Disclaimer: I don't own MIOBI or these characters, and I'm not making any money off of this story.
He was always terrified when she was on the bars. The image of her falling at Nationals played in his mind like a video loop, not stopping until she was safely on the ground again. Today was different, though. Today he saw her as she collapsed against him the previous morning, saw her face devoid of all color, saw the fear in her eyes when the doctor confirmed her suspicions that she might not survive. The worst part of it all was that he knew she was falling apart. With every minute she was losing strength and he didn't think she could make it though this rotation, much less the next one.
Her second vault was the turning point. He knew as soon as she stepped off that podium that she had tipped too far over the edge of exhaustion to stay afloat. She fell into his arms the way she would at home, with complete abandonment of her pride and a desperate need to be comforted. The fact that she was lowering those walls in front of millions of people scared the hell out of him.
He let her salute before he came to her, knowing that she would want that dignity. As soon as her arms were lowered he was at her side, and she dropped all pretense of being well. She fell against him and he wrapped one arm around her shoulder and the other around her waist, supporting her weight. She wasn't even strong enough to stand by herself anymore. She moved her feet as they moved off the podium, but they both knew she wasn't really walking. He was carrying her.
He sat her down in a chair and kneeled in front of her, taking both of her hands in his. "Payson, be honest with me. How bad is it?"
She was leaning back in the chair and her eyes were closed, but her voice was strong when she answered. "Not nearly as bad as it looks, I swear. Just let me rest until it's time for me to compete and I'll be fine. I'll skip warm up and eat something and by the time I'm up I'll be okay again."
"Payson, I just had to carry you off of the podium. You are not going to be okay again in ten minutes." He wanted her to compete, but not if she was going to hurt herself doing it. No medal was worth that.
She opened her eyes and they were clear, not showing any signs of the feverish glaze that she had yesterday. "I'll be okay enough not to fall off the beam for ninety seconds. It won't be good and you'll probably have to carry me out of the arena afterward, but it will get me to the finals. I wouldn't take a chance if I wasn't sure."
He believed her, but only because he knew what was at stake. She might risk her own life to compete, but she wouldn't risk her baby. She would never allow herself to be overconfident and take a chance that could harm Alex, so she must be certain. He nodded his acceptance but added, "If you get up there and don't think you can do it, don't hesitate. Kelly's beam isn't great, but it's enough to get us to the finals if you have to scratch."
"I know, Alexandru. I won't risk it if it's too dangerous." He smiled at her use of his full name. It was part affection for him, and part reminder that her mind was in the same place as his. They were both thinking about the baby, and he was sure that Austin was as well as he watched from the stands.
He sat beside her and she leaned against him while they waited for the floor and beam rotations to finish up. Those rotations always took longer than vault and bars, so they had a few minutes for her to just rest. He nodded to the other girls to let them know that Payson was okay. Emily came over to get a report from him.
"She's fine, Emily. She's just tired and needs to rest, but she can still compete."
Payson mumbled against his bicep, "She's also awake and can hear you talking about her like she's not in the room."
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head, but judging by Emily's confused expression she didn't hear the joke. He jerked his head toward the other girls, who were standing with Marty and openly staring. "Tell them they need to be getting ready for beam. And warn them that Payson isn't going to warm up so they don't freak out when we get over there."
Emily left just as the last athlete mounted the beam. He reached to take off Payson's handgrips and stashed them in her bag, looking around to make sure they wouldn't be leaving anything behind, and before he could blink they got the signal to move. The other girls walked to the other end of the arena in formation, but Payson didn't bother to try. Sasha carried her gym bag and had one arm supporting her as they walked; normally Payson would balk at appearing weak like this, so it was a testament to how tired she was that she didn't protest his help.
She sat down and ate a banana while the other girls warmed up, and then leaned back and closed her eyes again. He barely noticed Kelly and Kaylie performing, which he felt guilty about. Kelly was Marty's gymnast, but he still should have been watching her, and he really should have been watching Kaylie. It wasn't fair to ignore her. His consolation was that he knew Kaylie didn't mind. She was just as worried about Payson as he was.
She opened her eyes as Kaylie prepared to dismount. If he guessed right, she had been listening to the sounds of the beam reverberating with each of her teammate's skills. She was steady when she stood up for a quick stretch, and she showed no signs of doubt. He walked with her to the stairs but stopped her before she took the podium.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
She nodded her head once. "I am. I can do this."
He cupped her neck with both hands, trying to convey the depth of his emotions—love, support, pride, mixed with overwhelming fear. "Don't try to push yourself. If you can't do it, just hop off the beam."
"I know. I'll be careful."
He kissed her head and she kissed him back, which was a good sign because earlier she hadn't been able to, and then watched with dread as she climbed to the podium. Kaylie came to stand beside him and put her arm around his waist, and he wasn't sure if she was trying to take comfort for herself or give it to him. He put his arm around her shoulders and promised, "She'll be fine."
o-O-o
"So I think the question we're all asking ourselves here is will Payson Keeler compete? She did not look well after the last rotation and she didn't participate in the warm up for beam. Will this be where her hope for All Around gold ends?"
"It looks like she's going for it, Al. Here's her mount, an aerial walkover to the beam, very pretty. And here is her first big skill, a switch ring leap with a full turn. We mentioned earlier that that leap is named after her."
"She is about to do something really interesting here. She does a flic flac with a full twist, landing in a handstand and then lowering herself into a split position. This is a new move for her since the Olympic Trials one month ago."
"It is, Elfie, and it will bear her name after today."
"Now this pose that she does after it, Tim, I understand is being unofficially called a Payson. She is in a split on the beam with her body arched backward over her leg, very elegant."
"She is acquiring quite a few skills named after her, Al, and we're about to see another one coming up. First we have a split leap straight into a Yang-Bo, which mirrors that pose we just saw but in the air, and then an aerial walk over. Now here it is, a Wolf hop with two full turns. That is new since Worlds."
"It is only fitting that she should have so many moves named after her, Elfie, since she is reshaping the sport of gymnastics. From now on power alone will not be enough, the best gymnasts will have to combine grace and strength."
"Speaking of grace, here is her double illusion. Only three people in the world have done that move in competition, and one of them is her teammate Emily Kmetko. It is incredibly difficult and incredibly beautiful."
"Here comes her only flight series, where we can see some of that power. She does a flic flac layout to a full twisting layout, but not the best landing. You know, several gymnasts do multiple series, looking for connection bonuses, but Payson doesn't need to. Her skills are hard enough to give her a gigantic score without connections. In fact, I believe she has the highest DOD on this apparatus since the new code of points was introduced."
"How many times have we said that today, Elfie? She was tied with teammate Lauren Tanner for that record, but her new move pushed her ahead by one tenth of a point. There is the ten second warning bell, but no, it looks like she's not even trying. She's going to take the deduction for being over time. Now the dismount, a front handspring into a—whoa, that was not the dismount she planned! She was supposed to do a double salto forward in the stretched position, which would have been another skill named after her if she landed it, but she just did that tucked. And a big step on the landing, too."
"That is very surprising, Tim. She says that coach Sasha Belov does not allow her to do any skill that is tucked because it does not fit with her artistic image, so he can't be happy about that change."
"Overall I think we can say that this routine was not up to standard for Payson, but I am impressed at her ability to simply get through it. I was worried that she might be too sick to finish, and apparently so was her coach. One of our correspondents on the floor is telling us that before Payson took the podium, Sasha Belov told her to get off of the beam if she couldn't finish safely."
"Well, she did finish and it should be enough to get her into the All Around finals. She needed to score above a 12.95 to be in the top two from her country, and I think we can safely assume that she did. There were several errors, but her score is out of a possible 17.3."
"That's a 17.2 now, Tim, with the downgraded dismount."
"Excuse me, Elfie, it's out of a possible seventeen point two. That starting value makes up a lot of ground, and I would bet that she makes the event finals as well."
"Well, let's see. Her scores are being posted now. It looks like a 17.2 difficulty value, and an 8.8 execution score—that is the lowest I have ever seen from Payson—for a combined total of 16.0. That should get her into the event finals."
"Next up is Lauren Tanner, the best beamer on the American team, many think the best beamer in the world. She has even better execution on this event than Payson Keeler, and that is saying a lot, so this should be interesting."
A/N: I haven't proofed this, so let me know if there are errors :)
REVIEW and let me know what you think. Also, remind me what happened, 'cause I straight up don't know what's in this section ;) I normally re-read before I post, but I'm running short on time tonight.