AN: Remember that these are just 'glimpses' into their lives as it's impossible for me to write their entire life story this far into the future. I wrote the moments of their lives that had the most impact, in how they forever changed them and their destinies. Often times, it is the most painful times of our lives when our inner strength is called upon the most, that end up 'changing' us the most. So if it seems like these character endure nothing but pain, please know and remember that is not the case. I'm simply showing these defining moments in their lives, not the day to day wonderful moments of life (though there are PLENTY of those written about as well.) Please keep that in mind as we move forward with these time jumps and remember you're only 'seeing' snippets of an otherwise large and mostly happy life. Some of these tragedies fallen upon them, have also brought them their greatest joys in a domino effect of one life effecting another. For instance, being kidnapped: Antony never would have come into Lena's life or brought him back to his parents. They wouldn't have taken on the passion they did to end the Black Market sales of human beings and save many more lives, etc.

This story can be summed up perfectly with this quote:

"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny."- C.S. Lewis

These characters are on a life journey filled with ups and downs and wild turns that leave you breathless and life worth living in the end. Life's lesson to let go and enjoy the journey.- Wild


Music for this chapter (on repeat): Matrix Reloaded Theme by Enigma, Smuglyanka by Red Army Choir, PM's Love Theme by Craig Armstrong from Love Actually Soundtrack, Thunderstruck by AC/DC, To Russia My Homeland by And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Russian National Anthem- inst. by Moscow Kremlin Choir & Presidential Orchestra, Say by John Mayer.


FIFTY-FIVE

o

*Matrix Reloaded Theme*

Nadia's routines for gymnastics were in the evening so she was free to attend her sister and brother's competitions during the day. After watching Lena at the shooting range in the early morning racking up her first Gold Medal for the 50m rifle like it was nothing, there was little doubt where she got her dead-eye aim from, and everyone was crying as it was Irina, who placed the Gold Medal around her daughter's neck and kissed her cheeks, standing proud looking at Lena as the flags were raised and the Anthem of Imperial Russia was played.

Each member of the Imperial Family was wearing their baby blue sashes of the Order of St. Andrews and the female members with their tiaras on throughout the entire games over their regular dress clothes allowing them to be regal as the official hosts of the games and comfortable at the same time.

"You look more nervous than he does." Irina smiled nudging Julian watching as Nicholas climbed the ladder preparing to make his final dive for medal contention on the 10m Platform.

"He can win this, I know he can…he gets this from you." Julian smiled softly speaking in almost a whisper as everyone silenced watching the muscular young man all of sixteen and one of the youngest divers, walk out onto the edge of the platform turning around and setting his toes on the edge high above the pool. Julian couldn't help but think of the many dives he'd watched Irina pull off over the years when they were running around the world as rogues and it made him smile to see his younger brother with the same finesse.

Nicholas was currently in second place in the standings and as the last diver and if he performed a nearly perfect dive, the Gold was his. "Deep breath." Julian seemed to chant with Nicholas and they all watched as the moment he said that, it seemed Nicholas heard him and he inhaled deeply and let it go relaxing his stance and then jumped backwards off the platform twisting and turning like perfection before piercing the surface of the water like a torpedo with hardly a splash at all and everyone jumping to their feet with cheers at what had to be a perfect dive and all their faces flashed to the board for scoring.

Nicholas came darting up to the surface with eyes locked onto the boards as he swam to the sides waiting for the scores to go up while his dive was shown again in slow motion on the massive screen showing off his perfected form and angles. He'd just jumped out of the pool when the first scores started coming up and everyone gasped at the first almost perfect score and then cheered loudly as every single other score was either .001 of a point away from perfect or perfect raising him to number one and securing his first Gold Medal that had his entire family and crowd roaring with applause and tears for him.

His gaze immediately darting to the crowd and pointing with two fingers and a raging smile at his older brother who had taught him to swim and then double-handed kisses of his fingers gesturing towards his mother for his grace in movement. Irina had shown him through certain taught movements of ballet, how to perfect his dives. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the ballet idea when she suggested it a year ago but he was raging with excitement and happiness now as it had been that ability to move so fluidly that had won him his Gold.

Irina had tears in her eyes as she placed the medal around her son's neck as he leaned down from the podium and kissed both of his cheeks and then for the second time that day, stood by as the song of pride for Imperial Russia was played and flag raised for one of her children.

After Nicholas in the pool, it was back to Lena who was next and off to the track to do her qualifying runs for the 800m and the 1500m that were almost back-to-back. She pulled through and led the pack in both with excellent times before heading off to qualify for positioning in Saber Fencing which left Irina smiling seeing her daughter's excellent form fending off attacks and scoring point after point on her own attacks to bring her quickly up in the standings.

Nadia was more than nervous when nightfall came and it was her turn for competition and revealing her routines for the first time ever to anyone in public, including her family at the Women's Artistic Gymnastics qualifier for individual and team standings to set the pace and point levels for the rest of the competition.

*Smuglyanka*

The first event up was the Vault in rotation and everyone sat on the edge of their seats as Nadia was the last of the Russian gymnasts as the strongest participant to perform. She stood at the end of the long runway and raised her arm signaling she was ready before running rapidly plunging forward onto her hands, turning in the air to land on the springboard and fly up into the air off the Vault in a summersault twist landing without seeing where she was going and sticking it hard in absolute perfection and leaving her coaches and team to bounce and cheer excitedly from the sidelines.

Her coach had said the world was about to see 'the new queen of gymnastics' and on Nadia's first vault, they got just a glimpse of the perfection she was speaking of. The technical difficulty of her vault was astounding and left many other gymnasts watching with widened eyes knowing that if all her routines were this advanced they were in trouble. Nadia waited breathless chewing on her lip just as her mother was doing in the stands waiting for the judges score to flash up showing a 9.975 just .025 off of complete perfection while the gymnasium erupted into loud roaring cheers and some boos that it wasn't perfection. Nadia looked down shaking her head upset with her score as it was not the perfection she sought.

"Nadia, it was perfect. Remember what I said about perfection differing in the eyes of everyone? To me it was perfect. To the crowd it was perfect." Comaneci wrapped her arm around her and tilted her chin up. "Chin up. You still have another Vault and many more chances...They're afraid to give you a perfect score on just the qualifier." Her eyes twinkled with a smile, "This is an amazing score; you should be thrilled!"

Her second vault she landed with feet pounding into the mat and stuck it perfectly and the crowd rang out with a mix of boos and cheers again with the scoring of 9.985 with the judges refusing to give Nadia a perfect score on the opening night of qualifiers.

"She's not happy with the best scores? Nearly perfect?" Weiss asked with concerned eyes looking down to Irina and Jack a few seats over, seeing Nadia leaving the vault area and moving onto the next apparatus with a sad look in her eyes and welling tears he couldn't imagine after her outstanding performance.

"Not when she's seeking perfection." Lena answered him quietly swallowing hard with her eyes meeting her mother's in a flash, both remembering the conversation with Nadia's need to be 'perfect' in this one area of her life.

The top scores coming out of the first round of routines had the Russians in the lead, Americans behind them with the Romanians and the Chinese tied for third in the usual four best countries of the world for gymnastics.

The Uneven Bars was up next for them and once again as the strongest of the team Nadia went last and Irina held her breath having only seen a tiny glimpse of her warming up for this routine that day in the gym and what she saw was phenomenal without her daughter's whole heart into it that day.

When her coach grabbed her waist and helped Nadia to grasp the high bar to start, a silenced hush seemed to fall over the entire gym wondering what her performance would be like on this apparatus and were left immediately breathless from the beginning.

Nadia used both hands to pull herself up and then started swinging and spinning letting go and flipping with a speed that was mind boggling and showed off her powerful core strength and then they all gasped when launching herself from low to high bar she only grasped it with one hand, purposely pinning the other into her side as she flipped around two times fast holding on tightly, let go, spun around, grasped it again with only one arm, swung around again with one arm, turned and let go before swinging rapidly around the high bar holding on with only one arm and then soaring off it backward in another blind landing using only one arm for balance and stuck her landing. The entire place erupted into a deafening roar having never witnessed before a routine on the Uneven Bars with the entire last half using only one arm in absolute perfection.

"Sweet Jesus!" Kendall gasped with wide eyes when it was over as they waited for the scores to appear having never seen anything like it and the images of Irina running and jumping onto helicopter skids or elevator cables with only one arm from the film rapidly flashed through his mind seeing yet again, another skill passed on and a comparison of its practical use in the real world.

"She's like Mighty Mouse!" Weiss screamed with excited fists pumped in the air with wide-eyes at the petite but mighty Nadia.

The crowd immediately turned their loud cheering into loud booing when the judges flashed a 9.985 onto the board and left Nadia with tears in her eyes again shaking her head.

"What the fuck?" Vaughn cursed angry, "How the hell can anyone possibly improve upon that when she just pulled off something no one has ever done before and flawlessly?" He was angered at the bias going against his goddaughter and sister-in-law when they continuously gave her 'almost' perfect scores but held back.

"I am in awe…" Katya gasped loudly with tears in her eyes of happiness and humility at knowing her niece was 'good' but never really realizing 'how good' until this last performance. Nadia's strength was astonishing.

"They're scoring them all low in relative comparison." Jack turned his gaze to Vaughn across Irina with a sad shake to his head, "Nadia's the leader and has set the bar and their judging them all lower to see what she'll do knowing they won't give her a perfect score but still needing the wider margin knowing she always goes last."

"Well, that's not fair…to any of them!" Sydney was getting upset.

"Look," Anya pointed to the screen showing the gymnastics commentators reviewing the performance and shaking their heads on the large jumbo screen in the corner relaying the worldwide broadcast as well that it should have been a perfect 10.000. "They're upset for her, too."

"So are they." Ria nodded towards the other groups of gymnasts watching the replay and shaking their head that her routine was not considered perfection with wide-eyes and swallowing hard at just how tough the judges were going to be.

"You're too good." Olga cupped Nadia's face with a smile watching her remove the tape from her wrists and hands preparing to move to the beam, "They won't give you a ten even though you're earning them…not tonight anyway…keep your head up…and they will. They're testing you to see if you really are…the new best gymnast in the world." She smiled with a nod encouragingly.

Nadia's coaches approached the judge's table before her routine on the Balance Beam while she waited a few feet behind the beam and the springboard she would used to mount watching them closely.

"What's going on?" Julian asked quietly looking over at Sydney and she shook her head and shrugged she didn't know.

"Introduction of another new move…but because it's the beam and more dangerous," Irina swallowed hard not liking that aspect, "They have to warn the judges."

When the board flashed 11.000 a loud gasp went around the gym signaling how many points this routine was actually worth, a solid point more than the 'perfect' ten if Nadia completed it flawlessly based on the technical merit and more than one judge were shaking their head with raised eyebrows and looks of concern while Olga and Nadia walked away.

"Why do I have a feeling what she's about to do is extremely dangerous?" Jack gulped reaching over and clasping Irina's hand with beads of sweat starting to form on his brow at the fact this routine was rated so difficult it went way beyond a normal score of perfection.

Nadia inhaled deeply and let it go before charging forward springing off the board into a back flip landing blindly once again only this time on a four inch piece of wood covered with suede and resin and earning loud gasps at the difficulty almost unheard of. Without even stopping to pause she had launched herself forward into a series of tumbles and spins.

"Oh Dear God…" Judy gasped watching as Nadia flew out of a spin to land on her hands in a perfect handstand and then bowed her back with legs slowly curving to point over her head and forearm muscles bending back as well in an unbelievable feat and show of strength and then brought her feet so far forward over her head they touched the beam in front of her literally folding herself in half over her back and everyone was gasping and cringing at the body position, flexibility and incredible strength.

"And she certainly got your flexibility." Jack gasped with wide eyes and bared clenched teeth speaking to his wife at witnessing the move.

"I think she has more…way more." Irina was cringing in almost the same way, being able to bend over like that quite significantly but never while balancing on just her hands or literally bringing them all the way around to touch the floor in front of her.

When that impossible looking position was over Nadia rapidly flipped her legs back swinging them around to the sides and used the momentum to roll over her back and flip over off her shoulder to the end of the beam pressing up off her arms using them to 'jump' and then landed on her feet. She paused less than a second before flying forward on the beam flipping off her hands into a back flip and then another and another without the use of her hands until she was at the end of the beam and spun rapidly and came flying back though mid-back flip spun in a 180 turn and landed and jumped again, higher and completed a full 360 rotation to land and jump in yet another back flip doing another 180 turn and landing so quickly in rapid succession she looked like The Flash and then ran forward two steps flipped forward using both hands and spun madly end over end in one complete rotation to land solidly on her feet and sent up the loudest thundering roar of cheers any of them had ever heard with the perfection of a routine and moves never ever seen before.

Her family's mouths were agape and faces white in stun watching the repeated slow motion replay of the unbelievable triple back flip and spins across the long thin board that had everyone shaking their heads and the other gymnasts losing color with unblinking eyes.

"If she doesn't get a perfect score for that…I'm going to cut someone's hands off for daring to mark anything else." Jack hissed out still unable to breathe.

"Mom, look!" Sydney gasped pointing up to the screen with wide-eyes and a smile to see the move on repeat again with the new move's name written underneath it, "She named it after you." Her eyes filled with tears that her sister had named the new move after their mother. The fantastic back flipping spinning series would forever more be called, 'Irina The Great.'

Irina gasped with tears pouring from her eyes in silent streams and then another deafening roar surging through the massive complex when the score was flashed showing a perfect 11.000…the first of its kind as nothing of its difficulty caliber had ever been performed. After these Olympics, the gymnastics world would once again have to recalculate their pointing scales all because of Nadia and her perfection. There was no way after that routine that the judges couldn't award her a perfect score as they themselves still sat with wide-eyes and stunned awed.

Her coach picked her up and swung her around kissing her head with tears in her eyes at the score and Nadia finally had tears in her eyes of joy.

"Perfection. Your definition and mine." She put her down and cupped Nadia's face kissing her and then hugging her tightly with a laugh at knowing her title the 'World's Greatest Gymnast' was now gone after just the first three qualifying events and never happier about it having coached Nadia since she was just a little girl.

The applause lasted a good five minutes with the routine on constant replay in utter disbelief and fascination with heads still shaking while the athletes moved to their last apparatus and for Nadia that was the Floor Exercise.

*PM's Love Theme*

From the first notes of her routine's song, Irina and the rest of the Imperial Family instantly had tears in their eyes hearing Nadia's homage to her mother at these Moscow Games in her honor. The crowd was instantly on their feet as was customary in a sign of respect when playing the Imperial Theme of the Tsar, with all eyes and cameras suddenly focusing in on Irina in the stands.

Irina stood slowly with wide and astonished eyes looking down at her daughter on the floor facing her with hand over her heart and a humble head bow in her own sign of deep respect for her mother sending the crowd into a wild cheer that only thundered more loudly the moment Nadia flew backwards into a spectacular series of flips, spins and twists that had been choreographed perfectly in time with the music, accentuating the crescendos with larger than life moves in breathtaking style. The entire performance was like watching a grand fireworks display, much like the night of her mother's actual Coronation, with each move more spectacular than the one before building towards a Grand Finale.

When Nadia flew across the floor in her final run hand springing and back flipping with wild turns and twists she ended in a mindboggling and breathtaking high triple-flip with her feet landing perfectly in the corner next to the red lines but not on them and as close as she possibly could using all her space and earning the maximum amount of points; facing her mother once again with head bowed deeply in respect and hand over her pounding heart, the place erupted again as everyone had found their new Gymnastics Darling even if she wasn't from their country.

Irina was overcome with emotion and silent tears streaked down her cheeks even as she smiled and the thunderous applause around her continued to see such a fantastic performance from Nadia as well as the obvious display of deep love and respect she held for her mother.

Nadia had changed her routine after her mother began to sleep with her every night in a quiet vigil weeks ago and her coach informed her of the extraordinary circumstances of her birth. Her mother's harrowing efforts to bring she and her brother into the world with so much love. Knowing what pain she'd been causing her mother with her in ability to express her feelings of late, Nadia wanted to show her mother exactly how much she did love and respect her and the incredible woman she was. That idea was only compounded in watching the crowd's reaction to her mother in the Opening Ceremonies, seeing it from an outside perspective for the first time in her life and Nadia was in awe of her mother as the Tsar; seeing her now through grown up eyes and how the world responded to her and the way she was changing it, with such a deep and profound respect, and to know that as much as that meant to her mother, taking care of her country and its people, nothing in the world meant more to her than those she loved and especially her children as her coach had reminded her.

Having done nothing but bring tears of sadness to her mother's eyes for the last several months, Nadia had wanted this performance in it's perfection to bring tears of pride and joy back to her mother's eyes and make her a worthy daughter again. Her eyes finally glanced up and caught her mother's gaze for just a moment, acknowledging her with a slight head nod and tiny tear filled smile seeing her mother was indeed smiling with pride and joy, before Nadia looked away, not wanting to cry seeing how moved her mother had been.

Another roar of boos followed the moment after when she scored another 9.995 instead of a 10.000 that she deserved and Nadia's shoulders instantly slunk down and her head dropped with fresh tears of sadness that it wasn't enough and she'd failed her mother yet again by not even being able to get this right.

They couldn't get to Nadia after the events were over before she was literally swarmed with hundreds of foreign news press and people that had their security teams and the Olympic ones struggling to keep them from literally smothering or trampling her petite but mighty form and everyone was firing rapid questions at her. When the one just before her asked about why she chose to name the unbelievable move on the Balance Beam after her mother, Nadia answered softly,

"Because it reminds me of my mother…" She fingered her stray hair nervously behind her ear and had no idea her family or mother was behind her listening with tears in their eyes. "Sometimes in life you can't see where you're going and everything seems to be spinning wildly out of control and you're falling and flying through it and my mother is one to always land on her feet… and find her focus and direction enough to pull through and make it with an astounding beauty and grace that often steals your breath away in her perfection…that's why I call it, 'Irina The Great." She added softly with a shy smile, only wishing she could tell her mother these things to her face.

"What about that twisting one arm triple flip combination on the Uneven Bars?" Another asked with raging smiles as Nadia had introduced so many new moves tonight they were yet to learn all the new technical names she'd chosen.

"Panama Jack," Nadia smiled softly and the entire group smiled and laughed, "Because my mother had my father spinning wildly out of control that night and he was barely hanging on…" She even laughed softly with them and had no idea her family was laughing and smiling, shaking their heads behind her with pride including her father who was nodding that her analogy of him that night, was a lot like her move…barely hanging on in a way that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with heart and soul and he knew when Nadia's gaze looked up and flashed with his catching sight of him for the first time, she understood that too.

The soft smile she gave him nearly melted his heart while she held his gaze for the first time in months before shifting it to her mother and doing the same with a soft head nod before turning back to fielding more questions.

"And the other one armed twisting back flip dismount that was so incredible considering it was the end of a very technically challenging routine that had to leave you exhausted and in pain? And then to stick the landing?" Another reporter asked rapidly with each clamoring to get their questions in first.

"The Pain of Love…" Nadia's gaze flickered to her mother and then quickly back to the reporter, "After my birth and that of my brother… when my mother was bleeding to death and fighting to save our lives…she refused any pain medication and fought what had to be horrendous pain while they cut into her during an Emergency C-Section… even as she was exhausted in fighting for all our lives…just to see us once… because of her love for us even then…she stuck through it until the end." She finished quietly and her eyes flew back to her mother's across the bodies of reporters to see Irina's river of tears running from her eyes and many of those in her family, including her father and her coach who had told her that part of the story.

Their gazes were locked only a few seconds before more questions took Nadia's attention away once again answering questions and revealing more names of new moves and ending with a smile on what she called the explosive ending to her floor routine, "The Firecracker." And her gaze flashed to her father for just a moment wearing the same smile.

As soon as she was clear of the press her sisters, brothers and the rest of her family seemed to attack her in their own swarm of hugs and kisses and flowing tears of joy and pride.

"I keep trying to tell her, she's the World's Greatest Gymnast," Nadia her coach spoke quietly coming to stand beside Irina and Jack with a smile watching the interaction with the rest of her family, "I don't think she'll believe me until she has all six Gold Medals hanging around her neck." Her eyes smiled when Jack and Irina's eyes flashed over to hers, "And I've no doubt, she'll do just that."


There was so much Irina wanted to ask and say to Nadia when the two were finally alone in their room, lying in bed that night with Nadia facing away from her and Irina just spooning up behind her, but was afraid to push too hard and too fast and instead, decided on, "Thank you… for naming your moves after me and your reasons why…and, your spectacular Floor Routine… I am so honored." She failed to keep the tiny sob out of her voice or the tear that fell from her eye and ran over the bridge of her nose dripping onto Nadia. "Thank you, Sweetheart."

"It was the least I could do…with all you've always done for me." Nadia answered in a whisper with tears falling onto her pillow. "Tomorrow, I will give them perfection." She answered softly, disappointed in herself for tonight and knowing she could have done 'better' for them…making her perfect in this one aspect for them to be proud and have a reason for it.

"You are perfection, Nadia. From the moment of your birth when Alexei first held up your tiny little body for me to see…you were perfection." Irina whispered softly with her own falling tears continuously baptizing her daughter with them and washing away the uncommitted sin against her mother that Nadia now sought absolution for. "I'm in awe of you, Sweetheart. Absolute awe. You are amazing, Nadia. I have always been, so very proud to be your mother." Irina added quietly with tears of pride and inhaled a soft sob in relief that Nadia was letting her hold her while awake but also in agony that her brilliant and amazing daughter still didn't feel worthy to be her child.

Nadia was quiet a moment with heart starting to pound rapidly and breathing increasing as she tried to fight off the tears and was unable, listening to her mother and feeling her own heart pound through the back of her chest with emotion.

"Mama…" Nadia croaked out through emotion-laden voice.

"Yes, Sweetheart?" Irina asked pulling back softly with a curious gaze to look down at her and saw Nadia's tears while her daughter turned beneath her and then threw her arm over Irina's shoulder and around her neck, knocking her mother flat against the bed, wrapping her arms around her and sobbing into the pillow and Irina's neck.

Irina's tears built rapidly and ran rampant down from her eyes into her hair against the pillow with Nadia's torso sprawled at an angle across her own while her daughter wept and she held her tightly, nothing needed to be said verbally to both knowing what they were saying, 'I miss you, I love you, I'm sorry…' and fell asleep after the long good cry with arms still tightly around each other and Nadia still sprawled over her mother's chest.

For the first time since beginning to sleep with Nadia, Irina awoke first with her daughter still in her arms and more tears came to her eyes to realize it was almost seven and Nadia had most likely awoken…but stayed and fell back to sleep. Her hand gently cupped the back of her daughter's head, gently brushing over her silky brown hair and letting the tears of relief fall silently feeling the disconnection that had been happening in the months before between the two now ceasing and instead, strengthening every day and every moment they were alone together.


*Thunderstruck*

Over the next two weeks the Romanov children began to clean house in their home country Olympics with Nicholas winning Gold in Diving once again on the 3m Spring Board and then torpedoed through the pool winning the 100m, 400m Freestyle and 4x100 Freestyle relay with his amazing team of four and won the Silver in the 1500m Freestyle in a grueling match against an Aussie losing literally by a fingernail in a crushing blow missing the Gold by .001 of a second according to the sensitized pool walls that accurately measured finish times by touch. His last race was the 200m Breaststroke and last chance for Gold and blew his opponents, the closest being the Aussie who barely beat him in the 1500m, out of the water literally winning by half a pool length to a thundering crowd who was eager to see his win after the loss in the 1500m. He'd earned the nickname 'The Pool Shark' from other swimmers and reporters and it was with major pride and tears that Irina placed the amazing sixth Gold Medal around his neck along with his one Silver to close out his competition.

Lena was simply... untouchable. Like nothing anyone had ever seen and the athletes competing with her in events were now racing for the Silver already knowing she'd claim the Gold, an Olympic Goddess they couldn't come close to.

Winning the Gold in Archery both in the Individual event and as part of the Team and claiming victory after victory in Shooting with her 'dead-eye' aim, taking three Gold Medals for Skeet, Target and Pistols where she gave not only a stellar but entertaining performance with the speed at which she moved and flawless aim reminding everyone watching so much of her mother as they watched her blast the targets with long dark hair flying. Her moves in Fencing would have made the Musketeers jealous raking in another three individual Gold Medals and another for Team. As far as Lena was concerned, her 'easy' events were over and the most grueling seemed to be clumped together at the end of the two weeks.

She proved her Marital Arts mastery in both Taekwondo and Judo taking in the Gold Medals for her weight class in each though her Judo match had them all on the edge of their seats watching as she was being choked until she was blue and able to get out of the hold she was in by her Japanese counter part as choking and breaking of bones of the opponent was allowed; Lena not only came out of it with the Gold but three broken fingers on her left hand.

They only proved to be a minor annoyance as she went on to battle in the Modern Pentathlon and was able to use her right hand for shooting, fencing and riding and found the time they hurt the most was during the swim and she had to put pressure on them taped together to propel her through the water and then onto the run where she took yet another Gold.

She broke her old Olympic and some World Records on the track in almost every event, flying past everyone in the 800m, 5000m, 10,000m, and the coveted 1,500m where she broke her own Olympic Record from four years previous but still couldn't break her mother's World Record that would stand for the length of time many presumed.

It was tradition to wear all the medals you'd already won in the games up onto the podium when receiving another and Lena couldn't help but laugh softly with everyone else when she took the podium to receive her seventeenth Gold Medal of the games from her mother and it looked like she was wearing golden armor across her chest, a 'true Olympic Goddess' many said, and thus, became her nickname for the games and splashed across televisions and papers around the world.

As was projected, Nadia not only won the Gold Medals in all of her brilliant routines on the Individual apparatuses of Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and the Floor Exercise…she did so with near perfection. Receiving those withheld perfect scores of 10.000 in the Uneven Bars, the Vault both times and her perfect 11.000 once again on the Balance Beam in the 'most spectacular beam routine in history.'

The entire arena erupted in outrageous displeasure when one solitary judge on her last routine on the Floor Exercise withheld the perfect score and she ended up with a 9.995, again.

When she won her first Gold Medal and bent over on the podium for her teary-eyed mother to place the medal around her neck, Irina received the first full smile from her daughter in months and the smile remained until the last judge docked her .005 of a point and then there were tears at not being able to obtain perfection in the Floor Routine done as an homage to her mother. The judge received the glares of hundreds of thousands of people's eyes all wanting to burn holes into her for docking on a non-committed 'error' on a move that Nadia herself invented leaving many to wonder how in the world she could have taken off for technical merit when the woman had only seen it performed one other time, by Nadia and it was flawless then. Many believed the judge was doing it simply out of spite as a way to publicly disprove of Nadia's tribute to her mother by using her anthem and forcing people to their feet with it being played during Nadia's routine. The deafening levels of booing and disappointment from the crowd at the score let the judge know, they certainly felt differently than she did about it.

Nadia helped the Russian team to win their Gold over the Americans and Chinese and yet again, brought the entire arena to its feet with flawless performance, after flawless performance earning nine total thus far in the Gymnastics competition. The final competition for Nadia was to compete for the All-Around, which is the most coveted Gold Medal in the Artistic Gymnastics as it defines the all-around best gymnast in the world.

She'd started on the Balance Beam earning her fourth perfect score of 11.00 there before moving onto Floor and finally, getting her perfect score there before continuing on with her quest for absolute 'perfection' going into Vault.

With only one more vault and her amazing routine on the Uneven Bars, Nadia was that much closer to completely sweeping the Gold Medals in Women's Artistic Gymnastics.

"Two more, Firecracker…" Jack let out a deep breath watching from the stands and looking down at Nadia walking towards her starting pointing. His fingers were in front of his mouth at a point and elbows resting on knees as he sat forward nervously.

Everyone in the arena took a deep breath with Nadia and held it in silence as she ran towards the vault and sprung forward onto her arms flipping around and springing backwards off the springboard onto the vault with hands planted and that's when they all heard it first, the loud crack in the silence and then Nadia's scream of pain though she continued through her rotations on instinct of something done so many times it was like breathing, knowing if she didn't she'd break her neck and die and managed to land with solid feet holding it for just a few seconds as was required before dropping back down and screaming along with everyone in the stands who could see the bone about to come through the skin in her forearm causing it to bend in places it should not.

"Oh god!" Irina gasped with Jack, and instantly flew from their seats with Marcelo, Alexei, Ryan and Sergei not far behind as their own team of family doctors, running down the small set of stairs near them onto the floor while Nadia and Olga and several other trainers and coaches were at her side instantly.

"Nadia!" Irina knelt next to Nadia who was clenching her teeth, sobbing through them where her coach was supporting her arm delicately with gentle palms. "Oh Sweetie..." She gasped moving around behind her on the floor to support her with arm over her opposite shoulder and around her chest, holding her close and struggling hard to hold back tears looking at her daughter's arm and the grotesque angle it was in with a sharp edge of bone about to break the skin.

The other gymnasts had tears instantly in their eyes as all other competition seemed to cease when the last of their routines finished tuning into what was happening with the 'Golden Pixie' who was expected to win in a clean sweep, now struggling to hold back her cries with a severely broken arm; reminding them all once again how it can all be over in a flash with an injury.

"Oh, this is a tragedy." The television announcers shook their heads with tears in their eyes watching as Sergei scooped her up into his arms with his father now delicately supporting her arm and following the Olympic Officials crew of doctors and personal off the floor and into the Emergency Medical Room under the stands with Alexei and Ryan. None of them wanting to leave Nadia's side.

A loud teary round of applause accompanied her exit with everyone on their feet, including the judges and other gymnasts for the tragedy that had befallen the young woman who was surely now, the title holder of 'World's Greatest Gymnast.'

Her score flashed up as her Vault jump replayed in slow motion and as miraculous as it was, she didn't falter at all in her follow through and earned her perfect score.

"It was a clean break." Alexei examined her arm while she lay still and the sobs had turned into silent rivers of tears on Nadia's face.

"Can you set it and then wrap it with a splint until I'm done?" She asked in a shaking voice and all heads whipped to hers with wide-eyes. "I want to finish."

"Nadia…" Irina gasped with teary eyes knowing how much her daughter didn't want to give up but her arm was severely broken and to even attempt her routine on the Uneven Bars was preposterous. "You can't, Sweetheart..."

"She's right, Nadia," Her coach looked down at her with tear-filled eyes, "You'll risk damaging your arm permanently and the pain will be excruciating…you're not allowed to use anything for pain at all with Olympic drug regulations."

"Can you set it and splint it?" Nadia asked with determined eyes to the doctors in the room.

"Nadia, how can you possibly think you can do that with only one arm?" Jack asked in a soft voice not wanting to kill her dream but his eyes were wide that she'd even want to, looking at her arm.

"Half of my routine is with only one arm anyway, not the one broken." She looked over at her functioning arm, "I can compensate…I have to do this. This is my one chance."

"Sweetheart, you'll be able to come back in four years and claim your All-Around," Irina wiped at the tears falling from her eyes using her motherly tone.

"No, Mama…not four years; I've worked too hard for this now. I can do it…I know I can. Please let me at least try?" Nadia begged with tears falling endlessly from her eyes. "Mama…I can do this."

"Nadia…I don't think you should. You've already proven to everyone you're the best in the world." Her coach wiped at the tears falling down the side of Nadia's face into her hair.

"I'm an adult. I can legally make this choice on my own." Nadia shook her head with blinding silent tears, "I want to do it. Please…put it back in place and then splint it enough to get me through. We don't have a lot of time." She moved to sit up and the temporary splint on her arm came up with her as well as the rushed hands of many to support her and it. "Help me, please...I've come this far, I have to see it through."

"Sweetheart, the pain will be unbearable." Marcelo shook his head softly with tear filled eyes and Nadia's flashed from his to her mother's.

"I know." She swallowed hard thinking about her mother's unbearable pain to bring her into this world and her determination to bear it to see them through to the end. "I'm strong…I can do it. Go ahead." She spoke softly.

Irina held Nadia's eyes for a moment, knowing her daughter and seeing the stubborn determination in her eyes unwilling to give up and swallowed hard; nodding softly once and heart pounding loudly that she just consented to putting her child through the most unbearable pain of her life…a daughter who hadn't been conditioned to withstand pain as she had and take such pain.

"Give her something to bite on." Alexei inhaled a long breath and unfastened the temporary splint on Nadia's arm while the Olympic doctor on call at this event found a wooden tongue depressor and Jack felt a chill run through him watching Nadia being laid back looking so much like her mother during her birth when they placed the stick into her mouth and Irina held fast to her good hand while Sergei, Marcelo and Ryan moved to hold her down. "Forgive me, Sweetheart." Alexei looked her in the eye for a moment and then snapped her arm back into place and the stick gave way to the blood curdling scream that could be heard in the arena over the music and whipped everyone's heads toward the hallway they'd taken Nadia to.

"It's over! It's over, Baby! It's over," Irina cried with her bending over with forehead pressed to Nadia's and hands cupping her face wiping her tears while Marcelo used a temporary cast with Velcro to keep the bones in place. They had never heard a scream like that from Nadia in their life and some felt as though their hearts had momentarily stopped.

Nadia listened to her mother's voice and calmed herself down concentrating on her voice and losing the pain with her training in focusing and meditation to keep pain levels at a minimum.

"Okay…" Nadia sat up and looked at her arm, "Let's do this." She swung her legs over the side.

"Nadia, are you sure?" Her coach asked again softly as did everyone else with their' eyes in the room.

"Yes. I can fight through the pain for something I love and want to see through to the end." She answered softly holding her mother's eyes again with welling tears. "My Mama gave me that…" She nodded at her mother softly and slid off the table.

When Nadia emerged back onto the floor everyone cheered to see her up and about with surprise that she wasn't taken to the hospital and then hearts stopping with anticipation seeing her coaches go over and talk to the judges of the Uneven Bars. Nadia had missed her rotation and the last gymnast had just gone while they pled her case to let her finish.

They were shaking their heads 'no' at first, concerned for her safety and finally relented with the argument that a great majority of her routine was with one arm anyway and if the pain became too much, Nadia would simply drop and discontinue and nothing lost but at least she was allowed to try…she'd 'earned the right to try.' They couldn't argue with that. So when they watched as Nadia's one good hand began to get wrapped standing behind the Uneven Bars the crowd went ballistic to see she was actually going to try to finish.

"If you can't stand it I don't want you to keep going. Are you listening to me?" Her coach asked with tearful eyes seeing Nadia's gaze shifting around the massive thundering arena at the crowd going crazy for her. "I want you to drop…at least you tried and that's more then I would have done…anyone would have done with an arm like this. Please reconsider?" She begged quietly over the roar of screaming fans.

"I can do this." Nadia looked her square in the eye believing in herself' now more then ever, "I can do this."

"Okay then. I believe in you, too." Her gorgeous coach smiled back, "You've been okayed to start on the low bar but you'll have to pick up the lost points in an additional move at the end though you can still win the Gold without it with your current standing as the leader in all other events."

Nadia just nodded feeling like she was in a dreamland and not sure if it was the roar of the arena and thousands of screaming people cheering her on or that she was about to faint or both.

"I honestly can't see how she'd ever be able to do this." The television announcer shook his head with wide-eyes watching Nadia approach the bar, "I don't know why they're even letting her try?"

"Because she has heart and soul…and who's really going to tell her she can't at least try? They just set her arm without any use of pain medication and she's taken nothing at all since the horrible fracture on the Vault," The second commentator smiled informing the viewing audience at home. "Everyone in this arena believes in her…anything is possible."

Irina's heart was pounding and she drowned out the sound of everything, it seemed but its pounding in rushing waves in her ears, watching the rising and falling of Nadia's chest and forcing herself to keep breathing, stay calm and stay strong…believing with everything in her, that Nadia could do this if she found her strength inside her heart to get her through.

*To Russia My Homeland*

Everyone's breath ceased watching her flip herself up onto the low bar and then bounce onto the high, grasping it with one arm instead of two as she normally would have done in this part of the routine and used her muscles and momentum to bring herself around rapidly gaining speed and then again and began her difficult routine with everyone gasping a little more every time she'd let go with her one good arm.

Her tears were flowing wildly and she bit back a sob with every jolt with the pain surging through her arm at never having to hang onto her weight solely on its own the entire routine and all her muscles were compensating for the loss of her arm in the most remarkable way. As she began her final swings on the high bar preparing for her dismount she threw in another turn around the bar and let go doing a complete 360 turn and grabbing it with a roar from the crowd as an added move to make up lost points for using the low bar at the start and then went into her final swings again pulling off the spectacularly breathtaking 'Pain for Love' move and finished sticking her landing and sobbing in pain and elation with rampant tears before crashing down to the mat thinking perhaps she might have dislocated her shoulder on the last turn and not caring at the same time as she smiled through it that she actually finished.

"I think I dislocated my shoulder." Nadia cried with tears of pain and joy looking up at her coaches who had rushed immediately to her side while the entire place erupted in celebratory chaos. "I can't move it."

They shook their heads at her crying with her in tears of joy and awe seeing how she fought through the pain in the end that had to felt like someone was ripping her arm off her body after that much activity.

"Why isn't she getting up?" Jack and Irina were once again rushing forward with their team of family doctors to the edge of the mats as the Olympic doctors rushed by them once again.

"She dislocated her shoulder." One of them smiled softly shaking his head with the same pride and fascination.

When Nadia's score flashed up onto the board everyone was in tears and screaming wildly with excitement to see her final perfect ten completing the most spectacular All-Around in the history of the sport with perfect scores in every event. Even though some of Nadia's moves weren't as graceful with one arm she still completed them to standard and more, with only one arm and by comparison with her originally technically supreme routine that dramatically outweighed the other gymnasts in difficulty, combined with the performance she just gave, they gave her a 10.000.

With the amount of pain Nadia was in, she didn't want to be moved from the floor and held fast as they set her shoulder, her scream swallowed up in the deafening scream of the fans who were still going crazy.

When her arm was set back into place they carefully helped her up, making sure to keep it and the extended ligaments and muscles from moving too much as they walked with her off the mats to a cheer of a crowd unlike any they'd ever heard.

"How are you doing?" Irina asked softly sitting on the stool beside her daughter who was now wearing an immobilizer keeping her arm in place while she was being worked on before the Medal Ceremony.

"This is nothing." Nadia answered softly with a soft smile as the Olympic doctor wrapped her arm in a cast in her new favorite color, gold. The arm sleeve of her leotard had to be cut off to put the cast on as trying to remove it while the arm was still not hard cast would not be pleasant. Because of the severity of the break, her arm would be in full cast up all the way up her arm for at least three weeks before cut off and replaced with a smaller one that would allow her to at least bend her elbow. "Thank you for letting me…" She added in a whisper and tears welling in her eyes. "For believing in me."

"Always." Irina smiled leaning forward and kissing Nadia's forehead, "You will never be able to comprehend how proud I am of you or how much I love you."

"Yes, I do. You love me 'really big." Nadia's tears fell and she looked up at her mother with a soft laugh remembering that moment on the beach in Fiji when she was only four. "I would do the 'this much' with my arms stretched like a bird but I don't think that's possible." She laughed softly with nervousness.

"Yes, I do…forever and always… I love you 'really big." Irina answered with her own soft laugh. She couldn't believe Nadia remembered that and it was threatening to move her to tears and Nadia saw in her mother's eyes how much hearing that meant to her and wished she would have told her long ago she remembered it.

"All set." The man smiled with pride and then helped her to lean forward and off the table. "Congratulations, Your Highness...you made all of Russia extremely proud with the show of your courageous and unstoppable heart." He slipped a sling with the Olympic rings and symbol of these games over her head and arm into place.

"Thank you." Nadia answered softly with fresh tears in her eyes and a soft nod, overwhelmed to hear such a thing.

"You ready?" Irina asked with motherly pride at hearing the man and seeing the look in Nadia's eyes.

Nadia nodded softly and Irina helped her slip on her red Adidas pants with white stripes down her legs, the opposite of her white leotard with the red stripes down her sides, part of the official Russian team attire and guided her out as both her arms were immobilized.

Her twin brother met them at the entrance to the hallway and smiled kissing both of her cheeks with tears in his eyes from emotion at seeing her performance and her arms now and placed the five Gold Medals she'd already won around her neck that he'd been holding for her.

"I'm so proud of you, Cossack." He smiled with a laugh kissing her again.

"Thank you, Cowboy." She answered back with her own soft laugh and entered the arena to a standing ovation.

*Anthem of Russia*

Irina couldn't stop the tear flow as she placed the last and most coveted Gold Medal around Nadia's neck and was met with another giant radiant smile and laugh when she threw out the protocol for a moment after kissing both her cheeks and threw her arms around her daughter's neck carefully, holding tightly for a moment and then kissing her again on the cheek and forehead before releasing her to stand proudly for their country's anthem.

Every Russian in the building and many who were not, had tears in their eyes as the anthem played filling them with pride from Nadia and everyone one again went wild with loud roaring joy when the song finished and Nadia did a nod and slight hand wave with her hand sticking out of the immobilizer at all the adoring fans bringing tears to her eyes that they kept screaming and cheering for her for more then ten minutes.

"Mama," Nadia addressed her softly while they were packing up to leave grabbing her bags and other things, "Can you please take my medals off," She tilted her neck with a slight grimace, "With the immobilizer, the sling and the medals I'm getting a head ache from the neck pressure…its too much."

"Of course," Irina immediately dropped what she was doing packing Nadia's bag for her and carefully removed them. "Gold does weigh a lot." She smiled and got one out of Nadia in return before it was quickly replaced with another grimace and a hiss when she turned. "Are you okay?" She asked immediately concerned.

"Would you think I'm a baby if I asked for some pain medication now?" Nadia asked softly and all their faces dropped having forgotten all about the fact she hadn't had anything for pain yet at all, not even some Tylenol until she was finished competing and that had been an hour or more ago.

"Oh Sweetheart!" She gasped, "I'm so sorry! Of course you're not a baby."

"My God, why didn't you say something earlier?" Her coach asked with wide-eyes feeling horrible they'd all neglected to return to the issue of pain with all the excitement.

"I think I was riding the adrenaline euphoria high and ignored it though now…I feel like one arm is still being ripped off my body and the other, run over by a bulldozer sending sharp shooting pains up my entire arm." Nadia answered softly looking a bit flushed in the face, no doubt running a fever.

"If we give you a shot the pain will cease quicker but I'm not authorized to give you anything. It has to be an Olympic authorized physician and I don't want to be accused of 'doping' you in anyway and risk your medals." Marcelo smiled at her softly, "Come with me and I bet we can find someone in the Medical Room who will be able to administer you with a pain killer."

"Sounds good." Nadia sighed heavily as he gently guided her with Jack towards the office.

"Things are getting better between the two of you then?" The beautiful Romanian coach asked Irina watching Nadia leave with the others in search of relief. "I don't mean to pry its just I've noticed drastic changes in her since you started sleeping with her a month ago an-" She paused when Irina's eyes widened in a flash to hear she knew.

"Nadia told you I was sleeping with her at night?" Irina asked rapidly but softly. "When?"

"Just before we left St. Petersburg…our last practice." She smiled softly, "I told her I noticed a change in her ever so slightly and she told me about you. I figured with the sudden change in her Floor Routine and her desire for it to be an homage to you, something was happening."

"You know what's going on then?" Irina asked softly and the other woman nodded.

"I know enough… though I won't break her confidence I swore to keep." She smiled softly tucking her hair behind her ear and Irina nodded in understanding, "We talk…or she talks and I listen or I talk and she listens…" She laughed softly, "I'm just so happy to see that spark slowly coming back into her eyes and the infectious laugh lurking beneath the surface we keep hearing echoes of that I know one day soon…will reverberate off the walls again." Her smile widened, "I told her that you'd never give up on her…no matter what."

"Never." Irina smiled with fresh tears in her eyes speaking in almost a whisper and then rapidly pulled her into a hug, realizing that she too was responsible in a large part of the progress between she and Nadia, "Thank you…for helping me not to lose my daughter…and for taking such good care of her all these years and especially the past few months when I couldn't seem to at all."

She smiled returning the hug, "You're welcome, Your Majesty…its my honor…and I love Nadia… you don't have to thank me for caring about her or looking out for what's best for her. I may have pried open some cracks further shining a little light in but it was you, who are responsible for getting through by figuring out just what she needed without ever really asking and getting an answer. You just knew." She pulled back but held Irina's hands, giving them a squeeze with a smile, "That is the heart of a mother and one I know…she loves very much."


"I'm so proud of you, Firecracker." Jack spoke quietly while the doctor located the medication and he sat beside Nadia on a stool next to the exam table. "I don't think I would have been able to do what you did today…your inner strength amazes me…and I'm so proud of you. Not only because of how well you performed, but especially because of your courage to continue." His eyes felt the prickles of tears, "I'm so proud you're my daughter." He gave her a soft smile and Nadia couldn't help the tears forming in her own eyes.

"Thank you, Daddy." She whispered softly and Jack stood to cup her face gently searching her eyes for just a moment hoping she'd see the love reflected and then kissed her forehead gently.

"Okay, Your Highness," The doctor smiled at them, "I'm afraid this one's got to go deep tissue." He gave her a sheepish smile knowing it wasn't exactly fun to get a shot in your ass.

"Can you help me down?" She asked her father quietly and he easily picked her up by the waist and set her on the ground. "Thank you."

"Your Highness…I'm going to have to have you help me here a minute," He looked at Jack and motioned towards Nadia's track pants while he gently pulled them down just a little, "Now if you can pull her leotard up just a bit to expose the first curvature of the gluteus." Jack didn't hesitate though Nadia's eyes widened for a second thinking about how he'd react but was surprised when he did as the doctor asked and slid the leotard over a bit to expose the top of her little muscular butt cheek and then hissed in a breath when she felt the jab and sting.

"Sorry about the sting. It should go away in just a minute and then you'll be just great feeling little to no pain. No driving or operating heavy machinery though for quite a few hours." He teased her with a laugh seeing as both her arms were useless right now it was a funny but mandatory warning. "I just have to tell you again…how proud I was to be a part of history today. You were spectacular and I'll look forward to telling the story of your greatness to my grandchildren for years to come, Grand Duchess. Not since your mother's Coronation have I felt so especially proud to be Russian. You are part of a spectacular family." He smiled at Jack, Marcelo, Sergei, Alexei and Ryan who stood over her like silent vigils of protection and love. Jack instantly thought of the fact that Nadia was conceived at that Coronation and smiled with love and pride looking over his child.

Nadia too, left with a soft smile on her face and tears in her eyes with the wonder inside at feeling the sparks of actually belonging…that people were proud to be Russian, because of her.


*Say*

When they returned back to the Village after the exhausting day, Irina and Lena, who came from the room next door, worked together to carefully extract Nadia from what was left of her leotard that, was too special to completely destroy by cutting it off and so, ever so gently, they managed to slide it off her shoulders, over her arms and down her body without causing any pain at all before redressing her in her pajama tank top and shorts and then re-securing her immobilizer and getting her situated in bed lying on her back.

Lena kissed her goodnight and congratulated her again with tears of pride in her eyes and then did the same with her mother before heading back to her own room, having the most exhausting day of her Olympics competition on the very last day to complete in tomorrow; the marathon.

Irina slid into bed on the side of Nadia with the broken arm, and snuggled as close as possible without touching, not wanting to hurt her. They lay quietly for a long time when Irina noticed that Nadia wasn't even attempting to close her eyes and then smiled sadly in understanding. "You've never been able to sleep on your back from the moment you were old enough to roll over." She spoke quietly and Nadia nodded softly.

"I'm exhausted but too…" Nadia yawned as if almost on cue, "I don't know what to describe it as… to sleep."

"I know exactly what you're talking about." Irina smiled softly, "I used to get that way all the time after coming down from an adrenaline rush with body exhausted but mind rapid firing with everything that happened and refusing to let me rest." She never used to sleep in those days; only mediate as sleep was a dangerous place worse then the world she was living in.

"Yes." Nadia nodded softly speaking quietly, "That's exactly it. Like from my neck down I'm dead and my head is about to explode with the whir of everything that happened." Her mind was on rapid replay, "How did you make it stop?" She asked after a moment.

"I never really could get it to stop. I'd just continue to exhaust myself until that part of me slowed down too. Running, or working out. Various things and sometimes…just sit somewhere quiet and even though I couldn't slow it down to mediate, sat in the silence to let my brain process everything that happened before filing it away." Irina spoke softly and smiled when she realized, this was the first real conversation she was having with her daughter since…too long. She couldn't even remember when their last real conversation was anymore. The only one that flashed through her mind was the painful one that followed the original horrendous mix-up concerning their Dubeys. "What are you thinking about? Sometimes it helps to say it out loud and get it out of your head as one less thing to think about."

"It keeps going over all my routines tonight but especially the Vault." Nadia was staring at the ceiling fan on low speed as they had the air conditioner on to keep the room cool in the Russian summer. "It's like my brain slowed everything down and I can see my hands planting on the Vault, feel the suede beneath my fingers and then feel the blast inside my arm with the bone breaking and I remembered thinking to continue with the movement or I'd break my neck and I did but…its honestly all a daze and I still don't know why my arm broke and its driving me crazy unable to find my mistake in my review in my head."

"That's because you didn't make a mistake," Irina answered quietly, "You did everything you were supposed to do, had done hundreds of times before…this time, your arm broke. It's not your fault…it just happened." She paused for a moment, "I'm actually surprised it was your forearm instead of your upper arm that you broke before." Her fingers reached out to gently finger with Nadia's poking out the end of her golden cast. "You can watch the replay a hundred times and you'll see…you didn't do anything wrong. It just happened and you made the most of it…landing a perfect Vault with the exception of your broken arm." She gave her a small smile.

"That was by accident as my body was running purely on trained movement instinct." Nadia shook her head softly, "I really had nothing to do with that after my arm broke. It was just doing as the follow through without specific command other then, follow it through and cry later."

"You had everything to do with that. You trained your body and muscles so well they relied on your muscle memory to keep you twisting and flipping perfectly in spite of the pain." Irina smiled with prideful tears, "And your routine on the Uneven Bars…" She faded with choked up emotion still able to see her daughter flying around so brilliantly with one arm, sobbing in tears and swallowing her pain until she pulled through. "You have an inner strength inside you like nothing I've ever seen." She gave her a small smile speaking from her heart.

"I have." Nadia answered softly turning to meet her mother's gaze on the pillow with faces only inches apart, "In you, Mama." She swallowed hard trying to fight back her tears, "You're the strongest person I've ever met in my life…and all I kept thinking as I pulled through the end of that routine to drown out the pain was…the pain you went through to bring me into the world… just so you could see me…if only once…in pain for love." She swallowed again seeing her mother's silently falling tears staring back at her with her dark gorgeous eyes that were her own, "That's what I thought about…how strong my mother was and capable of anything with the love and passion in her heart…so I listened to mine...and it sounded like you." She smiled softly through her tears, wishing she could used her arms to reach up and wipe the stinging tears and her mother read her mind and did just that with the gentle touch of the backs of her fingers.

"And what was it saying?" Irina asked softly inhaling a sigh speaking almost in whisper failing to hold back her tears or emotion.

"To hang on, to fight through the pain and hold onto the love inside…that it won't hurt forever and then there will only be happiness and love as the pain fades away." Nadia sniffled, "And it was right…I didn't really care all that much that I was in so much pain when I finished because I was so happy… and these will heal and the pain won't last forever," She lifted her broken arm ever so slightly not wanting to pull away from where her mother's thumb was brushing gently over her finger tips relishing in the loving contact, "But I'll have the memories of today for the rest of my life…and I wouldn't trade them for anything." She smiled softly with new tears in her eyes thinking about the memories she'd made of these Olympics and especially the ones made with her mother in the quiet of this room, alone and just the two of them in gaining a new understanding and mending broken hearts, strengthening their bond. "I love you, Mama, forever and always. I love you."