Disclaimer: I still own nothing.
A/N: Sorry for the bit of delay, but here's the promised collection of oneshots! They will most likely be a bit shorter than the regular chapters, but don't worry; there'll be quite a few of them.
Jeff had been quite surprised when they weren't summoned to Vince's office that night. Or the next day. Or the day after that. In fact, it wasn't until five days after "The Revolution", as it was now being called, that Matt and Jeff were finally contacted about what had happened.
"They make us wait nearly a week and the only thing they say is that we need to see Stephanie before the show on Monday?" Matt muttered.
"Hey, at least we're finally talking to someone, and that someone isn't Vince," Jeff pointed out. "Knowing our luck we could've just been fired."
"Don't get your hopes up. We still might be."
Jeff rolled his eyes. "My brother, always the pessimist…" Truth be told, he knew that Matt was right. There was a good chance that Stephanie only wanted to yell at them before firing them, but he couldn't help but feel like everything would end up alright. After all, hadn't they already solved the mystery that had been bothering them for months? What could go wrong now?
As it turned out, a lot could. Jeff felt his optimism fading the moment they entered the arena. All conversations immediately stopped and their coworkers stared at them as they walked past. As soon as they left the room the quiet conversations started up again, but it wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about.
"This is going to be one of those things that goes down in WWE history, isn't it?" Jeff asked quietly, doing his best to ignore his fellow wrestlers.
Matt chuckled. "Probably. At least, there's a very good chance of that happening. To be honest, I have no idea what the final result is going to be."
Jeff nodded. He had figured as much and, for better or for worse, they would just have to weather out the storm as best as they could. They stopped outside Stephanie's office, neither of them really wanting to go in. "Listen, Matt, if things don't go our way in there…" Jeff began.
Matt quickly cut him off. "Jeff, whatever happens isn't your fault," he said. "Even if I lose my job, I'm just glad that you figured out who was pulling the strings and revealed that person to the world." Before Jeff could protest, he knocked on the door and walked in.
Stephanie looked up as they entered. "Sit down, both of you." After they had taken a seat in front of her desk she continued. "I'm sorry for leaving this meeting until the last minute, but the discussions about what should be done took longer than I had initially expected. After the show last week Mickie, Jericho, Miz, and Hunter all came up to talk to me. They explained their part in it, Hunter showed me his letter, and they demanded that I not fire you two."
Matt and Jeff couldn't help but grin. They had been expecting to hear that.
"I then had to talk to my father," Stephanie continued. "He tried to deny it but eventually… he admitted to everything."
Jeff couldn't help but feel sorry for her. After all, her own father had threatened to hurt her if Hunter didn't do what he wanted. She had unknowingly been a pawn in this and that must've been killing her.
"To be honest, we still aren't sure how we're going to continue this onscreen, but we do know that it's best if my father… takes some time off. Once we pointed out how he nearly ruined the entire company, he was all too ready to agree."
"What does that mean for us?" Matt asked.
"It means that both of you are still employees of the WWE," Stephanie told him. "Jeff, we checked with your doctor and he backed up what you said last week on Raw. I'll understand if, after everything that's happened, you want to walk away, though. I'm prepared to release you of your contract now, if that's what you want."
"If it's alright, I'd still like to stay on as Matt's manager," Jeff said. "I… I'm not quite ready to leave yet, even if I can't wrestle."
A brief smile flickered across Stephanie's face. "Very well," she said. "You two should go get ready for the show, then. You're up first."
XXXXX
Matt's music hit and he entered the arena to a decent, if bit subdued, crowd reaction. Not that he could blame them. After everything that had happened the week before it would've surprised him if they weren't wondering where Jeff was.
"Let me tell you, after what happened last week I figured it was only a matter of time before I heard those infamous words and had to pack my bags," Matt said once he was in the ring. "To my surprise I'm still here, not that I'm complaining! And Vince? He's off on… vacation. Indefinitely." He grinned as the crowd started to cheer.
"There is one more thing, though," he said, adopting a more serious tone. "I talked to Stephanie earlier, and Jeff won't be wrestling anymore." The crowd started booing and Matt ducked his head, acting like he was upset but really just trying to hide his grin.
Suddenly, Jeff's music hit and Matt yelled over the crowd, "But that doesn't mean that he's out of the WWE!"
"You know, you didn't have to be so cruel to these poor fans, Matt," Jeff joked as he climbed into the ring. "See, what my brother didn't tell you was that while I may not be able to wrestle this won't be the last you'll see of me. See, I talked to Stephanie McMahon earlier as well. She was all for releasing me of my contract if that's what I wanted, considering how Vince had screwed up my career eight times over. But I told her that no, I'd rather hang around for a bit."
"So now, let me introduce my new manager, my brother Jeff Hardy!" Matt said.
Suddenly, Triple H's music hit. As he was waiting at the top of the ramp, Jericho's music started playing as well, followed by Miz's and then Mickie's. Matt and Jeff watched as the four walked down to the ring together, more curious than surprised. That was another result of the past few months; there would be very few things in the WWE that could truly surprise them.
"Matt, Jeff, we didn't get to properly thank you last week," Hunter said once they were all in the ring. "See, for those of you out there who don't know, Vince threatened us so we would do his dirty work for him. Miz, Jericho, and Mickie got threatened with their careers. I got threatened with my family getting hurt." His face clouded at the thought.
I'd hate to be Vince when Hunter finally catches up with him, Jeff thought grimly.
"We wanted to thank you for finally figuring out who sent us the letters, as well as apologize for what we did," Miz continued.
"I know that we-" Mickie was cut off by Orton's music starting up.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Who do any of you think you are?" Orton said angrily. "Coming out here and accusing Mr. McMahon of screwing you over, getting him indefinitely removed from the WWE. What makes you think he'd bother with the likes of you?"
Luckily, Stephanie had hinted that this might happen, so Matt and Jeff knew that this was just part of the scripted show. "Well, Orton, if you have such a problem with it, let's settle this," Matt said. "You and me, one on one, tonight!" Jericho leaned over and whispered in his ear. "On second thought, how about you and your two lackeys against Triple H, Miz, Jericho, and myself? I'll even let you find a fourth opponent, if you want."
Before Orton could respond, Stephanie herself came out. "Randy, I just wanted to remind you that you are in the Triple Threat match later tonight to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship," she said smoothly. "You'll have to decide which is more important- fighting Matt Hardy and the others in a tag match or fighting to become number one contender."
Orton scowled, but yelled, "Fine! I'll fight them!"
As Raw went to commercial and the ring started to clear, Jeff turned to Matt and said, "Well, looks like everything's back to normal. Once again we're in an actual storyline that, at some point, will have a clean ending and we'll move on in our careers."
Matt grinned. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."
