Disclaimer: I don't own MIOBI or these characters, and I'm not making any money off of this story.

A/N: Sorry for the disappearing act! Real life temporarily put my imaginary life on hold. Don't worry, I'm fine, but I got so busy for a while there that I've barely been on the internet in weeks, and even then it was on my phone. But I'm back now with a nice long chapter for you all :)


Austin arranged for his family to come to London. He bought plane tickets, made hotel reservations, arranged seats for them at the O2 arena during the competition. He knew they wouldn't come, just like they didn't come to Beijing, but he did it anyway.

Ava would have gone to the '08 Olympics if she could have, but she was fifteen years old at the time and couldn't go without her parents, who flatly refused to come. Now she was nineteen, but being around gymnastics was still difficult for her. She hadn't watched him compete in nearly three years, so as much as he wanted her to be there for him in London, he didn't expect it. Which is why he was so surprised when Ava called him last night from her room in the Four Seasons at Canary Wharf.

Kevin arranged for him to see her before he competed, and his excitement about seeing Ava far outweighed any nervousness he might feel for the All Around that afternoon. They hadn't seen each other in person in over a year, since before he moved to Boulder. He couldn't wait to see her, to hear all about her life, even though he'd heard it all over the phone before, and to tell her all about his.

He had a lot of explaining to do. She scolded him for not telling her about Payson before and asked how long they'd been together, and he didn't have the heart to tell her the truth over the phone. It was too complicated. Had they been together for two and a half weeks, one week, or two days?

And then he had to tell her about the baby. He was waiting to tell her in person, which he assumed would be after the Olympics, but suddenly she was here and he had to tell her now. How do you tell your baby sister that you had a one night stand with the woman you love, got her pregnant, and didn't remember any of it? As awkward as that conversation would be, though, he wanted her to know. He'd always shared everything with his sister, and he was so happy about the baby. He wanted to share that with her. He was excited to tell her about the baby's name, too. Ava would be honored that Payson wanted to name their child after her.

He was already excited about Ava, and his good day was made even better when Payson walked into the gym shortly after lunch. She wasn't expected to leave the hospital in time for any practice, so the whole gym stopped dead when she came thought the doors. Her teammates rushed toward her for a group hug and hundreds of questions, while he and Sasha stood by waiting for a chance to see her. Eventually the girls realized that there were other people who wanted to speak with her and started training again. Sasha indicated for Austin to go to her. He had one of those mystifying one-look conversations with Payson and then went back to work with the other girls, giving Austin some privacy with her.

He put his arms around her and lifted her up so that their lips were at the same level. Payson took advantage of the position and kissed him. She had a huge grin on her face.

"I thought you weren't going to be here today," he said.

"I thought so too. But it turns out that I didn't need as much blood today as I have the last couple of times, so it didn't take as long."

"That's fantastic, Pay. It's slowing down, isn't it?" Outside of that first day at qualifying, Payson hadn't been nearly as tired as she was the past few weeks.

Her smile was brilliant. "It is. My blood levels are still dropping, but not at the same rate as before. Baby steps, right?"

He couldn't help but laugh at her word choice. She kissed him again, her own thoughts turned in the same direction of his. Austin was conjuring up images of a little boy with his dark hair and Payson's green eyes wobbling across the floor to where Payson was sitting with her arms held open for him.

"What's going on with you?" she asked. "You look like you're about to burst with excitement."

He was impressed that she could tell. They hadn't been together for long, but already they were learning how to read each other. "Ava called me last night. She's here."

"Really?" she squealed, excitement clear in her voice. "I'm going to get to meet her?"

She sobered and pulled away from him. "Wait, does she know about… everything?"

He was busted. "No, not yet. I'm going to tell her this afternoon before I introduce her to you. She'll love you, though, don't worry."

"Are you sure? I mean, that's a pretty big bomb to drop on her when you haven't seen her for a whole year. And I don't come off so great in this story. She might hate me."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean, about you not coming off so great?"

"I was a complete bitch to you," she said, rolling her eyes like he was missing something obvious. "And I manipulated you to get what I wanted. That's not going to endear me to Ava."

"That's not true, Pay." Sure, she'd made some mistakes, but so had he. "You were scared and angry. You didn't do or say anything that I didn't deserve."

They both dropped the subject. It was best not to dwell on the beginnings of their relationship. Their future was what mattered.

"It'll be fine. I promise." The words 'It'll be fine' were being thrown around a lot lately, but this was a time when he could mean it. Ava would love Payson. "But I think we should both go train before Kevin comes to drag me away."

He didn't have much longer to train before he peaced out to go see his sister. Kevin was the most understanding coach in the world, unrivaled by anyone except maybe Sasha. He made huge concessions when it came to Austin spending time with Payson, and he was even letting him leave practice a half hour early to see Ava before they all had to go to the arena. Kevin understood that there was so much more to being a champion than just skill, and seeing his little sis before the competition would put Austin at the top of his game.

He didn't even see her when he walked into the lobby of her hotel. He just walked in, glanced around, and then all of a sudden felt a small torpedo slam into him.

If it weren't for the familiar freckles covering her face and the electric blue eyes that she shared with him, he wouldn't have believed that the young woman staring up at him was the same tomboy kid he'd left in Texas just a year ago. She was beautiful. And grown up.

He gave her a bear hug with an accompanying growling roar. "It's so good to see you." The sentence carried a deeper meaning that they both felt. It's so good to see you looking healthy.

For years the anorexia hung around her like a shroud. Her weight came back slowly, her skin was pasty, her hair was dull. Worst of all, there was a haunted look in her eyes, like she was broken. The look was still there, but there was happiness mixed in with it, and her body looked like her body again.

"It's good to see you, too," she said. A familiar grin covered her face, one that Austin hadn't seen in years, since before the eating disorder took over her life. "Come on, I want to hear about Payson and I know you won't talk about it out here. We're going to my room." She grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the elevators.

As soon as the door was closed behind them she turned to him and demanded that he spill. She'd never been one for small talk.

He decided to drop the biggest bomb first. "So… you're going to be an aunt."

"What!" she screeched, then punched him on the shoulder. "You got her pregnant?"

"I think I should be insulted that you don't sound more surprised by this." She was frustrated, sure, but not surprised.

"Are you kidding, I've been waiting for something like this to happen ever since Beijing. I just thought you'd be a little more careful with someone you cared so much about." She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. The gesture reminded him of Payson. "I don't get what's going on here. You've haven't shut up about her in months but you never bothered to mention that you were dating her, and now you're telling me that she's pregnant? So no more secrets. Tell me everything."

He did. As uncomfortable as the conversation was, he told her everything, starting with falling in love with Payson and his jealousy over Sasha, the night in St. Louis that he didn't remember, finding out that she was pregnant, the fight and their complicated relationship, Payson's illness, all leading up to the agreement he and Payson finally came to on Monday night. He finished by telling her about the baby's name, knowing that it would soften the blow for her.

"Payson's convinced that it's going to be a boy, but if it's a girl she wants to name her Alexandra Ava Tucker, if you're okay with that."

"Of course I'm okay with that," she said. It was the first time she spoke since he started his explanation. "Austin, I… I don't know what to say here. You're acting like you're fine with all this, but it can't be that easy. You're having a baby. She's sick. You love her and she doesn't love you. Nothing about this is fine."

"It is, A. It wasn't easy to get here, but we're in a good place now. And we're both really excited about the baby. Payson is going to be an amazing mom. And you'll be an amazing aunt."

"What about her?" she asked. "She's still sick, right? With that and the baby, should she even be competing? Isn't that irresponsible?"

He'd never thought about it, but he could see how it might seem that way. That was probably why MJ wanted them to pretend like Payson didn't find out she was pregnant until after the Games. "I see where you're coming from, A, but Payson has been under doctor supervision the whole time. If they told her it wasn't safe to compete she wouldn't, and she knows when to sit out. She's being safe about this."

Ava gave him a penetrating look. She knew him better than anybody, and she could read him like a book. "You're really happy?" she asked.

"I am," he assured her. "Happier than I've been in forever."

"And you really love her?"

"I do."

She nodded her head like she'd made a decision. "Okay then. Take me to meet her."

As was always the case with them, he heard what she wasn't saying. She accepted it all. She was happy for them. She was ready to make Payson part of their family. Like every other situation in her life, Ava would go into this with her whole heart.

"Okay," he agreed, "But we're hanging out later and it's your turn to talk. I want to hear everything I've missed since I moved to Boulder."

She reached out and shook his hand. "Deal."

o-O-o

Kaylie was uncomfortable.

Ava Tucker was sitting with the women's team in the stands while Austin competed below, and Kaylie didn't know where she fit in the situation. Ava, Payson, and Emily were telling funny stories about Austin, with occasional help from Lauren, but Kaylie stayed clammed up. All her stories about Austin were from when they were dating, or leading up to them dating, and that was a little too awkward for her tastes.

For some reason she always assumed that Ava would be like her, maybe because they were both dealing with eating disorders, but the girl that Austin brought to meet them in the tunnels of the North Greenwich Arena was a lot more like Payson. She hugged a lot. She was outspoken. She was beautiful without trying. Kaylie had a hunch that Ava Tucker wouldn't be caught dead in pink.

When Austin introduced them to his sister, she hugged them all, but there was something special in the way she hugged Payson and the loaded way she said "Congratulations" so that they all knew she was talking about more than just their Olympic medal. Kaylie used to think she'd be the one that got the special hug when they met. She wasn't regretting the way things turned out, but it still stung a bit.

Ava made Kaylie feel young, kind of like Payson did. Both of them were very much adults despite their age, but Kaylie and the other members of the team were teenagers in every definition of the word. It was easy to ignore when it was just Payson, but when the two of them were together it felt like a line had been drawn. Adults on one side, children on the other. Or maybe it was all in Kaylie's head.

"So he gets down on the floor," Payson was saying, "And starts meowing and making these scratching motions—" she demonstrated for them "—because I need to find my inner cat."

Ava was laughing almost too hard to talk. "What in God's name made you think that Austin was the right person to give you sexy lessons? You might as well have asked a trained ape."

"I didn't ask," Payson swore, holding her hands up in surrender. "He offered, and I was so freaked out about having to perform Lauren's routine that I had a moment of insanity and said yes."

Kaylie didn't know that story, but that was when she was still in rehab so it was understandable. It was a little harder to explain why she didn't know any of the other stories. She was beginning to realize that she didn't know Austin nearly as well as she thought she did.

For what was probably the twelfth time in three rounds of competition, Payson and Ava's faces flashed onto the JumboTron. Austin kept Ava out of the media as much as possible, but it didn't take long for word to spread that Austin Tucker's sister was sitting in the stands with Payson, and the cameras were having a field day with it. They cut to the two of them as often as possible. Neither girl noticed the attention. They were too busy either talking about Austin or watching him compete.

He was leading Nicky by five hundredths of a point going into the fourth rotation, and that lead would only increase because his worst apparatus was over. If he did his upgraded p-bars routine he would be ahead by a gigantic number.

Kaylie really didn't understand what he and Sasha were thinking when they put that set together. Lots of people have more difficult routines in their back pocket, but not one that was six tenths of a point higher in difficulty. Why didn't they just incorporate some of those skills into his normal routine for a more moderate increase in score?

Her thoughts weren't the only ones turned in that direction. Beside her Lauren asked, "Is Austin doing his upgrades?"

"If he is I'll strangle him," Payson said. "He promised he wouldn't."

Beth leaned around Emily to join the conversation. "I don't get it. Why are you so dead-set against him doing that routine? I mean, I know it's dangerous, but so is everything we do."

"That routine goes beyond dangerous and into stupid, especially considering that he doesn't practice it on a regular basis. He's going to kill himself if he keeps doing it."

"And if he did that I'd bring him back to life and kill him again," Ava insisted. "He ought to do whatever the hell Payson wants him to do right now, and she's right to ask him not to do it. There are more important things than winning."

Beth looked a little confused by Ava's speech, but she didn't comment on it. That was one of the things that was so great about Beth and Andrea. They let things slide.

Lauren, with all her usual tact, said, "You know, people are going to think Austin's whipped when he gives up a medal on parallel bars just because you asked him to."

"Oh my God, don't you dare say that in front of him!" Payson said. "Don't you know that you never, ever say the w-word to guys?"

"Even if it's true?" Kaylie teased. This, at least, was something that she felt comfortable with. They joked around about everything.

Payson crossed her arms and pouted. "It is not true. He's not whipped, he's just… responsible."

"Oh yeah, he's real responsible," Kelly said. "Tell me again how you ended up together?"

Payson looked around like someone might be spying on them. "Can we not talk about this while we're surrounded by thousands of people?"

"Don't worry, Payson," Ava said, giving her a condescending pat on the knee. "Whatever people might think about him not doing that routine will be counteracted by the fact that he's nailing you."

Everyone except Payson and Ava cracked up. Payson glared while trying really hard not to smile, and Ava acted like she hadn't said anything unusual at all. Kaylie couldn't believe how casual Ava was about the whole situation. She didn't even want to think about the fact that Leo might be having sex, much less make jokes about it.

"By the way, Kel," Payson said, "I really appreciate how you mentioned that fact on national television."

"Hey, don't snap at me," Kelly said, leaning away as if Payson's biting sarcasm could actually bite. "MJ told me to do that."

"She what?"

At the end of the isle, Sasha stopped watching Daniel Purvis on bars and turned toward them. "Girls, I really don't think this is the appropriate place to have this conversation. Austin's about to compete, and I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you cheered for him."

They did just that, but Kaylie was glad for the brief teasing because it broke the ice. She didn't feel nearly as awkward being around Ava when she just thought of her as a combination of Austin and Payson. In fact, she bet their kid would be exactly like his sister.

o-O-o

In the end, Austin won by a point and a half. The success the USA was having at these Olympics was epic. The men came out of nowhere to take the team gold, the women won with a record breaking lead, and the last man to win the All Around by such a margin was Sasha in 2000. Nicky was disappointed with his bronze, but it was still a medal and he would cheer up when he won gold on either rings or vault, or possibly both.

For the second time that day, he got hit by a tiny brunette torpedo. It had been a year, so he'd forgotten just how much he loved getting tackled by Ava. She never held back on anything. It was both her greatest strength and biggest downfall. She didn't do anything by halves, which had a huge impact on the development of her eating disorder. It also helped her get better, though. Once she accepted that she had a problem, she threw herself head first into rehab.

"You were awesome!" She yelled, thumping him on the shoulder. "Way to kick ass!"

She stepped back to give Payson a chance to see him, whose greeting was much more subdued. She smiled and said, "You're four for ten now."

"I guess I am," he agreed. "Four gold medals. I'm officially tied with Sasha."

They stood grinning at each other for about thirty seconds before Payson broke down and kissed him. They got carried away in each other until Ava cleared her throat behind them.

Payson was scarlet with embarrassment when she pulled away, and he was pretty sure his face was red, too. "Uhh… sorry, A."

"Whatever," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "As long as you keep your hands where I can see them I don't care. I just thought that I should remind you that you're standing in the middle of the Olympic Stadium and this is not a good place for foreplay."

Yup, just like he remembered. Ava didn't hold back on anything. "Okay, I don't ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again. It's disturbing."

He didn't want to spend the next hour dragging Ava and Payson around the gym while he talked to reporters, so he led them over to sit on the side of the vault run and let the reporters come to him. It was one of the benefits of being the best. He didn't have to chase after the attention; wherever he went, the media followed.

It was fun just sitting with his girlfriend and his sister, basking in the glory of his win. He was so glad that Ava was there to support him. Kevin had been awesome with her, giving her a seat in Team USA's designated spot in the stands and pulling some strings to get her a floor pass. Kevin had been coaching Austin on the National Team for five years, and he was one of the few people in the world who knew the complexities of the Tucker family. He was a huge support system, and Austin was glad that he knew about the pregnancy. In a lot of ways, Kevin was the father that Robert Tucker never could be. Austin would definitely be modeling his parenting style after his coach rather than his biological father.

There was a brief lull in the interviews while two reporters argued amongst themselves about who would be next. Beside him Payson asked, "So what does your agent think about this? You just sitting up here with us, I mean."

"Oh, he loves it. It makes me look like I don't care about the press, which increases my badassness."

"So what does he think about you and Payson?" Ava asked.

"He loves that, too." He had been surprised by that. His agent hated when he dated Kaylie but was thrilled when Austin and Payson showed up at Denver International Airport together. "He said that Payson is every guy's wet dream and it made me look good to be with her."

Payson dropped her head into her hand. "Oh my God, I hate it when people say stuff like that about me. It's so embarrassing."

"You should be flattered," he insisted. "Every guy in the world wants to be with you, and so do a lot of the women. It's a good thing."

She grumbled a response, but one of the reporters won the fight before he could ask her to repeat it. He BSed his way through another few interviews until Payson's head drooped onto his shoulder. He stopped the interview and the three of them walked back to the locker room.

They stopped outside the door and Payson leaned against the wall. Ava looked worried; this was the first time she'd seen Payson wear down.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I should have got you back to the Village a long time ago. Just give me a minute to change and we'll go."

She shook her head. "No. You just won the All Around, and you haven't seen Ava in a year." She glanced to his sister and then back to him. "The two of you should go out and celebrate."

"You can't go back to the Village alone, Pay."

She tugged on the zipper of his USA tracksuit and pulled him in for a kiss. "Don't worry about me, babe. Go celebrate. Sasha can stay with me tonight." Her smile turned wicked. "It's better that way, anyway. If you stayed with me we would end up having sex, and I probably shouldn't be doing that the night before the All Around."

"Oh, gag," came Ava's voice from behind them.

Payson stared down his sister and then pulled him in for a hard, passionate kiss. When she released him, she shared another look with Ava, who raised an eyebrow in response. There was a long, heavy silence and then Ava barked out a laugh and Payson joined her.

He wasn't sure if Payson had just challenged Ava or if she was responding to a challenge that his sister laid down, but one thing was clear: he was in trouble. They'd only known each other for a few hours, and already they were speaking their own language. He was already confused by each of them separately. Now he had the rest of his life to look forward to being confused by the two of them together.

"Uhh, guys? Next time you have a battle of wills, can you leave me out of it?" That just made them laugh harder, so he gave up and left them standing outside the door while he went to shower and change.

When he came out they were still there, but Payson must have called Sasha, because he was standing with them. Looking at them, Austin had a flash of his future. This would be a picture that he would see many times in his life, he was sure. Sasha would always be a huge part of Payson's life, and a huge part of Austin's by proxy, and Ava and Payson were already becoming a family. The baby was bringing them all together in a way that would never have been possible otherwise.

The women were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't even notice him, but Sasha did. "Congratulations, mate," he said, offering a hand to shake. Austin thought that maybe things were finally good between them again.

"Thanks, man. I know I owe a lot of it to you, so… thanks." He saw Payson roll her eyes at the awkward guy moment. Sasha was offering an olive branch, so he decided that he would offer one as well. "Take care of Pay for me tonight, alright?"

"I will." It was a given that Sasha would take care of her, but it was their way of calling a truce. Austin's question held an apology and an assurance that he didn't resent Sasha's role in Payson's life; Sasha's answer was an acceptance and a promise that he wouldn't betray Austin's trust. And it was enough.

As Payson and Sasha left, Ava asked, "Did I just witness some kind of weird male bonding ritual? Should there have been cameras for the Nature Chanel hanging around to film that?"

He shoved her. "Shut up."

"So you're really okay with somebody that hot sleeping with your girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I trust—" He cut himself off when he processed her words. "Wait, you think Sasha is hot?"

She scoffed. "I don't get it. Girls know when other girls are hot, so how is it that guys are completely oblivious? Yeah, Sasha is hot. It would take a blind idiot not to notice that."

In a strange way, it made him feel better to know that Ava thought Sasha was attractive. He couldn't blame Sasha for being attracted to Payson, because, like said before, every guy in the world and a lot of the women were turned on by her. He just never thought about women having the same kind of response to a man. If other women were that attracted to Sasha, then he couldn't really blame Payson, either.

"Well, anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "I trust them. Payson says she's one hundred percent committed to me, and I believe her. Even if Sasha wanted more, which I'm pretty sure now that he doesn't, he would never do anything that would hurt her."

"Yeah, I kind of get that vibe, too," she admitted. "I just wanted to make sure that you were really okay with it. Nobody would blame you if you weren't."

Sometimes he thought his parents had their kids in the wrong order. Ava acted so much like a big sister that she should have been born first. "I wasn't for a long time. But I get it now." He couldn't explain it without sounding like a girl, but he finally understood that just because Payson and Sasha loved each other, it didn't mean that they were in love with each other. That also kind of made him understand where he and Payson were headed. When things fizzled out between them, they would have the kind of relationship that Payson and Sasha had now, and that was the next best thing to being romantically involved.

"Okay," he said, "We've talked about me long enough. It's time to celebrate."

"So we're going to go from talking about you to celebrating you?"

He shoved her. "Shut up. Actually, though, I know this is supposed to be you and me time, but would you mind if we brought Nicky along wherever we go?"

"Yeah, sure," she said, giving him an appraising look, "But I thought you didn't like him?"

"I don't, really, but he's kind of alone here, and I know how that feels." He'd had plenty of people to celebrate with him in Beijing, but the vast majority of them he didn't even know. His family wasn't there and he was too new to have any real friends on the team, so he just got trashed with them and pretended like he was happy with the arrangement. Nicky wasn't the kind to get trashed, so if Austin didn't drag him out he would just end up back at the village playing Call of Duty with Jake and Steven like it was any normal night.

As it turned out, Nicky wasn't that easy to find. He wasn't out on the floor talking to the few reporters still floating around, and he hadn't been to the locker room yet to change. They asked around and followed a trail that eventually led to Nana's Flat, the deceptively lame front room to the North Greenwich Arena's triple-decker backstage area.

"Hey, Nicky," he said, swinging the door open, "You're coming out with me and Ava whether you like it or n—"

Austin wasn't sure who was more surprised, Kelly and Nicky at seeing him, or him at seeing them together. They were just sitting together talking, but by the look on their faces you would think they were caught in flagrante delicto. They might as well have been for all the surprise they caused, because the two of them together was the last thing Austin expected to find.

He couldn't think of anything to say, so he went with the less than eloquent "Uhh… hi."

o-O-o

Nicky was hiding. He hated all of the publicity crap, and even more so when he was the loser. He didn't want to hang around the arena and listen to people congratulate him for failure.

He knew she could find him if she wanted to. She always could. He just wasn't sure if she would want to.

"Hi, Nick." Apparently she did.

He looked up from the bronze medal in his hands to see Kelly framed in the door. It was uncanny how similar it was to the last time he saw her, when she stood in the doorway of the men's locker room watching him pack. Except this time she wasn't crying.

He didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything at all. Half the time they spent together was silent, anyway. She came inside and sat down next to him, but they didn't speak for another several minutes. It felt like old times.

He took a moment just to look at her. It had been months since they talked, and she'd changed so much. He kept expecting her to call him—when she won/lost with a bronze medal at Worlds, when she split with her mom, when she made the Olympic team—but she never did. She wasn't the same girl he fell in love with all that time ago. She'd grown up.

"You should be proud, you know."

He sighed and let the ribbon from his medal slip through his fingers. "I know I should be. That doesn't mean I am."

"I figured. You and me, always second best, right?" she said. He forgot sometimes that she was in the same boat as him. He'd never be able to live up to Austin and she'd never be able to live up to Payson.

"You sound… surprisingly okay with that." He never thought that Kelly Parker would accept anything less than gold.

"I surprisingly am. I don't know, Nick. It's just… so much has happened. I gave up so much for this sport, and I always thought it was worth it, but now I don't know. Watching Payson and Austin… that could have been us."

"What, you could be sick and I could follow you around like a lost puppy?" It was supposed to be a joke, but it came out a little bitter.

Kelly glared at him. "That's not funny, Nick. You have no idea what's they're going through."

"I know, I'm sorry." He dropped his medal down on the table beside him. "I'm just so tired of hearing about them. It's bad enough that they always win, but now nobody will shut up about what a perfect couple they are."

"Damnit, Nick, just stop! Stop talking about things you don't know about! They aren't a perfect couple, life isn't that easy for them. It's hard, really hard, but they're facing it together instead of running away like we did."

It was the first time he'd ever heard her yell. When she broke up with him, she was crying but her voice was flat and emotionless. Now her eyes were dry but she was yelling. It didn't make any kind of sense.

"What's going on, Parks? Why do you care so much about Payson and Austin?"

She took a deep breath and he knew that she was building up to something big. "There are things you don't know. About the reason that I broke things off between us."

It was the conversation he'd been waiting on for nearly a year. He never understood what went wrong, and not knowing was killing him.

The universe was working against him, though, because just as Kelly opened her mouth to tell him, Austin barged into the room. "Hey, Nicky, you're coming out with me and Ava whether you like it or n—"

Kelly looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and Nicky was sure that he didn't look any better. Nobody knew that he and Kelly had a past and that was the way he liked to keep it. Thinking about Kelly hurt bad enough already; he didn't need other people nosing around asking questions about it.

"Uhh… hi," Austin said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"It's fine," Kelly said, cutting off anything that he might have said in response. "I was just telling Nick congratulations. I should get back to the Village, anyway. Big day tomorrow and all that."

Nicky was about the tell Austin where he could shove it, but Kelly anticipated him and said, "You should go with them. Celebrate." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "You did good, Nick. Be proud."

He couldn't let her leave that easily. "But what about…"

"Tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow."

She congratulated Austin on her way out and told Ava it was nice to meet her, and then he was alone with them. Both men were shifting around uncomfortably, but Ava didn't seem to be affected in the same way. She watched Kelly walk down the hallway and then turned back to them and said, "So… that was your ex-girlfriend, right?"

Nicky blushed and Austin sputtered, and in the end she gave them an out. "Okay, none of my business, I get that. We're going to Café de Paris, you coming?"

"Uh, isn't that a cabaret club?"

She grinned. "Yup. You don't happen to have a fake ID, do you?"

He wondered if Kelly would still have told him to go with them if she knew what the plan was. "No. So I guess I can't go." He tried to put some fake disappointment in the statement, but judging by the look on Austin's face, he didn't pull it off.

"Of course you can," he said, slapping Nicky on the back. "We'll just have a bribe a few people. No worries."

Austin might not have worries, but Nicky did. Lots of them.

o-O-o

Ava was an evil genius. Café de Paris was her idea, and Austin didn't understand the choice until well after they got there. It was a clever, sneaky, brilliant way to get Nicky out of his shell.

Their table was on the edge of the balcony, directly above the burlesque show happening on the main stage. Nicky was resolutely looking away from the dancers below them, his face the color of a boiled lobster, but it was impossible to ignore a beautiful woman taking off her clothes unless you had something else to concentrate on. He had no choice but to talk to them.

Ava was regaling them with the details of her life for the past year, veering off to give backstory to Nicky whenever it was called for, and she had them in stitches. Nicky's quiet reserve extended even into his laughter; his shoulders shook and his eyes watered, but he didn't make any sound. Watching him was hilarious in and of itself.

Once she got him relaxed, she turned the conversation away from herself. "So what's your next step, Nicky? Are you headed for Rio 2016?"

"No, I don't think so," he answered, already pulling back into his shell. The kid really didn't like attention. "I'll probably go to school, or maybe coach somewhere, but I think I'm done competing."

Austin choked on his drink. "You're retiring? Why? You're only twenty, you've probably got two more cycles in you."

He didn't answer, but Austin figured it out for himself. He didn't think he was good enough.

"Listen, Nicky, you've gotta cut yourself some slack. I know you wanted gold, but there's still plenty of time for that. You're just a kid."

"You were younger than me when you won in Beijing," he said, full of self-flagellation. "And Sasha was my age in Sydney."

Nicky Russo had always been the dorky kid that he made fun of, but now Austin was starting to feel sorry for him. Nick Russo, Sr. must be a real douchebag to give his son an inferiority complex this big. "Okay, first off, comparing yourself to Sasha would be like any of the girls comparing themselves to Payson. It's an impossible standard. None of us are ever going to live up to him."

"You won by the same margin as he did today," Nicky reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's not the same. I'm in the best shape of my life and I had Payson and A in the stands to support me. Sasha won on a destroyed knee after his mom died, his dad stopped speaking to him, and his girlfriend dumped him for the competition. And as for me winning in Beijing… I got lucky. I'm willing to admit that. I had nothing to lose so I pulled some crazy stunts and it paid off."

Nicky had obviously spent a long time thinking about his own inadequacy, because he had an automatic response. "Didn't you win with a hangover?"

He cultivated that rumor, partly to cover the truth, partly to build his reputation, and partly to intimidate the competition. The message came across clear: I'm better drunk than you are sober. He just never realized how effective that mind game had been. It was time to tell the truth. "Okay, if you tell anybody this I'll beat the shit out of you, but the hangover stuff was a lie. My eyes were bloodshot so people assumed, and I let them because I didn't want anyone to know the truth. The reason I looked like hell was because I'd been crying."

That got Nicky's attention, and he stopped beating himself up long enough to listen. Beside him, Ava sat up straighter in her chair. She didn't know about this. Kevin was the only person who did.

"Why?" Nick asked.

He took a big gulp of his Jack and Coke before he attempted an explanation. "Our dad is a real bastard. He never hit us or anything, but he made an art form out of making us feel like shit about ourselves. Only time Mom every stood up to him was when I wanted to move to Dallas to train. She waited 'til he passed out drunk one night, shoved all our clothes in a bag, dragged his ass to the car and drove all night. It's not like it mattered what state we lived in, he didn't have a job anyway, but he was pissed. Pretty much stopped speaking to me after that, which was an improvement, really, but for some dumbass reason I still wanted his approval."

He saw understanding in Nicky's eyes. Unemployed alcoholics didn't have the market cornered on being bastards. There was plenty of room for high powered orthopedic surgeons in that club, too. "I called him, right before the finals. I guess I thought he'd be proud or something, that I'd made it so far, but he wasn't. He made fun of me for being ranked 18th. Called me a loser. By the time he hung up I was ready to drop out of the finals and quit gymnastics altogether."

"But you didn't," Nicky said, like he was reminding them all of how things turned out. "You won."

"Yeah, Kevin talked me out of quitting. And I figured, hey, I don't have a chance in hell of winning, so if I'm going to lose I might as well lose big. I threw every trick I had. It was stupid beyond belief, but it worked. It didn't matter to him, though. I could have won every gold medal there was to win and it wouldn't be enough. There are some people you just can't please."

Austin couldn't remember the last time he talked so much about himself, especially about his family, but he figured that Nicky needed to hear it, and it was almost relieving to tell the truth. He'd made up so much shit about his parents over the years that he'd lost track of the lies, and it was getting too complicated.

Ava leaned against him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Austin protected her as much as he could while they were growing up, and he got her the hell away from their parents' house as soon as he had enough money, so a lot of this was news to her.

Nicky broke what could have turned into an emotional moment. "So… was that your way of telling me not to retire?"

"Yeah," Austin said, laughing. Nicky wasn't quite as bad at the social stuff as they all thought. This was the second time in as many days that he'd moved the conversation away from an uncomfortable topic before it got too tense. "Keep working and come back and kick my ass in Rio."

He raised his glass in a toast. "I'll take that challenge. I'll see you from the gold medal podium in four years."

Overall, Austin thought Ava's plan worked pretty well. She definitely got Nicky Russo out of his slump.


A/N: A few acknowledgements—Ava belongs to Romance Novel, and I've basically stolen the entire Nickelly universe from Creatively Licensed B. And there were a couple of Firefly reference in there :)

There are pictures of Ava on my pinterest in the board titled "Amor Fati," and a little video explaining Nana's flat that Nicky was in is linked to my profile. I tried to put links in here, but I guess the website got savvy to all the normal trick to inserting web addresses, because all the spaces in the world or symbols replaced by words can't make them show up right.

The four words from last chapter were "At least not yet." And to answer a question that a few of you had, the story isn't ending soon, but me writing it hopefully will be, at which point I'm going to post gigantic chapters every other day.

As for the real Olympics, I have one thing to say: Aly! I knew she was going to be amazing, and she totally was!