Bound and Chained: Edge of Reason
Chapter Three
Christian let himself back into the hotel room, balancing the to-go cups of coffee atop each other as he pushed the door open with his hip. He stepped in and let it close behind him at the same time that Lauren walked out of the bathroom, rubbing her hair with a towel. "Hey, you're up," he said with a smile.
"Yeah, just after you left. Is that coffee?" He passed over the top cup to her, watching as she opened the lid and breathed deeply, a smile coming to her face. "You're the best, Christian."
His smile widened just a little as he walked over to his bed, sitting down on the edge. "So, uh, we have a two hour drive ahead of us to get to the Smackdown taping tonight. You just about ready?"
She nodded. "Uh huh. I packed up my stuff. I, um, threw your stuff in your travel bag, too. You know, your book and whatnot." She looked at him apprehensively, and then relaxed when she saw the easygoing smile on his face.
"Cool, thanks. I always end up having to do a last minute rush for my stuff." He sipped his coffee and watched as she did the same, before continuing to towel off her hair. "So, uh, about last night," he began, looking up at her from between his eyelashes. He saw the way she froze with the towel in her hands, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. He relented, deciding to give her a little space. "Did you sleep all right? I know that hotel rooms can get kind of hard to get used to."
Glaring at him, she stalked past to the bathroom and threw the towel into the bottom of the drying tub, before coming back to dig her hair brush out of her duffel bag. "Do you have a match tonight?" she asked him instead, her body and voice equally stiff.
Christian opened his mouth to say something, decided against it, and then tried again. "Yeah. Actually, Chris and I have a match together." Her head turned toward him sharply, and he chuckled. "We're not fighting each other, we're teaming up. It's gonna be us against Chris Benoit and...and Edge."
"Your brother, Edge," she said, finishing with her brush and putting it away. She saw his nod out of the corner of her eye and grabbed her coffee, sitting on the opposite bed. "Is it- I mean, do you- Is it hard fighting him? I kind of have an idea of what went on, but not really."
He chuckled bitterly, drinking more of his coffee before answering her. She recognized the gesture for what it was, him having to sort through his thoughts and edit them so that she could understand. "Judging from last night, you probably have some idea of how I feel. It's not easy. I don't think it'll ever be easy. We're family, and we're beating the crap out of each other, rather than talking about anything. 'Least you and Jerky haven't gotten to that point yet."
"You say yet as if it's going to happen," she said sadly. "Do you really think that?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Christian stood up. "I honestly don't know. Maybe you and Chris will be different. But if there's one thing that I've learned about the WWF after being a fan for years, and then working here, it's the fact that family doesn't mean a damned thing. Not after awhile. You can grow up with someone, live with them, fight with them side by side, but eventually, it doesn't mean anything anymore."
If they had known each other longer, she may have jumped up and given him a hug. And part of her felt horrible that she didn't, because he had put his arms around her and comforted her last night, but she couldn't. The broken look that he wore prevented her, like it was a virus that she could catch. "Chris and I aren't going to be like that," she murmured, reverent in her belief.
He broke out of his reverie. Turning to her, he forced a smile on his face. "I certainly hope not. No one else needs to get hurt like that in this company. There's already enough bodies on the side of the road. No need to add anymore to it." Shaking his head, he transferred his coffee cup from one hand to the other and picked up his duffel bag, stringing it over his shoulder. "C'mon, let's get checked out and on the road. The sooner we get to the next town, the sooner we can get this night over with."
"Sure," she said softly, following his lead and grabbing her own gear, Christian leading his way to the door. He held it open and let her pass through before closing it behind him. "Are we sure we have everything?"
He shrugged. "I didn't see anything left behind. You?" She shook her head and followed him to the elevator, her eyes on the suitcase rolling in front of her. "You going to come down to the ring with me and Chris tonight? Make your actual debut? Because honestly, last night didn't count. You didn't even get to do anything, but stand there and let your brother pull you away."
"It's up to Mr. Austin, I guess," she said as they walked into the elevator. She reached forward and pressed the button for the lobby, catching a glimpse of his smirk in the reflective doors as they closed. "I know, he doesn't look like much of a Mr. Austin, but until he tells me otherwise, I'm going the polite route. He's my boss. I don't really want to screw up with him. But I doubt that Chris wants me to come, anyway. He doesn't want me here, why the hell would he want me outside the ring during his match?"
"Ringside," he corrected, before shaking his head. "Well, I want you out there. Doesn't that count for something? I mean, we put in all of this work so that you could be out there, we might as well use it."
Lowering her head, she smiled to the floor, looking up under her hair to watch the numbers on the elevator's display change. "I also don't want you and Chris to fight. You guys are friends. You don't need the little sister causing any problems."
He grinned down at her. "Go ahead and cause problems. Might liven the place up a bit. 'Sides, Jericho and I aren't exactly buddy-buddy anymore. To tell you the truth, he's not really buddy-buddy with anyone anymore."
"He was before, wasn't he?" she asked as they reached the ground floor. They pulled their suitcases out with him, trudging over to the front desk.
Christian raised a finger and then motioned for her key. "Hold that thought, I'll go check us out." She sighed and sat down on her suitcase, kicking at the carpet in front of her like a petulant child. Every time she asked someone a question, whether it was him or Chris or her new boss, they all gave her the run-around, or disappeared and forgot to answer afterwards. She frowned and watched as Christian took the receipt from the desk clerk and stuffed it into the side of his duffel bag, before rejoining her. "So, where we were?"
"Discussing my brother and his lack of friends," she answered promptly.
"Ah, right." He pushed the front door open for her and waited for her to pass before directing her to where they had parked the car the night before. "I don't know. A lot of things have changed. Jericho used to hang out with a big group of people, you know? About a year ago, he just started alienating people, pushing them away. I can't say I really noticed. I was doing the same thing, and Chris and I just fell into rooming together and sharing a locker room, because no one else could stand to be around us." He flashed her a half-grin. "Don't worry, you'll run away screaming from me yet."
"Oh, I have no doubt," she answered sweetly, grinning when he gently swatted her arm. "It can't be fun for you guys back there."
As he was unlocking the trunk, he turned to look at her, a bit of a smile on his face. "You're not going to make it in this business with an attitude like that. Or last the year that you signed on for. We're doing what we love to do. Sure, it's not always fun. Sometimes it sucks. That's how any job is. Besides, at the end of the week, when all is said and done, there's always your - " He broke off, an odd look on his face.
"Family?" she asked, before shaking her head. "We're a fine pair, Christian. We both have older brothers that don't want us around."
He shrugged and started loading the back of the car, stuffing their duffel bags into available corners in order to close the trunk. The loud bang made her jump and he shot her an apologetic look before unlocking the passenger side door for her. "Yeah, well...you and I could always be the charter members of the Annoying Younger Siblings club."
"You get to be president," she said with a grin as she slid into the passenger seat. "I'll be secretary. I'm probably better at paperwork than you anyway."
He closed the door on her with a smirk.
The edict had come down from Steve Austin: whether or not Chris liked it, Lauren would be walking out with him and Christian for their tag team match that night. When Christian had walked into the locker room to share the news, Chris had stood up and sworn before storming out, leaving his sister to smile sadly after him.
Christian had played it off like nothing had happened, and stayed with her during the long wait before the television taping began, nudging her after a check of the clock to warn her that she had best get ready to go out there. She took her bag into the connecting bathroom with her and had changed her top and shoes, deciding on a plain coloured tank top as opposed to the old Manitoba Moose tee shirt she had worn to the arena. Coming out of the bathroom with her hair fixed into a ponytail, she caught sight of her brother coming back into the room.
Chris looked towards her, shaking his head. "That's what you're wearing?" he asked.
"Sorry. Only one person in the family can pull off the sequin addiction," she tossed back, pushing her bag back under the bench.
Christian gave her a grin as he went to change into his ring attire, chuckling the entire time. "Play nice now, children." The door shut before he noticed Chris flipping him off.
"Be nice," she admonished her brother, gasping in surprise when he turned to her suddenly and grabbed her shoulders.
"If you think, at any time, you're going to be in trouble, you run the hell up that ramp and get back to this room, you understand me?" he asked in a hiss. "You lock this door and don't open it until you hear me."
She shook her head. "What are you- "
"Shut up and listen to me for once, Laurie. I don't want you getting hurt out there. You think someone is coming to hit you or grab you, you run. And when I'm in the ring, I don't want you standing near Christian. You move away from him, you understand me?" Chris continued in a low voice. His eyes were gleaming with some sort of emotion, but for the life of her, for the first time in years, she couldn't identify it. "And whatever you do, whatever Austin tells you, don't get involved in the match. He told you too, didn't he?"
She nodded slowly, and swallowed. "Yeah. He said that if Edge goes for a spear or Benoit goes for a flying head butt, I should grab their ankle and pull hard. He even showed me a tape, so I'd know what it looked like. But isn't that what a valet does? I mean, Christian and I were working in the ring so that I could- "
"Yeah, you were working in the ring, and you knew what was going to happen. He fucking told you what he was going to do before he did it, didn't he?" At her nod, he swore. "Exactly. You're not going to know what they're going to do. If they do anything. And they probably won't, unless you get involved. Don't do it. Just stay away from them, all right? Please, Laurie, I don't want you getting hurt out there."
There was a long moment of silence between them, where brother and sister looked each other in the eyes, before she relented. "Okay," she whispered.
"Okay?"
"Okay." When the word was repeated, he sighed and let go of her shoulders, wrapping his arms around her for a moment.
"Good. You had me worried that for a second," he told her, and he sounded like the old Chris, with a tone of voice that suggested that a laugh was only a second away. "Look, we have a house show to do after this, and then we're off for three days. Two and a half, if you count traveling. We're closer to your place than mine. Do you want to hang out?"
She stepped away from him and sighed. "No, I want to talk. But yeah, if you want to come back home for awhile, it would be cool."
He cocked an eyebrow at her and spun his finger around, silently telling her to turn around so that he could get changed into his ring gear. She did so, rolling her eyes and wondering why he couldn't just wait for the bathroom to be free, like Christian had. "Vancouver is not home. Winnipeg is home."
"It's still Canada. Just...west coast. Little less snow, little more rain."
"Little more? Last time I was out there, I was surprised that we didn't get flooded out," he complained good naturedly. "You got a bed for the spare room yet?"
"Nope. You'll be stuck with the pull-out couch in the living room. But hey, you get my crappy television with no cable. I think I pick up three or four channels." Chris laughed from behind her, and she felt herself smile, feeling the tension leave her body for awhile. This was the old Chris, the Chris that she had known for the past few years, the one that she liked. It was a hell of a lot better than seeing the angry, ugly side.
They bantered for a few minutes more, before Chris had finished changing and Christian had come back into the room, quiet and taking in the suddenly cheerful atmosphere, as Lauren spun around to look at her brother, wrinkling her nose. "That's what you're wearing?" she asked, mimicking his earlier question to her.
Chris looked himself up and down, before readjusting his shirt, tugging on the lapels with a smirk. "Hey, only one person in the family can pull off the sequined look. I got all the good looks in the family."
"Uh huh, sure."
"What the fuck was that?"
The question had started off low in tone and had risen considerably by the end. She knew what Austin was asking her about, and could only stand there, looking down at the ground. To say that he wasn't happy with her would have been an understatement.
It had been a toss-up for her, the decision weighing heavily on her mind as she had gone to the ring between her brother and Christian. They had even announced her name on the way down, shocking her into looking up rather than down at the ramp as they had been walking. Before taking her place outside the ring, her brother had given her a look, one that clearly showed that he was expecting her to listen to his earlier demand and not interfere in the match, like she had been asked to.
And she hadn't. She was fooling herself if she thought she belonged out there, she realized. What she saw on television was nothing like what she had seen in front of her eyes. She could hear every groan, every grunt, every heavy breath, every smack of flesh against flesh. If not in her current situation, she probably would have joked with her Chris afterwards that it sounded more like a pornographic movie than a wrestling match, but instead she had just stood there, her hands clasped behind her back and taking in the match with wide eyes.
There had been a few opportunities that she could have grabbed at either Edge or Benoit when they came near the corner. Edge had done his spear on her brother, and for the life of her, she just couldn't move when he had crouched down in the corner. He had shot her a wary look to begin with, but she didn't so much as twitch a muscle, didn't even look at him. That wasn't her world and she didn't feel like she belonged. Benoit's flying head butt had occurred on the other side of the ring, and it had been interrupted by Christian before he could hit it, which she was thankful for. One screw-up was bad enough. No, she had just stood there, silent and unmoving, almost like she was a mannequin, until the end of the match, when she walked back with her brother and his tag team partner.
"They won the match," she said quietly to the carpet, afraid to look her new boss in the eye.
His hand slammed down on a nearby surface and she jumped at the sound, biting her bottom lip. "I didn't care who won the damned match," Austin roared. "I told you to get your ass involved in the match. Did you?"
"I thought...they were winning. I didn't think- "
"They were winning. I told you that didn't matter," he explained again, mocking her. She wrapped her arms around herself, hearing the leather jacket she was wearing creak. "It doesn't matter what happens during the match. What matters is at the end, and whose hand is being raised after the bell. And you can't even follow a single fucking instruction. Did I see you grab Edge when he went for the spear? Did I see you go towards Benoit when he went for the head butt?"
"I...no. But Benoit was on the other side and I didn't think I would be able to get there in time," she lied quietly, blinking her eyes when she felt the sting of tears.
"Then you hustle your ass over there. What part of interfere are you not understanding?"
"They won the match," she said again softly, knowing that she sounded like a broken record, but unable to mount any sort of defence. The man was intimidating enough of his own, but when he was shouting and carrying on like he was, she was scared. And she didn't think that he wanted to hear about how her brother had asked her not to interfere in the match. Lauren was sure that Austin wouldn't take it well, that she had listened to her own brother over her boss.
Austin stalked closer to her, standing only inches away from her. His breath was sour against her face and she fought not to twist her lips in disgust. "Look at me." When she didn't raise her head, he raised his voice. "I said, look at me." She brought her face up, her chin trembling as she met his angry eyes. "You will never disrespect me like that again. You will do what I ask. I am your employer, you are my employee. Remember that talk we had about your contract, and how it said that I control your career? You will listen to me next time, or so help me God, you will face the consequences. Are we understood?"
She nodded her head quickly. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't- "
"I don't want to hear your fucking excuses!" he shouted back in her face. "Now get out of here. And next week...next week, we better not have a problem like this. Now go!" He pointed a finger at the door behind her, and she nodded jerkily again, stepping back from him before disappearing through the door, a hand covering her mouth.
She hurried down the hall of the arena blindly, not even trying to find the locker room she was sharing with Chris and Christian. She just knew that she had to get the hell away from the irate man in the other room, and as quickly as possible.