**Thanks to Julia, Super Skittz, Psychobunny410 for the reviews. You guys
are the greatest!!**
Steph got up that morning and hopped in the shower. Matt woke up to the sound of the running water and waited up till she was done.
"Morning peaches." He said to her with a smile.
"Morning. How did you sleep last night?" She asked with a devious smile. They had a few encounters the previous night.
"Great. Why are you up so early?" Matt asked. "I thought you didn't have to be at the office until 9:00 a.m."
"No, I have a meeting with a wrestler and the employee relations board this morning." Steph replied while she was finding something to wear.
"Are you guys hiring a new wrestler?" Matt asked.
"I can't tell you too much, except that we're disciplining a wrestler." Steph said putting on her business suit.
"I understand. I don't ask for anything further." Matt replied.
Steph went over to him and held him and gave him a big kiss, "I knew you would understand. I'll be in the office all day and most of the night though. I feel really bad that so much came up when you came out here."
Matt held her and kissed her back, "Hon, you help run a business. I understand. I'm ok staying here. I'll go grocery shopping and I'll have a wonderful meal made for when you get home."
Steph smiled, "You are so wonderful." She kissed him goodbye. "I'll call you later."
She drove to the office happy about how Matt understood everything, but dreading the meeting she was about to go into.
When she got there, she headed to Shane's office. She poked her head in there, and there were no signs of him. "Hmm.that's odd. He's always here early. Unless he's at the coffee stand."
She headed down to where they always went for coffee. There he was at the stand placing his order. She smiled and walked up behind him, "Well hello there Shane."
He turned and looked at her, "Hey Steph." He didn't look so well.
"Are you feeling ok Shane? You don't look so well." Steph pointed out. Then she ordered some coffee.
"No, I didn't sleep very well last night. But we'll talk later. We only have 10 minutes until the meeting, and dad wants us all in the conference room pronto." Shane replied.
Steph got her coffee and headed off to the room with Shane.
When they got there, they found Jim Ross and Vince reviewing his file. "Morning guys." Steph said to them.
"Morning kids." JR replied.
"Morning. We were just reviewing Jeff's file." Vince said.
Steph picked up some of it and started looking through it. "I knew he had been running late a lot lately, but I had no idea it was this out of hand."
"That's the problem, no one did. But even though he's only a mid-carder, he's one of our highest-drawing wrestlers. So that's why he's getting one more chance." Vince replied.
They talked about his punishment and what they were going to write up and insert into his contract.
Vince looked at his watch, "Meeting was at 8:00 a.m. and it is now 8:15 a.m. and there hasn't even been a call. God this kid pushes my last buttons." He said in an angry tone.
Everyone knew that one of Vince's biggest pet peeves was people not being on time.
Finally at 8:30 a.m. there was a tap on the door. Steph got up to answer it. Jeff's eyes just about popped out of his head, "Morning Steph." He had no idea that she was going to be there.
She held her arm out, "Morning Jeff, have a seat."
Jeff made his way over to the chair and sat down. "I'm sorry I'm late, my car wouldn't start and I couldn't find my cell phone."
"Jeff, I'm going to cut to the chase. You have been late to more shows than you have been on time. I have pulled your angles, I have cut your matches. I pulled you from the house shows to give you time, and nothing is working so it's coming down to this. I have written up an agreement, we have warned you time and time again, and verbal warnings are going nowhere. Here's your written warning. If you are late one more time, I'm going to have to let you go." Vince said sternly.
He looked at J.R. and then at Steph and Shane, he knew that things were getting out of hand, but he couldn't believe it was coming to this. Lately he had felt the passion for this business getting sucked right out of him. He frowned, this is it. This was how it was going to end. He nodded, "I understand. Where do I sign?"
"There's flags where you have to sign." Steph told him.
"Now Jeff, this written warning stands for six months, if you can go without being late for six months, then you're off of the written, and everything will go back to normal." J.R. explained to him.
Jeff nodded, "I'm sorry that it came to this."
Vince broke into a lecture on how being late is basically disrespecting everyone involved. Steph watched Jeff, and she could tell that even though he appeared to have eye contact with her father, his mind was elsewhere. She could see sadness in his eyes. Now Steph was curious, curious to know what was going on inside the head of Jeff Hardy. The only problem was that he was not her employee per say. Shane had charge of Raw, and she had charge of Smackdown. She couldn't start questioning him, or trying to help him as a boss, but maybe she could as a friend?
"Sir, I apologize for my blatant disrespect of you, management and everyone involved. I will try harder to exist to my utmost potential." Jeff said to Vince when he finished his lecture.
"Thank you Jeff. Now the only other thing I need from you is to submit this to the clinic on the corner." Vince said handing Jeff a brown paper bag.
Jeff opened it and found inside a cup for the random drug testing. "You think I'm on drugs?" Jeff asked sharply. More harsh than he had intended on.
J.R. cleared his throat, "Now Jeff. We're not saying that you are, but we're just taking precautions."
Jeff's blood boiled, how dare they accuse him of being on drugs? He always hated that question and that assumption that was thrown upon him. He had heard lots of things over the years, but the accusation of drugs was the only thing he couldn't tolerate. Jeff took a deep breath, "Alright man, fine, whatever." He mumbled. "I'll go get this done."
"Thank you Jeff, we're done." Vince said with a smile.
Jeff got up and headed straight out of the office. Once outside, he grabbed his cell phone and called Matt to tell him everything. That was all he needed was for Matt to find out through Steph, he would never hear the end of it.
Steph and Shane got up and started heading out when Vince called out to them. They stopped and turned around. "What's up dad?" Shane asked.
"I cleared both of your schedules for the day. This was the most important thing, we'll work storylines at Raw, go and enjoy your last day off." Vince said to them.
"Thanks Dad! That is wonderful!!" Steph said with a big smile. She couldn't wait to go home and enjoy time with Matt. It was the last time it would be just the two of them like this for awhile.
"Yeah dad, thanks." Shane said smiling.
Steph and Shane walked towards their offices when Steph turned and looked at him, "We'll talk at lunch tomorrow at Raw."
"Deal. Have a good one." Shane said. And the two parted ways.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steph pulled up in the driveway and seen that her other car was parked in front of the garage. "Hmm, Matt must have already went grocery shopping."
Steph walked into the house and there was Matt and Jeff sitting at the kitchen table having a soda and talking. Matt was facing her and she was facing the back of Jeff's head.
Matt heard the door and looked up, "Steph?!? What are you doing home so early?"
Jeff made a face to Matt and turned around so he could see Steph.
"Well, dad gave Shane and I the day off so we could spend some time at home before we go back out on the road tomorrow." Steph replied. "Do you want me to give you guys some time?"
"No, you can come and talk with us." Matt said to her. Jeff shot him an evil look.
"I don't know, maybe this is a brother to brother thing. If you want, I can just watch some tv and give you guys your time?" Steph offered.
"That sounds good Steph." Jeff replied before Matt could say anything.
Steph was a little taken a back. She couldn't tell if Jeff liked her or not, but lately she'd been getting the feeling that he doesn't. "Um, ok. I'll just be in my room." Steph said. She took her shoes off and headed upstairs to her room.
Matt looked at Jeff, "Don't you think that was a little rude?"
"No I don't. Matt, I don't want her hearing everything that I'm going to be talking to you about." Jeff said. Normally he didn't speak up for himself, but he was in an awful mood and this wasn't helping.
"Why not? You used to talk to me about everything in front of Amy." Matt replied.
"Amy was different." Jeff grumbled.
"What do you mean? Talk to me Jeff, what's been going on with you?" Matt said to him.
"Look, it's just a little weird trying to relax around the bosses daughter. And in your case, you're boss. How do you come home and unwind by complaining a bit, when she's the one you're around? Jeff said trying to prove his point.
"Jeff, you can still complain, I'm sure she has complaints about all of us from time to time too, it's called trust. You have to trust each other. And I don't overstep my bounds with her. If she's doing something that I can't know due to conflict of interest, I respect that and I don't ask anymore. Jeff you have to stop looking at her like a "McMahon" and just look at her like Stephanie." Matt replied. "Jeff, you didn't come here to talk about Steph, what's going on with you lately?"
Jeff sighed, "I don't know. I don't wake up on time, I can't seem to get anywhere on time. I haven't had much of an appetite. Matt, I had a meeting with Vince, Steph, Shane and JR."
Matt's eyes opened wide, "Why, what happened?"
"They're tired of me being late all of the time, and I got my final written warning. If I'm late one more time, I'm done." Jeff replied.
"You're kidding!" Matt exclaimed. "How did it get so out of hand?"
Jeff shook his head, "Man, I don't know. Then they made me take a drug test."
"Did you take it?" Matt asked.
"Well yeah, it's not like I ever have to worry about the results." Jeff replied. "I love wrestling, but god I miss being home."
Matt looked at Jeff with a concerned look, "You've already been pulled off of the house shows, how much more time off could you want?"
"I know, I know. Look Matt, I'm trying my best. I'll go out of my way to be on time." Jeff replied.
Matt looked at Jeff. He loved him to death, but there were times when Matt felt like he was the father and Jeff was the teenage child. "Yeah, you're going to have to."
Jeff nodded.
"How about we all go the grocery store, we'll pick up some stuff to grill, and then we'll have a getting to know each other barbecue?" Matt suggested.
Jeff wrinkled his face, "I don't know Matt." He started to say when Matt interrupted.
"C'mon Jeff. You don't understand, this is important. You're my brother and I love you more than anything, and Steph is my girlfriend and you're not comfortable around her, and I really need you two to be comfortable around each other and get along." Matt said to him.
Jeff got up, "Fine. We'll barbecue, we'll play board games, and we'll talk. We'll have a grand ol' time tonight.
Matt got up and hugged Jeff tight, "Thanks man. I owe ya."
**So, what does everyone think of the barbecue plan? What happens if alcohol gets involved? You guys are great! Please continue to read and review!!!**
Steph got up that morning and hopped in the shower. Matt woke up to the sound of the running water and waited up till she was done.
"Morning peaches." He said to her with a smile.
"Morning. How did you sleep last night?" She asked with a devious smile. They had a few encounters the previous night.
"Great. Why are you up so early?" Matt asked. "I thought you didn't have to be at the office until 9:00 a.m."
"No, I have a meeting with a wrestler and the employee relations board this morning." Steph replied while she was finding something to wear.
"Are you guys hiring a new wrestler?" Matt asked.
"I can't tell you too much, except that we're disciplining a wrestler." Steph said putting on her business suit.
"I understand. I don't ask for anything further." Matt replied.
Steph went over to him and held him and gave him a big kiss, "I knew you would understand. I'll be in the office all day and most of the night though. I feel really bad that so much came up when you came out here."
Matt held her and kissed her back, "Hon, you help run a business. I understand. I'm ok staying here. I'll go grocery shopping and I'll have a wonderful meal made for when you get home."
Steph smiled, "You are so wonderful." She kissed him goodbye. "I'll call you later."
She drove to the office happy about how Matt understood everything, but dreading the meeting she was about to go into.
When she got there, she headed to Shane's office. She poked her head in there, and there were no signs of him. "Hmm.that's odd. He's always here early. Unless he's at the coffee stand."
She headed down to where they always went for coffee. There he was at the stand placing his order. She smiled and walked up behind him, "Well hello there Shane."
He turned and looked at her, "Hey Steph." He didn't look so well.
"Are you feeling ok Shane? You don't look so well." Steph pointed out. Then she ordered some coffee.
"No, I didn't sleep very well last night. But we'll talk later. We only have 10 minutes until the meeting, and dad wants us all in the conference room pronto." Shane replied.
Steph got her coffee and headed off to the room with Shane.
When they got there, they found Jim Ross and Vince reviewing his file. "Morning guys." Steph said to them.
"Morning kids." JR replied.
"Morning. We were just reviewing Jeff's file." Vince said.
Steph picked up some of it and started looking through it. "I knew he had been running late a lot lately, but I had no idea it was this out of hand."
"That's the problem, no one did. But even though he's only a mid-carder, he's one of our highest-drawing wrestlers. So that's why he's getting one more chance." Vince replied.
They talked about his punishment and what they were going to write up and insert into his contract.
Vince looked at his watch, "Meeting was at 8:00 a.m. and it is now 8:15 a.m. and there hasn't even been a call. God this kid pushes my last buttons." He said in an angry tone.
Everyone knew that one of Vince's biggest pet peeves was people not being on time.
Finally at 8:30 a.m. there was a tap on the door. Steph got up to answer it. Jeff's eyes just about popped out of his head, "Morning Steph." He had no idea that she was going to be there.
She held her arm out, "Morning Jeff, have a seat."
Jeff made his way over to the chair and sat down. "I'm sorry I'm late, my car wouldn't start and I couldn't find my cell phone."
"Jeff, I'm going to cut to the chase. You have been late to more shows than you have been on time. I have pulled your angles, I have cut your matches. I pulled you from the house shows to give you time, and nothing is working so it's coming down to this. I have written up an agreement, we have warned you time and time again, and verbal warnings are going nowhere. Here's your written warning. If you are late one more time, I'm going to have to let you go." Vince said sternly.
He looked at J.R. and then at Steph and Shane, he knew that things were getting out of hand, but he couldn't believe it was coming to this. Lately he had felt the passion for this business getting sucked right out of him. He frowned, this is it. This was how it was going to end. He nodded, "I understand. Where do I sign?"
"There's flags where you have to sign." Steph told him.
"Now Jeff, this written warning stands for six months, if you can go without being late for six months, then you're off of the written, and everything will go back to normal." J.R. explained to him.
Jeff nodded, "I'm sorry that it came to this."
Vince broke into a lecture on how being late is basically disrespecting everyone involved. Steph watched Jeff, and she could tell that even though he appeared to have eye contact with her father, his mind was elsewhere. She could see sadness in his eyes. Now Steph was curious, curious to know what was going on inside the head of Jeff Hardy. The only problem was that he was not her employee per say. Shane had charge of Raw, and she had charge of Smackdown. She couldn't start questioning him, or trying to help him as a boss, but maybe she could as a friend?
"Sir, I apologize for my blatant disrespect of you, management and everyone involved. I will try harder to exist to my utmost potential." Jeff said to Vince when he finished his lecture.
"Thank you Jeff. Now the only other thing I need from you is to submit this to the clinic on the corner." Vince said handing Jeff a brown paper bag.
Jeff opened it and found inside a cup for the random drug testing. "You think I'm on drugs?" Jeff asked sharply. More harsh than he had intended on.
J.R. cleared his throat, "Now Jeff. We're not saying that you are, but we're just taking precautions."
Jeff's blood boiled, how dare they accuse him of being on drugs? He always hated that question and that assumption that was thrown upon him. He had heard lots of things over the years, but the accusation of drugs was the only thing he couldn't tolerate. Jeff took a deep breath, "Alright man, fine, whatever." He mumbled. "I'll go get this done."
"Thank you Jeff, we're done." Vince said with a smile.
Jeff got up and headed straight out of the office. Once outside, he grabbed his cell phone and called Matt to tell him everything. That was all he needed was for Matt to find out through Steph, he would never hear the end of it.
Steph and Shane got up and started heading out when Vince called out to them. They stopped and turned around. "What's up dad?" Shane asked.
"I cleared both of your schedules for the day. This was the most important thing, we'll work storylines at Raw, go and enjoy your last day off." Vince said to them.
"Thanks Dad! That is wonderful!!" Steph said with a big smile. She couldn't wait to go home and enjoy time with Matt. It was the last time it would be just the two of them like this for awhile.
"Yeah dad, thanks." Shane said smiling.
Steph and Shane walked towards their offices when Steph turned and looked at him, "We'll talk at lunch tomorrow at Raw."
"Deal. Have a good one." Shane said. And the two parted ways.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Steph pulled up in the driveway and seen that her other car was parked in front of the garage. "Hmm, Matt must have already went grocery shopping."
Steph walked into the house and there was Matt and Jeff sitting at the kitchen table having a soda and talking. Matt was facing her and she was facing the back of Jeff's head.
Matt heard the door and looked up, "Steph?!? What are you doing home so early?"
Jeff made a face to Matt and turned around so he could see Steph.
"Well, dad gave Shane and I the day off so we could spend some time at home before we go back out on the road tomorrow." Steph replied. "Do you want me to give you guys some time?"
"No, you can come and talk with us." Matt said to her. Jeff shot him an evil look.
"I don't know, maybe this is a brother to brother thing. If you want, I can just watch some tv and give you guys your time?" Steph offered.
"That sounds good Steph." Jeff replied before Matt could say anything.
Steph was a little taken a back. She couldn't tell if Jeff liked her or not, but lately she'd been getting the feeling that he doesn't. "Um, ok. I'll just be in my room." Steph said. She took her shoes off and headed upstairs to her room.
Matt looked at Jeff, "Don't you think that was a little rude?"
"No I don't. Matt, I don't want her hearing everything that I'm going to be talking to you about." Jeff said. Normally he didn't speak up for himself, but he was in an awful mood and this wasn't helping.
"Why not? You used to talk to me about everything in front of Amy." Matt replied.
"Amy was different." Jeff grumbled.
"What do you mean? Talk to me Jeff, what's been going on with you?" Matt said to him.
"Look, it's just a little weird trying to relax around the bosses daughter. And in your case, you're boss. How do you come home and unwind by complaining a bit, when she's the one you're around? Jeff said trying to prove his point.
"Jeff, you can still complain, I'm sure she has complaints about all of us from time to time too, it's called trust. You have to trust each other. And I don't overstep my bounds with her. If she's doing something that I can't know due to conflict of interest, I respect that and I don't ask anymore. Jeff you have to stop looking at her like a "McMahon" and just look at her like Stephanie." Matt replied. "Jeff, you didn't come here to talk about Steph, what's going on with you lately?"
Jeff sighed, "I don't know. I don't wake up on time, I can't seem to get anywhere on time. I haven't had much of an appetite. Matt, I had a meeting with Vince, Steph, Shane and JR."
Matt's eyes opened wide, "Why, what happened?"
"They're tired of me being late all of the time, and I got my final written warning. If I'm late one more time, I'm done." Jeff replied.
"You're kidding!" Matt exclaimed. "How did it get so out of hand?"
Jeff shook his head, "Man, I don't know. Then they made me take a drug test."
"Did you take it?" Matt asked.
"Well yeah, it's not like I ever have to worry about the results." Jeff replied. "I love wrestling, but god I miss being home."
Matt looked at Jeff with a concerned look, "You've already been pulled off of the house shows, how much more time off could you want?"
"I know, I know. Look Matt, I'm trying my best. I'll go out of my way to be on time." Jeff replied.
Matt looked at Jeff. He loved him to death, but there were times when Matt felt like he was the father and Jeff was the teenage child. "Yeah, you're going to have to."
Jeff nodded.
"How about we all go the grocery store, we'll pick up some stuff to grill, and then we'll have a getting to know each other barbecue?" Matt suggested.
Jeff wrinkled his face, "I don't know Matt." He started to say when Matt interrupted.
"C'mon Jeff. You don't understand, this is important. You're my brother and I love you more than anything, and Steph is my girlfriend and you're not comfortable around her, and I really need you two to be comfortable around each other and get along." Matt said to him.
Jeff got up, "Fine. We'll barbecue, we'll play board games, and we'll talk. We'll have a grand ol' time tonight.
Matt got up and hugged Jeff tight, "Thanks man. I owe ya."
**So, what does everyone think of the barbecue plan? What happens if alcohol gets involved? You guys are great! Please continue to read and review!!!**