A/N: I got this idea months ago, but decided to write at least the first half of the story before publishing it so I wouldn't leave people waiting months for an update if I ran out of inspiration. Enjoy and please review.

Chapter 1: 2014. And the world hasn't ended yet.

The first thing Kaylie notices is how bright the room is. The steady, warm sunlight that oozes softly from between the breeze-blown curtains is reflected everywhere by the white walls, white sheets, white covers, white carpet… and then it occurs to her that she doesn't recognize her surroundings, and that causes her a small measure of alarm. She throws her covers aside and attempts to raise herself off the plush bed but a stab of pain in her temple immediately sends her back down. Is she hung over? Why can't she remember last night?

A low moan erupts from somewhere beside her and she gasps, feeling her stomach turn over with dread. Oh no… not only is she hung over, she had a one-night stand! A quick flash of panic paralyzes her. She lost her virginity; likely to a strange boy she won't have any further contact with, in a night of alcohol-induced carelessness. Oh my God; did they use protection?

Before she's run any more nightmarish scenarios in her head for how positively downhill her life will be following this morning, a loud and obnoxious alarm disrupts the serene quiet of the room and the almost-forgotten source of the moan stirs beside her. All thoughts evaporate from her head, however, when she watches with horrified shock as her unidentified bedmate, shirtless, pushes his covers aside as well and sits up. Kaylie's heart stops. All the air seems to have been sucked from her lungs.

It's Nicky.

HOLY SH...

Well… maybe not. This boy looks exactly like him, but there is something odd that she notices despite the fact that she can't even breathe with how terrified she is with this discovery: his features are slightly more chiseled, and he has a hint of stubble on his chin and lower face. Does Nicky have an older brother?

The possibly-Nicky boy doesn't see her; he's still not fully awake, rubbing his eyes and groaning when he massages his temples. In a moment of distraction from her panic, Kaylie guesses he has the same piercing headache she does.

And then he turns to her, and the world dissolves around her for a split second.

"Kaylie?" She is immobilized with shock. She recognizes that voice, and there's no way someone else in the world has the same chin.

"Nicky?"

His mouth is agape with disbelief and he opens and closes it several times, inspecting the vicinity with the same dread and trepidation as she imagines she did.

Hesitantly, he turns to her again. "Why… do you look… old?"

Even through her headache and confusion, the words are out of her mouth before she can suppress them and think about what he's saying. "What do you mean old, idiot?" Then she frowns. Nicky looks older, so it makes sense she looks older too.

But why? Do copious amounts of alcohol age drinkers overnight? Is this a nightmare? An episode of the Twilight Zone?

"I meant older," he amends sheepishly, but her mind is already elsewhere.

"Where are we?" she asks, attempting to be rational first, and panic later over the likelihood that she slept with her former teammate.

He doesn't reply; instead, his features are overtaken by a new wave of alarm. "Did we have sex?"

Kaylie lowers her eyes to survey her attire, and groans. Shirtless Nicky + Kaylie clad in flimsy, moderately sensual nightgown that she's never seen before = Nicky and Kaylie had sex.

"I think we did," she moans, woefully burying her face in her hands.

There is a moment of silence that hangs in the tense, uncomfortable air between them before he speaks up. "We're probably at someone's house; there was probably a party going on and we got drunk. But I don't understand why you look different."

"Nicky," she mumbles, face still firmly covered by her hands, "touch your face."

She counts the seconds before he happily tells her, "oh my God; I have facial hair!"

"The point is," Kaylie looks up and sighs. "You look different too. Let's just go to the bathroom. I can see a door from here."

He agrees and they gingerly make their way to the softly-lit bathroom that is surprisingly far from their bed. Well, the whole room is enormous, and she just isn't used to having to take several steps to cross a bedroom.

They step in and once again are astonished to see their reflections.

"What the hell…" he murmurs lightly, hands running over his face in close study. Kaylie takes one look at herself and wants to go back to bed and sleep this hallucination away. Yes, she is marginally more attractive than before, now that it seems she's lost all her baby fat and all the muscles in her body seem to have leaned out considerably, but her face also looks different. Last night, in February of 2010, she looked one way, and now…

She gasps loudly and dashes to a calendar hung on the wall of the large bathroom. Nicky follows her and as they gape at the numbers displayed below a picture of them smiling, in an impossibly beautiful beach, only he finds the strength to voice what they deduce.

"Kaylie… it's 2014."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Nicky asks her after they conducted a hesitant search of the house they were in—or mansion, she should say, since it took them an hour to briefly explore 8 bedrooms—while leaving a whole other wing of the mansion unsearched. Nicky's theory that this house is owned by Bill Gates is shot down when they notice, unsettled, that all rooms have pictures of them. It wasn't just that one calendar.

They're both hungry so he's fished out some orange juice and bread from the impressive kitchen, and they're seated on stools facing each other on a large marble counter. They awkwardly noticed that some of the mail that's been left on this counter is addressed to "Kaylie Russo" and she inwardly cringed.

Pondering his question, Kaylie chews on a bite she took from a sweet peach. "It was the day after Valentine's Day… 2010…" She swallows hard, noticing the peach is now tasteless because her thoughts linger on the whole time difference issue. Her head still hurts and although she doesn't want to state what she's concluded from it all—because hello! It's impossible—she's convinced that her theory needs at least some consideration. While she continues to answer his question, she's also devising a proper way to voice the theory without being ridiculed. "I remember our awkward hug after… you know… that talk…" Now she's uncomfortable for other reasons. "The talk we had about kind of, sort of liking each other." She looks at the clean surface of the table and fights the knot in her stomach. She must find a way to exterminate these butterflies before they undo any more of her composure. Their attraction to each other is the last thing she should be thinking about.

He clears his throat and she looks up, meeting his gaze and noticing the slight blush creeping into his cheeks. "Yeah, I remember that, too."

"And then we practiced our bullfight routine that morning, because that magazine wanted to cover it," she continued, wincing when she felt another pang in her head. "And… we were doing backflips…"

Nicky nods, eyes wide. "Yeah… that's the last thing I remember. From the backflips straight to waking up this morning." He blushes again and she feels her face burn in acknowledgment of the part of his sentence he's leaving out: waking up this morning next to you. In bed. Semi-naked.

The blood in their cheeks seems to revel in the tension between them. Kaylie still cannot push aside that first impression of looking beside her and seeing him, as well as all the pictures of them together; hugging, holding hands, and Jesus almighty, there's one of them kissing, and it looks like it was taken at a wedding. As in their wedding. That thought makes her eyes snap to her left hand. There's a ring. A discreet but brilliant diamond-encrusted golden band. When she raises her gaze to him, he's also looking at his hand.

"I can't believe we're married," he murmurs. "And you know, I really thought the world was going to end in 2012."

"Nicky, I have a theory," she boldly declares, standing up from her stool and breathing deeply. "I think we traveled to the future."

He doesn't skip a beat, deadpanning, "and I think that's impossible."

"How else do you explain this?" she demands heatedly. All the frustration stemming from not knowing what's happened to them and why leads to an outburst that she forgets Nicky doesn't deserve to hear. "Our last memories are from 4 years ago, and now we look older, and are married!"

Quietly, he settles his glass of orange juice down and hangs his head, looking more tired than she's ever seen him. "I don't know, Kaylie. And why would we be married to each other in the future?"

Abruptly, an idea pulls her from her anger and she grabs a small wireless phone hanging from the wall beside her, furiously dialing Payson's number. Each ring that goes unanswered heightens the urgency in her body with fear that maybe in this parallel reality they aren't friends, or maybe she changed her number, and—oh my God, maybe everyone changed their numbers and they won't be able to communicate with anyone! By the fourth ring Kaylie is hyperventilating. Nicky stands beside her and they exchange nervous looks before finally, the ringing stops, and they hear a familiar voice.

"Hello? Kaylie?"

Excitedly, Kaylie cries out, "Payson!" and then smiles at Nicky when he presses the "speaker" button. Payson's voice begins to reverberate in the kitchen, while Kaylie's eyes linger on Nicky's outstretched arm. His muscles are so taut and sharply-defined that they surprise her a little.

"Hey, Kaylie… are you ok?"

"Uh…" The question stumps both she and Nicky, who shrugs. Can they just say no, we're not; please save us from this nightmare, and be done with it? "Well…"

Taking a step closer to the phone, and standing distractingly close to her, Nicky asks, "Payson, can you come over? Do you know where we live?"

"Hey, Nicky," Kaylie immediately has to smooth down the flares of jealousy that erupt when she hears Payson say his name, even though her friend's voice doesn't waver, or betray any sort of suspicious emotion. But wait… it's 2014… Nicky is married to her… surely he and Payson are not having an affair or anything? Oh my God, is she secretly seeing Carter? "Of course I know. Your house is not that new." Payson's laughter snaps Kaylie out of the panicked questions flooding her mind. "You know what? Ike and I were going to LA to pick up some equipment for his office, so we'll pass by your house. Or we can eat out. What do you think?"

"Uh… we…" Nicky stammers. Clearly, he hadn't expected such a thorough reply to his request.

Wait. Who's Ike?

She pushes these questions aside as well and speaks up. "We'll be more than happy to receive you here. In the house. I mean, our house. Nicky's house—and mine." Kaylie wants to slap her forehead.

Her embarrassment turns to indignation, however, when Nicky whispers, "way to sound normal there, Cruz."

"Oh, and your stuttering was much better?" she hisses back, turning back to the phone after they exchange glares.

"Hello?" Payson calls out.

"Yes, Payson, please drop by," Kaylie amends pleasantly, and after a perky goodbye, hangs up.

Instantly, Nicky asks, "who's Ike?"

"I have no idea." They wordlessly survey each other's attire and nod an agreement to go upstairs to change, but Nicky halts midway through their climbing of the stairs. "What?" Kaylie inquires anxiously.

"She said they were going to LA, so they would pass by our house..." His murmur trails off and they look at each other resignedly at the discovery of yet another aspect of their life that they can't quite bring themselves to like. They live in LA now, and not Boulder.

"This is a bad idea," Nicky breathes, sounding almost strangled by anxiety. "A bad, bad idea."

They're standing by the house's main entrance—or at least, they're guessing it is, because it has the biggest door they've seen so far—and both are fidgeting as they watch a car pull into their enormous driveway. Neither is sure of whether they were expecting any other visitors for today, but hope the car belongs to Payson and not some person they won't recognize.

Kaylie hears Nicky exhale a sigh of relief that matches hers when a head of blond hair becomes visible through one of the car's open windows. She opens the door and waits expectantly as Payson makes her way to the doorway, followed a tall and lean boyish-looking man, and, unable to contain her happiness at seeing a familiar face—well, aside from Nicky—Kaylie immediately embraces her friend once she is at arm's reach.

Payson releases an easy-going laugh that betrays surprise and hugs her back, saying, "whoa Kaylie. I missed you too, since the last 48 hours I saw you." She also looks different; softer and seemingly more prone to smile. She's a lot more like her mother.

She moves in to hug Nicky, and he shoots Kaylie a wide-eyed look that Payson doesn't catch, but is not missed by the man Kaylie deduces is Ike.

"Hey... Ike...?" Her attempt to sound more certain of his identity fails, but Payson is already walking in, commenting on their magnificent decorations, and Nicky is shaking Ike's hand reluctantly before walking inside as well. Payson is very familiar with their home, because she and Ike are already en route to their kitchen. Kaylie stays behind with the premise of shutting the door, but pulls Nicky to remain there with her. "Nicky... I know you still like her—"

"Kaylie!" Nicky interrupts with a curt whisper. "Not the time!"

"Just act normal," she admonishes anyway, and he nods impatiently.

"Fine. And don't go around checking that guy out in front of everyone."

"What!" Their whispers are threatening to become louder so she pulls him by the arm towards the kitchen, where Payson is already brewing coffee and Ike is taking a seat outside in their yard.

"So, how have you guys been?"

"Okay," is Kaylie's simple response. She's balling her hands into fists, and when she leans back slightly, she feels her back press against Nicky's chest. She looks up over her shoulder, and they're both unsure of whether it'd be all right to tell Payson they don't remember anything that happened in the last 4 years. Payson, for her part, is happily serving them all coffee.

"Honey, I just got a call from one of the chairmen at the Olympic committee," Ike breaks the silence and with those words manages to attract Payson's full attention. "Can you give him a call? Here it is," he adds, and hands her a cellphone. Payson quickly grabs it and steps outside. Ike wastes no time in pulling them to the side and lowering his voice conspiratorially. "What happened yesterday?"

"What?" Nicky asks, mirroring Kaylie's own confusion.

"You called me? Told me about how you were training some old routine and ended up falling? Oh, you don't remember," Ike says, eyes widening suddenly. "What's your last memory?"

"What do you know about us?" Nicky prods on suspiciously.

"I know I'm just a student, but I will be finishing my doctorate's in neurology in 6 months," he explains apologetically, and Kaylie finds herself tired of not knowing what is going on.

"The last thing we remember is training for a routine together in 2010, just after Valentine's Day," she replies impatiently.

Ike seems submersed in thought, but then speaks up. "So you don't know who I am?"

"No, we don't know who you are," Nicky replies firmly, sounding annoyed. But then, as though she is listening to a high-pitched sound she can barely catch, Kaylie experiences a brief flash of recognition.

"Who's that?" asked Lauren, pointing to a young man that had approached Payson with a large smile and garnered the shocked attention of seemingly everyone in the room.

"Ike is here?" exclaimed a boy a few yards from their table. Kaylie's mind was still on Carter and how regretful she was to have come to this prom, attempting to partake in a world she didn't belong to.

"You cut your hair," Kaylie blurts out, and Ike smiles. "I can't believe I just remembered that."

"It all makes sense now," he assures them easily, standing in complete contrast to Kaylie and Nicky's tense frames. "The injury you sustained in 2010 from your car accident caused a fissure in the connective membrane located in your hippocampus. When you injured yourselves again, your conscious memory backtracked to that period. It all makes sense."

Kaylie blinks twice. "Are you listening to yourself? That didn't make any sense," she objects.

"What injuries are you talking about? Are we still in gymnastics?" Of course, leave it to Nicky to worry more about gymnastics than whether their heads were still functioning.

"Of course. My wife is Kaylie's coach."

"Who's your wife?" Nicky asks, then both she and Nicky immediately look at Payson as she paces their yard, clutching the cellphone and passionately arguing with whoever was on the other end. "Oh."

"What matters is that yes, you are still fit to train and your memory will return little by little."

Kaylie sighs and now Nicky seems truly impatient and frustrated. "Well, can we speed up this process?" he asks, running his fingers through his jet black hair. For some reason, Kaylie feels an impulse to take his hand and find a way to ease his anxiety, but immediately shakes it off. What the hell is she thinking?

Ike shakes his head adamantly. "You can't, and even if you could, it's better to let things flow in their natural course; let your brain recover at its own pace."

"At its own pace…" Nicky repeats, and Kaylie can feel the heat of his anger from where she's standing. "What if it takes years?"

"Can you think of anything else you can do?" is Ike's sensible, calm retort. He takes a step closer to them and continues to nod understandingly, a gesture that irritates Kaylie. "I will refer you to a doctor I know; my former teacher at Berkeley. He will probably suspend your training for another couple of months until all necessary tests are conducted—"

"Hold on a second," Kaylie interrupts. "What are we training for, exactly?"

"Well, Nicky is training for Nationals. But seeing as how you're already Olympic champions, I don't see how skipping one national championship can much affect your careers."

Olympic champions. She's an Olympic champion? Suddenly weak in the knees, Kaylie sits down in one of the stools. So she did go to the Olympics in 2012… what medal did she win? What medal did Nicky win, for that matter? She turns to him, but the news doesn't seem to have rocked him as severely as it did her. He looks thoughtful.

Wait; why isn't she training for Nationals? Ike only mentioned Nicky... is she too old now?

"I don't want to skip out on anything. Especially since this is a major competition. I assume I'm part of the National team?" Ike nods, taking a quick peek at Payson, still outside and pacing. "And this memory thing doesn't affect my body's coordination or muscle function?"

"If the injury is limited to the hippocampus, then no. But we can only be sure by conducting tests an—"

"We'll be fine," Nicky asserts gruffly. "We'll do what you told us, and I'm sure we'll remember, eventually."

"Remember what?" asks Payson suddenly, smiling as she makes her way from the patio entrance back to the marble counter.

"Oh, just…" Kaylie begins to answer, organizing the jumbled mess in her brain to come up with a good reply. "All these… commitments…"

"I'm glad your little vacation with your husband hasn't made you forget!" Payson pipes, all glistening hair and dimpled smile that makes Kaylie swallow hard. Part of her, one that feels distant and mute, is really not jealous at all, because she's married to Nicky, for crying out loud. But the Kaylie that isn't a faint presence in her mind is bothered by this. She's married to her best friend's guy… Payson had called dibs on this boy, and now she's married to him. And hadn't he liked her, too? Like, a lot? "Well, I have to go… I'm still doing some last-minute renovations to the Rock with Sasha so it'll be spanking new by next month. The committee is intent on supervising the pace of the construction." Kaylie has a feeling she should know what in the world Payson is talking about, but resigns herself to nod in agreement. "Tomorrow I'll be back, so we can start training again. Enjoy your last day!"

Payson and Ike are gone after another round of hugs and shaking hands, and after they shut the door, their strained smiles disappearing, Kaylie and Nicky relax.

"We're so screwed."

:D Let me know how you think this first chapter went. I appreciate all input.