Chapter 55

"A little more than a one-sided dismissal would be nice." He said flatly, noting the resignation on her face and frowned. "So, even after everything, this is it? We can't even have a civil moment?"

Taker thought they'd be able to… they had broken bodies and minds together, so he figured that would allow them to at least have something. He was right. Shame coursed through her as Tahlia lowered her eyes from him, trying to keep her emotions in check. When she felt she could look at him without crying, her eyes rose up to meet his again.

"You're right. You're absolutely right…I'm sorry."

They did have a ton of history between them and, if they couldn't be together, that didn't mean she had to completely ignore or avoid him. He was the Undertaker for Christ sakes! A man she loved and couldn't have, but also a legend of this sport and the cornerstone of WWF.

"I just don't know what to say to you. I didn't hit you with the bag, did I?"

"I caught it, it's fine." That was better and he let go of her, pretty sure she wouldn't try running off again. "When'd you learn to hit like that?" He remembered her having a decent punch, but… obviously she was branching out, toning up, strengthening. And here he had gone and put on the weight. He grinned, it was amusing. "You look good, Tahlia."

"Practice makes perfect. You taught me that." Tahlia reminded him, a half smile crossing her slightly reddened face. His compliment was the culprit. "You don't look so bad yourself, Taker."

Actually, he looked delicious; Tahlia could tell the downtime did wonders for him. It was good to talk to him again, to hear his voice, even though it hurt her heart. She'd put layers upon layers around her heart over the past 8 months and in the span of a couple minutes, he'd already broken through most of it. That was just the type of man he was.

"I've been working out every day since I came back. I box and kickbox every other day and alternate with cardio and weight training. My thighs too, can't forget those." She followed him back over to the boxing bag and dropped hers to the floor, once again feeling that magnetic attraction to him. Nothing had changed; she still loved him as much as the day she walked out on him.

Those thighs, those delicious thighs. He was kind of missing the curves, she had streamlined herself. "Yeah, all that hard work shows."

He moved aside, giving her room and decided he'd continue with his own workout. They could do this. Have a friendship, or at least be polite to each other and not spend all their time avoiding each other. That was impossible. They worked in the same damn company. He loved her, god help him, he did. But… they knew it wouldn't work, at least then. He doubted much had changed.

If they were going to be friends, if he wanted to do this, Tahlia would try her best to make it work. There were two punching bags, so he took one while she had the other. No other words were said as both focused on their workouts. She knew Taker had to work off some of that homecooked food Amanda made. The woman was a damn good cook, even she admitted that. Tahlia didn't dare speak Gunner's name or mention anything about him because he was none of her business. That was Taker's family; she was just his co-worker and nothing more. Several hours later, Tahlia was ready for a shower and something to eat, looking over at a sweaty Taker. The way it glistened on his slightly tanned skin…Tahlia had to look away and dabbed her forehead with a towel, squatting to unzip her bag, put the towel inside and zipped it back up, preparing to leave.

Taker wasn't as sly about looking at her and openly admired his ex-girlfriend, his ex-almost-fiancée. He was a man, he'd openly appreciate a fine woman, though he had yet to see one that made him look twice like she still did. "You need a shower, darlin'," He drawled, draping his own towel around his neck, ignoring the rivulet of sweat that ran down his chest and past his BSK Pride tattoo, disappearing underneath the waistband of his dangerously low hanging pants.

She made the mistake of looking up at him, only her eyes averted to that little drop of sweat on his abdomen and Tahlia had to forcefully tear her eyes from him. This man would be the death of her – her complete and total undoing. "So do you."

Smirking, Tahlia hoisted her bag over her shoulder and turned around, only to collide into him. The tension between them was thick and filled the entire room, their eyes remaining locked. Something had to be done…she had to say something, anything.

"Wanna go to breakfast?" That was NOT what she expected herself to say, but it'd been the first thing to pop into her mind that wasn't sexual. "I mean it's still early, so maybe we can find a diner or something…" She was really out of practice with this, not having a boyfriend or man in her life, besides John and Ron, since Taker. "I mean unless you don't want to and that's fine…" Rambling! She was RAMBLING now! "Forget it, stupid idea…"

"Sure." He was starving and the way she was stuttering and stammering was amusing. She was… cute. "I'm hungry enough I could eat you, darlin', twice." His voice had dropped to an amused, husky rumble. "Meet you in the lobby in 15? Give us both time to clean up." If she bailed on him… he might take it personally.

After that comment, there was NO way she was going out to breakfast or having any kind of meal with him. Absolutely not! "Right, see you then."

She walked out and then bolted up to her room as fast as she could, every part of her body ignited from his words. He could eat her twice? The shower went from hot to ice cold in a matter of seconds. All Tahlia wanted to do was pin him to the floor and give him a tongue bath with all that sweat. She bounced her head off the shower wall several times, groaning and tried pushing Taker out of her mind. Room service would have to do for today because, until the show, she wasn't stepping foot out of her hotel room for fear of running into Taker again.

When she bailed on him, Taker was not surprised at all. He wasn't pleased, but not surprised. He supposed, after everything that had happened between them, he should have expected it. Things couldn't be normal between them because they had never had 'normal'. It had been master and minion. Then it had been something else entirely. Their normalcy had been tampered with by his own cock blocking, relationship destroying, son.

Though, if he were honest, the experience had been good for Gunner as the kid had seen the damage he had caused and grown up just a bit afterwards. Not that it had changed anything. It wasn't like he could just ring Tahlia up and say 'hey, my kid pulled his head out of his ass, come on home', because they hadn't been at that point. Taker had done it all backwards, promising her a future he hadn't been sure he could provide. Well… he'd have to start over. Smirking, he went out for breakfast by himself. He'd let her hide, for now, but… he had warned her, he'd take it personally.

"YOU STUPID BITCH!"

Getting beaten down by Stephanie and Tori definitely wasn't on her top 10 list of favorite moments. Tahlia could easily take Stephanie, but Tori did have some athletic ability. It was just a shame they made her X-Pac's slut. And she let her know it before the bitch clocked her in the face with a microphone, gaining the upper hand. Tahlia laughed at Stephanie screaming at her about her brother and the damage she'd inflicted on him.

"Mmm…" She moaned out in satisfaction, only to receive a slap across the face for her troubles.

When they were finished, Tahlia was a crumpled mess in the ring and Stephanie screamed at her husband, Triple H, to finish the job on her brother's behalf. Tahlia was dragged up by her hair and just as Hunter was about to perform the pedigree on her, the lights suddenly went out following by one tolling of a bell.

Deadman Walking

With a bloody nose, Tahlia was shoved to the side against the far corner right into Road Dogg's arms as Undertaker roared down the ramp on his motorcycle, coming to her aid.

"Back to save your bitch?" Hunter snarled, knowing well he had been the target at Judgment Day. Apparently, him marrying into the McMahons had put a giant bullseye on his ass and that was fine by him. He was the Game.

"Back to beat one down." Taker replied in a low growl, not even looking in Tahlia's direction. He didn't break his stare down with Hunter until Hunter finally looked at Stephanie. He followed the other man's stare. "Looks like a peach. We've destroyed one McMahon… I bet she's a screamer."

"Oh you-" He lunged, attacking.

He nailed Hunter right in the forehead. Contrary to what he had said, he had come back to save his woman.

"And we'll be fucking happy to destroy HER!" Tahlia spat out from the corner, elbowing Road Dogg in the face and nailed him between the legs.

When X-Pac came at her, she ducked and delivered a clothesline that turned him inside out, her upper body strength a lot better than it used to be. While Taker hammered Hunter in the corner, Tahlia snapped her head and lethal deadly amber orbs onto Stephanie and Tori's retreating forms. She stumbled to the ropes, leaning against them and did the cut-throat motion, pointing at both women. They were TOAST when Tahlia got her hands on them.

"Fuck…" She coughed, holding her side and looked up at Taker, both of them the only ones standing in the ring. "Thank you." She mouthed, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear her over the roaring thunderous crowd and touched her nose, scowling at the blood.

Oh yeah, Stephanie and Tori were living on borrowed time.

"Save it." He ordered, his eyes fastened on those retreating cowards. "You don't need to thank me, darlin'."

As if he wouldn't come save her, especially when it came to anything McMahon related. They had a giant hard-on for Tahlia and revenge. Shane still had some issues from his understanding. Stepping back, he raised Tahlia's arm in the air, pointing at her. If there was one woman in this business who had his respect, it was her.

"Did you HEAR THEM? Me, it's all about me!"

"You should be so lucky…" Hunter spat, wiping blood away from under his nose.

She smiled despite the hurt ribs from Tori's heels, nodding and narrowed her eyes into the camera, breathing heavily. Stephanie would regret the day ever messing with her and trying to take what was rightfully hers – the WWF Women's championship. Tahlia walked over, taking the title and held it in the air before flipping over the top rope, waited on Taker to do the same and walked to the back with him. If they had to team up again to face the McMahon-Helmsley Faction, so be it.

"Holy shit, do you hear the crowd out there?!" Bradshaw demanded when they came through the curtain, immediately cupping Tahlia's face to survey the damage of her nose. "Just a small cut inside."

"I know."

Tahlia shoved him away playfully, shaking her head and didn't bother going to the trainer to get checked out. All she had to do was stick a cotton ball up there until the bleeding subsided, which it already had. Before Taker could walk away, Tahlia stopped him by grabbing his arm, his eyes meeting hers.

"Thank you." Yes, she did have to thank him because he didn't have to come save her, even though he was currently feuding with the Faction anyway. "I owe you one."

He held up two fingers. "Two, darlin', you owe me two."

Taker hadn't missed the way John had gotten all up in Tahlia's business, wondering just what that was about. His emerald eyes flashed acid, narrowing, as he replayed the conversation he had with the other man over in his head from the other night. John had seemed abnormally interested in Tahlia's love life and he wondered if he needed to snap Shaw's neck. The green-eyed jealousy monster rarely ever got him, but tonight… he felt like its bitch.

"I'll see you later." He slapped John on the shoulder in passing, cracking his neck.

Bailing on him for breakfast a week ago…Tahlia sighed heavily, watching him stalk away and had no idea what that was about, not caring. Bradshaw offered to walk her to her dressing room and she declined, waving him off. There was nothing romantic going on between her and John. He was a good friend and nothing more, same with Ron. They were like her brothers and if she knew what Taker had been thinking, she would've laughed in his face. Like she would ever screw ex-Ministry members after the Lord of Darkness? Walking into her dressing room, Tahlia quickly showered and changed before heading out to go to the hotel.

"Mother fuckers!" She hissed, spotting her rental car spray painted in green with all four of her tires slashed. "Fucking bitches!"

Kicking the car, Tahlia slammed her balled up fists on the hood of it and slid her nails down the paint, actually putting marks into it. They were going to pay. All of them. The vengeful bitch would be making a return.

"Suck it, Ministry bitch!" Hunter screamed out a window as their limousine rolled by, laughing his ass off. "Ministry whore, let your boyfriend know he's next!"

"Skank!" Stephanie's shrill voice emerged next as she and Tori appeared in the sunroof. "Enjoy MY belt!"

"Honey, those goddamn vultures are going to make you miserable as fuck from here on out." Jackie said, walking up alongside Tahlia cautiously, frowning when she seen the damage. "Jesus… I'll give you a ride."

"They have NO idea who they're messing with." Her voice was low and haunted laced with anger. Unbridled anger. "Don't worry about me, Jackie. I'll find my own way."

Stalking away from her, Tahlia walked away from the arena with bag and belt in hand, daring anyone to screw with her. The fire in her amber eyes was lit…Ministry bitch, huh? She was going to show them who the bitches were at the next show. Right now, she wanted to get back to the hotel, eat and then start planning on how best to destroy Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley from the inside out. A cruel smirk curved her lips as cold bone-chilling laughter flowed out of her mouth. Did Vince forget what she and the Ministry did to his son?

Well his daughter was next on the axing list.