Dan whooped so loud it echoed off the court walls. Neil slowed to a jog and wheeled around. Dan ran over and gave him a quick, fierce squeeze. The buzzer overhead cut her off before she could say anything. They watched side-by-side as Coach Harrison called Herrera off the court. Because Herrera might be injured from that hard crash, Harrison had the right to pull him even though it was the Foxes' serve. Neil watched his new backliner enter the court, but Dan pulled his attention back to her.

"That was perfect," she said, then gave his shoulder a hard smack. Neil couldn't hide all of his wince. Dan put her finger in his face. "But don't do something that reckless again. We can't replace you. Hear me?"

"Yes, Dan."

"Good. Now let's show these bastards what's what."

It was easier said than done, but they fought all the way to halftime. When the clock ran out they'd pushed the score to four-even. Wymack ushered his team off the court to the chaos of a riled crowd. Kevin had nothing to say to them, but Aaron went straight to Matt and Nicky to check on them. Allison was nowhere in sight, but neither was Abby, so Neil guessed they'd stepped away from the noise together. Neil hoped Allison could hold it together for a little longer.

Wymack pointed them toward the locker room but stayed behind an extra minute to smile at cameras and secure the stick rack. Neil had his gloves and helmet off as soon as he reached the tunnel. He yanked his neck guard off next, needing a little extra room to breathe. He could barely feel his legs. He couldn't feel his feet, but he assumed they were down there somewhere. The shoulder he'd hurt in first half was still throbbing thanks to the well-aimed blows of his new backliner mark.

The Foxes spread out into a loose circle in the locker room to shed extraneous gear and stretch. The others looked beat but sounded lively. They chatted about their comeback, sounding cautiously hopeful for second half. Dan and Matt were even laughing about something rude a striker had said to Matt. Neil looked around the circle at them, soaking up their enthusiasm, but his attention caught and held on Andrew before long.

Neil had seen Andrew go through withdrawal before, but not like this. It'd always been late at night when exhaustion had set in or down in Columbia with drugs and alcohol to soften the edge. In those sorts of backdrops Neil couldn't really appreciate the dead stage Andrew went through.

Everyone warned Neil that Andrew didn't care about Exy, but some part of Neil refused to believe that. The pieces didn't add up right, especially when Andrew willingly came off his euphoric drugs for games. The fight with Kevin this morning proved something strange was going on. But Andrew stood a silent stone in their midst, looking a thousand miles away from all of this. He was a vacuum his teammates' rowdy cheer couldn't touch.