Chapter Text
From the moment he took the crushing hit until his gaze focused for the first time in several hours, TK’s mind remained clouded. His ears rang with a high, sharp, unrelenting tone. His skull, taking the brunt of the ache that careened back and forth, felt tender and abused.
Beyond the physical torment, his chest squeezed with anguish and his eyes burned with tears. Tears that even his muddled brain refused to let fall... again that is.
Somewhere in his mind he could recall being helped from the ice and interrogated in the dark room.
Somewhere in his mind he could recall Provy helping him back into his suit.
Somewhere in his mind he could recall a handful of pats on the back as he wobbled down the aisle of a plane.
Each step of the journey had been a dense fog, laced with nausea and confusion.
A vague memory of crying on the plane before vomiting into the aisle haunted him in the midst of his fuzzy recollections.
But sitting in the car, forehead smushed against the cool soothe of the icy window, his mind cleared for a moment.
Home. He was finally home.
Provy, who’d valiantly stuck by his side the whole time (even through the puking incident), opened the car door and TK did his best to peel himself out of the passenger seat before swaying heavily. After a terrifying moment of instability, TK found himself toppling forward, face into his teammate’s chest. At least from there he felt somewhat secure.
The two stumbled into the apartment complex, side by side, TK leaning so heavily they began to look like contestants in a three legged race.
It wasn’t until they paused outside of a door on the fourth floor that TK registered where they had ended up.
“Why the fuck are we at Patty’s?” He slurred out, adrenaline pumping. He wanted rest and quiet and to be as far from his best friend as possible because it was his job to take care of Nolan. Not the other way around. And he was too sick and tired and confused to play nursemaid.
“I can’t. I can’t help him right now. I can’t. You need to call G. He can, but I can’t. My head hurts Provy. Don’t you know?”
The words came out jumbled around and tilting sideways as he slurred. The worry sent his brain crashing all the louder.
Strong hands gripped his arms before one pulled away to tilt up TK’s chin.
“No no no. Teeks,” Provy said softly. “Patty’s doing good. He offered to have you stay over since he’s got everything you need. Blackout curtains and noise-cancelling headphones, the works.”
It didn’t fully register, but something in the defenseman’s voice set him at ease. He gave a distracted nod before leaning heavily against the door frame.
He startled as the door opened, jostling himself and sending a flash of pain through his head. Eyes closed tight against the onslaught, he didn’t see Nolan peek through the doorway.
“Oh it’s you guys already? I thought maybe it was Uber Eats.”
Nolan’s soft voice fell quiet for a moment, then, “oh Travis.”
His tone seemed drenched in sympathy.
It pulled TK’s eyes back open. Nolan never called him by his name.
Gazing down into his own tired eyes, Patty’s sharp baby blues were impossibly sad.
“Let’s get you inside.”
Provy helped maneuver TK onto the couch before he gave a brief pinched smile of his own.
“Take care of him.”
TK didn’t hear the reply. He’d already begun to drift to sleep.
•••
Nolan knew this was the concussion. But nothing could prepare him for what waited when he returned from shoving his takeout leftovers in the fridge later that evening.
Curled up, knees to his chest and chin to his knees, laid TK. The position somehow made the smaller man absolutely tiny.
Which, Nolan had seen this before. Whenever TK wanted to simmer in a bad mood this was usually the position he wound up in.
But this time his eyes, red with strain, stared vacantly at the far wall as tears traced steadily down his cheeks.
The brunette took a shuddering breath before he looked up to meet Patty’s eyes.
“This is what it’s like?”
Nolan, frozen for a moment, tried to track on what TK was talking about. “What Teeks?”
A small sob shook the man’s frame.
“Your head. Fuck Patty. I’m so sorry. Holy fucking shit. This. You. Just. This is what you...,” he floundered, mind trailing off in search of the words. “Just come sit with me?”
TK made grabby hands in Nolan’s direction before letting his arms flop bonelessly downwards.
With a sigh Nolan set down the glass of water he’d fetched for his friend and settled himself down on the couch. His long lithe fingers quickly found their way to the mop of dark hair, scritching at his scalp and pressing gently at different pressure points.
“It’s okay Teeks,” he murmured in his low rumble of a voice. “We’ll get through it.”