"Rhian! Open up, I know you're in there." Kylie yelled as she banged for the fifth time on the solid timber door.
"Are you really sure about that?" Jeff mumbled, standing a few paces back, covering his eyes with his hands. Kylie turned and served him a withering glare before turning to knock again. As her hand hit the door it finally swung open, revealing a blonde, stocky man looking none too impressed.
"Kylie, I presume?" He stated dryly, his sharp teeth exposed as he spoke and Jeff nearly jumped out of his skin as he peeked through his fingers and recognised the man who stood before him.
"David? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked in shock, stepping forward in stunned disbelief.
"I could ask you the same thing, Rainbow." He retorted, smothering a grin at Jeff's expression. Kylie looked between the two men, a confused look on her face.
"We're friends of Rhian's. Kylie here is worried about her." He looked to the young woman, who was none the wiser as to the identity of this vampire/man. "Ky, this is David Heath, also known as Gangrel. We used to wrestle together in the WWF. Grel, this is Kylie, Rhiannon's best friend."
"Nice to finally meet you. But I'm afraid that Rhiannon doesn't want any visitors at the moment." He told them firmly and the scowl returned to Kylie's face.
"I'm sorry, but I don't care how long I have to stay out here, I'm not leaving until I see her." She replied stubbornly and an amused look flitted across David's face before he turned stern again.
"Didn't you hear me the first time, lady? It's not going to happen." He replied firmly before turning back to Jeff. "Jesus, how'd you get involved with this little spitfire?" Kylie gave them both a look of pure venom before stomping to the end of the verandah for some alone time.
"She's just worried about Rhiannon, David. You can't blame her, she hasn't returned one of Ky's calls for a month now. Please, just let us see her for a few minutes." David sighed and turned to look over his shoulder into the house.
"Alright, alright. But just a few minutes, mind. And don't you go giving Rhian a hard time. She's been through enough as it is." David warned and Jeff grinned, letting out a whistle to get Ky's attention.
"Come on girl, we're in." She rushed back to the door, giving David a wary look until he moved away to let them through. Jeff grabbed her arm gently to hold her back a moment. "But if I were you, I wouldn't give her a hard time right now. If you get my meaning..." He gave her a warning look and she nodded slowly in agreement before slowly moving in through the doorway. Jeff trailed her, not taking his eyes off David until he'd gotten through the entrance. He didn't know what David was doing at Rhiannon's house, but he wasn't sure he liked it.
"Where is she?" Kylie asked, no less wary than Jeff was as she looked around the seemingly empty house.
"Right here." Rhian's voice floated down from the top of the stairs. They turned to see the young woman making her way down to them, followed by a tough looking, muscular woman who seemed entirely unimpressed.
"Jesus Rhiannon, where have you been? I've been worried sick about you. Didn't you get my messages?" Kylie stormed to the foot of the stairs to meet Rhian, who plastered a smile on her face to disguise the fact that she was annoyed beyond belief.
"Oh yes, all forty of them, dear. But I thought I'd told you that I needed time alone to sort myself out." Kylie looked somewhat abashed, but didn't back down.
"You could have at least called me once to tell me how you were doing. I've been worried."
"So you said, Ky, but I've only been back for two hours and just finished unpacking." Rhian sighed wearily, noticing Jeff standing behind Kylie, giving her a curious look. "What?" She snapped and Jeff just gave her an amused grin, shaking his head as she stormed to the kitchen with a glare.
"Back? Back from where?" Kylie ignored Jeff's chuckling to demand some answers. "And who the hell are these people?"
"If you must know, I've been in Florida training. And these people are my good friends David Heath and Angelle Vachon, aka Gangrel and Luna. I met them on the circuit a few years ago and they agreed to help me out." She explained, only increasing Kylie's confusion.
"Training? Circuit? What in God's name is going on Rhian?" Rhiannon sighed and leaned back against the fridge.
"Kylie, just out of curiosity, have you noticed anything...well, different, about me since you walked in the door and started your tirade?" Kylie blinked, confused at the question, but gave Rhiannon a quick once over and was surprised to notice that there was a lot of things that were different about her. Her long once auburn hair had been layered and returned to the natural strawberry blonde colour Kylie vaguely remembered from when she had first met the woman. But what really struck Kylie was the way Rhiannon carried herself now. She seemed to have regained some of the self-esteem that had previously been lacking.
"Well, your hair is different, and you certainly look much more athletic. What on earth have you been doing?" Rhiannon grinned and motioned for Kylie to follow her to the lounge where David, Luna and Jeff sat.
"What have I been doing? Planning, scheming, training and generally getting back into the swing of things. Something I should have done a long time ago." Jeff started to laugh, looking triumphant as he gazed up at Rhiannon once more.
"I knew on that first day that I saw you in the music shop that I recognised you from somewhere." Rhian raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, waiting for him to expand on his declaration. "You wrestled in OVW with your sister a few years back. And you were a damn sight better than she was. You disappeared just before she got a WWF contract." He leaned back and smiled smugly and looked to Kylie. "That's where she was during those years you were telling me about. You were working the independent scene with Imogen, yes?"
"Yes and no." Rhian sighed, realising that now was the time to bite the bullet and just get her story out after all these years. "To start at the very beginning, when I was sixteen I met a young Canadian man who was visiting Ireland on a working holiday. He'd been working the indies for a while before he decided he needed a break. Well, to cut a long story short, we fell for each other, and during our romance, he taught me some basics in the ring and I kind of got a taste for it. So at the first chance I got after I moved here, I hunted down my idol, this woman, Luna Vachon. I convinced her to train me, unofficially of course, by making a complete idiot of myself in the ring a few times, just to get her attention." She and Luna had a giggle at the memory and David rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, by taunting her so badly she threw you in the ring and gave you a concussion, but you still got up and tried to keep fighting." He had a bit of a laugh with the girls, remembering the shock Rhiannon had been given during her 'initiation'.
"Well, she's lucky that she did, 'cause that's what convinced me to train her. She was very green, but also extremely tough and resilient. Her determination to achieve her dream was obvious to anyone who ever saw her wrestle." Luna spoke for the first time since Jeff and Kylie arrived, giving them a bit of a shock before Rhiannon continued.
"A year after I left, Imogen came to visit me and decided that she wanted to get in on the action." Rhiannon told them with a grimace, "You know, the 'anything you can do, I can do better,' type of thing. But Luna refused to train her. I've always suspected the reasons why, but I never asked. Anyway, Imogen tried to convince me to train her, and she succeeded, as usual." Rhian sighed and Jeff thought he saw a flash of pain and remorse cross her face, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. "Well, once Luna decided I was ready, she got me booked into some local shows and once I got the feel for it, I decided to get on the road and become more independent. The only thing was, Imogen followed me with Kiara everywhere I went, to every show I did and eventually got her own start, cutting her teeth in the same indy feds that I did. I won't lie, in some ways it was a relief to have her there to share the experience with, but I always felt that she was trying to get one up on me at every show. We actually wrestled each other once, and she did the worst thing possible by not selling for me. She succeeded in making me look bad as far as most of the fans were concerned, but the fed we were wrestling for refused to pay her for the show and wouldn't have her back again. It surprised me because they were usually real assholes, but they came through that night. Said they wouldn't have some "stupid bitch on a power trip" fucking up their shows." She smiled wryly and looked down at her hands as if ashamed at being amused by the memory.
"Why the hell would she do that?" Jeff asked, his face as dark as a thundercloud. Unlike Kylie, he understood how dirty what Imogen had done actually was, and if he hadn't seen Imogen's behaviour towards Rhiannon the previous month, he probably wouldn't have believed it.
"Imogen and I dealt with that years ago. It doesn't matter now, we moved on. Which is why, when I got into OVW, I pushed to get her in there with me." She firmly replied and Jeff's eyebrows shot up, his face reflecting his disbelief. "Please, Jeff." She held a hand up to stop him from interrupting. "I just need to finish this, and yes, you are going to have some unanswered questions, but that's not your business. I'm sorry." Her tone was such that Jeff was almost afraid to ask anything more.
"As I was saying," She sighed wearily, "I got my sister into OVW with me and we worked there for over a year before I was forced out due to illness. Imogen was offered a contract with the WWE six months later and I decided to stay home and take care of Kiara. Five and a half years on the road had burnt me out and I just wanted to have a normal, quiet life. Kiara also seemed happier to be settled in one place so taking care of her became my number one priority; That hasn't changed. And if that means that I have to get my foot in the door of the WWE again to make sure that she stays happy and stable, then that's damn well what I'm going to do." She told them stubbornly, as though she was afraid that they were going to try and talk her out of it. Kylie leaned back in her seat with a mischievous smile on her face.
"I always had a feeling that's what you were doing while you were away. I mean, if you were travelling with Imogen and she managed to get into the WWE, it only stands to reason that you were the one doing all the work." She explained the reason behind her amusement and Rhian rolled her eyes.
"Don't get me wrong Ky, she did work hard to get where she got, but I suppose if I hadn't taken an interest in the profession then she wouldn't have either." Luna frowned and stood up, placing her hands on her hips.
"Hard work my ass. She wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it weren't for you. And the reason I wouldn't train her is because she wanted to learn to wrestle for all the wrong reasons, and she proved that when she refused to sell for you. I don't know why you keep letting her emotionally blackmail you Rhian, what happened was not your fault. You owe her nothing, and I intend to see you get into the WWE and prove to her and everyone else that you are and always were the better woman, wrestler and friend." She snapped and stalked off outside to cool down. Rhiannon grinned sheepishly and looked at Kylie, who looked almost frightened by Luna's tirade.
"It's okay, she's just a very vocal and emotional person, she'll calm down in a minute. Personally, I think you two would get along quite well, wouldn't you say?" She asked Gangrel who chuckled, but refused to reply, as he went in search of his wife.