"Remember Nikki, you've got to sound like you're in charge. Don't sound unsure or nervous or they're not going to buy into this," Paul encouraged as he watched Nikki nervously tapping her fingers on the desk.
She took in a deep breath to try to relax herself, "Thanks Paul, I'd have been lost without you here."
He smiled, "I'm not so sure about that."
Just then there was a knock at the door and Daniel Bryan walked in, "Hi guys, uh... where's Stephanie?"
Nikki remembered the advice she had been given and spoke authoritatively, "I'm in charge tonight Daniel. You definitely can't compete?"
His eyebrows raised at the news, "Oh okay. No I can't. I mean, I want to but you know what the doctors are like with concussions now, even though it's minor I'm on the shelf for at least a week."
"Right, so we've got to change the main event and I know what we're going to do."
She was about to begin when there was another knock on the door and Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton filed in. Heyman asked, "Is that about changing the main event? Where's Stephanie?"
Paul answered, "Stephanie isn't here, she's not going to be here. Nikki is in charge so all of you shut up and listen to what she has to say."
Nikki noticed that they all seemed surprised that she was going to be the one to give them instructions but she cleared her throat and began, "Right, we all know Daniel can't wrestle so we've got to change the main event. It's been promoted heavily all week so we're going to have to do something big, and that's exactly what we're going to do."
She decided that a small lie would help to sell the idea to them, "We've been planning on doing this at some point soon but I've decided we start tonight. As I'm sure you are aware Vince and I are in a relationship. Now when she initially found out about this Stephanie was furious. We've worked it out now but we're going to use that initial reaction as the basis for a storyline involving Stephanie's face character on one side and myself and Vince as heel characters on the other side."
Orton interrupted, "Is there a point where this involves me or..."
"Shut up and listen Randy and you might find out. Now, obviously neither Stephanie or Vince are here so it's going to be difficult but here's the idea. Firstly we've got to have a better reason for Daniel to be unfit to wrestle so Brock you're going to film a backstage segment where you attack Daniel from behind and you destroy his knee or his ankle or whatever."
She noticed that she had everyone's full attention now and she was growing in confidence as she continued, "Next we're going to get Kane in front of a camera, damn I should have gotten him in here too. I'll go see him afterwards. Anyway he's going to announce that Mr. McMahon has called him and placed him in charge due to Stephanie's absence. He's going to say that Mr. McMahon has ordered that if Daniel Bryan forfeits his opportunity for the WWE title then he will not be receiving another one."
"We'll do the whole deal where we show Daniel being taken away in an ambulance and we'll have the commentators keep mentioning it throughout the night. Now, here's the most important part. When it's time for the main event, Paul you and Brock will go out there and Paul you will give a promo talking about how Daniel Bryan is faking his injury to avoid facing Brock Lesnar and so on, and then you will announce that the referee will ring the bell and if Daniel Bryan doesn't answer a ten count from the referee Daniel Bryan forfeits his opportunity for the title."
Paul Heyman nodded, "Okay, I like it so far."
Nikki continued, "Now Randy, this is where you come in. As the referee begins counting you will come through the crowd and attack Brock from behind, as the bell has been rung you will cause Daniel to lose by disqualification instead of by forfeit. We'll have the commentary done in such a way as to plant the seed for a face turn for you Randy which we can work on in more detail for Thursday night."
She took a breath as she had finally finished, hoping they had all taken it in. Heyman spoke again, "I like it Nikki." She noted the other guys nodding in agreement and Orton said, "So I get back in the title picture with this thing?"
Nikki nodded, "You asked me for an opportunity, you have it. Do not let me down."
Heyman spoke again, "The only thing I don't follow is how this leads to a storyline between Stephanie, Vince and yourself?"
Nikki grinned, "That's the easy part. Stephanie opens the show Thursday night and demands to know what the hell Vince thinks he's doing changing stipulations on her matches. Vince comes to the ring and tells her he wants to take back control of WWE from her, and he says she's not his little princess anymore. She asks what that's supposed to mean and he says let me introduce you to my new princess, my girlfriend, Nikki Bella. I walk down and tell Stephanie to beat it, that we control WWE now."
The guys were laughing now and Daniel said, "That's great Nikki, I think that will really work!"
Nikki clapped her hands, "Right, there's not much time, go get on with what you need to do."
They filed out of the room and as soon as the door closed Nikki collapsed back into her chair with a sigh of relief, "Did I really just do that?"
Paul had a big grin on his face, "You did really well. The way I figure it you've only missed one thing."
Instantly Nikki was nervous, "What?"
"Everyone thinks that if Steph isn't here I would take charge, so we need to somehow mention that Stephanie McMahon and Triple H have been delayed or taken ill or whatever and both are unable to be here."
She nodded, "Right, we can have Kane do that in his segment. Go get him in here."
Paul laughed, "Yes boss."
Nikki watched him leave and realised that yes, she could do this job.
