please. Go home," the head of the ER department said, passing by, "and take your friends with you. They're polite enough, but they're taking up all the seats."

Lee stared at the doctor's back, confusion tightening his brow. Drew chuckled and handed Lee his phone. "Look."

"A hundred and fifty messages!" Lee laughed. "We better get out there, so they can see I'm alive."

"Your team's out there?" Mac gasped. He glanced down at the scrub top and carefully touched his bandaged cheek.

"Shush," Drew hushed him, pulling Mac's hand away from his face. "You're fine. It's late. Nobody is gonna look good at this point."

Lee ran an approving gaze from the top of Drew's head, right down to his toes. "I beg to differ."

In the waiting area, the team was crowded around a television. Red and blue flashing lights lit the screen, followed by a wide-angle shot of the diner and a close-up of the shattered window. The scene then moved to the police station, Troy being arrested, and then still shots of Troy, Lee, and the infamous picture that had pushed Lee to come out about his relationship.

"I hope this is the end of us being famous," Lee mumbled.

"I don't," Mac said, clinging to Lee's arm. "I love seeing your name and picture up there every Sunday."

"I agree," Drew said. "Your name, picture, and ‘Rookie of the Year' would be amazing."

"I'll do my best," Lee amicably agreed. It sure would, and he'd work hard to get it. Not just for him, but for his men, too.

"Matty! They finally sprung you!" Yowie said, and his teammates turned, crowding around them. It looked like the entire defensive line had shown up, and one by one they shook his hand or hugged him, asked him if he was okay, offered what could they do, and conveyed their amazement at him taking down a criminal.

"Thanks everyone for coming and supporting us. Right now, we need to get home and since we came by ambulance, the most important thing we need right now is a ride."

"I got you," Jakes said. "I got my truck with the backseat."

Compared to most of the players with their tiny sports cars, Jakes' 4x4 with the extended cab would fit all three of them.

"Perfect," Lee said. "Let's roll."