Last Chance

22 - Clean Up

I stood in the gym looking around and sighed. This was going to be a lot of work. I was wanting to revamp this place but first I needed to clean it up...

"Well time to get started..." I said out loud.

I heard the gym door open and I turned to see Chris walking in with bags of cleaning supplies.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he walked up to me and kissed my cheek.

"Did you really think I was going to let you start cleaning this place up by yourself?" Chris asked and I smiled.

"Chris...." I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. He hugged me back and held me. "Thank you for supporting this." I said looking up at him. He looked down and me and smiled. He leaned in and kissed my forehead.

"What about us?" We heard voices say from the doorway and look to see Scott, Lisa, Carly and Shanna standing there.

"Are you all here to help?!" I asked getting out if Chris's grip.

"Of course we are sweetie." Lisa said and I rushed to hug all of them.

Once I hugged everyone I turned to look at the gym.

"Well time to get started." I said with a sigh.

"Where do we start?" Scott asked and I groaned. I knew this was a huge task and I had no clue. I knew what would clear my mind though...

"Give me a second." I said and walked over to the vault run. I knew it was set up for me since I used it last. I stopped and looked back at Scott.

"Should I do it?" I asked and he smirked and Chris just groaned knowing what I meant.

"I mean they want to know what was said..." Scott said and I smiled.

"What are you talking about?" Lisa asked.

"You guys wanted to hear that speech I gave Chris right? When he told me I couldn't do this..." I said and everyone nodded vigorously.

I stayed standing at the vault run and spoke up, "Gymnastics tells you no all day long. It mocks you over and over again, telling you that you're an idiot. That you're crazy. If you like running full speed towards a stationary object, vaults for you." I took a deep breath as I walked over to the runway. I ran full speed towards the vault, I did a couple flips and stuck the landing.

Everyone watched in amazement.

I then walked over to the uneven bars, while continuing my speech, "If you like peeling pieces of skin the size of quarters off your hands, bars are for you. Because the only thing more fun than rips, is when your rips get rips. It's super sexy." I got up on the uneven bar, got some momentum and did a spin, then flipped off.

I took a deep breath as I walked over to the floor for the floor routine, "And floor? Are you serious? I mean, who doesn't wanna parade around in a leotard getting wedgies and doing dorky choreography? It's delicious." I did some crazy, insane leaps and flips just to prove my point.

I stopped and looked at Chris standing on the end he of the floor mat, "If you like falling, then gymnastics is the sport for you! You get to fall on your face, your ass, your back, your knees and your pride!"

I walked over to the beam, no longer scared of it, I set up the springboard and bounced on it, getting up on the beam. "Good thing I didn't like falling..." I got set on the beam, making sure I was steady, did 3 consecutive backflips, using the fourth as my dismount. I stood there with my hands in the air in my dismount pose turning to look at Chris, "I loved it!"

I again walked over to Chris who was now fighting off a smile knowing what I did that day showed him. I stood toe to toe with him again even though it wasn't as angry as last time. "The things gymnasts do make Captain America look like a pussy and we do it without a serum and a shield."

As I finished everyone was clapping and cheering. I took an over exaggerated bow and Chris laughed.

"It was then I realized I fucked up." Chris said and I smiled as he put his arm around my shoulder.

"Well I have to thank you for pushing me for that because up until the point of the speech I had yet to get on the beam." I said and he smiled down at me.

"Happy to help...I guess." He chuckled. I then looked around.

"Okay time to get started...Chris and Scott I need you guys to move the equipment off to the side so we can get the mats up from the floor." I said.

Chris and Scott got on moving the equipment and once they started Lisa, Carly, Shanna and I started ripped the mats up from the floor. I knew everything would need cleaned, top to bottom.

As I was scrubbing the floors I stopped for a second and rotated my shoulder. Chris walked over to me.

"Hey, you okay?" Chris asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, just doing the stuff earlier and not properly stretching, us scrubbing these floors is killing my shoulder." I said. Chris walked behind me and gently started massaging the shoulder and I moaned. "That feels amazing." I moaned.

Chris chuckled and continued to massage the shoulder. "I'm so proud of you, you know that right?" Chris said.

"You told me you were already." I chuckled.

"Not just because of the Olympics Aspen, because of everything. I mean you accomplished what you wanted and now you own this place. Everything is coming together for you." Chris said and I smiled. I turned around and looked at Chris.

"And we are getting us back to where we need to be." I said and Chris smirked.

"That too." Chris said. "You want to have dinner tonight?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, did you want to go out or come over?" I asked.

"Let's stay in. Why don't I come over. I can bring take out." Chris said.

"Or I could cook. You just bring the drinks." I said and Chris smiled.

"Sounds perfect." Chris said. "Around 7?" Chris asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, sounds great." I said. Chris kissed my cheek and then we got back to working and cleaning.

As we were all finishing up for the day a few hours later I hugged everyone.

"Thank you all for coming and helping. I never would have gotten this far by myself." I said and they all smiled.

"We are always here to help." Lisa said and I nodded.

"I may take you up on that." I said and they smiled. We all walked out and I locked up the place. I was holding Chris's hand as he walked me to my car.

"I will see you tonight around 7." Chris said and I nodded.

"Cant wait." I said. I kissed his cheek and he opened my car door for me, I got in, winked at Chris and drove off

**Chris POV**

I watched her drive away. Scott walked up to me.

"You two look like you're getting back to where you need to be." Scott said and I just nodded.

"You know, I thought I would hate taking this slow but honestly, it's getting back what we had before. We lost it somewhere along the way." I admitted.

"Are you going to tell her about leaving soon though?" Scott asked and I groaned.

"I need to so she knows. Only problem I'm scared of what it will do to us once I'm gone for months at a time." I said.

"If she is happy with you Chris and getting back to what you used to be, she will be fine with you leaving and you two will make it work." Scott said and I nodded.

"We are having dinner tonight. I can tell her tonight." Chris said and then looked at the time. "I need to go anyway so I can go home and shower."

I hugged my brother and then walked to my car. Aspen and I were great together, could me leaving ruining everything I had worked for and towards with her?