Hand to hold

The game had been brutal, Even after an hour on the bench Lynn still felt like she was sitting on pins, rubbing her left leg, again and again, to get the pain out. She groaned even touching them earlier but the strain had gone down, Polly had even come over to see if she was fine but Lynn shrugged it off as pushing herself harder then ever with a smile. Of course, those who knew her knew she went too hard this time. Around the 4th inning, she was going faster than ever. But at the same Misstepping, almost flat footing on a few runs around the bases of the field and despite tripping at least twice she still managed to win the whole game at the last second with a dive for the home plate.

A few of friends stayed behind with her, one by one they all tried to keep her company as she regained all the energy she managed to expunge during the game. Carol was the last until her mother showed up, she offered her a ride but Lynn turned it down, said she was waiting for her own mom to show, she was just probably one of her many siblings. That didn’t make Carol any less worried as she got her moms car and drove. Once Lynn was sure everyone was out of eyesight, she broke down.

What she didn’t let on was the fact she had twisted her ankle, bad. The pain stung almost as bad as the time she had broken her arm, granted this lingered and drove into her leg. She was scared she pulled something or broke something but couldn’t be sure. She took off her shoe quickly and exposed her left foot to the air. It wasn’t swollen, which was a good sign, but her lack of knowledge in medical field didn’t explain why it still hurt or why she was still scared. Thinking back to the game she wondered how she even managed to screw up that bad.

She had spent weeks training for this game, it wasn't even an important game, her team had long since secured chances of going into the playoffs. But it was still a game to win or lose and Lynn always needed to win. If she rested for even a moment or didn't try as hard as she could, then what was even the point of playing? Her family didn't share her drive on the slow season, so she had few people who would actually help her practice. It's like everyone forgot the fact you cant play baseball by yourself, especially when you have an older sister who won't drive you to the batting cages every day.

That didn't mean everyone was too busy for her. Like her roommate Lucy, who wasn't much, if anything, of an athlete, but she a good catcher. Just as long as she didn’t have to move and you promised not to aim for her face, she’d play ball. But like the others she had her own interests and when inspiration struck, she'd ditch the mit to crawl back in the vents. Sometimes Lynn wondered why Lucy didn’t just leave their room and move in there already.

Luna was a good pitcher, that wasn’t a joke about her exploits, just she has a good arm on her and she was always there to give some kind of advice. Granted she didn’t know jack about sports and whenever they watched games together she’d just root for the other team to keep things even. But just like her other sisters, she’d eventually get bored and or find some excuse to go back inside and leave lil’ slugger Lynn alone in the yard… again.

Sometimes it felt no one really appreciated her dedication, they showed up to games, they make room in the trophy shelf, and even tell her all the time how great she was and how she’d make it to the big leagues one day. But take that all away and they hardly want to spend time with her. They all want to do their own thing.

Except for Lincoln, he always had time.

“Lynn?” Lynn shot up from warm spot on the bench, she didn’t even realize she fell asleep. She knew the sound of the timid voice anywhere and the orange polo was dead giveway too.

“Hey Linc, you get tired of staring at me to finally wake me?” she cracked, trying to change that look on his face but it stayed even as he kept talking.

“So I take it you won?” Nice swerve Linc.

“You expect any less from me? The one isn't just for show.” That got him to laugh a little bit, but she was annoyed that it went from concerned, to slightly less concerned but still concerned look. It shifted over to confused he noticed her missing a shoe.

“Did something happen to your foot?” Lynn liked games, but she never cared for 20 questions. So Lynn being the first at most decided cap the topic.

“It nothing." She propped herself up ignoring his staring "Just twisted my ankle, don't worry your bleached little head about it.” She quickly put her sock back on, tempting to throw in linc’s face to just gross him out. One would think he was used to her smell by now? But the second she tapped her shoe back on she found the pain came back slightly stinging her foot. Considerably less painful but the strain on her legs along with the slight sting of foot didn’t leave a comfortable feeling, at this point she didn’t care who was on the couch, she was going to face plant in it for a good couple of hours.

Lynn let out a slight groan, which she instantly regretted, knowing he was going to say something like usual. But nothing came, she didn’t look, not wanting to jinx herself and reached for her bag. Only to find it missing? Did someone seriously swipe her bag when she was sleeping? She solved her own mystery when she looked up to find Lincoln hoisting the red gym bag, over his shoulder.

“What are you doing with my bag?” Unless her brother suddenly liked the feeling of extra weight on his back, then this felt extremely out of character for him.

“What? You always said you wanted me to lift more. I just want to carry it for you.” She wanted to make a crack about how his legs look like their trying not to buckle under the weight of her bag, she did bring extra bats for the team, because you never know when your gonna need an extra bat on hand. Though somewhere, deep down, we're talking deep down to the part of her that she does not share with practically anyone. She was actually, sorta, maybe, a teeny bit touched by this little act of kindness.

“Alright, Hercules" She gave him a good pat on the back, almost making him fall over. "Whatever works for you.” She walked ahead of him out of the baseball field, finding hard to keep up a good pace and not walk funny on her still sore ankle.

She made a considerable effort about halfway, though the longer she walked the harder she found it not to groan or at least whimper a little. She didn’t understand, she had walked off worse than this? Yet one little bad step and now she'd be willing to walk. Maybe if she walked a little faster- nope that just makes it worse. This had to be a real low point. Even the winners of the game didn’t even make this feel worth it. She tried getting her mind off it.

Her eyes wondered over to Linc who seemed to have gotten used to the weight of the bag. Which she was little impressed by, he got over the weight pretty easily. Those little training sessions she was giving him were actually paying off. It actually took less effort to convince to drop the comics for a minute and help her train by going for a morning run or spot her on the weights, he was gaining some muscle and she had someone hangout with. Win-Win Scenario. In fact, his legs had pretty toned, the way his calfs were hugging his pant legs were really working for him, they still needed to spend some time on those hamstrings though, not enough definition. His gluts were looking great, maybe some squats sessions would help even things out. Weirdly Luan had suggested they should massage the glutes to even that out but she was never one to trade a good workout for some touchy feelie methods  and it just dawned on her that she had been staring at the back of her little brothers pants for the past five minutes and she really needed to change the subject right now.

Before she could change it her foot slipped and caught herself on the sidewalk. Her knee hit the cement hard and she gritted her teeth, almost on cue lincoln was right next to her "Lynn, are you-" a

“I’m fine. Linc. I’m fine.”  Lynn grumbled as she picked herself up and kept good pace ahead of Lincoln before falling over again from the lack of weight in her foot. Lincoln saw that coming and was there to catch her this time. She didn’t want to look but she could feel it, he had that look of his again.

But weirdly he didn’t say anything, he just helped her back to her feet and made sure she was stable. She let out a relaxed sigh showing she was perfectly fine just a little tired is all. Before she take a step Linc was still in front of her holding her right hand tightly.

“Unless you checking my pulse, you can let go of my hand anytime Linc.” She tried to laugh it off but Lincoln had turned to her and said.

“I’m not gonna let you fall down again, so just… let me do this for you.” Lynn was going to argue, hell if she wanted she could just rip her hand away right now. But the way his grip loosened almost expecting it, she just let her hand rest in his. And gently squeezed it giving the go-ahead to keep walking.

She hated this feeling, The kind of moments where she wanted to be the rock to someone, be the older sister to look up to and rely on. Not the other way around. It festered in her head about anyone seeing her like this, to see her hurt or complain about the pain. Better to just pack it away and unload it all in practice. Who wants to hear someone whine about stuff like a twisted ankle? Sure they would nod and agree and listen to her bitching but then they’d get sick of it and then they’d get sick of her. Better to be at your best all the time then let anyone see you at your worst.

But despite the layer and fronts, she put on. Lincoln just seems to see right through it, she was losing her edge if even Linc was able to tell when she was holding back. She wondered what was going through Lincolns head, was always planning on helping her or did he come to see after practice because he knew she would push herself too hard and end up breaking her leg or something. Or maybe he’s just a good little brother and she was just overthinking it.  Despite all that, she liked this.

Not just Linc being here, but this feeling that someone was here for her, not just to support during the game or during practice. But just being there for her, just her, to help her when she needed and not even when she asked. It felt good, like she was special to someone, even in that moment she forgot all about the pain in her foot, or that it seemed to disappear almost moments are they held on the way home. She didn’t want to let go.