I don't own any characters from the WWE. Info on chapter 1.
Lita uncomfortably curled up on the small bench in the hallway of the hospital, she had been awake for hours and needed just a tiny break from the past few days.
It had been a day since Trish was brought in. Lita remembered the phone call from Jeff in the middle of the night. She couldn't make out half of the words between the sobbing but she understood one thing. Trish had tried to kill herself.
And Lita felt in some way, responsible for it. She couldn't help it, she brushed off the bet as if just another skeevy guy thing and to move on but she hadn't thought of Trish's feelings at all. She thought Trish would know to move on too, even though it was a shitty deal but Trish had taken Jericho seriously.
Lita closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, all the visitors had gone away for the night and she had threatened a nurse with a powerbomb if she didn't stop pestering her with requests of leaving the hospital.
Trish needed her friendship, no one in the federation, other than the horn dogs that always wanted to get into her pants, seemed interested in the young blonde Canadian. She would have to change that.
As she pulled her leather jacket up over her shoulders and drifted off to dreamland, she prayed that tomorrow would bring some goodness to Trish, maybe a miracle could make Trish realize that life really was worth living.
+++
She dreamed of clouds and rainbows and all the silly little things that reminded her of the happy times of her childhood. Little barbie dolls danced in her head as she slept in her hospital bed hooked up to IVs and machines that beeped incessantly.
There were no dollar bets or bad nights, just the memory of wrestling with cousins in her upstairs bedroom and getting in trouble for starting everything with her sisters but it all vanished in an instant, she opened her eyes and blinked a few times as the morning sunlight hit her eyes.
"Oh, is that bothering you? Let me fix that." A pleasant voice came from behind a curtain. A man with a stethoscope walked over to the shades and turned them, blocking the rays entrance to the hospital room.
She wanted to ask 'Where am I?' but she knew where she was and she was pissed.
"Are you my doctor?" She asked as she rubbed her throat.
He nodded as he walked over to the side of her bed. "Open your mouth. Yes, I'm Dr. David Hale and you need to rest your voice, otherwise you're going to lose it completely. You lost a lot of blood so..."
Trish snorted. "I was kinda going for that."
"Yes, well, thank god your friend found you when you did..."
"Who found me? Do you know?" She asked, she wanted to know who's ass to kick first.
"I'm not sure of his name, he had unusual colored hair though..."
"Jeff..." She muttered as she sat up. "How long was I down?"
"A day. You're really lucky, Miss Stratus. You were clinically dead for twelve minutes and to have someone come back from that the next day, snapping at the person who saved your life, is a miracle." He patted her hand as he checked one of her numerous monitors.
"Oh who's your little friend here?" He picked up a small plastic barbie doll that was left on her bedside table.
She shrugged as she idly played with a piece of her hair. She had survived, she couldn't believe it, she did it the right way and had done it in the middle of the night where no one could just happen upon her and she survived. What the hell kind of cosmic joke was that?
"Oh I forgot to wake your friend, she asked one of the nurses to wake her if your condition changed. I'm sure she'll have some minor back pain this morning. She's been sleeping on a plastic bench for hours in the hallway. I'll be right back."
Trish looked over to the table beside her and gingerly picked up the small toy, she looked down at her hands and sighed. They had IVs in them, one filling her with a clear liquid and one with a packet of blood at the end. She fucking hated this, it was planned damn it! Her angry thoughts took a back seat as she heard a loud shriek coming from outside the room, she leaned over as best as she could but was stopped because of the IVs.
"God damn, if I knew it weren't so painful to put you guys in, I'd rip you fuckers out."
By the time she finished her sentence, Lita dashed into the room and ran to her bedside.
"Oh my god. I'm so happy to see you. I thought you were gone and I was devastated and heartbroken. I didn't call you that night and I totally should have and I'm a horrible, horrible friend." She took a deep breath and continued. "I'm so so so sorry. I don't know what to say, I'm... I'm... I'm." She stuttered as she racked her brain to find something to say. 'What's wrong with you?' and a slap to the arm was something for later but now she needed something to say. Something that would convey what she needed to know, what she thought, what she felt.
"Why?" She cried, as her eyes filled with tears. It was the only thing that seemed right.
Trish reached out for Lita's hand. She was angry inside, she wanted to push everyone away but seeing her friend turn into a crying mess over something she did, hurt her deeply.
"Everything. Is that good enough?"
Lita shook her head as her fingers intertwined with her friend.
"Alright, I didn't see a way out. It may sound stupid but it was just everything with Chris and everybody backstage and I just felt like I had no one."
"You have me." Lita whispered. "I know I'm not much but you've got me...and Jeffy." She smiled.
"Remind me to send him a big bouquet of flowers." Trish uttered, sarcastically.
"Don't be like that. If it wasn't for his surprise visit to your hotel room, you'd be... dead." She trailed off at the end, she didn't like that word in the context of anyone she loved. "Can I hug you?"
Trish pulled her into a hug, she smiled as Lita kissed her cheek. "Don't do this, please, whatever reason, it isn't worth it. Not all the Jericho's in the world is worth hurting yourself over. Promise me you won't hurt yourself again?"
"I promise." She crossed her fingers as she pulled away from their embrace.
"So, where's Jeff?" She fingered the brown hair of the doll as she picked it up.
"He went back to my hotel room. He couldn't take the hospital." She walked around the bed to the side near the windows and pulled up a chair. "He told me to call as soon as dawn broke, so I guess I should call but I don't wanna go."
"Ah, I'll be fine. There's no sharp objects in here." She joked.
Lita frowned. "Funny, only not. What's that?" She pointed to the barbie in Trish's hand.
"I thought it was from you." Trish handed it to her.
"Nope, I've been either in the waiting room or in this hallway. I haven't been anywhere else and I sure as heck don't carry little plastic dolls around with me, unless they're my action figures."
"Stop being cheeky and go call Jeff. Let's get the blubbering over with as soon as possible." She smiled at her red haired friend and got one in return.
Lita hopped up from her chair and gave Trish another kiss and dropped the doll in her lap. "Don't get up, don't move or I'll chick kick you back into bed." She slowly made her way to the door but stopped as Trish spoke.
"Um, did anyone visit me?"
"Uhh, a few guys came to the waiting room when you were in the emergency room but left because they needed to move on to the next city and most of the divas came by when they moved you to this room but other than that I don't think so. Why?"
"I was just wondering about the doll." She dropped her onto the table.
"Well, I went to sleep around midnight or so and it wasn't here when I left the room so maybe a nurse has got a crush on you and knows all of your obsessions and thought that leaving you a Barbie would have you fall in love with them and never think about doing yourself in again. Good guess?"
Trish laughed and nodded. "Pretty decent but they didn't leave a note."
"Well, maybe they're a secret admirer. Ooh La La." She wiggled her eyebrows. "Anyway, do you want anything? Soda? Crackers? Head of Chris Jericho?" Lita quipped.
"I'm fine. Go on." Trish shooed her away with her hand.
As Lita left, Trish turned her attention back to her thoughts, she felt so helpless and stupid laying here in this bed. Hooked up to machines that kept her body going even thought her heart wasn't in it. She shook her head and fell back against the pillow.
She didn't wanna think about anything, she just wanted to go away, Ironically enough, the heart monitor was the only thing that soothed her, always there in the background, beeping away, even though it was a reminder of her failure. Just another failure in the game of life.
She closed her eyes and listened to the beeping, she soon found herself getting lost in it, a lullaby that never stopped. By the time Lita came back with a small bouquet of daises, Trish was fast asleep, dreaming of the happy times of her past that filled her dreams but never the present.
Lita placed the flowers by her bed, near the tiny doll. She looked down at the blonde diva and brushed away some hair from her eyes. She loved Trish and wanted the best for her, she couldn't believe she had missed the signs especially since... no, she couldn't think of that now. Trish was going to make it, Trish was going to be stronger than Ann.
But it was so hard to forget the image in her head. The bloody sheets tangled sheets wrapped around a cold body, the broken bottle that was clutched so tightly in that little pale hand.
She looked down at Trish's hand, it looked so familiar to the one not so many years before and it scared her. Lita couldn't keep it locked inside anymore, she burst into tears, she wouldn't go through it again.
As she wept, she knew she had to call him. She didn't want to but she knew he was the only one that could help, who could understand and guide Trish through it. Trish wouldn't die, not tomorrow, not until she was an old woman with fifteen fat grandchildren around. Lita would make sure of it.
Lita uncomfortably curled up on the small bench in the hallway of the hospital, she had been awake for hours and needed just a tiny break from the past few days.
It had been a day since Trish was brought in. Lita remembered the phone call from Jeff in the middle of the night. She couldn't make out half of the words between the sobbing but she understood one thing. Trish had tried to kill herself.
And Lita felt in some way, responsible for it. She couldn't help it, she brushed off the bet as if just another skeevy guy thing and to move on but she hadn't thought of Trish's feelings at all. She thought Trish would know to move on too, even though it was a shitty deal but Trish had taken Jericho seriously.
Lita closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, all the visitors had gone away for the night and she had threatened a nurse with a powerbomb if she didn't stop pestering her with requests of leaving the hospital.
Trish needed her friendship, no one in the federation, other than the horn dogs that always wanted to get into her pants, seemed interested in the young blonde Canadian. She would have to change that.
As she pulled her leather jacket up over her shoulders and drifted off to dreamland, she prayed that tomorrow would bring some goodness to Trish, maybe a miracle could make Trish realize that life really was worth living.
+++
She dreamed of clouds and rainbows and all the silly little things that reminded her of the happy times of her childhood. Little barbie dolls danced in her head as she slept in her hospital bed hooked up to IVs and machines that beeped incessantly.
There were no dollar bets or bad nights, just the memory of wrestling with cousins in her upstairs bedroom and getting in trouble for starting everything with her sisters but it all vanished in an instant, she opened her eyes and blinked a few times as the morning sunlight hit her eyes.
"Oh, is that bothering you? Let me fix that." A pleasant voice came from behind a curtain. A man with a stethoscope walked over to the shades and turned them, blocking the rays entrance to the hospital room.
She wanted to ask 'Where am I?' but she knew where she was and she was pissed.
"Are you my doctor?" She asked as she rubbed her throat.
He nodded as he walked over to the side of her bed. "Open your mouth. Yes, I'm Dr. David Hale and you need to rest your voice, otherwise you're going to lose it completely. You lost a lot of blood so..."
Trish snorted. "I was kinda going for that."
"Yes, well, thank god your friend found you when you did..."
"Who found me? Do you know?" She asked, she wanted to know who's ass to kick first.
"I'm not sure of his name, he had unusual colored hair though..."
"Jeff..." She muttered as she sat up. "How long was I down?"
"A day. You're really lucky, Miss Stratus. You were clinically dead for twelve minutes and to have someone come back from that the next day, snapping at the person who saved your life, is a miracle." He patted her hand as he checked one of her numerous monitors.
"Oh who's your little friend here?" He picked up a small plastic barbie doll that was left on her bedside table.
She shrugged as she idly played with a piece of her hair. She had survived, she couldn't believe it, she did it the right way and had done it in the middle of the night where no one could just happen upon her and she survived. What the hell kind of cosmic joke was that?
"Oh I forgot to wake your friend, she asked one of the nurses to wake her if your condition changed. I'm sure she'll have some minor back pain this morning. She's been sleeping on a plastic bench for hours in the hallway. I'll be right back."
Trish looked over to the table beside her and gingerly picked up the small toy, she looked down at her hands and sighed. They had IVs in them, one filling her with a clear liquid and one with a packet of blood at the end. She fucking hated this, it was planned damn it! Her angry thoughts took a back seat as she heard a loud shriek coming from outside the room, she leaned over as best as she could but was stopped because of the IVs.
"God damn, if I knew it weren't so painful to put you guys in, I'd rip you fuckers out."
By the time she finished her sentence, Lita dashed into the room and ran to her bedside.
"Oh my god. I'm so happy to see you. I thought you were gone and I was devastated and heartbroken. I didn't call you that night and I totally should have and I'm a horrible, horrible friend." She took a deep breath and continued. "I'm so so so sorry. I don't know what to say, I'm... I'm... I'm." She stuttered as she racked her brain to find something to say. 'What's wrong with you?' and a slap to the arm was something for later but now she needed something to say. Something that would convey what she needed to know, what she thought, what she felt.
"Why?" She cried, as her eyes filled with tears. It was the only thing that seemed right.
Trish reached out for Lita's hand. She was angry inside, she wanted to push everyone away but seeing her friend turn into a crying mess over something she did, hurt her deeply.
"Everything. Is that good enough?"
Lita shook her head as her fingers intertwined with her friend.
"Alright, I didn't see a way out. It may sound stupid but it was just everything with Chris and everybody backstage and I just felt like I had no one."
"You have me." Lita whispered. "I know I'm not much but you've got me...and Jeffy." She smiled.
"Remind me to send him a big bouquet of flowers." Trish uttered, sarcastically.
"Don't be like that. If it wasn't for his surprise visit to your hotel room, you'd be... dead." She trailed off at the end, she didn't like that word in the context of anyone she loved. "Can I hug you?"
Trish pulled her into a hug, she smiled as Lita kissed her cheek. "Don't do this, please, whatever reason, it isn't worth it. Not all the Jericho's in the world is worth hurting yourself over. Promise me you won't hurt yourself again?"
"I promise." She crossed her fingers as she pulled away from their embrace.
"So, where's Jeff?" She fingered the brown hair of the doll as she picked it up.
"He went back to my hotel room. He couldn't take the hospital." She walked around the bed to the side near the windows and pulled up a chair. "He told me to call as soon as dawn broke, so I guess I should call but I don't wanna go."
"Ah, I'll be fine. There's no sharp objects in here." She joked.
Lita frowned. "Funny, only not. What's that?" She pointed to the barbie in Trish's hand.
"I thought it was from you." Trish handed it to her.
"Nope, I've been either in the waiting room or in this hallway. I haven't been anywhere else and I sure as heck don't carry little plastic dolls around with me, unless they're my action figures."
"Stop being cheeky and go call Jeff. Let's get the blubbering over with as soon as possible." She smiled at her red haired friend and got one in return.
Lita hopped up from her chair and gave Trish another kiss and dropped the doll in her lap. "Don't get up, don't move or I'll chick kick you back into bed." She slowly made her way to the door but stopped as Trish spoke.
"Um, did anyone visit me?"
"Uhh, a few guys came to the waiting room when you were in the emergency room but left because they needed to move on to the next city and most of the divas came by when they moved you to this room but other than that I don't think so. Why?"
"I was just wondering about the doll." She dropped her onto the table.
"Well, I went to sleep around midnight or so and it wasn't here when I left the room so maybe a nurse has got a crush on you and knows all of your obsessions and thought that leaving you a Barbie would have you fall in love with them and never think about doing yourself in again. Good guess?"
Trish laughed and nodded. "Pretty decent but they didn't leave a note."
"Well, maybe they're a secret admirer. Ooh La La." She wiggled her eyebrows. "Anyway, do you want anything? Soda? Crackers? Head of Chris Jericho?" Lita quipped.
"I'm fine. Go on." Trish shooed her away with her hand.
As Lita left, Trish turned her attention back to her thoughts, she felt so helpless and stupid laying here in this bed. Hooked up to machines that kept her body going even thought her heart wasn't in it. She shook her head and fell back against the pillow.
She didn't wanna think about anything, she just wanted to go away, Ironically enough, the heart monitor was the only thing that soothed her, always there in the background, beeping away, even though it was a reminder of her failure. Just another failure in the game of life.
She closed her eyes and listened to the beeping, she soon found herself getting lost in it, a lullaby that never stopped. By the time Lita came back with a small bouquet of daises, Trish was fast asleep, dreaming of the happy times of her past that filled her dreams but never the present.
Lita placed the flowers by her bed, near the tiny doll. She looked down at the blonde diva and brushed away some hair from her eyes. She loved Trish and wanted the best for her, she couldn't believe she had missed the signs especially since... no, she couldn't think of that now. Trish was going to make it, Trish was going to be stronger than Ann.
But it was so hard to forget the image in her head. The bloody sheets tangled sheets wrapped around a cold body, the broken bottle that was clutched so tightly in that little pale hand.
She looked down at Trish's hand, it looked so familiar to the one not so many years before and it scared her. Lita couldn't keep it locked inside anymore, she burst into tears, she wouldn't go through it again.
As she wept, she knew she had to call him. She didn't want to but she knew he was the only one that could help, who could understand and guide Trish through it. Trish wouldn't die, not tomorrow, not until she was an old woman with fifteen fat grandchildren around. Lita would make sure of it.