TITLE: Changing Her Tune Prologue

AUTHOR: Juliet3:16

EMAIL: R

CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE

CATEGORY: ADULT, DRAMA, ANGST

SPOILERS: Through Matt turning on Lita in the tag match against Bischoff and Molly and getting her fired the RAW after Survivor Series 2003 with one crucial difference: Lita was thrown out of the building before Christian could get Lita her job back.

SUMMARY: A drunken mistake, could afford Lita her greatest opportunity for revenge on Matt Hardy.

DISCLAIMER: Vince McMahon owns most of the people in this story.

DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB. Anybody else, please ask.

Changing her Tune

Chapter Two

'A Business Proposition'

Lita wondered if she could get away with simply not answering her door.

Maybe then Flair and Triple H would just leave.

As the redhead pressed her back against the door, she wondered what the masterminds of Evolution could possibly want with her. She was no longer employed by the WWE; and if they wanted something sexual, well she wasn't that type of girl, no matter what she and Hunter had possibly done in their night together. If Hunter wanted to blackmail her, well he could just go ahead and yap to his heart's (What little he had of it in the first place) content. She still had some pride left that would not allow her to be coerced by one drunken secret. She would not be party to it, no matter the consequences.

Lita peeked out to see Flair and Triple H still on her doorstep. Maybe in a few minutes -

"Lita! We know you're in there!" Triple H's voice bellowed from the other side of the door.

Lita closed her eyes tightly. She briefly considered calling the police, but tossed that idea away. Flair was a home state hero, and unlike Matt Hardy, they had not done anything to harass or threaten her and unless they did something between the time she called and the police arriving, standing on one's doorstep really was not a crime by itself. In addition she did not want to upset her neighbors by having Flair and Triple H bellowing all night.

'Well, at least they haven't beaten the door down, yet,' Lita thought, finally unlatching and opening her door.

"Come to gloat or to blackmail?" Lita shot out as soon as the door was opened.

Hunter smirked.

"Cute," he said. "Actually me and Ric have a business proposition for ya. Would you at least allow us in to hear us out?"

Lita paused to consider. It was so tempting to tell them no and try to force them off her property. There was the fact that she was alone however, and there was no way for Lita to know if the two men would try to force their way into her house violently if she refused. Best to let them in and decide where she could go from there.

"Fine," she said, gesturing the two men to her livingroom. As they sat down Lita offered: "Would you like anything to drink? Water, tea, arsenic?"

Hunter seemed to find that funny.

"Told ya, she had a wit to her," he said to Ric. "Lot more sharper and subtle than my ex - wife that's for sure."

It suddenly occurred to Lita that in all her time with the company, she had more contact with Triple H than most anybody else, with the exception of the Hardy brothers. When Ric showed up as co - owner, she was already embroiled in the drama and tension with the brothers Hardy and Matt's humiliating first breakup with her. Then of course she broke her neck at the time of the roster split and by the time she had recovered Ric was no longer a part owner, but Hunter's running buddy and Bischoff was running things. It dawned on Lita that she knew more about Helmsley than she did Flair.

"Water will be fine," Ric said, breaking into Lita's thoughts. She looked over to Triple H.

"Water," he answered simply. She came back with three drinks. Two waters and one beer. She had a feeling she would need it.

"So what is this 'business proposition,' your talking about?" she asked.

"Join Evolution," was Hunter's answer.

"Me? Join your merry gang? Sorry, no thanks. For one thing: Bischoff fired me and two: I wouldn't join even if you threatened to break my neck again. Again, no thank you."

"Lita . . . " Triple H growled.

"What? Join or you blab on RAW? Go right on ahead. I've got nothing to hide."

Ric had a confused look on his face while the expression on the Evolution leader went hard.

'Hunter hasn't told anybody yet!' Lita realized.

"Ric," Hunter ground out, "could you give me a few minutes with Lita," he finished in a tone that made Lita a little afraid.

"I need to use the bathroom anyhow," Flair excused himself.

"Down the hall, first door on the right," Lita instructed absently. As soon as Flair was presumably out of earshot, the redhead forced herself to look at The Game. Lita fought not to fidget in her seat.

"You never said anything about that night," Lita uttered softly. It wasn't a question.

Hunter regarded her for a moment.

"No, I didn't," he told her finally, "and I'm not going to. Two reasons for that. One: It'll be hard enough to get Bischoff to rehire you without the added problem of him knowing we slept together. Two: I'm not the type of guy who brags about who I sleep with. That's more Orton and Flair that do that and Flair only when he's drunk.

'Note to self: Never get around the Nature Boy when drunk,' Lita thought, followed by one she brazenly said aloud.

"What about when you and Stephanie were married and then broke up?"

There was a brief scowl on Hunter's face at the mention of his ex - wife. It was gone quickly, but it was there long enough for Lita to know that Stephanie McMahon was still a sore subject for the leader of Evolution.

"First off: Steph and I were married. Being married to somebody carries its own set of rules vs. being single. Second, she started it with the comments about our sex life when she made that innuendo to her dad about me turning her on after Armageddon '99 despite the fact that we didn't start sleeping together until later. It really did start out as a business arrangement. The way I saw it that gave me permission to comment on it when I chose and even then it wasn't as often as she did it. She was the one that made most of the comments about our sex life. Did I cross the line when we broke up? Maybe, but - "

"You were hurt," Lita interjected gently.

It was Triple H's turn to try and not squirm in his chair. Very few people had guessed accurately how much Stephanie McMahon's deception had wounded The Game. For Lita to take a stab at him made him uncomfortable to say the least. He finally cleared his throat.

"Ahem, look Lita," Hunter said, quickly changing the direction of the conversation. "The point is: I'm not here to blackmail you. You would probably throw it back in my face knowing you. I'm offering you a chance to get your job back and get some revenge on Matt Hardy and Bischoff at the same time. You want some time to think? Fine. Take all the time in the world, but think about this: Consider the advantage you would have as a member of Evolution?"

Lita mentally paused. Hadn't she just turned Christian's offer of getting her job back because she would not have any advantage or leverage with Bischoff? If Hunter and Flair were serious about actually wanting her in Evolution for legitimate reasons, it would give her immense leverage and power over Bischoff. Because despite there being no gold in the faction at present, they were still a powerful group, especially after costing Austin his own job at Survivor Series. At the very least, being aligned with Evolution would presumably keep her out of bra and panties matches and the like.

"Well," Ric Flair piped up, coming back into the living room. "What's the answer?"

Lita looked from one member of Evolution to the other. Finally the redhead sighed.

"If, she said slowly, "if I were to say yes, just how are you going to go about getting my job back?"

"When Bischoff extended his Survivor Series favors, he extended them to all of Evolution, including me and Hunter," Ric Flair explained. "Bischoff doesn't like me and I wouldn't mind if he took a permanent vacation in hell, but he knows who helped him get Austin out of power. He also knows it would be very bad for him if he refused any favors he owes. Even from the guy he hates the most. If I play the cards right, I could probably get you a title shot with Molly out of the deal."

Lita nodded. It made sense, even though she knew a title shot would probably be an even more uphill battle than simply getting her job back would be. Still even if Ric could not use his favor to get her a match against Molly, as a full - fledged member of Evolution she could probably go and demand the match herself. Lita did not think she would mind too much using the Evolution tactic of threatening Bischoff to get it either. Especially if Evolution was sincere about her being a part of the group.

"Fine. I'm in," Lita finally said, giving the two men the answer they had sought in coming here. "Now, how do you propose making my allegiance to Evolution official?"

Hunter leaned back in his chair, with a glint in his eye.

"Well," he said, "there's a Pay - Per - View coming up . . . "

Okay, more soon. Thanks for reading!