To Sam and Rachel
Note: I know nothing about motocross, so all this things were made up.
Regina watched from afar as the Ghost Savior, the most mysterious motocross biker, waved at the crowd before climbing onto its motorbike. The other bikers followed those actions but neither did it as gracefully as the Ghost had done it before them. The riders turned their engines on and soon all the bikes were roaring with the crowd.
The race was about to start.
Faintly, a song cheering for the Ghost could be heard from the tent where Regina was watching the race, they were chanting the Ghost Savior's catch phrase: "you won't see when the Ghost passes next to you,".
The Ghost was, by far, the crowd's favorite. Not only because it was the best rider on the era, who had broken all known records; but because all the mystery that surrounded the rider. Since the Ghost never took its helmet off, not even during press conferences, no one knew for sure how did the rider look for real; no one knew if the rider was white or black, blond or brunet, muslim or jew, some said the rider had a skin condition, some said she was a female! But that was ridiculous, everyone knew women were not allowed to compete in motocross competitions.
There was one thing that everyone agreed on: the Ghost Savior was hell of a driver.
Regina remembered the first time she and the Ghost Savior had met, she had - reluctantly - gone to one of the Ghost's training sessions when the rider was no one, to offer her company's sponsorship.
It hadn't been her idea, to waste money in such a mundane way; but, the company's owner, Mr. Gold, had insisted on sponsor the young biker. It had been a good investment, though; a win-win for both parties. The sponsorship provided the Ghost with the best training technology that had obviously helped in the rider's scores; and the company had improved its profit by almost 200% in the last five years - everyone wanted to have what the Ghost Savior had.
Five years, Regina repeated to herself. Five years of practically living with the Ghost and Regina still felt like she didn't know who the rider was at all. But a part of her knew that the rider was the closest thing to a friend she had ever have. The rider knew secrets Regina had never told anyone else, even if Regina had never seen the rider's face, for some strange reason, she knew she could trust the Ghost.
Ever since their first meeting the Ghost had kept its face covered by the motocross mask, keeping its face a mystery. At first, Regina thought the rider was just being rude, just like any other amateur sportsman who thought that they already owned the world. But as the time passed and Regina had to go with the rider to each tournament and race, they grew closer. The rider had proved Regina wrong - the conversations they had were interesting and deep and enriching. And every day Regina found that she cared more and more about the rider, and that their friendship had grown into something else in Regina's heart, but that was something she'd never tell for fear of being rejected.
A loud bang snapped Regina out of her thoughts: the race had started. She watched how the Ghost Savior rode, already leading the group through the circuit.
Ghost Savior. What a ridiculous name. The original name was Ghost Rider, but after the rider had saved a little girl in the Rio de Janeiro circuit the name was changed to the Ghost Savior, earning more popularity. Regina had never liked the nickname, but she didn't know the rider's real name - no one did - so she settled on using Savior as the name, it seemed to piss the rider to no end. Regina liked to believe that if she pissed the rider enough, maybe she would end up learning the rider's name. Almost four years had passed since she first thought of that, and she hadn't given up on the idea.
She once asked the rider why so much secrecy, the rider just shrugged and said "One day you'll know and understand,". Regina still didn't understand and sometimes she wondered if she ever would.
Her thoughts focused again on the race, there were only three more laps to the end of the competition. The Ghost was still leading, followed closely by Billy the Bull, the only rider who had been close to beating the Ghost on couple of occasions.
The two riders disappeared behind one mountain, it was the circuit's most dangerous curve. Suddenly, a cloud of dust and smoke appeared behind the mountain, it was too much dust to simply be the dirt that the bikes' wheels made as they went forward. Then, Regina's world stopped when she saw only Billy riding out of the cloud.
'Come on, Savior,' she thought 'drive out,'
Nothing. Nothing happened.
Until something happened. Until something exploded.
"No!" Regina yelled and run towards the circuit.
Some security guards tried to stop her to keep her from entering the track, but she duck all their arms and entered the circuit. The other riders had stopped and were looking at the smoke, wondering if the Ghost had survived, but no one rushed to help. Regina sprinted into the smoke and looked around for a sign of life.
"Savior!" she yelled and smoke got into her lungs "Savior!" Regina repeated and closed a bit her eyes, they were already itching from the dryness of the environment that surrounded her.
The flames from the explosion had caught the dry nature that grew around the circuit and it had started a big fire. Remembering the course she had assisted to a few months ago about earthquakes and fires, Regina got on her knees. The smoke would always travel upwards, so she would have cleaner air if she lowered her body to the ground; she had to be quick, though, or she would dehydrate and the fire would burn her skin. Regina started crawling on three of her limbs, covering her mouth and nose with her shirt's neck and one of her hands.
"Savior!" she yelled once again, almost sounding defeated. She could hear the ambulance and firemen truck's sirens on the background, but it sounded so distant, so unimportant.
Then she heard someone coughing.
"Ghost!" Regina said, with more hope than before.
A "-Gina!" came as a response followed by another cough. The rider was alive!
Regina crawled as fast as she could towards the place she had heard the calling. She saw a body laying on its back at a distance no bigger than two meters, it looked smaller than all those times that they had talked. Regina stood in her legs, not caring about the smoke anymore, and ran towards the rider as fast as her lungs allowed her. They itched and hurt, but it didn't make Regina stop. She grabbed the rider below the the armpits and dragged the body towards where she thought the sirens were.
When the smoke around them stopped being so dense and she could breathe better, Regina dropped the rider and dropped on her knees next to the Ghost.
"Savior!" Regina's voice broke and she felt like crying, but the tears wouldn't go out. "You are alive!" she stated, more to calm herself, and pressed her hands against the rider's chest "I thought I lost you,"
"Emma," came out as a reply, and it confused Regina. The rider then took the mask off and took a deep breath before saying "My name is Emma,"
That was the first time Regina saw the beautiful face that matched the rider's equally stunning soul. Her hair was blonde, up in a milkmaid braid that was now messy, her skin was white as porcelain, with some minor cuts and bruises from recent events and her eyes were as green as two emeralds. She left Regina breathless, and Regina knew it had nothing to do with the amount of smoke she had just breathed.
"You saved me," Emma pointed out, bringing Regina back to reality.
"Even saviors need to be saved sometimes,"
Emma smiled, and it made Regina's stomach contract. She had heard Emma's chuckles through the mask more than million times, but she had never seen a smile. And it was breathtaking.
"They are here!" a male voice yelled and kneeled next to them "you are one crazy lady," he told Regina, who tried to chuck but her lungs didn't let her do so.
Regina noticed other paramedics running towards them, carrying oxygen tanks and stretchers. And then her arms gave up on her, and she fell over Emma, and everything went black and cold.
Next time Regina woke up, the room in which she was laying was deadly silent except for some machines which beeped every once in a while. She took the air mask off her face and looked around, she was in a hospital room. Her eyes then stopped at the person that was sleeping with the head resting on the edge of her bed, holding one her hands. It was Emma.
It made sense now, why the rider had built so much secrecy around her life. Regina wondered what would happen now that everyone knew Emma's real identity. Gently, Regina squished Emma's hand to wake the blonde from her slumber.
"Hey, sleepy head," Regina said almost in a whisper
"Says the woman who slept for almost two days," Emma said with a smile and leaned closer to Regina.
"What happened?" she asked noticing Emma's red eyes - probably dryness, result from the fire.
"You breathed too much smoke,"
"And you didn't?"
"I was lying so I breathed cleaner air than you did as you ventured to save me," Emma explained in a teasing tone, but gratitude could also be heard. "I got burned, but my lungs were not that bad,"
"How bad were you burnt?"
Emma shrugged "It's not important,"
"It is if you can't compete! Next week is the World Championship," she stated, she knew how excited Emma was about it. If she won, it would be her fifth MX1 World Championship and she would be breaking her own personal record of 'person with most MX1 titles'.
"It doesn't matter anymore,"
"What are talking about?" Regina inquired "You wouldn't shut up about it for months! It didn't matter how many times I changed topics you would go back what would you do with the - "
"I can't compete anymore!" Emma interrupted her, got up and walked away from the hospital bed. Regina noticed both of Emma's legs were covered by bandages. How couldn't Regina noticed those perfectly toned female legs before? Of course, Emma had always hidden them below male baggy clothes, which made it difficult for Regina to notice how feminine they actually were.
"What - what are you talking about?" sure, Emma was hurt, but not enough to retire.
"Women are not allowed to compete, remember?" Emma turned to face Regina, her eyes were puffy and Regina understood the redness was not a consequence from the crash. "My trophies, my records, my sponsorship, they took it all away,"
Emma spoke with so much emotion that it made Regina's heart break into more pieces than she thought it was physically and emotionally possible.
"That's not fair!" was the only thing that she managed to say.
"And wanna hear the best part?" even if Emma laughed at that, Regina could feel it was a bitter laugh and not a joyful one, "That even if I stated that fucking Billy caused the crash, he's not getting suspended! And since he was always on the second place, he gets all my trophies, the records he broke are now the official records, and he gets my sponsorship and -," the blonde stopped and looked out of the window, Regina noticed that Emma's fists clenched tightly "and you, he gets you, too,"
Regina's heart skipped a bit at that confession. Did it really upset Emma to lose her? As if that was possible, Emma would never lose her. But the thought of it made Regina rejoice in hope, that maybe Emma felt the same way she did.
"You had to see his face when he visited me," Emma walked towards Regina's bed "when he told me the news. God, I just wanted to punch him until I killed him,"
Regina pursed her lips into a thin, barely unnoticeable smile. So, Emma did had feelings for her.
"Emma," Regina said extending her arm towards the rider, Emma took her hand and sat on Regina's bed "I'm staying with you,"
"But your job ..."
"We'll build something together," Regina suggested, during the five years they had worked together Regina had learned they shared a lot of interests.
Emma stared at Regina for a while and her brows furrowed. "A bakery," she commented "You make the softest bread and the best apple turnovers, and I'll brew the coffee," she explained, starting to sound excited by their future together "We can call it Remma, and the kitchen will have a glass wall, so I can watch you working every day," Emma added, leaning closer to Regina and it made both women feel warm and welcomed and needed. "And every night I'd walk you to your place after we close the bakery,"
They were few centimeters apart, they were aware of the closeness, but they didn't really care. Once the rider's mask was off, literally and figuratively speaking, both ladies were sure their feelings were the right ones.
"Maybe," Regina said, eyes shifting from Emma's eyes to her lips and back to her eyes, "we could walk home, together,"
Emma's eyes opened as plates "You really mean that?"
Regina didn't speak, she didn't nod, she just lifted her body slightly and pressed her lips against Emma's. Emma didn't need any more answer than that. Somehow, they both knew that everything will be alright.
And that's how the Ghost Savior lost everything, and found so much more.