Wooooo, my first ever challenge fic! Thanks go out to BearKat for approaching me with the idea, made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that someone thought I was a good enough a writer to bring their idea to life!
Slightly AU; playing with the rosters and giving Wade a few more title accomplishments under the proverbial belt -so the story is set maybe a year or two from now- Mostly based in reality, but will have the slightest smattering of kayfabe mixed in with it.
Stu Bennett slouched in his chair and stared blankly into the reflective glass of the cramped interview room; the fluorescent light above him hummed constantly and occasionally flickered, it was either on it's last legs or the cops had tweaked it a bit as some sort of interrogation tactic. Either way he didn't care, the former bare knuckle boxer wasn't remorseful at all for what he had done and would quite happily do it again. His fists clenched instinctively as Stu's anger flared, his bruised knuckles turning white. He would have done a lot more than what he had done to, if Cody, Phil and Santino hadn't dragged him away...
His eyes shifted to the door as two detectives walked in, the younger of leaning against the wall while his senior partner took the chair opposite the pro wrestler placing a file on the table between them. "Stu Bennett." He began, "Or should I call you Wade Barrett?" Stu simply shrugged apathetically. The guy probably could've called him Tinky Winky, King of the Telletubbies and he wouldn't have cared, his thoughts were preoccupied. "Two time tag team champion, former Intercontinental champion, former United States champion and current WWE champion-"
"I'm aware of my career accomplishments." The Manchester native interrupted rudely, "What does it have to do with anything?"
"I'm just trying to piece together what would make a guy who has had such a good run in a company turn around and beat the ever loving hell out of his boss."
"Are you kidding me?" He said slowly, the look on his face a mix between anger and disbelief. "You're fucking with me, right?" Suddenly he shot up from his seat, the chair clattering noisily to the floor and slammed his fists against the table. The younger cop straightened up but his partner waved him back. Seething, his eyes bored into the detective. "The prick deserved everything I gave him, and then some!"
The veteran police officer calmly returned the younger man's gaze, before signalling him to sit back down. Both of them were aware of Bennett's previous issues with cops, earning himself a charge of assaulting an officer. Though in this case, he could understand his anger, but understanding or not the law was clear. Bennett had to answer for what he had done. He had not only whooped his boss' ass, he had beaten him so badly the man had to be sent to the emergency room. "I want you to sit down, and calm down... then tell me everything that lead up to the point where you took it upon yourself to assault one... Shane McMahon." The detective said, reading the name off one of his notes.
His anger gave way to sorrow and guilt as self blame renewed itself. It was his fault it had happened, if he hadn't been so damn insistent... Stu sighed heavily as he ran his hands over his face and through his hair. "I don't even know where to start."
"Where every story starts. The beginning." The cop replied. "Doesn't matter how far back you have to go, I want to hear everything."
He looked at the two officers and sighed, "Then I guess it all started at the Gasparilla Pirate festival last January, back home in Tampa.."
Stu couldn't quite keep the smile of his face, The Royal Rumble was arriving in Tampa that Sunday and he was scheduled to have a very rare day off the day before it got there. He and a few others had arrived in town early that morning; the Gasparilla Pirate festival was going to start around eleven and some of them had wanted to check it out, then hit down town in the evening for the festivities. But that was all still hours away and thanks to the red eye flight they had arrived a little past five am. The boys should have gotten to their hotel by now but Stu was lucky, he got to spend the next couple of nights sleeping in his own bed. When the taxi pulled up he handed over the fare plus a generous tip, stemmed from how good he was feeling and hauled his luggage out of the trunk. It trundled behind him as he reached the front door, took out his keys and let himself in. He looked around the front room and sighed contentedly; it was great to be home. Walking down the hall he got to the bedroom, leaning against the door frame he took in the sight that greeted him. There, right in the middle of the king sized bed sprawled out almost like a star fish and twisted up in the covers, was the woman who possessed the key to his heart.
Imogen Campbell.
Long dark brown hair spilled over the pillow, a hand resting next to her face as the other had a light grip on the duvet. One long, smooth leg poked out from under the covers, slightly bent at the knee so her calf was lying on top of it. She sighed softly in her sleep then abruptly turned over, leaving her back exposed to him. Naughty girl. His eyes darkened as he smirked; the only thing she was wearing was an old shirt of his that had ridden up past her hips, then heard as she softly called his name in a breathless moan. Leaving his bags out in the hall he quietly took off his shoes then slowly crept in bed beside her, careful not to wake the sleeping woman up. Lightly his fingers caressed the exposed skin of her toned thigh, coming to rest on her hip. Brushing her hair to one side revealed her neck to him and he inhaled the faint lingering scent of the body wash she used before his lips found the nape of her neck.
Imogen hadn't seen Stu in over two months and missed him dearly, it was inevitable that she began dreaming about him eventually. She always did. While it paled in comparison to the real thing, it was a guilty pleasure she both thanked and cursed her mind for when they turned erotic. Her dreams, regardless of what they were, were always vivid; though this one felt even more realistic than normal. His large hand was running up her leg, sliding from her hip to give her pert ass a squeeze. A soft warm sensation started attacking her neck as her senses were filled with the smell of Stu's cologne, she started to squirm and her pulse began to race. Suddenly an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her backward, finally waking her up with a surprised yelp.
"Good morning." He murmured and she could feel his smile against her neck. "Miss me?" She wriggled in his grasp so she could turn around to face him, placing a hand on Stu's shoulder and pushed him back onto the bed while crawling on top. Her fingers curled in his short hair as she kissed him furiously, "I'm going... to... take that... as... a... yes." He managed to get out through her loving assault.
"Mhm." When she finally stopped her blue eyes locked with his green, "Although what you just pulled was very creeperesque."
"Sorry, couldn't help it." Stu chuckled, "Especially when you rolled over and flashed that ass of yours at me." His hands roamed down her back before giving said butt a playful slap, causing her gasp sharply at his teasing. Enveloping her in his arms he kissed her forehead as she rested her chin on his chest. "Definitely good to be home."
Imogen's finger drew careless circles on tattooed arm, "I wish you had told me though."
"Why is that?"
"I'm doing an exhibition match tonight as part of the festival. It's all pirate themed, we even got a mat canvas done up like the Jolly Roger. If I'd have known you were coming home I would've knocked it back."
Imogen, like Stu, was a professional wrestler. In fact when he first moved to Tampa and met the woman it was her who eventually suggested he give it a try and had even helped him with his training in the beginning. While he had obviously gone onto bigger things, she was happy competing on the independent circuit and played many roles other than that of the competitor. Ring crew, backstage management, occasional talent scout... anything that needed to be done to improve the show she was one of the first to put her hand up to help out.
He had asked her many times why she hadn't gone to try out for the WWE and her answer was always the same. While the thought of competing there was enticing, she would no doubt eventually either get bored from the lack of talented competition or snap under such a heavy travel schedule. The indies, she reasoned, was a perfect place for her; she got to do what she loved, and because of her skill and dedication was paid well enough to live off and it granted her a measure of anonymity, something Stu didn't have any more. It's not like he could argue with the logic, she was even the current SHIMMER champion and had been for the better part of six months. In all honesty though, the thought of going in front of that many people frightened her on some level, not that she would ever admit to such a thing to him.
"And miss out on seeing 'Callisto' compete in a pirate costume? Not a chance, love." She had sat up and he cocked an inquisitive brow at her when she started tugging on his shirt and undoing the buttons, his cocky smirk returning. "Feeling a little frisky, are we?"
She gave him a smug smirk of her own as he sucked in a breath as her nails raked down his chest and abs before undoing his belt. "You interrupted a very good dream, Mr Bennett. Now you have to make it up to me."
"Whatever the lady wants, the lady gets." He twisted his hips, reversing their position and showed Imogen that he had missed her just as much as she missed him...
"I'll get it!" Imogen called out as she walked toward the front door at the sound of the chiming doorbell. "Tony!"
Anthony Carelli, screen name Santino Marella, swung the woman around as they hugged before putting her down. "Looking radiant as always, Imi." Imogen adored the Italian superstar, he was like the older brother she had always wished for and could break her down into a laughing fit at any given moment when he wanted to.
As he held her at arms length she took in the sight of him and couldn't help but smile, "What on earth are you wearing?"
"What am I...?" He gave a look of mock offence as his words trailed off for a second before slipping in a little bit of a Santino flair. "I am the greatest pirate of all the times, Captain Feathersword!" He struck a pose, hands on his hips as he stood like a proud captain on the deck of a ship in his regalia for the Wiggles character; complete with hat, an eye patch and said feather sword. She couldn't help but giggle as he carried on.
"Where's my hug?" Came a second and familiar voice behind Anthony.
"Oh my god, Phil!" With great enthusiasm she embraced the straight edge wrestler. The pair had known each other for close to ten years; The CM Punk and Callisto on again/off again mixed tag team and valet/wrester duo had been well recorded on the indy scene. "Just how many of you did Stu drag back here?"
"Only one more." Cody Runnels, AKA Cody Rhodes, piped up and in turn received his own warm welcome. While she didn't know Cody quite as well as Phil or Anthony, from what time she had spent in his company on her occasional trips with Stu on the road it had always been one of the highlights of her visits. The fact that she had been a huge fan of his older brother, adamant that the underutilisation of Goldust was completely and utterly criminal, hadn't hurt things either. While he had heard of it, Cody had never seen the Gasparilla Pirate festival and wanted to check it out. The born and bred Tampa native was only to happy to oblige him, she had been attending it almost every year of her life.
Ushering the three men inside she lead them to the kitchen with an offer of coffee, to which they all accepted. They spent the time they had catching up and before long it was time to leave for Hillsborough Bay. With Tony in full pirate costume Stu, Phil and Cody opted for the default disguises of caps, hoodies and sunglasses before piling into Imogen's car and headed off to see the spectacle that was over one hundred years old and still going strong. The place was already packed by the time they arrived, but with a little manoeuvring and ingenuity the five of them had managed to find a decent spot... on the roof of a delivery truck that had been parked in front of some shops and wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon with the huge crowd that was here.
The one hundred and sixty-five foot long ship, Jose Gasparilla, came into view, opening fire on the hundreds of craft that sailed out to meet it in 'combat' before realising the folly of such a mission and turned to join to sail with the crew of several hundred pirates that were aboard. The vessels sailed into the bay proper, where the pirate ship continued to fire her guns at the city and eventually the Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla made landfall and stormed Tampa.
The day wore on and the group thoroughly enjoyed themselves through the day's events, the festival was officially in full swing. Before long the sun had set and Imogen lead the way for where the wrestling event was going to be taking place. The ring itself was set up outside, the evening had been mild considering it was the middle of winter and everyone wanted to take full advantage of such beautiful weather. She led them backstage of the small building that had been hired out for locker rooms and whatnot she gave Stu a quick kiss before disappearing to get ready.
"Is that... Shane?" Cody asked, looking closely at a man across the room talking to the promoter as they went over sheets of paper. The others looked in the direction Cody had pointed out and indeed, it was their boss. "I wonder what he's doing."
"Lets go find out."
The quartet went over and Shane looked up, "Evening boys, fancy seeing you all here."
"We could say the same thing." Stu replied, "What brings you down? Aside from the Rumble tomorrow."
He grinned, "Scouting new talent. I've been told that some of these women are unbelievably good, so I thought I'd come see for myself and see if there's anything I like." He turned back to the promoter as he skimmed the card for tonight, "The SHIMMER champion is competing tonight?"
"Yes sir, if you want one hell of a women's match-up then you can't go past Callisto." He beamed, "Never seen a woman work as hard as that one. If you don't believe me I'm sure Mr Brooks here can vouch for her to."
"you know her?" Shane asked curiously, catching an inattentive Phil off guard for a moment.
"Yeah, we worked together here and there for a while." He replied casually. "If you really want to know about her now you should ask Stu, she's his girl."
Now his interest was really catching on. At least two of his employees standing in front of him knew the local champion well, he had no doubt that Carelli and Runnels knew her to, why else would they be backstage?
Tonight, in honour of the festival, all the competitors costumes had at least a little pirate flair, but Imogen and her opponent had gone all out; opting to wrestle in complete pirate garb. Imogen's costume was modelled somewhat after the character Isabella from Dragon Age 2. The energy was high among the crowd at ring side, it was probably close to two hundred people. The first couple of matches had done a great job of warming them up, now it was Imogen's turn. Taking a few deep breaths she listened to the opening moments of Megadeth's She-Wolf, and couldn't help a small smile at the crowd's reaction, she hadn't even shown her face yet and already they were booing like mad. How she loved playing the villianess. With a nod from the stage-hand She burst through the curtain; no longer Imogen Campbell but Callisto, a conceited bitch who enjoyed tearing apart those she deemed 'talentless' models that were nothing more than posers.
Stu had seen his girlfriend wear a variety of costumes and gear over the five years they had been together; none of them had made her more appealing to him than right now, and that was saying something. The black leather boots she wore stopped mid thigh, showing off the tanned skin between it an the hem of the high bikini line cut of the bottom of the bodice. A blue silk sash was tied around her waist, hugging her hips. The top of it showed a generous amount of her ample cleavage, pushed together by the laced up front of the costume. Her thick hair that hung in loose curls spilled wildly down her back and in front of her shoulders, barely kept out of her face from the blue bandanna she wore. An arrogant, better-than-you smirk that was fixed on her face as she sauntered casually toward the ring, showing off the gold that was slung over her shoulder. If he had his way she'd be wearing that every time he got home, instead of once a year.
Stu and company weren't the only one taking overt interest in the champion as the match got under way and the two competitors gave it their all, giving the fans all they had for almost twenty minutes, with Callisto coming out as the clear winner. After mocking the crowd she spotted Stu and couldn't help herself, she needed to pay him back for this morning. With a sultry swing in her hips she walked over to him, a hand coming to rest on his jaw and kissed him, sucking on his lower lip briefly before pulling away with a mischievous glint in her eye and strolled off. Phil and cody smirked at him as he cleared his throat trying to regain his composure and Tony couldn't stop from laughing at him.
Shane McMahon believed he knew a gorgeous woman when he saw one and Imogen was definitely no exception. He didn't give a rats ass that she was Stu Bennett's woman. If Shane wanted something, then come hell or high water it was would be his, and what he wanted right now was none other than Imogen Campbell.