DISCLAIMER: I don't own WWE or any of its superstars, but I own the character Kizzie.

Chapter 11

Kizzie stood in front of the mirror in the women's locker room and examined herself one last time before she left to film her first promo with Jeff. Everything had to be perfect for this promo, down the last detail. She didn't know why, it just did.

'Hair. Straightened, roots dyed, perfect. Make up. Eyeliner, lipgloss, perfect. Costume. Black baggies, white tank top, perfect. No, not perfect. You can still see the cuts on your arm. Put on your black and white stripy arm warmers. That's better. No one can see it now. Perfect. Read through the script one more time, make sure you know it.'

Kizzie read through her script, which was on the desk in front of her, for about the millionth time that day.

Promo 2. Kizzie Dale and Jeff Hardy.

Corridor. Jeff sees Kizzie and tells her he's been looking for her to wish her luck in her match against Melina. Some conversation to subtly hint that they could be more than just friends. Jeff leaves, and we see Kizzie head towards the arena for her match with Melina.

'They could have given me a bit more than that.' Thought Kizzie as she closed her script and shoved it into her bag. 'I hope they're not expecting me to improvise a whole lot of conversation.' She shoved her bag into her locker and closed it, and, after taking one last look in the mirror, she left the room, and made her way to the main corridor where the promo was to be filmed.

To say she was nervous was an understatement. She had filmed promos before, but they had always been to spice up a rivalry with another diva. She'd never really thought about doing a romance-based promo before. Even if she had, she never would have thought it was this awkward. It might have been a month, but she still wasn't entirely happy with Jeff. She wasn't sure why, he'd apologised for the misunderstanding… why was she still annoyed. It was starting to annoy her more than Jeff was.

As she reached the corridor, she saw Jeff already there. He saw her as she approached and walked over to her.

"You ready for this?"

"Yeah." Kizzie lied.

"Cool."

"Kizzie! Jeff! To your positions!" The stage manager shouted to them. "We roll in one minute!"

As Jeff went to his starting position a several feet behind her, Kizzie took a deep breath to try and calm herself. She only had one minute? Had she really been that late? She saw the cameraman focusing the lens on her, and took another deep breath. This was it. There was no turning back, no matter how uncomfortable it was going to be. She could carry this storyline – she knew she could.

She heard the stage manager counting down from ten. He was down to seven. To four. Silence. He have her the signal to start. There was no turning back.

She started walking down the corridor until she heard Jeff calling from behind her. She stopped when he caught up with her, and turned to talk to him.

"Hey Jeff."

"Hey Kizzie, I just wanted to wish you luck in your match with Melina tonight. And if Mercury and Nitro try anything, me and Matt have got your back."

"Thanks. It means a lot."

"Yeah well, you mean a lot to us." Jeff touched her arm. Kizzie felt butterflies in her stomach. She smiled slightly.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, it's no problem." Jeff looked at the floor, then back at Kizzie. "Well, I'll see you later."

"See you later."

Jeff started to walk away, but turned back to face her as he went. "You look nice by the way."

"Thanks." Kizzie said. She kept turning back to look at Jeff as he walked away, but she wasn't acting.

"The camera has stopped rolling guys!" The stage manager shouted. "Kizzie, you should get to your match."

Kizzie took one last glance at Jeff, and darted off towards the arena.

The next few weeks went as smoothly as ever. The more Jeff and Kizzie flirted with each other, the more the fans loved it. The flirting became more obvious as the weeks went on, although it was just little things like the hugs Kizzie gave to Jeff after they won a tag team match would last longer that the ones she gave to Matt, or there'd be a sexual innuendo in their promos. A particular moment that the audience ate up was during a six-man tag match, while the referee was distracted, Kizzie climbed to the top rope to attempt a moonsault on Melina, when Nitro pushed her off. Kizzie was, however, conveniently caught by Jeff, who just happened to be on the floor at the time, and he held her for a moment as they looked at each other, before putting her down so she could carry on the match. At one stage, during a singles match between Matt Hardy and Joey Mercury, while she was brawling with Melina outside of the ring, she overheard Jerry "The King" Lawler say, "I'm not convinced that Kizzie and Jeff are just friends, if you know what I mean." But the whole thing was getting bigger than any of them thought it would. They started seeing signs in the audience that said things like "Kizzie 4 Jeff", "Just kiss already!" and "Mrs Kizzie Hardy." It was hard, but they had to act oblivious to the signs.

Even though the storyline was a huge success and it was making Team Extreme more popular than ever, Kizzie still couldn't help but feel annoyed whenever she had to put on the act. She couldn't tell whether she was still annoyed at Jeff, or if she didn't really like the angle. Or was it both?

"I don't understand it." She said to Ashley after a show one night, deciding to confide in her now that she had finally gotten some alone time with her best friend. She didn't see much of Ashley on her own now that the blonde was dating Matt. But on this particular night, the Hardys had gone for a guy's night out with Shannon Moore and Shane Helms to some bar somewhere, so Kizzie had taken the opportunity to spend some time with Ashley.

"Well, I don't know myself." Ashley shrugged as they made their way across the arenas indoor parking lot. "I mean, you and Jeff sorted out your differences, right?"

"Yeah, like a month and a half ago." Kizzie had hoped Ashley would have some sort of answer, because her problem was really starting to irritate her. She turned to Ashley and was about to say something else, when she saw that Ashley was deep in thought, and decided against interrupting her.

"Ok, I have a theory." Ashley said after a few minutes of silence. "What if, even though you settled that silly misunderstanding, you were still expecting more?"

Kizzie was confused. "What do you mean?"

"For example, if he hadn't said the wrong thing when you went to see him the night after it happened, what would you have expected him to say? And did he say it when you made up?"

"I'm not sure what I expected him to say." Kizzie frowned slightly. "I suppose I expected him to say something other 'it's a rebound thing.'"

"Such as?" Ashley urged.

Kizzie thought. What had she expected him to say? She tried to think back. She had expected him to be a gentleman… she expected… she was looking for reassurance that it wasn't a one night stand… she expected… she expected…

"I expected a relationship." Kizzie stopped in her tracks, almost cringing.

"It's just the natural thing to assume." Ashley assured her. "I mean, you did sleep with him after all."

"Yeah but, it was the day after I split up with Derek."

"Yes, but it wasn't a few days later, and by then you were over Derek."

Kizzie thought again. True, she was over Derek, and she figured it was because she was so busy being annoyed with Jeff she didn't have time to be annoyed with her ex. When Jeff had explained himself a few days later, maybe she did expect him to ask her out. It did feel right when they flirted with each other… but how did she know Jeff felt that as well?

Before she could carry on her conversation with Ashley, a long black limousine pulled up alongside them. She knew who it was before the window started winding down.

"Miss Dale, I was wondering if I could offer you a lift back to the hotel, so we could discuss your immediate future with the WWE?" Vince asked, before looking at Ashley. "Miss Massaro, you may come along as well if you don't have any other way of getting back to the hotel."

"It's ok Vince, I'm driving." She showed Vince her car keys, before saying to Kizzie. "I'll see you back at the hotel."

"See you later." Kizzie said, watching Ashley walk off, before climbing into Vince's limo.

"You wanted to discuss my immediate future?" Kizzie asked, slightly worried. The way Vince had worded it didn't sound too good. Vince picked up the tone of her voice and smiled.

"It's nothing bad. Trust me."

Kizzie nodded, but said nothing.

"Kizzie, I have to compliment you." Vince said with a twinkle in his eye. "This storyline couldn't be going any better! You and Jeff just know all the right things to say and do, it just seems so natural."

"Yeah, it's going well." Kizzie replied awkwardly.

"Yes, it is. I believe that to be a great wrestler, one does not only need great moves and technique, but also great character. I believe you have both Kizzie." He leaned towards her slightly. "That's why I want Melina to drop the title to you at Vengeance."

Kizzie's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "You wanna give me a title shot?"

"Not just a shot, I wanna give you the title."

"That's awesome! Thank you so much!"

"That's not all." Vince leaned back in his seat, with a look of pride in his eye. Kizzie knew whatever other idea he had would be ingenious, but she also had a feeling that she didn't want to hear it. "Vengeance will also be the night that you and Jeff become an official couple."

Kizzie thought for a second. "It makes sense, the fans are dying to see it."

"Exactly." Vince agreed. "Having said that, Vengeance is only three weeks away, so we need to be careful how we build this up."

"Well, me and Jeff should really just carry on doing what we've been doing."

"I totally agree with you." Vince nodded. "But I think we should add a bit more drama to it. Next week, I want you to challenge Melina in the ring, tell the audience how it's your dream to have the title and so on and so forth. Then for the next three shows, we'll have a singles match between you and Melina, and six-man tag, Team Extreme versus MNM, and then another singles match. I want you to lose all three of those matches, so the fans, as much as they love you, will begin to doubt you. Then at Vengeance, I want you to give a match that the audience will remember."

Kizzie sat there taking it all in. "We'll make it happen, I'm sure."

"I'm sure you will." Vince smiled as the limo stopped. "But remember, I need the getting together of you and Hardy to be just as dramatic as you winning the title. You know how much the fans want to see it." He opened the limo door so Kizzie could climb out. "I'll see you next week Miss Dale."

"See you next week Vince." She climbed out of the vehicle, and watched as Vince closed the door and the limo sped off.

She felt that build up of Vengeance was going according to plan. She kept flirting with Jeff, and she lost all of her matches to Melina. She had given a speech and a half about how much the title meant to her, and the boos and jeers Melina got whenever she entered and left the arena were deafening.

Then came the morning of Vengeance. Kizzie had just gotten out of bed, when she felt her stomach turn. She felt the vomit climb into her throat, and made a mad dash for the bathroom. As she threw up down the toilet, she knew something was wrong. Other than the actual throwing up she felt fine. She put it down to nerves, but was a bit confused.

"I'm not even that nervous."

CHAPTER 12 PREVIEW

"It will be a match that no one has ever seen before, and you two" he pointed to Kizzie and Melina, "will be setting the standards for female wrestlers everywhere." He leaned back in his chair. "What do you think?"

"I can't do it." Kizzie said almost straight away. As she felt all heads turn towards her, she knew they thought she must be crazy, and if it had been any other situation, she would have thought she was crazy too. She had wanted to do a match like this for so long, but the timing couldn't have been worse.