Chapter 10: All I ask of you

Sasha looked at his elites anxiously. "I know I'm going to regret this but I'm going to sit in with them, something's bugging them."

MJ was sipping on her trademark evian water and almost spat some out. "You're serious? I had to bribe you with Toblerone to give a thirty second interview after you won your first all around title."

Sasha rolled his eyes "you twisted my arm to do this and I think I'm going to need to go in there for damage control."

"Fine go." MJ said, but Sasha had already walked off and hadn't heard her. He knocked lightly on the door to their room which Alex Cruz and Steve Tanner had envisaged exactly for this purpose. It was hardly ever used and that was the way Sasha liked it. Without waiting for an answer he walked in, smiled tersely at the two journalists and sat down between Lauren and Kaylie.

"Don't mind me" Sasha said sweetly, "carry on as if I wasn't here." Kaylie forced herself not to laugh: she'd yet to meet a member of the press who wasn't intimidated by Sasha; Christiane Amapour would probably be scared of him. The journalist nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat.

"Now Payson Keeler, the whole world has been talking about you: the girl with the broken back who fought her way back into gymnastics after so many disappointments who is now a world champion."

Payson smiled shyly and was about to answer when Lauren butted in.

"She's only world champion on one apparatus, it's not a big deal. It's not like she won the all around or anything." Lauren regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. Sasha and Kelly glared at her angrily: Payson studied her hands carefully and Kaylie looked at the reporter as if silently pleading her not to say anything.

Payson eventually looked at the reporter and smiled "I'm very proud of my accomplishments. I could not have done it without my coach, my team and my family. But Lauren is right: I can do better and I am definitely looking to improve my performance at nationals and then the Olympics." She smiled sweetly at Lauren as if to say nice try princess.

"You certainly do have a very impressive team here. It's a rare occasion when so many girls from one gym make it to the top, Payson, how does it feel competing with Kaylie and Kelly: the current national champion and former national champion?"

"It's great, as I said before all the girls are great competition and we just go out there and support each other." Payson purposefully answered ambiguously as to whether Lauren was included in her statement.

The reporter moved on, Payson Keeler was a pretty girl but her boss had instructed her to get drama. Gymnastics needed a high profile. "So Kaylie you dropped quite a bombshell at worlds. How do you think your uh disorder has influenced your position as a role model?" There was a sharp intake of breath from all of the Rock girls and from Sasha. The reporter was even tackier than the normal press they sent.

Kaylie opened her mouth but realised she had nothing to say. Sasha put a hand on her shoulder "Kaylie Cruz has demonstrated great strength and courage in both overcoming her illness and by being open about it: it is a feat very few have accomplished and it has shown the world what an amazing young woman of integrity she is."

Kaylie looked at her coach and put her head into his shoulder. The reporter backed off, seeing the warning glare in the coach's eyes.

"Now our other big star who trains at the Rock is Kelly Parker: former national and world champion. How did you feel about your performance at Worlds?"

Kelly smiled sweetly "Sandra, you know what it's like, sometimes a girl has a bad day but I came away with four medals, one of them the team gold. There's room for improvement and I can't wait for nationals. You're going to be there I hope?"

Payson and Sasha grinned at each other. Kelly was playing the reporter like a piano. Lauren fumed at the fact she hadn't been included.

"Well spoken like a champion Kelly, the whole country can't wait for the showdown between you, Kaylie and Payson at the Rock rankings and then again at nationals, it's going to be dynamite. But before we wrap up this interview we have one last Rock Rebel to talk to, Miss Lauren Tanner, the Queen of the Beam. How does it feel to have to compete with what commentators have been calling the three best gymnastics the USA has ever seen?"

Lauren glared at the reporter, she knew that she was full of crap and just trying to get a reaction but Lauren had been looked over for too long, the reporter had all but labelled her the loser of the team and to top it all off Emily had decided that she was going to make things even worse.

Lauren smiled fakely "well to be honest Sandra I'm not threatened at all."

Sandra resisted the urge to punch the air and yell 'yes!' she knew the tone in the blonde gymnast's voice, she was about to say something catty. Something that could finally be used to make this dud of an article interesting.

"That's a very, uh, courageous statement Lauren, why do you think that?"

"Well let's see, Kaylie's a fluke: the second people start expecting stuff from her she chokes, Kelly, well she's just an attention seeker the only reason anyone pays attention to her is because she sucks up to you: you saw for yourselves how she didn't even beat Kaylie at nationals and well Payson, no offence or anything, she might have been good once but she is not the gymnast she once was. Learning a couple of fancy ballet moves does not an Olympic gymnast make." Lauren flicked her blow dried hair over her shoulder and looked at her teammates, then she realised what she'd said and felt angry. And for once she wasn't angry at someone else, she was angry at herself.

Sasha stood up "this interview is over. You will send your draft to me and if it is not to my satisfaction. There will be consequences. Do I make myself clear?" He said menacingly. Sandra nodded silently. "Good, now leave!" As the crew were packing up he looked at his girls, Kelly was sitting in a corner with Kaylie, the national champion was crying and her former rival was comforting her. Lauren looked like a deer in headlights: not knowing where to go and Payson, usually so determined quietly shuffled out of the room. She looked drained and pale, seeing her like that made his heart wrench and he wanted so badly to go after her but he had a bigger problem to deal with.

"Lauren, my office. Now!" He yelled. He knew Lauren had problems with how much attention the other three received. To be fair she'd been the most consistent athlete he'd coached since he'd been at the Rock, she hadn't had any major setbacks and she was solid. However that was all ruled out by her love of drama. The blonde girl walked in, staring at her feet.

"Sasha I am so, so sorry."

Sasha put up his hand to silence her. "I'm not your father and I'm not Summer so unfortunately your poor me voice won't work."

Lauren glared at him and folded her arms. If Sasha was going to yell she sure as hell wasn't going to show she was scared. She was going to go down fighting. Sasha saw the glare in her eyes and realised that yelling wouldn't work. "Take a seat Lauren" he said quietly.

"You're not mad?"

"Just disappointed." He took a deep breath, he needed Lauren to still respect him and feel like she was a valuable part of his team but at the same time realise she couldn't keep going like this. "I realise it has been hard for you, being overshadowed by the other girls. But try to remember the Rock has four girls on the national team: all of whom were in the Worlds team. If you were at any gym in the country you'd be ranked number two at the very least."

"That's true." Lauren said happily.

"So you're going to stop this pity party, you're going to apologise to your teammates and you're going to work harder than you've ever worked before to prove to me that you belong here and I shouldn't fob you off to another gym. I already have three girls who have a good shot at making the Olympics, one more doesn't really make all that much difference. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Sasha."

"Good, and if I catch you trying to sabotage anyone else you will be out. I mean it." He stood up and slammed the door behind him. It was childish but since Lauren had been acting like a six year old he figured she'd understand the gesture perfectly. He went to find Kaylie and Kelly.

Payson sat on one of the trampolines that the beginners normally used, staring into space. She felt so tired and apathetic, and Lauren's words had stung more than she'd expected. She could usually brush off that sort of thing but her comments stuck. She felt the trampoline bend down and saw Max join her. She forced a smile that she knew looked fake: she'd been carefully avoiding him for months and he'd been pining like a puppy. Lauren and Kaylie thought it was cute but to Payson it was a bit pathetic.

"We need to talk Pay." Max said seriously.

Payson nodded, still not looking him in the eye. "I'm sorry I've been weird, it's just there's so much going on."

"Like what?" Max asked.

Payson tried not to roll her eyes "just family stuff." She couldn't be bothered explaining, no one really noticed when she had stuff going on, she tended to bottle things up.

Max winced at the snub, he cared about Payson a lot but he couldn't seem to get her to open up to him.

"Look Max, I'm really sorry. I can't give you my trust, and it's not your fault. I really respect and admire you and I hope we can still be friends. I know it was just a kiss between you and Austin and I know you and Lauren didn't do anything but I guess I expect a lot from my friends." Payson said, refusing to let herself cry. She knew she sounded heartless, but at least she was honest.

Max nodded stoically. "Thanks for being honest. I kind of suspected that would be your answer. We're still friends right?"

Payson kissed him on the cheek and hugged him "always, and Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for waiting; one day you'll find someone who actually deserves you."

Max gripped Payson's hand tightly. "Payson I'm honoured you even considered me, even only briefly. And next time someone amazing comes along I'm not going to screw it up."

"Max-"

Max waved a hand to silence her "and another thing? Don't wait too long to tell him, ok?" Max looked pointedly over to the other side of the gym.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Payson said.

"Of course you don't" Max agreed jovially, and jumped of the trampoline.

Payson sat silently, and then she saw Sasha emerge from the place Max had pointed at. Her heart swooped when she saw him, and Payson cringed to herself. Was she really that obvious or was Max just more perceptive than she gave him credit for? She sighed, she'd tried to suppress her feelings for Sasha and use them only to improve her routines where she felt some emotion would give her some edge. The truth of the matter was, though that she, Payson 'the brick' Keeler was in love with her coach. And not in the schoolgirl crush kind of way, whenever she looked at him, she realised that they were soulmates: he had a determination within himself, he was honest and he was strong and his looks didn't hurt either. But Payson wasn't stupid and she wasn't going to try anything, despite Max's encouragement. He'd been through enough for her and she wasn't going to harm his career any further than she had already.

Then Sasha himself jumped onto the trampoline. "I haven't been on this thing for awhile" he said, trying to keep things light.

"Neither, I really loved doing it when I was little: it's a pity it's a whole other discipline." She wasn't going to bring up the interview if he wasn't.

"So that was quite some display by Miss Tanner back there."

Payson tried to smile "I'm used to it, I've trained with her for six years, and I've handled worse." She thought back to the photo and all the snide comments she'd endured from Ellen and Kelly and the rest of the gymnastics community, she wouldn't be surprised if Lauren had had something to do with that. She quickly admonished herself for thinking such a horrible thought about her friend.

"Payson, something's wrong. You haven't been yourself lately and frankly I'm concerned about you." He said to the strongest, most determined athlete he'd ever coached. She was a few other things too but he refused to let himself follow that train of thought.

"I'm fine."

"You really shouldn't consider acting as a career path because you can't lie. What's wrong?"

"I don't know I guess it's just lots of little things. Mum's missing Dad like crazy, she tries to be strong but sometimes she'll come out of her room and her eyes will be all puffy. Becca's sick of gymnastics and she wants to quit but she's worried she'll be letting our parents down because they've worked so hard for us to stay in the sport but anyone can see it's making her miserable. And then there's Kaylie who looks like she's about to break everyday and as you've just seen, something's wrong with Lauren too." She decided not to mention Max. Despite Kaylie and Austin being the worst kept secret in the gymnastics community, the no dating rule was still in place.

Sasha was silent for a couple of seconds. Everyone at the Rock thought that Payson was just super tough and didn't have feelings. He knew better: she was one of the most caring people in the world and she tried to help everyone, but she didn't ask for help.

Payson continued. "I guess I just feel like I'm everyone's shoulder to lean on but I feel like I'm burning out, and then nationals are close and I'm sponsored now and my family is counting on me. I miss Emily too, she was only here a little while but we were close."

Sasha wanted to beat himself up for not realising that this was the problem earlier. How could he have been so blind? Payson was the girl everyone went to with problems, whether they were about gymnastics or other things. And Emily Kmetko was Payson's best friend, of course she'd be more stressed without her here. He put his arm around Payson, he didn't care how it might look inappropriate.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"There is one thing." She admitted "you're not going to like it and you're going to say no though so I won't ask, yet. But you've already been a huge help Sasha." Payson thought about hugging him but decided against it, instead she ran off to get changed and start working out again, leaving Sasha completely bewildered as to what she was alluding to.

XXX

"Sweetheart, it's time to get up. You've got a big day ahead of you." Kaylie closed her eyes to her mother's voice. Her body ached all over from days of training and it was early in the morning, for years this hadn't bothered her but now she just wanted a day as a normal kid, to be able to sleep in and have a day where she didn't have to exercise if she didn't want to. And most of all she really, really did not want to do the Rock rankings today. The press was going to be there, openly speculating about her and the NGO would be wanting her to post an amazing score. Reluctantly she rolled out of bed, at least her father was going to be coming to watch her today: he hadn't done so for a while.

"How are you feeling Pay?"

"I'm focusing, well I'm trying to anyway."

Becca and Kim rolled their eyes at each other. Some things never changed. "Well don't forget to drink your milk, gymnasts need strong bones."

Now it was Payson's turn to roll her eyes "Mum you've been saying that to me since I was four."

"And that just proves I'm right."

Payson skulled her milk "happy?"

"Delirious. Now hurry we don't want to be late." Payson smiled at how punctual her mother had become these days. Summer must be wearing off on her. Suddenly Kim came around to Payson's side of the table and hugged her tightly.

"Wow Mum, all I did was drink my milk, it's not that big of a feat."

"I am so proud of you. You've come through so much and now I just know you're going to show everyone what a champion you are." Payson looked up and was surprised to find her Mum almost in tears. She was touched and hugged her mother.

"I couldn't have done any of this without you." She said to Kim.

Becca trudged in, her fourteen year old face looking much older due to her makeup she'd put on for competition. "I really hate to ruin the moment but we need to go otherwise we will actually be late."

The silence on the way to the Rock had been almost unbearable, Kelly had spent most of the trip intently focusing on doing up the buns in her hair. Sheila was freezing her out, at first it had been a nice change but now it made Kelly feel lonely. If it weren't for her Rock family she would have gone insane this past week. She didn't know how she'd survived in Denver without supportive teammates. After worlds Kelly had returned home to find a passive aggressive letter from Sheila telling her that she was taking a trip to the south of France and that Kelly should think seriously about her future otherwise there would be more terrible performances to follow worlds. Kelly was so angry that she'd ripped it up. To make things worse she'd found out that Sheila had paid for her trip with Kelly's endorsement money. When she'd returned she'd still been hostile to Kelly, acting as though Kelly had betrayed her for her team.

After what seemed like hours Kelly and Sheila finally arrived at the Rock. Sheila looked over at Kelly "well good luck, I'm sure it's impossible to do worse than you did at worlds, giving up your floor routine for Kaylie. Although I wouldn't put it past you to do it again. You aren't the daughter I raised." She hissed.

Kelly gave Sheila an icy smile "well thank God for that." She said and got out of the car and walked towards Rachel and Petra: two aspiring elites. She hugged them both and wished them luck. She turned around and glared at Sheila who pretended not to see her.

Kim pulled up next to Sheila's huge van and groaned, her least favourite person in the world was back at the Rock. She felt so sorry for Kelly. She didn't know how that woman valued her daughter solely for her gymnastics potential rather than for who she was.

"Ok who made that embarrassing sign?" Becca asked, horrified. "It's awful."

"It's cute" Kim countered, someone was holding a huge sign, that covered his or her face which read 'GO THE KEELERS: BECCA AND PAYSON ALL THE WAY'. Payson of course hadn't paid attention to a single thing her mother and sister were saying: she was visualising her floor routine. She walked calmly towards the entrance of the gym, ignoring the reporters yelling questions and the NGO members in their suits trying to look important. But then she saw the person put the sign to one side, and she saw it was Mark. "Daddy" she yelled, in a happy go lucky voice that so few people outside her immediate family heard. She threw herself into his arms, and he caught her and spun her around like he'd done when she was a little girl. The press photographed it, happy to see a softer side of Payson.

Kaylie looked on as her friend was reunited with her father and smiled. She looked around for Alex but she couldn't see him. Ronnie squeezed her shoulder "don't worry honey he'll be here. He hasn't missed a Rock ranking ever." Her mother tried to sound upbeat but Kaylie wasn't fooled, her father had grown increasingly distant lately. Her brother was here though. She waved to Leo who came over to hug his sister and mother.

"Hey you're both looking good." He hugged Kaylie extra – tightly. He'd felt so guilty about not noticing Kaylie's anorexia, and it put his nose out of joint that Austin Tucker did. He didn't care if Kaylie said he was a changed man, the bad boy of gymnastics was not good enough for his little sister.

"Did you hear from Dad?" Kaylie asked Leo anxiously.

"Oh yes, he texted me earlier to say they'd be a bit late."

"They? Who's he coming with?" Kaylie asked suspiciously while Ronnie looked shocked.

"Huh, oh I meant he. Clearly that higher education isn't paying off." Leo lied smoothly, and tried not to feel guilty as he led Kaylie into the gym, trying to shield her from reporters eager to lap up the drama of the country having another anorexic gymnast.

The last of the rebels to arrive was Lauren. She'd woken up to find her father had already left, Ellen Beals wanted to see him about something. That meant Lauren had had to make her own breakfast and get ready on her own. Steve didn't actually help her with any of this but it was always nice to have someone there when she was preparing for a big meet. As soon as she pulled up into her reserved parking space Steve marched over to her. Lauren paled, he did not look happy.

Steve pulled open the driver's door "get your arse in the gym office now."

"Okay Daddy, just let me double check my lip gloss, you don't want me looking bad for the camera do you."

"Oh you have no idea how ironic that was kid, move now. I mean it."

Lauren rolled her eyes, grabbed her gym bag and followed her father. Ellen Beals was waiting for them in the office

"Take a seat Lauren" the brunette said without looking up from her paperwork.

"Yes Miss Beals?"

"I have to say I'm disappointed, no disgusted with your behaviour Lauren. That video and your attacks on your teammates was uncalled for and tacky. You have given your country a bad name. I don't care what you think about your teammates off the camera, but when you are dealing with the press you do not criticise them, certainly if you have not been told to. Kelly and Payson are dynamite for the image of gymnastics at the moment, and Kaylie is a very good human interest story. I can assure if you do anything detrimental to the image of gymnastics again, I will make your life very difficult." The NGO member stormed out leaving Lauren with her father. She was shocked, Ellen Beals had always seemed to have her back but now she was putting the others above her, just like everyone else.

"Daddy? I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I guess I was just trying to take your advice and not get too close to my team. You know what competition is like." Lauren pretended to look remorseful but she knew that impliedly blaming her father would work a charm, it always did.

Steve glared at his daughter. "You're an idiot Lauren, do you know how much convincing I had to do to make them not publish that. You're ruining your image and you can't afford to do that."

"Why not I'm one of the best gymnasts in the country."

"Don't you see, you're the weakest link at the Rock. Those other three could wipe the floor with you if you don't up your game. I can't believe I've worked so hard to get you this far and now you're just blowing it." Steve said and walked out.

Lauren tried not to cry. She walked over to the adjoining bathroom and splashed some water on her face to calm herself down. Then she walked down to the line of girls by the vault. As she did so she saw Summer hugging James and to her horror she saw her father standing by Sheila, and he was laughing. Lauren could tell by the look on his face that he had his sleaze on.

"There you are, where have you been? We've been worried you wouldn't show up." Payson said to Lauren, being the concerned leader. A position she naturally fell back into.

"Lo are you ok?" Kaylie asked.

Lauren didn't say anything. She felt numb. Payson just put an arm around her.

"Hey Kaylie, your Dad's here." Kelly said.

Kaylie's face lit up. He had come! Then she saw that he had linked arms with a blonde woman who wouldn't be out of place on the cover of a trashy car magazine. She took a deep breath and looked away, she couldn't think about this now.

Summer handed James to Ronnie who took him somewhat reluctantly. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, our rotations will start with our top group on vault, the second group on bars, the third on beam and the fourth on floor and then we will rotate. This will count as the all around final as well as qualifying for the events. At the conclusion of the events finals we will name our rankings and confirm the girls who will be representing the Rock at St Louis at nationals in a few months time. Please join me in welcoming our gymnasts and wishing them luck as they go into their first rotation."

A/N – so this was a very long chapter! And it ended on a semi cliff hanger too. Sorry I hope you didn't lose interest, and sorry I didn't completely resolve the Payson issue but I think it's pretty clear now that she's not with Max, and don't you all feel sorry for Kaylie? And yes Steve and Sheila are looking to be more than just friends. Poor Lauren and Kelly, could you think of a worse couple to have as parents.

Thank you all for your reviews! And please let me know what you thought, and once again thank you for putting up with such a long chapter!