Chapter Text
They were walking down the jet bridge at the Budapest Ferenc Listz International Airport to embark on their flight back to Denver when Payson suddenly stopped in her tracks, "I forgot my phone in the terminal! I’ll be right back!" She told Lauren and Emily before spinning on her heels and heading back into the airport. Lauren shrugged and followed Summer and Darby into the jet. Emily said nothing. She had been completely out of it since the meet was over. Team USA miraculously came in silver, somehow, but it was barely a win. Emily and Lauren took their seats behind Summer and Darby. "Ugh, I will be so glad to get back and take a shower and wash off the stink of failure." Lauren said. Emily didn’t reply, instead she stared blankly at the back of the seat in front of her. "Hellllooooo, Earth to Emily? Didn’t you hear anything I said?" Lauren probed.
"Oh yeah, sorry, I’m just--"
"Losing it? Duh."
"Good morning passengers of flight 2687 with service to Denver, Colorado, USA. On behalf of Vaya Airlines, we welcome you. If you haven’t already, please store all personal items in the overhead bin and store tray tables in the upright position. Our flying time will be approximately 11 hours and 32 minutes..." The flight attendant was beginning the safety demonstration when Emily's attention was drawn to the empty seat beside her. Then it hit her, "Where is Payson?" Lauren had put headphones in and was rocking her head to the music. Emily reached over and snatched the headphones out of the blonde girl’s ears, "Ow! Hey! What the hell!?" Lauren demanded.
"Where is Payson!?" Emily hissed. Lauren half stood from her seat and looked around. Darby had already fallen asleep and Summer was mindlessly browsing an issue of Vogue. Looking ahead a little further she saw that the bay-door had already been closed. Lauren's eyes went wide just as her phone buzzed, she pulled it out. A message from Payson glowed in front of her 'Lo, I’m getting Sasha back. He is in Snagov. I’m fine. -Pay'. "Oh shit… " Lauren said a little too loudly. Summer swung her head around, "Lauren! Language! Wait-- where is Payson?" Summer asked, acknowledging the empty seat next to Emily. "Oh! She is in the bathroom. She'll be back." Lauren lied.
Emily searched her blonde teammate for answers.
Lauren motioned for Emily to come closer, "She is going to get Sasha back." Lauren whispered.
"Wait, she knows where he is?" Emily looked puzzled.
"Apparently. She said he is in Snagov, wherever that is. Maybe they've been in contact this whole time. Maybe they really were hooking up." Lauren smirked.
Emily rolled her eyes before slumping into her chair.
- - - - -- -- - -----
Payson exited the train at the Gara Halta Snagov Sat station after a 21 hour train ride from Hungary. The plane that was supposed to take her home to Colorado had definitely landed by now. She had turned off her phone to conserve its battery and to avoid her mother’s calls. With the address of where Sasha was supposed to be in hand, she hailed a taxi. 'I hope this is right.'
The taxi dropped her off after a twenty minute drive in an area of town that seemed to lack paved roads. The driver left a trail of dust as he left.
Walking towards her with a bike was an older woman, "Excuse me!" She called, hoping the woman spoke English, "Does Sasha Belov live here?"
"No. No Sasha Belov."
"Uh, maybe he's staying with somebody else, he's tall, got the blonde hair..." Payson trailed off.
"No live here. I know everyone who lives here. Sorry." The woman mounted her bike and rode away.
Payson's shoulders slumped, 'great,' she thought, 'what if I am stranded here and he isn’t even in Snagov?' She had spent what little money she had on getting a train ticket from Budapest to come here. She saw a run-down bar named the Olimpia and entered it. She took a seat on a stool close to the door and picked up a menu. "I can’t believe this." She cursed herself out loud. After taking a few moments to scan the menu she contempated aloud "How many types of borscht can there be?"
"That depends, do you like it with or without meat?" Sasha Belov approached the girl with a stern expression on his face. Payson's head immediately shot up at the farmiliar voice. She couldnt believe that she had actually managed to find him. He, on the other hand, was half angry and half relieved to see her sitting in front of him; especially after the phone call he had gotten from her distressed mother not three hours earlier. Despite this Payson's face immediately brightened by his presence, "Sasha! What are you doing here?"
"I work here. The better question is what are you doing here? You were supposed to be leaving Budapest and going back to the States." Sasha spat.
"I took a detour to come get you and bring you home. I need you, Sasha" the word 'home' hung in the air between them.
"Payson, your mother called me, you ditched your coach, you worried your family, and now you are getting your ass back to Boulder, ASAP." He lectured.
"I’m not leaving here without you." Payson threatened.
Sasha narrowed his eyes at her. "Then you're going to be here a very long time because I am not coming back." Sasha turned away from her and returned to his task.
'God. Why is he is so stubborn? I bet he's testing me.' Payson contemplated; silently deciding to wait him out though neither of them had much patience.
"What’s it like being a bartender?" She asked in an attempt to break the tension.
"What’s it like losing to Pinewood." His rhetorical words stung a bit but gave her hope.
'He knows we lost to Pinewood. He is following my gymnastics!' She mused. It meant that he still cared even if he was putting up a facade. 'Why would he do that if he wasn’t coming back?' She smiled inwardly 'I won’t risk going to worlds without Sasha.'
Sasha sat a plate of food in front of Payson while she sat at the bar. She begrudgingly took a few bites. She hadn’t eaten anything but a protein bar in the past 24 hours so she was secretly grateful. Finally, fed up waiting for what felt like ages, Payson, who was already quite jaded by the situation stood up and positioned herself in front of him.
"When you gave this me to hold," she pulled his men’s all around gold from her pocket and held it in front of him, "It represented something special. Not just athletic triumph but everything I believed that you stood for: courage, strength, kindness, perseverance, and never, ever, giving up." Sasha's eyes stung with tears he was holding back, "Now when I look at it all I see is a quitter. You quit on me. You quit on the Rock, you quit on everybody. So here." She slammed the medal down in front of him. "I don’t want it anymore." She stormed out of the bar. He picked up the medal and stared at it as her took in her words. He took out his phone and dialed, "Kim? Yeah. She's here. I'll care for her. Don’t worry."
- ---- --- - -- -- --- --
Denver International Airport; about eleven hours earlier.
Kim and Becca Keeler stood with the other Rock parents as they waited for their daughters when they saw Summer running at them. The blonde woman came to an abrupt stop in front of them.
"Summer?" Kim questioned, "What is it? What’s going on? I see Lauren and Emily, but where is Payson?" Acknowledging Lauren, Darby, and Emily trailing behind her.
"I’m so sorry Kim! I don’t know. Payson is gone. She wasn’t on the plane!" Summer pleaded with the older woman.
"What do you mean, Summer? Where is my daughter?!" Kim Keeler became stern.
"I’m so sorry Mrs. Keeler, she was gone before I could stop her!" Lauren interjected, "She said she was going to find Sasha."
Kim's mind immediately found itself in Romania. She pulled out her phone and dialed, "Hello, Sasha? I’m sorry to bother you, I wouldn’t call if it weren’t an emergency, but, Payson didn’t come home from Hungary and I was wondering if she was with you?"
"She's not?" Kim's panic intensified.
"If she shows up please call me."
Becca looked up at her mother, "Is Payson okay, mom?"
Kim looked at her daughter and lied, "Yes, she's fine Becca. Go wait in the car."
- --- ----- - --- -- -----
When Sasha's shift at the Olimpia ended he walked out and found his gymnast nodding off on a bench. Apparently she hadn’t gone far when she stormed off. He sat down next to her and patted her shoulder.
"Huh!" She startled herself awake, "Oh, Sasha."
"Truth telling time. I abandoned you. It was wrong of me and I am sorry for that. However, coming here on your own in a country where you don’t even speak the language was reckless and stupid of you." Sasha lectured her, "If something happened to you I would never be able to forgive myself."
"Well I am here and I am fine, Sasha."
"Really? Was your plan to sleep on a bench in front of a bar tonight?"
"My plan was to convince you to come back with me so I wouldn't have to worry about that."
"Come on. It’s late. We can talk in the morning." He stood and held out his hand. She took it and he led her away from his place of work.
"Where are we going?"
"My apartment. You can’t sleep outside and I told your mother I would watch over you."
- --- ----- - --- -- -----
Boulder Colorado, USA
"I don’t know, Mark! You know Payson, when she gets an idea in her head." Kim was exasperated.
"She's with Sasha. She'll be fine." Kim really did believe that her daughter was safe with him even if Mark didn’t. When Sasha called to let her know that Payson was safe she felt relief like she had never felt before. Not even after she had given birth or when Payson finally woke up after falling from the bars at Nationals.
"You know I can’t make her do anything." Kim told her husband over the phone. He was in Minnesota, so far from his family but even if he were with them in Boulder he wouldn’t have been able to stop Payson from taking a detour to Romania.
"I love you too, Mark, I’ll call you later when I know more." Kim hung up her phone and shook her head. She contemplated her daughter for a moment. Payson had been through hell and back and Sasha was there for her when she thought that she would never be able to achieve her dream. She remembered what Payson had told her when Sasha had first been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with her eldest daughter. ‘Beautiful, protected, and special.’ That’s what Payson said that Sasha made her feel. He had been one of Payson's first loves and even though Kim didn’t fully understand why Payson was so enamored with him, at the very least she knew that he wouldn't hurt her. At least that’s what she hoped.
- --- ----- - --- -- -----
Sasha's apartment was a small studio. A queen sized bed sat just under a window that opened to a kitchenette. A worn down punching bag swung gently in the corner. A small table and chairs sat unused. Two doors on the adjacent wall led to a closet and a bathroom.
"I’ll take the floor. You can take the bed." He told her, "The bathroom is the door on the right."
"Do you mind if I shower?" Payson pointed at the door.
"No, here," he walked over to the closet and retrieved an extra towel for her.
"Thanks." She said as she took it from him.
---- - --- ----- - - - - - --- -
Payson let the hot water run over her skin. After not showering for almost thirty hours she needed the relief of a hot shower. The good news was that she found Sasha. The bad news was that he was still unconvinced about coming home with her. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around herself, thankful that she was finally clean. She took note of the small water closet. Her bath products were a definite contrast when compared to his. His scent was sandalwood and tobacco while hers was jasmine and vanilla. Outside she could hear the chain of the heavy bag swinging as Sasha punched and kicked it. Payson opened the door and poked her head out to watch him. He was skillful, but, it was Sasha Belov, so of course he was skillful.
Sasha had head phones in that were blaring what sounded like rock music. He lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. At the sight of his torso Payson couldn’t help but get flustered. Sasha was defined; he had the abdomen, pectorals, biceps and forearms of a modern day Adonis. He was an Olympian, after all.
Sasha noticed her out of the corner of his eye which sent Payson into disarray. She quickly slammed the door of the bathroom shut, catching her towel in it in the process, and with all of the grace of a toddler who had just learned to walk for the first time, her foot found a small puddle to slip in. Payson yelped as she came crashing down to the floor.
"Payson!" Sasha leapt across the room and swung the door open. He found her lying there, stark naked, the more intimate parts of her body covered up by her hair and part of her towel. Sasha quickly averted his eyes, "Are you okay?" He asked staring at the ceiling. Payson's face had gone comically red. "Yeah. Injuries are minor. Just might die from embarrassment." Payson attempt to feign a laugh but he knew better.
"You should get dressed." He told her as he quickly closed the door behind him.
- - - --- - - - - -- - -- - - - -- - - - - -
When Payson reemerged from the bathroom she saw that Sasha had put fresh blankets on the bed for her and made a small spot for himself on the floor.
"You should go to bed Payson."
"Are you sure it’s okay for me to sleep in your bed?"
"Yes. Now go to sleep. It’s late enough." He said, acknowledging the red LED lights of the clock on the nightstand. It read "03:34". Payson nodded at him and climbed in between the sheets. She watched Sasha carry clothes into the bathroom and heard the shower turn on. She let the sounds of the water lull her to sleep.
Sasha was desperately trying to push the image of Payson, naked on his bathroom floor, out of his mind. It was like he had suddenly become part of Rik Rok and Shaggy song, only much less explicit. He left the bathroom and found her fast asleep in his bed. It was a strange image to behold for him. Payson, one of the most important people in his life, had come to find him and bring him home with her. But her being here with him now could only serve to damage both of their reputations even more. He was alone with her, in his apartment, in Romania, she was asleep in his bed, she had kissed him, albeit not recently, and he had just seen her, all of her. He felt like the universe was punishing him for something but he didn’t quite know what it was. As if it were involuntary, he reached out and stroked her hair. It was still slightly damp.
Payson shivered which prompted him to cover her with another blanket before he finally retreated to his spot on the floor.
- -- - - - - - - - - - --------- ---- -- --
Sasha awoke the next morning to the savory smell of Payson's cooking. He look at the clock over on his night stand. It was 0730, which meant that they had only gotten around four hours of sleep.
"Payson, why're you up?" Sasha asked as he entered the small kitchenette.
"Couldn't sleep. Here you go!" Payson answered him with a smile and shoved a plate with an omelet towards him.
"You sir, need groceries. All you have is cereal." Payson scolded. Sasha couldn't help but grin. Payson's playfulness quickly faded and her exhaustion became evident on her face.
Tears started welling up in her eyes.
"Payson? What is it?" Sasha asked setting the plate down and pulling her into an embrace.
"I can’t do this without you," Payson sucked in a breath, "When my dream was ripped away it was you that showed me a new path. You showed me that strength and femininity weren't mutually exclusive." Hot tears now streamed down her cheeks and disappearing into his chest. Payson returned the embrace and wrapped her arms around his waist. Sasha's heart broke all over again, she was sobbing in his arms and he was the cause, his arms forced him to close whatever space remained between them. "Now, I can’t even get you to come home and I need you to. I can’t do this without you."
"Payson, you can though. All of that beauty and grace is within you. You just have to pull it out." Sasha assured her hoping to quell her tears.
"No, Sasha, I can’t see any of that. But you can. You see those qualities in me. I need your eyes on me."
"They never left."
The pair of them stood there wrapped intimately in each-others arms.