I walked over to the water cooler to get a drink. Official practice was over for the day but Becca had to stay late to take her grade exam so I decided to stay here and practice. I walked back to the bars and rechalked. Yesterday Sasha had me start retraining my Jaeger. It used to be my best release move, nobody else could get as high over the bar as I could but I was struggling to get it back. The first 3 levels had come back easily to me but now I was on D level and I was having a much harder time. I am hoping to still be ready for Nationals. Hate feeling doubt in myself, I never had a problem with that before, I knew I was good and what I could do, but now I don't.
I heard a door open and looked over to see Sasha coming out of his office.
"Payson," he said while walking over to me, "I have an appointment that will be here at any moment so if you could send them up I would appreciate it."
"Sure."
I watched Sasha go back to his office as I got up on the low bar and stood up. I reached for the high bar. I did a few giants to get a good rhythm going. After my third I cast a handstand, did a half pirouette then I did a grip change. Then I started my next giant backwards. I went down below the bar then started my swing up, after a ¾ swing I let go to do a front flip in the straddle position. I stretched out my arms to regrasp the high bar. I could tell I wasn't close enough. My fingers glanced off the bar and I landed on my stomach. I got in a kneeling position, taking a deep breath, frustrated with myself.
"Damn it," I yelled, slamming my hands down on the mat. Little clouds of chalk forming.
"Is that any way for a champ to behave?" I raised my head to see the person who was walking towards me. It was the exact person I thought it would be.
"Nicky, I…I…" I said, stammering, trying to decide what to say, "I bet your wondering what I'm doing."
"I already know Keeler," he said while reaching into his back pocket, producing the magazine with my interview in it.
"I bet your wondering why I didn't tell you, I'm sorry, I just thought it would be best."
"It's ok Payson, I understand."
We both stood there smiling at each other for a few seconds.
"So…" I said breaking the silence, "did you come all the way over here just to bust me or is there something else?"
"Actually…"
"Nicky," we heard a voice say and looked over to see Sasha sticking his head out his door, "Payson, I thought I told you to send him up when he got here."
"Sorry Sasha, I didn't realize you were talking about him," I said to Sasha while I was giving Nicky a look.
"Coming Sasha," Nicky called, he then turned to me, "see you later champ." He then walked into Sasha's office closing the door behind him.
I tried to block Nicky out of my head while I continued working on my Jaeger. It still was not coming together. After about 15 minutes Nicky came out of Sasha's office and walked over to me.
"So I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow," Nicky said with his sly grin.
"I will? Are you coming by again tomorrow?"
"Yea I'll be coming by, I kind of have to if I am going to be training here again."
"You are," I asked, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice.
"Yep, we can be the best together again."
"Yea," I said, the smile coming off my face, "only if I can get my Jaeger back again."
"Are you still struggling with it?"
"Yea, I just can't get the height I need on it."
"Well I would be happy to help you train if you want, do you want to meet in the mornings."
"Yes, I would love to, I mean I would really appreciate the help," I said getting red in the face again."
"Great, You know Payson since I have been commuting to Denver I haven't been able to run like I used to and I want to start back, so I was wondering if you would like to run with me, maybe we could run to and from practice."
"I would, but that would be a lot of running plus on top of practice, I don't want to over do it."
"We can start out slow, how about I drive to your house then we leave at 5 and run to The Rock then we will have around and hour and a half to practice before everybody gets here at 7. The we can run back to your place after practice."
"Ok Nicky, but I have to be home by 4 to get my car so I can pick up Becca."
"That won't be a problem, so I will see you 5am."
"Yep"
* Nicky's POV*
It was 4:30am as I threw my gym bag over my shoulder and ran down the stairs and out the door. I got into my black Lexus SUV and drove off to The Rock to drop off my bag before I went over to Payson's.
There were no other cars on the road as I drove through the Keeler's neighborhood. The windows in all of the houses were dark; nobody else would want to get up this early. I parked on the road outside the house. Their house was the only one on the street that had any lights on. I took a few deep breaths before I got out of the car. It's funny, I have nerves of steel during gymnastics but the thought of seeing Payson, of spending time alone with her made me feel excited but nervous all at the same time. I got out of the car and ran up to the door. I raised my hand but before I got a chance to knock, the door opened.
"Hey Nicky come in," Payson said in a whisper, "Mom and Becca are still asleep. I just need to put on my shoes."
We walked into the living room. Payson sat down to put on her running shoes. She stood up and straightened her white tank top and green shorts she was wearing over a purple leotard.
"Are you ready to go," Payson asked.
"Yep, do you have a gym bag you need to bring?"
"No, I have everything at the gym."
We walked out the door and onto the lawn to stretch before our run. Neither of us spoke while we stretched.
"Ready," I asked. Payson nodded her head and we started to walk on the sidewalk, once we got to the end of her block we started a light run. I didn't want her to over do it so I let her set the pace and matched her. It was hard to not run at my normal speed, but I figured I could work her up to my speed eventually. The Rock was about 5 miles from Payson's we ran in silence for the first 3 miles. The sun had started to rise when Payson broke the silence.
"How was it, training at Denver I mean."
"Well it was no Rock," I joked
"How did you like training with the Kelly Parker?"
"I will put it this way, if I thought Kaylie was a princess, well she has nothing on Kelly Parker, I went to Denver to get away from the drama and I ended up going straight into even more drama."
"Yea, Kelly can be a little much to handle," Payson said with a smirk on her face.
I watched Payson out of the corner of my eye was we were running. Even while running she was beautiful. When I had left to train in Denver I thought that I would forget about Payson, but I couldn't. I was really amazed by her. She fought her way back from her injury. She wouldn't give up, he really admired that in her and he knew she would come back to her old self.
"So did you miss The Rock," Payson asked, breaking my train of thought.
"I missed the people more actually," I gave said giving her a smile.
"We missed you too Nicky."
We saw The Rock up ahead and slowed down to a walk. We walked through the parking lot to the door.
"You know Payson, I'm really glad you're back, gymnastics wasn't the same without you," I said while opening the door.
"Thanks Nicky, I'm really glad you're back to," she said while giving me a heart-stopping smile, and with that we went in to the gym to practice.
A/N: Yet again it took me way to long to post a new chapter. I'm sorry! I hope you enjoy this chapter. I miss Nicky on the show. I hope he comes back! Or the writers at least give Payson a better guy than Ike. I already have an outline of my story done so I don't plan on including anything from this new season in. Especially since it looks like this season will end with Worlds and my story will end at Nationals. I plan for it to have around 20 chapters so we are close to the halfway point. Anyways through out my story I will be putting different gymnastic moves, I will try to explain them but if you want to see them a lot of them can be seen on you tube. Put Jaeger and gymnastics in and you can see it performed, it might help you visualize it better. Please review it always makes my day!
