Disclaimer: I don't own MIOBI or these characters, and I'm not making any money off of this story.
A/N: This might be a bit of a tear-jerker. I cried when I wrote it and again every time I read over it.
She came down the steps straight into his arms. She was hanging from his neck, not even able to support her own weight, so he maneuvered her to the chairs on the sidelines and helped her sit down.
"I have to set the board for Lauren, but I'll be right back. I'm so proud of you." He dropped a quick kiss on her forehead and bounded up the podium to get ready for Lauren's beam. Behind him he heard Payson tell Lauren to go kick ass.
He got the board ready and turned to face Lauren. "I want to see Lauren Tanner out here, okay?"
She knew exactly what he meant. He wanted her to be the woman they had worked together to uncover, the one who performed the hardest tricks in the code of points with a huge smile on her face because she loved it. She was scared for her friend right now, but she couldn't let that affect her. The best way she could help right now was to kick ass, just like Payson told her.
Just like Emily had after bars, Lauren hugged him and said, "Thank you," and it meant the world to him. He had changed their lives, but they had changed his more. Before he came to the Rock he had been a lonely, bitter man hiding from the world. Now he was happy, happier than he had been since his mother's death, and he had a family. He had four young women he would die for, one of whom was the most important person in the world to him. He owed them everything.
"Thank you, Lauren. Now show the world what you can do."
He watched her mount the beam with a flawless round off full stretched, a G-level skill, pulled the spring board away, and jumped down into the alley before they could deduct for him being there too long. He sat next to Payson and his other girls gathered around them, holding hands and cheering as Lauren dominated on beam.
Unlike Payson's beam, which depended on insanely difficult dance elements and a few key acrobatic skills, Lauren's beam was all about tumbles. She threw gigantic skills and amazing aerial series; a standing full; a full turning pike jump straight into a layout, now called a Tanner; a round off back handspring layout; an aerial cartwheel to the side connected with a flic flac into a hip circle; a double Arabian dismount. She made the hardest tricks in the world look easy and got the entire crowd engaged in her routine. Nobody rocked the beam like Lauren Tanner.
Even Payson, too exhausted to stand in support of her teammate, was screaming her head off. It still amazed him how supportive this team was of each other. Every single one would cheer for the others to beat them. She clutched his hand as Lauren powered into her dismount, getting huge height on it and sticking the landing cold. Sasha knew what she wanted without her even having to say it; he helped her stand and the whole stadium followed suit. Lauren Tanner, the last gymnast to perform in this round of qualifying, got a standing ovation.
Lauren saluted to the judges and then turned to them. They noise was deafening, but the team was close enough to all hear when she pointed to Payson and said, "That was for you."
She ignored the stairs and jumped down to them, rushing into the middle of a group hug, and Sasha knew that even if they didn't win a single medal, all the blood, sweat, and tears would be worth it for this one moment as the perfect team.
o-O-o
She couldn't believe this was happening. She knew that it would be close between her and Kelly, but she never considered this as a possibility. So as if to punish herself, she was sitting on her bed staring at the three custom leotards that she would never have a chance to wear.
They all had them. They had a leo for every event final they were expected to make, special ordered through GK to have the required USA insignia on the sleeve. Lauren and Emily each had one, and they would both get to use them. They knew coming in that they would qualify for beam and bars, respectively. Payson had five, one for the All Around and then four more specially chosen to go with the tone of each routine. She and Kelly each had three. Kelly would get to use all three of her. Kaylie wouldn't get to use any.
They were mocking her. She knew she shouldn't have bought three, but her mom insisted. She said that it was better to be safe than sorry, and that it wouldn't be the end of the world if one or two of them went unused. She shouldn't have listened. At best she would have made the All Around and one event final; she and Kelly both knew there was no chance that one of them would be in all three of the possible finals. Except that it had happened, just not to her. The worst thing was that she couldn't argue with the results. She couldn't pretend like it was unfair or that the judges were biased, because she knew that Kelly was better than her today.
Kaylie's floor routine was good, and she executed it well, but it was missing what gave Kelly's floor that extra oomph: a personal touch. Sasha was always telling Payson to tell a story with her floor routine, and that was what Kelly did today. Kelly told them the story behind her music change one night at the Karolyi ranch, and it was easy to understand why she was so passionate about it. Her grandmother had written a letter to her every month for the past nine years, and Sheila, having never liked her husband's family, hid them. Kelly found out by complete accident. She got to the mail before her mother when they got back from Rio, and in it she found a letter from the Philippines addressed to her. She broke off ties with her mother because of it, but she was reconnected with her father's family for the first time since he died.
She hadn't expected to make the floor finals, not really. She would never have the passion that Kelly had for her routine. But she was surprised about the vault. Kelly was surprised, too, she thought. Vault was all about precision, and Kaylie had that in spades. All of the Rock girls did. That was the way that Sasha coached them, precision above power. Even with a lower DOD, Kaylie always beat Kelly on vault. Even today, Kelly's average DOD was two tenths higher than Kaylie's and she only beat her by six hundredths of a point. That perfect Amanar Kelly did came out of nowhere, but the ability to do the unexpected was what made Olympic Champions. Austin's All Around gold in Beijing had been a fluke, just like Kelly's vault, but nobody could argue that either of them didn't deserve it.
What hurt the most was the All Around. If it hadn't been so close it might not hurt so much. Kelly beat her by five hundredths of a point. It just seemed so unfair that Kaylie could rank third in the list of qualifiers and not go to the finals. She supposed that Ivanka could still knock her down to fourth, but she doubted it. Nobody in the world had the kind of execution that the Rock girls had or the kind of passion that Kelly had.
Passion, that's what it all came down to. Kaylie just didn't have enough of it. Payson and Kelly loved the sport in a way that she had never understood. Nothing in the world could give them the joy that they found in the gym, and it showed when they competed. Lauren was never happier than when she was on the beam, and she brought down the house today not because of her moves, but because she was in the most stressful situation that and athlete could ever face and still managed to have the time of her life. The bars gave Emily a sense of freedom that she couldn't have in her normal life, so she flew every time she was on them. And then there was her. Sitting on her bed and staring at her stupid pink leos because she really really liked gymnastics, and that just wasn't enough.
There was a knock on the door and she yelled for whoever it was to come in. Really she wanted to say "leave me the hell alone," but she cared too much about her teammates to do that. They wanted to help her and it would hurt their feelings if she was rude about it.
Sasha stepped inside and closed the door. There was a time when he would have been uncomfortable doing that, but things had changed so much within the last year. Sasha wasn't just her coach anymore, he was family. He eyed the leotards spread out in front of her.
"Are you trying to torture yourself?"
"A little bit, yeah." Sasha chuckled, and because he knew her so well he knew that she was only half joking.
He picked up the leos one at a time and put them back in her suitcase. "No more torture. What happened today was unfortunate, but don't let it eat at you. Bitterness can destroy your life. Trust me, I know."
She didn't understand what had made him into the gruff, egotistical, unhappy man who first came to the Rock—Payson probably did—but she knew he was a different person now. "What changed?"
It wasn't the clearest of questions, but he understood. "I found something that I cared more about than myself. You. And Lauren and Emily and Payson. Even Kelly, in a way. You made my life worth living again."
"You didn't have that before?" she asked. That was really sad.
"I didn't." He reached forward and took her hand. "You do. Don't shut yourself off from your friends, Kaylie. There is more to life than gold medals. Ask Payson or Emily and they'll both tell you the same thing."
"I don't get it. Why Emily and Payson?"
"Because they both know what it is that makes their life worth living. Everybody figures that out at their own rate. It took me thirty one years. It took Payson eighteen and Emily seventeen, and you will figure it out when the time is right for you." He tilted his head in question. "Emily wants to talk to you. Is that okay?"
When he first knocked on her door, she didn't want to talk to anyone. After what he said, she was anxious to talk to her friend. She wanted to know what he was talking about. She wanted to know how to be okay with this, and it sounded like Emily might have some answers. "Yeah, that's okay."
He squeezed her hand and before he left he kissed her on the top of her head, just like he always did for Payson. It made her feel special. The connection he shared with Payson was beyond anything the rest of them could understand, and while she had stopped being jealous of that a long time ago, it was still nice to be included in that group in some small way. That kiss went a long way toward making her feel better.
Emily stuck her head in a minute later. "Can I come in?"
"Yeah. Sasha said you wanted to talk to me?"
She nodded and sat down on the bed. "I did," she said. There was a long pause while Emily seemed to collect her thoughts. "You know that I would probably have been in the top eight if I competed All Around, right?"
Kaylie was confused. That was not what she expected Emily to say. "Yeah. I hadn't thought about it, but you were sixth at Worlds and you've only gotten better. Were you upset that you didn't get a shot?"
"Not even a little bit," she said. Kaylie wouldn't have believed it if it was anybody but Emily. Emily was always sincere. "The way I see it, I know that I'm one of the best gymnasts in the world. Not competing All Around doesn't make that any less true. It's not the medal that's important, it's the pride I feel in my accomplishments."
"You can really just be okay with that? You've worked your whole life for this. Don't you feel like… like you've failed?" It was the word she had been trying not to think for the past hour, but it actually felt good to put it out there. The thought wasn't crushing her anymore.
"I don't, and you shouldn't either. Kaylie, you placed within the top eight in three different events. You're top three in the All Around. It doesn't matter if someone else takes home the medal, because you know, and the whole world knows, that you're better. I feel sorry for Genghi and Ivanka. Whichever one of them wins will spend the rest of their life knowing that it was an empty victory because they didn't get the chance to compete against you."
Everything Emily was saying was true, but Kaylie wasn't quite ready to accept it yet. Instead, she asked the question that she needed the answer to. "Sasha said that there was more to life than gold medals, and that I should ask you about that. He said that you had already figured out what made your life worth living. What is it?"
"It's you guys." Emily said it with such honest frankness that it brought tears to Kaylie's eyes. She knew the team was special to Emily, but she had no idea how special. "I spent my whole childhood alone. I love my mom and Brian, but it's not the same as having friends. When I first came to the Rock I was so happy to have a team, and then as time went by you became more than a team. You became family. If I had to choose between you and gymnastics, I would choose you every time."
Kaylie didn't know what to say, so she went with the only response that seemed appropriate for the situation. She hugged her friend. And she cried. She cried because she didn't make the finals; she cried because she didn't love gymnastics the way her friends did; she cried because she wanted so badly to find that thing that made her life worth living. But mostly she cried because she had never felt more loved than she did in that moment.
A/N: I think Kaylie is a much more interesting character when she loses. Don't you?
If you want to see Kaylie's leos, go to my pinterest at pinterest(dot)com/flowerchild3286.
REVIEW and let me know if you cried (and, you know, anything else that you wanna tell me :D). I'll feel less like an emotional mess if I know other people cried too lol.