It's Time I Swallowed My Pride

-April 16, 2014; Flint, Michigan-

Tessa rarely forgot feelings. She would never forget how relieved she felt when she got her college acceptance letter, how elated she felt when she got her degree or how nervous she felt getting on a plane to Japan with no intentions of coming back. So when she heard the loud crash that accompanied a sudden lurch forward and her inability to regain control of the steering wheel she was instantly reminded of how terrified she had been when, in 2006, her brother had accidentally run them off the road during an Ohio snowstorm.

She couldn't do anything but watch as her car careened straight into a tree on the side of the road. The sound was horrendous and it would be forever in her memory. The front windshield cracked, lines like spider webs running through every inch, and the car began to smoke from under the hood.

Tessa unclenched her fists from the steering wheel and opened her door without hesitation, only turning back to turn off the car's engine. Nowhere could she see any sign of the person who had hit her, though they had been going so fast that there car had to have sustained some damage that would prevent them from going too far.

Multiple cars had stopped for her and people were coming from multiple directions to ask if she was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told a man who looked a little shocked but didn't stop to talk to her any more, instead heading straight for the front of the car to check if they were in any danger of it exploding.

All of the questions being thrown at her only highlighted how little she felt. It was adrenaline and she knew that once it had worn off she would be feeling the whiplash she was sure to have gotten and no doubt she would have bruises in multiple places.

Upon being told that she would have to go to the hospital, Tessa sighed and felt a tightening sensation in her chest before she agreed that it was probably best to make sure that she hadn't broken a rib. Before she could get in the ambulance, though, she had to make a police report with the aid of some witnesses.


"Did you have anybody to call?"

"Yeah," Tessa said slowly, "My brother."

She had been thinking about since the ambulance was called. Someone had to know that she had been in accident and that someone needed to at least be in Michigan. Tessa asked the Paramedic to make the call because she knew that she wouldn't have been able to say much if she did it herself.

"Jimmy said that he's leaving now and that he'll see you at the hospital."

Tessa tried to nod but her neck wouldn't allow it so she opted for a quiet, "Okay."

It was on the way to the hospital that the adrenaline wore off and she began to feel the full extent of her injuries. As expected, whiplash was making it difficult to move her neck and taking deep breaths was getting more and more difficult as a result of the seatbelt locking to keep her against the seat. That she couldn't really complain about as it had probably saved her life.

For the next two hours Tessa was subject to blood tests – to further solidify that alcohol hadn't been a factor in the crash – and x-rays as well as excessive questioning from nurses and doctors alike. She was glad for the distraction, though, because while she was answering the questions she wasn't thinking about the impending arrival of her brother and the inevitable conversation they were going to have.

She wasn't paying attention when he walked through the door but she felt the bed move slightly she looked to the end of it to find Jimmy Jacobs kicking it, looking equally amused and concerned.

"I know that you haven't exactly been driving long but you're supposed to stay on the road."

"I remember there being a time when you had a lot of trouble with that," she retorted quickly.

"Every family has its curse. Ours must involve cars. Now shove."

Tessa, with a lot of effort, moved over a couple inches on the bed and let her brother sit down at her feet. He looked at her and noticed the shallowness of her breathing.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Something else begins to hurt every few minutes and my chest is hurting like mad," she told him, her shoulders lifting half an inch as she tried to shrug. "I can't exactly breathe properly."

"Christ, June," Jimmy sighed, frowning at her.

"I'm fine," she told him quickly, pushing herself up so she was sitting properly. "Totally fine. I'll be back at work next week." The grimace on her face betrayed her.

"Don't push it."

"I'm not!" she defended, trying to hide the pain that accompanied raising her voice. "Nothing's broken. I have a few bruises but we can work them into a storyline."

He didn't believe her, no one would have, but he didn't argue with her any further. Tessa huffed as well as she could – she knew what was best for her, if she didn't think she could go back she wouldn't but the thought of getting back to work as soon as possible was what was keeping her from bursting into tears.

"Did I stop you from going to a show today?" she asked in an upbeat voice, trying to distract both of them.

"No," he shook his head. "It's Wednesday. I did an IWR show last weekend and I have an Honor show this weekend."

"Oh," Tessa muttered, taking a moment to remember the IWR shows she had been to way back when as well as her time in Ring of Honor. She then continued on with her original train of thought, "So, you dress like that all the time?"

Jimmy looked down at his clothes with a frown, "What's wrong with this?"

"Everything," she said with a brief laugh. "Jimmy, you look like you robbed someone from Saturday Night Fever."

"Says little miss high-neck, drab-colours over here."

Tessa looked down at her clothes and realised that she was wearing the hospital gown and he must have been referring to what she wore on television.

"People don't make fun of you?" The question was asked in a quiet voice as Tessa knew that she was heading into dangerous territory – she wasn't looking to start a fight, she was merely curious, but there was every possibility that it could end up that way.

"I don't know," he shrugged at her, "probably."

"You're 30 years old."

"And?"

"Act like it? Maybe?" She suggested only to have him screw his face up as he stood off the bed.

"You used to be fun," he said to her pointedly. "You used to like that I wore unusual things."

"I don't think I can be normal for the both of us. Back then we were a balancing act but now you've turned it up to eleven and-"

"Hey, June," Jimmy cut her off, "I don't give a fuck."

Tessa's mouth shut quickly and her gaze drifted from Jimmy's outfit to her hands in her lap. As much as she had wanted to be just like him growing up there were some things about him that she had never been able to wrap her head around.

"I'm sorry," she apologised in a mutter. "I just I don't get how you're okay with standing out all the time. I never have. Don't you want to blend in sometimes?"

The answer, unsurprisingly, was that he found nothing enjoyable about blending in.


Jimmy was driving her back to her house not long after. She had been discharged with some pain killers and a note from the doctor saying that she was not to set foot in a wrestling ring for at least a week. If it had been a physical note she would have done everything she could do hide it from her employers but the phone call to Vince McMahon himself was not something she could erase.

"Who have you told?" she asked Jimmy as he helped her inside. "Because I know you didn't drive two hours without getting on your phone at least once."

"I called Shelley to ask if anything had happened to you while you were in Japan, just in case someone started asking questions I didn't have answer to. I called mum and dad to let them know that their daughter was in a hospital bed. Then I called Generico and asked him to let someone in charge know what had happened."

Tessa frowned, "Why does everybody have to call Rami?"

Alex she understood to a certain extent even though she had been awake the entire time and was able to answer the questions herself and there was no way that Jimmy was going to come get her without letting her parents know. But Rami.

"Because you're working together and he deserves to know that the storyline could be paused or even completely stopped-"

"I told you I'm going back to work next week."

Tessa sat down on her couch and waited for a response that never came. Jimmy headed straight to the kitchen and started rummaging through her cupboards, complaining about the lack of food. She had been on her way to the store when she was driven off the road, she explained.

Jimmy sat on the couch with her after heating up some tomato soup for her to eat and some pain killers to take and she started to stare at him.

"What?"

"Are you going to talk about it?"

"About?"

"The thing I did."

"Now isn't the time to talk about it, June," he said casually. "We can talk about it when you're feeling better."

"I'm feeling fine," she persisted. "Please, can we just do this?"

He groaned at her but turned his body to face her. The suddenly serious look on his face made Tessa instantly regret even bringing it up.

"Do you think this is going to be over with one conversation? June, you cheated on my friend with my other friend and our boss and then you fucked off to Japan for five years without a word to anybody-" He paused instantly when he noticed something flicker across his sister face. "-what, you told someone?"

"No," Tessa answered simply, hoping that she was able to hide it well enough. Though, he was her brother and he knew her a lot better than she remembered.

"Who?"

Tessa sighed, "Rami knew. He was there when I got the call. We went to see Bolshoi when we had the Ring of Honor shows in Japan."

Jimmy frowned and asked, in a hurt voice, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wasn't going to take it."

"What do you mean you weren't going to take it?" he asked, dumbfounded that she would even say something like that. "It's Japan, June."

There was a moment of hesitation and Tessa's knee began to bounce. She had been thinking about Jimmy's response to this information since she was offered the job and so far he had met all of her expectations. She didn't want him to meet the next one.

"I didn't want to leave him."

His eyes widened and he stared at her for nearly a minute, clearly trying to work out if he had heard her correctly. Tessa looked away from him.

"You were going to turn down Japan for Generico?"

"I knew you'd act like this. It's why I didn't tell you."

"You were going to turn down Japan for the guy you had been cheating on?" He asked, completely exasperated. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed, "I don't even know who you are."

"I'm still June," Tessa said quickly, leaning towards him to grab his arm. He leaned backwards.

"No, that's the thing – I don't know who June was. She was living a lie. Multiple lies."

"I didn't want to hurt anyone," Tessa told him, a bubble forming in her throat and tears beginning to sting her eyes. Jimmy, still staring at the ceiling, hadn't noticed.

"Look at how well that ended, huh?" He said bitterly and Tessa bit into the side of her cheek to hide the sob that was trying to get out. "You haven't spoken to your family since 2008. Mum and dad have been scouring wrestling dirt sheets relentlessly trying to keep tabs on you. I had Alex Shelley on the phone every other day just to make sure that you were still alive. You disappeared without a trace."

"I left a note with Rami. I told him that I was leaving and that I didn't know when I would be back." Her voice grew even quieter, "I guess he didn't care, huh?"

"You actually don't know anything about what went down, do you?" he asked, finally looking at her.

"Claudio told me a few things but most of the time I avoid talking about it."

"You never used to run away from your problems," Jimmy reminded her, using a much softer tone. "Why'd you run away from this?"

Tessa closed her eyes and shrugged a little, "It seemed like my only option and then when I realised that it was the wrong one... Well, I'd already done it so I stayed away because I knew that coming back was going to be hard."

Jimmy didn't know what to say so instead he reached out to take her hand.

"Do you hate me?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jimmy shook his head, "No. Of course, not. I hate some of the decisions you made but I don't hate you."

"Did Colby tell you?"

"Uh, a bit but we have had enough of this conversation for today, okay?"

"I'm sorry."

"I know you are, June. I know."


a/n thanks to , CarolReigns, ajroleplays, Imagineer1392, AmbreignsOrton, naivemelody, Straight Edge Queen and UntilNeverDawns for leaving reviews :)

Christmas one shots are closed! Like I said last chapter, I hope to start posting them on the 15th and I'll do my best to keep that promise!