Page 22 of Rookie Rules

Owen gave both of them a look of profound professional disappointment.

Mateo entered looking for tape, saw both veterans on opposite sides of the room, and stopped.

"Is this where leadership comes to become depressing?"

"Give it time," Nolan said. "You need more service years."

Owen pointed Mateo toward the cabinet without looking up from Rowan's movement. The interruption lasted ten seconds. It was enough to restore the room's ordinary scale. No one stared at taped joints or guarded hips because everyone carried some smaller version of the same ledger.

That privacy came from familiarity, not blindness. Rowan trusted it because the room knew when not to ask.

Luca did not know those rules yet.

The thought arrived without invitation: if Luca saw Rowan move like this, would he joke, challenge, or look too closely?

Rowan pressed farther into the rotation until the muscle yielded.

Normal. That was the comfort and the problem. Bodies accumulated history. Veterans learned which parts needed attention and which could be carried quietly.

Rowan completed the sequence.

"Again tonight," Owen said. "And sleep."

"One of those is scheduled."

"Guess which one I meant."

Rowan stood. The movement came easier. "Available?"

Owen's expression flattened. "Yes. That is not the same as fine."

"I asked available."

"I noticed."

Rowan collected his notebook and left before concern could become a longer conversation.

By six, most of the building had emptied.

Rowan had eaten, lifted, completed the mobility work again, and answered three messages from Vale about camp groups. He had also returned to the video room for a reason he could state clearly if anyone asked.

The new trigger needed definition.

Before opening the file, Rowan checked the practice schedule for the road trip. Preseason travel compressed everything: flight, meal, morning skate, exhibition, return. There would be less video time and more opportunity for fatigue to turn new language into noise.

He created a folder for the top line and labeled it CAMP READS.

Inside were six clips. Four involved Luca.

Rowan changed the label to LINE 1.

The correction should have made the attention less personal.

It did not change what the folder contained.

He loaded the near-breakaway clip.

Finn carried left. Nolan tracked backward. Luca waited outside the frame for half a second, then cut behind him.