Title: Nothing Stays the Same.
Author: Cathie McMath. (email: penrithpanther_03@yahoo.com.au)
Disclaimer: I don't own Jeff, Lita, Eric Bischoff, Rob Van Dam, Booker T - or any other WWE wrestlers that I may mention in this fic. I dream about owning them every night.. but in reality I don't. Good ol' Vinny Mac does.
Summary: Lita reflects on Jeff's recent behaviour.
Rating: PG. I think it's nice and clean.
TimeLine: Now. January 2003.
Distribution: Just email me and let me know if you'd like to have it.
Author's Note: I was inspired to write this last night after RAW. There are a few errors there regarding real life issues: i.e - in my fic, RAW is live to air. So there fore, as Lita watches, it's happening. It hasn't been previously taped. And the other thing - Lita doesn't host Sunday Night Heat. It just made things easier for me if she didn't. Okay? All good! Onto the fic!
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
She knew it was inevitable.
Really, she knew it. It was bound to happen. In this business, it was the way things worked. Nothing ever stayed the same for long. If things never changed, that lead boredom. Boredom lead to drops in ratings. And drops in ratings was one of the worst things this company could go through. Especially now.
She had to admit it. It made sense. It was a smart move. It was a good step. But regardless of all the positive things she could think of, Lita still felt that unmovable pang in the pit of her stomach.
The redhead sat on the couch in her dimly lit living room, her eyes focused intently on the television screen in front of her. She watched the replays appear on the screen, JR and The King commenting all the while. The images moved across the screen again and again. It must've been about the fourth time she had seen the same thing, yet she still had trouble believing it had actually happened.
Booker T pinning Jeff for the three count. Jeff was practically dominating that match. It was really only a matter of time before he pinned Booker for the fall. Then with an amazingly simply pin, Book got the count. Jeff rolled out of the ring quickly, and Lita silently thanked him for not attacking Booker T like he had attacked Rob Van Dam last week on RAW.
Her thoughts flashed back to the previous week's RAW. Jeff had challenged RVD to a match after the Royal Rumble. She knew Jeff was pretty sore about Rob eliminating him, so it was only natural that the youngest Hardy brother wanted a match against him. Again, Jeff had dominated the match, suffering from many frustrating two counts on Van Dam. And then as Jeff had gone for the Twist of Fate, RVD reversed it for the pin.
Seeing Jeff slap Rob's handshake away afterwards made Lita's stomach roll inside of her. And when he clotheslined him over the top rope.. her heart had stopped beating. But that wasn't the scariest thing. She had been terrified when she saw Jeff grab that steel chair, and ready himself for a hit on RVD.
Thank God he hadn't hit him with that chair. Then she would've known it was all over. She had prayed throughout the week that his actions were purely out of frustration. But this week's RAW had proved her wrong.
It made so much sense... yet it was still unbelievable. Jeff was turning--
The sound of her telephone ringing beside her startled Lita from her thoughts, causing her to jump slightly at the shrill cry. Tucking her hair behind her ears, and placing the television on mute, she picked up the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Hey Li." A breathless voice spoke over the phone, voice cracking with exertion.
Lita felt all her muscles clench at the sound of his voice. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Hey Jeff." She licked her lips nervously. Nervously? Yeah, she was nervous as hell. She was talking to her best friend in the entire world, and she was nervous. "I, uh, I saw your match.. just then."
"And?"
"And.. I don't know." Lita took in a deep breath before continuing. "I guess this is the 'big change' you were telling me about a couple weeks ago, right?"
"Right." Jeff was still breathing deeply, obviously tired from the match. Lita could hear the strain and effort in his voice, but there was something else there. Something that she just couldn't put her finger on...
"Are you happy to do this, Jeff?"
A pause on the other end of the phone. "Well, it's nice to have a change. I've been doing the whole 'fan-favourite, goody-goody-face' thing for what, almost four years now?" He paused again. "It's nice to have a change."
Lita cradled the phone between her shoulder and her chin. She stood up from her couch, and made her way to her kitchen. "That's not what I asked. I know it's nice to have a change. But what I don't know is if you're happy with this." She opened her fridge door and pulled out a bottle of water. Pouring it into a clean glass, she waited for his reply.
"Li, I.. it sucked tonight." She heard a deep sigh escape his lips. "Hearing all those people boo for me. It really.. sucked."
"I can imagine."
"No, you can't. The thing is.. when I entered onto that ramp, the whole place was just screaming for me. I mean, they usually do."
"Not that you're full of yourself or anything.." Lita joked.
Jeff managed a small chuckle. "No, I'm serious. For years now, everyone just cheers for me. So.. when I came in and heard all those cheers, it was nothing to me. Like, I'd heard it all before. But after I attacked Booker, and they all began to boo for me... I just really wanted to hear those cheers again."
Sipping on her glass of water, Lita felt her face fall. She could just imagine Jeff's face right now. He sounded so alone, and so vulnerable. Her little baby Jeffrey... "Oh, Jeff. Why don't you just tell Eric that you don't want to play this angle? I'm sure he can find a way to reverse this for you."
Jeff's voice took on a forced enthusiasm. "Well, I was talking to Eric about it earlier on. And you know, he was telling me that all the great superstars have had to turn heel at some point in their career. Hulk Hogan did. Steve Austin did. Rocky..."
As Jeff rattled off the names of WWE superstars who had made it big, and made it as a heel, Lita smiled sadly to herself. He was using the exact same logic she had been using when she watched him attack RVD and Booker T. The poor guy. He must've been miserable. She turned her attention back to Jeff's words.
"...even Ric Flair. This probably means really good things for me, Li. It means I'm being recognised, and I'm going somewhere."
Lita sat back down on her couch, watching RAW on mute as she talked to Jeff. "You're right Jeff. I was thinking the exact same thing earlier. It's true. You can't stay a face forever, if you want to become a star in this company."
"Yeah." Jeff agreed. "Yeah. There's just one thing that really bothers me about it all."
"Oh?" Lita asked, curious to know what the 'one thing' that bothered him above all else in this situation was. "And what's that?"
"You."
"Me?"
"You. When you come back. You're still coming back to RAW, aren't you?" Jeff asked, the uncertainty in his voice apparent.
The redhead nodded, even though she knew Jeff couldn't see her actions over the phone. "Yes. Definitely. There's no way I could work at Smackdown. Not with Matt.. not with him being there." Her voice had gone quiet at the end of her sentence. Lita cleared her throat, shaking away any thoughts about the elder Hardy brother. "Yeah, I'm still coming back to RAW. Why?"
It was Jeff's turn to clear his throat. "Well, you're obviously going to want to go for the Women's Title. And I'm sure Victoria will still be holding it when you come back. She's got absolutely no competition here." Lita let out a small laugh, and Jeff continued. "So, how will it work?"
"How will what work?"
"Me and you. How will we work? If you're feuding with Victoria, then you'll be the face. You'll be the good guy in that equation. But.. with my new angle.. I'm going to be the heel. I'll be the bad guy. How can we still be a team like that?"
Lita froze. She hadn't even thought about that. Of all the scenarios that had run through her head since she first realized Jeff had been turning heel.. she somehow still managed to think that their partnership would be able to stay intact. Of course, now she realized that would be impossible to work.
Damn! When she finally made her return to the WWE from her neck injury, she had no intention what-so-ever to make a turn to heel. She wanted to stay face, at least for a couple of months. She wanted to return face, and she wanted to stay face for a while. So how could her and Jeff work as a team, with her as a goody, and him as a baddy?
"Li? You still there?"
"I'm still here, Jeff. I just never thought of that before."
"You see?" Jeff's breathing had calmed down now, but the worry was rising in his voice. "We can't work together like that. We can't be a team."
"Sure we can! We'll figure out a way for it to work."
Lita heard some muffled voices on the other end of the phone, and movement. Damn it, Jeff would probably have to get off the phone. She didn't want to stop talking to him. Not yet. They had so much to talk about. She listened to the voices through the receiver.
"No, don't! I'm talking to Lita!" Jeff obviously talking to someone, and then a male voice saying something back to him. Lita couldn't make out the other man's voice or what he was saying. Some sounds of struggle, and the Jeff's voice once more. "We were in the middle of something, you know?"
"Hello? Is this the lovely Lita?"
A wide smile quickly spread onto Lita's lips at the sound of his voice. "Hey Chris. How are you?"
The canadian's voice softened slightly. "Yeah, alright. I'm going to have to talk about Stacy tonight. In front of the crowd."
Lita thought about the events that had happened last week on RAW concerning Stacy during Chris Jericho and Test's match. "Ouch. Not going to be pretty out there for ya."
"Don't I know it. Anyway, I just wanted to tell Jeff that Eric wants to see him. So you're gonna have to say goodbye now. I'll put him back on."
"See ya Chris. Good luck out there! I'll be watching."
"Thanks Li. I'll be seeing you soon, okay?" More sounds of movement in the background as the phone was handed back to Jeff.
"Well, it looks like Eric wants to talk to me about something, so, I'm going to have to go now."
"Okay. Are you coming for a visit this weekend?" Lita asked, knowing that it had been a couple of weeks since Jeff's last visit. Since she had been injured, he had tried his very hardest to come up and see her as often as he could. But sometimes his schedule was just too busy to allow him the time.
"I'll be there."
She smiled. "I'll see you then." She paused. "And remember, we'll work something out. Don't worry about it okay?"
"Okay. I'll see you in a few days." His voice lowered to that of a whisper. "Love ya."
"Love you too Hardy. Behave yourself."
"Always do. Bye Li."
"Bye."
Lita hit the 'end' button on her phone, and placed it back onto the hook. As she sat back onto her couch, she grabbed the television remote and turned mute off. As the sound from the television was turned back on, Lita couldn't help but notice the sinking feeling she had in her stomach.
What Jeff had said really had her spun out. What were they going to do? They couldn't NOT be a team, could they? Lita hadn't been by herself in the WWE ever! She was with Essa firstly, and then she was with the Hardys! Even after the Hardys split - she always had Jeff to rely on. Her and Jeff were a team. Now.. she wasn't so sure.
The sinking feeling stayed firmly at the bottom of her stomach as she watched the screen. The women's championship match began to start. Trish and Victoria in the ring, well, in a street fight! Lita thought about the long standing feud between the two Divas. She'd been watching them both anxiously. Victoria being fairly new in the ring, and Trish's skills as a wrestler improving greatly.
The redhead watched the match eagerly. Trish had become the model face - quite the turnaround from what she used to be. The crowd loved her now. And Victoria was the perfect heel. Crazy, unpredictable, and ruthless. Jeff was right. If Lita went up against Victoria for the title, she would undoubtedly be the face.
As the match neared it's end, Lita found herself thinking about Trish and Victoria's feud once again. It had been on for quite some time now, and Victoria - with the help of Steven Richards - had dominated the whole time. It was only natural that Trish would win the title sometime soon. As Lita had been thinking earlier.. nothing stays the same for long in this business.
That's when it hit her. Her eyes widened, and a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. The sinking feeling in her stomach lifted, and she breathed in deeply with relief.
She had two more months to go - if all went well - until she would be able to return to the ring. Two more months. A lot could happen in two months... especially in this business. Jeff had nothing to worry about, for she had already worked something out. When she returned, her and Jeff would be together, as a team.
It was inevitable.
Author: Cathie McMath. (email: penrithpanther_03@yahoo.com.au)
Disclaimer: I don't own Jeff, Lita, Eric Bischoff, Rob Van Dam, Booker T - or any other WWE wrestlers that I may mention in this fic. I dream about owning them every night.. but in reality I don't. Good ol' Vinny Mac does.
Summary: Lita reflects on Jeff's recent behaviour.
Rating: PG. I think it's nice and clean.
TimeLine: Now. January 2003.
Distribution: Just email me and let me know if you'd like to have it.
Author's Note: I was inspired to write this last night after RAW. There are a few errors there regarding real life issues: i.e - in my fic, RAW is live to air. So there fore, as Lita watches, it's happening. It hasn't been previously taped. And the other thing - Lita doesn't host Sunday Night Heat. It just made things easier for me if she didn't. Okay? All good! Onto the fic!
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
She knew it was inevitable.
Really, she knew it. It was bound to happen. In this business, it was the way things worked. Nothing ever stayed the same for long. If things never changed, that lead boredom. Boredom lead to drops in ratings. And drops in ratings was one of the worst things this company could go through. Especially now.
She had to admit it. It made sense. It was a smart move. It was a good step. But regardless of all the positive things she could think of, Lita still felt that unmovable pang in the pit of her stomach.
The redhead sat on the couch in her dimly lit living room, her eyes focused intently on the television screen in front of her. She watched the replays appear on the screen, JR and The King commenting all the while. The images moved across the screen again and again. It must've been about the fourth time she had seen the same thing, yet she still had trouble believing it had actually happened.
Booker T pinning Jeff for the three count. Jeff was practically dominating that match. It was really only a matter of time before he pinned Booker for the fall. Then with an amazingly simply pin, Book got the count. Jeff rolled out of the ring quickly, and Lita silently thanked him for not attacking Booker T like he had attacked Rob Van Dam last week on RAW.
Her thoughts flashed back to the previous week's RAW. Jeff had challenged RVD to a match after the Royal Rumble. She knew Jeff was pretty sore about Rob eliminating him, so it was only natural that the youngest Hardy brother wanted a match against him. Again, Jeff had dominated the match, suffering from many frustrating two counts on Van Dam. And then as Jeff had gone for the Twist of Fate, RVD reversed it for the pin.
Seeing Jeff slap Rob's handshake away afterwards made Lita's stomach roll inside of her. And when he clotheslined him over the top rope.. her heart had stopped beating. But that wasn't the scariest thing. She had been terrified when she saw Jeff grab that steel chair, and ready himself for a hit on RVD.
Thank God he hadn't hit him with that chair. Then she would've known it was all over. She had prayed throughout the week that his actions were purely out of frustration. But this week's RAW had proved her wrong.
It made so much sense... yet it was still unbelievable. Jeff was turning--
The sound of her telephone ringing beside her startled Lita from her thoughts, causing her to jump slightly at the shrill cry. Tucking her hair behind her ears, and placing the television on mute, she picked up the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Hey Li." A breathless voice spoke over the phone, voice cracking with exertion.
Lita felt all her muscles clench at the sound of his voice. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Hey Jeff." She licked her lips nervously. Nervously? Yeah, she was nervous as hell. She was talking to her best friend in the entire world, and she was nervous. "I, uh, I saw your match.. just then."
"And?"
"And.. I don't know." Lita took in a deep breath before continuing. "I guess this is the 'big change' you were telling me about a couple weeks ago, right?"
"Right." Jeff was still breathing deeply, obviously tired from the match. Lita could hear the strain and effort in his voice, but there was something else there. Something that she just couldn't put her finger on...
"Are you happy to do this, Jeff?"
A pause on the other end of the phone. "Well, it's nice to have a change. I've been doing the whole 'fan-favourite, goody-goody-face' thing for what, almost four years now?" He paused again. "It's nice to have a change."
Lita cradled the phone between her shoulder and her chin. She stood up from her couch, and made her way to her kitchen. "That's not what I asked. I know it's nice to have a change. But what I don't know is if you're happy with this." She opened her fridge door and pulled out a bottle of water. Pouring it into a clean glass, she waited for his reply.
"Li, I.. it sucked tonight." She heard a deep sigh escape his lips. "Hearing all those people boo for me. It really.. sucked."
"I can imagine."
"No, you can't. The thing is.. when I entered onto that ramp, the whole place was just screaming for me. I mean, they usually do."
"Not that you're full of yourself or anything.." Lita joked.
Jeff managed a small chuckle. "No, I'm serious. For years now, everyone just cheers for me. So.. when I came in and heard all those cheers, it was nothing to me. Like, I'd heard it all before. But after I attacked Booker, and they all began to boo for me... I just really wanted to hear those cheers again."
Sipping on her glass of water, Lita felt her face fall. She could just imagine Jeff's face right now. He sounded so alone, and so vulnerable. Her little baby Jeffrey... "Oh, Jeff. Why don't you just tell Eric that you don't want to play this angle? I'm sure he can find a way to reverse this for you."
Jeff's voice took on a forced enthusiasm. "Well, I was talking to Eric about it earlier on. And you know, he was telling me that all the great superstars have had to turn heel at some point in their career. Hulk Hogan did. Steve Austin did. Rocky..."
As Jeff rattled off the names of WWE superstars who had made it big, and made it as a heel, Lita smiled sadly to herself. He was using the exact same logic she had been using when she watched him attack RVD and Booker T. The poor guy. He must've been miserable. She turned her attention back to Jeff's words.
"...even Ric Flair. This probably means really good things for me, Li. It means I'm being recognised, and I'm going somewhere."
Lita sat back down on her couch, watching RAW on mute as she talked to Jeff. "You're right Jeff. I was thinking the exact same thing earlier. It's true. You can't stay a face forever, if you want to become a star in this company."
"Yeah." Jeff agreed. "Yeah. There's just one thing that really bothers me about it all."
"Oh?" Lita asked, curious to know what the 'one thing' that bothered him above all else in this situation was. "And what's that?"
"You."
"Me?"
"You. When you come back. You're still coming back to RAW, aren't you?" Jeff asked, the uncertainty in his voice apparent.
The redhead nodded, even though she knew Jeff couldn't see her actions over the phone. "Yes. Definitely. There's no way I could work at Smackdown. Not with Matt.. not with him being there." Her voice had gone quiet at the end of her sentence. Lita cleared her throat, shaking away any thoughts about the elder Hardy brother. "Yeah, I'm still coming back to RAW. Why?"
It was Jeff's turn to clear his throat. "Well, you're obviously going to want to go for the Women's Title. And I'm sure Victoria will still be holding it when you come back. She's got absolutely no competition here." Lita let out a small laugh, and Jeff continued. "So, how will it work?"
"How will what work?"
"Me and you. How will we work? If you're feuding with Victoria, then you'll be the face. You'll be the good guy in that equation. But.. with my new angle.. I'm going to be the heel. I'll be the bad guy. How can we still be a team like that?"
Lita froze. She hadn't even thought about that. Of all the scenarios that had run through her head since she first realized Jeff had been turning heel.. she somehow still managed to think that their partnership would be able to stay intact. Of course, now she realized that would be impossible to work.
Damn! When she finally made her return to the WWE from her neck injury, she had no intention what-so-ever to make a turn to heel. She wanted to stay face, at least for a couple of months. She wanted to return face, and she wanted to stay face for a while. So how could her and Jeff work as a team, with her as a goody, and him as a baddy?
"Li? You still there?"
"I'm still here, Jeff. I just never thought of that before."
"You see?" Jeff's breathing had calmed down now, but the worry was rising in his voice. "We can't work together like that. We can't be a team."
"Sure we can! We'll figure out a way for it to work."
Lita heard some muffled voices on the other end of the phone, and movement. Damn it, Jeff would probably have to get off the phone. She didn't want to stop talking to him. Not yet. They had so much to talk about. She listened to the voices through the receiver.
"No, don't! I'm talking to Lita!" Jeff obviously talking to someone, and then a male voice saying something back to him. Lita couldn't make out the other man's voice or what he was saying. Some sounds of struggle, and the Jeff's voice once more. "We were in the middle of something, you know?"
"Hello? Is this the lovely Lita?"
A wide smile quickly spread onto Lita's lips at the sound of his voice. "Hey Chris. How are you?"
The canadian's voice softened slightly. "Yeah, alright. I'm going to have to talk about Stacy tonight. In front of the crowd."
Lita thought about the events that had happened last week on RAW concerning Stacy during Chris Jericho and Test's match. "Ouch. Not going to be pretty out there for ya."
"Don't I know it. Anyway, I just wanted to tell Jeff that Eric wants to see him. So you're gonna have to say goodbye now. I'll put him back on."
"See ya Chris. Good luck out there! I'll be watching."
"Thanks Li. I'll be seeing you soon, okay?" More sounds of movement in the background as the phone was handed back to Jeff.
"Well, it looks like Eric wants to talk to me about something, so, I'm going to have to go now."
"Okay. Are you coming for a visit this weekend?" Lita asked, knowing that it had been a couple of weeks since Jeff's last visit. Since she had been injured, he had tried his very hardest to come up and see her as often as he could. But sometimes his schedule was just too busy to allow him the time.
"I'll be there."
She smiled. "I'll see you then." She paused. "And remember, we'll work something out. Don't worry about it okay?"
"Okay. I'll see you in a few days." His voice lowered to that of a whisper. "Love ya."
"Love you too Hardy. Behave yourself."
"Always do. Bye Li."
"Bye."
Lita hit the 'end' button on her phone, and placed it back onto the hook. As she sat back onto her couch, she grabbed the television remote and turned mute off. As the sound from the television was turned back on, Lita couldn't help but notice the sinking feeling she had in her stomach.
What Jeff had said really had her spun out. What were they going to do? They couldn't NOT be a team, could they? Lita hadn't been by herself in the WWE ever! She was with Essa firstly, and then she was with the Hardys! Even after the Hardys split - she always had Jeff to rely on. Her and Jeff were a team. Now.. she wasn't so sure.
The sinking feeling stayed firmly at the bottom of her stomach as she watched the screen. The women's championship match began to start. Trish and Victoria in the ring, well, in a street fight! Lita thought about the long standing feud between the two Divas. She'd been watching them both anxiously. Victoria being fairly new in the ring, and Trish's skills as a wrestler improving greatly.
The redhead watched the match eagerly. Trish had become the model face - quite the turnaround from what she used to be. The crowd loved her now. And Victoria was the perfect heel. Crazy, unpredictable, and ruthless. Jeff was right. If Lita went up against Victoria for the title, she would undoubtedly be the face.
As the match neared it's end, Lita found herself thinking about Trish and Victoria's feud once again. It had been on for quite some time now, and Victoria - with the help of Steven Richards - had dominated the whole time. It was only natural that Trish would win the title sometime soon. As Lita had been thinking earlier.. nothing stays the same for long in this business.
That's when it hit her. Her eyes widened, and a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. The sinking feeling in her stomach lifted, and she breathed in deeply with relief.
She had two more months to go - if all went well - until she would be able to return to the ring. Two more months. A lot could happen in two months... especially in this business. Jeff had nothing to worry about, for she had already worked something out. When she returned, her and Jeff would be together, as a team.
It was inevitable.
