"How are you feeling now?" Mandy asked Sonya. They were at the hospital, Sonya having been sent there by WWE's doctor not long after getting backstage following the rumble match. They were both grateful of the fact that Mandy had been allowed to leave the show early to go with her.

"Considering I have my first ever concussion, not too bad," Sonya replied. She was sitting up in her bed, in the private room she had been given. Over the course of the couple of hours they had been at the hospital, Sonya had developed a serious headache, and had started to feel nauseous. Both of those things were concussion symptoms, she knew.

"I'm pissed at Charlotte," Mandy said from her chair by the side of the bed.

"Don't be, I'm not," Sonya said. "The mistake was mine as much as hers. Our timing was off. It's not like she meant to kick me in the head."

"She should have been more careful," Mandy insisted. "I'm surprised she was in the match. She's hardly even been on NXT TV yet."

"Come on, Mand, give her a break," Sonya said. "These things happen, and she felt bad about it. You know she came to see me and apologise as soon as I got to the back. Besides, in a weird way, being all messed up like that might have made my performance look more impressive. I'm sure no one expected me to make the final two."

"You were amazing," Mandy gushed, taking her hand and holding it affectionately. "I don't know how you kept going, but impressive is definitely the word. You got a standing ovation, girl."

"I'm looking forward to watching it back," Sonya said, closing her eyes against the latest wave of pain in her head. She knew she would get the time, too. A concussion would likely put her on the shelf for a while, hopefully not too long.

"You okay?" Mandy asked with concern as she saw the reaction to the pain.

"I will be," Sonya assured her.

"I guess Thorne got what she wanted," Mandy said.

Sonya shook her head slowly, thinking back over the mind-blowing night. The absolute last thing she had expected was for Lucy Thorne to come and see her in person to explain the plan for the match. The boss had wanted to tease the most unlikely win in Royal Rumble history, with a relative newcomer to NXT going all the way from entrant number three to finish runner up.

Sonya had barely been able to believe what she was being told, but of course she'd had no intention of arguing against taking such a massive opportunity. A performance like that would be monumental for her character, and for her career.

"I just hope she saw what she wanted to see from me," Sonya said.

"There's no doubt she did. You gave literally everything you had out there tonight, to the point where you couldn't walk out by yourself. What more could anyone ask?"

Sonya managed a smile. "But I did walk out."

Mandy chuckled. "Yeah, you did." She got up off her chair. "I'm to go see if I can buy myself a decaf coffee somewhere. I'd ask if I could get you something, but you should stay on the water."

Cringing at the thought of drinking coffee, Sonya nodded. "Yeah, I still feel like I could spew. No coffee for me."

"Okay, I'll be back." Mandy leaned over and gave Sonya a delicate kiss on the forehead.

"I won't be going anywhere," Sonya said with another smile. It was the best attempt she could make at humour.

Mandy left the room, her heels clacking on the tiled floor as she walked.

Much as she appreciated Mandy's company, love and support, Sonya closed her eyes and sighed, relaxing in the silence. Having nothing for her brain to focus on was helping the headache to subside a little, or at least it felt like it was.

The sound of heels on the floor outside made Sonya jump. She realised she had started to drift off to sleep. She actually wasn't sure if she had slept for a few minutes, for it felt like Mandy had only just left.

The footsteps reached the open door to Sonya's room, and she saw that it wasn't Mandy who had been coming.

"Hello, Sonya," Lucy Thorne said. She stood in the doorway in a dark grey business suit, a million miles away from the vintage style dress she had been wearing earlier in the night for a short backstage segment with Lacey Evans. There was a look of concern on her face. "Mind if I come in? How are you feeling?"

Jesus Christ, the boss came to see me in the hospital, Sonya thought, immediately concerned about what kind of fucked up mess she might look like. "Yeah, uh, come in," she said, willing her muddled brain to act faster. "Thank you for coming. I didn't expect it. A visit from the boss, I mean."

"You got your head nearly kicked off your shoulders on my show," Lucy said as she crossed the room. "I figured the least I could do was come and see how you are."

Sonya felt a newfound respect for the chairwoman. She actually did care about her people, and wanted them to know that. "I'm not too bad, thank you," she said. "My head's pounding, but that'll hopefully pass overnight."

"I hope so," Lucy said. She had stood by the side of the bed, unwilling to take the chair that was obviously Mandy's. "You were great out there tonight. It was exactly what I wanted. I think people actually thought you might win, and now there's a lot of buzz around the name Sonya Deville."

"There is?" Sonya asked, smiling.

"You should look on Twitter," Lucy suggested. "Where's Mandy by the way?"

"She's gone to get a drink." As she said it, the sound of heels on the floor returned. "In fact here she comes, I think."

Lucy turned to greet Mandy when she entered the room. Sonya looked forward to seeing her girlfriend's reaction when she found the boss in with her.

Mandy started speaking to Sonya as she neared the doorway. "I wonder if they could put the coffee machine further..." She stopped in her tracks as she walked in, seeing Lucy standing there. "Ms Thorne. Hi."

"Hello, Mandy. I stopped by to see how Sonya's doing. I won't be stopping long, so don't worry about me ruining your evening."

"No, thank you for coming," Mandy smiled, recovering from the surprise. "You're not ruining everything. Hey, there are some more chairs down the hallway, I'll go grab you one."

Much as Sonya appreciated the visit from Lucy, she felt awkward about trying to start conversation. She knew nothing about the woman, and felt like business was the only thing they would have in common. They lived very different lives, that was for sure. Thorne probably earned more in interest in a day than Sonya made in a month, or even a year. "I love the whole thing with you and Lacey," she ventured. "Both of you look so great every week, dressed up like that. I can't relate. I'd look awful in outfits like those."

Lucy smiled warmly, grateful for the compliment. "Thanks. I've always liked that kind of look. When I first saw Lacey's character, I loved it. That was before the opportunity to buy WWE presented itself."

Whether she had meant to or not, Lucy had just pretty much admitted to playing favourites, at least to an extent. She liked Lacey's character, and Lacey was being pushed. She liked Sonya, and the events at the rumble were definitely a big indication of a future push. Sonya filed that knowledge away without comment. If she was on the favourites list, she wasn't going to complain. It could only be a good thing for the Golden Gloves.

Mandy walked back into the room carrying a chair. She put it down near to her own.

"Thank you," Lucy said, sitting down.

"I was checking Twitter while I was at the coffee machine," Mandy said, taking her seat again. "Everyone's talking about you, Son."

"Ms Thorne was just telling me that," Sonya said.

"You can call me Lucy, I don't bite," Thorne said.

"Lucy was just telling me," Sonya corrected, feeling out of place using the owner's first name, even with permission.

Mandy had her phone out. She read aloud from Twitter. "Tonight's MVP is Sonya Deville. What a performance." She paused for a moment, then read another tweet. "Sonya Deville left everything in the ring. I thought she was going to win, I swear. A star was born tonight."

Sonya shook her head slightly, incredibly humbled by the high praise.

"I was thinking on the way here that we could make something of this," Lucy said. "You know how Shawn Michaels was always called Mr Wrestlemania?"

Thanks to the knowledge that she had picked up during her time with WWE, Sonya could answer honestly. "Yeah."

"I'm thinking we'll have you do well in the rumble again next year, and Sonya Deville can become known as Ms Royal Rumble."

"That sounds great to me," Sonya said, smiling. "Thank you for having faith in me. I often think back to what you said to me that first time we met, not long after Mandy and I joined NXT. It gives me a lot of motivation."

"That's nice to hear," Lucy smiled. As she did so, the sound of a phone buzzing came from her pants pocket. She got up and said, "I'll leave you to it. Hopefully you'll feel better in the morning, and you'll be back in the ring soon. Mandy, nice to see you. Good job tonight."

"Thanks. Nice to see you too," Mandy smiled.

On her way to the door, Lucy answered her phone. Sonya and Mandy sat in silence for a moment until she was gone.

"That was nice of her, to come and see you I mean," Mandy said.

"Right?" Sonya exclaimed. "I thought they'd put me on some powerful drugs when she walked in. I thought I was tripping."

Mandy laughed. "She seems like a genuinely nice person. Lacey gets along really well with her."

"Yeah," Sonya agreed before moving on. "There is one thing that bothers me. I don't want people to be talking about Sonya Deville. I want them to be talking about the Golden Gloves. The three of us are a team."

Mandy retrieved the coffee she had fetched from the table at the side of Sonya's bed. "We are a team. But that means when something big happens to one of us, we all benefit. I didn't last long in the match tonight, but you did. You were out there representing Golden Gloves. Besides, it's not like me or Zel would ever begrudge you success. Speaking for myself, I love you and I will be by your side no matter what."

If she had been able to reach, Sonya would have gone in for a kiss. Mandy's words meant a hell of a lot. However, there was one problem. "Thank you, honey. I know you feel that way, and of course I feel the same way about you. But I notice Zelina hasn't come to see me in here. I can't pretend that doesn't hurt my feelings."

Mandy looked at her in confusion. "Son, you told her not to come."

"I did?" Sonya was taken aback. She had no memory of that at all.

"Yeah," Mandy said, concerned by Sonya's apparent memory loss. "She said she would come as soon as she could, but you told her a couple of times not to, that you would be fine. You were getting worked up, so she agreed."

"Damn. I don't remember any of that. This must be a proper concussion. Let's hope it doesn't keep me out for long."

Reaching over, Mandy took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm sure it won't."

A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.

Sonya made an impression in the rumble match, but at what cost? How long do you think she will be out of action for?