Chapter 4
"Shane….
Wh….what are you doing here?", she asked shakily. She forced a smile to add to her sweet voice. Her brother gave her a heated glare in
return, that quickly silenced her sugary efforts.
"You
know, I don't know what is wrong with you.
What the hell do you think you are doing! You were supposed to be at the dinner party this evening! Mom and Dad expected you and you were
supposed to keep the Ferguson's daughter occupied while we talked business! And now I only come to find you here! In this rat hole they try to pass off as
some kind of club!" he cried.
Fortunately the music was too loud for most of the partygoers to notice
the whole scene.
Never
the less she winced at his verbal assault, not to mention his tightening grip
upon her bare arm. She glanced toward
the, "the mean street posse." They just
stared angrily at her, except for Joey, who smiled and gave her the once
over. She cringed inwardly at his
appraisal of her outfit.
"Shane,
you know mom and dad already knew about me going out. I informed them yesterday that I was going to do something with
my friends this night. And since it
seems you have forgotten, I am an adult.
I can make my own damn
decisions!" she exclaimed. She tried to
break free of his hold; she successfully twisted her hand free of him. But this victory was only short-lived, since
he just took hold of the other one for dear life.
"I
don't recall them telling me about you doing anything with your low class,
loser, so called friends. You know how
I feel about them, at least you should by now, dear sister." he sneered. He looked around the club with disgust
written all over his young McMahon face, drawing it into a frown.
All during this
interaction, her friends saw everything that had transpired between the two
siblings and were about to come to her rescue, but Stephanie waved them
off. Since they were used to that whole
scene, they knew better than to go against her wishes, they didn't want to make
things worse for her. She didn't want
to make a scene, which she knew would happen if they got involved. Besides, it wasn't their problem.
"How
can you, a McMahon, lower yourself to come to a dump like this, and with those
hicks?" he questioned. His brown eyes
were on fire.
Stephanie
had just about had enough and was becoming a bit impatient with the whole
situation. She was sick of the same old
speech from her big brother.
"Look
Shane, they are my true friends. Not
the ones that you or anyone else picked out for me. They have been there for me.
I repeat, I am an adult and can go where I want and with whom I
want! They care about me and I care
about them! It is nobody's business
what we do, least of all, you!" she cried.
Suddenly
her face stung with the intensity of the slap that Shane had inflicted upon
it. Her slender hand went up to her
pretty face to rub the spot he had struck her at. She turned her shocked and hurt brown gaze back to him. Joey put his hand on Shane's shoulder, who
didn't even move. She stared up into
his surprised gaze, which quickly turned into a blank stare.
"I
didn't mean to hurt you, I would never intentionally hurt my baby sister. But you brought that upon yourself, you know
better than to talk to me like that.
Don't think I didn't see you with that degenerate either. You will explain that to me, or else. You know what they've done to the McMahon
family, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you associate with
those….things!" he explained, his demeanor darkening with every word. His hold on her loosened. His gaze turned into an apologetic one, but
that too also faded quickly and turned into his patented emotionless stare.
"What
they've done to you, what about what you and daddy have done to them! Besides, I can associate with whomever I
wish to. My social life is none of you
business!
"Now
Shane, just go, I'll be home later.
Just let me go." she said softly, but strongly. She tried to stop herself, but her eyes
pleaded with him. She brought her arm
away from him and went to go rejoin her friends. Yet again, she was turned around to face the group. It was Joey's hand that gripped her strongly
this time.
" Oh, you made a big mistake there young
lady. Your whole life is my business, I
am your big brother. You will tell me
what happened, and you will explain everything to me, in the car. Now Come on Steph, we're leaving. This environment is no place for you." Shane
said.
Her
mouth dropped open in a shocked O when she started to be pulled in the
direction of the closest exit. She
fought in vain to break away from Joey's grip.
"Come
on Stephy, you don't belong here. We're
doing this for your own good." he said.
His grip tightened, him not knowing his own strength, it seemed.
The
group went on, except for Joey who motioned her to go with him willingly. But her not wanting to be that close to any
street posse member, struggled to get away from him. She fought against his now painful grip.
"Stop
it Joey. Let me go, you're hurting me
now!" she cried. She frantically looked
for something, anything to use to get away from him.
"Come
on Steph, you know you like it." He said softly. He gave her a seductive smile.
The others had gotten farther ahead of them. He started to move closer to her
"You know, I've
missed you Steph. I would take you
back, all you have to do is say the word." He said. He grinned lustfully, up in her face by that time.
The
only thing that went through her head was, oh hell no! He frowned in response, but it quickly
disappeared from his face.
"You're
just confused tonight, we'll talk about it later." He replied. He started to make his way to the exit
again, tightening his grip on her arms.
"Stop
it Joey, you're hurting me!" she cried.
She was just about to use the age-old defense action against men, when a
large hand came down on Joey's shoulder.
"I
don't think the princess wants to go with you." The blond said. It was Triple H and Dx, who had appeared
quickly behind him. They always stuck
together, through and through. Since
Joey was momentarily distracted, Stephanie quickly took the opportunity to kick
him.
What
the…" was all he could croak out before he doubled over in pain. His hold on her loosened considerably, but
it gave way when Hunter punched him down near her feet. The whole of DX erupted in laughter at these
turn of events.
Stephanie
looked at DX with a mixed stare of confusion, gratitude, and anger. She quickly turned to Hunter with the same
look, she seemed to be on the verge of saying something, but opted to turn away
from them and go back to her group of friends.
Chapter 5
She
was promptly turned around when Triple H grabbed her arm. She noticed that it wasn't the same arm that
Joey had abused, no doubt bruising; furthermore, his grasp was surprisingly
gentle. She positioned herself towards
them again.
"What,
no thank you for saving the princess?" Hunter asked. For some reason her anger boiled over again. "Thank you, but you really shouldn't have
gotten involved. As you can see, I can
take care of myself. Plus I'm going to
have hell to deal with when I get home tonight." She explained. Stephanie pulled her arm away and hurried to
her friends.
"Well,
that's gratitude for ya, even though I'm not quite sure why we helped the ice
princess." X-Pac commented. He ran his
hand through his curly black hair, shaking his head in the direction the young
lady had disappeared through.
"The
little one was right about one thing, she can take care of herself in those
respects. Did you see the look on
Joey's face when she laid into him!" Billy Gunn cried, eliciting a round of
chuckles and whoops from the group.
They started to rip into the posse, in order to have a big laugh at
their expense. Hunter was unusually
quite.
His
eyes darkened, as he seemed to be thinking about something. What, one could only guess, but you would be
close if you expected it to have something to do with the youngest McMahon.
"Come
on, let's blow this freak show. I know
of a better club down the street." Road Dogg yelled over the music that had
started up. The rest of the group
quickly agreed, so they headed out of the smoky dance club, into the early
night air. Hunter brought up the unusually silent rear of the entourage.
Just
as they exited the club, X-Pac groaned in annoyance.
"What's
up Pac?" asked Hunter. He got his
answer when he followed the glare of his smaller friend. They were at it again. Stephanie was trying to get to her car, but
Shane, along with his posse, had other plans, yelling ensued.
"What
the hell was that!" Shane screamed in her pretty face. Stephanie cringed with his closeness.
"Why,
whatever are you talking about dear brother?", she asked, innocently, a fake
smile plastered upon her face.
"You
know exactly what I'm talking about, you ungrateful little girl! What are you doing with them!", he
cried.
"Stephanie
fumed with anger once more. Her brown
eyes burned with fire and her hands went to her shapely hips, as she took a
stance in front of her brother, not going unnoticed by Hunter by the way. Why did her brother always have to act this
way, she asked herself. He wasn't her
father, yet he tried to run her life at every turn!
"Shane,
I came here with my friends to have a good time. I ran into Hunter, somehow we ended up dancing, I didn't do
anything wrong! I am a grown woman for
Christ's sake! I don't need your
supervision! Now, if you'll excuse me,
I'm going to my car now." She explained.
Stephanie turned to leave, only to be stopped for millionth time that
night.
"What
do you want Shane! What else could you
possibly say to me! Get over it, you
aren't the boss of me!, she cried. Her
face was turned up in annoyance. She
forcefully took her arm out of his grasp.
Shane's
eyes smoldered with anger as he clenched and un-clenched his hand into fists.
"Are
you doing anything with Triple H? No, I
don't even want to know, at least not here.", he said.
Hs
body suddenly relaxed, he straightened up his posture, as his gaze turned into
an emotionless stare.
He
went on to calmly say, "Come on Steph, you're coming with us in the limo. Someone will come back for your car later. We need to have a long talk about your
behavior, not to mention your so-called love life, now."
Stephanie
saw the look in his deep eyes. She knew
it would only lead to yet another lecture.
Plus when she glanced at Joey, his eyes sparkled with cockiness, and he
seemed to know something that she didn't.
He gazed at her longingly. Oh
no, not another attempt to hook them up.
She thought she had made it perfectly clear the last time. She had no interest in Joey what so
ever. Joey moved closer to her, so that
when they entered the limo, they no doubt would be sitting next to each other,
with Shane on the other side. She
couldn't take that. Plus, she didn't
like the fact that she was being ordered to do anything. She set her jaw firmly in place.
"Look,
I'll meet you at the house Shane. When
we don't have an audience. I don't need
your friends along for the ride. This
is between you and me, I have nothing to discuss with any of them. They have no business being here. Neither do you, but that's another
story. A story that I will be glad to
spell out for you at the house, when we meet up again. So we can calmly talk about this whole
thing, since you evidently have a problem.", she said as calmly as she
could. Stephanie was trying not to blow
up at her big brother. She knew that it
would only get ugly. The whole group would start in on her. She didn't feel like dealing with them all
at once.
Shane
glanced at Rodney, giving him a look, he received the message loud and clear.
"You
don't have a choice here, Steph. You
can either go with us into the limo, or we can put you in there ourselves, now
who wants that? You would just be
making it harder for yourself. Now be a
good little girl and enter the nice limo.", he said sweetly. His voice was dripping with sugar, but
Stephanie got the message. Although she
really didn't want to be forced into the limo, alone with the whole group,
something snapped within her, something told her to fight for her rights. She continued to struggle against the group's
grip, causing a commotion in the process.
"Let
go of me!", she yelled. She was about
to give Rodney her respects when fists began to fly. "I don't think she wants
your company, not that I blame her. Not
many women wish to play around with little boys." Triple H said as he removed Rodney's hands unceremoniously from
around Stephanie.
The mean Street posse was floored when it was
all said and done. The D-Generation X
crew stood over them, victorious.
Triple H sneered, grinning like an idiot about his group's handy work.
The posse slowly rose
from the ground, all pretty shaken up.
"Come on gentlemen, we'll finish this later." Shane said, retreating
into the safety of the limo.
They
all took turns glaring at the group, including Stephanie, before following
Shane and telling the limo driver to book it out of there. The limo zoomed out of sight, leaving a
bewildered Stephanie with a bunch of…..degenerates, for lack of a better
word. She stared at the fleeting car
until the automobile vanished from her sight.
Chapter 6
Finally,
she turned back to her so-called rescuers.
Why did they keep sticking their noses into her business, not that she
minded in this case.
"Not
that I don't appreciate you concern, but you really shouldn't have done
that. I'm sure he'll tell my father a
bunch of lies about us, none of them leading to anything good. I will still have hell to pay when I decide
to return home, from both of them!" she explained, exasperated at the truth of
this statement.
She
gazed about the entire group, but her eyes inevitably fell upon the group's
leader. She stared into is smoldering
eyes, trying to gauge a reaction. She
found none, until he spoke.
"We
didn't do that for you. What happens to
you and yours is you business
alone. I just wanted to see the look on
Shane's face when we knocked him down a notch.
Too bad he ran to the car so quickly, the stupid coward. We should have done something about that, oh
well.", he said.
His
eyes twinkled with mischief, he smirked at the others, who chuckled in
response. Stephanie's eyes narrowed as
she contemplated the meaning of his last remark that would probably spark no
good. She really couldn't complain
though. Shane coming down a few more
notches wouldn't hurt anyone, except maybe Shane himself.
While
the other Degeneration X members were laughing it up, hunter's expression
seemed to change, but Stephanie couldn't quite read his features, although she
had a feeling she wouldn't be liking the consequences promised within his
smile.
"Since
you don't seem to want to go home just now, why don't we see exactly the type
of girl you really are, I say you come out clubbing with us, that is if you
think you can handle it. I mean, if
you're scared and want to run home to Daddy, we'll understand," he stated,
snidely.
Stephanie
fumed with agitation. How did he know
the buttons to push? How could he tell
what would set her off this early in the game?
They had barely interacted before now, but he seemed to know exactly
what to say to set her off. He had to
have known that she wouldn't be able to refuse, not after his last remark. Scared huh, we'll see about that.
"I
told you before, I don't need my father to run my own life, and I'm certainly
not a little girl, as you can plainly see.
I'm game, that is if you fellas think you can handle a real woman for a
change," she said, grinning. Her eyes
sparkled with pride and anticipation as to what the night would hold.
DX
glanced around at each other in disbelief.
This daddy's girl thought she could take a night out with them? Even though none of them understood why
hunter had proposed this, they would be lying if they said they weren't looking
forward to seeing the stuff the youngest McMahon was made of. They had a feeling she was different from
the rest of them, but surely she couldn't last one night with this group of
men. Although, they had to give her
props, she must have more of Linda's traits in her, than Vince's.
Needless
to say, that night's events were very interesting, to say the least. The night included strip poker at a local
bar, that Stephanie surprisingly didn't lose any clothing in: much dancing
occurred by all parties in the group, and much alcohol consumption. Stephanie took the latter to new heights,
wanting to show the boys that she could hold her liquor, making her become very
drunk by the end of the night.
The
others went their separate ways, none of them wishing to take care of the
youngest McMahon, let alone a drunken McMahon at that. This left hunter with the duty of making
sure she was taken care of. He had
stopped Billy and Dogg from leaving her in the middle of nowhere, without some
vital pieces of clothing, so they had all left him to his own devices. He debated on whether or not to take her
home, but he decided against that. He
tried to tell himself this decision was because he could only imagine the looks
on her family's faces when they discovered she hadn't come home that
night. But deep down he knew there was
something else, some other reason as to why he was helping Stephanie, spending
more time with her than he had with anyone from her family. He shook off any twinges to that effect and
decided tahat the first explanation sounded better to him.
So,
they finally made it to his own hotel room, although Stephanie hadn't made the
move very easy on Hunter, more than once saying she knew how to "make him
happy", and she "knew how to play his game".
Even though he would never admit it, her seductive movements of her body
and her suggestive speech had an affect on him. But he controlled himself.
He kept telling himself that she was the boss's daughter and a McMahon
for goodness sake!
His room was
adjoined to another by a sliding door.
He usually shared the room with X-Pac, but he never came home when the
group went on a night on the town. He always said he was with a woman, but
there were some disagreements, people even saying he just got another hotel
room, so as to look good.
Either
way, he wouldn't be back for the night, so Stephanie would sleep it off in his
bed. Through a lot of grumbling and
incoherent ranting on Stephanie's part, Hunter was able to throw her on the
bed.
"Hunter, don't you
want to see what the youngest McMahon is made of?" Stephanie slurred. Hunter looked towards Stephanie as she got
to her knees on the bed. Oh God, this
is going to be a long night.