„Enjoying the view ?" Shawn asked.
„Any reason why I shouldn´t ?" Mark asked back.
He grinned, obviously not ashamed of the fact that the friend had caught him observing Jade and Sheila discussing some schedule issue at the other end of the room. Sheila had sat down to the edge of the table while Jade had bent forward and put her palms down to the table´s surface, staring down at the timetable in front of them, completely unaware of the good look at her backside she was granting Mark that way.
„None I could think of as long as you´re staring at the right one of those two", Shawn replied with a shrug.
„Don´t worry", Mark mumbled.
Jade was in her usual working dress, a light company polo, the color indicating to which division of the crew she belonged, jeans and sneakers, the long dark hair in a braid. Mark realized that he had most likely never seen her wearing something else. But alright, she was not around for a fashion show. She had already been good at what she was doing when she had started to work for the WWE, but she had lacked self-confidence back then. Nowadays, boasters like Bo Cedric didn´t scare her anymore. But Mark had come to believe that there was still something else that was different about her, something that seemed to have escaped him during the years of his marriage. He couldn´t put a finger on what it exactly was, but somewhere down the road, plain Jane Jadice Cooper had obviously turned from a girl into a woman, certain things about her looks and regarding her ways becoming more distinct with the time.
„Did she lose weight?" Mark suddenly inquired, leaving even quick-witted Shawn perplexed for a moment.
„Sheila?"
„Jade, dipstick."
Shawn threw him an amused look.
„What kind of girlish question is that exactly?" he asked back, putting his hands to his sides.
He didn´t get an answer, but was not really surprised by that. Risking it and letting his gaze wander from his wife over to Jade, he finally nodded.
„Yeah, I guess so. Well, she´s been through some trouble with some ex-boyfriend recently. She moved only some weeks ago to get the guy finally out of her hair, I guess it´s got probably something to do with that. She and Sheila talked a lot at that time."
Shawn eyed up his colleague.
„So, why the hell would you notice that ?"
Mark sat back and crossed thick arms in front of his chest.
„I just liked her better when she really filled out these jeans", he muttered.
Shawn frowned. He was tempted to try and find out a little more about Mark´s unexpected interest in the physiotherapist, but knew him good enough to read the friend´s body language right. The damn bastard´s change in posture told him clearly that he was not up to make any further words about that.
„So how are things going with the new storyline ?" Shawn asked instead.
„Pretty good", Mark answered. „Glen and I are going to have a first encounter with the new Dark Daria tonight and then there´ll be this kind of tie-up at the beginning of next week, they haven´t come up with the details. Have you already seen her?"
Shawn nodded. Daria, one of the most popular wrestling diva´s around for the last years, had been subject to a complete revision of her character and looks. As a consequence, the former blond schoolgirl, who had gained a lot of muscle over the last year, had changed into kind of a Gothic style queen, now meant to temporarely pair up with the Brothers of Destruction and against her former boyfriend, model-boy Jase Richards and his partner.
„I´m looking forward to how people are going to react to that", Shawn mused. „When we talked the last time, she seemed eager enough to do this. Like if she actually wants people to hate her after playing the nice little girl for so long."
Mark only shrugged, but had come to the same conclusion.
At that moment, Chris entered the room, looking around for the Undertaker.
XXX
„Fuck!"
Mark swore, then gasped.
„Goddamnit, Chris!"
„I told you that it would probably hurt", the chief physio commented.
„You didn´t tell me that you´re going to break my arm!"
„If he had told you, you would only have threatened him to break his neck or something", Jade reasoned.
She reached for his arm but he retracted it, slowly moving it to get over the pain.
„Gimme a second, alright ?"
Chris padded the wrestler´s shoulder.
„Don´t worry. If this is not going to do the trick, nothing will."
„Yeah, thanks! Miserable torturer that you are", Mark rumbled.
„Alright, let´s do some stretching once again, then we´re done. The problem should be solved by tomorrow."
"You got to be damn kidding me", Mark growled.
Stepping behind Mark, Chris gestured to Jade. She put one foot up to the bench he was sitting on and reached for his arm to make it rest across her leg while Chris prepared to steady Mark. Chris was ready, but Jade gave a small sound of disapproval, softly patting Mark´s arm.
„Relax. This doesn´t work otherwise."
„If I relax, you´re gonna break down", he argued.
„Yeah, come on, did that ever happen before ?"
He frowned and did as he had been told, but only hesitantly. Letting the full weight of his arm rest on her leg didn´t seem wise.
The door opened and one of the runarounds poked her head in.
„Chris, Dave is asking for you", she told the chief physio with a nod to the other people present. „Mr. Cedric..."
„Alright, how urgent is it ?" Chris interrupted her.
The girl shifted her weight uncomfortably.
„Well, Dave thinks that it´s not that urgent..."
„But Cedric is raising hell, isn´t he ?" Chris guessed.
The girl nodded.
„Do you people manage here?" Chris addressed Jade and Mark.
„Sure", they both said at the same time, their simultaneous answer only causing Chris to grin.
XXX
Mark watched her silently while Jade worked once again on his right arm. She had told him to lie down after two failed attempts to do this with him sitting because he wouldn´t relax. He had not felt any better about putting the full weight of his arm to her shoulder instead of to her leg like before, possibly making her collapse that way. Jade had been working long enough with men of his caliber to know what she could do or not, but he hadn´t listened.
Jade worked as silently as he was watching her. The last few days had been kind of intriguing. After his unexpected approach, the moment she had managed to pull herself together, her mind had started to spin.
Jade had known Mark ever since she had started to work for the WWE and she definitely preferred him to many of his colleagues. But then again, they had always only been colleagues in the widest sense.
His unexpected approach had turned her whole world upside down. She had been hit on by some of the boys over the years, and to her amusement even by one of the lady wrestlers once, but Mark of all people had been the last she would have expected to take the offensive that way.
Jade had always liked him, she couldn´t deny that. She had always liked his role as the the Lord of Darkness, the unpredictable mysterious giant who rarely took sides, and who, if he did so, was often inclined to change his mind as fast as he had made it up before. Aware that the character of the Undertaker and the man behind that role were two different things, she nevertheless mused that he wouldn´t have been able to play his part that convincingly and for so long if he hadn´t liked the dark character he was portraying. Him giving the American bad ass later on was one her all-time favorites. There had been less mystery, but more muscle flexing, more big talk, more aggressive challenges. And there had simply been more fun because the role had allowed him to say all the things nobody else had ever been allowed to say. Where he had played the Lord of Darkness convincingly, he had played that role always with obvious delight.
Jade remembered that in the beginning, a lot of people had warned her about him being grumpy and moody. To her surprise, a lot of people still thought of him like that. But she mused that most of them were simply misinterpreting his stoic sarcasm. He actually seemed to have realized that, but did obviously not care much about it. He didn´t talk that much in general, but if he spoke his mind, his statements were sometimes that sardonic that it took people some time to realize the real meaning behind his words. Those who did were usually lost for words. Those who didn´t were left confused by the man´s irritating way. People close to him, like his colleague and friend Glen or longtime coworkers like Shawn, used to watch such scenes in silent delight.
As far as she was concerned, she had obviously never given him reason to become the target of one of these statements. And in contrast to a lot of the other athletes around, he was definitely not the guy to take his mood out on the people around him. He was neither the type to flirt with every female crossing his way nor to hit on one female colleague after another. And where others had made it kind of a habit, she had never seen or heard about him gotten caught in the middle of some kissing and cuddling during work. Alright, he had been married most of that time and the company followed a very strict policy regarding that matter. But then again, some people, especially the established ones, could surely afford it anyway.
Jade had realized that she actually had no idea if he was single or not. She knew that he and his wife had gotten divorced two years ago, but she had no idea about his recent relationship status.
Neither did she know if he had known that she wasn´t seeing someone or if he just hadn´t cared about it. If he had known that she was single, it raised the question where he had gotten this information from.
Knowing that Shawn and Mark were good friends nowadays, Jade could have asked Shawn´s wife Sheila about him. But Jade wouldn´t have been able to do so without Sheila getting suspicious, so it hadn´t been a real option.
The most unnerving question bothering her was the one regarding his possible intentions. It was also the question only one person could actually answer. And Jade, usually not that easily scared, found that she was not though enough to simply ask him.
She wondered if he had any idea how badly he had shaken her own little universe. Luckily, it seemed to have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world so far. Or, in other words, unnoticed by her closest friends.
She had met him right the next day during breakfast. They had met two times more that day, but had always been surrounded by a lot of other people. He had acted just as usual, but she had still found herself rethinking these encounters over and over again, trying to get a clue what he was up to - or if he was up to anything more at all. It had been the same the following day. But with every hour that had passed ever since without anything significant to happen, she had grown more and more accustomed to the thought that, as odd as it had been, this kiss had been a one-time thing.
Jade realized suddenly that he was observing her. To her embarrassment, she blushed.
„Would you stop ?" she asked, her usually steady voice sounding suddenly rather shaky to herself.
„Stop what ?" he asked bluntly.
He had put his free hand to the back of his head for a more comfortable position to look at her, now finally turning his head completely towards her.
She returned his gaze for a prolonged moment, then narrowed her grey eyes.
„Making me blush", she answered.
He considered her answer for a moment.
„I ain´t doin´ nothin´ ", he told her then with that drawl she admittedly liked, the beginning of a grin on his face.
Despite the fact that he was right about not really doing something with the exception of looking at her, she hated him for telling her so.
„You´re done ?" he asked when she kept silent, but still held his gaze. Her hands rested still on his arm.
To his amusement, her blush only deepened. She retracted her hands.
„What´s wrong with you?" he asked innocently, unable to withstand the temptation to tease her a little more.
He sat up. For some reason, even after working with so many athletes of quite impressive built, she couldn´t else but eye him up for a moment. She had treated him uncounted times for all kinds of stuff before. Still, looking at him right now had suddenly a different quality.
He slipped from the massage table and forced her to take a step back by doing so, only to reach for her to make her sit on the table he had just spent the last half an hour on. The fact that lifting her up there as if she was only a three-year-old made things only worse. The way she was now looking up to him made him almost regret his teasing. Well, almost.
Jade watched him, alert, obviously not daring to make the first move.
He held her gaze for another moment, then shook his head.
A minute later, Jade found herself pinned up against a wall once more.
It seemed that it didn´t cost him much of an effort to hold her there. The damn bastard even managed somehow to hold her there with one hand at the back of her head and the other one under her shirt. Admittedly, he hadn´t needed to ask her to fling her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
Nevertheless, the moment he bent forward to get into another round of kissing, she turned her head a little to keep him from doing so.
„Mark!" she said breathless.
„Wha´ ?" he inquired harshly, unwilling to be interrupted right at that moment.
„We have to stop !" she whispered.
Giving a short sound of disapproval, he kissed her again instead, taking his time.
It was her turn to give a soft sound of disapproval when he broke away from her this time.
„Why ?" he demanded to know, just having proven that her words obviously didn´t meet her wishes.
He bent forward again, but she held him back.
„If they catch us here like that, I´m in trouble."
He brought his hands back to her legs to keep her steady while he seemed to consider that. They both knew that she was right - and that she would be in a lot more trouble than he.
„Jade ?" T. J. asked from outside the room that moment, knocking at the same time at it. "I am looking for Taker, he´s with you ?"
They both cursed while he put her hurriedly back to her feet.
„Yeah", he growled, somewhat disgruntled.
"Get in", Jade added somewhat belatedly.
„Hey there!"
The moment the gofer poked his head in, they managed to make the scene look like the most innocent one possible. Jade, with her back turned to the man, hoped that he wouldn´t get a glimpse at her flushed face.
„Just wanted to let you know that Marcus made the appointment for the meeting with Daria and Kane for tomorrow ten a.m.", T.J. told him. „Can I tell him that´s okay ?"
„Sure, go ahead."
„Alright then! See ya!"
T. J. disappeared as quickly as he had appeared in the first place.
Jade took a deep breath the moment the door had closed behind him again.
„See what I am talking about ?" she asked. „You got to go."
She boded ill the moment she saw the grin on his face.
„Don´t think you´re getting away just like that", he told her, his grin broadening.
