Chapter 26 – Hearts of Champions

Chloe was certain her heart would burst with pride when she saw her daughter walk out with her team. She could hardly believe the confident young woman was the shy and timid little girl who worked hard but could never believe in herself. She smiled as Damon squeezed her shoulders tightly. He was more excited than she was, if that was possible. He'd been telling James about how his Mummy was amazing. The little boy was beginning to look remarkably like Damon, but he had Summer's mannerisms. He was bubbly and very polite: Summer certainly was an amazing mother. And Margi was so grateful about how readily she shared James with them when she didn't have to. Summer, Margi, Damon, Chloe and Brian all stood up and screamed when Emily's name was announced along with the rest of the US team.

The huge support from the crowd humbled Emily. Payson and Kelly liked to shut out the crowd, but Emily liked to absorb it and use it to boost her self esteem. Having qualified first, the US was first on vault. Emily and Payson weren't competing on that apparatus so they stayed by Lauren and screamed their lungs out as the other three lined up. Payson squeezed Lauren's hand as Rosa went up: had Lauren made the team her handspring double front half would have been named after her. And it would have been the most difficult vault in the competition. Lauren briefly rested her head on Pay's shoulder then joined in the cheering. It was time to support the team. Her own crushed dreams had to take a back seat for now.

Rosa saluted the judges. Her jittery posture from qualifications replaced with a calm confidence. She sprinted towards the vaulting horse and performed a sky high Rudi and landed almost perfectly with just a small hop. She saluted the judges and grinned. Emily and Payson hugged her and she received a high five from Kelly. Then they watched Kaylie nervously. Sasha had a feeling that Kaylie didn't think she was good enough to vault for the team despite her easily making event finals. He nodded to Lauren, who went over to her best friend "kill this Kaylie."

Kaylie shook her head "they should have used Payson, what if I blow it?"

Lauren tried hard not to roll her eyes. Kaylie was the opposite of her. Lauren could sometimes be prone to overconfidence or got jealous, Kaylie on the other hand seldom got jealous but she still didn't seem to quite believe in how good she was. "Sasha knows what he's doing. If he thought Payson would vault better he would have put her in."

Kaylie nodded. She felt nervous but she looked at Sasha, who nodded sternly at her, then to Rosa, Pay, Emily and Kelly who were screaming their support. She couldn't do it for herself but she could do it for her. She hugged Lauren and sprinted towards the vaulting table. He body took over and before she knew it she landed, she quickly moved her feet so she would stick her Amanar: she did. She grinned, now she just had beam to worry about.

Lauren looked over her shoulder at the Russian team. They looked less than thrilled. For half a second the old catty Lauren rose her ugly head and wanted to sneer at them but she resisted and just smiled at them. The US purposefully didn't watch the Russians' vaults or the Romanians on bars. Kaylie and Rosa walked through their beam routines on the floor while Emily, Payson and Kelly visualised their bars routines.

Sasha watched Kelly and Payson absolutely nail their bar routines. They had huge difficulty but they both acted as if they could do the routines in their sleep. He hugged them each tightly before adjusting the bars for Emily. Lauren looked over at her former rival and saw that Emily looked nervous. Too nervous. Quickly she ducked behind the barrier and dragged Darby over to her "you need to go in!"

"What?" Darby had been up all night thinking about Jenna.

"Em needs you, go!"

Darby finally snapped into it and went out to her gymnast. Her heart melted when she saw her. She had never been so close to a gymnast before. All those workouts, getting around Ellen, helping her to learn how to believe in herself: it all came down to this. She hugged Emily tightly.

"I think I'm going to puke."

Darby forced herself not to laugh. That was exactly how she'd felt. "Em – look at me" she said sternly, and Emily obeyed her coach as she'd been trained to do when Darby used that tone. "Do this for James."

Emily bit her lip and looked up to the stands, she saw Chloe and instantly felt calm. "Thanks Darby" she straightened her back and saluted the judges. She jumped to the high bar. Suddenly she was at the gym for the first time since giving birth to James, then she was completing her bar routine for the first time in front of Damon, then she was at Damon's first concert in Boulder listening to his song dedicated to him, then she was watching James's first steps, hugging Chloe as she got promoted to the head hairdresser at her salon, watching Brian receive his high school diploma a year early. Finally she was with Darby as the Olympic team was named. And then she realised she'd dismounted. She grinned. And jumped into Darby's arms. They were halfway there.

Sasha looked at the scoreboard. Emily had scored a massive 16.6: higher even than Payson. The Russians had been impressive on bars too and the Romanians still had floor and vault to go: their two strongest apparatus. It was going to be close. They were first up on beam: the apparatus which was often responsible for making or breaking a team's competition. He had Pay leading off, mainly for her mental toughness more than anything. He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and she mounted with a press handstand, toes perfectly pointed. Emily and Kelly held hands as they watched Payson's routine: they knew each skill and connection as well as they did their own routines. Any sign of tiredness she'd been showing was gone. She attacked the beam, each flight series connected almost instantly, her triple wolf turn had no wobbles. Finally her triple twist dismount with a tiny hop forward completed her routine. Sasha picked her up and spun her round, he was so proud and so relieved she'd competed well. He had been thinking of putting Kelly on beam in her stead but he didn't want to bruise her ego or worry the rest of the team.

Rosa looked at the end of the beam. She shut out everything else. She sprung onto the beam with the same mount as her idol Alicia Sacramone. She grinned throughout her entire routine. It shocked Sasha how similar it was to Lauren's beam routine in team finals at worlds the year before. She dismounted with a double Arabian and the crowd went wild. Rosa grinned as if she couldn't quite believe what she'd done. Kelly wrapped Rosa in a bear hug.

Kaylie looked on nervously. Kelly and Rosa were done but she still had two routines to go. She felt Emily squeeze her shoulder quickly "if I can do it, so can you" she whispered. Kaylie nodded and grinned. Emily's confidence somehow boosted Kaylie's: they'd both had huge obstacles to overcome. She saluted the judges hopped on the beam and competed her triple wolf turn. It didn't have the exact precision of Payson's but Kaylie's had a je ne sais quoi: much like Payson's floor. Kaylie had found her niche on the beam. She was so slight, had good dance and a bubbly personality that made it look easy. She dismounted with a relatively easy double tuck and her teammates screamed. Kaylie Cruz had just gone from anorexia sufferer to one of the best beam workers in the world. She was an inspiration to girls everywhere. Sasha hugged her tightly "I can't express how proud I am of you right now."

Kaylie smiled shyly and hugged him back. She'd always been a tad scared of Sasha but now she realised just how much he cared about each of his gymnasts.

Kaylie, Emily and Payson went to visualise their floor routines while Sasha watched the Russians. Ivanka led off. The Russian had sass, there was no denying it, she had a lower difficulty than each of his gymnasts on beam but not by much and he hardly saw any problems with execution. Her tiny teammate Olga Keranenev was stunning. She was so small and got immense height, she flew on beam. He didn't need to look at the score to tell she would have outscored Rosa and Payson, if not Kaylie. Finally Anastasia Alexandrovna performed the best beam routine he'd seen in his life. Lauren swore under her breath next to him "when did Russia get so good?"

"Beats me, the girls need to kill floor. We've got the best floor workers in the world and I intend for them to show everyone why we have that reputation." Sasha said seriously. Anastasia's score was posted: the young Russian had just posted the first 16 on beam this quad.

Payson could tell that Sasha was nervous. But she couldn't let that show. She had to hold everything together for the team. Emily and Kaylie weren't the calmest competitors in the world. She led her team to the final apparatus and led them in a stretch while Russia warmed up. With a jolt to heart she realised that this could be the last time she competed with Kelly or Kaylie. She'd be with Rosa in the AA and Emily in apparatus finals. No one had really discussed what they wanted to do after 2012. 2012 had always been the big goal. Suddenly she felt close to tears, she dug her fingernail into her thumb's cuticle to drive the tears away. She didn't watch the Russian floor routines and she made sure Kaylie and Emily didn't either.

Suddenly the Russians had finished. She pulled Emily and Kaylie close to her, Kelly and Rosa joined them "Kaylie, Emily: you've both come so far. All that's left is three routines. I want you to go out there and to enjoy them. This is the freaking Olympic team final and we are team USA, we're the Rock Rebels and most importantly we're friends. This could be, and probably will be the last meet as this team so I want you to go out and perform as though your lives depend on it. Do Sasha proud. Do our team proud." She put her hand into the middle of their huddle, Kelly rested hers on top of Pay's then Kaylie, eyes overbright, put her hand in, Emily: focused and determined did the same. Finally Rosa put her tiny hand on Emily's.

"USA on three" Pay said and they did their cheer louder than they ever had. And then it was time for Kaylie's floor.

Ronnie and Alex Cruz watched their daughter from the stands. Ronnie was crying openly and Alex was blinking conspicuously. Kaylie's floor routines before her anorexia were peppy and fun, that was still the case, but now they also told a story: much like Payson's and Emily's. While she danced Kaylie was showing her joy and strength of overcoming anorexia. Her dance was stunning and her tumbling was executed almost perfectly: her double layout was the best in the world. Ronnie gripped Alex's hand tightly. When Kaylie finished her routine Alex kissed Ronnie, like he used to: passionately. Kaylie looked up to the stands and saw her parents: she grinned, she hadn't seen them like that for years. She shook her head, she had to focus on her teammates, she hugged Emily and the taller girl went to stand at the corner of the floor she beamed at the judges.

After her bar routine she realised that she was one of the best gymnasts in the world. She ran into her first tumbling pass aware that she was at the Olympic team final and enjoying every second of it she felt like she did as a child playing on the jungle gym and realising she could swing higher than any of the other kids, or when she first nailed her double twisting double back dismount in the Rock after hours with Damon. All too soon her routine was over and she saluted the judges. When she walked over to Sasha he was beaming. "Emily, that was the best floor routine you have done. Ever." He hugged her tightly. Emily grinned, she didn't know why but after that floor routine, she felt like she could do anything. She waved at the crowd and went to stand by her teammates to cheer Payson on.

Payson walked into the centre of the mat, the Swan Lake music filling the arena. Two days ago she had danced for Sasha. Today she danced for her team. She made eye contact with each of them as she faced them. The audience was captivated, Kim and Mark and Becca were all gripping each others' hands tightly, much like Ronnie and Alex had been. Sasha was crying. He didn't care who saw or what rumours he might spark. Payson fricking Keeler was performing the best floor routine in the world. She worked harder than anyone and had come so far. When she finished her final tumbling pass she ran to Sasha. Sasha picked her up and felt his lips being drawn towards hers: her eyes lit up and she lent up, preparing to kiss him.

"Ahem" Kelly said. She was so going to talk to Pay about this later.

"Shite" Sasha said, realising where he was "later" he whispered in Payson's ear. He gently lowered Payson to the ground and pulled the girls into a huddle. They watched the scoreboard anxiously, their arms linked together, biting their lips. Kaylie would look back on those five minutes as some of the longest in her life. And then finally,

1st United States of America 190.835

2nd Russian Federation 188.500

3rd Romania 179.900

Lauren screeched "we did it!" She hugged Kaylie, tackling her to the floor. Kelly giggled and jumped on top of both of them. Emily, Rosa and Payson looked at each other and rolled their eyes until Lauren and Kelly pulled them on to the ground as well. Soon Sasha ordered them to get up. They were ushered out of the arena so they could get changed into their medal tracksuits. In the changing room they couldn't stop giggling; Payson kept thinking that she needed to pinch herself: she couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

And then they were led out behind the Russian team. Sasha, Darby, Lauren and Rosa's coach looked at their girls, tears in their eyes. The Romanian team were presented with their medals, then the Russians. Finally their names were called, they waved to the crowd then stood up on the podium. Emily thought her knees would give out when the gold medal was placed around her neck. She blinked back tears when she was given her bouquet and then the Star Spangled Banner played. That's when it hit her. Her country's national anthem was playing for her, Emily Kmetko, the girl who had grown up with holes in her shoes because her mother couldn't afford new ones, who had been teased for her love of books and for being so gangly, who was a convicted thief and teenage parent. In spite of it all, here she was on top of a podium at the Olympic Games. The tears started in earnest; she had never been so humbled in her life. She blew a kiss to Darby who was crying just as hard as her, she looked to the stands where her loved ones were 'I love you' she mouthed at them, hoping they'd be able to see it on the screen. This was what it felt like, a dream coming true.

XXX

The media loved the gymnastics team, the questions came thick and fast, and for once Kaylie loved answering them. She'd put all doubts well and truly to rest with her performance today. Sasha looked on, pleased with how each of the girls handled the media. They answered all the questions confidently and tactfully. They complimented their competitors, each other and their coaches. Finally they went out to see their families. Rosa ran into her mother's arms. Payson was smothered by her parents and given a huge bear hug by Becca. Damon kissed Emily deeply and then handed her over to Margi and Chloe. Kaylie hugged each of her parents tightly, all three of them were crying and Leo hugged his sister then went to talk to Lauren. Kelly looked on curiously. She didn't know much about Kaylie's older brother except that he was even more attractive than Kaylie, if that were possible. But she'd never heard Lauren mention him. So Kelly was surprised when he hugged her for a long time. Then she saw that someone was behind all of the other families.

"She insisted on coming. It was all I could do to hold her off until after the competition." Sasha said seriously to her.

Kelly realised then that Sheila was here! She took a deep breath. She was ready to try and rebuild that bridge but the sight of her mother sent a jolt down her spine. Sasha put a reassuring hand on her shoulder "say the word and she's gone."

Kelly smiled at Sasha "it's ok but I appreciate your offer" she took a deep breath and walked towards her mother.

OT so team finals are over! They had to win, of course only the all around and event finals to go. Please let me know what you thought and if you have any suggestions re who should win/ anything else. Thanks for your reviews, you guys rock! And sorry about the cliffhanger.