A/N: This only covers the Iceland episode, but this features more events outside and between the episode.

Chapter 18- Assumed Broken Promises (The Lonely)

Josée hadn't woken up this refreshed in a very long time. Her eyes fluttered open, smiling as she remembered to herself that she and Jacques had finally won the gold after two horrible finishes and dealing with those cadets that were hellbent on "exposing" them, whatever the hell that meant. When the cadets found out about their first win, they were met with even more glares this morning when they went downstairs the hotel for breakfast. Josée ignored them; she was too happy to be bothered - she had gotten the gold.

Maman would be proud.

She longed to call her. She desperately wanted to talk to her. It had been years since Josée had a proper conversation with her mother, and sure, Jacques liked to point out that most of their conversations consisted of her mocking her about little things, but... Jacques just didn't understand her maman, and perhaps he never would. Jacques failed to understand that most of these things had value and lessons to it, and that there was a reason that her mother raised her this way.

Josée and Jacques sat with Tom and Jen at breakfast.

Tom smirked in Josée's direction. "Good morning, Tinkerbell." Josée rolled her eyes again at this nickname that unfortunately stuck.

"Twiggy," Josée shot back.

"So..." Jen mused, twirling her food with her fork. "Do we talk strategy? How does this work?"

"We figured you had the idea," Jacques told her. "You and Tom were the ones that suggested this."

"How about," Josée started, cutting in as she faced the Fashion Bloggers across from her, "We'll only come back and help if you really need it. Don't expect us to do so many favors for you though."

"Likewise," Tom said easily.

"What time do we have to be there?" Jacques asked his partner.

Josée checked the clock and started to eat a little faster. "Ten minutes." They chatted for the remainder of that time.

"The first team to depart, will be the Ice Dancers," Don said, introducing Josée and Jacques as they smiled and posed for the camera. "Go!"

Josée slammed her fist on the Don box button and the travel tip popped out, which she read: "Take a bus to the geyser field of the Geysisgil and locate the Don box."

The producers had stopped them, which they were annoyed with at first, until they pointed out that the other teams wouldn't leave until later. They were asked on how they felt after receiving first place, to which Josée and Jacques happily sat down for an interview for.

"Coming in first has given us a taste for gold!" Josée gushed, as she raised her arms victoriously with Jacques, "We hope to be on top of the podium from here on!"

"And I love the taste of gold in the morning!" Jacques added cheerfully.

Once their interview was over, they ran to the bus stop - which Jacques had noticed didn't have a bus occupied in; which was strange - he had expected it to be there. "Hurry! Come on! Where's our bus? We're going to lose our lead!" He panicked. Josée, however, was still smiling and trying to remain composed, unlike her partner who had lost his control for a moment. Josée's smile vanished as she and Jacques collectively gasped in realization; a few other teams had caught up. At least the Fashion Bloggers happened to be one of them.

"Hi!" said one of the contestants, who Josée believed to be Stephanie.

"Don't even think about getting on the bus before us!" Jacques shrieked.

"You can't stop me from thinking about it!" MacArthur retorted. "Get out of my head!"

"Oh yeah?" Jacques challenged, leaning closer to her along with Josée.

"Yeah!" MacArthur shot back, just as close.

The bus honked a few times.

"Uh, guys?" Noah stepped in, "The bus?"

Josée and Jacques shook out of their heated exchange with MacArthur and ran onto the bus. That was when the Fashion Bloggers and Ice Dancers started to talk more.

"After this competition's over," Jen started, across from the Ice Dancers, but looking directly at Josée. "I have to do your hair, it's so pretty."

"...Merci," Josée said to the female fashion blogger. "But you don't live in Montreal."

"We don't. We live in smack in the middle of Toronto in the busy city," Jen answered. She turned to Josée. "Maybe if you're ever in Toronto for something ice dancing related you could stop by, I can give you so many tips. You have such nice features you can exaggerate with proper clothing, makeup, and-"

"And it begins..." Tom interrupted knowingly, with an amused grin.

Jen scowled and elbowed him in his side. "Oh shut up."

"Ow!" Tom gasped, rubbing where she hit him. "Rude!"

Josée looked at Tom. "What begins?"

Tom snickered a little under Jen's glare. "She's such a mom friend, it's in her nature. She's going to make you her special project-"

"Am not!"

"Are too! Jen loves using people as models. That's if I'm not available, of course-"

"Will you both shut it?" MacArthur barked from the seat behind them, "You're hurting my ears."

"Oh pipe the fuck down, don't act like your loud ass voice doesn't wake up an entire forest," Tom turned back around like nothing happened and faced the ice dancers, who were gawking in disbelief. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted-"

"Can we not swear in the show, thanks!" One of the producers shouted, followed by grumbling about having to edit those swears out.

"Also there are children here!"

Junior groaned. "Dad stop..."

"Is there a problem?" MacArthur questioned angrily.

Tom scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I am disengaging."

"So..." Jacques mused awkwardly, unsure of what conversation to divert to. "About the next challenge? I'm curious on what it will be." He squealed a little. "I'm just happy that this is Iceland."

Jen smiled at him fondly. "You really love anything to do with ice, don't you?"

"It's in our blood!" Josée proclaimed proudly. "I'm sure you get happy when anyone mentions anything about fashion."

"Oh absolutely," Tom agreed, nodding eagerly. "We're trend setters. I'm sure the outfits we have on now will be famous thanks to us."

Josée looked down at her outfit and sighed. "I hate my costume."

"Why? It's cute!" Jen exclaimed.

The female ice dancer shrugged and played with her hands. "It's that... I've looked around and saw what the other contestants were wearing, and none of them have that much... revealing of them. It just makes me uncomfortable that I'm the only one. I... I know I shouldn't be talking, but-"

"Alright, that's enough," one of the producers cut in coldly. The Fashion Bloggers and Ice Dancers exchanged weirded out looks among each other.

It was silent for the rest of the ride.

The tires on the bus screeched, pulling up to the Don box. The Cadets were the first ones to get to the Don box and slammed on it, and the ice dancers shortly followed. Josée slammed her fist on the button and pulled out the travel tip. "It's an All-in. 'Broken Icelandic telephone.'" Josée paused thoughtfully, then continued: "Teams need to hold down the button on the speaker box to hear Don say, 'Please give me my next travel tip' in Icelandic with perfect pronunciation."

"Wait, it's not finished..." Jacques read on, "Then teams must run across the geothermal field of hot springs and repeat the sentence to an Icelandic local in a... swan costume."

"Oh my," Josée pointed out, "If we say it wrong, we have to go all the way back and listen to it again." Josée groaned in annoyance. "We are not doing that. Let's go."

Jacques nodded and followed his partner to the speaker box, where Don's voice rang out as soon as Josée hit the button: "Vinsamlegast gefa mer mina travel abending."

Josée and Jacques snickered a little. "He sounds ridiculous," the latter remarked. Josée rolled her eyes fondly and started to run across the geothermal field. They leapt over a few with ease and did their best to ignore the screams of the other contestants that had been thrown into air because of the hot springs. They felt that the Cadets were right behind them, but ignored them as they kept going on.

"This is easy," Josée said, smirking to herself as she prepared to leap again...

"JOSÉE, NO!" Jacques shouted, causing Josée to gasp when she was yanked into his arms just in time from the hot spring that exploded from the geyser. Jacques desperately held Josée close to his chest; with one hand on her head and one on her back. Both of them were wide-eyed and panicked at what had taken place, but what was worse - what could've taken place if Jacques hadn't gotten her back. Jacques didn't realize how fast his heart was beating until a few seconds later. Josée hadn't realized what just happened.

"Are you okay?" Jacques asked Josée, out of breath. Josée didn't answer right away; still griping his unitard harshly and staring at the hot spring that exploded again. Jacques cupped her face gently in his hand, diverting her attention from the geyser. "Josée, are you alright?"

Josée pulled away from Jacques and nodded quickly, brushing her costume off. "Oui, I'm fine. Let's just... keep going."

Jacques stared at her in disbelief as she ran ahead. He could've lost her. He could've lost her. Okay, maybe she wouldn't have died but she could've been hurt. And the way his heart was beating after that little incident; that couldn't be good for him. Nonetheless, Jacques caught up with her and practiced their synchronized leaps without any issue. But still - that image of Josée quite nearly leaping into an accident played into his brain over and over, like the beat of a drum. Had he not caught her in time...

...It reminded him of the olympics, except he hadn't caught her in time. Because he hadn't caught her in time, they had lost the gold, and because they had lost the gold, they were here; where Josée had put herself into danger more than once, and this was only the fifth episode of this show. This show was a hazard...

"Jacques," Josée called to him worriedly, waving her hand in front of his face: "We have to go to the Icelandic local. We're here."

Oh.

Jacques smiled and lifted Josée above his head as they leaped in front of the Icelandic local, with Josée landing in front of them - completely synchronized. When Jacques laid eyes on the local, he couldn't help but feel something funny in his chest. He had felt this way before when it came to guys he was attracted to, and he didn't know how to react. Was this what Tom and Jen had gone on about? She was very beautiful, he thought. He had always appreciated dancers before in class, calling them beautiful - he had appreciated Josée far more than any of them, of course - but he never thought about them in a... lustful way, of course. Had he? Well, he wouldn't mind it...

...or maybe it was just nonsense that Tom and Jen were spouting. As nice as they were, they seemed thick-headed. Right... that had to be it.

Right?

"Vinsamlegast gefa mer mina travel abending," Josée reiterated to the Icelandic local, who gave her a tip for saying it correctly, then read it: "Take the helicopter to Skaftafell National Park and find the next Don box." They spotted the helicopter landing several few day from them. Josée and Jacques smile at being the first ones to arrive. They were told, however, that they would have to wait for five other teams to join them for the helicopter to depart.

"I hope the Fashion Bloggers are okay," Jacques said, attempting to make small talk.

Josée played with her hands. "So do I. They're a little... clumsy."

It was quiet for a moment.

"It's been..." Josée stopped, realizing that there were cameras around. She remembered vaguely in the contract that if they spoke a different language other than English in casual conversation, that it wouldn't be included in the show. Therefore, she started to speak the rest of the conversation in French so the producers wouldn't pick up on it: "It's been a week since maman told me she had cancer."

Jacques seemed to have picked up on that, since he started to speak French too. "I know this must be very hard for you," he said quietly.

Josée felt her heart sink considerably. "Oui..." she said in a small voice. "I wanted to stay and take care of her... and she wouldn't let me do that. It's the least I could do." Jacques was quiet as she went on seriously: "But she wants me to win. I can't... I can't help but feel that by teaming up with Tom and Jen that we're betraying maman-"

"Non, Josée. You're fine..." Jacques cut in softly.

"It's not fine. I feel like a terrible daughter. I just wish I could call her."

"You are not a terrible daughter," Jacques insisted. Josée didn't look so sure. When her sad eyes met his, Jacques felt his heart sink with hers. He longed to reach over and comfort her, to put his arms around her frame and kiss the top of her head like he always did - but the cameras would definitely pick on that. Instead, Jacques did the next best thing - which was to squeeze her hand. "You aren't, trust me."

Beat.

"It almost makes me want to pray, that's how scared I am," Josée admitted. "My maman doesn't like religion, and neither do I, but..." she bit her lower lip. "...is it selfish to see it as a last resort?"

"My maman told me that only proves that religion is often used to put fear into others," Jacques answered. "It's what happened to her from her family before she eloped with papa."

"How did you keep up such a happy smile when Bernadette died?" That question caught Jacques off-guard. Josée bit her lip and went on to explain, "I mean... when she died... the cameras followed you around, and... you still smiled. It... I don't know, it's just that... it's getting very hard."

Jacques knew what she meant. He had to close his eyes to think about it and dive deep into his subconscious. He didn't remember much about Bernadette's death, honestly - he was convinced that he had blocked all those memories out. After all, he had to learn from Josée that he slipped into a state which he didn't respond to anyone around him. It sounded like a frightening experience based on how Josée and his family stated it was frightening to witness; and knowing that Josée's mother was likely going to pass - he hoped that she wouldn't go through the same thing.

"I tried to think of happy things," Jacques stated quietly, more to himself. Truthfully, it was something that amazed him, something that he wanted to ask himself - how did he keep up appearances so easily for the cameras? "I ate the pain. Like... like your maman would say. And she would want you to do the same." Jacques offered a little smile to her, which she weakly matched and went on, his own smile fading: "Then when the cameras were off and I was alone in my room, I... I cried a little. Okay, I cried a lot. But you know that, you were there to help me, and... and I'm here to help you."

Josée nodded slowly, knowing what he was talking about. Days after she and Jacques made up during the aftermath of his sister's death, there were nights where Jacques would show up at her house with tears streaming down his face. While Josée's mother rolled her eyes - having begrudgingly accepted the fact that they were partners again - she reluctantly let him in as Josée held him in her room like she did that night where he was in his unresponsive state. "It was nothing," she waved off. "I know that normally I'm heartless-"

"Non," Jacques interrupted sternly, shocked by the way she insulted herself. "Don't call yourself that." Jacques knew that Josée could be mean; but to call her heartless was a false statement - she was there for him during his highs and his lows. "You are not heartless. If you were there for me, I can only do the same."

He always has, Josée thought. "Jacques..." Before she could finish, a few teams had shown up - which consisted of the Vegans and the Goths. Josée wiped her face roughly in case there were any tears evident that others could notice. Luckily, there weren't. The ice dancers watched as the Vegans tried to talk to the Goths, only to be met with blank stares. Josée smirked; she couldn't blame the Goths at all for not wanting to engage in that nonsense.

A few minutes later, not only did the Fashion Bloggers showed up - but they showed up with the Police Cadets. Tom and MacArthur were bickering back and forth.

"Louder than a forest?" MacArthur nearly screeched Tom's words from before to describe her, as they took their seats. "Drama queen." Jen sighed deeply; she wish she hadn't sat between them - now she was smack in the middle of their bickering. Josée, Jacques, and Sanders felt extremely bad for her.

Tom scoffed at the police cadet. "My major in university was fashion merchandising, thank you. Speaking of..." Tom paused to look her up and down. "You need to learn how to dress yourself in the morning. You look like a reject from the movie Mall Cop." Josée and Jacques' jaws dropped whilst Jen did her best to hide her snickers.

MacArthur crossed her arms. "And? I liked this and I look hot as hell. You look like a damn blueberry."

"At least I'm not built like one."

"At least I have an ass to shake, Skindiana Jones."

"Wait a second..." Josée interrupted, with a frown. "You got a say in what clothes you wore?"

Everyone - minus Jacques - looked at her like she had three heads.

"...Yeah?" Sanders replied, furrowing her brows in confusion. "We all were able to."

Josée and Jacques exchanged a look with each other, yet said nothing. They were told that they were supposed to wear these costumes specifically; why couldn't they have a say in what to wear for the show while the other contestants did? Before they could think more about this issue, the final team arrived on the helicopter - the pair from before that was bickering to their last seat - Josée and Jacques recognized them at the end of the last episode and thought they looked like sisters.

"This is why you need a boyfriend," Kitty went on. "You're so uptight all the time just because of Jake-"

"Nope! We're not doing this Kitty."

"But Emma..."

"No."

Yep, definitely sisters, Jacques thought. It made him miss Gabrielle at the moment, and Bernadette... oh god, especially Bernadette. He wondered if Bernadette was proud of him right now; and what she would think of him and Josée on this show. He was noticeably stiff as the helicopter took off.

The helicopter arrived at the ice caves in Skaftafell National Park where the next Don box was. Jacques slammed the red button and took the travel tip. "It's an Either-Or: Feast or Fossil?" He paused thoughtfully, then said: "Teams can either dine on a traditional Icelandic feast..."

"No way. What's the next option?" Josée cut in seriously. The last thing they needed was another food challenge...

"...or they can find or retrieve one of the intact fossils embedded in the icy walls of the ice caves..."

Josée's eyes lit up. "Once their chosen task is complete, teams must bring their intact fossil or empty platter to the chill zone!" She finished and broke into a huge smile. "Ice, Jacques! Ice! I feel so at home here, come on!" She ran over to the axes.

Jacques smiled fondly at her excitement. "Okay!" And followed behind her.

...It was beautiful.

Yes, this was a competition, but... when they took off skating across the ice all the worries melted away; it always did. Josée and Jacques put the axes down briefly by their fossil to skate around the ice for a few minutes - because after all, their fans were watching. It was a relief to feel more comfortable in this environment, it was one that they were used to. The past almost- week of the competition was far different than anything they've ever competed in, and it was nice to have some familiarity.

They felt safe.

In Josée's mind, there were no annoying cadets, nor was their petty drama between the other contestants, such as Devin and Carrie's, as well as the alliance she made with the Fashion Bloggers, as nice as they were... damn it. As soon as Josée thought about the Fashion Bloggers, she thought of Jen - she had questioned why she associated gold with first place and wondered why she would question such a thing. Jen was nice enough, and in some ways, Josée was reminded a little bit of Alice - but at least Alice didn't question how competitions worked. As outgoing and fun Alice was, she knew when to take competition seriously while Jen lacked that.

...God. She was thinking about Jen and Alice when she could very well be enjoying the ice.

A cry broke those thoughts, "Help!"

Josée and Jacques skated past the Vegans trying to get their fossil out and turned their heads back to see that the Fashion Bloggers were struggling to get across the ice. They both simultaneously stopped and exchanged a look with each other; a promise was a promise. Besides, both looked rather pathetic looking. Every time Tom tried to slide across the ice, he fell flat on his face - Josée could definitely relate to that. It seemed as though Tom was naturally clumsy; hopefully that wouldn't be an obstacle for him in a later challenge. Jen however seemed to do better - but not by much. She had kept slipping as well.

"Let's go," Josée said to Jacques, who nodded as they skated back to Tom and Jen, who looked incredibly grateful. "Where are your axes? We'll find you a spot with a fossil so you can break it out and then come back and skate you over there. Then we'll go back and you're on your own for the rest of the challenge."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Tom and Jen squealed simultaneously. Both the ice dancers' hearts swelled; yes... they were annoying, but they were grateful and nice over their offer they couldn't help but smile. Josée and Jacques took the axes that Tom and Jen pointed to and started to skate around the cave fast. They saw another fossil that wasn't theirs that was free and laid the axels by it, and saw from there that they could make it to the chill zone without having to skate. They returned to the Fashion Bloggers.

"You're telling me that the both of you never learned to ice skate?" Josée asked doubtfully.

"It's not that we don't know how," Tom said. "We're just not very good at it."

"We can tell," Jacques remarked, then pointing to the Fashion Blogger's feet. "It also doesn't help that you have thick socks on."

"What does that have to do with..."

"Thicker socks while skating make your feet stiff," Josée said knowingly. "It makes it harder to move on the ice." Tom and Jen looked at the ice dancers cluelessly. Josée and Jacques collectively sighed, realizing that she was going to have to help them. Without warning, Jacques scooped up Tom - ignoring the yelp from the Fashion Blogger as he skated across the ice, while Josée did the same for Jen.

"You know," began Tom, with a scowl: "When I said I wanted to be carried bridal style by a strong muscular man, this isn't the exact scenario I had in mind." Josée and Jen snickered whilst Jacques rolled his eyes. The Ice Dancers set the Fashion Bloggers down by the fossil.

"Merci!" Jen cheered happily. "Look, I spoke French! Mass oui!"

Josée raised an amused eyebrow. "Mais oui," she corrected.

"Thanks," said Tom, who already picked up his axe. "We'll see you soon." Jen followed shortly behind him.

Now that that was finished, Josée and Jacques skated to where their fossil and axes were and started to break through the ice with the axe to retrieve their fossil. "I still can't believe that we helped a team." What was mostly surprising is that neither of the producers had asked their opinion on this little alliance of theirs like they had expected.

"I can't believe it either," Jacques said honestly. "...It was the right thing to do."

"Oui," Josée agreed, though she couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. "They're nice enough."

A few minutes later, Josée and Jacques retrieved their fossil from the ice and started to make their way out of the cave. Suddenly, the Fashion Bloggers appeared up ahead of them from the side of the cave and were running to the chill zone. The smiles from Josée and Jacques' faces nearly slipped. Instead, they grew bigger - laced with panic.

Why weren't they stopping?

Why weren't they stopping?

There was no use trying to call out their names now; because they were on camera, and Josée and Jacques knew that they had to keep the composure so their fans wouldn't watch them freak out - Josée still vaguely remembered when she had a tantrum off-camera because of last time. They had to watch and take it.

"Second place!" Don called to the Fashion Bloggers. Josée and Jacques' faces nearly fell; because that meant... "Third!" Don called out, this time specifically for them. The moment they were off-camera, Josée and Jacques' smiles vanished. Bronze. They had gotten bronze.

Again.

The worst feeling was not just getting bronze, it was the betrayal that they felt. Josée felt her anger boiling over her; she was going to lose it. Jacques looked at her worriedly, the way her nostrils flared was a tell-tale sign that she was going to go into a tantrum. To be fair, Jacques couldn't blame her at all. One, this was bronze. It was the worst medal, of course. While silver brought painful memories of the olympics and being tortured by Leo and Liv, bronze was a whole new level of shame; it was amateur hour.

But this... this was something completely new. Just when Josée thought she could open up and trust other people after a shitty experience of not trusting people, it was thrown her face. Josée's fists curled at her sides, and her breathing started to get really heavy - not out of panic, but fury. She was manipulated, used, and was only treated nicely because they only wanted something from her. That just had to be it, didn't it? They couldn't just stick to the plan and wait for them, no... they ran ahead.

Jacques tried to put his hand on her shoulder. "Josée..."

Josée smacked his hand away. "Words cannot describe how angry I am." She wanted to... no, she needed to destroy something.

The feeling of fury would only get worse, as now a producer decided to approach the Ice Dancers hand-in-hand, not for an interview. One of them had quite literally walked over to them and pulled them very far from the chill zone for a conversation.

"Do you see the reality of this competition now?" The producer questioned, smiling at them like they were children. "People don't want to make friends-"

"Oh shut up," Josée spat, "I'm pissed at you too. Why were we told that we had to wear certain costumes but everyone else chose theirs?"

The producer's lips formed into a thin line. "We're doing you a favor," he snapped, "You're here to attract an older audience, do you get it?"

Josée did, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "No I don't. Care to explain it to me?"

"This is a reality television show," he went on irritably, "...you both happen to be celebrities. The more people see of their celebrities, the more ratings the show will get, and the more ratings the show will get, the more money we get. Is that clear?"

"But then you yell at contestants for cursing and that you have to cut it out," Jacques pointed out.

"...It's just how reality television works," the producer grumbled, beginning to lose his patience. But then, he broke into a grin. "But listen... those Fashion Bloggers clearly used you to get ahead..."

Eye-twitch.

"...considering that you both lost at the olympics, bronze must be a far worse feeling..."

Eye-twitch.

"...since it was a national embarrassment for Canada to see you get silver..."

EYE-TWICH.

"...maybe you realize now that fighting back doesn't sound that bad-"

"NO, JUST LEAVE US ALONE!" Josée finally lost it on the producer, her eyes flaring madly. She took several breaths. "For. The. Love. Of. Gold. Leave us alone!" Jacques pulled her back, preventing her from saying anything else to the producer - who had a smug grin that Jacques wanted to smack off his face - and stormed back to the chill zone. Josée now had so much to say; so much more to say to those stupid Fashion Bloggers that had taken total advantage of her. Instead of finding the Fashion Bloggers waiting for the teams to arrive, they saw a few others and importantly, the winning team - the Goths.

Josée stalked over to them. "Have you seen the Fashion Bloggers?" she almost, not quite, but almost barked.

Both of them slowly looked at each other, before looking back at Josée. "Who?" they asked at the same time.

"Josée, maybe you shouldn't..."

"Shut up," Josée snapped at Jacques, then turned back to the Goths. "Male and female. Wearing all blue... they were in the helicopter with us-"

"Oh," the female goth cut in with a monotonous voice, "I think I saw them go in that direction." She pointed to the right. Josée and Jacques squinted to see that she was right; the Fashion Bloggers were standing far away from the other teams and happily talking among each other. Josée didn't bother thanking them - Jacques did that instead - and stormed over to them. She, along with Jacques, glared at them until they noticed they were there.

Eventually they did. Tom and Jen, instead of them being fearful like expected, smiled at them like they hadn't done anything wrong. "Hi! Congratulations on first place!"

Wait...

What?

"Don't play stupid," Josée sneered at them. Tom and Jen's smiles disappeared and turned into utter cluelessness. "We didn't get first. We got third." Tom and Jen raised their eyebrows in surprise. "Don't play stupid! Stop looking so surprised, you planned this!"

"Wait, wait, wait... we don't understand," Jen said, frowning at the female ice dancer. "We ran ahead because we thought you had gotten first-"

"We were right behind you!" Josée yelled. "You were supposed to stop at the chill zone! Did you see us at all there? No! You kept running, and you broke your promise!"

Tom crossed his arms. "Hold on, who got first then? We didn't see..."

"The Goths did," Jacques snapped; now he was angry. How could they be so careless? "From that stupid ugly feast! You should've known better and stopped!"

"Like I believe you anyway!" Josée shouted furiously, "You just wanted to get ahead, you wanted to take advantage of us!"

Jen's eyes grew wide. "No, no, no! We didn't, truth! We-"

"This is precisely why I didn't want an alliance, Jacques!" Josée barked, "We can't trust anyone here! It's just like the stupid olympics!" She turned to Jen with a venomous look in her eyes, "I bet that's why you were so nice to us, weren't you?" she accused harshly. "To butter us up? To get us to help you-"

"No way! I genuinely like you guys, we really didn't know you weren't ahead-"

"This alliance is finished!" Josée snapped, not wanting to hear the rest of it. She laid her icy cold eyes on both Fashion Bloggers, who's eyes were wide as saucers in utter disbelief of the situation. "Don't talk to us anymore. This is over and done with. We want nothing to do with you during the race, or after. Congratulations on silver." Before they could even argue, Josée and Jacques stormed off again to wait at the chill zone.

Time had passed since then, with Josée still absolutely livid. Jacques had been a little nervous understandably, because he would know better than anyone that when Josée was in a wrathful mood, anything could worsen it. She had been giving him the cold shoulder over the incident, and instead of bugging her what was wrong - he could do that when they get to the hotel room - he waited idly for the final teams to arrive.

The Vegans had come in last, but Don revealed that it was a non-elimination episode. This resulted in one of the Vegans attacking him. Jacques found it to be very ironic; as this girl was far different from the peace-loving hippie that had talked on the helicopter. Right now she had a temper that proved to be almost as bad as Josée's.

When it was time to go to a hotel, Josée and Jacques ignored the pleas from Tom and Jen to listen to their side of the story, but neither of them would have it. They were just like the rest of them; leeches that just wanted to get ahead and would achieve it by any means necessary.

Once Josée and Jacques were in their room, Josée had unleashed her anger: "Third place. We got third place." Josée began to tug at her ponytail and breathe very heavily - this time Jacques knew that it was from panicking this time. "Third. Third. Third. And those stupid... those stupid Bloggers..."

"Stop tugging at your ponytail, you're going to hurt yourself." Jacques had reached over to gently bring Josée's hand away from her hair, but she smacked it away furiously and stormed off away from him on the other side of the room - her eyes flaring. "Ow, chouchou! What was-"

"Don't 'chouchou' me! This is your fault!" Josée bellowed, narrowing her eyes at him. "You're too trusting of people, Jacques!"

"I didn't think it was a big deal!" Jacques exclaimed frustratedly, running a distressed hand through his hair. "One mistake, I just made one mistake."

"No, no, no. You didn't just make one mistake. So far, you've made a trillion! One of them being messing with those stupid cadets, then making friends with Tom and Jen, and worst of all, you dropped me at the olympics!"

Beat.

"So that's what this is about, isn't it?" Jacques countered, frowning. "I thought we were over this."

Beat.

"Apparently not."

Beat.

"Are you serious?" Jacques asked incredulously, then scoffed in disbelief. "You're too much sometimes."

"Oh I'm too much? I'm here to make sure we win! We wouldn't even be in this stupide competition had you not messed up-"

"You're the one that wanted to do the competition!"

"-at the olympics, and apparently you can't even do this right!" Josée had continued, as if he hadn't interrupted. Her breathing started to pick up faster, and she started to tug at her hair again. Jacques had forgotten about the brief anger he felt and was consumed with worry. "We had gotten gold last time! And then we formed an alliance with those traitors! They're all out to get us, don't you see?!"

"Josée, you need to breathe..."

"Non!" Josée had pushed him away when he tried to comfort her. She took several breaths, trying to calm herself down without his help. "No, no, no. I need to... I need to go eat something. I'll be downstairs-"

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No." That being said, Josée ran off, slamming the hotel room door in the process. Jacques sat down and sighed, burying his face into his hands and rubbed it back and forth. Whenever she got like this was especially worrying, and on top of all this drama within the show there was her mother dying - he knew this was taking a toll on her mentally.

And, to be honest, it was taking a toll on him mentally, too.

...That's how he found himself at a souvenir shop in the hotel, buying a pack of cigarettes and lighter. Guilt consumed him; because he had longed kicked the habit - but today was just an incredibly long and draining day, hell - it was a draining week. His feelings were more conflicted than ever. He thought about his sister; who he hadn't thought about in a long time, and then he thought about Josée who was worrying him more with each passing day. He didn't want to think about it, he hoped that he could smoke it away.

When Jacques made his way outside the hotel to smoke, he saw someone else already there smoking, and who it was the last contestant on the show he expected to be doing that. Devin was sitting on the bench outside the hotel with a cigarette in his hand, coupled with a troubled expression. Lighting a cigarette and taking a puff, Jacques joined him.

Josée had slammed the door and ran into the main lobby. She could've sworn she saw Jacques outside, but she wasn't too focused on that at the moment. It was late, and her nerves were fried. The Fashion Bloggers betrayal was still fresh on her mind, along with her mother's illness, along with snapping at Jacques due to his stupidity that have cost them bronze this time; just when they thought they were going to be on top of the podium from then on. Apparently, they were dead wrong - and this alliance was the reason.

She was sure of it.

Luckily she was alone in the lobby with her thoughts, with no one to bother her and she soaked in the peace and quiet...

A loud feminine sigh interrupted from behind her.

...Apparently not.

Josée turned around to see Carrie, sitting down on the sofa with her eyes averted to the ground. She didn't bother greeting the blonde, and instead turned back around to focus on enjoying the little solitude she had. She did not have time for chit-chat, and Carrie was annoyingly chatty.

That was, until, Carrie decided to sigh again even louder.

Oh dear god.

Josée couldn't roll her eyes any harder. "Something wrong?" She asked, finally turning around again.

Carrie perked up noticeably from her spot, but still noticeably solemn. "Oh! Oh nothing. You know. Just... things, of sorts. Yes."

Great.

"Do you..." Josée knew that she was going to regret this, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm fine," Carrie said, her voice more high-pitched than before. "It's not a problem, you know. Just... things."

Josée bit back a groan. "Just things? Just talk about whatever it is. Your moping is annoying me."

Carrie bit her lower lip and avoided Josée's eyes. "Oh don't worry! It's nothing, I promise. I'll get over it. It's just nonsense, just nonsense."

Josée blinked at her, and then turned back around. "Well if you have nothing to say-"

"It's about Devin!" Carrie suddenly wailed. "I am hopelessly in love with him." Josée turned back around yet again to see that Carrie had started to cry into her hands pathetically, "I am hopelessly in love with him and there's nothing I can do about it!" Josée let out a frustrated sigh, realizing that she was going to be here for a while.

Jacques was shocked that Devin didn't even acknowledge his presence at first. Jacques figured he was too occupied with the cigarette in his hand, but fair enough. Jacques had a similar issue; he would get pretty silent when he had a cigarette in his hand.

Jacques cleared his throat after a minute of awkward silence. "Aren't you too young to be smoking?"

Devin turned his head to face Jacques, startled momentarily, before molding back into a demure expression, blowing out the smoke from his lips. "I'm going to be nineteen in September. I'm old enough to smoke."

Jacques hummed to himself, inhaling his own cigarette. "You should quit while you're young. It's a disgusting habit."

"Hypocrite," Devin remarked, which made Jacques grin. Devin sighed in distress and tapped the ash off on the armrest. "Just... don't tell Carrie, alright?"

The ice dancer raised a shocked eyebrow. "She doesn't know?"

Devin shook his head. "No. I kind of..." he hesitated for a moment, "...fell into a bad crowd when we were in high school for a few months, got this habit... went back and forth trying to quit. Carrie had been amazing helping me over the years, but..." his face faltered. "That's kind of why I fell back into it again."

"Carrie is the reason?"

"Yeah. Uh, well, no. She didn't hold a gun to my head or anything. I just..." Devin paused to inhale his cigarette and then proceeded to spill his guts, "She's been acting so weird lately. I mean, to be honest, she's been acting weird since Shelley and I started going out, which is really strange - but lately it's been crazier." Jacques didn't realize how utterly clueless another human being could be. Devin continued obliviously: "I don't think she wants to be my friend anymore."

...Well, he's not completely wrong about that.

"She just doesn't like me anymore, I can feel it. It's like we're drifting apart or something."

...How does one walk into the point and somehow miss it?

"That's part of why I wanted to do this race with her," explained Devin. Then he thought it over. "I mean, other than Shelley being busy." He let out a bitter chuckle. "That's a whole other thing." Inhale. "She said she was busy, so I thought, why not do this race with my best friend? And Shelley was pissed. More pissed than I've ever seen her. I feel like I'm losing my best friend and my girlfriend. You can hardly win."

Devin put out the cigarette and sighed. "The difference between Shelley and Carrie though, is that I've known Carrie for fourteen years, I should know what she's thinking, but... sometimes I can't even tell."

Truthfully, Jacques couldn't care less about Devin's issues regarding the whole Carrie and Shelley dilemma. He wanted to come out here for a peaceful smoke to avoid his own drama and problems, yet here he was somehow half-listening to Devin spill into his litany. He didn't fully pay attention until the last line.

Fourteen years. Wanting to know what your best friend was thinking. Yet sometimes it was hard to tell.

Jacques could definitely relate to that feeling.

"I'm sure..." Jacques started uneasily, still wondering how he got in this situation. Perhaps he should've sat somewhere else. "I'm sure she values you as a friend."

Devin sighed sadly. "Sometimes I'm not so sure..."

"What makes you think that?"

Jacques wished he hadn't asked that, because he wasn't prepared for another litany that would follow, which was much longer than the first.

"She's just so confusing! She'll act so happy to see me! Really happy. Unusually happy, and her face gets all red too! And I'm just sitting here thinking, 'Wow... I have such a loyal and close best friend!' But then, she'll act weirdly distant, almost shy. Carrie isn't really a shy person. She's so wonderful and friendly! But sometimes... she's just..." Devin was going to reach for another cigarette but decided against it last second. "...just so incredible, but she keeps going all crazy with me. I mean, I shouldn't say that she's never been like this - part of her had always been that way but it's getting really, really noticeable as of lately!"

Jacques slowly blinked. "So Devin..." Jacques started rhetorically, "What do you think all these signs point to?"

Devin seemed to think very hard about it, then he stated: "I already told you, we're drifting apart!"

"...And you know what's awful?" Carrie was now crying into Josée's shoulder on the sofa, much to the ice dancer's disgust and bewilderment. "...is that he still loves her! I shouldn't be acting so entitled; but the problem is that... that bitch is so nasty to him! He's had girlfriends before, but at least they were nice! And they had no problem with me being his best friend, at least that I know of!" Carrie lifted her blotchy red face and wiped her tears away. "I'm going to die alone with several cats."

"Uh..." Josée blinked slowly, stiff as a board. She attempted to console the blonde: "Dying alone with cats doesn't sound so bad." That was the wrong thing to say. Carrie let out a wail and buried her face into Josée's shoulder again and sobbed. Josée awkwardly patted Carrie's back, biting back another groan. "Um... there, there."

Can she get off my shoulder please?

Carrie proceeded to soak Josée's shoulder with her tears.

Wonderful.

"I just want him to be happy," Carrie said, her voice muffled. "And he's clearly not happy with her!"

Josée genuinely didn't know what advice to give; the last relationship she was in her boyfriend cheated on her with one of her few friends - though it was debatable whether or not Clara was really a friend - after it took her two years to fall in love with him. It reminded her too much of that and to be frank, it made her nauseated.

"It might be something you'll have to deal with."

Carrie looked up from Josée's shoulder, hurt. "That's a little mean."

Josée shrugged. "I'm just trying to be honest." Carrie suddenly got up from her position from the sofa and wiped her face more aggressively. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few tissues and blew her nose loudly into it. Josée winced; she was reminded of an elephant.

"Well thank you for your honesty," Carrie replied, a bit colder. Josée didn't like her change of tone in the least. Without saying another word, Carrie stormed upstairs - presumably to her hotel room. Now Josée thought she could enjoy the solitude.

...Except she couldn't.

The nauseous feeling in her stomach was persisting; and it had all to do with the many emotions swirled from today. All she kept thinking about was the Fashion Bloggers betrayal. Getting bronze. Her argument with the producers. Her argument with Jacques. Her discussion with Carrie. Bernadette dying. Her mother was sick.

Her mother was sick.

Josée didn't know how she found herself stuffing her face in the restaurant within the hotel, but she just couldn't help herself. She just kept going on and on, while these perturbing thoughts swarmed her mind and refused to leave her head. She had blacked out a bit after that, and found herself hurling her body over the toilet in the restaurant's bathroom and spilling the contents from her stomach immediately after.

Fashion Bloggers.

Bronze.

Producers.

Jacques.

Carrie.

Bernadette.

Her maman.

Her maman.

Josée sunk down in the stall to the floor, not caring at all that it was dirty, and cried.