Disclaimer: You should know this by now, but I own nothing, only the few OC's that randomly appear in this story.
A/N: So I'm going to be really busy in the upcoming week, which means that I'll have less time to write the next chapter, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll be able to post it late next week, or next weekend, but it may end up being posted the following week. Sorry!
"Where were you two? You're going out in a few minutes and we've been trying to find you for the past ten!" An employee that Jeff recognized as Mark Greene snapped as the two brothers walked over to wait until they needed to head out.
"Sorry Mark. We were busy and had lost track of time. Won't happen again," Matt said.
Mark snorted. "Yeah, sure," he muttered as he walked away. "I've heard that one before…"
Jeff leaned in toward his brother slightly. "Do you think he's a suspect? He seemed fairly angry with me and ruining my career would be a good way to get revenge on me nearly worrying him to death each week." His voice was quiet, but completely serious, the slight grin on his face the only sign he was joking.
"No, if you had been paying close attention to his face you would've noticed that he wasn't as angry as he had led us to believe," Matt replied, choking back a laugh and also trying to keep his voice quiet.
Jeff finally burst out laughing. "Man, you've been reading too much Sherlock Holmes recently!" He said. "C'mon, picking up clues from his facial expressions? That's a bit too much detective work for me."
"Jeff, Matt, get over here so you can go out!" Mark yelled at them before Matt could reply to his brother.
Not even five seconds after they had reached Mark their music started up and it was time for them to head out. We really were cutting it close today. We'll have to remember to give ourselves more time to get ready next time, Jeff thought as he followed his brother out to the top of the ramp. He didn't pay much attention to his standard routine on his way to- and once he reached- the ring; he was too busy trying to remember the information they had gotten, in hopes that he would be able to convincingly play everything by ear and not screw everything up.
He jumped off the turnbuckle, walked over to the side, and grabbed the microphone that was held out for him. He waited for Matt to join him in the center of the ring with his own microphone before he started to talk. "You know, when you're stuck at home for a couple of months, you tend to do a lot of thinking," he began. "For example, I thought about what it would be like when I could finally return to the ring and kick Orton's ass!" The crowd cheered and Jeff paused for a moment, listening to the support he was receiving with a small smile on his face. "As you know though, that's not exactly how everything worked out." Jeff turned slightly and motioned towards the Titantron where a video recap of what had happened to him last week was shown.
The crowd was booing loudly by the time the video was done and Matt had to choke back a small laugh before he continued speaking from where his brother had left off. "Vince, being his usual unhelpful self, has still refused to tell us anything else about the whole situation so Jeff and I have decided to take matters into our own hands and look into this ourselves."
Jeff grinned as he saw the list of notes his brother pulled from his pocket; he wouldn't have to do everything from memory after all. He grabbed the list from Matt and began scanning it. "Let's see what our fellow wrestlers think, shall we? Hmm… Jericho was overheard saying how much he hated me- though honestly, this is Jericho we're talking about; I think he hates everyone." He laughed and read the next note on the list. "Edge was upset I took him out of the Money in the Bank ladder match? C'mon, that was nearly two years ago!"
Jeff crumpled the list up into a ball and tossed into a corner of the ring. "Okay, I don't know who that information was from, but seriously, I think someone-" He turned slightly to jokingly glare at his brother. "-is going to need to sort through the information a little bit better before we come out here. I mean, come on, we aren't going to get anything done if we use outdated information!"
Matt chuckled. "Sorry, don't know how that ended up on the list," he said. "Though now that we're without any valid information to share with you guys, would you mind if we brought someone out to question?" The crowd cheered loudly, causing Matt to grin at the noise. "Guess that's a yes. So, how about whoever wants to come out and talk just come out now?"
There was a pause for a moment before the start of Orton's music was heard. Matt leaned closer to his brother and said, just loud enough for him to hear, "I arranged for him to come out earlier, in case we didn't have enough info. It's just going to be setting up for your match later tonight, since it hasn't been officially announced yet." Jeff nodded, but didn't answer.
It didn't take long for Orton to reach the ring and as soon as he had entered he said, "I'm not out here to help you two find the person who did this to you, but if I were it would only be so I could thank them!" He ignored the sounds of protest coming from the crowd and continued as if he didn't even hear them. "To be perfectly honest with you, they had a brilliant idea, taking away all of little Jeff's most effective moves- all out of concern for his health, of course."
The mocking, sarcastic tone in his voice obvious and it took everything Jeff had not to attack him then and there, despite the fact that he knew Randy was just playing his character. "You make it sound like it's something you would've come up with, Orton," he said, trying to keep his tone casual. He was carefully studying the man he would be facing later that night to see if he could pick up any hints that he might have been the one behind everything, though to be honest he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be looking for.
Randy frowned slightly, obviously picking up on the fact that Jeff honestly wanted to know if he came up with the idea. "If you're expecting me to break down and tell you that I'm behind it, you're about to be sorely disappointed, Hardy," he snapped. "I wasn't the one who came up with the idea, even if I do wish I had!"
Jeff couldn't tell whether Randy was lying or not, but he didn't let that discourage him. He took a step closer to Orton and said, "Though I'm sure you'd say that even if it was your idea." His voice was slightly colder now, but still relatively under control.
Matt stepped between the two of them as Randy scowled and started towards Jeff. "Now, now, you two, let's just stop for a moment and think about this."
"Back off, Matt, this doesn't concern you!" Randy snarled.
"Don't you dare talk to Matt that way!" Jeff yelled.
"And if it concerns Jeff, it concerns me!" Matt yelled as well.
The whole situation probably would've turned into a fight- not that any of them would've minded too much- when the sound of someone yelling over a microphone caused them to stop.
Standing at the top of the ramp was Vince McMahon, looking absolutely furious. "Stop it!" He yelled. "Damnit, I said stop it!" When he saw that the small group in the ring had actually stopped he continued talking. "Now, Jeff, Randy, I know you two have had… problems… in the past. Therefore, I think it's only fair if tonight it's Jeff Hardy against Randy Orton!" The crowd cheered at this announcement, causing Vince to smile smugly, looking extremely pleased with himself.
"Now, Matt," he continued once the noise had died down slightly. "Despite what you said earlier, what concerns Jeff does not always concern you. You can continue to help your brother attempt to find out who suggested the idea to me, but you will not be involved in his match tonight. Instead, you will have a match of your own- against Umaga!"
Jeff jumped slightly at the news; he didn't know that Matt had had a match that night. He glanced over at his brother and saw that he wasn't surprised by the news, which only confirmed his suspicions that Matt knew about the match but didn't tell him. For a moment he was slightly upset that Matt hadn't told him about it, but he brushed those feelings aside. He had probably just been distracted and forgot to tell him about it; it wasn't anything to get worked up about.
As soon as they were back stage Matt turned to him, a sheepish smile on his face, and started to apologize. "Jeff, I'm sorry for not telling you I was fighting Umaga tonight. It was a last-minute thing and I was busy trying to help you interview people before we needed to go out there tonight…"
Jeff laughed, which seemed to startle his brother slightly. "Matt, calm down man, its fine," he said. "I know you were busy and besides, it's not like you always have to tell me everything. It's no big deal." He stretched, his back cracking slightly; although his back was completely healed it tended to become rather stiff if he stood for awhile without doing anything. "When's your match?" He asked.
"Right before yours," Matt answered.
"Then I'll go down there with you for your match and obviously stay there once it's done to fight Orton," Jeff told him.
"I'll stay for your match, too," Matt said. "Vince never said I couldn't be at ringside with you."
Jeff frowned. "Matt, you don't need to do that." It wasn't that Jeff didn't want his brother there, but Matt was going to be exhausted after fighting Umaga, especially since Jeff doubted that the match had been planned with him as the winner.
"I know, but I'm going to stay out there anyway," Matt said, his voice almost obnoxiously cheerful. Jeff scowled at him; he was starting to become frustrated with how his brother would always worry about him, but then seem to not care about himself at all. He didn't get a chance to point this fact out, though, because at that moment Orton came over and interrupted their conversation.
"Hey, can I talk to you two for a moment?" He asked. Without waiting for a reply he continued talking. "Look, I understand what you two are doing and, despite what I said out there, I honestly hope you find the guy because he definitely went too far, but you guys need to calm down a little. Not everyone's going to be happy with you interrogating them and all but accusing them of being behind this, but even that won't necessarily mean that they're guilty."
Jeff glared at him as he walked off, practically shaking with rage. "Calm down?" He hissed. "Calm down!? He has no idea what the past week has been like for me and he's trying to tell me that I need to calm down a little!"
Matt was sorely tempted to tell his brother that he did need to calm down- because at this point he honestly did- but he knew that the words would only upset and anger Jeff even more. Unfortunately he didn't know what he was supposed to tell Jeff at this point, so he let him continue his angry rant for a little while longer. Finally his brother paused for a moment, allowing Matt the opening he needed to ask, "Are you done yet or do you still have more to say?"
"Shut up, Matt!" Jeff snapped. Matt took a step back, slightly hurt and more than shocked at the anger in his brother's voice. Jeff noticed this and froze. "Oh god, Matt, I'm so sorry!" He said quietly. "I didn't mean to snap at you! It's just… the past week has been rough and we still don't know anything and then Orton comes along and I guess I just snapped- literally." He smiled weakly at Matt, trying to dispel some of the awkwardness that had settled between them.
Matt smiled at his brother; although he was still a bit hurt by Jeff's reaction he could understand why he had snapped and didn't really blame him for it. "Its fine, Jeff," he said. "No big deal." He repeated the words Jeff had said to him earlier, though in a paraphrased version, hoping that, like his brother earlier, he sounded like the whole matter didn't bother him at all. And, again just like Jeff earlier, he quickly turned the conversation away from their current topic. "So we still have some time left before our matches and I was thinking…"
XXXXX
The Hardys stumbled backstage after Jeff's match, both of them more tired and exhausted than they would like to admit. Most of Matt's match had been dominated by Umaga and, while everything was planned and carefully pulled off, it still hurt like hell to go through with the match. While Jeff's match against Orton had been more of a back and forth fight between the two of them the ending was still painful.
He had climbed up to the top turnbuckle as planned. Matt had quickly caught on with what was going to be happening and he was frantically yelling at Jeff to get down and not risk his career. In the background Jeff could hear JR and Lawler commentating in the background, asking the usual questions- what he was doing, if he was going to do a Swanton, was he risking his career?- and with Orton just starting to get up the scene was nearly a perfect recreation of the night he had made his back injury even worse.
Jeff's thought had started to wander back to that night and he found himself wondering whether it would be worth it to do a Swanton or, if like that night, it would only cause more trouble than it was worth. He hadn't been paying close attention to what was going on until Orton was in front of him and he was pushed back off the turnbuckle. Normally he would've made sure to land a certain way so he wouldn't get hurt but he was distracted and instead the fall was more painful than it should've been.
Although he knew going into it that the match was going to end with Orton coming out as the victor he still didn't like it. He really didn't like it, especially not with Matt losing right before him. It didn't sit well with him that the Hardyz should both lose in separate matches in the same night, but unfortunately it seemed like it would be like that for awhile. Matt had told him earlier that there was a chance that he would be starting a small feud with Vince, which means that Matt would be put in more matches against people like Umaga or else have be at a disadvantage during the match, all of which would result in him losing.
Jeff knew that he needed to get use to the idea of neither of them winning for awhile but he didn't want to. He didn't want to just calmly accept their defeats like he was supposed to be calm about everything else that was happening. No, like everything else he was going to fight through it.
Just because he had to lose in the ring didn't mean he had to accept defeat outside it.