*Chapter 2*

Emily POV

Emily stormed down the streets, the many many streets between her house and The Rock, lit occasionally by the headlights of a passing car. Her movements were stiff and jerky, her mind seething with anger. She watched the clouds her breath made in the cold morning air, giving a shiver as that same cold air easily seeped through the thin warm-suit she wore.

Normally she enjoyed running, she'd turn on her IPod and crank the volume until she could feel the beat pounding through her entire body. She could let go of everything that strangled her and run happy and free—no drama, no obligations, no bills, no pressure, no politics, no conflict, no one and nothing else to consider. Living in the exact moment as it happened—muscles stretching, the in and out of breathing, the rhythmic pounding of her pulse as the endorphins flooded her body. She'd add tumbles and flips—each action sliding seamlessly into the next move, embracing the pure freedom of movement.

But right now, nothing was normal and happy was the last thing she was feeling—'happy?' she snorted to herself at the thought, shaking her head, hell 'mad' didn't even hit the top 20 emotions of her current mood… infuriated, incensed, sheer pissed off raging anger! oh yeah all that was up there, she seethed , along with the semi homicidal urge to assist Lauren in taking a long walk off a short beam, a short beam perched on the edge of the roof of a 25 story building. As for 'free,' she felt about as free as a wild animal trying to chew off its own leg in order to escape from a hunters trap.

Her gym bag bounced against her hip as she increased her pace, moving quickly down the dim streets. Frickin' 'Oh-my-God-O'clock' in the morning and she was already running late—happy-happy-joy-joy.

Today's lovely early morning run wasn't leading her towards a desired escape and endorphin rush. Oh no, of course not, today she was running straight towards Destination-Drama and all the ensuing complications and tangles associated with it. Tangles that often made her day to day life feel a bit like a lab rat running through a maze…and this morning—this morning's extra hubbub and hullabaloo were compliments of the High-Queen of Manipulation and Machinations herself—Lauren Tanner.

She finally paused, head down, fists clenched, arms tense at her side, her entire body rigid and trembling with the overflow of emotions. She gritted her teeth swallowing the scream of frustration strangling her. Her tense body was briefly illuminated by the headlights of a passing car.

Calm-down, calm-down, calm-down, she chanted to herself, forcibly slowing her breathing. Futilely trying to reign in all the chaotic thoughts running through her…but,—"Christ! I don't fricking believe this!" She slammed her fists down on her thighs, "I just can't fricking"—

She cut off the thought, a bitter laugh escaping as she wearily shook her head—she didn't even know which pissed her off more…the fact that Lauren had deliberately screwed her over, yet again—or that she'd actually believed that Lauren wouldn't follow her SOP of teammate support.

Since Lauren's usual method of support was generously expressed by stabbing her teammate in the back and tripping them, all the while simultaneously offering a helping hand—right over the edge of a cliff. Emily wasn't quite sure why she figured today would be any different

She knew when it came to inter-gym things that Lauren would not only quite happily use Emily's back as her own personal springboard, she'd consider it a bonus. Today however wasn't a 'Rock' thing. Today was a National Team thing and Emily had figured , or least hoped, that Lauren would support the 'Rock-girl' portion of the National Team, or at least not actively sabotage it and instead focus her plotting on the whole 'Kelly-Parker-Marty-no-Rock-girls' mess.

Apparently Lauren had decided that with a bit of multitasking she could accomplish both world domination and mass destruction. AKA—The Rock girls dominating the National Team and the for 'The Rock' girls going back to being Payson, Kaylie and Lauren, with Emily nowhere to be found.

How Lauren planned on achieving that end, Emily wasn't quite sure. After all Payson was still recovering from back surgery and Kaylie would quite happily take point in carrying out the whole 'long-walk-short-beam-rooftop' scheme. A small smile touched Emily's lips briefly at the thought. After all no jury in the world would consider it murder, at least none that had ever met Lauren. No, if they'd ever had to deal with Lauren they'd declare the deed to be a service to community and give them keys to the city.

Emily let out a light laugh that faded all too quickly and started into a light jog again, Christ she was frustrated and pissed and just soo fricking tired of this all.

Sasha had worked his ass off to get them where they were. The National Team had fallen on their faces in Beijing; the Chinese team was coming to The Rock, to compete. This, in turn had the National committee's panties in a twist. All this, resulted in the National Committee coming to The Rock this morning for an early morning meeting.

Participating would be; the National Committee, National Coach- Marty, Kelly Parker-former National Champion and trained by Marty at both Denver Elite and National Team, Sasha- who should have been the National Coach, and the Rock/National Team girls who were being overlooked.

The Rock girls were part of Team USA, in fact Kaylie was the National Champion, Lauren was best on beam. All the girls' DOD were both higher and cleaner than the girls currently competing on behalf of Team USA. National Team Coach Marty had participated in an inappropriate relationship with Kaylie's mother, had problems with Lauren's father all in addition to serious trust issues with all three girls over his actions in previously leaving The Rock without notice and making biased competition selections.

The National Committee was coming in hope of preventing the invitational from happening. Sasha and The Rock had agreed in hopes of getting the National Committee to stop passing them over. Their gymnastic careers and chance at the 2012 Olympics hung in the balance of this meeting.

Lauren had actually offered to pick Emily up, as her mom was out of town with her brother Brian and Emily, unlike the other girls, didn't have her own car. Like an idiot she'd actually believed Lauren would set things aside, even if only temporarily, in the spirit of the whole 'the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend-thing'. She'd thought that maybe the offer of a ride so that Emily wouldn't have to walk from home to The Rock at 'Oh-dark-hundred' in the morning was an olive branch.

In hindsight, she wasn't quite sure why on earth she'd believed Lauren could manage a truce…after all Lauren's version of 'I'm-over-it-I-just-want-to-focus' ran more along the line of '2nd-verse-same-as-the-first-just-a-little-bit-louder-and-a-little-bit-worse'.

You know, like going from secretly sleeping with your BFF's boyfriend to secretly having him live in your attic…though only in Lauren's mind would the BFF part still be applied. With Emily, Lauren's tactics went more along the lines of icing-out to vault-sabotage to 'misunderstandings'-that would effect-National-Team-chances. Chances like this morning's meeting. The meeting she was now going to be very, very, very late to; the meeting that could define her gymnastics career.

Still, Emily had been surprised when Lauren hadn't shown up on the agreed upon a time, and hadn't answered her phone or her cell phone or replied to any texts. When 30 minutes later Lauren still hadn't shown up, Emily had finally signed in resignation and began the jog to The Rock.

It was 4:30am; the sky was still dark, the roads almost empty and her breath making visible plumes in the cold air. She jogged along the empty streets, lit only be the occasionally passing car. Using her roiling emotions to push her faster

This brought her to back to her current situation—20 minutes away from a meeting starting in 10 minutes and hoping against all odds that she could somehow manage to get there on time.

She slowed to a brisk walk as she fished her cell phone from the gym bag, slung over her shoulder and shivered from the cold, her light warm up suit over a team leo offered little protection. She was hoping someone at The Rock would pick up the call.

If she was really lucky Sasha would be in his office and could maybe send someone to pick her up, then she could still be on time, with no one the wiser. Slightly less lucky, someone, other than Lauren, would hear it and find a way to delay the meeting until she got there. On the other hand it was four-freaking-thirty in the morning and no one might be in the gym yet. Either way, her best chance at avoiding a total Charlie-Foxtrot was to call and keep her fingers crossed.

Emily continued walking as dialed The Rock and listened to the ringing phone, taking looking for street signs so she could relay where she was. She looked over a car drove by her again. She had the phone at her ear, counting the rings as no one and nothing picked up the call. Idly wondering how many rings Sasha or Summer had set the machine at.

When the machine finally picked up after 9 rings it surprised a laugh from her. Hell, at that many rings Sasha had time to make it into the gym from his trailer if he could hear it ringing.

The outgoing message ran through such a long list of various options and instructions, surprising another laugh from Emily. Summer was definitely the one who had set up the machine, if it had been Sasha the outgoing would be something along the lines of 'I'm busy, leave a message.'

As she waited for the beep that would let her start recording she realized it wasn't the occasional car passing by—but the same car making repeated passes. She tried to get a closer look, wondering if maybe Lauren had simply been screwing with her instead of screwing her over, and wouldn't that be a nice surprise, she thought rolling her eyes.

As the car got closer she registered that it wasn't a car but a jeep and one that Lauren wouldn't be caught dead in, not even on a bet. 'Shit! Shit! Shit!' frantic thoughts raced through her head as she continued walking. Trying not to look concerned as her internal voice issued directions, 'stare straight ahead, Don't acknowledge them, don't run, just walk, walk fast, look like you know exactly where you're going, where am I?

The jeep slowed down as it drew even with her, the soft top down and windows open, a guy in his twenties leaned out. She kept walking straight ahead. When he called out a "Hey," she glanced over and tried to give him a slightly questioning look as she continued walking, the phone to her ear.

"You out really late or really early?" he asked her.

She could see his friends in the car elbowing each other and laughing.

"Stay calm! Stay calm" the voice in her head urged.

She continued walking, motioning to her phone like she was listing to someone as the recorded message continued on in her ear, Christ, right now she was really wishing it had been Sasha to set the outgoing message.

The jeep continued to pace her, as the same guy leaned out, his friends snickering in the background, "it's dark and cold, you shouldn't be out her alone, we'll give you a ride."

She managed to keep her voice even and steady as she answered with a light, "I'm meeting my coach and team for an early practice, and it's really close, but thanks for the offer."

Her heart pounded in her chest and adrenaline flooded her system. "Let them pass me! Let them pass me! Don't stop, please, please, please don't stop," she prayed as she continued walking. When pulled his head back in and the jeep passed by her and picked up speed, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Her thoughts were so frantic that she almost missing the beep indicating she could start her message.

"Hey, it's Emily, anyone there?"

She paused glancing down at her watch, CRAP! The meeting would be starting right now, nothing she could do now, only hope for the best, she sighed and as continued with her message.

"Anyways, I know the meeting should be starting I'm really, really sorry. My ride never showed up this morning," yeah, that would be Lauren, "it must have been a misunderstanding," like me thinking Lauren was an actual person instead of a venomous backstabbing little bitch, "Anyways, since I couldn't reach anyone, I started walking," 30 freaking minutes ago, "I'm going as fast as I can, the last crossroads I passed were Maple and Sycamore. I'm heading West on Maple towards The Rock. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm going to stay on Maple straight to the gym, so if there's any chance someone can come out and pick me up; it would be really really great. Again, I'm so sorry about not being there on ti…"

Her voice trailed off mid-word as the sound of a car reached her ear. Looking over her shoulder she saw it was the same jeep, slowly approaching, this time several of the guys leaning out the windows. Their voices echoed loudly in the quiet, as they goaded each other, each taunt spurring the others on. 'This is bad, this is bad, this is soo bad, don't let it happen, please please, I can't do this, I can't…' her thoughts were frenzied, jumbled, crashing into each other as panic and fear flooded her system.

She fought to stay focused, to stay calm, audibly swallowing as she continued on the phone, "if anybody is there pick up! Pick-up NOW!"

She could hear her voice cracking as the jeep came closer the guys inside calling out to her, she picked up her pace again, "please…"

She realized that she'd whimpered the plea into the phone and forced herself to firm her voice and give the information that might bring her help instead of giving into her rising panic.

"There's a yellow jeep following me, it's a black soft top, with Denver plates."

She took another deep breath forcing herself to look over her shoulder, "there's a 2-M-T-0 on the plate, I can't really see anything else there's mud on it and its dark."

She hoped the fact that she was on the phone and looking at them might make them think twice about actually doing anything. That it would act as a silent but loud 'if you do anything I will be able to ID you.' They took no notice, instead continuing to egg each other on.

Emily took another deep breath, pleading in her head for anyone or anything to hear her, to help her. Hoping that someone would hear the message, that the machine wouldn't cut her off, that this would stop.

"I think there are five of them, mid-twenties, I'm pretty sure they're drunk or high. One of them has dirty blonde hair, kinda that surfer style, average bodies, cau-cau-caucasian." Her voice broke as she tried to continue on, she knew she didn't sound calm, she felt as if she were struggling for breath, her heart trapped in her throat.

She continued on with her descriptions, trying to simply move, to focus, to not panic, fighting her instinct to run. The jeep continued to pace her, each jeer triggering the others to push harder, get louder, more graphic, their aggression rising with each taunt.

The lewdness she could handle, that gave her a chance to get to The Rock, a chance that someone would come to get her. But with every minute the potential for violence was escalating. She knew if she ran that they would give chase. That the second they got out of that jeep was when the same second that potential violence would detonate into actual violence and any chance of escape would be gone.

When she heard the jeep stop and doors slam, she only took one glimpse over her shoulder, before breaking into a full out run as fear swamped her.

She managed to yank the gym bag off her shoulder and drop it as she ran, not even aware that she still had the phone in her hand. Behind her she could hear them give chase after her, the pounding of their feet, their taunting laughter.

She ran, pushing herself as hard as she could, her only thought ESCAPE. Her heart was slamming against her chest, frantic breathing echoing loudly in her ears, sides screaming in pain from the demands she was making on her body. She felt a hand close around her arm and her terrified scream split the air.

Her speed and his grip swung her slightly in one direction before she managed to pull free. She had one moment of relief before the change in direction sent her crashing into another of the men. Her own momentum caused her to rebound off him before slamming hard into the ground, the forgotten phone skidding from her hand and sliding away.

She gasped, desperately trying to pull in air, to get up, to get away; to do anything other than lay crumpled on the ground struggling to breathe. Terror and panic flooded her system as she pushed to her feet.

They were gathered in a loose circle around her. Laughing, watching as she spun frantically in a circle, searching for an avenue of escape. Instincts shrieked, adrenaline raced, she kept whirling in panic, trying to focus. She tried to evade their hands, but each time she jumped away from one of man, it bounced her into contact with another one. They jeered at her as she ricocheted around their circle like a pinball.

She kept searching for a weak link she could use to break though their circle, but they'd turned into a pack tormenting their prey. If she could just get free of the circle she had a chance of help or escape. She gathered herself and lunged forward; hoping they might underestimate her and increase her odds of breaking through.

As she reached the far end of the circle hoping to slide under a small gap, one of them stopped her by simply grabbing onto the back of her jacket and yanking. She went flying backwards onto her ass again, setting off another round of laughter.

She tried to regain her feet, only to have her jacket caught again. This time it ripped free of her, pitching forward onto her hands and knees. Before she managed to get her feet under her, she was yanked again in a different direction, this time by the back of her pants. Every time she started to find her balance, another grip on her clothing sent her spinning her into yet another direction as the fabric ripped. She shuddered as panic began to swallow her whole. Her last clear thought echoing loudly through her head, 'This is going to be really bad.'

**This chapter is actually what I started with. keep going? Yes, no?**