Storm Stories
Much Needed Therapy
For the next two weeks JJ helps out at the arena during training sessions, when she isn't re-watching the entire EwCw tape library. Ravyn and Shannon alternate taking her to her physical therapy sessions. Today Ravyn drops her off and then tells her that she's going to run some errands. Instead she drives to the Albany airport to pick up Jeff, whom Jenn has no clue is coming to visit.
"Thanks for the ride," Jeff smiles getting into the car.
"It can't be a surprise if she knows you're coming," Ravyn laughs. "Besides she needs to see you. Shannon and I can only cheer her up so much."
"I just couldn't wait another day," Jeff confesses.
Ravyn smiles, "I know how it feels."
"You and Shannon have been together for a while now, haven't you?" Jeff asks.
"A little over two years," she nods. "And we had to spend a lot of time apart. For a while we were barely seeing each other once a month."
"I don't think I could do that," he admits. "I can't even imagine how that must have been."
Ravyn laughs, "Yeah it was rough. But we made it work."
"Does she have any idea that I'm coming?" he asks.
"Not a clue," she assures him as they pull into the warehouse parking lot.
Shannon and Jeff spend a few minutes making plans for their adventure down to the dirty south before Jeff takes Ravyn's car to go pick Jenn up from therapy. Ravyn and Shannon teach a class, then decide to go out to dinner to give Jenn and Jeff some alone time. After they ate they decided to go down to the capitol to see the park all lit up for Christmas.
"Are you okay with spending Christmas in North Carolina?" Shannon asks as they walk around the park.
She nods, "Sure, it'll be different. I'll miss the snow though."
"Oh, you will?" Shannon smirks as he bends down to scoop up a handful of snow that he starts to pack into a snowball.
"Don't even think.." but she was too late. The snowball connected with her shoulder and exploded.
The two of them chased each other around the park for the next few hours. They wrestled around in the snow trying to get it down each others jackets. Finally Shannon managed to pin her to the ground. But before he could cover her with snow she reached up and pulled him into a kiss. Distracted, he dropped the snowball that he had intended on using and returned her kiss. They stayed there together for a few minutes just enjoying being together. Eventually they returned to the house to watch some tapes with Jenn and Jeff.
The next morning everyone scrambled to finish packing and catch their flight. The quick trip to Raleigh was busy in the holiday season. Matt and Amy picked everyone up from the airport and took them back to the Hardy property. Ravyn and Shannon were staying at Matt's, since Jeff's house was considerably smaller. Everyone spent a lot of time helping to decorate Matt and Jeff's property for Christmas. Ravyn and Shannon did some last minute shopping before heading over to Jeff's so the boys could mess around on the dirt bike track. Shannon and Jeff tear around the course jumping over the trees they had just decorated while Ravyn and Jenn watch.
Before anyone even realized, it was Christmas Eve, and Matt was having his annual Christmas Bash. Soon the house was filled with people. The drinking started early and only nonsense followed. Matt fired up the karaoke machine and shortly after the sound of drunken singing drowned out most everything else. Matt made sure that no one could stay sober, since he kept going from room to room "clubbing" people.
Jenn and Ravyn managed to belt out a stunning rendition of "Something Gone Wrong," a song that Brian had written a few years earlier. Jeff slipped into his alternate persona, Itchweeed, and spent the rest of the night dancing and babbling about 1342. Shannon ended up wrestling Yuk in a shoot fight on the front lawn, which Yuk lost miserably. Shane showed up just before midnight and spent most of the night goofing off with Ravyn and Shannon. They wrestled around outside like it was the Royal Rumble. Soon everyone else started to join in. Matt enjoyed the brawl on his front lawn and named himself the official referee. Itchweeed won the battle, but the Invisibles jumped him in mid celebration. Shannon tried to help him, but they were no match for the Invisibles.
The people that were sober enough started to leave around four a.m. Matt and Amy had gone to bed, Jenn and Jeff had gone back home and Shane hung around to mess with Yuk. Ravyn and Shannon decided to go for a walk around the vast property. They held hands as Shannon showed her where he had grown up with Matt and Jeff. He took her out to the Ring in the Woods and told her all about TWF. They laid on the ring apron just talking until the sun started to peak through the tree line. Shannon started to get up, but Ravyn kept her head on his chest insisting that they stay a little longer. Together they watched the sun rise before starting their walk back to Matt's house.
As they started walking up the front steps they found Yuk handcuffed to the railing asleep in his boxers. They almost felt bad and unlocked him until they found the key sitting on the step next to him, well within his reach. His teeth however, were on the very top step just out of his grasp. They snickered quietly as they stepped around him and went up to the guest room.
"I love you so much," Shannon says as they're climbing into bed.
Ravyn leans over to kiss him, "I love you too."
She rests her head on his chest and he wraps his arms around her. "Merry Christmas," he kisses her on the forehead as they snuggle in to fall asleep.
"Can we visit your mom later?" Ravyn yawned.
"Yeah," Shannon smiled. "She'd like that."
They fall asleep quickly and don't get out of bed again until early the next afternoon. They leave the house in Amy's car and go to Shannon's mom's to spend Christmas with her. The group spends a few more days in North Carolina before heading to New York City for New Years. Manhattan is bustling with holiday crowds as they walk through Central Park waiting for the New Years celebration in Times Square. Shannon takes Ravyn's hand as they walk through the park.
"You know what I missed most of all when we were in North Carolina?" he asks with a smirk. He doesn't even let her answer before yelling "Snow!" and smashing a snowball on her.
The two of them took off after one another and ended up starting a huge snowball fight with anyone and everyone that would join. The fun lasted for over an hour before they decided to go back to their hotel to change into warmer and drier clothes. The crowd in Times Square had started gathering hours before they arrived, but they still managed to find a good spot to see the ball drop. It wasn't long before the countdown had begun and they all found themselves kissing their significant others as fireworks shot into the air. They stayed to enjoy the party a while longer before walking back to the hotel.
The walk wasn't far, but a lot of the streets closest to Times Square were jam packed, so travel took a little while. When they finally got to the less crowded streets they were able to move a bit faster. As they were walking down a street full of buildings with mirrored glass they came upon a homeless man. He's clearly inebriated, arguing with his own reflection, when he sees them walking towards him. He tried to bum a cigarette off of them, but is saddened when he discovered that none of them smoke. He grumbles and walks away. Moments later they saw him start arguing with himself again, but this time there was no glass so he argued and verbally fought with his shadow. They managed to keep their composure until the guy was out of ear shot, then they completely lost it.
*****
The next few weeks were hard at the arena. Most of the workers were away visiting their families so shows were on home for the month. Classes however, were busier than ever. But there were a lot of kids who had gotten Christmas money and decided that they would train to be wrestlers. Most of them didn't last more than a few sessions. While Ravyn and Shannon drilled them in the ring Jenn grilled them about their motives on the outside. Together they were able to weed out the ones who's hearts were really in it.
After one of their training sessions Shannon leaves to go pick up Jenn from therapy and Ravyn closes the warehouse to head home and start making dinner. Shannon and Jenn return just after she gets home. She's thrilled to see that Jenn no longer has her huge arm brace on. Jenn heads out to the hot tub while Ravyn and Shannon take care of the cooking. Ravyn wakes her up from a nap and the three of them plant themselves on the couch to eat and watch RAW.
Matt and Jeff have a tag match against the Dudleys. The match is a typical Dudleys match until Trish comes out to the ring to help out the Hardyz. She helps Jeff to his feet and kisses him before walking up the ramp grinning. As they cut to commercial Jenn's phone rings just as she manages to pick her jaw up off of the floor. Ravyn and Shannon exchange worries looks. The two of them just stare at her skeptically until she hangs up the phone.
"What?" she asks.
"You're really okay with that?" Ravyn worries.
"Yeah, why not. Trish is my friend," Jenn confirms. "She's with Adam. And it's part of a story to lead up to my return in a few weeks."
Ravyn's eyes widen with concern, "You're going back in a few weeks?"
"Yeah, at least I'll be going back to traveling. Starting back slowly," Jenn nods.
"That's great friend," Ravyn smiles.
"And I want you to come with me," Jenn announces. "Do you think you guys could get the time off?"
"I don't see why not..." Ravyn says as Shannon nods excitedly.
