Hello! Hope you enjoy and review!!!!!

-----

At eight am, and they went to an upscale downtown doctor's office where her ankle was seen by a specialist. Meg wore sweatpants and flats, and used crutches to walk across the lobby and into buildings, then sat in the waiting room. She kept her ipod on and went through several playlists before they went right into X-rays. After that, they went in to see the doctor; a shrewd man in his mid fifties who spoke no English, but was fluent in French. For almost ten minutes he studied the ankle, rolling it around and putting his finger on different parts of the bone to feel the way it moved. After that, he began to ask Meg questions; rapid firing questions one after the other. Meg always traveled with extensive doctor's notes and x-rays of her ankle, so any doctor would be able to address a problem with an informed opinion.

The Danish doctor continued to look at the ankle until the X-rays came back in fifteen minutes later, and he put them on the backlight fluorescents to study them. Then he turned his attention back to examining the ankle.

"There's nothing on the X-rays and I'm not feeling anything other than past damages."

Meg held her breath as he continued to feel around her ankle, comparing it with her other ankle and double checking every joint and movement. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but it was difficult not to.

"I think it was just a bad landing. You've taken very good care of it. I can detect the irritation of the muscles, but I don't think you have much to worry about. If you continue the treatment for today and tonight, then it should heal itself well. I would keep off the ice until your practice round and attempt to minimize how you rely on the ankle. Is it possible to favor the other one?"

"Yes. We'll do what we can, though the routine was already choreographed to depend on the other ankle. I didn't want her unbalanced, though…"

"No, that's good. Just rework what you can, keep off until your practice round, and after the performance, give the ankle a week to rest."

They left the office, still using the crutches, and returned to the hotel, where all the men had gathered in Meg's room again. She was helped back into bed, and Pavel explained what the doctor had said.

"That's great news then."

She nodded, still a little bit in shock. "Yeah. He said it was basically just a bad angle landing and that the ankle was just a little swollen from it. But that it was nothing to worry about."

Robby grinned. "Well, that's wonderful."

"I still have to do like thirty six more hours of ice and heat."

"Small price to pay."

She nodded, and gestured to Robby to hand her the dvd case with all of her movies. "You guys should go and explore the city."

"Baby-"

"Come on, Andy. When are you going to be in Copenhagen again? You could go to the zoo. They have elephants."

Andy glanced at Robby who looked decidedly unhappy about the mention of the zoo.

"I should go. I have to meet my coach for some practice. Feel better. I'll be by later."

He ignored Meg's dirty look and kissed the crown of her head before ducking out of the room, leaving Mark, Andy, Derek and Luke. Pavel had wandered to his room to call Meg's doctors in New York, and Mark walked to the drapes to let the light into the room.

"For real, guys. Go wander the city."

Her boyfriend shot her an irritated glance, and eased himself into the armchair. He was so used to lack of sleep that the previous night's activities hadn't exhausted him yet, but he didn't particularly want to go roaming around Copenhagen.

"Meg. Relax."

"Luke? Will you please take him shopping or something."

"Why would I want to go shopping?"

"So you can buy something nice for me. Come on. Amilee will be here soon, and I'm stuck in bed anyway. The four of you can wander the city. Try new food, have adventures. Male bonding."

The four men collectively sighed, but dutifully got up to leave the room. Meg called the front desk and asked for a map to be sent up while the guys got dressed for the cold weather, and also texted Amilee to let her know that she was back from her appointment.

Once the city map had been delivered, Meg took a highlighter from her purse (always prepared was her motto) and marked out a couple streets and places that the guys could visit. She then gave the map to Luke for safeguarding.

"When you get to the Bizantliest circle-"

"That isn't pronounced even a little bit like it's spelled."

"Anyway. The surrounding four blocks are a nice place to hang out. There are a bunch of little café's and shops and nifty little things to look through. Some bookstores you'd like. Stuff like that."

"I'm sure we'll be fine."

They kissed her and left, after putting the Little Mermaid into the dvd player and making sure she was on the side of the bed near the fridge and that the heating pad was plugged in. They hadn't been gone ten minutes when Amilee stumbled in, wearing pink silk pajama pants and a white cotton tshirt that showed both belly and chest.

"Do you buy three sizes too small?"

"Oh shut up."

Amilee climbed in with her, and stretched slowly, letting out a big yawn.

"I hate running. I picked the wrong profession."

"Really? I've always loved it. I don't know why. It's like time is just cleared for me to think. Like journaling."

"Except without the paper and pen and writing."

"Smart ass. Have you heard from Lissa?"

"Nope. She's not in her room, either. I knocked. She must have spent the night with Amando."

"Oh how the mighty have fallen."

"So the ankle?"

Meg told her what the doctor had said, and Amilee helped her to take the icepack off and wrap the ankle in the heat pad. While Meg was stretched out on the bed, Amilee sat cross legged, her golden hair falling in massive curls almost to her elbow's. The locks were a stunning shade of gold with stands of platinum blonde worked in beautifully. Meg's hair was about six inches shorter than Amilee's, and she couldn't wait for it to grow to that length.

"You've been quiet all week, so I haven't said anything. How's your soccer player?"

The French soccer player had appeared promising some months earlier. Meg had hoped that Amilee had finally found an attachment that she could allow herself to hold onto for some time.

"Oh. I'm sure he's fine. We drifted. I always do."

Amilee was not the greatest at relationships. She often got bored, and between the traveling and the practice schedule, it was hard for her to sustain those relationships. Because of that, she had favored athletes, lately, but even that didn't seem to help. Amilee was a beautiful girl. She had the kind of beauty that attracted a certain type of guy: Suave. Charming. Insanely attractive. But underneath all of her beauty was a razor sharp mind with an equally impressive intellect. For her, nobody had the complete package, and Meg knew her friend wouldn't be able to be happy until she could find someone who was her match in every way.

"I thought you really liked him?"

She gave Meg a sad little smile and a half shrug. "You know how it goes. I try- I really do…But…I don't know. It just gets harder and harder to be with them after a while."

"Then why not fuck the schedules and forget the athletes. Don't go for people who you think would understand. Go for someone who interests you."

Amilee looked supremely unhappy.

"I just want to be happy. I've tried to meet people. Business men are boring. They basically see me as arm candy. Athletes understand the schedule but they don't really try to know me. You and Lissa are lucky."

Meg gave a small laugh, and rubbed Amilee's back. "Baby, we're not even twenty-three. I got super lucky with Andrew, and Lissa may not be in this thing with Amando for the long haul."

The other girl just threw her a 'get real' look. Meg had to admit that Lissa was probably in her happily ever after fairytale. Her e-mails had betrayed a happiness that Meg had never sensed in her before. Amando was completely committed and making Lissa a huge priority in his life, regardless of her skating. He was romancing her in the way that Meg knew her friend had always dreamed of, and that made Meg thrilled.

"He seems to be good for her."

"Meg, he's giving her everything she's ever wanted. Not even that, he's like perfection incarnated. He wants her to go to college. To pick a career that she'll be happy with rather than just to be a trophy wife. He wants her to move in with him and help him set up a life that they can both enjoy. He wants her to gain weight and eat what she wants and do whatever makes her happy. Where the fuck am I going to find someone like that?"

In all the years that they had known each other, Meg had never seen Amilee get upset over the status of her love lives. Whenever a relationship ended, she simply shrugged her shoulders and moved on. She had never cared about someone enough to be devastated, and, being a beautiful, fun girl, there were endless men who wanted to take her out and cheer her up- were she to ever appear to need cheering up.

"Maybe you're looking for the wrong thing. You always demand things of life, Ams. You can't do that."

"I'm not demanding happily ever after. I'm just looking for someone I can spend time with and have some fun for more than a few months. I've been skating for over a decade, and I'm tired. What happens when I'm done with this?"

More than Lissa or Meg, Amilee had real cause to worry about that. Despite her superior intellect, she had no degree, having never attended college. She was such a high demand skater in Europe that there was no way that she could have handled the course work with traveling so much. Meg had been able to obtain special permission from Brookings to further her own education, but Amilee hadn't had that opportunity. When she finished skating she would have to start over in something else, with no real career to fall back on. Lissa would have the support of Amando while she did that, so it wasn't so much of a big deal for her. As well as having Andy's support, Meg had a degree from Brookings, which would get her a job with any marketing firm in the world, should she need it.

"You'll figure something out. If nothing else, you'll come to Seattle and live with me while you get a degree in something."

"When did you know that Andy was the one?"

"Come on, Ams."

"No. Seriously. Tell me. We've never had this discussion. All of a sudden he was just there and 'the one' and we were planning your dream wedding with an actual guy in the picture. When did it happen?"

Sighing, Meg unwrapped the heat pad from her ankle as Amilee put the ice wrap on again. She knew what Amilee meant. Andy had just exploded into her life and everything had changed. She had spent every available minute in New York, and extended her stays there as much as possible. The result had been seeing Amilee and Lissa less, and not being as available to them as before. It had been hard for them, but neither girl had ever mentioned that part of it, or made Meg feel bad about it.

"Do you remember that weekend that we were all in Spain?"

Amilee looked at Meg in confusion. "Yes. But…you guys had only been dating a couple months. And you had been gone most of that time."

Andy had flown to Spain for one of their competitions. Meg had wanted him to meet her friends and hadn't been to New York in almost a month, so she had asked him to come out there as it coincided with one of his long weekends.

"That was it."

That had been so early in their relationship that Amilee didn't even know how to respond. She just bit her lip and stared at the tv, playing the Little Mermaid.

"What if I'm just bad at it? What if I never get better and can't get over myself long enough to do this."

"Come on, Amilee. You'll find someone. But Luke isn't seeing anyone, if you're interested-"

"Do not even try and set us up. We have nothing in common."

Meg just frowned, having hoped that Luke and Amilee would hit it off and get married so they could all live one block from each other and live happily ever after.

"Okay. Forget romance. More important; what are we doing in Torino? Staying in the Village?"

"Yeah. I was thinking. Are you staying with Andy?"

She shook her head no, and put the movie volume lower, as King Triton started to ruin Ariel's treasure collection.

"No. I really want to stay in the village. I was thinking we could ask for a triple."

"Perfect. Lissa's staying at the village? Yeah. She wants the whole experience despite the fact that it's in Italy."

"She's going to be so fucking spoiled by the end of this; they'll treat her like a princess."

Since Lissa was Italian, the entire country would be rooting for her. It made things slightly more difficult for the other skaters, but there was always a home favorite. It would be nice to see Lissa so loved, however.

"Do you think the guys will get lost?"

Meg looked a little sheepish. "I mean, it's a definite probability. But they have Luke, so it might not be too bad."

Amilee looked doubtful, but turned her attention back to Meg's ankle to change the ice wrap for the heating pad. Meg was happy that despite the fact that they competed on the ice, she had such good friends, who would always take care of her.

---

Spain, Several Years Earlier

They sat at the table, laughing uproariously. The small hotel café had closed to the public some hours earlier, but it was two am and there was nowhere else for them to go. Sitting in the courtyard in the summer air, the four of them were crowded around a metal carved table, Meg, Andy, Amilee and Lissa had been enjoying themselves since they had finished the competition around eight that evening.

The bottle of Spanish wine was long gone, but Amilee was the only one who was even slightly tipsy. Lissa didn't drink, and Meg and Andy had long since laughed and eaten off the wine. The air was beautiful, and the four of them made a beautiful painting, aglow with happiness. Meg and Andy sat so close they practically shared chairs, with his arm around her and her entire body curved towards his. He had worn kakhi trousers and one of the white linen shirts that the locals favored in the heat, while Meg looked like she had stepped out of a 1950's catalogue. The powder blue skirt and white blouse with the red buckle belt high on her waist was flattering and pretty, and the look was completed by the long braid she wore to one side.

The four of them had been trading life stories and experiences, though most of the stories that the girls had all involved each other. Andy kept them regaled with tales from his crew fraternity at Brookings and amused them to no end. It was the first time that Amilee or Lissa had met Andy, and Meg was thrilled with how well the three of them got a long. Andy had charmed them with his personality, understanding how the dynamic ought to work. He flirted with Amilee in the way one flirted with one's girlfriend's best friend, and treated Lissa like a sister. It warmed Meg's heart to see her friends take to Andy so naturally. She had been a little bit worried.

Eventually, the café owner came out to apologetically tell them that they were closing for the night, and Andy happily settled the bill.

As they walked back into the lobby he had one hand heavily over Meg's shoulder, pulling her close to him. Lissa looked happy and relaxed- not a normal occurrence- and Amilee's skin was radiant with pleasure. There was no elevator in the hotel. Just three floors of beautiful wire rimmed staircases, which the group slowly ascended. Everything was open to the air, it seemed, and made the experience like something out of a novel.

Amilee and Lissa's door came first, and Lissa threw her arms around Andy to kiss both of his cheeks and hug him.

"It was so nice to meet you."

"You as well. I hope we'll see each other soon."

She then did the same with Meg, who would see her in less than two days in Zurich. Amilee went in with her, and gave Andy a little peck on the lips, then kissed Meg as well.

"Goodnight, mon amie."

With a naughty little wink, she followed Lissa into the room and shut the door, causing Meg to giggle uncontrollably. She and Andy took a few steps, trying to walk down the hall to their room, but she was laughing too hard to really go much further.

Chuckling himself, he wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to sag against the wall.

"What is going on?"

Meg gazed up at him, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks heated. Asking him to fly out to Spain to see her for 48 hours had been an unthinkable whim. She hadn't expected him to come; his life was busy. But he had simply booked the tickets and shown up. Pavel hadn't been pleased. Having been against the relationship and the focus she was giving to it, he had worried that all her concentration would be blown. So Meg had been vigilant about her attention to her skating. In fact, she'd barely been able to spend time with Andy. Sure, he had lain beside her the night before, but she'd been asleep by ten, and up by six, leaving him to sleep in.

Their relationship had been…physical…for a few months, but Meg felt like they were always getting to know new things about each other. She had rushed into his bed- she knew that, but she didn't regret it. Not when he was so attentive and focused and made her feel like a princess without stifling her.

"I'm just happy you're here."

It had been almost a month since she had seen him, and she had wanted to all but beg him to fly to Spain. She had missed him more than she had on any other trip away from him, and that made her all the more desperate to hold on to the happiness that she felt.

"I'm happy I'm here too."

All of a sudden, the mood changed. The air seemed to crackle with electricity and Meg became ultra aware of him. He moved his arms to lay a palm on each side of her head, against the wall, leaning into her. She could smell his cologne, smell his own scent under it, the fragrance that was uniquely his, made even more pronounced by the hot and humid air. He'd gone without his glasses that night, instead wearing his contacts. Looking into his green eyes, Meg felt herself float away, forgetting that they were in the middle of the hallway and that they were only a few feet from Amilee and Lissa's door.

"Do you like my friends?"

"I love your friends."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

He leaned in and kissed her lightly, unconcerned about their surroundings as well. Meg wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, continuing with the kiss till they were both breathless and panting a little bit.

Andy cupped her face in his hand, then let his fingers trail down her neck, shoulders and arm till he held her hand. Slowly, he began to walk backwards down the hallway, pulling her with him. Turning around, he walked them to her room and unlocked the door with the passkey, leading her inside the room.

The walls were mocha and the bed sheets white, the balcony door open and letting in the night breeze. Andy didn't bother with the lights, but backed her to the bed, where Meg toed off her shoes and knelt on the edge of the queensize monstrosity, while Andy stood in front of her. The moonlight lit up the room as she tilted one head to the side, studying his face in detail.

"Why did you come out here."

He ran the backs of two fingers up and down her upper arm, then put his hand in her hair, slowly caressing her skin behind her ear.

"How could I not?"

She put her hands to his chest and slowly undid the buttons on the white linen shirt, slipping it off his shoulders and letting it pile on the floor. He must have toed off his sandals, because when she undid the belt buckle and khaki's, he allowed the pants to slip down so he could step out of them, leaving him in his boxers. Very slowly, Andy unbuttoned her white blouse, pulling her arms up as he took it over her head, and letting his eyes roam over her form. Meg found the zipper at her side and unzipped the blue skirt to pool on the bed, making no move to remove it from her knees.

"Andy…"

His lips skimmed her neck, and he pulled back to look at her, sensing she needed something.

"What, baby?"

She bit her lip, looking down, but then brought her gaze to meet his.

"For how long?"

For one long moment, they just stared at each other, understanding the weight of her question. Then, he cradled her face in his hands and smiled a little.

"Till you're finished with it."

"And if that doesn't happen?"

"Then it won't end."

She smiled, then reached up to wrap herself around him before sinking backwards onto the bed and bringing him with her.

----

More very very soon if you review….