Later That Same Day:
After lunch Thomas and Sam walked Belle back to Steph's Office and said they would text and catch up a little later. Thomas had some meetings to attend and Sam had to get back to his team. "Are you going to be in the next writers meeting?" Sam asked as he lingered behind after Thomas left.
"I think so, I'm pretty much Steph's shadow from now on." Belle replied and smiled.
"And a very pretty shadow it is." Sam grinned.
Belle dipped her head slightly, a wide smile and a hint of red spread across her face. "You're not so bad yourself PenPal."
Sam chuckled and bowed his head. "Why thank you me lady."
"You're such a goofball." Belle laughed. "Get back to your team I don't want to get you into trouble."
"Something tells me I'm going to like getting in trouble with you." He replied with a cheeky wink as he walked away.
Belle shook her head playfully and turned back to go inside. She took a seat on the couch and giggled. Suddenly with one little moment she felt like she was back in High School again and the cute boy had finally talked to her. "Control yourself woman."
She opened up her notebook and wrote down what she could remember from her lunch and the various faces around the cafeteria. "BLONDIE." From the moment they locked eyes Belle could tell there was something not quite right. She looked nice enough but all her instincts told her something was up and that she needed to do her homework.
Where? Who? Why?
Google search: WWE Commentator Renee.
Belle read through a basic background from wiki about the Canadian and she had to hand it to her; she'd worked her way up through the ranks without a background in wrestling, but still something sat heavy on Belle. "Knock, Knock...who's there? Blondie...Blondie who? You're guess is as good as mine."
Meanwhile:
Paul and Steph sat in the writers meeting room and went over their notes and submissions for the show. They had an outline of what they had wanted, but they still needed the middle section locked down. They totally scrapped all of Sara's notes on what she wanted to do in regards to Colby; and Paul even threatened to completely have her removed from the team if she kept up her immature demeanor and complete lack of respect. "She can't keep thinking she's the only voice to be heard Steph, if she keeps ignoring us and everything we're trying to build here, then I don't care about the ramifications with the network; she's gone." Paul said and screwed up her submission and threw it in the garbage.
Sara thought she would be untouchable since her Uncle was a high up executive for NBC, and never passed up an opportunity to remind everyone of who her family was.
"Calm down, I will have another talk with her. For some reason Dad loves her; but I agree with you her pitch today wasn't good at all."
Paul shook his head and sighed. "What about Sam?"
"Hmm... what about him?" Steph asked, as she kept reading one of the submissions.
"I liked what he had to say about how to introduce the NXT guys and to have back to back tag segments. Break up the singles and the talking and have big blocks for the men's tag match and then move straight into bringing out the women's new tag champs. If they guys can do it then watch us sort of thing."
Steph put her papers down and listened as Paul continued. "And I like the idea of not having them stay on a single show. Why not showcase the talent company wide?"
"Do you think Mercedes and Pam will be up to more travelling? I don't want to give Mercedes more things to twist and turn against us."
"We can sell this to them and if she has a problem, she can walk. But we'll have to make it clear that when she comes back all the time away will be added back on, and if she quits go ahead and quit, but don't think the door will ever be opened again." Paul replied, sternly.
Steph smiled at Paul, impressed by his suggestion and new stance when it came to his former NXT favourite. "I love you."
Paul laughed. "Right back at you."
An hour later they had put everything in order and were ready to get the final say so from Vince. "Alright do you have everything you need?" Steph asked and stood up from the table.
"Yeah, all good." Paul replied and gathered the papers. "He better like this, this should have been done already."
Steph sighed and gave her husband an exasperated look. "Please not this again. I can't have you and Dad at each others throats all the time."
"I'm not at your Father's throat, all I'm saying is he needs to make up his mind. We can't keep re-writing the shows two hours before going live."
"The leaks aren't helping, maybe I should have raised it with Belle to begin with, I don't know."
Paul placed his free hand on the small of Steph's back as they walked out. "Have you gotten any further alerts?"
"No, which I'm going to take as a good sign." She replied as they continued walking. "Let's get this to Dad and then get back to Belle. I have a few things to bring her in on."
Paul nodded and smiled. "You know I like her, she's intriguing to watch, did you notice her movements at all in the meeting?"
"No, why what happened?" Steph asked.
"From an outsiders point of view she looked the part, taking notes and whatnot, but if you really watched her, when someone spoke she looked right at them but each time her pen instantly started to move." Paul started. "It was like she was studying every feature on their face, it was interesting that's all."
Steph stopped and looked at her husband, he had this far away look on his face. "You noticed all of that in one short meeting?"
Paul shook himself out of the daze and shrugged. "You told me to get to know the woman, so how better than to watch her and others to see what she's all about."
The Billion Dollar Princess took one last glance at her husband and plastered on a tight smile. "I'll clearly have to watch her a little closer."
"Steph don't be like that." Paul sighed.
"What? Like you said I told you to get to know her better and you're doing that, it's fine. Come on let's not keep Dad waiting."
After their meeting with Vince, Paul left Steph and her Dad to discuss another matter and walked back to Steph's Office. The meeting had gone as well as Paul had predicted and towards the end he couldn't wait to get out of there. He was frustrated at the lack of momentum and all the re-writes which had occurred over the past few months. Collectively they had all spoken about how things needed to be different in the new year, and yet two months in, they were still going down the same dark destructive path.
He let out a loud sigh and shook his head. On his way back he said hello and shook hands with some people he walked past, but stopped short when he noticed Belle. She was on the couch with her notebook open in her lap. Paul stood silently in the doorway and tried to get a better look at what had her so captivated. He quirked a brow when he read "Blondie" but the rest of her handwriting was too small. A noise behind him startled them both but he ducked out of the way before she looked up and around the plant.
Paul shot a look at one of the production guys who had dropped a metal pole and cleared his throat before he entered the office. "Hey Belle, how are you?" He asked casually with a smile.
"I'm good thanks, everything alright out there?" She smiled, her hand over her heart.
Paul chuckled. "Yeah just one of the production guys. Nothing to worry about. So what do you have there?"
Belle closed her notepad on instinct and looked up at him. "Looking over some notes from the meeting, nothing serious." She replied. "I actually wanted to run something by Steph, will she be back soon? Or can I run it by you?"
"Yeah you can run anything by me, not a problem. What's on your mind?" Paul asked. He closed the door behind him and took a seat in the arm chair across from her.
Belle re-opened her book and wrote down something in case anyone was on the other side of the door. She held it up so Paul could read it and waited. "The Blog..."
Paul smiled and nodded for her to continue.
"Is there anyone out of bounds?" Belle whispered.
"Other than the big guy, no go ahead." Paul grinned. He appreciated the seriousness she approached it with, but also couldn't help but grin at the playful look on her face.
"I feel like 99, should we come up with our own signal?"
"Probably best, the cone of silence is in the lab for repairs." Paul quipped.
"Oh, Max..."
Paul couldn't help but burst out into a fit of laughter just as Stephanie walked back in. "What did I miss?" She asked, and looked between the two of them.
Belle sat back and shook her head, and held up the note. "We were just being silly."
"I was born for that role." Paul joked much to his wife's annoyance.
Belle did her best to stifle a giggle as Paul winked and sat back in his chair.
Stephanie did her best to ignore what she had walked in on and turned the conversation back to work. "What were you thinking timeframe wise?" She asked and nodded towards the notebook.
"I do a general one every week but I can step up to do a mini one mid-week or every two weeks." Belle replied and pointed down to reference "for here".
Paul nodded and looked to Steph. "That sounds good, and maybe a bigger one leading to a PPV?"
"I like that, let's go with that." Steph agreed. "Did Paul go over anything that happened in the meeting?"
"Not yet. We're not going to reference anything about Colby and again we appreciate you taking everything down this morning." Paul said.
"No problem. Can we talk here or...knock, knock..."Sorry Belle, come in." Paul called out.
Benji, one of the production assistants opened the door and poked his head in. "Sorry to interrupt, Paul you wanted to know when we were ready to shoot the NXT vignette."
"Yeah, thanks man. Ladies if you'll excuse me." He said and stood up. "Actually, Belle did you want to come and watch? Get a better feel for what we do backstage?"
Belle glanced up at Steph and then at Paul. "Holy shit..." She thought to herself. "Would that be alright?"
"Of course it is, you should see all facets of what we're doing around here." Steph nodded.
"I'd love to come and watch, thank you." Belle said. "Can we talk about some ideas I had a little later if you have the time?" She asked Stephanie.
"Not a problem. We can talk after you come back."
"Thank you."
Paul shot his wife a " look" and held the door open for Belle. "Thanks." She smiled.
He nodded and closed the door behind them. "Belle this is Benji he's a production assistant, Benj this is Belle; our new personal assistant."
"Hi." They said in unison. Benji and Paul explained what the plan was and Belle found herself excited.
"We're going to film it in Black and White." Paul added.
"Ah, so you're going for a gritty feel, I like it." Belle replied.
"Exactly." Paul grinned. When he had first brought it up with Steph her reaction was a little lack luster, but for some odd reason he felt happy that Belle had gotten his vision straight away.
"It's an invasion a shake up of sorts." Belle said. She couldn't hide her excitement as she listened and watched Paul as he told her about all the plans he had. His joy was contagious and she found herself more than happy to board the train so to speak. "So will this lead to them joining RAW, or is it just a one time sort of thing?"
"Plans are for a couple to join the main roster, but I'm hoping it will lead to us being able to bring up some more known names." Paul replied. "Though in time you'll learn that things around here can change in a second."
"Well I hope that your plans come to fruition very soon."
"Thanks Belle, I appreciate that." Paul replied with a genuine smile. "Okay, why don't you come and sit back here, I've got to get this started."
"Sure thing." Belle smiled.
Paul showed her to a table just behind them with a couple of chairs set up. "You'll have the best view of everything, I'll come and join you in a minute." He said as he pulled her chair out for her.
"Thank you." Belle nodded at his good manners. She watched him as he interacted with a few people and she made a mental note to watch more clips and episodes of NXT.
After a couple of minutes Paul walked back and sat beside Belle. "So we'll be taking some photos of the guys and the production team will load them and work their magic, and we're going to open the show with them all."
"Are you going out there to introduce them?"
"Yeah, I'm going to say a few lines, really hype them up and go from there." Paul replied.
"Do you still get nervous going out there in front of all of those people?"
"Small butterflies but you feed off of the energy honestly, and I absolutely love it." Paul said with a grin. "Booing or cheering, magic is created out there and I'm happy to be a part of it big or small."
Belle smiled and turned her attention back to the wrestlers as the photo session began. "Thank you again for asking me along." She whispered as Paul leaned forward in his chair.
He smiled back at her and nodded, "My pleasure."
Meanwhile:
Colby sighed in relief as he saw the sign to his Hotel. He had been driving non stop since he had left the Arena earlier, and his legs and back ached. He parked his car in the guest area and eased his way out. "Ahh, that's better." He said as he stretched his muscles in different directions. He opened the trunk and retrieved his bags and locked the car up.
"Good Afternoon welcome to The Hampton Inn, how may I help you, Sir?" The friendly clerk announced as Colby reached the reception desk.
"Afternoon, my name is Colby Lopez, I have a reservation for the evening."
"Certainly, let me check that for you Mr. Lopez." The clerk searched his computer and smiled when he found the booking. "You're in room 65 on the top floor, Mr. Lopez."
"Thank you." Colby replied and collected his room card from the desk.
"Have a nice stay."
Colby nodded and walked over to the elevators. He pressed the up button and waited for it to hit the foyer. He still wasn't in the mood to chit chat with anyone, so he hoped nobody recognised him. The doors opened as a few guests stepped off and he quickly jumped in and closed the doors. The ride was short and he soon stepped off and wheeled his luggage behind him and searched for his room. He inserted the card into the reader on the door and waited a second for it to activate. He had booked a King room with a balcony, as it had been the only decent looking room he could find at such short notice. He wasn't usually so "picky" when it came to his Hotels but he wanted something nice and fresh for the night.
He smiled as he walked in and looked around. It was nice, large King sized bed, flat screen, decent sized bathroom with a big shower, overall he liked what he saw. He dumped his bags down and stepped over towards the large window and sat down on the built in window bench. The room overlooked the esplanade and the Ocean. He sat there with one knee propped up and his other leg rested over the side and looked out. The motion of the water as it hit the sand and slowly receded had always seemed to calm the noises that surrounded him. He leaned his head back against the wall and gazed out of the window. There were a few people down below but the beach and parkland were mostly empty. He continued to look out until the incessant buzz of his phone got on his nerves. He loved his friends but he wasn't up for a million conversations.
Colby sighed and wiped his eyes not even sure when he had gotten teary eyed and pulled out his phone. Usual names, Joe and Jon and a couple from Pam. He sent them all a generic "I'm fine, all good" message and switched his phone to silent. "Not now guys." He whispered and leaned his head back against the wall. "Just leave me alone."