A/N: If you've ever watched an American Cup broadcast, you'll know they skip women's vault for the first round and start from bars, hence why I started there too.

"We are on the road to Rio, where we will find out who will get the glory the Olympic Games can give. Four years ago in London, Gabby Douglas found out. She was the best of the best. The Olympic all-around gold medallist. But now she's trying to do the hardest thing anyone can do; get back to be where she once was. Today, the next logical step. The 2016 AT&T American Cup!"

For the first competition of her 2016 season, with only three months off full intensity training under her belt after a break following Worlds, JJ was feeling pretty good. Vault had gotten off to a good start. JJ had done the cleanest Amanar of her entire career to earn a 15.866 to start off her competition. Gabby had followed with a double twisting Yurchenko that earned a very respectable 15.100

"We are live at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, also known as The Rock, the home of the New Jersey Devils, the competition is already underway. And Gabby Douglas is in great shape, she's just a few tenths away from number one after a great vault, we'll get to that in a moment. The United States historically does well in this event. Donnell Whittenburg of the United States on the men's side is also doing very well. Sam Mikulak is warming up on the vault. I'm Al Trautwig along with a pair of Olympic gold medallists, it's always an honour, Nastia Liukin, and... I'm sorry... Tim Daggett"

"It's going to be an interesting dynamic here today, because Gabby Douglas is actually the second American competing today; the first is World all-around silver medallist, Jennifer Jareau. Now... this is JJ's first real chance to win an international, or even national, all-around competition. In London, Gabby was the stronger of the two, and now, JJ is probably by far, the strongest gymnast in the country apart from Simone Biles. So it's going to be an interesting competition I think, it's JJ's chance to shine as an all-arounder, but it's Gabby's chance to prove she can be what she once was"

JJ was going up next on the uneven bars. She was taking a bit of a risk, debuting her new bars routine after what was a considerably short period of training time, but the skills were there. It was the mental toughness and keeping her nerves in check that needed to be tested out.

"On uneven bars, representing USA, Jennifer Jareau!"

Saluting, JJ habitually adjusted her grips as she turned to face the low bar. Readying her hands behind her for the swing, she took a deep breath, and jumped.

Her glide kip was as smooth as always. Next came her Shaposh transition, a skill she had always been capable of but had never utilised in a competition routine. Relying on her muscle memory, she pulled herself into handstand, before bringing her toes down to the bar as she swung around into a full pirouette. Keeping the momentum, she swung through a stalder, before releasing into a Piked Tkatchev. Catching the bar easily, she let go into her Pak transition down to the low bar. Another stalder, this time with one and a half turns atop the bar before shooting back to the high. Half turn... front giant... half turn into stalder with a full turn... giant swing...

With a satisfying ping from the high bar, she flicked off into a soaring full twisting double layout, landing it easily on her feet with only one step forward to steady herself.

"Wow! She's put in some serious work on bars!"

"That was really good, in fact... if she keeps that up, she could quite easily make the Olympic final"

She was beaming as she high fived Nick on her way down the stairs, getting a congratulatory smile from Gabby as she passed her.

"Nice job!" said Ellie Black, the Canadian gymnast who was sitting beside her. "New routine?"

JJ nodded, taking a sip from her water bottle. "Was it that obvious I was just praying I stayed on?"

Ellie laughed, shaking her head. "Nah, it just looked different to the one you did at Worlds. But good job, you nailed it!"

"Thanks," JJ beamed, pulling her grips off and tucking them away into her grips bag. Just two more events to go.

Beam had been, as was her custom, a walk in the park for JJ. The inconsistency she had shown in late 2014 to early 2015 had been completely blown out of the water with a routine worthy of Aly's 'angry beam' remarks. Gabby had nailed her routine as well, settling the two of them easily into the top spot as they headed around to floor.

JJ hadn't paid a huge deal of attention to the gymnasts before her. She'd caught a glimpse of Ellie's famous 2.5 stepout pass, as well as a little of Gabby's routine, but before long, she was mounting the podium herself.

"On floor exercise, representing USA, Jennifer Jareau!"

A thrilling cheer ran through the building as she saluted and stepped into place.

She was still using her old music for now, but her tumbles had been reworked. Her double layout was now her first pass, as she and Nick were hoping to get an upgrade in place before Nationals. Full of energy, she took off into it, rebounding high off the floor to execute two solid flips.

"Oh that's strange, I thought she was doing her double double first"

A little choreo, before taking off into her double double, which was looking stronger than it had in the previous year.

"She's flip flopped the order on me... I wonder why, the double double is a harder pass"

"Possibly looking to upgrade the layout before later in the season, I'd guess"

Thoroughly enjoying her performance, she danced through the next section of choreography, making sure she hit her leaps as perfectly as she could manage.

Next up was her Arabian double front. Feeling as though it would possibly go awry if she attempted the connections they'd been working on, she settled for just competing the double front; the American Cup was a big event, but it was not worth an injury. Nothing was.

By the time she'd put her feet to the floor on her final pass, the people in the arena were cheering ecstatically for her. She finished with a flourish, before breaking into a huge smile as she turned and saluted the judges, waving to the crowd before walking off to where Nick was waiting.

"Great job kiddo," he said, beaming as he pulled her into a hug. "Looked really good from down here"

A short while later, her score went up to ecstatic applause.

15.033. Meaning she, Jennifer Jareau, had secured her first international all-around title.

She couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she waved to the TV cameras that insisted on following her around, as she hugged and congratulated each of her competitors on a great competition, or as she and Gabby posed for a beaming photo of the two American superstars of the Cup.

She had been gunning for Nationals, Worlds, or Olympics as her target.

But American Cup Champion was a pretty good place to start.

American Cup champion, YAS! It's been an intense three months getting into competition shape, but it paid off. So excited for the rest of the season!

The caption was accompanied by a photo of JJ excitedly holding the women's all-around trophy she had been awarded that evening. Ryohei Kato of Japan had nabbed the men's title, sharing the podium with JJ in the awards ceremony.

While it was just the American Cup, it still meant a huge deal to JJ. She'd been working solidly all quad to prove herself as an all-arounder, and here she was, having faced off against the reigning Olympic all-around champion, with the title securely in her own hands.

It was a confidence boost she'd been waiting for, and most certainly, a bright spot in what had been a very dark couple of months for her personally.

She couldn't help but feel as though things were most definitely looking up.