Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: Wow! So sorry for the lack of updates! I'll try not to go that long without updating again!
"Just look at it this way, Jeff, there's only five more weeks until Wrestlemania, not counting this week."
"Which means only five more weeks to figure out who did this before this gets pinned on someone else or the ban becomes permanent for as long as it takes for them to come up with a plausible way out of this, so sorry if that thought doesn't really comfort me!" Jeff said angrily.
Matt just sighed and didn't say anything. He knew Jeff was stressed- hell, he was too. Everyone involved in this stupid, screwed-up mess was starting to get stressed and pretty damn pissed off. He wasn't going to bother talking to Jeff now. If he tried to calm him down he'd get yelled at. If he yelled at his brother he would just leave. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation. It was easier to just not continue the discussion. Jeff would either apologize for snapping at him or they would both just forget that it ever happened.
It wasn't the first time this had happened and, with five weeks until Wrestlemania, it wouldn't be the last.
Matt glanced over at his brother, who seemed to be intent on going through their notes. He sighed again and went back to his own pile of papers. Even after they had asked around again, they had very little worthwhile information to go on. They were so desperate for information that they were going through their notes a second time, hoping to find some small scrap of information they had missed.
Finally, he had to admit defeat. "There's nothing here, Jeff," he said, throwing down the piece of paper he had been looking at.
"Look again," Jeff said without even looking up.
"Jeff, there is nothing here."
"Well we still need information," he pointed out. He still wasn't looking up from his work.
It was too much for Matt. "I know that!" He snapped. "But I'm not going to be able to get anymore information from these notes!"
"So what are we supposed to do? We need to actually have information for when we go out there next week, and even after interviewing Rhodes and DiBiase tomorrow we aren't going to have a lot to go on! Unlike you, I actually care about how that stupid segment is going to go tomorrow!"
Matt stood up. "Where're you going?" Jeff asked.
"Out," Matt said curtly.
"Why?"
"Because I'm not going to stay around if you're going to try to pin any and all problems we encounter on me because in case you haven't noticed I'm actually trying to help you, Jeff!" Matt said as he left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
Jeff stared at the closed door after his brother left, shocked that his brother had left. He hadn't been that horrible to Matt… had he? He quickly replayed their last conversation in his head and he realize, with a horrible, sinking feeling, that he had been pretty harsh to Matt, albeit unintentionally.
Still, he knew that it would all blow over soon and be forgotten about, as it had in the past.
Yet for some reason, this time Matt seemed unwilling to forget about it. When Jeff met up with him the next morning his brother was unusually formal and cold towards him, which hurt Jeff more than he cared to admit. He tried to apologize- many times, in fact- but Matt would just keep saying, "You can't expect a simple apology to fix everything, Jeff."
So, in the last few hours before the show, Jeff just avoided his brother altogether. It was easier than trying to convince him that he didn't mean anything by it, that he was just stressed and tired and annoyed at everything, since the excuses sounded weak even to his own ears.
Matt spent the day by himself as well. Part of him felt horrible for treating Jeff this way, but part of him was still seething at how Jeff had been treating him. And if this was the only way to get his brother to realize what he had been doing, then so be it.
XXXXX
Jeff leaned up against the wall backstage and sighed, watching as his brother brushed past him and walked off down the hall. To say the segment they had just done had been a fiasco would have been a huge understatement. Neither brother had really thought about how their lack of communication leading up to the show would affect their interview with Rhodes and DiBiase, but it had. They had looked sloppy and disconnected, unsure of what exactly they were supposed to be asking them.
He winced as he remembered how that segment had ended. Things had eventually come to blows in the ring, as planned. He had been going back and forth with Rhodes in the center of the ring for a little while before finally throwing him out. He turned around to see if Matt needed any help, when from out of no where someone landed a punch to his jaw. He rolled out of the ring glanced up in time to DiBiase stand up from where he had been slouching in the corner and attack Matt, who had been standing where Jeff was only a few seconds ago.
He backed up the entrance ramp, holding his jaw and watching as his brother continued to fight down in the ring. Watching, but not helping. He knew who had punched him and it wasn't either of the champions.
He snorted. And to think that just last week J.R. had made a comment about how the two of them always stuck by each other, no matter what.
"Jeff, your match has been moved up. You're going out in ten minutes," someone- Jeff didn't notice who- told him.
He muttered his thanks and stood up, intending to let Matt know of the change. Then he froze, as he remembered that even if he told Matt his match had been moved up, his brother probably wouldn't care, not to mention the fact that right now the last thing he wanted was to have his brother around for his match.
He tried to put at least a little bit of energy into his entrance when his music finally hit; he wanted there to be at least some semblance of normalcy, despite the fact that, for him, at least, this evening was shaping up to be far from normal, in comparison to past weeks anyway. Yet he knew that he couldn't pretend forever and it wasn't long after he got in the ring that he heard J.R. commenting on the fact that Matt wasn't there and his charade began to crumble.
He scowled when he saw who was coming out. Not only was Cody Rhodes making his way to the ring, but he was accompanied by his tag team partner Ted DiBiase as well. He almost wished that someone was in his corner, but he'd fought matches with someone at ringside before. Even if they interfered, he would be fine. Besides, he was just worrying about it because he was stressed out, though he should know by now that that wasn't an excuse for anything-
And before anything could really interrupt his train of thought he found himself locked up in the center of the ring with Cody Rhodes, the match having begun without him truly realizing it.
Yet, despite the fact that he knew he had a match to get through, his heart wasn't in it. It wasn't just that Matt was there, no, but maybe, he thought, that was just the turning point of everything. It certainly seemed like there was too much that he had to deal with to worry about the match. There was his brother being pissed as him, yes, but he only had five weeks to figure out who had set everything up, and there was still the ultimatum of either "losing" his career or having all of his high-flying moves "banned".
Rhodes knocked him down again and, as he was dragging him to his feet, said, "I am not pulling you through this match. Either do your part or lie down and let me win now."
And something in Jeff just snapped.
XXXXX
"Hey, Matt, why aren't you down at ringside with your brother?" Cena asked as he passed him in the hall.
Matt frowned, stopped, and turned to look at Cena. "What are you talking about?"
"Didn't you know? Your brother's match got moved up. He's out there fighting Cody Rhodes now."
"What!?" Matt ran to the nearest monitor and, sure enough, there was his brother in the ring and, from the looks of things, he wasn't doing to good. And it's probably my fault… He thought guiltily. If he didn't hold what happened last night against Jeff or tried to fix things after the fiasco earlier in the night, maybe Jeff wouldn't be distracted enough to be doing that badly in his match.
Matt shook his head. He didn't have time to worry about what he should have done. Right now he just needed to worry about what he needed to do to fix the situation. Should he go out there halfway through his brother's match or should he leave him be and talk to him afterwards? Should he go out after the match to try to fix things? Should he let his brother calm down? What am I supposed to do now?
Suddenly, he a flurry of movement on the monitor caught his attention. Jeff had gotten to his feet and had launched a vicious attack on Rhodes. The camera zoomed in for a relatively closer view of his face and Matt froze. His brother had the same slightly-crazed look in his eye that he had when he did a Swanton and injured his back even more and Matt had a sinking feeling that he knew what was going to happen.
"Damnit, Jeff," Matt swore as he started running down the hall.
XXXXX
Rhodes slowly got to his feet, using the ropes as a support. As soon as he was fully up and had turned around to face the center of the ring, Jeff came charging at him and clotheslined him over the top rope. He didn't even give him a chance to get to his feet; he rolled out of the ring and began attacking Rhodes again before finally rolling him in the ring and going for the cover.
One… two…
He kicked out.
Jeff was pissed. He was sick of the match, sick of the storyline, sick of his brother being angry at him- sick of everything. Subconsciously he knew that he needed to slow down and think things out, but he didn't. He hit Rhodes a couple more times and pushed him back down. He wasn't going to be getting up soon, but Jeff didn't go for the pin.
Instead, he ducked under the ropes and walked over to the turnbuckles.
XXXXX
Matt was going crazy. Or at least that's what he told himself as he ran through the back halls of the arena to get to the ring. There was no way that so many people would be talking about what Jeff was doing- or about to do- but he could've sworn he heard people whispering about it to each other.
That didn't matter though. The only thing that mattered was getting down to the ring to stop his brother. He passed a monitor and slowed down just enough to get the general idea of what was happening. Unfortunately, he hadn't been wrong; Jeff was already standing on the apron. "Crap!" He muttered as he continued his sprint.
He didn't stop when several employees told him to stop running, that he couldn't go out there. He just ignored them and, finally, burst out into the arena.
He didn't hear the crowds, he didn't pay attention to the ref who was yelling at him to get away from the ring. The only thing he saw was his brother, standing on the top turnbuckle. "JEFF!" He yelled as he sprinted down to the ring.
Jeff didn't see him, didn't hear him. Matt watched, almost as if in slow motion, as his brother executed a perfect Swanton.
XXXXX
Jeff landed on Rhodes and instantly went for the cover, but the ref just stood there, staring at him. "Come on!" Jeff yelled. That seemed to startle the ref out of the daze he was in, but instead of doing the three count, he motioned for the bell to be rung.
"Ladies and gentlemen, your winner by disqualification… Cody Rhodes!" Lillian said a moment later as she stared up at the ring in shock.
Suddenly, Jeff realized what he did.
He had done a Swanton. He had gone against Mr. McMahon's "ban" on his moves… which was supposed to result in him being fired. He got off of Cody Rhodes and stood up, his legs shaky. What was going to happen now? He wouldn't actually be fired… would he?
"Jeff? Jeff!" He looked over towards the opposite side of the ring and saw Matt climbing into the ring.
He couldn't find the energy to be angry at his brother. "What's going to happen now?" He asked, his voice emotionless.
Matt squeezed his shoulder. "I don't know," he said truthfully. "But whatever happens, I'm going to be here for you." He sighed. "Listen, about earlier…"
"It's alright," Jeff interrupted. He realized now what he should have realized awhile ago. He had been unreasonably harsh to his brother; Matt had been justified in his anger at him. And what had happened at the end of their promo had just been an accident. I wish I had just sat down and thought about this before!
The two brothers looked up almost at the same time as a swarm of security officials walked out into the arena. Of course… Jeff thought. What better way to carry out Mr. McMahon's orders then to have me escorted off the premises?
Matt shifted slightly, almost unconsciously, so he was in front of his brother a bit more. He didn't know what was going to happen now, but he wasn't going to let his brother get dragged out of the arena without a fight. This wasn't about carrying out the storyline or playing up the situation for the crowd. This was all about stopping anything from happening to Jeff.
The security team climbed into the ring and Matt and Jeff launched themselves at them, fully prepared to fight their way out if they had to. It seemed like for every person they fought away, two more came to replace them. They didn't realize until it was too late that the guards had been working to separate the two of them, so Matt couldn't help his brother.
Matt snarled and launched himself towards the opposite corner, where Jeff had four or five guards holding onto him and all but dragging him out of the ring, but he was held back. He tried again, and again, but the security guards were still holding him back and he couldn't get to Jeff.
All he could do was watch as his brother was forced up the ramp and out of the building.
What do we do now?
