Three: I Got My Game On
"Now THAT is the band I remember hiring!" Shane crowed when the members of Disenchanted stumbled off stage. He took in the five's varying states of weariness. "A little road rust?" He laughed. "Shake it off kiddies, we're heading for the big time… again."
"Happy happy, joy joy." Jonatha muttered sarcastically though she did look happy, tired but happy.
Dave wrapped an arm around Karma's waist when she drew close enough, letting her lean into him, and kissed the top of her head; ignoring the scent of sweat, hairspray, and dye.
"Where's Jare?" She murmured, her voice raspy.
"With the nanny, Mira. She got here about an hour ago, I sent them ahead of us."
Nodding, she just yawned.
"I'm taking you back to the hotel."
She nodded at that too, ignoring the 'come on's' she got from her friends. "Sorry guys, no bar tonight, I'm dead." She said when Jake called her a brat, sticking her tongue out at him. The way she figured it, if Shane had his way, they would be plunging straight back into the grind on top of whatever else Shane had planned; the awards show not even the tip of the iceberg. Her head began to spin just thinking about it.
Shane wholly approved of that, flashing a grin her way. "Just remember guys, we meet with Ruby tomorrow." Shane said, his voice taking a pleading tone. "So please, please, get some sleep." At this moment, he was regretting letting them actually redo their contracts, knowing damn well they could balk him and do something entirely different.
"Shane, chill, you book it, and we do it." Chris assured him.
Jonny popped Chris upside the head as they passed him. "Providing you don't book us in a place with roaches and head lice."
Chris let out a long suffering sigh.
"You must be joking." Karma sighed into her cell phone. They had JUST walked into their hotel suite after the band's first return performance and already Shane was calling. She had almost forgotten… no rest for a rockstar. When Dave shot her a 'what's going on look', she just rolled her eyes. "Shane, we can discuss it tomorrow. Right now… I'm beat and I'm almost hoarse."
"Drink some tea." Shane advised, blowing into the phone, knowing he had probably just pissed her off. But there was just so much to do and so little time to do it, this had completely slipped his mind until AFTER she had left for the night. "Just, think about it, alright? It'll give him something to do."
"Goodnight Shane." She hung up.
"What's going on?" Dave wondered if they were establishing a pattern of late night phone calls from Shane, sincerely hoping not. The man was brilliant at his job, but he could also be annoying. When Karma bit her bottom lip, he raised an eyebrow and folded his arms over his chest. "Out with it, Karma."
She actually wished their son wasn't sound asleep in the adjacent room with his new nanny –Mira-, just so she could occupy herself with him. Dave had been… edgy, since their meeting earlier in the day with Shane. By their meeting, she of course meant Disenchanted's, Dave was no longer allowed. For now at any rate. "Shane um, offered you a job?"
"Then why did he offer it to you instead of me directly?" Dave had a feeling he wasn't going to like this, he also felt the beginning of a migraine coming on.
Karma could hear him grinding his teeth, which he only did when he was annoyed. "He um, wants to put you in charge of overall security for the band. Earlier we decided that I don't need a bodyguard, not anymore. So, it'll just be the normal security crew but he needs a new chief of staff… which we're hoping will be you." This was an awkward situation for her. On one hand, she would no longer feel like a jackass for being the only one with a personal guard, on the other hand… Dave was being put in charge of a crew, something he had once informed her was a shit job.
Dave knew instantly what Shane was trying to do. Keep him involved with the band; and give him something to do. "He's right." He finally grunted, taking her by the hand and pulled her back towards the bed. "When we decided to get involved, things changed. I could put you and the entire band in danger because of emotion and that can't happen on the job."
She nodded, curling up against him after they had seated themselves back against the headboard.
"So I'll take the chief of staff job, stay in a control booth and try not to watch you be groped."
"Groped? Who's groping?" She asked, sounding surprised. "Chris doesn't count, that's just us on the stage." Karma frowned, trying to recall being groped, she could BEFORE Dave came along, but not afterwards. "Come on, let's not think about that tonight. We're together, with our son, and that's what matters, right?"
With a slight smile, he nodded.
"Ruby, they're here."
Yawning Ruby Reneire looked up from her vanity, busy arranging her honey blonde hair into her favorite style: hanging straight down her back with several braids at the temples and then pinned around her head. "Who?"
Her assistant, Marie, gave a long suffering sigh. "Shane McMahon, with his clients. That band you requested." Personally, Marie thought Ruby had been a bit out of it the day she had demanded to meet with Disenchanted, because when Ruby seen them, she was very likely to cringe. She had met the band, and found the abundance of leather, plaid, and holes…. Interesting.
"Oh… right… Well, show them in." Ruby smiled, getting to her feet and smoothed out the front of her silk lilac colored tank top, wearing a black pencil skirt with matching black pumps. After checking herself out one more time, she followed Marie out of the room.
Ruby had been among the year's top ten list of Most Beautiful People in the World, which she had loved as she enjoyed being in the spotlight. At first, she had hated it though, being famous, and an idol. It had all been an accident, or as her mother would have said: kismet.
But Ruby didn't believe in kismet, fate, whatever one wished to call it. That would have meant her life was planned for her, that she was nothing more than a puppet in some show. And she was nobody's puppet.
She had proven that when she had taking control of her acting career. She had established herself as an A-List actress, and then added directing to her list of accolades. She had done modeling, acting, directing; and she was a businesswoman and branching out from those things as well.
"This is taking forever." Phil muttered, tapping out a beat on the wallpapered wall he stood in front of. "Who is this woman again?"
Chris just gaped at him. "Ruby Reneire? Are you KIDDING me? She is the hottest thing next too…"
"Jonatha." Jacob supplied, smirking down at his wife who just smiled sweetly.
"Nice save."
Karma was leaning against the wall, shaking her head as she watched Chris trying to preen. "You're going to make an ass of yourself." She warned.
"I will not, I got my game on today."
They all snorted at that.
When they were finally escorted into a luxurious sweet, Karma immediately felt like a grimy little girl, the feeling not helped when she laid eyes on the woman who had to be Ruby. She hung back with Phil, who draped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed.
Shane promptly walked over to take Ruby in his arms, kissing her cheeks. "Ruby, as beautiful as ever."
"Flattery gets you everywhere." She teased, batting her insanely long eyelashes at him before surveying the group, her eyes lingering on Jonatha and Karma for a moment. "The singers?"
Chris stepped forward immediately, tripping over Jake's suddenly outstretched foot. He recovered quickly, but went red in the face, shooting Jacob a dirty look over his shoulder.
At this point, Karma had buried her face in the crook of her elbow, trying her hardest not to laugh as Chris next shot her a dirty look.
Ruby just watched all this with raised eyebrows. "So… you two are the singers?" She asked, glancing back and forth between Chris and Karma, hiding a smile when Chris went red again. She looked next at Jacob, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Now him… I can work with him."
Shane cleared his throat before Jonatha could lose her temper. "Jacob is Jonatha's husband."
"I meant for the music video, you idiot."
Karma was outright laughing now, the look on Jonny's face was priceless.
Jonatha was not amused in the least, though her husband looked fairly starstruck at the moment so she had to elbow him, hard. "Focus!" She hissed.
Jake just shook her head, rubbing his side. "Why me?"
"I could do it."
At this point, Karma grabbed the overeager Chris and pulled him down onto a loveseat with her, keeping a firm hold of his hand. "You need to calm down." She whispered in his ear, knowing he was going to blow this. Rehab had done wonders for him, but it had also left him… a little less smooth.
Shane was busy explaining to Jacob and everyone else Ruby's many titles, director included. "She's directing a music video as a favor to a friend, and out of the bands to choose from, you guys were in the list."
"Lucky us."
"And you all, quite frankly, are very pleasing on the eyes." Ruby added thoughtfully, looking at Jonatha and gave her a once over, then Phil and Chris, finally Karma. "She could go in a pool…" She commented, almost dreamily. "We could do an underwater scene, the band playing on one side of a thick pane of glass, Karma on the other… with that white hair, the lights would…" She shook her head, snapping out of it. "I don't know how well that would work though."
Karma didn't either. "I can't swim."
"You could make drowning an art form."
And right then and there, Karma decided she did not like Ruby.
"Jonatha plays bass?" Ruby was completely oblivious to the mounting dislike of the band, now studying Jonatha again. "She has a hard edge, I like that… you are all perfect for this video."
"Anything you want." Shane promised, ignoring the arched eyebrows all around he was receiving from the band.
Even Chris was losing interest in the beautiful woman.
"Excuse me for interrupting the groveling," Jonatha said with a slight smirk, more than amused when Shane's normally pale face flushed. "I thought we were going on tour?"
Ruby waved a hand airily. "This will take, maybe three days. We can start tomorrow. Today, we'll get you all fitted for outfits. Production has a set already and the tank is optional." She added, smiling at Karma.
Jake cleared his throat, physically feeling his wife bristling beside him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her from saying anything.
"Ruby, John Cena is here." Marie announced from the doors, looking down at her palm pilot. "Shall I…"
"Yes, show him in and see to it that the band is outfitted properly."
This was going to be a long three days.
