Blood, Sweat and Tears Part 10

The day after his return to Pittsburgh, Duo woke with a piercing headache. Taking cover under a large pillow to shield himself from the light pouring into his bedroom, he turned onto his side and groaned. When one violet eye cracked open, he cautiously peered out to the blinding light. His nose began to run the moment he tried to sit up and every muscle was aching. "Damn it," he muttered to himself, flopping back onto the mattress with the pillow back over his head.

Before he went to bed, the running back thought that he was feeling a bit under the weather. After being the one exposed the most to Hope when she had her cold, Duo was afraid that he'd come down with a spell of it, himself.

As sore as he was, the thought of having to wake up to train all day seemed all too daunting a notion. Which was saying a lot about how bad off he was, considering how devoted he was to preparing himself for the season.

"Quat," Duo's muffled and gritty voice called. Pushing the pilled off of his head, he called to the wall against his bed's headboard, "Quat." A brief moment passed before he could hear footsteps from the middle of the room moving towards the door.

Before long, his own bedroom door opened to reveal a very alert blonde agent. "Sorry to cut in on your morning meditations," the American said softly with a round of raspy coughing that soon followed.

Gasping softly, Quatre took in the pale and damp face of his friend. "You look like hell," he commented with a deep frown. Quickly closing the door behind him, Quatre made his way across the large room to close the blinds of the massive window overlooking the rolling hills behind the estate.

With a deep sigh of relief when the room was dark enough, Duo pulled the pillow away to lay his head back on it. Turning onto his back, he mumbled, "Thanks, man." A sudden chill ran up his spine. Trembling a bit, he pulled his black comforter tightly around himself.

His frown only deepening, Quatre moved to the bed and rested a hand over his friend's warm brow. "You're burning up," he announced. A small smirk tugged his lips and he shook his head, "Just couldn't help but stick right by Hope's side the whole weekend, could you?"

The running back covered his mouth as he was overcome by another fit of coughing. When he was able to breath again, he shrugged, "What else was I supposed to do? Poor kid was all but quarantined until her cold finally broke. And I wasn't about to risk having one of the others get sick."

In a bit of a panic, Duo's mind quickly went over how much exposure the rest of his family was exposed to him. After recalling that there was very little of any contact that would be cause of concern, he relaxed a bit. A houseful of sick youngsters would have kept Solo and Hilde busy. If that ever were to happen, he would have just found a way to get out of training until they were all well again.

Quatre's smile just grew as he chuckled deeply, "You always were a softie." He narrowly ducked away from a spare pillow thrown at his head. Folding his arms, he said sternly, "Well, you're certainly not going to training like this."

"Any other day, you know that I would argue with you," the running back smirked. Stifling another cough, his smile faded with a deep sigh. "But, I know I wouldn't be of much use today like this. Not to mention not wanting to get the rest of the team sick."

His friend replied with a firm nod, "Right. I'll get a hold of Zechs, then." Turning on his heels, he headed towards the door only to stop just short of it. slowly glancing over his shoulder, he thought aloud, "Maybe I better check on Heero to see how he's feeling. You two spent a bit of time together last night with that tour."

Snorting, Duo closed his tired eyes and grumbled, "We had to. This place is huge. And it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences considering the fact that he basically spent the whole time speaking in grunts and no more than ten syllables at a time."

The agent waved his hand, "One problem at a time, Duo. I'll be back with some medicine in a bit. Just rest for now." Already nearly asleep, the running back hummed an affirmative. smiling, Quatre turned and headed out of the room.

On his way down the hall and past Heero's door, Quatre froze at the sound of a couple loud sneeze coming from the quarterback's room. Sighing deeply, his shoulders shrugged with a half-moaned, "Oh no."

*   *   *   *   *   *

"But it's just an occasional sneeze," Heero frowned deeply at the image of his head coach on the vidphone. "It doesn't mean I'm coming down with the same cold Maxwell has." Sitting on the living room couch across from him, Quatre fought off a smile. He knew all too well that Duo's cold started off with just a few sneezes as well.

It seemed misery certainly did love company.

Shaking his head, Zechs said, "I would much rather be safe than sorry. We can rely on our second stringers to replace you and Duo for a few days. Better that than having more than half of the team out of commission if they catch that bug. When Sally got wind that Duo was sick, she was inclined to agree at having learned that there is something going around. That's the Spring for you."

At hearing the name of the Wolverines' physical therapist, Heero winced a bit. Sally was one that took her role in the looking after the health of the team very seriously. It was what made her one of the best therapists in the league. And it also made it impossible to win an argument with her when it came to anything such as the one that the quarterback was having now.

With a wave of his hand, the blonde head coach reassured, "Don't worry about it, Heero. If anything, this will give Austin and Fellows more time on the field. If there's ever a time that they need to step up during the season, they'll need all the time that they can get."

Heero knew the truth of that. Brian Austin was still pretty shaky when it came to leading the team as a quarterback. And Terry Fellows had only been signed to the team the prior season the year before. The few times he actually played, the pressure really got to the young quarterback and he made a near obscene amount of fumbles. [1]

"Besides," Zechs smirked, "As team Captain, you're supposed to look out for the team's best interest." Now that was going right for Heero's Achilles heel. His leadership role was something that he took as seriously as Sally took her practice.

Knowing that he officially lost the dispute, the quarterback finally nodded, "All right, coach. I'll sit out these next few days just to be safe." A pleased and relieved smile tugged the lips of both Quatre and Zechs at those words.

The head coach winked, "I knew you'd see it my way. Rest up. I'll be in touch with Winner and Lady Une for a full report on how things are going. Take care." The screen went black with the click of a button.

Sighing deeply, Heero sagged into the couch that he was sitting on. Dry washing his face with his hands, he muttered, "Might as well head for the gym, since it's the only way I'll be able to get any kind of exercise until Maxwell's over his cold."

Quatre sat up across from him and winced, "Okay, but take it easy. Duo's cold started he same way that yours is. Just a few sneezes and in a few hours, you'll be down for the count with a fever and achy muscles."

Rising to his feet, Heero snorted, "I don't have a cold coming on." He raised an eyebrow and commented, "You've been around him more than I have. How is it you're not worried about getting sick, yourself?"

The agent grinned, "Ah. Well, you see, most of those lovely herbal teas that Lady Une and I enjoy on a daily basis are wonderful immunity builders. Case in point, neither she nor I have had so much as a sniffle."

Covering his mouth just as a loud sneeze pulled from his lungs, Heero reached for a tissue from the box beside the vidphone on the table. Quatre rose from his seat with a smirk and said quietly, "I hope that you have good bedside manners when you're down for the count.

*   *   *   *   *   *

In the locker room, Wufei and Trowa were sitting beside each other as they slipped into their gear. "Wonder what's holding Yuy and Maxwell up," the Chinese receiver stated with a gesture of his head to the two lockers across from them. "They're usually here by now." Some of their teammates were also talking quietly amongst themselves over the matter.

Clearing his throat as he entered with Howard, Zechs announced, "All right, everyone. Yuy and Maxwell are going to be out for possibly the week with a cold." The blonde-haired Brian Austin and the dark-haired Terry Fellows straightened with wide eyes. Grinning to them, the coach nodded firmly, "So, obviously that would mean that Austin, Fellows, are up this week. The two of you get your gear on."

Trowa, Wufei and Mueller shared equally wide-eyed, panicked looks. Knowing how the two young men tended to handled pressure, it was sure to be a very long week for everyone. The remainder of the first stringers for the offensive team lowered their heads and kept their concerns to themselves.

Zechs gave the order, "Everyone else, let's go." He tuned to leave with his team right behind while Howard smirked at his two second stringers. Neither had moved and their eyes only widened all the more at the realization that they were going to get some field time. The notion was as exciting as it was frightening, considering how long it'd been since either of them had a chance like this.

"As soon as you're both done pissing yourselves," the old man began when rest of the team was gone, "Meet with me on the sidelines to go over the play book." Both Austin and Fellows came to life at that. Pulling out their gear, they went right to work in suiting up.

Out on the field, Zechs smiled warmly to the braided young woman approaching. "Sally. This is a pleasant surprise," he greeted. "It's not very often that you leave your office to watch a training session."

Shrugging, the physical therapist chuckled deeply, "Well, I must admit that I was planning on staying in my office to take care of some paperwork until you told me that Brian and Terry were going to be playing today. I had to come and see this for myself since I haven't had a good laugh in some time."

From his place beside the head coach, Trent snickered. When Zechs glared at him, the defensive coach cleared his throat and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. But you know that she has a point. They're not exactly the most reliable when they're called on."

Zechs shrugged, "So they're still pretty inexperienced when it comes to the responsibility. Maybe they'll surprise us this week and you'll both be eating your words."

Trent and Sally shared a look that said they knew better than to have those high hopes. Whistling through his teeth, the young defensive coach brought his team together to go over some of the plays that they were expecting Howard's bunch to throw at them.

Opening his play book, Trent stood at the center of the young athletes huddled together and began, "All right. The first few plays will most likely be kept in the air to test Austin's arm, so focus on breaking the offensive line protecting him and bring him down before he can even get the ball out of his hands." He fixed his team with a glare as he warned, "And for God's sake, try not to hurt the poor bastard when you catch him!"

Brian and Terry ran out from under the stadium and onto the field in their full gear. Heading right for Howard and the rest of the offensive team, they melded into the huddle. "We're here," Austin's voice cracked into a high screech. Roughly clearing his throat, he tried again, "I mean, we're here, Pops."

Chuckling deeply, Howard patted the young quarterback on the shoulder and grinned, "So you are, my boy." He looked to his grim-looking wide receivers and told them, "Now, Chang and Dobson, we're going to be relying on our throwing game for the first half of the day, to get as far down the field as you can push yourselves and get open." [2] Wufei and his fellow receiver nodded firmly.

"Okay," Howard smiled to Brian, "First five plays, I want the ball in the air. Don't get intimidated by the defense when they come out. If they break through our line, hold your spot and throw it away across the sidelines to stop the play. Better to lose an attempt at the first down than yardage." [3]

Licking his lips nervously, the quarterback nodded, "Sure thing, coach." After breaking the huddle, the offensive team took their places as Howard ran off the field to join Zechs and Trent at the side lines.

The defense team lined up face-to-face with the offense team, smirking wickedly at the already sweating stand-in for Heero. Swallowing roughly, Brian peered through his helmet to watch his line hunch forward. Trowa's hand gripped the football in preparation to snap the ball back to the quarterback. His voice rough, Austin called a series of numbers before shouting, "Hut! Hut!" At that, the center tossed the back just as the defenders plowed forward.

Nearly dropping the ball as soon as it was in his hands, Brian looked around anxiously for someone to throw it to. Wufei was at least fifteen yards ahead. With defenders trying to catch up, the Chinese receiver managed to get a little breathing room. Mueller was struggling to keep back two men and one escaped, charging right for the quarterback.

Crying out at the sight of the brute coming for him, Brian lost his nerve and ran in the wrong direction. From the sidelines, Sally and Trent covered their mouths to muffle their laughing as Howard screamed, "Throw it away! Throw the goddamned ball away, kid!"

"Johnson, don't you kill him!" Trent shouted to his man that was nearly on top of the quarterback. With a yelp, Brian was smoothly taken down by his attacker at a loss of eight yards to make it. Second and eighteen. [3] Zechs's shoulders slumped as he sighed deeply.

As he wiped his brow, Howard frowned, "Let us all bow our heads now and say a prayer that we don't lose Heero or Duo during the regular season." Zechs, Trent and Sally all nodded their heads at that.

*   *   *   *   *   *

The following day...

Heero coughed roughly before pulling the comforter up and around himself. Lying one of the sofas in the living room, he sniffled and groaned at the aches that were creeping in. He glared to the braided young man lying on the couch across from him, "You're a black Angel of Death that's come down to torment me, aren't you?"

Laughing and coughing at the same time, Duo replied, "Love you, too man. If I was anything of the sort, I'd want to be more of a god of Death, than an angel." Unable to help himself, Heero chuckled deeply and shook his head in amusement.

"Somehow," the quarterback smirked, "that does seem more fitting of you."

TBC...

[1] A fumble is basically when the running back has the ball and drops it. The other team could then pick it up to gain possession and have their shot at scoring. If the other team comes up with the ball, that is also called a turnover.

Another turnover is called an interception, when the quarterback throws the ball and the other team catches it. The other team would then be in possession of the ball and can now attempt to score.

[2] 'Getting open' basically means staying clear of any of the defenders of the other team that are trying to keep a receiver from catching the ball. If the receiver is open, the quarterback has a clear shot right to them when he throws, so nothing should keep them from catching it.

[3] Every possession that they have, the goal of the offensive team is to get ten yards. That's would get them what is called a 'first down.' They have three attempts to get those ten yards and if they are stopped after all of those attempts before they reach that goal, they have to kick the ball away for the other team to gain possession and have their defensive team do the same thing.

So, when you hear 'second and nine,' for example, that means it is the second attempt to get ten yards with only nine yards to go. Or 'third and two,' third attempt with only two yards to go.

When they get to the ten yard mark, the offensive team has three more chances to get the next ten yards. So, the whole point is to work up the field-slow and sure if needed- to get to the goal line.

 

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