Chapter 3

"I'm thirsty." Rebel announced after a half an hour, saving his game and set down the controller.

"That makes two of us, squirt." Steve grinned, standing from the metal folding chair. "I'll take ya to the cafeteria…uh, if yer Mom's cool with it."

Rebel rolled his eyes heavenward.

"I'll go too. Could use somethin' to wet my whistle." Andalyn announced, refusing to let this man take her son anywhere when she'd just met him an hour ago. "I'm thirsty too, Rebel."

She noted the look on his face and rubbed her temples while Steve guided both of them out the door. Andalyn was protective of her son, sometimes overly, but had every right to be. He was her pride and joy and, if anything happened to him, she would end up in a mental institution.

"She's a pain in the-" Rebel smiled sweetly at his Mom, moving to walk by Steve. It'd been awhile since he'd had someone to converse with that wasn't a female due to being no longer in school with his friends.

"She's a Momma." Steve replied with a shrug. "Mine's the same way and I'm an adult."

"She holds yer hand everywhere?"

"I made her quit last year." Steve replied with a straight face.

Andalyn smirked and sent a silent thank you in his direction with soft grey eyes, walking down the hallway with them looking around. They arrived in the cafeteria and Andalyn got water with a muffin, letting her son raid the table of food. The boy had a tapeworm, she was sure of it. Once his plate was loaded, they walked over and sat down at a table as Andalyn glanced around for the first time to see all the coworkers she'd had to converse with eventually. Rebel sat between her and Steve and went to town on his plate, not bothering to look up at either adult. It broke her heart because he didn't have a male role model in his life and she had to be both his mother and father. Andalyn tried so hard, but deep down she knew it never would be enough.

"Yo Deadman, you mind me payin' you after I get my paycheck?"

"Hardy, don't play cards unless ya can afford to lose. Pay me now or I'm gonna kick yer teeth in."

"Damn it." Jeff Hardy groaned, whipping out his wallet.

Mark smirked wickedly; swiping the man's water off the table and accepted the money he was handed. "Yer short."

"Cut me some slack man, I got kids to feed."

"You don't have kids."

"I have sperm to make them!"

Steve snorted into his own plate of food.

Andalyn raised an eyebrow at the bickering and started laughing along with Rebel. These men were insane. Andalyn didn't see any females walking around, which made her frown. Great, she was in testosterone world. She sighed and bit viciously into her muffin, coughing when a piece went down the wrong pipe. Grunting, Rebel smacked her between the shoulder blades hard, causing the piece to dislodge and Andalyn smiled down at him gratefully.

"Thanks honey." She croaked out, kissing the top of his head before ruffling his dishwater blonde hair.

"Mark – Mark, I was jokin'!" Hardy yelped when he was raised over Mark's head. "I was just kiddin', man! Come on, Calaway."

"Well...since ya beg so nicely." Mark dropped him unceremoniously on the floor.

"Thanks." Hardy groaned, rubbing his jarred legs.

Andalyn heard that voice and choked on her water, spitting it out in Steve's face, grey orbs wide as saucers. Mark Calaway. She hadn't heard that name in years. She slowly looked over at him and swallowed hard, hardly recognizing him. The fiery red hair he had back in college was gone and replaced with a dark, almost black, color. Hair dye, no doubt about it, though his facial hair was the same color as his hair. His arms were sleeved with tattoos, another change she immediately noticed. If it wasn't for his deep voice and build, she wouldn't have recognized him, but Mark had a voice that was unlike any other. Andalyn couldn't breathe suddenly and felt her stomach tighten, her appetite gone. Even though they hadn't seen each other in nearly 11 years, it did nothing to stem the pain and heartache Mark caused her over a decade ago.

"I'm not feelin' so good." She muttered, slowly standing and ignored her half eaten muffin.

"Mom, ya alright?" Rebel asked, staring at her like she'd lost her mind, his green eyes crinkling with worry.

"Calm down, Andalyn, nobody's gonna bother ya or anythin'." Steve said reassuringly, not liking the pale complexion his personal assistant suddenly had. "Taker, knock it off! Yer scarin' people!"

"It's what I do best." Mark chuckled, sitting at the table with Jeff Hardy and his brother, Matt Hardy.

"I'm fine. I got work to do." Andalyn said quickly, pulling Rebel from the table and walked out of the cafeteria hurriedly, hoping she wasn't spotted.

Fate was a bitch…that was the only thing that could explain this. Andalyn never knew he became a professional wrestler and always assumed Mark became a pro-basketball player overseas after graduating from college. Groaning, she walked inside Steve's dressing room and pointed to the Nintendo 64, giving Rebel a look that told him to back off and resumed Steve's schedule.

Rebel muttered something about PMS, extremely angry.


Steve grumbled, stalking over to where Mark sat and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Good one, Taker, ya scared off my PA, jackass!"

"You have a personal ass?" Mark grunted, not looking up from his food.

"Have I told ya lately yer sense of humor isn't funny, Deadman?"

Mark rolled his eyes. "No. Have I told ya yer 'bout to get yer head knocked off yer shoulders?"


The rest of the night Andalyn stayed holed up in Steve's dressing room, only answering questions when spoken to and became completely consumed with her work. When it was time to leave, she was more than relieved, wanting a nice hot bubble bath and a glass of wine. Rebel had gotten on her last nerve complaining about being forced to leave the cafeteria. They walked out of the arena together with Andalyn carrying her bag over her shoulder and Rebel trudging behind her.

"Rebel, if ya don't shut up 'bout that food, I'm gonna pop ya one!" She threatened heatedly, sick of his smart mouth and slid in the driver's side of the car, pressing her forehead against the steering wheel.

"It's BORIN' sitting in there all night, Mom!" He protested in a growl. "Seriously, ya could've let Steve take me with him when he said he would. It'd give me somethin' to do besides annoy ya."

Scowling at his mother's stern look she shot him, the expression on his face was one he definitely did not get from her. Andalyn had to look away from him, that expression reminding her too much of his father. She shakily slipped the key in the ignition, knowing he acted more grownup than he should have and headed toward the hotel.

"Whatever Rebel, I'm not arguin' with ya anymore. I'm exhausted." Andalyn turned the radio on so he would stop bitching for a few seconds. She sighed with relief when he did and the rest of the ride was made in silence.


"So who was it I scared earlier?" Mark asked, yawning as he fell into step besides Steve on their way out of the arena.

"My PA, like I said." Steve grunted, tired and ready to hit the hay.

"Better inform her she ain't got nothin' to worry 'bout. I rarely hit women." Mark assured him with a wicked smirk.

"Oh how reassurin'." Steve groaned when he got whacked upside the head.


After ordering Rebel 3 servings of food from room service, Andalyn put him to bed with the television remote and went to take a nice relaxing hot bath. Her mind instantly went to the past…to Mark Calaway. Only she didn't know him as Taker, not knowing what that was short for. She knew him as the Texan that stole her heart freshman year in college. He'd been a senior and they'd hit it off at a party someone threw to celebrate the first day of college on campus. They partied, had sex in her dorm room and started a fling that lasted nearly a year. Right before Mark told her about his offer to go overseas to play pro-basketball, Andalyn found out she was pregnant and didn't want to hold him back from his dream. It was her fault for not being careful since they had unprotected sex a handful of times out of the year they screwed around with each other. The end result was the little boy currently watching Rocko's Modern Life in bed and Andalyn dealing with a broken heart because she'd secretly fallen for Mark over that year in college. Andalyn slipped into the water and closed her eyes leaning back, knowing she would try her best keeping Rebel away from him, but it would be close to impossible.

Rebel rolled his eyes when a knock sounded at the door, frowning when he realized his Mom hadn't heard it due to being in the bathroom. Sighing, he rolled out of bed and padded over to answer it, looking way up at the tall figure. "Hi?"

Mark peered down at the little mite, smiling good-naturedly. "Yer mom in, son?"

"She's busy. Why, pops?"

He blinked at the sarcasm before smirking. The kid had balls. "Just wanted to let her know I was sorry for scarin' her."

"I'll let her know." Rebel shut the door in the man's face.

"Who was at the door, Rebel?"

Andalyn had just stepped out of the bathroom towel drying her hair and wore a black robe tied around the waist. When he simply said room service wanting a tip, she snorted and rolled her eyes, not believing the audacity of some people. She smiled, seeing the episode of Rocko's Modern Life that was on and sat on the bed, beginning to brush her hair, kissing the top of his head.

"I'm sorry 'bout today, honey. I'll try to remember yer growin' up." She conceded with a heavy sigh.

"Thanks Mom." He hugged her briefly, not feeling bad in the slightest by his lie. "I'm goin' to bed." Rebel yawned, slipping under the covers and pulled a pillow over his head like always. "Night Mom, get some sleep!"

She smiled back at him, having separate beds and went to hers, rubbing lotion on her legs since they were dry. "You too, my beautiful boy." Andalyn whispered, finishing up and pulled her hair back in a low ponytail.

Shutting the light off, Andalyn slipped under the covers. As soon as her head hit the pillow, sleep engulfed her.


Rebel was up early the next morning, something he always did, dressed and watching the morning news quietly, doodling on hotel paper. He rolled his eyes when he heard a loud thud from the room over, glancing at his Mom to make sure she hadn't been disturbed.

"Damn it, woman! If ya throw one more thing at me, I'm gonna break yer fingers!"

Rebel shot to his feet, shaking his head and was tempted to press his ear to the wall.

"Screw you, Mark!" Rena Mero –She was known to the wrestling world as Sable- shouted, eyes spitting fire back at him as she threw a second boot, nailing him in the arm.

Andalyn groaned, hearing the fighting and slowly sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes, not surprised to see her son already up. She heard the fighting and growled, steely grey eyes narrowing to slits. What the hell was wrong with people in this hotel? First they demand a tip for food service and now people were disrupting her sleep? Andalyn tossed the comforter back and stood up, wearing a spaghetti strapped light blue nightgown that went to her knees.

"Stay here." She ordered gruffly, walking out and went next door, hammering on the door with her closed fist. When it opened, Andalyn promptly jacked the woman in the face, her body slumping to the floor at her feet and glared down at her heatedly. "There are OTHER people in this damn hotel tryin' to SLEEP, you fuckin' bitch! Next time, think about that before you wake me up!" She turned on her heel stalking back to the room, slamming the door shut and laid back down.

Mark stared down at Rena with wide green eyes, bursting out laughing. "Darlin', we're done." He said through his laughter, picking her up and depositing her out in the hallway. "Christ." He grumbled, rubbing his arm. "Vicious bitch."

"Mom, wow..." Rebel hadn't stayed put like he was told, glad he'd disobeyed. "Ya got an awesome hook on ya! Where'd ya learn it?"

"Nowhere ya need to know." Andalyn mumbled behind her, snuggling into the pillow and sighed when she heard nothing except the television and distant rumbling laughter.

A few minutes later the alarm clock connected to the nightstand blared since Andalyn set it before bed and knew she wouldn't be going back to sleep. Slamming her closed fist on top of it to silence the contraption, she slowly got up and poured a cup of coffee. She didn't like being woke up, especially when she had serious jetlag and knew she'd have to get used to it since traveling was part of the job.

"Did ya eat?"

"Nah ain't hungry yet." Rebel said, going back to his doodling. "I was thinkin' maybe we could go downstairs and eat when yer ready?" He was 10 and couldn't stand being cooped up in a boring place like this, needing something to do besides drive his mother crazy.

"Sure honey, that sounds fine. Lemme wake up a bit and get dressed."

Yawning again, Andalyn started sipping her coffee down quickly, knowing Rebel wanted out of this room. She sighed, really hating that he had to come on the road with her for this job, but had nobody else he could stay with. Especially her psychotic mother who was too busy popping pills left and right to care what day of the week it was. Ever since her father died of a heart attack when Rebel was 5, her mother had taken to drinking heavily and popping anything she could get her hands on. The once beautiful farm she grew up on and hoped Rebel would be able to do the same thing one day, was in shambles and had to be sold off. It broke her heart, which was one of the many reasons she took this job with WWF. Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Andalyn drained her cup of java and walked into the bathroom to dress. Pulling on a pair of blue jeans that had sparkle designs on the pockets and a black tank top, she left her hair down, brushing it out along with her teeth. She slipped her white tennis shoes on, grabbing her purse.

"Okay c'mon, let's go get some food."

"Yes!" Rebel punched the air excitedly, blonde hair falling into his eyes. He smiled at her, quickly leading the way out of the room.