Ch. 6.

Meanwhile, some of the wrestlers who were scheduled to appear later in the evening were just arriving at the arena and had missed the earlier excitement. Amongst these was Andrew Martin, known to the fans as the ex-member of the tag team, T 'n' A, Test. Wearing street clothes and with his shoulder-length blond hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, he was making his way to his dressing room in order to get ready for his match. Although he was running a little late and was therefore in a hurry, when he spotted an unfamiliar girl who appeared to be lost wandering around, he stopped to see if he could help.

"Hey there," he smiled, his blue eyes quickly taking in her golden tanned face, the few freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose and her big green eyes, all framed by light blond hair which fell in slight waves to her shoulders. "I couldn't help noticing you look ..... kinda lost - maybe I can help? Are you supposed to be back here? I'm Andrew, by the way."

The girl tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear nervously and looked up at him. At five feet and eight inches, she hadn't thought of herself as short exactly, but standing beside nearly six and a half feet of the guy she recognised as the wrestler, Test, she had to admit she was a little intimidated.

"Uh, hi! Yeah, I'm meant to be here, the guy out front said it would be okay. I'm looking for Chris Benoit, do you know where I could find him?"

"Are you a fan, 'cause then I'm not really supposed to ....."

"Not really; I mean, I watch the shows, but that's not why I'm here." she said hesitantly, "I'm, uh, a reporter. With this being Chris's home town, there's, uh, a lot of interest at the minute and my boss was keen I'd, um, get an interview."

"An interview, huh?" said Andrew thoughtfully, taking a second glance at the girl. For some odd reason, which he couldn't quite put his finger on, he wasn't entirely convinced by her explanation for her presence. She just didn't look the reporter type; at least, not the kind he was used to dealing with, the kind who sneaked in and pushed you for a story, then made up the juicy details if they didn't get what they were looking for. However, she didn't look like the crazed stalker type either, which led him to believe her to be a normal fan wanting to meet her favourite star. Somehow though, that didn't quite fit either. Apart from looking a little nervous, she was otherwise calm; not the overexcited, obsessive fan type who went to the trouble of finding their way backstage.

Realising that she was now looking at him oddly and no wonder, given the fact that he had been studying her without speaking for longer than a casual glance warranted, Andrew decided that Benoit probably wouldn't thank him for turning away a pretty fan and that if he couldn't take care of himself, he was in the wrong profession anyway.

"Well, I don't suppose Chris would object." he smiled at the girl, before proceeding to direct her to the room in which he supposed she would find Benoit.

"Thanks, uh, Andrew." she said, seemingly in a hurry to be on her way.

"Hang on!" he said suddenly, as she started to walk briskly in the direction he had pointed, "I didn't catch your name."

She called over her shoulder without turning round, her answer only just audible, "It's Shannon."

The mysterious girl had only just disappeared from view when Andrew spotted one of his friends and fellow wrestlers hurrying towards him, already in his ring attire. He groaned and glanced at his watch, realising that he now had very little time to get ready for his match.

"Hey, Drew!" came the deep shout from the oncoming figure, "Come on, man; where've you been?"

"Sorry, Terry, I got side tracked."

"Oh yeah? You're gonna have to do better than that; Vince is going crazy."

"There was this girl ....."

"Okay, I'm listening." grinned Terry, running a hand through his long, dark hair which was still wet from his shower, "But walk while you talk, you still have to change."

"It's simple really - she looked lost, so being the gentleman I am, I stopped to help."

"So she was pretty?" asked Terry, rightly suspicious of Andrew's motives.

"Well, yeah!" confessed Andrew, "But, I guess some guys get all the luck - she was looking for Benoit, so I just gave her directions to the dressing rooms."

"Oh, I guess you haven't heard yet."

"Heard what?"

"During the match between Austin and Jericho, Austin flipped his lid - he went totally mad and started really beating on Jericho ....."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Andrew, "What happened?"

"Benoit arrived in time and got things more or less under control and Austin was taken away by the cops. But, what I meant was, your directions won't be any good - both Chrises went back to the hotel, they won't be here tonight. And even if they were there, she won't get that far - Vince has gone for a complete security clamp down."

"Guess I missed all the excitement. Aww, man! She's gonna think I did that on purpose. She said she was a reporter; if Security catch her, they'll think she was looking for a story on Austin and I don't think that would go down too well."

"It'll probably be okay, they'll just make her leave. Apparently none of the fans caught on to what was happening, they just thought it was part of the show, so there's no way anything could have been leaked to the press. Anyway, it's too late for you to do anything about it now. This has made Vince real edgy, if you're late there'll be hell to pay. Get a move on, I've got a gore with your name on it!"

Andrew paused for a second, wondering if he should try to track the girl down to explain, or at least leave a message with Security, but decided he had better not provoke Vince if he was already in a bad mood. Instead, he followed Terry to get ready for his match against him - a Test versus Rhyno Hardcore match which would take all his concentration and make him forget all about the puzzling fan, Shannon.

*****