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chapter twenty-two: he'll come back

a/n:

welp, here we are, folks. the end.

there's gonna be an epilogue after this, but this is the last real chapter.

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Turns out that Jamie is really, really bad at this.

She sits on the floor of her bedroom, marker pens and glitter all around her and a poster board in front of her. It's been a few hours since she started and all she has to show for her progress is a bunch of crumpled up scrap paper that held possible designs- she has no idea how to start this, or how to finish it, but she knows she wants to do it, and it's incredibly frustrating.

Just as she's sketching yet another format, there's a knock on her door.

"Come in!"

Jim pokes his head in the door. "Hey, Jamie. Your mom wants to know when the game is tomorrow night."

Absent-mindedly, she nods.

"It's, uh, it's at like seven."

He nods, too, and then cocks his head slowly as he watches her struggle.

"Do you need help?"

Jamie contemplates that for a moment because yes she does need help but does she really want to ask him? The last time he really helped her with anything was her math homework when she was a little kid, and that wound up with her dissolving into tears and him trying to figure out how to do basic math the way her teacher wanted her to.

He, among other things, gets frustrated way too easily.

"Uh, sure." She says anyway.

Jim enters the room fully, then, and shuts the door behind him. He sits a respectful distance from her and actually relaxes for a moment, not looking like he's prepared to come under attack at any moment, before gently picking up a thing of glitter and turning it over in his hand.

"What are you making, exactly?"

"Posters." Jamie hums. "Adam's friends all think I hate them, so I wanted to show my support. Make it clear, y'know?"

He nods again, slowly this time, and looks up at her with this strange look in his eyes. After a moment, she feels like fidgeting and cocks a brow in response.

"What?"

"I know."

"Huh?"

"About you and Adam." Jim elaborates. "I know."

Her heart sinks.

"I know he's been sneaking into your room, and I know that you two are together... not that you're exactly quiet about either of those things."

Tentatively, she asks. "And how do you feel about it?"

Jim takes a moment to think and Jamie swallows nervously, her heart sinking more and more the longer it takes him. Just when she fears she's going to faint, he breaks the silence, the corners of his lips twitching up a bit.

"I'm happy for you." He admits honestly. "It never felt right seeing you without Adam."

She feels her cheeks start to warm up, and she smiles at her father as relief floods her system.

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Dressed in one of Adam's various jerseys, Jamie sits in between her mother and Casey Conway. She stands out like a sore thumb, a dot of green in a sea of red and black, but she honestly couldn't care less at this point- it'll be easier for him to find her and see that she's supporting him (and his friends, of course.) It's better protection against the bitter cold, too, which is something she's endlessly grateful for.

Charlie's mom turns to her after a few minutes.

"You made a sign?"

"Mhm. Wanted to show my support- and that I don't hate anyone."

The blonde nods, a smile playing at her lips.

Jamie fidgets silently as the two women make small talk over her, her eyes trained on the ice. Win or lose, she's going to be supportive, but she really hopes that they win. Rick and his friends don't need another win, their egos will inflate too much, and she doesn't want to see Adam or his friends go.

Eventually, the freshman announcer finally comes over the speakers.

She gets up with the rest of them, clapping and cheering while the Eden Hall Ducks pay their respects to Hans. When they're done, they go back to the bench, and as he does, Adam scans the crowd- he makes eye contact with her and pulls up his face guard, this big grin on his face as she smiles back. She waves, a wiggle of her fingers, and he waves at her with his stick.

Her face heats up a bit as her mother and Casey coo teasingly.

Very early into the game, the varsity kids prove just what kind of bullies they can be. They crowd the goal, making shot after shot after shot, and they throw the Ducks around like rag dolls. Both Casey and Lisa cringe continuously beside her, but she can't bring herself to move.

Jamie has to watch everything.

Charlie gets the upper hand quickly into the second face-off, and Dwayne makes it away with the puck.

The cowboy gets checked. Hard.

"Ouch." She winces slightly, nose wrinkling as Fulton gets dog-piled against the boards. "Double ouch- how is that allowed?"

Lisa nods slowly, agreeing with the question, and Casey shrugs with a sigh.

"It always happens."

She frowns as Charlie ices the puck. This game isn't going to be easy.

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Jamie's eyes bulge out of her head as Averman gets slammed into the boards so hard that he has to get half-carried off the ice by Fulton and Dwayne.

"What the fuck?"

Coach Orion is, understandably and evidently, growing more and more pissed off, proving that the Varsity kids were definitely doing illegal things; there's a moment of palpable tension between the two coaches. The redhead looks okay, though, and she finally sits back enough to watch a bit more of the game.

Julie makes an amazing save, crawling across the ice to achieve it.

"Oh, my god. She's amazing."

A few seconds later, though, the entire game stops when Guy Germaine gets absolutely slammed. He lays, sprawled on the ice, without moving for a few seconds before medical professionals get down to the ice.

The air in the room becomes thick and hard to breathe.

"Holy. Shit." Lisa says, jumping up. "That- did that-"

"Yeah." Jamie says, watching through her fingers.

All she can really think about is how it could've been Adam, and the horror on Connie's face, and the fact that he still hasn't gotten up. The medics escort Guy off the ice and the game resumes.

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They start the third period barely holding on.

Both of the teams go into their locker rooms, and Lisa and Casey go to the concessions. With them gone, Jamie gets up and, with all of her pent-up energy, contemplates starting shit with Mindy and her friends. She sees a familiar face in the crowd, though, and that stops her.

"Mr. Bombay?"

He jumps slightly, turning to face her with furrowed brows. "Hello...?"

"Oh! You don't know me- I'm Jamie. Jamie Johnson. I'm Adam's girlfriend."

Bombay looks somewhat surprised but nods anyway.

"Hello, Jamie. I just got in, how's the game been so far?"

"Bad."

The emotions in his face change about a hundred times as she quickly breezes through the horrifying events of the game thus far.

"Yeah..." She finishes breathlessly. "It's been really hard to watch."

"I see why... Well, chin up kid, I have a feeling that things are going to start picking up from here."

Jamie stares at him with furrowed brows. "Huh?"

He doesn't elaborate.

"Well, I have to go back to my seat." She narrows her eyes skeptically. "See you later, Bombay."

Bombay nods curtly, a tight smile playing at her lips, and she tries to think about what he means as she sits back down. Her mother and Charlie's mother come back, giving her a soda as they do, and she chews anxiously on the straw until the game starts back up.

There's a new player on the ice.

Within five seconds of the start of the next play, the new boy is putting Cole right through the glass. As it shatters, Jamie laughs, ducking down as the two women block her from the shards. The new boy makes eye contact with her and Fulton says something to him- he nods at her, smirking, and her brows furrow.

"Finally someone taught that kid a lesson." Lisa huffs, staring down at Cole.

"Mhm."

Jamie's confused, and Casey's too shocked to say anything.

He must've been the trick Bombay had up his sleeve.

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In the last minutes of the final period, with a major multiple-person penalty, Orion puts Adam, Charlie, and Goldberg on the ice.

Jamie watches with bated breath as her boyfriend jumps across the goal in order to help Julie keep it clear. Charlie gets the puck, the other two boys flanking him, and travels down the ice- her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline as, in a surprising turn of events, he passes it to the former goalie of all people.

"What's he doing?"

"Just watch." Casey says, sounding a little unsure herself.

The varsity team starts to charge on the boy and she, just like the rest of them, starts to shout. She knows she's not really making any sense, but she feels the need to- if she sits there silently for any longer she's going to explode. Goldberg shoots just as he's tackled, and the puck makes it in right before the period ends.

They score a point.

It's a shutout.

"Oh my god! They won!" Jamie gasps, turning to the women on either side of her. "They won, right?"

"Yes. Yes, they did."

Lisa makes a surprised sound as her daughter exuberantly hugs her. There's a lot of hugging down on the ice, too. The team has piled on top of each other, dragging their coach into it, and their loud, raucous laughter can be heard over the roaring of the crowd.

"Jamie, go down to the ice! Your boyfriend's looking for you."

Jamie, slightly red in the face, huffs at the two women before fighting her way down through the fans. It takes her a few minutes to make her way to the boards, but she eventually makes it there, and Adam is waiting. His helmet is off, blond hairs stuck to his head, and he's abandoned his stick and gloves elsewhere.

As soon as they make eye contact his eyes light up, and she jumps up to hug him as soon as she's close enough.

"Didja see me?" He breathes as she pulls back.

Jamie nods. "Mhm. You're amazing, pretty boy."

Adam, blushing immediately, kisses her for that. Kisses her sweetly, like there's no one else in the room, and she feels a faint twist in her stomach. A good twist. And even if he's sweaty and panting and way too full of energy, it's tender and slow, just the way it usually is.

They pull away for breath, his blue eyes sparkling.

"I think I'm in love with you." Adam confesses in a whisper, so faint that she almost doesn't hear him over the crowd.

Jamie bites her lip, grinning softly, and plays with the hairs at the back of his neck, "I love you, too."

Someone calls his name and he glances over his shoulder before he turns back to her, sheepish.

"Go." She says softly, smoothing out the front of his jersey. "Celebrate your big win with your friends."

"But-"

"Go have fun- I'll keep my window unlocked for you tonight."

Adam, after a moment's deliberation, pecks her lips and starts to skate away. The last thing that turns away from her are his eyes, and the corners of her lips twitch up. Jamie leans on the boards and watches her boyfriend leave, comforted by the fact that this time she knows he's coming back to her.

(And he does. For the rest of their lives, he always does.)

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a/n:

me writing that last few paragraphs -

comments and votes are super appreciated! they let me know that you guys like my writing and they motivate me to continue! thank you