Sorry for the long time it took to update this one.

TITLE: The Approaching Storm Chapter Two/? *R*
AUTHOR: Juliet3:16
EMAIL: Sweetvalley99@aol.com, Juliet_316_2000@yahoo.com
RATING: R
CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE
CATEGORY: ADULT, DRAMA, HORROR, ANGST
SPOILERS: Up through 3/24/02 when Stephanie lost the three - way (though I kept it a handicap match in this fic's universe) and was cashiered out of the WWF, though I've tweaked little things here and there in this universe to make certain things work.
SUMMARY: The nWo's mayhem brings about two unexpected tragedies and changes the Federation forever.
DISCLAIMER: Vince owns all. I own nothing.
DISTRIBUTION: The Realm, Fanfiction.net. Anyplace else please ask.

The Approaching Storm

Chapter Two

A Diva's Awakening

Lita and Shane walked down the quiet corridors of the hospital. Lita always hated hospitals and her visits to this particular one where no exception. She hopped nervously from one foot to another, trying in vain not to let her anxiety show as Shane signed them both in at the Visitor's desk of the long - term care wing of the hospital.

As the couple started down the long corridor of the long - term care unit, Lita started getting nervous and apprehensive as was her pattern every time she came to a hospital.

Last time she was at a hospital, it was to see a man she'd considered a brother laying on a bed. His career all but over at the hands of his very own biological brother.

Lita took a deep breath as they approached the room she and Shane had been searching for. They saw the bodyguards of the day standing outside of it. Ric Flair tended to put at least two WWF wrestlers to guard the Trish's room to protect the comatose diva and keep her from the nWo's grasp. The nWo would be happy to finish the job they'd started that cold February evening six months earlier.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Shane asked the two men standing outside Trish Stratus' room. Two men who'd been apart of Shane and Stephanie's Alliance a year prior.

Irony can be a funny thing sometimes, the Boy Wonder mused privately.

"Not much," the darker skinned of the two bodyguards said to Shane and Lita. "How'd everything at the show go tonight?"

Shane sighed. "nWo strikes again," he replied bitterly.

"Shit," said the taller, blonder of the two guarding Trish at that moment, then looked directly at Shane. "Who'd they go after this time?"

"Edge and Christian," Lita replied, the redhead answering the question before her lover could. "Right in the middle of the ring, too."

"We checked before we left Drew. This time those goons only left bumps and bruises," Shane added.

Andrew "Test" Martin snorted. "Ironic five months ago Edge and Christian were beating the hell out of each other, now their getting the crap getting beat out of them together."

"Life's funny sometimes," Lita replied, "who would've thought that you and Booker would've stayed in the WWF when Vince and everybody else left."

Booker T shrugged. "Hey man, I've never had a real problem with Ric Flair. Now the nWo, I do have a problem with, even before they took their act to murder."

Lita nodded. Of those remaining in the WWF Booker T, Chris Benoit, and owner Ric Flair were probably the most knowledgeable about the nWo and what it was capable of. For Booker T to say he didn't see the nWo's opening salvo involving the Rock and Trish coming six months ago meant nobody could've.

"Um, can I see her now?" Lita asked motioning beyond the door Booker T and Andrew were guarding.

"Yeah, Red. Go on in," Booker told her opening the door for Lita to pass.

Lita entered, the sight before her breaking her heart like always. Trish looked unnatural lying on the hospital bed before Lita. Even before they had become friends it would've been very hard for the redhead to imagine the shorter blonde to be still for even a moment, much less for six months.

"Hey," Lita said to the silent diva before her, "we had a show tonight."

With that Lita shut the door, and proceeded to tell the comatose Trish Stratus everything that had happened in the redhead's life since her last visit.

* * *

She didn't know how long she'd been floating in the sea of darkness around her. One minute she was being jostled around in the ambulance with Rock, the next she was in wherever the hell she was. A place with no light, no sound, no touch or smell.

In a word hell for Trish Stratus.

She didn't know how much time had passed since the nWo's attack but Trish was more than ready to leave. Sometimes she'd sworn she'd heard Rock's voice calling out to her, but she wasn't sure if it was really his voice or if she was imagining it.

She thought at the moment she could here somebody faintly talking to her, but was she imagining it?

'Rock? Dwayne?' she called out in her mind.

As she zeroed in on the voice, it started getting louder and Trish soon figured out it was a woman's voice speaking.

"... And you know for being Vince McMahon's son, Shane's a really good guy. Better than Matt, but I suppose anybody's better than Matthew Moore Hardy at this point," the voice finished up, snorting bitterly.

'Lita?' Trish thought.

Deciding she'd had enough of the floating darkness she was presently in, Trish followed the sound of the redhead's voice, hoping for a way out of the dark place she was in.

Feeling came back in a rush, as she suddenly felt very heavy lying on what she figured was most likely a hospital bed. It was a battle to open her equally heavy eyelids. When she managed to get them open, there was a slightly fuzzy picture of Lita at the foot of her bed. She blinked a couple of times, the image of the tattooed redhead becoming clearer.

"Lita?" Trish croaked out, shocked at how horse her voice sounded.

The redhead's own voice broke off abruptly, her head snapping up to look at the suddenly awake blonde, who moments before had been virtually lifeless.

"What happened? Where's Rock?" Trish asked her friend.

Trish's eyes where closed again, so she didn't notice the sad and sympathetic look that was on the redhead's face.

"Hold on, let me get a doctor to look at you," Lita said, pressing the call button on the rail of Trish's bed.

Trish nodded, not noticing that Lita had evaded her question.

* * *

As the doctor finished examining Trish, he looked down on his diminutive patient.

"Well, Ms. Stratus, all things considered you seem remarkably healthy for somebody who an hour ago was in a deep coma. If you have any questions, - "

"When can I get out of here?" Trish asked making an effort to get out of her bed.

"Whoa, not quite yet. We want to keep you here for observation. Just to be safe. Now I'll allow your friends to come back in for a few minutes and they can probably answer any other questions you may have better than I can," With that the doctor turned towards the door, allowing Lita to come in before he made his own exit.

"Hey, what did the doc have to say?" Lita asked, trying not to let her apprehension show. She'd been dreading this moment for six long months. She didn't know quite how to tell the other woman that her boyfriend was dead. She damn sure wasn't going to tell her what was done to his body at the moment.

"He said I had to stay," the petite blonde pouted, not noticing the look of dread on her friend's face. "He won't even let me get out of bed."

Lita laughed in spite of herself. Her friend had seemed to regain her energetic spirit quite quickly and wasn't happy to be stuck in the hospital bed. Her laughter died when Trish looked at the redhead and asked:

"Lita, where's Rocky?"

The redhead sat on the other woman's bed not wanting to break the other woman's heart, but knowing that she couldn't put off Trish knowing the truth any longer.

"Um, Trish, there's something you should know," Lita began the hardest thing she'd ever had to do in her life. "Rocky's injuries, he was hurt far worse than you were."

"Well, considering what Hogan and his buddies did before using the semi as a battering ram against us, I'm not surprised. What room is he in? I'll call the doctor and try to get him to let me see him."

"He's not here, Trish"

"What? But you said - " Trish felt a knot of fear form at the way the redhead could no longer meet the Canadian's eyes.

"Where IS he Lita?" panic rising in her voice.

"Dwayne didn't make it sweetie," Lita said softly, breaking slightly. "The doctors - they tried everything they could, but they couldn't bring him back. They almost lost you once or twice. There was nothing they could do. Trish I'm so sorry."

"NO! YOU'RE LYING!" Trish screamed. Unable to believe one of the few men she'd given her heart too and had given her his in return and loved her was gone. "THAT'S A SICK JOKE LITA! WHERE IS HE?!" Trish demanded trying to get out of her bed.

"Trish," Lita said trying to get her friend back into her bed without hurting the still recovering blonde.

"NO! IT'S NOT TRUE! IT'S NOT!" Trish screamed, her fists pummeling weakly into the redhead's chest and abdomen. Lita, for her part, allowed the blonde the outlet of releasing her anger and denial holding her friend when Trish finally spent her fury and dissolved into tears of grief.

Shane McMahon popped his head in, hearing Trish's screams of denial. Seeing that his girlfriend was comforting the blonde Canadian, he silently closed the door again.

He took out his cell phone and started to make some calls.


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