Dislocation
Tag to my Upstead High School AU.
Hailey hears the story of one of Jay’s past hockey injuries.
Read on AO3 here or below the cut.
@whumpril
She doesn’t make it to practice very often but it’s kind of fun to watch.
Jay is all grace and speed during games but during practice she gets to see him slow things down, break skill down in a way that lets her actually see the individual pieces that she usually misses in the thick of it.
It also lets her see him favoring his left knee in a way that she doesn’t usually notice.
She doesn’t hesitate to call him on it when he skates off the ice, reaching for his water bottle.
“Huh?”
“You cover well but I’ve got eyes, Jay.” She tells him. “Your knee is bothering you. What happened?”
“Oh.” He says, glancing down. “It’s no big deal. I dislocated it a couple years ago and while it’s supposedly fully healed, it’s still kind of tender sometimes. I’ll ice it when I get home but its really nothing to worry about.”
“How did you dislocate it?” She asks.
The tips of his ears turn red and she chuckles.
“Now I have to know.” She teases him.
“It… kind of involves another girl.” He admits, ducking his head.
“You said a couple years ago.” She reminds him. “So probably before we even met. I’ll try not to get too jealous. Who was she?”
“Her name was Gabby.” He says, “I was twelve, playing on the 12-14 peewee hockey team with her older brother, Antonio. I used to show up early for practice so I could get an extra fifteen, twenty minutes in and one day she asked if I wanted to grab hot chocolate instead.”
He rubs the back of his neck.
“Will said yes for me.” he admits. “I uh, sort of didn’t realize it was more than just her wanting hot chocolate.”
Hailey laughs and he blushes darker.
“Yeah.” he says. “Guess the only game twelve year old Jay had was hockey.”
“So what happened next?” She says. “And how did you hurt your knee?”
“We got hot chocolate.” he shrugs. “And we were talking and she kept swatting at my arm and laughing too loud and I was completely clueless right up until she kissed me.”
“She kissed you?” Hailey says, laughing. “You weren’t kidding about no game.”
“I have some now.” he protests. “At least I hope so.”
She laughs again but kisses him softly.
“Yeah Halstead, you’ve got some game now.”
He grins boyishly at her.
“So did Antonio bust your leg for kissing his sister?” she asks.
“Antonio didn’t care.” he says shaking his head. “Plus he’s a cool dude so he wouldn’t do that. We’re still friends actually, he plays for West Haven so maybe I’ll introduce you guys when we play them next month. But there was this other guy on our team, Arthur. Big, mean enforcer type. I guess he had a thing for Gabby and wasn’t too happy when he saw us kissing.”
Hailey’s stomach drops slightly.
She’s been watching hockey, watching Jay, long enough to have an image of the kind of guy that he’s talking about.
Can only imagine what kind of damage one could do if they were jealous.
Especially in a practice setting with a teammate who wasn’t expecting a full force hit.
Jay shakes his head.
Gabby likes him? He never saw that coming.
Antonio seems to be cool with it, if a little exasperated and Jay isn’t sure what that’s supposed to tell him.
He shakes it off, focusing on the drill that they’re skating.
It’s a straightforward board battle drill that in a lot of ways is a skills battle between forwards and defenders.
He’s been paired with Arthur, easily the biggest and meanest guy on their team but never let it be said that Jay Halstead turns away from a challenge.
They set up, pressed against the boards with the puck on Jay’s stick.
Coach blows his whistle and the battle is on, Jay fighting to keep possession of the puck while Arthur tries to take it from him.
The second whistle blows and Jay flicks his wrist, sending the puck sailing toward his backup and then moving toward the net.
His leg gets caught between Arthur’s leg and stick, the older boy twisting his body and sending both of them crashing to the ice.
Something in his leg pops as they hit and he can’t help the scream that rips its way free.
The world around him is chaos; shapes colors, sounds, and voices all blending into a mashup of sensory input that’s blinding and deafening all at once even as it’s all drowned out by the pain burning up his left leg.
He closes his eyes, swallowing hard as he wills the contents of his stomach to stay where they belong.
The weight lifts off of him and he screams again as doing so pulls at his leg and a blazing explosion of pain rips through him.
There’s a sharp burst of sound right next to him and then suddenly the noise is fading, getting quieter as it drifts away from him.
Something wraps around his hand and he squeezes back, wondering when he’d taken his glove off.
“Easy Jay. Just focus on my voice, okay? Don’t worry about anything else.”
Will?
Will is here.
He feels himself relaxing.
It still hurts. It hurts so bad. But Will is here, Will will take care of him.
There’s shouting somewhere in the distance and he whimpers.
It’s too loud, it’s all too loud.
“Hey.” Will soothes, drawing his attention back to his brother and away from the shouting. “Focus on me, remember? They called for an ambulance so help is gonna be here soon but until then the two of us are just gonna hang out here. Remember the Blackhawk’s power play against Dallas last night?”
His brother keeps talking, meaningless commentary on last night’s hockey game that Jay’s not really paying attention to for probably the first time in his life.
All he really cares about is the sound of his brother’s voice and the pain.
His knee hurts so bad and his head is pounding.
“Hey.” Will’s voice is suddenly sharp. “Don’t try to move buddy, okay, I know the ice is probably a little cold but just stay still alright?
He hadn’t even realized he was moving but falls still, squeezing his brother’s hand.
Will’s monologue doesn’t stop again until twin thuds are sounding next to him.
A prick in his arm and then suddenly the pain is dropping off.
“I’d dislocated my knee pretty badly and now you know about my other hockey concussion.” He tells Hailey, shaking off the memories. “Was out for the rest of the season and half of the next. It wasn’t until later that I found out that Arthur did it on purpose because because he was jealous that Gabby kissed me.”
“What happened to him?” Hailey asks.
“He was banned from the recreational league we were playing in.” Jay tells her. “The high school he was hoping to play for the next year told him it wasn’t going to happen either. Actually I think he’s blacklisted in the whole district. In a game, it would have been a major penalty, possibly even a match penalty. For it to happen against his own teammate during practice was a pretty big deal.”
Hailey nods seriously and then smirks at him.
“And what about Gabby?” She asks playfully. “Did she kiss it all better for you?”
He rolls his eyes.
“She was only into hockey players.” He tells her. “Once I was off the team for an extended period, she wasn’t interested anymore.”
“Oh no.” She says, her voice teasing but he can tell she’s legitimately a little miffed on his behalf.
“It wasn’t a big deal.” He tells her, tangling his fingers in her hair and pushing it back from her face. “I was never really interested in her anyway. Turns out even then I already knew there was only one girl for me. And I hadn’t even met her yet.”
“You think that sweet talking will get you anywhere?” She asks but he can see the heat behind her eyes as she stares back at him.
“Nope.” He says, popping the p. “Just stating facts. You’re special.”
“Ditto.” She says. “In fact, I think you should change out of your gear so I can show you just how special you are, away from prying eyes.”
Don’t need to tell him twice.