The Fear Series
By Ky
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine...*sob*
Rating: PG or 12
Series: WWF
Spoilers: Everything up till around 07/10/01 (Just to be safe)
Pairing: Mwahahahahaha! Now that would be telling! ...to be honest, it won't be hard to guess!
Feedback: Is a wonderful thing...please be the wonderful people I know you all are!
Email: jeff_hardyz_gal@hotmail.com
Notes: This continues from "The Beginning of the End" which continues from "The Truth Hurts" and "Fear is Only a Four Letter Word" and will not make any sense if you haven't read those first.
I've decided that the show they were doing in the first part was actually "No Mercy"
~x~x~x~x~x~
PART 4
IT'S TRUE, IT'S DAMN TRUE
~x~x~x~x~x~
Stephanie felt like she was about to faint. This couldn't be happening to her. Not Triple H, he was her friend...he was on her side...he was the one that had made her finally decide to talk to her father about this whole mess. And now he had joined Shane, Austin and Heyman?
No. There had to be another reason. There had to be.
"Well, well, well. It seems that the Billion Dollar Princess has finally turned her back on us. What? What's wrong Stephanie, you done every available guy in the Alliance? What? Needed some new..."meat"?" Austin sneered as RVD, Rhyno and the others stood protectively next to their boss and glared at him. "What's the matter, Steph. Shocked to see your *husband* saw the light? Shocked that he knows what a two bit whore you are?"
Stephanie flinched. It didn't matter how many times Chris had said those words to her, and worse, this hurt more. Austin actually meant what he was saying. Even when Chris stopped apologising for his words, even when this all began to become real life, she always knew he *never* thought the things he said were true. Never.
"So, what? You think that by showing me that HHH has betrayed me," Steph said the words as she attempted to look Hunter in the eye, but he averted his gaze. "that I'll stop? That I'll suddenly go back on my word? Think again Austin. Nothing you say or do matters to me anymore. I've made my decision and so have these people. You number is up."
Suddenly she fell to the ground clutching her head and one thought struck her. The person who hit her had been behind her...had been one of the men to come down to the ring to join her. This was a set up.
~x~x~x~x~x~
"No!" Both men sat up straight, this time heedless of the pain reverberating through their chests. This couldn't be happening, not now when they were so close.
"They didn't get to her." Buh-Buh said softly, "Spike and D-Von didn't warn her."
"This can't be happening." The two men sat back, defeated, as they watched the fight erupting on the screen...watched as Kanyon and Stasiac helped Austin and the Alliance.
"Wait, what's Triple H doing?"
"Buh-Buh, Isn't that your brothers in the crowd?"
"What the *hell* is going on?"
~x~x~x~x~x~
"This is insane, JR!"
"I have to agree with you, Michael. People are coming from everywhere! The Dudley Boyz, and by that I mean Spike and D-Von, have just come from the crowd, as has Edge in the style he introduced himself to us. The Rock and Kurt Angle have just blasted their way down the ramp..."
"And made a beeline straight for Booker T and Austin. HHH is currently beating up on *Shane and Heyman*"
"Can't say I'm sorry about that. Those SOB's have had it coming for a while. And wait, what is...yes! Jericho and the APA are leading the rest of the WWF superstars out to ringside. This is an all out brawl Michael!"
"And the Alliance are winning...the *NEW* WWF/ECW Alliance, that is."
~x~x~x~x~x~
Stephanie clutched her head and groaned as she clutched tighter to the man currently carrying her. His hair brushed against her and she smiled. She had looked up to find Hunter beating up on her brother and Paul Heyman and then she realised why he wouldn't meet her eye...she'd have known he was lying.
She snuggled deeper into his embrace and smiled against his chest. He hadn't betrayed her...and not only that, but the WWF seemed to support this new alliance...Chris seemed to support it. The man reached the EMT's and lay her onto the bed.
"Easy now, just lay still."
Stephanie's head shot up and she gazed into his eyes, "Chris?"
He smiled at her, "You'll be fine. Just took a bit of a knock when that idiot, Kanyon, hit you."
"You saved me?" at this his grin grew wider and she smiled, "You saved me."
"Yeah, well, what can I say, Austin pissed me off." He brushed a strand of her hair from her face, "Only I get to call you a two bit whore."
She smacked his arm and mock glared at him, "Not funny."
Chris' face grew serious, "You know I don't mean it, right?"
"I know." She hissed as the EMT placed ice against her head then looked back up at Chris, "But it's nice to hear you say it...sometimes, I forget." He went to move and help Tajiri with Torrie when she placed a hand on his arm, "Thank you for helping me."
He smiled, "Anytime, Princess, anytime."
~x~x~x~x~x~
Lita took a deep breath before turning on her heel...only to walk into Matt. He smiled sadly at her.
"No backing out. Not this time, we've been doing that for too long. He deserves the truth, Lita."
"I know he does, but that doesn't make it any easier...it's been so long. Why did we do it, Matt?"
"Because we thought it would work." He squeezed her arm, "Come on."
Slowly they turned and entered Jeff's room, smiling as they saw him and Buh-Buh shouting at each other over their cards. It was just like old times. Both were cheating and calling the other on it.
"Hey guys."
"Hey Red." Buh-Buh turned, "You want to tell Mr. Hardy here, to stop cheating?"
Lita smiled at the familiar endearment, glad to finally hear it again from the somewhat cuddly wrestler, "I'd do that, but then you'd have the unfair advantage with your cheating."
"Why, I think the Lita Lady is insulting me."
"Damn right she is." The group turned to see D-Von and Spike standing in the doorway. "Hey. Doc wants you back in bed bro."
"Okay, I'll whip your ass later Hardy."
"In your dreams, man."
"Trust me rainbow head, you are *never* in my dreams...Red however..." Lita smacked him playfully on the arm as he hobbled to his brothers, giving Jeff the "Stone Cold Salute" as he left.
"So, tonight went well." Jeff said happily as they sat at either side of his bed. "You two and Polumbo certainly gave Stacey, Stasiac and Kanyon a whipping."
"Oh yeah." Matt agreed, still distracted at what they were about to tell him. He exchanged a glance with Lita and took a deep breath.
"What? What's wrong? Have the doctors..."
"No, God, no!" Matt said emphatically, cursing himself for worrying his brother even more about his health. "It's nothing like that."
"We...we just need to tell you something. Something we should have told you a long time ago."
Jeff frowned as he looked at them. He turned to Lita, meeting her watery gaze, "Is it something to do with what you were saying when I woke up?"
"Yes."
There was silence as both Lita and Matt stared at their hands, at anything but him, "Well? Either one of you planning to tell me before they knock me out and cut me up?"
They both flinched at his crude words before they exchanged a glance. Matt opened his mouth to speak, but Lita interrupted him, "No, let me...please?" At Matt's nod, she turned to Jeff and took a deep breath.
"Why do I feel like I'm really not going to like what you're about to say?"
"Because you probably won't. Jeff, we've been lying to you."
"Lying to me? How?"
"Please...don't interrupt me, this is really hard for me to do." The younger Hardy nodded, "Do, do you remember when we used to tease Matt about his crush on Lillian? We used to try and get him to do something about it? Well, we did...only it wasn't just for Matt, it was for me as well." Lita began to ramble, "We didn't want to lie to you Jeff, we weren't even sure we should do it at all. We were just so fed up of waiting and we really got on well and we thought that after a week or so, we'd tell you both the truth, we'd make you jealous and then we..."
"Are you saying that you were never dating?" Jeff asked incredulously.
"Exactly," Matt said looking at Lita before turning back to Jeff, "We only wanted to have some fun together...we wanted, I wanted to see Lillian's reaction, I wanted to know if maybe you and Lita were right and she'd liked me all along."
"And you couldn't just ask me?"
Matt whirled round to look at the door. Lillian was staring at them in disbelief, "You made me watch the two of you together for *months* so you could see my reaction?"
"It wasn't like that," Matt stood up. "We...we were only supposed to pretend for that one night, a week at most. And then you started dating that guy, Adam, and we decided to keep pretending until we'd seen Jeff's reaction...and by the time you split up, it had got out of hand. We tried to tell you both so many times, but we couldn't. The longer we left it, the harder it got."
"I can't hear this, right now." Lillian turned and ran from the room.
"Lillian!" Matt turned to Lita who nodded, before running after the blond ring announcer.
"I still don't get it." Lita looked at Jeff, "I don't understand why you'd lie to me."
Lita wiped the fresh tears from her cheeks, "I lied because I didn't have the guts to tell you the truth."
"What, what did Matt mean by, 'you wanted to see my reaction'?"
"He meant, he..."
"Lita, what did he mean?" Jeff grabbed hold of her arms and shook her slightly.
"He meant that we wanted to see if maybe you felt the same way about me as I do about you."
Jeff felt his hands begin to shake slightly, but his grip remained on her arms, "And how is that?"
"I...I'm in love with you."
~x~x~x~x~x~
He finished packing his gear into his bag and looked up, pausing as he noticed who was standing at the door. The man gave him a small smile and came inside the room a little. Chris turned to look at the only other man left in the dressing room, just as he looked up and saw his brother.
Chris watched Edge frown as Christian shuffled on his feet. The younger man rubbed his palms against his jeans before allowing his bag to fall to the ground.
"They wanted me to turn to the Alliance. The Commissioner is in on it,"
"What?" Both Chris and Edge looked at each other before turning back to face Christian, "Have you told McMahon?"
"He knew,"
"I don't understand," Edge frowned and Jericho shook his head to indicate he was as confused as Edge was. "What's going on Christian?"
"Hey man," All three turned as X-Pac came into the room as well. "I figure I should help you a little with the explanation."
"Okay, what the hell's going on?" Y2J asked, noting that the Undertaker and the APA had passed by, each giving Christian and X-Pac a nod.
"Remember Invasion?" X-Pac asked and both men raised their eyebrows. "Okay, stupid question. Well, McMahon decided to use that for him. When the crowd didn't support me any more than usual...in other words when they still yelled "X-Pac sucks" at me. The old man decided he could use me. He suspected there were more people in the WWF involved with the Alliance and he knew that if I was playing the bad guy, they'd be more likely to look me up."
"But he didn't want him to do it alone," Christian said, looking at his brother. "That was where I came in. Vince knew that no one would believe that any of the larger stars would turn on the WWF. He was going to ask the Rock to do it, but he knew we needed someone to "raise spirits" if you will. So he approached me."
"Wait a minute," Edge stepped towards his brother a little. "You mean you turned on me because McMahon asked you to?"
"I turned on you," Christian choked out the words. "because I knew that if they didn't have someone to help them then we'd both be out of a job."
"You never really wanted to be a wrestler anyway," Edge said, frowning. "That's why I never understood your need for gold. I never understood why you'd turn on me for a title."
"Edge, I never wanted the gold. I just wanted to keep our jobs."
Neither brother noticed as X-Pac and Y2J slipped from the room and began to walk towards the exit, "He did it for Edge, didn't he?" Chris asked when they were far enough from the room.
"Yeah, the only thing Edge had ever wanted was to be a wrestler and if the Alliance took over, he'd loose everything he'd worked for. So Christian jumped at the chance to put a stop to it...even if it meant hurting his brother."
"What about you?"
X-Pac laughed, but Chris could see the pain in his eyes, "I only played the part the crowd laid out for me."
Chris watched as he walked away, "Hey, X-Pac," The man turned. "For what it's worth, we all thought the crowd were rough on you at Invasion. You should have been cheered, man, for the WWF."
"Yeah, well, that's the way it goes. And Chris, thanks. See you Thursday."
Chris nodded and made a move to leave when he heard voices in the room next to him. Peering through the door, he watched as Stephanie rubbed the back of her head. She was laughing at something Hunter was saying, the two of them catching up on what exactly had happened out there tonight. He watched the way she tugged at the bottom of her shirt and it was then that he noticed what she was wearing. He realised that she'd been wearing them all night. She hadn't been playing Stephanie the Slut, the role Austin had forced her to play into since joining them. No, she'd been Stephanie, just Stephanie. She was wearing flared jeans and a fitted shirt...one that he had given her the year before. One he'd given her while they were dating.
He jerked himself out of his thoughts as he noticed her staring at him, smiling. He returned the gesture and waved before heading out the door. Maybe things really were about to get better, maybe things were about to get a whole lot better.
~x~x~x~x~x~
Lillian jumped as she felt hands placed on her waist. She continued to stare at the stars, trying to ignore the breath against her neck.
"I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have done it. I know that. But...I wanted you so much and I couldn't bear to hear people telling me just to go for it anymore. I needed to know that if I did, I wouldn't get hurt."
"I'd never hurt you, Matt. Even if I didn't feel the same way, I'd never want to..."
"That's just it, if you didn't feel the same way, that would hurt me so much more." Matt frowned and whirled her around. "Wait a minute, what does that mean?"
"What does what mean?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"If you didn't feel the same way..." Lillian closed her eyes and cursed. "Lillian?" She opened her eyes when Matt cupped her face, smiling at him. Matt grinned and leaned towards her, capturing her lips softly.
As she pulled back, Lillian smiled, "Not now, Matt. There's a lot we need to talk about. Besides, Jeff's due to in surgery soon. Go, talk to your brother." She smiled at his reluctance. She knew he was desperate to go to his brother but was afraid to leave her. "I'll be waiting when this is over, Matt. I promise."
~x~x~x~x~x~
"I'm so sorry." She said once more, but Jeff just continued to stare at her. He could hardly think, didn't know what to think. She made a move to stand. She was leaving.
"Don't," Lita looked at him, unsure if he'd actually spoken the whispered word or if she'd simply imagined it. He pulled her closer. "Why? Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Because you were my best friend and I was so scared I'd lose you. You're still are my best friend and now I'm terrified that I have."
"You'll never lose me Lita, remember that. I'm here, can't get rid of me that easily."
Lita laughed softly, "Good." She stared into his eyes, almost tempted to close the short distance and lay her forehead against his. Instead, she looked at her hands again, "I lied to you, for so long. I wish I could go back and change it all, but I can't."
"I'm in love with you."
Lita felt her heart jump in her chest as she looked up at him in shock, "Wh, what?"
He smiled, "I said, I'm in love with you. I have been in love with you from the first time you smiled at me. From that day when we found out we were 'rescuing you'. You looked up at me and you smiled. You said, 'Wow, I get to be rescued by two gorgeous guys, aren't I...'"
"...the lucky damsel in distress."
They laughed, "You were so pissed."
"I was fed up of the way all the women were perceived as weak and in need of rescuing." She laughed. "I fell in love with you that day, too."
Jeff frowned, "When?"
"You said, 'Well, if you feel that way, you can rejoice when I drop you on your ass in front of billions of people."
"That made you fall in love with me?"
She laughed, "Yes. I looked into your eyes. I knew you were making fun of me but I didn't care, because I knew you were only teasing."
"Again, that made you fall in love with me?"
"Yes. Because after, you came over to me and made sure I knew you were only joking. You looked at me so intensely that I could hardly breathe. So yes, that made me fall in love with you."
Jeff stared at her and brushed some stray strands of hair behind her ears. She leaned towards him and he brushed her lips with his, that single moment seeming without time. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, not caring that she was clutching at his sore back, at that moment, everything was perfect.
"*Ahem*" They pulled apart and Lita hid her face behind her hair as the Nurse, they now knew as John, smirked at them. Then he frowned, "Don't you go out with his brother?"
They both laughed, "It's a long story," Lita said softly, "A long story."
"Oh, happy ending?" John asked as he moved to Jeff's side.
"I hope so," she said softly, turning to look at Jeff. "I really hope so."
"So do I." They turned as Matt entered the room. He walked slowly to his brother placing a hand on Jeff's shoulder. He gave it a squeeze, "Mom called from the plane, they won't be here before you go under...she wanted me to tell you that everything's gonna be all right. She sends you a hug."
Jeff smiled, "Thanks, man." He pulled Matt into a tight hug, neither brother fighting their tears. "Well," Jeff said as they pulled apart. He turned to Lita and squeezed her hand. "I guess this is it."
"You'd better come out of this bro,"
"I promise."
"You'd better." Lita replied, wiping her cheeks.
"You can't get rid of me that easily."
"That's true," Matt smirked. "I should know, I've tried."
"Yeah, and I've never forgiven you for that."
"Come on, man, we were young."
"You were sixteen."
"Okay, you were young...and annoying."
"Was there a point to this?" Jeff asked turning to Lita.
She smiled, thankful for these last few minutes of normalcy, "I believe you were telling us how we couldn't get rid of you."
"Oh yeah, it's true...it's damn true."
~x~x~x~x~x~
END OF PART 4
END OF THE FEAR SERIES
~x~x~x~x~x~
This last part's for X-Pac! Because I love X-Pac and I felt so sorry for him at Invasion. He's been with the WWF for so long, he's lovely, he's incredibly talented and everyone was yelling "X-Pac sucks" at him. I was not impressed! ...of course I love anything and anyone that was ever associated with Shawn Michaels (He's still the champ I tell you!), so... ;)
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed. I want to say a BIG thanks to Karen U for her great fics. I've not reviewed any for a while, but I love them all! It was her that actually got me writing WWF so this attempt is all her fault! ;)
Ky
~x~
