Tuesday mornings, by ten, the only gymnasts left were the young men and women on the Olympic track. The younger gymnasts at lower levels were all gone, usually at school and wouldn't return until later that evening. Kaylie studied the floor carefully as she stretched on the mat next to the floor. She watched Payson chalking her hands next to the bars as Austin joined her, about to begin his own bars routine. They spoke quietly for a moment and then moved away.

Kaylie bit her lip and stood, shaking out her limbs. "Those two are so obvious," Lauren said, as she approached, pulling her arm across her body, stretching her triceps and back. "Do they really think they're fooling anyone? Meeting at the chalk bowl is so cliché."

Kaylie glared at her lightly and Lauren shrugged unapologetically. "What? It is. Why do they have to meet at the chalk bowl anyway? I mean they both have houses, what's with the secrecy?"

"Maybe they just needed chalk?" Kaylie snapped.

Lauren chuckled, shaking her head, "Or maybe they're talking about their plans for tonight. Dinner and some dessert," she said, a suggestive smile playing across her face.

Kaylie rolled her eyes, "Shows how much you know," she mumbled, but she immediately winced, knowing Lauren heard her.

Her blonde best friend's eyes lit up, "Why? What do you know?" she asked, jumping all over it immediately.

Before she'd even decided to speak, Kaylie whispered, "They're not together."

Lauren's eyes lit up at the new information, "What? Did they split up? What happened? I mean I saw them kiss."

Kaylie grinned and shrugged, "I don't know." She looked around quickly realizing that they were almost completely alone. "Look, if I tell you something, you have to promise you won't say anything, Lo. It's really personal and I'm sort of freaking out about it a little bit."

Lauren nodded quickly, "Of course, Kaylie. You're my best friend."

Kaylie raised her eyebrows and Lauren sighed. "I know, I know, but if you ask me to keep something secret, I will."

Kaylie sighed and lowered her voice, "Austin and I, we're sort of, together" she said and bit her lip to keep from smiling.

She watched Lauren's eyes grow wide as her jaw dropped. "You're hooking up?" she asked. "Oh my God, did you guys…" she trailed off, her meaning clear.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "although we were close the other night." She frowned at herself for a moment and stopped speaking, leaving out the part about freaking out and practically running out of his house.

"What happened? You have to tell me," Lauren said, but just as the words escaped her mouth, they were interrupted.

"Girls, this isn't social hour. Kaylie, you're supposed to be running through your floor routine and Lauren, I asked you ten minutes ago to stretch out for vault. We're less than a week out from Nationals and three weeks from the Olympic trials. I shouldn't have to ask you twice," Sasha barked at them, arms crossed over his chest. His glare was more than enough to send them jumping.

Lauren moved past her with a smile on her face as Kaylie looked up at Sasha. "Well?" he asked, motioning towards the floor. "Anytime you're ready."

"Sorry," she said and moved to the center of the floor to begin her routine.

It felt good; all four tumbling passes landed cleanly, her dance elements on point. She felt totally prepared for Nationals, one of her last chances to completely convince Boris that she was the stronger option over Justine Turner, after her disastrous performance at the Pacific Rims.

Sasha nodded in approval, "Nice job, Kaylie. That should bring in a nice score at Nationals."

She smiled tightly at him and moved away to grab some water. She wasn't sure if Payson ever told Sasha that she was keeping their secret. He hadn't given her any indication either way, but that wasn't exactly odd. Sasha wasn't exactly the sharing type. Their relationship hadn't shifted at all. He still demanded nothing less than her full effort and the highest degree of difficulty she could manage consistently. She didn't even notice a difference in his relationship with Payson, not that she ever saw them outside of the gym.

Despite their vows not to let it happen, they had all gradually drifted apart again, but more and more Kaylie found herself in Lauren's company, at first not out of any desire to be around her former best friend, but mostly from a lack of options. Payson was never around; Emily was balancing her time between training and helping her mother plan her wedding to Steve Tanner and Lauren, having learned of the engagement, was avoiding her father like the plague, finding ample time to spend with Kaylie. She and Carter were back together, constantly on again, off again, but Kaylie had assured Lauren that she was over him and she definitely was. Austin Tucker had filled every single space in her heart; she knew there was no denying that. He was annoying and immature and charming and handsome and he really liked her, maybe even loved her. She wasn't far from feeling that way about him either. It was all so perfect and so overwhelming at the same time. Just as things started to get intense, she'd bolted.

She'd sat in the middle of her bed that night, staring at her cell phone as text message after text message and several voicemail alerts blinked at her from the screen of her phone, but she ignored each one and now she was ignoring him. That was almost four days ago and she bit her lip, watching him land out of his bars routine and nod to himself, satisfied with the set. She knew she would have to be the one to make the first move this time. He'd put himself out there and now she'd have to do the same. The problem was working up the courage to do it. She saw him look up, obviously sensing her gaze, but she averted her eyes quickly and moved towards the beam.

Payson watched Kaylie scamper away from simply making eye contact with Austin and she shook her head as she stretched out her knee to prepare for the vault. Lauren moved next to her and sat down with a small sigh. She looked entirely too happy not to have some sort of gossip floating around in her head. Payson rolled her eyes, but wasn't about to ask. If Lauren wanted to share, she'd have to do it unsolicited.

"Kaylie and Austin would make a cute couple, don't you think?" she asked, smirking at Payson, obviously trying to draw a reaction.

Payson looked up at her and forced her expression into a pensive one, giving off the impression she was considering it. Finally she looked back at Lauren and shrugged, "I guess so."

"I think they would. Their looks complement each other, brown hair, olive skin," Lauren said, as if she'd given it a lot of thought, which upon further consideration, she probably had. "They won their first National Championships in the same year too. But of course, I mean you guys sort of had something going on there for a while, didn't you? I mean that kiss we all saw, that was a hell of a kiss," Lauren asked, feigning ignorance.

"Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss," she said. Payson smiled at her and shrugged, "Austin and I are good friends. He's not really my type."

Lauren snorted, "Your type isn't gorgeous, charming, Olympic gold medalists?" She rolled her eyes and Payson had to give her that one. That was in fact, exactly her type.

Finally, Lauren seemed to give up, taking Payson's silence as disinterest. She left and Payson sighed in relief. She still counted Lauren as a friend, if one she had to be very careful around, but sometimes the girl just drove her insane. Obviously Kaylie had told her something happened between her and Austin and now she was fishing to see if Payson knew anything. It was the same silly game Lauren had been playing for years, but Payson refused to indulge her.

She finished stretching out her knee and moved towards the vault, taking a deep breath and clearing her mind before she ran towards the horse and launched herself into the Yurchenko two and a half that had been giving her some trouble lately. She landed it cleanly but felt the smallest of twinges in her stupid knee. MRI after MRI had come back clear; it was simply a pain she had to live with, though the doctor said that whenever she felt something she should shut it down for the day and ice it immediately. Twinges meant inflammation and inflammation meant compensating using her other leg, which could lead to major injury. She walked off the mat, shaking her leg, making sure it was only a small pain from the contact and not a lingering one.

She moved off to the trainer's room and dug into the cabinet to grab an ice pack. She hopped up onto the trainer's table, one that held a lot of memories for her, but mostly she remembered this room as where Sasha first said, "I love you." It had been unexpected and completely out of the blue, but that made it all the more special in her mind. She leaned back on the table and closed her eyes, trying to keep her mind off her knee. She remembered what else happened in this room, before their mutual expressions of love. They'd moved far beyond those first physical encounters, but that night had been a night of several firsts, if she remembered correctly.

"Hey, I thought I saw you come in here," Austin's voice drew her out of her pleasant reverie.

She opened her eyes and smiled at him, "What's up?

He jumped up onto the table opposite her, "Kaylie's still avoiding me. She won't even look at me." He frowned. "Seriously, Pay, I'm about ready to give up. What are we twelve?"

Payson sighed, "I think she might have told Lauren you two are together," she said, knowing she had to tell him, but wishing she didn't. She knew he would be furious.

"She told that lying, scheming bitch about us and she won't even talk to me?" He slammed his fist down on the padded table.

"I said, I think, Lauren was hanging around me earlier and said she thought that you two would make a cute couple. That's Lauren Tanner speak for, 'ask me why I think that.' I didn't, obviously, but you really should talk to Kaylie. If she won't come to you, you'll have to go to her."

"That's just it," Austin said, "It's always me. I always have to make the first move. Not this time. If she wants to make this right, it's going to have to come from her. She's going to have to take the first step."

"Does this count?" Kaylie's voice echoed from the doorway of the trainer's room.

Payson sat up quickly and tossed her ice pack in the garbage. "That's my cue," she said. She gave Austin an encouraging smile and then nodded to Kaylie before leaving as fast as possible. One of two things was about to happen, they would work this thing out or they wouldn't and she really didn't relish being around for either.

She wandered back onto the floor and found Sasha observing Isabella's bar routine. "I'm going to head out," she said, moving next to him. "I felt that stupid twinge in my knee again. I'm going to go take a Jacuzzi and just try to stay off it for the rest of the day."

He didn't pull his eyes from Isabella's routine, but he nodded. "Remember, after you put it under the jet: ice, compression and elevation."

"Yes, Doctor Beloff," she said, a slight mocking edge to her voice.

Isabella finished her routine and he called out, "Good, Isabella," he called out to her, "Keep those handstands at twelve o'clock. No silly deductions this year."

"Yes, Sasha," the junior national champion said, shooting a smile at Payson before she walked away towards the water cooler.

"See you later," she said, giving him a lingering smile as she stepped away. She could feel his eyes on her back as she grabbed her gym bag from the floor and fished around for her keys.

She scaled the steps to her house, frowning that her knee wasn't giving her any trouble now. It was the nature of whatever was wrong. It only seemed to pain her after a major stress inducing trick, but would feel perfectly find later. She briefly thought about getting back in the car and driving right back to the Rock, but Sasha would just send her home.

She sighed to herself as she entered her house, their house, for it had become as much Sasha's home as it had hers. His guitar hero game was hooked up to the television in the living room. He had taken over several drawers in her dresser and his shampoo and soap sat next to hers in the shower. She frowned taking in her surroundings. She would have to start packing soon, she thought as she climbed the stairs towards her bathroom. They hadn't discussed furniture or anything like that, but she definitely wanted to take some of her things to New York, though she wasn't going to put this house on the market. She wanted to have a place to go in the area, after all her family would be staying in Boulder, even after the Olympics.

No matter their reaction she wasn't about to cut them out of her life,even if her parents didn't understand or accept it, she firmly believed they would eventually when they realized that it wasn't a passing fancy or a brief fling.

She quickly ran a bath and set the Jacuzzi on a comfortable setting, before sinking into the steamy hot water. She sighed in relief and leaned her head back against the edge of the tub, the massaging jets and the hot water soothing her into a semiconscious state. She let her mind go blissfully blank for a moment before a memory washed over her, only a few days before. It was becoming one of their rituals when they had the time, soaking in the tub together, winding down, exploring slowly, or relaxing in a comfortable silence. But a few nights before, Sasha had something on his mind.

Payson cupped some water in her hands and let it spill through her fingers as Sasha's lips brushed gently against her neck, trailing down to her shoulders. She rested against his chest, his body cradling hers in the steamy, hot water. He gathered her hair in his hand and laid it over her shoulder. It floated at the surface gently separating. His lips pressed a hot open mouthed kiss to the nape of her neck and despite the heat of their bath, Payson shivered. She leaned her head back against his shoulder and sighed as his arms wrapped around her, drawing her body against his.

She sighed softly, stroking her finger tips lightly up and down the corded muscle of his forearms. "What's going through that head of yours?" he asked softly.

"Hmm, nothing," she said, "blissful nothing. You?" She felt him tense just slightly at her question. "Sasha?"

"Do you think we should get married?" he asked.

She exhaled and then furrowed her brow in confusion, "Was that a proposal, because you're really going to have to do better than that."

He chuckled softly at her indignation. "I was thinking about it, I've been thinking about it for a while. It might have some impact on your parents, if you had a ring on your finger when we spoke to them."

She leaned forward and scooted away just a bit so she could look at him in the eye, "I want to marry you some day, but on our terms. I don't want to get married because people expect it or because it might make things easier. I want to get married because we decide it's the right time, because we want to spend the rest of our lives together, because we're ready to settle down, start a new chapter of our lives. Not to make my parents feel better."

"So, that's a no?" he asked and she smiled at him affectionately, reaching out to caress his stubbled cheek lightly.

"That's an 'ask me again properly sometime,' when we're ready to stay put for a while. I'm going to Columbia in the fall, you'll be starting up a new gym, we'll be busier than we are now and that's saying a lot," she said, before adding. "I'm not in a rush, Sasha. Are you?"

He shrugged, "I wouldn't call it a rush, but I'm there, Pay. You're the…"

Her hand slid around from his cheek to cover his lips lightly. "Stop," she said, "whatever you're going to say, save it, hang on to it for when you ask me properly."

Sasha nodded, kissing her fingers where they were still pressed against his lips, "Promise me one thing," he said as she moved her hand away.

"What's that?" she asked, trailing her hand around to the back of his neck, running her fingers through his damp hair.

"When you're ready, give me a hint or ten?" he asked.

She leaned in, smiling against his lips, as his hand slid from her knee, around her waist, drawing her closer, "Promise," she said.

Payson smiled at the memory. They'd gotten water all over the floor, a flood of near epic proportions, as their bath time activities grew adventurous. She opened her eyes and sighed. The bath had grown cool, so she stood and dried off quickly, wrapping a fluffy towel around her body, stepping onto the cold tile floor. She felt completely relaxed as she entered her bedroom. Grabbing, a pair of flannel shorts and a tank top from her dresser, she dropped the towel.

"Wow," a voice said from the door.

She nearly leapt out of her skin, as she looked up and saw Sasha leaning against the doorframe, a smug smirk playing upon his face.

Payson raised a challenging eyebrow at him, "What are you doing here?" she asked, as he began advancing towards her.

"Lunch break," he mumbled, standing mere inches from her now.

"Working lunch?" she quipped as she pulled at the edge of his shirt, lifting it over his head.

"Payson," he said, as his hands flew to his belt buckle, yanking it free quickly as he toed off his shoes and socks.

"Yeah?" she asked, undoing the button at his fly and lowering the zipper slowly.

"I've got about twenty minutes, so…" he trailed off, running a hand over her shoulder, into her damp hair, the other winding around her waist, drawing her close.

"Less talk?" she said, pushing up onto her toes.

"Exactly," he murmured against her lips.