Stripped

A/N: I don't own Vince. And, after this chapter, it should be pretty clear that NOBODY owns Olivia. Enjoy!

When she was in high school, Olivia had been the perfect student. Until Brandon started having his problems, she had never even seen the inside of a principal's office. But, if she had been a trouble-maker, she imagined it would have felt much like being called into a meeting with Vince McMahon.

How word of her little confrontation with Stacy had spread all the way to the Chairman, she didn't know. But she was well-aware of the hushed whispers and stares that she received around the company, and she had no doubt that Stacy had, somehow, managed to tell everyone what a bitch Olivia really was.

"Olivia," Vince smiled warmly as he held the door open and allowed her to enter the office. He watched her carefully as she moved into the room and lowered herself gracefully into one of the soft leather vistor's chairs. "Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice."

The young woman smiled and nodded graciously. It wasn't as though she had a choice, and they both knew it. "Mr. McMahon, I know that there have been," she started.

But the older man just shook his head and held up a hand. "Call me Vince, Olivia," he smiled and she returned the gesture, nodding as he leaned against the front of his desk and pulled a folder off the hard wood surface. After perusing it for a moment, he smiled at her. "You have been employed with World Wrestling Entertainment for ninety days."

She nodded. It was, indeed, D-Day. After today, she was free to walk away from the company. She was free to walk away from John. From Trish, Randy, and Adam. She was free to be Brandon's mom again. But if she did that, she had to go back to Pandora's, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that, either.

Without waiting for her to speak, Vince cleared his throat and moved to the other side of the desk, sitting in his enormous leather chair and folding his hands over his stomach. "Olivia, I'm not going to mince words. We are extremely impressed with your work here. You are a beautiful woman, and your charisma is drawing fans to you in droves. Research shows that you are one of the most popular divas we've brought on board for awhile, and the trainers tell me that you're coming along nicely with your in-ring work.

"On the surface, I have no reason to terminate your employment at this time," he stated. Noting the look of hesitation on her face, he smiled and went on. "Now, there are some rumors floating around about a disagreement between yourself and Stacy Keibler."

With a slight nod, Olivia confirmed the rumors. She wasn't about to deny them - she wasn't ashamed of anything she had said to Stacy, and she didn't care who knew she had said them. "We're not best friends," she admitted.

Snapping his fingers, Vince pointed at her. "And that's what is going to take you to the next level in this company, Olivia," he laughed. "We're going to bring your feud with Stacy to the ring. Television audiences love drama that feels real. We pit you two against each other, culminating with a battle at," he looked at the calendar in front of him and then back at the woman before him, "Unforgiven."

There were a million thoughts racing through her mind, and Olivia wasn't sure where to begin. So she went with her instincts. "No," she said, shaking her head.

Vince looked as though she were speaking a foreign language. "No?" She was the only woman he had ever known to tell him "no" twice. Of course, she had taken the first one back. And he was fairly confident he could get her to rescind this decision as well. "Olivia, this is not really up for discussion."

She sat up a little straighter and gave Vince a look that said she was not intimidated by him. "I don't need this job, Vince. I have one waiting for me at home," she stated simply.

"Olivia, you hated that job back when I offered you this one. What did you tell me?" He stopped, as though thinking it over. "That you wanted to cling to whatever shred of dignity you had left? I think we've provided a more than adequately dignified atmosphere for you here."

Fighting the urge to laugh in his face, she crossed her arms. "And I'm sure you'll have Stacy and I duking out our differences in turtlenecks and librarian jumpers."

A small smile curled the end of his lips. He had not begun to lay his cards on the table, and if this woman though she could go toe-to-toe with the man who had put entire promotions out of business? Well, he certainly wasn't going to stop her from trying. "My sources tell me that you gave Stacy quite the tongue-thrashing the other night, Olivia. Are you going to sit there and tell me that you didn't feel some satisfaction in that?"

She couldn't. Not honestly, anyway. But she nodded her head anyway. "I won't deny it – I liked the look on Stacy's face after our little confrontation. And I won't even deny that the idea of kicking her ass in front of millions would be kinda gratifying," she sighed and shook her head. "But decisions made on feelings, Vince, sink empires. Allowing emotions to cloud intelligent business decisions never got anyone ahead."

He watched her with sincere consideration. She wanted to come to the bargaining table with him? Pull up a chair, Ms. Stewart. Let me show you how the adults play the game. "Tell me something, Olivia. Is it a completely emotionally uninvolved decision that you're making to return to the life that not only dragged you down, but also led your son to a life of drugs and delinquency at the age of ten?"

She sucked in a deep breath. "No," she said simply. "I miss my son, Vince. I miss being his mom, and I'm not ashamed to admit that to you. However," she leaned forward and placed her folded hands on his desk, "That is not why I'm refusing to bring my personal life to the ring. It's because you don't have a blind man's vision of how to make it accurate. You could not begin to make an on-screen feud mean what that argument with Stacy meant to me."

His face flitted with confusion as Vince leaned back in his chair. "How do you figure?" His voice said he was humoring her, but his expression held a genuine curiosity.

She sighed and stood, unsure for the first time. This had the ability to blow up in her face, but she didn't care anymore. At the root of it all, she just didn't care. "You brought me here to scintillate, tantalize, and entice your key demographic. Hell, that's what I came here to do. That's what I thought this whole career move was about – just pocketing some cash for doing the one thing I knew how to do.

"But that's not what happened, Vince," she turned and smiled at him. It wasn't a sweet smile, or even one of concession. It was the confident look of a woman who had finally discovered something that had been in front of her face for years. "I met a lot of new people here. But the other night, when I was talking to Stacy, I was re-introduced to the one woman who's been here all along – the real Olivia."

He rolled his eyes and leaned forward again, the expression on his face saying he was going to tell her all of the reasons that her confession was the most asinine thing he had ever heard. "Olivia," he started.

"I'm not done," she said, shaking her head and holding out a finger to hold him back. The pure shock-value of her actions was enough to put him back in his chair. "I've lived the last decade of my life in hiding. I used to hide when I was naked. It was easy. My life was easy, Vince. Sure, my son was fucked up and my love life was horrific, but I knew my strengths, and I played them well.

"And then I realized something. I don't wanna take the easy way out anymore. I don't wanna rely on this face, or these," she put her hands over her breasts and gave them a squeeze. "It's all fleeting. It could all be taken from me tomorrow. I could be in a horrible, disfiguring accident. I could get pregnant again and lose this body for good." A wide smile stretched across her lips, a grin of self-awareness. "And ya know what? I wouldn't shed a tear. Because it wouldn't change who I am one bit.

"I am an intelligent, strong woman with the ability to walk out that door and prove exactly who I am, who I have the potential to be. I thought it was too late for that shit, but I was wrong." She laughed slightly and shook her head. "So you can tell your writers to come up with something different for Stacy, because Olivia Stewart is no longer with the company."

Turning on her heels, she felt an overwhelming sense of pride welling up in her chest. Until Vince spoke. "That was beautiful, Olivia. Really showed a lot of backbone, standing up for yourself like that. Except for one thing."

She turned back toward him, her face blank. The slightest twinge of fear vibrated in her gut. Of course he would see a flaw in her little plan – It wasn't well-crafted by any means. Hell, half the rhetoric she had just spewed had been straight off the top of her head. But she would be damned if she was going to let Vince know that. "What's that?"

"The only prayer you have of walking out that door without a breach of contract lawsuit that will destroy you is by walking right back into the "costume" you spent so long hiding behind," he smirked. "You have to go back to Pandora's."

Olivia shrugged. "Oh, I know," she said, feigning confidence. "You'll have my formal resignation in the morning." With that, she turned and walked out the door, allowing herself to breathe only after it had shut heavily behind her.

She had meant everything she had said to Vince. She didn't want to return to Pandora's, but she had absolutely no interest in staying here. She didn't need to parade around in mini-skirts and push up bras to feel relevant anymore.

Now all she had to do was maintain the same conviction when she said good-bye to John.