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Matt
Once Chris disappeared out of his sight, Matt suddenly felt a little less safe. Even with the first aid officer fussing around him and the four walls of the medical room keeping him secure, his entire body still felt tensed and ready to deal with potential threats. His heart was still pounding in his chest, for one thing – and he could already feel the cold sweat drying on the back of his neck.
What Darren Schloss had even been doing here, Matt had no idea. He guessed he should have known that this might happen. It would neither be the first time nor the last that a disgruntled employee turned up to protest the way they’d been handled after an incident. That wasn’t a nice thing – but sadly, it was true.
The sound of Greg’s voice startled him out of his reverie, a stark and focused contrast against the soft rattle of the first aid officer’s background chatter.
“Matt, I can’t apologize enough.”
The poor man did look like he’d lost five years of his life over the space of the past fifteen minutes. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting Darren to come back either.
Based on the flustered expression on his face, Matt felt that somebody should be sitting Greg down on a stretcher and making him drink high-glucose water – not Matt.
“Honestly, I just... I never thought anything like this would happen on our property. Or at all. Clearly our security team has seriously failed you, so-”
“Greg,” Matt interrupted, with a soft smile. “It’s fine.”
Greg shook his head firmly. “Oh, absolutely not. It is not fine. You came here to speak about protecting our team and our fans from homophobia, and here you are recovering from a homophobic attack – on our grounds, and by one of our players. It’s inexcusable. It’s...”
“Please,” Matt insisted, jumping into the silence as Greg tried to decide what else it was, other than inexcusable. “I’m not angry. This isn’t anybody’s fault but Darren’s, and... even he doesn’t exactly seem in control of his faculties right now.”
“No,” Greg agreed, a note of sadness – or disappointment? – in his tone. “Agh. Frankly, I feel like I let him down too. We should really be looking out for our players. Getting suspended is a big shock to the system; I should have known he might struggle to cope with that.”
“You can’t take all of this on your shoulders,” Matt assured him. “I mean. I appreciate your concern, but the apologies really aren’t necessary. We’re all okay.”
“We are,” said Greg. “Thank God.”
Matt could see the ghosts of what might have happened flash across Greg’s face – the worst-case scenarios that so many people had come to be afraid of in this day and age. For as horrible as this incident had been, it could have been so much worse. They had to be thankful for that. Unfortunately, it seemed like it might take a while for Greg to get to that line of thinking.
For now, he just needed to be proactive – and Matt could understand that. He felt much the same way when things went wrong.
Mostly, he just wanted to be with Chris right now.
“Listen,” said Greg, finally looking up to meet Matt’s eyes again. Aha – would this be the moment they released him, so he could finally have his wish? It felt like it had been hours since he’d first stepped into this room to have his nose checked out, even if it had only been minutes in reality. “I hate to ask about this now, but... I really hope this doesn’t prevent you from wanting to come on board, like we discussed. Now more than ever, I think we could really benefit from your expertise to prevent something like this from happening again. Not just here, but in other clubs. I mean... I really want to turn it around. Make an example of this, if we have to.”
“That’s a noble ambition,” said Matt. “And – yes, I am still interested. I’m a reporter, you know; you can’t scare me off an opportunity this easily.”
Greg gave him a weak smile, adjusting his thick wire-rimmed glasses further up his nose. “Well. I’m very glad to hear that. I think it’s safe to say I can formally offer you the position at this point... as though we ever had any other interviewees.” He paused. “Of course, if you could refrain from mentioning to the board that I told you that...”
Matt mimed a cross over his heart. “Scout’s honor.”
“That’s what I like to hear. And I-”
At that, however, a quiet knock interrupted them. As the door opened, warmth and relief flooded through Matt’s system, just as effective as if he’d been given an intravenous painkiller. Chris’s handsome face, thick with concern, peered in through the doorway – though the concern soon faded out to a soft smile of relief as he saw Matt’s mirrored back at him.
Greg glanced between them, picking up a small smile of his own. “...And I guess we’ll finish this conversation later,” he said to Matt, reaching out with his hand. “Happy to have you on the team.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Matt assured him. Granted, most of his attention was on a very confused-looking Chris – but it wouldn’t take long to fill him in. Right now, every cell in Matt’s body was shivering in Chris’s direction, just waiting for the moment that he’d reach Matt’s side. Then, after what felt like an age, there he was – his hand warm and strong on Matt’s shoulder, pulling him close.
“If it isn’t my wounded soldier,” said Chris. “The newbie college hockey player look, huh? Suits you.” He reached out to gently tap the free patch of skin just beside the Band-Aid on Matt’s nose. “I think it’ll catch on.”
“Jerk,” said Matt, with none of the assertiveness required to give that word its power. “How about you? How are you holding up?”
“Couple of cuts and bruises,” said Chris, holding up his palms to show where the surface of the skin had been worn away. It looked nasty – but it had, at least, been cleaned and treated. “Nothing too major.”
“My hero.”
They grinned at one another, Matt sparing a moment to nod at Greg as he made his exit. Chris followed his progress out of the room just like Matt did, nodding after him to launch his question. “So – what’s all that about?”
“I guess I’m now the official LGBT liaison to the Rangers,” said Matt. “Dealing with all relevant PR and training.”
“Really?”
Matt shrugged one shoulder, a smile pricking up the corners of his lips as he saw how happy Chris was with the news. “Really. I guess it means I’ll be sticking around the area for a little while, though, so... if you know anybody with space in their apartment, you can let them know I’m looking.”
“I will surely let them know.”
Silence fell back over the room as the first aid officer bustled back in, smiling politely at both Chris and Matt as she continued to tidy up the space.
“D’you know?” she said. “There are people saying they’re going to kick Schloss permanently off the team.”
“That’s what I heard,” Chris agreed. “I guess there’s not much else they could do, after that.”
“Mm,” said the first aid officer. “Quite right. I can’t imagine what he was thinking.”
“No,” Matt agreed – but he was surprised to see Chris glance quickly away, as though he did. Strange. Matt figured he’d heard every bit of the conversation they’d shared. He wasn’t standing that far away. Had he really missed something that big? But as he glanced up with curious eyes at Chris, he saw his boyfriend give him the faintest shake of the head.
Not now, he figured that meant. I’ll tell you later.
The fact that there even was a later was enough to sate Matt’s curiosity for the time being. He simply sat up straighter to let the first aid officer do her final checks, and felt the loss of Chris’s arm around him as soon as it left.
With luck, the officer would release him from her care after this, and then they could go home to decompress.
He’d never felt so tired after so little of the day had passed before.
Then again, he’d never been punched directly in the nose before, so... he supposed there was a first time for everything.
