A/N: A sequel to 'My Immortal'. A couple of people asked if there was one
and I got inspired I guess. Song is 'Imaginary' by Evanescence. If the
Spanish in this chapter (and the tiny bit that I used in MI) is really bad
and ungrammatical I'm really sorry. I only know a little bit and I'm not
sure how coherent it is, so feel free to FLAME me for it. I will
understand.
(Although, if you wanted to offer me some corrections, and you're fluent in
Spanish I'd love to hear from you. I'm looking for someone to beta read a
new story of mine that has a lot of Spanish in it, so drop me a line.)
As always, let me know what you think,
Samantha.
****************
Imaginary.
"Chica?" Rey asked gently, sensing her awake beside him. "You should be asleep."
"I don't sleep well." She said softly, her head still cushioned against the pillow, which rested against the wall of the plane. Lita remained perfectly still, just looking out of the window.
"It will be all right you know." He said softly, patting her leg.
She didn't answer him, but tears trickled softly down her cheeks.
Unable to comfort her, Rey just stayed where he was, hoping that by just being there with her, she'd know that he was there for her.
"How was she?" John asked as they began to collect their baggage.
"She slept for a while, but she also said that she hasn't bee sleeping well lately." Rey answered, then became more serious. "Our luchadora cried again. I'm worried that Matt has broken her."
"I should have killed the bastard." John growled. "Killed him for what he did to her."
"Get in line." Rey told him, watching as Jeff guided Lita back over to them.
Jeff had his arm around Lita, and had added her carry on luggage to his own, slinging both bags over one shoulder.
"Let's just go home guys." He told the other two.
They looked at him strangely for a second, wondering if Lita had said something to him, but she remained almost completely silent all the way to Jeff's, save for several 'yes' and 'no' answers, a tiny 'I'll have a vanilla thick shake please' and a pained 'It's good to be home.'
Late that night, when the guys walked upstairs to check on Lita, they found her lying on her bed, on her back, just staring up at the ceiling.
Without hesitation Jeff lay down next to her, looking up at the ceiling. It was only when he turned his head to look at her that he noticed tears sparkling in her brilliant hazel eyes.
"You're better off without him." He told her. "I know that Matt's my brother, so I know just how much of an ass he can be."
"Last week on RAW..." Lita began, then dissolved into tears, turning on her side and curling up against him. Gently he patted her back and hugged her, trying to calm her with no success.
"It's going to be okay." He told her gently.
"I feel like I'm dying." She choked out. "More and more everyday since he left me, and a part of me just wants it all to stop." She broke into a fresh flood of tears, sobbing into Jeff's chest like the world was ending.
As her sobs abated Rey and John squashed onto the bed with them, all four of them just staring up at the ceiling.
"You know," Jeff began, "I think we really need to paint this ceiling. It's so... white."
Lita didn't even smile at his words. Instead she wriggled a little to make herself more comfortable, then began to speak, her voice calm this time. "Last week on RAW when Matt told me that he had something to ask me, I was so excited."
"We know babe." John told her. "It's okay, you don't have to explain it to us. We saw it."
"I was so excited, not just because I thought he wanted to marry me, but also because I had something I wanted to tell him."
She fell silent for several moments, and the three men knew that she was trying to collect her thoughts, and choose the right words. "Guys, I'm pregnant with Matt's child." She said softly, waiting for their individual responses.
"?Tu embarazada?" Rey asked quietly. *You're pregnant.*
"Si." She answered him in Spanish.
"I'll kill him." John fumed. "I'll absolutely kill him."
"I'm going to be an uncle." Jeff piped up suddenly.
His shocked, but happy vocalization was enough to make Lita smile.
"Thank you for bringing me home." She told them. "I really needed it."
John managed a lop-sided smile. "That's what friends are for."
"No." Lita corrected him. "That's what family is for."
The four were quiet for several moments before Jeff spoke. "Have you thought about getting another place? I mean, I know you've moved most of the stuff you had at Dad's house."
"I'm thinking about it." She replied. "I just haven't had much time lately. "I had all of my stuff thrown into storage. You want to help me with house hunting?"
"Move in here." Jeff told her. "Don't look at me like that, I'm serious. If you move in here, you won't have to worry about looking for another place, and I'll be around to help you with the baby once it's born."
"That's a lot to ask of you." She told him.
"I know what I'm getting myself in for." He told her.
"Besides, with Matt being the ass that he is, I'll never get to see my niece or nephew otherwise, and I know that Dad would like it if you stuck around."
"Do you know what I realized last night, or the night before, when you guys came to get me? I realized that I'm not in love with Matt anymore. Then I had the stupidity to think that I was alone. And there you three were, proving me wrong, and showing me just how lucky I am."
The three men lay there staring at Lita with confused looks on their faces.
"I'm lucky because I know that I'm loved by some of the strongest people I'll ever meet in my lifetime."
********
"Jeff, what are you doing?" Lita groaned as sunlight flooded the room, pulling her doona up, and burying her head in her pillows.
"I'm measuring." He answered happily, something uncharacteristic for him early in the morning.
"Haven't you heard of morning sickness?" She groaned.
"You aren't being sick." He answered, still measuring away.
"I feel like I got hit by a truck." She growled, throwing a spare pillow at him, which connected satisfactorily with his back. "Go away." Lita rolled onto her other side and curled up to sleep again.
***********
Hours later she appeared in the lounge room where Jeff and John were playing one of the latest wrestling games on PS2.
Without speaking Lita curled up on the couch next to Rey, resting her head in his lap.
"How did you sleep?" He asked.
"Better." She confessed, "But still not great."
"It just takes time." He told her, stroking her hair as she relaxed.
"Got you!" John cheered as his character pinned Jeff's.
"So what the hell were you measuring in my room this morning?" Lita asked Jeff. "And why the hell were you in such a hurry to be measuring?"
"I thought we could get your room re-done." He grinned at her. "What happened to you being a morning person?"
"Morning sickness." She replied, still comfortable in Rey's lap.
"How are you doing?" John asked her.
"I just spent twenty minutes throwing up everything I've eaten in the last eight hours."
"Does that mean you're hungry?" Jeff asked.
Lita managed to shake her head, and closed her eyes, comfortable and safe in Rey's lap.
************
"Do you think we should go in there and get her?" John asked, "I mean, she needs to eat."
Jeff nodded, "Rey, can you take over here?"
Rey surprised him by turning the hot plate off and following the out of the room, each of them listening to find out where she might be.
They finally found her, but only by the sound of the keyboard, which resonated through the whole top floor of the house.
"I linger in the doorway,
of alarm clocks screaming
monsters calling my name
let me stay
where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story."
Jeff shook his head as she played, closing his eyes as she sang, her voice almost melancholy and despairing, but her words were gentle and poetic, each one carefully pronounced, without the infliction of her mixed Southern, Spanish and slight Canadian accent, gained from hanging around Trish so much.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
The three men stood there, not willing to interrupt as she continued, the song not quite making sense, strangely whimsical and fantastic for her, yet seemed to be more her than anything else.
"Don't say I'm out of touch
with this rampant chaos, your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge,
the nightmare I built my own world to escape."
As she sang, Rey remembered some of the words being used before.
'You're out of touch, Lita.' Matt had yelled at her during an argument.
'I don't want anything to do with your chaos.' She'd answered, then walked off into the hall, where Rey had followed her, and held her tightly as she cried.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
John was strangely moved by Lita's playing, something that didn't happen often to the Doctor of Thuganomics, who preferred free-style rap and heavy music, but this music was pure and the way she played it, was almost like a reflection of all the emotion she held inside.
"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
the goddess of imaginary light...."
The change of tempo moved each of the men almost as much as her song did, though they weren't sure if Lita knew that they were there.
At the keyboard, Lita continued to move her fingers over the keys, lulled by the smooth, gentle melody of the song, and finally relaxed in a whirl of her own creativity.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me.
In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
They stood in silence as the last notes died away, Lita speaking before any of the guys did.
"It's my new song." She said softly.
"It's beautiful." Jeff told her. "Where did you get the idea?"
"Remember how we were bored and we thought we'd make some stuff? That collage I made..."
"The one Matt teased you about." Jeff nodded as he remembered what she'd made. "Paper flowers, pink clouds and a purple sky."
************
On Wednesday Lita, Rey and John drove to Charlotte, where SMACKDOWN! was being filmed.
"Hey," A voice called to the trio a they walked towards the men's locker room.
They turned to face the speaker, and Lita found herself wrapped up in a hug.
"I thought it was you." Kurt was telling her. "Defecting are we?"
Lita smiled as he let her go. "More like vacation. I came with these two." She gestured to Rey and John.
"What about RAW? JR and the King made up some excuse as you why you weren't there."
"Wasn't up to performing." She shrugged. "I'm fully expecting to be fired next Monday, but I just don't care any more."
"Chica, what are you doing in this neck of the words?" Eddie Guerrero exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.
"Just visiting." Lita managed to smile again. "I've been in North Carolina since Saturday I think, and the guys asked me if I wanted come to tonight's taping."
"What the hell is going on here?" Paul Heyman's voice sounded.
"Chill, chill, chill." John told him, "She's with us tonight." He gestured to Lita as he spoke.
Lita held up her visitor's pass. "I'm just visiting Paul."
"I wish you were defecting." He told her. "We could use someone to spice up the women's division."
"The only reason I'm on RAW, not SMACKDOWN is that the Women's Championship belt is on RAW. Otherwise I'd be here. It's a better work environment."
"How's Matt by the way?" Paul asked.
Lita's smile immediately failed. "You didn't see him dump me on RAW, not last show the one before? You must be one of the only people who didn't."
Several of the superstars stared at her.
"You're kidding?" Eddie said to her.
"He showed up, gave everyone the idea that he wanted to marry me, then betrayed me. Needless to say we're not on speaking terms anymore."
"What a prick!" Dawn-Marie announced as she gave Lita a hug, sensing that the other woman was about to lose her composure.
"To make matters worse, I got fired right after." Lita shook her head. "I'm lucky I still have a couple of friends on RAW. Christian used a favor Bischoff owed him to get me my job back, but I don't know if I want to keep working there any more."
"I'll sign you faster than you can say 'I quit'." Paul promised.
"Whatever happens, I'm going to take some personal time. There are some things I need to do before I start seriously wrestling again."
The others looked at her cautiously, but found themselves distracted by someone turning on loud music.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Paul shouted over the noise.
"I THINK NIDIA'S CELEBRATING AGAIN!" Dawn screamed in response, covering her own ears. "LITA, COME ON! YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD USE SOME CHEERING UP!" The taller diva grinned at Lita, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the noise.
"It looks like she's doing okay." Kurt shrugged.
"She's just doing better." John told them. "I think being somewhere different is helping."
"What do you mean she's doing better?" Paul asked. "How bad has she been?"
"Crying all the time, not sleeping, the first few days we had her home she'd only eat when we sat her down at the table." John shook his head. "I could kill him for what he did to her."
"We all could." Kurt told him. "We still might."
Later on Lita practically danced into the guys locker room and promptly curled herself up next to Rey.
"Is everything okay?" John asked her.
She just nodded and smiled at him. "I think I should get together with Dawn, Nidia and Torrie more often."
"How are you feeling, about Matt I mean?" Bradshaw asked from beside John, while Lita could see Rey's reflection in the mirror, the 'Mexican Jumping Bean' making exuberant 'NO' gestures.
"I'm not going to cry." She told Rey, "He's not worth it. Sure I feel betrayed and hurt and angry, but I'm not bitter. Matt is Matt, and I should have probably seen it coming. Truth be told, he was probably screwing around on me."
"You shouldn't think that way." Scotty told her.
"If Nidia can throw an impromptu dance party, celebrating her breakup with Jamie, I can be fine about Matt."
"Nidia had a dance party?" John asked. "Why wasn't I invited?"
"You were discriminated against due to your gender." Lita smiled, then translated for him. "You weren't invited 'cos you're a guy."
"Hey chica," Rey began, "Do you want to valet for us tonight? For John and I anyway."
"I don't know..." She began.
"They're wrestling us tonight." Rikishi told her, gesturing to himself and Scotty. "If you're worried about getting hurt, don't be. We'll keep it clean."
"You could even sit with Tazz and Cole." Scott suggested. "Then we'd know exactly where you were."
"I like that idea." John nodded. "You go out with Rey, and then sit with Tazz and Cole. We'll tell them a special guest is going to sit with them."
Rey shook his head. "Let it be a surprise."
*********
"WHO'S THAT JUMPIN' OUT OF THE SKY? R-E-Y MYSTERIO, HERE WE GO!"
Rey's entrance music blared as bounced up from 'his' platform, waiting for Lita at the top of the ramp.
"Hey, Cole, look who that is walking down with Mysterio." Tazz gestured to Rey and the tall red head accompanying him. "It looks like Lita."
"It is Lita, Tazz. I wonder what she's doing here?" Cole answered.
"Maybe she's defecting?" Tazz suggested as Lita and Rey reached the ring, strains of John Cena's 'Basic Thuganomics' pounding through the sound system.
For once John didn't stop to talk trash, just waltzed down the ramp and slid into the ring.
Lita smiled as he laid his steel chain carefully over her head, then grabbed his trucker hat and shoved it backwards on her head.
They hit fists before Lita slid out of the ring and walked over to the announcer's table, where Tazz, almost completely speechless stood up to hug her, then helped her to adjust a microphone headset.
"So, what's going on?" Tazz asked her as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty made their way down to the ring.
"I thought I'd stop by and say hello." Lita smiled.
"Well it's good to have you back on SMACKDOWN!" Tazz told her. "I don't think you've met my broadcast partner, Michael Cole."
"It's nice to meet you." She reached over Tazz and shook Cole's hand.
"Likewise." He told her.
"So are you defecting?" Tazz asked.
"No, just visiting." Lita held her visitor's pass up so that the two men could see it.
"So our General Manager Paul Heyman knows you're here?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, it's been great so far, seeing everyone again. There's a lot of new faces, and new talent here."
"We've been saying the same thing." Tazz told her. "But what about RAW? You were scheduled to wrestle Jazz, but you didn't show up. What happened there?"
"Some of the guys came to get me, and brought me home for personal reasons." She replied, them jumped out of her seat cheering as Rey 619'd Scotty.
"It seems like you've kept in pretty close contact with some of the guys." Tazz observed as she sat down. "Something like that." Lita nodded, watching the match intently.
"So what about Matt Hardy?" Cole asked. "Is it true that you two have split up?"
Seeing the flicker of pain cross her face, Tazz began commentating the match again, Lita following suite, cheering as John gave Scotty the F-U and pulled his leg up from the three count.
As always, let me know what you think,
Samantha.
****************
Imaginary.
"Chica?" Rey asked gently, sensing her awake beside him. "You should be asleep."
"I don't sleep well." She said softly, her head still cushioned against the pillow, which rested against the wall of the plane. Lita remained perfectly still, just looking out of the window.
"It will be all right you know." He said softly, patting her leg.
She didn't answer him, but tears trickled softly down her cheeks.
Unable to comfort her, Rey just stayed where he was, hoping that by just being there with her, she'd know that he was there for her.
"How was she?" John asked as they began to collect their baggage.
"She slept for a while, but she also said that she hasn't bee sleeping well lately." Rey answered, then became more serious. "Our luchadora cried again. I'm worried that Matt has broken her."
"I should have killed the bastard." John growled. "Killed him for what he did to her."
"Get in line." Rey told him, watching as Jeff guided Lita back over to them.
Jeff had his arm around Lita, and had added her carry on luggage to his own, slinging both bags over one shoulder.
"Let's just go home guys." He told the other two.
They looked at him strangely for a second, wondering if Lita had said something to him, but she remained almost completely silent all the way to Jeff's, save for several 'yes' and 'no' answers, a tiny 'I'll have a vanilla thick shake please' and a pained 'It's good to be home.'
Late that night, when the guys walked upstairs to check on Lita, they found her lying on her bed, on her back, just staring up at the ceiling.
Without hesitation Jeff lay down next to her, looking up at the ceiling. It was only when he turned his head to look at her that he noticed tears sparkling in her brilliant hazel eyes.
"You're better off without him." He told her. "I know that Matt's my brother, so I know just how much of an ass he can be."
"Last week on RAW..." Lita began, then dissolved into tears, turning on her side and curling up against him. Gently he patted her back and hugged her, trying to calm her with no success.
"It's going to be okay." He told her gently.
"I feel like I'm dying." She choked out. "More and more everyday since he left me, and a part of me just wants it all to stop." She broke into a fresh flood of tears, sobbing into Jeff's chest like the world was ending.
As her sobs abated Rey and John squashed onto the bed with them, all four of them just staring up at the ceiling.
"You know," Jeff began, "I think we really need to paint this ceiling. It's so... white."
Lita didn't even smile at his words. Instead she wriggled a little to make herself more comfortable, then began to speak, her voice calm this time. "Last week on RAW when Matt told me that he had something to ask me, I was so excited."
"We know babe." John told her. "It's okay, you don't have to explain it to us. We saw it."
"I was so excited, not just because I thought he wanted to marry me, but also because I had something I wanted to tell him."
She fell silent for several moments, and the three men knew that she was trying to collect her thoughts, and choose the right words. "Guys, I'm pregnant with Matt's child." She said softly, waiting for their individual responses.
"?Tu embarazada?" Rey asked quietly. *You're pregnant.*
"Si." She answered him in Spanish.
"I'll kill him." John fumed. "I'll absolutely kill him."
"I'm going to be an uncle." Jeff piped up suddenly.
His shocked, but happy vocalization was enough to make Lita smile.
"Thank you for bringing me home." She told them. "I really needed it."
John managed a lop-sided smile. "That's what friends are for."
"No." Lita corrected him. "That's what family is for."
The four were quiet for several moments before Jeff spoke. "Have you thought about getting another place? I mean, I know you've moved most of the stuff you had at Dad's house."
"I'm thinking about it." She replied. "I just haven't had much time lately. "I had all of my stuff thrown into storage. You want to help me with house hunting?"
"Move in here." Jeff told her. "Don't look at me like that, I'm serious. If you move in here, you won't have to worry about looking for another place, and I'll be around to help you with the baby once it's born."
"That's a lot to ask of you." She told him.
"I know what I'm getting myself in for." He told her.
"Besides, with Matt being the ass that he is, I'll never get to see my niece or nephew otherwise, and I know that Dad would like it if you stuck around."
"Do you know what I realized last night, or the night before, when you guys came to get me? I realized that I'm not in love with Matt anymore. Then I had the stupidity to think that I was alone. And there you three were, proving me wrong, and showing me just how lucky I am."
The three men lay there staring at Lita with confused looks on their faces.
"I'm lucky because I know that I'm loved by some of the strongest people I'll ever meet in my lifetime."
********
"Jeff, what are you doing?" Lita groaned as sunlight flooded the room, pulling her doona up, and burying her head in her pillows.
"I'm measuring." He answered happily, something uncharacteristic for him early in the morning.
"Haven't you heard of morning sickness?" She groaned.
"You aren't being sick." He answered, still measuring away.
"I feel like I got hit by a truck." She growled, throwing a spare pillow at him, which connected satisfactorily with his back. "Go away." Lita rolled onto her other side and curled up to sleep again.
***********
Hours later she appeared in the lounge room where Jeff and John were playing one of the latest wrestling games on PS2.
Without speaking Lita curled up on the couch next to Rey, resting her head in his lap.
"How did you sleep?" He asked.
"Better." She confessed, "But still not great."
"It just takes time." He told her, stroking her hair as she relaxed.
"Got you!" John cheered as his character pinned Jeff's.
"So what the hell were you measuring in my room this morning?" Lita asked Jeff. "And why the hell were you in such a hurry to be measuring?"
"I thought we could get your room re-done." He grinned at her. "What happened to you being a morning person?"
"Morning sickness." She replied, still comfortable in Rey's lap.
"How are you doing?" John asked her.
"I just spent twenty minutes throwing up everything I've eaten in the last eight hours."
"Does that mean you're hungry?" Jeff asked.
Lita managed to shake her head, and closed her eyes, comfortable and safe in Rey's lap.
************
"Do you think we should go in there and get her?" John asked, "I mean, she needs to eat."
Jeff nodded, "Rey, can you take over here?"
Rey surprised him by turning the hot plate off and following the out of the room, each of them listening to find out where she might be.
They finally found her, but only by the sound of the keyboard, which resonated through the whole top floor of the house.
"I linger in the doorway,
of alarm clocks screaming
monsters calling my name
let me stay
where the wind will whisper to me
where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story."
Jeff shook his head as she played, closing his eyes as she sang, her voice almost melancholy and despairing, but her words were gentle and poetic, each one carefully pronounced, without the infliction of her mixed Southern, Spanish and slight Canadian accent, gained from hanging around Trish so much.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
The three men stood there, not willing to interrupt as she continued, the song not quite making sense, strangely whimsical and fantastic for her, yet seemed to be more her than anything else.
"Don't say I'm out of touch
with this rampant chaos, your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge,
the nightmare I built my own world to escape."
As she sang, Rey remembered some of the words being used before.
'You're out of touch, Lita.' Matt had yelled at her during an argument.
'I don't want anything to do with your chaos.' She'd answered, then walked off into the hall, where Rey had followed her, and held her tightly as she cried.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
John was strangely moved by Lita's playing, something that didn't happen often to the Doctor of Thuganomics, who preferred free-style rap and heavy music, but this music was pure and the way she played it, was almost like a reflection of all the emotion she held inside.
"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
the goddess of imaginary light...."
The change of tempo moved each of the men almost as much as her song did, though they weren't sure if Lita knew that they were there.
At the keyboard, Lita continued to move her fingers over the keys, lulled by the smooth, gentle melody of the song, and finally relaxed in a whirl of her own creativity.
"In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me.
In my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me."
They stood in silence as the last notes died away, Lita speaking before any of the guys did.
"It's my new song." She said softly.
"It's beautiful." Jeff told her. "Where did you get the idea?"
"Remember how we were bored and we thought we'd make some stuff? That collage I made..."
"The one Matt teased you about." Jeff nodded as he remembered what she'd made. "Paper flowers, pink clouds and a purple sky."
************
On Wednesday Lita, Rey and John drove to Charlotte, where SMACKDOWN! was being filmed.
"Hey," A voice called to the trio a they walked towards the men's locker room.
They turned to face the speaker, and Lita found herself wrapped up in a hug.
"I thought it was you." Kurt was telling her. "Defecting are we?"
Lita smiled as he let her go. "More like vacation. I came with these two." She gestured to Rey and John.
"What about RAW? JR and the King made up some excuse as you why you weren't there."
"Wasn't up to performing." She shrugged. "I'm fully expecting to be fired next Monday, but I just don't care any more."
"Chica, what are you doing in this neck of the words?" Eddie Guerrero exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.
"Just visiting." Lita managed to smile again. "I've been in North Carolina since Saturday I think, and the guys asked me if I wanted come to tonight's taping."
"What the hell is going on here?" Paul Heyman's voice sounded.
"Chill, chill, chill." John told him, "She's with us tonight." He gestured to Lita as he spoke.
Lita held up her visitor's pass. "I'm just visiting Paul."
"I wish you were defecting." He told her. "We could use someone to spice up the women's division."
"The only reason I'm on RAW, not SMACKDOWN is that the Women's Championship belt is on RAW. Otherwise I'd be here. It's a better work environment."
"How's Matt by the way?" Paul asked.
Lita's smile immediately failed. "You didn't see him dump me on RAW, not last show the one before? You must be one of the only people who didn't."
Several of the superstars stared at her.
"You're kidding?" Eddie said to her.
"He showed up, gave everyone the idea that he wanted to marry me, then betrayed me. Needless to say we're not on speaking terms anymore."
"What a prick!" Dawn-Marie announced as she gave Lita a hug, sensing that the other woman was about to lose her composure.
"To make matters worse, I got fired right after." Lita shook her head. "I'm lucky I still have a couple of friends on RAW. Christian used a favor Bischoff owed him to get me my job back, but I don't know if I want to keep working there any more."
"I'll sign you faster than you can say 'I quit'." Paul promised.
"Whatever happens, I'm going to take some personal time. There are some things I need to do before I start seriously wrestling again."
The others looked at her cautiously, but found themselves distracted by someone turning on loud music.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Paul shouted over the noise.
"I THINK NIDIA'S CELEBRATING AGAIN!" Dawn screamed in response, covering her own ears. "LITA, COME ON! YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD USE SOME CHEERING UP!" The taller diva grinned at Lita, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the noise.
"It looks like she's doing okay." Kurt shrugged.
"She's just doing better." John told them. "I think being somewhere different is helping."
"What do you mean she's doing better?" Paul asked. "How bad has she been?"
"Crying all the time, not sleeping, the first few days we had her home she'd only eat when we sat her down at the table." John shook his head. "I could kill him for what he did to her."
"We all could." Kurt told him. "We still might."
Later on Lita practically danced into the guys locker room and promptly curled herself up next to Rey.
"Is everything okay?" John asked her.
She just nodded and smiled at him. "I think I should get together with Dawn, Nidia and Torrie more often."
"How are you feeling, about Matt I mean?" Bradshaw asked from beside John, while Lita could see Rey's reflection in the mirror, the 'Mexican Jumping Bean' making exuberant 'NO' gestures.
"I'm not going to cry." She told Rey, "He's not worth it. Sure I feel betrayed and hurt and angry, but I'm not bitter. Matt is Matt, and I should have probably seen it coming. Truth be told, he was probably screwing around on me."
"You shouldn't think that way." Scotty told her.
"If Nidia can throw an impromptu dance party, celebrating her breakup with Jamie, I can be fine about Matt."
"Nidia had a dance party?" John asked. "Why wasn't I invited?"
"You were discriminated against due to your gender." Lita smiled, then translated for him. "You weren't invited 'cos you're a guy."
"Hey chica," Rey began, "Do you want to valet for us tonight? For John and I anyway."
"I don't know..." She began.
"They're wrestling us tonight." Rikishi told her, gesturing to himself and Scotty. "If you're worried about getting hurt, don't be. We'll keep it clean."
"You could even sit with Tazz and Cole." Scott suggested. "Then we'd know exactly where you were."
"I like that idea." John nodded. "You go out with Rey, and then sit with Tazz and Cole. We'll tell them a special guest is going to sit with them."
Rey shook his head. "Let it be a surprise."
*********
"WHO'S THAT JUMPIN' OUT OF THE SKY? R-E-Y MYSTERIO, HERE WE GO!"
Rey's entrance music blared as bounced up from 'his' platform, waiting for Lita at the top of the ramp.
"Hey, Cole, look who that is walking down with Mysterio." Tazz gestured to Rey and the tall red head accompanying him. "It looks like Lita."
"It is Lita, Tazz. I wonder what she's doing here?" Cole answered.
"Maybe she's defecting?" Tazz suggested as Lita and Rey reached the ring, strains of John Cena's 'Basic Thuganomics' pounding through the sound system.
For once John didn't stop to talk trash, just waltzed down the ramp and slid into the ring.
Lita smiled as he laid his steel chain carefully over her head, then grabbed his trucker hat and shoved it backwards on her head.
They hit fists before Lita slid out of the ring and walked over to the announcer's table, where Tazz, almost completely speechless stood up to hug her, then helped her to adjust a microphone headset.
"So, what's going on?" Tazz asked her as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty made their way down to the ring.
"I thought I'd stop by and say hello." Lita smiled.
"Well it's good to have you back on SMACKDOWN!" Tazz told her. "I don't think you've met my broadcast partner, Michael Cole."
"It's nice to meet you." She reached over Tazz and shook Cole's hand.
"Likewise." He told her.
"So are you defecting?" Tazz asked.
"No, just visiting." Lita held her visitor's pass up so that the two men could see it.
"So our General Manager Paul Heyman knows you're here?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, it's been great so far, seeing everyone again. There's a lot of new faces, and new talent here."
"We've been saying the same thing." Tazz told her. "But what about RAW? You were scheduled to wrestle Jazz, but you didn't show up. What happened there?"
"Some of the guys came to get me, and brought me home for personal reasons." She replied, them jumped out of her seat cheering as Rey 619'd Scotty.
"It seems like you've kept in pretty close contact with some of the guys." Tazz observed as she sat down. "Something like that." Lita nodded, watching the match intently.
"So what about Matt Hardy?" Cole asked. "Is it true that you two have split up?"
Seeing the flicker of pain cross her face, Tazz began commentating the match again, Lita following suite, cheering as John gave Scotty the F-U and pulled his leg up from the three count.