Italics --Thoughts. Thank you DiscoInferno 1:)
Chapter 20: Some Welcome
The next day, Lauren woke up to hear Batista just waking up also. "I'll get the plans ready for heading back to RAW," Lauren stated and stood up to go over to the phone. It took about a half-hour, but she managed to get everything in place. Once she was finished, she turned to see Batista just coming out of the shower. Water was dripping from his bare chest, and a towel hanging on his shoulder. "I-I got the–the plans all set," she stuttered.
"Good. We better get dressed." Batista didn't seem all too happy about going back to RAW. They both packed and headed off to the airport. Batista noticed that Lauren seemed much quieter than usual, so he figured it would be better not to discuss his decision right then. "How's your head?" he asked.
"Fine." she bluntly replied.
"Is there something wrong?" he wondered.
"No, I'm–I'm just tired that's all," she said giving him a small, fake smile. Batista could see right through it, but decided not to push it.
"Okay then," he replied quietly. They got into their seats and simply slept the whole plane ride.
Lauren started having that weird dream of Snitsky again. This time as she called for Batista, Snitsky just laughed at her and grabbed her throat. "Too bad he's not here anymore!" Snitsky laughs and throws her out of the ring into an endless pit of darkness. Lauren jumped up panting as she abruptly awoke from her nightmare.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Batista asked waking up also.
"Just a bad dream, that's all," Lauren panted looking down at the floor. Before Batista could even ask again, the flight attendant announced that they had landed. Lauren wordlessly stood up, got her bags and got off the plane. She waited patiently for Batista to catch up. Batista noticed that she was a bit pale and her eyes were red.
"Lauren, what is it?" Batista whispered to her as they walked.
"It's nothing. Just one of those days, you know?" she chuckled lightly without even giving him a glance.
Batista had to find out what was really wrong with her. Of course, someone unwelcome at the moment decided to make a surprise visit.
"How's the Animal?" HHH laughed as he walked up and hugged Batista. "And my god, Vixen. You rocked! You were looking hot when you were holding that bat!"
"Thanks, H. Glad to see you noticed," Lauren chuckled, while gagging in her mind.
"Well, this week's the big week, huh Big Man?" HHH asked rubbing his hands together.
"Looks that way," Batista mumbled.
"What's wrong man?" HHH asked.
"Just tired man. Plus the food they had up there was terrible," Batista chuckled.
"Well we're going to fix that right now. We're all going out to eat, on me. Let's go!" HHH said and started walking out with everyone following.
Lauren had barely spoken a word all dinner, and had excused herself from the table. "I've gotta use the restroom too," HHH said and got up to follow her. "Hey Vixen! Wait up!" he called out and ran up to her.
"Yeah? What's up, Champ?" she sighed tiredly.
"What exactly happened on Smackdown? Did Batista seem to like it? Was he excited about being there or what?" HHH asked a bit too hopefully. Lauren didn't understand his anxiousness.
"I guess he liked it. The audience really seemed to like him though," Lauren replied. "He did tell me he made his final decision last night but–" Lauren was cut off by HHH grabbing her arm suddenly.
"He did? Well what did he say!" he asked.
"He–he didn't tell me exactly. You're hurting my arm, H!" she told him trying to pry from his grasp.
"Listen, if you ruined any chance of him going to Smackdown, you're going to regret it. If we want Evolution to be successful, he has to go to Smackdown understand?" HHH growled pulling her closer. Lauren just nodded, hoping he'd let go. HHH finally released her and straightened his coat as he walked back over to the table.
Lauren ran to the bathroom and made sure no one was there so she could cry. Tears flowed freely down her face. First I might lose Batista, now HHH is–god! When will it all end? Lauren calmed down and splashed water onto her face to make herself look presentable again. She put on a smile and walked over to the table with the rest of her 'team'. "Sorry if I took so long. You know the life of a girl," she giggled. She didn't even bother looking at them. She knew Batista was looking at her like he didn't believe her act, and HHH just glaring at her.
Once the dinner from Hell was over, Lauren quickly said goodnight and ran to her hotel room. She slammed the door, locked it, and cried in the safety of her own bed. Sleep easily claimed her as she dreamt again of the horrible nightmare. Lauren was standing in the middle of the ring, Batista was with her, but didn't acknowledge her. He walked up to a black table with two different contracts on it. One from RAW, one from Smackdown. Batista hurriedly signed one, then turned to look at her. A dark smirk crossed his face as he threw the signed contract to her. Lauren looked down to see Batista's signature written at the bottom of the Smackdown contract.
"No! Batista please! Stay with me!" Lauren cried trying to run to him, but never seemed to get any closer.
"Good luck," he said sarcastically and disappeared into the shadows.
Lauren woke up to her cell phone ringing. It was Batista. If I don't answer he'll probably come bust the door down or something. She reluctantly picked it up and answered it. "Hello?" she answered tiredly.
"Lauren? You all right?" Batista asked.
"Yes, yes, yes, and a thousand times, YES! I am just peachy! Goodnight to you!" she said louder than she intended and hung up. She turned off the phone and tried to go back to sleep. But the nightmare kept her from doing so. She looked to see that it was past midnight and had been sleeping since eight. Maybe walking around will help clear my head. Lauren shed the covers from her tired body, grabbed a long coat and started wandering the halls. Eventually, she made her way to the outside pool to just sit and think. Once she got there, she noticed that she wasn't the only one. "Stacy? Lita?" Lauren called out. The two divas turned form their positions in the pool chairs to face her.
"Vixen? What are you doing out here so late?" Stacy asked.
"I was just walking around. I couldn't sleep. Well I'll leave you guys alone. Goodnight," Lauren said and waved as she turned to leave.
"No! Come on and sit with us," Stacy smiled waving her over. Lauren smiled and sat next to them. "We never get much of a chance to talk girl talk so we meet out late while the guys are asleep. So what's been going on with you?" she asked.
"Nothing much. Just got back from being on Smackdown, and–" Lauren was cut off by a squeal from Stacy.
"That's right! You guys were awesome on Smackdown! We all watched, and you killed us with the way you talked back to JBL. Never knew you could be so vicious, Vixen!" Stacy laughed.
Lauren laughed with her as did Lita. "You can call me, Lauren. Anyways, I must say it felt pretty good."
"I'm going to go get us some drinks, then you can tell us all about Smackdown, okay?" Stacy asked. Lauren just nodded and watched as Stacy left into the lobby. Lauren then looked to Lita to see some bruises on her arms, and that she had tear stains on her face.
"Uh, Lita?" Lauren asked. Lita looked up at her, with a red mark on her cheek. "Lita! Oh my god, what happened?" Lauren ran to her side.
Lita just looked down again as she hugged herself. "Matt came by for a 'surprise' visit today. He's still pretty mad about me and Kane," she explained. "I'd never believe he'd hit me, let alone beat me like he did earlier today." Lauren was a bit surprised as to how open Lita was being with her, and they had only met that one time before tonight. Lauren sat next to her and hugged Lita to her while she cried on her shoulder. Stacy had returned with some water bottles and gasped at the sight.
"Lita what's wrong?" she asked in concern for her friend as she ran to them. Lita explained everything to Stacy as she did to Lauren. "I can't believe he did that! That bastard, I'm going to kick his sorry ass!" Stacy yelled.
"No offense Stacy, but I highly doubt you could," Lauren laughed trying to lighten the mood.
"That is hardly the point!" Stacy said pretending to be mad. They both succeeded in making Lita smile.
"Lita, does Kane know about what happened?" Lauren asked her.
"I'm afraid that he'll think I'm weak or something. Or maybe he'll be mad about me meeting with Matt," Lita said sadly.
"Lita, over the past few weeks Kane's only shown how much he cares about you. I think you should tell him. It's completely up to you though," Stacy said hugging Lita as well.
"But what will he say if I tell him?" Lita asked.
"I'll say that I'm going to kick his ass," a new deep voice stated. They all turned to see Kane standing there. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides, and he was definitely pissed. It was safe to say that both Stacy and Lauren were getting a little nervous. Lita however didn't fear him anymore and just looked ashamed of herself. She stood up onto her injured leg and limped over to her husband. Before she could say a word, Kane pulled her into his strong embrace against his chest, where Lita felt most at ease. "I wish you had told me before. I'll never think of you as being weak. When I woke up and you were gone, I got...worried," Kane explained. It was hard for him to admit that he had feelings. "So I went looking for you, when I overheard your conversation out here with Vixen and Stacy. Matt Hardy will pay, dearly," he growled. Lita just smiled at Kane's protectiveness of her.
"Thank you," she whispered. Kane simply kissed the top of her head. "I'm going to stay out here a little while longer if that's all right." Kane simply nodded and gently kissed her on the lips as he walked away. Lita limped back over to the girls with a small smile on her face. Stacy handed Lita her water while Lauren was taking a drink of hers.
"You know, you and Kane remind me of Lauren and Batista," Stacy stated, only to get squirted with Lauren's water shooting out of her mouth.
"What?" Lauren coughed.
"Well yeah. It's obvious you two have a thing for each other. I mean, you should've seen the look on his face when Snitsky went after you," Lita said. Lauren just bowed her head with a blush on her cheeks. "Which reminds me," Lita continued. Lauren lifted her head to face Lita. "I never did thank you for helping me that night. I really appreciate it. I don't know what would've happened if...you hadn't been there."
Lauren just smiled and put her hand on Lita's tattooed shoulder. "Don't worry about it. You probably would've done the same for me," she laughed. Lita and Stacy laughed with her as they talked about boys and shopping.
"Why don't we all spend the rest of the week together? I'm sure the guys won't mind if we take a little time off for ourselves," Stacy suggested.
"I'm in," Lita agreed.
"How about you, Lauren?" Stacy asked hopefully.
"Well, I don't know how HHH might feel about that," Lauren said sadly.
"Who cares what he thinks? If he threatens you just have Batista kick his ass," Lita said sounding more like her old self.
"Batista...I don't even know if he'll still be around after next week."Lauren said with a frown. Lita and Stacy both realized why she seemed a little down when she first arrived. They saw her earlier acting a little strangely around him and the rest of Evolution. "But you know what? I think a week with the girls is just what I need, let's do it!" she smiled.
"Now we're talking. Okay tomorrow is shopping spree, movies, makeovers, the works!" Stacy cheered. They all agreed and ended up saying goodnight to each other as they headed off to their rooms.
Lauren walked down the lonely hallway to her room, when she thought of what Lita and Stacy had said. Well, HHH is getting what he's asking for. I won't be here to hold Batista back from making his decision. Lauren walked into her room and drifted off to sleep, thinking about the days to come. It's going to be all about the girls this week. Hopefully it'll take my mind off of everything going on like HHH, Batista, the contract signing on Monday, Batista, and...Batista...
A/N: Okay, I KNOOOW! It's been forever since I've updated, I'm sorry! And I know this is just kind of a random chapter, but Lauren needed to make some friends. I'm all for the Kane/Lita pairing, so they will actually be in love in this fic, sorry. And sorry to Matt Hardy lovers. Stacy and Randy are also together, just to clear that up. The next chapter will also be a little random, but that is because I had to keep Lauren and Batista away from each other until RAW. Okay? You'll understand when I put up the next few chapters. Okay. Now I want to ask something...why did no one really review for my last chapter? There were a few that did, and I really appreciate it. But was it THAT bad? lol. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, and I will DEFINITELY be updating again soon. The next 2 chapters are already typed. Thanks again :)