All That Still Matters

Daphne had thought the preliminaries were nerve-wracking, but now that she was waiting for the finals to begin, she realized just how much more anxious she was. She was supposed to be up at the top with all of the other competitors, but she had slipped away to go talk to Louie, knowing he was the only person that could calm her nerves at this point.

"I can't do this," she breathed out as she found him in a semi-secluded spot.

"Daph, you can totally do this," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You've already made it to the finals. You've done the hard part. Just do what you did in the prelims, and you're guaranteed a spot on the podium."

"Will you love me even if I don't medal?" she asked him.

"Where's my Daphne?" he asked, looking around. "Because this chick standing in front of me is not my girlfriend that I know and love."

"Shut up," Daphne laughed, punching him lightly in the arm.

"Seriously, Daph, don't change on me now. You've always been fearless. Why stop now? I know you're nervous, but everyone is right before a big competition. But, don't let that stop you from stomping this run."

"I just don't know if I'm good enough," Daphne said quietly.

"Let's make a bet," Louie said, a smirk on his face. "You get up on the podium, we'll go out for karaoke tonight, and I'll sing whatever song you want me to," he told her.

A big smile spread across Daphne's face. "Any song?" she asked.

"Whatever you want," he agreed.

"And, if I don't medal?"

"I get to pick a song for you to sing…or rap," he said, flashing her a smile.

"Deal," Daphne nodded, holding her hand out for him to shake to make it official.

"Deal," Louie said, shaking her hand before pulling her in for a hug. "You're going to do amazing," he whispered into her ear. "I love you," he added.

"I love you, too," she said, pulling apart from him. "I better get up there," she said, nodding her head towards the top of the pipe. "You'll be watching, right?" she asked.

"I'll push my way to the front," he promised her. "Good luck," he added as she started walking away. "Oh, and Daph!" he yelled after her, and she spun around, wondering what he wanted. "To answer your question from earlier, of course I'll still love you if you don't medal. Maybe not as much as I do now, but I'll still love you," he added with a wink to let her know he was only joking.

Daphne shook her head at him, walking away once again, but she realized she was smiling, something that only Louie could make happen at this point. As she reached the top, she saw Piper standing there, her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her boot in the snow. Daphne didn't know if she was angry that Daphne had disappeared or if she was just nervous for her run, but either way, she knew it wasn't great news. "Hey, Piper," Daphne said, a small smile on her face.

"Where the hell were you?" Piper practically yelled, and Daphne cowered a bit at the loudness of her voice. "Do you realize that you're set to go in…" she trailed off glancing at her watch. "Twelve minutes! Twelve minutes, Daphne! And, you just up and disappear!"

"I had to clear my mind," Daphne said, not really wanting to get into a fight with Piper right now.

"And, did you?" Piper questioned. "Did you clear your mind? Are you ready to stomp this run?" she inquired.

Daphne smiled. "Yeah, I am, actually. Now, if you'll step aside, I'm ready to go," she told her.

"You know, I don't know where you went, but if you're in the right state of mind and ready to win this thing, then I'm not going to complain," Piper called after her.

"I'm going to win this. I'm going to win the gold medal," she promised her.

***

Daphne sat down at the table with Louie, Piper, Mason, and Scotty after having just finished the competition. "Okay, so maybe I didn’t win the gold medal," Daphne said.

"No, but bronze is fucking amazing," Louie told her, grabbing the medal that was hanging around her neck and taking a closer look at it. "I'm proud of you," he told her, kissing her.

"Awww, look at the happy couple," Piper said sarcastically.

"Like you're one to talk," Scotty rolled his eyes, looking at her with Mason's arm around her.

Daphne slowly pulled away from Louie. "And, don't think I forgot about the bet," she said with a smirk. She looked up at the stage, where people were currently doing karaoke, and then she looked back at Louie. "I may not have gotten the gold, but like you said, the bronze is pretty fucking amazing. And, a bronze medal does mean I won," she said, the smile on her face growing even larger.

"What bet?" Piper inquired, looking between the two of them.

"You'll see," Daphne told her. "Come on," she said, standing up and pulling Louie along with her. "I'll be back," she promised the rest of the group, dragging Louie over to the table that held all the possible songs that could be sung.

"How horrible is this going to be?" Louie asked as Daphne sifted through all the pages of songs.

"I've got it!" Daphne exclaimed.

"What is it?" Louie asked, and she pointed down towards the song. "Daphne, you're kidding, right? You're not really going to make me sing that, are you?" he asked.

"You bet ya," she told him, patting him on the back. "Now, get up on that stage," she told him, heading back towards the table to sit with the rest of the guys.

"So, what's going on?" Mason asked.

"Well, long story short, Louie and I made a bet. If I medaled, I got to pick a song for him to sing karaoke to. And, now he's about to fulfill his end of the bargain," she said, a smile gathering on her face when she looked at the stage to see Louie standing up there, grabbing the microphone. "Oh, here we go!"

"I just want to say that this song is dedicated to Daphne Monahan. Congrats on the bronze medal," he announced to the crowd, pointing towards Daphne, before the music started playing.

"Wake up in the morning feelin' like P.Diddy," Louie began, and everyone at the table began laughing at him singing. "Grab my glasses, I'm out the door. I'm gonna hit this city," he continued, getting into the song and beginning to dance.

By the time he had gotten to the chorus, he had left the stage and was at Daphne's table, singing directly to her, dancing around, causing her to laugh at him. "I'm talking 'bout everybody getting' crunk, crunk," he sang, grabbing Daphne's hand and pulling her up out of her seat. He began grinding on her as he sang, "Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk. Gonna smack him if he getting' too drunk, drunk."

Daphne continued laughing as Louie ran back up to the stage to continue the song. By the time he was finished, Daphne had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. She looked around to see everyone in the place laughing as well, and she looked up at the stage, screaming, "Love you, Louie!" He smiled at her before coming back down to meet her at the table.

"How was that?" he asked her with a smile.

"Perfect," she smiled. "You feel like singing one more time?" she asked, an idea coming to her.

"The deal was one song," Louie laughed.

"How about a duet?" she asked.

"Let's do it," he said, grabbing her hand, leading her back to the table to pick out a song.

"What on earth do you think they're going to do?" Piper asked Mason and Scotty, the three of them still at the table.

They heard the beginning music start playing, and Scotty started laughing. "They're not doing what I think they're doing, are they?" he asked, and he started nodding his head and cheering extremely loudly as Louie started off the song.

"What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?" Louie began, looking at Daphne, who began strutting across the stage.

"I'ma get, get, get, get you drunk. Get you love drunk off my hump," she sang back to him.

"Oh my God!" Piper exclaimed, putting a hand over her mouth to try to stop her laughter from being so loud. "This is great!" she yelled, continuing to watch their performance. When they had finished, Piper, Mason, and Scotty stood up, clapping, causing everyone else to do so.

Daphne and Louie walked back to the table hand-in-hand, both of them smiling. "I can't believe we got a standing ovation," Daphne said, turning back around to look at Louie.

"We're just that good," Louie replied with a wink.