"You okay, Clem?" Seth asked.
Clementine was sitting opposite him at a table, backstage before her Wrestlemania Axxess signing. Although she was looking forward to meeting some of her fans, and was only a day away from wrestling her mother at Wrestlemania, she felt like she was in a strange place.
The truth was that no matter how many times she and Logan McMahon had problems with each other, and no matter how big those problems were, she loved the guy. And she knew that he loved her. If there had been any doubt about that in her mind at any point, it was gone now.
Over the past few weeks, Logan had sought professional help for his depression, with the help of WWE. Talking to someone had helped him to turn a corner, but Clementine couldn't help her mind drifting off at least a couple of times a day to the fact that the man she loved had been on the brink of suicide, and she hadn't had a clue. She had been totally blindsided by it when he had found the courage to come to her, and surely that was wrong on her part? Surely she should have known? Surely she shouldn't have thought that he was just being a prick to her? Surely she should have known better than that?
"Clem?" Seth asked again, snapping her out of it.
"Sorry, dad," she said faintly. "I was thinking about Logan. I let him down. He needed help and I wasn't there."
"You were there, sweet pea," Seth said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "He came to you after you broke up with him, yet you listened to him and helped him."
"I should have been there before that," Clem insisted. "What if he hadn't been strong enough to come and try to talk to me? What if he had hung himself instead? I love him, dad, and I can't think about what I would have done if..."
"Hey, hey," Seth said soothingly as tears started trickling down her cheeks. "It didn't happen, Clem. He came you, and he's getting help. His mom and dad reconnected with him, I guess I could say you reconnected with him, and Hunter and Steph told him there's a place for him here when he's well enough to return."
Scrunching her eyes shut to stop the tears, Clem had to admit all of that was true. Logan's cry for help had at least made things happen. Shane had been on the first flight out to see his son after Clem had personally called him with the awful news, telling him in no uncertain terms that she held him partially responsible for Logan being in such a dark place. While that might not have won her any favours with the McMahon family, she didn't really care. Sometimes things just had to be said, whether the person hearing them liked it or not.
"Logan's staying at home with his parents for a while, so hopefully they're fixing things up," Clem said, trying to brighten herself up a bit. Any minute now, she would be going out to her signing. Seeming miserable and having her makeup ruined by crying wasn't the look she was going for.
Right on cue, Lucy walked over to their table, carrying her Raw Women's Championship. She had been across the room, sitting and talking to some of the other wrestlers who were signing during the Saturday afternoon Axxess session that was about to start. Actually, Clem realised, the fans would already be making their way into the exhibition hall by now.
What had shocked a lot of fans was that while Lucy was a Premium VIP signing, requiring fans to pay top dollar for the chance to meet her, Clementine hadn't been given VIP status at all. She was on general admission. As one of the most popular stars in the company, it appeared to be a ridiculous decision on WWE's part. When the list of VIP signings had been released, Clem herself had been surprised. It wasn't that she possessed a giant ego, it was just that she knew it was a fact that she would be high on most fan's list of people they wanted to meet.
So it had proved to be. She remembered checking social media at the time and seeing anger that there was no Clementine VIP. People would have been more than happy to pay extra for the guaranteed chance to meet her, and were not happy about having to hopefully get lucky and meet her on general admission, when so many people would flock to her stage. To make matters worse from their point of view, she had been assigned to the Saturday afternoon session, the busiest of the whole weekend.
Little had anyone known at the time, WWE had a reason behind their decision making.
"You ready, Clem?" Lucy asked cheerfully.
Clem looked up at her and smiled, telling herself that if Logan was there, he would tell her to enjoy meeting the fans, knowing how much she loved doing it. "Yeah, I'm ready," she said positively, getting up.
Seth also rose. "I need a hug from my girls before you go anywhere." They both walked into his arms and he said, "I'm so proud of you both."
"Save that for tomorrow night, mister," Lucy said after giving him a peck on the cheek.
"I'm with mom on this one," Clem grinned, adjusting her cap as they parted.
"You'll regret saying that tomorrow," Seth warned them playfully.
With that, several members of the event's security team approached, ready to walk Lucy and Clementine out to their stages.
"We can't go out together," Lucy pointed out, referring to their bitter kayfabe rivalry.
Clem nodded. "Right. You go out first. You're VIP after all, unlike me." She knew her mom would realise she was only pretending to sound bitter.
"Maybe one day, kid," Lucy taunted, playing along.
They neared the door leading out into the public area of the exhibition hall, so Clem hung back to allow Lucy to go first. "See you soon," she called out.
"You will," Lucy said cheerfully.
To kill the minute she had decided to wait before going out, Clem loaded up a mirror app on her phone and checked that there was no sign that she had briefly cried. Thankfully, there wasn't. In any event, she had her cap on. It was such a part of her life that her fans would probably have been annoyed if she didn't have it on. As was often the case, her short hair was in two little pig tails, sticking out of the bottom of the cap. Her look was completed by a red hoodie and a pair of white shorts.
Before heading through the door, she shot off a quick text message to Logan.
Thinking of you. Talk later? xx
For now, they were calling each other friends. Clem had promised him faithfully that come what may, she would always be there for him as a friend, but until he was in a better place it wasn't right to talk about whether they could rekindle their romance. That door wasn't closed, but it wasn't the right time to push it open, either.
"Ready?" one of the security staff assigned to her asked, looking a little confused by the delay.
"Yeah, let's go," Clem replied. She followed him through the door in the main hall. There was a metal barricade to keep the fans away from the door, but of course a few of them were standing behind it, waiting to see who came out. They immediately started calling her name, trying to encourage her to walk over to them. There wasn't time for that, though. The security guys were heading for the stage she was assigned to at a brisk pace.
Admitted before any of the superstars came out to sign, fans had to pick a general admission stage to get in line at and hope for the best with regard to which superstars showed up. Clem had a feeling that those who had happened to pick the one she was going to would be happy with their decision. Looking through the gaps between the stages as she passed a couple of them, she saw people reacting disappointedly that she wasn't coming to them.
"This is us," said the same security guy who had spoken before when they reached her stage.
"Thank you," Clem replied. As she walked around the back of the stage, a loud cheer went up from the fans in line. Acknowledging them with a wave, she saw other fans running over from all directions to join the line. It was humbling to see how eager people were to get to see her. She never allowed herself to forget that there had been a time where she had been a fan, idolising Alexa Bliss. It had been her dream to meet her idol back then. Now it was the dream of other people to meet her. It was her job to make sure the experience lived up to their expectations.
A staff member was assigned to each stage to take photographs for the fans using their cell phone. On Clem's stage, this role was being fulfilled by a friendly looking guy in his thirties with neatly gelled black hair. "Hi, Clementine," he said, offering his hand.
"Good to see you," she smiled, shaking his hand. Looking around, she saw that a table had been arranged for her to sit at, the same as at all the other stages apart from the VIP ones, where the fans at least got a picture with their preferred star standing up. Fully aware that no one liked the behind the table pictures, Clem decided right away that she would stand for her two hour slot. "Can we move the table out of the way?" she asked the guy.
"Yeah, sure, if you like," he said, moving over to shift the chairs to the back of the stage first.
Realising what was going on and that she was going the extra mile for them, the fans began cheering their approval. A chant of "Clem!" was started by a small group of guys, and it caught on with most of the rest of her line. She smiled, thinking that would come in useful for later.
After helping the staff member move the table to the back of the stage, she waited while he brought forward a stand that was about chest height that she could use to sign people's pictures or items. With that done, they were all set.
"Alright, let's go," Clem smiled, looking over to the side of the stage where the line ended.
The first couple of people were guys in their twenties wearing that year's Wrestlemania shirts. She noticed that the first piece of Clementine merch was about ten people back. Further back, there were a lot of Clementine caps. Those were the people who had been dying to meet her in particular.
The volunteer at the head of the line told the first guy he could go up onto the stage. As he walked up the steps, carrying an official programme, Clem held her hand up for a high five and excitedly said, "Hey, man!"
He grinned broadly, slapping her hand enthusiastically. "Hey, Clem! Awesome to meet you!"
"Awesome to meet you, too," she smiled. "Ready for 'Mania tomorrow?"
"Ready for you to kick your mom's ass," he replied with a laugh.
"I'm certainly going to try. Want me to sign that?" she asked, motioning to the programme.
"Please." He had a finger in the programme to keep the page where her full page picture was. Opening it, he put it on the stand for her, and she scrawled her signature over her image with a silver sharpie pen.
"There you go. Let's get a picture," she said with another smile. "What do you say we do the signature pose?" She made half of her trademark diamond pose with her right hand, holding it close to him so that he could join his left hand to hers.
"Hell yeah!" he said enthusiastically, making the pose with her. They both smiled, and the staff member took the picture.
After taking his phone back, the guy said, "Thanks a lot, Clem. You rock."
"Alright, man," she chuckled. "Have a good one."
And so it went on for the next hour and a half of Clem's two hour time slot. She had a great time meeting everyone, and was even given a few gifts and letters by particularly adoring fans. At the instruction of Hunter, she had kept an eye on the opposite stage where her mom was working her way through her VIP line. Noticing that Lucy's line was virtually empty, it was time to get into something that had never been done before at Axxess.
Somewhere in Clementine's line, WWE had planted some supposed fans, who were waiting for a specific signal from her. Taking her cap off to run a hand through her hair, she 'accidentally' dropped it on the floor. That was the signal.
As she went through the process of greeting and signing for the next fan, she heard a few guys starting a "Clementine Rollins!" chant in her line, clapping to complete the tune, just as they were supposed to. The only concern she'd had beforehand was whether others would actually join in, since they were in an Axxess line. She needn't have worried. Within moments, more people were joining in. She encouraged them with a little hand gesture, and most of the rest of the line added their voices and clapping to the chorus.
Now was the key moment. The plants who had originally started the chant replaced their clapping by shouting, "Lucy sucks!"
Listening carefully, Clem heard people laughing at the alteration, before that too began to catch on. The clapping was soon gone altogether and the chant had become, "Clementine Rollins! Lucy sucks!"
It was time for Clem to play her part. After finishing with the fan she had been speaking to, she walked to the edge of the stage and joined in, pointing to herself when they chanted her name, then across at Lucy when the insult was directed at her.
Seeing Clem joining in only made the fans chant more enthusiastically, and the "Lucy sucks" part became quite venomous. A large number of the people in line had actually turned around to shout it in the direction of Lucy's stage.
Across the room, Clem saw her mom looking over, making like she was pissed off by what was going on.
"Clementine Rollins! Lucy sucks!" the chant continued another couple of times.
Suddenly, Lucy went storming down the steps at the exit side of her stage, her security team hurrying after her. The chanting quickly stopped as the fans began shouting and cheering at the unexpected turn of events. They had realised Lucy was coming over to confront Clem. No one had ever seen anything like it before.
Hiding her delight at the reaction, Clem stood on the stage, watching Lucy coming marching around to the exit of her line. She heard some guy shouting, "Oh shit! Oh shit!" losing his mind in excitement.
"What are you doing over here?" Clem shouted at Lucy as her mother approached the stage.
Talking wasn't on Lucy's agenda. With a face like thunder, she stamped up the steps onto the stage.
Both women started throwing right hands at each other, with the fans going crazy in the background. The more powerful Lucy soon got the upper hand, knocking Clem down on the stage.
Clementine was quick to get up, but the fact that she had gone down put her at a huge disadvantage. Capitalising on it, Lucy kicked her in the stomach as soon as she got back to her feet, before setting her up in position to deliver a powerbomb.
"We'll see who sucks!" Lucy shouted at the fans in Clem's line. With that, she hoisted Clem up into the air and powerbombed her through the table at the back of the stage.
Lying among the broken remains of the table and pretending to be unconscious, Clem listened to the fans booing Lucy. A "Holy shit!" chant soon started.
"Don't look like I'm the one who sucks to me!" Lucy shouted as she walked off the stage.
Hurriedly sent out by Hunter, some supposed medical personal came to attend to Clem. Certain that plenty of people were capturing the unfolding drama on video on their phones, she made a point of selling some kind of back injury as she was helped up and shepherded away from the stage.
The staged attack that Hunter had wanted for a final piece of build work for the huge Wrestlemania match had worked perfectly. The only downside Clem could see was that some fans would be left disappointed at not getting the chance to meet her. But that was out of her control. The next thing she had to do was compete in her first singles match at Wrestlemania, against her mother, for the Raw Women's Championship.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and you're looking forward to the Wrestlemania match?