I'm back with a brand new story. Well, I say brand new, I actually started it during season 1 of NXT, lost it and found it again so decided to finish it and post it. To show how old it is, it used to feature Matt Hardy, Serena, and a few others that have since been released. After lots of character changes and more than 2 years in progress, it's finally here!
Disclaimer – I only own Brodee-Leigh. I do not own anyone else, although there are a few that I wouldn't mind owning.
Chapter 1 – Lies and heartbreak
"What a brutal clothesline by Wade Barrett," Matt Striker said from his place at the announce table, "he just turned Justin Gabriel inside out!" Wade posed in the centre of the ring as his opponent writhed around in pain. Justin glanced quickly towards his corner where his tag team partner Heath Slater and Heath's girlfriend and valet Brodee-Leigh were stood. He could see and hear Brodee hitting the mat with her hands, encouraging him to get up. Slowly, using the ropes to aid him, he managed to get back up to a vertical base, only to be knocked back down again by a huge boot to the face. Justin reached out as far as he could, trying to tag Heath into the match. Heath also reached out, trying to reach his close friend. Their hands were only inches away from each other when Wade ran straight at Heath, making him lose his balance and fall from the ring apron.
As he watched Heath fall out of his line of sight, he heard a sharp scream and quickly realised that as Heath fell he crashed into Brodee, knocking her down to the floor and causing her to hit her head hard on the unforgiving concrete flooring. Justin watched anxiously as she lay motionless on the floor. He hastily got up and delivered an enziguri kick to the back of Wade's head before rushing to his corner with the intention of checking on Brodee. She was now moving but it was obvious to him that she was in pain. To Justin's surprise, Heath wasn't down on the floor tending to his wounded girlfriend. Instead, he was up on the apron, demanding that Justin tag him into the match.
After hesitating for a fraction of a second, Justin tagged in Heath who immediately went after David Otunga, who had just been tagged in by Wade. Not bothering to pay any attention to what was going on in the ring; Justin jumped down from the apron and landed next to Brodee, who was on her hands and knees trying to get back to her feet. Without thinking about it, he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and gently pulled her back up to a vertical base. When she was safely standing on her own two feet, he released his grip on her before leaning in and whispering in her ear.
"You ok?" he asked, concern lacing his voice. Brodee weakly nodded back at him, clutching her head as she did so, just as the two of them heard a loud impact in the ring. They both looked up to see what was happening and saw Heath laid out in the middle of the ring having just taken David's finisher. David slowly crawled over to make the cover and Justin leapt into the ring to try and save the match for his team. He made his way over to them as quickly as he could, but before he could break up the pin he was hit by a vicious spear from Wade. All he could do was watch as listen as the referee counted the three count before lifting both Wade and David's arms up in victory. Justin went straight over to Heath who was slowly trying to recover from the move and was joined by Brodee, who had rolled into the ring as soon as Wade and David had exited it.
"Heath, are you ok?" Brodee asked her defeated boyfriend. Heath shook his head aggressively before sluggishly getting up to his feet and turning away from Brodee and Justin. Brodee stepped forwards towards Heath and put one of her small hands on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. Heath rapidly shook it off and without even looking at the two of them, rolled out of the ring and stalked up the entrance ramp, leaving Brodee and Justin in the ring, identical looks of confusion on both of their faces.
Justin was the first of the two to move. He reached out to Brodee and gently grabbed her wrist. She looked at him, her eyes clearly showing him how confused and hurt Heath's actions had left her, before letting him guide her to the ropes. Like the gentleman he was, he lowered the ropes for her, allowing her to exit the ring easier before leaving it himself. It wasn't until after Brodee's feet hit the concrete flooring around the ring that she felt a sharp pain in her right ankle. She faltered slightly, something that Justin noticed instantly. He was immediately by her side and wrapped an arm around her waist in an attempt to steady her.
"You ok?" he asked, mirroring his words from only a few minutes earlier. Brodee shook her head.
"No, I think I've done something to my ankle. My head hurts as well from when I fell, but my ankle is killing me," she said quietly. Justin wrapped his arm even tighter around her before helping her up the ramp and to the backstage area. As soon as they reached the curtain separating the main arena from backstage, they heard two very familiar voices shouting their names. The next thing they knew, both Aj Lee and Trent Barreta were stood in front of them.
"Brodee, are you ok?" Aj asked, almost as soon as she got there. Not wanting to worry her friend, Brodee nodded her head weakly and leant into Justin a little bit more as another pain shot through her ankle.
"Kind of, I've done something to my ankle and my head is pounding but other than that I'm fine. I'm just going to head back to the hotel and get some rest," she started before she was interrupted by Justin.
"Oh no you're not. I'm taking you to go and see the trainers before we go back to the hotel. I'm not letting you go back without getting your ankle checked out," he said, looking her right in the eye. Brodee rolled her eyes at him playfully before replying.
"Yes mother," she said jokingly, causing them all to laugh.
"I'm being serious Brodee, you're not going back to the hotel unless you let me take you to the trainers first," he said, gently lifting Brodee up off her feet and into his strong arms when she winced from yet another pain, "there's definitely something wrong with it and you need to get it looked at."
"Ok, ok, I give up. Fine, take me to the trainers. Just hurry up, I'm tired and I need to talk to Heath before I go to sleep. I don't have a clue what was going through his head just now, but I need to talk to him about it." Both Brodee and Justin said goodbye to Aj and Trent and Justin walked quickly to the trainer's office, still carrying Brodee in his arms. When they got there, Justin shifted Brodee's weight slightly so that he had a free hand before knocking on the door. After a couple of seconds the door opened, revealing the friendly trainer Alice.
"Hey Justin, Brodee, what's wrong? I did see you knock your head earlier but judging by the fact that Justin's carrying you, I'm going to assume that you've done something to your ankle," she said. Brodee nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah, I think I did something to it when heath knocked into me earlier. He kind of took me by surprise and I wasn't exactly expecting him to land on me," she explained. Alice looked at her in confusion.
"You mean that wasn't planned?" she asked, while carefully checking Brodee's injured ankle.
"Nope, first I knew about it was when Heath landed on me," Brodee replied.
"Really? I thought it was planned. I mean he walked off in a right mood after the match. He looked so pissed off, I thought it was all part of a storyline," Alice said, gently wrapping a bandage around her ankle, "well, you're all sorted. You're lucky Justin was there to carry you and bring you here. If you walked all the way here or went back to the hotel without coming here first you could have done a lot more damage to it. Just try not to put too much pressure on it for the next couple of days and it will be fine," Alice said, smiling at the two of them. Brodee quickly thanked Alice and tentatively made her way up to her feel, trying not to put too much pressure on her ankle.
"Um, on second thoughts, maybe it would be best if Justin carried you around for the rest of the night, I'd forgotten how stubborn you are," she continues causing Justin to chuckle slightly. Brodee simply scowled at her two friends.
"Hey! I'm not that bad!" she cried out. Justin smiled at her as he once again lifted her up.
"We know, we just want to make sure that you don't do any more damage to it," he explained to her as they left Alice's office.
"Yeah, I know you're just looking after me and everything, but I do know how to look after myself. I coped fine before I met you."
"I'm sure you did, but what if I want to look after you?" Justin questioned, blushing ever so slightly. Brodee smiled slyly back at him.
"Well, in that case, I suggest you carry me back to the locker room so that I can change out of these uncomfortable clothes and grab my bag, then back to the hotel and to my pissed off boyfriend, who seems to have a stick up his ass at the moment. I know that he was upset that you lost, but still, he never normally acts like that. Maybe it's just his time of the month," she commented, causing Justin to stop in the middle of the corridor and lower Brodee down to her feet before leaning up against the wall on his left and laughing hysterically at what she had just said. Brodee leant up against the opposite wall for support while he was having his laughing fit. When he had finally finished, he shot Brodee an amused yet apologetic glance before lifting her up for what seemed like the millionth time that evening and continuing back to the locker room.
It didn't take long for them to reach the locker room, change out of their ring gear and collect all of their belongings. Only a couple of minutes after that, they were in Justin's rental car and almost back to the hotel where the WWE superstars were staying. As soon as she reached the hotel and walked through the doors (assisted strongly by Justin), Brodee saw a familiar face leant up against the reception desk, talking to the pretty receptionist behind it. She watched him intently for a couple of minutes until he finished his conversation and turned around. The first thing he saw when he turned around was his girlfriend and best friend staring at him. He could tell by the look on Brodee's face that she was hurt and confused, but he didn't go over and comfort her. Instead, he walked over to where Brodee and Justin were stood and stood in front of them, arms folded over his chest. Before either Brodee or Justin could open their mouths to talk Heath silenced them.
"I hope you're happy with what you did out there. I mean, we were in control of the match; you drilled Wade in the head with that kick, Wade tagged David in, I hit him with my finisher and yet … we lost. You want to know why we lost?" he asked, not giving them any time to react and respond before continuing, "You want to know why we lost? We lost because of you … both of you. Justin, if you hadn't have got distracted by Brodee, you would have broken up the pin … and Brodee … if you didn't play up that injury out there then you would have been able to help me. There were plenty of opportunities for you to interfere," he finished sending both of them dirty looks. Justin looked at Heath in shock before sneaking a quick glance at Brodee, who was staring at her boyfriend in disbelief, tears floating in her deep green eyes.
"What the hell are you on about Heath, Brodee wasn't faking an injury out there, she's actually hurt if you haven't already noticed. You can even ask Alice if you don't believe me," Justin retorted.
"And? Even if she was hurt you didn't have to forget about the match and see if she was alright; that's not one of your responsibilities …"
"No, but it's one of yours. You're her boyfriend! You're the one that's meant to look after her … but no, you just knock her down and leave her there," Justin interrupted angrily glaring at Heath, who simply glared back at them.
"Whatever, I don't have time to deal with your childish crap. I've got better things to do," Heath said before turning his back on the other two and stalking towards the stairs. As soon as Heath left their line of sight Justin immediately looked at Brodee, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. He tentatively reached out to her and after a couple of seconds deliberation; she accepted his offer and moved into his embrace.
"Just ignore him Brodee; it wasn't your fault that we lost. What happened to you out there was an accident. It wasn't meant to happen so don't blame yourself," he said, his strong South African accent clear in his voice.
"I know, I … I just can't believe he said all of that stuff. He's not usually like this when he loses a match. I mean yeah, he gets upset and that, but he never takes it out on anyone else. I'm going to go up to the room and talk to him, try and figure out why he's really so annoyed," Brodee replied, picking up her bags and hobbling in the direction that Heath ad gone only a couple of minutes beforehand.
"Alright, if you need me I'll be in my room," Justin shouted to her retreating figure. Brodee shouted back in acknowledgement before disappearing completely. As she hopped up the numerous flights of stairs, she passed various other WWE superstars, but didn't pay any of them any attention. She kept going until she reached the hotel room that she shared with Heath. She tried opening the door but found it locked. Assuming that Heath had gone back to a friend's room, she took her key out of her bag and unlocked the door before opening it and taking in the scene in front of her. What she saw caused her to pale significantly and her mouth to fall open in shock.
"What the hell!" she shouted, not caring about her language, causing the two people on the other side of the room to spring apart and stare at her.
So, what do you think so far? Sorry this chapter is so long, the rest of them won't be so long, I just got a bit carried away and didn't want to split this chapter up. Hope you like it so far though. Please take a minute to review, I love hearing what you think and constructive criticism is always helpful.
CrazyLilRedheadGirl