Stephanie poked her head out of the woman's bathroom and looked down the hall. First to the left, then the right. As she let the door close behind her, she pulled up her sweat shirt's hood to cover her face as she walked down the hall. Still looking around as she came upon her office, she glanced both directions real quick and turned the knob, rushing into the office and closing the door behind her quickly and locking it. Before she could breathe in relief, the lights flickered on. Startled, she jumped up, clutching her chest and turned around to see Chris Irvine smirking at her.
With a grunt, Stephanie pulled back her hood and glared at Chris. "What the hell are you doing in my office?"
"Waiting for you to show," he said. Still glaring at him, Stephanie walked around to her desk and opened her drawer. "You're not suppose to be here Stephanie."
"It is my office," she snapped.
Chris rolled his eyes. "You know damn well that your father said you are not to be working. That includes your office."
"Really?" she said snidely, raising her head. "I don't seem to recall him saying anything about my office."
"Stephanie," Chris said lowly. She slowly looked up at him and sighed.
"What do you want from me, Chris?" she asked, exhausted. "You know I cannot function normally without working. It's just not me."
"You almost got killed," he snapped. "Do you actually have to hurt real badly for you to realize how serious this is?"
"We're all at risk."
"Yeah, but you are more than us." Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Please, just do us this one favor, and go back home. Look, tonight's show is here anyways so you'll be close."
She nodded. "All the more reason for me to work anyways. I live here and the show is here tonight so they can just come to my house."
He shook his head. "No, your father already took care of everything. You'll have protection everywhere you do."
Stephanie raised her eyebrow as Chris opened the door. Snorting, she brushed past him, walking out, and muttered, "You're an ass."
"They suspended me!" Stephanie yelled into the phone.
"Okay, Steph," Trish said on the other line. "One, ow! Two, I am your friend…"
Stephanie sighed. "You're right. Sorry."
"Look honey, what do you expect? You're family is worried about your safety."
"Fine, but why take me away from where protection is anyways?" she argued.
"Look, I don't agree with their methods, Steph," Trish replied. "But it doesn't mean that I don't see their point. And it's first and foremost your safety. It's just like a little vacation."
"Except I have to look both ways every single day."
"Yeah," Trish said softly. "Look, after the show Amy and I will stop by and we'll stay for the night. What'd ya say?"
"You don't have too…"
"Is John coming over?"
"I don't think so…"
"Okay!" Trish squealed. "It'll be a girl's night!"
Stephanie couldn't help but laugh. "Okay. I'll see ya later."
Once she hanged up with Trish, Stephanie walked into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of wine. Pouring herself a glass, she walked into the living room where her big screen television was, as Raw began to air. Already missing it, she sighed heavily, and drank her glass of wine just to pour another.
"It feels different without Steph here," Levesque said.
"It's for the best," John mumbled.
Paul cocked his eyebrow as they walked together in the back heading to the locker room. "Are ya trying to convince yourself of that or do you really mean it?"
John looked at him. "I really mean it," he said as he opened the door. "The last thing I want to happen is to be worried about her being here. ECW is only a town away so you know he's here."
Paul nodded and patted him of the back. "Look, he won't get away with it, alright?"
John nodded as Randy and Adam walked in and greeted them. As the three were talking, John opened his phone but didn't see any messages or missed calls. Sighing, he threw the phone in his bag and walked out.
As Raw came back from commercial, Stephanie was lying down on the couch, drifting off to sleep when something suddenly caught her eye. Gasping, she sat up and narrowed her eyes, rubbing them, and saw as the camera cut back to the angle. She quickly snatched her cell phone and dialed a number. Pressing it to her ear, she paused the television as the call connected.
"Hello?"
"Susan," Stephanie said quickly, and loudly.
"Miss McMahon?"
"Yeah, put Mike on."
"Which one?"
"Johnson." After a few seconds a man's voice answered. "Mike, do me a favor. Are you in the control room?"
"Yeah," he said. "What's up Steph?"
"Replay the last minute of camera five."
Doing so, he asked, "What's this about?"
"Pause it and look in the upper right corner of the screen."
He leaned forward. "What am I looking for?"
"That man in the white shirt," Stephanie said, looking at him. "Holding the poster." Mike's eyes widened. "The one that says ECW killed WWE…"
"Yeah…" Mike leaned in closer and saw a picture of Stephanie with a large X slashed across it next to a picture of Batista, the same way.
"Mike…" Stephanie said worried.
"I got it, Steph," he said as he hanged up the phone and jumped out of the trailer, running into the arena. As he ran inside, he ran up to the crew. "Go on commercial and me the security team down here." He pointed to someone else. "You, lockdown the arena. Someone get me Vince!"
As Randy, Adam and Paul stepped out of the locker room, they saw John and Steve walking up to them from the opposite direction, then they heard shouting and saw Vince coming from the back entrance. As they all met in the middle, security guards ran past them.
Steve shot Vince a look. "What's the big hurry?"
"We supposedly got a tip on someone in the building," he answered.
Adam raised his eyebrows. "Be vaguer, will you?"
Vince shot him a look as Mike approached them, and behind him to guards holding a man. Mike handed Mr. McMahon a poster. "Take a look at this."
Rising an eyebrow, he did, and his eyes widened. Seeing his reaction, the other five leaned over and gasped in shock. On it, was a graphic image of Paul Heyman injuring Batista. Beside that, was a picture of Stephanie's ruined BMW. On the bottom were the pictures of Dave, Stephanie, Adam, Trish, Linda, Paul, Randy, Amy Shane, John, and Vince. The first two had a big red X across them and beneath that were the words, WWE falls.
"Oh my god," Adam muttered. "What fuck sicko…?"
"This is more serious than we thought," Randy mumbled.
Vince looked up from the poster at the man they cuffed. "You did this?" he asked. The man said nothing, just stared at him. "I asked you a fucking question!" Vince yelled, getting in his face. He only laughed.
Just as Vince was about to strangle him, they heard tires squealing. All men turned around to see a black Mercedes pull up beside them. Shutting off the car, Stephanie stepped out, and Vince sighed. "God damn it…Stephanie, why can't you just stay home?"
She glared at him. "Because I called this in," she said, looking at the man.
"You did?" Steve asked.
Stephanie nodded. "I noticed the poster watching the show," she said, seeing the poster on the floor.
"What'd you want to do, Steph?" Mike asked.
Stephanie's eyes glowed in excitement.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Chris exclaimed.
"What's wrong with it?" Stephanie demanded, placing her hands on hips.
Seeing her glare, Chris swallowed hard. "You're gonna destroy an innocent man out there?"
"No," Stephanie shook her hand. "He's not innocent, and we're not going to hurt him…too badly."
Chris smirked at Stephanie. "God I miss your schemes."
She raised her eyebrow. "Weren't you just yelling at me?"
"No."
She smiled at him and playfully hit him in his arm. He grinned at her as his music hit. Stephanie turned around and looked at the determined faces of John, Adam, Randy, Paul and Steve. As Chris stepped out, Vince came up behind Stephanie and whispered to her, "Make sure they make a statement."
She nodded. "They will." As she turned around to follow her father, she grabbed Steve's arm. "Make sure he bleeds, badly."
He smirked as they walked away and they watched Chris grab the mic in the ring. As the fans quieted, Chris rolled up his sleeves. "It seems," he began. "That Heyman and the ECW think they can do whatever they please on my show. They can scare us, ambush us, sneak onto our show and run their mouths, jump our workers and stars outside the arena and try to run over the owner's daughter in her car." The fans booed and Chris raised his hand. "That's okay because you know what? We survived all that. And tonight, we're going to prove a point." Turning to the ramp, he yelled out, "Bring him out!"
Steve came out in his truck with John and the others following. As he stopped and got out, Adam grabbed the man from the bed and tossed him out. The man hit the ground, groaning, and Paul grabbed him by his cuffs and threw him into John, who grabbed his shirt and tossed him in the ring. As the others entered, Steve began to pace as Paul kicked the man down.
Chris pointed down at him. "This right here is what we're talking about. Heyman…you know who this is. I know you do, because right now you're sitting in your hotel, your jaw to the floor, going 'oh shit'." Lowering the mic, Chris pointed to him and Randy grabbed the man, propping him to his knees as Chris got in his face. "Anything you have to say?" When the man said nothing, Chris hit him with the mic and the others then began to pound on him. Steve, who had gotten out of the ring, tossed a chair to John. After Randy hit him, both Steve and John rushed the man and hit him in the head on either side of his head with the chair. Paul kicked him in his stomach then delivered the pedigree. The fans cheered their approval as Adam threw him out of the ring and bounced his head off the post, which was now bleeding profoundly. Steve pointed to John, and then the car as Adam flipped him onto the hood. Jumping up, John grabbed the man and put him on his shoulders. With a set, determined look, he hit the FU on him, shattering the window as the man fell threw it. The arena exploded as John's music hit after a few minutes and the six men looked as the unconscious man as he laid half in the truck and half out. The camera man panned on the image closely, seeing all the blood, as the wrestlers walked to the back slowly, hearing the fans approval.