A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviews – you make it worth it!! The song in this one is by Berlin. Lyrics used without permission
"Trish, what the hell is this?"
Three days later she remembered Bubba's words, his exact tone of voice. On Tuesday, while she was paying bills, he'd decided to do some laundry and had uncovered the conch shell, wrapped up in one of her shirts. She'd had to confess everything, up to and including 'Where's Waldo' but not going as far as revealing that she knew who it was. And then something strange came over Bubba. Realizing that he was contending with an enemy he couldn't see or fight, he began to try harder, a little too hard. When they'd made love it had seemed almost forced and in the end she'd faked it - something she'd only had to do once or twice before and only when one of them had had a particularly hard day. Bubba hadn't seemed to notice, but that didn't stop her from feeling terrible about it. She had to sort this out, had to sit down with Christian for a deep and meaningful, so the presents would stop and things could go back to normal.
But in the meantime, she had a few options.
She thought about sticking by Bubba's side until she was absolutely sure that Christian was elsewhere, but that would just look suspicious. She and Bubba had always given each other their space to have their own friends and carve their own niche in the WWE. It was one of the great things about their relationship and Trish didn't want to mess with it - not for the sake of a crush.
Or she could just go on doing nothing. Maybe if she pretended like nothing was going on, it would all just settle. Neither Bubba nor Christian had any idea that she knew the identity of the secret santa, so if Trish could only keep it that way, letting Bubba go on being pissed off and Christian being anonymous, everything would be cool. Surely she could deal with bad sex until Secret Santa day. . .couldn't she?
And then there was one final option - she could flaunt it. Not that she knew her admirer's identity, but that she had a secret santa who wanted to give her an extra large dose of Christmas cheer. She could wear her earrings and watch, and let the word spread around as her coworkers talked behind her back about what Bubba was possibly going to do about the situation. Maybe then Christian would realize what everyone else seemed to know - that Trish was untouchable - and back off. Yeah, that was definitely the way to go.
She headed into the main hotel room from the bathroom, where she'd been fixing her hair and putting on makeup. In seemingly moments, the earrings were in and her watch was on. She crawled up behind Bubba, who was sitting on the bed and writing Christmas cards.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind.
"Mmm," he nodded as she began kissing the back of his neck. "I got maybe two to go. Could you throw a towel in with my stuff?"
"Sure," Trish replied, but she didn't move as she went on kissing him.
"Trish?" he asked a few moments later.
"Mmm hmm?"
"What are you. . ."
He didn't get to finish his question. Trish had thrown him down and was kissing him hard on the mouth.
"I love you, Bubba Ray," she told him. "You're the only man whose lap I wanna be sitting in this Christmas."
Bubba grinned and leaned up to share in the kiss. "Will you tell me all your Christmas wishes and fantasies?"
"You bet," Trish nodded.
"Well then," Bubba smiled. "Bubba Claus will just have to make sure they all come true."
* * * *
"You look happy," Lita greeted her.
"I am," Trish nodded.
"You're wearing your Secret Santa stuff," Lita noticed.
"Yep."
"Well?" The redhead was staring at her expectantly.
"I'm not going to let it bother me anymore," Trish replied simply. "So someone has a crush on me and wants to buy me stuff. I say let them. I mean, I have been the internet babe of the year three years running."
"Proving once and for all that geeks love you," Lita teased.
"Yep, and teenagers love you," Trish nodded. "But anyway, I'm letting it go now, Li. It's not as though the fans don't try to give me gifts - why shouldn't my coworkers?"
"Ah, she's finally getting it," Gail Kim called out, approaching Trish. "Oh, but while you're investigating this, keep away from Jindrak and Cade. I'm not quite done with them yet."
"That's okay, Gail," Trish waved her off. "They're all yours."
"You should hit on them anyway, just to see the look on her face," Lita murmured.
"This isn't about me hitting on anyone," Trish told her. "This is about me - and Bubba - just letting things be. That's all."
"What about Christian?" Lita prompted.
"What about him?"
"Where's Waldo? Don't try to find me? That's pretty creepy. What if he starts getting all psycho obsessive?"
"Where's Waldo was just Christian being goofy," Trish argued. "You know he's one of the goofiest guys on the roster."
"Yeah, but there's goofy and then there's just plain weird," Lita pointed out.
"Okay," Trish agreed. "If at any time he gives me a horse's head with a note saying he wants to mount me, I'll call the police. But I really think it's harmless and either he'll back off, or he'll make a move, at which point I'll let him down easy."
"If you think that's the right thing to do," Lita conceded. "But anyway, tonight's gift's already here. Happy secret santa."
She handed over another package, once again wrapped in Christmas paper. It was around the size and shape to again be a book - a small novel, perhaps. Trish just opened it casually.
"If he wants to spend all this money on me, that's up to him."
"What is it?" Lita asked her.
"A DVD. Scooby Doo."
"No note this time?" Lita prompted.
"Not that I can see. Wait, the DVD's not in plastic." She opened the cover and sure enough, there was her note.
'Trish. Sorry if I got a little spooky with the book last Monday. I promise I will reveal myself when the time is right. Until then, you can be Daphne and I'll be Fred. Merry Christmas. Your Secret Santa.'
"Aww, that's sweet," Terri called across the room.
"Yeah, it is," Lita agreed. "Too sweet. Trish, girl, he's got a gigantic crush on you. And speaking of crushing, he's gonna be destroyed if you wait until secret santa day to turn him down. I think you should just get it over with."
"I can't," Trish insisted. "He's knows I'm with Bubba. It's not as though that's some secret. Any way of meeting him in private is sure to be found out by Bubba and put our relationship at risk. So just like me, Christian will have to wait. Cool DVD though."
* * * *
"So, are we clear on that, Trish?" Jericho asked her.
"Sure, sounds fine to me."
"Great, then we're done here. See you out there." He gave her a winning grin and began to leave.
They were doing a bit for the house show, quite apart from any matches, where Chris Jericho was trying to get Trish back after having lied to her. It ended with Trish conceding to his request for a hug, only to sink her knee up into his balls. Should be pretty fun but it proved Jericho was a weird one, considering the whole knee to the groin thing had been his idea.
"Hey Chris," she called, stopping him from leaving. While she'd decided not to approach Christian, surely no one would know how deep his feelings for her ran than his friends - well, the ones who weren't Bubba, anyway.
Jericho turned back expectantly.
"Christian's your best friend, right?"
Jericho grinned. "Trish, men don't have best friends. They have drinking buddies."
"Right, well I know Christian's one of your favourite drinking buddies. Has he ever. . .you know, said anything about me?"
Jericho frowned at her. "Christian?"
"Yeah," Trish nodded. "I mean, has he mentioned possibly having feelings for me?"
"Trish," Jericho replied slowly. "I had no idea you and Bubba boy were ending it. . ."
"We're not," Trish cut in assuredly. "Me and Bubba are great right now. . ."
"Right, I got ya," Jericho replied. "You're keeping your options open."
"No," Trish insisted. "Okay, you've probably heard that someone's giving me more than my fair share of secret santa gifts. Well, I think that someone is Christian."
"No, it's not," Jericho told her instantly.
"It - it's not?" Trish asked.
"Nope. Christian drew Lawler. He's buying him porn. Easiest man in the world to buy for. What's hard is finding a porno Lawler hasn't seen."
"Right," Trish sighed. "But anyway, about Christian. Mark Jindrak was sitting next to him and said he drew my name."
"Jindrak's full of shit. I was next to Christian. Trust me, Trish. He drew Lawler. He's not your mysterious santa."
Trish stared at Jericho for a few moments. He looked so certain - and who was she to believe Gail Kim over him, who she'd known for far longer?
"So he definitely drew Lawler?"
"Yeah," Jericho nodded. "But don't go spreading that around. It's supposed to be a secret. You know, secret santa?"
"Okay. Thanks, Chris."
"Anytime."
Trish shook her head in confusion as she headed back to the locker room, the scene she'd just practiced already far from her mind. So she was back to square one.
"Girls, we were wrong. It's not Christian."
"What?" Lita asked.
"I just talked to Jericho and he said Jindrak was lying, probably because someone was withholding sex until she got a response." She narrowed her eyes at Gail. "Apparently Christian drew Jerry Lawler."
"Okay," Gail replied, her voice already snarky. "Firstly, withhold sex? I'd never do such a thing. And secondly, we already proved it was Christian. Remember the handwriting?"
"Oh yeah," Trish murmured sheepishly.
"Well, it does tell us something new," Lita announced. "Not only does Christian like you, but Jericho's in on it and is trying to help him. Poor Bubba can't even trust his friends."
"Hey, maybe you can talk to him," Trish suggested.
"Who, Bubba?" Lita questioned.
"No, Christian. Do you guys have a sketch tonight?"
"Yeah, but we already practiced."
"Oh." Trish's face fell. "Okay then. I just thought that since it's gonna be tough for me to do it without Bubba finding out. . ."
"I'll talk to him, Trish," Lita cut in. "Later. After the show. It is about to start, though with all the running around you keep doing I'm not surprised you didn't know that. But I'll ask him for a drink after. We can have a nice long chat."
"Thanks, Li. Tell me everything?"
"You bet."
* * * *
Trish and Bubba were just drifting off to sleep when one of their cell phones beeped loudly.
A semi-asleep Bubba let out a groan. "Yours or mine?"
"I don't. . ." Trish began before her mind cleared enough for her to think. "It's probably Lita. She was going out with Christian tonight."
"Mmm," Bubba replied, barely registering. He rolled over as Trish turned on the bedside light and reached for her phone. Sure enough, there was a message from Lita.
'He said same as Y2J. C U 2morrow 4 lunch.'
Now it was Trish's turn to groan. Either there was some great conspiracy going on between Christian and Jericho, or there was someone out there sending her stuff who just happened to have very similar handwriting to the CLB. Whatever, it could wait until she and Lita discussed it properly over lunch tomorrow. Right now Trish had only one thing on her mind. Sleep.
* * * *
"See, what I don't understand is why he's going to all this effort to pretend it's not him," Trish stated as they drove back to the hotel, continuing the same conversation they'd started over lunch. "He's always seemed the 'take credit' kind to me, even when it's not his work. You'd think he'd be telling everyone about all the work he's doing to get me."
"Unless it really isn't him," Lita suggested.
Trish cocked her head at Lita. "You've said that a few times today. Do you really believe it's someone else? Even though we had all these clues that it might be him."
"What do we have?" Lita countered. "Some generic handwriting and the word of a rookie we don't even know. I was so sure last night, Trish. He had me totally convinced."
"And today? What do you think today? Is it him?"
"I really don't know anymore," Lita sighed. "I mean, he's the easy answer - as in, if it's not him, who is it? But put it this way. If it is him, he's a really, really good liar."
Trish sat back in her seat. If even her best friend was doubting it was Christian, where did that leave her? Back to suspecting Maven, or someone else altogether? She wasn't sure she liked that idea. Christian was goofy, non-threatening. What if it actually ended up being someone like Mark Henry, Scott Steiner or Kane? In nine days, she'd know for sure - unless she kept on pushing and searching. She liked the thought of it being Christian, that on December 15th he'd admit that he and Jericho had cooked up this little thing to keep the secret. It would be hard telling him she wasn't interested, but at least the idea of him crushing on her wasn't completely repulsive.
"Well, do you think I should keep looking or just wait?" she asked Lita.
Lita shrugged. "It's up to you. Personally, I thought you were on to something yesterday when you said you'd just let whoever it was keep on admiring you and buying you things. I was just making sure you'd thought it through, that it was what you wanted to do."
"I don't even know what I want to do," Trish told her. "I mean, it sucks for Bubba, but to tell you the truth, I love waiting to see what he's going to get me next. I'm getting a little kick out of opening the gifts."
"Or a big kick," Lita teased. "Enjoy it. Maybe whoever it is just wants you to be happy, to feel loved. Everyone deserves to be loved. . ." Her voice darkened and she frowned at the road ahead.
"You still miss him?" Trish asked gently.
Lita nodded slowly. "Stupid, huh? We broke up so long ago. It's just sometimes. . .I really thought he was the one, you know? I thought we'd wind up getting married, having kids. . ."
"We all thought that about you guys," Trish told her.
"Yeah, well I guess Matt didn't," Lita muttered. "But whatever, I just have to get over it." She leaned forward to turn on the radio, then pressed a button to searching for local stations. "Music time."
Seconds later sound emanated from the speakers as the radio tuned into a station. The strains of Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away' filled the car.
"Too depressing," Trish muttered, reaching down to change stations.
But Lita stopped it. "Leave it. I love that song."
Trish gave her a quirky look. "You don't normally like this kind of music."
"Well, I like this song. It's romantic. Reminds me of Matt."
"And you want that?"
Lita hesitated. "Yeah. . .I know it's crazy, but I'm not ready to let go just yet."
"That's not crazy," Trish replied quietly. "And we can listen if you want to. But if the next song sucks, I'm changing it."
Lita didn't reply. She was too busy with driving and listening to the song. Trish, too, let the words and music wash over her. Lita was right; it was a beautiful song. The words, the music. . .
'Through the hourglass I saw you
In time you slipped away,
When the mirror crashed I called you
And turned to hear you say
If only for today
I am unafraid'
'Take My Breath Away'
'Watching every motion
In this foolish lover's game
Haunted by the notion
Somewhere there's a love in flames
Turning and returning
To some secret place inside
Watching in slow motion
As you turn around and say'
The song finished and the DJ spoke.
"That's Berlin with 'Take My Breath Away' on your all-request Saturday and that's the third of our three song block going out to Trish from her secret santa. . .or should we say her secret admirer."
"Oh my God, Trish, did you hear that?" Lita cried.
"What, you think it's me?" Trish frowned. "No way. How would he know I'd be listening at this exact time?"
"I don't know," Lita shrugged. "But he requested three songs. Maybe he thought he'd just try and hope you'd hear it."
"Yeah," Trish agreed. "Seems like a long shot, though."
"Coincidence, maybe?" Lita suggested. "A lot of good things in life are about coincidence."
"Are you saying this whole thing is good?" Trish frowned.
"Well, it's definitely not bad," Lita replied. "In one corner you have Bubba, the devoted boyfriend and in the other, a masked newcomer, determined to win the match of his life. It's pay per view stuff, Trishy."
"Well, I'm sorry, Lita, but this love match is ending in a no contest," Trish announced. "I'm all Bubba's. . .no matter how many songs this guy requests for me."
* * * *
Trish heard the music slowly wafting through the air.
'Turning and returning
To some secret place inside
Watching in slow motion
As you turn around and say'
'Take my breath away'
Christian - could he possibly have come up with such a gorgeous song to request for her? She would have picked him more for a Jay-Z or 50 Cent fan when it came to how to seduce a woman.
She pushed open the door to the locker room, but the music only got louder.
'Watching I keep waiting
Still anticipating love
Never hesitating
To became the fated ones'
"Very funny, Lita," she commented, spotting the small stereo. She froze when she realized that only Gail, Victoria and Molly were in the room.
"Why is that song playing?" she demanded, a chill rushing over her entire body.
"Because Molly likes it," Gail replied. "It's your latest present, by the way. We thought we'd open it for you."
"What's my latest present?" Trish frowned.
"This CD." Gail held up the case. "'The World's Best Love Songs, Volume One.' It has some real sappy tunes, 'I Want To Know What Love Is', 'Love Is All Around', this one."
"If that's my present, where's the note?" Trish asked and Gail instantly held up a piece of paper in her other hand. "He was cool, but then he turned sappy. It's time to let him go."
Trish took the note from her and began to read.
'Trish. Hope you caught my radio presentation today, but even if you didn't, those three songs are all on this CD, along with some others that also express how I feel about you. You're amazing. Merry Christmas. Your Secret Santa.'
"Wow," Trish mused. "He really put a lot of effort into this one."
"And with it, he bought himself a one way ticket to Loserville," Gail muttered.
"Gail, I just realized something," Trish announced. "You're jealous of this secret santa thing. While I have someone spending countless hours on me, you have to hit on rookie tag teams just to get any action at all."
Gail let out a laugh. "You really need all the attention on you, don't you? As if I'd want a CD with 'Wind Beneath My Wings' on it."
"Unless it actually came from someone you want to be your next conquest, and you know it, but you don't want to tell me."
"Okay, take a pill," Gail snapped. "How many times do we have to remind you that your stupid admirer is Christian?"
"Is it, Gail? Or is that little story just an attempt to buy some time while you work on this guy yourself? Jericho has said straight out that it's not Christian, who confirmed it."
"Then they're your liars," Gail replied strongly. "I don't know what this is, if it's some little game Jericho and Christian have going on, but I personally have nothing to gain by lying to you. I did what I said I'd do and found out for you. If you want to question my source, that's up to you. . ."
"I am questioning your source, Gail," Trish cut in. "I still think what I said before - that Jindrak only said it was Christian to get some from you - that's if Jindrak said it at all."
"Why would he make that up?" Gail challenged. "Why Christian? Why not Kane or Hunter or Goldberg?"
"Goldberg's excused from the secret santa draw because of his religion," Molly piped up, but the other two ignored her.
"That's why I'm wondering if he said it at all," Trish snapped. "I think you made it up. Why Christian? I don't know. Maybe you saw that he and Bubba have started hanging out again and you wanted to stop that because you're a nasty little slut who doesn't want anyone, including yourself, to be happy. Maybe that's it."
Gail glared back savagely. "When this whole thing's over and you see I was right all along, I expect a full apology - dark chocolates, not milk. Until then, you can do whatever you think you need to do. I'm not defending myself to you. I have nothing to prove. You just play your little conspiracy theory game. I'm out of it."
Trish held out her hands in frustration. "Gail? We could do the normal thing and settle our differences in the ring."
"There's nothing to settle," Gail replied darkly. "I'm waiting this one out. Good luck on your wild goose chase, though. I'm glad some people have that much time on their hands."
Then all was quiet until a new song started. Molly frowned over at Trish.
"I was the one that got Christian's handwriting. We all saw it matched."
"I'm just not sure anymore, Molly," Trish sighed. "Maybe it didn't match at all. Maybe I just wanted it to. Here, compare this note if you want to."
Molly took the piece of paper and headed over to get out her address book.
"It could match," she announced minutes later. "But it looks like a few of these - maybe Shawn Michaels or Tommy Dreamer."
"I guess it doesn't really matter who it is," Trish conceded. "I'd be turning him down anyway. It's just that if you know what you're dealing with, you can kind of predict the consequences."
"Well, who don't you want it to be?" Victoria asked. "I mean, you're talking about consequences, like your whole world will come crashing down around you as soon as this guy takes off his 'mask'. Whose face is there, Trish? Who would really make things difficult, if it was them?"
"Well, D-Von or Spike, obviously," Trish replied. "Or Matt Hardy. . .or Drew, for that matter. Randy Orton or those other Evolution guys probably wouldn't take no for an answer and Bischoff would try to get political, like he could even try to fire me or Bubba like he did to Lita. So yeah, any of those."
"Okay," Victoria nodded. "And who do you want it to be?"
"What do you mean who do I want it to be?" Trish cried defensively. "No one!"
"But someone on this roster is sending you romantic gifts and trying to steal you away. Who is that someone?"
Trish hesitated as she realized the truth. Who did she want it to be? She couldn't tell the other divas, but she did know the answer to that one. Christian.
* * * *
