PART 3
THE NEXT DAY
Britney slowly opened her eyes and looked at the clock, which read 10:38 A.M. She blinked and went to move, but there were hands wrapped around her waist. "What the hell?" she mumbled underneath her breath. She never felt hands like these, they were gentle, unlike Brock. She remembered the night before, sighing happily when she recalled that they were Adam's arms, not Brock's. She was no longer shaken up like she was the night before, after all, it wasn't like he had never done something like that before. She turned over, facing him, surprised to see his eyes already open. He looked wide awake, and Britney knew he must have been up for awhile.
"Hey," he said, giving her a soft smile. "Good morning."
"Good morning," she said in reply. Raising an eyebrow, she asked him, "How long have you been awake?"
He chuckled lightly, "About 25 minutes, why?"
She glanced at him for a moment, "You didn't have to wait for me, you could have gotten up." He shook his head, smile forming once again.
"Nah, I like watching you sleep." Mentally cursing himself again, he thought, Great, now she probably thinks I'm an obsessed stalker. Smooth Adam, REAL smooth. He rushed to continue, "Sorry, that came out wrong. I just meant that you looked really at peace while you were asleep. It's very calming."
She smiled genuinely, "I understand what you mean." She looked at him for a minute, drinking in his handsome features. He really was a beautiful person, and she was so grateful to have him. Little did she know, Adam was thinking the exact same thing. He really was content watching her sleep, she really did have a calming affect on him. Just then, the hotel phone rang. Sighing as she stretched out to grab the phone, Britney answered.
"Hello?" she said, somewhat groggily.
"Is that damn Copeland still with you? How long can the punk go anyway?!" a brash voice yelled from the end. Gasping, Britney slammed the phone down as she could, causing Adam to jump.
"What happened?! Was that Brock?" he asked, talking her arm in his hand, noticing that she was trembling a little.
Nodding, she replied, "I don't think I can take much more of this." Adam ran his fingers through his hair.
"I'm going to Vince… today," he said furiously.
"You can't! I mean… Stephanie already went to him and Vince flipped on her," she replied sadly.
Adam thought to himself, 'I know, I was there.' Instead of saying that out loud, he decided on, "Well, maybe that's because nothing happened. Brock attacked you last night. You need to tell Vince, and…"
"NO!" she cried, jumping up into a sitting position. "You CAN'T tell Vince! He can't find out about this Adam! I just… please don't." He frowned at the hopeless tone in her voice.
"But why? If we don't go to Vince now, Brock is getting away with what he did!" he pleaded.
"He always does. Look, just don't go tell Vince… I'm gonna go get dressed now, thanks for staying with me," she said, standing up and heading to the bathroom, leaving Adam sitting up on the bed, mouth dropping open.
How could she just NOT tell Vince what had happened? What was she afraid of? Judging by her comments on Brock always getting away with things, he assumed he had done something like this before. He wanted to confront her about it, but decided it would be best to just leave her alone for a little while. Adam stood up and got ready to head back to his room to get new clothes. He stopped at the closed bathroom door and knocked.
"Hey, I'm going to my room to get some clothes, okay?"
He heard a quiet sniffle, and she simply said, "Yeah."
Gazing into the other room, Adam realized that it was completely trashed. "Uh Brit?" he asked. "Do you want me to clean this stuff up on my way out?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at the brown door separating them, wishing it wasn't there.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?" he asked once more, concerned.
After a long pause, she answered, "Yeah, please go."
He frowned, "Okay, I'll see you in a little while then, I guess." With that, he walked out of the room, picking up the magazines and stacking them neatly on the table.
IN THE BATHROOM
Britney sat on the closed toilet seat lid, allowing tears to spill over once again. She wanted SO badly to go to Vince and tell what happened, but she knew she couldn't. If she told him, she doubted he'd even believe her, but if he did, explaining everything was not something she looked forward to. The fact that Brock always got his way and acted like a saint around her uncle didn't really help the situation. She felt horrible about making Adam leave like that, but she couldn't cry in front of him AGAIN. He had really been so sweet towards her, especially in the past few days. He had really always been that way. He was one of the first people not to label her because of her relation to the McMahon's, specifically Shane and sometimes Stephanie. And when Paul dumped Stephanie, Adam was the first one to make friends with her. She thought about how he reacted to Brock calling her, how furious he was. The intensity on his face was scary, but it was also sexy as hell. Standing up, she turned on the water, washing her face and brushing her teeth. She left the bathroom, walking into the living room, where pieces of shattered glass were still all over the floor. There were no vacuums, and Britney checked about 8 times too. Finally, Britney gave up and called the front desk. She made up a story about how she and her boyfriend had gotten in a fight, and SHE had thrown the vase. She apologized profusely, asking the lady to send up a vacuum so she could clean it. The woman, luckily, was extremely sweet and said, "Oh, I understand how relationships can be. Just clean up the bigger pieces, and when the room is cleaned we'll get the rest. And I hope everything works out for you and your boyfriend." Britney smiled, "Thank you so much." She hung up the phone and went out to clean up the room.
LATER THAT DAY
Amy sat alone in the women's locker room, she was one of the first to arrive. As she flipped through a magazine, there was a knock on the door.
"Amy, it's Adam."
"Come in," she said, watching the tall blonde Canadian walk into the room.
"What's up?" she asked him. He looked a little too uneasy for her liking.
"I… uh… uh…" he started, not sure of how to tell her this.
"Spit it out," she said, smiling.
"Brock attacked Britney last night," he finally spit out.
"What?!" she gasped jumping up out of her chair, smile dropping to a frown. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she'll be okay. Physically at least," Adam said, sitting down on the bench.
Amy raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
Adam continued, looking at the lockers straight ahead. "He really fucked her up Ames. I heard the entire thing, I was right outside the door, but it was locked. I was damn close to tearing the whole door off its hinges. But, listening to what was going on in there, it just tore me apart. You had to have been there, to hear her crying. She was so scared." Amy's heart sunk as she sat next to him. Adam, Amy and Britney had always been best friends, but Amy never saw Britney cry, ever.
"Adam?" she asked, "What exactly did he do?" She looked at his pained face for a minute, she realized it must be really hard for him to do this.
He hesitated a moment before answering, "He… well, I know he slapped her, hard, on the face. Her shirt was completely torn in half. She could barely speak when I got to her, but… she, uh, he… he was gonna… rape her." Amy eyes widened as she felt tears fill them.
"What?! Oh god, this is not good! Why didn't you guys go to Vince?" she cried.
"I tried!" he replied defensively. "Brit begged me not to, I can't do it alone and I can't make her!" Amy pulled her long red hair out of its ponytail. This was really bad, but when she looked at Adam, so upset and hurt and confused, she couldn't help but blink the tears away and smile. He really cared about Britney and seemed to be completely head over heels. Just then, Adam looked up at her.
"What are you smiling about?" he asked, almost sounding a little offended.
"I think Brit will be just fine. She's in good hands," she replied.
"Yeah, I know all the guys will protect her," Adam said sincerely.
Gently touching his cheek as she stood, she answered, "I was talking about you." Adam smiled coyly and as he was about to respond, the door opened and Trish and Nora walked in.
"Hey Amy, hey Adam. Adam, you gotta get out so I get ready for my match," Nora said nicely.
"Yes ma'am," he said, finally cracking a full smile. "Bye Ames, bye girls." After they said goodbyes, Adam left the women in the locker room to prepare for their matches.
AFTER THE SHOW THAT NIGHT
Adam was putting ring gear in his bag, getting ready to leave the arena.
"Hey Adam," Jay said, coming in and patting him on the back. Adam stood and saw his friend standing behind him.
"Oh, hey Jay," he replied, somewhat distantly. Having known Adam for so long, Jay picked up on it immediately.
"What's wrong man?" he asked, concerned. Adam sighed, zipping up his bag.
"Nothing. It's just this whole thing with Britney, it just… bothers me," he said, telling the truth. He knew he wouldn't be able to lie to Jay about it. 15 years of friendship will to that to you.
"I know man," Jay replied. "We're all worried. We know this guy is dangerous."
You have NO idea, Adam thought. Suddenly, the locker room door opened and in walked Brock Lesnar.
"Let's go Adam," Jay said, noticing the rage in Adam's eyes at the sight of the man. Grabbing him by the arm, he tried to pull Adam out of the locker room, but Adam yanked his arm free. He walked up to Brock, Jay right behind him, spinning the big man around to face him.
"Oh hey Copeland!" Brock said, evil smile forming on his face. "Why the hostile face buddy?" he continued, noticing the expression Adam was wearing.
"Don't 'buddy' me you asshole," Adam said, clenching his teeth as Jay tightened his grip on his friend's arm.
"You are so lucky that there are 35 guys in this room. Otherwise, I'd fucking…"
"What?" Brock interrupted. "Beat my ass? Oh wait… what were the other ones? Oh yeah, you gonna rip my dick off? Slowly and mercilessly kill me? I DARE you to try and pull any of that on me," he taunted.
"Come on Adam," Jay pleaded, "Just drop it."
"Don't push me Brock, or I WILL pull ALL of that on you," Adam threatened. Brock glanced at the locker room, staring wide-eyed at the conversation, before replying.
"You know, you talk a lot of shit that you sure as hell don't back up!" Brock said before pushing past Adam, who in turn stormed out of the room, dragging Jay with him. The rest of the locker room, even the loud-mouthed Paul Levesque, was in a silenced awe, except for a hushed, "Dude," slipping from Rob Szaktowski's mouth.
Outside the locker room, Jason tried to calm Adam down. "Come on Adam, don't worry about it. Don't pick fights with this guy because of some shit that happened years…"
"Fuck you Jay!" Adam cut him off. "You have NO fucking clue about what's going on!" Jay looked at his friend, concern flooding his face at the sight of Adam's pained face.
"Adam, what the hell are you talking about?"
"He attacked her last night, in her hotel room. God, Jay, she was so scared. She just looked so helpless. It crushed me, I could barely speak."
"But you sure as hell can do some talking now!" Adam and Jay turned to see Britney standing behind them, looking pretty pissed off.
"Hey Brit," Adam said, moving his arm to reach out for her. He frowned when she smacked his arm away. She looked at him angrily, he couldn't believe she was angry with him.
"Come on Adam, don't you have anything to say?" she said crossly. Before he could answer, she continued. "You sure as hell did a lot of talking earlier!" Both Adam and Jay stared at her, mouths dropping open. What the hell was she talking about?
Obviously not waiting for him to speak, she went on, "How DARE you talk about last night after I told you specifically not to! I had everyone in the entire mother fucking company coming up to me asking questions about something I'm not particularly interested in talking about." Adam's heart dropped at the site of her. While she did look really pissed, she also looked so exhausted, he'd never seen her this way before. He didn't know what to say to her.
"Brit, I… I'm sorry. I only told two people."
She continued glaring at him, "People talk! Look, I really do appreciate you trying to help me and all, but I just don't need it. I need you to stay away from Brock and leave this whole mess alone," she said, a little less fiercely.
"Uh guys?" Jay chimed in. "I'm gonna leave you two alone, I'll catch you later." Both Britney and Adam nodded and then Britney repeated herself.
"Please Adam, just let it go."
Adam eyed the young McMahon and didn't like how hopeless she looked. "I can't do that, I care about you too damn much to just forget about it. I can't stand to see him do this to you," Adam said sadly. He looked away for a moment, unable to stand seeing her so upset.
Suddenly, she spoke, "What am I supposed to do?" she asked, talking to herself really. "I mean, even I DID go to Vince, he's not gonna fire him or anything… he loves Brock, cause Brock will kiss his ass on the spot. Don't get me wrong, I love Vince more than anything. He's been like a father to me. But when you've got an ego like my uncle does, an ass-kisser is your best friend. It's useless."
Adam didn't wait long to reply, "But it's not useless! Brit, you've got all of us, especially me, on your side! I swear, I will do everything in my power to keep him away from you, but you gotta help me. Promise me you'll tell Vince," he pleaded. They made eye contact for a second, then Britney's eyes darted away quickly. He didn't like how uneasy she appeared, when she knew she could trust him.
"Adam…" she started slowly, "…no. I can't tell Vince, I'm not going to! At least not until next time, maybe. But I'm not making any guarantees."
After that, she mumbled something about meeting Stephanie somewhere and sauntered off. When she turned the corner, Adam sank back against the wall. That entire conversation just put an even bigger knot in his stomach. He thought about her last statement, "Not until next time, maybe. But I'm not making any guarantees." For some reason, he felt that "next time" he wouldn't be able to get to her quick enough. Brock would have his way with her and leave her and she'd be back where she started ----- alone and afraid. Adam didn't want her to be either of those things ever again. He loved her, regardless of whether or not she loved him back, and he only wanted her to be happy. There HAD to be a way to get through to her, some way to make her realize that she needed someone's help, and that HE desperately wanted to be that someone.
