Title: Hospitals

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Summary: He doesn't like hospitals (Kaylicky, KayAus).

He doesn't like hospitals.

They smell weird and they are full of sick people. Since his mother died, he has never stepped inside a hospital again. Not even when Payson was hospitalised, did he go and visit her - instead choosing to wait till she was released. It's not a conscious move really, but every time, he's outside a hospital, he ends up just turning around and walking away.

He knows what's wrong with him. Since his mother passed away, hospitals have become a symbol of death for him. It's ironic because his father is a doctor.

He takes one step at a time. Each step is gruelling, random thoughts fly across his mind and he already feels more exhausted than after a whole day spent in the gym training - with Kelly Parker.

He takes another step.

When he first arrived in Denver, the petite brunette did not intimidate him. Kelly Parker might be a petite girl, but don't let appearances deceive you. It's a well-known fact in the gymnastics world, that Kelly Parker has a sharp tongue and once she had decided she doesn't like you, she REALLY doesn't like you. But Nicky is hardly unfamiliar with demanding female gymnasts. He comes from The Rock after all. There is batshit Lauren Tanner, poor-me Emily Kmetko, I-love-gymnastics-get-out-of-my-way Payson Keeler and then there's Kaylie. He still doesn't know how to explain what Kaylie Cruz is to people – or quite frankly, to him.

He takes another step.

For many years, he had ignored her. She was a girly-girl who wore entirely too much pink, didn't take gymnastics seriously and it always pissed him off to see people waste their talent. Then she won Nationals. And MJ started to pair them up for PR purposes, which forced him to deal with her. In the beginning, there had been bickering. Lots of it. He didn't like her because she represented everything he was not, in fact, she reminded him too much of his biggest rival: Austin-Olympic-Gold-Medallist-Tucker.

He takes another step.

Tucker had been a gymnastics sensation. The guy had blown into the gymnastics world one day from virtually nowhere, and then decided he was there to stay. He was older and he had already won gold at the last round of Olympic Games. But more importantly, the jerk had beaten him, Nicky Russo for gold at Nationals. It's not that Nicky is a sore loser. There is no room for that in good sportsmanship. He is no Lauren Tanner, who would enjoy winning even without any competitors. But nothing aggravated him more than seeing someone like Tucker, who didn't even take gymnastics seriously, nap the gold. Especially, when he worked his ass off every single day (and Sundays too!) to win. Yes, Austin-Olympic-Gold-Medallist-Tucker bugged the hell out him.

He takes another step.

So, he certainly did understand where Kelly was coming from when she almost daily complained about how Kaylie Cruz was a phoney National Champion. And how she should enjoy her 15 minutes of fame as long as she can. However, once Kaylie and he had decided on calling a truce, he had started to pay more attention to her. Perhaps in the past, Kaylie had been an unfocused gymnast, but she wasn't anymore. She was as focused, as determined as any National Champions before her had been. Too focused and too determined, apparently.

He takes another step.

The funny thing is - Nicky and Kelly might never have become friends if it weren't for Kaylie. Kelly had been in one of her usual fits over Kaylie - or rather, it had been worse than usual. She had come straight from The Rock after the China Meet and hit the Denver gym. She was working out furiously and had snapped unreasonably at anyone who had dared to approach her. The only exception was when Marty pulled her aside, into his office after catching her almost twisting her ankle. Kelly had always put Marty on a pedestal, he was one of the few people she genuinely respected and listened to.

He takes another step.

Everyone else had been in total awe of the return of Dmitri Belov's son, gymnastic legacy: Sasha Belov. But Kelly had dismissed the hype as preposterous and insisted that Marty was the real deal. Sasha might have been the better gymnast, but Marty Walsh was the better coach. As a gymnast, who had had the chance to train under both, Nicky had to concede to Kelly's logic. Sasha is a decent coach. There is probably not another person (aside from Marty) who knows as much about gymnastics as he does. But coaching isn't just about gymnastics. It's also about paying attention to the different aspects of a young gymnast's life. But there is only one way with Sasha – the Sasha Below way. And it cannot be denied that Sasha plays the favourite game. If he has decided you're worth his time, you'll get all his attention. But if not, you're on your own. The moment Sasha and Payson met, it was probably just about the best gymnastics match made in heaven ever. Like for any other coach, in Payson, Sasha had found his perfect gymnast. Payson quickly became his star gymnast. Until she broke her back, that is.

He takes another step.

Apparently, Kelly had expressed her frustrations over Kaylie to her most esteemed coach – and Marty had defended Kaylie. Kelly had always openly complained about how much of a pest Kaylie Cruz is to her fellow Denver gymnasts, but she had never before openly done it to Marty. As it turned out, she had probably sensed that if she did, it wouldn't go over very well with Marty. And she had been right. The coach and his star gymnast had a huge row, resulting in Marty storming out in one direction, toward the level 4s and Kelly towards the vault.

As she took out her frustrations on the vault, Nicky as the only one who dared to not pretend like he hadn't been following her entire "discussion" with Marty, got increasingly alarmed by the potentially neck-breaking rate she was going at. Considering that no one else dared to go near her, he caught her before she could attempt another possibly neck-risking stunt and dragged her out of the gym. She had raged against him, but he was stronger and deflected her hits. Still, for a petite girl, she was rather strong. It shouldn't really have come as a surprise though; she was after all one of the top elite gymnasts in the country. When she finally tired - whether emotionally or physically - she fell to the ground on her knees, frustrated tears drying on her cheeks. She rubbed her eyes furiously and wiped her cheeks to erase all signs of her momentary lapse of weakness and he pretended to not see it.

He takes another step.

Instead, he sat down beside her. After a heavy sigh, she finally confided in him: She could take anything - losing Nationals to Kaylie, losing against China (and Kaylie again) but not losing Marty to Kaylie. He, of course, told her she was being ridiculous. Marty was in Denver with her and Kaylie had Sasha in Boulder. But Kelly had simply answered that Marty would go back to Boulder in a heartbeat because Boulder had Kaylie and Ronnie Cruz. It was a commonly known fact in the Denver club that in the short time, Marty had spent there; he had quickly become a father figure to Kelly. She had lost her father to cancer when she was only a four-year-old girl. Her mother had quickly recovered when she married Kelly's rich stepfather, but Kelly never did. Only gymnastics could fill her void. And Marty.

To take her mind of her fears, he told her a secret of his own. He told her that when he was 6 years old, his father had taken him to the hospital to see his mother. Life can be so fragile; sometimes all it takes to take a life can be one drunk driver. As he felt his mother slipping away, he had stormed out in tears, afraid of facing reality. Eventually, he had gotten lost in the many hallways and missed out the chance to say a final goodbye. Since then, he had been afraid of hospitals. In the end, Kelly told him; now that they had dirt on each other, they should be friends. They shared a smile with at each other, and then he gave her a hand to help up from the ground.

He takes another step.

When Kelly had returned back from the last National Team training, Nicky had instantly picked up that she was worried about something. He had to pester her for while, before she finally gave in and revealed that she suspected Kaylie was starving herself. He and Kelly might have become friends, but he had never told her why he had left The Rock in the first place. She had tried to get him to tell, of course. But he had stubbornly refused despite her many creative attempts. He didn't have to anymore though, the painful expression on his face when she revealed Kaylie's secret, said it all. Sensing that he didn't want to talk about it, she stored the information for future use. When she told him about Marty's dismissal and that her ankle was acting up again, she could tell that she had already lost his attention. With a frustrated huff, she just told him to call her and left him to deal with his own thoughts.

He takes another step and passes her parents in the hallway; they are in a heated discussion with the doctor and nurse.

He hadn't though. He hadn't called her. He had picked up his phone. He had found her name in his phonebook - under P for Princess, Kaylie's lame attempt at humour when she had typed her phone number into his phonebook and he had never felt the need to change it. He had been about to press call, when he remembered that he was supposed to like Payson and that he and Kaylie were barely friends. Kaylie had her parents, her friends, Sasha and last he heard; Austin Tucker. She didn't need Nicky Russo in her life.

He takes the last step and finally, he reaches her room.

She's pale, too thin and asleep, but still as beautiful as ever. Austin Tucker might be sitting on her left side, holding her left hand, but Nicky Russo sits down on her right side and reaches for her right hand.

End.

A/N:

Finally did it. Finally took the plunge into actually writing fanfiction. After all these fandoms and shows, I can't believe the show that finally got me to sit down, string some words together and most importantly, publish what I have written will be MIOBI. There's a head scratcher. LOL, maybe it's because the show really is that bad, that I really, truly felt compelled into writing my own story. The story is un-betaed, so please don't go too grammar police on me.

Basically, the midseason finale was awful! It was crappier than crap. Emily's in jail, Kaylie's in the hospital and Payson is in tears over Sasha leaving, but Lauren gets the family she wanted AND a third ranking on the Worlds Team? WTF.

The "Princess" in Nicky's phonebook bit is a blatant steal from Love's Crash Test Dummy's amazing story "Sharing". My sincere apologies!

Also, I really, really, really wanted to be able to paragraph the text, but FFnet hates me.