Chapter XXIV: Maybe, Maybe Not

"Here we are. Where it all officially started," Samia said, standing in the parking lot of the arena in Macon and sweeping her eyes over the building.

"I almost forgot," RVD replied. "You've come a long way. So quiet and shy and now—"

"A bitch?" she asked, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I was looking for a better term," Rob sheepishly shrugged.

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically.

"You remember how I had you so scared about coming out to the ring with me?"

"No kidding. Now I'm a mean, lean, Singapore cane wielding machine," she replied, hefting the harness up from the trunk.

"You know, I didn't know you could do that."

"I didn't either until Shawn and Kevin set me up," she added, shrugging her shoulders. "Let's quit reminiscing in the parking lot and go on in before something happens that we don't want."

Samia gratefully accepted Rob's help in getting ready and willingly helped him for his match before hers. It was almost like old times and he thought so as he started to ask her to come out with him but then changed his mind because he didn't want to break her focus, knowing she was serious about this match with Lita. He finally admitted to himself that wasn't the real reason he didn't ask her—he really didn't know what she was thinking about the two of them and didn't want to push her too far too fast. They passed each other in the hall as she made her way to the entrance and he returned to the dressing room.

"Good luck," he said, squeezing her shoulder.

"Thanks," she demurely replied, hearing her music begin. Heading out to her fate, she thought of how she should change her music to keep from agonizing on the match.

In the ring, Samia offered her hand to Lita, who returned the handshake before backing off to size her up. The two locked up but Lita overpowered her and threw her into a hip toss. She came off the ropes to clothesline Samia. Lita climbed the ropes for a swanton bomb but Samia barely got out of the way. She rolled her up for a two count. Lita kicked out and Samia pulled her up to apply an abdominal stretch on her. Lita finally broke the hold and maneuvered her into a headlock before executing a DDT. Somehow Samia kicked out of the pin. Lita pulled her up off the mat but she put some jabs into her stomach. She jerked her into an armbreaker and then decided to put the facebreaker on her. It wasn't enough to get the pin. She pulled Lita up but Lita turned around on her and brought her down with a backbreaker. Lita bounced off the ropes but Samia got a drop toe hold on her. She pulled her up for a couple of armbreakers before Lita reversed her next one and pulled Samia into one. She threw Samia into the turnbuckle and executed a bronco buster. Lita dragged Samia back into the middle ring and went up for a moonsault. It was over as quickly as it had begun. Lita accepted the belt but then helped Samia up.

"Glad to have you back on our side," the redhead said, hugging Samia before the two walked out together to be met in the hallway by RVD.

"Good job, ladies," he said by way of greeting.

"You have to admit I'm getting better," Samia proudly replied. "Lita didn't squash me like Trish or Molly."

"You didn't give me a chance." Lita laughed.

"Now you're just trying to make me feel better," the blonde replied.

"Honest truth," the new women's champion said defensively with a smile. "I hate to go but Matt is waiting for me. He promised me something special if I won."

"Enjoy!" Samia smiled at her and wished she had someone special to go back to. "I need to crash. I'm going back."

"I'll go with you," Rob offered and Samia tried not to read anymore into the statement than he probably meant.

Showered and dressed, she asked if he was going to watch the rest of the show with his friends. "Not yet," he replied. "I have something for you." Her face gave away her cluelessness. "I found something a while back that belongs to you. I thought you might want it back." He pulled something from his pocket and reached for her hand, dropping a tiny silver ring in her palm. She looked back up at him shocked. "Before you think something you shouldn't, I found it about three months ago in a side pocket of my gym bag when I washed it."

She slipped the ring back to its rightful place and admired it for a moment. "Thank you and I really mean it too."

"I couldn't just throw it away and I definitely didn't want to intrude upon you and Shawn. So, I just hung on to it. Kind of glad I did."

After a moment of silence, she blurted out, "You waited that long to wash that bag. That is disgusting!" In a joking manner, she brought her hand up to her nose to act like she was smelling the ring.

"Very funny," he replied, heading for the door.

"You weren't kidding when you told me you needed a valet when we first met."

He immediately stopped and turned around to ask, "You offering?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not…Wanna go watch the rest of RAW?"

"Why not?"

"No good reason."

The two of them gathered around a monitor with a few of his friends. With Rob in their presence, no one made any objections to Samia's presence. "Are we on the main event yet?" Rob asked, taking up a chair.

"Yeah, Lesnar is killing Triple H," Jeff Hardy answered, enthusiastically.

"Ooo, let me see," Samia said, crowding in. Lesnar executed an F-5 and was about to go for the pin. As if on cue, the rest of nWo appeared from out of nowhere. Nash pulled Lesnar off of Triple H and then began to pound him.

"Never mind," Jeff added, dejectedly. The bottle blonde was about knocked out of his chair as Bradshaw ran by and then red and black streaked by, signaling the Undertaker joining in.

"This is not good," Samia muttered under her breath. RVD wasted no time following in their footsteps, work-out pants, tennis shoes, and all. I can't believe I'm doing this, Samia thought to herself as slipped from the crowd, tugging at her own jeans and muttering about not being dressed for the occasion. The impromptu battle royal was slowing down by the time Samia got there with her Singapore canes but she jumped full force into the middle of the fight. Within moments, there seemed to be no one left. She searched for her next victim and turned to see Shawn holding a chair and staring at her. They circled the ring, sizing each other up. She didn't bother to push her hair out of her eyes as she glared at him. A knife couldn't have cut the tension or the unflinching stares of each. "You know you want to. Get it over with," she said through clenched teeth. "Because if you don't, I will."

"You wouldn't. You still love me. Admit it," he replied, shaking the chair as if to threaten her.

"In your dreams. I only thought I did. So much for that notch in your belt…I'm tired of talking. Do it." She swung at him and he jumped back. He returned the swing half-heartedly to drive her back but then dropped the chair. After that, he slid out of the ring, dragging Triple H with him, and the rest of the nWo followed suit. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by the rest of the men left on the floor. The celebration began with the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar in the middle of it all.

RVD hugged her and then swung her around. "You want your job back?" he asked, setting her back down. The question caught her off guard.

Oblivious to everything else in the ring, she could only reply with a smile, "Let's talk." Rob laughed and picked her back up in a hug.

Backstage, Shawn was on edge as he paced the room. "Tell me why I care? Someone explain to me why any of this matters to me?" The rest of the guys just let him rant as they milled about the room getting ready to leave. "Am I taking crazy pills? Why should any of this bother me? It's like biting the hand that feeds you—I'm the hand! We made her! She got the status that she did because she was on my arm!" He picked up a pillow off the couch and violently threw it across the room. At this, they all stopped to look at him. "You know, it's her loss…" he said, his tone less angry but then his voice grew loud again. "So, tell me again, why do I care?"

"Did you have a dog growing up?" Nash calmly asked. Shawn gave him the look of 'where are you going with this?'

"You know how attached you got to that dog? You fed him every day—"

"Her," HBK interrupted.

"Okay, she slept at your feet every night. She was always there when you got home from school. Then one day, she wasn't there. Yeah, you were bothered for a few days because that little crutch wasn't there anymore, but then something else occupied you and, in the grand scheme of things, you realized it just didn't matter."

Shawn stared off thoughtfully into space for a minute. "Alright, maybe you've got a point." Maybe, he thought as he gathered his things together to leave.

TBC…