"Okay, guys, from the top.. Remember, you have to move slower, more seductively. It's a damn top of the bar dance, not a free for all. This is burlesque, not porn, ladies." Hayleigh Austin said as she rolled her eyes, checked the time on her watch and bit her lower lip.

She'd been working at this bar since she started college about 4 years ago after graduating high school early AND at the top of her class, and while her father didn't actually like her job.. She rather enjoyed it.

She could dance, she got to be herself, and she got to have free drinks all night long if she so chose. Of course, at 20 (Though in exactly 8 hours, she'd be 21), she'd much rather be professional wrestling, like both her father and her adoptive mother, Debra, but..

Steve Austin was one of those overprotective daddies, and he didn't even like the thought of her in the ring. Probably why she was having to drive an hour away and train secretly, with her godfathers Shawn Michaels and Mark Calaway.

Especially since a spot was opening up on the roster, and Hayleigh Austin, well.. She fully intended to take that spot. If only she could figure out how to tell her dad..

She bit her lip in thought, but turned her attention back to the bar and groaned as she called out, "Hey Nick? Your new girl's not gonna make it. She's too damn stiff, she drops the drinks everywhere and she can't deal with a prime rush hour crowd."

All she got from Nicky, the bar's owner was a laugh and the retort, "Kinda like you when you started out, Austin." which she responded in kind with a middle finger as she clocked out and called out "Off to train, Nicky. Try not to let 'em get too outta hand tonight?"

"I'll try, Hails." Nick said as he slid her time card across the counter and said with a smirk, "How about an autograph.. Since one night I'm gonna be telling all the guys who come in here how the new Divas champion started out here, in this very bar, on open fight night?"

Hayleigh muttered something, grabbed a lipstick and signed her name, handing it back. "There ya go, Nick.. And when you're tellin 'em that, be sure to tell 'em what a hard damn time ya gave me too?" as she turned and grabbed her leather jacket, walked out the doors and into the parking lot, to her car, smirking to herself.

"Okay, this is it.. I gotta tell my dad tonight. May the force be with me." she muttered as she started her car, drove to her training session with her 'uncle' Shawn in the nearby town.

Meanwhile, Steve Austin sat in his recliner in his den, giving the phone in his hand a dirty look as he called out to his wife, "Did you tell Hayleigh she could sign a damn contract with McMahon?"

Debra poked her head in, shaking it as she asked with a smirk of amusement, "Let me guess.. Vince just called and said that she said we gave the okay."

"Said he had to call and see, because he distinctly remembers my talk with her, how she was not gonna wrestle, she was gonna do something with her life that didn't wreck her damn body." Steve said as Debra sighed, walked into the den and sat down, smirking.

"You had to know this was coming, Steve.. Do not sit there and tell me that as her father, you had no clue this was coming." Debra said as Steve glared and then muttered, "But she's my baby girl, Deb. I don't want her out there gettin hurt, hell, she could take a wrong move, get paralyzed... Not to mention the idiots on the roster, how they like hittin on pretty girls who are too damn young for 'em."

Debra groaned and then said "So you two are gonna fight.. And it's gonna ruin her birthday, Steve.. What is it going to accomplish though? She's still going to do exactly what she wants to do.. And as her mama? I'm gonna be right there with her."

Steve sat in silence a moment, looking back at all the pictures of him with Hayleigh when she was still little, and muttered to himself, "Baby girl, ya grew up too damn fast.. But if this is what you want.. Daddy's gonna be right there with you too."

He walked into the kitchen and said with a smirk, "Aww hell.. She's like the son I never had, she can handle it, I think.. You were right, babe."

Debra smirked and pointed to her cheek as she held out Hayleigh's cake and smirking said "Tonight is a triple celebration... The dean from the college just called.. Our little girl just finished her last year of classes.. So if push comes to shove, Steve.. She's got back up options."

Steve breathed easier hearing this. He'd been adamant about his daughter going to and completing college before they even talked about her possibly entertaining the idea of a career in professional wrestling. She'd not only worked her ass off to graduate high school a year or two early, but she'd worked her ass off all through college, kept a part time job.. She'd done more things an adult would do than most adults did.

When Hayleigh walked in, he pretended to be mad, but about halfway into it, Steve began to laugh hysterically, making his daughter glare at him, her hand in her wild and curly blondish brown hair as she asked calmly, "About done, daddy?"

"Just a minute, darlin." Steve said as he laughed a few more seconds then said "I guess, if you really want to do this, I'm gonna have to be okay with it."

Hayleigh nodded and then asked "So.. Which one of the old farts told ya?"

"Vince called to see if me and Deb really gave ya permission."

"Damn it, Vince. I told him not to call just yet." Hayleigh groaned as she took a few deep breaths, letting it sink in.. Her father was okay with this. She was going to be doing what she'd dreamt of doing since she was 6 and she'd come to live with her father after her mother died from an overdose.

The very thing she'd driven all over on weekends, doing all through college.. The very thing she'd done when she worked a few matches in NXT over the summer last summer.

She'd finally made it. And she had so many plans, she was excited like a kid on Christmas morning.