August 22, 2015

Eleanor had gotten her makeup done professionally countless times before, but she would always hate TV makeup. Artists had to slather on foundation and powder and eye shadow, just so everything would look good for the cameras. She felt like a doll, and not in a good way. With everything she had done that day to prepare for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, she was surprised that she was still awake. It was about two hours before show time, but Paul had given her 45 minutes to film the Total Divas segment.

Rami stood near her as a producer for Total Divas approached her, giving her the rundown of what was going to happen – Eva Marie did something against company policy and needed a slamming on her behaviour from an 'executive'. Simple as that. Eleanor loved how a 'reality' show was penning her as an executive. It was probably her favourite part about this whole ordeal.

"We're gonna need you to give her a real lashing," the producer said. "Imagine yourself as the CEO of a major company and one of your employees tweeted out something, or a photo got leaked, or they disrespected someone backstage," the producer went on. Eleanor tried her hardest to keep her laugh in. "Pretend you're like Vince McMahon."

"Okay," Eleanor nodded her head, barely able to control her smile. If only the producer knew.

Rami had been watching the entire time, flabbergasted by the entire thing. He had obviously seen the Total Divas cameras around a lot, but he never figured someone so close to him would be in the show. He still couldn't believe Eleanor agreed to do this, without a name change or anything. It was telling, really, of how far she had come, from not wanting people to know who she was to suddenly embracing everyone knowing. It was the right thing to do, he thought, because the more she accepted and acknowledged it, the more others would accept and acknowledge it too and not make it awkward.

As the producer left to make sure the room where the scene would be taking place was ready, Rami approached his girlfriend. "You get to yell at Eva. You're living out every wrestling fan's wet dream right now."

Eleanor couldn't help but laugh, but she swatted Rami from her position still in the make-up chair. "Stop it! She's a nice enough girl," she tried defending Eva. "Plus, I'm acting. Didn't you hear him? I have to pretend to be Vince McMahon," she giggled.

"Are you gonna do the Vince McMahon walk?" Rami asked, flailing his arms about.

"Ha! You wish."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Alright! So! Here's how it's going to work," the same producer who told Eleanor to act like Vince McMahon was now directing her, Eva, and the cameramen. "I'll read what the voice-overs will say from the various divas, then you," he nodded his head toward Eleanor, "will walk into the room looking very busy, while Eva is sitting at the desk waiting for you."

"No script?" Eva asked.

"You're very scared and apologetic, she's very harsh," the producer said simply. "Ad-lib what you want. We can do a few takes."

Eleanor felt like she was back in high school rehearsing for a school play. She noticed Eva smile at her. "Lay it on me, girl!" Eva giggled.

At least Eva was a good sport about it. Before Eleanor left the room, she listened to the producer read the voice over. "Okay, so Eva we are going to get to record to say something along the lines of "Eleanor Desjardins…like, if you work for WWE, you don't want to ever be called in by her. She is so well respected and to think that she has something to say to me about what happened – I'm not feeling very good about this."

Eleanor couldn't help but laugh. Maybe this would be fun after all.

"Then, Natalya will say another voice-over: 'Eleanor Desjardins works directly for Triple H, Stephanie McMahon's husband, who is the EVP of Talent. She may not be a boss, but she's a boss.'"

"At least they got something right," Eleanor mumbled to herself, although, of course, there was still no mention that she was just an assistant – the show made her out to be someone so important.

"Let's run the scene!" the producer yelled, getting everyone to scramble to their places.

[[SCENE]]

Eleanor walks in to the office, speaking on the phone with someone and carrying a large script in her other arm, not greeting Eva as she sits down at the desk. Finishing her phone conversation, she is telling the person on the other end that she is sitting right in front of Eva. Eva breaks out into a nervous sweat.

"So, Eva, I'm speaking to you right now because Paul is busy with production and he can't be taken away from such an important job to come to one that shouldn't even be happening in the first place."

Eva looks even more nervous than before. "Okay."

Eleanor looks at her sternly. "Right off the bat I'm going to say that this discussion should not be happening," she began. "I don't think you realize how incredibly fortunate you are to be in the position that you're in, and for you to do what you did is not only beyond rude, it shows your ignorance about this business, and it shows the blatant disrespect of the opportunity we're giving you."

Eva gulps. "I'm so sorry."

Eleanor shakes her head. "I don't think you are sorry. I think you're a spoiled brat who is apologizing only because you got caught," Eleanor says. "If I had the power you would have been gone from this company a long time ago. Unfortunately for me there are actually some people in this company who believe in you. And you've let them down."

Eva looks down in embarrassment. "I'm so so sorry," Eva apologized again. "I don't know what to do to make the situation better."

"You can't do anything. It's done now, and nothing can fix it. If there's another incident like this, you won't even be fired from inside an office. It'll be on the spot," Eleanor says. "Do you understand?"

Eva nods her head. "I understand completely."

"You can leave now," Eleanor dismisses her coldly. "And I hope I don't have to talk to you like this under similar circumstances ever again."

As Eva walks towards the door, she stops and turns back to face Eleanor. "Miss Desjardins, I just want to reiterate that I know how lucky I am to be given this opportunity in the WWE, and that I'll do anything – if there's anything – that will help mend this situation."

Eleanor looks up from her phone, already preoccupied with something else. "Don't you have work to do?" she asks. "The NXT stars I know don't have this much time to be dilly-dallying all the time. Get to work or I'll find something for you to do."

With one last nod of the head, Eva opens the door and leaves the office.

[[SCENE]]

Out of the corner of her eye, Eleanor could see that the producer had a giant smile on his face. "I think that one take is all we need."

XXXXXXXXXX

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn was probably the only time that Eleanor loved having her giant headset on. The feeling backstage was electric. The show would start in half and hour, and the crowd was riled up already, chanting, cheering, making as much noise as they could. She stayed backstage, her headset directly connected to Paul's in the production room. A "We Want Bayley" chant broke out. God, she loved NXT.

As she was directing a production intern to run a message to Fergal, she felt a presence behind her. She turned around slowly to see Colby standing and waiting for her, Zahra a few feet behind him. Zahra was looking her dead in the eye while Colby's eyes were fixated on the floor.

"Hi Colby," Eleanor said as pleasantly as she could. "Hi Zahra. Are you guys ready to go to your seats?" she asked.

"Just about," Colby answered, finally looking at her. "Before we go, I uh…I just wanted to say something," he said, pausing. Eleanor's eyebrows rose in curiosity. "I wanted to apologize for that night at Raw. I…that night I called you pr-"

"I remember," Eleanor interrupted him quickly, not wanting to hear the name again.

"Yeah, I just…I'm sorry. I was a dick," he said.

Eleanor nodded her head, acknowledging that she agreed he had been a dick. "Thank you for apologizing," she said, pretending to fix her headset. When she was nervous, she got fidgety, and she didn't know if he or Zahra were going to say anything else.

Before Colby could say anything else, Joey Mercury had called out to him, getting his attention. Colby took the opportunity to escape the situation, clearly uncomfortable about the fact that he had to swallow his pride in order to apologize to her.

Eleanor was left alone with Zahra, who had been looking at her skeptically the entire time. "How have you been feeling, Zahra?" Eleanor asked politely, knowing that she had suffered an injury not too long ago.

"Better, thanks," Zahra shrugged her shoulders, her voice flat. "How've you been?"

"Good, thanks," Eleanor said.

There was an awkward silence between the two women, Zahra still not taking her eyes off of Eleanor. "So, you and Rami, huh?" she asked. Eleanor nodded her head. "I wouldn't have put you two together," she commented.

"Really?"

"I guess I just didn't think of you as one to fraternize with the talent," Zahra said.

Eleanor knew where this was going. She understood Zahra's backhanded compliments completely. 'I didn't think of you as one to fraternize with the talent' didn't mean 'I didn't think of you as one to fraternize with the talent because you're a busy, highly invested office worker'. It was an 'I didn't think of you as one to fraternize with the talent because you think you're better than everyone else'. "I guess I'm shocking a lot of people these days," Eleanor commented.

"Looks like it," Zahra said quickly. "I can't believe it's you and Rami of all people."

"Why?"

"Rami's the biggest sweetheart," Zahra said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, but her tone made it seem like she couldn't understand how a nice guy like Rami could end up with a presumed bitch like Eleanor. "And he's just so passionate about this business. I didn't think he'd hook up with anyone."

"Oh." Eleanor didn't know where Zahra was going with this.

"It's okay. I can see why you guys are together," Zahra continued.

Eleanor furrowed her brows. "You can see why we're together?" Eleanor asked for clarification. She was fed up with Zahra's subliminal messages. "I wouldn't tread this water if I were you. Stop while you're ahead."

"Why? Will I get in trouble?" Zahra asked sarcastically, a smirk on her face.

"You're already in trouble," Eleanor deadpanned, shutting Zahra down. Zahra's face immediately changed from her sarcastic smirk to one of complete seriousness, knowing exactly what Eleanor was talking about. There had been quiet rumblings on the internet for the past few days about some posts Zahra had made on Instagram and Twitter before she had been signed by WWE that were making the rounds. Eleanor didn't have the power to actually do anything about it, but she was nonetheless informed of the situation. "I wouldn't want to get further into the doghouse if I were you," she gave Zahra a cheeky piece of advice before grabbing her stacked scripts and walking away, leaving Zahra in the hallway.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Paul…why do I suddenly have two hours off for lunch tomorrow?" Eleanor asked into her headset, reading the newly revised schedule for tomorrow Paul had sent out minutes earlier. NXT Takeover was supposed to start in less than half an hour; she had no time for mistakes. "Is that a glitch?"

"No, no…I need you to do something for me," he said into his headset, his voice sounding a bit distracted. "I have a really good opportunity for you."

"What do you mean?"

"I've uh…I've booked you in to do an interview kind of thing."

"An interview kind of thing," Eleanor's voice was skeptical. She knew he would go and do this without confirmation or consent from her. "What the hell do you mean a kind of interview thing? I've already been on Total Divas, for God's sake."

"You know how these guys out there have wrestling podcasts. Well one of them approached us about getting an interview with a person who works backstage. Not one of the higher-ups, just an everyday type of person. So immediately I thought of you." Eleanor shook her head at the revelation. "It would only be 30 minutes. Nothing super long."

"I don't know Paul…I don't know -"

"You know the guy, Sam Roberts? He's a guy we trust. It'll all be cool."

Eleanor shook her head and sighed into the headset. "Why do you do this to me? I didn't even want anybody knowing who I was a few weeks ago," she repeated Rami's sentiment from when she told him she would be on Total Divas.

"You're a good kid, Eleanor. You get nervous and worked up about it but you're gonna be fine," Paul said, trying to ease her nervousness. "Half an hour, no big deal."

Eleanor sighed again. "Fine," she relented. The things she did for this company…