A/N: Little on the shorter side but AHHHHH!

Sitting on the gym floor as she stretched, JJ finally felt a sense of calm. The last couple of weeks had been an emotional turmoil for her, but eventually, she was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Jason and Katie had returned to Florida with the promise that they would be back in a heartbeat if JJ and Sandy needed them. But JJ was confident that this time, the upward climb was going to stick. Renewed with fresh energy, she had marched into the gym one morning and defiantly told Nick that she wanted to train for Worlds again. Despite the fact she had lost weight and muscle and was going to have to work harder than ever to gain her skills back, Nick had not hesitated in agreeing.

"Now, I thought about what you said about not wanting to do your routine from last year because of how emotional it is for you, and I had an idea for your new floor routine that's a bit… different," Teagan said slowly as JJ sat in a split before her. "If you don't like it, I want you to say so, ok?"

JJ nodded.

"I found a beautiful piece of music. It's called The Arena, and it's a modern classical piece done on a violin. The name itself ties into the idea I had, and that is… well, I was thinking of creating a type of performance piece based on your experience in Rio last year"

JJ looked up in surprise, unsure of what exactly Teagan meant.

"More specifically, this piece portrays the emotions you felt before your floor routine in the all-around, during, and after. The final pose would be symbolic of the moment you realised you were the Olympic Champion. I want to work on a sample of choreo to show you first before we go for a whole routine, but I wanted to run the idea past you first"

JJ thought for a moment, the silence of the gym weighing on her shoulders. In Rio, she had been in an incredibly vulnerable stage of her life… was she prepared to relive that moment by proxy?

"Can I think about it?" she asked softly. Teagan nodded.

"No pressure. I'll prepare a bit of choreo, and if you want to see it, we can run through it next week"

She had agonized for hours, constantly typing and deleting the message, the fear of the unknown getting the best of her every time she had gotten close to sending it. But eventually, she had bitten the bullet, effectively closing her eyes and shooting for the dart board.

I miss you. I'm sorry.

She had immediately crawled into bed, burying her head under the covers and ignoring her phone, hoping her attempt at making contact wouldn't blow up in her face.

But hours later, she was woken up by her phone buzzing on the bedside table.

"Wha-?" she mumbled, blindly fumbling in the dark for her phone. She finally closed her hand around it, pulling it towards her and flipping it up so she could see the screen.

Will

Suddenly she was wide awake, her heart pounding in her chest. Why was he calling her? And at two in the morning no less?

Swallowing hard, she accepted the call, lifting the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"JJ… JJ, is that… is that you?"

His speech was slurred at best, and that only made JJ's heart sink. He was drunk. Of course he would only call her when he wouldn't remember it the next day. "I… yeah, Will, it's me"

"God, JJ, I-Imissyou sooooo much-"

"Will, you're drunk," she whispered sadly.

"Yeah, but I'm fuckin'… I'm out and I just… I miss you so goddamn much," Will slurred. "You're just… you're so beautiful-"

"Will, I need to go to sleep," JJ replied, her voice catching in her throat as she spoke. But seconds later, she was cut off by the sound of a drunken sob from the other end of the phone. When he spoke again, he suddenly sounded far more sober than just moments before.

"I still love you… I love you so much it hurts, and I wish I could stop lovin' you because it's the only thing I can think of that would make the hurtin' stop, but I can't because… you're still my soulmate"

Tears cascaded down JJ's cheeks at his words. He wasn't going to remember a word of it when he sobered up, and somehow, that just made the worlds sting a thousand times more.

There was a rustling on the other end, accented by muffled voices, before it all went quiet for a moment.

"Hello?"

The female voice drove the ache further into JJ's heart, but she sniffed back her tears, pulling herself up to sit on the edge of her bed. "Who's this?"

"Hey honey, my name's Camilla. Look, you might wanna come get your man, he's had a lot to drink and he probably needs to sleep it off in a bathroom right about now"

"I… uh… I'm in Pittsburgh, I can't really come and get him" JJ stammered, slowly getting to her feet.

The girl on the other end laughed. "Well good thing he's also in Pittsburgh. We're outside King's Bar, I'm waiting for an Uber, but I'll wait to order it until he's safely on his way, I don't think he's in any state to make his own way home tonight"

JJ took a deep breath. "Ok… ok, sure… give me like… ten minutes, I… I'll come and get him"

"Ok, I'll wait here and make sure he doesn't pass out or anything"

Ending the call, JJ stood in the middle of her room, completely dumbfounded and simultaneously overwhelmed by the massive barrage of emotions she had just taken in.

Will was in Pittsburgh? Since when had he been back from New Orleans? And not only that… alcohol usually lowered inhibitions and revealed the truth. Had what he said held any truth? Did he really still feel that way about her after all that had happened?

Taking another deep breath in an effort to calm her racing heart, she steeled her resolve. She would go and get him and let him nurse off the drunkenness in her bathroom.

Then whatever tomorrow held, she would just have to take it as it came.