CHAPTER FIVE
The Wednesday morning after the SmackDown taping, the girls who hadn't been injured in the match the night before or hurt in the week altogether gathered up in a hotel room. Bags of snack food were splayed around the room, as well as many water bottles with various amounts of water inside of them. Two boxes of pizza, one half-empty and the other completely empty, sat on top of the desk in the room.
Compared to the number of Divas before Extreme Rules, there weren't quite that many left.
Kelly, AJ, Rosa, Maryse, Kaitlyn, the twins, Alicia, and Gail Kim were the only girls in the entire company who hadn't been practically slaughtered by the returning Divas.
The RAW girls had been on their way to the SmackDown hotel during the attack at the taping, but had later heard about it from the girls, explained by all of the girls involved and those who had been backstage.
"This is… This is crazy…" Kelly said, reaching for a half-full bottle of water that was on the nightstand next to her and drinking it completely empty before replacing it on the nightstand. "I mean, just think about it. Beth's got a major concussion, and possibly worse, and they don't have any idea when she's going to get better."
"Melina tore something in her leg really badly. I forget what it's called. They said that if she had been hurt any further she could have had to completely lose the muscle." Brie, though she and her sister hadn't been close with Melina, sounded very sad as she said this.
"Natalya's out for the week. Lita got her pretty bad, but not badly enough. Tamina's out for more than a week, I heard." AJ piped in.
"Then, obviously, Michelle and Layla. They're out of the hospital now, but they aren't coming back for a while-that's what they said, anyway."
Kelly's eyes were teary as she brought up the seventh 'casualty' of the week's attacks. "And… and Eve…"
"Oh, Kelly…" Gail and Alicia said in unison, wrapping their arms around her from either side.
It was very well known that Alicia, Kelly, and Eve on RAW were close with Natalya, AJ, Kaitlyn, and Gail from SmackDown.
"What are we even supposed to do without Beth, Lay-Cool, and Melina out there?" Kaitlyn asked, reaching for another slice of pizza and taking a bite of it while the other girls mentally debated about her question.
What could they do?
No matter what they tried, the reinstated Divas would continue to find creative ways to attack them. Even with their bodyguards, the girls couldn't get the boys to make themselves involved. With only a little time, the girls had managed to give Natalya and Tamina injuries that kept them from going to RAW to help out in any way.
Maryse had been lucky enough that she hadn't been picked on by one of the more heavy-duty girls out in the ring-she'd only been attacked by Candice, who was good, but on the same level as Maryse when the blonde French Canadian was angry. The same story went for Rosa, who had been grabbed by Maria, the latter of whom didn't have time to attack her.
"I don't know…"
"I don't think there's anything we can do."
AJ and Kaitlyn stood up from the sudden depressing mood, offering to go get more snacks from the vending machine. No one wanted anything, they said, but Gail offered to go with them, and told them to call their bodyguards-respectively Primo, Cody Rhodes, and Justin Gabriel-before they even left the hotel room.
Once they all had left, Brie and Nikki decided to curl up in their queen-sized bed and go to sleep, rolling up beneath the blankets to do so. That left the only girls who were conscious in the room down to Alicia, Kelly, Rosa, and Maryse, none of whom were going to talk to each other, even under these circumstances. They all decided to go back to sleep as well, so Alicia got up from the bed to shut the curtains as they silently decided who was going where. Alicia and Kelly split the second queen bed in the room, while Rosa and Maryse headed back to their room.
"Kelly…"
The whispering was almost silent, but Kelly opened her eyes regardless, only to see Alicia looking at her, a frown on her face. "Huh?"
Alicia was the one whispering, apparently, so as not to bother the twins, but even just whispering so softly it was almost inaudible, Kelly could hear the sadness in her friend's voice. "What are we going to do without Beth?"
"I don't know… I mean… she's our champion." Kelly could see that this wasn't helping Alicia feel any better, so she offered a smile to her friend and laughed a little bit, quietly. "She'll come back, Alicia. She always comes back."
They exchanged a sad smile between each other, and then they closed their eyes and faded to sleep.
Lita leaned back against the couch's arm closest to the window of their two-room suite's living room. Though the window didn't open, it didn't matter, she liked to be closest to the outdoors as often as she could be. "I love the fact that because I brought all of you in here, I can take you out as I wish." She smiled a bit as she put her head back and looked out the window.
The other girls in the room, who had been paying attention to their own things-including Candice, who had even gone so far as to be painting her nails the moment they got back-turned to Lita, raising their brows at the 'co-leader' of their group.
"What are you talking about?" Victoria asked, seated at the other end of the couch. Lita remained silent for a minute, and Victoria rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Lita, I swear. Just tell us why you would bring that up. We're not going to bite you."
"Of course not, you aren't stupid." Lita laughed and sat up fully once more, nodding her head a bit and rolling it on her shoulders. "God, this still hurts sometimes."
"You're the one who screwed up the move," Trish nudged her friend and they both laughed, before Lita looked out at the girls.
"That was pretty good. We won the first battle of the war, you know?" The girls had been wearing the same black-on-black outfits they had been wearing on RAW, but without the gloves or the masks. They didn't care if they were seen anymore.
"Did you mean what you said, Lita?" Maria asked, frowning slightly. "I mean, about the Diva Searches?" She motioned to herself, Candice, and Ashley.
Lita just laughed. "Present company excluded."
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I need a shower."
Lita's eyes followed Trish as she stood up from the coffee table and walked into the bathroom, grabbing her toiletries bag and a towel as she walked past the luggage in the entry hall's before shutting the door. Once the water was running, the girls didn't hesitate to celebrate.
"We're all officially back, baby!" Mickie threw her arms up in the air and spun around in the desk chair, dancing a little dance, before everyone started to laugh. Candice made a face, but hadn't been painting her nails so didn't bother to throw a fit. The water shut off for a split second, and they all silenced, but once it went back on, they were all back to goofing off and having fun.
Meanwhile, far down the hallway from the hotel room, AJ, Kaitlyn, and Gail were standing around nervously, waiting for their bodyguards to show up. Gail was leaning against the wall, playing games on her phone, while Kaitlyn and AJ played rock-paper-scissors. Finally, AJ turned away from them, looking down the hallway and rocking back and forth.
"I told you the guys should have booked their rooms on our floor, or the other way around." Kaitlyn said, as AJ pulled out her Nintendo DS, beginning to play one game or another, more than likely a fighting game.
"Put your game away, AJ, and be a normal person for three seconds." Gail laughed as she said this, and AJ rolled her eyes, shutting the DS and sliding it into her sweater's pocket before looking at the vending machine.
"What do you want to drink?"
AJ and Kaitlyn bickered for a few minutes about what was better-Pepsi or Diet Pepsi, Pepsi or water, and lemonade or lemon-lime soda-before they realized they could both buy their own drinks, and didn't have to share.
AJ punched in the number to grab a water, and then moved to the food vending machine to grab a bag of chips, tucking both of her 'prizes' from the machines into her pocket as well to pull the DS back out and continue playing.
It was at this moment, with AJ playing her game, Kaitlyn getting food, and Gail watching over the girls, that the boys arrived at the vending machine area, all of them smiling at the girls who were under their protection.
"Good to see you all are okay." Primo smiled as AJ looked up at him and hugged him before going back to the game.
"Thank you, Primo. It's good to see that you're all okay, too." Kaitlyn laughed after hugging Cody. From there she looked at AJ, nudging her best friend and fellow Chickbuster. "Hey, you, short one. Isn't it nice that Primo and the boys aren't hurt?"
"Mmhmm."
"Why wouldn't we be okay?"
"Seven girls can be more than vicious enough to take down three men when they want to be." Gail looked at AJ as well, poking her in the shoulder and actually making the small girl take a step forward, losing her balance. "AJ, put the DS away before I take it away from you. Don't make me count at you like you're a three-year-old."
"Fine. Besides, I'm not three, I'm five, get it straight." AJ folded the DS after pausing the game and put it into her pocket before smiling at Primo. "Hola, Primo."
"Hola, AJ. Are you alright?"
"Si. Gracias for your concern." AJ looked at Kaitlyn. "I think I'm ready to head back to our hotel room. Do you want to come with me and Primo? Cody can come, too, if you want." Cody and Kaitlyn were in a conversation about their favorite kinds of movies, and their favorite wrestlers, so they were too busy and engaged to hear AJ ask. AJ and Primo looked at each other, AJ giggled like a small schoolgirl, and then they were off.
Cody and Kaitlyn picked up on the situation a few seconds later, and went in the other direction, toward a room that Gail didn't recognize.
"Why can nothing ever be easy?"
"Life wouldn't dish you anything you can't handle. Besides, you're alright, aren't you?" Justin and Gail hugged each other, and Gail squeezed him a bit tighter than she normally would have as they did so. "You should go back to your room, Gail."
She looked up at him, confused, and frowned a bit. "Why should I do that, exactly?"
"Get some sleep. I'm sure that you haven't gotten much."
Justin was looking at Gail with so much concern in his eyes that she couldn't bear to tell him she'd slept not only almost all night every night in the past week, but that she'd also slept on the ride to the SmackDown hotel. Instead, she nodded. "You're right, I should… I should get some sleep."
Gail offered Justin her hand, which he took, and they walked back to her hotel room, where she turned to look at him. "Well… I guess this is my stop for the night."
"Yeah… I guess it is…"
There was a long moment of dead quiet around them, and Justin began to lean in closer, when Gail turned her head to the side. "You can head back to your room now."
"Alright… I get the hint." He pulled her in for another hug instead. "Can I text you later?"
"Maybe."
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