DISCLAIMER: As much as it breaks my heart to admit it, I do not own anyone or anything connected to Vince McMahon and his awesomeness. I can only claim property rights of OC.
***A/N – I'll go ahead and apologize in advance. I don't know why, but this chapter was so hard to write. I started over more times than I can count. I hope you can forgive me and try to enjoy this chapter.***
A few days later
Cordelia's East was a trendy, high-end salon unlike anything Claire had seen before. The salon was nestled in what was otherwise a busy shopping center. The instant she walked in, Claire knew they were in for a treat. It wasn't every day a girl got to shop in the lap of couture luxury. Each detail of the salon screamed taste and sophistication. From the thick, cream colored carpet, to the heavy, expensive drapes, everything spoke of class. Every where she looked she saw the names of the most exclusive designers she could think of, and even a few she'd never heard of. The light beige colored walls were a classy backdrop to the rainbow of dresses covering nearly every available inch of space. The entire place reeked of class and expensive tastes. Not longer after entering, they were greeted by a tall, dark haired woman who introduced herself as Cordelia. She smiled softly as she led them deeper into the the salon. She quietly instructed them to make themselves at home then discreetly moved a few feet away to allow them a few moments to look over the selections.
Claire waited until Cordelia turned her back before speaking, "I wish you would tell me what's bothering you."
To say that Hannah had been uncharacteristically quiet would be an understatement. The usually bubbly, up-beat girl had been quiet and withdrawn. She barely spoke ten words over lunch. She had picked at her salad without really eating. Claire was beginning to grow more concerned. The girl was acting in a most un-Hannah-like way. Hannah ignored her gentle attempt to coax the truth from her. She moved to a rack of halter dresses and moved a couple aside before pulling out a red one. She draped it over her arm and turned to look at Claire. A few tense moments passed without a word. Claire sighed heavily as she pulled a black floor-length gown from the display and draped it over her arm. Cordelia appeared a moment later and lead them down a short hallway to a private dressing room. Claire arched a brow as she took in the more richly decorated room. The walls were painted a deep mauve color. A light-pink chaise lounge took up almost the entire wall opposite them. Hannah hung the dress up before sprawling across the chaise. Claire sighed again as she carefully draped her gown across a wing-backed chair.
"Whatever it is, you can tell me." Claire prodded gently as she reached down to slide off her heels.
Hannah's gaze remained locked on the floor a few feet away. Claire knew it was going to take something short of a miracle to get Hannah to open up to her. The silent treatment was really starting to wear on her nerves.
"I really want to help. I know it's not easy to let people in sometimes but . . ."
Claire's encouraging speech was interrupted as Hannah suddenly stood and moved to stand before the tall three-way mirror. She looked at herself from every possible angle before turning back to Claire. "What do you want me to say, Claire? I've told you that nothing happened and I don't have anything to talk about."
Claire didn't believe her for an instant. She had been trying for days to get Hannah to tell her what happened when she talked to Cody. Her silence spoke volumes. She knew their exchange could not have gone well.
"For the last time, he said he wasn't interested." Hannah's word had a sharp edge to them.
Claire still didn't believe it. Cody would have politely refused the offer. "Is that all he said?"
Again, Hannah didn't answer. Claire arched a brow, "Hannah." Claire's voice was full of gentle warning.
Turning her back to Claire, Hannah looked over at the dresses. She picked up the red, floor length halter dress and held it against her. Claire chose to keep silent as Hannah looked at herself in the three-way mirror. She turned in every direction before returning the dress to the rack. Claire met Hannah's gaze in the mirror. Shifting her weight to the other foot, Hannah returned Claire's gaze. Almost nervously, she smoothed a hand over her short, dark hair. "I wish I had hair like yours."
Hannah pulled a blue sequined ball gown out and held it against her body. She instantly frowned and returned it. "Randy really loves you. I can tell by the way he treats you."
Hannah was apparently more observant than she'd given her credit for. There really was a sort of gentleness in the way Randy treated her. The kindness he showed her was a reflection of the deeper feelings he kept hidden. Nobody would mistake his kindness for weakness but there was no doubt that Claire was important to him. Pushing aside her thoughts of Randy, Claire forced her attention back to Hannah.
"Did something happen after you asked him?" Claire was going to keep pushing and badgering Hannah until she finally gave in and told her everything. She didn't like to bully anyone but she would if she had to. She had the distinct feeling that Hannah was going to talk about anything except for what Claire wanted to know.
After a long moment, Hannah finally broke the silence. "I had been going to Saint Jude's for almost a year before Gabe came. We were on the same unit." Hannah flashed a small, sad smile, "I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma a month before my 15th birthday. I wasn't really sure what was going on, I only knew that my leg hurt all the time. I was always so tired. It didn't take my doctors long to figure out what was going on. I went through the whole nine yards; chemo, radiation, surgery. "
Pulling up the leg of her pants, she showed Claire the scar running down the inside of her right leg. "Gabe had Osteo, too. Only he had it in his arm. We made a funny looking pair, my bad leg and his bum arm. The nurses called us the odd couple. No matter what happened, we were in it together. That's how I got Rocco. Gabe brought him to me after I had been readmitted to the hospital. I was in isolation. He knew how lonely that was. He asked the nurses to bring me Rocco as soon as the doctors said it was alright. I keep him with me all the time. He reminds me that no matter what, I'm a survivor."
No wonder she never went anywhere without the ragged stuff animal. Claire couldn't imagine the kind of hell Hannah had been through and at such a tender age. Instantly, Claire knew why she never wanted to talk about Gabe before. It had obviously been too painful. Now Claire understood what motivated Hannah to do the things she did. She, better than most people, knew how incredibly short life could be.
"What does this have to do with Cody?" Claire asked gently. She was glad to know the information but she was confused.
"After all the pain I went through, I swore I'd never hurt like that again. But apparently I was wrong." Hannah gave her another sad smile as she came to sit beside her. "I took your advice about asking Cody to take me to the Hall of Fame. I was about to ask him when that Barbie chick came up to him. He completely ignored me, like I wasn't even there. She asked him who I was and you know what he said?"
Claire shook her head slowly, almost dreading what she was going to hear.
"He said 'That's nobody'."
Biting down a flash of sudden scalding anger, Claire looked at Hannah. Just wait. Cody was going to have to answer to her for being such an unforgivable ass. Claire forced her expression to remain calm as she looked at Hannah.
"I think we're going to make him eat his words." Claire nodded solemnly then added "And his heart out."
Hannah's heart-felt smile meant more to her than anything. "So you're going to be my Fairy Godmother or something?"
Claire pulled Hannah against her for a quick hug, "Or something."
"I just can't believe he would do something like that!" Claire tried to keep her voice down as she and Randy walked down the hall toward Legacy's dressing room. Randy took a step then suddenly stopped. Leaning against the wall, he pulled Claire to stand in front of him.
"Why do you want to get involved?" Randy asked quietly as he watched one of the production staff quickly moved past them.
"You should have seen her. She just looked so small and helpless. He really hurt her feelings."
Randy shook his head slowly as he looked down at Claire, "We both know that Cody didn't mean it. When he's ready, he'll apologize."
Frustrated beyond all reason, Claire shoved a hand into her messy hair, "How can you be so sure?"
Randy slowly crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at Claire. She was so damned pretty with the flush on her cheeks and her dark eyes sparking with anger. He had the sudden urge to pull her against him and kiss her senseless. If he knew they would have five minutes alone, he would do just that and perhaps more. "Remember what it was like when you first came on the road?"
Claire nodded, trying to figure out where Randy was going with this. "He's confused right now. Hannah is making him feel things he doesn't know how to deal with." Randy knew he didn't need to remind her about the time Cody had gone A.W.O.L.
"How do you know?" Arching a brow, Claire studied Randy's almost expressionless face.
"Trust me. Stay out of this and let them handle it."
Randy looked down at Claire one last time before quickly striding up the hall. He quietly closed the dressing room door behind him and sighed heavily. Running a hand over his face, he leaned back against the cold, metal door. Claire was just going to have to trust him this time. He knew exactly what Cody was going through. When Ms. Right finally walked into your life, everything went straight to hell in a hurry. Almost from the moment he met Claire, he knew he was in deep shit. Claire was unlike any other woman he'd ever come across. Instinctively, he knew Claire was going to be the one woman he would not be able to manipulate. She was the real deal. Having that knowledge scared him more than anything had in his life. He had never felt so raw, so vulnerable, so much like an exposed nerve. Claire inspired all kinds of feelings. They weren't feelings that he could easily over look. He felt those emotions in the deepest part of his soul; even though he really didn't want to feel those kinds of emotions. He didn't know how to deal with them. And because of that, he had been a miserable, overbearing ass to the woman that owned him, body and soul. There would never be enough ways to apologize to her. That was a big motivation to make the Hall of Fame weekend as special as he possibly could. He was going to spend as much time as he could making sure Claire knew just how much she means to him.
The sound of someone clearing their throat made Randy realize he wasn't alone. He looked up to find Ted staring back at him. Quickly composing himself, Randy moved away from the door.
"Something wrong?" Ted asked as he watched Randy move to the other side of the room.
Randy returned Ted's steady gaze but didn't say anything. He knew better than pushing Randy when he so obviously didn't want to be pushed. He focused his attention on folding the shirt he loosely held. He was surprised when Randy moved to stand beside him and slowly started putting his clothes in the open gym bag.
"So, uh, Ted. Who are you taking to the Hall of Fame?" Randy kept his eyes focused on what he was doing. He couldn't allow himself to look at his friend. He was doing exactly what he told Claire not to do. He was getting involved.
"I wasn't planning on taking anyone." Oh. Yeah. Right. Ted was always Mr. Professional. He was 110% dedicated to his profession.
"Why not?" Randy quickly glanced at Ted before pulling out a clean pair of socks.
"There isn't anyone I want to ask." Ted's answer was straight to the point.
"What about Hannah?" Randy couldn't force himself to look at Ted.
Ted dropped the pair of jeans he had been holding. He turned slowly to look at Randy. "Hannah?"
Randy sucked in a deep breath as he forced himself to look Ted in the eye. He could see the surprise written all over his friend's ace. "Yeah. She really doesn't know too many of the guys yet. I thought maybe she'd be more comfortable if you took her." That much was at least a good portion of the truth. He just couldn't bring himself to admit the entire truth. He knew if Ted took Hannah, Cody would be out of his mind with jealousy.
"No offense, man, but Hannah is not my type." Ted tried to keep his voice as neutral as he could. There weren't very many times that he had actually refused Randy. When it came to his personal life, he had to draw a line.
"I know she's not. It's not like you have to . . . " Randy stopped himself before he said something completely vulgar and inappropriate. "I don't want Hannah to feel left out. She doesn't really have any friends and . . . "
Ted looked at Randy, noticing the strained lines around his eyes. This really must mean a lot to him. It wasn't very often Randy asked for something so personal. "Is it that important to you?"
Randy nodded as he forced himself to keep looking at Ted, "I don't know why, but it is."
He wasn't sure what was the bigger motivation, not wanting Claire to be upset or not wanting Hannah to feel like an outsider. It was probably a combination of both.
Once again, Ted looked at Randy, slightly awed by the level of change he saw in Randy. Randy was still aggressive and demanding but there was certainly a difference. He was so much more in tune with the people around him and he was willing to do whatever it took to make them happy. It was strange to see how the love of a woman could change a man. After a moment, Ted nodded and turned back to his belongings. "I'll take her."
Randy's rush of relief was palpable, "I owe you, big time."
Ted shook his head slowly and smiled slightly, "No, man. This one is one me."
***A/N – Please review ***