Tia Tames The Animal
Disclaimer: All characters owned by World Wrestling Entertainment are the property of WWE and are used here without permission, but with the utmost respect for the persons who portray those characters. Tia Marie Daniels is a character of my own creation, that I respectfully ask not be used by anyone else. All other characters are my own, as well, but may be used by others.
Chapter 4—Animal to the Rescue
A couple of weeks passed with Tia training Dave and John when they were in town and going about her normal crazy schedule of school and training other when they weren't in town. She found that the more she got to know the two wrestlers, though, the less she believed her initial assessment of them as falling into the same category as the sexually obsessed wrestlers she had known previously. The more she worked with them, the more she realized that she might be in trouble because of the strong attraction she felt for Dave. It was getting harder and harder to deal with the electrical charge she felt every time she pointed out a working muscle and stretching him out at the end of a session was the most sensual she had ever felt in a gym. When he called to let her know that he and John would be late to their session today because of a flight delay, it was all she could do not to end the call with a casual "love you" like she did with her kids because she was falling for him fast with no idea how to control it.
"Madison, I'm in major trouble," she said, walking into Madison's office to kill some time with her boss while waiting for Dave and John to arrive.
"You heard about Doug?" Madison asked, looking nervously up from her desk.
"No, I was talking about Dave," she replied and sat down in the chair in front of the desk. "What about Doug?"
"He made bail," Madison said. "I've gotten 4 threatening calls since he was released this morning."
"Great!" Tia exclaimed, obviously mad. "Have you reported it to the cops?"
"Yeah," Madison said. "But they can't do anything unless he tries something, so I'm going to stay at my brothers until the court date so he can't find me. I suggest you find somewhere else to stay too, maybe go visit your son in Georgia?"
"The court date is like another month away," Tia replied. "I couldn't miss that much school. Besides, it'd be a major cramp to Jimmy's style to have his Mom and sister back at home with him."
About that time, the desk clerk knocked on the door. "Tia, your clients are here," she said.
"I bet you and Katie could stay with one of them, maybe Dave," Madison giggled at Tia, knowing how Tia was fighting her feelings for Dave.
Tia rolled her eyes as she got up from the chair. Shooting her friend a sarcastic look as she made her way to the door she said, "Sure, Madison, that won't be awkward at all! Maybe you'd like to start planning the wedding too?"
"Okay, it'll be WrestleMania weekend since it's here in Tampa this year. Maybe you could get married in the ring like Macho Man and Elizabeth?" Madison continued to taunt her friend.
Tia slammed the door as she left the office to go meet Dave and John.
"You okay," Dave asked as soon as he saw the look on Tia's face.
"Yeah, just a little stressed today," Tia replied. "Doug made bail this morning and has started making threatening phone calls to Madison, so now I'm worried about my friend. I don't think she's handling it well. She's gone delirious and is planning fictional weddings at WrestleMania."
"HUH?" Dave and John said in unison.
"Don't ask!" She replied walking them over to the squat rack to begin their workout that day. "So how was your trip?"
"Too long," Dave said, helping Tia load up the bar with weight for their first set.
"Yeah," John said, "he was in a big hurry to get home this time. Said something about a hot trainer he couldn't wait to see."
"Hot trainer, huh?" Tia grinned at John, then looked at Dave with a serious look on her face. "You cheating on me with another trainer?"
"Are you kidding?" Dave replied. "After one of your workouts, I can barely walk to the other side of the gym, much less have the energy left to workout again."
"Really?" Tia said, grabbing another 45 pound plate to put on the squat bar. "Well, lets just make sure of that, shall we? 20 reps, plie."
"UGH," Dave said. "I hate plie squats. I'll get you for this, John."
They worked their way through a series of squats, lunges, and deadlifts of various forms to really work their legs. As they were finishing up with their workout, a crying teenage girl came running up to Tia and threw her arms around her.
"Katie, honey, what's wrong?" Tia asked, hugging the girl close to her.
"We've been robbed!" Katie screamed, crying into her Mom's shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Tia asked, pushing her daughter away slightly so she could look her over. "Were you hurt?"
"No, I wasn't home," Katie answered, starting to calm down. "I just got home and found the apartment trashed. I called the police and they did their thing. The cop said something about a guy on bail that you needed to be warned about. What's going on?"
"Doug?" Dave asked.
"Yeah, that was his name," Katie replied. "How'd you know?"
"It's the guy I told you about a few weeks ago that was abusing Madison." Tia replied. "I guess she was right about saying we should go stay with your brother for the next month until Doug's trial."
"So, we're going to Georgia for a month?" Katie looked devastated. "Of course, just when I'm finally fitting in here at school, some jerk has to go and ruin it."
"No, baby, we're not going to Georgia," Tia said, hugging her daughter close to her. "Nobody is going to scare me out of living our lives. We'll find a hotel or something for a while so we neither one have to give up our classes."
"You'll stay with me," Dave said. "I have a huge house with plenty of room and an awesome security system so you won't have to worry about him again."
"Thank you, Dave, but we couldn't impose like that," Tia said.
"No imposition at all," he replied. "After all, this is kinda my fault. He wouldn't have been pissed that day if it hadn't been for me insisting on having you as a trainer. So now I'm going to take care of him."
"I don't need anyone to take care of things for me," Tia replied, getting defensive.
"I know you don't, but you also don't need to have to worry about this asshole while you're trying to focus on your studies and taking care of your daughter, especially when I can take care of everything in 10 minutes and 3 phone calls." Dave grinned at Tia. "You are by far the strongest, toughest woman I've ever met. I know you can handle this guy on your own. But I'm a man and men sometimes have to make themselves feel strong by taking care of women who don't really need it. As my trainer, it's your job to make me feel strong, so consider it part of your job to let me take care of you for a little while, okay."
Katie giggled, "Mom, I think you've met your match. And I really don't feel like growing old and missing out on having my own kids to stand around waiting on the two of you to quit fussing about this, so I'm just going to ask you for our new address," she said, turning to Dave, "because I vote for your plan."
Dave smiled at Katie, "Thanks for the vote of confidence. By the way, I don't think we've met. I'm Dave, and this is my buddy John."
At that point, Katie realized who she was standing beside and started wimpering and turned to her Mother and squeeled, "Please tell me I look okay! Is my mascara running? Oh, Gawd, how could you let me meet HIM looking like this? Oh, crap, I'll be right back!" She then ran to the locker room.
Tia began to laugh, then cry, then laugh some more, then both at the same time. Dave looked at John as if asking what to do. John shrugged his shoulders, confused. Katie came back after obviously washing her face to remove the streaks of makeup from her crying earlier. "I think she's lost it," Katie said. "Mom, are you okay?"
Tia took a couple of deep breaths to gain control of herself again. "Yeah, I'm fine. You are just too much! In the middle of all the chaos, you are worried about how you look for meeting John. And he doesn't even have a clue what he's in for now that you've met him." Tia began laughing again.