Chapter Text
You’re gonna have to meet me further down the line
‘Cause you’re the right person at the wrong time
-John Newman, Down the Line
// July 2025
Kelley nervously picked at her nails as her eyes scanned the latest email outlining the upcoming reunion schedule. They were in San Francisco for the rest of the week to celebrate the ten year anniversary of their 2015 world cup win. It would be the first time in over a decade that their whole team would be gathered together.
The whole team. All twenty three players would be present, stated as eloquently as possible in the email that Kelley had been reading for the past five minutes. She had just finished reading the last section of the email when her phone started to buzz with notifications. Within minutes, she had four unread messages from Alex, two from Ashlyn, and two missed calls from Carli. Kelley ignored the continuous buzzing of her phone as more messages flooded in, but as she was halfway through reading the email for a second time, a certain text caught her attention.
Christie: Everyone meet in the conference room of the hotel lobby in ten minutes. This is mandatory.
Kelley sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She reluctantly stood up from her bed and wandered into the bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror, realizing that the expression on her face betrayed her emotions inside. She felt strong and put together for the most part, but the creases in her face and the frown tugging at the corners of her mouth said otherwise. She suddenly felt her heart lean further back against the walls she had built around it.
Nevertheless, Kelley tied her disheveled hair into a bun and straightened out the wrinkles in her shirt. She made her way to the hotel lobby, figuring that it would be better if she were one of the first to show up. Luckily, many of her teammates were having their own conversations of their own that they seemed to ignore the unusually quiet brunette in the corner. Ashlyn kept shooting her sympathetic looks and Kelley knew that if it weren’t for Ali holding her back, she would’ve been seated next to her in a flash. As Kelley waited anxiously for everyone to arrive, she couldn’t help but overhear the conversations surrounding her.
“God, we haven’t even been here for a full day and Cap has already called a team meeting.” Kling mumbled as she slumped further into her chair.
Tobin turned to her shorter teammate, “This wasn’t in the schedule, right? I thought our first meeting was in two days from now.”
“It is.” Christen pointed out, “Our first meeting with Jill, that is.”
“Well, there’s obviously something we all need to talk about alone as a team or else Cap wouldn’t have gathered us here.” Julie observed, taking a seat next to her friends.
Moe groaned, “I can’t believe we’ve managed to have a team meeting before our first official one. I mean, I love seeing you all, but when Cap calls a team meeting this quick, you know it can’t be good.”
Kling sat up straighter, noticing the last two people to walk through the door. She shook her head, “Oh yeah…this most definitely isn’t good.”
Carli and Alex stood in front of the room besides Christie, both women clearly fuming with disbelief and rage. Alex searched the room for her freckled faced teammate while Carli faced her former captain.
“Christie, tell me this is a joke, please. This can’t be happening, right?” Carli scowled.
“We’ll talk about this in just a moment…”
“No, we need to get to the bottom of this right now. That’s why I called you to set up the meeting! So again, please tell me this isn’t happening.”
“Carli…”
After softening her expression for one moment as she locked eyes with Kelley, Alex turned her attention back to the dialogue at the front of the room, “Christie, how the hell did we get here?! We all know she hasn’t been a part of this team for years now! And now suddenly she’s back as if nothing happened?!”
“Well, not exactly…you guys…” Christie managed to get out, before being interrupted once again.
“Look, I just think it’s really unfair for Kelley to have to get through this reunion with someone she hasn’t seen in forever- or anyone for that matter!” Carli argued.
Kling stood up in her spot, quickly catching on to their conversation, “Whoa, whoa, whoa…hold up. Are we talking about Hope?”
Ashlyn rolled her eyes, also irritated by the situation at hand. “Yes, of course we are, Kling.”
“You’re joking.” Kling let out a soft chuckle in disbelief, both of her hands on her hips. “We’re having this team meeting to talk about Hope and Kelley?! Seriously, again?!”
Kelley grimaced at her teammate’s comment and continued to stare at her feet. Kling was right. There had been one too many times where their team meetings had centered on her and Hope. Their entire team had discussed everything from serving as therapists as the two sorted through messy arguments to proposing ways to keep the two focused on the game rather than on each other when they were out on the field. Kelley couldn’t help but feel guilty once again for taking the team back to such another meeting. Just like old times.
Carli sneered at her short haired teammate, “Well, if you would learn to read your email, Kling, then maybe…”
“Enough!” Christie raised her voice. “Carli and Alex, sit down!”
The two players reluctantly did as they were told, knowing that Christie was truly mad for she was never one to raise her voice.
Christie sternly directed, “We’re going to have this discussion under my mediation and we’re going to be civilized about it just like the grown adults we are. Got it?”
Everyone nodded their heads in silence. Abby stood up next and walked to the front of the room to stand by her former co-captain. “I agree. We have something big to discuss, but let’s not start this reunion off on the wrong foot. Guys, it’s the first time we’ve been together basically since Vancouver! We should be celebrating!”
Christie smiled at her friend, shooting her a thankful look in the process. She turned to face everyone else, “We’re a team, remember? Let’s start acting like one again.”
Abby nodded and started with the question, “Alright, so who here has read the latest email from the coaching staff? Show of hands?”
Kelley removed her eye contact with the ground to look around at the hands shooting up. About half of the team had their hands raised while the other half, including Kling and the group of girls she had been talking with earlier, had looks of confusion plastered all over their faces.
Abby continued, “Okay, so for those who haven’t read through that email yet…long story short, Hope will indeed be present for our reunion.”
A couple gasps were heard around the room and conversation in whispers began. Christen quietly spoke up, “No one’s heard from her in so long, correct? So how did we end up contacting her to join us this week?”
Christie explained, “It turns out that Hope’s been overseas somewhere in Europe as part of the coaching staff for local kids clubs.”
Carli smirked loudly and just rolled her eyes, not believing that Hope would be part of some kid’s team when she had abandoned her own child. Christie shot her a glare to keep quiet and went on, “Apparently, one of the key members on the planning committee for this reunion knows her old manager and was able to get her contact information. Jill, and the rest of the staff, extended the invitation to her and she simply agreed to come. That’s all the details I know.”
Sensing that Christie was done talking, Carli took the opportunity to speak up, “Alright, so can we please get to the point here…why would Jill think it’s okay to suddenly include Hope knowing everyone’s history with her?”
Abby shrugged, “Well maybe that’s worth looking at. What if Jill doesn’t know?”
“Oh come on, Abby, everyone knows.” Ashlyn bluntly stated.
Carli spoke up again, “Okay, well regardless of what Jill knows or does not know, I still don’t understand why Hope would think it’s completely okay for her to make an appearance after all these years, after everything she’s done…especially to Kelley.”
Christen sighed, “Carli’s right. Kelley doesn’t deserve this.” She sent a compassionate look towards her Stanford graduate.
“Kelley may not deserve this, but at the same time, Hope will always be part of the 2015 world cup squad, whether we like it or not.” Becky mentioned, being the voice of reason as usual.
Julie nodded her head, “Plus the fans are expecting all of us to be present.”
Christen pointed out, “Yeah, but the fans also have some sort of idea of what happened in the past and since then, I bet she’s lost a lot of support.”
Kling then observed, “That’s the issue though. The fans don’t really know what happened…in the same way that many of us don’t either.” The short haired player sighed, thinking back on her fonder memories of the leader of the back five and not wanting to truly believe that she could’ve been so harsh to Kelley, someone else that she also knew well and loved dearly. Kling went on, “Honestly, I don’t think I can comment on this further just because I don’t know the full truth.”
Ali spoke up for the first time, “Kling is making a good point…I know that the majority of us are wary of Hope’s decision making process, knowing her track record and all, but do we really know what happened between Hope and Kelley? No, we don’t.”
Carli interrupted as politely as possible, “The facts are obvious enough though that I think all of us can make our own conclusions.”
“Come on, you guys,” Ali pleaded, “We’re a team. We got to have each other’s backs.”
Ashlyn frowned at her wife, “Ali, please don’t turn this into a team morality talk.”
Alex agreed, “Yeah, seriously, Kriegs? As far as I’m concerned, the only person we should look out for right now is Kelley.”
Tobin, who was often quiet during team meetings like this, tried to eliminate the growing tension in the room, “Whoa, guys, we have to stop ganging on each other.”
Christie immediately followed up with, “Thank you, Tobin.”
Lauren piped up, “I’m not trying to take Hope’s side here, but like Kling pointed out earlier, we don’t have much of a say as to whether or not Hope can return. Whatever Hope did years ago is between her and Kelley. We have to stop thinking that we can fix every single person’s personal life on this team- that’s where we’ve gotten ourselves into trouble in the past.”
Sydney argued in return, “I’m just going to throw it out there and say that it’s pretty clear that Hope left on her own terms. I mean, what’s new? She’s done it to Kell before.”
Carli exclaimed, “Thank you! Gosh, finally we’re getting somewhere.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that…” Lauren mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Carli stood up as her emotions started a fire within, “Is it not crystal clear?! Hope freaking left Kelley…she left all of us!”
Kelley looked at the midfielder with concern. Obviously, Carli had taken Hope’s disappearance just as hard as she had. She had been her best friend for crying out loud and for Hope to simply leave without telling her hurt Carli immensely. It was very upsetting that Hope had left her out of this particular battle she was fighting. Soon, the tension in the room grew as the majority of the team began to side with Carli’s point of view. Even the defenders, those closest to Hope, seemed a bit ticked off by their mentor’s absence. Kelley couldn’t believe that her entire team was fighting over this, that the strained relationship between her and Hope was even still worth fighting for.
Alex pleaded with the two captains at the front of the room, “I think we need to bring Jill into is. We have to talk to her. Where is she?!”
Suddenly, a voice boomed over everyone. Kelley cringed and did not dare to look back at her now standing bleach blonde teammate at the opposite end of the room. It was Pinoe.
“Oh my god! This is ridiculous! Can we all just grow up?! You’re killing me here. We’re talking as if Kelley isn’t in the room. Instead of making all these assumptions and getting our panties in a bunch, why don’t we ask Kelley what she thinks about all this?!”
The room rendered quiet as all eyes drifted towards the freckled face brunette who didn’t think it was any more possible to slouch further down in her chair.
Kelley stared straight ahead and mumbled, “Jill already ran this by me.”
“Speak up, Kelley.” Christie encouraged.
Kelley cleared her throat and continued, “I knew about this coming into camp…”
“Wait, what?” Alex asked, confusion laced in her tone of voice.
“Awesome.” Kling mumbled as she crossed her arms. “You knew this whole time.”
Kelley turned around to face everyone as best as she could and defended herself, “I just…I didn’t know this would become such a big deal to everyone…I said yes. I said that it was alright with me if Hope came to the reunion. I said yes.” She repeated, mostly to convince herself of her own decision.
Carli was speechless, but noticed the uncertainty, and fear, becoming more evident in Kelley’s eyes. She still didn’t know what to say, so Alex quickly took hold of the conversation.
“Kell, you didn’t have to…”
Morgan asked out of curiosity, “Uh, so what happens now? What do you want us to do?”
Ashlyn pressed for answers as well, “Kell, have you talked to her? Do you know when she’s coming?”
Kelley resumed her eye contact with the floor, slowly beginning to stress more and more as her teammates hounded her with questions. Luckily, Pinoe intervened.
“Guys, if Kelley gave her consent to Jill, then it’s official. Hope will be with us for the rest of the week.” Pinoe nodded towards Kelley, who looked up at her gratefully.
There were a lot of unanswered questions remaining, but Christie recognized Kelley’s all too familiar expression when it came to her relationship with Hope and knew that the younger defender was on the verge of breaking down. She turned to Abby, pleading with her eyes to help end the meeting.
Abby quickly caught on and announced, “Well then…I think we should wrap things up so we don’t waste the rest of the evening. You’re all free to leave.”
As soon as Abby finished talking, Kelley bolted out of the room. She had wanted to stick around and face the harassment of questions that were sure to follow, but as she sat through the meeting, she realized how real this all had become. She and Hope were going to be face to face for the first time in seven years. The tears came as she repeatedly pushed the button for the elevator, hoping that she could escape for just one moment. Though she prayed that no one would follow her, she felt a pair of hands spin her around.
“Kelley, wait…”
It was Carli, of course. Kelley looked up helplessly at her friend in hopes of finding some comfort, something she had gotten used to doing throughout all these years. Carli sighed and brought the shorter woman in for an embrace, feeling Kelley’s tears soak through her shirt.
“Kell, what are you doing? You didn’t have to do this…you don’t have to act like this is nothing when it is most definitely something. It’s okay not to be so strong all the time; you’ve done that for so many years now. This is something you can freak out about…”
“I…I haven’t seen her in so long and…I…” Kelley choked.
“Shhhh…remember, it’s okay to not be okay…”
“I know, I know.” Kelley pulled away and wiped her tears in frustration, “Sorry, I don’t know why I suddenly lost it. I mean, I knew what I was getting myself into.”
“Don’t be sorry…you have nothing to be sorry about.” Carli held her still by her shoulders.
Kelley glanced away, feeling the guilt rise within her after hearing Carli’s statement. She sighed, “Thank you for everything, really…but…I…I think I need to handle this mostly on my own from here on, okay? Just let me try, please.”
Carli shook her head, “Whatever you say, Kell, but I think both of us know that you’re going to need as much support as you can get this upcoming week. I’ll be waiting for when you want to talk.”
Kelley half-smiled and repeated, “Thanks, Carli.”
Carli nodded before changing the subject, “Anytime…hey, where’s the kiddo? I haven’t seen her all day!”
“She’s spending the day in the city with Rylie and Reece, thankfully…I told her to be home sometime in the afternoon, so that should be any minute now. We’ll probably go find something to eat when she gets back…want to join us?”
Carli nodded, “Yeah, sure…just let me know.”
Kelley walked back to her room and while she waited, she couldn’t help but open up her laptop once again. Her inbox was flooded with many more emails, including the U.S Soccer official announcement of Hope’s return. She was well into the article when the door flew open and a young girl bounced in.
“Momma!”
Kelley quickly spun around in her chair and greeted the mini version of herself, “Hey, Freckles.”
Henley groaned as she climbed into her mother’s lap. “Don’t you think I’m a little old for nicknames?”
Kelley rolled her eyes, “Don’t you think you’re a little old for sitting in your mother’s lap?”
Henley blushed and further buried herself into her mother’s chest, something that she had done ever since she was a kid. She admitted, “Fineeee…I mean, I don’t mind having a nickname and all, but does it really have to be freckles?” Her face scrunched up in disgust.
“Yes.” Kelley shrugged.
“Why? How did you even come up with that anyways?” Henley asked innocently.
Kelley’s mind reverted back to a certain practice months after Henley was born and how Hope stood on the sidelines with baby in arms, uncharacteristically squealing about the dusting of freckles already beginning to form on her daughter’s tiny little face. Kelley had scolded Hope, telling her that it probably wasn’t part of best parenting etiquette to overexpose their daughter to sun at such an early age, just to make freckles appear quicker. Yet, Kelley had looked on with adoration.
“Momma?” Henley interrupted her thoughts.
Kelley refocused her attention and gave her daughter the most reasonable explanation there was. “The freckle gene runs strong in the O’Hara family.”
Henley frowned, “Why can’t you call me something cool like everyone else does?”
“What, you mean like Kid O’Hara?” Kelley thought about the nickname that was the work of the one and only Aunty Pinoe.
“Yeah!”
“I don’t know…I don’t like the sound of that as much as I like Freckles. Plus, you’ll always be an O’Hara, which means you’re stuck with these little suckers for life.” Kelley pointed at her face, which quickly transformed into a silly expression.
Henley couldn’t help but smile. Nevertheless, she remained overly dramatic and huffed in defeat, knowing she couldn’t win against her own mother. She sat in silence in her mother’s arms, but being the curious little girl she was, she began reading the article currently on the laptop screen beside them.
Henley squinted to read the fine print and murmured aloud, “Hope Solo confirmed to make an appearance at…”
Kelley’s head shot up as she quickly scrambled to shut her laptop, startling Henley in her lap. She took a big gulp, not entirely sure what to say. Henley beat her to it, “Momma, what were you reading?”
“Uh, it’s nothing…just going through some emails from the staff regarding the week.” Kelley quickly changed the subject, “So did you enjoy your time with Rylie and Reece?”
Luckily, Henley didn’t ask any further questions and answered enthusiastically, “Yeah! We had a lot of fun! We got sundaes at Ghirardelli Square.”
Kelley chuckled at her daughter’s sweet tooth, “Well, I sure hope you didn’t spoil your appetite for dinner…speaking of which, Aunty Carli’s going to join us tonight. Why don’t you run over to her room and let her know we’re ready?”
“Okay!” Henley’s eyes shone with excitement hearing that her Godmother would be joining them for the evening. She and Carli shared a special bond, especially since she had always been by Kelley’s side as she raised the young girl alone.
Kelley sighed in relief as Henley ran out of the room and into the hallway. She needed a moment to herself. It suddenly dawned on her once again that this whole week could become very messy. Though people acted like they knew, only she and Hope knew exactly how they left things the last time they saw each other. Pinoe had been suspicious all these years, but that was a whole different ball park and something that Kelley couldn’t even begin to think about at the current moment. Other thoughts seemed to reign over her mind.
Has Hope changed? If so, for better or for worse? Will the two of them ever catch a break? Should she tell Henley about Hope? Would Hope even want to get to know her daughter? What would they say to each other if they did meet? The questions were infinite.
Kelley quickly gathered her things and headed out the door after her energetic daughter. She asked herself one last question before taking a deep breath and putting her thoughts on the back burner for the evening.
Why did her heart still skip a beat after all these years?