The instant AJ awoke her heart began hammering and sweat began to form on her brow, although it would take several seconds before her mind remembered why her body was communicating such panic. As soon as it did, she began glancing anxiously around the room, begging her vision to come into sharper focus. She was in a bed, not a particularly comfy one. Maybe Wade was there beside her. That alone would cease her fretting. The room was brightly lit, charmless industrial tube lighting, like in an office... or a hospital. She tried to turn her head get a better look at her surroundings.
But she couldn't. She physically couldn't. There was something thick and spongy beneath it, something like... a neck brace. She'd worn one for a few weeks the previous year to sell the injuries she suffered at the hands of the Big Show. It was uncomfortable and restrictive and she tore it off with a sigh of relief the second the cameras stopped rolling. But this time there were no cameras, which meant her injuries were very real. But how bad was it? Would she be able to wrestle again? She couldn't feel a thing, no doubt thanks to the magic of morphine, so it was impossible to even begin to tell.
Would she even want to wrestle again? She never thought she'd find herself asking that question, but then she never thought the ring would play host to something so unthinkably horrible. It all came flooding back to her, the images racing by at double speed like an early silent film, only stopping to pause on that face. Alicia's cold, unrelenting, hateful countenance before she dropped AJ over her knee, the point at which the nightmare began. She'd never had anyone look at her like that before in her whole life; as if she were subhuman, as if they couldn't bare to see her do anything but suffer. She feared that once would be enough to scar her forever.
Alicia. Where was she now? AJ hoped in time she'd come to pity the girl, wonder at what point her mind became so disengaged from reality, so willing to forsake all common sense and conscience as she had evidently done. Right now, however, her concerns were of an altogether more selfish and simplistic nature. She didn't give a damn what Alicia was doing as long as she was as far away from her as possible, as long as she couldn't get her again.
Suddenly she heard the sound of footsteps. They were close, surely in the very same room as herself. She desperately willed her body to sit upright, to reveal the entirety of her locale and tell her whether or not she had anything to fear, but she was still far too dazed and weak.
"Who's there?" she breathed anxiously.
No answer. Just the footsteps getting closer and closer. Why wouldn't they announce themselves? Why would they want her to be scared? If that was what they wanted, they'd certainly succeeded. Though it defied all logic, she couldn't rule out it being her. As the footsteps stopped beside her bed, the figure enveloping the light, she readied herself to scream. If this was a hospital, surely help wouldn't be far away. She tensed up in dread. Not again. She'd honestly rather die. The scream was at the apex of her throat, ready to be dispatched, when finally a reply came.
"Awake at last, I see..."
It was not Alicia. It didn't matter who else it was. But nonetheless, even in her disoriented state, AJ would recognise that voice anywhere. After all, she only knew one Lithuanian.
"I'm so glad you made it through, well done," Aksana said, as always in a tone that could be interpreted as both genuine and sarcastic. AJ had no time for mind games and riddles, there was only one person she really wanted to see, one person who would devote all his attentions to putting her at ease until he succeeded.
"What are you doing here? Where's Wade?" she questioned frantically. She felt a tight grip abruptly closing around the knuckles of her right hand, and a thumb soothingly rubbing across her palm.
"He's on his way, don't worry," Aksana whispered. It was the most genuine and direct AJ had ever known her to be, and she couldn't believe how successful this attempt at reassurance was. But then, when was Aksana ever wrong?
"You had no idea she was capable of that did you?" Aksana asked rhetorically, maintaining her sympathetic timbre.
"I didn't either, although I'm afraid to say, I had a clearer idea than most."
"What do you mean?" AJ asked, now relaxed enough to be genuinely intrigued.
"Well, surely you were beginning to wonder why you and Wade's right to be together was constantly on trial?"
"I... I guess, but then, we don't know it any other way."
"That's true, you don't... but you will," Aksana replied softly, leaning over AJ so she could see her for the first time, giving her a warm smile. This was most unlike any of their previous interactions. Then she stepped back; AJ could hear her pacing about the room as she began one of her characteristic orations.
"By the time we first spoke about it, it was too late for poor Alicia. I knew she'd stop at nothing to do what she believed would restore balance to her world, however misguidedly. And that was getting even with Wade Barrett. But even then, back when you were mere collateral, I knew there was something about you that... jarred with her. Suffice to say Wade wasn't the only thing you possessed that Alicia coveted."
"I wanted to help her, I thought, maybe, that fate owed her some recompense. But when you and Wade pulled through, I soon realised it wasn't the way the decks were stacked. And then came the other man with the same goal. I saw how much he wanted you and I thought surely, this time, it's destiny. Then... you and Wade rode out the storm again, I've never seen anything like it in..."
"Wait, wait, wait. By the 'other man' you mean Phil, right?" AJ queried.
"Yes, but, please AJ, he is a good man, a good man who found himself in a very bad place. I haven't spoken to him since it all unraveled, but I can tell you all but for certain he sincerely regrets conspiring with Alicia, just as hopefully she'll recover sufficiently to regret setting the ball rolling in the first place."
"Phil... and Alicia... what do you mean conspiring?" then suddenly it hit her almost as hard as Alicia's boot had a few hours earlier.
"Sasha! Oh God, the poor girl, no wonder she felt so guilty. Shit! This all just so fucked up..." as AJ's heart rate began to accelerate once again, the warm hand returned, this time to her shoulder.
"Steady there. You didn't ask for any of this, and for what it's worth, neither did Punk. If my interpretation of what I saw tonight was correct, that side of the plan was the work of Alicia and Alicia alone. Young Miss Banks is in safe hands now, she won't have to worry about being taken advantage of like that again, and you won't have to worry about Punk not being able to put your failed experiment behind him."
"Phil and Sasha? Really?"
"It's kinda sweet, huh?"
"Maybe. All of this is way too much of a shock to be sweet right now. Just the idea that all these people went through all of this... just to stop me and Wade from... and you, it's thanks to you they had the guts to go through with it in the first place. I should hate you. But..."
AJ gave an exasperated sigh as her words failed her. She couldn't even begin to apply conventional emotions to what Aksana brought out in her. A key contributor to all of the stress and strife she had been put through in the last five months, but now the person who had clued her in on the web of deceit and conspiracy that had allowed it all to happen. Her guided tour had saved AJ the further pain of hearing it from any of the other guilty parties, the ones she held dear.
Thanks to hearing it this way, she could understand the bind Punk was in, and the impossible, terrifying situation into which Sasha had been inserted. Maybe she was just too tired and sedated, but at this moment she didn't have it in her heart to be angry at either of them. They were good people, just like Aksana said. So was Alicia, somewhere in her burnt-out shell of a mind. She wanted to leave this hospital with Wade and never speak of any of it ever again.
"Thank you," she didn't even think it, it just came out. Aksana seemed taken aback, flattered almost.
"Hey, you have a right to know. You've passed the test. No one deserves happiness like you two. And if anyone dares try and dispute that, they're going to find me in the way. If you challenge fate, you challenge Aksana."
AJ gaped at her, baffled. Was she supposed to be comforted by this? She didn't know. All she knew was that all of the revelations and frustrations of the past 10 minutes had exhausted what little energy she had. Aksana appeared to notice AJ beginning to fade, she placed a kiss on her cheek and gave her a fond smile as AJ's focus turned to haze once again.
If he rose first in the morning, or drifted off last at night, Wade would always stop to watch AJ sleep. It was one romantic cliche he could not deny the joy of, especially considering the aggravation she'd had to deal with for much of their time together. It never failed to warm his heart to see her at peace at last, and to know he'd contributed to her contentment.
This was very different, however. No tossing and turning, she couldn't move anywhere with that huge brace around her neck. No cute wrinkling of her nose or subconscious grins if he kissed or touched her. She was completely unresponsive, not to mention hardly a vision of beauty with all the bruises and the patches of dry blood that littered her face. It didn't matter how many times the doctor told him she would be fine, or that things weren't as bad as they looked. It was no comfort. Not when they looked like this.
Finally he sat up, turned his back with a grunt of pure despondence and stamped furiously out of the room. Kaitlyn followed in his wake, finding him with his head pressed against the corridor wall, tears making a long, unimpeded plummet to his feet.
"It's alright to be upset, you know?" she said, cautiously placing her hands on the backs of his shoulders, as if expecting him to launch into one of his much-maligned fits of rage. Even now, he vowed that wasn't going to happen. He'd keep his promise to her even if she wasn't conscious to see it. Somehow it meant even more that he was true to his word in this situation.
"I... just look at her! I can't stay here," he cried.
"It's like she's dead. She could have been dead. I should have known, I should have stopped her. I'm supposed to protect her..."
"Wade, come on!" Kaitlyn interjected brusquely, surprising Wade with the harshness of her delivery. She was determined to give him a reality check.
"You didn't know Alicia was capable of that, none of us did, even her supposed best friends. And you're not going anywhere, there's only one person April's gonna want to see when she first wakes up."
"You're right," Wade conceded with a sigh, extricating himself from the wall and turning to face her.
"But that's not the end of it, it's not as simple as 'she's not dead, so everything's hunky dory.' What if she can't work anymore? You know as much as I do how much that'll destroy her. She'll wish she fucking died, at least at first."
"Which is all the more reason why she needs you by her side," Kaitlyn retorted firmly.
"Look, I didn't want to say this, but what you've done for April... it's unbelievable, it really is. She's so at ease, so sure of where she's headed in life, nothing like I've ever seen her before. I've always worried about her... probably way more than I need to, I know. She's shown me more than once that she can look after herself just fine, but... I don't worry anymore. I know she'll be OK as long as you love her as much as you clearly do now."
"Is that right? Last time we spoke you were calling me a piece of shit and slapping me in the face," Wade quipped, then instantly regretted letting such words leave his lips. This was the old Stuart returning, and it was the last thing Kaitlyn deserved when she was pouring her heart out all in the name of making him feel better. However, she seemed unmoved, almost as if she were expecting it.
"And I was wrong," she said plainly.
"But I've known your girlfriend for a good few years now and if there's one thing I'm definitely right about it's that she'll do everything in her power to make a full recovery, if anyone has it in them to do it, it's her. And if she doesn't, she'll have all the love and support she needs to find another path in life."
Wade stared at her in disbelief and admiration. Why did none of this faze her? Why was he, 250 pounds of no-nonsense northern English granite, who as an absolute rule let never any emotional turmoil render him defenseless, the one who couldn't keep himself together? The one that couldn't see how much worse things could have been, and how they would soon begin to get better again?
"Why aren't you scared?" he asked softly as more tears began to descend. He felt he'd never sounded less like himself.
"I was scared when it happened, terrified in fact," Kaitlyn answered darkly.
"But the worst is over now, she's not in any more danger. We'll all be leaving here together."
"Arm in arm, off into the sunset?" Wade asked, a much more familiar sardonic grin filling his face.
"Yeah, if you like," Kaitlyn grinned back.
"Ah, there you are," a voice interrupted, one that instinctively caused Wade to clench his fists. But then he remembered himself. Punk meant him no harm. And anyway, he'd promised.
"Hi you two, glad you made it," Kaitlyn smiled encouragingly, while Wade returned his stare to the floor in very visible discomfort.
"How is she?" Sasha questioned pensively, nestling into Punk's side.
"Broken neck, plenty of bruising in plenty of other places, but she survived, that's the important thing," Kaitlyn explained.
"Can we see her?" Punk said, glancing at Wade, but he continued to look elsewhere, unaware his blessing was being sought.
"Wade, is it OK if..." Kaitlyn began.
"Of course it is," Wade murmured swiftly, still not addressing them.
"Just through here," Kaitlyn placed her arm around Sasha and shepherded her through the door. It was a good ten seconds before Wade realised Punk had not followed them, instead continuing to train his eyes on the man who had done his level best to put him in a hospital bed last time their paths had crossed.
"Look, I've something to tell you. My conscience won't allow me to even begin play the concerned bystander," Punk began.
Wade finally looked up, scanning him warily.
"Don't worry, this isn't me trying to get you to beat the shit out of me again," Punk went on, raising his hands aloft as if to illustrate that he came in peace.
"There's no lingering resentment or torch-carrying where April's concerned. As a matter of fact, as of today, me and Sasha are..."
"Do you want me to congratulate you?" Wade barked impatiently, desperate to know what Punk's game was, if indeed he had a game.
"No, no, of course not. What I need to get of my chest is..." Punk swallowed deeply, knowing how badly wrong this could so easily go, but one glance through the window into AJ's room gave him the courage to continue. He watched Sasha with her face in her hands once again, no doubt recalling the last time AJ had come to harm due to this whole twisted affair, and the hand she'd had in it. This had to stop once and for all.
"Four hours? Fuck, isn't she supposed to be awake by now?" Dolph questioned.
"If someone were actually around whose job it is to tell us what's going on, maybe we'd know. I haven't seen a doctor or a nurse come by since we got here," Big E replied, folding his arms in disapproval.
"Guys, shh! She'll wake up when she's ready. Have a bit of patience," Kaitlyn sighed, taking a weary sip of her coffee.
Wade and Punk remained silent, standing at opposite ends of the room. Sasha made the mistake of locking eyes with the Englishman, whose piercing, accusatory glare sent her cowering behind her boyfriend's shoulder. Noticing this exchange, Punk flared up and returned a glare of his own, letting Wade know that such intimidation simply wasn't on, even in these circumstances.
It was taking all Wade had not to stage a re-enactment of their backstage set-to a month and a half earlier. He'd just about forgiven Punk for taunting him into losing it that day, knowing full well the consequences it would have for he and AJ's relationship. After all, in taking such obvious bait he was not entirely without blame himself. But to know that the whole tumultuous rollercoaster that was their time together had been that way due to one coordinated plot... he didn't know how long it would take him to let that slide, or indeed if he ever could. But he knew AJ would have a much easier job doing so, and that however he felt, he mustn't let it spill over as he had so many times before.
"Hey, with all of us gathered around like this, I'm half expecting her to wake up and say 'I had this crazy dream... and you, and you, and you were there'" Big E suddenly chortled, as if sensing the awkwardness of the silence and the need to break it.
More awkward silence followed.
"I'd rather she punched you in the face for making such a tired, dated reference," Dolph scoffed in reply.
"Woo, good one, Michael Cole. It's not dated, it's timeless, there's a difference," Big E shot back.
"Whatever, anyway, you'd be the tin man, you've got the right build" Dolph retorted.
"Well, then you'd be the scarecrow. You've got the hair."
"Then that would make Kaitlyn the lion, she's got the mane."
"What was that?" Kaitlyn spluttered, snapping from her reverie.
"You're the lion"
"What lion?"
"The cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz."
"What are you talking about?"
"Were you not listening?"
"No, I've finally taught myself to tune you both out."
More awkward silence.
"...she just doesn't wanna be the cowardly lion," Big E muttered to Dolph.
"Yeah," he agreed.
"Will you all just give it a fucking rest!" Wade boomed suddenly, causing all the conscious occupants of the room to jump, before softening his tone to one of happiness and immense relief.
"...I think she's waking up."
"OK, everybody else scram, I think these two need some time alone," Kaitlyn ordered, shooing the other four toward the door.
"So we waited all this time and we don't even get to talk to her?" Dolph questioned indignantly.
"You will, just wait your turn," Kaitlyn cautioned in a most motherly voice.
"Fine," Dolph groaned, just before the door shut, leaving Wade alone with AJ at just the moment he needed to be.
He watched as her eyes made one abortive attempt to open, then shut again. He sighed dejectedly. False alarm. Then all of a sudden her lids began to flicker again. They stayed open as she began squinting to make him out. As soon as she did, her face began to crease as tears of relief started to fall. He moved his chair as close to the bed as possible, leaning in and kissing her cheekbone, his right hand reaching across to caress the other cheek.
"You gave me a fucking fright there, poppet. At one point we thought you weren't coming back," he said gently, still not quite able to believe the danger was over. He wasn't going to trouble her with the can of worms Punk had opened for the time being. Little did he know she already knew the full story and had already resolved to learn to live with it thanks to her earlier visitor. But there was one question that still preyed on her mind.
"Alicia? W-what happened to her?" AJ felt brave and safe enough to ask this now.
"Well she won't be working for Vince again, that's for certain. Old bastard was livid, having his golden girl set upon like that."
"I just don't understand how she could end up so..."
"No one does. The important thing is not to blame ourselves, and hope there's some way back for her," Wade said calmly, and AJ gave the closest thing she could manage to a nod.
"But sweetheart, forget about her. All that matters is you're alright."
"Well, I'm sure I've looked better," AJ chuckled. Wade smiled in agreement
"No! That's where you're supposed to say I look beautiful no matter what. Screw this, I'm going back to sleep," AJ grumbled in mock-indignation.
Wade gave a disbelieving roll of his eyes. The girl had been beaten to within an inch of her life earlier in the evening, she'd only just woken up from four hours of surgery-induced near-unconsciousness, and she was already driving him round the bend with her teasing and refusal to let a tender moment last more than a few seconds before descending into irreverence and mockery. And that was why he loved her.
And so concludes the last 'proper' chapter of this story. I'm going to do three short epilogues (one for Punk, one for Alicia and one for Wade/AJ) to wrap things up, each set a year after the events of Chapters 1 to 3. Thanks so, so, so much for reading and reviewing, all feedback has been fantastic and please continue to do so :)