Chapter Text
Becky is waiting in line for the security. She looks once again in her purse, making sure she isn’t carrying anything that is prohibited to bring onto the plane. The defender notices an envelope, she is pretty sure it was not in there when she packed her bag yesterday morning. She takes it out and spots Hope’s name on it. Weird, why would a letter addressed to Hope be in my purse? Since Hope has already passed security Becky puts it back into her purse, figuring she will give it to the keeper once she has passed security. She takes off her watch and places everything onto a plastic box.
The defender waits for the officer’s signal, she walks through the metal detector and holds her breath, praying it won’t go off. She doesn’t hear a beep and is relieved she can just wait for her stuff and join the team without having to be frisk searched, again. HAO, who stands in the row next to her, smiles. Becky smiles to, the last 14 times she was in an airport and had to go through security she has been frisk searched, the first time because she forgot to take off her belt, the second time because she forgot she was still wearing her watch, all the other times she was just randomly selected out (probably because she looked a bit too nervous).
She sees ‘her’ box coming out of the x-ray machine and is happy she did get passed security this time without having spiked the attention of the officers. But then she spots the worried look in one of the officers’ eyes. The officer walks next to her box and looks at her. “Is this your purse?” “Yes it is.” Becky answers a bit nervously, her mind is already going over everything that is in her purse trying to determine what was not permitted to take along. “Can you please open it?” She opens the bag and holds it for the officer to look in it. The man takes out the letter and asks her if she knows what is inside while he feels the envelope with his hands, there is clearly something else than just a letter inside. “I don’t know, it is addressed to my teammate Hope Solo, she probably forgot something in the locker room and figured I could give it back to Hope.” “Is she married?” Becky nods. The worried look on the officers face disappears, “Than tell your teammate it is not really smart to forget her ring in the locker room.” Becky nods, a bit surprised Hope would forget her wedding ring.
He hands her back the letter and says “Next time make sure you know everything that is inside your bag because next time it might be drugs or weapons instead of a wedding ring.” Becky nods, realizing this could have ended worse. “Good luck in Canada” “Thanks.” Becky replies, surprised the officer recognized her. Or maybe he knows Hope plays on the USWNT and figured since I am a teammate of hers, I also go to Canada. Becky puts the letter back in her purse, takes her watch and quickly makes her way HAO. “What did you do this time?” HAO asks with a smile. “It wasn’t my fault, it was Hope’s.” HAO looks questioning at the defender, but the defender doesn’t reply, she just heads for were the team is assembled.
Becky makes her way to the keeper. “I thought you would want this back before you go home to your husband.” Hope looks surprised but takes the envelope and opens it. The first thing she spots is the letter inside the envelope but the first thing she takes out is a wedding band.
Becky looks at the keeper, she expected some kind of thank you for bringing her her wedding band. Instead Hope looks shocked and ~, well Becky cannot really tell how Hope really looks, eventually she settles for ‘broken’. When Becky is sure Hope won’t say anything she shrugs it off and makes her way back to HAO.
Carli, who had witnessed the whole interaction, frowns. She walks to the keeper and sits down next to her. She takes a look at what Hope is holding in her hand. “Finally thinking about walking away from him?” Carli realizes that no one else would have dared to say this. But everyone felt the same, felt like the keeper could do that much better. Carli expected Hope’s famous ice glare. Instead she just gets this broken look.
Hope cringes and takes some deep breaths, even her best friend doesn’t know. “I’m not married to Jerramy.” Hope says softly, but clear enough for Carli to hear. “WHAT?” Carli lets out in surprise, Hope doesn’t repeat it because she knows the midfielder heard her. “If you are not married then why did you checked the ‘married’ box on your World Cup form?” “I didn’t say I wasn’t married. I said I’m not married to Jerramy”
With the mentioning of Jerramy Hope’s mind flashes back to the night after the Iceland game.
“I just…” She trails off, not really sure how to tell how she really feels “Do you know how hard it is to see your wife wearing her ex’s name on her gloves?” Kelley asks, hurt evident in her voice. Hope looks at Kelley’s hand, no wedding band to be seen, and then looks at her own, her wedding band shines brightly. A wedding ring everyone else thinks she shares with Jerramy Stevens. Hope cringes. She knows she is hurting Kelley and for that, she hates herself even more.
“Kelley” Hope says, hoping her wife would look at her instead looking at the ocean in front of them. Since Kelley doesn’t bilge, Hope gently turns Kelley’s head towards her. “Soon I promise…” “That’s what you said over a year ago!” Kelley interrupts angrily. Hope hates to do this but she has to make clear that that is not the case. “No it is not. Then I said I would change it and now I’m telling you it will change soon.” “What’s the difference? Why is it is so important for you to have his name on your glove?” It wasn’t, to be honest Hope hated it. She had tried multiple things to avoid it but it always came back to bite her in the ass.
For instance one time she ‘forgot’ her gloves so she had to wear Ashlyn’s resulting in an angry Jill and Paul. A few games later she covered the letters with duct tape resulting in Nike being angry, because it would imply their gear is made from poor quality materials and not suitable for professional games. The first two games of this tournament she only wore the name ‘Solo’, resulting in her receiving some very angry and threatening phone calls. So at today’s game she had been once again supporting the name Stevens on her glove, hoping this all would be over soon. But she could not tell Kelley all this because it would only result in Kelley hating her and it would also result in the end of her marriage. And that was not something Hope was going to let happen.
Hope is taken back from her thoughts by Kelley taking off her necklace. She knows what Kelley is planning on doing and panics. “No, Kelley please don’t do it!” By now the defender has already taken off the necklace and removed her wedding band from the necklace. She holds it out for Hope to take it, Hope refuses. Instead the keeper puts her hands over Kelley’s, covering the ring. “I know you deserve better but please don’t do this, not now. Can you give me another chance to fix the mess I made.” “Why?” Kelley asks. Hope knows she is not asking her why she would give the keeper another chance.
She cannot tell the real reason but she can give her another reason, it is not the main reason but it could be because Hope really felt this way. “I just, I feel like right now I’m not in a place that is good enough to be called your wife.” Kelley wants to interrupt but Hope puts up her hand, signaling she isn’t finished yet. “Don’t misunderstand me I’m very proud to be your wife. It is almost surreal that you would want to be with someone like me. But I want our friends, teammates, family and even the fans to say or think that I’m lucky to be with you but that I deserve to be with someone like you. And not be like, Kelley is way too good for her, she should have stuck with this Jerramy guy.”
This takes Kelley a bit by surprise, sure they are different but she never viewed Hope as being not good enough for her. Or her being better than Hope. They are both human and they both make mistakes, unfortunately for the keeper, her mistakes seemed to have a bigger impact or they are made more public, while Kelley’s mistakes are not.
“HOPE, YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH.” “No I’m not. I just come of a month suspension. Half of the fans think I should be kicked off the team.” Hope continues for a full minute but it was too silent and fast for Kelley to understand what she was saying.
Kelley, already forgotten why they were here in first place, takes her wife’s hand and says, “You deserve to be here, you made some bad calls in the past but who doesn’t? Nobody is perfect and if they cannot move on from the past that is their problem, not yours. You are not the same woman you were 6 months ago, nor are you the same woman you will be in 6 months.” Kelley makes sure Hope is looking her in the eye before she adds the last part “ And you are the best wife I can imagine. I love you.” A small smile appears on Hope’s face. Kelley closes the distance between them and makes sure she puts all her feelings into the kiss.
“Will you please give me another chance?” Kelley looks at the ring in her hands. She can’t do this, not now. Kelley nods and Hope slips the finger onto her wife’s ring finger. Kelley knows she will have to take off the ring before they go back inside but for now she will happily wear it. Kelley hugs her keeper and takes her hand afterwards. They walk alongside the coast, water and sand between their toes and for a moment all their problems are forgotten.
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It was only now Carli notices Hope is still wearing her wedding ring. The one she is holding looks identical, maybe a bit smaller.
“Hope” Carli says, trying to get her friend back from wherever she is with her thoughts. “If not Jerramy…” “Kelley” Hope says before Carli finishes her sentence. “Kelley? As in our Kelley O’Hara?” Hope nods. Although Carli is shocked by the news she cannot prevent the smile that has made its way onto her lips. That smile soon disappears when she remembers Hope is holding Kelley’s ring. In meantime Hope has taken the letter out of the envelope. It is a short one. She knew she had taken a big risk by wearing Stevens on her gloves in the final against France but she hoped she could have talked to Kelley in person afterwards, instead of having to get the ring and this letter from Becky.
Hope,
This is not me breaking up with you. This is me telling you the ball is in your court. Either you cannot change, than you should keep the ring and file for divorce. Or you overcome whatever it is that is holding you back and you change. No more Stevens on your gloves and you can give the ring back once you fulfill your promises. I love you. I really do and I always will but I cannot and will not be your wife if you feel like you cannot tell me what is really going on. Nor do I ever want to feel like I’m second best for you.
Kelley
Kelley’s words stung but Hope knows that from Kelley’s point of view she might come off as second best but to Hope she is and always will be the best. If there exists something to describe better than best, than that would be how she views Kelley.
Carli refrains from reading along, she figures whatever is written in there is only meant for Hope to read. So she looks up at where the rest of the team sits. She knows, from the look of some, they had been watching them so Carli sends them a glare, warning them to back off. Although she is pretty sure they have no clue in what is going on, Hope is a master in hiding her emotions only Carli and Kelley seem to be able to really read her. She looks back at Hope and notices her friend broke down a bit more. Carli just hopes that whatever was exactly going on between those two could be fixed. She hoped that this was not Kelley telling the keeper it is over. Because Carli wasn’t sure if Hope could survive that. In the short time she knows about the marriage between her two teammates a lot has become more clear and she questions how she could not have figured this out before.
Carli wants to ask a million questions but with the rest of the team close by she doesn’t know if that would be such a good idea.
“Final call for the passengers on flight DE176. to Seattle.” “Hope, your flight is leaving.” “No it is not. I’m flying to New York.” Carli is confused, Why would Hope fly to New York instead of Seattle? She than remembers Kelley and Cheney leaving yesterday for NY. They had to be at some Under Armour photoshoot. “Right, you are married.” Pinoe, who had been walking by to catch her flight to Seattle, picked up on the last sentence and quickly says “Off course Hope is married, she isn’t wearing that bling bling just for show nor would she be putting Stevens on her gloves if she wasn’t married to him.”
Why has she Stevens on her gloves? It is obviously that they are not married.
“I’ll tell you later.” Hope says and with that she is gone. Her flight doesn’t leave for another couple minutes but she needs to be away. She doesn’t want to breakdown completely in front of her teammates and she wants to be sure she has all the answers before Carli starts asking questions.
Hope walks onto the plane to NY. Ashlyn and Ali are surprised to see the keeper on the plane. “What are you doing here? Wasn’t there a direct flight to Seattle called earlier?” “Yes there was. But this is the fastest way home.” Hope says and proceeds walking to her seat, leaving her two teammates confused behind. She just hoped she still has Kelley to come home to.