A/N: Graphic nightmare in this chapter.
Amanda waited nervously in the restroom of the arena, pacing back until she heard the door open and was caught off guard by Alexa.
"What are you doing here?!" Both asked each other simultaneously… before Alexa saw the three tests that each read Positive and looked at Amanda in disbelief.
"I thought… you said it wasn't possible…" Alexa said, quietly as her eyes were locked on the tests.
"A doctors diagnosis doesn't mean there can't be some kind of medical advancement." Amanda explained, Alexa's steel blue eyes narrowing at the brunette.
"Or a lie to cut off any rumors! To kill a relationship you couldn't actually just say no to, oh never have you ever learnt the word 'no' even once, have you?!" Alexa responded with an angry growl.
"Come on, why don't you believe that miracles happen?!" Amanda asked.
"Oh, I'll believe in them alright! I'll believe in miracles the day you and that horny Irishman decide to get yourselves outta this damn company!" Alexa responded.
"We ain't going nowhere from this company!" Amanda said, heading towards the door but Alexa grabbed her by her hair and received a spinning backfist, the diva yelling in pain and reeling back.
Alexa grabbed a kendo stick after following Amanda into the hallway and slammed it into Amanda's arms as Amanda put them in front of her stomach to protect the kids.
Alexa slammed it into Amanda's back repeatedly until she was pulled off of Amanda and Amanda felt Finn's arms around her.
"Alexa, the hell is your damn problem?!" Finn yelled.
"That error of creation… will never happen!" Alexa growled.
"I'd feel much better if you put down a weapon you really have no idea how to use." They heard, Alexa turning around to see Sylvia stood there with her arms folded over her chest.
"As if you getting in bed wasn't bad enough…" Alexa said… moments before Sylvia dashed forwards, grabbing the Kendo stick as she passed her before turning around, using the momentum of her turn to increase the strength of the hit she then delivered to Alexa's side, between her hip and ribs, which locked up her muscles for a split second and sent her down to the floor.
Amanda felt Finn pick her up before she started losing consciousness…
Amanda's eyes snapped open, her looking around before she felt Finn's arms wrap around her again and his hand smoothing her hair back.
"Only a dream, love… you're alright." Finn said quietly, him having known that Amanda had a nightmare when she'd jolted in his arms as she woke up.
Amanda nodded as she took deep breaths to steady her shaking frame and both hearing a knock outside the bedroom door, knowing Sami had gotten into the house again.
"It's just Sami…" Finn whispered as he helped Amanda sit up when the door opened and Amanda saw Sami in the doorway, Sami seeing through the darkened room that Amanda had tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.
"It's okay to let feelings out, Mandy… holding them in is when they grow until they burst and overpower us." Sami said quietly, as Finn was lightly rubbing Amanda's back with his right hand, her left hand having absentmindedly gripped onto his which had been rested on his leg.
"Alexa and I… got into a fight in the nightmare… it was worse than the others, she took a kendo stick and tried to kill me with it… and then she was being beaten down…" Amanda said shakily before burying her face into Finn's shoulder and their arms wrapping around each other. "Everything was perfect and then she snatched it away…" She whispered.
"Clearly you know people will defend you… we'll never let that happen, Amanda. Not with a single breath between seeing it and acting against it." Sami responded, Finn nodding in agreement.
"Always… every one of us." Finn agreed.
Amanda felt herself calming down and her body lose the tension in her arms, back and neck as Sami headed downstairs and dialed Aestrid's number.
"Oh damn… how bad?" Aestrid asked after the call went through to her phone.
"Nightmare of Alexa destroying her miracle… but she knows we'll all protect her no matter what." Sami explained.
"Damn right we will." Aestrid agreed, raising up her screwdriver on her end of the call as she'd been fixing her skateboard with a new set of wheels, glancing at the screwdriver before lowering it again.
"Doesn't make the nightmares go away though…" Sami whispered.
At the same time in the hotel bar across Orlando, Alexa down the rest of her Jack and Coke.
"Another one." Alexa mumbled, the bartender obliging before turning to who had walked up and asking what he wanted.
"Anything that'll fuck me up." Seth answered before sitting down, Alexa seeing him.
"Not cleared for Mania?" Alexa asked.
"Not yet… I think might be best in a way. Gives the time to prepare for Stardust." Seth responded.
"Yeah. Closest they start the changing is towards Extreme Rules." Alexa said, sipping her drink as Seth drank his beer.
"Rough day training?" Seth asked.
"Something like that… crap with Mandy again." Alexa responded.
"That girl's a workhorse… but she would also be here drinking, where the hell is she?" Seth replied, looking for Amanda but didn't see her.
"Sleeping with Balor, I expect… they share their room enough as it is." Alexa answered.
Seth nodded and downed his beer before deciding on whiskey shots, handing two to Alexa and taking the other two in his hands.
"Ready?" Seth asked, Alexa nodding and the two drinking them.
"Damn, that's the good stuff!" Alexa said in a raspy voice.
"Jack Daniels… for a man who died from kicking a filing cabinet, he made some damn good drink." Seth responded, shaking his head a bit as the whiskey left the slight burn in the back of his throat.
"Damn right." Alexa said as the two continued drinking.
Sometime into the next day, they woke up in the Performance Centre, the hangovers hitting them.
"How the hell did we end up here and not in one of the rooms?" Alexa muttered as she and Seth sit up.
"Moreover… I hate to think of how we got here anyway." Seth responded, squinting as the light made his eyes feel like they were being squeezed in his head.
The door opened and both groaned.
"Car wrapped around a telephone pole… that's the reason I never drive after drinking." Amanda said as Finn led her into the building, Amanda absentmindedly adjusting her Bulletproof Balor Club tank top.
"And they won't even remember it happening… which is why some people just never learn." Finn replied.
"Oh ha ha, like you haven't driven drunk!" Seth retorted sarcastically.
"Backstabbing fuck." Amanda muttered, Seth narrowing his eyes at her.
"I'm hungover but my ears work, you know!" Seth responded angrily.
"Chill the fuck out!" Hunter said after walking in. "Mandy, they're waiting in the medic room. Seth, Alexa, it's mandatory for you as well." He finished.
"We've got enough drink in our systems to make a horse mount a playground ride, we can't be checked now!" Seth responded.
"Then sober up." Hunter said as Finn led Amanda to the room and helped her sit down as Dr. Amann had finished setting out the vial, needle and bandages.
"Any more pain? Any sluggishness?" Dr. Amann asked.
"No pain but had a rough night…" Amanda answered.
"Restless, couldn't close your eyes?" Dr. Amann questioned.
"After a nightmare." Amanda responded, carefully holding her left arm out as the latex tourniquet was tied around her arm. It didn't take long to find a vein but Amanda still cringed as the needle went in and felt Finn's left hand wrap around her right one.
"That'll happen, restlessness after bad dreams… things in life influence our imagination, and that becomes limitless when asleep." Finn replied, Amanda looking at him and nodding.
"It's nothing uncommon. We have many more bad dreams than you'd think, the difference comes when it affects waking up, if it does." Dr. Amann responded, moments before removing the needle after drawing a sufficient amount of blood. "Good call, Balor."
Amanda looked up at Finn in confusion as to what the doctor meant. "Distracted you so you wouldn't feel it so much." He explained.
"Thank you." Amanda said as her arm was bandaged and the tourniquet was taken off. The two left, seeing Hunter handing two cups of espresso to Seth and Alexa.
"That's the strongest we got… also, your last file called for a flu shot, Seth." Hunter said before heading away from them and to his office to call Stephanie.
"Any trouble with anyone there today?" Stephanie asked after answering her phone.
"Rollins and Bliss crashed a car and turned up in the parking lot, drunk out of their minds. More or less the same as yesterday other than that… and Mandy had a nightmare, then woke up and had to have blood drawn by the doctor, so she hasn't had the best morning either." Hunter answered.
"I really don't know how she's stayed sane throughout all this… I think it might just be a drop in her iron level that's caused what's happened lately, I really hope it's not happening again." Stephanie said.
"It could be good news, Steph, they might've gotten closer than we think." Hunter responded.
"Maybe… love hasn't exactly been known for a lack of surprises for thousands of years, that's for sure." Stephanie replied.
"Yep. I'll call ya back, okay? Love ya." Hunter said before they hung up and he saw Sylvia with the script.
"Where's Cody?" Sylvia asked, the young girl looking much healthier than the first time Hunter saw her.
"He's on his way in, the lord and lady of insanity crashed a car and he's got caught in the resulting traffic jams… and Sylvia, you're looking well." Hunter answered.
"Thanks… Roman and the family have really helped me. It was… hard to get used to eating normal amounts again. Or keeping from hiding every time I heard the front door open, but… I think I'm okay." Sylvia replied, before quietly reading the script to herself, having nearly finished the ending section. "So… you are the heroes of the… the… Milky Way." She said quietly, jotting down the lines on her notepad.
Cody reached the Performance Centre and he and Adrian got out.
"You are a crazy driver but thanks a million, Adrian." Cody said once he regained control of his body which was rushed from Adrian driving at 110mph.
"Anytime… how'd you get that knot on the back of your head anyway?" Adrian responded as they walked in.
"Just an accident." Cody explained.
In the hallway, Amanda was running her hands over her face in shock.
"Pills contaminated with… fertility drugs, how?" Amanda asked after lowering her hands and turning to Dr. Amann.
"Possibly a malfunction in the factory lines… or it was… deliberate by someone." Dr. Amann answered.
"But everything else is normal, nothing wrong with her iron or sugar levels?" Finn asked.
"Nothing at all, but an increase in hormonal activity due to the drug would explain the dizziness and weakness of the lower body. High enough levels can sometimes be confused with the symptoms of pregnancy for their near identical levels… the effects should clear in a couple of days." Dr. Amann explained.
The two nodded and headed to their locker room.
"So that morning we both woke up and mistakenly believed that we fucked, someone either drugged us or set it in motion…" Amanda said as they sat down.
"Must've… it could have been a mixed batch as he said, but then again… I know that Ace uses the same brand, and I haven't noticed anything up with her… if anything, she's been on her board more than ever lately, so one pill in a million is… a bit far-fetched." Finn replied.
"Once it wears off, thinking clearly will happen…" Amanda said before it hit her. "That little bitch!" She whispered, going to stand up but Finn stopped her and wrapped his left arm around her.
"Wait until it wears off before you go after anyone… not only so you can think straight but also so you can stay stood up when you do." Finn said, rubbing his hand up and down her left side.
Amanda heard her phone ring and answered it.
"Hey, John." Amanda replied, having told John about the scheduled blood test.
"Hey, sis… how'd it go?" John questioned, once he heard her voice.
"Normal except that my pills were spiked with fertility drugs." Amanda responded, John spitting out the coffee he had been drinking.
"Spiked with… Mandy, are you…" John started to reply.
"No. That test came back negative." Amanda responded, part of her disappointed as she briefly started to imagine what her and Finn's potential kid would've looked like.
"You feeling okay?" John asked.
"Yeah… they gave me a shot of Narcan though to flush the drugs out and it's making me shake badly." Amanda said as she felt Finn wrap a blanket around her.
"I expect so. Drugs at war with drug induced hormones, never was a good combination." John replied.
"Yeah. We'll call you back in a bit." Amanda said.
"Alright. You just rest, kiddo." John responded before they hung up and Amanda leaned against Finn, who saw the door open and saw Enzo.
"She's turning pale." Enzo said before Amanda bolted to the bathroom, Finn following her and Enzo heading back to where Dianne was.
"Uh oh, what's happened?" Dianne asked after looking up from the Stardust script.
"Sickness, by the sounds of it. Where you up to on there?" Enzo replied.
"The fight with Stardust… but here's what made me confused…" Dianne answered before flicking to the page next to the last. "Stardust 2… and there's no one listed for the part?" She said, pointing out a collection of lines near the end.
"They might be still deciding it… I just hope they find the right person." Enzo replied.
Dianne nodded and hoped that they would.
