5. Knocked Around

Yusei entered the stadium the next day with mixed emotions. For some reason, he felt a little better knowing that Jack knew his secret considering that he understood what it was like to have those kinds of feelings. Still, Jack also knew that Yusei had those kinds of feelings specifically for him … which was awkward. So he still had adjustments to make.

What else was new …?

He was trudging toward the clubhouse, head down, lost in thought, when he literally ran into a tall, solid body. Almost certain that it had to be the Awkward Situation in question, he looked up only to find Bruno Antimony looking mildly down at him saying, "Excuse me," as though he were at fault.

"Oh, hi, Bruno, sorry about that. I guess I was wool-gathering."

"'S OK, I was looking for you anyway."

"Me? Why?"

"Uh, you've been talking to Jack Atlas as much as anyone on the team—"

"Which isn't a whole hell of a lot, Bruno."

"But still, it's some. Plus, I want to talk to the team about it and … you're a leader type, Yusei, I'm not."

"I'm just a rookie, Bruno."

Bruno ignored that. "The pitching staff … we really took the loss of Saiga hard, and … I guess we took it out on Jack a bit. It's tough. He's kind of a stoic type and … he acts like he doesn't care about it, but …"

"He's not forgiving you, is he?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Not so much."

"And you want me to help you talk to everyone? Help them come round?"

"Yeah. Do you think you could? I don't think he likes me much, and I wish he would."

Yusei gave Bruno's shoulder a shove. "He thinks you're soft." He smiled. "You do kind of let the cocky ones intimidate you more than they should sometimes. But I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. But if you think it'll help, I'll get the guys together. Jack's going to be tied up in PT most of the day anyway. You grab the pitching staff, I'll take care of the rest of the team. OK?"

"OK, I think I can handle that."

"Good. Meet me back in the clubhouse, say, in an hour, hour and a half?"

"Thanks, Prof!" Bruno said happily, trotting off.

Yusei chuckled. The team had started using the nickname that fans had come up with, Professor Putout, only they'd wisely shortened it to 'Prof.' Guess they picked up on how smart I am, he thought. Hope that's not a bad thing. Well, in any case, it was inevitable.

He stopped by Dr Schmidt's office just long enough to have him ask everyone but Jack to come by the clubhouse.

"What's up?"

"Oh, just a little meeting. A couple of the guys want to clear the air."

"Let me guess. It's about Jack."

"I guess that's obvious, since he's not invited. I figure … well, some touchy subjects might come up and I don't know him well enough to know how he'd take them."

"I think he's got a pretty thick skin … Well, he might be defensive, at first, anyway, but he really can deal with hard knocks." He leaned in, lowering his voice. "Between you and me, he's seen more of them than he's willing to admit."

"What … Never mind. I'll see you later. I have a meeting to arrange." Hard knocks? Yusei realized that he really didn't know much about Jack. There were scads of articles about the guy, but he had never done more than skim any of them.

Guys have been hitting on me since I hit puberty.

The memory of Jack's words hit him so hard as he was walking back to the clubhouse that he almost tripped up and fell. He'd said it all tough and off-hand … but …

He stood stock still in the hallway.

It must have been hard. Did he have anyone to help him through it? Anyone who understood?

He wanted to turn around and ask Jack about it, find out how he felt, find out how he made it through. Did he have his own Crow to talk to? Crow wasn't gay, but at least he'd listened. He understood how Yusei felt. He gave Yusei the support he needed to make it through each day, through the disappointments, and he was there to share in the celebrations.

Yusei forced himself to start walking again. Jack's tough, he told himself. It's like Dr Schmidt said. He had to have a thick skin. But …

But the thing was, he knew what it was like to put up a façade, too.

He grabbed Crow on the way in. "Hey, help me get the guys together, will you? We need to meet. Bruno wants to say something … me too."

"Bruno? Wait. This is about Atlas, isn't it?"

"Who else do we need to iron things out about? People need to get with the program instead of just going through the motions. I'm not the only one messing up behind him, and for the rest of them, it's because they're … well, let's face it, they've just not been into it. They've been slacking off."

"Sure you're not imagining things?"

"One thing I know I'm not imagining. Jack's not slacking off. He's working hard. I don't think I've seen a pitcher who works harder."

Crow laughed. "I thought you were paying no attention to what he does."

Yusei frowned. "I've been trying …" He sighed. "He's kind of … hard for me to ignore, OK?"

"OK. Dropping it. I'll gather your cotillion, don't worry." Crow scurried off, chuckling, leaving Yusei to grab a few remaining guys. There weren't many left, between Bruno, Dr Schmidt, and Crow.

Yusei walked in. "Well, guys, thanks for showing, I guess you all have a pretty good idea what Bruno and I wanted to talk about. We got a new guy on the team and he's a really talented player. Real Hall of Fame stuff, but most of us are all bent out of shape over it. I admit it, I can't say I exactly welcomed the change with open arms either. When he came in, it meant we lost Saiga, and we all loved him. He was a great guy. But, let's face it, he'll never be the pitcher that Atlas is.

"And, no matter what happened with Saiga, it wasn't Jack's decision to come here, and it wasn't Jack's decision to send Saiga down to the minors. We're all professionals and should understand all this. So let's get over it, be happy we've got a great player, and get on with a great season!"

"Yeah, blah, blah, you talk a great line, but the fact is, Atlas is a stuck up SOB," said Ushio, the first baseman. "Almost as bad as you are."

"I like him," said Kazama, the third baseman. "I just think we need to get to know him a little, that's all. What do we know about the guy? Almost nothing."

"You know," Bruno said quietly, "If we hadn't all given Jack such a hard time, he might be sharing tips with the other pitchers … but he's not. It's taking him a long time to come around. I want him to trust me, but …"

"What does he know?" demanded Andre. "The guy walks in like he knows everything, but he's just got a couple of years under his belt. He's been lucky. And look now. On the best team and his ERA's gone up!"

Yusei was afraid of this. He was pretty sure Andre had it in for Jack and Yusei had never really gotten along with Ushio. "So what? He wins. Give the guy a little time to adjust, will you? He could be getting a little more support from us, you know," he said. "We've been letting our overall defense slip while he's been on the mound. He can't be expected to throw 81 strikes every game. His ERA might be up a little since he was traded, but he hasn't lost."

"Yet."

"He hasn't lost, and if we tighten our defense behind him to our usual level, he might not the rest of the season. Even the best pitchers lose sometimes, you know."

"You coming to his defense now? I thought you hated the guy," said Breo.

"Not like you. What is it with the Unicorn herd, anyway? Did you take too many strikeouts? C'mon, Andre, you're the one person who had his number, I thought. Don't you ever let it go? Don't you want to win? I mean, he's the guy who can put us over the top this season and you act like he's persona non grata."

"Thank you, Professor," said Jean. "But … you know, herd, Yusei's got a point. We have to put all this aside. Saiga's not coming back, and Jack didn't fire him, Jaeger did. We ought to be mature about this."

"Us? We're ballplayers!" Crow howled.

Finally, everyone laughed.

Just then, Jack walked in. No one had expected him back from the training room so early. He frowned. "Did I miss a team meeting?" he asked.

"Nah, we just kind of started talking," said Yusei. "It's OK, we weren't talking about anything important."

Jack looked around the clubhouse at his teammates' faces, then shrugged. He was pretty damn sure they were talking about him, but if they didn't want to spill, that was their business. Maybe this was good news for him. If they could finally figure out what was best for them, it was all to the good. It was beyond him why getting an ace would be a bad thing, but …

Let them be that way.

Jack skipped the team lunch buffet that day and headed out to the Heart of the Plate, a sports bar across from the stadium. Stepping inside, he looked around quickly and spotted what he expected. He nodded to the hostess and said, "My party's already here," and headed toward a window booth.

"Hi, Carly, I'm sorry I'm late."

"No problem. I know you can't control how long you're in physical therapy."

Jack took three tickets out of his pocket. "For my next start. You wanted three, right? For you and your friends?"

"Yes, thanks, Jack," she smiled. She reached out and for just an instant, their fingers touched as the tickets passed between their hands. In that instant, a touch of pink spread across Carly's cheeks like a watercolor tint across fresh, wet paper.

Jack felt guilt wash through his chest in answer, his throat constricting. He cleared it instinctively. "Wh-who are you going to bring with you? Anyone I know?"

"Oh, I don't think so. A couple of stringers from the office, that's all."

"And how is work going? What are you working on? Have they still got you working obituaries and society pages, or are you working more interesting things?"

Carly blinked, surprised that Jack was showing interest in her work. "Um, I'm still working on those things mostly, but my editor is letting me do background investigation on some ongoing crime stories now. I'm hoping that eventually it might work into actual stories."

"That sounds dangerous. Are you sure that—"

"Don't worry, Jack, I wouldn't get into the line of fire!" Carly looked positively thrilled that Jack was showing concern. "Oh … I ordered for us already. I know how busy you are, I hope you don't mind."

Although Jack didn't like it at all, he said, "No, it's all right." He scowled. "You know, Carly, I've been thinking. I wonder if I've been fair to you."

"Don't say that, Jack! You know I'd do anything for you!"

"I know. That's just it. I don't know … I don't know if I could do the same for you. It's not right."

Carly reached out to hold his hand and wound up gripping him around the thumb of one large hand. "Don't say that, Jack! You have a demanding job during the season. At least wait til the off-season before you worry about me, OK? You know that I—"

"Carly, please, I …" can't let you tell me you love me … not now. Jack struggled for something to say. "You're right. I need to concentrate on my … pitching right now. I'm so sorry."

The waitress set an iced tea in front of him and a lemonade in front of Carly. He miserably sipped his drink.

Lunch kind of dragged on like that. Carly seemed to catch on to his distress but couldn't understand or ease it. After lunch, she insisted on hugging him goodbye. He sighed. Could things get more wretched?

Author's Notes:

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who subscribed to this story and/or marked it as a favorite. :) Also thanks so much to those who took the time to review. It really gave me a boost. The little story has been chanting "I think I can," and at least seems to have found a few friends. ;) Just a warning though, I thought at first that this would be pure fluff, but it looks like a little angst has/will invade. Hope you don't mind too much!

Reviews: About Carly ... I've always found her treatment in the anime a little inconsistent, but that can be interpreted in several ways. One is that Jack want's to perfect himself and achieve his goals before adding another person into his life. Another is the way I answered the "Carly question" in Satisfaction. I'm hoping that she's OK here. Now Crow is meant to be for the relationship, provisionally anyway. (I don't know anything much about Twilight or its Cullen character, so no association is meant.) I hope that is how it appears.

This chapter started out longer, but then I had to chop out a couple of pieces that no longer fit in the larger picture. Oh well. Hope I can post the next one sooner.

Knocked Around: A pitcher who gives up a lot of hits and is removed from the game is said to have been "knocked around." Basically a pitcher who has a bad day.

PT: Physical Therapy

Kazama liking Jack: Consistent with the anime (also Ushio having not gotten along with Yusei).

ERA: (again) Earned Run Average - the average number of earned runs that a pitcher lets in per game. Earned runs are the ones that the pitcher is responsible for (hits, bases on balls, not fielding errors).

81 strikes: The number of strikes required to strike out 27 batters, the total number of outs for a 9-inning game.

Unicorn herd: I've put Team Unicorn into the Crimson Dragons' outfield, where they're nicknamed the Unicorn herd since they're out in the pasture, so to speak.

Coming up:

Huh, really can't find a good excerpt. The Dragons face the Immortals and Jack chats with Kiryu. Then they have a series with the Vipers, a tough club.