A/N: Please leave a review if you're reading! I love to hear your thoughts.
Having qualified to all four event finals, rest wasn't really something on the cards for JJ until the conclusion of the world championships on Saturday night.
But when her first event final, vault, ended with a surprise world title for her, lack of rest no longer mattered. She felt reinvigorated by the win, and suddenly all the more motivated to see what other surprises she could pull off in the remaining finals. Jade had slipped in behind her for a silver medal, while Giulia Steingruber, the Olympic bronze medalist the previous year, repeated her own result with another bronze medal.
That fresh determination had carried over to bars where, after what felt like the routine of a lifetime, she had finally bested her own result on the piece. It wasn't enough for gold, no, gold was going to Fan Yilin, one of the four reigning champions from 2015, but her ever consistent bars bronze had finally turned to silver. Elena Eremina had rounded out the bars podium for bronze, making up for just missing the podium the previous evening in the all-around final.
Saturday brought the final round of event titles to be awarded, and a sense of sadness within JJ, possibly greater than the one that had been hanging over her all week. This was really it. She was going to walk into a competition arena one last time, and then she was going to leave the sport of gymnastics behind forever.
But first, she was going to make sure that she left it with no regrets whatsoever.
So she had taken that promise to beam. It was a fairly competitive final, but for the first time she could remember in her career, she allowed the competitive side of herself, the side that knew she was easily the best in the competition, to come forward. She was the best. She'd been undefeated for so long. As long as she got up there and did exactly what she did in training, there was no reason for that to change.
So, as the two time reigning Olympic champion, and four time defending world champion, she mounted the beam in a near silent arena. Her mind was focused on nothing but the skills and movements before her. Her Onodi to aerial walkover series was perfect. Her layout full was punched perfectly onto the surface of the beam. Her leaps and turns were exquisite. There was not a flicker of a wobble to be seen. It truly was the routine of a champion.
As the ten second timer rang out, she was already tumbling towards the end of the beam, before punching into a quick and easy full twisting double tuck. She hit the ground with her chest up tall, her arms immediately going up above her head to signify the end of what surely had to be her greatest routine yet.
"That ought to do it for Jennifer Jareau as she chases her fifth world beam title!"
"I loved beam but my gosh, I never had an ounce of the confidence she has. I've never seen her doubt a single landing on the beam. She's just amazing. The gymnastics world is going to sorely miss her after these worlds"
"Just another gold medal," JJ said cheekily as she bounded up to Nick after the victory ceremony half an hour later, the gold donut-like medal hanging heavily around her neck. "Casually"
"These are definitely going to your head," Nick laughed. "Also, you need to stop winning, because I have no more room for banners in the gym"
"Well, stop putting up banners with my name on them," JJ shrugged. "Easy fix"
"Never, I want to make you cringe with embarrassment every time you walk into the gym," Nick teased, nudging her slightly with his hip to knock her off balance. She laughed, lifting the gold medal from her neck and wrapping it up carefully to place it in her bag.
It felt like just minutes, but it was actually almost an hour later that she was standing at the side of the floor, awaiting her turn to compete in her last final. She was listed to go last, and so far, it had been a competitive final. Mai Murakami was leading the standings, and at this point, with two left to go, she was guaranteed a medal. Jade was holding onto second, while Claudia Fragapane of Great Britain was sitting in third, and if JJ simply put her routine to her feet, she was basically guaranteed to finish in fourth.
Vanessa Ferrari of Italy had just taken the stage, readying herself in her starting pose. JJ turned away, finding Nick standing a few feet behind her. The look on his face was somewhat morose, and she knew he was also thinking about how this was it.
"It's going to be weird next year," he said softly, looking down at JJ with a smile as Vanessa's music started. "Watching Worlds from afar"
JJ smiled, glancing down at her hands before looking back at her coach. "Yeah… I've been thinking about it. It'll be good… but it will be weird"
"I'm gonna miss this. I know it's been a long, hard road, but… I wouldn't change a second of it, Jayje, I really wouldn't"
JJ bit her lip, shaking her head as she fought off a smile. "Nick, I love you, but if you make me cry before I do this floor routine, I'll have to kill you"
Nick laughed, reaching out and playfully swatting her shoulder. Seconds later, there was a loud THWACK, followed by a collective gasp around the arena. JJ whirled around, her eyes landing on Vanessa crumpled over in the corner of the floor, one hand clutching her left foot. Her music was dying away, and two of the medical staff were rushing to her side.
"Uh oh," JJ murmured, looking at Nick. "That doesn't look good"
"Just keep focusing on staying warm. She's probably just stung her ankle," Nick said gently, guiding JJ away from the edge of the floor and positioning himself between her and Vanessa so she couldn't see what was going on.
It wasn't long before Vanessa was carried away by the head coach of the Italian team, a round of applause being given to her as she was taken from the arena floor. Amidst it all, JJ was instructed to make her way up the stairs and await her green light.
"JJ just needs to focus and I daresay she'll be the world champion here as well"
"She's got by far the greatest difficulty of anyone in the competition. She just has to put this to her feet"
"You got it JJ!" she heard Jade call as her green light flashed. Smiling, she raised her chin, lifting a hand to salute as her name was called out for everyone to hear.
For the last time, her music began to play, and she allowed herself to get lost in it, wanting to perform her heart out for her final show in gymnastics. She felt like she was flying as she rocketed across the floor, her tumbling clean and precise as she nailed it into the floor.
But being just ninety seconds, it felt like it was over before it started. Flooded with a strange sense of sad relief, she turned into the corner to line up for the last diagonal run.
"Last tumbling line for Jennifer Jareau in what has been… a career most can only dream of"
Taking off across the floor, JJ hurdled into her tumbling line. She focused hard on every inch of her body, fighting for perfection the entire time. Pushing through her shoulders, she rebounded out of her flip and into her full twisting double tuck. As she opened up from the twist, she spotted the floor, readying herself for the rebound into her leap onto her landing. Her feet hit the ground, her muscles tensing immediately to send her back upwards, but as she did, she heard a loud snap, pain suddenly rocketing up the back of her foot at the same time it felt like someone had whacked her heel with a plank of wood. Muscle memory kicked in, carrying her through the leap, but at the last second, she pitched herself forward, forcing her landing onto her left foot. She staggered forward, a shaky gasp leaving her mouth as she threw her hands up into some semblance of a final pose as the music rang out its final beat. The audience immediately began to cheer, clearly not realising anything was wrong.
She could hardly stand from the pain, but she managed to salute the judges, before crumpling to the floor and rolling onto her back as tears threatened to spill over. The pain was incredible, and she couldn't help but let out a cry as she reached down towards her lower leg to clutch her foot. The applause died off, replaced by a few gasps and a general worried murmur going around the arena.
"She's hurt herself," Will said, leaning forward in his seat in an attempt to get a better view, the urgency clear in his voice. "Something's wrong"
"It's ok, they have the medical teams coming over now," Sandy said, but even as she attempted to provide Will some reassurance, the shakiness and the concern was plainly clear in her voice.
Nick was the first to get to JJ, his face swimming into view above her through the tears of agonising pain, blocking out the blinding lights that seemed to be hammering down on her from above.
"What happened? Did you land short?" he asked, bringing a hand under her calf to support her leg as she fought to even out her breathing.
"Something snapped," she managed to choke out. "I heard it snap"
Moments later, there were two, then three medical staff at her side, but even their presence wasn't enough to stop the tears of pain. They created a bit of a blockade around her, shielding her from the view of the cameras and onlookers as they tried to ascertain what had happened.
"You're ok, just keep your foot nice and still," said one of them, a girl with long blonde hair, as she took JJ's right leg and held her ankle still in a plantar flexion position. Bringing her hands up, JJ covered her face, not even trying to stop the sobs that were escaping her as she lay there on the floor. Above her, the blonde medic looked up to the other members of the medical team. "I think she's ruptured her Achilles, I can't feel it at the back of her foot"
The pain was terrible, and JJ kept her face covered as she let the tears fall. Nick's hand came to her shoulder, but he still allowed her a moment to break down.
Was this how it was all going to end now? Rather than going out on a high note, instead she would have two Olympics, six Worlds, the most decorated American gymnast in history… all those accolades, taken down by a pesky tendon.
"Can you carry her? We'll take her to the medical room and get her properly evaluated," the blonde medic asked Nick. Nick nodded, looking down at JJ and giving her a reassuring smile as he slid one arm behind her back, the other beneath her knees, and easily scooped her up off the floor. As he started walking, the crowd began to cheer, but all JJ could do was bury her face in her hands and let the tears fall. Overwhelmed by pain, disbelief, and sadness, she turned her face, tucking it against Nick's shoulder, hiding from the cameras, the watching eyes, the curious faces as he carried her towards the exit which led to the back rooms of the competition hall.
"You won, by the way," Nick said softly as they pushed through the curtains and into the hallway.
"I don't care," JJ said tearfully, refusing to lift her face. "I can't believe that happened. I knew it was hurting. It's been hurting all year and I kept pushing it. I should have stopped. I was so stupid"
"JJ, if I thought at any point that that pain meant there was a chance of you blowing your Achilles tendon, I would've stopped you from training," Nick said gently. "An Achilles rupture can happen to anyone at any time. It could've happened in the gym the week before Nationals, it could've happened in two months time while you were out on a run… this is not something to blame yourself for. You had pain, and everyone you spoke to said it was just tight muscles. This could be completely unrelated to your pain. Sometimes accidents just happen, JJ, and that's ok"
As he spoke, he pushed through the doors to the medical room, where Vanessa Ferrari was still being evaluated by one of the doctors. The medics lead JJ and Nick over to a second table, where Nick set JJ down while they pulled a curtain around the space to give both gymnasts a little more privacy. Wordlessly, Nick turned towards the table up against the wall, grabbing a bunch of tissues from the box sitting there, and pressing them into JJ's hand.
"You still had the worlds you wanted. You got to finish with five more medals, four more titles. Not even this can take that away. You're gonna heal up so quickly from this and then you get to just enjoy the rest of your life," he said with a smile, perching on the edge of the bed as one of the medics came back over.
"I'm just going to take a quick look at your foot and then we're going to splint you, ok?"
JJ nodded, wiping at her tears and watching as the young girl gently turned her injured foot from side to side.
"Ok, I don't even really need to do an examination, I can tell straightaway that's definitely a tendon rupture. So, JJ, what we're going to do, we're going to pop you in a splint with your foot pointing down like this to take the pressure off the tendon, since I think part of it may still be attached. Now, you've won a medal, so if you would like to, your coach can take you back out there to accept it, otherwise, we can take you straight to the hospital to have this properly stabilised"
JJ looked up at Nick, unsure of what she should do. He immediately shrugged. "It's up to you. If you want to go out, I'll take you back out. If you don't want to, Brian can go up and accept it for you, and we'll go to the hospital"
Hesitating for a moment, JJ wiped her eyes again, before looking up at Nick with the smallest of smiles on her face. "I think… I think I want to go out and get it"
"Ok," Nick replied simply. "I'll take you back out as soon as you're all wrapped up"
"The gold medallist, and 2017 world champion on floor exercise, representing the United States of America… Jennifer Jareau!"
JJ waved to the roaring crowd, a watery smile crossing her face as Nick scooped her up and lifted her onto the podium. He set her down carefully, standing behind her to help her keep her weight off her injured foot. From her left, Mai stepped up momentarily and gave her a warm hug, followed by Jade from her other side.
Still holding onto Nick, JJ turned back towards Nadia Comaneci, who was approaching her with her gold medal in her hands. JJ was still smiling as Nadia shook her hand, before leaning down to accept the medal over her head.
"You were fabulous. This whole championships. Beautiful. I'm wishing you a speedy recovery," Nadia said sweetly, stretching up and kissing JJ's cheek as she shook her hand again.
"Thank you," JJ said shakily, her voice betraying how close she was to tears again.
The flowers came, as did the anthems. Most of it was a blur to JJ, who was trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her foot. Before too long, Nick had scooped her up, carrying her back off the stage to more applause, before they disappeared back into the archway that led to the belly of the arena.