Chapter 7 – Leave A Light On

A soft groan came from her mouth as her body started to come alive. She hurt from head to toe. Dominique's aqua eyes fluttered open, as her ears filled with popping and cracking; even a couple of circuit shorting noises. The blurriness in her eyes cleared up as she blinked a few times and looked around the private jet. Her body felt like she had been in a train wreck or in this case; a plane crash.

She looked around once her vision started getting used to the dark. Apparently the crashed had knocked out the lights in the jet as she fumbled for her cell phone. She had a flash light application on it and she'd be able to see what the hell was really going on in the space she had to work with. She finally found it as she unlocked it and tapped the flash light app. The bright light lit up the inside of the jet as her eyes adjusted once again.

Dominique's eyes looked to the left and she could see Shane bleeding from his forehead. "Shane! Shane!" She called out; he wasn't responding. She unclipped her seatbelt and had to stop herself from falling from her seat. She didn't notice the plane was sitting on its left side. She carefully placed her feet on the side of Shane's seat and maneuvered around to get to him. She checked first for a pulse and thanked God when she noticed he was still breathing; he was just probably knocked out.

She had to find something to stop the bleeding, it wasn't gushing but head wounds always bleed more; if he lost too much blood it could hinder his ability to wake up and make him anemic. "Shit." She cursed under her breath as she didn't see anything just sitting in arms length from her until she looked down and saw the scarf around her neck; she had completely forgotten about it.

It was just blood; she could have it cleaned. She pulled it off and carefully moved around once more by his head as she grabbed the bottle of water that was surprisingly enough still in the cup holder next to Shane; she poured some across his forehead to try and see how deep the cut was. It honestly didn't look to deep, but she wasn't going to risk it getting dirty. She wrapped the scarf around his head and secured it as best she could until she could find the damn first aid kit. She knew there had to be one on the plane; it was just a matter of finding it.

The more she moved around the more she noticed her ribs were starting to bother her. Nothing really felt broken, so she was going with bruised. She stood and gently walked along the side wall of the plane; being sure to step over the windows as she made her way towards the cockpit. She was glad she had changed out of the dress and heels from the meeting and into her jeans and sneakers; stepping on anything sharp, her sneaker would at least try to stop it from going through her foot.

There were no flight attendants or stewardesses on board, but they did have a pilot. Hamilton Grayson had been the McMahon's person pilot for years. She flipped the lock on the door to the cockpit and let it down as she stepped through.

Dominique frowned the front windshield was shattered into bits in the front of the jet. She almost hated to look at Hamilton, but she wasn't surprised when she did a chunk of the windshield looked as if it had cracked off and flew back and severed his carotid artery on the right side of his neck; he had basically bled to death in a short amount of time.

She was trying to rack her brain and remember how or why the plane had gone down. Shane and herself had been in a meeting in New York City regarding doing another major Pay Pre-View there since SummerSlam had been such a success in Brooklyn; New York City wanted to get in on the action at the Madison Square Garden arena. The meeting ran long and when the jet finally took off so they could catch up to the Smackdown tour for the weekend house shows it was already 3 in the afternoon.

Dominique remembered Hamilton telling them to buckle up when they ran into some turbulence over the Appalachian mountains. She remembered hearing a loud explosion to the left side of the plane; the side Shane was sitting on as she looked over the plane started to lose altitude she only knew that because her ears started popping. Hamilton had shouted something over the intercom about preparing for a crash landing.

She couldn't have forced herself to look out the window even if she wanted to. She could hear the branches from the trees below them hitting and scraping against the bottom and then the sides of the plane; before it suddenly rolled to the left. The last thing she remembered was Shane grabbing her left hand and telling her everything was going to be okay.

It definitely wasn't.

If she was going to survey anything outside of the jet she was going to have to climb over Hamilton's lifeless body, but she knew she had to do it to see where they were and if there was even any kind of cell service. Shane wasn't bleeding badly but her scarf could only staunch the bleeding for so long.

Dominique frowned once more as she carefully grabbed the top and bottom of the window sill; watching for any glass shards or slivers as she gently stepped over Hamilton and out the window opening onto the dirt ground. She was grateful for that dirt ground; her only fear was that the plane was hanging off a cliff and it would be her clumsy luck that she would step out the window and fall to her death. Seeing the dirt beneath her feet she almost wanted to fall to her knees dramatically and kiss the ground, but decided against it.

Her aqua eyes looked around and all she could see were miles and miles of trees; so were they still in the Appalachian mountains? It didn't feel too cold, but it wasn't hot either. It was only the beginning of September and she knew that it was still considered Fall so the temperature was around 70-80's during the day and 55-65 at night time. It was nearly sundown. The smart thing would be to try and hold on during the night and pray some animals don't get in and take off during daylight to find help.

Dominique really wasn't sure if the wild animals in the mountains would be attracted to the scent of Hamilton's blood or not so she would have to figure out a way to get rid of it. There was no way she was going to leave his body out to be eaten though either. He was skinner than Shane so hopefully his dead weight would be a little easier to move around. She knew she really had to work quickly before she lost all light.


AJ was sitting on a trunk in the hallway of the arena.

Dean was pacing a whole in the arena floor in front of him.

Jaleesa was sitting in a fold up metal chair with her knees drawn into her chest.

There was a lot of chatter about the private WWE jet going missing throughout the arena; it seemed almost everyone knew about the missing people and jet.

AJ was suddenly faced with the fear that he let Dominique walk away from him without telling her how he really felt. God he was being so stupid about the entire situation. Why should age make a difference? Why should any of it make a difference; especially if they both had the same feelings for each other.

AJ had come to the conclusion that he was being a coward about it.

"I'm going to go get ready for my match." Dean suddenly stated out of nowhere before disappearing down the hallway.

Jaleesa shook her head. "I shudder to think what will happen if they aren't found alive." She stated as she looked up at AJ. "Dean and Dominique are all each other have. He is her best friend...other than me; they have a weird connection as brother and sister. I don't know what he would do without her; let alone me."

AJ hopped off the equipment trunk he had been sitting on. "We need to stay positive that the authorities will find them. Dominique and Shane are two of the most intelligent people I know. If the plane went down they will know what to do."

Jaleesa nodded. "Yea I guess so. I bet you are feeling damned sharp right about now."

"Yea, like an eraser."

"Finally come to your senses Mr. Styles?" Jaleesa asked.

AJ nodded. "Not so much came to my senses but definitely removed my head from my own ass. I got a different perspective from someone who is my own age. And even though he might not be into someone who is as young as Dominique, it definitely helped." AJ smirked. "And stop calling me Mr. Styles; nothing makes me feel my age more than that."

Jaleesa couldn't help as she chuckled. "I know you already know this, but I've known Dominique my whole life practically. I'm telling you no one is going to make you happier than she will. And I know I don't have to tell you this next bit, but I'm going to re-iterate what Dean will also confirm later; which is if you hurt her, you will regret it for the rest of your life."

"I already knew that." AJ chuckled. "I would be stupid to not know."

"Yes...yes you would."


Aqua eyes looked around the cabin of the jet she frowned as her eyes landed on Shane; it took an act of God, but she was able to get him sitting up. She had found a mess of blankets and a few pillows and had made sure to try and keep Shane comfortable. The fact that her boss hadn't regained consciousness yet was really worrying her.

Dominique was surprised she was actually able to pull Hamilton's body all the way into the back of the jet; she really hoped by morning that decay hadn't set in and started stinking up the only place she felt safe right now. It would be a shame if she was flushed out by the smell of a rotting body...no matter who it was. She just couldn't bring herself to leave Hamilton's body out in the open and exposed to the elements.

Once she'd gotten Hamilton in the very back of the jet she'd been lucky enough to find the first aid kit. It was bigger than she figured it would've been, but had been thankful it had rubbing alcohol in it. She'd went back up front and poured it everywhere she could see Hamilton's blood; most of it had been absorbed by the chair he was sitting in and his clothes. She still wasn't sure if blood would draw in the wild animals that could possibly be around, but knew the scent of rubbing alcohol would mask the blood.

After that she'd taken her scarf from around Shane's head and gave it a proper dressing with antiseptic cream and gauze; hoping the cut didn't get infected, that was the LAST thing that Shane needed right now. As she was sitting there she could feel the temperature slowly dropping.

the one thing Dominique was actually happy about was the fact that the battery on the private jet was still working because she needed all the juice she could get to get her cell charged from one of the outlets on the plane. As long as her phone stay charged then she had a flashlight; not to mention if she could make it down the hill/mountain...whatever she was really hoping she could call 9-1-1 and they could pick up her GPS location, but she had to actually make it somewhere where there was cell service.

Clearly the trees were signal suckers.

Before complete sundown Dominique had walked a little ways and saw the left wing and left engine still attached to it leaning against a group of trees. She could tell from the black soot that the engine had caught on fire. The closer she got to it the more she noticed some feathers stuck to the inside of it and minimal blood. The only thing she could think of is birds flying into their path and they got caught up in the engine.

She was ready to be at home already. This plane crash surviving stuff was definitely not her cup of tea. Her ribs were still extremely sore, but she wouldn't take any of the Tylenol she found; she was saving it for Shane. He would definitely need it more than her.

She could only imagine the kind of worry that her brother and Jaleesa were going through right now. When she was younger Dean used to tell her to leave a night light on and he would find his way home every time.

"Leave a light on for me. I'll be home soon." Dominique mumbled softly.

"I hope."