Thanks to everyone reading along... I love these characters. Hoping for a second season! Until then here's a little of my imagination. I look forward to reading others writing as well!
Full Disclosure:
"Who was that on the phone, babe" Mike asked? He and Ginny had spent most of the off season avoiding their teammates, the public and life outside the Lawson/Baker compound. Ginny left only to go to rehab or help Evelyn with the restaurant. Mike left to hit the gym with Blip.
"Oscar. He asked me to come over this afternoon to talk about my future with the Padres." She was feeling good about her arm, but still had an uneasy feeling about her future with the Padres. "We need to tell him."
"I know, it's the right thing. Can we handle the fall out though if things don't go the way we want?" A sadness fell over him she hadn't seen in a long time. Neither of them wanted to really talk about what could go wrong disclosing their relationship to management. They hadn't even told Blip and Evelyn, so they really had no way to gauge how the conversation would go. He continued, "I'll come with you and we'll tell him together."
- Later that day -
They drove separately, it just seemed like the professional thing to do, show up to work in different cars. But they walked in at the same time, in solidarity. Down the empty halls, they were walking a few feet apart, but they could feel the others heart racing. They had become so in sync with one another, just a look and they could tell how the other was feeling.
Into Oscars office they went, where they found not only Oscar, but Al and Buck. All three men were surprised to see Mike. "Lawson?" Al asked inquisitively.
"Need to talk to you." Straight and to the point, just like Mike.
"We have an appointment with Ginny, can this wait?" Oscar asked?
"Yes, I'll be right here." And shifted off to the side of the room as if he belonged there.
"It's okay, anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of my Captain." Ginny responded, somewhat authorizing Mike's presence in the meeting.
Al asked, "The trainer says your arm is healing really well. What do you think? No bull shit with me either." He shot a look over at Mike to keep his mouth shut.
"I'm feeling better than ever, like nothing happened. I did exactly what the doctors and therapists said, I didn't push it. I learned my lessons the hard way." More than anything, she wanted back on the Padres for the next season, back in the Majors.
Al looked over at Oscar and Buck. Oscar stood up "Okay, this is what is going to happen." The look on Ginny's face showed her excitement. Oscar continued "And listen to everything I have to say before you get to excited. We're inviting you to spring training in Peoria. But after that, we want you back down in the minors for the first few weeks to get warmed up. When we feel the time is right, we'll bring you back up. We'll keep your locker room ready for you. And when you do come back up, you will play games further apart, so you last for a longer season. No arguments. We want you in the play-offs this year. Questions?"
Ginny stood there for a moment. This is exactly what they would do for any male counter part. She looked at Mike, who knew this was a good deal. She gave her head a little not to Mike, he responded and walked up to her side. Hearts began to race again. "No questions. Just a minor disclosure."
The management team's interest was now heightened. Why the hell was Mike Lawson in this room at the very moment, and so very interested in Baker's future.
Mike started "Like any professional, it's proper to disclose personal relationships to your superiors."
"Mike Lawson, did you just admit that you have superiors?" Al asked, as they all chuckled.
Mike rolled his eyes and continued. "Ginny and I…" He looked over at her and took her hand.
"Oh hell no…" came out of Al's mouth.
Buck mumbled, "I knew it."
And Oscar said, "No… No… No…"
Mike continued with more force. "We serious, this isn't some fling. We consulted a lawyer; there is nothing in either of our contracts that prohibits this. And we know we can be professionals in the clubhouse and on the field. And we have a plan."
"So what do we tell the rest of the team? What's this grand plan that I'm sure will back fire?" Al asked.
Ginny's turn. She dropped Mike's hand. "Did you know we've been living together since the last game of last season? The rest of the team knows as well? They think we are just friends and roommates. We have kept our relationship a secret for how many months now, and no one had found out, not even Blip and Evelyn."
You could see a little bit of surprise even in Al's face. "How long have you two been, well and item?" Thinking if they moved in together at the end of the season, surely they were dating last season.
Mike let them know, "First kiss was after the last game, of the last season. So you could say we move fast?"
She continued, "We plan to keep it from the guys until after the trade deadline. And only then, we'll tell them. Only permanent teammates will know. We don't think it is fair to keep it from them forever. We want to trust our teammates, but we just don't want this little secret ending up on another team, being used against us. We don't want our relationship to become a media frenzy and distract from the game. I was enough of a distraction last year."
"But, we do think we should tell 1-2 teammates to keep us honest, to let you know if we are not being professional, when any of you aren't around. This means that once Gin is called back up from the minors, we won't share a room at night on the road, no sneaking around." Mike finished up.
"And what if this doesn't work. What if you two become ass hats or break up?" Al asked. "I didn't sign up for relationship management, I'm a baseball guy."
"We'll take what ever you deal out to us, but you won't have to worry." Mike said and took Ginny's hand again.
"Dear god, this is not how I thought today's meeting would go." Oscar said. He looked over at Al. "Your team, your call."
"I trust Mike. But it's his ass on the line if anything goes wrong. Now leave you two, I'm getting a headache."
The turned to leave along with Buck, Al still talking to Oscar. As they were exiting, Mike motioned for Ginny to go on, "I'll meet you at the cars, one more thing I wanted to say to Al."
She headed out the door, but paused outside to hear what Mike had to say. "Hey Al, if things don't work out with Ginny and I, cut me. I'm close to retiring, she's just starting. This is her game now."
"Why do you say that, do you have a bad feeling about you too?" Al asked?
"The opposite, I plan to marry that woman someday. But just in case we can't figure out how to work together, I'll sacrifice my career to keep the relationship. I've given 15 years to the Padres, it's time to put myself first, and she's what I want next in life."
Al smiled and Mike left the office. Oscar didn't like hearing that his star catcher would put his love life over the game, and with a no trade clause, there wasn't much he could do about it. It would be up to Al to convince him to retire if needed.
As Mike exited the office, Ginny was still standing right there. "I'm going to do something right now that I will never do again in this building." Mike looked at her puzzled. Knowing the building was empty for the offseason, other than Buck, Oscar and Al, who all knew their secret; she kissed him, long and hard. "I love you more that you will ever know. Now let's go home and fix dinner, I'm hungry."