A/N: Absolutely loving the Olympics so far! How intense was qualifications for the USA!


Nine... ten... eleven... twelve... thirteen...

The count was repetitive, running through JJ's brain as she pulled her chin up to the high bar over and over. Despite the fact it was freezing outside and Nick was standing nearby wearing a scarf, she was sweating underneath her long sleeves, dark stains already appearing on the light blue fabric. Her arms were burning, screaming for her to stop, but she knew better than to quit. For years, she had worked through pain like this, pushing herself to the brink of exhaustion to become the best athlete she could be.

And after some time off to let her leg recover, she was ready to start the grind all over again, building up the intensity to peak for Worlds.

"Twenty," she gasped, letting herself hang from the bar as she blew a strand of hair out of her face. Nick stepped up, wrapping a strong arm around her waist and lifting her back down. Her recovery had been much faster than expected, and so, with January almost over, she had been cleared to start upper body conditioning. The cast was still around, bright blue and impossible to miss, but she was due to have it taken off in three weeks if her x-rays remained as good as they had been. From then, she would have two weeks in a boot before the rod in her leg was removed. Beyond that, the boot would stay around until her doctor and physio cleared her to start fully weight bearing on that leg.

"My arms are dead," JJ groaned, sitting down on the nearest foam block and flopping over. She draped an arm dramatically across her face, her eyes closed so as not to get chalk in them. "You're trying to kill me"

Nick laughed, nudging her hip with the toe of his shoe. "I'm really not, you've just had proper time off for the first time in forever. Just think how great your bars and vault will be with all this upper body conditioning"

"Look, unless I'm gonna win gold on both, I'm happy to stay a wet noodle"

"Come on. You've got an ab circuit to do next," Nick said, sticking his hands in his pockets and jumping up and down slightly.

"How are you cold? Just how?" JJ shot from where she was laying.

"Because it's like thirty degrees outside and I'm not the one trying to stay in Olympic shape!" Nick fired back with a grin. JJ laughed, hauling herself up and grabbing her crutches. With shaky arms, she placed them under her arms, before making her way over to the floor to start the ab circuit Nick had set up.

"You know, I wasn't kidding about your vaulting potentially getting stronger with all this arm work you've been doing," Nick said as JJ lowered herself down to the floor. "I think you'll find you'll be able to upgrade your current vault and add a second one much more easily than you expected"

JJ nodded, stretching her neck from side to side and settling back on her hands.

"But you don't have to do it just because I said... it's up to you," Nick said. The tone of his voice made JJ look up: something sounded off with him.

And then it clicked. He had told her to do the double double off the trampoline in November. She had done so with no coercion and ended up injured. And now, her coach, whom she had always trusted and looked up to, was feeling guilty.

"Nick... it's not your fault I got injured. You know that, right?"

Nick let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his wavy brown hair. "I told you to do that skill, JJ. A skill you've hardly trained. You trusted me enough to go for it and you got injured"

"It's not like you told me I had to. I wanted to. I made that decision to give it a go"

"But I'm your coach, JJ. You trust me to make good decisions for you in this sport. You trust my judgement. And I feel like after all the years I've spent making sure you feel safe and guided in this sport, you followed my direction and got injured"

JJ tipped her head, looking up at Nick sadly. "Nick, I'm also an adult. You might be my coach, but I don't have to do what you tell me. I do it because I want to. And yes, I followed your direction, but if I had at any point felt like I wasn't comfortable doing a double double, I wouldn't have done it. I'm old enough now to make the distinction between prepared and not prepared, and I was comfortable to give it a go. It's not your fault. I'm not upset about it. It's just a thing that happened, and in a couple of months, it'll be behind us"

Nick took a deep breath, smiling down at JJ. "You grew up way too fast, you know that?"

JJ laughed. "My dad says the same thing"

Chuckling, Nick sat back on a foam block. "Alright kiddo... time to get those abs back into shape"