Chapter 128: Intruders

Warren and Sophia quickly dropped Betsy off at the day care, and hustled over to the rink. Kathy was waiting for them. She directed them into her office.

"Look, guys, I had to. I didn't know what was going on with you guys," Kathy started.

"Bullshit," Warren spat. "You knew we were coming back."

"Well, I thought that with the baby, plus since you won Worlds..."

"Worlds isn't the Olympics," Sophia told her.

"The Olympics?" Kathy laughed. "You guys don't get it, do you? You completely sabotaged your career with that stunt you pulled at Worlds. You'll be lucky if you win another National championship. I thought you'd see that, and get out while you had your World Championship."

"You don't have much confidence in us," Warren said.

"This is still a judged sport. And too many judges think you're bad for it," Kathy countered.

"The only American ice dance team to ever win a World Championship, and we're bad for the sport," Sophia snorted. "Well, Kathy, we're not going away. We're the best ice dancers in the world, and we're just going to be so good we force the judges into acknowledging it."

"If anyone can pull it off..." Kathy laughed. "But you understand why I don't want all my eggs in one basket."

"We understand that part of it," Warren said. "What we don't understand is who."

"They're the up and coming dance team," Kathy shrugged.

"They're also first-class slimebags. Well, she is, anyway," Sophia pointed out.

"She's not that bad," Kathy said.

"She took a run at us on the practice ice at Nationals," Sophia pointed out. "She's said nasty things in the press. And now Courtney Rogers and Ryan Killen are here? Sharing our ice? Our coach?"

"Look, competitors do share ice and coaches," Kathy pointed out.

"And if it were anyone else, we wouldn't care," Warren told her. "But we don't trust her. They are never going to beat us fair and square, and I don't put it past her to do something underhanded. And, while we trust you, it's clear that you don't believe in us either, if you think the judges are out to get us."

"And taking them on as students isn't a ringing vote of confidence, either," Sophia added.

"I needed to expand," Kathy maintained.

Warren took a deep breath. "Do you have a copy of our contract?"

Kathy looked startled. "Yes."

"Could I see it?"

"I suppose. Hold on, it's not here." She left the room. Warren and Sophia talked about the situation while she was gone. She came back quickly, and handed the contract to Warren.

After reading it, he said, "This is what I thought. Our deal for free ice time in exchange for promotional help is for the club."

"Yes," Kathy said, confused.

"You signed it in your capacity as president of the club."

"Right."

"Not as our coach," Warren said.

"Well, now we're talking to Kathy the coach, not Kathy the president of the club," Sophia said. "You're fired."

"WHAT?" Kathy asked.

"We're still going to train here," Sophia told her, "since we don't have much of a choice. And we'll do the promotional stuff we're supposed to, and we expect the free ice time, like it says in this contract. But we don't want you coaching us anymore. Not if you're going to be coaching them. We won't stand for it. Courtney Rogers is bad news. We're not going to share a coach with her."

"Who's going to coach you?" Kathy asked incredulously.

"June is our coach," Warren told her. "We'll send videotapes if we're having a problem. She pretty much helped us work out our programs before the wedding. Other than that, we'll coach ourselves. We've done it before."

"You guys are making a big mistake," Kathy told them.

"No, we're not," Warren claimed, and they walked out of her office.

A few days later, Warren was in the locker room when he was approached by Ryan Killen.

"Warren? I'm sorry." Warren just looked at him. "I tried to talk Courtney out of this. I even told Kathy I didn't think it was a good idea."

"Water under the bridge," Warren said. "What are you going to do?"

"Look," Ryan sighed, "Courtney's going to make your life a living hell."

"She can try," Warren said with amusement. "Ryan? We're not worried about Courtney, OK?"

"She's a great skater. We work well together on the ice," Ryan told him. "But, Warren, she's ruthless." His voice dropped to a near-whisper. "You don't know. You don't know the half of it."

"I'll keep that in mind, Ryan, OK?"

They had their programs for the coming year.

This was the first year for the two original dances. For the Bossa Nova, they'd picked the Austin Powers theme, and had worked up a humorous program. The other OD was the Polka, and they were skating to "The Lonely Goatherd" from the Sound of Music. "The Duschesnays did it," Warren had told Sophia, "but they sucked. It was a reach for them. It's right up our alley."

Their free dance was a bit of a departure. It was the closest they'd ever gotten to skating to classical. They'd picked the music of Aaron Copeland, two selections from his "Rodeo". They started with the slow section, Saturday Night Waltz, and then finished with Roundup-or, as Sophie insisted on calling it, The Steak Commercial Song. She'd giggled when Warren had suggested skating to it. It was, however, fantastic to skate to.

A few days after Warren's conversation with Ryan, he arrived at the rink, with Caitlin, Papa Bear, and Betsy. Sophie had a meeting with one of her professors and would be a few minutes late.

When Warren arrived, Courtney was still on the ice. "Your time's over," Warren said brusquely.

"Where's Sophia?" she asked.

"Meeting with a professor."

"You know what, Warren?" Courtney said. "You shouldn't be skating with her, anyway. You should be skating with me. I'm far better than she is."

"Oh, really," Warren said, bemused. "What about Ryan?"

"He's good, but not as good as you are," Courtney cooed, laying it on thick. "We'd be a dynamite team."

"Are you forgetting that she's my wife?" Warren laughed.

"Oh, who cares? I'm still a better skater than she is."

"You think?"

"I know it."

"Fine, come here." She skated over to him. "How's your memory for dance steps?"

"Fantastic."

"Good. This is the transition out of the side-by-side step sequence. It starts with a lift." He showed her. "Then this." He showed her a series of steps. They ran through it a couple of times. What Courtney didn't know-but Warren did-is that he was showing it to her at half-speed.

Papa Bear and Caitlin were watching all this, trying to figure out just what was going on.

"OK, pick it up," Warren told Courtney. They did the sequence faster. Courtney was just able to keep up. Warren chuckled to himself-they were still only at about three-quarter speed. Just then, Sophia walked into the rink. She came to a dead stop, and looked out on the ice, dumbfounded at seeing her husband skating with that bitch. She was just about to say something, when Warren shot her a "trust me" look.

"OK, Courtney, you've got the steps. Let's try it. Caitlin, music please?"

Cait started the music. They went into the lift, came out of it, started the steps-and Courtney just could not keep up. She had had problems at three-quarter speed; at full-speed, she was lost.

"Come on, Courtney, keep up!" Warren hollered at her. They ran through it a couple of more times, and Courtney was getting more lost. The fifth time, desperately trying to keep up, Courtney clicked skate blades and went down in a heap.

Warren looked at her, chuckling. Then he turned to Sophia, still standing by the entrance to the rink. "Hey, Pookie. You wanna show her how it's done?"

"Don't mind if I do," Sophia grinned. She skated over to Warren. Cait started the music, and they flew through the sequence flawlessly.

"She was trying to convince me she's a better skater than you are," Warren grinned at Sophia when they were done. "Hey, Courtney? You're not even close."

Courtney stormed off in a huff.

After they had eaten supper that night and put Betsy to bed, they were in the living room of their apartment. They were both studying-classes had started.

"Pookie, you seem a little out of it tonight," Warren told her.

She sighed, and smiled at him. "It's stupid." Warren just looked at her. "That's the first time you've ever skated with anyone other than me. I mean, I know about being on the ice with other skaters when you're choreographing them. But we've never choreographed for another dance team, and, besides, that's different. I saw you skating with her, and my heart was in my throat."

"I only did it to prove a point."

"I know," she smiled. "It's just that we've always been very possessive about dancing." Warren cracked up laughing. "What?"

"We've been more possessive about dancing than we ever have about sex," Warren laughed.

"Too true," Sophia giggled. "Well, I hope Courtney didn't figure out the truth."

"Huh?"

"That if you had been trying to help her instead of show her up, she would've been able to keep up with you. You're the best partner in the world. You could skate with anyone, and make them better."

"Yeah, but why should I have to do that when I already have the best female ice dancer in the world as my partner?"

"Awwww," Sophie giggled. "Now, that's enough talk. Study."

"OK."

"And be quick about it."

"Why?"

She giggled. "Because I need you to fuck my brains out, o loving husband."

"And you expect me to concentrate on studying now?"

"You're a genius," she giggled. "You can do it."

"Uh-huh."

Two days later, they were preparing to get on the ice to train. Courtney was just getting off. She skated over to them. "Listen. I was wondering. If I got some ice time tomorrow or the next day, could I ask you guys for some help? You especially, Warren, but Sophia too. I want you to teach me how you keep your speed through the steps like you do."

Warren and Sophia looked at each other incredulously. Then Warren turned back to Courtney. "You've got to be kidding. First of all, I don't know if we even could teach that."

"It's a gift," Sophie interjected with an evil grin.

"Second of all, you're competition. That alone, I wouldn't care-if you were Shawna Vickers, I'd do it. But you took a run at us at Nationals. You've said some nasty stuff about us to the press. You were the only one that didn't sign the petition for us. And, now, you've stolen our coach-and don't tell me for a second that you did it just because Kathy's a good coach."

"And now you want us to tell you all our tricks? Nice try, Courtney. Now get off our ice." She did, angrily.

Courtney's antipathy towards the duo only increased when she happened by a newsstand a few days later. There they were, Warren and Sophia-on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

They had done an interview two weeks before. They themselves got the issue, and were thrilled with it. They were on the cover, sitting on their couch, arms around one another, grinning. The cover blurb said, "Figure Skating Will Never Be The Same."

When Courtney-and the rest of the world-turned to the article, this is what they read.

HEAT ON ICE

How Two Young Lovers Transformed American Ice Dance, For Better Or Worse

And How the Figure Skating World Might Bite Back

It's a rather small apartment. With their recent endorsement deals, Warren and Sophia Kelleher probably could afford better-but this one's on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, and thus convenient.