The Other McMahon

Chapter 1

What a night! The show had gone down without a hitch and Crystal sat in her locker-room smiling to herself as she sipped her well-deserved Vodka and Coke. There was a knock on the door and Crystal sighed before getting up to answer it, Vince smiled as soon as he saw his daughter and strolled past her into the locker-room.

"Baby, we are all so proud of you! you did a great job out there, for your first time too it was amazing. The storyline will play out great!" Vince sat down and Crystal smiled at her fathers praise. She had to be honest it wasn't often she got that from her father, he was so focused on the business that sometimes family came after that. And of course Stephanie was his favourite, but that had not really bothered Crystal. She knew deep down he loved her as well. Vince was still going on about the storyline but Crystal was too buzzed to hear him. The crowd were fantastic, following her every word, trying to weigh up if she was one of the good guys or not.

There was another knock on the door and Crystal stood up again "Wow, i'm popular tonight eh?"

She opened the door to reveal Glen (Kane) Jacobs, he was still sweating from the match but had come by to say what a great job Crys had done in the ring tonight, he waved a tired hand at vince who acknoledged with a nod of the head and then he gave Crystal a huge grin. "Well Done you!! You were fantastic, not that i ever doubted you"

She smiled and hugged him "Thanks Glen", her and Glen had always got on well and in the two years she had been working backstage, they had become great friends. "I have to say" he added with a smile "It's gonna be great getting to work with you in the ring, i'm really looking forward to this storyline" Vince smiled "Always good to know

that the talent is liking the material they work with, i'll pass that comment onto Stephanie for you. Thanks for stopping by Glen." Although she cringed at her fathers shortness she knew he meant well and Glen wasn't fazed by it in the slightest. He smiled and gave Crystal a pat on the back before heading to get a shower and call his wife.

The next few days were like a joy ride for Crystal, she was spending most of her time with the creative team or with her brother Shane who was monitoring the website. The fan response had been incredible, they were all trying to figure out who this woman was who has all this power to remake matches? what relation was she to the McMahons? did she come down to their music to throw fans off the scent and was she no relation at all? Guesses ranged from being spot on to being wildly out, some were saying she was from the rival show WCW and was there to ruin the show and others were shooting that theory down in flames, saying she was working for Vince really. Crystal loved it, she had been so nervous that the fans wouldn't even care that getting this huge respnse was a thrill to say the least.

She dragged herself away from Shanes office and headed to creative for a meeting, on the way she literally ran into Paul Levesque, her sisters husband. "Oh shit, sorry Paul" She winced as she saw the hot coffee land on his shirt. Paul frowned and looked up at Crystal "Well Steph's gonna be mad at you, she just bought me this shirt, your gonna owe her about $350 if these stains dont come out" He could see by Crystals face she was taking him seriously and laughed. "I'm kidding with ya, gee lighten up little sis" Crystal cringed at him calling her that and mumbled another apology before entering the meeting.

At the meeting with Crystal were Vince, Stephanie, Paul, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, Kane and some new guy that was up and coming through the ranks. Crystal had seen him a few times before backstage waiting for his match but to be honest hadn't really paid much attention. She sat down next to Dwayne who smiled at her, that simple action made her knees tremble, but she kept cool, smiled back and took a sip of her water. Or tried to take a sip of her water, whilst trying to be all cool she missed her mouth completely and poured it down her chin. 'Oh great' She thought. Luckily the other guy held out a tissue and offered to help her, she took the tissue and smiled at him. "Thank you, clearly a little to early for trying to drink any liquid for me i think" she laughed as her father shook his head "Can we get on with the meeting if your finished Crystal?!"

The meeting lasted about an hour, they went throught the direction of the characters over the next weeks leading up to Summerslam. When it was over the guy who gave her the tissue came over to Crystal.

"Hey, I'm sorry i just realised i never introduced myself, I'm John, or Mandrel inside the ring, it's nice to meet you. Did you enjoy your shower?" Crystal looked confused and then remembered the water and laughed, she had just noticed he was british "Yes, very refreshing, I'm Crystal McMahon, or Crystal McMahon inside the ring" John laughed and took her hand to shake it, he had to admit he liked her, she was refreshing, not all business like the rest of the people he'd come across. "Well Crystal it's good to meet you" Crystal nodded, he seemed genuiely happy to meet her and he had been the only person to make her laugh today so he was already in her good books. "So it seems we're gonna be working together shortly" She smiled at him happily "are you excited to be working with a McMahon?" He laughed and then nodded "Hell yeah, and by all accounts i hear i got the best damn McMahon there is" Crystal looked at the floor briefly and then back up at him, meeting his eyes. "Well thats sweet of you to say" She wasn't used to compliments and wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just pulling her leg but he seemed nice enough.

Just then they were interupted by Dwayne "Hey Crys, fancy a drink, if you can make it to your mouth i mean?" He laughed and took her arm lightly already leading her away from John. Crystal couldn't say she found his comment funny nor was she done talking to John but she got the impression Dwayne was acting under orders from her father who she could see smiling at Dwayne as he led her away. She stopped briefly to speak to John "Hey, we should catch up sometime, how about we go for a coffee after Raw next week" John was confused by her being led away but his face lit up when she turned back to him and asked him that "I'd love to do that" Vince frowned.

Linda McMahon sat reading her book in bed waiting for her husband to finish working on his laptop in the corner of the room. He was typing frantically when he suddenly stopped and looked up at her "Why would she go for a drink with him?"

Linda put down her book and took off her reading glasses "Pardon dear? Who is going for a drink with who?"

"Crystal is going for a drink with John, she asked him at the meeting yesterday" Vince had closed his laptop and was takign off his robe to climb into bed.

"And John is?" Linda was struggling to catch up being the Vince wasn't exactly explaining things well.

"The guy whose gonna get the push from the storyline, he wrestles under the name Mandrel"

"Oh, yes the british one, very talented by all accounts, even you thought so Vince, why is it a problem if our daughter goes for a drink with him?" Linda knew the answer to the question before she even asked, he had always told his daughters not to get involved with wrestlers but then stephanie and paul got together, so she assumed he'd given up on that rule. Plus it seemed almost natural to her that her girls would be attracted to wrestlers, they spent their whole lives around these guys, they had the same interests and goals.

"Are you kidding? Linda we both know why we always warned our girls off wrestlers. Stephanie was lucky that Triple H already had a career, but this guy could just use Crystal to get to the top" Vince looked at Linda and she could see geniune concern in his eyes.

"Vince, Crystal is 23 now, you can't protect her anymore, she knows what to watch out for and John may actually like her just for being her. Let's not damn it before it even begins, and if it does go bad, we'll support her like parents do. It isn't all about business dear"