Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Make it or Break it. Obviously.
Payson Keeler lay glumly in her hospital bed. It had been a week since Nationals. A week since her life as she knew it had ended. She was in a different hospital, back in Boulder now. The doctors had deemed her healthy enough to travel – in a wheelchair – but the trip had been hard on her so she'd ended up here. They thought she had the best chance at recovery in the hospital, where she had daily therapy and limited other movement, but privately, Payson couldn't care less. She was almost certain not to recover to the point she wanted to, so she didn't really care.
"Hi there Payson, you're getting a roommate!" a nurse said cheerfully, entering the room and turning down the covers on the other bed. "And guess what, she's an athlete too!"
Payson rolled her eyes.
Two more nurses, pushing a stretcher with a groggy teenager on it, entered the room and carefully transferred the patient to the bed.
"She's just out of recovery, so she'll be sleepy." One nurse said as she left.
Payson stared at her new roommate. She was about her age, with shaggy brown hair, sort of like Emily's but without bangs.
"I'm not so sleepy that I can't tell you are staring at me." She said suddenly, and Payson almost jumped. The girl had been looking up at the ceiling but had turned her head slightly to look at her curious roommate.
"Sorry." Payson muttered.
"I'm Kristy Coughlin." She said, meeting the gymnast's eyes with the tiniest hint of a smirk.
"Payson Keeler. What's wrong with you? The nurse said you were an athlete too."
"Skiing accident, yeah. They were worried about paralysis but look, I can wiggle my toes." She demonstrated.
"Why aren't your parents here?"
"My mom saw me in recovery before they brought me here. Think I'm supposed to be stuck here for at least a week so she's going to get some stuff for me. How long have you been here?"
"Two days."
"And you're an athlete?"
"I was. Not anymore."
She turned away.
"Hey now, I'm sure-"
Payson turned back, eyes flashing with anger. "You're sure what? That it'll be fine? I was supposed to be the best. I should have won the national title and I'd be training for the Olympics right now. But I broke my back, and it's all over. And my friends don't even visit me, because they all made it onto the National team, and they have to practice, and I'm sure they don't know what to say anyway. But it's NOT going to be okay."
Kristy was silent for a moment. "What sport?"
"Gymnastics."
"KRISTY!"
Suddenly, the hospital room exploded with sound. Four college-aged boys burst into the room. Kristy grinned.
"Kris, how ya doing?"
"I'll be okay guys. Not paralyzed, that's the main thing right?"
"That's the spirit."
"Oh, guys, this is my roommate, Payson. Payson, these are my big brothers – John, Andrew, Tim, and Sam. Payson hurt her back too, so we're going to be hanging here for awhile."
"Seriously, Kristy, how are you doing? Mom said she talked to your coach while you were in surgery, and he really freaked her out." Tim asked, smiling politely at Payson before turning back to his little sister.
Kristy sighed. "Honestly, I don't really remember it. One minute I was on my way down a training run, it was going fine, and suddenly I'm in an ambulance. They said I got knocked out."
"Are you going to be better in time for Worlds?"
"Sam!" Andrew admonished his younger brother.
"You are going to a world competition?" Payson asked, interested.
"She didn't tell you? She's only like, the best US female skier right now." Sam said with pride.
Kristy rolled her eyes. "Not really. Sue Johnson is better than me."
"Not at the giant slalom, she isn't."
Kristy blushed.
"Wow that's awesome." Payson said.
"Do you guys have worlds in gymnastics?" Kristy asked her roommate.
Payson's face fell. "Yes. It's nothing compared to the Olympics, but I went last year. Won't be going again I guess."
The Coughlin brothers were smart enough to change the subject.
"You're really close to your brothers, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm like one of the guys. It's why I started skiing, actually. Dad enrolled them all in skiing to keep them active in the winter – four energetic boys running around in a house is not a lot of fun. Anyway, I wanted to be just like them, of course."
"Are they as good as you are?"
"No." she said, entirely honestly and not bragging at all. Payson understood. "Tim rarely skis anymore – he started to snowboard when we go as a family. I think he's just rebelling because he's the middle kid. John and Sam are strictly rec skiers. Andrew was the best of the four of them – he was on the ski team at the University of Colorado, but he never made it to the national scale. It was kind of hard on them for awhile, that I was so good, but now they are my biggest fans."