Author note: I haven't written fan fiction in three years but when I get bored I like to read a little bit of it and I suddenly got my knack back for writing. Of course my timing is perfect since I just went back to school when I should have been doing this all summer but since I'm taking classes where no real papers will be required, I think I'll be able to actually start, continue and finish this story off, unless I get a horrible case of writer's block. We'll see how it goes.
This start of this story is gonna be in March 09, so Aurora is still 2 1/2, Murphy isn't 1 yet. The perspective of this story will be the off-screen lives, not the onscreen.
Summary: When the Raw segment of Randy DDT'ing Stephanie off the rope goes wrong, it suddenly shakes up the McMahon/Levesque family and everyone involved.
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Shane sighed softly as he looked over at his father and then looked back over at Stephanie. His father had this brilliant idea of involving the private lives of their family into the big screen, something that no one was all too happy about but that never seemed to matter to Vince.
"I really don't want to involve Stephanie again." Paul mumbled slightly. No one was more upset about this entire situation more than he was. He wasn't a fan of doing this real life/screen life cross in the first place, but Vince nearly begged for them to go through with it, claiming that it was what everyone had been waiting for six months to do. He was okay with it at first, but it was getting entirely too out of hand, going off in a different direction than it was to be when it was first discussed.
"After that brief kiss that everyone saw last week, they are going to be expecting something from Stephanie." Vince stated.
"I know but what exactly can Stephanie do when it's three again one, two the most?" Shane asked.
Vince bit his lip slightly. "Well much like we had done a few weeks ago, I figured that she would come out and well, things wouldn't go to well for her."
"What do you mean?" Stephanie chimed in. She didn't go against her father often, but he seemed to love storylines that entailed some kind of violence for her, and she wasn't really a fan of it anymore.
"Well I think that since Stephanie came back and Pau...I mean Triple H has been going a little bit easy on Randy, he'd need to do something to fire him back up"
"Like what?" Paul hissed as he looked at Vince before shaking his head a little. For some reason he knew he wasn't going to like the answer.
"I was thinking that maybe, we could go for the punt kick again, only this time..."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! You're off your fucking rocker Vince if you think that she is doing that. She is not trained, the show is tomorrow, and she doesn't have enough time to prepare for that. No way in hell."
"Paul just listen to me..."
"No I don't want to hear anything, she's not doing it. That's the last I want to hear of it. I'm going to go check on my kids now." Paul huffed getting up, grabbing his jacket up and walking out of the door.
"He's right, I'm not doing it." Stephanie mumbled as she looked at her father. He was rather proud of how she took the RKO. Hell everyone was, they had given her a round of applause on how she sold the RKO like a pro, better than half the pros. But this? This was different. An RKO was like a stunner, she had taken that before so it wasn't a difficult adjustment.
"I agree sir." Randy added. "It takes a lot of precise timing, if Stephanie doesn't move her head at the right time she could be seriously hurt. I don't think I can do that to a female anyway." He said.
Randy definitely wasn't the kindest man in the world but having a daughter did warm him up a little bit. A lot more actually and he liked the McMahon's so that helped out even more.
"Alright so maybe not a punt kick. How about a DDT off the ropes?" Vince replied.
Shane, Steph and Randy looked at eachother. They knew it would probably do wonders for the storyline; the fans ate up the "Stephanie in distress" stuff.
"I'm not sure, even that is a little too much." Randy said.
"Well we can't do an RKO again; we've got to go bigger and harsher than the first time. I promise this will be the last time. Just to push us into mania. The last attack focused on the family, this will be...just Stephanie. Just so the fans haven't forgotten."
Stephanie bit her lip a little. She was willing to try, she always felt like she had to prove herself to people and this would be a good way to do it. Not to mention that she never wanted to reject storylines.
"Paul...is not going to like this."
"I know which is why I don't want anyone to tell him."
Shane blinked slightly. "Are you crazy? Do you know what will happen if he goes out there unaware of what is suppose to be happening?"
"Yes I do and imagine how real his emotion will be!" Vince smiled, the wheels already turning in his head.
Shane and Randy looked at each other shaking their heads. "It's a bad situation if we don't tell him."
"It will be fine, he'll be able to figure it out and he'll probably be grateful we didn't tell him ahead of time." Vince stated.
Stephanie frowned slightly and bit her lip. She wasn't a fan of keeping things from her husband. Hell half the time she couldn't keep things from her husband. He could read her like a book nine times out of ten.
"Stephanie, are you in or are you out?"
Stephanie sighed a little as she toyed with the idea. Knowing it would probably be one she'd regret. "I'm in."
Paul sighed softly as he sit in the hotel room bouncing Murphy on his lap as he watched Aurora lying on the floor coloring a picture. Aurora smiled up at him every now and then before going back to her little picture. Stephanie walked into the room slowly. She had to keep her composure. She couldn't imagine how she was going to make it up to him after this whole thing was over; he was going to be furious. She gave the child on the floor a soft kiss on the top of her head, which made her giggle and try to wipe it off before she took a seat next to Paul taking Murphy from his lap.
"I'm sorry that I stormed out like I did. Your dad really gets to me though you know? Its like, why can't he ever learn to draw the line. He doesn't know when to stop. We didn't want this storyline like this, we didn't want things to be this way and yet he just keeps going." Paul said softly, still holding the hands of Murphy.
"I know baby, you don't have to apologize to me. You're looking out for me."
"I just, you're not ready for that kind of thing. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. I mean I'm proud of the RKO you took, even though I was against that too. But I wasn't sure if you were ok or not and I hate that feeling of not knowing, it tears me apart." He whispered.
"Don't worry about it baby. My dad dropped the whole punt kick idea. I think he realized how silly it was and how much of a risk he was taking" She said smiling at him softly.
The next night came. Stephanie bit her lip backstage nervously as she watched the night progress. Randy slowly came up behind her, looking around to make sure that no one was around. If they weren't going to tell Paul, they weren't going to tell anyone.
"Don't be nervous." He whispered as she turned to him.
"I'm not nervous, this is like everything I've done" She smiled, obviously lying. Whether it was the tremble in her voice or the tremble in her her body that gave it away she didn't know.
"Look I'll take care of you out there okay. All you have to do is go out there and lay completely still." He smiled slowly putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I trust you Randy. I know you know what you are doing, so I shouldn't be worried."
Randy nodded. "Well you dad added a little extra measure to make sure that Paul doesn't....ruin it."
Stephanie looked at him a little bit before shaking her head. "No I don't want to know about it. Because if I do then I might change my mind and I don't want to do that."
Randy nodded again, it was probably for the best. "Just keep an eye on the monitor. Trust me you'll know your cue." He said before walking off.
Stephanie's heart raced as she stood by the guerilla position and watched the match progress, she didn't know what she was looking for but she knew she was looking for something and she didn't want to miss it. Shane and Vince also watched from back in Vince's office. Shane sighed softly, he felt awful about this entire thing and he was hoping that this was going to all turn out well, though he had a sinking feeling that it would and that the fact that Paul didn't know was going to be one of the main reasons why it wouldn't turn out perfect.
'Okay, here comes legacy, that's expected' Stephanie thought to herself as she continued watching. She gasped slightly as she watched them handcuff him. Is this what her father had in mind as a way to make sure Paul wouldn't ruin it? She then watched as Randy got on the mic and spoke. She knew that was her cue, but she was frozen, suddenly having second thoughts, but she knew it was way past time for that. If she didn't go out there, she would ruin the whole show.
Paul groaned slightly as he lay in the side of the ring as he was handcuffed. He had no earthly idea what the hell was going on but he had learned long ago how to roll with the punches. He raised an eyebrow as Randy got on the mic. 'Wait...what the fuck is he talking about' he cursed to himself. He really wanted to curse it to Randy. He immediately turns when he heard a different crowd reaction, seeing Stephanie come down to the ring. 'No no no what the fuck is this' He screamed in his head as he watched her and Randy. He looked closely at the looks they were giving one another, reading between the lines he realized that they knew.
"Stephanie! GET BACK" He growled slightly as she slowly crawled across the ring, pulling his handcuff with him.
Stephanie looked at him slowly and sighed. She felt awful, hearing the fear and seeing it in his eyes. She gave him an "I'm sorry" look before she slowly climbed onto the apron feigning scared and trying to turn back, only to find her entry blocked. She trembled a little more as she realized Paul had crawled his entire way over to the corner that was closest to her. She was suddenly getting nervous. She quickly closed her eyes as Randy reached foward to grab her head, pulling her through the ropes.
Paul blinked as he watched the sight before him. His head was spinning. He was not going to do this, he was not going to do this, no way in the hell he was going to do this. No way had she actually agreed to this. He was sitting there waiting, waiting for someone to run out. The crowd was chanting for Shawn to come out, maybe he would. Maybe it would be an impromptu DX reunion. He watched as Randy moved slowly, making sure the sledgehammer was far away and the mat was clear. Suddenly Paul's body went numb, his eyes seem to black out for a moment at the sound of of bodies crashing down on the mat. He looked over at her; he was fuming and losing it all at the same time. He yanked at the cuff on his wrist as he watched, unable to do anything else.
Randy slowly sat up and looked over at Paul. Boy did he know that look and he knew that he wasn't going to be in the best mood after this. He then looked down at Stephanie who lay completely motionless. He was cautious, he had felt her wiggle a little when he had her up on the ropes, possibly from nerves not knowing Paul was going to be that close, forced to watch it. He slowly moved down, dragging Stephanie away from Paul and turning her over. Something didn't feel right, turning her over, she was entirely too limp but he couldn't tell. He had to improvise. He knew he was really going to die for this one but he needed to check on Stephanie. Slowly he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips, looking for some kind of reaction. He felt slight pressure on his lips as he pulled back. Not wanting to take any chances he quickly decided to just get this over with. He grabbed the sledgehammer, took out Paul and walked away.
Paul frowned slightly as he laid there, supposedly dazed out, waiting for Raw to go off the air so he could be cut off. He saw Randy's expressions, he didn't seem too cautious but he didn't seem to sure either. Stephanie had continued to lie completely motionless; unlike she was when she got the RKO. Finally being freed he quickly crawled over to her side.
"Stephanie...baby please talk to me."He whispered. He frowned when he didn't receive a response. He frowned even more when he saw the ref throw up the dreaded "x" sign meaning something had gone wrong and they needed medical attention. He moved to the side a little, but not far as the stretcher was brought down and the paramedics were coming in.
"Fuck" Randy mumbled slowly kicking a barrel that was next to him backstage. Ted and Cody bit their lips as they watched the monitor.
Shane sighed beginning to pace the room as Vince ran a hand through his hair.
"You really REALLY fucked up!" Shane yelled, suddenly furious. He shouldn't have gone along with it but he did, he didn't know why he had.
"Maybe she's just...selling it?"
"That's not fucking selling dad! Paul is going to fucking kill you, kill all of us! That is your daughter dad. YOUR DAUGHTER."
Vince bit his lip slightly. "I know...I know."