Chapter Text
It was a shitty day from the start. It was raining, and had been all morning long. Roy hadn’t shown up for practice that morning, which had been unusual, but the coaching staff had agreed that it must have been an emergency, that Roy would want space if something had gone on, instead of being bombarded for a wellness check at his home, Coach Beard rationalized that Roy would text someone if he wanted them to know, and that the best course of action would be to give Roy some space.
That had been a fucking stupid theory, and Jamie would hold that choice against Coach Beard for a long time, regardless of the fact that it wasn’t Coach beards fault, regardless of the fact that under any other circumstance, he would be right, that Roy would want to deal with himself alone initially rather than be bombarded by people who gave a shit about him.
Around lunchtime, Jamie had gotten a phone call from the hospital, stating he was listed as Roy’s emergency contact, which was news to him, and that Roy was in the hospital after having had a seizure that morning while out and about. Which likely meant it had happened while Roy had been on his way to practice. Jamie calmly told the nurse on the other end of the line that he would be there as soon as possible.
It made vague sense that Jamie had been listed as Roy’s emergency contact, Ruth, Roy’s sister, was often busy at the hospital, and wasn’t really a good candidate for an emergency contact. Roy and Keeley had broken up, and Jamie assumed that maybe Roy had updated the contact info after that, or fuck, maybe he had had Jamie listed there all along. That didn’t matter now.
He strode over to Coach Beard, eyes aflame, and pointed his finger at him like an angry mother would in a cartoon.
“He had a fucking seizure on his way here this morning. And none of you gave enough of a shit to check on him. I’m fucking leaving to go be with him in hospital, figure out your own fucking shit here you fucking useless pricks.” Jamie shouted at Coach Beard, needing to get his feelings off on someone, alerting the concerned attention of the rest of the team before striding off to the locker room.
Coach Beard stood in stunned silence on the side of the pitch, and it was Coach Lasso who followed Jamie into the locker room. Watching as Jamie shakily fumbled through his bag to get his street clothes. Ted walked over and got Jamie’s clothes out for him, setting them on the bench before hugging Jamie, who was shaking by that point.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at Beard.” Jamie says under his breath.
“You’re right, you shouldn’t have. But he will understand. Get out of here and go be with Roy. He needs you bud.” Ted says softly, before patting Jamie’s back and exiting the locker room.
Jamie leaves and gets into his car prior to speeding over to the hospital, thankful to not have been pulled over on the way for driving far over the speed limit.
When he gets to Roy, he finds him in a hospital bed. He is strapped to all manner of wires, and he is crying silent and slow tears.
“They think they found a fucking tumor in my head.” Roy says softly. “It fucking made me have a seizure and it might fucking be cancer, and I don’t fucking want to have cancer. What if I’m fucking dying? I don’t fucking want to die.”
Jamie crosses into the room, he sits on the edge of Roy’s bed, mindful of all the wires and he wraps his arms around him, holding him as Roy breaks down, shaking with uncontrolled sobs.
“I’ve got you mate.” Jamie says softly. “Fuck, I’ve got you, let it out, fuck, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m so fucking scared.” Roy sobs.