I spent the rest of the half talking to Matty, Janelle and Ronan, who went and got all of us sausages and beer. I didn't particularly care for the beer, but I drank it to get in the spirit of things. I actually drank it pretty quickly because I didn't enjoy the taste and I didn't want to have to hold it, and Ronan promptly got me another one, thinking I liked it, so I quickly drank that one down, too, for the same reason. I put my hand on his arm to stop him getting me a third, telling him I was good.

The wind picked up at the start of the second half, turning the stadium into sort of a wind tunnel. With all of the bodies in there, it was kind of humid, too, in spite of the cold, and my hair started to rock and roll and do its crazy curling thing.

I cautiously moved back to my seat next to Teddy, but he seemed to have forgotten about tickling me to death, merely reaching out to hold my hand.

The wind was going against the European team, making them work twice as hard to move the ball, and the UK team scored twice in quick succession, causing the stadium to erupt into cheers.

"What's the deal with your hair?" Teddy asked, putting his lips next to my ear.

"Does it look like I have a fucking deal with my hair?" I retorted. "I don't have any kind of 'deal' with my hair, it does what it fucking wants, okay?" I laughed. "Gimme a sec, I'll take care of it." I pulled the hair tie off my wrist and twisted it up into a messy bun. Today's bun was extra messy. "Better?" I asked.

"Much," he said, putting an arm around me. "Now I can do this." And he leaned in and kissed my neck, very warm, very nice.

"Thank you," I murmured, leaning into him. We stayed that way for a while.

The European team was getting frustrated, you could tell by the way they were playing. They were getting very rough, committing penalty after penalty. Even I could tell that they were breaking the rules. And of course, I spent most of my time watching Geth and not the ball.

That was why I saw when the European player threw his elbow right into Gethin's face, for no reason that I could discern. Not that a reason would have mattered to me. Geth's nose erupted in a gout of blood, splattering the front of his uniform and the uniforms of the two or three players closest to him.

We were all on our feet, screaming, along with most of the stadium, it seemed. The player who'd thrown the elbow, someone named Moreau, had nonchalantly moved away, and now turned around in apparent surprise to see the cause of the disturbance.

I waited for the ref to penalize the player, but nothing happened. Geth took steps toward Moreau, and his teammates grabbed him and held him back. He was hauled off the field, still shouting, to have his nose seen to.

I turned to Teddy, incensed. "What about the guy who threw the elbow? Moreau? What about the instant replay? Doesn't he get a foul? A, a penalty, whatever? He should be carded, ejected, whatever the fuck it's called!"

"Calm down, calm down, there is no instant replay in football, darling," he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. "If the ref didn't see it, there's nothing to be done."

"What?" I couldn't believe it. "Are you fucking kidding me? That asshole can just walk up and stick his elbow in Gethin's face, break his fucking nose for all we know, and fucking get away with it?" I was shrieking by the end.

I turned to the others. "Seriously? There's nothing to be done?" I looked at Janelle, whose face was twisted with worry and pain. "Did you see his face? What am I saying, of course you saw his face, I'm so sorry, Janelle, that was really insensitive of me."

By now, Geth was almost right below us, having his nose tended, and without thinking I started to climb over the barrier to go down to him. Immediately Teddy and Matthew grabbed my arms and hauled me back.

"No, darling, we're not allowed down there," Teddy said, looking like he was hugging me while he was in fact restraining me.

I collapsed into his arms, crying with frustration. "It's just that, when I was hurt, when my nose was bleeding like that, Geth took care of me, you know? And now he's hurt, in almost the exactly the same way, and I can't do anything for him." I buried my face near his collarbone, grabbing fistfuls of his sweater.

"Oh, I see," Teddy said, quietly, rubbing my back. His voice had that defeated tone that it always took on whenever that particular event came up. I hated to hear it, and I was sorry I'd brought it up. His hand came to my hair, his long fingers working their way into my bun.

Play continued as Geth's injury was treated, but I had no interest in it; Teddy and I remained standing, holding each other, as he kissed the top of my head from time to time. Matty, Janelle and Ronan, too, were quiet, and I could tell that their attention was no longer on the match either.

I finally let go of Teddy and looked over the barrier. They had stopped the bleeding, and had iced it. As I watched, they removed the ice, and under it his nose looked almost normal, and miraculously, not broken. He looked up at us and waved. We waved back, smiling.

I hoped they were going to pull him from the game, when they sent him to the locker room, but he emerged a few minutes later in a clean jersey and rejoined the game. He was subbed in immediately as they desperately needed his dextrous ball handling skills, and he put them to use right away, receiving the ball and deftly handing it off to a player who was open and put it in for a goal within minutes of Geth taking the pitch.

I continued to watch Geth, especially when he got in the vicinity of the asshole Moreau, but nothing happened, and the game ended with the UK coming out on top 5-2. We all hugged each other and screamed and clapped, and there was general running around and man hugging on the field, but my main emotion was one of relief that Geth hadn't gotten hurt again or any worse.

We left the stadium and were escorted to a lounge area underground to wait for Geth. I was happy that there was a bathroom because of the beers that I had drunk, and there was wine, beer, and food laid out.

"So what's the plan now?" I asked the boys. "I mean, do we take Geth and go home, or do we go out and celebrate, or does he go out with his team and celebrate and we go home, or what?"

Matty answered. "Well, in the past, when he's played in matches, we've usually all just gone out in a big gang, but he's never played with all pros before. They might not want to go out with a band, they might just want to keep it to themselves, so let's just see how it plays out, okay? They should all be coming through here in a bit anyway, to meet all of the people they invited to watch them play, their families and such."

The room was filling up with the girlfriends, wives, and friends of the players, some of whom were excited that UK Crush was there in the flesh and were flirting with the boys, putting their hands on them and asking for photos and autographs.

Suddenly, there was a noise like a wave roaring through a tunnel, and the double doors at the end of the room opened and the team came charging through, cheering. Everyone applauded and cheered for them, as the players looked for their significant others. Geth came through the doors, searching for us, and we waved madly as he ran toward us. We UK Crushed him, taking care not to touch his sensitive nose. It still looked a little pink, but otherwise okay. He was freshly showered, and smelled and looked fantastic.

I cried as I hugged him, I couldn't help it.

"Ah, don't cry, poppet, I'm fine, I'm fine," he comforted me.

"I just felt so helpless," I said, "I saw the asshole who did it, and I wanted to kill him."

"Well, thanks for the sentiment," he said with a laugh, releasing me. We drifted apart as we mingled, and a couple of Geth's teammates paid me special attention, calling me princess and keeping my wine glass full. It shocked me that they were flirting. They towered over me, exuding an almost overwhelming presence of male. Didn't they have groupies, long-legged, wind blown blondes who knew all the cheers and kept stats on their favorite players? They were disappointed that I was leaving, but brightened considerably when they found out we were going to the celebration "do".

After everyone was assembled, we all piled into cars to head to Old Line Tavern, where most celebrations took place. It was known for its VIP rooms and raucous parties.

"Looks like you have a fan club of your own," Teddy murmured to me as we were leaving.

"They're harmless," I answered. "They couldn't possibly be interested in me, they're world famous athletes, with their pick of women. I barely come up to their waists."

"Some men would find that a very attractive trait in a woman," Teddy said with a grin as we joined the boys in the tunnel.

"You're disgusting sometimes," I said, slapping him on the butt.

"You know you can't live without me," he laughed, picking me up and walking a few steps with me in his arms before kissing me and carefully setting me down when we reached the car.