The Knight and the Golden Flower
Chapter 1
Jeff drove through the dark streets of Cleveland, thinking longingly of his motel room bed and maybe a burger or two. It had been a long day at work, and his match against Edge and Christian hadn't gone exactly as planned. Edge had oversold his trademark spear takedown, and it wasn't even a title match. He rubbed his neck as he sat at a red light and watched a hunched man in a hooded sweatshirt labor by on the edge of the road. There were no sidewalks in this part of town, just bordering a commercial district. He vaguely thought about offering the pathetic figure a ride, then decided he didn't want to be found in the trunk of his rental car, hacked to tiny bits.
The light turned green and he made his way down the street to a Wendy's drive-through. It had made his life easier when the fast food places had started keeping their drive-through windows open late a few years ago. He was always hungry after his matches, and the celery sticks in catering just didn't cut it. He waited his turn in line, absently looking out the window. The hooded man he had seen earlier was still making his way slowly up the street. Jeff tapped the steering wheel impatiently, and wondered if it could still be classified as fast food if the aged and infirm moved faster than the bored kid manning the window. He knew that was unfair, but man, he was hungry now and listening to his stomach growl had never been good for his mood.
Jeff checked his order then pulled carefully away from the window. "Aw, man," he mumbled to himself, reaching for his phone as he watched a group of four guys moving up on the old man. He hated getting involved, but he had the feeling that it was going to be a while before he saw that bed of his.
Sure enough, the guys surrounded the old man, who started to back away, only to be stopped by the guys behind him. Jeff couldn't tell what words were being exchanged, but he heard the cry of pain as the man was shoved roughly into the brick wall of a shopping center. It hadn't sounded like a man's voice at all. Unfortunately, the guys seemed to have noticed too, and they pulled the hood off of the crouched figure to reveal a young woman's frightened face.
The mood changed abruptly, and there were unfriendly smiles on some of the guys' faces. The girl held one arm over her head to shield herself, but one guy just grabbed it and started pulling her into the nearby alley. Her left arm hung limply at her side, but her feet kicked and fought uselessly as she was propelled forward from all sides. The girl and her attackers disappeared into the dark alley.
Before he even realized he'd made a decision, Jeff had pulled his car into the mouth of the alley. The scene illuminated by his headlights erased all doubt from his mind. The girl's shirt was hiked over her chest, and she struggled in the arms of her captors while one man worked at removing her pants. In seconds, Jeff was out of his car and flying through the air. The man spun around at the sudden light and had just enough time to look surprised before crashed into him full force, knocking him into a dumpster. The other three guys stood frozen for a moment before dropping the girl and charging in his direction.
"Get in the car!" Jeff shouted to the girl, and prayed she'd listen. Then there was no time for thought as he took the moves he performed so carefully in the ring and unleashed them full force for the first time in his life. Some part of his mind was sickened at how good it felt to hurt them, but they deserved it for what they had tried to do and he wasn't going to lose sleep over it.
Jeff stood panting over their groaning forms for a moment, then ran for his car before one of them decided to pull a gun or something. He slammed his door shut, hit the locks, and took note of the crying girl curled up in the back seat as he backed out of the alley and drove away. After a few twists and turns to be sure they were not followed, Jeff had to pull over as stress caught up with him and he started to shake. He rested his head on the steering wheel until his breathing slowed and he felt like himself again. He gradually became aware of the girl in the back seat, who had mostly stopped crying but was trying to stifle moans of pain.
"Hey—," Jeff cleared his throat and tried again. "Hey, are you alright?"
"My arm," the girl moaned. "The jeiticacu' messed up my arm."
"I'm gonna come around and take a look," Jeff said. He got out of the car and came around to kneel on the backseat with her. She carefully opened her hooded sweatshirt to reveal the straps of a backpack hidden underneath. "Let me help you with that," Jeff said, tugging on the sleeve of her good arm so she could pull her arm out. "I'm Jeff…easy now…I was at the drive-through across the street and I saw what happened…can you sit up a bit?" He helped ease the hooded sweatshirt from around her back then carefully slid it off her bad arm, keeping up a steady stream of talk in a low voice. "Ooh, that shoulder looks dislocated. Let me unbuckle that backpack…here we go." Jeff carefully undid the adjustment buckles at the bottom of the straps then moved the backpack to the floor. She seemed to relax a bit as the pressure from the backpack was taken off of her injured arm. "Man that's heavy; you must be a traveling bricklayer." That comment got a small smile. "Well, the good news is once that shoulder is popped back into place, it should stop hurting—well, mostly. It'll definitely be sore for a while. I've had my shoulder pop out a time or two, it's not fun but once I pop it back into place, I'm good as new."
"Can you fix it?" the girl asked hopefully.
"What—me? I'm no doctor. I've fixed my own, but that's my own! I don't want to injure you worse," Jeff said.
"Tell me how to do it and I will do it myself," she said, looking determined. She spoke with an unfamiliar accent. Jeff looked at her for a moment, taking in the bruised and mangled shoulder, the scraped cheekbone, and the tearstained face. He had the sinking feeling that if he didn't help her, she'd bang herself up trying to figure it out on her own now that she knew it was possible.
"I've never done this for anyone else," Jeff warned. "I may end up making it worse, and it's going to hurt like crazy."
"It is okay. It already hurts like crazy, and I would be grateful just to have you try. I am already grateful for everything else you did for me tonight. I thought I was going to die," she told him seriously. "Or worse, I thought I was going to have to live with whatever they did to me. Then you showed up, like a knight in shining armor, and well, you have so much credit in my book at this point that you would have to rip my arm off completely to get me mad at you."
"Okay then, brace yourself," Jeff warned. "This is going to hurt." He carefully took hold of her arm and popped it quickly into place. The girl gasped and turned white, then passed out. Jeff prodded her shoulder gently, then rotated her arm and was relieved that everything seemed to be where it should. Then he carefully laid her down on the back seat and closed the door.
He stood in the cool night air for a long moment, just breathing and looking at the stars while he decided what to do next. He hadn't even gotten the girl's name. He should take her to the hospital, but she didn't want to go there. He could take her to the police station to report what happened, but they'd probably take her straight to the hospital as well. He'd never been anyone's hero before. She'd called him a knight in shining armor. He found himself not wanting to lose any of that credit with her. As he got back in the car, Jeff already knew where he was heading. He just hadn't admitted it to himself yet.
Author's note: This story takes place sometime during the height of the Hardy Boyz tag team career, when they were often in contest for the tag titles with Edge and Christian, and the Dudleyz. I'm not going to go all stalker and research specific matches and incidents. Wrestlers will also be referred to by their stage names, since that's what I know them by.
The girl comes from another culture and English is her second language, so as is common among bilingual people, words from their first language tend to get mixed in on occasion. Don't worry, it's a real language. I'll reveal more as the story unfolds.
jeiticacu' = insult meaning 'black eyes'
