Yay... new update... this chapter was a little harder, and I'm not too good with writing action scenes. I tried, though.
Disclaimer-I only own Mel. And Joey, but he hasn't really come into existance yet.
Mel collapsed on her bed back at Dave's place, groaning and rolling onto her stomach. Matt knocked on the door and Mel grunted, letting him know he could come in.
"Umm... We have to leave soon. We have to fly to Denver for Friday's show," he said cautiously, holding up a silver pan for protection. She looked at him, one sleepy eye open, the most annoyed and shocked look she could muster at the time.
"I thought our show was in Madison," she said, opening both her eyes and sitting up.
"Yeah, we thought so too. But apparently we only came here to interfere with RAW, and now we've gotten plane tickets for Denver that leaves in a few hours from Madison, so we have to pack up and drive there," Matt explained, dropping the tray and leaning against the doorway.
"Jesus, they don't tell us anything... How's the car gonna get there? I love that car..." she wanted to know, getting up and throwing her scattered clothes into her bag.
"They're sending it over on a helicopter or something. We're taking a taxi to the airport to catch a private jet that leaves at 3am, so we have to get out of here soon," he told her, before leaving the room. She threw a shoe at the empty space where he had been standing, yelled something about not being able to sleep, grabbed her bag, and headed out to the living room.
"Heyy, kid, how ya holdin' up?" John asked her cheerfully, taking her bag and tossing it with the other ones.
"Y'all have damned unpredictable schedules, that's all I've got to say," she sighed, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms.
"Yeah, well, gotta answer to the call of the man," John replied, grabbing a Coke from the fridge and gulping the can down in 5 seconds.
"Guys, taxi's outside!" Matt called from the hallway. Randy and Dave groaned, grabbing their stuff and going out to the car. Mel started to grab her bag, but Randy took it before she could.
"A true gentleman always takes a lady's bag," he teased, winking and walking out. She smiled, following them out to the car.
A few hours later, the plane was about 10 minutes from Denver and they were showing Red Eye. Not the best movie to show when you were flying, Mel decided, so she buried her face in Randy's shoulder to avoid watching it. He chuckled.
"C'mon, Mel, it's not that scary. All the true freaky parts happen when they've already landed."
"Says you. It's scarier for a girl, to whom this whole thing happens to," she countered, her voice muffled.
"Yeah, yeah..." he said, laughing and wrapping an arm around her. She looked up at him, her hair all splattered across her face, making him smile.
"You're so damned cute..." he said quietly, brushing her hair out of her eyes. He started to lean towards her when the intercom interrupted.
"Please excuse me passengers... Please put your seatbelts on and your armrests down and return your seats to their upright positions... We are now landing in Denver..." the captain's voice crackled, causing Randy and Mel to curse and pull apart. She squeezed his hand; Mel hated flying, and got especially freaked out when planes were taking off or landing.
"Uhh... Mel? You're cutting off the circulation to my hand..." he told her, shaking his hand to get her to loosen her grip.
"Oh. My bad..." she said sheepishly, lightening her hold and squeezing her eyes shut. The plane gently glided onto the ground, and Randy, Dave, Rey, Matt, John, and Mel got off, Mel walking like she was a zombie.
"Mel? Mel, it's over..." Rey said gently, shaking her shoulder. He had met them at the airport in Denver with the limo to pick them up, so they didn't have to crowd into a cab again.
"Don't like planes... Hate 'em..." she said distractedly, staring straight ahead.
"Uhh... John, bro, is she always like this after flying?" Rey, asked, worried. John laughed.
"Yeah. She'll get over it once we're far enough away from the plane. And once it's not 5 am," John said, putting his arm around Mel's shoulder. "Mel, it's okay, we're off the plane now..."
"What? Oh... I knew that..." she muttered, shoving her hands in her pockets. They walked in silence for a little while, before Mel suddenly piped up, "Are you guys going to be cheap bastards and only get one hotel room again?"
"Probably... Why? Is that a problem?" Matt wanted to know, hailing a taxi to take them to the hotel.
"Nope. Just wondering. I'm not sleeping on the floor, though... I have to look my best to take on Melina," she told them, shoving her bag in the back and climbing in.
"You have a match against her?" Randy asked, raising his eyebrow. "This is new."
"Yeah, Vince told me before we left for Madison," she offered once they got in, while Dave told the driver where to go. "Apparently she has some problem with me-" Randy glanced at her, and she smiled, "-and requested a match against me. Not that I have any problem with it."
"Nice. Mop the floor with that bitch," Dave told her, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry. I will," she said brightly, grinning.
A few days later, it was Friday, and Smackdown was halfway through. Mel was kicking it in the guys' locker room, as usual, wearing a bright orange shirt, faded jeans, and her favorite black DCs. Her match started soon, so she was doing crunches to get ready.
"Y'all can come out with me if you want. I know that Johnny and Joey are gonna be there, but they'll be less likely to interfere if I have y'all backin' me up..." she said, pausing to catch her breath. The guys had breached the subject earlier on the plane, and Mel told them to let her think about it.
"'Kay, cool. I wouldn't put it past those two to throw a ringbell at you or something," Matt said. "If only Jeff was here."
"Is he ever gonna come back?" Dave wanted to know, stretching onto a leather couch in the corner.
Matt shrugged. "Dunno. It depends on whether or not Vince lets him come back... He was an idiot for getting hooked on drugs, but I didn't think Vince would come down on him so hard."
"I swear, that man goes through male PMS 50 weeks of the year," John laughed, pulling on his custom football jersey that was piling up the merchandising profits, and of which Mel had a matching black and camo one.
"Isn't your match right before mine against The Undertaker?" Randy said, wrinkling his nose in an effort to remember.
Mel nodded. "Yeah. I think so. What is it with you and him, anyway?"
"Well, there is the whole thing where I tried to kill him a few times... And there were those times he tried to kill me and my father..." he teased, crossing his arms and looking up to make it look like he was having trouble recalling.
"Oh. Right," Mel giggled.
Twenty minutes later, Mel was walking out towards the ring, with John, Randy, Matt, and Dave in tow. She had changed out of jeans into baggy cargo pants, because they were easier to move in, and was skipping and dancing as they walked down the hallway.
John chuckled. "You seem to be in a good mood."
"I can't wait to kick some ass," she sang, jumping around and boxing with the air.
"It's your first real match. You better win. We have a little ceremony for rookies that win their first matches," he teased, taking care to keep out of the way of her punches.
"First real match? I've been wrestling with you since I was 9 years old. And I've kicked your ass a fair few times," she taunted, hopping backwards and doing a cartwheel.
"A fair few times? Three doesn't count as a fair few times, and I went easy on you," he countered.
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You'd never go easy on me. I always told you I'd kick your ass if you did."
"Alright, you two, enough bickering, we're about to go out," Dave said wearily, jerking his head towards the ramp visible through the curtains.
"Yes, father..." Mel and John muttered at the same time, before they burst out laughing. Mel's song, specially written for her by Slipknot, started booming through the speakers, and she skipped out, doing her little springy dance followed by the guys. She was a lot more energetic than the last time she had come to the Smackdown ring, on her first night last week. She jumped into the ring and brushed her hair out of her eyes, prancing around the ring and doing little flips. When her music started to fade, she leaned against the turnbuckle and crossed her arms, watching the ramp. The MNM song started playing, and Melina walked out with a mic, followed by her two lapdogs, Joey and Johnny.
"Look, Melody," she started to say after Joey had motioned for her music to stop. "I don't know what problem you have with me-"
Mel took the offered microphone from Matt and started laughing. "You don't know what problem I have with you. Hmm... Where to start... Where to start. Well, let's start with the fact that you screwed around with my friends, which is never good for your health."
"I didn't do anything!" Melina protested, slowly walking down to the ring. "I'm just giving your little friend The Animal what he deserves."
"You're such a liar and you know it... I'm sure your little slaveboys would agree. Oh, and by the way? You may have the body of a Barbie Doll, but that's not gonna get you by. Most guys also want a pretty face," Mel said, smirking and tossing the mic out of the ring. Melina's eyes widened, and she tossed her mic to Johnny before diving into the ring. This didn't fare well for her, as her rediculously short skirt flared up, giving the general male population what they wanted to see. Mel rolled her eyes and looked down into Melina's face, waiting patiently. As soon as Melina got up, Mel ran at her, twisting her left arm around Melina's neck, swinging around, and slamming Melina face down onto the mat, jumping out of her sitting position almost immediately. She did a moonsault on Melina, following it by picking Melina up and doing a DDT. She stood up and brushed her shoulders off, which John had taught her years before and while she thought it was dorky, she also liked it. While Mel was doing her ghetto little dance, Melina stood up and tackled her from behind, sending them both next to the ropes. Melina flipped Mel over and slapping her around. Mel curled up her legs to her chest and kicked Melina off, sending her flying across the ring. Right when Mel was about to charge across the ring, Joey grabbed Mel's ankle and pulled her back down, and Mel glared behind her to see what the hell was going on. Her mouth dropped open when she saw Johnny carrying a barbie, the sharp barbed wire gleaming on the end of a 2x4. Almost at once, though, Randy, John, Dave, and Matt were surrounding Joey and Johnny, their eyes glazed over with evil. Dave grabbed the barbie from Johnny and snapped it in half effortlessly, and Mel took her opportunity to scamper away, leaving the guys to deal with Joey and Johnny. Melina was up now, but she wasn't fast enough to counter Mel's signature move, which was a complex series of acrobatics and slams she had come up with when she was 17 and called The Final Song. It ended in a pin, and Mel snatched up the victory. Melina crawled out of the ring and ran off with Joey and Johnny, leaving Mel to do her little hyper flippy thing around the ring, finally jumping out of it and getting caught up in a group hug with the guys, causing her to grin widely.
Mel and the guys were partying back at their hotel room, as hard as 6 people could. Mel was flipping around and landed on her back on the floor, and John brought in a cake and brought it down on her face in the form of a 5-knuckle shuffle.
Randy offered her a hand up and she brushed her face off in the trash, laughing. "You did great out there tonight, kid," Matt called from the other room, jumping back and forth between the two beds in the room.
Mel walked out, rubbing her face with a towel. "Why does everybody call me kid?" she sniffed.
"Don't feel bad. They did that to me all the time. And you're only what... a year younger than me? We're together in this," Randy laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Mel stuck her tongue out at the rest of them.
"They're just jeolous 'cause they're OLD."
"Hey! Who you callin' old?" John growled, picking her up and slamming her onto the bed.
"Randy! Protect your youthful compadre!" Mel yelped from the bed, rolling into thte wall in an effort to get away from Matt, John, and Dave.
"Nah. I've got something I'd rather do," he told her, walking to her and helping her up again. "In front of your brother, Matt and Dave as my witness."
"Boy, if you fuck with her..." John warned, taking a step forward.
"No. That's not what I'm going to do. Melody, will you go out to dinner with me tomorrow?" Randy asked, looking straight into Mel's eyes. Mel's heart jumped in her chest, and she looked down shyly.
"Well... Umm..." she started to say, before looking up at John, the unspoken question in her eyes. He looked back at her fiercely, before softening his gaze and nodding. "I'd love to," she said, smiling at Randy.
His eyes lit up, and he hugged her. "Great! I know just the place."
She laughed, and squeezed him. "Okay. But I want it to be a surprise. For now, I want to sleep." She kissed Randy on the cheek, hugged John, and crawled into bed, falling asleep almost instantaneously. They all just started, thunderstruck.
"Since when has she fallen asleep right away? Usually she stays up half the night thrashing and shifting positions," Dave said, blinking.
Matt shrugged, rolling out a sleeping bag. "She was probably tired. She probably hasn't ever been under this kind of strain. It's not the same as wrestling in the living room and panicking when you break a lamp," he added, looking pointedly at John.
John threw his hands up in innocence. "Hey, we managed to fix the lamps most of the time. And Mom never freaked out on us."
Dave laughed, getting into his own sleeping bag. "Yeah, sure. Moms always freak out on that kind of stuff. Trust me. My kids do it all the time."
They were both out within a minute, leaving Randy and John standing around the room. John cleared his throat, causing Randy to look up at him awkwardly.
"Look, Randy. You're one of my best friends, but Melody's my baby sister. I know how you get with girls. I'm not going to start off judging you, and I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you ever break her heart, and you'll be in for a world of pain."
Randy nodded, stepping forward. "I know, man, and I appreciate that. But she's... different than all the other girls I've gone after. Stacey was just this cute girl that was willing as hell. It's like, she's not just interested in me because I'm rich, famous, and hot."
John chuckled. "And apparently, about as modest as JBL. But you should know, the last boyfriend she had who broke her heart ended up with a fractured knee and two broken bones in his left arm. Joey Levesque... Little prick."
"Wait... Levesque as in Paul Levesque, as in Triple H?" Randy said slowly, raising both of his eyebrows.
"Yup. Nephew, or cousin, or something. They met when she was 22, and he broke up with her 6 months later. Didn't even give a reason why. Haven't seen him since I went after him, though. Probably ran back to Canada," he said, glancing over at Mel. "She hasn't mentioned him since. After the initial sadness, she realized how much she had always secretly hated him and didn't seem to care too much. Didn't stop me from kicking his ass, though."
"Wow. Don't worry. I never had any intentions to break her heart, and I'll try my hardest to make her happy," Randy said, looking at Mel's peaceful figure, and crossing his arms.
John laughed again. "You make it sound like you're marrying the girl. Nothing's serious yet, and I don't see if there's all that much you can do if to send her back here in a storm of tears from taking her to dinner. But if you plan to take this thing farther, you better make sure you're damned serious about it."
Randy nodded. "Will do, sir. Am now reporting to bed, sir," he saluted, in a tribute to John's movie that was set for release in a few months. John fake-swung at him, before jumping into his sleeping bag and leaving Randy the other bed.
This isn't the last we'll see of Melina... It might be for a while, though, unless I can think of a way to work her in soon. Joey's going to make an appearence soon, though, in the next chapter or the one after. And I'm going to put 'Taker in soon, as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
-Rose