uncertainty.
"Hi Daisy, its Stephanie McMahon. I'm just calling about Colby. Please call me back when you get this message."
"Daisy, have they called you yet? Call me back."
"Chick, call me when you can. I just heard. I'm really sorry."
Her heart thumps. Her head spins. Her lip quivers.
"Daisy, thank you for returning my call."
"Is everything okay? What happened?"
"I want you to stay calm. It's nothing that can't be fixed. Colby was injured during the show tonight and he wanted us to let you know before it got to the internet."
"How injured? What happened?"
"We can't say just yet. It's his knee, though. He moved the wrong way and we're hoping that it's not serious."
"Okay, okay, um, okay. What – what's – what happens now?"
"We're taking him to the hospital in Dublin right now. We're going to get scans done and have a doctor give us a prognosis and we'll send him to Pittsburgh to see Dr Tom Sisk who specialises in sports and orthopaedic injuries."
"What could it, um, be?"
"I don't want to say until we know for sure, Daisy. I will have Colby call you as soon as he knows and if for some reason he can't make that phone call I will call you myself."
"Can I, uh, speak to him? Is that-? Can I?"
"He's heading to the hospital and I'm not sure how long the tests and scans will take but I will tell him that you want to speak to him."
"Okay, okay, okay, thank you, Stephanie."
"Of course. I'll have someone send you his flight itinerary as soon as it's all organised. Keep your chin up, we don't know everything just yet."
Her stomach drops. Her eyes close. Her chest falls.
"Did someone call you?"
"She said they didn't know what it I and I can't call him and what am I supposed to do?"
"She didn't say any specifics because they can't until he's been checked out."
"They have to have ideas."
"Sure but it's easier for them if they don't accidentally give you false information."
"Joe."
"Daisy. I wasn't there."
"You've clearly talked to someone. What's he done?"
"It's a knee injury. It's probably his ACL. He can come back from it. Don't stress yourself out."
"This'll kill him, Joe."
"He's tough. It won't. He's just going to need you to be there for him more than usual."
"Yeah, I know."
Her hands tremor. Her eyes open. Her shoulders shake.
"I'm so sorry, chick."
"Did you see it?"
"No but I saw him when he came back into the curtain. I don't know what to say, Daisy."
"Just – Nikki – did he look okay?"
"He looked devastated."
"Yeah."
"God, Daisy."
"Joe says it's probably an ACL. How long does that usually mean someone will be out?"
"I don't know. It's so different for every person. It's not the end of the world. He'll come back."
"I really hope so."
The flight itinerary comes the next day – Thursday – and says that Colby will be flown into Pittsburgh on Friday. As soon as she gets it she puts a sign up in the window of her flower shop that reads: 'Shop closed from Friday November 6 until further notice. Sorry for any inconvenience.'
She gets a few questions about it, some of her more regular customers ask if she is okay and others just ask if she has a rough idea of when she will get back. She can answer neither of them. There's a small section in the back of her mind that says she is overreacting – that a knee injury hardly requires her to act like she is in mourning – but she can't help but think that maybe she should be mourning the possible end of Colby's career.
Her cell rings just after midday. She jumps when it happens and grabs at it, failing to check the name on her screen. It's not Colby. It's Stephanie. Stephanie talks about a number of things; his ACL, his MCL, his medical meniscus. It sets a panic in her because she knows that none of those injuries are easy to overcome and she can't imagine how hard it would be to recover from all three simultaneously.
Roughly half an hour after the call ends, a flight itinerary is emailed to her and she immediately gets to work scheduling her own flights so that she will arrive in Pittsburgh around the same time. The flights are organised and she calls her ex-husband.
"I'm sorry to do this to you, I just, I need to go to Pittsburgh."
"And you can't take Noelle?"
"Colby's injured and I don't know how long-"
"Your daughter should come before your boyfriend, Daisy."
"He's my fiancé and she does. I just need to see him and if I take Noelle she'll miss school-"
"I'll look after Noelle."
"Thank you, Eric. I really appreciate it."
"Are you going to tell Noelle or am I?"
"I'll pick her up from school today and take her to your house after I've spoken to her."
The flight to Pittsburgh nearly kills her. She still hasn't spoken to Colby. She still doesn't know anything beyond 'the unhappy triad' and that Joe sounded like he'd been forcefully kicked in the gut when she was talking to him about it. The internet had provided her with information that said it would be a long recovery. She still isn't positive that it won't be the end of his career.
When she arrives at the hospital – he needs more scans, Dr Sisk needs to have his own tests run – she gets stopped at the desk. Her question about what room Colby Lopez is in causes the lady at the desk to sit up straighter and ask for her name and some identification. It's standard practice. They get quite a few celebrities and they need to make sure the more dedicated fans don't get to the rooms.
'Daisy Howard' is on the list and she goes through to his room.
He's asleep in the hospital and she knows that he's been crying. She can tell. She slips off her shoes and lays down on the bed beside him, his left side, and she's extra careful to avoid doing anything that might move his heavily braced right knee. He doesn't wake up as she curls into his side.
"I'm so sorry, baby. Do you know anything?"
"Doesn't the internet know everything?"
"I don't know. I haven't checked."
"Six to nine months."
"Oh, well that's-"
"That's shit."
"Yeah. Six months. That's the goal, right?"
"The goal is a lot less than six months."
"Oh, well. Don't do anything to make it worse. Please."
"We should get married before I go back. Plan it together. Do it properly."
"I'd like that."
"Good. I would to."
a/n I don't know what this is. It's a little experimental in its formatting. I like to experiment in one shots.
Seth getting injured sucks super hard and yeah.
