Freyja finished detangling the absolute mess that graced her head before throwing her brush and the last of her things into the bag that sat beside her on the faux-granite countertop. Giving herself a final once-over, she zipped up her bag and made to throw it over her shoulder. Stopping in her tracks, her eye caught her reflection in the mirror once more.
Tediously removing it from her back again and giving the duffle bag a soft pat, she leaned in once more to fix a wayward eyelash and wipe away the soft smudge of makeup she had seen in the corner of her eye. Deciding finally that she was presentable, she hoisted the duffel once more and made her way to the dressing room door.
Her fingers barely touched the handle before the wooden door flew wide open and she nearly collided with a slightly taller redhead. Freyja flinched, ready to catch herself, or the woman. However, the moment was fleeting as the two women focused in on the other and backed up, both breathing out a quick and awkward sigh.
"Sorry," Freyja laughed softly, rubbing at the back of her neck.
"No problem," Lita placated flatly, recognizing the new girl, some no-name they brought in from Spain.
"Come on in." Freyja invited, taking a step back and clearing the way for Lita.
"Thanks," the older woman said as she skirted by, leaving Freyja in the doorway to slink past that tall, scary, bald man that seemed to hang over Lita like a cloud of smoke.
Kane. That was his name.
Her legs seemed to move like lead under the even stare of his watchful eyes. They made eye contact, but it was quickly broken as Freyja moved around him deftly, muttering, "Hey," in quick greeting before shutting the door to the womens dressing room and running off to find her manager, Andone.
Once inside, Lita checked the whole place thoroughly. Empty, Freyja must have been the last. Returning to the now-closed door, she quietly eased it locked, taking care to ensure that the click of the handle didn't make too much noise.
Lord knew, the devil was still outside listening.
Once locked, after a few beats of silence to assure her that Kane hadn't noticed anything amiss, she made a beeline for the bathroom. Third stall from the left, just like always. She rapped a few times on the metal door, to the agreed-upon rhythm of Here Comes The Bride. It was a rather cruel joke, this code; Edge thought he was hilarious.
The lock on the stall door came loose with a snap and opened wide to a tall, blonde Canadian waiting for her right where she'd told him to. He smiled wide.
"My love!" he exclaimed a little too loudly as he embraced her, leaning down to kiss her deeply. "I missed you," he muttered with his wandering hands, lips against hers, "Been watching you all night."
Lita smiled a small smile. "Missed you too, babe. Any progress on finding my husband a new victim?" She asked playfully, trying to disguise the tension she still felt.
"Got one idea but... it may be a long shot. I'm gonna keep looking."
"It still doesn't feel right-" Lita began, only to have her forehead kissed softly by her boyfriend to interrupt her wandering conscience.
"Look, I know it sucks. But you want to spend the rest of your life with that thing?" his eyebrows cocked up expectantly.
Lita looked up at his blue eyes, then closed hers and shook her head. "No."
Edge smiled softly at her. "Well, if you're in a hurry to get it over with, I was actually thinking about Freyja."
Lita reeled back in shock, "Freyja? Why? Freyja hasn't done shit to me."
"Why not? She's new. She's not from here. She doesn't know how things work around here. She'll be easy to trick, and we'll have our hands free in no time." Edge explained, an almost devious laugh coming to him, trying to get Lita on board. He loved her, but he knew she could never make a decision like this and stick with it no matter how much she wanted to be with him. And she did want to be with him, she'd made that abundantly clear. So, he was determined to make it for her. At least then she couldn't entirely blame herself.
Lita thought for a moment. It would be easy. And she did only have two weeks. If something happened to Freyja, who would care? She'd only been around a few weeks, it wasn't like she had many friends.
The more the woman thought about it, the more appealing it sounded. And what's better, Freyja was younger, less experienced, and perhaps the trusting naivete of a 26 year old could land her right where Lita wanted her.
Lita nodded her head and placed her hands on Edge's shoulders. "Okay. Freyja."
"Good." Edge smiled encouragingly. "Now, I asked Mr. McMahon to help, but he wouldn't do it, so we need a plan. We can't just ask her to take your place, no one would agree to that. We'll have to resort to some... trickery."
"Any idea what kind of trickery?" Lita tilted her head, all at once curious and unconvinced her man had any idea what he was doing. Edge's voice lowered several decibels, as if anyone would hear,
"I found a notary that's willing to write up an inescapable trap of a contract, for a little cash under the table, but you have to keep that shit under wraps. Whaddya say?" Edge captured her head in his hands, forcing his girlfriend's worried eyes to look up at him.
Lita avoided eye contact for a small eternity before fixing Edge with an even stare. The edges of her mouth crept up.
"I say I should go tell Mr. McMahon to keep that spot on next RAW open for me."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
Two. Right straight, left hook. Andone watched his neice and client obey the command and the heavy bag swung like a pendulum. How far they'd come, he thought. Freyja had excelled in Bilbao, and he knew how she missed it. But, barring any problems the young woman had in adjusting, this was her big break, that was for sure. The WWE wanted her. This shit was big.
A woman named Lita had come to him that day, requesting a meeting with his client. Oh, for such a high profile fighter to ask for Freyja, his little Freyja? Perhaps Andone was biased for being her uncle but he was excited, and immensly proud. What could she want? A match? An alliance?
Didn't matter. Any publicity was good publicity, right?
Andone was snapped back to reality when finally he realized Freyja had stopped, the soundtrack over, and hugged the bag in her exhaustion, panting breaths releasing on its black netted surface. Her forehead still touching, she turned to Andone and half smiled.
"You're staring. It's creepy." She taunted.
"Just proud of you, that's all." The older man smiled, his eyes folding on the edges. "You finished? I have something to tell you!"
The brunette smirked. For an old man, her uncle seemed almost giddy as a school boy. "I can be. This seems important to you."
"One of your colleagues got a hold of me, I looked at your schedule and it looks like you'll have time to meet with her. She says it's urgent." Andone explained, watching Freyja run a towel over her face and begin to pack her things.
"Who is it? What does she need? I swear if I'm going to get ambushed-"
"It was that Lita, and she didn't say." Andone interrupted Freyja's paranoid ramblings. "Get cleaned up, and find me in the lobby."
Freyja nodded and headed over to her room. Swiftly picking out a clean change of clothes and allowing herself a quick run in the shower, she headed down to the main lobby.
Andone stood there, as promised, looking just as excited as ever. He was the best manager in the world, he thought. He led her through a few hallways to a small conference room. Well, conference room was a generous term. A small table sat in the center with about 6 chairs surrounding it, a pair of desktop computers had been set up on the far wall, as well as a guest-use printer. It seemed more of a tech room than anything else. At one of the chairs around the oaken oval surface was a redheaded woman, positioned abreast from a tall blonde man. Before the two sat a small stack of papers, and she gazed up from it as Andone showed Freyja in and smiled, albeit a bit uncomfortably.
"Lita," Freyja greeted and dipped her head courteously. She stalked like a frightened animal, eyes suspicious of this 'meeting'.
"Freyja, just who I wanted to see..." Lita smoothed, putting on her best veiled smile and eyes flitting to Andone and back to Freyja. "I was hoping we could chat alone, come on over!"
Freyja hesitated, but as if on cue, the man she recognized as Edge stood, moving about the table in an almost predatory manner. He skirted past Freyja and clasped her manager on the shoulder. "Come on chief, let's leave the ladies."
The display was entirely non-threatening, but it also wasn't a request. Freyja turned to her manager, "I'll be fine, don't worry about me." she soothed.
Andone nodded curtly, dwarfed by the Canuck coaxing him out the door, and turned on his heels to follow him out. The door shut with a click and the two women were alone. Neither spoke for the longest time. Lita watched as Freyja eyed her suspiciously, peircing green eyes regarded her as the younger woman sauntered over to the chair Edge had sat at not long ago. She didn't take it, opting to remain standing and continued to size up the more experienced wrestler.
"So Freyja, you're so new, tell me about youself." Lita tried vainly to remove the tension from the situation. "Where ya from?"
"Spain." Freyja said plainly, until prompted by an eyebrow raise from the other woman to elaborate. "A little town called Zaitegi, southern Basque Country. You?"
"Doesn't matter all that much." Lita wasn't too keen on telling Freyja where her family was, not after what she was about to do to her. She motioned toward the chair upon whose back Freyja's hands now rested.
"Please, take a seat." she insisted, shifting her legs to make room as Freyja circled the chair and lowered herself on the seat slowly. After such an odd interaction, Freyja's eyes narrowed. She must be hiding something.
"So," Freyja breathed. "What's all this about?"
"Well," Lita fiddled with the edge of the stack of papers before her, before letting her gaze fall on Freyja again. "I have an opportunity for you."
Freyja raised one dark brow, interest apparent. "Oh?"
Lita smirked in spite of herself and slid the contract over to the younger woman, Her eyes scanning the markings on the page. Freyja picked out a few choice words but not all of them made sense, her English reading skills not quite to par. These words seemed a bit... colliegate, and oddly arranged. Alarm bells were ringing in her head, but she pressed them down as far as they would go and took a deep breath. She looked back up at Lita,
"Why do I get the feeling this is going to land me in trouble?" Freyja queried, head tilted. "What does this contract say?"
Lita rubbed her hands together but held Freyja's gaze. "It says, next week, you're going against me to decide who will get a title shot at the next pay-per-view, and a little something on the side. A suprise, if you will." she smoothed.
Freyja looked down at the contract once more, eyes skimming over the jumbled mess of letters. "So, I get a title shot if I win... and... God knows what else?"
Suspicious. But not unheard of.
Lita nodded affirmingly and painted on a fake enencouraging smile. "Absolutely! I'd tell you all about it, but why would I ruin the suprise?" There was a glimmer in Lita's eyes Freyja couldn't put her finger on. "If that's aggreable to you, I arranged a live contract signing tomorrow night!"
Freyja's brow furrowed, she shook off the nerves. This was probably nothing, she told herself, don't be a paranoid weirdo. But, one question still burned a hole in her mind, "Why me?"
Lita gave a breathy, uneasy laugh and shifted in her chair. "You're new! You need a leg up and I'm in a position to give that to you. What's a little friendly competition? Us girls have to look out for each other, you know?" she finished her miniature speech with a wink.
"The competition here is anything but friendly." the younger woman retorted. Why would Lita make up a contract like this? What was her angle? Regardless, Freyja did need the leg up. What was the worst that could happen? "Tomorrow night, live?"
Lita nodded once more, and Freyja smiled softly at her, sliding the contract back to her future opponent.
"I'll be there."