Chapter 2: To the beat of my drum

Damon's talk with Chloe had gone far better than he'd dared hope for. It had been almost a month since Emily had left before he'd managed to pluck up the courage to speak to her. Chloe had been mad at first but she'd mellowed and given him Margi's address. He held the small piece of paper in his hands: it presented a choice. He knew he had to at least talk to Emily, he loved her: despite everything they'd gone through. And more selfishly, he couldn't seem to write anything since she'd left because he'd felt so guilty. So with his guitar case in one hand and his duffel bag in the other, he boarded the bus to LA.

XXX

"M – time to get up." Margi called. Emily looked around the room that had been hers for a month. It was roomy and practical. She had a big desk and a queen size bed; it was far nicer than anything she'd had growing up. She got out of bed and looked at her stomach. She was five months pregnant now and she was looking bigger every day – she'd started to wear baggy sweatshirts, but she thought it was obvious she was pregnant. She'd still been going to school though – there was no way she was dropping out. Emily was bright as well as an amazing gymnast and if she couldn't be a gymnast she was going to finish high school and go to college, a baby notwithstanding. Emily trudged down the stairs: since she hadn't been doing gym she'd gotten used to not getting up early.

Margi's three foster children were still sleeping when Emily came into the kitchen.

"Morning" she mumbled.

"Hi honey: I've made scrambled eggs, if you want them?"

"Oh thank you! I'm so glad I'm finally passed having morning sickness."

"I'll bet, M could you sit for a sec?"

"Oh sure" Emily said, confused.

"Now we know that your new addition is going to be arriving in four months or so, have you thought anything about a job?"

Emily was shocked; Margi was putting her on the spot. "Uh well no I've just been focusing on school. How could I be so stupid to not think about this? How am I going to raise another human being?" Emily felt like she was about to cry.

Margi came down and put her arm around Emily. "Honey I wasn't trying to pressure you at all. I think you're amazing with school. You've been getting straight As while combating morning sickness and trying to organise the kids. I only brought up a job because I think I have one for you."

Emily looked at her mentor and grinned "really?"

"Really, and this is far better than the Pizza Shack. I've been thinking of starting up a tutoring programme for struggling kids and I think you'd be a perfect head tutor. I'd provide you with any resources you need and I'd be behind you right the way."

"No!" Emily said emphatically.

"Why?" Margi asked, completely baffled.

"I won't take charity! I have to earn everything I get. I don't want you to give me anything because you pity me."

Margi was silent for a while: she knew the way through to Emily wasn't through yelling or being emotional. "M listen to me, I didn't say one thing about charity. This is an investment, I've wanted to do something like this for a very long time and the perfect person came along. If anything you're doing me a favour – I don't have to go through I recruitment process. I trust you, and you work hard. Furthermore I know you're a good teacher."

Emily was quiet for a while and thought it over. It was probably the best job she was going to get in the short term and she was a good teacher. She often helped the younger girls at the Rock when Lauren was too mean, Kaylie was too impatient and Payson too focused to notice they were asking for help. "Ok Margi – thanks I accept your offer." She said as she went over to hug the older woman. Things weren't looking so bad after all. She could get through this and maybe she wouldn't be a gymnast but she would be a damn good teacher for those kids and she'd work her butt of at school so she could get into a good college.

XXX

"And the girl taking the final spot on the worlds team is...Kaylie Cruz" Sasha announced to his national team. Lauren squealed and put her arms around Kaylie and Kelly Parker gave Sasha a look of steal: it was ok for those girls – Kaylie's parents would have supported her whether she got on the team or not, Kelly's mother was going to kill her. In her true diva style Kelly stood up and walked off.

"Kelly" Sasha said, with his all too familiar warning tone.

"I just need to get some air." Kelly muttered, what the heck was she going to do now?

Kaylie stood up to go after her, put Payson gently put her arm on Kaylie's shoulder. "I'll go, she probably doesn't feel like talking to you at the moment." She looked to her coach "if that's ok with you Sasha?"

Sasha rolled his eyes. His gymnasts were becoming so independent of late, Kaylie with her secret training now Payson leaving a training session? "Fine, go." He said, resigned. "But the rest of you get your arses on the floor, now!"

Payson went to the girls' locker room and saw Kelly sitting on a bench with her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked up when Payson walked in "what do you want?"

"You're as charming as always, Parker."

"And you're naive – really don't need a pep talk from you right now." Kelly said sharply to her former rival. "You and those other little princesses out there have everything you've ever wanted, you don't have to struggle like I do, you have no idea what pressures are put on me!"

Now Payson was just plain mad "shut it Kelly – I broke my back and was told that I could never do gymnastics again, then someone altered a picture of me kissing my coach and guess what? I came back. Lauren's father kept her mother from her and then she died and Kaylie has had to deal with an..." Payson swore internally – she had almost revealed Kaylie's secret.

"Yes? What has Kaylie had to deal with?" Kelly asked eagerly, she knew that if she could get confirmation of this anorexia rumour than Kaylie Cruz would be toast.

"Her mum having an affair with her coach." Payson said lamely.

Kelly rolled her eyes; she had been so close to getting Payson to tell her! "So what about Emily?" Kelly asked snidely.

"Don't talk to me about Emily." Payson said bitterly. Of all her friends, Emily was the one that Payson wanted to succeed more than anyone – and she'd gone and thrown that dream away. Payson thought maybe she'd be able to accept Emily's decision one day, but definitely not now. Payson stood up abruptly and turned to leave. "I was going to offer to be your ally Kelly but if all you care about is dragging people down then we're done." Payson said.

Kelly paused for a second, she was surprised Payson was so angry at Emily: she stored that information away in case Emily did decide to come back: she could use it to turn Emily and Payson against each other. Kelly called out "Payson, wait, I'm sorry ok. I'm just not used to having friends."

Payson turned around and smiled "I kind of noticed – so back to training?"

Kelly laughed "you never stop do you?" She said as she linked arms with the blonde girl.

XXX

It was late at night when Damon arrived in LA; he knew there was no point going to see Emily now so he checked into a scrungy looking hotel. He sighed at how much his life had changed; just eight months ago he'd been living it up in five star accommodation, the next big thing in the music world. Now he had writer's block, gotten the girl of his dreams pregnant and kissed her friend. Sometimes he wondered if his step father was right and that he was a complete drop kick. He shook the thought from his mind and walked up the stairs to his depressing little room. He checked his phone – it was his mother calling. He really didn't want to talk to her right now. Angrily he dumped his duffel bag on the ground and did what he always did when he was upset, he pulled out his guitar and, thinking of Emily, how much he loved her, and this baby he was supposed to support, he began to compose.

Six hours and a couple of scotches later Damon had finished three songs: lyrics guitar, drums, everything. Exhausted he crawled into bed. He hadn't written that much since he'd first met Emily, not even when he was helping Kaylie get over Maeve's death: that had been an emotional time too. But Damon knew now that it was stupid of him, he should not have become involved with her. He groaned at how much drama was in his life at the moment and turned over and switched off his light.

XXX

Emily had had a rough day at school. It had finally become public knowledge that Emily Kmetko was pregnant. Most of the kids had already thought she was weird because she was so focused. Now the stares in the corridor were even more hostile than before and Emily knew that as soon as she walked past most of the girls they talked about her behind her back.

"Oh my God, what a slut."

"She's such a loser too – have you noticed that she's got no friends?"

Emily smiled to herself as they did so – this sort of thing was nowhere near as bad as things had been when she'd first started at the Rock and then when she'd been arrested. She just held her head high like Chloe had always taught her.

It wasn't till she got home that she started to feel sorry for herself – she decided to be a complete drama queen and put on her Adele CD, what better way to mope? She tried to do it quietly but Margi heard her anyway. Her godmother walked in with a cup of hot chocolate

"Rough day?" She asked sympathetically.

Emily forced a smile "nothing I can't handle – I just needed to unwind a bit. I just wish people weren't so mean you know?"

Margi sat by her goddaughter and put her arm around her. "This might cheer you up." She said and handed Emily a letter. "A young man stopped by today. He said that you don't have to see him if you don't want but the address of where he's staying is in the letter."

XXX

Damon had been waiting for Emily to come for three days. He had no idea if she would find him or not – he wouldn't blame her if she didn't. He also knew that he couldn't wait much longer. He had sent recordings of the songs to his agent and the recording company and they were very pleased with his songs. They wanted to give him another shot with an album, and they were willing to pay a lot more for this one, at least something was going right. There was a knock on his door.

"Come in." His heart leapt to his mouth when he saw Emily. No matter how much time had passed since he saw her or how many other girls came his way – he always fell in love with Emily all over again when he saw her.

"Damon" Emily said simply. Damon noticed that Emily was different. Her baby bump was fairly obvious on her slender frame, but it was something in her eyes that startled him. She seemed more sure of herself and more determined than before.

Damon stood up, about to run into her arms. Then he saw the look on Emily's face and instead walked over to her and awkwardly gave her a light hug. "Emily it's so good to see you, how are you?"

Emily ignored the question; she just crossed her arms and glared at him "talk"

Damon shrugged. He deserved that and worse. "I'm sorry, I stuffed up, I suck and I love you. I always have and I always will. Whether you want to do anything about that is up to you."

"And the baby?"

"I'm here for both of you, always." He said softly and put his arm on Emily's shoulder.

"Do you really mean that?" Emily asked in a small voice. She couldn't stay mad at Damon, he technically hadn't cheated on her it was just unfortunate circumstances. Which was pretty much the story of her life she thought bitterly.

"You know I do, so tell me what have you been up to?"

"School, and work – I'm tutoring some foster children to get some extra cash it's really rewarding. I've decided that if I can't be a gymnast I'm going to kick arse at high school and then college. I'm thinking maybe medicine or neuroscience."

Damon's jaw literally dropped when Emily said that, Emily had been determined as a gymnast but he had never seen her this confident.

Emily laughed nervously "why are you staring?" She asked quietly.

"Because you amaze me more each time I'm around you."

Emily beamed "really?"

"Absolutely."

Embarrassed, Emily changed the subject "so what have you been up to?"

"Well I've actually just finished three songs and my agent and the producers love them, they want me to fly back to New York to finish an album." He said, trying not to sound arrogant.

Emily smiled and hugged him "Damon that is amazing!"

"It is, right? Only I don't want to leave you" he looked at Emily's stomach "or the baby."

Emily gripped Damon's arm "listen to me – I'll be fine Margi's got my back and I've got a job. We've always been about following our dreams and that isn't going to change. Sure this baby changes things a bit but that's no reason to give up."

Damon hugged her tightly. "You're amazing Emily. I'll send money as often as I can and I'll be back the second that album is recorded I promise you that."

"And I'll send you updates."

"And the second you go into labour, I'm here."

Emily kissed him and Damon asked "are you sure you want to do this?"

"Why not – I'm already pregnant right?"

XXX

Damon leaving for New York had been awful. She'd had to say goodbye to him many times over the years but this was worse than ever before. She put on a brave face but she was terrified, mostly for the child she was carrying. She really hoped he or she would grow up to know their father.

XXX

Darby had spent the last couple of weeks getting as much information on Emily as she could: she needed to be able to convince her that she was capable of returning to gymnastics. Darby had really admired Emily when she'd coached her and thought she deserved all the help she could get. And she really, really wanted to piss of Ellen Beals – that woman had made her life a living hell when she'd tried to stop Darby competing, she was the only member of the NGO who was aware Darby was pregnant and it had taken some pretty impressive blackmail on Darby's coach's part to keep it that way.

Darby was coaching her best private student Siobhan Matthews on her new beam routine when Ellen Beals walked into Darby's private training room. It was much smaller than the Rock as Darby never coached more than two students at a time – she'd learned from that mistake.

"Hello Darby" Ellen said snidely.

Siobhan turned to look who it was, when she saw it was a member of the NGO she almost fell off the beam in shock. Darby saw that she was distracted "get back to work Siobhan! Your next competition is only two months away and you aren't going to get anywhere with poor focus like that!"

"Wow Darby, actually being tough on your gymnast – who would have thought we'd seen the day?"

"Can I help you, Ellen?" Darby said, ignoring the jibe.

"I was just wondering why you've taken leave for the next few weeks, from all your students."

"It's personal" Darby said indifferently before turning her attention back to the fifteen year old gymnast – "straighten your back, you'll never land that dismount if you slouch on the lead up to it." Darby admonished. She watched Siobhan try again, and stick the dismount properly. "Much better."

Ellen clearly wasn't satisfied "Personal? This wouldn't have anything to do with Emily Kmetko would it?"

"Nope" Darby lied deciding that being nonchalant was the best way to ensure the older woman left her alone.

Ellen walked over to Darby and spoke quietly in her ear so that Siobhan wouldn't be able to hear her "it had better not, Darby because I can promise you if you try to get in touch with that girl I will make sure your coaching career is in ruins. Have I made myself clear?"

Darby suppressed the urge to roll her eyes – Ellen Beals really had a flair for drama. "Crystal, Ellen. Can't a girl visit her sick grandma, honestly." She said "now if that was all Siobhan and I have a dismount to land on."

Ellen stared at Darby for a long time "very well, and by the way you're doing a good job with Siobhan."

Darby watched her leave. Once she was gone Darby let Siobhan go home early. She then drove home and finished packing, she'd collected all her photos from her pregnancy until the time she made the national team again, then the worlds team and eventually the Olympic team, she assumed Emily would want proof. Then she took a taxi down to the small central station in Boulder – ready to board the next bus to Los Angeles.

A/N so Damon is back, I really like him and Emily together and I couldn't bear for them to be broken up. Please let me know what you thought, and if you have any suggestions. Thanks for reading! xx