Nearly a half hour later, they had ended up at Finn's apartment and all had listened as Jodie explained everything… Amanda had turned pale and Jodie noticed her digging her nails into the palm of her left hand which had the knife scar on it.
"Bit too much to take in?" Jodie asks, Amanda nodding as Finn lightly rubbed his left hand up and down her right leg.
"Had Aiden lived… what would he be like today?" Amanda manages to ask.
"I suppose a lot like he already is… protective, a bit grumpy but… the one who'd risk his safety before anyone else even had to think about it. A guardian… as he is now." Jodie says.
Amanda nodded… and jumped as her phone chimed, seeing a text from Nikki.
'Head outside.'
"I'll be right back… a lot of us are planning a night out." Amanda says, walking outside and to Nikki, who had a few shopping bags in her arms. "Nikki, do I even want to know what you went and bought now?" She asks with a slight laugh… but Nikki could tell something was off and set the bags in the car.
"What's wrong, kiddo?" Nikki asks.
"There's someone in there who can explain it better than I can." Amanda says, Nikki nodding before opening one of the bags… and Amanda noticing a reddish purple low cut velvet mini dress and red stiletto heels and putting it together from the size tags that fit her better than Nikki. "Nicole Bella, have you absolutely lost it?" She asks, her face turning a light shade of red as for the past month, Nikki had been trying to set Amanda and Finn up as a couple.
"Relax. Come on, you know you like him." Nikki says, Amanda smiling slightly.
The two took the things into the house and Nikki saw Jodie.
"Hi there…" Nikki says, nudging Amanda to head upstairs and try on the outfit and Amanda heading upstairs.
"Hey. You a friend of theirs?" Jodie says, Nikki nodding.
Upstairs, Amanda was out of her workout outfit and put her hair in a messy bun. When she was cleaned off and had shaven up, she slowly got redressed, looked in the mirror… and smiled.
To her surprise, the dress fit her tiny frame perfectly even if it was a little more low cut than she first thought. Amanda freshened up her makeup and applied a matte purple lipstick before seeing another message in the mirror after putting her curls in a high ponytail.
'Never be afraid to take chances.'
"Thanks… I just… I haven't really been with anyone in a long time." Amanda says, her last relationship with Cody Rhodes having ended a few years ago. "Aiden… there's a lot about me that I try to keep hidden." She says.
'Nothing is hidden from me. I see every thought in your head, even those you don't acknowledge yourself… like how badly you really want to do this.'
"I really do… I just hope there's not any more tension between Seth and I after this. I love him to death but he still sees me at that young kid… the little sister he never had growing up." Amanda says, sitting down and putting the red open toed heels on.
She stood up, the heels raising her height from 5'1" to 5'7"... and a knock at the door made her jump out of her skin.
"Mandy?" Finn says.
"You're already dressed up for tonight? Damn, I've only been up here for a few minutes." Amanda says, glancing back at the mirror.
'Here's your moment, grab it with both hands.' Aiden followed the message with a thumbs up shape before the condensation disappeared.
Amanda unlocked and opened the door as Finn rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt… and stopped, his eyes widening before a smile slowly formed.
"You look amazing…" Finn says, his right hand reaching out and resting on Amanda's left hip as she smiled.
"Hey, what's going on up there?" Seth asks as Jodie helped him fix his tie.
"Would you hold still? You want to look nice for Sasha, don't you?" Jodie asks, lightly swatting Seth's arm.
"I just want to know what's…" Seth starts to say before seeing Amanda and Finn walk downstairs, her right arm linked into his left one.
"Sorry in advance if I step on your toes, I'm not used to wearing heels." Amanda says, Seth giving Nikki a look that implied 'You have a wicked mind.'.
"Me, wicked? Why would you think that?" Nikki asks in a coy manner.
"You realise John's gonna lose his mind when he sees his baby sister dressed up like this." Seth says.
"No one will regret it… well everyone seems to be doing it, what about you Jodie?" Nikki says, Jodie looking up. "Having a ghost around must make things different, how do you go about getting someone and impressing them?" She asks.
"...you don't." Jodie replies simply after a pause, Nikki unsure whether it was a pause for thought or cringe at old memories.
"You must've had someone sometime." Seth says.
"Yeah, 2 or 3 that ran away or used me for my abilities so I stopped looking." Jodie says, sounding slightly angered and uncomfortable at reliving those memories in that moment.
Amanda reached over, resting her hand on Jodie's shoulder and Jodie calmed down.
"I'm okay… It's something I've lived with since I was born. You go out and enjoy yourselves, there's nothing to ruin it for you." Jodie says.
"Are you sure you don't want to head out with us?" Amanda asks after lowering her left hand, Jodie seeing a faded scar on one of Amanda's knuckles.
"You go. I'll be… somewhere around." Jodie says, the door opening seemingly by itself afterwards.
The group ended up at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant where Sasha and John, also dressed up, were talking before seeing the others, John nearly choking on his beer when he saw Amanda and Sasha lightly patting him on his back.
"You okay, John?" Sasha asks.
"Yeah… just didn't see this, she rarely dresses up." John says.
"Hey, I've dressed up nicely before." Amanda says, turning slightly offended as they all sat down.
"Just not to this kind of level… hey, didn't you say you had an extra earlier?" John says.
"Yeah… Jodie just wasn't feeling okay." Amanda says.
"Well I hope it's not too bad." John says before whistling out for a waiter.
Meanwhile…
Having seen it on TV so many times, it felt strange to Jodie to see the training centre's ring all darkened and void of life. Then it looked almost like a movie scene as she flicked a switch on the wall and the spotlights aimed into the ring flickered on, Jodie climbing in.
"Okay, Aiden… give me a starter." Jodie says, an outline of a human appearing a few feet from her, all blue except for shining red eyes. It ran at her, Jodie launching herself and flipping off of the figure's shoulders and landing behind it, the figure disappearing into a burst of dust.
'Bit slower than before…'
"Hey, you!" Jodie says with a slight laugh. "Now… give me one that will actually do something this time." She says.
The figure reappeared and ran, this time swinging its arm towards Jodie. Her arms raised, clamping together and trapping the figure's wrist before she spun around and gave it a hard yank, the figure disappearing again as a normal human would have just felt their shoulder become completely dislocated.
Jodie went on fighting off figures for a while until Aiden didn't form one following Jodie defeating one, Jodie confused until she saw someone who'd been watching from the doorway.
"Hey, little lady. Almost mistook you for Mandy." Dash says as he climbed into the ring.
"We are similar I guess… different styles though." Jodie says.
"Yeah… I'm Dash." Dash says, extending his hand and Jodie shaking it.
"Jodie… I've been watching for about a few years, I actually met Mandy when she was younger." Jodie says after they let go.
"She started out pretty young… but she's done amazing here in the business. It's been a bit rough at times though." Dash says.
"No one ever really knows what goes on after the cameras stop running." Jodie says.
"It is hard to keep our private lives out of the public eye… knowing Mandy, she's probably hanging out with Finn in some restaurant now." Dash says.
"Yeah, and John, Nikki, Sasha and Seth… going out like that isn't really my thing, came here instead." Jodie says.
"We all need some quiet… life gets crazy at times." Dash says.
"Makes me wonder how she's survived what's happened… it still hurts her, I can see that." Jodie says.
When the two left later, they stopped near a bar across the street from the restaurant, ducking under the awning when it started to rain… and saw Finn and Amanda kissing as they held each other, his left hand resting on her right hip and lightly squeezing it to lift her leg up a bit.
"Nothing like a kiss in the rain." Dash says, him and Jodie smiling slightly as his right hand lightly brushed against her left one. "Oh, sorry." He says.
"It's alright." Jodie says as she leaned against him slightly before they headed into the bar.