Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I'm well aware that I haven't updated this for almost a year and had completely forgotten about it until I received a review today wondering why I hadn't updated for ages- thanks Spwarkle. I was going to make this story longer but as you may have gathered I have kind of lost interest and inspiration for this story so you have this chapter and then one more which kind of has an abrupt ending but I think it works.

Thanks for reading!

"Everything's going to be fine." Nate reassured Caitlyn as she sat facing the door through which she was to walk several minutes later. Caitlyn ignored him and continued to tap her good foot on the floor impatiently.

Mitchie smirked at Nate; she had warned him earlier that morning when they had picked her and Caitlyn up that she was nervous and so far nothing she had tried had calmed her now, it seemed Nate was failing as well.

"You've had these appointments before when you were in here. They'll be no different." Jason pointed out taking pity on Nate who was looking worried about his girlfriend and slightly put out that she was ignoring him.

The tapping slowed showing that she was calming slightly but apart from that she didn't pay them any attention. "Caitlyn." A nurse appeared at the door signalling for her to come through.

She smiled weakly at the nurse to let her know that she had heard and then twisted in the seat to face Nate. "Will you come with me?" He nodded and helped her up wrapping his arm around her waist to support her.

"Why haven't you got crutches?" He asked for the first time realising that most people with similar injuries would be hobbling around on crutches not relying on their boyfriend.

She scowled at him but didn't answer instead greeting the doctor and nurse in the room. "Why hasn't she got crutches?" Shane asked Mitchie once the door had swung shut behind the pair.

She rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Caitlyn has a thing against crutches and walking sticks and basically anything that's out to help her."

"Wow Nate sure knows how to pick them." Shane muttered sarcastically. "The insane ones."

"Caitlyn's not insane." Mitchie defended her whacking him over the head. The other two raised their eyebrows at her in disbelief. "Well only a bit."

"How did it go?" Mitchie asked when they emerged later. "Was it as bad as you thought?"

"No."Caitlyn sighed. "I'm sorry you guys; I just freaked out a bit."

"A bit." Shane snorted and then quickly turned it into a cough when the other four sent death glares his way. "So what did they say?"

"I've got to go to physio three times a week for an hour." Caitlyn groaned leaning against Nate for support, glancing up at him thankfully when he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"What's wrong with that?" Jason asked confused by her lack of enthusiasm. They had thought that she would be thrilled to get a move on with physio as it was meant that she was getting better and could hopefully start playing again.

Nate chuckled. "Apparently her physiotherapist is a huge fan of Connect Three."

"Which means that every other sentence out of her mouth will be something related to you guys." Caitlyn finished looking depressed at the thought.

Shane and Jason joined their brother in their laughter and even Mitchie had trouble suppressing a smirk. Caitlyn groaned again and hid her face in Nate's chest.

"You'll soon be back playing again." Nate reassured her later that evening when they were all sitting in the living room watching the first game that Caitlyn was playing in.

"Yeah." She muttered not really paying attention to him; her eyes were glued to the screen as she watched avidly cheering enthusiastically when a goal was scored for her team. It has surprised all of them, herself included, about how calmly she was taking the whole thing.

While most people would have refused to even watch the game or if they did would have spend the entire time in tears Caitlyn was cheerfully watching the performance. "Who's your replacement?" Shane asked as the woman in question scored a goal.

"Charlotte Dashwood." Caitlyn answered. "I replaced her when she wanted to take a more backseat on the team because she had a baby. She's come back full time until I can play again."

"She's really good." Mitchie commented as she exchanged a high five with Tess as the whistle blew for half time. "Are you sure she's had a baby; her figure's great."

"It's what happens when you're an athlete." Caitlyn laughed. "And yeah he's called James and is so cute. He sometimes comes to training when she can't get anyone to look after him."

"I thought you guys were shooting that way?" Jason asked several minutes later when Tess shot a goal at the opposite end of the field.

"You swop ends after half time." Caitlyn explained smirking as all of them looked relieved at her explanation.

"That looked painful." Mitchie winced as Ella was shoved to one side by a member of the opposite team, losing her balance and falling over.

"Bitch." Caitlyn glared at the TV as the other girl carried on running not pausing to see if Ella was ok.

"I'm sure it was an accident." Nate soothed his girlfriend who was looking furious. She wasn't the only one several of Caitlyn's teammates were looking just as angry and Tess offered Ella a hand up.

Caitlyn scoffed. "That was not an accident. It's exactly the type of thing they would do."

"You know them?" Jason asked exchanging confused looks with the others.

She rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "They're the team who we beat in the championship last year but they were the favourites and so were completely humiliated when we beat them and so now every time we play them they have to win but they have to resort to tactics like that." She paused for breath. "The girl who pushed Ella over is there captain, Mandy Bolt, who's the worst and that was so typical of her and…"

"Caitlyn breathe." Nate reminded her. "Ella's fine." Caitlyn sighed and turned her attention back to the game where Ella currently had the ball and was sprinting towards the goal waiting for Tess and Charlotte to get free so she could pass the ball to them.

"Congratulations." Caitlyn squealed the next day when she opened the door to Imi, Tess, Peggy and Ella. Mitchie had gone to the recording studio to record her duet with the three Gray brothers.

"Should you really be walking?" Imi raised her eyebrows giving her a hug.

"Yep." She grinned back hugging the other three as well and hobbling back to her seat. "That was a great game guys."

"Thanks." Peggy smiled. "Oh and before I forget Charlotte says can you give her a call. She wants to know if you can look after James for a while on Thursday."

"Sure; I'd love it. And by the way if you want lunch you'll have to get it yourself because although I am allowed to walk I'm not supposed to do so loads and put loads of weight on it."

Soon they were all settled comfortably with slices of pizza and had finished discussing the game in great detail. Now they were onto the wedding. "I can't believe you're getting married in a month." Tess bounced slightly in her seat in her excitement.

"I know." Imi laughed. "It only seems like yesterday that I met him."

"How did you guys meet again?" Ella asked reaching out to grab another slice of pizza before Caitlyn or Imi could beat her too it.

"Do you really not remember?" Peggy rolled her eyes. "We were all there and had to hear it described in great detail afterwards."

"Well yeah but it's such a cute story." Ella defended herself earning three eye rolls and a beaming smile.

"Go on you can tell us again." Caitlyn sighed as she noticed the look on Imi's face which showed that she was itching to retell the story.

Imi smiled thankfully at her best friend and curled her legs up under her. "Well we met in the Starbucks down the street after practice one day. He was walking in as I was walking out and we literally bumped into each other."

"And you then spilt your coffee all over the floor as well as both of you." Peggy interrupted knowing the story as well as Imi.

"And you then started yelling at him." Ella carried on smirking at the other girls as they all ignored Imi's glare that was being directed at all of them for interrupting her story.

"And wouldn't shut up, no change there then." Caitlyn picked the story up. "And so he used the only technique he knew to make you be quiet."

"This meant that he kissed you in front of the whole of Starbucks who were already staring at you guys because well you were making a scene." Tess laughed with the others as Imi blushed but joined in the laughter.

"You then decided that he wasn't that bad of a guy, you exchanged numbers and then called us all and we came rushing round to your apartment thinking that there had been a huge emergency only to find that you had met a guy." Caitlyn finished grinning round at them all. As much as she loved Nate and the others and was grateful to them for always being there spending this time with four of her closest friends was just the thing she had needed.

"It was so romantic." Imi sighed her face taking on what the others had the Tom expression.

"Despite the fact that after you first met him you spent an entire evening complaining about how rude and forward he was." Peggy teased remembering what had seemed like an endless conversation.

"And that was when we knew the guy was perfect for you." Tess smiled earning her a hug from Imi.

"Hi." Mitchie opened the door to find a women and a young boy standing on the other side.

"Hi, I'm Charlotte and this is James." She introduced herself. "You must be Mitchie."

"Yeah, Hi come in." she stepped aside to let them and grinned as James ran past her and headed straight to the sofa where Caitlyn was.

"Hey James." She greeted opening her arms to give him a hug. "Hey Char."

"Hi." She hugged her briefly. "Thanks for looking after him Cait." She crouched down to her son's level. "Be good for Caitlyn and Mitchie won't you." she smiled at her son and then kissed his forehead. "I'll be back for you in a couple of hours."

She smiled briefly at the two women who she was leaving her son with and the left them too it. There was a brief silence in the room as the door clicked shut which was broken by Mitchie. "What do you want to do?" she asked sitting down next to James and Caitlyn.

Charlotte returned after training to find the kitchen of Caitlyn's apartment covered in cookie dough, cake batter and icing. A tray of cookies and a second tray of cakes were sitting on the kitchen table where Caitlyn was also sitting. Mitchie was standing by the sink and next to her was James who was drying the items Mitchie was washing.

"You guys look like you had fun." She laughed as James ran up to her and grabbed her round the middle in a tight hug.

"Look Mommy we made cookies and cakes." He proudly showed her the table.

"Wow they look great." She smiled. "Thanks guys." She addressed the two women.

"It was great." Mitchie smiled."I haven't had this much fun for ages."

"That was fun but exhausting." Caitlyn sighed as the door swung shut behind them and the cakes they had baked.

"You hardly did anything." Mitchie protested. "You just sat there."

"And made sure that you didn't completely wreck my kitchen." Caitlyn stuck her tongue out at her and laughed when Mitchie returned the gesture.

"Look Nate I can walk without pain." The three guys and Emily entered the apartment a few weeks later to find Caitlyn bouncing towards them.

"That's great." Nate caught her in his arms in a congratulatory hug.

"Mitchie can move back in." Shane cheered. "I mean congratulations Cait." He amended as Mitchie, Caitlyn and Nate turned to glare at him.

"Are you going to the hospital tomorrow then?" Nate asked as Caitlyn found herself pulled into a group hug with both Emily and Jason.

"Yep and hopefully they'll clear me too be more active." She wrapped her arms around Nate once she had been released from Jason's hug. "I can't stand just sitting here all day with nothing to. Did you know that daytime TV sucks?"

"Everyone knows that." Emily pointed out biting her lip to stop herself from laughing as Caitlyn glared at her.

"Everyone with a brain." Shane grinned. "So that explains why Cait doesn't know. Ow, that hurt." He whined as Caitlyn threw a cushion at him.

"It was cushion Shane get over it." Emily sighed impatiently and shared a smug look with Caitlyn as he started moaning about how both his brother's girlfriends were against him in the world.

"So I'm guessing that this means that you're finally going to have to go with Imi for your maid of honour dress." Nate said laughing with the rest of them as Caitlyn's previously happy face dropped. She had been using the fact that she couldn't walk as an excuse for ages now but it seemed that now she was going to have face the torture that her friend had in store for her.

"Yeah." She sighed. "It will probably tomorrow after the hospital as well. She's been getting really panicked about the fact that I have yet to have a dress."

"To be fair the wedding is in a month." Mitchie pointed out. "And I think she's pretty much chosen your dress all you'll need to do is decide on the actual one and then be there while they make sure it fits you properly."

It turned out that Mitchie was right. Imi had picked Caitlyn up from the hospital and taken her straight to the designer who had made her wedding dress. The two women had already picked out several designs and as a result the table that the three women were sitting round was covered in sheets of paper with different designs on them.

Even Caitlyn was forced to admit that Dee, the designer, was incredibly talented and as soon as they had arrived Imi had been sent to try on the now finished dress for the bride. When she had stepped out a few minutes later Caitlyn almost didn't recognise her friend.

"What about this one?" Dee offered as Caitlyn rejected the tenth design on the account of it being too frilly. She slid the paper across the table and the two friends put their heads together as they scanned the dress.

As one they both looked at each and then across at Dee. "It's perfect." Imi voiced what Caitlyn seemed unable to do. The dress was strapless, floor length and a deep, rich red.

"So we're decided." Dee checked with them and at their nod she all but dragged Caitlyn into her studio for fittings.

"We're going to look stunning." Imi celebrated as she danced towards her car followed by an amused Caitlyn. "Nate's not going to know what's hit him."

"Well I think Tom might just faint when he sees you walking down the aisle." Caitlyn teased opening the passenger door and tossing her bag onto the backseat.

"He'd better not." Imi scowled pulling out of the driveway and then broke into laughter as she caught Caitlyn's eye. "I can't wait!" she squealed again. "And the two of them began talking excitedly about the approaching day.

Thanks for reading- sorry if there are any mistakes- proof reading is not my forte!

Tacxxx