Chapter Text
A banging on the door jolted her out of sleep. Who the hell was pounding on her door at…she rolled over to squint at the alarm clock by her bed…7:00 in the morning? She slumped back onto the bed and pulled a pillow over her head. The hotel had supplied her with excellent pillows and it went a long way towards muffling the sound from her door. She sighed with relief when the noise stopped.
“Baker,” a voice barked sharply.
Ginny sat up with a scream, clutching at her arm to control the pain from the sudden movement. Her hair was in her face and prevented her from seeing who was in her room but she knew that voice.
“Lawson?” Batting her curls out of her eyes, Ginny found Mike leaning his shoulder against her bedroom door smirking at her. “What the...” she choked out, her mouth gaping.
“You see Rookie, there are rules. Rules that say you have to answer your phone when your captain calls. Rules that say you can’t ignore your teammates’ calls and texts for an entire road trip.” Lawson straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, his smirk disappearing beneath the look she privately called his “obey me” look. “And there are many, many rules about how you can’t leave your teammates in the dark about something important like an injury because then they have to learn about it from ESPN.”
Ginny bit the corner of her lip and looked down. “It’s only been 48 hours, Lawson. And there really hasn’t been an official diagnosis yet, despite what ESPN has reported,” she muttered.
“So why didn’t you just say so? You could have told Evelyn, Blip, me, Salvi or anyone else. Even Livan. Wait. No, not Livan. Anyone but him. Instead you told us exactly nothing, which is why I’m standing here at 7:00 in the morning when I could have slept another two hours before heading to the park.”
Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “Wait. How exactly did you get in my room?”
Mike pulled a plastic card from his pocket. “Room key.”
“How did you get that?”
Mike shrugged. “I have my ways.”
She pushed the covers back and stood to face him. “Who gave you a key to my room?”
“Rookie, no one gave me a key.” He took a quick step back when she reached out to grab the key from his hand. He made a point to scan her from top to bottom. “You know Baker, this isn’t what I pictured you wearing to bed.”
Ginny gasped in fake outrage as she made another swipe for the card key. “Why have you been imagining me in bed, old man?”
That took Mike aback and he froze. “I wasn’t…I mean I hadn’t…” he sputtered. She made a quick swipe for the key while he was distracted. She yanked it from his hand and quickly back-peddled, holding it behind her back so he couldn’t retrieve it.
“Nice distraction,” Mike reluctantly praised before shrugging. “I liberated the key from the maid’s cart.”
Ginny frowned. “They left a master key sitting in the hallway?”
Mike’s cocky grin was back. “Nope. It was nice and safe in a locked closet.”
“Then how…”
“Rookie, a little known fact about yours truly is that if baseball hadn’t worked out for me I would have been an excellent cat burglar. In fact, I’m thinking about moving on to jewel heists when I’m retired.”
Ginny’s jaw dropped. “You broke into a locked closet just to get a key card?”
Mike crossed his arms and frowned. “No, I picked the lock to get the card because a rookie is disrespecting the entire team by pouting in her room. Be happy it was me. Al and Oscar were planning on coming over and they would have had hotel security open your door for them if you didn’t answer their knocks. I just saved your ass Baker.”
Ginny instinctively threw her hands in the air in frustration, only to gasp at the sharp pain that ran down her arm. She clutched her right arm, her multi-million dollar pitching arm, to her side. The pain was so intense she had to blink away tears, because there was no way in hell she was crying in front of Lawson.
“Where’s the brace?”
Ginny’s eyes snapped to Mike’s face. His tone of voice was low, calm, near menacing and the scowl on his face was fierce. This was Mike at his most furious.
“What brace,” Ginny tried tentatively.
“Quit bullshitting me rookie. Where is your goddamn brace?”
Ginny had never seen Mike this angry. “It’s in the bathroom,” she admitted. “I couldn’t get it back on after changing out of my clothes.”
The scowl softened as Mike let out a frustrated sigh. “God forbid you ask anyone for help, Baker. Give me the brace and I’ll help you get into it after you’re dressed.”
He expected an argument, but Ginny just nodded and retreated into the bathroom. She returned with a complicated shoulder immobilizer and handed it to Mike. “I’m going to take a quick shower. You can wait in the living room for me as long as you promise not to steal anything.”
“Baker, you don’t have anything worthy of my amazing talents. Now hurry up, I don’t have all day to wait for you.”
Ginny rolled her eyes at him before turning away. “It’s pretty early in the morning to be this cranky, old man. Sit down and take a nap. I’ll wake you when it’s time to go.”
There really wasn’t much to her hotel suite, just the living/dining room and the bedroom. He waited until the water turned on before moving out of her room. The brace was relatively standard as far as arm immobilization went. It took him all of two minutes to undo all the straps and Velcro that the rookie had mangled and get it straightened. He dropped to the sofa and groaned, still sore from last night’s game and red eye flight.
He reached for the remote, only to find the coffee table full of items. He shamelessly sorted through them. Here was the story of his rookie, the real way she’d spent the last two days. In front of him was six pill bottles, all labeled with medicines he recognized. Anti-inflammatories, muscle-relaxants, and pain meds: things found in every professional athlete’s medicine cabinet at some time in their career. The expected iPad, mp3 player and laptop, although why she needed both a laptop and tablet he didn’t know. He leaned down to look under the table and found ice packs, bags of now thawed peas, and books ranging from Yogi Berra to mystery to..romance? He flipped it open to the middle of the book and scanned. Three pages in and his eyebrows were nearly touching his scalp. So this is what women read? It was like Penthouse Forum, but with a lot of emotions. Geez, maybe they should hand this stuff out to the kids in single-A ball and call it an instruction manual. He was surprised Baker read romance but hey, whatever got her mind of off her injury was all good with him.
He reached his arm further under the table, stretching until he nearly fell off the damn sofa. He grabbed a bag and brought it up for inspection. It was a gallon sized sandwich bag full of rice. A reluctant smile broke through. She hadn’t been ignoring him. She hadn’t been pouting or drinking or partying or doing other stupid stuff to get through the first few post-injury days. Nope, his rookie had dropped her phone in water.
He heard the shower shut off and quickly shoved everything back in place. He didn’t know if she’d appreciate him snooping through her stuff and he didn’t want a fight. By the time she finally came out, he was stretched out on the sofa watching the morning news.
“You take forever, Baker. I think my beard grew another inch waiting for you.”
She snorted. “Thanks for the nightmares, Lawson.”
He clicked the TV off and stretched as he stood up. “You know you love the beard.”
“I do not love the beard.”
Mike scooped the brace off the sofa and approached Ginny. “Are you sure you want to wear just that top? The brace is going to itch on bare skin.”
Ginny looked down at her tank top. It wasn’t indecent by any means, but it was low and she never showed this much skin at the park if possible. “It’s all I can get on by myself.” She suddenly glared at Mike. “And don’t you dare say you’ll help me dress.”
Mike raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. “I wasn’t going to say anything. Geez, Baker.” His paused a moment before continuing. “If it helps, we’ve all been there. Anyone who has had an injury has needed help into or out of clothes. Have you ever broken ribs? You physically cannot put on any clothes without help. Our trainer Ed literally stripped and re-dressed me in the locker room because I couldn’t straighten up. And after Salvi’s knee surgery, I swear to God he couldn’t get his pants on by himself for two weeks. Either his wife, the physical therapist, or Ed had to help him.”
Baker looked like she wasn’t sure she believed him. “Seriously? You’re not making this up?”
Mike sighed. “Ask the team if you don’t believe me. Or ask any of the medical staff. They’ll all say the same thing. Now come here,” he instructed. “Let me get this brace on you and let’s go. If you make me late to the park, you’re running laps rookie.”
It wasn’t until she was standing in front of him that he could see the pallor beneath her latte toned skin, the sweat beading on her upper lip. “When did you last take your meds, Baker?”
She scowled at him and for a minute he didn’t think she was going to answer. Then she let out a sigh that implied he was a huge pain in her butt and answered. “About midnight.”
“You’re taking them as soon as we get this brace on.”
“I can’t take them on an empty stomach.”
Mike shook his head at her. “Always with the food, Baker. Well, lucky for you I’m the best captain on the planet.” He motioned towards her entry way with his chin. “I brought you food. Your gratitude can be shown with gifts of beer and promises of eternal obedience.”
She laughed out loud at that one.
“Now get over here so I can put this thing on and we can go. You take forever to get ready.”
“You try getting ready using only your non-dominant hand, Lawson. I’d love to see you try brushing your teeth around the furry growth on your face,” Ginny retorted. She grabbed the immobilizer from his hand and fit her arm into the sling. As she held the sling in place against her body, Mike reached around at tightened straps and applied Velcro to adjust the fit. The silence felt just a little uncomfortable as his arms wrapped around her body and his hands slid across her skin to adjust the straps to her liking. The both worked hard to ignore the goosebumps that rose on her skin and the way his breath brushed against the side of her neck in a way that might not be totally accidental.
And then he looked at her arm, really looked at it, and he froze. Her upper arm was grotesquely swollen and bruised black. That level of swelling and bruising wasn’t normal. It was a pretty good sign that she had a serious injury, one that put next season in doubt. But Ginny hadn’t told him anything yet, and he wanted her to volunteer the diagnosis. He hoped she trusted him enough to tell him herself, instead of letting him hear it from the front office like the rest of the team.
Mike cleared his throat and stepped away. “Take the meds now. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll let you eat in my car.” He shot her a look. “You better not spill in my baby.”
Ginny grabbed the bag of food and headed for the door. “I’ll take them when I get back.”
“No, you’ll take them now,” Mike barked.
“Let it go Lawson,” she warned.
His hand shot out and grabbed her left arm to carefully pull her around to face him. “Now, rookie.”
“I’m not going into the clubhouse drugged up.”
“Why?”
For a second, he thought she was going to punch him. Instead she let out a sharp breath of exasperation. “Because I work with a bunch of children. What if I fall asleep on the sofa in the middle of one of your never-ending speeches? I’ll wake up with a goatee drawn in permanent Sharpie, or my hair 6 inches shorter. And God forbid I do or say something stupid. It would end up on video for all posterity to enjoy.” She tried to control her voice, but bitterness slipped in anyways.
Mike’s brow furrowed. “Rookie,” he began, only to stop. He ran his hand over his face before he tried again. “Jesus. No would cut your hair or draw on your face. Can the drama. We’re not children.”
“So these aren’t the same guys that were looking at stolen pictures of me? And weren’t these the same guys that stole all the towels from the locker room so Sonny and Melky had to walk across the locker room naked while it was full of reporters? And I’m pretty sure one of them was the jerk that nailed my cleats a few days ago.”
He snatched the pill bottles off the table and opened them, pouring out the appropriate amount of pills into his hand after reading the label. In three steps he reached the water bottle she had left on the table and thrust it at her. “I promise to keep the boys in line, no videos, no visible tattoos.” At her scowl, a chuckle escaped him. “Take your meds. You’re mean when you’re in pain.”
She balked momentarily before giving in and taking the handful of pills in one swallow. She muttered something under her breath and stomped towards the door, pausing only long enough to grab the bag of fast food.
“What was that Baker?”
She flashed a smile over her shoulder, the same one that she always wore whenever she thought she was funny. “I can’t repeat it, Lawson. I’ve always been taught to be kind to the elderly, and my words were definitely not kind.”
“Be careful rookie, or I’ll tell the team about your pink dinosaur pajamas.”
He expected her to be angry and make some cutting response. Instead, her laughter followed her into the hallway. “Be careful old man, or I’ll tell them I found you wearing them. And good luck explaining how you know anything about what I sleep in.”
***************
“Okay, I sent a group text to every contact in my phone staying that I was fine and explaining that my phone had broken. That should get everyone off my back.”
Lawson snorted in disbelief. “Not even close Baker. You’re going to pay for this for a while. And the front office is going to have many words for you.”
Ginny rested her head on the headrest and groaned. “They’re probably regretting my existence in the Padres organization right now.”
Mike snorted but held his silence. Ginny glared at him. “You could offer me reassurances here, captain. Maybe give me one of your endless speeches?”
“Why do you want me to lie to you, Baker?” He kept his face straight and tone even.
“You’re a jerk, you know that?”
“I do my best to keep your ego in check.”
Her phone rang and she glanced at the screen. “It’s Oscar. I suppose I have to answer this, don’t I?”
“Now, Baker.”
With a resigned sigh, she answered her phone. “Hi Oscar.” A pause, then “I know, my phone broke.” Another pause. “No, I don’t know where Amelia is. I’m sort of, well, maybe a little agent-less right now.”
Mike’s head whipped around to face her and his jaw dropped in shock. A blaring horn pulled his attention back to the road before he could question her.
“Yes, it would be great if I could meet with the doctor. I’ll go over now. Yes, I’ll come to the park and bring the records as soon as I’m done.” She paused to listen for a minute. “No, it’s okay. Mike’s here, I’m sure he’s okay with driving me. Uh huh. Okay. Sure thing. See you soon, Oscar.”
The second her finger hit the end call button, Mike snapped “What do you mean Amelia isn’t your agent? When did that happen?”
Instead of snapping back, Baker just closed her eyes and sighed. “Can you drop me off at the hospital? The doctor has the results of the MRI and wants to talk to me. I don’t want to take a cab or Uber. Not yet.”
“Are you using the team doc or a specialist?”
“A specialist,” she muttered. “It’s in the same medical wing attached to the hospital.”
“And what is this physician’s specialty,” Mike asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.
Ginny shook her head and looked out the window. When he repeated his question, she replied “elbow reconstruction,” in a whisper. Mike’s throat tightened at her answer. It wasn’t the words that bothered him, it was the way she said them, heart-broken and maybe even a little afraid. It blew him away that the woman that showed no fear, no weakness, could suddenly sound so human.
Suddenly she straightened and the Baker he knew reappeared. “Just drop me off in front of the hospital. I’ll just meet you at the park when I’m done.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No. I don’t need someone to hold my hand. I can do this.”
Mike rolled his eyes so hard they nearly got stuck. “Get over yourself, Baker. I’ll stay in the office waiting area if it matters that much. You should be thanking me for this. When people see me, they’ll forget all about you. When all the fans swarm me for photos and all the women are shoving their phone numbers in my pocket, you can walk into the office unnoticed.”
Her laugh made him smile in response. “I’m so lucky to be in the presence of God’s gift to women.”
“Now you’re finally getting it Baker. I am indeed a legend.” She was laughing too hard to respond, and Mike could admit to feeling smug that he just made his rookie forget her fear.