Coach’s hands shook as he struggled to untie his skates. Finally he got the blasted skates off and shoved his feet into his sneakers. Pulling his phone back out of his pocket, James searched through his contacts to Timothy Hardford, Ellie’s dad. Tapping on the number, he held the phone up to his ear and listened as the other end rang and rang. Eventually the voicemail picked up, “Hello, this is Tim Hartford, leave a message after the beep…” James cleared is throat, “Hello Mr. Hardford, this is Coach James, I wanted to inform you that Elise had an accident on the ice. Please call me back as soon as you get this message.”

James ended the call and closed his eyes for a moment before standing up and carefully walking back across the ice to where Kevin sat hunched over Ellie. He didn’t have a wife or kids of his own and sometimes thought of his student as the daughter he never had. It saddened him to see that Ellie’s own father seemed to be more preoccupied with his career than his daughter. It was clear that despite his shy nature, that Kevin was very protective of his friend and Coach was glad that she had someone who could be there for her when her father wasn’t around.

It didn’t take long for the paramedics to arrive and carefully load Ellie onto a stretcher. James followed them off the ice and briefly spoke to one of the paramedics before they left. He watched the ambulance drive away. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed heavily. He was sure Ellie would be all right…physically at least, but she would be devastated by the long recovery needed before she could skate again.

Hearing his name, coach turned to look back at Kevin. ”Yeah, of course,” Coach said, ”Grab your things.” Coach shouldered his bag and stopped by the locker room to grab Elli’s bag as well before leading Kevin out to the parking lot. The air was cold against his bare arms but the man didn’t seem to notice. Dumping the two bags into the trunk Coach nodded toward the passenger seat, ”Hop in,” her said, closing the trunk and getting into the driver’s seat.