Chapter XVI: Hidden Agenda
After quite a few weeks of wallowing in nWo hell and last week's stunt on Benoit and Adrienne, Guerrero and Benoit seemed to have had enough. With a last-ditch plan, Eddie finally called the nWo out. Due to a bicep injury, Benoit quietly stood by, gritting his teeth in frustration from not being able to gets his hands on them personally. "I will take any one of you. I don't care who. Everyone else is barred from ringside. No run-ins. When the match ends here, it all ends here," Guerrero growled in his thick accent and pointed down at the mat under him. He knew when he was outnumbered but he wasn't afraid of any one of them alone. "Deal?" he asked, ready for this to be over with. Eddie lived for wrestling, lived on the edge, but the nWo wasn't worth having to look over his shoulder every second he was on the road.
At Guerrero's question, the six of them drew in for a huddle. "Everybody up for it?" Nash asked. Each of the guys nodded his head. "Okay, here's the plan. We'll let him pick which one of us but we get to pick the match. That way it's still on our terms. X-Pac," Kevin looked over at him, "he'll probably want you. Are you still in?" The shorter man nodded in agreement.
"Wait, don't break. Let's freak him out," Shawn said, stopping them before they began to step away. He glanced at Eddie but quickly stuck his head back in. Samia then turned around to look at Guerrero, smiled, and waved before rejoining the huddle. "Alright, we ain't got all day," Michaels stated with a grin and the group fanned out.
Nash stepped forward. "It's a deal. Except that you pick which nWo member you want but we pick the type of match."
"I'll take it," Eddie replied after glancing over at Benoit for his agreement.
"We'll have our counsel draw up a legal, binding agreement." While Nash spoke, Triple H nudged Samia and she pushed back. The two of them always found a way to pick at each other, especially at the worst times. "And it's done."
"You bring me the agreement. I'll have my legal counsel look over it and I'll choose next week. Then you can pick your match for the week after that," Guerrero replied.
Nash looked around at his men for confirmation and responded, "See you next Monday."
When they returned to the lockerroom, Samia quickly pulled out her laptop and began pounding away with Nash at her side making suggestions. She made quick work of the simple document and set out with Triple H as her "bodyguard" to find a printer. With their influence, it was easily done. As the team made their exit for the night, Nash handed the papers over to Guerrero without a word but accompanied by a smirk. "Good luck," she sarcastically whispered to him as they drifted on out the arena.
This was why she was with them. When Kevin had said they would have their legal counsel draw something up, she had hoped he meant her. Drawing up the agreement was just the beginning of her satisfaction. Seeing it handed over was even better. What she couldn't wait for was X-Pac thrashing him and the whole situation being put behind her. What they were using her for didn't matter at the moment as she was using them the same. The woman gave little regard for what would happen after the score was settled.
"The papers are all signed, Eddie. Who's it gonna be?" Shawn taunted. Samia was perched on the top turnbuckle to stay out of the way and to keep a good view of the battlefield. She was going to relish every moment of this.
"I have one question first," Guerrero replied.
"Shoot," Shawn responded as if he was asking about the weather.
"Is Mia a member of the nWo or is she just around to be annoying?" Eddie drawled.
"Well…yeah…She's one of us…" Shawn trailed off as the realization hit them all at one time. "No, no, I don't think so." After her initial elation at being called a member, Samia quickly jumped down from the turnbuckle in shock over what she knew was about to unfold.
Guerrero unfolded the document and held it out towards them. "It says any member," he stated. In response, Nash propelled her forward to examine the document but she didn't have to look. She knew exactly what she had written. Her knees were so weak that she barely made it the few steps back to tell them that there was nothing she could do. "I choose Samia Carlsen," Guerrero said, pointing at her. The arena erupted but Samia had no clue if it was in support of her or Guerrero. When the crowd noise died down, he spoke again. "What will it be?" he asked with a harsh laugh. "Ladder Match, Cage Match, Lights Out Texas Death Match? Pick it."
Shawn protectively stepped in front of her and flatly stated, "We'll tell you later tonight." With that, Shawn threw the mike at Guerrero's feet and the nWo made a hasty retreat.
Back in the nWo dressing room, Samia was about to have a conniption fit. "How could I have been so stupid? I can't do this! I don't know what I'm gonna do!" she practically shouted as she paced and wrung her hands. X-Pac parked it in the corner of the room and tried his best to stifle a laugh as he watched her try to keep her sanity.
Nash put a hand on Shawn's chest to stop him from going into the lockerroom. "So far so good. Go in there and talk her into it."
"I still think we should have discussed it with her first. You know, ran it by her and got her opinion."
"She'd never have agreed," Nash replied.
"You don't know that."
"I know enough," Kevin countered. "Are you going soft on me? Did you sleep with her and not tell me?
"No," Shawn replied, completely taken aback. "No to both of those questions."
"It'll work," Nash said, looking down at HBK. "Now, go."
Shawn walked straight up to Samia and sternly said, "Sit down." She was so surprised at his demeanor that she could do nothing but sit. "Do you trust us?"
Samia looked around the room at the guys. "Yeah, of course."
"We have an idea. Listen…"
Later that evening, word was sent to Guerrero that next Monday's match would be a Singapore cane match.
"Oh, god, that hurts! Man, I think I'm gonna die!" Samia yelled, flattening herself on the floor to try to quell the pain. She was quickly surrounded by most of the nWo.
"What did you do?" Shawn asked, trying to help her up.
"Leave me here. I moved the wrong way or something because the nerve in my shoulder is killing me." Shawn waved the rest of them away to give her room. She lay there for a moment and then finally asked for his help. He pulled her up onto the couch and began massaging the shoulder she was attempting to reach.
"Maybe you shouldn't do this," Shawn whispered but not out of Nash's hearing range.
"No choice," she flatly replied, listing in the other direction so Shawn could massage more of her back.
"We could do it next Monday," he continued to try to persuade her.
"I'll do it tonight. Besides, all I did was twist the wrong way. Haven't you ever pinched a nerve in your neck or shoulder?" She wasn't going to give up now but her anxiety was lessened as she thought about the way Shawn had been treating her since joining up with them and how he was treating her now. He hadn't acted much different from before she asked to come back with them. She wasn't stupid enough to believe that he was that interested in her before the dinner after which they had kissed but he was still treating her like a queen.
"I don't know…" he began again, ignoring her question.
Nash tugged Shawn's pony-tail and settled down beside Samia. "Look, if you can't do it, you can't do it. We can't mess this up. It's too big of an opportunity."
She looked at the two of them in thought. Apparently, this was more serious to them than she had considered. "Somebody tape me up," she smirked to hide her anxiety. "I'm going in."
By the time Samia pulled the long-sleeve T-shirt over her head and then pulled the fingerless leather gloves onto her hands, the pain that had shot through her was gone and it was time to go. If only her nerves had lessened the same. Her stomach was twisting in knots at the thought of what Guerrero could do to her and what he would do if she lost. Losing was not an option—Shawn had drilled it into her head, telling her over and over she was more than capable of doing this.
Guerrero was already in the ring, wielding his Singapore cane as if to scare her. When the nWo's music sounded, she took a deep breath and flexed her fingers around the two canes before walking out from behind the curtain. With a determined face, she went straight for the ring to stay focused. If she stopped to think about it now, she might back out. The woman handed off one of the canes to a ring attendant and whispered to her, "When I call for this, you better bust your ass getting it to me." The girl nodded and Samia proceeded to climb into the ring. Guerrero started on a harangue about her having a second cane.
"I never said how many you could have. Are you that scared of me?" she taunted.
At that comment, Guerrero just smiled. "Bring it on, chica."
The bell rang and the two began circling each other. Samia refused to strike first. She was much better on the defensive. Eddie swung level at her shoulders but she ducked and came back up with a whack on his back. He dropped down on one knee and swung at her calves. A connection was made and her legs crumpled. She had chosen work-out pants to save her skin from as much damage as possible but that didn't stop the sheer force of the cane to flesh. Guerrero came down at her chest but she brought her cane up for a counter. She was immediately on her feet as Guerrero came back for another swing. She continued to counter his swings. Guerrero was losing his focus out of frustration. With a full-blown baseball swing, he knocked the cane from her hands, her arms beginning to tremble from having to stave off his strong swings. He got a crack to her back as she went scrambling for the cane. She half fell out of the ring trying to get out so she could regain her composure. He yelled at her to get back in the ring and called her a coward. She gritted her teeth, yelled for the ring attendant, and rushed the ring, wielding her two canes like swords.
"I bet you didn't know that I was on the rifle team," she yelled at him above the whirling of the Singapore canes. "Or that I played softball and tennis." She swung at him fast enough for the canes to whistle through the air. "Or that I can just flat-out kick ass with a cane." It had been perfect revenge. No one but Shawn, with his uncanny knack of getting information out of people, had known she had wielded a rifle on the drill team of the marching band in high school and college and that she had often played ball (she was a much better batter than she was fielder) and tennis (she had a vicious backhand). The information had been passed on to Nash somewhere in the process. The canes were lighter than her usual items that she twirled or swung but this was the only gimmick that they knew would give her any hope of being successful. She had no clue that this was Shawn's and Nash's plans all along.
For a moment, Guerrero backed off but then launched a full scale assault. She countered with one cane and struck with the other. It wasn't so much her strength that beat him back but her repetitive attacks. She was surprised he didn't try to retreat. When she thought she had him, she dropped her canes, climbed the roped and came off for a bulldog. She quickly dropped down for the pin but Guerrero kicked out. She rolled off and reached for her canes to begin to give him a beating that probably went too far. When her arms ached so bad she could barely hold the Singapore canes, she dropped down again for the three count. Taking up her canes again just in case, she crawled into the corner to prop herself up against the turnbuckle.
The nWo swarmed the ring and pushed Guerrero on out as Benoit appeared to help him. Shawn immediately pulled Samia up to her feet and embraced her, capturing her lips in a kiss. It was so quick she didn't have time to enjoy it but she finally realized that she had just won. Before Samia knew it, they had her on Nash's shoulders, parading her around the ring. Her head probably wouldn't fit through the door from her inflated ego. Not only had she accomplished her latest goal, but she had physically beaten a man that she shouldn't have. It had felt so good to whack him over and over again with the cane as she vividly remembered what it had felt like the night he and Benoit had tied her down only to get back at Shawn. Even though she could hardly believe it, the imbroglio was over and it felt good.
Samia was still stunned by the match and Shawn's public kiss when they returned to the dressing room. Congratulations were accepted and she stumbled into the shower, dying to get Guerrero's sweat and blood off her body. They were already making plans to celebrate but she only wished she could enjoy her victory, her exhaustion heavily weighing her down. Hunter promised to leave her alone about tequila if she would go and Shawn promised to protect her from Hunter because he wasn't the greatest at keeping a promise. Finally, the group agreed to head on out and Samia was grateful. After Samia's trip to the medics for ointment for the welts and the small cuts from the cane, they arrived back at the hotel and the woman slipped into her bed for a dreamless sleep.
A dreamless sleep seemed to characterize the rest of her week and most of the next week. She quietly stayed by herself in an attempt to physically and mentally regroup, letting the numerous welts and bruises heal, and to not to have to face Shawn by herself. Their meeting was inevitable and Friday evening found Shawn banging on her door.
"Open up! I've got something you have to see!" he called from the other side of the door. He was so insistent she finally opened it. "Check this out!" He was waving a magazine in her face. "It's the latest edition. It's not out on stands until Monday. Look!" He flipped the magazine open to show her an article. On one page was a poster of her on the night of her nWo debut. She remembered posing for the picture but not considering it ending up in a WWE magazine. At least the cameraman got the side with the least amount of bruises, she thought, remembering the attack that had pushed her to take them up on their offer The photograph had the "Diva" logo in the corner but she gasped at the article's title: Samia Carlsen: An "Angel" of a Diva. The page-long article held a couple of small pictures of her match with Guerrero and one of her kiss with Shawn. The article itself briefly chronicled her history with the WWE and her "rise" to the status of diva.
"Oh my God! I'm…I'm a diva?" She slowly sat down in one of the chairs at the tiny hotel table.
"Get real. You've been a diva. I just can't believe it took them this long to say it. Apparently your performance earned you a page that someone else got pre-empted out of. You've got it going on," Shawn responded, sitting down across from her.
"I think you're crazy. At least who ever wrote this used 'alleged' for my involvement with Benoit. This ain't too bad of a picture. See, my butt does stick out in those leather pants," she stated, pushing the magazine towards him.
"That's the intention."
"Real funny."
"What do you think of this one?" Shawn asked, tapping the one of them in a lip-lock.
"What do you mean?"
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that does this mean anything to you?" He tapped the picture again.
"Well…I…" She was searching for words. She knew for a fact that it meant a truckload of lust, but she couldn't be sure if there was really something else between them despite how he had been treating her before and after her joining up with the nWo. Shawn had become a different person to her but she knew he could make a girl love him without even trying. Do I think I love him because I do or because he has made me think so? she asked herself. "You were just using me to get me into the nWo—why, I don't know—and now it just keeps with the gimmick," she said, trying to convince herself.
"I never used you. Okay, well, to begin with I did just so I could annoy RVD. The birthday kiss was Nash's idea but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Yeah, I kept 'propositioning' you in hopes to lure you in but just the opposite happened. You lured me in. There is just something about you. You have said that you trust me. Trust me now."
"I don't know—" Shawn cut her off by leaning across the table and taking her lips in his. The feelings that rushed through her seemed to answer her question but she drew away. "Maybe it means a lot to me, but I was devastated after Rob. I don't want to be that hurt ever again."
Shawn took her hands in his and set her down on the bed. "I won't hurt you. I promise." She lost herself in his eyes and then in his total being. His promise was no longer in question when he took her into his arms and fervently kissed her. She obliged when he ran his hands under her over-sized sweatshirt leaving a trail of goose bumps and then flipping the shirt over her head, but she refused anything else until he complied with her current state. She knew exactly what he looked like shirtless but it was still breathtaking to have his chest bare just for her. She couldn't get enough of him before he insisted on moving farther. Their remaining clothes were strewn haphazardly on the carpet. As he settled her back on the pillows, an image of her and Rob in bed flitted through her mind. Shawn erased that image as he slowly worked his incredible magic. They fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, their bodies wrapped around each other.
TBC…
Author's Notes: Samia being "named" a diva sounds very odd but this was every woman before in the company was considered a "diva" and every wrestler was called a superstar.