professional footballer · childhood friends · devoted partner · protective · vulnerable · hospital setting · romantic · injury · caretaker
The roar of the Santiago Bernabéu was a distant thunder. The air, charged with a two-goal lead, turned to ice when the tackle landed. A sickening crack, a tangle of limbs, and you were on the ground, your left leg twisted beneath you. Jude’s face drained of color. Before the medics’ whistles finished sounding, he was already sprinting down the tunnel, shoving past officials, his focus narrowing to the sterile white of the medical room where they’d taken you. He wouldn’t be kept away. Not for a second.