Aaah...long awaited moment of truth. But, first, to take care of the old business. Again thanks to everyone who's been reading. To Amber, thanks, cute and sappy was what I was going for. Plus Rey-Rey just makes my heart go pitter-patter. To Robert, don't worry, I promised Raven, and there will be Raven! (I can hear my little Raven muse in my head right now, "What about me? What about RAVEN?") To Funky in Fishnet, I'm glad you liked it, too. And I'm also glad you're picking up some spanish. !Espanol es la idioma mejora del mundo! (Spanish is the best language in the world!) I can't wait until I'm in Costa Rica next year doing study abroad and the only way I'll get to remember the English language is by posting on ff.net. Anyway, I think y'all are finally ready for this next chapter. Forward, march!
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Lita decided to make the meeting as casual as possible. She didn't want the boys to be tense and know something was up before she actually told them what had happened. Though, most of them had seemed to figure out something was bothering her. They just didn't know the seriousness of the situation, at least not until Spike got hurt.
"Please don't overreact," Lita thought desperately. To say these guys were impulsive was a severe understatement, and she didn't want them to, as a mob, rush the Evolution lockerroom. Needed to leave at least a little piece of Triple H for Tommy to take win the belt off of at Summerslam.
The guys were sprawled all over the lockerroom. Lita sat perched on a bench near the door. Rob sat leaning back against a locker a little off to her side, sneaking look every now and then. She either didn't notice, or was ignoring him. He didn't really care, as long as it wasn't obvious to her how badly she was hurting him.
Tommy rushed in a few minutes late. "I'm sorry, Li, I had to get a cab, and..."
She crooked her finger and motioned for him to lean down toward her.
"You realize that, of all possible times to not be the first one here, you picked the absolute worst? I had hoped to talk to you before everyone else got here."
"I know, I'm sorry, but there was a problem with my car..."
"I was worried about you," she continued tersely, a little bit of emotion in her voice betraying her. "After what happened to Spike the other night?"
"I'm sorry, Li, really, but I couldn't take my car, and I got to running behind..."
A horrible thought suddenly struck her. "What was wrong with your car, Tommy?"
"It was leaking brake fluid; I just noticed it for the first time this morning. I was lucky, actually. I dropped my coffee thermos and it rolled under the car, and when I went to get it, I noticed the puddle."
Lita jumped up and hugged him fiercely, her arms locked tightly around his neck. He hugged her back, hesitantly and awkwardly. "Lita, what? I'm fine; it's not big deal..."
"Have you had a mechanic look at the car?"
"Yeah, I had to await for the guy who was towing it to the mechanic's to arrive, then I had to wait for the cab, that's why I was late."
She stepped back from him and shook her head. "I think they're going to find that your brakelines were cut."
Tommy's eyes widened. "They wouldn't go that far, would they? I mean, not even them."
"Look what they did to Spike," she reminded him. He nodded and sat down with his head in his hands, stunned now that he realized what a close call it had been. "I normally don't even drink coffee..." he muttered.
By now the other ECW members could definitely tell something was up. "Okay Lita, what was it you wanted to tell us?" Lance called from where he sat next to Justin in the back.
Lita resumed her position on the bench. "Evolution's been targetting us."
"Yeah? What else is new?" Justin asked.
"No, I think it's been worse than you all realize. And, what else I haven't told you, is, it's my fault."
She felt Rob's eyes on her, and she looked to him for reassurance. He nodded, and she continued.
"It started that first week after we made our debut and threw them out of the ring. Orton cornered me, said he had a message from Triple H, and, um..." Her hand absently rubbed at the spot on her neck where he'd licked her, trying to rid herself of her feeling of disgust, trying to feel clean. She could still feel her back against the wall, his body pinning her, see him smile as she fought him in vain. Then she made herself think of her friend Rey, and the feathery gentleness of eyelashes across her face. She smiled at him and tried to continue.
"Anyway, Orton was just trying to scare me. He did, a little bit, but then with everything that happened afterward, Rob joining us, winning the women's title, I was just so excited and so happy that I didn't have time to think about it. Then, Evolution was tailing me backstage, and Triple H showed up at the club we were at that night. Again, I just thought he was trying to scare me so that I'd get Tommy to back off the title. Then we found Spike..." Her voice softened. "I'm so, so sorry. I made a terrible mistake. I thought Triple H was just playing his usual little mind games before a title match, trying to frighten us off. So I didn't tell any of you because I thought that would just be helping his plot along. I thought he just saw me as the weak link, a way to get through to all of you, and I didn't want to be that. What I didn't understand was, that this was all revenge against me."
"For what, exactly?" Stevie asked.
"For defying him," Rob answered for her, his eyes on her face the entire time. "For daring to interfere with his plans, for not backing down from him, for not being just another one of his little groupies like he expects every woman here to be."
Lita nodded. "Something like that, yeah."
"So what do we do now?" D-von asked.
Lita looked at him, stunned. "Is he asking me?" she thought. She looked around the room. They were all watching her, waiting for her next instruction, next signal.
"I'm letting you go," Lita said. "You need a leader who doesn't endanger you. You need someone you can trust."
"Exactly," Bubba said. "We need you."
Her heart was bursting with gratitude. "Thank you, but, I need your help, too."
"Buen trabajo, mamacita," Rey smiled at her. "?Estaba tan dificil?"
"No, tenia razon."
"?Crees ahora que todos estes hombres te aman?"
"Me gustaria creerlo."
"Lo cree. Es la verdad. Y, si no selo, te amo."
"Gracias, Rey. Te amo, tambien. Amo todos de ustedes."
Rey nodded. "Debes decirles."
"No puedo decirlo."
"Si, puedes."
"Fine," Lita said in english, bringing back the attention of everyone else in the room.
"About time," Tommy muttered. "I HATE when you two do that."
"Look, I just wanted you all to know..." Lita looked to Rey for support, and he nodded "go-on". "I wanted you to know...I love you guys. All of you. And I'm glad we're sticking together. This team means more to me than anything. And I can't imagine it without any of you."
She was greeted with teasing, "Awww..." and "We love you too!" Rob came over and hugged her from behind, planting a little kiss on her cheek and she patted his arm.
"Anyway, that's enough love and enough of me being affectionate to last us for a decade. Which brings me to the next order of business." She looked at Tommy pointedly. "I'd wanted to discuss this with at least of few of you beforehand, but the situation got drastic, and there wasn't time. I've called in for a little bit of back-up. So..." She took a deep breath. "It's time for y'all to meet the newest trial team member."
Raven walked in the door. Tommy jumped to his feet.
"What? You've gotta be kidding. You can't trust him! He's never looked out for anyone but himself! We can't..."
"Tommy, please," Lita begged, getting in between the two men and placing her hands on Tommy's chest in an age-old gesture of holding him back. "It's gonna be fine. There's nothing to worry about."
"He'll turn on us, Lita," Tommy told her pleadingly. "Believe me, I of anyone should know. And don't tell me he's changed, because he can't. He is what he is."
"Tommy, all of us here have changed in some way. Bubba and D-von put me through a table once, and 3d-d me a few times, remember?"
"You didn't have to mention that," Bubba muttered. "Yeah, like we weren't already feeling bad enough about Spike," D-von agreed.
"Oh, speaking of Spike," Raven interrupted. "He's been standing outside the door listening the entire meeting. I told him he looked like walking death and should be resting somewhere, but he insisted he was supposed to be at the show tonight. I found that a bit suspicious given the fact that he appeared to be hiding from his own teammates, but it did not seem my place to interrogate."
Spike walked in sheepishly. "Thanks, traitor," he muttered sarcastically.
"You could say that again," Tommy bit.
Raven shrugged and wrapped an arm around Lita's shoulders smugly.
"You!" Lita turned to Tommy. "Stop being childish."
"You!" she pulled away from Raven. "Stop antagonizing him."
"You!" she stormed over to Spike. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at home resting."
"And you should have told us that Triple H was stalking you so we could have kicked his @$$ a long time ago. People make mistakes, big deal."
"You could really get hurt," Lita whispered so only the two of them could hear.
"Then I'll get hurt!" Spike exclaimed. "Fine, that's half of what I signed up for, anyway! I thought this was ECW. So why are you sheltering me? Why are you sheltering all of us?"
"Maybe because I care."
"Good," he hugged her and ruffled her hair. "Was that so hard to admit?"
Lita laughed in spite of herself. "You boys will be the death of me. Fine, everyone has matches to get ready for. Let's get moving."
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This chapter turned out way longer than I'd planned, and I didn't get to include as much of the plot as I wanted to. Oh well, I guess that'll be next chapter. Things are about to turn really interesting, I can tell you that. I've still got some surprises up my sleeve. Oh, and as for translation...
Buen trabajo, mamacita - Good job, mommy
?Estaba tan dificil? - Was that so hard?
No, tenia razon - No, you were right
?Crees ahora que todos estes hombres te aman? - Do you believe now that all these guys love you?
Me gustaria creerlo - I'd like to believe it
Lo cree - Believe it
Es la verdad - It's the truth
Y, si no selo, te amo - And, if you don't know, I love you
Gracias, Rey - Thank you, Rey
Te amo, tambien - I love you, too
Amo todos de ustedes - I love all of you
Debes decirles - You should tell them
No puedo decirlo - I can't say it
Si, puedes - Yes, you can
Anyway, let me know how this chapter affected you, and I'll catch you on the flipside with Chapter 10.
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Lita decided to make the meeting as casual as possible. She didn't want the boys to be tense and know something was up before she actually told them what had happened. Though, most of them had seemed to figure out something was bothering her. They just didn't know the seriousness of the situation, at least not until Spike got hurt.
"Please don't overreact," Lita thought desperately. To say these guys were impulsive was a severe understatement, and she didn't want them to, as a mob, rush the Evolution lockerroom. Needed to leave at least a little piece of Triple H for Tommy to take win the belt off of at Summerslam.
The guys were sprawled all over the lockerroom. Lita sat perched on a bench near the door. Rob sat leaning back against a locker a little off to her side, sneaking look every now and then. She either didn't notice, or was ignoring him. He didn't really care, as long as it wasn't obvious to her how badly she was hurting him.
Tommy rushed in a few minutes late. "I'm sorry, Li, I had to get a cab, and..."
She crooked her finger and motioned for him to lean down toward her.
"You realize that, of all possible times to not be the first one here, you picked the absolute worst? I had hoped to talk to you before everyone else got here."
"I know, I'm sorry, but there was a problem with my car..."
"I was worried about you," she continued tersely, a little bit of emotion in her voice betraying her. "After what happened to Spike the other night?"
"I'm sorry, Li, really, but I couldn't take my car, and I got to running behind..."
A horrible thought suddenly struck her. "What was wrong with your car, Tommy?"
"It was leaking brake fluid; I just noticed it for the first time this morning. I was lucky, actually. I dropped my coffee thermos and it rolled under the car, and when I went to get it, I noticed the puddle."
Lita jumped up and hugged him fiercely, her arms locked tightly around his neck. He hugged her back, hesitantly and awkwardly. "Lita, what? I'm fine; it's not big deal..."
"Have you had a mechanic look at the car?"
"Yeah, I had to await for the guy who was towing it to the mechanic's to arrive, then I had to wait for the cab, that's why I was late."
She stepped back from him and shook her head. "I think they're going to find that your brakelines were cut."
Tommy's eyes widened. "They wouldn't go that far, would they? I mean, not even them."
"Look what they did to Spike," she reminded him. He nodded and sat down with his head in his hands, stunned now that he realized what a close call it had been. "I normally don't even drink coffee..." he muttered.
By now the other ECW members could definitely tell something was up. "Okay Lita, what was it you wanted to tell us?" Lance called from where he sat next to Justin in the back.
Lita resumed her position on the bench. "Evolution's been targetting us."
"Yeah? What else is new?" Justin asked.
"No, I think it's been worse than you all realize. And, what else I haven't told you, is, it's my fault."
She felt Rob's eyes on her, and she looked to him for reassurance. He nodded, and she continued.
"It started that first week after we made our debut and threw them out of the ring. Orton cornered me, said he had a message from Triple H, and, um..." Her hand absently rubbed at the spot on her neck where he'd licked her, trying to rid herself of her feeling of disgust, trying to feel clean. She could still feel her back against the wall, his body pinning her, see him smile as she fought him in vain. Then she made herself think of her friend Rey, and the feathery gentleness of eyelashes across her face. She smiled at him and tried to continue.
"Anyway, Orton was just trying to scare me. He did, a little bit, but then with everything that happened afterward, Rob joining us, winning the women's title, I was just so excited and so happy that I didn't have time to think about it. Then, Evolution was tailing me backstage, and Triple H showed up at the club we were at that night. Again, I just thought he was trying to scare me so that I'd get Tommy to back off the title. Then we found Spike..." Her voice softened. "I'm so, so sorry. I made a terrible mistake. I thought Triple H was just playing his usual little mind games before a title match, trying to frighten us off. So I didn't tell any of you because I thought that would just be helping his plot along. I thought he just saw me as the weak link, a way to get through to all of you, and I didn't want to be that. What I didn't understand was, that this was all revenge against me."
"For what, exactly?" Stevie asked.
"For defying him," Rob answered for her, his eyes on her face the entire time. "For daring to interfere with his plans, for not backing down from him, for not being just another one of his little groupies like he expects every woman here to be."
Lita nodded. "Something like that, yeah."
"So what do we do now?" D-von asked.
Lita looked at him, stunned. "Is he asking me?" she thought. She looked around the room. They were all watching her, waiting for her next instruction, next signal.
"I'm letting you go," Lita said. "You need a leader who doesn't endanger you. You need someone you can trust."
"Exactly," Bubba said. "We need you."
Her heart was bursting with gratitude. "Thank you, but, I need your help, too."
"Buen trabajo, mamacita," Rey smiled at her. "?Estaba tan dificil?"
"No, tenia razon."
"?Crees ahora que todos estes hombres te aman?"
"Me gustaria creerlo."
"Lo cree. Es la verdad. Y, si no selo, te amo."
"Gracias, Rey. Te amo, tambien. Amo todos de ustedes."
Rey nodded. "Debes decirles."
"No puedo decirlo."
"Si, puedes."
"Fine," Lita said in english, bringing back the attention of everyone else in the room.
"About time," Tommy muttered. "I HATE when you two do that."
"Look, I just wanted you all to know..." Lita looked to Rey for support, and he nodded "go-on". "I wanted you to know...I love you guys. All of you. And I'm glad we're sticking together. This team means more to me than anything. And I can't imagine it without any of you."
She was greeted with teasing, "Awww..." and "We love you too!" Rob came over and hugged her from behind, planting a little kiss on her cheek and she patted his arm.
"Anyway, that's enough love and enough of me being affectionate to last us for a decade. Which brings me to the next order of business." She looked at Tommy pointedly. "I'd wanted to discuss this with at least of few of you beforehand, but the situation got drastic, and there wasn't time. I've called in for a little bit of back-up. So..." She took a deep breath. "It's time for y'all to meet the newest trial team member."
Raven walked in the door. Tommy jumped to his feet.
"What? You've gotta be kidding. You can't trust him! He's never looked out for anyone but himself! We can't..."
"Tommy, please," Lita begged, getting in between the two men and placing her hands on Tommy's chest in an age-old gesture of holding him back. "It's gonna be fine. There's nothing to worry about."
"He'll turn on us, Lita," Tommy told her pleadingly. "Believe me, I of anyone should know. And don't tell me he's changed, because he can't. He is what he is."
"Tommy, all of us here have changed in some way. Bubba and D-von put me through a table once, and 3d-d me a few times, remember?"
"You didn't have to mention that," Bubba muttered. "Yeah, like we weren't already feeling bad enough about Spike," D-von agreed.
"Oh, speaking of Spike," Raven interrupted. "He's been standing outside the door listening the entire meeting. I told him he looked like walking death and should be resting somewhere, but he insisted he was supposed to be at the show tonight. I found that a bit suspicious given the fact that he appeared to be hiding from his own teammates, but it did not seem my place to interrogate."
Spike walked in sheepishly. "Thanks, traitor," he muttered sarcastically.
"You could say that again," Tommy bit.
Raven shrugged and wrapped an arm around Lita's shoulders smugly.
"You!" Lita turned to Tommy. "Stop being childish."
"You!" she pulled away from Raven. "Stop antagonizing him."
"You!" she stormed over to Spike. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at home resting."
"And you should have told us that Triple H was stalking you so we could have kicked his @$$ a long time ago. People make mistakes, big deal."
"You could really get hurt," Lita whispered so only the two of them could hear.
"Then I'll get hurt!" Spike exclaimed. "Fine, that's half of what I signed up for, anyway! I thought this was ECW. So why are you sheltering me? Why are you sheltering all of us?"
"Maybe because I care."
"Good," he hugged her and ruffled her hair. "Was that so hard to admit?"
Lita laughed in spite of herself. "You boys will be the death of me. Fine, everyone has matches to get ready for. Let's get moving."
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This chapter turned out way longer than I'd planned, and I didn't get to include as much of the plot as I wanted to. Oh well, I guess that'll be next chapter. Things are about to turn really interesting, I can tell you that. I've still got some surprises up my sleeve. Oh, and as for translation...
Buen trabajo, mamacita - Good job, mommy
?Estaba tan dificil? - Was that so hard?
No, tenia razon - No, you were right
?Crees ahora que todos estes hombres te aman? - Do you believe now that all these guys love you?
Me gustaria creerlo - I'd like to believe it
Lo cree - Believe it
Es la verdad - It's the truth
Y, si no selo, te amo - And, if you don't know, I love you
Gracias, Rey - Thank you, Rey
Te amo, tambien - I love you, too
Amo todos de ustedes - I love all of you
Debes decirles - You should tell them
No puedo decirlo - I can't say it
Si, puedes - Yes, you can
Anyway, let me know how this chapter affected you, and I'll catch you on the flipside with Chapter 10.