Author's Note:  Okay, the fighting scenes *might* get a little bloody and stuff.  I don't know at the moment, but I'm warning you just in case it does.

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Dangerous Business

            Chapter XVIV

            Tubes in and out of my body.  An upside-down bag hung next to my bed.  My vision is dim.  Everything is streamlined.  I think I'm in a coma.  Everything is at a great distance.  I see my sister, Liz.  Behind her is a shadow with amber eyes blinking from it.  My mother is standing off to one side, smiling up at another, swirling shadow, its-arms-wrapping around her, bottomless eyes glaring at me with triumph, one hand reaching out. 

            Useless names float around my head.  Shane, Randy, Heyman…  Who are they?  Why do their names float around and around in my head like a mantra? 

            I can't move.  I can only see underneath my drooping eyelids.  I become tired easily.  I make an effort to speak.  I feel like I am shouting but non one hears me because my lips refuse to move.  Nurses come and go.  The faraway sounds of laughter echo through my head.  Is it real, or in my head?  Television.  An old comedy on television.

            I swallow on regular intervals, and my eyes blink every so often.  But it is not enough.  My body remains still as I try to move.  The nurses pass me sympathetic looks.  Do they know that I can see them?  They are treating me like a favorite house plant.

            But I'm not.  I'm Dominique Smith, and I want to wake up.

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            Lee Smith looked down at her daughter, tears filling her eyes once more.  She gently touched Dominique's cheek as her eyelids fell once more.  A sputtered, quiet sob escaped her lips as she intertwined her fingers.  She gripped the blonde's cold hand in hers. 

            A lump caught in her throat as she used her free hand to brush away the strands of blond hair in her daughter's face.  Finally, she curled her legs up to her chest, gripping her hand with two hands.

            Lee pressed her forehead to her knees, sobbing quietly.  She grabbed for the remote, unable to take the laughter any longer.  Tears slipping down her face, she turned it off, and shivered at the silence.  Looking down at Dominique, her eyes filled with more tears.  She had fully supported Dominique with her decision, believing that her cousins and friends would protect her, but now…

            She leapt out of the hard hospital chair at the gentle knock on the door.  Lee stood, giving Dominique a kiss on the forehead before heading for the wood door.  She studied the man before him.  He was fairly overweight, wearing a gray suit and tie, and had his hair slicked back into a ponytail. 

            "Hi, Mrs. Smith, I presume?" he asked.  She nodded silently.  He looked up, and she noticed his red eyes.  "I'm was-am a friend of Dominique's…  I was wondering…could I-uh-talk to her?"

            Lee gave a small, pointless smile, "I'm going to go head down the hall to get something to eat," she told him, "I'm sure she'll be glad to see you."  With that, she brushed by the man, feeling like she was going to collapse at any minute.

            The man smirked as he walked into the room as he watched her unmoving form.  He took a seat on the same chair Lee had sat in, and scooted close to Dominique.  "Long time, no see," he said, tossing his black hair back.  He chuckled, watching her face as he continued.  "You see our little game that we're playing-it's about to go up a level," he paused to pass a sick grin, "Dominique, the way I see it is that you have 3 choices.  1, you can wake up, and help me destroy your sister.  2, you can stay where you are, and keep hurting your family and friends.  Or," he paused dramatically, his fingers gripping on one of the tubes leading into her body, "You can do us all a favor, and die.  I wonder…what would happen…if I tugged on this just a bit more?"  He slowly pulled on the tube.

            "Hello," one of the nurses greeted as she slipped into the room.  Swearing softly, Paul let his arm drop, and stood up, eyeing the nurse as she took Dominique's vitals.  As he left, he ran into Lee. 

            "Oh, hello," Lee said quietly.  For a second, she paused, and then asked, "You're a friend from work, right?"

            Paul almost smiled, but smothered it, an idea coming into his head.  "I only have the list of cities for this month, but if you give me your address, I can mail it to you."  As Lee gave him the address, he almost chuckled.  Women were so trustworthy during a 'tragedy'.  This address was the key to getting what he wanted.  If Rob and Dominique (if she ever woke up) started getting out of control, this was the key to ensuring his power. 

            He grinned evilly.

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            Liz closed her eyes tightly against the pain, and pushed her hands into her pockets of her sweatpants.  Her withheld fury for Evolution, released now, racked her body as she pulled something out, concealed in her fist. 

            She gripped her fingers around the nail, so that the tip and just a tad more stuck out.  Lashing out, she slammed her fist into Rick's leg, the end of the nail piercing his skin.  Rick let out a yowl, pulling his leg away, lengthening the cut.  Liz leapt up onto her right foot and kicked the nail out of the cage. 

            Hunter rushed at her, but she ducked, spinning behind him, reaching behind her and underneath her pants and top to pull out two Singapore canes.  Once he turned, she lashed one in his nose.  The cane broke into pieces at the sheer force.  Dropping the broken cane, she turned to Randy, who seemed to be getting his nose bleed under control.  With satisfaction, she knew that she probably broke his nose.

            Rushing toward him, she crouched, cane in both of her hands.  When she was near him, she leapt upward, the length of the cane smashing against his busted nose.  Once the impact was made, she continued her momentum, throwing it into a back flip that she barely landed.  Randy let out a yowl of pain, and backed away, falling against the turnbuckle. 

            As she turned, both Rick and Hunter were up.  She threw the cane at Rick's legs as he stepped.  The cane between his legs, he stumbled forward, and she leapt at Hunter with right hooks.  He grabbed her fist, twisting her arm backward.  Hunter was able to grab her other arm, and pulled her to him as Rick advanced, picking up the cane. 

            She kicked upward, her left boot hitting against his fingers, and he almost dropped the cane.  Rick backed away, and then rushed toward her, out of her kicking range.  He brought the cane back in a baseball-bat swing.  It slammed into her ribs with force, knocking the wind out of her and bruising her ribs.  Liz concentrated on Rick as he returned to her range of vision, ignoring Hunter's mocking.  As Rick went for another hard shot to the ribs, she jumped off of the mat, using his strength to her advantage as she tried to leap to the other side of Hunter.  Hunter didn't let go, and her arms twisted painfully as she was suspended in the air, vertical to her.  Rick didn't have time to stop.  Hunter flew back into the ropes, his grip releasing, sending Liz flying into the steel.  Flair grabbed her before she had a chance to recover, sending her for a back breaker, and then a Full Nelson.  By the time her body crashed against the mat once more, HHH was up, checking on Randy, ordering him to do something.  Randy nodded, exiting the cage by the door.  Now, if HHH and Rick left, they would win the match.  But this match, it wasn't about winning.  It was about destroying the opponent.  He grabbed a collection of things from underneath the ring, and walked toward the door.

            "I'm sorry, but you can't go back in-" the man by the door started to say, but Randy used one arm to shove him aside, and slid into the ring.  Hunter smiled, grabbing the stop sign just as Liz stood.  He threw the sign like a Frisbee, nearly decapitating Liz.  At the last moment, the brunette leaned back, but the edges of the stop sign caught her throat, leaving a long, shallow, burning gash across her throat.  Grabbing at it, she felt blood trickle onto her hands.  Rick Flair smiled at her, holding up a lead pipe…

            …a bent lead pipe with dried blood down it.

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Author's Note:  Please review!!!!