The night at Kaylie's had been long and draining, both girls going through so much and trying to help the other feel better had completely taken everything out of them. With that came a fresh outlook the next morning, or rather afternoon. Once they had both woken up, Kaylie told Payson she felt like she would honestly be able to tackle coming back to the gym soon, even if it was only a couple of days a week. She was starting to understand how much gymnastics was tearing her apart, but she still loved the sport with her entire heart.

Payson sighed as she stretched out for the invitational that would start in an hour. Her mind often drifted to last Friday night and her world crashing trip to Denver followed by her emotionally relieving visit to Kaylie. She shook her head frustrated with herself as she tried to envision her routines. But as soon as she got past her bars routine Darby clapped her hands and waved for the girls to come to her.

Everyone slowly crowded around Darby who looked far too excited for what was sure to be an extremely easy mundane competition. "Now I know you all think this is a waste of time but it really isn't!" Payson bit her tongue trying not to say anything or roll her eyes. "It will give me a good name as new coach here if we kick their butts, and it'll get us more prepared for the competition in Hungary. So lets go out there and have fun winning!" she smiled brightly at everyone.

As everyone put their hand into the group and shouted "GO ROCK" the doors to the gym opened. A group of very poised, confident girls walked in forming a straight line that made Payson think of military groups walking to see their sergeant.

"I don't remember them looking this intimidating at Nationals…" Lauren commented in a slightly panicked voice. Emily nodded and gulped.

Payson rolled her eyes. "Whatever, its just a show. We're the better team hands down. We have three girls on the National Team and soon to be the World team. Don't let it freak you out, its what they want." She tried to say this all calmly but part of her wondered if maybe they were a lot better than the last time they'd competed against them. After all, why would they jump at the chance to compete against the Rock girls if they knew they would be stomped on?

An hour and twenty minutes later Payson realized they were in a lot more trouble than she could have ever imagined. Everyone from the Rock was eating mat and making such simple mistakes. On top of that Pinewood had suddenly become flawless and their DoD's had gone through the roof. They were now down by 2 solid points. Considering the fact that they had herself, Emily and Lauren on their team this should have been impossible. But there the numbers were glaring her in the face.

Darby walked up to Payson worry clear on her face. Payson knew what was coming and she wasn't comfortable with it. If Emily performed flawlessly on the floor which she almost did it would give them the leverage to get in the lead. But only if Payson did the new vault she had been practicing until her mom put a halt to it.

The problem with this being that Payson had barely even landed the vault properly, and hadn't done it without the practice equipment. "I can't do it Darby don't even ask."

"Payson…" Darby started pleading and serious. "We can't win without you doing it, we both know it."

Everyone clapped loudly as Emily finished her finally flawless routine. The last Pinewood girl got ready to go on the bars. Payson looked at Darby after considering for a moment. "You're absolutely insane. I've never tried it out without all the practice equipment. Theres no way I can land it right."

Darby glared at her. "Its either we win or we lose. If you don't do it we lose either way. That girl is making absolutely no mistakes. They saved their best for last on purpose and so did we. I know you can land that vault and even if you don't, well at least you tried. I'm telling you as your coach to do this vault." She said in a deadly whisper.

Payson looked up at the scoreboard. With her DoD on vault, if she landed it properly they would just barely win. With her regular vault, there was no possibility of winning. She sighed heavily and went into mind concentration mode completely blocking Darby out. Slowly she walked over to chalk up and stood at the saluting line, staring at the vault. She could do this, she just had to run as fast and powerfully as she could, hit the spring at the right time slam down hard on the horse, execute the moves at the right speed and height, everything would work.

With a deep breath Payson turned and saluted the judges, then she turned back towards the vault and with another deep breath she was running.

Sasha had never been the type of person to give second chances. When his father had double crossed him, forcing him to not compete in Worlds in 2001, Sasha left the Romanian team and moved to England to train with Nicolai. When the girls in his life left him and later realized what a big mistake they made, he'd informed them that they had realized it too late and went on ignoring them. When Marty went behind his back and taken the one girl he felt he could truly love, he'd cut nearly all ties with the man.

Perhaps this life style had made him an extremely bitter, lonely man but he was fine with it. Maybe one day when he was old and alone he'd look back and wish he had let everyone who had hurt him have a second chance. For right now however, he felt it was best not to allow these people another chance to disappoint him.

So now he stared up at the gym that he had just left not even a month ago. To be honest he'd practically been kicked out, thought it was mostly his fault. If he hadn't been such a dunce and taken the damn disc from the recorder none of this would have ever happened. He sighed as his hand ran through his already messy hair.

Ever since the night Payson showed up at his trailer in her pjs that were completely soaked, her hair matted to her skin, and a frenzied look in her eye he hadn't been able to leave for Romania. His visa had cleared four days ago but still all he could think about was coming back to the Rock. Part of him screamed that it would be a mistake. Not only had Payson kissed him in the midst of her excitement in the gym, but now he had kissed her and there was absolutely no excuse for it.

Sasha would be lying if he said he didn't know why he did it. The second his lips had met hers he knew exactly why he had been so compelled to kiss her. The past few months they had grown so close just like he and Nicolai had. Only this… was different. Not only was it a gymnast finding her way through her coach, it was a woman finding herself through a man. He had once told Payson he would have kissed Nicolai had he been a female and it was true. Nicolai had become his partner and closest person to him, just like Payson was becoming. They saw each others faults and worked on fixing them. You had to search deep into the gymnasts' souls to be able to coach them properly, especially with an artist gymnast. In return the coach had to be the one person the gymnast trusted the most.

Somewhere in the time that Sasha had been coaching Payson so closely, they had formed a deep bond. He noticed what a lovely girl she was even beyond the surface. Anyone with decent eyesight would be able to see that she was a gorgeous girl. The real magic however was the girl behind the standoffish gymnast face she showed towards everyone.

Payson was strong, determined, but she was also completely confused about who she was. Sasha on the other hand was fairly certain he knew who she was. She was the girl who would fight for anything she believed in until there was absolutely no way it could ever work. She would to anything for those whom she loved, do anything to make sure her dreams were reached. Over and over, she constantly proved this to him. Once she finally showed up at his trailer something in him ticked.

Even looking completely distressed and a mess, she was irresistible. Before he knew it she was ranting and begging him to come back, and suddenly all he wanted to do was kiss her and go straight back to Boulder. His mind had shut down on him and he was unable to process everything she was saying until she said something about needing him. That's when his mind snapped. Next thing he knew his lips were on hers and he was reveling in the feel of kissing her again.

Sasha sighed as he watched two taxi's pull up and ten females leaving them. Eight gymnasts and two coaches all dressed in forest green and white. Kim had informed Sasha through email that Pinewood would be replacing Boston Elite in the invitational that he had set up a week before the picture had been made public. From what Kim had put into the email, Payson was beyond furious and annoyed at this change. Not only that, Kim had put a stop to the one thing Darby had managed to make Payson excited about. Sasha completely agreed that Payson wasn't nearly ready to be doing a vault with that difficulty though. She was still learning how to incorporate artistry into her other routines and he was sure that Darby wasn't helping her stay focused on her extensions while doing the vault. The end result of Payson doing said vault could be disastrous.

As the girls disappeared through the front doors Sasha left his truck and walked behind the building, intending on sneaking in through the back. He still wasn't completely sure he wanted to come back, so being seen wasn't what he wanted quite yet. Part of him was hoping that Darby wasn't as horrible as Payson and her mother had been describing her as. He knew she had been on the American National team so she had to be good, just not great considering she hadn't won any medals other than team orientated ones.

Once he unlocked the back door and slipped into the gym behind the unused bleachers which were in the dark—Payson's floor music finally reached his ears. He allowed himself a small smile as he watched her fly across the mat. Her body was flawlessly telling a story, one he could see and feel completely. When she folded her body back down to her starting position he joined the crowd in clapping enthusiastically. That's when he noticed her face, she didn't look excited and happy that she had just performed beautifully. In fact she looked angry, disappointed, and just plain sad. It pained Sasha to see the sadness in her eyes knowing that he was most likely the reason it was present. He couldn't imagine how crushed he would have felt if Nicolai had given up and left him.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Sasha was growing extremely frustrated with the situation. The Rock girls were losing—by a lot. Simple mistakes that clearly showed that they hadn't been practicing as hard as Pinewood had been. Payson hadn't been kidding when she told him that the gym had become a circus. Emily seemed completely lost, Lauren looked too cocky and comfortable with the coach, and Payson was barely even there mentally. Her usually determined focus was completely gone and replaced with a dull carelessness.

Sasha couldn't exactly blame her; she could probably do everything but her floor routine in her sleep. They had to take down her DoD on every other apparatus considerably until she got used to extending properly on them. The stunts she was doing now were ones she had mastered a couple of years ago, and the one new one she had been learning she wouldn't be able to use.

Confusion crossed his face as Darby marched over to Payson before the girl could chalk up for her vault, which would be the routine of the day. He knew the vault wouldn't budge the Rock into the lead but at least there was no pressure on her this way. His brows furrowed as he saw Payson and Darby seemingly arguing over something and his coaching instincts kicked in. Darby was going to try to get Payson to do the new vault even though it wasn't ready. The DoD would give them the win if Payson landed it correctly but Sasha knew she wouldn't be able to.

He clenched his teeth as he saw Payson's determined focus form on her face. She honestly was going to try this stupid vault and risk ruining everything that everyone had worked so hard for. If she landed wrong she could break something and this time it would be the end of her career. Sasha wasn't sure what crazy insane power kept him from running across the gym and screaming at her that this was stupid and if she didn't want him taking her off the team she would do her old vault. He wanted to but he knew he couldn't.

Watching her intently he saw her feet leave the ground a fraction too early, she didn't get enough height off the horse and landed flat on her back. Suddenly he was storming across the gym straight towards Darby who had her hands covering her face. Payson had been right, this girl clearly had no idea what the hell she was doing and he wasn't about to let these girls waste away just because they got stuck with an incompetent coach.

Payson groaned as she slammed flat on her back. As soon as she pushed off the horse she knew she wasn't going to land it right. She hadn't been able to gain enough height in time, but at least it felt like nothing was broken. Emily and Lauren quickly ran over and helped her up asking if she was okay. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I shouldn't have tried doing it."

Lauren glared at the other team standing nearby "I don't know how the heck they got so good, its like they were abducted by gymnast gods or something."

"Or maybe unlike us, they've been training their butts off to actually do a decent job against us." Payson replied.

Lauren rolled her eyes "Not our fault our coach left us to bite the dust. In fact I think its your fault that your boyfriend decided to leave." She crossed her arms as she stared at Payson who looked like she was about to rip her head off.

"Uh guys… either I'm hallucinating or Sasha is here." Emily cut in sounding confused.

Lauren and Payson whipped around to see none other than Sasha Belov storming towards Darby, fury written clearly across his face.

"What in the bloody hell were you thinking?" he asked in a furious whisper.

Darby looked affronted and slightly scared. "Excuse me?"

He leaned towards her and the girls scooted closer to the pair as he continued whispering. "Explain to me why the hell you would send her out there to do a vault that she had no chance of landing? Are you completely dim-witted? Did you forget what its like to be a gymnast trusting your coach to make the correct calls?"

Darby stood a little taller as she glared at the older man. "That's rich coming from the man who abandoned these girls. If anything today is the fault of anyone, its all on you." She said her finger pointing at him nearly touching his chest.

"Go ahead and blame me all you want. At least I would have had enough common sense not to send a girl out there and do a routine they aren't even able to land! These girls are elite gymnasts not typical high school girls! They're supposed to be working on getting to the Olympics, not going out partying and having boyfriends and going to slumber parties. Which is something, as their coach, you were supposed to enforce." He growled at her, his eyes blazing with a fire Payson only ever seen when he was confronting Ellen Beals and the National Committee.

"Well I thought maybe having a different approach would help them." She defended.

"And you've very clearly failed with that approach." He scoffed pointing at the score board which had just officially named Pinewood as the winners. A few yards away the girls in green uniforms were jumping up and down and cheering. "Congratulations, you've just made the Rock girls team lose against arguably the worst team in the country. Excellent job coach Conrad." He clapped sarcastically.

Darby looked around nervously hoping for backup just to see everyone else glaring at her. "I'm the only coach these girls have. They need me."

Sasha shook his head. "Wrong. They have me."

The three girls gasped and glanced at each other. "Are you serious?" Payson asked.

Sasha's eyes met Payson's as he nodded. "Me being gone hurts you more than it helps. You need someone who is capable of taking you to the Olympics." Their eyes stayed connected for another moment and they came to a silent agreement. He would be her coach, they would pretend the kisses hadn't happened.

The girls hugged Sasha as Darby stormed out of the gym in a huff. "Tomorrow morning 5 AM sharp girls. We have a lot of catching up to do so that this doesn't happen again." He said motioning towards the scoreboard. "Go home and get some sleep."

"Yes Sasha."

A/N: Yay Sasha's back! I've been dying to write this chapter for awhile now xD Last night I got a muse for a future chapter and made me feel the absolute need to write this one. Hope you enjoyed!

Also! You've probably noticed I've adjusted some of the timings/facts from the show. In this reality Sydney Olympics were 2004, and Darby only won team medals rather than any of her own. I hope this doesn't bother anyone too much, it just makes the timeline of my story flow better. Thanks!