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Chelsea attends her first football game in a year, where she sees Troy desperately scanning the audience for his parents. Chelsea explains where Charlie is and what Marcus did. Troy is furious, but after seeing her dad at the ceremony, Chelsea knows Marcus did the right thing. When one of Troy’s teammates comes to get him, Troy throws a punch straight into the guy’s helmet. Though there’s no evidence of injury, Troy is certain that his hand is broken. In a quiet, terrified voice, he tells his coach he can’t play.

On the road driving back, Marcus apologizes to McTavish for the thousandth time, and McTavish tells him to stop because the risks of the day are well justified by what the experience did for Charlie in the moment. Suddenly, the cop pulls over, signaling for McTavish to join him. He got a message on the radio that Troy is out of the game and the team needs Marcus to play quarterback. Marcus struggles to reconcile the cop helping him get back for a football game after Marcus kidnapped Charlie.

In town, Charlie makes a comment when they speed by the exterminator’s store. The cop realizes that Marcus has been covering for Charlie this entire time because Marcus didn’t want word of Charlie’s illness to get out. Since there’s no keeping it a secret after today, the cop implores Marcus to tell the truth at his hearing. Marcus will think about it, and the cop is impressed with Marcus’s dedication, even though he thinks Marcus is “some weird, loyal, stupid piece of work” (220).

Marcus arrives at the field, where a mob yanks him from the police car and suits him up before shoving him toward the game. Troy intercepts him, whacking his chin guard with an icepack. At once, Marcus realizes Troy’s hand isn’t broken, but he doesn’t have time to figure out what’s going on. After telling Troy that Charlie is fine, Marcus enters the game and helps tighten the score, bringing his team to a three-point lead. In the last seconds, Marcus makes a dive for the ball but is hit by a linebacker. As Marcus drops, he feels “a violent motion deep inside his skull” and then passes out (226).

Marcus groggily wakes to Alyssa kissing him. Though he’s conscious, there’s a ringing in his ears, and his knees feel like pudding. Despite this, he’s pronounced fit to play. Before Marcus can return to the game, Troy steps in to finish the game. He warns Marcus to sit down because “you don’t want to end up like him” (229). Troy’s newfound willingness to mention his dad’s condition in public makes Marcus take his situation seriously. He benches himself.

Troy plays a very toned-down game, but he still helps his team to keep their winning score. The following week, Troy quits the team, and Marcus becomes starting quarterback. While he knows why Troy quit, Marcus will never understand it because he loves the rush of the game too much to give it up. On his way back from Three Alarm Park one afternoon, Marcus encounters the exterminator. The man knows the truth about Charlie and apologizes for being such a jerk. He gives Marcus an old picture of the store’s former owner that features the teenaged Charlie and McTavish in the background.

Marcus brings the picture to Charlie’s house, where he chats with Chelsea. She’s still mad Marcus took Charlie to the induction ceremony without permission, but she truly believes it was the right thing to do. Talking to her, Marcus isn’t sure he agrees because “the moment of triumph had been so fleeting compared with the grim reality of what was in store for Charlie” (239). Charlie’s family asks Marcus to accompany them for a visit to a nursing home. The place is full of people much older than Charlie, some of whom don’t respond at all when talked to. When Charlie realizes his family wants him to live there, he becomes lucid and terrified, looking to Marcus for support. Marcus can’t bring himself to lie to Charlie anymore and agrees with the family.

By the last football game of the season, Marcus has led his team through a string of victories. Though Troy doesn’t play anymore, he comes to games with Charlie, and his presence reminds Marcus uncomfortably of the nursing home. Ever since the visit, Charlie has been subdued, as if he senses that something bad is coming. As Marcus prepares to throw the winning touchdown, he notices Charlie climbing the bleacher stairs, heading for the narrow top platform, about four stories above the ground, where a hawk is perched.

At once, Marcus realizes that Charlie thinks this is the hawk mascot he released years ago. Instead of making the throw, Marcus drops the ball and runs after Charlie. When Charlie steps on to the top ledge, Marcus yells for him to stop. Charlie looks back at him, seeming lucid. As Charlie reaches for the bird, Marcus closes his eyes, and “when he opened them again, Charlie Popovich was gone” (249).

Many people turn out for Charlie’s funeral. The eulogy is full of words like “charismatic” and “quirky,” but there’s no mention of Charlie’s illness. The entire time, all Marcus can picture is the moment he realized Charlie had fallen, followed by finding Charlie’s body in the parking lot. After the service, Marcus goes to the reception at Charlie’s house, where he’s unsurprised but still a bit sad to see Alyssa back with Troy. Though she doesn’t owe him an explanation, Alyssa tells Marcus that she understands Troy pushed her away because of Charlie and that she and Troy need each other. Marcus understands and leaves them alone.

Outside, Marcus listens to former NFL players and McTavish swapping stories about Charlie. McTavish explains that he thinks Charlie was caught up in the past trying to get to the hawk, but Marcus doesn’t think so. He remembers the look in Charlie’s eyes before he fell: “clear and lucid and knowing” (256). The memory of the moment overwhelms Marcus, and he decides he needs to leave. Before he can, he finds Troy watching an old NFL game Charlie played in. Marcus joins him and is amazed by Charlie’s boundless energy and clear love for the sport. After shaking Troy’s hand, Charlie goes to Three Alarm Park, which feels like a fitting place for him to be on the day of Charlie’s funeral.