The Fear Trilogy

The Fear Trilogy
By Ky

Disclaimer etc. in part 1

Notes: This continues from "Fear is Only a Four Letter Word" and will not make any sense if you haven't read that first.

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PART 2

THE TRUTH HURTS

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Matt opened his eyes and groaned, clutching his stomach and head at the same time. After a few moments, everything came back to him and he turned to the side, throwing up on the floor beside his bed.

"Easy man," the voice was familiar, but he couldn't place it. Nothing made sense, Jeff was fine, Jeff was always falling off ladders, that was what he did, what he liked to do, to stun the crowd. He was acting, that was why he was lying on the ground...his legs twisted...his head smacking off...he threw up again.

Matt closed his eyes as tears began to fall. He lay his head back onto the pillow of what he had deduced was a hospital bed, vaguely aware that someone, probably a nurse, was already cleaning up the mess he'd just made.

"Jeff..." he whispered hoarsely.

"He's in surgery...they're resetting his legs."

Matt turned to face the other side of the bed and found himself looking at Lillian Garcia. Her face was tearstained and her hands were shaking. She took a shaky breath and tried to smile reassuringly at him, instead barely managing a watery grimace. A hand was suddenly placed onto her shaking shoulder and it was then that Matt realised that they were not alone, that the first voice he had heard hadn't been Lillian's.

"How is he...really...don't, don't lie. No sugar coating it. I want to know." His voice was low but strangely confident, forceful even.

"It's bad." Van Damn started tightening his grip on Lillian's shoulder as the words coaxed a sob from her. "Both his legs were broken, they think he might have broken a bone in his spine and..." he trailed off as Matt closed his eyes, no longer able to see through the tears.

"And what?" he asked, his voice sounding more ragged than he would have thought. But he didn't care. All he could think of was Jeff...his baby brother... "And what?"

"He hasn't woken up yet, so he may have a concussion or be in a coma...in which case...he may not wake up at all."

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Chris glanced around the waiting room, watching the strange group of people gathered together. Everyone was silent and, for this group, that certainly was more that strange, it was downright unheard of.

After the show had...so abruptly ended, he had gone with Lita in the ambulance, never letting go of the redhead. He'd never thought he'd see the day when he'd think of the "Lovely Lita" as fragile. But he had never seen anyone look so broken in his entire life...and he hoped he never would again.

He hadn't known what to say to her. That almost made him laugh, but laughter wasn't something that was going to come easy to any of them for a while. But he, Chris Jericho, had, for once in his life been speechless.

He glanced around the room again. D-Von had left and was now at his brother's side, along with Spike. Strange how something like this could bring them back together...even if it may not last. Watching Matt's reaction, watching Jeff's...fall, seemed to have made everyone realise just how important their family was. Even Stephanie and Shane had approached their father as he had arrived at the hospital and Vince had instantly pulled Stephanie into his arms before doing the same to Shane.

It was strange. And yet, it wasn't.

And then there was Lita. She still hadn't said anything, hadn't moved of her own accord. Just sat there opposite him, her eyes staring downward, unseeing. He knew that Lillian and Rob Van Damn had gone to see Matt, but Lita just sat there. And he knew why...he knew everything, and that's why it didn't matter that he didn't know what to say. Because there was nothing he could say.

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She was numb.

Nothing worked and she didn't care.

All she had was her memories.

All she could think of was that they had lied to him.

And he might never know the truth.

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Stephanie watched the occupants of the room. Watched as Edge rubbed at his temples and tried to hold back the tears. That was something that most people were attempting. Even the alliance members. Even her.

She remembered a time when what happened on screen didn't matter off screen. But soon everything had become real. All the fights. All the divisions and groups. All the hatred. She couldn't even remember when it had happened. She remembered her friendly chat with the Undertaker right before the "kidnapping". She remembered arranging her "marriage" with her father, HHH and Test. She remembered when Chris used to apologise for the things he said to her. She remembered when she used to be friends with Team Xtreme.

It all seemed so long ago. It seemed like a dream, and what had happened tonight? She wished that was a dream. This alliance thing had gone on for too long. And she was fed up of being a member of the "Stone Cold" fan club. Doing whatever the Texas Rattlesnake ordered...even getting her breast implants. *Sure, Austin, no one noticed that one...*

She glanced across the room again, her eye catching Jericho's and she knew what he was thinking. She didn't know how she knew, but she did. It was the same thing that had been on her mind for a few weeks now. Everything was wrong and as horrible as this all was, she knew that everyone could pull together. That everything could be made right again. She knew it. She'd make sure of it, or she'd damn well try her hardest.

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She watched as the machine continued to beep, her eyes following the bright trace of the oscilloscope as it drew Jeff's heart. That's what it was. His heart. This little machine and it's bright green line were drawing out Jeff's heart...but she couldn't read it. She wanted to read it so much. But she couldn't understand why he wouldn't wake up. Wouldn't understand. She didn't want to.

She needed him. Didn't he understand that? Couldn't he come back so that she could make him understand that? She wanted to hold him in her arms and talk to him. To tell him the truth. To explain everything that they'd kept from him for all this time. To try and make him understand the lie.

All she wanted was to rewind the night. To go back and talk them out of the match. Or to let them talk her out of being there. It was her fault. He'd done this to save her and if she hadn't been there then he'd be okay. He might have taken a beating, but four on two was better then lying half dead in a hospital bed because of her.

All she wanted was to tell him. To take it all back. To stop the lie. She wanted to hold him in her arms and make love to him. To tell him that she loved him and that she always had. But she couldn't. So she did all she could do. Lita lay her head on the bed and wept.

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Matt sat up and pulled the sheets from on top of him, careful not to wake Lillian who was sleeping peacefully with her head on his bed, and prepared to stand. He had to see his brother.

"Let me help you."

Matt looked up as Rob Van Damn walked in the door and helped him to stand. He had left about an hour earlier, just slipped out as Lillian was holding Matt, both of them crying. And Matt realised that he still didn't know why the man was there.

"Why are you doing this?"

At the soft spoken words, Rob looked Matt in the eye before turning to gaze at the ground, "Because it's my fault." He said, speaking so quietly, that Matt almost didn't hear him.

"What?"

"I saw what he was about to do and I let him. I knew Jeff was crazy and I knew things he did had a tendency to backfire where ladders were involved...I should have stopped him."

"Then why didn't you?" Matt asked. But he was more interested in the reply than insinuating anything. He knew his brother and he also knew that this was not RVD's fault. But he needed to know why the man thought it was.

"Because I hoped he'd pull it off. I hoped he'd land on Buh-Buh Ray and that he'd save Lita."

"Why?"

"Because I knew from the start that the match was unfair. I almost said no, but then I knew someone else would only take my place..."

"So you did it to help us?"

"I guess so."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to...and Stephanie asked me to."

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Everything hurt. That was the first thing that entered his mind. A blinding light made it's way into the crack of his eyelids and he instantly closed them, clenching them shut, only to realise that that hurt as well.

He replayed that last thing he remembered over in his head. Lita. The last thing he had seen was the horrified look in her eye. He'd jumped onto the ladder...and fallen off. He remembered that. Remembered the pain. Remembered that it was worth it to save Lita.

He groaned as another shot of pain ebbed through his body. He had to do an inventory. It was Hardy custom...make sure everything's still there.

Legs...check...they're there and they hurt like hell...at least I hope they're there otherwise I've got some weird phantom leg thing going on.

Head...check...is in the process of exploding.

Arms...check...can move the left one, right one seems to be stuck.

He turned his head to the right and slowly allowed the blinding light to cut into his eyes. After a few moments, his eyes saw the problem. His arm was pinned to the bed as it was currently being used as a pillow for a very beautiful redhead.

Jeff smiled a little, then stopped...it hurt too much. He took in Lita's appearance. She looked like hell. To him, she was beautiful no matter what, but he could see the tear stains on her face, the remnants of her makeup blotched on her cheeks, and even in her sleep she was still shaking.

He moved his left arm over, with a great degree of pain, and wiped her tearstains, only to hiss in pain as she shot up calling out his name. Her eyes focussed on him and widened.

"Jeff?" she repeated.

"I'm here, can't get rid of me that easily."

"Oh God, Jeff, don't you ever do that to me again!" she cried leaning forward to hug him as best she could, and this time, he didn't care about the pain.

After a few moments she pulled back, "I have so much to tell you...I have to tell you..."

"Lita, calm down." He reached a hand to her cheeks, brushing away fresh tears. "You have time to tell me anything. But first, I think this nurse might want to tell me something."

He watched as Lita turned to see the rather sombre looking nurse standing in the doorway and he couldn't stop the thumping of his heart as bad thoughts echoed in his mind.

"Jeff!" Looking beyond the nurse, he spotted his brother being helped by RVD...no, wait a minute...yes, being helped by RVD. The two men made their way to the bed and Lita stood, hugging Matt before he leaned in to hug his brother and Jeff had to wonder if Lita had even seen Matt since she'd arrived at the hospital.

*Of course she has. She's his girlfriend...not yours...*

A few moments later, Chris had arrived with Stephanie and Jeff had had to do another double take at that one, but hadn't been given the time to ponder it as the nurse continued to stare at him. Chris had hugged him and was repeating how glad he was that the younger man was awake, but Jeff, Lita and Matt still stared at the nurse.

"We should leave," Stephanie said, pulling Chris and Rob to the door. She gave Jeff a small smile, "I'm glad you're awake."

"Me too." Rob said softly before Chris waved at him and closed the door.

"Okay, what is it?" Jeff asked, pulling Lita to sit at his right hand side, clutching her hand in the same way Matt was at the other.

"The doctor will be arriving in a moment."

"But you know something, and I want to know what that is." Jeff continued to urge him.

"I'm afraid it's not good, Mr. Hardy." The nurse said as he stepped closer to them, "You'd best prepare yourself for bad news."

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END OF PART 2

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*ducks all flying objects* sorry, had to leave it there!

Ky
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