It was after Raw and Josie was still not back. Joanie had returned a few hours earlier, explaining that Gabrielle had been taken to hospital after being beaten pretty badly by her boyfriend. Josie was supposed to phone when she and the girls were close to the arena, but so far they'd heard nothing.
"Has she called yet?" Paul stopped in front of Matt, his face creased with worry.
"Not as far as I know. But will you do me a favour and stop pacing? You're making me nervous." Paul just looked down and mumbled something under his breath, walking off towards catering.
Just before Paul turned the corner Amy and Jeff ran up. Amy and Paul exchanged a few words, before turning to walk briskly in the other direction. Amy turned to look for Matt and when she, saw him she quickly and motioned for him to follow.
He raced after them, but after turning the corner, he couldn't see where they'd gone so he decided to try the women's locker room. That would be the logical place for the girls to be, if they were here.
"Come on Matt, hurry up!" Jeff called impatiently as Matt reached the room.
"Don't you tell me to hurry. How the hell was I supposed to know where you went?"
"Well, you found us didn't you?" He demanded. Matt couldn't argue with that.
They walked into the room and saw Joanie sitting with her arm around one girl who had tears running down her face, he recognised her as Angel, the one that Adam had a crush on.
Paul was sitting next to Josie with an angry expression on his face and Amy was just watching the whole scene with a worried look in her eyes. Josie was nursing a sleeping girl's head in her lap. Despite all the cuts and bruises, Matt realised that the girl, just like her sister, was stunningly beautiful. He found himself growing angry that some man could maim someone, especially a woman, that way. He silently wrapped an arm around Amy, vowing to himself that he'd never let anyone hurt her that way.
As if reading his thoughts, Josie looked up at Matt and gave him a strained smile, then her eyes wandered to Jeff and she seemed to slightly relax. Suddenly the door flew open and Sean Waltman barged in, seemingly oblivious to everyone else in the room as he stopped in front of Josie and knelt down.
"Are you alright Jose? Michael didn't touch you did he? Because if he did..." He asked angrily, letting the threat hang in the air.
"No, no, no. Michael wasn't there when I was. Luckily for him, because he wouldn't be around for you to kill." She replied, her usually soft voice going hard and Paul looked at her in surprise.
"Now come on Josie, you don't mean that..." Paul replied reasonably and Josie turned on him, her eyes flashing.
"How the hell do you know what I mean and what I don't?" Her voice was low, the anger barely contained. "How can you know what I'm feeling right now??? Let me ask you something Paul. Wouldn't you be upset if it was someone in your family who was hurt this way? Wouldn't you want to kill the bastard that did this?" She hissed, standing up slowly and placing a jumper under Gabrielle's head, before turning on her heel and storming out. Angel glared at Paul and followed her friend.
Paul shook his head, "Jesus, I can't believe that." He looked at the door and shook his head again
Jeff looked at Paul, "I'm guessing she's not usually like this." He said icily.
"Of course she's not. God, I've never even seen her angry before."
"Can you really blame her for reacting the way she did?" Paul looked at him surprised as he continued. "You'd be exactly the same if it'd been her that had been beaten." Paul was obviously very close to exploding point and Matt prayed to every God that Jeff would just shut his mouth. "All I'm saying is that you shouldn't be so hypocritical," Everyone cringed at this point. "She's like family to you and these girls are like family to her, she has a right to be angry and you have no right to tell her how she should react." Jeff stated firmly and Matt's shock was bordering on anxiety as they awaited Paul's response. In a strange way, Matt felt proud of Jeff. He was usually the peacekeeper at times like this and rarely told people what he really thought of what was going on. This time though, he was obviously pissed off.
Paul looked at him coldly. "You don't know what you're talking about...you don't even know the girl for Christ's sake! So why don't you take some of your own advice and don't tell me how to act Hardy. I'll stay out of your unusually coloured hair and you'd better stay out of mine, GOT IT?" He walked to the door and pushed past Jeff, closely followed by Sean who shrugged and gave Jeff a quick pat on the back in support. After looking around at everyone and noting their shock and disbelief, he just sighed and slid down the wall, tucking his knees up under his chin as he looked contemplatively into space.
"Well, you're really endearing yourself to The Game, Jeff." Amy half joked after letting out an explosive breath that she didn't even realize she'd been holding.
"Amy, I don't give a damn what he thinks of me. He's a hypocrite." Jeff replied in a bored tone of voice.
"Just be careful, you don't need him as an enemy."
"No Amy, he's right." Joanie sat down next to Gabrielle, who was beginning to wake up. "Paul is like that with Jose. For some reason people automatically try to parent her. He and Shawn have both done it for years and I can't believe she's put up with it for so long. For God's sake she's twenty-three, I'm pretty sure that if she can't tell right from wrong by now, she's never going to learn." She said exasperated.
"So, who is this Michael guy anyway?" Matt asked curiously.
"Gabrielle's boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend I should say. Gabby and Josie had a bit of a fight about him a while back. Well, actually...Michael tried to force Gabby to not see Josie anymore. He could tell she saw right through his "nice guy" routine and Josie's not the type of girl who will stand back and just watch while someone tries to ruin her friend's life. Anyway, Gabby and Josie are like sisters, so tonight she finally told him to go to hell when he tried to cut Josie out of her life. You can see how that turned out." Joanie motioned to Gabby as Angel walked in with her arm wrapped protectively around her friend's shoulder.
"Where's Jeff?" Josie asked looked around and saw him sitting next to the door.
"What?" He asked as she shook her head at him.
"Jeff, Jeff, Jeff." She sat next to him as the other girl went to her sister.
"WHAT?"
"Paul is not impressed with you right now."
"He told you what happened?" Jeff looked surprised.
"No actually, I heard the whole thing." She admitted, "Angel and I were just outside the door and you guys were pretty loud. I just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me."
He smiled at her. "Anytime Josephine."
"So, are we still meeting tonight?" Josie asked looking at Matt and Amy.
"Are you up to it?" Amy asked her, looking worried and Josie sighed.
"Why are you all worried about me? I'm fine. I don't need to get Gabby to the police station for a statement until tomorrow morning, since she's too drugged up to do that tonight. So, I can get Angel and Gabrielle to a motel and they can sleep while I come and see you."
"Or," Matt interrupted, "We can come to the motel to see you. That should be easier for you. I think you're all going to have a rough day tomorrow and you don't need to be running around tonight."
"I appreciate that Matt, but I think the girls need their rest right now."
"I don't mind." Angel said quietly. "Gabrielle and I can sleep through anything." Gabby, who had woken up just moments before, nodded in agreement, although she was so drugged up she probably didn't realize what she was agreeing to.
"I know, but..."
"I thought you'd want to keep an eye on them Jose." Joanie agreed quietly, so that the girls couldn't hear. Josie just sighed and nodded in defeat.
"Yes, I suppose you're right."
"Let us know when you find a place to stay. We'll meet you there about an hour after you message me, okay?" Matt smiled reassuringly at her and she nodded resignedly.
"Alright, alright. Are Adam and Jason coming too?"
"Yep, they'll be there with bells on." Matt joked, knowing the type of mood that Adam and Jay got in when they hadn't had enough sleep.
"Well, we'd better go then, hey?" Angel asked and Josie stood up with a smile.
"Yeah, I guess. Gabrielle, you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." The tall girl replied groggily, limping over and Josie supported her so that she wouldn't fall.
"Well, we'll be seeing you soon. If you need more time, just call my cell phone, okay?" Jeff handed her a piece of paper with his number on it.
"Thanks Jeff. And thanks a heap Jo, I don't know what I'd do without you." She said to Joanie, who gave her a massive hug. "Okay, we'll see you all later." She told Amy, Matt and Jeff as she and Gabrielle followed Angel to the door.
"By the way, Jeff, I was right, the purple does look good on you."
Thanks to Phoenix, Lizi123 & Jess420 for the reviews! Next chapter should be up tomorrow night. (This one will be easy to update, since I'm up to the last chapter...after about 3 or 4 years of writing the damn thing! I really don't know why it took me so long. Just slack, I guess. LOL)
Take care!