Disclaimer: See chapters 1-3. :)
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Chapter Fourteen
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Tess sighed as she made her way into the arena. She was back on the road again, with her father. Dr. Williams had told them that she was reacting wonderfully with her chemotherapy, and that it was alright for her to go back on the road, as long as she didn't do anything to terribly strenuous. She was attending chemotherapy at the local hospital of whatever city they were in at the time, and her father had hired her a nurse to travel with them, just in case. She pushed pass a few new jobbers that were hanging around in catering, wanting to get to one place.
"Hey, Tess." she heard a soft voice call from behind her as she walked down an empty hallway. She froze and turned around, glaring.
"What do you want, Chris?" she growled.
"I wanted to apologize." he said. "But not for what I told you. What I told you is the truth, Tess. I swear it, I wouldn't lie to you. I'm just sorry that I can't make you see that." he sighed. She shook her head.
"Well Chris, you blew it. Quite honestly, I don't want to have anything to do with you, espically right now. I'm going to find Rob." she said before turning and walking off. Chris sighed and ran a hand over his tired face before retreating back into his dressing room. Tess continued to make her way towards Rob's dressing room. She smiled. Rob had no idea that she was coming. She hadn't talked to him since the day Chris left her house in Houston. The only problem was that she had no idea where his dressing room was. She shook her head, noting that the dressing rooms were always clumped together. She looked at each door as she passed it, and finally spotted his, all the way at the end of the hallway. She approached the door quietly, hoping to suprise him. She placed her hand on the doorknob and listned for a moment...she thought she vaugely heard a female's voice. She shook her head, thinking that she was just being paranoid about what Chris said. She opened the door slowly, not making a sound. That's when she saw it. She froze. Rob sitting on one of the benches, pressed against the wall, with Dawn Marie on top of him. He had his hands up her top, and they were making out. Neither of them even realized that Tess had entered the room.
"Oh my God! I should have believed Chris!" Tess yelled suddenly. Rob and Dawn Marie broke apart abruptly. Rob looked at her. "He told me you were screwing around on me! You scumbag!" Rob got up and quickly walked over to her.
"Tess, it's not what you think, I swear." he said, trying to put his arms around her. She shoved him off of her.
"Then what the fuck is it? Huh? She fell and your lips broke her fall?" Tess growled. "I can't believe I didn't believe Chris. He told me the day you called me that you were doing this, but no, I believed you. I was SO stupid." she turned to walk out of the room. Rob reached foreward and roughly grabbed her arm.
"Oh, so Chris was there?" he jerked her arm. "You were fucking around on me, Tess!" she glared at him and reached up with her free hand, slapping him hard across the face.
"Screw you, Rob. I wasn't fucking around on you. Chris was there for me when you weren't. He was a true friend." she jerked her arm away from him and exited the room. Tears blurred her vision as she made her way down the winding hallways, and out of the arena.
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Chris sighed as he walked down to Rob's dressing room. He had decided that he needed to sort this thing out with Tess, once and for all, and figured she would be there. He rapped on the door loudly. He waited with his arms crossed over his chest. Rob answered the door a few seconds later.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"Where's Tess?" Chris asked calmly.
"Oh, she's not with you? I figured she was with her fuck buddy." Rob said with a smug grin. Chris glared at him.
"Shut the fuck up, Rob, or you'll end up in trouble. Don't ever talk about Tess like that again. Now, where is she?"
"I don't know, Jericho. She left. I figured she went after you." Rob rolled his eyes.
"No. And no one else has seen her."
"Oh well. Maybe she went home, it'd do as all some good to have her out of our hair." Rob laughed.
"Whatever, Rob." he turned and walked off towards catering. He spotted Mark and walked over to him.
"Mark, have you seen Tess?" he asked the Dead Man. Mark looked up from his coffee and shook his head.
"No, why?" Mark replied.
"She caught Rob and Dawn Marie together and no one's seen her since." Chris told him. Mark stood up.
"This can't be good. I know that back home, when she was little, she'd run off into the woods behind the house when she got upset." Mark sighed and shook his head. "Chris, you go tell some of the people Tess really trust about this and all of you look for her. I need to go have a word with Van Dam." Chris nodded and turned, walking back out of catering. He quickly walked to the woman's locker room and knocked on the door. Trish cracked it.
"What is it, Chris?" Trish said. It was apparent that she still didn't trust Chris very much.
"Please, let me come in. I really need to talk to you and Amy." he begged. His blue eyes were pleading with her brown ones. She stared back at him and nodded.
"Alright." she said, stepping aside. He pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in. Amy was now standing near them, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Look, I know neither of you want to see me right now, but this is serious." Chris told them. "Tess caught Rob with Dawn Marie, and then she dissappeared. Mark said that when she was younger she'd run off when she got upset, and he thinks that's what she did now. I need you to tell Shane, Matt, and Jeff, and help me look for her." he said, looking up at them with sad blue eyes. Trish and Amy's anger at him seemed to suddenly dissappear, and they both nodded their heads.
"Sure, no problem. It's only about twenty minutes to show, though, and most of us have matches." Amy said. "I think that you and Shane are the only ones that don't."
"Alright...tell Shane to head back to the hotel and look for her there. I need to go talk to Mark." Chris said, before turning and leaving the room. He was once again moving around the arena at a fast pace, searching for Mark. He finally spotted him in the ring with Kevin about ten minutes later.
"Mark! Hey, I need to talk to you for a minute." Chris said. Mark nodded, slid out of the ring, and walked over to the shorter man.
"Did you find her?" he asked. Chris shook his head. "Damnit..." Mark swore. "We're in San Diego, she could be anywhere."
"Are there any particular places she likes around here?" Chris asked.
"Yeah. She loves the beach. She says she especially likes the beaches at night, because they're calm and quiet, with hardly any people." It was if a lightbulb had gone off inside of Chris's head. The beach!
"I'm going to look for her." Chris took off out of the arena. He climbed into his rental and drove for about fifteen minutes, until he saw an asphalt lot that had stairs leading down into the sand. He parked the car and got out, trying to spy her from there in the dark night. The moon wasn't out at all, and there were barely any stars, so he didn't have much natural light to see by. He took his shoes and socks off and made his way down the steps onto the beach.
'This place is huge,' he thought to himself. 'She could be anywhere.' He sighed and took off in one direction, hoping that she was somewhere close.
"Tess!" he called out. After a few tries he gave up yelling her name. He figured that even if she did hear him that she wouldn't come to him. Hell, she might even run off at the sound of his voice. He continued to walk down the sandy beach. The shoreline would come up and crash against his feet ever so often, but he hardly even noticed as he looked for a figure in the darkness.
"Tess," he attempted to call once more, but his voice was barely above a whisper. He was beginning to lose hope. He checked his watch, mashing a button so it would glow green. Ten o'clock. He'd been on this beach searching for an hour now. He sighed and was about to turn and go back when he saw a figure. It was completely black, but he knew that it was a human.
'Could it be Tess?' he wandered. He shook his head, deciding that he didn't have time to contemplate and decide. He took off at a steady pace, coming closer and closer to the dark figure. He was finally close enough to see the outline of it when a breeze picked up, and blew long hair behind its head. A female. He knew it was her, just knew it.
"Tess," he whispered, now close enough for her to hear him. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and when she turned her head to look at him, he could see that her cheeks were tearstained. She sniffed and stood up.
"Oh God, Chris, I...I am so...so sorry," she stuttered as she flung herself onto him. Her arms went into a vicegrip around his neck as she pulled him close to her, clinging to the comfort. His strong arms circled her waist as she cried into his chest. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she repeated over and over. He shook his head as he lowered himself to the sand and pulled her into his lap.
"Tess, baby, calm down, calm down...It's okay, I understand. I'm not mad at you. I'm just so relieved that I found you...you had us all scared." he whispered soothingly into her hair as her tiny body curled into a ball in his lap. Her shoulders shook with her sobs as Chris held her close to him.
"It'll be okay..." he said as he rocked her soothingly. He let her cry into his chest until her tears subsided. She looked up at him.
"He really did cheat on me." she hiccuped. "He used me. I'm just lucky we never...you know...did anything."
"I know, sweetheart." he said, rocking her."Rob is an asshole. There is no way, absolutely no way that you deserved this, Tess." he kissed the top of her head. "You're an amazingly sweet, caring, beautiful girl and you only deserve the best." he finished.
"Do you mean that?" she asked. He nodded. "Thank you, Chris. That means a lot to me. And thank you for forgiving me for not believing me."
"It's really no problem. I understand where you were coming from. " Chris replied. Tess nodded.
"Thank you." she whispered as she closed her tired eyes.
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Chapter Fourteen
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Tess sighed as she made her way into the arena. She was back on the road again, with her father. Dr. Williams had told them that she was reacting wonderfully with her chemotherapy, and that it was alright for her to go back on the road, as long as she didn't do anything to terribly strenuous. She was attending chemotherapy at the local hospital of whatever city they were in at the time, and her father had hired her a nurse to travel with them, just in case. She pushed pass a few new jobbers that were hanging around in catering, wanting to get to one place.
"Hey, Tess." she heard a soft voice call from behind her as she walked down an empty hallway. She froze and turned around, glaring.
"What do you want, Chris?" she growled.
"I wanted to apologize." he said. "But not for what I told you. What I told you is the truth, Tess. I swear it, I wouldn't lie to you. I'm just sorry that I can't make you see that." he sighed. She shook her head.
"Well Chris, you blew it. Quite honestly, I don't want to have anything to do with you, espically right now. I'm going to find Rob." she said before turning and walking off. Chris sighed and ran a hand over his tired face before retreating back into his dressing room. Tess continued to make her way towards Rob's dressing room. She smiled. Rob had no idea that she was coming. She hadn't talked to him since the day Chris left her house in Houston. The only problem was that she had no idea where his dressing room was. She shook her head, noting that the dressing rooms were always clumped together. She looked at each door as she passed it, and finally spotted his, all the way at the end of the hallway. She approached the door quietly, hoping to suprise him. She placed her hand on the doorknob and listned for a moment...she thought she vaugely heard a female's voice. She shook her head, thinking that she was just being paranoid about what Chris said. She opened the door slowly, not making a sound. That's when she saw it. She froze. Rob sitting on one of the benches, pressed against the wall, with Dawn Marie on top of him. He had his hands up her top, and they were making out. Neither of them even realized that Tess had entered the room.
"Oh my God! I should have believed Chris!" Tess yelled suddenly. Rob and Dawn Marie broke apart abruptly. Rob looked at her. "He told me you were screwing around on me! You scumbag!" Rob got up and quickly walked over to her.
"Tess, it's not what you think, I swear." he said, trying to put his arms around her. She shoved him off of her.
"Then what the fuck is it? Huh? She fell and your lips broke her fall?" Tess growled. "I can't believe I didn't believe Chris. He told me the day you called me that you were doing this, but no, I believed you. I was SO stupid." she turned to walk out of the room. Rob reached foreward and roughly grabbed her arm.
"Oh, so Chris was there?" he jerked her arm. "You were fucking around on me, Tess!" she glared at him and reached up with her free hand, slapping him hard across the face.
"Screw you, Rob. I wasn't fucking around on you. Chris was there for me when you weren't. He was a true friend." she jerked her arm away from him and exited the room. Tears blurred her vision as she made her way down the winding hallways, and out of the arena.
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Chris sighed as he walked down to Rob's dressing room. He had decided that he needed to sort this thing out with Tess, once and for all, and figured she would be there. He rapped on the door loudly. He waited with his arms crossed over his chest. Rob answered the door a few seconds later.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"Where's Tess?" Chris asked calmly.
"Oh, she's not with you? I figured she was with her fuck buddy." Rob said with a smug grin. Chris glared at him.
"Shut the fuck up, Rob, or you'll end up in trouble. Don't ever talk about Tess like that again. Now, where is she?"
"I don't know, Jericho. She left. I figured she went after you." Rob rolled his eyes.
"No. And no one else has seen her."
"Oh well. Maybe she went home, it'd do as all some good to have her out of our hair." Rob laughed.
"Whatever, Rob." he turned and walked off towards catering. He spotted Mark and walked over to him.
"Mark, have you seen Tess?" he asked the Dead Man. Mark looked up from his coffee and shook his head.
"No, why?" Mark replied.
"She caught Rob and Dawn Marie together and no one's seen her since." Chris told him. Mark stood up.
"This can't be good. I know that back home, when she was little, she'd run off into the woods behind the house when she got upset." Mark sighed and shook his head. "Chris, you go tell some of the people Tess really trust about this and all of you look for her. I need to go have a word with Van Dam." Chris nodded and turned, walking back out of catering. He quickly walked to the woman's locker room and knocked on the door. Trish cracked it.
"What is it, Chris?" Trish said. It was apparent that she still didn't trust Chris very much.
"Please, let me come in. I really need to talk to you and Amy." he begged. His blue eyes were pleading with her brown ones. She stared back at him and nodded.
"Alright." she said, stepping aside. He pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in. Amy was now standing near them, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Look, I know neither of you want to see me right now, but this is serious." Chris told them. "Tess caught Rob with Dawn Marie, and then she dissappeared. Mark said that when she was younger she'd run off when she got upset, and he thinks that's what she did now. I need you to tell Shane, Matt, and Jeff, and help me look for her." he said, looking up at them with sad blue eyes. Trish and Amy's anger at him seemed to suddenly dissappear, and they both nodded their heads.
"Sure, no problem. It's only about twenty minutes to show, though, and most of us have matches." Amy said. "I think that you and Shane are the only ones that don't."
"Alright...tell Shane to head back to the hotel and look for her there. I need to go talk to Mark." Chris said, before turning and leaving the room. He was once again moving around the arena at a fast pace, searching for Mark. He finally spotted him in the ring with Kevin about ten minutes later.
"Mark! Hey, I need to talk to you for a minute." Chris said. Mark nodded, slid out of the ring, and walked over to the shorter man.
"Did you find her?" he asked. Chris shook his head. "Damnit..." Mark swore. "We're in San Diego, she could be anywhere."
"Are there any particular places she likes around here?" Chris asked.
"Yeah. She loves the beach. She says she especially likes the beaches at night, because they're calm and quiet, with hardly any people." It was if a lightbulb had gone off inside of Chris's head. The beach!
"I'm going to look for her." Chris took off out of the arena. He climbed into his rental and drove for about fifteen minutes, until he saw an asphalt lot that had stairs leading down into the sand. He parked the car and got out, trying to spy her from there in the dark night. The moon wasn't out at all, and there were barely any stars, so he didn't have much natural light to see by. He took his shoes and socks off and made his way down the steps onto the beach.
'This place is huge,' he thought to himself. 'She could be anywhere.' He sighed and took off in one direction, hoping that she was somewhere close.
"Tess!" he called out. After a few tries he gave up yelling her name. He figured that even if she did hear him that she wouldn't come to him. Hell, she might even run off at the sound of his voice. He continued to walk down the sandy beach. The shoreline would come up and crash against his feet ever so often, but he hardly even noticed as he looked for a figure in the darkness.
"Tess," he attempted to call once more, but his voice was barely above a whisper. He was beginning to lose hope. He checked his watch, mashing a button so it would glow green. Ten o'clock. He'd been on this beach searching for an hour now. He sighed and was about to turn and go back when he saw a figure. It was completely black, but he knew that it was a human.
'Could it be Tess?' he wandered. He shook his head, deciding that he didn't have time to contemplate and decide. He took off at a steady pace, coming closer and closer to the dark figure. He was finally close enough to see the outline of it when a breeze picked up, and blew long hair behind its head. A female. He knew it was her, just knew it.
"Tess," he whispered, now close enough for her to hear him. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and when she turned her head to look at him, he could see that her cheeks were tearstained. She sniffed and stood up.
"Oh God, Chris, I...I am so...so sorry," she stuttered as she flung herself onto him. Her arms went into a vicegrip around his neck as she pulled him close to her, clinging to the comfort. His strong arms circled her waist as she cried into his chest. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she repeated over and over. He shook his head as he lowered himself to the sand and pulled her into his lap.
"Tess, baby, calm down, calm down...It's okay, I understand. I'm not mad at you. I'm just so relieved that I found you...you had us all scared." he whispered soothingly into her hair as her tiny body curled into a ball in his lap. Her shoulders shook with her sobs as Chris held her close to him.
"It'll be okay..." he said as he rocked her soothingly. He let her cry into his chest until her tears subsided. She looked up at him.
"He really did cheat on me." she hiccuped. "He used me. I'm just lucky we never...you know...did anything."
"I know, sweetheart." he said, rocking her."Rob is an asshole. There is no way, absolutely no way that you deserved this, Tess." he kissed the top of her head. "You're an amazingly sweet, caring, beautiful girl and you only deserve the best." he finished.
"Do you mean that?" she asked. He nodded. "Thank you, Chris. That means a lot to me. And thank you for forgiving me for not believing me."
"It's really no problem. I understand where you were coming from. " Chris replied. Tess nodded.
"Thank you." she whispered as she closed her tired eyes.
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