Bend It Like Becker

...

Chapter 40 - COLLISION CONCLUSION

...

Once the triaging was complete, Becker decided to switch places with Connor. The soldier guessed Connor would prefer to be beside his fiance as she attempted to treat the injured sheep, whilst Becker himself desperately wanted some distance from them. He was surprised at how much the killing had affected him, and he badly needed to get away and clear his head.

Connor and Matt had managed to collect the wandering sheep and herd them off to the side of the motorway, allowing one lane to be opened to traffic. The flashing amber lights of the Highways Agency vehicle had been visible in the distance for almost 15 minutes now, but due to the back-up, the traffic officers had yet to make it on-scene. Thus Becker made his way over to relive Connor and start directing the traffic around the accident himself. He noticed the concerned looks of some of the rubberneckers as they slowly passed by, and it suddenly occurred to him that he must look quite a sight, wielding his threatening-looking EMD whilst wearing a cartoon mammoth on his red tee. Becker sighed - this was precisely why he'd fought so hard to keep the soldiers in uniform! He rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the stares of the passers-by, but he couldn't help but notice one particular passenger, sat in the back of a Mercedes, clad in an expensive-looking pin-striped suit. As the man gawped, Becker realised he looked strangely familiar, though he couldn't quite place where he'd seen the man before.

Once in the groove of the mindless activity, Becker's thoughts began to wander. It suddenly occurred to him that he'd never finished his apology to Jess, and he hoped he'd get a chance to do that as soon as they were done here. However, he realised that he owed her much more than just a simple apology. Yet what could he do? How could he ever hope to make it up to her?

He was distracted from these thoughts, however, by the arrival of the yellow-and-black Highways Agency vehicle. It pulled up next to Matt, and two orange-and-yellow-clad officers spoke to the team leader as two more hurried over to where Abby and Connor were treating the sheep. Becker kept to his post as Matt obviously filled the officers in, and eventually one left Matt and approached the soldier to take over directing traffic. Becker then joined Matt and the others where they were now assembling on the hard shoulder.

"I think we've done all we can here," Matt said. "The Highways Agency has the situation under control now."

Abby nodded. "I filled them in on the casualties. There's about 40 sheep that'll need treatment. Over 60 didn't make it."

Despite her emotionless statement, Becker could tell that the loss of life was finally catching up with her as well, and he gave his mate a reassuring pat on her shoulder. She turned and gave him a small smile in acknowledgement as Connor pointed out cheerily, "But on the bright side, almost 100 came through without a scratch - that's more than can be said for me playing footy."

As the others laughed, Becker frowned - he'd momentarily forgotten all about the match. He quickly glanced at his watch, realising there were probably only about 10 minutes left in the game.

"Well, we should probably be getting back, yeah?" Matt said, practically reading Becker's mind. "Good work, everyone."

The team all nodded and, leaving the chaos of the sheep far behind, ran back through the high bushes into the park. As they approached the pitch, Becker watched the play intensely, trying to take in how things were going. Most of the RSID players were crowded on the ARC's half, making it extremely obvious how depleted their team was. He stared at them a moment, noticing that the ARC team seemed to be playing some kind of 5:1:1 formation, with Duggan having fallen back to fill in for Matt and Chas out in the midfield.

An RSID player was racing toward the goal with the ball, but Lester aggressively went after him, forcing his opponent to take a rushed, long-range shot on the goal, which Duggan easily stopped. As Duggan slowly dribbled the ball out a ways, Becker watched in amazement as the entire ARC team seamlessly appeared to shift positions, with Scott and O'Rourke fading to midfield as Chas sprinted downfield to join Ghani. Having given his teammates enough time to get into position, Duggan passed the ball to Jess, who flicked a pass to Scott. Unfortunately, one of the RSID players ran up to intercept it, and Scott and the athletic girl both tumbled to the ground, limbs entwined, as the ball rolled out of bounds. Scott seemed to take his time disentangling himself from the pretty girl, which gave Becker a chance to signal to the ref that he and the others were subbing back in.

As Becker ran in to rejoin the match, Chas jogged past him, giving Becker a high five.

"What's the score?" the soldier asked.

"They're up 8 to 5," Chas called back as he hurried to get off the pitch before play resumed.

8 to 5? Becker's heart sank. With the limited time left in the match, there was no way they'd be able to catch up.

But then he did the math. True, they were losing. But despite missing approximately a quarter of their players, the much-diminished team had not only managed to hold the RSID to three goals second half but had even scored one more of their own. It was truly a miracle, and from what he'd witnessed in the last play, it was all due to the remaining players working together as a team, just as he and the others had been doing out on the motorway. Becker couldn't have been prouder at how well they'd all come together under difficult circumstances, and without thinking, he flashed a pleased smile towards Jess.

And by some other miracle, she actually smiled back.

...

Jess had never been so relieved to see the rest of the team. They'd arrived just in the nick of time, for she and the others were practically on the verge of collapse from each having had to cover extra ground all half to compensate for the missing players.

She was extremely proud, however, of how well the abbreviated team had done during the others' absence. Despite being severely undermanned, they'd played exceedingly well, relying on each other just like a real team, just as they did every day at work. Even Chas, who wasn't an official member of the ARC team, played wonderfully with the others - in fact, Jess had quite enjoyed watching Neela and Chas together, as the couple clearly made an amazing partnership both on and off the field. But all the extra work had been starting to wear on Jess and her teammates, which made the return of the others a great relief, so much so that when Becker had smiled at Jess, she'd automatically smiled back.

Once she realised what she'd done, though, she instantly regretted it. After all, she didn't want Becker to think that everything was suddenly okay between them. He'd behaved terribly and had yet to apologise...though the interrupting sheep obviously had something to do with that! But regardless, an apology was still owed, and she hoped he didn't take her smile as a sign that all was forgiven.

Not that he should be thinking about that at present - his mind should be on the match. The second half was almost over, and Jess's competitive spirit was kicking back in. With the team being so depleted since half-time, her focus had been on mere survival; but now that they were complete again, the desire to win had returned. And having four fresh players back on the field was injecting new life into the team.

The RSID team must've sensed this change for they suddenly became more aggressive. It seemed as if the whistle was being blown every 20 seconds, and almost every ARC player ended up taking at least one direct free kick, despite every call being disputed by the RSID team. As Jess now approached the RSID player who currently had the ball, she was rudely shoved to the ground. There was no yellow card, but the whistle blew, the ball was placed on the ground in front of her, and she quickly kicked it forward to Becker. She then watched as the soldier dribbled downfield, bobbing and weaving amongst the RSID backs. One of them tried to steal the ball but connected with Becker's shin first, and he, too, went tumbling to the ground as the ref's whistle blew yet again. As he set up for his kick, Becker signalled not-so-subtly to Neela, sending their opponents scrambling over in her direction. This meant that when Becker kicked the ball to Abby instead, she was practically all alone on her side of the field, despite the RSID keeper yelling at his teammates to get back and cover her, thus allowing Abby to take an easy, unblocked kick. GOAL!

"Go, Abby! That's my girl!"

Connor's proud cheer could be heard all the way down the pitch, though Jess recognised that Becker and his sneaky strategy had had as much to do with the goal as their blonde coworker's kicking. Once again forgetting herself, Jess flashed the soldier a smile as he hurried back for the kick-off.

The RSID player doing the kick-off must've momentarily forgotten himself as well, for after tapping the ball, he ran forward and kicked it again himself. The sound of the whistle blowing at the two-touch violation was almost drowned out by the angry shouts of his teammates. Clearly the stress of the ticking clock was starting to wear on the RSID players, who hadn't been playing much like a team for the entire match and were now actively turning on one another.

Ironically, the more fractured and hostile their opponents became, the more the ARC team pulled together. After all, what were aggressive footy players when compared with T-Rexes and future predators? The team's ability to work together, to watch each other's backs, often meant the difference between life and death, and it had practically become second nature to them all.

Which meant that within a matter of seconds, the ball was once again downfield, with the ARC team passing back and forth, poised to score.

And that's when the final whistle blew.

...

to be continued (only 2 chapters left!)