A/N: My 2012 fascination with the Olympics has returned, so I am going to aim to convey the wonderful feelings and vibes the London 2012 Games give me every time I watch them. Enjoy!

"Michael!"

The familiar Scottish voice carried over the hustle and bustle of Heathrow's arrivals. Michael immediately turned, spotting his mother waving at them above a crowd of heads. He beamed, changing track and leading his family through the masses to get to them. As they got closer, he realised his brother, Donnie, was also with them.

"Hi love," Anne said endearingly as she wrapped her eldest son in a hug. "It's been too long!"

"Hi Mom," Michael said through a happy smile. Hugs were shared all around as they all greeted each other warmly. It had been quite a while since he had last seen his parents. Both British citizens, his mother of Scotland, and his father, Harold "Harry", of England, they had moved back to the United Kingdom after Michael's youngest sibling, Miranda, had moved out after college. The last time they had come to the States had been for Jason's college graduation, and it had been even longer than that since Michael had been to Britain to visit them.

"So what gives Mikey, your kid's gotta go to the Olympics for you to visit?" Donnie teased, clapping his brother on the shoulder. Michael rolled his eyes, laughing.

"When it takes that long for us to clear immigration, you wonder why we don't visit more often"

"Bad flight?" Harry asked.

"A storm rolled through Pittsburgh right as we were boarding, and then there was lightning, so the airport workers had to stay undercover and there was no-one to push our plane from the gate. So we left Pittsburgh half an hour late, just made our connection in Newark, and then landed half an hour late here. Add to that the hundreds of people trying to clear immigration and customs, and arrivals is an absolute nightmare. I wonder if JJ had the same problem"

"How is JJ?" Anne asked suddenly, turning to Sandy.

"She's good, a little nervous but mostly excited," Sandy said, beaming as she spoke. "Which makes two of us"

"She's going to be fantastic," Anne said endearingly as they started to walk to the front of the terminal. "So I got us all tickets for the opening ceremony, it's apparently going to be phenomenal, the BBC haven't shut up about it for the last three weeks"

Sandy laughed. "Well it better be phenomenal for the price!"

"Absolute rip-off if you ask me, it's daylight robbery," Harry grumbled from behind them.

"It's the Olympics Harold. How often are you going to see the Olympics in your home country? Probably never!"

"We had the Games in 1948 Anne"

"Oh I know, but the Games were nothing like they are now back then," Anne said wistfully. "Now we've rented two cars for the duration of the Games, mostly just for getting in and out of the city, and it's come in handy for today, what with all your bags! But we'll probably have to take the Tube to get to and from the venues, I bet driving will be a nightmare"

"When's Miranda getting in?" Michael asked. "I know she was in Paris with the kids for the summer"

"Yes, they're coming on the train, Harry will pick them up after dinner tonight. Oh, I'm so excited that we're all back together," Anne said happily, squeezing her son in a tight hug as they reached the car. Michael grinned, happily returning his mom's hug, for he too, felt exactly the same way.

"How are you feeling?"

The question was light, an air of excitement hidden beneath her coach's voice. JJ smiled, lifting her bag higher on her back.

"Excited," she said softly, a little giggle escaping. "I can't believe it's really happening"

Nick chuckled. "Just wait for Sunday then"

They stopped walking as the group came to a stop just short of the entrance into the arena. They had been led through the underbelly of the North Greenwich Arena by volunteers, tracing the same steps they would take for the days of competition. There was an air of excited nerves amongst them all; they couldn't wait to get out and get a feel for the arena and the official competition apparatus. They couldn't wait to lay their eyes on the arena in which they hoped all their dreams would come true.

It wasn't too long before they were walking again, following the volunteers who were leading them to their designated rotation. Dressed in a brilliant pink that reminded her of Nastia Liukin's winning leotard from four years ago, JJ felt a little shiver of excitement run down her spine. She subconsciously adjusted her grips, which were already on her hands and ready to go.

And then they walked around a dividing wall, out beneath a low arch, and into the arena. JJ almost had to fight back a gasp as she took in the brilliant hot pink of the walls and podiums, the bright white floor that seemed to shine all the way up to the ceiling, and the London 2012 logos splashed across every surface. They had seen it in pictures that someone had posted on Twitter, but actually seeing it with their own eyes was something JJ couldn't even begin to describe.

"Oh my god Jayje," Aly squealed excitedly under her breath, reaching over and squeezing JJ's hand. JJ beamed.

They walked down the entire length of the vault podium, taking in everything as they walked, before coming to a rest at the uneven bars. They immediately put their bags down on the chairs along the wall, and quickly but quietly walked up onto the podium, turning to face Martha and standing in their height order as they were so used to doing.

"Alright. Remember this might be podium training, but we are treating it like any other competition. Full run exactly as it will go on Sunday. I will remind you of our lineups for qualifications, as that is the same format we are going to use today," Martha said quietly and calmly, her voice commanding the girls' attention. She unfolded a piece of paper, full of lists and diagrams that she had obviously spent her free time poring over.

"On every event except for the vault, the girl who is going first is the girl who will not compete the event in the team final, unless we see a reason to change that after the qualifications. Here on bars, we are starting with Aly, then JJ, Kyla and Gabby will follow. On beam, we are starting with Gabby, followed by Aly, Kyla, and then JJ. On floor, Kyla will lead, then Gabby, JJ and Aly will follow. On vault, McKayla has to go first as she is attempting to qualify for the vault final. Seeing as she will be our vault anchor on Tuesday night, we will simply go in reverse order to the qualification leadoff, so I'll have Gabby go up after her, followed by Aly, and JJ to close off"

Martha closed the piece of paper and looked up at her girls.

"Coaches in earlier podium training have reported that some of the girls are finding the equipment little bit bouncier than usual. Use this time now to get a feel for the equipment and learn how to adjust for Sunday. Now, let's prepare for bars and get underway"

Nodding silently, the girls turned and approached the apparatus. McKayla was not competing bars at all. In fact, the only event she would compete in the entire Olympics would be vault, but here in podium training, she was helping prepare the bars for the other girls.

JJ stood back by the chalk bowl, watching as the bars were chalked up. She absently rubbed chalk into the hand straps of her grips, narrowing her focus down onto the bars. She was a little nervous. But she had spent most of their last week in training trying to batter away the self doubt. She knew, once she got past the nerves, that the adrenaline would carry her through.

She didn't want to look back on an Olympics full of shaky, nervy mistakes. She wanted to be her very best.

With her grips all chalked and Aly having finished her warmup, JJ quickly walked over to the apparatus. She simply wanted to climb up, have a few practice swings, practice her transition, and time her dismount.

With a nod from Nick to say she was ready to go, she wasted no time in walking up and grasping the low bar. Pulling herself up on top of it, she fell forwards, catching the high bar and immediately generating swing from it. The bars had a generous give to them, which meant she had to tap hard to drive herself upwards, but after two swings, she had easily adjusted her rhythm.

A quick turn atop the bar allowed her to turn herself back towards the low bar. She swung down, flying between the high and low bar in her Pak salto, catching it easily and letting herself drop to the mat. She quickly jumped back up, catching the high bar and swinging herself into a giant. Two more giants, and she released into a simple layout flyaway, finding her feet easily. Smiling to herself, she turned and walked off the mat towards the chalk bucket, swinging her arms to loosen her shoulders as she went.

Their mock warmup time passed quickly, and soon they were in competition mode. Aly took to the bars first, delivering her stock standard consistent routine. The only differences between podium training and their qualification round that would come on Sunday was that there was no limit to who could work each event – if McKayla had been healthy, Martha surely would have had all five of them up on every event – and that the girls were not required to vacate the podium while each of them worked.

They continued working through their routines, piece by piece. JJ found herself falling into a rhythm after bars. The equipment felt comfortable, she was feeling strong, and the vibe in the arena, even without the crowd that would come on Sunday, was electric.

Beam felt strong, and JJ couldn't help but feel proud of the routine she had displayed. She knew that coming in as the reigning world champion on the event meant she was a frontrunner for the final with a lot of expectations on her from all angles, but she didn't want to feed into it. She just wanted to go out and do her absolute best.

Floor had been the only place where they had had even the slightest issues. The floor in the arena was quite a bit bouncier than they were used to, and JJ had found herself rebounding out of almost all of her passes. At the conclusion of their routines, Martha allowed them some extra time to work their passes on the floor, and after a few rounds of trial and error, JJ finally found the right way to adjust her landings to compensate for the springy floor.

Their last stop in podium training was vault, where they took it in turns to run timers, easy vaults, and then lastly, the vaults they would perform in competition. Kyla, even though she likely would not compete vault at all in the Games, warmed up and trained a fabulous double twisting Yurchenko that, for a split second, made JJ re-evaluate her own vault.

Tired, but buzzing with adrenaline and excitement, they left the arena a little under an hour later, heading back to their complex for a much earned shower and good night's sleep.

Just one more sleep, and the Olympics would truly arrive.

After dinner and showers, the girls had some downtime before they had to go to bed. Too revved up from the excitement of the impending Games, Aly and McKayla had steadily wound the others up into a giggling, happy mess in the common room, providing JJ the perfect opportunity to slip into the privacy of their room and check in with her friends and family.

Made it to London. Won't even go into the airport situation, what a nightmare. Hope podium training went well! What does the arena look like? Love you heaps – Mom

JJ smiled, quickly tapping out a reply.

Should've seen baggage claim when we arrived. The entire Japanese delegation arrived at the same time and they all had the exact same baggage. No-one knew which one belonged to them. Was kinda funny to watch. Podium training was good, the floor's a little bouncy, so I'm just hoping you don't have to witness me bouncing myself into the rafters haha. The arena is hot pink. Mac is very excited about it. Love you too – JJ

Just over a minute later, another message from her mom zoomed in.

Good grief, might need to take my sunglasses. Haha. And yes, I'm glad we didn't witness anything like that, although I'm sure it was very funny. If you do bounce yourself into the rafters, just do your uneven bars dismount and act like it was supposed to happen – Mom

Giggling, JJ shook her head.

I'm about to call Will and let him know I'm still alive, since he's messaged me every day since I got here and I haven't answered, oops. I'll call you tomorrow after training. Give Grams and Pa a hug from me – JJ

Will do. Love you – Mom

Switching out of the message app, JJ quickly opened up the keypad, dialling Will's number off by heart. After barely two rings, he had picked up.

"She lives!"

JJ laughed. "Hello to you too"

"Decided I'm worth your time now, hey?"

"Hey, I have been very busy thank you very much," she giggled. "I'd like to see you train for an Olympics"

"Couldn't do it. I enjoy pizza wayyyy too much"

Laughing, JJ shook her head. "So what have you been doing in my absence, seeing as annoying me seems to be your favourite pastime?"

"Annoying my mom. No joke, she told me to take a hike last night and I think she meant it literally"

JJ laughed.

"But that aside, we've all been planning watch parties. I got the draw of having everyone over for the opening ceremony tomorrow afternoon, so Lani and Clay and the rest of the gang are coming over after lunch. As it so happens, Sam and Lisa are in Pittsburgh for the week, so they'll be here to watch as well. They told me to tell you good luck"

"Tell them I said thanks," JJ said warmly.

"And, yeah... Tessa is hosting for qualifications. She said the session looks ridiculously long, like it starts broadcasting live at frickin four thirty in the morning. I told her there was no way in hell I'm dragging my ass across town to her house at four thirty"

JJ laughed again. "Qualifications are done in one big session, broken into five subdivisions. We're in subdivision three, which is at 2:45 in the afternoon in London, so I think that's... 9:45 in Pittsburgh"

"Whew. Ok. That's better. I can do 9:45. And then Lani said she's hosting for team finals because she has the biggest stockpile of tissues ready to go. I think all our parents are going to go and watch as well, if they're not working"

JJ felt a fuzzy warmth spreading through her chest. She had so many people watching her, supporting her, going out of their way to see her compete at the Olympics... it was pretty incredible to say the least.

"Olympics aside, have you done anything else other than annoy your mom since I left?" she teased lightly.

"I went on a date with Isabelle last night," Will said conversationally. JJ fell silent, trying to ignore the sudden emotion that was stirring in her chest.

"Yeah? How'd that go?" she asked quietly, trying to keep her voice devoid of emotion.

"Well," Will said, letting out a little chuckle. "It was kinda terrible honestly. I mean, the first part was fine, we went for dinner and had a good time, but then…"

JJ fought back a grin, ignoring the little swell of hope that had grown in her chest at his mention of the date being terrible. "What? She grew horns and wings and flapped off into the distance?"

"I know you don't like her, but come on," Will laughed. "No, we… uh… things got a little hot and heavy in the car, and she was kinda going for it down there, and… she bit me"

JJ couldn't help but burst into hysterical laughter.

"Jayje, it's not funny, I'm hoping it heals without me having to tell my parents"

"Oh my god," JJ choked out, dragging a chuckle out of Will. "You really get yourself into some situations, LaMontagne"

"Sure, laugh it up Jareau. You have no idea how embarrassing it was for both of us"

JJ froze.

She really didn't have any idea what it was like. In fact, as far as boys were concerned, she didn't really have any idea what anything was like. Sure, she'd had a fumbled first kiss with Chris Peterson, but considering that had happened during a game of hormone fuelled Seven Minutes in Heaven, she didn't really count it as much.

Who was she to even think she had a chance with Will? What was Will going to want from a girl who'd hardly even kissed anyone, when he himself had gone way further than she'd ever imagined?

"Jayje? You still there?"

"I… yeah," she said quietly. Suddenly a flash entered her mind, her and Will tangled together in the darkened space of his room, her kneeling between his legs, her hands wrapping around him as she lowered her lips to-

"I have to go," she blurted out suddenly. "Martha wants us in bed in half an hour"

"Oh… ok," Will replied. "Well… if I don't speak to you before Sunday, good luck and have fun. You're gonna kill it out there"

"Thanks," she said softly. "I'll talk to you later"

And with a quick goodbye, she hung up the phone, staring at it as she tried to gather her thoughts.

She was sure she'd never felt so vulnerable before. Not even when she'd made all those mistakes in those first days of training in London. For the first time ever, speaking to her best friend had only served to make her feel sad.

Before she fully registered what she was doing, her fingers were moving across the screen, tapping out another familiar number.

It didn't take long for Katie to pick up the phone, and when she did, JJ had never been happier to hear her sister-in-law's voice.

"Hey JJ. How's it going?"

"Ok," JJ said softly, and she knew immediately that she hadn't been at all convincing.

"What's going on? You sound a little down," Katie said gently.

JJ swallowed hard, looking down at her lap as Katie waited patiently on the other end.

"Everyone's growing up without me," she said sadly, curling further into herself as the girls' giggles floated in from the next room.

"What happened?" Katie asked. JJ heard the sound of a door opening and closing in the background. "I'm alone if you want to talk it out, no-one else is going to overhear"

JJ took an inward breath... and then before she could stop it, it all came tumbling out.

"I was just talking to Will, and he was telling me about this date he went on, and it made me realise how socially behind I am compared to everyone I'm friends with. Everyone I went to school with has had at least one relationship, and here I am, having never actually properly kissed anyone or anything, and I just... I hate it. I'm like a kid. And it sucks, because Will's never going to want to date someone who literally has no idea about any of this stuff"

A short silence fell, before Katie spoke up softly from the other end of the line.

"Do you like Will?"

JJ's heart leapt into her throat. "I... I didn't mean it like that-"

"You know it's completely ok if you do? It's normal, and healthy... and to be completely honest, not entirely surprising either. He's a lovely guy, JJ, it's completely normal that you'd be attracted to him"

JJ let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"I just... I only kinda figured it out since I've been away. I just don't really want to think about it, not with everything else I've got going on... but I just can't help but feel that I'm being left behind. I mean, I think I'm the only one of my friends that hasn't had sex, I just feel like such a little kid"

"Hey," Katie said softly. "You know there's no 'normal' timeframe for growing up? I know that it feels wrong to have not had a relationship or had sex by a certain point in your life, but it's ok. Everyone goes at their own pace. This is your normal, JJ… and don't get me wrong, sex is great, but I think going to the Olympics is way better. Don't tell Jason I said that"

JJ laughed.

"Trust me JJ, in twenty years, you're not going to remember that you hadn't had a relationship by eighteen, because it's not important. You're going to remember going to the Olympics, representing your country, and all the blood, sweat, tears and hard work that it took to get there. And there aren't many people in the world who will know what that feels like"

JJ took a deep breath, settling back on her bed as a wave of comfort washed over her. A comfortable silence settled between them, JJ just appreciating that Katie was someone she was able to turn to.

"JJ?"

"Yeah?"

"I... I know that sometimes it's really hard for you... having lost Roz. I know I couldn't ever replace her, but I want you to know... you can call me, any time you need, for anything at all. You know that right?"

JJ swallowed hard, tears cresting her eyes as she thought of the big sister she so desperately wished could be with them today.

"Thank you Katie"

"Anytime JJ. I mean it"