Chapter 19 – Apart
A/N: I'm tired as fucking hell…oh, hello. XD
They had gotten out of the fight with very little injuries, besides a bloody nose that Jeff had sustained.
But as for the Alliance? Hurricane, she heard, had suffered a slightly fractured shoulder. Lance was still knocked cold. Basically, the first couple of people she attacked. And the funny thing was…she hadn't even tried. She wished already to be able to see Raven. The whole punching thing was totally insane. If they had come a few moments more…
It was over, though. They all resided now in a large locker room, all sort of coming down from all the excitement of the evening. She saw Chris giving her a couple of odd stares, and she knew he was going to question her about her sudden change of heart toward destroying RVD.
And they ended up leaving, and she was, as figured, questioned instantly when the last person left the room.
"I don't know, maybe our thoughts of destroying people are different…but damn, I coulda swore I saw you pulling punches." Chris commented idly.
"That's because I was." She replied, calmly.
"You do realize that was Rob, right?"
"I was well aware of that."
"And that you've been wanting to get your hands on him since he decided to piss you off?"
"I remember."
"Oh." Chris said, sounding puzzled. "…Then why wasn't he in more pain?"
"I thought we went through this before, I pulled my punches." She smirked.
"But…why?"
"Why not?"
"Well, after saying you're gonna kill him and made everyone in that company suffer until you had the chance…Sam, it was sort of anti-climatic."
"What the hell do you think I am, a story book character? I can be as boring as I want to be."
"Sam…"
"Alright, you want my reasoning. I've been thinking. I've been going about this all wrong. Actually, Spike really woke me up. He said it was stupid to hold grudges. I thought about that. And when Rob didn't even try to attack me, I knew it wouldn't have even been fair to kill 'em." To explain herself further, she used a saying she had remembered using so long ago – "There is honor among hardcore wrestlers."
Chris seemed to think about this, and shook his head. "I honestly think I'll never understand your way of thinking."
"Guess I'm just spontaneous."
"…Understatement of the year. So, I guess you're shacking up with me for the night?"
"Yeah, and I'm not even drunk. Isn't it amazing?"
"Ow, that hurt Sam. It really did." He rolled his eyes. "I CAN leave you out in the cold to fend for yourself."
"And I can also break you in half in less then three moves." She smiled sweetly.
"It's nice to see this experience hasn't destroyed your winning personality."
"Come, Christopher." She joked, linking arms with him. He gave her an odd stare. "…What? I'm being spontaneous, see?"
"Would you like to go skip through the lilacs now?" Chris asked jokingly. "We can even sing a song if you like."
"On second thought…" she unlinked arms. "I'd rather kill myself then listen to you sing."
"People say I can be a rock star." He beamed proudly. "Like Fozzy!"
"…The bear?"
"No, they're a band. And I'm even mentioned in their album cover."
"As someone that they don't like?"
Chris paused. "…Uh, no of course not."
They took Chris's car, which was never fun. She hated how he drove. He was worse then she was, not to mention her ears were usually blasted out by the time they got back by his music. She liked rock, but Chris liked the hard and heavy stuff, and loved to play it at one of the highest levels his CD player could take.
"CHRIS." She finally screamed, trying to get the Canadian's attention. "TURN THE FUCKING MUSIC DOWN!"
"WHAT?" he called back. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS MUSIC!" He turned it down and glanced over. "What was that, Sam?"
"I said to turn it down. Because if you don't, I'll take my foot and smash your radio system, okay?"
"Yes ma'am." He rolled his eyes.
Sam glanced over at the blonde, watching his head move to the beat of the now softly playing music. She couldn't help but admire the fact the guy seemed to be able to space out the minute he heard the stuff. She didn't have that kind of non-living outlet. She needed something like that now. She wanted the closest thing to an outlet she had possible.
"I wanna see Raven." She grumbled, lowly, almost as if she didn't even want Chris to hear her.
He did. "Raven told me specifically to watch you tonight. You can see him tomorrow, when things cool down. Don't want to get him in trouble, do you?"
"I suppose not."
She was already planning her escape.
~~
She had helped him. Raven had seen it out of the corner of his eye before he was supposedly made unconscious. He was proud of her decision. Surprised, but proud. Perhaps she really was changing after all.
He turned in his bed, almost hoping that he'd suddenly find her next to him. It was empty. And the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach continued. He just knew something was going to happen soon. It was a pretty irrational thought, because they had passed the danger but…something was wrong. He just knew it.
And in the back in his mind he knew that Rob hadn't cheated on her. She still believed that no matter how the night had gone, and he knew she was thinking wrong. It was just too weird. Raven knew Rob. He loved Sam more then life itself, he had even said that to him once. Why would he throw that away with a slut like Stacy? He hadn't even seen Rob ever go near her again. And then, the fact he had given her space all this time, only to risk his neck by coming over that day to make sure she was going to be alright…
Raven sighed. It really was so easy to see. They had found out and had set him up. They didn't realize it would set Sam off the deep end. When they did, they planned what happened that night. He didn't even need confirmation. He had known it all along, from the minute he got attacked by the person that was watching them.
Which was the dilemma. He still didn't want to tell her about it. If she believed him, which was highly doubtful, what would she do? Just up and leave him? Rob had so much more to offer then he did. There was one thing he was certain of, though – he would have to tell her. If she would just throw him away like that…then, it wasn't meant to be. He still had that one moment where he almost, almost felt like she had finally begun to love him as much as he did her.
He sat up, feeling all hope of sleeping slowly leaving him. It was then he heard a light rap on his balcony's window. He ignored it, thinking he was hearing things, when he heard it again. He looked toward it to see a small object hit the window again. He got up, just knowing that it had to be some stupid kid or something, and opened the glass to berate whoever was out there. His room was on the first floor, so he didn't need to look down very far.
"Sam?" he said in a hushed whisper.
"Help me up." She called out quietly.
Knowing that she wouldn't take no for an answer, he leaned down and helped her up the short ways over his balcony wall and onto the balcony itself.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, still speaking in a low voice. He led her into the room.
"I couldn't wait." She admitted. "…And Chris was snoring. I needed to get out of there for a bit."
"Sam, you know you shouldn't…"
"Don't. I've already listened to you once, don't make me go away again."
"Sam…" he sighed, shaking his head. "…Fine. I'll let you stay for a while. But you have to leave soon. If someone caught you in here…"
She pulled him into a kiss before he could think any further. He couldn't act like he wasn't happy to be able to be close to her. So he went with it, gladly kissing her back. It was starting to get a bit hot, and Raven finally gained his head back and managed to break away.
"No, Sam, we can't…not yet." He said, his voice almost cracking. "And if we keep going, it's going to end up like that. We can't chance it yet."
She let out a breath of air, leaning her frame semi-against his own, not speaking.
"Don't be mad, Sam. It's just that…"
"I know." She shook her head. "I understand."
He kissed her forehead gently. "Once everything calms down, we can go back to normal."
"I guess so." She sighed.
"Come on, you better go now." He forced himself to say. He already knew he wasn't going to talk to her about Rob that night. She grudgingly let him lead her back out onto the balcony.
She didn't make a big fuss though. She stole one more kiss from him before jumping down to the ground.
As she left, he realized he felt something in the hand that had helped her over with. He opened it to find that he was holding the bracelet he had never seen her take off. She had told him the importance of it once, and knew in that single gesture he didn't need to worry about telling her about Rob.
He silently placed it around his wrist and went inside, feeling as content as he had ever remember being.
~~
"…She knew about it."
"I don't know how, Miss McMahon." Heyman offered.
"She has an inside source." She spat, stating the obvious.
Even though Heyman knew this was war, he couldn't help but feel the need to help out his men. "…Perhaps not. Or, it might have been someone was speaking to it and someone happened to overhear it."
"Don't stand up for the culprit, whoever it is!"
Heyman sighed. "Yes, Miss McMahon. I was just…"
"Instead of your blubbering, why don't you GO OUT THERE AND FIND OUT WHO IT IS!"
Heyman exhaled, trying to control his anger. He didn't speak, just sort of glared at her.
"NOW."
"Yes, Miss McMahon." He forced out, turning curtly and walking out before he completely went off on her. "What a bitch." He muttered crossly when the door closed behind him.
Not that he had any intention of helping her look for the mole of the company. Even though his job was on the line too, there was no way he was going to help her when he was treated like THAT. She had gotten them into this mess, she would have to get them out of it. He roamed the halls, wondering if he would catch a glimpse of a wrestler still out at this time of night.
And he did, and surprisingly it was one of his ECW boys who should have been beaten senseless. But no, there was Rob, walking around as if he was never even hit. He instantly gained a suspicion – was he back in cohorts with her? He had remembered the one who had attacked him had been Sam. But something about how he looked – still sullen, as he had been since the day of the set-up, that eased his thoughts. There was an obvious difference between Rob with his old flame and the Rob without her, and he was definitely still showing signs of the loss that shouldn't have happened. He couldn't help but pity him, especially because he was the one who came out as the bad guy.
"Rob." He called out, walking over to him. Instantly his 'condition' worsened, as he seemed to have a limp all of a sudden and a pain in his side or around the area.
"Hi Paul." He said, in the fakest wary voice ever. Heyman held back a smirk.
"Not a good night, huh?" he asked, raising a brow.
"Not at all." He agreed. "Beat the crap out of me."
"You ought to get some rest. Maybe tomorrow you'll feel better."
"Yeah, thanks man." He agreed, seeming to be happy to end the conversation. "G'night Heyman."
"Yeah, good night." He replied, walking away. He was mid-step when he decided to comment on the his fake ailments. "…By the way, Rob…"
Rob turned and looked at him. "Yeah?"
"If you want to pull off an injury, I suggest you make sure no one's watching when you're not acting for anyone. Stephanie is on a rampage looking for the one who leaked to Sam, and it'd be suspicious if you were caught not hurt." He turned again and this time truly walked away, leaving Rob a bit surprised at the calmness his old boss portrayed. He stopped one more time, not turning though this time. "And…trust your judgment. What you feel that happened to you really happened." And then he was gone, leaving Rob to contemplate those words.
"I knew it." Rob said after a minute of thinking. He scowled and shook his head, entering his room to think about the new information he had received.