Sorry about the subject line. Couldn't resist it :-D

Well, we managed to sneak in one more chapter before April. Still, verdicts won't be revealed until April (and known only to two people until then :-D)

This chapter was inspired by reading a section on Austin's original neck injury in Stone Cold Truth, particularly JR's comments about it (which are prefaced below). Hence the theme "long overdue conversation." Figured out how to pull this off in the course of the chapter in Athena's POV.

Warnings: Lots of language, especially at the beginning of this. Especially from Austin

...I will guarantee you one thing - Owen cared and I know he felt bad about what happened, because we used to discuss it often. When Steve was out of commission because of the neck injury, Owen used to ask me about Steve all the time. I used to say to him, "Why don't you call him?" Owen's response was always along the lines of "I'm going do," or, "I will, I just feel so bad about what I did." Those two never had the conversation they needed to have, the conversation both men felt in their hearts before Owen's untimely death. That's one face - to - face meeting I wish I could have orchestrated. - Jim Ross, in Stone Cold Truth

123

'Long Overdue Conversation'

Athena's pov

"Goddamned, Son of a Bitch!"

Those words from Steve Austin startled me out of a sound sleep, though I kept my eyes closed and my body still; Danny told me he learned a lot pretending to be asleep with everybody else around. But I wondered what Austin was grumbling about.

"Would you keep it quiet," my Dad said in a soft but intense voice, "my daughter's asleep!"

I could've told him I was awake and that Austin could say whatever he wanted to, but I decided to chance taking Danny's advice once again and pretend to be asleep. Of course the last time I went along with anything Danny said or did, I went to Kemper and looked at how THAT turned out!

Dad suddenly had concern in his voice: "Is it about the trial? Is there a verdict or mistrial or something?"

The jury had been deliberating for a week now. We're all a bit concerned that Vince's defense lawyer might have swayed the jury to Vince's way of thinking. Especially when one juror it seems talked about writing a book after this and he got tossed off the jury and replaced with an alternate. We're worried that anything else happens to the jury and Judge Arspringer will declare a mistrial. I know that she almost declared one when Danny's father testified, and I agree with everybody else, that would be the worst thing in the world. For one thing everybody knows that Danny's father, my father, and Steve Austin are all alive and they would be major targets for Vince, Stephanie and company. District Attorney Olsen tried to reassure us, by pointing out that the Robert Blake jury deliberated for almost three weeks before reaching a verdict, but I never really paid much attention to celebrity trials.

"No," Erichson said, "if something like that had happened, I'm sure Olsen would've notified us to come to court."

"No, it was a notification of a different kind from him," a voice that I was pretty sure was Jim Ross joined in.

"Goddamned chickenshit took a deal!" Austin growled, this time much quieter, probably because Dad made him aware of me there.

"Which one?" A gravely voice that I thought might be Mark Calloway shot out, and I heard a soft thud, probably from somebody leaning against the door, "There's only so many of them involved in this mess."

"Who do you fucking think?" Austin shot back. He seemed to swear a lot. It's a good thing Oje decided to take Tim to meet Chris' grandkids.

There was a sigh from somewhere.

"Jarrett took a deal," Ross, responded, "he's rolling on Vince. He says Jerry never knew about it, Jeff acted independently where Steve's concerned. He said his ex - wife, Trish knew about it.

"Damn, should've known," Mark muttered. "Hardys know?" He's talking about Matt and Amy now.

"Were there when Olsen told us," Erichson said, "apparently, Amy thought she and Trish were close before Ms. Stratigus left the company to marry Mr. Jarrett. She was crying when she left for her room.

"Stupid fucking heart attack," Austin muttered.

"Hey, he probably won't walk, Steve," Dad said. "He did try and actually thought for a long time that he killed you. That's got to carry a stiff penalty."

"Like you did after SummerSlam?" Steve asked with a slight edge in his voice.

There was silence in the room.

"I never meant that," Dad said in a quiet voice.

I was curious now. I'm only vaguely aware that there's history between Dad and Steve Austin and some of it's not good. In fact Uncle Bret when he found out about Austin being alive, asked point blank (amid all the yelling in the room at the time) "are you ready to face him?" I never really bothered to ask what that was about, though from what little I've gathered from everybody, there was something about a botched move in a match that caused Austin an injury...

A clearing of the throat startled me out of my musings.

"I think this has turned into a more private conversation," Ross said, "why don't the rest of us find the others and let them know about Jeff." I heard shuffling of feet and the closing of a door. There were a few minutes of quiet to where I thought everybody left the room, and then Austin spoke up. I guess they forgot I was even in here.

"You know Jim would've found away to get us by ourselves sooner or later to have this out," Austin said almost as quietly as Dad.

"Yeah, he was kind of always after me to call you when I asked about how you were doing," Dad said.

"Why didn't you?"

There was a rustling of hands. Damn I wish I could open my eyes and see the expressions on their faces, but then I'd likely get thrown out of the room and not get to hear this.

"I don't know," Dad answered, "I guess, I felt too damn guilty about what I did. I know that's no excuse - "

"Your damn right it isn't!" Austin exclaimed, "Dammit, Owen! You were my friend. I trusted you!"

"I know you did," Dad said, "I assured you that I could do a move that quite frankly I had probably had no business doing, and I botched it. You don't know how many nights I lay awake afterwards with nightmares about that move. I could've killed you and I knew it!"

"When you told me you were going to land on your ass, I honestly thought you were joking, I honestly thought it would end up being on the knees like the Undertaker," Austin said, "I thought you could do it. The only reason I consented to that move that night was because I thought nothing would happen. You knew my concerns about that!"

"I knew. I just honestly thought that I could protect you going to my ass. I did it before without a problem," Dad explained. "I've spent a lot of years wondering why it didn't work this time. Honest to goodness if I'd thought that it would injury you to the point of surgery -" there was a pause after that, "yeah, Lawler, told me you had to have it, and that's another story for another time; point is, that if I'd known then, what I found out later, I would've never have done the piledriver in the first place. If I'd realized how botched I got it then, I wouldn't have kicked out either, that was really, really stupid on my part. Frankly I wish 1997 hadn't happened period."

"You know Youngblood said I'd need another fusion surgery eventually after the first one. Haven't really felt any pain in my neck since I woke up. I guess fifteen years in a coma will kinda give the neck a rest or something," Austin spoke softly.

"Yeah well falling fifty to seventy feet isn't a lot of fun either," Dad replied, "ironic though, we survive falls that should've killed us intact, and Chris gets a botched powerbomb and ends up the worst of us."

"Yeah, irony's a real bitch," Austin muttered, then sighed, "I guess I just wish that things had worked out differently that night. I wish you'd called to at least tell me you were sorry. At least once."

"I was and I still am sorry. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to say that, but I am, truly. I hope that someday you'll forgive me and that maybe we can be friends again."

"I forgave you a long time ago, Owen," Austin said, "and I'd like to be your friend too, if you're willing to be mine."

'Deal," there was a clasp of hands, and I knew there had been a shaking on it.

"Um, Steve," Dad said, "one more thing: About those T - shirts, the Owen 3:16 ones?

"Yeah?" Austin asked, an edge returning to his voice.

"I told Vince to take the money made off those and give it to charity or shove it up his ass. I didn't want to take or make any money off your injury. I didn't want those T - shirts made in the first place."

There was another silence, this time broken by a knock on the door.

"Hey, killed each other yet?" Uncle Bret's voice rang out. "That's a nice gesture Steve,"

"That was a funny joke Bret," Steve answered. "Was that all you wanted, to see if there were bodies in here, or was there something else,"

"Is Athena in here?"

I sensed the conversation was over, so I decided to pretend I was just waking up.

"What's going on?" I said wiping at my eyes.

"Time to get up kiddo," Uncle Bret said, "got a doctor's appointment."

I got up to get dressed. After I got released from the hospital, the doctors wanted me back every so often to check to see that I didn't have any post - concussion syndrome. The type that ended Uncle Bret's career. Plus I had the stitches taken out a few days ago, so they wanted to check to see if the scars from getting shoved through a bathroom mirror were healing enough to not leave anything visible.

Danny was right. You can get interesting information when you're pretending to sleep.

END NOTES: I think we ALL know what gesture Steve gave Bret. ;-) See ya in April for the verdicts!