Home
London – The Mall
The rain stayed away.
For once.
London woke beneath blue skies as thousands upon thousands of England supporters flooded into the capital.
By mid-morning, The Mall had become a sea of white shirts, St George's flags and homemade banners.
Leah stood on the top deck of the open-top bus with the European Championship trophy beside her, trying to take it all in.
It was impossible.
Everywhere she looked...
People.
Families sitting on shoulders.
Little girls wearing number six shirts.
Parents lifting children high enough to see.
The sound was deafening.
England hadn't just won again.
They'd inspired another generation.
Beth nudged her gently.
"You've gone quiet."
Leah smiled faintly.
"I'm looking."
"At what?"
Leah's eyes wandered across the endless crowd.
"All of them."
There were so many.
Hundreds of thousands.
Every few metres someone shouted her name.
Someone cried.
Someone held up a sign thanking her.
It felt overwhelming in a way she couldn't describe.
Because somewhere amongst those faces...
...was another little girl.
The one she'd once been.
Standing on the pavement believing footballers were superheroes.
She wondered if one of the children waving today would be standing here in twenty years, captaining England.
The thought made her smile.
The bus rolled slowly past Admiralty Arch.
The noise somehow became even louder.
Georgia leaned over the railing.
"I genuinely can't hear myself think."
"You never could," Beth replied.
"Rude."
Very rude.
Leah laughed.
God, she'd missed laughing.
Real laughing.
Not interviews.
Not captain answers.
Just this.
Her people.
Her teammates.
The women who had somehow survived another impossible tournament together.
The trophy made its way around the squad.
Eventually someone placed it back into Leah's hands.
"Captain."
She looked down at it.
The silver reflected the London sunshine.
Just weeks earlier she'd lifted the Champions League trophy in Lisbon.
Now this.
Two of the biggest trophies in world football in the space of two months.
Eight months earlier she'd told Elle she sometimes still worried she'd never be the same player after her ACL.
Funny how life worked.
The bus stopped briefly outside Buckingham Palace.
The celebrations continued on the stage erected at the end of The Mall.
Music blasted through speakers.
Players danced.
Fans sang.
Sarina stood quietly to one side watching her team with unmistakable pride.
Then the announcer's voice echoed across the crowd.
"And now... your England captain..."
The roar that followed genuinely startled Leah.
Beth gave her a gentle shove.
"Go on."
Leah walked towards the microphone.
Trophy tucked under one arm.
She looked out.
The crowd stretched further than she could see.
For a second...
...she forgot every speech she'd ever prepared.
Instead she smiled.
A proper smile.
"You know..."
The crowd immediately fell quiet.
"I've been trying to think of the right words all week."
She looked across the sea of England shirts.
"But honestly..."
She laughed softly.
"I don't think there are any."
The crowd laughed with her.
"We play because we love football."
She paused.
"But seeing this..."
Her voice caught slightly.
"...this is why we do it."
Applause rolled across The Mall.
"You've supported us through every high and every low."
She looked down the line of her teammates.
"You believed in us when we didn't always make it easy."
Laughter again.
"And this..."
She lifted the trophy high above her head.
"...belongs to every single one of you."
The roar shook the stage.
Confetti exploded.
Music started again.
Her teammates surrounded her.
For photographs.
For hugs.
For one last celebration.
Hours later, backstage, the noise finally faded.
The adrenaline was disappearing.
The pain wasn't.
Leah leaned quietly against a concrete wall while no one was looking, carefully taking the weight off her ankle.
She inhaled sharply.
God.
It hurt.
More than it had in Basel.
Every step across that stage had felt like walking on broken glass.
"You think I wouldn't notice?"
Amanda's voice was gentle.
Leah looked up.
Her mum stood a few feet away, arms folded, watching her daughter with that familiar expression only mothers seemed capable of.
Part pride.
Part concern.
"I'm fine."
Amanda raised an eyebrow.
"Leah."
Caught.
Again.
Leah laughed quietly.
"It'll settle."
Amanda walked over and wrapped her daughter in a hug.
Not the quick public kind.
The long one.
The safe one.
The one that made Leah suddenly feel twenty-eight instead of England captain.
"You've given enough."
Leah rested her forehead briefly against her mum's shoulder.
"I know."
"No..."
Amanda smiled.
"I don't think you do."
She stepped back, keeping both hands on Leah's arms.
"You've given enough to Arsenal."
She squeezed one arm.
"You've given enough to England."
The other.
"You've given enough to everybody."
Then she smiled knowingly.
"Now go and let someone look after you for a change."
Leah laughed softly.
"You've been talking to Elle."
"I like her."
"So do I."
Amanda grinned.
"I know."
Silence settled between them for a moment.
Then Amanda kissed her forehead, just as she had when Leah was a little girl.
"You've made us all so proud."
Leah swallowed hard.
"Thanks, Mum."
Amanda glanced towards the waiting cars.
"So..."
She smiled.
"...what time's your flight tomorrow?"
Leah looked up, surprised.
"I never told you."
"You didn't need to."
Amanda laughed.
"The suitcase disappeared from your flat yesterday."
Leah shook her head.
"I thought I was being subtle."
"You've never been subtle."
Fair.
Very fair.
Leah smiled to herself.
Tomorrow the newspapers would still be talking about England.
Television stations would replay the celebrations.
The country would continue celebrating its champions.
But tomorrow evening...
Without announcements.
Without interviews.
Without fanfare.
Leah Williamson would quietly disappear.
And there was only one person in the world she wanted waiting for her when she landed.