Payson pulled down the street and turned into the familiar parking lot. There were only a few empty spots and she frowned when she saw that her mother's car was in their reserved parking spot. Sighing she navigated her car into the spot next to it and looked up expecting to see the slightly mocking, Reserved for Kmetko sign, but blinked when she looked up and saw it said, Reserved for Keeler. She checked the spot to her right where her mother's car was already parked, it still had their name on it. She looked to her left and nearly leapt out of her skin when she saw Sasha, sitting astride his motorcycle, pocketing his sunglasses.
She leapt out of her car quickly, her questions about the parking spot flying out of her head. She hadn't seen her coach since she'd left on a two week press tour following Worlds and she suddenly felt the overriding urge to hug him.
"Sasha," she said, smiling widely, an expression he returned as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, sliding over the familiar leather jacket.
"Welcome home, Payson," he said, warmly, pulling back hands sliding along her arms, holding her gently at the elbows so he could look at her.
She slid from his grasp, her smile widening as she looked at him and then at the gym she called home. "I'm so glad to be back," she said.
"Do you like your spot?" he asked, nodding towards the reserved sign.
"This is your doing then?" she asked, quirking a brow in his direction.
Sasha shrugged lightly, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. "As much as we all love and miss Emily, leaving the sign there was becoming uncomfortable and when your mother told me about the endorsement deal with Audi, I figured you could use your own spot, especially since you and Kim keep such different hours here. Nice wheels, by the way."
Payson smiled, looking back over the shiny black sports car that had been sitting in her driveway upon her arrival home the day before. "It's so..." she said, trailing off, not being able to help the admiring glance she gave the car.
"Flashy? Expensive?" he filled in for her.
"Not really me," she said, shrugging, "but it's a gorgeous car."
Sasha shook his head incredulously, "You still don't really see yourself, do you?" he muttered, though she heard him, flushing at the compliment and avoiding his eyes as she grabbed her gym bag from the backseat. He cleared his throat harshly, "So I hope you enjoyed your vacation," he said lightly, as they made their way into the Rock.
"Vacation?" she scoffed, "it was harder than any training you could possibly put me through."
And it had been. Her two weeks away, one in Los Angeles, the other in New York, had been jam packed with interviews, photo shoots, meetings with potential sponsors and even a few appearances. Her agent, Pete Carlisle, the same man who represented Michael Phelps hadn't quite run her ragged, but it had been close.
After her second vault in the team finals, slightly sprained ankle and all, the media attention had been intense, but after being cleared by doctors for the all-around her stock rose even further.
Shocking everyone the way their team had, she and Kelly Parker had stormed through the all-around competition, claiming gold and bronze respectively. That had been the most unexpected victory of all. Payson hadn't quite thought herself at full strength for an all-around and it had little to do with the ankle she had wrapped heavily in the trainer's room prior to the competition. Despite landing the upgraded vault she and Sasha had trained hard after his return during the team final, she knew it had been pure dumb luck landing the skill, which was just as difficult as its description sounded, a round off, half on, forward layout with one and a half twists, and she couldn't be sure she'd be able to pull it off a second time. Then her beam routine, while solid, wasn't where she wanted it to be, the degree of difficulty lower than she'd like going into major international competition.
Despite those perceived deficiencies, thanks to a pain killer and her Schaposchnikova style bars routine, the style now favored by international judges, she'd edged a nose out in front of Ivanka Kirilenko, with Kelly Parker leaving Genghi Cho in the dust after Cho's attempt to land a handspring double twisting layout vault didn't go quite the way the Chinese gymnast planned. Cho landed on her ass and Kelly landed on the podium. A silver for Kaylie in the vault event finals and a bronze for Lauren on beam and the United States had come away with more medals than they could have dreamed of after that disastrous first day of team competition.
Sasha's short guffaw at her favoring his intense training regimen to her two weeks of press and appearances brought her back to present time.
"You ready to start again, to start the final push to the Olympics?" he asked, as they made their way into the Rock.
"Let's do it," she said.
The Rock was bustling already, filled with gymnasts at all levels working to improve. The start of the Olympic year unofficially began after World Championships and despite only a handful of athletes at the Rock expecting to have a chance of making the Olympic team, the idea that the pinnacle of gymnastics competition was approaching increased the enthusiasm for training tenfold.
Sasha watched Payson move away from him, dropping her gym bag down and moving off to the mats to start stretching. His eyes drifted from the newly crowned World Champion around the gym, the bustling open space suddenly screeched to a halt as all eyes turned towards Payson. Then suddenly, nearly all at once, everyone converged upon her, congratulations flowing continuously. He allowed it for a minute, then two and then another before he boomed, "Is this a gym or a meet and greet? Everyone back to work!"
He turned and moved into his office, intent on gathering the charts he'd outlined for the elite girls concerning the upgrades to their routines they would be making over the next few months, but hesitated upon seeing Summer van Horne at her desk, just as she was every morning, but something was different. He frowned to himself, annoyed that he cared at all, when he realized what it was, the monstrosity of an engagement ring that had adorned her finger for the last few weeks was conspicuously missing.
"Morning," he mumbled, trying to regain focus on why he'd entered the office at all.
"Good morning," Summer replied in that cheery way she had in the mornings, a tone he usually couldn't stand unless he'd had at least two cups of coffee. Unfortunately this morning he'd only had time for one. "Kim is out in the annex making some notes for the repairman coming tomorrow to work on the crack in the ceiling, there are three new junior elites and their parents coming by this afternoon for evaluations, Tara and Jake said they'd handle those and you've got some messages." She handed him a stack of, While You Were Out slips, with her bare left hand, but he pretended not to notice, sticking them under the forms on the clipboard he retrieved from his desk.
"Thanks. I'm going to be on the floor most of the day. It's Payson and Kaylie's first day back, but I don't want the other girls too distracted by it. I'm also expecting a call from Marcus McGowan from the NGO, pull me off the floor if he calls."
He didn't give Summer a chance to answer, sliding out the door and taking the stairs two at a time down to the floor. To his left he saw Lauren and Payson stretching on the beam, chatting quietly. Sasha frowned and silently chastised himself. Payson's absence over the last two weeks had kept thoughts of Lauren's confession out of his head, but now she was back and he knew it would have to be dealt with and sooner rather than later.
Then all thoughts of dealing with that fiasco flew from his mind as he saw Kaylie Cruz walk into the Rock with Austin Tucker, no surprise there though he supposed he should talk to them about flouting the no-dating rule so obviously. No, what truly caught his eye was Kelly Parker, gym bag over her shoulder, hair pulled up in a high ponytail, her traditional devil horns nowhere in sight, biting her lip in an expression he rarely saw on the face of the former National and World Champion, uncertainty.
His eyes flickered around the gym, storms seemingly brewing in every corner and Sasha Belov suddenly realized that the next few months, traditionally the off season for elite and international gymnastics, filled with the dichotomous monotony of conditioning and the unbridled enthusiasm of working on new skills were about to get a lot more exciting and as activity in the Rock ground to a halt once again, everyone running over to greet Kaylie after her own two week absence for a string of appearances related to her eating disorder, he realized that excitement would have absolutely nothing to do with gymnastics.