A Ship in Harbor is Safe

Athena drops her wallet into her large purse, digging through the sea of things and scooping out her vibrating phone. Jordan’s name is flashing across the screen, along with notifications of missed text messages and calls. “Hello?”

“Athena,” Jordan’s voice is raspier than normal. “Are you busy?”

She shakes her head, “I just got out of the bank, dropping off my check for last week. What’s the matter?”

“I need a ride to the hospital.”

Without thinking, she puts the car in reverse and pulls out of the parking spot. “What’s wrong?”

“I hurt my hand,” Jordan says quietly. “I’m at Southpointe and they’re not letting me drive myself. The guys are still practicing… but I can’t move my hand.”

Athena takes a deep breath, nodding quickly. “Okay, I’m on my way. Just… don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“Alright.”

Hanging up quickly, Athena throws her phone back into her bag. She pulls out of the parking lot, doing almost fifteen over the speed limit and shaking her head, whispering to herself, “he was perfectly fine two days ago.”



Running her fingers over her cheeks, Athena attempts to blink back the tears that sting her eyes. Her crossed leg bounces rapidly and she stares at the patterned linoleum flooring.

“Are you Athena?” A nurse asks quietly.

Looking up, Athena nods and tucks her hair behind her ears. “Yeah. Is he okay?”

“You can come see him, if you’d like.”

Athena is standing up before the nurse can finish her sentence. She quickly pulls up her dark skinny jeans and puts her large purse on her arm, “yeah, I wanna see him.”

“We had to give him some pain meds so we could do x-rays,” the nurse says quietly, “so he’s gonna be a little… loopy.”

The younger woman nods and steps into the door that the nurse opens for her, listening to it close. She looks up and feels her frown grow, “Jordan.”

He blinks, “come sit down.”

Athena sets her purse down on the chair, covering her mouth and looking down at Jordan. “How bad did you mess up your hand?”

He shrugs, “it got hit with a puck, I don’t know.”

Taking a loud, deep breath, Athena shakes her head.

Jordan moves over on the bed slightly, making room on his left side. “Come sit with me.”

She slowly sits next to Jordan, facing him. After a moment, she gently reaches out and touches his face, “you can’t keep getting injured like this, Jordan.”

He nods, leaning into her hand, “I know. I’m supposed to play in two days.”

Athena feels her chest tighten when Jordan starts shaking his head. “Jordan, Jordan, look at me.”

Jordan continues to slowly shake his head, slowly bowing it. “I’m not gonna play on Wednesday.”

“Look at me,” Athena’s own voice cracks as she grabs Jordan’s face with both of her hands, forcing him to look at her, “you’re coming back, Jordan. That skate to the foot didn’t stop you and this puck to the hand isn’t gonna stop you.”

He swallows heavily, “what if they can’t fix this?”

Athena looks away from Jordan’s face when she hears the door open.

“Just checking in,” the nurse smiles, “how’s he doing?”

“He’s a little upset. What’d you guys give him?”

The nurse shakes her head, “that’s completely normal with Dilaudid. As long as he can’t feel the physical pain.”

“I don’t,” he whispers.

The nurse nods, “okay, I’ll leave you two alone, then.”

Athena turns back to Jordan when the door closes, still holding his face. She stares into his eyes as they become more than just glazed. “Please don’t cry,” she whispers.

“I… I just wanna play again,” he says quietly, his voice raspy again. “I just wanna play hockey.”

“You’re gonna play hockey again, Jordan.” Athena feels her breathing become abnormal as she gently runs her thumbs over Jordan’s warm cheeks. “You’re gonna go out there and kick ass, okay? Like you always do.”

He frowns, “I still gotta call Mom and Dad.”

“I’ll call them for you, don’t worry about that.” Athena whispers. “Don’t… worry about anything right now, okay?”

Jordan takes a deep, shaky breath. His eyes stay watery, even as he begins to speak again. “I feel like I’m losing you.”

“I’m right here,” Athena says quietly, scooting a little closer to prove her point. “Look. I’m here with you.”

He shakes his head, moving Athena’s hands with it. “No, I never thought I’d lose you, Athena, but I’m pretty sure I have. You’re gone and you’re not coming back. It’s probably my fault,” he says quietly, “I should’ve done something about it, but it’s too late.”

“What are you talking about?” Athena whispers, feeling her eyes begin to water again. “I haven’t left you, Jordan.”

Jordan slowly blinks, letting his gaze fall to the side.

Athena blinks rapidly as teardrops meet her thumbs. She quickly tries to wipe them away.

“Even when you weren’t physically there with me, I knew that you were there for me… but I don’t feel that now.”

“Why don’t you feel that, Jordan?” She sniffles.

He closes his eyes.

Athena quickly wipes his tears away again, running her thumbs over his warm cheeks.

“I feel like you were stolen from me,” he says slowly.

Athena shakes her head, feeling tears fall from her eyes.

“You should go home and see Sidney,” Jordan says. “They leave tomorrow.”

Athena slowly takes her warm, damp hands back to wipe her own face. “I’m not leaving.”

He shakes his head, “you don’t have to stay with me.”

“I want to,” Athena whispers. She gets up and walks across the room, turning off the lights. Light seeps through the blinds that cover the doors, allowing her to get back over to the bed and climb in it.

Jordan lifts his arm up, allowing Athena to lie down and rest her head on his shoulder. “I’m a really shitty friend,” he whispers, “I’m sorry, Athena.”

She frowns, looking up at Jordan. “I’m not exactly sure what you’re apologize for Jordan.”

“Everything,” he says, quietly.

“I forgive you,” she whispers, resting her head again. “Not that I’m exactly a saint, either.”

He shakes his head, “you’ve got nothing to apologize for. It’s my fault.”

“Take a nap, Jordan,” she whispers. “I’ll be here when you get up.”



“We’re gonna need you to leave, ma’am. Visiting hours are long over, and we have to move Mr. Staal up to a room.”

Athena frowns, looking up at Jordan’s sleeping face. “Jordan,” she whispers.

He wakes up when she begins to sit up, “where are you going?”

“They’re making me leave,” she whispers.

Jordan looks from Athena, to the nurses. “She can’t stay?”

“We’ve got a room to admit you to upstairs. Your friend can come back in the morning, at eight.”

Athena slowly stands up from the bed, pulling her pants up slightly. “What is gonna be done exactly?”

“We can’t disclose that information to you.” A nurse says, looking up from her clipboard.

She purses her lips, picking her bag up. “Well, I’m the one that has to call his parents to explain all of this – it’d be nice to have an idea of what I’m telling them.”

“We’ll call them together in the morning,” Jordan says quietly.

Athena frowns, slowly walking over to the bed again. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Jordan nods, slowly lifting his arm up.

Athena leans down and gently wraps her arms around Jordan, closing her eyes when his fingers dig into her back slightly.

“Don’t call anyone yet,” Jordan says quietly, not pulling out of the hug.

“I won’t.” Athena whispers. “I gotta go now, Jord.”

He shakes his head.

Athena pulls back slightly, placing her lips on Jordan’s forehead. With a small smirk on her face, a total contradiction to her watery eyes, she rests her forehead against Jordan’s. “You gonna be okay for the next few hours?”

Jordan smirks back, “yeah, I think so.”

“Alright, Bubba. Eight AM.” Athena doesn’t move away as Jordan grabs her hand.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Jordan lets her hand go, allowing his arm to rest on the vacated space of the bed.

Athena slowly makes her way to the door, hesitating to open it. But she does after a second, getting out of the door and turning back toward it when Jordan hollers something out that makes her stop dead in her tracks. She pops her head back into the room, “huh?”

The nurses are disconnecting the heart machines and moving his IV drip to the holder on the wheelchair. Jordan’s head is tilted to the side slightly and his blue eyes are glazed over – the pain medicine is obviously working. “I said, I love you.”

“I love you, too, Jordan. I’ll see you in the morning,” Athena says quietly, closing the door as Jordan nods lightly.