Mwahaha, the journey continues. Remember to read and review! HELLCAT CONTINUES!
Miserychick - you have been a faithful reader and reviewer. Thanks, dollface!
It took a full day of cancelled meetings, pajamas, movies on Lifetime, and about 300 cups of coffee for Lily to pull herself from her funk and formulate a plan to get Heidi back. Like any woman, she had allowed herself the time to grieve and have a good cry (or ten) before coming out on the other end of her sorrow with a plan that she was sure wouldn't fail.
Or at least one she hoped wouldn't.
But sitting around had done nothing but waste her time. Ashamed, she asked herself what Heidi would have done if the roles were reversed and Lily had been the one taken away, beaten and bloody. The mental image of Heidi throttling the Nexus one by one was enough to start her engines again and really get the juices flowing.
Sitting in a lavish waiting room, Lily tapped her kitten heels impatiently as she preened the black and white polka dot skirt out of reflexive anxiety. Her hair was down and crimped, gathered into a low ponytail that draped over one shoulder. There were no other clients waiting in the reception area with her so that only the tick of the chrome clock and the tap of her shoes kept her company.
On her lap was a WWE magazine, and on the cover, was the Hellcat in full Nexus regalia, glaring at the camera as Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater stood in the background like faithful watchdogs. She had dogeared a few pages and in her white purse was a highlighter that she had used to outline every incorrect statement and bit of untrue gossip she'd found in the offending article.
Lily had stumbled across the magazine when she stopped at an outdoor newspaper stand to purchase a cappuccino and nearly choked on her coffee upon seeing Heidi on the front cover. She snatched it and began leafing through pages like a thief in a library to finally find the article in question, throwing a handful of bills at the vendor and then dashing off down the street with her head so deep in the magazine that she accidentally bumped people without even apologizing.
And once she had come to the end of the piece that somehow spun Heidi in both poor and favorable lighting, Lily almost dropped the magazine when she read who the author was.
Percy Lancaster.
When the frosted glass door opened, Lily sat up straight and watched with modest disdain as Percival stepped into the doorway, his simpering grin intact as he greeted her as if the two were the oldest of friends.
"Ahh, Ms. Stark! Come in, come in. I imagine I know what you're here about," he twittered, standing to the side and holding his arm back towards his office to usher ladies in first. His salt and pepper hair was slicked back still, moustache and triangle-beard meticulously groomed to offset the playful pink paisley tie he had tucked into a sharp silver-grey vest.
Lily, ever the politician, stood politely and smoothed her skirt before grabbing her purse and elegantly sashaying into Percy's office. Once inside, she took a cursory look around, her face passive to give the impression that she was not dazzled by the state of the place. Like everything Percy touched, he had his own flare in every corner that was somehow distinctly flamboyant and elegant. The wooden desk was of the deepest mahogany, polished to reflect the light coming in from an entire wall of windows that showcased the NYC skyline to perfection.
Percy shut the door and offered her a plush seafoam green chair before taking it's partner on the other side of a claw-footed coffee table with a crystal pitcher of water in the exact center.
Lily sat and tried to ignore the enormous framed photographs by Georgia O'Keeffe on his walls.
Making himself comfortable, Percy poured two glasses of water and situated one in Lily's reach before leaning back and taking a drink. He let out a satisfied "ahh" when he was through with his gulp and then dabbed his lips daintily with a handkerchief with P.L. embroidered on it in lavender stictching.
"You're a long way from home, Ms. Stark. Could it be that my article was so well written you simply had to come see me in person?" he mused, his tone serious, but the twinkle in his eyes was unmistakeably cheeky.
Lily, who had caught a red-eye flight from the midwest to be there for their early morning appointment, was not as ruffled as she might have been had she the proper sleep to muster up an appropriate anger. However, she did not look like she had spent the entire night awake, pouring over the article at hand, highlighting and writing her counterattack on bits of airplane napkins between packages of peanuts and glasses of ginger ale. As ever, she was polished, pristine, and professional.
Clearing her throat slightly, Lily turned the magazine around so that the cover faced Percy, who simply chuckled in delight at seeing it.
"I know, a front page story! That Heidi is going to make all of us rich," he said, dabbing his eyes as if he'd just seen the Mona Lisa and was moved by the beauty of it.
"Percival, I am not here to praise your work," she reprimanded with calm sternness as she fitted a pair of tortoiseshell Vogue frames on the tip of her powdered nose. Opening the magazine to one of the dogeared pages, she read aloud. "Heidi Harris has been seen in the company of the Nexus for the past several days, accompanying them to restaurants, boxing matches, and the gym."
She stopped reading and looked at Percy, who was staring into space as she read his words aloud, appreciating them as if they were Shakespearean prose.
"Well don't stop there, that's not even the good part!" he squawked, setting his glass of water down on the coffee table and giving Lily a look that said 'well go on!'
Instead, Lily flipped to another page and read from a block of pink highlighted text.
"The Hellcat has been seen mostly with Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, asking the question, are she and Husky on good terms after Monday's macbre finale, or has she turned over her brother for the dual affections of the tag-team duo?"
Percy sighed at the pure poetry that regaled his distinguished ears, a wistful smile on his slightly lined face. "You know, that Hellcat is getting to be quite the heartbreaker. I wouldn't be surprised if Swagger has a thing or two to say about being shunned for not one man, but two!"
"Percy!" Lily snapped, removing her glasses and looking at him with reproach. "I can assure you that Heidi is not involved with Swagger, Slater, or Gabriel. They must be her guardians, keeping her on a short leash or something," she huffed, remembering her manners and settling back down into her chair, her voice once again at an appropriate volume.
Percy Lancaster simply shrugged his shoulder with a decadent grin on his face. "Only time and the press will be able to speculate on that one, Ms. Stark. Unless you'd care to stage an interview spilling all the intimate details?" he urged, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows up and down once.
Lily tutted. "I think not."
"Such a shame," he lamented, swooning back dramatically in his chair, gripping the armrests with spindly fingers. "So I presume you are not here to chide me in person for a journalist's colorful liberty with your friend. What is it you want, Ms. Stark?" he asked, this time seriously, watching her with pale blue eyes.
Holding her glasses with a hand on her knee, Lily leaned forward.
"Where were these pictures taken?" she asked, holding open the magazine to show the candid shots of Heidi in a Nexus uniform that looked more risque than her bathing suit in tow with the Nexus. She flipped the page and there was a photo of her in-between Slater and Gabriel who were holding her wrists tightly, like parents helping a child across the street. There was still some snow on the ground in places, and in those photos, Heidi was seen with an enormous Nexus t-shirt on and a pair of yellow spandex pants, a truly hideous combination, Lily thought.
Percy leaned forward and took the magazine, scrutinizing the photos by looking down his nose and adjusting the distance from his face as he tried to read without his glasses. After a moment, he set the magazine down in his lap and looked sidelong at Lily.
"Do you mean to tell me that you haven't seen Heidi since Monday?" he asked in disbelief.
Lily's eyes narrowed.
"I'm not going to answer that until you promise not to write about it," she warned. Then, with a small smile, she reached beside her and pulled from her purse a stack of papers that were stapled in the corner. She handed them to Percy for him to read over. "I need your help, Percy, and I promise it will be a bigger story than these two bit gossip columns you've been doing."
Percy took the papers and began to read and then laughed, high-pitched and full of joy again. "Ms. Stark, a binding contract? Oh, you are good."
Heidi stood in line at the grocery checkout with her arms folded loosely over her chest, appearing more bored these days than angry. In front of her, with their street clothes on, were David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. Behind her, also in normal attire, were Wade Barrett and Husky, who was somewhat standing guard of Heidi and for her. Next to her, wearing jeans and t-shirts without the yellow "N" were Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, who had practically glued themselves to her sides for the past several days.
Heidi stood out like a sore thumb. If she weren't flanked on all sides by men twice her size, the yellow pants and oversized Nexus t-shirt she wore was a reminder that this capture was a lesson in humiliation. Wade hadn't allowed her to use the phone, or to try and contact anyone in any way shape or form. Heath and Justin escorted her everywhere and as Wade saw the rekindling relationship between brother and sister, he found more and more duties for Husky to fulfill just to keep Heidi away from him.
The trip to the grocer's was as much a statement for the press as it was a necessity for dinner. To Heidi's surprise, Otunga had a talent for cooking and had offered to prepare dinner that night in exchange for no more takeout pizzas and delivery Chinese that had dominated their diets.
Heidi kept it to herself but was glad to see that he put fish on the menu, as she stood there holding seven filets of the finest Alaskan salmon. With a chuckle, she thought about Swagger and what he would think about her diet as of late. "MORE PROTEIN SHAKETH, HELLCAT! YOU'RE DEFLATING!"
Giggling softly to herself, Justin Gabriel looked down to her suddenly and watched, wondering if she was going to share what was so funny.
Heidi looked up at the same time Justin looked down and stared back with wide, blank eyes. Out of all of the Nexus, she and her 'babysitters' as Wade called them, had managed to hash out a working relationship that kept all three of them out of trouble. But of the two, Heidi had to admit that she enjoyed Gabriel's accent better, not to mention his propensity to talk a lot less than the One Man Rock Band.
"I feel like a kid with too many dads," she lied in response to Gabriel's wondering eyes, rolling her eyes behind her, where Wade stood with his arms folded over his chest. It was true, and it was definitely better than telling the truth – that the thought of Jack Swagger had made her giggle. She shuddered and stepped closer as David and Michael, the lid to her box, moved up in line.
"Hey Heidi, looky here! It's the second one of you this week!" Heath exclaimed, turning and grabbing something from the checkout aisle. Even though she liked Justin better, Heidi and Heath had bonded over hair, which he took the liberty of straightening for her every day along with his own.
Heidi turned her head, still holding the fillets of salmons, and nearly dropped the seven cuts of fish when she saw a picture of herself on the front page of the magazine Slater had grabbed from the rack. Her mouth dropped as she saw yet again, her face glaring at her from the front page of a WWE magazine, which was better than she could say for the last article, which had her painted to look like some harlot diva. The picture was better too, a closeup that showed more freckle than flesh.
"It's the last one! These must be selling like crazy!" he said, flipping it open to a large centerfold picture of Heidi in her Nexus outfit, glaring at the camera. He tilted the magazine to show Justin, who laughed and patted Heidi on the back as they all leaned close and read the caption.
"Hellcat, better known as Heidi Harris, has been forced to give up her vigilante ways and join the deplorable Nexus, as shown by the way she has shunned her silver getup for the Nexus colors of black and yellow..." The three of them read in unison, a strange ruckus with all the different accents going on.
"Deplorable?" Justin asked, looking at Heath.
"Shunned?" Heath added, confused.
"Vigilante?" Heidi repeated, liking the sound of that on her tongue.
"Give me that!" snapped Wade. He snatched the magazine from Heath and turned it to the beginning of the article, his eyes roving the text. Surely it wouldn't be such big news for her to be a part of the Nexus – even John Cena had been a member of the Nexus and not created so much controversy! The brat had been a member for less than a week and already there were magazines boasting her on the front page?
"What is it?" Husky asked, looking over his burly bicep to read the title of the article, which was printed in bright red ink.
Hellcat, a Call to Arms.
"A call to arms?" Michael asked as he put the mushrooms, sour cream, gouda, and grapes onto the conveyor belt and then grabbed the rest of the items from his teammates as they were all hellbent on looking at the magazine. The cashier rang up the items one by one and the box around Heidi broke as they squashed her in the middle of all of them, trying to see better what the magazines could possibly have to say about her.
"They're making her out to be a bloody martyr!" Wade griped as the article went on, ignoring the scowl he earned from Heidi by speaking about her as if she weren't less than 6 inches away from him.
"Ha! It's payback, Wade," Heidi countered, turning around to face the cashier with her nose in the air. "You got the mean one about be two days ago, it's about time I had someone rally to my defense! You'd better watch out too if it's trying to get people to come get me out of the Nexus!"
Wade glared a pair of holes in the back of Heidi's head and paid the tab, leaving Otunga, Husky, and McGillicutty to carry the groceries.
"There won't be any 'out of the Nexus' for you, Harris," promised Wade as he squeezed her shoulder hard and pulled her back to walk with him as the rest of the Nexus surged ahead of them as they exited the grocer's and started walking back to the hotel. Heidi winced as his strong fingers dug into her bones and complied with the unspoken demand that she stay next to him. He had purchased the magazine as well and was flipping through it as he walked, barrelling through people like a human battering ram. Heidi walked beside him, arms swinging gaily at her sides, taking two steps for every one he took just to keep up.
"You just watch, Wade. I might be here for now but that won't always be the case," she replied seriously. She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stood her ground, waiting for Wade to realize that his tiniest lapdog wasn't heeling anymore.
Wade looked up, around, and then behind him to see Heidi standing defiantly. His lip curled. She was getting smarter every day, becoming hip to his game as it were, and learning ways around his tyrannical reign over the Nexus and therefore, her. Afraid of losing her, he was forced to come to her side instead of the other way around, especially now that they were in public and he couldn't get away with blatantly manhandling her.
"Listen here, half-wit. You and your brother belong to me now. You're either Nexus or against us and I don't care how long it takes, or how much I have to put up with your prattle before you resign to your fate, but you are Nexus. Everyone who sees you knows it. Your brother sees it, and unless you want to kiss him goodbye for the rest of your natural born life, then I'd suggest carrying your weight and getting used to it."
He then thrust the magazine into Heidi's arms and guided her with a hand on the back of her neck, like a master would a disobedient mongrel.
After the article Lily had commissioned Percy to pen hit the stands, the memories of his earlier commentary in another WWE magazine were all but forgotten. Everything about the newer article was better than the old one, and most of all, Lily had steered Percy to use his powers of persuasion for good instead of evil. After the contract was signed stating his salary and what information he was allowed to use, Lily had subjected herself to the longest interview in history, giving her firsthand account of the fiasco on RAW.
Percy had changed both of their names and blurred the picture of Lily so that it looked like a fan had given the interview instead of a deeply invested friend of the Hellcat's. And of course, Lily was a fan, but if the Nexus were going to play dirty then so was she. Instead of Lily, the interview was given by a woman named 'Rose,' and he used the penname of 'Lance Persimmon' instead of his usual Percy Lancaster.
When the weekly rag hit the stands, they were hardly able to keep them stocked long enough to get the next shipment.
"Hellcat, a Call to Arms," Lily read the headline aloud as she walked by a periodical stand on her way back to the hotel from a long radio interview, looking at the closeup of Heidi's scowl. Her freckles and disdain were as piercing as her green eyes. The tall brunette picked up a copy and paid the vendor with four crisp bills, telling him to keep the change as she tucked the magazine into her purse and then clicked down the street, the bounce returning to her step.
That night, Lily treated herself to a night out. Even if she was alone, there was no reason she couldn't enjoy a celebratory dinner in Heidi's honor. If the pictures were any indication then Heidi was fit as a fiddle with little more than a scratch on her forehead, so Lily lifted her glass of pomegranate juice into the air, toasting both Heidi's health and her own stroke of genius.
She ordered the foie gras and complimented the waiter in perfect French for his service as he lay the dish in front of her. Her napkin covered her perfectly white slacks and she picked up the correct fork and knife to begin addressing her food when she heard a disturbance at the front of the restaurant.
Looking up, her hair out of the way in an elaborate do of twists, braids, and pins, Lily was stunned to see Jack Swagger arguing with the maître d'. Swagger was dressed nicely in a pair of grey slacks and a blue silk shirt, but his size and demeanor put him out of place immediately in the crowd of posh, uppity snobs that attended fancy French restaurants. A number of patrons looked at him with disgust, wondering clearly what the maître d' was doing by not calling security to remove him from the grounds at once.
Lily watched for a moment more until she saw that Jack was plainly motioning towards her, as if he were trying to join her table and the staff wouldn't allow him.
Dabbing her lips unnecessarily, Lily scooted her chair back and stood up curiously. She walked around the the tables between her and the front of the restaurant and placed a polite hand on the maître d's forearm, shutting him up completely.
"Excuse me, monsieur," she interrupted, ever a vision of class. The maître d' turned his attention on her completely, smiling at her in her leopard print ruffle top. He was a short, squat man with a full head of auburn hair and a rotund belly that suggested he ate as much French food as he denied riffraff like Swagger the pleasure of.
"Of course, mademoiselle. What can I do for you?" he asked, standing up straighter when he saw that he was in the company of a lady, showing the stuffed shirt blonde American in front of him how to act in the presence of a woman.
Lily smiled kindly and gestured to Swagger with a slight flick of her bangled wrist.
"This gentlemen is a friend of mine. If there aren't any tables left then he can join me at mine," she offered, though she looked at Swagger instead of the maître d' as she spoke, her eyes warning him that this was a favor she wouldn't forget.
The maître d' looked somewhat surprised, but then, as gentlemen do, he bowed to Swagger in apology.
"The mistake is mine, monsieur. Right this way," he apologized with due sincerity. Then he grabbed a menu and escorted Lily and Swagger to her table, placing the menu at the seat across from Lily's plate of cooling foie gras.
The maître d' pushed in Lily's chair for her and then disappeared to the podium again to angrily clap his hands in distress at a pair of dishwashers who were making more noise than he felt was allowed.
Sitting down and adjusting his yellow tie, Swagger looked around the place with that same stupid expression on his face that Lily had come to associate with him thinking.
Fanning the napkin back over the lap of her slacks, Lily started to cut up her food into manageable pieces, each swipe of the knife slicing through tender meat with precision.
"Have you theen Heidi?" Swagger asked after he placed his order for a glass of chardonnay and nothing else. He didn't plan to stay long. He sounded concerned, which was a tone she had never heard come from the All-American America's mouth, and caused Lily to look up from her plate at him after all of her food was divided into bite size pieces.
"No I have not. Why do you ask?" she pressed, setting her silverware down and folding her arms in front of her face, watching him with scrutiny.
Swagger pulled the newest magazine boasting Heidi's face on the cover from the inside of his shirt and lay it on the table.
"Becauth she'th been all over town with the Necthuth." He nodded down to the magazine and Lily was heartened to see that he had brought the new one, the call to arms with him, instead of the tripe Percy had first published. His arms were crossed over his chest and his jaw was set in a way that looked painful and stubborn.
Lily looked at the magazine and nodded before chewing a bite of liver.
"Well?" Swagger asked as he took the glass of wine from the waiter and had a gulp of it.
"Well what?" Lily countered, furrowing her brows at his gruff disposition. "If you're going to be rude I would be more than happy to resume my meal without you."
Biting his tongue seemed to pain him and he grimaced at her as he swallowed whatever rude retort was formulating. He opted to drink some more of his wine again, his fingers like sausages around the delicate stemware. He took a deep breath and tried again.
"A call to armth. I'm in."
Lily's fork clattered as it fell from her grasp and onto the table. Luckily she had eaten her bite or else the pristine white slacks of hers would have been ruined, but it did not stop her from jumping at the sound, apparently surprised that she had been taken so aback.
The intensity of his stare gave her pause and she picked up her fork and wiped it on her napkin, feeling somehow uncomfortable with Swagger looking at her so seriously.
She laughed nervously.
"Well I have to say that I'm impressed, Jack. I don't know why you wanted to interrupt my dinner to tell me this, but I am pleased nevertheless," she answered, offering him a fleeting smile and then taking a dainty sip of her pomegranate juice.
Swagger hiked an eyebrow as if he were dealing with a squirrely 6-year-old and laughed, looking around to see if anyone else got the joke. Arrogantly, he opened the article to the page of "Rose" in her blurry black and white dress and tapped his large, tan finger on it.
"You want to know why I'm here, 'Rothe?'" he asked hypothetically, calling her out on her bluff with such precision that Lily nearly choked on her juice. "I don't like loothing. Not to Barrett, not to the Necthuth, not to anyone."
Lily dabbed her lips on her napkin and decided to put her meal on hold for a few minutes longer now that the jig was up. She leaned forward and lowered her voice.
"Fine, you caught me, I gave the anonymous interview. And maybe if you had done your job and come out on time Heidi wouldn't have so hurt so badly and the Nexus wouldn't have taken her!" It was as clear an accusation as she would make.
Swagger's lip curled in obvious distaste but he swallowed his pride for as long as it would take to deal with the woman in front of him. She was so very much so unlike Heidi, who could take it if he wanted to push her around when she got on his nerves. Lily was always so immaculate and tidy that he had to rely on his words, which were never his strongest suit.
He nodded at long last and clasped his hands tightly on the top of the table, staring down at her.
"Tho you gave the interview. What next?" he urged haughtily, as if to say that she hadn't done enough.
Lily took another drink of the magenta juice and cleared her throat in as ladylike a fashion as she could.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Yeth, you do. Did you talk to anyone elthe in the WWE? Have you thtarted to build a team, or mount your offenthe?"
Lily gave him a sharp look and shook her head. "No. That would ruin the point of giving an anonymous interview," she retorted, pleased with herself for having put that frown on his face.
Swagger just chuckled again, a cocky sound, and he swayed his head a little, reaching forward to spin his glass of wine in his fingertips.
"Tho I'm all you've got."
"You know," she said, leaning forward. "The only reason I let you join me was because of Heidi. If you're going to help then tell me what your plans are, if not, I'll have the maître d' escort you out of here like I should have let him do ten minutes ago!"
Swagger rolled his eyes and took another draw on his wine.
"I have been recruiting but there are thome thuperthtarth who are intimidated by thomeone like me," he answered.
Lily almost gagged and there wasn't even food in her mouth. Apparently the side of Swagger that Heidi got to see was different than the one he was showing her because if Heidi had heard any of Swagger's pomposity, Lily was pretty sure she'd tell him to can it.
"So you mean that you can only get jerks to rally to your cause? I think I actually believe you," she admitted, stabbing a bit of foie gras and then eating it before the whole plate went cold.
Jack cleared his throat and tried to find a clever way of saying "yes" without actually saying it.
"If you want guyth like Mythterio and Thena then you're going to have to athk them on behalf of Heidi. Meanwhile, I'll be gathering up the real winnerth who will do the job regardleth of the conthequentheth."
Lily eyed him suspiciously for a moment as she munched another chunk of her duck liver.
"Does this have anything to do with Heidi at all?" she asked guardedly.
Swagger lifted a brow, asking her to explain with body language alone.
"You've only mentioned that you hate losing. You haven't expressed any regret at all for not showing up to do your job and protect her!"
"FINE!" he boomed, voice like thunder on a sunny day, causing the chit-chat to cease entirely as the room's attention shifted to him. "I'm thorry I didn't come out with her, but I showed up ath you'll remember, and took a beating with a chair for her, tho don't tell me I don't care enough!"
Lily was shocked at the outburst from the blonde All-American and sat there, eyes open wide with her foie gras still on the end of her fork.
An elderly gent at a table next to theirs leaned over his patte and asked very politely if they couldn't "kindly keep it down."
Swagger, who had worked himself into a lather, turned his head at the nice old chap and promptly told him to "THTUFF IT!" Then, downing his glass of wine, he stood from the table and threw money down for his beverage. Eyeing Lily once with a look she couldn't interpret, Swagger then shoved his wallet back into his pocket and exited the building, almost knocking over a waiter on his way out.
"I am so sorry!" Lily apologized with her arm pressed to her chest to the old man, who was mumbling to his wife about the impropriety of youth these days. Her words had no affect on him however, and she finished her meal in silence, digesting more than just her foie gras.
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