Chapter Nine


2009

"Hey, Ari...I hate to pull you away from what you're doing, but we've got a situation in the ring, and we really need you."

Looking up from her spot on the floor, Ari was surprised to find Drew standing in the doorway, a hand on each side of the frame. Since training ended earlier in the afternoon, he'd showered and cleaned up, changed into a brown suit with a blue button-down shirt and a black tie. His hair was mussed, his brown eyes wild with the kind of excitement that only came with unbridled chaos. She cocked an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued, before her gaze shifted to Danny Havoc, who was laid on his stomach on the floor, his head rested on his forearms. She'd spent the last fifteen minutes of her life pulling shards of glass out of his back and her wrists were beginning to ache. She suspected that he had broken - or at the very least bruised - a rib or two during his match earlier in the evening, and while he promised her that he would go and get checked when the show was over, Ari had her suspicions that he was just telling her the things she wanted to hear. There were a lot of guys in the CZW locker room that liked to do that.

"Go."

"Are you sure?" she asked him. Danny nodded.

"Yeah. I'm perfectly comfortable here. I'm not going anywhere. You're needed out there. Go." With a nod, Ari took off her latex gloves and disposed of them in a nearby trashcan before reaching for her first aid kit. Drew pushed himself off the door as she approached and began to make his way back towards the ring area. Ari struggled to keep up with him.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Just your usual deathmatch shenanigans," he told her over his shoulder. "This time around it's a little bit more on the extreme side."

"How extreme are we talking, Drew?"

He stopped. She came to a stop with him, taking a step back as he wheeled on her. He placed his hands on his hips and huffed, his face taking on a bemused expression. "You ever cut a man out of barbed wire before, Ari?" he asked. She blinked.

"No, but if this place has taught me anything, it's that there's a first time for everything in this place." She studied him. Something flickered in his eyes, and she sighed. "There's more to it than barbed wire, isn't there?"

He nodded. "There were some minor explosives involved..."

"Explosives?" she blurted, stunned. "Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with you people?"

Drew couldn't keep the surprise off his face; Ari never spoke so colorfully. Even backstage, with all the debauchery and vulgarities, she kept herself ladylike. Before Drew could say anything, she rushed past him, moving with purpose towards the black curtain that would lead out to the ring. He followed behind her. "Ari..."

"This is a hospital visit. Has anyone called for an ambulance?"

"They're both refusing."

"Who's out there?"

"Younger and Moxley." Ari froze. It was almost as if she'd forgotten how to walk. Drew almost crashed into her. Clearing his throat, he continued. "He's tangled up real bad, Ari. I need to warn you that it's not pretty out there."

"Is he okay?"

"He's conscious and he's talking. I suspect he's drunk because he's slurring, which might be a good thing because he might not be feeling this as much as he would sober." Ari nodded, but his words did little to reassure her. He studied her intently, feeling a tug inside his chest when he locked onto the sadness and terror in her eyes. "Should we cut him out, or should we overrule and get that ambulance?"

"Even if we call an ambulance, we have to get him out of there. If he moves, he could make things a hell of a lot worse for himself." Drew nodded; neither of them had to say it - they both knew if anyone could make a situation worse, it was Jon Moxley. "We need to get out there. Never mind the barbed wire...did they blow off their limbs?"

"Everyone's got two arms. I checked."

She burst through the black curtain that led out to the ring, moving with purpose. She held onto the first aid kit so tightly that her knuckles were white. Drew followed close behind her, shucking off his suit jacket and throwing it onto a steel folding chair. Ari stopped momentarily to take in the carnage inside the ring, taking in the bloodstained canvas and the weapons. Behind her, Drew was unbuttoning his sleeves and rolling them up to his elbows. Towards the edge of the ring, her eyes fell on the gigantic tumbleweed of barbed wire that Jon Moxley was currently tangled in. "What in the hell is that thing?"

"A bad idea." She shot Drew a look, and he raised his hands in surrender. Her eyes fell back on the ring.

"I don't see Younger."

"I saw the whole thing. The force knocked them both back. It blew both of them backward, and Mox ended up there, and Drake hit the corner. He rolled out of the ring." They made their way through the chairs.

"Shit. Do we have wire cutters?"

"I think we keep a pair or two under the ring. I'll check." Drew made a beeline for the ring, pulling up the apron and kneeling to look underneath. Looking inside the ring, he refused to allow her to walk inside it alone. Not with the carnage and shrapnel inside.

Ari moved around the ring, where Drake was stirring. One leg was underneath the makeshift barricade, under a chair. He was covered in blood; it was hard to tell where he'd been cut or burned. She knelt down beside him, reaching into her kit to pull out a pair of latex gloves. "Are you with me?" she asked.

"I'm good. I'm good. I promise," he assured her. She pulled his eyes wide to study his pupils, looking for any sign of shock or a concussion.

"I need to be sure. Can you tell me your name?"

"It's Drake, Ari. You know that."

"I have to ask. Do you know where you are?"

"CZW arena."

"What day is it?"

"Saturday." He sucked in a breath as a bolt of pain rattled his body. "I'm fine, Ari. I promise. It looks worse than it feels."

"Can you move your fingers and toes?"

"Yeah. Nothing's broken. I'm fine. I promise. Just...let me lie here for a moment."

"Are you short of breath? How's your breathing?"

"I just wrestled, Ari. What do you think?"

"Fair enough. I'm going to check your pulse. I'm just checking for signs of shock." She placed two of her fingers to his neck and felt a strong pulse. "If you want to stay here and get yourself together, do that. I need to check on Jon. Whose idea was it to use explosives?"

"Do I have to tell you?" he asked. She sighed.

"Nope. You don't." Pulling off her gloves, she dropped them beside Drake. Standing, she looked inside the ring as she moved towards Drew, conflicted feelings of anguish, anger and fear raging within her like waves. He lay unmoving in the wire. The blue jeans he wore were ruined, spattered with blood and ripped. Rounding the corner, she looked down at Drew, who was halfway underneath the ring.

"Have you found it?"

"Yeah. It got knocked back," he called out from under the ring. He pushed himself back, standing to his feet, a pair of red-handled wire cutters in his hand. As Ari moved towards the ring steps, Drew moved quicker, reaching out and grabbing her gently by the elbow. She turned to him. "I'm going in there with you," he told her firmly. His gaze shifted to the mess inside the ring. "I don't think I need to tell you this is the real deal in there at the moment, so be careful, okay?"

She nodded, and he let go of her. Drew moved ahead of her, climbing the steps and moving along the apron, away from Jon and the wire. He stepped on the bottom rope and pulled the middle so she could get inside the ring. She thanked him quietly as she got in. Looking down at the canvas, up close and personal with the blood and weapons, she felt herself become queasy.

Drew moved past her. "If you want to pull the wire, I'll cut," he offered. She nodded. It wasn't that Drew was afraid to get his hands dirty, or that he was afraid to get cut; he was just worried about injuring Jon further. With her knowledge of human anatomy and first aid, he trusted Ari far more than himself to remove the wire from his flesh. He turned to her, frozen in place, staring down at Jon, and he wanted to reach out and embrace her and take her out of there. He felt terrible asking her to do this; he felt like he was torturing her with the sight of this, but he needed her. He didn't know what to do, and she had proven over and over again that she knew what she was doing. He would tell anyone who listened that he trusted Ari with his life.

They knelt beside Jon, and she opened her first aid kit, reaching for a new pair of gloves. Her hands were shaking; she could feel a lump forming in her throat, a wide ball that made it almost impossible to swallow. What the hell is wrong with me? It's not like I haven't seen worse than this since I've been here. Remember the time Younger bashed his head and you could see his skull? Stop being such a wimp, she thought to herself. Kneeling beside her, Drew watched her the entire time. Looking at her face, he could almost read her thoughts. She always had a hard time when people she considered friends got hurt, but he'd never seen her so rattled. Sitting back on her calves, Ari sucked in a breath.

"I'm so, so sorry," she offered softly. "This is going to hurt."

She reached out and pulled the first piece of wire out of his skin.

"Motherfucking son of a bitch!" Jon jerked. Startled, Ari released her hold roughly with a cry, losing her balance and falling back. Drew moved quickly, his free hand on her back to keep her from falling. She shot him a grateful, albeit sheepish look, and he suddenly hated himself for putting her in harm's way. He was sure if Bryan knew what she was doing at that moment, that his head would be on a silver platter. He hated having her this close to the violence, but he wanted this done right. He didn't know what to do, but he knew he could count on her to know; she always seemed to know.

"Dude, stay still. We need to cut you out," Drew told him sternly.

"Well, excuse me. It fucking hurts," Jon slurred. He shifted, and Ari put a hand on his back, a silent warning for him to stop moving.

"The more you move, the worse damage you can do," Drew informed him, exasperated. "Please stay still."

"Who fucking died and made you king?"

With a frustrated sigh and a roll of her eyes, Ari reached out and grabbed the barbed wire again between her fingers and pulled it away from his skin. Jon hissed. Ari looked at Drew. "Cut."

Drew moved quickly. To her relief, the wire didn't appear as deep in this cut as she thought it would be, but the blood that pumped from the thin line across his back made her feel uneasy. She could see there were a few spots where he needed stitches. There was a nasty wound on his upper right side; she was sure that had happened when he jerked.

"How does one even get caught up in something like this?" she lamented, grabbing at another piece of wire, this one around his left leg. Drew cut the wire quick.

"You weren't watching my match, sweetheart?"

"I had work to do. Someone has to make sure you lunatics leave this asylum in one piece." She moved to pull another piece away, but he shifted. Drew saw her rear back quickly and he felt an instant bolt of panic. "Damn it!"

"Ari...?" A shake of her head and a huff cut him off.

"Fine. I'm fine. I just cut myself." Drew looked at the blood that seeped from her fingertips. She pulled off her gloves and quickly patched herself up before she put on a new pair of gloves. She was murmuring under her breath the entire time, and Drew couldn't recall ever seeing her so frustrated before. It was rare he saw her in anything but a pleasant mood, but he knew that Jon Moxley had a way of pushing everyone's patience to its breaking point. "Have you lost feeling anywhere? Can you feel your fingers and toes?" She reached out and gave his fingers a gentle squeeze. "Can you feel that?"

"I got something else you can feel, sweetheart," he slurred, his hips thrusting. Ari released her grip on him as if it were made of fire, her entire body flushing with embarrassment. Ari was sure if looks could kill, that Drew would have evaporated Jon with the heat of his glare.

"Don't be an idiot, Moxley - she's trying to help."

"I sense jealousy..." His tone became sing-song.

"Would you just stay still?" Ari cut in, pulling back, pulling off her gloves to bandage two more fingers. Between his comments and the stinging pain in her fingers, it was taking everything Drew had inside of him to not tell Ari to just leave Moxley in the wires, to his own devices. He could see the pink tint in her face, all the way down to her neck. The stiff, overly aware movements she made told him that Jon had succeeded in making her uncomfortable.

"She's checking for nerve damage, Mox - have you lost feeling anywhere?" Drew asked.

"Nowhere I'd want you to check."

Before Drew could reach into the wires and choke him, Ari jumped in. "You need to go to the hospital. You need stitches in a few places, and since you aren't going to answer me, you should go and check to make sure there's no damage to your tendons or your nerves." Drew could tell by her tone of voice that she was about done with Jon and his antics.

"You can't do it?" he asked. The tone of his voice had changed; it had taken on an almost fearful edge, something that caught both Drew and Ari off-guard. Ari sighed; that was always his response when she told him that he needed to seek a professional for medical help. The three of them knew that Ari was going to do what Jon wanted her to do.

"If I'm going to do it, I need you to cooperate. So that means you need to stay still until it's time to get you out of there. Got it?"

"Got it."

Ari turned to Drew. "Go get Sami. We're gonna need an extra set of hands to get him out of here."

"I'm not leaving..."

"Everything will be fine. Go get him. We need him." Drew looked at her face, at an expression that seemed to convey every emotion, and he nodded.

"Be careful. I'll be right back." She nodded. Drew handed her the wire cutter and got out of the ring. With a shake of her head, tired of everyone arguing with her, she went back to work.

"Is the old man jealous?"

"Could you just stop?"

"I could, but you don't want that."

"What you don't know about me could fill a warehouse," she muttered, pulling a piece of wire off his arm.

"That's what I like about you-you're a lot more fun than your old man." She sighed. It had already been a long night before the men inside the ring had tried to blow themselves up; now, it just felt like it was never going to end.


Ari wasn't at all surprised to find that her predictions about the weather in her hometown had been accurate. Wrapping her black and white cardigan over her chest, she crossed her arms and let her head fall back against the headrest, her head tilting to the side to look out the airplane window. It was drizzling rain outside, the beads of water falling diagonally across the glass. The sky looked cold and grey, the clouds blackened.

She'd spent a lot of years traveling, mostly since moving out of the United States, and Ari found that while she hated all the pre-flight stuff, she loved the feeling of being above the clouds, of looking down at the world below. Flying at night was her favorite; there was something downright majestic about the way city lights glimmered below. She looked out the window, her expression conveying her exhaustion. The Cranberries' "Linger" played softly in her headphones, an attempt to find some serenity before the plane landed and she was back in Aberdeen.

As the plane began to lower, Ari couldn't help but take stock of all the conflicting emotions that seemed to follow her on this trip. While she was in Aberdeen, her plans were to stay with her mother. She had plans to visit her biological mother and do some sightseeing. Aberdeen had never been a particularly kind place to her; she didn't have friends to connect with during her visit. She couldn't help but wonder how much had changed during her absence. Her upbringing had been a far-from-pleasant experience; growing up, she'd learned firsthand that kids could be cruel. She'd been looked down on for things that had been far beyond her control. Once she'd ended up in the Danielson household, Bryan had become her protector and best friend, sometimes to a smothering and domineering degree. She loved her brother; he'd gone to bat for her more times than she could count, had gotten into fights for her. There had been no awkwardness when she'd come into their home with nothing but the clothing on her back; she'd been accepted with open arms in a way that she had never known.

But she'd always been on the outside looking in. Socially, she had been a pariah; everyone in Aberdeen seemed to hold her away from them at arm's length. It didn't help that the newspaper articles, rumors, and speculation were at the forefront of people's minds. She'd spent her teenage years as the elephant in the room, the girl with the past that everyone knew about but only the cruelest would speak of to her face. Her teenage experience had been lonely; nothing but studies. There had been no house parties, no shenanigans that peppered a typical teenage upbringing. Bryan was there to keep her on the straight and narrow, and nobody else seemed to want her around.

It wasn't until she left Aberdeen for Philadelphia that she felt like she'd found her footing in life. Nobody in Philly knew about her past; to the people she met, Ari Harris was just the pesky little sister of The American Dragon. People looked at her and treated her with respect. In college, she was known only for being an outstanding student with a great understanding of how the human body worked. At her janitorial job, people thought she was a good kid who was gonna go far with her strong work ethic and knowledge. Her past had quit defining her the moment she'd left that town behind, and it was one of the reasons why she looked back only rarely. For better or worse, Aberdeen was home, but the feelings were too big for her to process.

She couldn't help but think about Drew, who was on the road with the Cruiserweight roster. In life, she knew that she had to own all the decisions she made, both good and bad. She'd done a terrible thing to Drew by leaving without telling him, and she knew that she had to live with whatever consequences he wanted to dole out. Back in the day, they could read each other like books; now, Ari couldn't tell what he was thinking whenever he looked at her. The warmth in his eyes whenever he greeted her now felt accusatory somehow. She was uneasy around him, waiting for him to lash out at her at any moment for the anguish she had put him through.

His invitation to follow him back to Philadelphia had surprised her. She assumed that he was too angry with her to even entertain the idea. The fact that he was still willing to open his home to her, still willing to greet her the way a best friend would made her feel even worse. She wished that he hated her, that he would hold a cruel insult on his tongue for her every time they were in contact. The guilt she felt for hurting him was bigger than anything she could comprehend; she'd never wanted to do that. She'd left to save him a lifetime of grief.

Drew had been a lifeline ever since she'd met him. Somehow, the two of them had clicked instantly, the two of them driven by their goals and ambitions. She'd never experienced that kind of synergy with another human being before. He was the first man outside of Bryan that she had been able to drop her guard with; there wasn't anything he didn't know about her. She trusted him with her life; even after everything, she still would lay down her life for him if he asked. She'd always suspected that Bryan had put the fear of God into him when it came to protecting her, but he was so genuine and earnest in looking after her that she couldn't help but think that he really did care about what happened to her.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the intercom on the plane. They would be landing soon, and she knew that her mother would be waiting for her with open arms and a million questions about what she had been doing with her life that kept her away from everyone in the family for the last six years.


"Drew? Drew? Earth to Drew...is anyone home in there?"

Blinking, Drew's world snapped back into focus as Brian waved his hand in front of Drew's face. The faces that looked back at Drew were amused. Jack, Brian, and Drew were currently enjoying lunch together in a pretty little cafe on the outskirts of Anaheim, California, a brown brick building hidden by trees and lush green shrubbery. It was a quick pit-stop; the men were due at the arena in a half-hour. Already dressed in their suits and ties, they sat on the outside deck enjoying the beautiful California weather. Above them the sky was bright and cloudless, the sun shining surprisingly bright so early in the day.

"Yeah?" Drew cleared his throat, reaching for his cup of iced tea.

"Did you even hear us?" Brian asked. Across the table, Jack watched Drew with an amused smile tugging at his mouth. Sipping on his tea, Jack's eyes sparkled mischievously as Drew seemed to squirm under Brian's interrogation.

"Sorry. I guess my mind's on other things this morning," Drew confessed sheepishly. The men nodded.

"Have you talked to her since she got on the plane?" Jack asked. Drew's eyes snapped up to him, unable to keep the surprise off his face.

"Am I that easy to read, guys?"

"Yeah," they replied in unison. Drew huffed.

"Have you spoken to her?"

"No. I mean, I've been thinking about shooting her a message, but she's probably getting settled." There was more to it, the other men could tell, but Drew wasn't about to get into the business of advertising the intimate details of Ari's life. He knew that she loved her family, adopted and biological, but Aberdeen was a tough place for her to go. The more he'd learned about her during their time together, the more he had understood why she'd chosen to go to school across the country, on a completely different coast. It was her first time in her hometown in six years, and he knew that she was going to need some time to adjust.

"Are you going to call her after the show tonight?" Jack asked. Drew shot him a chagrined look.

"Maybe." Drew lifted his fork. "You're being a real ball-buster today."

"You've just been making it easy lately," Jack retorted. Drew snorted.

"Duly noted."

"You two have picked up where you left off?" Brian asked. Drew sighed.

"I don't know. I guess. Sometimes we talk and it feels like nothing's changed, and sometimes it just feels...weird." He shook his head. "She makes no mention of why she left, and sometimes I think I should push the issue. I mean, whatever made her just pack up and peace out on her entire life had to be a really big deal. Leaving a whole life behind isn't an easy decision to make."

"You really have no idea what happened?" Jack asked. He shook his head.

"Nope. I've been over it over and over." Six years later, he could still remember every detail clearly. "I had a run of shows in Canada. When I came back, she was gone. Without a trace." He shook his head. "She had been in such a bad place. It scared the hell out of me. I watched her go from the Ari I knew, this bright, beautiful, vibrant woman, and she just kind of shrank into herself. And I couldn't pull her out. I tried, but the hole she fell in was just too deep." Brian and Jack looked at each other. Drew's mouth pulled into a thin line. "She says there's no good answer she can give, and as much as I hate to admit it, I know that she's right. Six years...there really isn't."

"But you were friends," Brian pointed out.

"Best friends," Drew corrected. "At least, I thought so."

"Are you going to see her again before she leaves?" Brian asked.

"Yeah. She's gonna be coming back out with Bryan for a show, and then she's coming back to Philly with me. I'm gonna take her to see some of her old crew, take her to some old stomping grounds..." He trailed off when he saw the expressions on Jack and Brian's faces. He sighed. "Don't look at me like that."

"Look at you like what? You just...failed to mention that development," Jack informed him.

"I didn't see the need to."

"You afraid to tell us or something?" Brian asked. Drew rolled his eyes.

"You know what it is - a gentleman never kisses and tells," Jack told him. Brian snickered. Drew's expression was bemused.

"I hate you two. So much."

"You'll get over it," Jack replied flippantly. He took a sip of his tea. "This tea is lovely today, I must say."

"You are the absolute worst," Drew accused. He looked to Brian for support but found none.

"She staying with you?" Brian asked.

"This conversation is over."