Disclaimer: Me no own.
A/N: So, as promised, here's the next chapter! I know, I know- this is a record, isn't it? Two chapters, in one month? –gasp- Also, remember this takes place before this year's draft, which also means that certain people haven't been fired yet.
Matt walked out of Mr. McMahon's office, his face grim. "He wants to talk to you now," he said to his brother.
Jeff grimaced. "Is he pissed?"
Matt hesitated, and then shrugged. "He's pretty upset, more because he thinks you've made a whole mess out of the scenario, but he'd rather not fire you if he can help it."
Jeff sighed. "Guess I'd better get in there and get this over with then," he muttered. "Wish me luck." He opened the door and walked inside.
Mr. McMahon looked up from where he had been writing something on a piece of paper and just pointed to the chair in front of his desk. Jeff sat down and chose not to say anything until Mr. McMahon asked him something; he didn't want to upset his boss anymore then he already was.
Finally, Mr. McMahon set down his pen and looked at Jeff. "I won't lie to you, you've really complicated things," he said. "Either way, we can't just let you come back to TV. I've already told everyone that if you did one of your moves you'd be fired." Jeff's heart sank, but he didn't say anything.
He continued talking. "I'd rather not have to do that, but our options are limited now. I think- and the writers agree- that it would work best to play this out like you're suspended. The problem would be finding a way so you become suspended instead of just fired. You created this problem, you solve it. What do you think we should do now?"
Jeff hadn't been prepared for that and he needed to think about it for a little while before he answered. "What if, next week, during the time when we usually talk Matt comes out and says something to the effect of either you rehire me or you won't have a show to run anymore. The following week most of the guys could back out of matches and then, at the end of the show, Matt comes out with everyone who'd be threatening to quit if you don't rehire me. You'd come out and say that you'll rehire me, but I'll be suspended until Wrestlemania. At Wrestlemania we'll proceed as planned with one twist- if Matt and I can't name the person who suggested this, I'll be fired again."
Mr. McMahon thought about it for a moment before nodding. "That should work," he said slowly. "I think we had had an idea awhile ago to do something to that effect if you did a Swanton or anything. I'll just run it by the writers and let them work out the details. Have Matt write me a list of people he'd think would work for the strike, though. You two have run this so far; you might as well continue" He picked up his pen and began taking notes on what Jeff had said. "You're free to go."
Jeff stood up and was halfway to the door when Mr. McMahon said, "Oh, and Jeff? If you do something like that again you will be fired." Jeff winced, but didn't say anything. He knew he was lucky that all Vince was doing was "suspending" him until Wrestlemania; he didn't want to say anything that would cause him to change his mind.
Matt was waiting for him outside Mr. McMahon's office when he came out. "What did he say?" He asked. "You aren't actually fired… are you?"
Jeff shook his head, grinning as he saw his brother literally sag with relief. "No. He wants me off TV until Wrestlemania, though, and you're going to have quite a bit of work cut out for yourself…"
"That's alright," Matt said as the two of them began walking down the hall. "What exactly is going to be happening?"
"Well, next week you need to go out at our usual time and basically say that if Vince doesn't rehire me he won't have a show to run anymore. The following week the writer's are going to arrange to have various guys- and Divas, I guess- skip out on their matches. At the end of the show you come out, introduce a whole mess of people- by the way, Vince wants you to give him a list of people for that part- and say that all of them will quit unless I'm rehired," Jeff explained.
"I'm assuming that, after that, Vince'll come out and say that he'll rehire you, so they don't quit?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, basically."
Matt nodded slowly. "So how does that work into you staying off TV until Wrestlemania?"
"When he comes out he's going to say that he'll rehire me, but I'll be suspended until Wrestlemania. At Wrestlemania everything will proceed as planned, except that instead of my moves being banned if we can't figure out who did this, I'll be fired again," Jeff told him.
"You weren't kidding when you said that I'm going to have my work cut out for me," Matt said. "You planning on helping me with any of this?"
"'Course I am," Jeff said with a chuckle. "If I left you to do this alone you'd screw it all up!"
Matt spluttered indignantly and shoved his brother. Jeff just laughed and pushed him back. Soon enough the two of them were mock-fighting in the middle of the hallway. At least this time we're just fighting for fun…
XXXXX
"So, who're we putting on this list?" Matt asked later that night. He was sitting at the small table in his hotel room, idly twirling a pen in his hands, while Jeff was sprawled out across the bed.
"Mm, Shawn and Hunter, for sure," Jeff said. "Or at least Shawn. After they had the whole storyline where Shawn stood up for me when I was gone he has to be on the list."
Matt wrote down one name, presumably Shawn's, hesitated for a moment, then wrote down the other. "I was thinking maybe some of the Diva's," he said. "Maria, Candice, Mickie, and some of the others, maybe." He scribbled down the names as he talked. "Cena, maybe, as well… and Paul London and Brian Kendrick…Kennedy…"
"What about adding people from ECW and Smackdown?" Jeff interrupted. "I mean, it would have a bigger effect if the entire business, not just one show, would theoretically be affected."
"Good point… so what about Batista, Rey Mysterio, Finlay and Hornswoggle, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Jimmy Wang Yang, Shannon, obviously, Evan Bourne over on ECW, CM Punk, and Kofi Kingston." Matt wrote down the names. "That'll give us…twenty or so people. I don't know if that'll be enough, but the writers might add some more as well."
Jeff nodded. "And even just twenty might be enough, since losing that many people at once would be a believable blow to the company."
Matt read through the list one more time before folding it in half and sticking it in his pocket. "So what exactly are you going to be doing for the next four weeks or so until Wrestlemania?" He asked.
"I don't know," Jeff said truthfully. "I don't want you to have to deal with by yourself, so I'll probably stay on the road with you so I can help you out."
Matt shook his head. "You don't have to. You can go back home, if you want. You should get caught up on your rest; you've been running yourself into the ground recently."
Jeff snorted. "And you haven't been?"
Matt laughed. "Alright, fine. We've both been running ourselves into the ground trying to figure out who started everything, but that doesn't mean that you should still have to deal with our hectic tour schedule if you don't have to."
"I'm still not leaving you to deal with my problem," Jeff said. "If I stay with the rest of the brand I can do the boring stuff like going through notes while you're at shows, so you don't have to do it later. Since I won't actually be wrestling I won't be as exhausted and that way it'll be one less thing for you to worry about."
Matt was taking awhile to think about it so Jeff continued. "Look, you can't force me to leave. I'll stay around whether or not you want me to and you can't stop me from going through our notes either. So you might as well just agree with my plan."
Matt sighed, but he wasn't angry or annoyed with his brother. "Alright," he said. "We'll do it your way."
XXXXX
They wouldn't be able to give Vince the list until before Monday's show and, since they couldn't work on the exact details of their course of action until they had the list finalized, there wasn't anything else they could do to prepare for the next episode. Yet for the first time neither of them really wanted to sort through information either. They had more important things to worry about for the next two weeks- such as making Jeff's departure from TV actually plausible. They would still have two weeks to work after that which, admittedly, was cutting it close but they would make it work.
True to his word Jeff did stay with his brother and the rest of the Raw roster, despite the fact that he wasn't going to be appearing on TV for four weeks. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to avoid his coworkers- and their questions- forever so instead of avoiding them so he wouldn't have to discuss what was going to happen next both him and Matt hung out with them so they could answer most of their questions at once. Neither of them wanted a repeat of what happened after Jeff got injured when they had to individually tell everyone what had happened.
Luckily for them, they only had to explain what was going to happen to a few larger groups of people. They didn't get a chance to mention it to everyone, but they were hoping that those people would tell others, so they wouldn't have to be constantly telling others what was going to happen.
They were heading back to Matt's room to make a few revisions to the list when they heard someone behind them call out, "Matt! Jeff!"
They stopped and turned around to see Shawn coming their way.
"Hey, Shawn," Jeff said as he joined them. "Let me guess, you want to know what Matt and I are going to do because of my Swanton last week."
Shawn grinned. "I take it you've been explaining things to people all day?"
"Basically. We've talked to two or three groups of people and we're hoping that the others will find out by word of mouth so we don't have to explain it to everyone."
"Sounds like a good plan," Shawn said, still grinning. "Would you mind explaining it to me or should I find out by word of mouth too?"
Jeff laughed. "No, we'll explain it to you." He quickly gave Shawn the watered down version of events that they had been explaining to others.
When he had finished Shawn was quiet for a few moments, nodding slowly to himself. "It sounds like would work," he finally said. "But have you thought about putting one or two people- besides you, Matt- in charge of the strike, or whatever it is? It might be more believable if someone besides Jeff's brother showed a strong desire to help, instead of just being there, you know?"
"I'd love to," Shawn said. "You should probably let Vince know what you want to do first, though. Let me know what Vince says about it before that show."
Matt and Jeff nodded and, after exchanging the usual goodbyes, Shawn left, leaving the two of them alone. Matt sighed. "Let's just hope that Vince is alright with our plans..."
XXXXX
Vince set down the list that Matt and Jeff had come up with and looked at the two of them. "I thought that this was just going to stay on Raw," he said. "Considering that everything the two of you have done so far has been contained to the one show."
"Well, we figured that it would have more of an impact if we including the possibility of people on the other two brands walking out as well," Matt explained. "It makes it seem like more of a believable impact on the company that way."
Vince nodded. "That is true… And you were thinking about having Shawn and Hunter be the spokesmen for this strike, so to speak, is that correct?"
"Yes sir," Jeff said. "This way they people who're threatening to quit play a larger role then just standing around in the ring while Matt talks."
"I see…" Vince read through the list again, while Matt and Jeff waited nervously to see what he would say about it. "I like it," he finally said. Matt and Jeff breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll pass it onto the writers to see what they say about it, obviously, but it looks like we're going with this. Matt, that means you need to set things in motion tonight, and Jeff, just make sure no fans see you." The two of them nodded and quickly left the room.
"Well that didn't go too bad," Jeff said as they walked down the hall. "I mean, he could've completely rejected the list or something; at least he didn't do that."
Matt chuckled. "Yeah, that is true," he admitted. He stretched and said, "Well, I'm supposed to start the show tonight, so we should probably head over there, so I'm ready to go out."
"Do you have a match tonight?"
Matt shook his head. "Not that know of, anyway, though I think it would screw up the whole lead-in to the strike if I did, you know?"
"Yeah, guess I didn't think about that…" Jeff said. The two of them continued to chat for awhile until Matt finally got the signal that he was going to be going out soon.
"Good luck," Jeff said. "I'll be watching from back here."
Matt's music came on, so he just nodded, smiled at his brother, and went out to start off the show. The crowd was deafening as he made his way to the ring. He grabbed the microphone, paused for a moment to listen to the various chants that had started up, and said, "I've had a pretty rotten week. Let's just say it started with bad and, somehow, still managed to become worse." He motioned to the Titantron where the clip of Jeff doing his Swanton and being forced away by the security guards was playing.
He continued talking before the crowd became too loud for him to get anything in. "So we start off with Jeff being unfairly fired. Then I spend the entire week trying to get in touch with Mr. McMahon to see if he'd change his mind, but Mr. McMahon refused to talk to me. So here I am, publicly demanding that you not fire my brother, and I will not leave this ring until you get down here and talk to me!"
The crowd went wild at his words and everyone was looking towards the top of the ramp, waiting for Mr. McMahon to come out, but he didn't. Matt paced back and forth in the ring, occasionally looking back up there, but still no Mr. McMahon. "I'm serious, Vince, I am not leaving until you let my brother stay in the company and if that means that there aren't any matches tonight, then so be it!"
There was a brief pause, during which only the cheers from the crowd could be heard and then his music came on and Mr. McMahon walked out. The crowd began booing him and screaming at him, with some people chanting, "Bring back Jeff! Bring back Jeff!"
Vince ignored them and said to Matt, "Now, you know as well as I do that I can't do anything about Jeff. I did warn him that he'd lose his job if he didn't follow what I said, and true to my word, I fired him."
"Then rehire him!" Matt yelled.
"I can't do that either."
"Then I'm not leaving this ring at all tonight," Matt said.
Vince chuckled. "See, I thought you'd say that, so I'll make you a deal. Either you leave the ring on your own and keep your job or you're carried from the ring and you get fired like your brother." A team of security guards came out and stood in a row behind him. "What's it going to be, Matt?"
"How about I make you a deal? I leave this ring voluntarily and you have one week to rehire my brother," he said.
"I run this show," Vince snarled. "I don't have to listen to you."
"You have one week to rehire my brother," Matt repeated. "Or you won't have a show to run anymore!"