So, as I write this I'm on a 2:45h train to go to my cousin's bachelorette party. I should be writing "The Queen of Winter", but this AU wouldn't leave my head so... I used the train trip to write this instead!

Thanks to all those who reviewed this story! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I decided to continue this story as a series of on-shots. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, because I have absolutely nothing planned about it... I guess they will come out as I get inspired, like it just happened with this chapter! If you have ideas, feel free to share them!

So, it has always frustrated me that Lauren is announced on the first episode as an amazing Beamer, but then always seems to fall out of the beam. And Kaylie is the one who wins on Beam?! I mean, WTF? That makes no sense!

Part 2 - She should give her therapist a raise

II

Leaving was easier than she had thought.

In the end she had decided to tell her friends and Marty that she was moving for her dad's job and that was that. They had been worried about her training, but she had assured them that her dad had already found her a gym and a coach.

No way in hell was she telling them the real reason why she wanted to move.

Anyway, there had been some tears from Kaylie, frowns from Payson and indifference from the new girl – read pet – before they had thrown her a goodbye party, and that had been that.

Not that Lauren wasn't going to miss her friends. She had stayed up all night the day they had arrived in Monterrey looking at pictures of them in the gym, hanging out or at podiums in different meets, and Lauren was confident enough to admit to having shed a few tears.

But she had also noticed the recurring theme in those photos. Especially the ones taken at meets. She was always to Payson's left.

And that, was not good enough for her. She was done being the third best in her gym. Never reaching the all-around podium. She wanted more. She deserved more.

And if Boulder couldn't give her that, she would get it herself.

It was time for a new life.

Something that Lauren wouldn't have missed if it had stayed in Boulder? Her father's girlfriend/secretary.

Summer Van Horne should have been named Summer Van Thorne.

The woman wanted to baby her. She butted into her life thinking she needed a mother and expected her to be some innocent naive baby.

And Lauren knew herself. She was anything but innocent or naive.

She was too much like her dad to be like that. She liked to scheme and get her way, and most of the time didn't care what happened to others if they weren't her friends or family.

And that was the biggest issue she had with the – quite possibly – gold digger. She was too uptight, too obsessed with her religion to really accept her dad the way he was. She would bet that the first time her dad did one of his ruthless business takeovers she would run for the hills in righteous horror and indignation, taking half of her inheritance with her.

Her therapist had asked her if she wasn't putting her disappointments in her own mother on Summer, but Lauren disagreed.

If she wanted a mother's advice, she had her grandmother to go to. Claire Tanner was a formidable woman whom Lauren respected and loved. She had always been there for her in ways her mother had never been.

And yes, while Lauren did miss her mom, and would love to have her in her life, she didn't need to have a cheap substitute.

No, Summer Van Thorne was not right for her dad, for the simple reason that they had nothing in common. She should stick to men with the same beliefs – and preferably the same number of zeros in their bank accounts – as her.

"Lauren, it's time for bars!" Sasha's call brought her from her inner rantings, prompting her to leave the floor where she had been warming up and make her way to the bars, where Kelly Parker was furiously nailing routine after routine.

"I want to see three flawless runs, Lauren" Sasha said, with a smile. "It's one week to nationals. Time to show them what you've got"

She nodded, and jumped to grab the low bar, pulling herself up on her least liked apparatus.

The bars had always killed her all-around average. After five months of being drilled by Sasha Belov?

Her bars were freaking awesome.

Well, it wasn't like she would be winning any Bars medals at worlds, but they were good. Even good enough for a Bars medal at Nationals, considering the US weakness on this event. Who would have thought that was possible, when she had left Boulder?

In fact, every single one of her events was spot on. Especially her beam.

She had been inspired by routines from the eighties and nineties and decided to incorporate mounts and dismounts that hadn't been seen in decades. She had the ability to do those moves, and it had always frustrated her that Marty had wanted to go safe and keep them out.

Now, with Sasha, her beam had the highest difficulty value in the whole world and her execution was good enough to match it!

Nationals and worlds couldn't come fast enough!

"Ugh, I swear Tanner, if you lose to any of those Rock idiots this year I'll skin you alive." Kelly said, after they both left the bars and made their way to get water. "If I can't win, at least I want someone who I can stand to do it"

Lauren snorted. "Don't worry Parker. I have no intention of losing"

And that was the truth. When Lauren had started to work with Sasha, she had admitted to the man that she didn't think they had enough time to get her on the same level as Payson and Kelly, but that she wanted at least the all-around bronze.

Sasha had frowned and told her she should never plan for any place but first and put her through a grueling work out.

She had understood what he meant but had secretly and mentally prepared herself to lose against those two powerhouses.

Then Sasha had taken Kelly to the center's orthopedists to see her ankle and everything had changed.

Kelly Parker needed surgery, or her chances of making it to the Olympics were non-existent.

Lauren hid her smirk, as she remembered Kelly's bitch of a mom ranting and screaming in the middle of the gym, and Sasha's stony face. The prognosis had been pretty serious, and in the end, Kelly had been the one to push for the surgery, following the doctors, Sasha's and even Austin Tucker's advice.

Lauren agreed with all their opinions. They were two years away from the Olympics. Missing out on a National Championship was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you were the current world champion. There was no way the NGO would leave her out of the world team if she showed she was ready.

Anyway, Kelly had taken the surgery, and been on a boot for two months. Sasha had had her training bars non-stop to keep up her focus and stamina, and when the go ahead of the doctors came for Kelly to train freely, she had started to land her bars dismount almost immediately.

Every other apparatus was still too untested to be competition ready, but Lauren had no doubts that Kelly Parker would come out of world championships with a bars National title.

"What do you think about Payson?" She asked, looking over at Kelly.

"I think you've got it." Kelly said.

Andrea nodded, having just come from the vault. "From what you've said, her back is not getting any better. If she hasn't upgraded since you last saw her, then you have it"

It had been a bit weird, but she Kelly and Andrea had become good friends. Seeing each other almost 24/7 did that to a person, and even if she wasn't staying in the dorms like the others, these days she basically only went home to sleep, staying to have dinner with her fellow athletes almost every day.

Austin and Kyle were also cool. In the beginning, they were both visibly amazed at being able to work with their personal idol, and Lauren had thought they were the cutest thing ever.

It was good to have a smaller group of people. With Kelly and Andrea there was no teen drama. Lauren was seventeen to Kelly's and Andrea's eighteen, but they were all very straight forward and were all committed to one thing. London 2012.

Oh, they could appreciate hot guys. They'd had a very serious discussion on who was the hottest guy in the international gymnastics circuit, and Lauren had won in her Austin sponsorship, against Kelly's favorite, the Russian Sergey Simionav and Andrea's Garret McAron from the UK.

She had delighted in teasing Austin the next day and seeing his dumbfounded expression when she had informed him that he could thank her for making sure he was on the top of their 'hottest gymnasts in the world' ranking list.

She and Austin had an interesting thing going on. They got along well and enjoyed teasing each other. Lauren could admit that she liked him and would like to go out with the recent graduate, but now was not the time.

First, winning National and world medals. Then, thinking about hot guys.

Her therapist always made sure she understood the importance of priorities after all.

She had always made fun of Payson-bot, but after months of going to a therapist, she had finally understood that maybe her old friend had something going on.

Learning different techniques of clearing her head before competitions had certainly helped her.

Especially considering she was number two after the first day of Nationals.

She should give her therapist a raise.

Kelly was number one on bars, Andrea was second on Bars and on beam, where Sasha had raised her degree of difficulty exponentially. Good bars workers were often also good beamers, and Sasha's plans for Andrea were based on making her a double specialist.

Lauren was – like there had ever been any doubt – first on Beam. She was also fourth on Bars after Payson, and third on floor.

If last year she had stepped out of her floor passes, this year she had wowed the crowd with her increased difficulty and a new and very artistic routine. If one thing was true, it was that Lauren Tanner could dance. The problem with her floor passes had been easy enough to solve after Sasha had noticed that she ended up crooked, not doing them in a straight line. As a beamer, that mistake was unforgivable, and she had worked hard to take care of the problem.

And now it was almost over. One routine left, and it was her favorite one!

Payson was up on bars, and was probably already crowning herself number one, but Lauren was not giving up. This was her moment.

Austin and Kyle screamed from the bleachers, waving a banner with a 'Go Andrea, Lauren & Kelly!' and she saluted the judges to start.

Her mount went perfect. A round of to the springboard and her hands were on the beam, propelling her off into an acrobatic series that went all the way to the other side of the beam. The crowd clapped. The connection bonuses she got in her mount alone were crazy, and the happiness she felt at nailing it made her send a smile to the judges.

Off she went in another perfect acrobatic sequence, before going down for her low beam work.

She was just getting up when the crowd screamed before going silent. There some sobs and she could perfectly hear the name 'Payson' being shouted from the other side of the arena.

Lauren steeled herself. This was her moment. She could wonder what had happened later. Now, she had a routine to nail and a gold medal to win.

Her triple turn – a quad turn soon, if she had anything to say about it – was perfect, and so was the double with her leg raised, and the single, that let her travel from one end of the beam to the next.

The jumps were perfect too. Nothing they could deduct, all connections going perfectly.

She nailed the dismount, sticking the landing and raising her arms up to salute the judges.

She gave herself a moment to celebrate, accepting Sasha's hug, before making her way to her teammates.

"What happened?"

Kelly grimaced. "Keeler fell of the bars. Good job in keeping your cool."

"Thanks." She said with a small smile, raising her head to try to look over at the bars were a bunch of medical personnel was busy, covering her view of Payson. God, she hoped her friend would be ok, not only because she loved Pay, but because winning just because Payson was out of the running was not how she wanted her victory to go.

Looking back at the beam, she couldn't help the feeling of victory that came over her, at the big 17.2 in the scoring board, that brought her well above all the rest of the field.

"You think Andrea will be ok?" She asked Kelly, worried that Payson's fall would affect Andrea, who was waiting for the green light to mount the beam.

Kelly shook her head. "Andrea is though. Much tougher than many people think. She will do great."

Lauren nodded, trading a smile with Sasha as he came back to stand beside them.

"Congratulations Lauren. You made it." He said, a proud smile on his face.

She smiled back. It was true. There was no one else who could knock her out of her podium positions. Not even Kaylie who still had her floor routine to go would be able to surpass her. Apparently, Carter watching was not very conductive to one's Olympic ambitions.

No, she had been right to leave Boulder. She had shown them all. At the end of these National Championships she would be first on the All-around, first on beam, third on Bars and second on floor.

"This is just the beginning." She said smiling, before reaching over to fist bump Andrea as she came down from the Beam podium.