Everything moved faster for a pay-per-view, like getting there at least. Cait, Colby, Fergal, and Dottie arrived in Houston fairly earlier on Sunday after a live show in Galveston. Colby wasn't going to be in the show because of his back problems but he was going to be there behind the scenes.
"Got everything?" Cait asked her as they were getting out of the rental.
Dottie didn't answer, because of the recent text she had gotten from Vince McMahon about something.
"Dottie," Cait said. "What's going on?"
"I got a text from Mr. McMahon. Mr. McMaon wants to talk to me about something." She looked down at her backpack. "I don't...I don't know what's going on."
"I'm sure it's not that big of a deal," Fergal said.
Dottie jumped when his hand raked across her backside. When she looked at her boyfriend he was smiling as he shouldered his own backpack.
"I should be used to crap like that by now," Cait mentioned as she looked at Dottie and Fergal together. "I'm still not."
"Only because you don't have me as often as she has hers," Colby said as he took off his sunglasses.
Dottie didn't know if that meant Colby was angry or disappointed. He didn't smile, he didn't look happy either. So it had to be one of those facial feelings that she couldn't read.
It sort of resembled how she felt when it came to Fergal and his many runs at a title or another. He always worked so hard but the company didn't seem to let him be the champion that she or the fans thought. So she prepared mentally for him to lose the match.
When they got into the arena some time before the kick off show was going to start, she was approached by a very frantic Bayley. Pam, she was Pam in real life.
"Dottie, could you fix something for me. The special ring gear I'm wearing tonight got a rip after I cleaned them." She held up the gold with silver embossed designs on the pants and a top. "See, right here in the shoulder and another one on the inner leg."
"Okay, I can fix this." She took the clothes in one arm as she pulled the suitcase behind her. "I'll have it to you in about half an hour to an hour."
"Thank you, thank you. You're a lifesaver." Pam smiled at her.
So she had her first job of the day, which Dottie didn't waste time getting to. She kissed Fergal on the cheek before going to the costume department near the catering and guerilla area. She did see someone she smiled at slightly.
"Hi, Mr. AJ." She said on approach.
"Hi, Ms. Dottie." He responded, offering a nod. "Got work?"
"Yep. Fergal can talk to you though. Bye." She smiled at him again and continued on her journey. One glance over her shoulder and she saw Fergal and Colby stopping to talk to AJ. Cait, on the other hand, followed her.
The room was already set up for Dottie to get to work in. She picked up her sewing machine from one side of the room and moved it to the table that was closer to the door, at least to look out. Cait was rummaging through yet another set of papers she had brought with her.
Dottie spent the next fifteen minutes fight with the torn pants, which had been a bigger pain than she had anticipated. The top wasn't that hard to fix, which she had done first before tackling the pants. But it wasn't impossible to repair Pam's pants.
The sewing machine cut off and she pulled the pants out so that she could clip the string. When she did, Dottie heard someone clear their throat.
"Yes?" She turned in her chair to look at who it was. "Hi, Mr. McMahon. I am just finishing up Bayley's ring gear." She picked up the pants and then the top. "I got your message earlier. You wanted to talk to me about something?"
She couldn't read his face. She looked at his suit, it was a cream color with an ugly peach-colored tie. Dottie fiddled with the clothing in her hands as the man continued to look at her. She tried to think of something to say but no words came forward.
"You're going to be seen a lot more with Finn Balor." Mr. McMahon said.
Finn Balor, it meant working with Fergal a lot more. Dottie bit her lip.
"For today when Finn gets interviewed after his match, you're going to be with him. You're not going to speak, he'll be doing all of it. Just stand there and be supportive of him."
"Does Finn know, Mr. McMahon?" She asked.
"He does. Don't worry about it. But when the match happens, I want you to watch it from guerilla."
Dottie patted her back pocket, "When is his match?"
"I'll have a stagehand come get you when it's time. The interview will be soon after that." Mr. McMahon adjusted his tie. "I wanted to tell you myself."
"Thank you, sir. Um, I have to get these to Bayley." She held up the wrestling pants and top for him to see.
He nodded and didn't say goodbye before he left the room. She took several deep long breaths and walked out into the hall. No sooner had she Pam came up, smiling.
"Oh great, thank you, Dottie. I really appreciate this."
"Do you know if someone is going…"
She stopped when seeing the dark-haired Maggie Michaels being dragged down the hall by a man in a cowboy hat. Her high heels were clipping loudly into the floor as she tried to keep up with the taller man.
"Uncle Shawn, please," Maggie said.
"No, this ends here. I thought you were raised better than this." The man with the hat said as he came closer to her and Pam.
"Pam…who is that?" Dottie whispered.
"Shawn Michaels, a legend. He's friends with Triple H and Mr. McMahon." Pam said as she draped her outfit over her arm.
The man stopped in front of the costume designer. Maggie's face scrunched up, so she didn't like what she was looking at when seeing Dottie.
"You're Ms. Dottie, right?" The man with the hat asked. He tilted the brim of his hat up. "I'm Shawn Michaels, Maggie Michaels' uncle. I've heard that there have been issues going on between you two."
"I, I, I, I want Finn." She stammered before she looked at Bayley. "I need my…" a new sense of panic raised into her chest. "I need my support. I need, I need..."
"See, she can't even get a sentence out without sound like a weirdo." Maggie started to say.
"Yes, she can. I'm sorry, Ms. Dottie, about dropping by so suddenly like this," Shawn Michaels said. "I'm just angry with my niece at the moment. She should know better about treating someone like you…"
"Her problem is with my relationship. She has only Finn Balor's ex-girlfriend's side of the story. They are friends." Dottie twisted her wrist at her side as she looked down the hall.
Dottie glanced at Pam again and the female superstar smiled at her, her hand coming up to rub Dottie's back. Just beyond Pam's shoulder, the venomous gaze of one Randy Orton had Dottie's face flush.
"Shawn, you trying to fix a problem?" Randy asked. Dottie knew why he was at Elimination Chamber match for SmackDown because the title from that show was being defended by Daniel Bryan. She only knew this because AJ Styles was in it and AJ was friends with Fergal.
"Trying to understand why my niece is slandering a woman that has shown nothing but respect for you and everyone in this company."
"She respects what she fears. We're an intimidating bunch." Randy looked at Maggie then looked at Dottie. "Ms. O'Connor."
"Hi." She rocked where she stood on her feet, her hand still flapping at her side.
"She broke up my friend's relationship. Why are you so chummy with her?" Maggie crossed her arms as she continued to glare at Dottie. "I mean, she probably wants you, Randy. She obviously has a thing with Drew."
"Drew is a friend, a good friend." Dottie looked down towards Shawn Michaels' boots.
"She couldn't handle me anyway. Only my wife can. And before I forget, my daughter loved the unicorn you fixed, Ms. O'Connor." Randy said and she glanced at him.
"That's good." Dottie eyes felt like they were burning, her chest was getting tight…
"You know, I've been working with AJ Styles for a while. AJ and Finn Balor are buddies, and they share friends, like Carl Anderson. May I tell Shawn, Ms. O'Connor?"
"Um, okay." She hit her hip with her fist, not hard but it was so she couldn't grab at her hair.
She didn't know how much Randy Orton knew, but she came to learn that he knew a lot her personal problems. He told Shawn about the friendship breakup she had with Finn Balor because he was seeing Cathy at the time and Dottie didn't know it. It was strange hearing her personal story from a man she barely knew, or barely talked to.
"So why did Finn break up with Cathy?" Shawn asked.
"She tried to get Dottie's sister fired." Fergal said from behind Shawn Michaels. "You should tell this, Lovely, it's your story."
"I was molested while being in a place I call The Facility. So for a long time I feared men's bodies. Fergal hurt his tailbone and was doing a work segment with Baron Corbin through social media." She continued telling the tale. She told Shawn about how she was afraid of Fergal after that.
"I don't ever want Dottie afraid of me. It took us a while but we've worked on her problems together." Fergal came up to her side, putting his hand on her back.
"So, my niece has been selling tabloid pictures just to spite Ms. Dottie because Maggie's friend is pissed off at him?" Shawn Michaels looked at his niece. "And you want to start a war over that?"
Dottie thought it was better not to say what she wanted, about wars starting over failed romances. It had happened before but it wasn't the right time to say it.
"I, I mean, Uncle Shawn," Maggie was the one to start stuttering this time.
"So, you decided to create a drama that wasn't there for giggles?"
"Cathy is my friend, Uncle Shawn. You have no idea what it's like for her." Maggie even stomped her foot.
Fergal kissed the side of Dottie's head, not knowing that she was going through a stress headache from the crowd of people around her.
"Does that give her the right to sell Dottie's personal information to the tabloids? If I am a betting man, I wouldn't put it pass Kelley that she actually went to interview Marg O'Connor." Randy said.
"I just want to do what is expected of me, and they expect me to fix things. Now that I am being asked to be more a central focus in an angle or whatever you call a storyline, I don't want bad publicity. Why can't I just do my job, why can't I just be like the rest of the people here and do a job that is expected of me?" Dottie asked as her hand began to seek Fergal's out.
"Don't worry, you will. If I find out that there have been more tabloid leaks like this against Ms. O'Connor, you're going to be the first person I am going to suggest to Vince and Triple H." Shawn Michaels said.
The glare, Dottie knew it was a glare that Maggie Michaels gave her. She was angry about something but because of the panic Dottie was feeling in her chest and the pain in her head, she didn't know how to digest why the other woman was like that. Maybe mad that she was reprimanded in a very public place.
Randy Orton laughed. "Well, I have to go get ready to lose my match tonight. Ms. O'Connor." He nodded at her as he walked in the opposite direction that Maggie had gone in.
"I need to sit down. I need quiet time." Dottie said as she let go of Fergal's hand. "I need, I need…"
"Go, I'll let you have your quiet time. Thanks for being there, Pam." Fergal said as Dottie walked away from the group.
"Yeah, don't mention it." Dottie barely heard what the woman known as Bayley said as she sat down at her sewing machine.
Two minutes later, she moved her sewing machine away from the door because the sound from outside was hurting her head something worse. Thankfully no one had any disastrous costume fails or mends that she needed to fix. It didn't stop Cait or Colby or even Jon, who wasn't supposed to be in the event from checking up on her. Jon was only there because Renee was commentating and then the Raw show was the next day.
Hours ticked by, but because of the lack of fixes and mendings she had to deal with, Dottie found solace in one of her shirts she was making. It was a silky kind of red top that felt good between her fingers. The hemming on the torso was what she focused on, running the needle back and forth four times over so that the hem wouldn't tear.
"Ms. O'Connor, you're needed." A stagehand said as he poked his head into the room.
For a moment Dottie didn't know what was going on, or why he was talking to her. But the conversation with Mr. McMahon from earlier had spurred her to follow the stagehand out of the room. She looked at Colby and Cait as she passed them, the stagehand leading her in the direction of the guerilla area.
"Look," he instructed as he motioned to one of the televisions in the area.
She did watch. What Dottie watched was Fergal doing the coupe de gras on Lio Rush and then pinned him for a one, two and three. Dottie's mouth opened as Fergal was handed the white leather of the Intercontinental Championship Title, not a belt but the title. She may have stood looking like a weird gulper fish, her hands cupping the front of her stomach as Fergal, no Finn Balor, stood at the top of the ramp holding up his new title.
"He won." She said quietly. In her muted excitement she flicked her hands at chest level, shaking them when she herself couldn't do much more than stare at her boyfriend as he walked through the curtain, the screams, and cheers of the fans trailing in after him. "Fergal," his name caught in her throat.
The first thing Fergal did was cup the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss, his newly won title pressing into her back as her hands were caught between her and his hard chest.
I was as shocked as Dottie when Finn won the IC Title. I hope you guys like this update as much as the actual match.