Disclaimer: I own no one except Nicole

A/N: Thanks to all those that reviewed the last chapter, hope you enjoy this one, Read and Review!

Chapter 15: My Sacrifice

Randy Orton had been pacing Evolution's locker room for a hour, his brain working on over drive. Every since he had come up with the brilliant idea of getting Nicole back with her friends, it had been the only thing he could think of. Every thought of helping her invaded his mind.

It had been a couple days since he had come up with the idea, and he had managed to concoct a few different scenarios. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, he never believed these would actually work. He had thought that perhaps he could just catch Chris in the hall one day and simply tell him that the situation was tearing Nicole apart. As Randy thought back on it, he knew it wouldn't work: Chris would never concede to speaking to him; Chris hated Randy. Or so it seemed.

Nicole walked into the locker room, and saw Randy pacing for the millionth time that day. She was really beginning to worry about him. Every since they had left the last city, Randy's mind seemed to be very preoccupied with something, but she didn't know what that was. She had tried to speak to him, yet he had just brushed her off, saying it was nothing important. But Nicole knew better, if it had Randy worrying this much, she knew it must be important.

Hesitantly, Nicole called out his name, "Randy..." but there was no response.

She furrowed her brow as she watched him pace a hole in the floor. As she studied his face, she realized that he didn't look much rested as he had bags under his eyes. His hair was disheveled, and he hadn't even taken the time to shave. In one word he looked horrible; she couldn't see how she didn't notice it until now.

She decided on calling his name one last time, and when that didn't gain his attention, she walked up to him. He was now seated in one of the leather couches, with his head in his hands. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and broke him out of his thoughts.

He looked up at her, with wide eyes, "Hey baby, you ok?"

Nicole sat next to him, "I think the real question here is are you okay?"

"Of course, I'm great" he said as he stood.

"Randy...you've been so preoccupied lately; I'm really starting to worry about you. If there is something, babe, you know you can tell me. Maybe I can help?"

Randy shook his head, if only she knew the truth, that he had been secretly worrying about her for the past couple of days. She couldn't very well help him, when he was trying to figure out a way to help her.

"It's nothing serious, don't you worry about it."

"Randall Keith Orton! You cannot simply think that I will believe that this is "nothing serious" when you have been acting like this for 3 days! It is serious and I want to know what it is that has you so damn worked up." Nicole was serious now, and Randy could tell she wasn't going to get off the topic until he said something.

"It's just this damn match I have with Shawn this week. Things with him haven't ever been great, but now I think they're even worse. I guess, I just don't want to do anything that I'd regret during it, you know what I mean?" Randy lied, well he had to. He couldn't very well tell her he had been worrying about her, and how to fix her friendship with Chris and Trish.

"Randy, you don't have to worry. I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, Shawn deserves everything he has coming so don't you even think that you'll regret anything. And if you ever scare me like that every again, I will personally kick your ass."

"Oh really, will you? And how exactly do you plan on making that happen." He smirked as he inched his way closer to her.

"Don't under-estimate my strength Orton, I can have you screaming my name in a matter of minutes," it was now her turn to smirk.

"I'd sure like that" he swiftly sat himself back on the couch, and pulled Nicole on top of him, so she was straddling his waist. Nicole giggled, before Randy captured her lips in a heated kiss.

That one kiss had lead to much more, and an hour later Nicole lay cuddled up next to Randy on the couch. Randy had his eyes closed, but she knew better. With the way he was tightly holding her to him; there was no way he could be asleep. She led her gaze over to the clock on the wall, and sighed: she had to start getting some work done, if she ever wanted to be ready for tonight. However, her current situation, in Randy's arms, was much too tempting to leave. She was very much enjoying herself, and didn't want to be the one to break their silent connection.

On the other hand, she knew that if she didn't get up soon, she never would. Randy too had to get moving, preparing for his match with Shawn. And she certainly didn't want Hunter, Dave, or better yet Ric, walking in on them in their current predicament. She quietly stirred, and turned over to face Randy. She watched him for a few moments, before softly letting her fingers outline his chiseled features.

His eyes fluttered open and he smiled, "I was sleeping you know"

"No you weren't Orton. I know what you look like when you're asleep, and let me tell you, that wasn't it."

Randy smiled at the thought of Nikki watching him sleep. If it had been anyone else it would have seemed bizarre, but not when it was her. After all, he's been guilty of watching her sleep as well, so it would have been hypocritical for him to have objected.

At this time, Nicole sat up and was about to get up, when she felt Randy pull her back down onto the couch as she had been before. "Randy...I have to get up."

"No you don't, you have to stay right here with me." he pouted.

Nicole rolled her eyes, "As much as I want to stay here, I can't. I have to get ready, and so do you. So why don't we both get up, get ready, and then we can meet up for a quick bite to eat right before the show."

"As good as that sounds, I have a better idea," he smirked,"Why don't we have lunch and dessert right here." He pulled her closer to him and pinned her arms over her head as he began to place light kisses all over her body.

"Randy..."she giggled, "okay seriously now, I really have to get up." She some how managed to maneuver herself away from Randy's grasp and fell off the couch with a thud. "See what you made me do," she pretended to be angry.

"Well why don't you come back over here, and let me make it better."

"Well, Dr. Orton I don't think the effects are gonna be permanent so I think I'll be able to make it." She pulled on her white wife beater, and began to search for where Randy had thrown her jeans.

"Looking for something," he asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, and you know exactly what it is and where they are, so hand them over." She stretched out her arm, waiting for Randy to hand her her jeans.

"I have no idea, what it is you are talking about."

"Oh really, so your saying that my jeans just got up and walked themselves out of the room."

"You never know these days, weird things happen."

"Randy c'mon," she pleaded. "Fine, then I guess I'm gonna have to go and see John in my thong. I'm sure he won't mind, we'll get a lot more work done, this way." She again out held out her hand for the jeans, fully knowing that he would give them up this time. "Thank you, I'm glad you co-operated."

She quickly finished dressing, put on some light makeup and kissed Randy before she left.

She knocked on John's door before entering, and found him sitting in a chair reading the script for that night. "Oh good you're here."

"I was just about to come and find you, I've called you fifty times, I was wondering if you were even at the arena." John's voice was tense and Nicole could tell he was probably upset, and just wanted to get this over with.

"Sorry, I was caught up and I think I left my cell at the hotel, cuz I can't seem to find it."

"Fine, lets get this through, okay."

Nicole thought John was acting strange. They hadn't been best of friends, but lately they had been actually getting along, so she couldn't understand this sudden change of heart. "Hey, are you okay? You seem real tense."

John sighed and ran a hand through his damp hair. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that, besides it's nothing really, just some dumb shit."

Nicole looked at him, "Well it can't be dumb if it's upsetting you like this."

John laughed, "Okay, you probably know how I've got this album ready for release and everything. Well the damn release date keeps getting postponed, and it's really starting to piss me off, so I was just thinking of releasing it myself or something."

"Well I think that you should speak to the head of the record label before you do anything crazy."

"Ya I guess you're right."

"So you're really serious about this rap thing."

"Yeah, next to wrestling it's my greatest passion. I mean I can't be a wrestler forever, and I gotta have something else I like to do, Take Jeff Hardy right, he did the same and sure his band isn't well known, he's still doing what he loves. Better yet, take Jericho. Fozzy's pretty well known, they've had what three albums already."

"That's so true, and Jeff's band is great I've heard them myself when I visited Lita in Cameron last summer, and I'm sure that if you keep it up, you'll be awesome. You're way over with the crowd John; they love you."

"Thanks..." John stopped as he watched her flip through the pages of the script; her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders.

"Okay, so you wanna get started?" she broke him out of his thoughts.

Meanwhile, Randy Orton along with his fellow Evolutionary members was sitting around a round table at catering talking about that night's RAW. As Hunter, and Dave came up with a back up plan for Randy's match against Shawn, Randy was still wondering how it was he was going to be able to get Nicole back with her friends.

"So what I was thinking was that in case Orton here can't pull out a win, which I am sure won't be the case, but just to be sure Naitch we need you at ringside. Randy you okay with that?" Hunter looked over at Randy who was pushing around the food in his plate. He had initially thought he had been listening, but apparently he was wrong, Randy was far from even being in the room.

Dave looked over at Randy, he had been this was for way too long now, and Dave was going to start taking matters into his own hands if Randy didn't think of some idea soon. He had already told Randy that he was more than willing to help Nikki any way possible, however Randy wanted to fix this himself. "Damn Orton, snap out of it!"

As if on cue, Randy looked up with a gleam in his eyes, "I got it!" Hunter and Ric looked on puzzled, as Dave shook his head.

"What have you got?" Hunter asked him, "We already came up with the plan."

"Not about that, I don't care about that. You remember on the plane how I told you all I was going to help Nicole? Right okay, I finally figured it out." Randy looked like he was a boy in a candy shop; he hadn't been this happy in days.

"Well that's great Orton, now you can finally get your head back in the game."

"Right, I have a couple things I need to get to, so if you'll excuse me, I'll see you guys later." With that Randy was off, to put his plan into action.

Trish Stratus walked down the corridor to Chris Jericho's locker room. As she came closer to the door, she could see the distant form of an envelope lying on the ground right outside the door. She bent over, picked it up and noticed that it was addressed to both herself as well as Chris. She walked in to Jericho's room, and sat down on one of the chairs as she waited for him to exit the shower.

Trish opened up the letter and immediately scanned down to the bottom to see who it was from. However, it gave no indication who had written it, as there was no signature.

"What's that?" Trish nearly jumped out of the seat as Chris startled her.

"It's a letter addressed to the both of us, but I don't know who it's from." She answered, visibly still puzzled.

"Well, what does it say?"

She handed over the letter to Chris, as he proceeded to read through it. Whoever it was that had written it had specified to meet them at a local bar that night. Chris handed it back over to Trish as he began to pace the room, wondering who it might be.

Trish reread the letter and glanced up at Chris, "I have a feeling it's Shawn, and I am not going if it is."

"Well we won't know if it is or isn't him, so we have to go Trish."

"No we don't! We don't owe that son of a bitch anything!" she protested.

"Trish! We don't know if it's him." Chris argued, he looked down at her and saw she had this "don't mess with me" kind of attitude which would have usually called for him to back down, but not tonight. "Look, it says it's about Nicole, so whether it is or is not Shawn I'm going. If you want to join me, you're more than welcome as you were invited, if not suit yourself."

"Fine" she relented, "but I'm telling you now, if it is Shawn, I am so out of there Jericho."

After what seemed like an eternally long and agitating night, RAW came to a close with Randy and Evolution standing victorious over Shawn's body.

Nicole inwardly smiled, 'Got exactly what he deserved'. She waited at gorilla for a few more moments before Randy made his way through the curtains and Nikki jumped into his arms, "You were great tonight."

"Well thank you baby." He placed her back down on her feet, and placed an arm around her shoulders as they all made their way back to the locker room.

Nicole immediately plopped down on the sofa as they entered their locker room, "So what are we doing tonight?"

Randy and Dave both looked up and to one another, Randy had other plans that night, and he couldn't very well tell Nicole. After a few moments Randy finally found his voice, "Actually, baby, I have a meeting tonight with Eric, so I won't be home until later."

Nicole looked up at Randy, "Why didn't you tell me today?"

"I only found out later, just before my match." Randy lied, one again. He realized how easy it was all coming to him, and was even beginning to frighten himself.

"Well, why don't I just wait for you here, I don't mind, so then at least we can go home together." Nikki suggested.

"Sweetie, I don't want you to stay up for me. Who knows when this meeting is gonna end, and you're already tired. You're just gonna fall asleep here, so you might as well go back to the hotel and sleep in a nice comfortable bed."

"I guess you're right, but promise me you'll try to get out of there as fast as you can?" she pouted.

"I promise" he pulled her to her feet and kissed her tenderly.

"Come on there princess, I'll take you home" Dave grabbed Nikki's bags and led her out toward the limo, but not before giving Randy a "You better not screw up, or I'll kill you" look.

Chris and Trish were seated in the bar, awaiting their mystery man. Thoughts of who it could possibly be invaded their mind ever since they had received the letter. Trish, being the stubborn blonde she was, still believed it was Shawn Michaels. Where as Chris, couldn't have really cared less at this point. He was tired and all he wanted to do was cuddle up in bed, so who ever it was that had summoned them here had better have gotten their asses their sooner.

Randy Orton entered the bar and immediately scanned the room for the two Canadian blondes. Sure enough he found them seated quietly in a corner of the room. He walked over to them and it was only a few seconds before Trish noticed him. Her eyes got wide as she finally understood that it was him who had summoned them there.

Trish stood up, "I am so out of here"

Chris grabbed her arm to retrain her. "Trish wait, if Randy went through all the trouble of getting us here, it must be really important. So why don't you just as least give him the chance to explain. If you don't like what he has to say, then you can leave, okay?"

Trish looked up at Chris; she couldn't understand how he was so reasonable all the time, "Fine, You have 10 minutes Orton, so make it worth my time."

Randy sat down and took a deep breathe. He hadn't expected a warm welcome, especially from Trish, but things were actually working out in his favor; at least they were willing to listen to him.

"Okay where should I start...?"

"Time is ticking..."Trish interrupted. Chris gave her a look before urging Randy to continue.

"Ever since everyone found out about Nicole's relationship with me, she's been really upset. It got worse when the three of you started fighting. I've tried to help her as much as I can, as have Dave, Hunter and Ric, but we know there is only so much we can do. I know she doesn't tell me everything, and it's natural, she usually has you two to tell everything to, people she's comfortable with. I really wanna help her, and that's basically the reason I am here. Everything I have done, getting you here, and now trying to explain what I can't seem to put into words is for her. I just want her to be happy, and I know that when she's with you guys, she's happy."

"So what exactly is it that you want us to do Randy, pretend that you and her don't exist?"

"That's not what I'm asking for. I just want you to talk to her; try to forgive her. She was just doing what she thought was right, is just ended up being the wrong way to go about it and she's more than sorry. Trish, I'm sure that you would have done the same..."

"..Don't presume what it is I would and would not do."

Randy chose to dismiss her remark, "Nicole needs the two of you, you're the only people she fully trusts and who fully understand her. Without the two of you, she's...well she's the way she is right now. She's a mess, she's having breakdowns over the smallest of things and as much as I try, I can't seem to fix it. So you need to help me. I am willing to do anything to see her the way she was when I first met her." Randy let out a breathe, "I've said what I had to say; now it's up to you."

Both Trish and Chris took a moment to grasp everything they just heard. Finally, Chris took the initiative to speak, "I'm glad you want to help her Randy, I can tell you care about her. I'm sure coming to us isn't easy; after all we aren't best of friends. We'll keep what you said in mind, and we'll talk to her, but we can't promise anything right now and ..."

"Wait," Trish cut him off, she had a habit of doing that, "Randy, you said you'd do anything to see Nikki happy again. Now if I understand correctly, and I'm sure I did, the only way she will be fully happy is if we are all friends again." Randy nodded and Trish continued, "Well, the solution here is simple! In order for Nicole to be happy again, she has to be with us, and Nicole can't be with us, if she's with you silly."

Chris looked over at Trish and knew where she was going with this. He had already had these thoughts, but had never the courage to go out and say it, well at least Trish had, or else he would have always regretted it.

"So what exactly are you saying here Trish?" Randy asked, obviously confused.

"I thought it was clear by now, but obviously I'm going to have to spell it out for you. In order for Nicole to be happy, you need to break up with her Randy. You need to let her go, and then we'll make everything better again for her, and then she'll be happy again, just like you want her to be. You do want her to be happy don't you Randy?"

"Of course I want her to be happy Trish, but breaking up with her is not how I want to go about it. I wanna be with her more than anything, that's why I'm here asking you for help!"

"Randy, don't get so damn defensive. I'm trying to help too, and this is the best idea. Think of it logically; if she's away from you, there is no reason for me to fight with her, hence we are friends again, and hence she is happy. Now if you stay with her, she and I will continue to fight, and she won't be any happier. So what's it gonna be, are you going to end this mockery of a relationship, or what?"

Randy sighed in defeat, he had no other alternative. He was trying to make the right decision, but he was being pulled in two directions. His mind was telling him to agree to Trish's plan just so his angel would be happy, but his heart was telling him to screw Trish and her plan, and just continue on as they had been.

"Randy..." Trish began.

"Fine, okay! I'll break up with her. I just want her to be happy." Randy hung his head and sighed, 'what the hell have I gotten myself into'.