A/N: Triple H didn't get injured and he's no longer with Stephanie.

Chapter X: Consequences.

Cont. of Raw Monday: 08-10-2001.

Valerie cringed and looked up to see her father storming towards them, Sara right behind him. Taker grabbed Valerie's arm and pulled her away from Jeff.

"What did I tell you about going near my daughter, huh?" he barked at Jeff.

Jeff backed away from the Undertaker. "Your daughter's a grown woman, you can't tell her what to do."

Taker growled and stepped towards Jeff but Valerie held onto his arm and stopped him. "Dad, stop it."

Jeff left but not before throwing an affectionate glance at Valerie. Valerie smiled at Jeff, then turned to scowl at her father. "Why are you doing this?" she shouted.

"Don't you yell at me, little girl. I told you to stay away from him and yet you continue to disobey me."

"Well maybe if you wouldn't treat me like a child all the time, I wouldn't have to," Valerie shouted.

Taker took a step back and narrowed his eyes at her. "You shouldn't challenge me, Joyful, I don't wanna have to tell Vince McMahon you're gonna be staying home from now on."

"You wouldn't," she challenged.

"I would and I will unless you stay away from that boy."

"He's not a boy, he's a man."

"And how would you know? Have you slept with him already?" Taker blurted out.

Valerie's jaw fell to the ground and she managed to choke out. "Is that how you think of me? Like some kind of slut?"

Taker took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I'm sorry, Joyful. I didn't mean that. I'm just looking out for you."

"Jeff isn't going to hurt me, dad," Valerie said.

"How do you know that? You hardly know the b…man."

Valerie couldn't help but smile at her father's attempts to be reasonable and she said, "I would like to have the chance to get to know him."

All of Taker's anger disappeared at the softness of Valerie's voice but he said, "I'm sorry but I can't let you."

Valerie's temper flared up. "Fine."

"Joyful…" Taker began.

"Forget it, if you don't want me to be happy, that's fine, I wont be."

"I do want you to be happy, I just don't want you to get hurt," Taker said exasperatedly.

Valerie ran an irritable hand through her hair. "But how do you know I will get hurt?"

"That Hardy Boy is no good, you don't know him, I do."

"There is nothing wrong with Jeff."

Taker looked at his daughter and saw that he wasn't going to be able to convince her to stay away from Jeff Hardy but he wasn't going to give up.

Just then, Sara walked up to them and said, "Can I say something?"

Valerie scoffed at her. "This should be good," she all but sneered, before turning away.

Taker frowned at his daughter and looked at Sara. He knew things weren't good between them but he didn't think they were this bad.

Sara continued, "Mark, maybe Valerie's right, maybe you should let them try it."

Valerie turned to Sara in astonishment and stared at her as Taker replied, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying maybe they would be good together," Sara said.

Valerie thought she was going crazy as she heard Sara say this.

"That Hardy boy is not good enough for my daughter," Taker insisted.

"That isn't for you to say," Sara said. "Valerie is 19 years old and it's up to her to decide who she's with."

Both Taker and Valerie stared at Sara and shook their heads to clear it at the same time.

Valerie composed herself and managed to ground out, "Thank you. I'm glad to see someone sees it my way."

Taker was stunned. "So I'm the bad guy now?"

"I didn't say that," Sara said gently.

There was a long and uncomfortable pause until Taker sighed. "I'll have to think about it."

Valerie smiled brightly and hugged her father. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"I'm not promising anything," Taker grumbled, though he hugged her back all the same. "In the mean time you are gonna make sure that you're not alone with that boy at any time."

Valerie noticed that he'd gone back to calling Jeff 'boy', but let it go. Now wasn't the time. "I wont be," she promised as she broke the hug and looked up at her father.

"If I find out that you are, I wont be thinking about anything, my answer will be a definite no."

"Alright," Valerie conceded.

Taker sighed again and muttered something that sounded like 'Damn that boy'.

Valerie smiled and said, "I'm gonna go find Jeff."

Taker turned to Valerie and stared at her. Valerie cringed,she might have pushed it on that one. But her father surprised her by saying, "Make sure you're not alone with him."

Taker left along with Sara before Valerie could answer and Valerie sighed. She decided she would find Jeff and talk to him right away. She walked in the direction Jeff had gone and eventually found him in the hall talking to Matt and Lita.

"Hey, you guys," she greeted.

Jeff turned around and his face instantly softened. Lita stepped to Valerie and hugged her.

"Jeff told us your dad freaked out when he saw you together," the female member of Team Extreme said. They broke the hug and Lita asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Valerie assured.

Valerie looked at Jeff and Jeff looked right back.

Lita and Matt exchanged knowing looks and Matt said, "We better get going."

"No," Valerie said suddenly.

Matt and Lita stopped in their tracks and Jeff frowned.

Valerie turned to Jeff to explain. "I…I talked to my father. He said he would think about letting us start something."

Jeff smiled a little and asked, "But?"

"But I can't be alone with you," Valerie said.

"What?" Matt asked incredulously.

"I can be around you but we can't be alone. Not until he's thought about it."

"That is not reasonable," Lita said.

"With my father, it's as reasonable as it's going to get," Valerie said.

Jeff nodded and smiled again. "So you can be around me?"

Valerie smiled also and said, "Yeah."

"Wanna get something to eat?" he asked.

"Sure, I'll meet you in the cafeteria in 10 minutes."

Jeff smiled and said, "See you then."

Jeff briefly touched Valerie's cheek and left with Matt and Lita.

As Valerie walked through the hall to make a brief stop at her father's dressingroom for some touching up, she could hear Matt say, "Little bro, you got it bad."

"Shut up, Matt," she heard Jeff grumble.

Valerie chuckled as she went around the corner. She ran into the Rock, who was on his way to get ready for his match that night. There was a camera in the hall so the Rock was completely in character.

"Hey Rock, how you doing?" Valerie asked, knowing what his answer would be.

"Valerie Calloway, the Rock doesn't have time for idle chatter. The Rock needs to get ready to lay the smack down on Rhyno's candyass. The Rock…will see you later."

The Rock smiled and winked at Valerie and walked off. Valerie smiled also and hurried to her father's dressingroom. After telling her father that she was going to the cafeteria and listening to her father's comments, 'I've heard that before' and 'He better not get frisky', she freshened up. By the time her father was done complaining, she was several minutes late in getting to the cafeteria.

Jeff was sitting at the bar alone, obviously waiting for her. He was anxiously looking around and when he saw Valerie his face lit up. He smiled and walked to her.

"Hi," Valerie said. "Sorry I'm late."

"That's okay," Jeff said. "I'm just glad you're here. For a second I thought your father had changed his mind."

There was a short and comfortable silence between as them as they went to the bar. They sat down and Jeff ordered them both something to drink. As they were sitting at the bar laughing and talking, someone was watching them closely. The person was standing near the entrance to the cafeteria watching them together.

"Well, well, well, little miss Calloway has a thing for the youngest Hardy," the person muttered. "Now this is interesting."