Chapter 28
This is the LAST person Nicoya needed to see right now, especially when she hadn't even been in the arena five minutes! She heard her daughter scream his name and felt her heart lurch in her chest, feeling sicker to her stomach. She finally couldn't take it and bolted down the hallway into the women's bathroom. Leaving her bag on the floor. She barely made it to the toilet before emptying the contents of her stomach, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her heart just shattered in her chest and it didn't help that her stomach was already doing one eighty turns on her.
Mark sighed, exchanging looks with Steve before reaching out to pat Alyssa's shoulder. "Why ain't he talking to me?" Alyssa asked, watching Mark walk away, his head down.
"He thinks yer momma hates him and don't wanna make things hard on her." Steve answered honestly, being straight with his niece, knowing she wasn't stupid and couldn't easily be fooled.
"That's horseshit!" Alyssa shouted, hurt evident in her voice and eyes as she watched the man she adored walk away from her.
"Watch yer mouth, honey bear." Steve gently chided, not wanting his niece to have a mouth like him, though he already knew it was going to happen.
After Nicoya was finished, she started crying, shaking her head back and forth, not wanting to do this. "Why did I come back here?" She whispered heartbrokenly, slowly getting to her feet, and knew she probably made a scene with Mark. She couldn't help if she felt sick to her stomach as she sighed heavily, finally walking out of the bathroom, and headed down the hallway. Seeing Steve and Alyssa waiting for her. She'd washed her face of any reminiscence of crying or vomiting. Though she looked extremely pale. "Sorry about that." She quietly whispered, her eyes adverted to the floor.
"Don't worry bout it." Steve shrugged his shoulders, shifting Alyssa so she was sitting on his other hip, smiling down at her tenderly.
"Did you throw up, Mom?" Alyssa asked bluntly, wrinkling her nose at the thought.
Sighing, Nicoya just nodded her head back at her daughter, cracking a small smile at her, and cleared her throat before knocking on Vince's door. Retrieving her bag and walked inside when his voice sounded through the door. She was in there twenty minutes and when she walked out, she looked a little more alive and ready for what was coming her way. "Let's go." She simply stated, walking down the hallway, her work ethic kicking into high gear, and started flipping through the scripts, scoffing. "Horrible…out of date…overused…Christ, I have some work to do and revamping."
"Oh dear god…the boss has come to town." Steve joked, stopping when they found the office and smirked, letting her go ahead of him and Alyssa, following after. The office was more like several, only all one room. Tables serving as desks. Nicoya's new underlings sitting there. Some chatting. Some writing. Some goofing off.
Nicoya looked at all of these people and immediately shook her head, knowing Vince was going to move them down the hallway so she could have her own office. She was the lead script writer after all. Clearing her throat, Nicoya got everyone's attention and immediately took order. She introduced herself, being professional and polite, but firm in what she said. Basically, the basics of it was the scripts sucked, the storylines blew, and there was going to be some changes made and if anyone had a problem with it, then they'd have to go talk to the boss. She smirked when they all got up and did just that, shrugging her shoulders, and walked over to her desk, which was a huge one in the far corner and immediately plugged her laptop into the wall. If they wanted to whine and bitch about how she di things, then she could do the job by herself just fine, like she used to do.
"Holy cow…" Alyssa giggled, sharing an amused look with her uncle before slipping down onto the ground. "Mom, you scared them." She giggled, looking around the big room, walking over to look at some of the papers. "This sucks!"
"You ain't lyin'. I took over my own damn creative process. These asses were killin' me." Steve said, leaning against the wall, proud of his sister for taking command like she did.
"Well that's about to change because Coya is back and if they don't like it, they know where the fucking door is." She stated, a smug smile on her lips, and flipped open her laptop, instantly emailing Vince about her underlings. She sighed exasperatedly when she looked at the garbage she was reading and couldn't believe this. "Christ, no wonder the ratings have gone down!" She exclaimed, sounding positively disgusted. "Do these morons even know how to do this job?"
"Some of them do, but ultimately they're blown off." Steve admitted, now reading the script Alyssa had handed to him, snorting and tossing it over his shoulder. "You got yer work cut out with them, that's fer damned sure."
"Did you eat your wheaties, Mom?" Alyssa asked curiously and raised an eyebrow when Steve started laughing his ass off.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Nicoya asked mildly curious in spite of herself, raising an eyebrow at her brother, who was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down his face. "Okay, I'm not even asking. Now if you'll excuse me, CHILDREN, I have much work and changes to make." She stated and immediately buried her face in the scripts, looking sick, and ripped it up right down the middle. "We're starting over, fuck this."
"Mom just cussed!" Alyssa shrieked, laughing hard along with her uncle.
"She's allowed, on occasion." Steve chuckled, looking amused, his blue eyes twinkling.
Alyssa watched as the other writers filed in, looking sullen. "Momma, I think you got your way." She said musingly, grinning proud with all of her teeth showing.
"Good, these jackasses need to learn a thing or two bout writing scripts." Steve snorted, smirking at the other writers when they all shot him a deadly look. "Say somethin'!" He taunted, not phased in the slightest. He could have all of these meaningless writers for a light snack.
"I'm sorry, but these scripts are positively HORRIBLE, people! I've never seen such garbage in all of my life and read it for that matter! Is it a wonder the ratings are plummeting down the damned tubes?" Nicoya sighed exasperatedly and actually took every single script, ripping it right down the middle, and threw it to the floor. "We're starting fresh and if there's anyone here who has a problem with it, you know where the door is. Changes are being taken effect IMMEDIATELY and all final scripts are to be given to me for approval and then I in turn will give them to the boss for the final added touches. Now then, we have A LOT of work to do so I suggest you get the snobby looks off of your faces before I kick you out of here myself." She stated in a firm tone of voice, truly perturbed by how ridiculous and downright stupid the storylines had gotten since her departure two years ago.
"Think it's safe to leave?" Alyssa asked loudly enough for everyone to overhear her, being her usual smartass adorable self.
Steve rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know, honey bear, yer momma might stomp a mud hole in their asses and walk it dry if they get outta line. Maybe we oughta stick around and protect someone." Steve suggested, knowing his sister was angry for how much the storylines had changed and not for the better either.
"Yeah, them." Alyssa stated the obvious and Steve glanced at his sister, asking with his eyes if she felt safe enough with all these writers around.
"First order of business is all of you are to vacate this office and take your belongings with you and go down to the one that Vince has set up for you. I am the lead script writer and I can't possibly work with all of you in here distracting me. If that comes as a shock to any of you, I've already spoken to Mr. McMahon about it and he honestly agreed with me." She informed them all, raising a challenging eyebrow, and smirked over at her daughter and brother before turning her full attention back to the underlings. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me, but if they're stupid or ridiculous, then you'll get a stupid or ridiculous answer in return."
Neither Alyssa or Steve was surprised when the underlings filed out of there without saying a word, all keeping their eyes down, scowls on their faces. "Wow…Mom's got an attitude." Alyssa commented, that grin never leaving her face.
Steve smirked, nodding his head, agreeing wholeheartedly with his niece. "I noticed that too, honey bear. Coya, I'm gonna step out into the hallway and make a quick call. Get you someone to stand guard outside the door. That punk shows up and he's toast." He promised her, staring into her eyes, and let her know everything would be alright.
"That's fine, Steve. I have so much work to do, I can't even think straight right now." Nicoya went to get started, but then turned around and walked back over to her daughter, hugging her, and placed her hands on her shoulders. "If you want too, go see him, Aly. I know you miss him." She whispered softly, kissing her daughter's forehead, and then walked back over to get started on her work.
"I'm gone!" Alyssa tugged her uncle out into the hallway by the hand. "Um…which room?" She asked curiously, looking around the unfamiliar territory.
"Lemme make this call and I'll take ya there myself." Steve replied, smiling affectionately at her and whipped out his cell phone. A few very short minutes later, two big men were standing in front of him. "Cena gets through that door and I'll whoop the piss outta both of you. Got it?" They nodded, not looking too worried by his threat. Steve growled, wanting them to take this dead serious and shoved them both back into the wall harshly. "Listen here: Anything happens to my sister and I'll beat the Hell outta ya both so hard, yer MOMMA'S will feel it!"
Nicoya sighed when she heard that outside the door and shook her head, a smile on her face, and sat down at her desk again. She immediately got started, picking up papers left and right, and started brainstorming on possible storylines. She nodded, writing down ideas on paper, hating to use the computer unless there were too many ideas. At this point, having to redo every single storyline was going to be a lot so she opened up Microsoft Word and began typing. She left Mark and her brother for last, not even doing John's. She'd let him have a shitty storyline by one of the underlings and smirked at the thought.
Mark looked up surprised when his dressing room door was tossed open, crouching down automatically and catching Alyssa when she ran into his arms. Pulling her against him, tears pricking his eyes. His angel was growing up and he'd missed it. The thought tugged on his heartstrings, regretting that he hadn't been there for her during the past two years. Even though technically it wasn't his fault. "Darlin', I've missed ya." He managed to choke out, not caring if Steve was staring at him all weird or not.
"I missed you too, Mark." Alyssa whispered, sounding like she was crying, though it was hard to tell, her face was buried in his neck.
Steve shifted awkwardly, just now realizing how tight their bond was and stepped was, giving the pair a moment alone. 'Now THAT is a dad.' He thought, walking off down the hallway to see how his sister was doing.
"Tell me everythin' darlin'." Mark said, finally letting Alyssa reluctantly go and pulling her gently towards the couch. "I wanna hear how ya been doin', what's new, everythin'." He wanted to hear his little chatterbox again.
Alyssa smiled, looking up at him as he pulled a chair up, sitting in front of her, giving her his undivided attention, and replied simply, "I don't know. Mom and I have just been…chilling."
Nicoya leaned back in her chair, not able to concentrate, and sighed heavily as she shook her head. For the life of her, she couldn't get Mark out of her mind and she didn't understand why. She was lying to herself. She understood exactly why she couldn't and knew it was too late to do anything about it.
'Focus Coya, you got a lot of work to do.' She berated herself mentally and sighed heavily, raking her hands through her black hair, and felt the tears sting her eyes. No matter what, she wouldn't take Alyssa away from him again, knowing it shattered his heart the last time she did it as well as her daughter's.
Steve walked into Nicoya's office, walking over to sit in front of the desk before her. "Honey, that keyboard ain't gonna type them scripts on it's own." He said gently, seeing her staring off into space, her fingers poised to type, but they weren't moving.
Nicoya jumped when she heard a voice in front of her, immediately shaking herself mentally, and looked at her brother. "Oh-Hey Steve, I didn't hear you come in." She smiled at him weakly and sighed before going to type, but stopped as she hit the table in frustration. Why couldn't she do her job? Why couldn't she focus? She knew the answers, but refused to voice them as she took a few deep breaths to calm down, still feeling somewhat queasy from running into Mark so soon.
Steve sighed, leaning back in his chair, staring at her shrewdly. "Coya, do ya love him?" He asked finally, not beating around the bush. He'd just seen firsthand how much Alyssa and Mark meant to each other, having heard how close they were before, and seeing a hint of it. Though now he'd REALLY seen it and it was heartbreaking all things considered.
"What?" Nicoya was truly taken aback by that question, raising her eyebrow at her brother, and sighed heavily. "I'm not going to take him away from Alyssa again. I'm not running away again. I will learn to cope with what happened. The only thing I care about is getting this John situation under control. I know Alyssa loves him to death and that's why I'm not going to force them apart again. She can spend as much time as she wants with him whenever she wants, except when she's being home schooled." She had completely bypassed her brother's question, not wanting to voice the answer.
Steve wasn't stupid, hadn't been born yesterday. He might not have seen his sister much in the past twenty-two years, but he knew when someone was avoiding the issue. Even her. "Nicoya Harris." His voice was semi-stern. "Don't be walkin' round me gal, I asked you a question and I want an honest answer. I didn't ask about Mark and Aly. I asked YOU what you felt bout him."
"I don't feel anything for him." She lied to him, staring him in the face. Though her eyes were telling him something completely different and tore her gaze away from his, staring down at her laptop keys before her. "We had a fling two years ago and it ended because of my stupidity. So, can we please drop this subject? I have better and more important things to focus on right now, Steve." Her voice had grown stern as well.
Steve sighed, knowing better, but not about to continue. They had more important things to focus on right now, such as getting John Cena handled and out of the way. He nodded, standing up, the chair rolling away from him. "They're two guards outside the door. They both know Cena ain't to get in here, got yer cell on ya?"