**Hey everyone, thanks for your patience and understanding. I went through
and re-vamped this chapter in order to fit with the next chapter a little
better. I explained why there was a lack of updates in the beginning of the
next chapter, so please check that. I'm really sorry and if anyone is still
out there, THANK YOU! Some of this chapter is the same, but a lot has
changed.**
Steph walked into the arena and smiled. It was all hers. Today, she was the one in charge over everything. And nothing was going to get in her way of proving herself to her family.
She walked into the room that the backstage crew deemed her office and set up her laptop. She was humming a tune to herself. In a couple of days it would be her and Matt's two-month anniversary. She couldn't believe that time flew by as fast as it had been.
Steph pulled out the check-in sheet and hung it up on the wall for the superstars to sign in on when they arrived. That way she could keep track of everyone.
As the day progressed, more and more superstars stopped by and signed in. Steph was smiling and laughing and making small talk with everyone. She grabbed her briefcase and the wipe-off board and headed off to the lounge.
At every arena, they usually took over the lounge area and turned it into their meeting room and they held their nightly meeting there. Steph set up the wipe-off board and was going over the final match line up as everyone started to file in. At the top she wrote 04-22-2003. To her the day was very symbolic, it was the first house show she ever ran all by herself and so far everything was going just fine.
Steph began writing down the matches of the night on the wipe board and double-checking the card to make sure it was just right. She put out the night's agenda on the table as the superstars entered the room.
Paul grabbed one and walked up very close behind her and cleared his throat.
Steph jumped a little bit, "Hey Paul, what's up?"
"Where's your dad at? There's a problem with this agenda." Paul replied. He stayed very close to her, so close that she could feel him breathing on her neck.
Steph swallowed hard, "He's not here. I'm in charge. Why, what's wrong with it?"
"Well, one of the matches is Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy." He said to her.
"What's wrong with that?" Steph asked. "It follows storylines."
"Well, it's going to be awfully hard for Chris to wrestle someone that isn't here." Paul replied with a smirk as he walked off.
Just as Paul was walking away from her, Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam walked in to the room and grabbed agendas.
Steph froze in fear, could he be telling her the truth? Was Jeff really not there yet, or just not at the meeting yet? She knew that a lot of times, he wouldn't sign in if there was anyone around because he felt like he was being baby sat. "God, please don't let him be telling the truth." She silently prayed.
All of the wrestlers were laughing and carrying on and having a great time while Steph went to check to see if she could find Jeff anywhere.
"Fuck, where the hell is he?" She screamed inside her head.
"Hey Steph, you're late to your own meeting." She heard Shawn Michaels call to her.
"Ha Ha very funny." She replied. "I was looking for someone."
"Paul's already at the meeting." Shawn said catching up with her.
"I wasn't looking for him," Steph replied with a smile, "I was looking for Jeff. He's not here yet." Steph said concerned.
"Well doll, I haven't seen him yet either." Shawn said putting his arm around her, "But you know how he is."
Steph nodded in acknowledgement. It was true, she knew how he was, but that was supposed to have changed.
As they walked in the meeting room, Steph grew upset. Jeff knew what they had agreed upon and there was no way she was going to let him walk all over her.
"Hey Steph, you must be crazy if you think I'm wrestling the invisible man tonight." Chris said sarcastically. "I mean, I don't mind helping others out by putting them over, but this.this is really pushing it.".
Steph took a deep breath and bit her tongue, she knew he was just trying to make her laugh. She cleared her throat, "Look, some last minute changes need to be made to the card. I have a few calls to make, be back here in 20 minutes. I know it's cutting it close, but trust me on this one." She said sharply, she grabbed her briefcase and stormed out of the room.
Paul tried to call for her, but Steph was too pissed too stop. She was a woman on a mission. She didn't have time to make small talk, or push off his advances. She reached her office, walked in and slammed the door as hard as she could.
She sat down at her desk and called Matt hoping for some good news.
"V-1 at your service." He answered with a chuckle.
"I have to ask you something very important." Steph said in a low but stern tone.
"Whoa Steph, are you ok? What's wrong?" Matt asked quickly. The smile immediately gone.
"Have you heard from your brother at all today?" She asked slowly.
"No, I know that I'm picking you guys up from the airport tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. but I haven't talked to him today. I tried calling him, but there was no answer. Why?" Matt asked.
"Because he's not here yet." She growled. "He's not here yet, and the show starts in an hour and he's nowhere to be found." She said almost in tears.
Just as Matt was starting to respond, her other line beeped. She looked and seen it was her father, "Matt that's dad. If you talk to him, tell him to get his ass to the arena NOW. I'll call you later" And she switched over, "Stephanie McMahon." She said trying to fight the tears and not sound like she was upset.
"Steph, what's wrong?" Vince asked immediately. She never answered the phone sounding as grumpy as she did just now. "They're not giving you a hard time, are they?"
"No dad. Not at all, they've been great. What's up?" She asked.
"Well, we're on a break and I thought that I would call and check to see how things are going." Vince replied.
"Is JR in the meeting with you?" Steph asked.
"No, he's at his desk working on the Velocity segments." Vince replied. "Why is there a problem?"
"No, no problem." Steph answered quicker than she should.
"Stephanie, what is going on?" Vince demanded.
Steph couldn't hold it back anymore. She hated it when Vince got demanding and she unloaded, "Look, Jeff's not here yet." Steph said sternly. "Jeff's not here yet, no one has heard from him, or seen him at all today. I have to re-write the whole frickin' card because he's not here and the show starts in exactly 54 minutes and 22 seconds. He knew damn well that if he was late one more time, he would have to suffer the consequences, and he's still not here."
"God Damnit!" Vince exclaimed. Steph could hear him slamming his hand against something. Steph just sat there as Vince rolled off a bunch of expletives regarding the Jeff incident. Finally Vince was silent for a minute, "Steph, he's done. When he shows up, tell him he's done. And we'll make everything official on Monday at Raw."
Steph's eyes filled with tears. "You want me to fire him tonight?" She asked for clarification. Immediately her head filled with thoughts of how well that would go over.
"Look Steph, Are you able to handle this or not?" Vince asked angrily. He was pissed beyond belief at this point. He was upset about the opportunity that Jeff was throwing away. He had always like the Hardy Boyz's work and Jeff was one of his top merchandise sales. Jeff was at the top of fan favorites list, and now he would be gone.
"Yes dad I'm able to do it. I'll leave you a voicemail when it's done." Steph said sternly. She was furious. She knew that she had to control herself though. "Dad, I've gotta run. I have to re-write the whole card and we don' t have a whole lot of time." She said professionally.
"All right, I'll call after the meeting is over and see how it went." Vince replied and hung up.
What Steph didn't realize is that while she was on the phone with Matt and her father, Jason (Christian) was also getting a phone call.
"This is Jay." Jason said picking up his phone to an unidentified number on the caller id.
"Hey man it's Jeff. What's my match tonight?" Jeff asked him.
"Dude, where the hell are you? Steph is pissed." Jason asked him.
"I'm on my way from the airport. I woke up late and missed my flight, then I got to the airport and they didn't have another flight for a couple hours. Then once I got to the airport, my cell phone was missing, and I've been searching for it. I still haven't found it, and now I'm waiting for my rental and then I'll be there as soon as I can. What match is mine tonight?" Jeff explained. He didn't seem all that worried.
"Dude, Steph's pissed as hell right now. She's re-writing the whole card, so I'm guessing she's taking you off. But you were supposed to wrestle Jericho after intermission." Jason replied.
"Look, it's just Steph. Vince isn't there tonight, so it can't be that bad." Jeff said to him. "I'll be there shortly." And he hung up.
Steph brought up the card on her computer and began to go to work. She pulled up the histories of the last few televised shows and house shows so she could make sure the matches matched the storylines as best as she could.
Finally everyone regrouped in the lounge and Steph quickly quieted everyone down. "Thank you everyone for your cooperation and patience on this. We had something unforeseen pop up and I went ahead and re-wrote the card." She said as she wrote the card on the wipe board. "I didn't have time to make copies for everyone, so I'll leave this up tonight. I'm making this meeting short because we don't have a lot of time before the doors open. If there are any questions or problems, please come see me. Otherwise, be safe and have a great show everyone."
As she was walking out of the meeting, her head was swirling with everything she had to do. And what would happen when she did them.
Almost 30 minutes later, after the show had already started, there was a knock on the door. "It's open." Steph called. She was watching her monitor. Lately her father had been having them watch the matches and the crowds during the house shows so they could see what needed to be improved.
Jeff walked in slowly, "Hey Steph." He started to say when she stood up.
"Jeff, what a pleasant surprise." She said sarcastically. "Please sit down, we need to talk."
Jeff slowly walked over and sat down, "Look Steph, I can explain." He started to say when she held up her hand.
"Jeff, don't say anything. Do you remember a meeting that we just had not too long ago regarding your tardiness?" She asked him sternly.
"Yes I do. Steph, And I'm sorry. I missed my flight, then I lost my cell phone, by the time I finally arrived, my rental wasn't ready yet, Look, I'm really sorry." Jeff apologized.
"Jeff, I don't want excuses. The contract we signed that day was not just a way to pass the time. That was serious, you signed it stating that you fully understood what was being told to you and that you would abide by those rules." Steph responded. She was so furious with him not only on a professional level, but also on a personal level.
"Steph, I know that. And I would have been on time except for" Jeff started to reiterate everything he told her when she cut him off.
"Why didn't you call me to tell me that you were going to be late? You could have at least given me a heads up." Steph asked him. "And, if you missed your flight, then that means that you were late to the airport as well." "Come on Steph, I made a few mistakes. You're right, I should have called you and told you that I was running late, and I didn't. But I couldn't because I lost my cell phone." Jeff tried to reason with her, but Steph had a sharp answer for everything.
"Jeff, if you really wanted to call me, you could have used a payphone." She replied.
"Steph, you're dad's not here. He doesn't need to know about this. I'll wrestle my match and it'll be our little secret." Jeff proposed. "You're dad doesn't need to know, and Matt doesn't need to know, just the two of us."
Steph was taken aback, she couldn't believe the audacity of him. "No we can't over look this one." Steph replied sharply. "Jeff I'm you're boss tonight." Steph sat down and looked at him with a sadness in her eyes, "Jeff, you know the rules. I'm sorry, but according to the rules and conditions we discussed at an earlier meeting, and the agreement that you signed, I'm sorry, but you're hereby released."
Jeff jumped up furious. His first instinct was to be mad at Steph, "Wait a minute, you're firing me?" He shouted at her, "You don't have the authority to fire me. Can't we talk this out?"
"Don't raise you're voice at me Jeff, or I will have you escorted from the building. I'm sorry Jeff, but you know the rules. You have been aware of what could happen." Steph said to him angrily. "Now please leave and we'll discuss this further at the Raw taping."
"Stephanie, this is bullshit. Don't do this." Jeff shouted at her. When he seen Steph's anger raise in her eyes, he quieted down, "I'll be on time, I'll work overtime, just please don't do this." Jeff pleaded.
Steph's heart went out to him. Once he wasn't so hostile, she could see the fear in his eyes, but she maintained her authority and her stern tone. "Jeff, I'm sorry. But you knew what could happen. I can't emphasize that any more. You signed the contract, and now here you are 30 minutes late. I'm sorry, but I have to release you. We'll sign the official papers at the Raw taping."
Jeff's anger was close to the boiling point, so he decided to do what was best. He grabbed his guitar and his bag. "Fine. But you are making a HUGE mistake." He said angrily.
Steph stood up and walked over to open the door for him since his hands were full.
"Don't do me any favors." He growled rudely at her.
That was enough for Steph, she waved at security, "Can you make sure he leaves the building?"
They acknowledged her. Jeff turned once to shoot her a dirty look but Steph slammed the door in his face.
Steph sat down at her desk and began to type up the incident report. She tried to call Matt, but there was no answer. As she typed, all she could think of what the next morning at the airport would be like.
**Ok, now it's set for the next chapter. Thanks!! Please read and review!**
Steph walked into the arena and smiled. It was all hers. Today, she was the one in charge over everything. And nothing was going to get in her way of proving herself to her family.
She walked into the room that the backstage crew deemed her office and set up her laptop. She was humming a tune to herself. In a couple of days it would be her and Matt's two-month anniversary. She couldn't believe that time flew by as fast as it had been.
Steph pulled out the check-in sheet and hung it up on the wall for the superstars to sign in on when they arrived. That way she could keep track of everyone.
As the day progressed, more and more superstars stopped by and signed in. Steph was smiling and laughing and making small talk with everyone. She grabbed her briefcase and the wipe-off board and headed off to the lounge.
At every arena, they usually took over the lounge area and turned it into their meeting room and they held their nightly meeting there. Steph set up the wipe-off board and was going over the final match line up as everyone started to file in. At the top she wrote 04-22-2003. To her the day was very symbolic, it was the first house show she ever ran all by herself and so far everything was going just fine.
Steph began writing down the matches of the night on the wipe board and double-checking the card to make sure it was just right. She put out the night's agenda on the table as the superstars entered the room.
Paul grabbed one and walked up very close behind her and cleared his throat.
Steph jumped a little bit, "Hey Paul, what's up?"
"Where's your dad at? There's a problem with this agenda." Paul replied. He stayed very close to her, so close that she could feel him breathing on her neck.
Steph swallowed hard, "He's not here. I'm in charge. Why, what's wrong with it?"
"Well, one of the matches is Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy." He said to her.
"What's wrong with that?" Steph asked. "It follows storylines."
"Well, it's going to be awfully hard for Chris to wrestle someone that isn't here." Paul replied with a smirk as he walked off.
Just as Paul was walking away from her, Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam walked in to the room and grabbed agendas.
Steph froze in fear, could he be telling her the truth? Was Jeff really not there yet, or just not at the meeting yet? She knew that a lot of times, he wouldn't sign in if there was anyone around because he felt like he was being baby sat. "God, please don't let him be telling the truth." She silently prayed.
All of the wrestlers were laughing and carrying on and having a great time while Steph went to check to see if she could find Jeff anywhere.
"Fuck, where the hell is he?" She screamed inside her head.
"Hey Steph, you're late to your own meeting." She heard Shawn Michaels call to her.
"Ha Ha very funny." She replied. "I was looking for someone."
"Paul's already at the meeting." Shawn said catching up with her.
"I wasn't looking for him," Steph replied with a smile, "I was looking for Jeff. He's not here yet." Steph said concerned.
"Well doll, I haven't seen him yet either." Shawn said putting his arm around her, "But you know how he is."
Steph nodded in acknowledgement. It was true, she knew how he was, but that was supposed to have changed.
As they walked in the meeting room, Steph grew upset. Jeff knew what they had agreed upon and there was no way she was going to let him walk all over her.
"Hey Steph, you must be crazy if you think I'm wrestling the invisible man tonight." Chris said sarcastically. "I mean, I don't mind helping others out by putting them over, but this.this is really pushing it.".
Steph took a deep breath and bit her tongue, she knew he was just trying to make her laugh. She cleared her throat, "Look, some last minute changes need to be made to the card. I have a few calls to make, be back here in 20 minutes. I know it's cutting it close, but trust me on this one." She said sharply, she grabbed her briefcase and stormed out of the room.
Paul tried to call for her, but Steph was too pissed too stop. She was a woman on a mission. She didn't have time to make small talk, or push off his advances. She reached her office, walked in and slammed the door as hard as she could.
She sat down at her desk and called Matt hoping for some good news.
"V-1 at your service." He answered with a chuckle.
"I have to ask you something very important." Steph said in a low but stern tone.
"Whoa Steph, are you ok? What's wrong?" Matt asked quickly. The smile immediately gone.
"Have you heard from your brother at all today?" She asked slowly.
"No, I know that I'm picking you guys up from the airport tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. but I haven't talked to him today. I tried calling him, but there was no answer. Why?" Matt asked.
"Because he's not here yet." She growled. "He's not here yet, and the show starts in an hour and he's nowhere to be found." She said almost in tears.
Just as Matt was starting to respond, her other line beeped. She looked and seen it was her father, "Matt that's dad. If you talk to him, tell him to get his ass to the arena NOW. I'll call you later" And she switched over, "Stephanie McMahon." She said trying to fight the tears and not sound like she was upset.
"Steph, what's wrong?" Vince asked immediately. She never answered the phone sounding as grumpy as she did just now. "They're not giving you a hard time, are they?"
"No dad. Not at all, they've been great. What's up?" She asked.
"Well, we're on a break and I thought that I would call and check to see how things are going." Vince replied.
"Is JR in the meeting with you?" Steph asked.
"No, he's at his desk working on the Velocity segments." Vince replied. "Why is there a problem?"
"No, no problem." Steph answered quicker than she should.
"Stephanie, what is going on?" Vince demanded.
Steph couldn't hold it back anymore. She hated it when Vince got demanding and she unloaded, "Look, Jeff's not here yet." Steph said sternly. "Jeff's not here yet, no one has heard from him, or seen him at all today. I have to re-write the whole frickin' card because he's not here and the show starts in exactly 54 minutes and 22 seconds. He knew damn well that if he was late one more time, he would have to suffer the consequences, and he's still not here."
"God Damnit!" Vince exclaimed. Steph could hear him slamming his hand against something. Steph just sat there as Vince rolled off a bunch of expletives regarding the Jeff incident. Finally Vince was silent for a minute, "Steph, he's done. When he shows up, tell him he's done. And we'll make everything official on Monday at Raw."
Steph's eyes filled with tears. "You want me to fire him tonight?" She asked for clarification. Immediately her head filled with thoughts of how well that would go over.
"Look Steph, Are you able to handle this or not?" Vince asked angrily. He was pissed beyond belief at this point. He was upset about the opportunity that Jeff was throwing away. He had always like the Hardy Boyz's work and Jeff was one of his top merchandise sales. Jeff was at the top of fan favorites list, and now he would be gone.
"Yes dad I'm able to do it. I'll leave you a voicemail when it's done." Steph said sternly. She was furious. She knew that she had to control herself though. "Dad, I've gotta run. I have to re-write the whole card and we don' t have a whole lot of time." She said professionally.
"All right, I'll call after the meeting is over and see how it went." Vince replied and hung up.
What Steph didn't realize is that while she was on the phone with Matt and her father, Jason (Christian) was also getting a phone call.
"This is Jay." Jason said picking up his phone to an unidentified number on the caller id.
"Hey man it's Jeff. What's my match tonight?" Jeff asked him.
"Dude, where the hell are you? Steph is pissed." Jason asked him.
"I'm on my way from the airport. I woke up late and missed my flight, then I got to the airport and they didn't have another flight for a couple hours. Then once I got to the airport, my cell phone was missing, and I've been searching for it. I still haven't found it, and now I'm waiting for my rental and then I'll be there as soon as I can. What match is mine tonight?" Jeff explained. He didn't seem all that worried.
"Dude, Steph's pissed as hell right now. She's re-writing the whole card, so I'm guessing she's taking you off. But you were supposed to wrestle Jericho after intermission." Jason replied.
"Look, it's just Steph. Vince isn't there tonight, so it can't be that bad." Jeff said to him. "I'll be there shortly." And he hung up.
Steph brought up the card on her computer and began to go to work. She pulled up the histories of the last few televised shows and house shows so she could make sure the matches matched the storylines as best as she could.
Finally everyone regrouped in the lounge and Steph quickly quieted everyone down. "Thank you everyone for your cooperation and patience on this. We had something unforeseen pop up and I went ahead and re-wrote the card." She said as she wrote the card on the wipe board. "I didn't have time to make copies for everyone, so I'll leave this up tonight. I'm making this meeting short because we don't have a lot of time before the doors open. If there are any questions or problems, please come see me. Otherwise, be safe and have a great show everyone."
As she was walking out of the meeting, her head was swirling with everything she had to do. And what would happen when she did them.
Almost 30 minutes later, after the show had already started, there was a knock on the door. "It's open." Steph called. She was watching her monitor. Lately her father had been having them watch the matches and the crowds during the house shows so they could see what needed to be improved.
Jeff walked in slowly, "Hey Steph." He started to say when she stood up.
"Jeff, what a pleasant surprise." She said sarcastically. "Please sit down, we need to talk."
Jeff slowly walked over and sat down, "Look Steph, I can explain." He started to say when she held up her hand.
"Jeff, don't say anything. Do you remember a meeting that we just had not too long ago regarding your tardiness?" She asked him sternly.
"Yes I do. Steph, And I'm sorry. I missed my flight, then I lost my cell phone, by the time I finally arrived, my rental wasn't ready yet, Look, I'm really sorry." Jeff apologized.
"Jeff, I don't want excuses. The contract we signed that day was not just a way to pass the time. That was serious, you signed it stating that you fully understood what was being told to you and that you would abide by those rules." Steph responded. She was so furious with him not only on a professional level, but also on a personal level.
"Steph, I know that. And I would have been on time except for" Jeff started to reiterate everything he told her when she cut him off.
"Why didn't you call me to tell me that you were going to be late? You could have at least given me a heads up." Steph asked him. "And, if you missed your flight, then that means that you were late to the airport as well." "Come on Steph, I made a few mistakes. You're right, I should have called you and told you that I was running late, and I didn't. But I couldn't because I lost my cell phone." Jeff tried to reason with her, but Steph had a sharp answer for everything.
"Jeff, if you really wanted to call me, you could have used a payphone." She replied.
"Steph, you're dad's not here. He doesn't need to know about this. I'll wrestle my match and it'll be our little secret." Jeff proposed. "You're dad doesn't need to know, and Matt doesn't need to know, just the two of us."
Steph was taken aback, she couldn't believe the audacity of him. "No we can't over look this one." Steph replied sharply. "Jeff I'm you're boss tonight." Steph sat down and looked at him with a sadness in her eyes, "Jeff, you know the rules. I'm sorry, but according to the rules and conditions we discussed at an earlier meeting, and the agreement that you signed, I'm sorry, but you're hereby released."
Jeff jumped up furious. His first instinct was to be mad at Steph, "Wait a minute, you're firing me?" He shouted at her, "You don't have the authority to fire me. Can't we talk this out?"
"Don't raise you're voice at me Jeff, or I will have you escorted from the building. I'm sorry Jeff, but you know the rules. You have been aware of what could happen." Steph said to him angrily. "Now please leave and we'll discuss this further at the Raw taping."
"Stephanie, this is bullshit. Don't do this." Jeff shouted at her. When he seen Steph's anger raise in her eyes, he quieted down, "I'll be on time, I'll work overtime, just please don't do this." Jeff pleaded.
Steph's heart went out to him. Once he wasn't so hostile, she could see the fear in his eyes, but she maintained her authority and her stern tone. "Jeff, I'm sorry. But you knew what could happen. I can't emphasize that any more. You signed the contract, and now here you are 30 minutes late. I'm sorry, but I have to release you. We'll sign the official papers at the Raw taping."
Jeff's anger was close to the boiling point, so he decided to do what was best. He grabbed his guitar and his bag. "Fine. But you are making a HUGE mistake." He said angrily.
Steph stood up and walked over to open the door for him since his hands were full.
"Don't do me any favors." He growled rudely at her.
That was enough for Steph, she waved at security, "Can you make sure he leaves the building?"
They acknowledged her. Jeff turned once to shoot her a dirty look but Steph slammed the door in his face.
Steph sat down at her desk and began to type up the incident report. She tried to call Matt, but there was no answer. As she typed, all she could think of what the next morning at the airport would be like.
**Ok, now it's set for the next chapter. Thanks!! Please read and review!**