Author's Notes : I just want to say that before you read this chapter, please remember all the things that have happened in wrestling in the past. Katie Vick? C'mon, Triple H climbed into a casket to simulate sex with a corpse. The following really doesn't even rival Kane's and Undertaker's relationship, their family's death, and who really set the fire (don't forget that Kane's burns were all in his mind). Plus, the revelation in this chapter is what really spurred me to write this third part. Without it, there wouldn't even be a third story.
Chapter X: Dazed and Confused
Samia had thought often that week about Maria's comments to her. She couldn't believe that brunette would accuse her of saying those things and then that snide remark about drinking too much. It was no secret that she had come dangerously close to being an alcoholic during her last year with the WWE. Her tolerance had risen dramatically and it took quite a bit to knock her out. The problem came with the anti-depressants and the sleeping pills. She should never, ever have had that margarita at the club after being given pain pills at the hospital. But the woman had done her best to hide the fact that it was alcoholic when everyone knew she was having virgin drinks. How could Maria have known? She hadn't been close enough to the diva for her to have smelled it on her. Maybe it was just part of the accusation. Dave was right in the middle of her drinking spell and, second to RVD and Shawn, knew better than anyone else about those problems then. It would be easy for him to believe that she was drinking too much again. She didn't know what she was going to do about this, especially if Maria started feeding those lies to Dave. Apparently, Dave training her was going in quite the opposite direction of what the blonde had hoped.
When the couple arrived, the room was so full of tension it could be cut with a knife. Samia immediately excused herself, stating that she was in the mood for some munchies and asked if anybody else wanted some. Maria wouldn't even look at her.
The blonde hadn't been gone more than thirty seconds when Dave checked his PDA and muttered, "Damn."
"What, honey?" Maria asked.
"I forgot about a meeting I was supposed to have with McMahon. I've gotta run. Be back in a few," he said, kissing her temple and rising from the couch.
Once on the other side of the door, Batista hauled ass to catch up with Samia. When she heard him call her name, she stopped but then dashed into a deserted hallway. He got the message and quietly followed her. "What?" she whispered.
"You apparently didn't make it right with Maria?"
Samia took a deep breath and ran a hand over her face. She glanced around and noticed a women's bathroom. The woman stuck her head in and shouted to see if anyone was inside. When there was no reply, she dragged Dave inside despite his protests and then locked the door. For precaution, she quickly checked each of the stalls. "Dave, the woman is insane."
"What did you do? Insult her shoes? Her hair? Why all this trouble? Just apologize."
"Oh, hell, no. That woman has accused me of threatening her and I did not say one word to her that could even be construed as a threat." When Samia first came to the WWE, she fell all over herself to apologize, even if she wasn't at fault. All she wanted to do was be liked by everybody and please them. That led to nothing but being walked over and used. She hadn't been that woman for five years. "She said I told her that you were going to dump her for me since we had a past and that she should just go ahead and break up with you or, otherwise, I'd make her. Does that sound like me?"
"Were you drinking that night?" Samia didn't respond fast enough for Dave. "Samia!" he exclaimed. "You know better. You got drunk and you must have said those things if you don't remember."
"No, I didn't. I had one margarita."
"One?" he asked with his eyebrows raised. "Maybe that's all you remember."
"It doesn't matter because I am not like that when I drink."
With an 'oh, really' look, he continued. "I've seen you drunk, Samia. Hell, I've been drunk with you. We almost slept together. If it hadn't been for you and your weirdass relationship with RVD and me being married, we probably would have."
"Well, what's stopping us now?" she shouted. Both of them suddenly paused as they realized what she had said and then she quickly recovered. "I'm not having this fight. I stand by what I said. I wasn't drunk and I didn't say those things," she adamantly stated, glossing over her exclamation and pushing around him to leave.
Dave's hand shot out to the door handle and she jerked her head up to look at him. "I think you should consider the possibility that you—"
"And I think you should consider the possibility that Maria is jealous and intimidated by our friendship and she's trying to break that up," Samia angrily interrupted and pulled the door open before he could respond.
The woman was not more than five yards out of the door when Tiffany, McMahon's assistant, stopped her. "Oh, good. I've found you. You have got to start answering your phone." I don't have it on me, you idiot, she wanted to reply but kept the comment to herself. "Vince wants to see you."
"Now?"
"Please, so I don't have to hear him gripe about when you're coming by." Samia just shrugged her shoulders in response and followed the woman back to McMahon's office. After a tentative knock and the assistant sticking her head in for a brief word, she swung the door open and motioned for the diva to go in before shutting it behind her.
Vince McMahon didn't bother to rise from behind the desk and indicated she should take one of the seats in front of him. "Both members of DX are here at the arena together. Now, can you tell me what's wrong with that?"
"Uh, that they've finally come out of the closet?"
McMahon's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. "You didn't do your job, did you?"
"Au contraire, I have done everything that you have asked. You told me to get my ass out there and ref their matches and I did that. I didn't play favorites with them. I tried to get across that I mean no harm to Shawn but that I still hate Hunter and they have bickered over my return for two months now. I haven't said one word to Shawn despite the fact that he is stalking me. Every where I turn, that man is watching me. If you would give me more instruction, then maybe things would different. But, yes, I have done my job."
"You left out one very important thing, Miss Carlsen. Triple H has to catch the two of you in bed and you can't do that if you're not speaking with Shawn Michaels. I do believe that was the last task I gave you." Samia's mouth fell open. "Don't act so stupid," McMahon scoffed. "You finally agreed after threatening me with a lawsuit."
"You're damn straight I'm going to threaten you with a sexual harassment suit."
"We've been through this already," Vince rose from his chair. "What is your problem?" The blonde opened her mouth and then shut it again at a loss for words. She was so confused about what was going on. When he came around the desk and pulled her up by the arm from her seat, she was actually beginning to get worried. "You will get caught having sex with Shawn Michaels by Triple H. We have the next two weeks for Christmas and for the holiday tour in Iraq, which I'm sure you've figured out you're not invited to. You have those two weeks to come up with a plan to get Shawn in your bed and Hunter to find out. Do you understand me?"
Samia knew it was better to just nod and then get the hell out. She would figure a way out of this demand later. For now, it was just about saving her skin in this one instant. "Y-yes, sir."
"I didn't plan a match for DX because they were supposed to have split up now. Be prepared for anything."
Once again, Samia only nodded and then hurried out of the room the second he let go of her. Stopping by Tiffany's makeshift desk, the blonde grabbed a post-it note and scribbled her new cell phone number down although she had sent it to all the pertinent people the day she got it. "Just in case you're calling the wrong number," she said, knowing she had cancelled her old phone just the other day when it seemed she was getting nowhere finding out who had it.
The diva wandered down the hall with a glassy-eyed stare, trying to figure out what had just happened. Vince had said that he had talked to her already and told her what to do. From her side of it all, that was impossible. Yet, the Chairman had no reason to lie. He had nothing to benefit from by calling her into his office to ask why she hadn't done it and then to tell her to do it again if he hadn't already given the orders.
Her head was beginning to hurt ridiculously and her neck starting to ache. It had only been a week and a day since the accident in the ring. The stitches were out and the bruises were fading but she still wasn't anywhere near to being a hundred percent. That was when she considered that the concussion might have been worse than the doctors thought. What if she was having black-outs? Maybe she did say those things to Maria and maybe Vince did tell her his plans for her but she couldn't remember because of the concussion. Her steps slowed and she blindly reached for the wall to support her. The implications of these black-outs could be severe.
Instead of a wall, Samia's hand met with warm flesh. Turning to see who it was, she was met by the narrowed eyes of Triple H but he grabbed her arm when she jerked away. "I'm going to find out your game, woman. Are you for us, against us, whatever the hell it is," he stated and began to drag her away.
Samia opened her mouth to scream for help but suddenly there was Batista. How many times he had saved her ass, she couldn't count. "Dave," she yelled and he turned toward them, his eyes wide.
Just as she had called the wrestler's name, Triple H immediately dropped her arm. DX did not need to deal with Batista, Edge, and Orton at the same time. Conceding to the wisdom of the situation and not his pride and anger, Hunter turned up his nose and walked off, carefully listening for the possibility of advancing footsteps.
Given her vacant stare, Helmsley had seen his opportunity to grab Samia and intimidate her. He was tired of arguing with Shawn, who had promised to find out what the woman was doing back but hadn't gotten one shred of information that was helpful. He wasn't beyond physically hurting her to get her confession and, without Shawn around at the moment, he could do that. But then that damn Batista had shown up. Everyone knew that Maria and Dave were dating but no one could figure out Samia's relationship with the man, however. Whatever was between them, it was enough for Batista to risk a feud to save Samia from him. Shawn was going to have to get his ass in gear or Hunter was indeed going to take drastic measures against the conniving diva.
Samia walked back to Batista's dressing room beside the man in silence. She had expressed her gratitude and he shrugged it off like it was nothing. Before he opened the door to their room, she stopped him. "Dave, I think I'm having black-outs."
"What?"
"It is conceivable that I may have threatened Maria and the reason I don't remember is because I can't," the blonde confessed.
"And what brought this on?" he asked, turning fully towards her.
"McMahon claims a conversation that I don't remember as well and maybe the concussion was worse than we thought," she demurely explained, her eyes downcast. "I'll apologize to Maria now."
"This is more important than an apology," he stated, tipping her chin up to look at him. "This is serious. I'll take you to Lane."
"He probably can't do anything about it now. I'll get it checked out as soon as I get home."
"And what if you don't get home?" he asked with concern.
"It'll be fine."
"I'll get you to hotel and to the airport," Dave insisted, his voice commanding no argument. "Is someone picking you up in Atlanta?"
"Yeah, Kerri will."
"Then it's settled," he simply stated.
"I still should apologize to Maria."
"That's up to you."
Maria was more gracious than Samia expected and the brunette returned to treating her as if nothing had ever happened. The returning diva didn't feel she deserved that after what she had said but, then again, she really couldn't be held at fault. The two women chatted amicably and watched Dave's rematch with Umaga that ended in a disqualification again. This time it was because Chris Masters interfered. He was still wasn't taking well the ignominy of Batista breaking his hold and wasn't going to stop until he got the chance to avenge himself.
Two weeks off. They would have been quite restful if it wasn't the Christmas holidays, which she totally despised as she had no family to spend it with, including a boyfriend. Plus, she was still waiting on the results of a barrage of tests to determine what was causing the black-outs. That was also not counting how she was going to handle McMahon's latest orders for her. She was not sleeping with Shawn Michaels no matter what. There was no point in just sleeping with him to enjoy the sex because there was nothing between them. Besides, she wasn't like that anyhow. How could she be guaranteed that he was interested in meaningless sex between them anyway? She was going to have to find a way to pull this off somehow and thinking about it until her head hurt wasn't going to help. Instead, she hoped the answer would come to her and tried to enjoy what she could of the holidays.
Kerri dragged her to a Christmas party with her co-workers, hiding the fact that she was trying to set her up with another employee. The man turned out to be a bit overzealous in his fanaticism of wrestling and it was making her highly uncomfortable that he could tell her more about her tenure in the WWE than she could. Samia immediately asked Kerri what she was thinking but her friend had no idea that her co-worker was that into wrestling. She assumed, that as a fan, he would treat Samia right because it would be a privilege for him to date her. Samia made her promise to not set her up with anybody who knew her as a WWE diva.
Samia threw her own get-together but it was just the six of her closest friends sitting down for dinner and it was possibly the most refreshing and relaxing time that she had had in three months. At least with Jamie's party she would know most of the people who came by, the majority being her friends and acquaintances from before she started working in wrestling. For now, she toasted her virgin Daiquiri—no alcohol per doctor's orders while waiting on the test results—and leaned back on the sofa with a sigh before Susan began their annual viewing of the movie A Christmas Story. For a while, her mind was taken off Shawn Michaels and the results of the tests, which she would be getting tomorrow.
Even the call from Batista's daughter was uplifting to thank her for the Christmas present. Samia had chosen a pink 'diva' charm for the girl to add to her charm bracelet and sent it through Dave. For the past two years since Kiersten had gotten her a birthday present, Samia had reciprocated, finding that she absolutely adored her. Maybe it was the fact that she was childless or that Kiersten was really that lovable.
Shawn Michaels was one crafty son of a bitch when backed into a corner. Most didn't consider him the brains of the outfit but that his job was to look good, act cute, and handle the ladies. That wasn't all that true. He just wasn't given the credit he was due and this was one of those times.
The wrestler knew exactly where Samia Carlsen hid the extra key to her apartment—in the corner of the flowerbox of her livingroom window. Glancing around, he quickly stuck a couple of fingers into the dirt and fished it out. Brushing it off, he walked up to her door and inserted it, letting out a sigh of relief when it turned in the lock. She wasn't home and shouldn't be returning for a couple of hours, which was more than necessary. He had overheard Samia telling Maria in the parking lot about her holiday plans and that was when he knew what to do next.
Shawn knew Jamie, one of Samia's friends, from when he had met them the last weekend he and the blonde were dating and it didn't take much to get his phone number. Without identifying himself, he called the man and simply asked when the party was because he lost the piece of paper he had written it down on. Jamie hesitantly replied and then they ended the call. The pharmacist hadn't recognized Shawn's voice and passed on the information thinking that he must know who it was but didn't want to insult him by asking who he was. If the man was asking about the party, then Jamie must have invited him.
The apartment was dark except for a small lamp by the couch and Shawn took note of that. Just like Samia, he thought as he made his way to her filing cabinet and flipped on a flashlight. The man went file by file but he could find nothing except her old contracts and he couldn't resist flipping through the last one that had guaranteed her a job as long as she put himself, Kevin Nash, and Triple H out of commission. Thank god that had failed but it had gotten her fired. Thinking there might be something in that, he pushed the papers into the top of her printer/fax/copier and hit copy while he began to peruse her desk drawers. Still, absolutely nothing.
Next, Michaels flipped open her laptop but it was password protected. Feeling a little arrogant, he typed in his own name. Chuckling to himself when the computer rejected the entry, he tried RVD's name and then Batista's. There was something going on between the two of them despite the fact that he was dating Maria. What man brings his female friend into his locker room even though he's dating someone else? Samia could have fooled him if he didn't know better when she and Dave were "dating" during her schemes as they honestly looked like the real thing. Even though, the password wasn't the new WWE Champion's name. After trying some of her favorite bands, he decided to scour the rest of her apartment and then try the computer again.
In a lawbook by the bed, HBK found a chart with a schedule of figures that had her name on it and was titled 'projected revenues.' The dates were from when she was fired until when her last contract would have ended, which he had only learned about. The paper looked like it had been wadded up and then smoothed out again. He hurriedly copied the figures and the pages of the legal book it was stuck between and put them back.
To be safe that she wouldn't arrive home sooner than he hoped, Shawn gathered up his copies and glanced over the apartment to make sure that he had left everything the way it had been upon entering. His eye then caught several papers on the refrigerator and he quickly crossed the room to check them. There was nothing there but test results from several physicians and the accompanying invoices. All of the results were negative and whatever the issue was—he quickly deduced it must have been in regards to her injury at Armageddon—they hadn't found the problem. The wrestler then locked the door behind him and pushed the key back into the flower box, hoping the dirt wasn't disturbed so much she would notice.
It was the new year but there was nothing new to celebrate, only old, unfinished business. Samia couldn't bring herself to even attempt to sleep with Shawn and that wasn't counting the fact that she knew he wouldn't anyhow no matter how much she came on to him. Still, she didn't try and the best she had was a lame excuse to McMahon. She'd claim female issues and maybe that would be the end of the problem for at least another week. Something would come to her eventually and maybe she'd even tell Dave with the hope that he could come up with an alternative. Otherwise, she didn't want him to know anything about this.
The card told her that McMahon didn't expect DX to still be together and Samia nervously waited to be called to his office. She felt some comfort when Dave arrived but he seemed to be apprehensive as well. The woman would have asked him about it but Maria was around and he apparently didn't want to talk about it
"Dave told me all the tests were negative," Maria commented, settling on the couch in front of the monitor.
"Yeah, but we still don't know what's wrong."
"Have you had anymore episodes?" the brunette queried.
"Not as far as I know," she replied and paused as Edge and Orton called out DX to start the show, challenging them to an impromptu match. "This is one of those moments when I wish I could black-out. I've gotta go."
Dave only nodded at her but she was too concerned with what trouble she was about to be in as this was her first time stepping into the ring with Randy Orton, a former member of Evolution that hated her, and Edge, whom she helped Lita humiliate. The referee had to hurry to the ring and was halfway down the ramp when the first punches were thrown. Edge had Michaels shaken by the time she had taken up position and beamed a toothy grin at her as if he knew something she didn't.
The belts weren't on the line but she had to do something as a show of good faith to McMahon. Both sides played dirty, so it was impossible to disqualify one and not the other. Hopefully, Triple H would do something stupid and she could call it on him. The match ranged all over the mat and she was constantly dodging the wrestlers.
Edge was working Shawn over in the corner with Randy helping him and Samia continually called a five count. Orton tagged in and the two worked Michaels over before Edge had to step out of the ring. He barely set his second foot down before the younger wrestler tagged him back in, giving the two of them another opportunity to beat up on HBK. When they did it one more time, Triple H charged the opposite corner, knocking Orton to the outside. Hunter followed him and the two brawled on the black mat while Shawn found an inner strength to fight back at Edge.
Then all hell broke loose and Samia lost track of it all. She was counting Michaels' pin while Helmsley was attempting to Pedigree Orton through the Spanish announce table. The crowd let out a collective 'boo' and the woman knew something had gone wrong. Glancing in that direction, she saw Hunter laid out on the table across Orton with no one else in sight. Shawn jerked on her arm to count the pin again but Edge had slipped out from under him in that second. Michaels jumped up to meet his attack and that was when Samia felt another presence in the ring. She turned around to duck a chair coming at her but, before she could spin back, she heard the impact of the shot and Shawn's groan.
The blonde woman holding the chair turned around to face Samia. "Count the pin," she shouted and pointed to where Edge was covering Shawn. In a daze, the diva shook her head and feebly signaled for the DQ.
The woman in the ring facing her was dressed just the same. Her hair the same color and styled in the same manner. What was worse was that she was looking into her own face. Samia kept backing up until she felt her back touch the turnbuckle. "Adrienne, you have gone too far. Plastic surgery to look like me?"
"I'm not Adrienne," the woman harshly laughed. "I'm your sister."
"I don't—I don't have…a sister," Samia stuttered and quickly ducked out of the ring, running up the ramp and for the haven of Batista's dressing room.
TBC…