A/N: Shakin' it up!

The air outside was relatively cool, but the air in the gym was heavy with chalk. Numbers of young girls in their level classes worked relentlessly on their skills as young coaches watched over them with a keen eye. It was abuzz with noise, the gymnasts chattering as they waited their turn.

JJ was working with Nick, in a small mixed group of girls who were either Level 10 or in the stages of qualifying to elite. Currently, JJ was Nick's only elite gymnast, but Nick had high hopes that JJ's level of success would inspire other girls in the gym to work just as hard.

Focused only on her own skills rather than the noise and chaos around her, she worked lightly through the gentler skills of her routine; other than her mount and dismount, she and Nick didn't want to work the harder skills just yet. They would be added in due time.

She was practicing her switch leaps from one end of the beam to the other when one of the young coaches, Lisa, who was acting as admin staff for the day, approached Nick.

"Nick, we're having trouble with the classes for tomorrow... because of James calling in sick and having to reschedule his groups? We've now got way too many kids in one block, it'll be chaos," she said, a hint of frustration hanging about her voice.

"Let me take a look at it. We'll figure something out," Nick replied, making to follow her back to the office, before turning back.

"Elliott!" he called, waving over one of the male coaches. Elliott was in his mid twenties, and coached at the gym in between training his way to the elite level of men's trampolining. He was a friendly guy who was liked by pretty much everyone in the gym, and was one of Nick's most trusted assistant coaches.

"Yeah?"

"Can you just keep an eye on the kids here while I help Lisa with the scheduling? And give JJ a spot if she needs it," Nick said.

"Sure," Elliott replied with a smile, taking over Nick's place leaning against the crash mats as the older coach left with Lisa to go to the office.

Unfazed by the coaching change, which was a common occurrence during busy days, JJ continued to train the dance elements of her routine, before throwing a back handspring to keep her muscle memory limber and ready to go.

A back tuck, a pike jump, an attempt at a double turn which led to her falling to the floor. Calm and confident, she soldiered through it all, making sure each movement was exact and precise.

When she'd had enough of that, she jumped off the beam, heading to the end and dragging over another crash mat to soften the landing on the floor. Once she was happy with the two mats, she turned to Elliott.

"Can you spot me for a double tuck?" she asked with a smile.

"Sure thing, beam queen," Elliott replied with a grin, pushing off the stack he was leaning against and walking to stand by the end of JJ's beam.

JJ climbed back up, walking to the end of the beam and placing her feet on her chalk line. She took a deep breath, raising her arms up above her head, before swinging them down and then back into her first flip. It was easily followed by the second flip, and followed up with a high and flighty double tuck.

"What do you need a spot for?" Elliott laughed as she relaxed and walked back towards the beam.

"Well, I'm going for my full in, so I'd appreciate it if you hung around," JJ replied with a grin, pulling herself back up onto the apparatus.

Readying herself on the chalk line once more, she started to prepare to flip. But before she made a move, she glanced back at the end of the beam, making sure she really was the correct distance away from the end. Elliott was standing nearby, waiting patiently for her to execute the skill.

Swinging herself back, she flipped across the end of the beam. She punched away from the end, twisting her shoulders into the full twist. Her legs carried themselves into the tuck. Nothing felt out of the usual, and that was what JJ liked when she was getting back into it.

But halfway over, she saw Elliott start to dive towards her. It took her a second to realise why, but as her muscle memory carried her into the second tuck and the mat beneath her came into her view, she realised why. Her punch hadn't been high enough, and she was going to come up short.

She pulled her knees in tighter, hoping to rotate faster and land on her ass, but inevitably, she crashed into the mat flat on her shins, her legs still tucked beneath her as Elliott flailed about in an attempt to catch her.

It would've been fine, except for the horrendous crack that sounded out the second she hit the mats.

Nick was hunched over his planner, exhaling in frustration as he tried to straighten out the following day's schedule when he heard the scream coming from the gym floor.

Both he and Lisa automatically straightened up, looking out the window towards the training floor. He could see the girls around the beams recoiling in shock, but both Elliott and JJ were obscured from view by a stack of hard rectangular mats.

"NICK!"

At Elliott's cry, Nick leapt into action, exiting the office and heading straight out towards the beams, with Lisa hot on his heels. His stomach was sinking the closer he got.

'Please let it be minor,' he thought as he climbed over the stack of mats and found JJ hunched over on the crash mat in panicked tears, her face whiter than the chalk on her hands. But as soon as he saw her, he knew it wasn't going to be minor.

"Something broke," JJ said through breathy tears, looking up at her coach with fear written all over her face. "My leg... just broke"

"Lisa, can you call an ambulance, and then call Sandy or Michael. Elliott, we need some ice and a couple of towels," Nick instructed calmly, placing a comforting hand on JJ's upper back as he knelt down beside her. The two younger coaches left without a word, while Nick dragged over a nearby foam block for JJ to rest her arms on, as they were shaking rather badly.

"I need everyone to clear the beams! If you're training beam, please move to the floor and work on the far two lines so as not to disrupt the kids on floor!" he called out, looking towards the visibly shaken kids who were waiting for instructions at the opposite end of the beams. He watched for a moment as they slowly walked off, before turning his attention back to JJ, who had calmed herself to the point where she was only crying softly.

"You're alright... I know you're in a lot of pain, but you'll be ok," he said gently as he guided JJ to lift her arms up to the block. "Do you think you can roll to lie on your side so that we can strap and ice your leg?"

"I don't know," JJ said in a panicked breath. "I don't want to move"

"I know, but we need to ice it. The paramedics are going to need you to move when they get here, and it'll be a lot easier for them if you're lying down," Nick explained softly.

JJ took a deep breath, swallowing back more tears before managing a brave nod.

"Hold onto me, and move at your own pace," Nick said, holding out his left arm, and keeping his right hand on JJ's upper back.

It took nearly five minutes, but with a decent amount of whimpering and grimacing, JJ managed to get herself lying on her side, her injured left leg now exposed. Nick could see swelling around the upper part of JJ's lower leg, but from what he could see, the skin was intact and her leg looked otherwise normal. That was a glimmer of hope.

At that point, Elliot finally returned with two large ice packs and two clean towels, handing them to Nick before kneeling up beside JJ's head and rubbing her upper arm as an act of comfort.

"The ambulance is on its way Nick, they'll be roughly fifteen minutes. I also got a hold of Michael, he says he'll be also be about fifteen minutes, but he's going to try and get here before the ambulance does," Lisa reported as she also returned. "I think it'll be easier if we open up the side door into the parking lot, don't you?"

"Yes," Nick agreed, as two other coaches approached the situation. "Dave, Tony, can you help Lisa open up the side door, and I'll need someone to wait by the road just to make sure the ambulance knows where to go"

The three nodded, heading off without further instruction.

JJ closed her eyes momentarily, trying to ignore the terrible pain in her left leg as she listened to the voices all around her. She took a deep breath, lifting one arm and draping it across her forehead as Nick pressed an icepack to her injured leg and covered it in a towel. It was ice cold, but a welcome distraction from the pain.

Her dad was coming. Words that made her feel calmer than ever. Even at nineteen, the comfort of her parents was one that was warmly welcomed in any situation.

She kept her eyes closed as the others talked around her, focusing on breathing in and out through her nose to keep from hyperventilating.

"Still with us JJ?" came Nick's voice after about five minutes of quiet chatter amongst the general noise of the gym. She nodded, taking a deep breath in as she did.

"You know, if you wanted to break something, I wouldn't have been mad if you broke the beam. I'd have much preferred that to your leg," Nick added, a teasing lilt floating through his voice. Despite the pain, JJ cracked a smile, making Nick and Elliott chuckle.

She opened her eyes, finding Nick looking down at her with a reassuring smile on his face.

"I'm still gonna be world champion this year," she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, I don't doubt that for a second kiddo," Nick agreed with a grin. "You'll be back in no time"

Minutes later, her dad's voice joined the noise around her. And then, he was beside her, kneeling down with a smile.

"Getting through the year injury free just isn't cutting it for you anymore, hey?" he teased gently, squeezing her hand. "You ok peanut?"

"Yeah," JJ said genuinely.

"There's a lot more colour in her face now," Nick pointed out.

"Ambulance is here!" Lisa called from over by the door.

And then the flurry of people around her was added to by paramedics. It was all a blur, but eventually, she had been given a starting dose of painkillers, strapped up in a splint, lifted onto a gurney, and loaded into the back of the ambulance.

As the ambulance slowly pulled away from the gym, her dad's car in tow, JJ closed her eyes and laid back against the gurney.

All would be ok. It wasn't even November yet.

If she wanted to make it back, she could.