The O2 Arena was going to be a great venue for the London 2012 games. It was the first thought Payson had when she arrived. It was on the banks of the Thames, originally part of London's millennium celebration. And it will be the place where I win Olympic Gold. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Austin and Nicky standing behind her.

"We just wanted to say good luck," Austin said and he looked at Nicky pointedly.

"Good luck, Payson," he said and smiled at her the way he used to, the awkwardness she thought they'd gotten past last year was back in full force. Nicky turned and went towards the crowd entrance.

"What was that about?" she asked, as they watched Nicky's retreating back.

"That was me being an awesome big brother," he said, smirking at her proudly.

She laughed, "What?"

The smile was gone, replaced by a look of exasperation. "Yep, that's me, big brother of the year. I had to spend all night last night listen to that kid extol on every single one of your virtues until I told him if he didn't shut up I'd chuck him out the window and if he ever did it again, they wouldn't find the body. No jury would convict me either, justifiable homicide."

Payson shook her head, "I didn't realize that he still…"

Austin patted her on the shoulder, "Yeah, he does, but don't worry, I'm pretty sure he thinks we're dating, so it's all good." He bent down and kissed her on the cheek and without another word, Austin turned and walked away.

Payson stared at him wide eyed. "What? How could that possibly be all good?" she yelled to his back, but he just turned around, gave her a thumbs-up and kept walking. She turned and saw that the gaggle of reporters and photographers who hadn't been let inside the arena yet had of course captured the moment with their cameras. Great, just bloody freaking fabulous.

"What was that about?" Emily asked as she approached.

"If my life is this complicated before the Olympics next year…" Payson trailed off, her meaning absolutely clear.

"Tell me about it," Emily agreed.

Payson shook her head, "Come on, we've got the world to destroy, again."

Emily laughed as she linked their arms together and they entered the arena.

"Ladies, nice of you to join us," Ellen Beals commented as they entered the locker room and began to change into their leos. "Our first rotation of the day is beam. Some may view this as a disadvantage, but I think it's an advantage. We'll get it out of the way and then focus on our strengths."

"Wow, that was inspirational," Kaylie muttered as Beals left the room.

"Well, beam is my strength, so I'm not worried," Lauren said, braiding her bangs firmly against the side of her head to keep them out of her way during the meet. The other five girls in the room managed to simultaneously roll their eyes. "What?" Lauren asked, not understanding at all.

Payson just shook her head and began to prepare mentally. She closed her eyes and visualized each of her routines in the order of their rotation. It would be an interesting competition. Some of her routines were exactly the same as they'd been at Worlds and other's she had tweaked to increase the DOD after she and Sasha watched the video of the tainted competition in Rotterdam. She was out to prove something today, that the results were no lightning in a bottle, unable to be duplicated. She frowned for a moment. She had an idea. It was gutsy and definitely going out on a limb, but it was something she wanted to do. I need to talk to Sasha. She quickly finished dressing, pulling her hair into her signature bun.

She heard Lauren mutter something like, "Payson-bot is back," as she walked past, but she was focused on her goal, find Sasha and run this insane idea past him.

Sasha zipped up his coach's jacket and leaned against the cold concrete wall in the tunnel that led out to the arena. Ellen Beals was just ahead of him schmoozing a few members of the media. "Sasha," she called and he looked up at her with a smile.

"What's up?" he asked, noting the odd expression on her face. That's not the expression she usually wears before a competition. Something is wrong. "Did something happen?"

"No, but I have an idea," she said. "It's a little risky."

He eyed her warily, "Payson…" he cautioned.

"I want to do all my old routines. Everything exactly the same from Worlds," she said.

Sasha shook his head. What happened? She's been nailing those new routines consistently for months, even that bloody extra half twist on her Yurchenko vault. "Payson, I don't understand, that new degree of difficulty will blow Genghi Cho's improved routines out of the water."

"Exactly," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him further down the hallway to be sure they were out of earshot. "You saw Genghi Cho at the Pan-Asian competition. She increased her degree of difficulty, but not enough and she's probably reached her ceiling as far as power moves on vault and floor. Even with my old routines, she'd be depending upon me to make a ton of mistakes. Even then she'd still have to nail her routines."

Sasha nodded, still not really understanding, "Payson, I…"

"It's a long term strategy, for the World Championships in October," she said with a glint in her eye he hadn't seen before. "If I go out there with my old routines the Chinese team will have no idea what I'm bringing to the table until after Nationals in August and by then it will be too late for them to raise Genghi Cho's degree of difficulty to where it needs to be."

He laughed, "Are you sure you want to be a gymnastics coach and not a political operative or something else that would nurture this sudden aptitude you have for tactics and guile."

She put her hands on her hips, "If you're done making fun of me?"

He nodded his head, "I think it's a brilliant idea. Honestly, I'm annoyed that I didn't come up with it myself."

"I'm glad you think so," she said, looking rather proud of herself.

He stared down at her, the space between their bodies suddenly felt charged with energy. "I do think so. I also find it incredibly attractive, I didn't know you had a devious side," he murmured. Whoa, down, boy. You're in the middle of a crowded hallway. Didn't you learn anything from that hotel room incident? Apparently not, since you're completely ignoring me, Beloff. "It makes me want to..." he trailed off.

She smiled wickedly, but stepped away, indicating with her eyes that someone was approaching them. He set his mouth in a firm line, steeling himself for dealing with Ellen Beals while she was still on a power high from talking to the media. "Sasha," a gruff voice he hadn't heard in six years barked out from just a few feet away.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "Dad?" No, no, not today, not ever. Why is he here? He turned to see his father, hair now completely white, about twenty pounds heavier, but still the same. The same rigid posture, the same glare from the blue eyes he'd inherited and the same ability to make Sasha feel about four inches tall.

"Sasha," his father said and nodded.

"What? What are you doing here?" he asked. Please say you're here to do some press or to commentate or…

"I am coaching the Romanian team. After your friend, Petrescu's disgrace, they asked me to come back and regain honor for our country." His old man puffed his chest out proudly at the words, which had probably been quoted exactly from the discussion he'd had with the head of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

Sasha smiled weakly. "That's great, Dad," he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to help Payson prepare for the meet." Shit, that was a mistake.

"Payson Keeler," his father said, sizing her up quickly. "You will do fine things," he nodded to her and winked.

Payson shot Sasha an awkward grin, "Thank you, Coach Beloff," she said respectfully. "Your son is a great coach." Payson, please don't encourage him.

"Ah, Sasha, yes, he's a good boy," said Boris, as Sasha had begun calling him in his mind since the day he went back to England, fully appreciating and resenting his father's unwillingness to forgive him for winning his medals in Sydney for England and not Romania.

Payson smiled at his father and then back at him. "Sasha, should we?" she said indicating towards the prep room. The Chinese aren't going to know what hit them.

"I'll be right there," he told her and looked at his father sharply. Payson nodded and left them.

"She is an excellent gymnast, Sasha. No one here is in her class, not even that little girl from China," Boris said, watching her leave. "Pretty girl, too," he added dismissively. "She is seeing that, what do you call it, punk, Tucker, isn't she? That is what they say on television. Good girls and their bad boys."

Sasha sighed, rubbing a hand across his face, "Dad, what are you doing here? Really?"

Boris shrugged, "They asked, I said yes. It is not difficult to understand."

Sasha shook his head, "I thought you retired?"

"A temporary arrangement, what would I have done? Fish? No. I am a gymnastics coach, as are you. It is what we Beloffs do."

Sasha said, "Yes, well this Beloff has to go do just that. I'll see you out there."

Now that was the most unpleasant moment of my day. Suddenly, Ellen Beals came into his field of vision. She was arguing with Payson about something. Shit, Payson probably told her about using the exact routines she'd used at the World Championships.

"What the hell is this, Beloff? What have you been doing in that sorry excuse you call a training center for all these months? Cartwheels? Not one budge in her DOD, no change at all from her performance at World Championships. What are you trying to pull?" she demanded.

He rolled his eyes, "Miss Beals," he said, the sarcasm obvious in his tone, "Payson is the World Champion. I am her coach. She and I make the decisions about her routines and this is what we've decided. If you prefer, she won't compete." It would be just your luck today, you sodding bastard, that she'd agree to that and pull Payson out of spite.

Beals shook her head, "When Genghi Cho is on the top of that podium during the All Around competition, Beloff, I'm going to put your balls in a vice," she muttered to him so that the girls wouldn't hear, although Lauren, who was the closest to them let out a snort, which she quickly hid behind a faux-cough. She stomped out of the room and everyone in it let out a collective breath, even Kelly Parker who'd been oddly cooperative in the last months, settling comfortably into the role of the US number 2 gymnast, after Kaylie's hiatus and Payson's win at Worlds.

A moment passed and he looked around the room, "Are we ready, ladies?" he asked. They all nodded in the affirmative. He smiled. "Then let's go. They're starting the parade of teams."

They lined up in the tunnel, waiting to be announced. "On vault, the United Kingdom," the announcer said and the crowd went wild. The UK team, easily the weakest in the field, marched out of the tunnel and into the arena. "On uneven bars, World silver medalists, China!" A polite cheer went up for the second best team in the world. "On floor exercise, with their new coach, Boris Beloff, Romania!" a smattering of applause went up, with a few rowdy Romanian fans screaming from a section decked out in red, yellow and blue. "And on balance beam, the reign world champions, the United States of America." The crowd cheered enthusiastically. Various names could be heard intermingled with the cheering. "Payson! We love you!" and "Welcome back, Kaylie!"

He looked up and even saw a sign that said, "Rock Rebels Rock!" Squinting at the pair, he realized it was Nicky Russo and Austin Tucker. They'd painted their chests and faces red, white and blue, were wearing American flag rags on their heads and were screaming their heads off.

Sasha shook his head and smiled. He tapped the closest gymnast to him on the shoulder; it happened to be Emily and pointed up to where they were sitting. She laughed and the team noticed he was pointing out into the crowd and the rest of them joined in. This is a good thing. This is a test event, Beloff. No need for nerves, just a nice solid competition and good practice being up on a podium.

Beam was up first and that was always tricky. Sometimes in team gymnastics, you live and die by the balance beam. The teams warmed up quickly, shorter than at most international events because this wasn't airing live on television, but would be taped and aired later. There was no waiting for commercial breaks. Five team members cleared off the podium and onto the floor, leaving Emily standing there waiting for the judge's flag to indicate they were ready.

The flag went up and the competition began.