#puckdrop

The short answer is no, they never find out. Jonny doesn’t have the kind of relationship with any of the guys where he’s going to spill how weird and strange the year was - he’s got Billy and Jake who went through it with him, who can talk about it if they need to, but there’s a healthy (unhealthy?) dose of sports-bro man-up-and-don’t-talk-about-your-feelings outside that little group. It’s quite likely that they never even really talk about with with Evan, Tyler and Declan, although those three probably talk to each other.

The Cobras are Jonny’s team now, and since the issues are mending, if not actually fixed (since it’s going to take time to get the improved culture established) he’s not going to bad-mouth his team to guys on other teams.

It’s not canon yet, because I haven’t written anything that touches the Cobras set after Puckdrop, but it’s likely that Jonny’s going to play for them for at least two more seasons while he finishes university, and he’s definitely going to grow apart from the Huskies during that time. He’s still friends with them, particularly Callum, but not in a sharing-emotions kind of a way. He’ll chat when they play each other, go out for a drink, and maybe there’s a boys holiday somewhere in the future, but it’s like staying in touch with your high school friends after you grew up and moved away.

Nobody’s going to think there’s anything odd about it - it’s quite likely that nobody will really notice that Jonny went through anything unusual. He’s just left home to start university, and most people change a lot at that stage in their lives, so if he’s different, they won’t think anything of it.

Jonny’s stepping up into the starter role, and none of his friends on the Huskies or in the group chat have ever known him as an established starter - they knew him as the 17/18 year old back up who sometimes got a good run of games, but as he gets more confident it just looks like normal growing up.

Jonny’s experiences have changed him, but some of that is paying a lot more attention to the team as a whole, not just his friends (nobody’s going to get away with bullying the next batch of rookies, put it that way) and if he gets a reputation for looking like he’s thinking about murder during warm up - well, he’s a goalie. They all do weird stuff. 

Within his team, he still has a bit of a reputation as a guy not to cross, partly because of the whole thing with the knives still lingering in the back of the minds of his less intelligent teammates, and partly because he’s a focus for loyalty within the team and if you cross Jonny you’ve got half the Cobras on your case. As the guys on the team change and new guys come in, there’s an established “don’t mess with Jonny” situation, but nobody ever elaborates on why. Jonny’s conscious that respect should be earned, and because he makes an effort not to use his (ridiculous) reputation to get his own way, people do respect him.

Somewhere near Amsterdam, Wednesday 25th October 2017

Taylor’s bored.

They’re not even rehearsing every day, just every couple of days as their new session musicians work through the changes that the band have made to the song on their set lists over however many months it’s been while they were on tour. None of the songs are played exactly as they’re written, out it that way.

Being in one place for this many days is letting them do some of the stuff that’s hard to do when they’re constantly moving around. Rick’s spending hours in the gym, the freak. Alf’s attached himself to the crew, because he might be a permanent member of the band these days but he used to be a roadie and he’s admitted to missing it sometimes. Mo likes his support, anyway.

Frankie’s mum stayed on when the rest of their families went home, and they’re off having quality girl time. Taylor doesn’t begrudge Frankie time with her mum, but they seem to be doing a lot of shopping and spa days and Taylor would rock either of those activities, just saying.

Anyway, everybody else is off doing things, and Taylor’s bored enough that he’s wandering through the rehearsal rooms even though they’re not needed today, vaguely toying with the idea of finding a guitar and working on that new song idea that’s been bugging him since Rick suggested it the other week.

**

“...and this is you.” Neil opens the door to Ruth’s rooms. Well. Not Ruth’s rooms, not any more.

Sam’s rooms now.

“Thank you.” Sam follows him into the first room, which had been Ruth’s sitting room.

“Door over there goes out onto the side path, so you can get in and out that way if you want.”

Ruth liked her independence, when she first moved in.

Sam’s looking around the room, which is clearly furnished for an older person of limited mobility, and Neil stamps on the urge to apologise. This place wasn’t set up for taking in stray teammates, and he didn’t really want a lodger anyway.

Darren asked, though. Neil had tried the I’ll have to ask my wife card, but Mel had just shrugged and said whatever, so now there’s this kid who has to be kept on the straight and narrow moving in to Ruth’s empty rooms.

“Bedroom’s through there.”

Ruth had insisted on bringing her double bed with her. The bed itself wasn’t in bad shape, but they’d bought a new mattress for Sam.

Everything else he’ll just have to put up with. He’s getting it rent-free, after all, the team are paying and it’s not like he’d get this much space for that price if he was paying out of his own pocket. Not that he’s struggling for money, based on his clothes and the car he turned up in.