#ginodi

prompt from the off-season winter sport fandom challange

characters: Marco Odermatt, Chris Lödler, Zoé Chastan, Gino Caviezel

length: 597 words

January 2023, Kitzbühel

Chris noticed something was off the second Marco crossed the finish line. As far he could tell from the distance, it wasn't as bad as it had been the last time. Marco didn't break down crying, but he was still glad when Chris supported his walk and eventually helped him to take off the skis. The mixed zone turned chaotic as soon as the first journalist had spotted Marco's limp. Zoé helped Chris to shield Marco from the prying camera lenses and microphones as good as possible. They found the team hospitality to be almost abandoned which was good because Marco felt worse by the minute. He let himself fall on one of the plastic chairs, the injured leg stretched out because bending the knee did not feel alright at all, and buried his face in his hands. The adrenaline had worn off, the pain started to radiate up and down the whole leg and Marco hoped the feeling of a fist clenching around his throat would pass again quickly. The corner of his eyes burned.

“I need to get back, Alexis is still up at the start-”

“Don't worry, I got it. Go.”

Chris was reluctant to leave. Marco straightened his back and looked at him. “It's okay. Everything's going to be okay.,” he said. They had known each other for half an eternity now, yet Chris wasn't sure if he believed Marco's words. He left the room and hurried back to the skidoo-station. Meanwhile Zoé was organising a fastest possible transport back to the hotel while also keeping the team’s physiotherapist updated. Marco peeled the race suit off his body in order to examine the knee closer. The swelling was visible already yet it wasn’t bruised which Marco took as a good sign. It felt instable though, he didn’t want to put any pressure on it. The first doubts started to creep into his head: What if the injury was just a bit delayed? What if it really was the meniscus that had taken the hit again and was now fully blown, with no other option than to remove and replace it completely? That would have him in the hospital for a week and the season at its end, no world championship, no more competing for the big globe, let alone the small ones that he got a chance at, and don’t get started on the rehab, the last one had been terrible-

“Marco!”

Zoé’s voice ripped him out of the thought spiral. She was holding out her phone to him and he gave her a confused look but she just motioned him to take it. Marco took a short glance at the screen and recognised Gino’s name on it and suddenly, something inside of him sighed. He tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. Gino knew him well enough to talk first: “This is different. You’re going to be back on track in no time.”

“How can you be so sure?” Marco hated how fragile his voice sounded.

“I just am. There’s no way Loïc gets to be the only teammate challenging me for a medal in Schladming, I don’t begrudge him that sort of satisfaction.”

Marco laughed weakly. The door opened again and the physiotherapist joined their group, Marco clenched his hand around the phone a little tighter because he knew the upcoming minutes weren’t going to be easy on neither his knee nor his mind.

“I’ll call you as soon as I know more, okay?” he asked Gino.

“Of course. And Marco?”

“Yeah?”