Happy Valentine's Day! There's nothing in this chapter that really relates to V. Day, but... Eh.
I mention No Way Out later because, as I'm pretty sure I mentioned in an earlier chapter (I have a really bad memory...), I'm trying to more or less keep the dates of this story with the dates in reality.
I know my next story is gonna be a high school one... Yes, it's been done like crazy, but it's all so cute, and I can't resist. It's started forming in my mind, but I'm not going to start it until after I've finished this one, otherwise I'll get all distracted and stuff... But yeah, something to look forward to.
Disclaimer (since I haven't done one for a while): Don't own any of the people in this story, except for Mel and Joey (not Joey Mercury). I also don't have anything to do with the song Holidae Inn, except liking it. That belongs to Chingy, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and whoever else the song's licensed under.
Mel stretched out on the same WWE private jet that had brought them to Miami, with the same people who had been on it then. Her, John, Randy, Matt, and Chris were playing Life, and it was turning violent.
"Why the hell can't I have two cars? I'm rich, dammit!" John snapped, annoyed.
"Because there's only 6 cars and there's 5 people!" Matt retorted, glaring at John.
Mel sighed. "Just let him have the car, Matt..." She knew how John could get.
"No!"
Mel knew what it was about; Matt didn't want to let John get the victory over him, no matter how small the battle. 'Male egos... You can probably blame everything bad in the world on them,' she thought, exasperated. Mel's head was on Randy's stomach, and she was lying across the rest of the couch, her leg on top of a cushion. Matt and John were sitting on opposite sides of the table they were playing on, and Chris was sprawled out across from Randy and Mel, zoning out until his turn. Randy let his eyes fall shut, stroking Mel's hair absentmindedly. She had had the guys stop at a salon so that she could change the black to a bright red, figuring, that when it grew out, red ends and brown hair would look less weird than black ends and brown hair. 'If there's one thing I've got to get back at Joey and 'Taker for, it's fucking up my hair.' She wasn't totally against the short hair, though, kinda liking the way it was choppy and messy. She much preferred her long hair though, because it was more fun to mess with. 'Bastards.' Along with her hair, they'd also indirectly caused her knee injury, which kept her from kicking ass for a few weeks. Mel snapped out of her reverie, turning her attention back towards the game. Matt and John were within seconds of pounding each other, which probably wasn't the best airplane activity.
"Hey! Knock it off, you two! John, why the hell do you need two cars anyway?" she barked at them, and they both stopped yelling and looked at her.
"I... I just had twins, and I need another car so that they don't have to walk along beside us..." John said quietly.
Mel blinked, and sighed heavily. "It's just a game, John..."
"Right... Okay... No twin daughters for me... Go ahead, Chris..." John said, dropping back into his chair, looking sad. Matt looked smug, and Mel smacked both of them in the back of the head.
"Like I said, you two, it's just a game. John, stop pouting. Matt, stop looking so damn pleased with yourself. All that happened was John didn't get a little plastic car."
"It's the principle of the thing!" they both said indignantly. They looked at each other, and then collapsed into laughter. Mel sighed again.
"I'll never understand boys," she murmured to Randy, who opened his eyes and pulled her into a hug.
"Don't worry, babe. We'll never understand you all either."
The rest of the game went on strangely unchaotic, resulting in Chris retiring with 17 million dollars and a mansion in Malibu.
"I don't remember that in the game..." Matt said thoughtfully.
Chris smiled. "That is because I am the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, and I'm cool like that."
Mel raised her eyebrow. "Riight... What's on the match card this week? Anything interesting?"
Matt pulled out his laptop and leaned back in his chair, typing and clicking for a minute. "Umm... Chris, you've got a match against Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship (A/N: Yep, I'm making my own rules for the titles. So, Rey Mysterio's the Cruiserweight Champion, MNM have the Tag Team Titles (I'll fix that later...), Bobby Lashley is, obviously, the US Champion, and Batista is the World Heavyweight Champion, which I'll say he won back from Kurt a while ago, which then caused Kurt to move back to RAW.), I've got a match with a surprise partner against Brian Kendrick and Paul London for a shot at the Tag Titles-"
"I wonder who your partner could be..." Mel said thoughtfully.
Matt shrugged. "Aaaand Mel, you've got a mixed tag match with Randy against Joey Mercury and Melina," Matt finished, pushing himself as far into the chair as he could, because he knew Mel was going to be pissed.
Mel's eye twitched. "I know that they probably don't know about my busted up knee, but... why them?"
Matt shrugged. "Don't know. Ask T'Lo 'bout it later."
Mel grabbed the phone that was on the floor and dialed Teddy's number, looking pissed off. "Teddyy, hate to burst your bubble, but I can't do the match. You see, I've broken my knee," she said, sugarcoating her voice. "Uh-huh... Well, that's not my problem... Fuck you, Theadore." She slammed the phone back on the hook.
"That was fast," John commented, and Mel shot him a look of venom.
"The bastard's making us do the match anyway! Because otherwise he wouldn't be able to fill up the match card. Like I give a fuck," she said, sighing. "I'm gonna need more Vicodin..."
Randy kissed her. "Don't worry, babe, you can take that whore with two busted up knees and a concussion. And I'll try to keep Mercury in so you won't have to do much. That bastard Teddy... Can't believe he could do this..."
"Yeah, and we'll be at ringside with you... To keep you safe," John promised. Mel smiled slightly. Her smile quickly faded when she saw MNM approaching.
"Bitch on the horizon..." she muttered.
"Melodyyy! I'm so sorry to see that you have an injury!" Melina said with fake concern, throwing her arms around Mel's shoulders. Mel pushed her away.
"Step back, Melina. It's not group hug time, and I know just as well as you do that you can't stand me. So either spill why you came over here, or just go," Mel said cooly.
Melina looked at her for a second, trying to decide if the truth was worth it. "It's just that I don't want to have a match with you while you're... unable to properly fight."
Mel gave a bitter laugh. "How noble of you. Unfortunately, I'm still going to fight, and I'm still going to kick your ass. And what's more, adding your little slave boy into the mix isn't going to change a thing. Randy's going to slaughter him, so take that and suck it like you sucked Joey." Mel high fived Chris, Matt, John, and Randy, while Melina stood there, looking like she'd been slapped. Joey stepped forward, but Melina put a hand up to stop him. Her anger turned into a smile.
"Let's not say things we might regret and settle this in the ring, hmm?" Melina said, before turning on her heel and walking away, Joey following her like a trained dog.
"Who's regretting things?" Mel called after her. "I wonder why she really came over here..."
"Probably to see how badly you were hurt," Chris said, nodding at her knee.
Mel shrugged. "It's not gonna stop me..."
"That's my girl," Randy said, kissing her.
"Attention passengers... We will be landing shortly in Tuscon... Please fasten your seatbelts and put your seats in the upright position..." the captain's voice sounded throughout the plane through the speakers. Mel groaned and sat up, flipping so she was sitting up straight and clicking in her seatbelt. She was totally chill during the landing this time, letting her head rest peacefully on Randy's shoulder. John looked over in amazement, before returning to his conversation with Matt and Chris. Randy snaked his arm around Mel's shoulders and squeezed her, and she smiled softly without opening her eyes.
Around midnight, they were in yet another hotel, the Holiday Inn.
"As much as you get used to them, I'm starting to hate hotel rooms," Chris grumbled, who Mel had become close with and had now joined their little posse.
"At least this one has enough beds for all of us," John sighed, dropping his suitcase down onto the floor.
Mel flung her suitcase across the room and hobbled over to one of the beds, collapsing onto it and rolling around. "They're all king sized! Why the hell don't we stay at the Holiday Inn all the time? It even has a hot tub on the deck! What you doin'? Nuttin', chillin' at the Holidae Innnnn... Who you with? Me and my peeps won't you bring fo' of your frieeends?..."
Randy slid onto the bed beside her. "I kinda liked sharing a bed with you," he whispered, giving her a sexy little smile. She laughed and pushed him away.
"Perv..." Mel grabbed clean clothes out of her suitcase, a tight black tanktop and black shorts, and headed towards the bathroom. "I haven't showered in over 24 hours. I need shower. Now." She disappeared into the bathroom, leaving the guys alone.
"When's Dave gonna come back?" Matt wanted to know, grabbing the remote and flipping through the channels.
"He's gonna meet us in the next city, which we'll find out by Saturday," John told him, watching the channels change like lightning.
"Dude, how do you see what's on like that?" Chris asked in amazement.
"Skills," Matt replied. Randy lounged on the floor in front of the tv, before he couldn't take it anymore.
"Matt, decide on something, or I'll lock you out on the balcony all night," Randy said, smiling wickedly at Matt. Matt muttered something and flipped to South Park, settling down on the bed and zoning out on the tv.
Mel limped out of the shower a while later, drying her hair with a towel. She threw the towel back into the bathroom and stopped when she saw the guys. They were completely sucked into South Park, and were staring at the tv like zombies. She sighed, and gave a shrill whistle.
"Yo! Snap out of it!" she said, turning off the tv. They all flinched, and John glared at her.
"Hey! We were watching that!"
"You did it to me," she said mildly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've had a very long couple of days, and I'd like to sleep." She crawled into one of the beds beside her, and immediately fell asleep, clutching her pillow. The guys stayed awake to talk out on the deck.
Randy sighed. "I'm worried about our match on Friday. I know it's just a sprain, but she has trouble walking, so..."
"Don't worry about her. Her leg is pretty messed up, but she's fought like that before, with a badly twisted ankle. She took martial arts as a kid, and knows how to step lightly and jump around with one leg. It could be a lot worse. If it was broken, well, that'd be a different story, but I think she'll be okay," John told him, tearing off his shirt and jumping into the jacuzzi.
"What's with the twisted ankle story?" Matt asked, interested.
John laughed. "She got into a lot of fights as a kid. All through high school, she always got into fights with the snobby, popular girls because... Well, they always clashed. So one day she's walking down the hall with her friends, and isn't paying attention to where she goes, and bumps into one of those girls, causing the heel of her shoe to break. I think her name was Brittany."
"Who wears heels to school, anyway?" Chris interrupted.
John shrugged. "Beats me. Anyway, the girl starts screaming at her, in the middle of the hallway, and Mel DDT's the bitch in the middle of the hall. Brit gets all pissy and diva-like, mostly because Mel messed up her hair, and tells Mel she wants to fight her in a parking lot at 6 pm that day. Mel comes home and tells me all this, and also that she twisted her ankle playing basketball in gym that day. So I wrap up her ankle and go with her to the fight, to cheer her on and give her a ride and stuff, since I'm the most awesome big brother in the world. We're waiting there, and then Brittany shows up, climbing out of some expensive car like she's a model, and she's followed by her quarterback boyfriend. A bunch of her friends are already there, giving Mel the group glare, and Mel's got some of her friends backing her up, so they make a little circle in the middle of the lot. It's totally empty and there's nobody around, because we don't get fights in the middle of the street a lot in West Newberry. Mel limps over, and Brittany starts laughing at her because she's got a messed up knee. Then Brittany slaps her, and that really gets Mel pissed off. So Mel tackles the bitch, gets up, and starts kicking ass and taking names, and Brittany has no chance at all. So in about five minutes, she's on the ground all bloody and messed up, and Mel's limping back towards my car, screaming 'SUCK ON THAT, BITCH!' and smirking. Her ankle got even more fucked up after that, but I don't think she cared. I don't know why anybody ever picked a fight with her after that, but well... She never lost, so it wasn't a problem."
Randy blinked. "Jesus. You taught her well, didn't you?"
John smirked, looking proud of himself. "Anyway, it's almost 2 in the morning. We should get to sleep."
They went back inside and went to bed. Randy slid in quietly next to Mel, and still asleep, she wrapped her arms around him. He smiled and hugged her, falling asleep next to her.
By Friday, Mel's knee wasn't any better. She limped over to her suitcase, wincing in pain when she put the least bit of weight on her leg. 'They sure it's just a sprain? My knee hurts like a motherfucker...' She grabbed clothes for the day, tight jeans that were going to be painful as hell to put on and a black and green DX tanktop she had bought at a WWF show as a teenager. Mel went into the shower, and managed to avoid waking the others up until about 3 pm, since she fallen back to her patterns of waking up late.
"What's with the sleeping in?" John wanted to know.
"Dunno. I didn't feel like waking up early," Mel said simply, turning on MTV and mouthing the words to a Green Day song. She grabbed neon green nailpolish and started painting her toenails, making a face when she had to bend her hurt knee. John walked over and slung an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her.
"You're hangin' in there tough, kid. I'm proud of you. I taught you well," he teased, tousling her hair before going back to his own bed and zoning into the tv. Mel threw her hairbrush at him, stuck her tongue out, and went back to painting her toenails. Chris and Matt did the same, zoning on the floor instead of their beds, which were too far from the tv. Randy came up behind Mel and wrapped his arms around her stomach, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"We seriously have a problem with zoning on the tv," he mumured in her ear, smiling. She turned her head and kissed him, and wiped a streak of neon green across his forehead.
"Yeah, well, it's Ludacris."
"Nice... How's your knee, babe?" He rubbed a hand across his forehead, which only spread the nailpolish out, causing Mel to laugh.
"Feels like it's on fire. But I've been worse. Here, this works better." She wet her finger and rubbed it across the green smear, then grabbed a tissue and cleaned it off.
"You sure you can do the match?" Randy asked, a note of concern in his voice.
Mel kissed him again. "I'll be fine, sweetie. I heard John tell you the story of my twisted ankle fight; it was a lot harder than this."
"I thought you were asleep."
"I was, but y'all woke me up. Dumb boys don't know how to be quiet..." she said, laughing softly and closing up the nailpolish bottle.
Randy gave her a funny smile. "We may not know how to be quiet, but we're great at other things..." He pulled her on top of him and started trailing kisses over her face, finally putting one on her lips.
She smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Like being total sweethearts?"
"Yo! Guys! Still in the room, here," John called. Mel threw a pillow at him.
"What time do we have to leave?" she asked.
"About six, maybe," Matt told her, stretching and yawning.
"Okay, I'm gonna take a nap then," Mel said, curling up against Randy and falling fast asleep. He wrapped his arms around her and zoned into the tv, joining Zombieland with the John, Matt, and Chris.
By 7, they were all at the Tuscon Arena, in the catering room. The reporters had swampedthem upon their arrival, asking about 'Taker's abduction of Mel and such, but she tiredly toldthem that shewouldn't comment, and the others told them the same beforethe security guardscleared out the reporters andmade a wayinside.Matt, Chris, John, Randy, and Mel were talking to Rey, Booker, and Sharmell, while they were all snacking on a little bit of everything. Mel excused herself to go to the bathroom, and while she was limping down the hall, Melina walked in front of her.
Mel rolled her eyes. "What can I do for you, Your Royal Whoreness?"
Melina frowned. "I just wanted to wish you the best of luck in the match tonight. Losing is always so hard, but I'm not going to rub it in your face."
"Uh-huh. Is that why you're holding a baseball bat behind your back?" Mel asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, this little thing... How'd you know?" Melina demanded.
"Your anorexia-built legs hide nothing," Mel said in a bored tone, nodding towards her legs, which were rediculously skinny.
Melina glared. "I guess my surprise attack is wasted on you then. No matter. I can still overpower you with a weapon." Melina swung the bat at Mel, but Mel nimbly caught it and swung it towards the wall, causing Melina to crash into the wall. Mel pulled the bat out of her hands and held it over Melina, causing her to cower in fear. Mel put the bat over her shoulder, laughing darkly.
"Some surprise attack. Lemme tell ya somethin', you're not supposed to make small talk firsthand. Where'd you grow up, one of those creepy perfect towns where nothing ever happens? Whatever, just don't try to mess with me anymore." Mel bent down next to Melina, grabbing Melina's hair and raising her head up so they were face to face. "Bite me, bitch." Then Mel continued on her way, whistling like nothing had happened.
Melina whimpered, running into catering and crying to Joey and Johnny. Chris overheard them when he was grabbing more pizza, and told the others what had happened. John started laughing. "She really did learn from me." Mel returned a few minutes later, and she knew immediately from their expressions that they already knew.
"The princess run crying to her two loyal footmen?" she remarked, smirking.
"As usual," Chris replied. The whole table glanced at the corner where Melina and her two whipped boys were no doubt concocting some scheme.
Randy sighed. "Unfortunately for them, all three of them combined still won't come up with a scheme that could match one that any one of us could come up with in a coma." This got snickers out of them all, and Randy smirked.
"One can only imagine what she's giving them to keep them as her little bitches like that..." Matt said, lazily opening a water bottle.
"However she's doing it, I don't know why it's working. She's gotta be pulling some pretty impressive tricks out of her micro-mini..." Mel yawned, grabbing Matt's water bottle and gulping half of it down. He gave her an evil look, but Melina had overheard Mel's comment, and stomped over, Johnny and Joey in tow.
"Whatever you're trying to say about me..." Melina hissed, before Mel interrupted her.
"Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb scared to leave you alone for five seconds? Maybe they think you'll stop doing them their little favors."
"They help me out because they respect me. And because I have great hair... What's with the punk-rock hair, freakshow?"
"What can I say, I figured it was time for a change. You might want to get your little lap-dogs to cut their hair, though. For some people, such as Chris and Matt, long hair works. For others, it just makes them look like wannabe Jeff Hardy's. And nothing beats the original."
"You're damn right about that," someone's voice said from behind them. They all turned simultaneously, to see none other than Jeff Hardy approaching them.
Matt stood up immediately, a big grin lighting up his face. "Bro!" They hugged each other, and Jeff joined them at the table. Jeff high-fived Chris, and nodded at Melina.
"Who's the clown chick with the magic-marker makeup?"
Melina let off some sort of weird screeching noise before stalking off, Joey and Johnny running after her after glaring at Jeff. Mel gaped at him in awe. "Dude, you are officially my new hero."
"Always happy to meet a fan. Who are you, anyway?" Jeff smiled warmly at her.
"I'm J.C.'s little sister, who I think you've met. I'm also this boy's girlfriend-" she poked Randy on the cheek, "-and friends with the rest of these kids."
"Who're you calling a kid?" they all said in unison, glaring at her. Jeff laughed.
"How I've missed the WWE..."
"How'd ya get 'em to let you come back, anyway?" Matt asked him.
Jeff shrugged. "Not sure. Vinnie just called me up, apologizing, saying he made a mistake, blah blah blah. I doubt he was being sincere. It's not like him to do so. Maybe there was a threat in the viewing because of the loss of my talented self from the business? Whatever. Anyway, he offers me a contract, and I say what the hell, why not. So, here I am, back in this luxurious enterprise, ready to kick ass and take names."
Matt high-fived him. "I'm assuming you're my partner for the match to determine the number one contenders for the tag titles?"
"Yeah. Vinnie said something about a Hardy Boyz reunion, which, of course, sparked my interest immediately."
They continued chatting, and Matt explained to Jeff everything that had happened since he had left. By the time Jeff understood everything, Chris had already had his match against Bobby Lashley. John, Randy, and Mel had accompanied him, and Chris had picked up the win, making himself the new United States Champion. "I am the King of the World!" he shouted when he returned in the room. "C'mon, you guys, Randy and Mel's match is about to start." Matt and Jeff went with Chris back to ringside, where Mel was holding herself up by holding onto the ropes. There was a trace of pain in her eyes, but it was mostly determination and anger. Melina and Joey came out, Johnny following them like a puppy. The girls started off the match, and Mel jumped off her good foot and tackled Melina. Mel was moving so fast that Melina didn't even see it coming, and she cried out when she was tackled. Mel hopped up and jumped up on the top rope, not using her injured leg at all. She flipped around in one fluid motion and used her good leg to propel herself from the turnbuckle onto Melina, Mel's head colliding with Melina's stomach. Melina cried out again, and Mel slapped her. The sound echoed around them, and that was just the beginning. After a few minutes of relentless bashing administered by Mel, who managed to avoid straining her hurt knee, Melina scrambled over to Joey and tagged herself out. Joey climbed into the ring, and Mel eyed him warily. He ran at her and she turned on her heel, launching herself at Randy and making the tag. Mel slid out of the ring and Randy climbed in, kicking Joey in the gut and giving him a backbreaker. Randy threw Joey into the turnbuckle and dropkicked him, making Joey groan. Mel sat perched on the middle rope, watching the match with a smile on her face. Joey ran and tagged in Melina after getting his ass kicked worse than she had, and Randy lightly tagged in Mel, who kissed him on the cheek before climbing on the top rope and flying across the ring, colliding with Melina. Mel quickly picked Melina up and Irish Whipped her into the ropes, bending to the side, putting her hands on the ground, and raising her bad leg in time to hit Melina in the chin.
"Wow, she's amazing... It's like her knee isn't bothering her a bit," Chris mumured.
John chuckled. "She's taken every martial arts class offered. She started when she was five and took three a week, and she had seven different blackbelts by the time she was 17. Her knee's bothering her, though... It's hurting her a lot. Look at her eyes."
Chris squinted, and saw tears in Mel's eyes. With her look of anger, one would normally write them off as tears of frustration, but him, John, Randy, Matt, and now Jeff knew better. "Is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine. She put a splint on her leg before the match; I saw her. So it won't bend, and that'll save her some of the pain at least. Anyway, this is less painful than the fight I told you about. She had to use her ankle a lot more than her knee."
Mel let Melina tag Joey in, and she tagged Randy in. Randy dropkicked Joey, then elbow dropped him. Randy picked Joey up and powerbombed him, then RKO'd him and pinned him. Melina tried to interfere, but Mel was there at the speed of light, holding her back. The ref made the three count and the bell rang, and Mel and Randy hugged each other. They kissed, and the crowd cheered. Matt and Jeff had their match next, and they easily beat Brian Kendrick and Paul London. John, Matt, Jeff, Chris, Randy, and Mel met in the parking lot and got into a limo, driving back to the hotel.
"It's kind of unfair that they put us against cruiserweights," Jeff remarked, popping open a Diet Coke. "I mean, I'm not saying they suck, but we do have a lot of weight on them."
"Teddy makes the calls..." Matt said, shrugging.
"That bastard..." Mel muttered.
"Did you hurt your knee during the match?" Randy asked her, concerned.
She smiled, and shook her head. "Nah. The brace helped. I'm fine. Well... As fine as I was before the match, anyway."
Randy kissed her on the top of the head, and pulled her into his arms. She drifted off, and Randy carried her up to bed when they reached the hotel. He curled up in bed next to her, and they all fell asleep with the quiet chatter of Beavis and Butthead in the backround.
Eurgh, this chapter drove me nuts. I would've written the match between Matt and Jeff and Brian and Paul, but after the one match, and me being abandoned by my muse, well... It was just kinda hard. Speaking of Jeff, I just hadto bring him back, because Jeff Hardy kicks ass. And I know the match with Randy/Mel and Joey/Melina seemed a bit one-sided, but, well... They just don't seem to present that much of a challenge. 'Taker and Joey (wow, I did not mean for that to happen. I'll try not to mention kidnapper Joey around the same time I'm mentioning Melina or Joey Mercury when I'm mentioning 'Taker, so as not to confuse people... Sorry 'bout that...) didn't appear in this chapter, because they're rethinking their plans. 'Taker randomly disappears a lot anyway, so it more or less works. Hopefully I'll get an idea for the future of the story soon, but in the meantime, I'll try to press on, praying that this writer's block diffuses soon. Au revoir, mi amis.
-Rose