Chapter XI: Collaborative Covert Operations
The General Manager of SmackDown! was sadly disappointed to learn that Eric Bischoff would not be available for RAW due to his hangover. She was looking to forward to hearing what Shawn Michaels had to say about the letter she had sent. It matters not, she thought, clicking off the show within the first few minutes. She would find another way to annoy him a later date and she was sure that would be soon.
Therese actually chose to miss the rest of the New Jersey-Ottawa playoff game to watch RAW when Austin ripped into Triple H about deserving to lose the belt to Kevin Nash the night before. She called Stephanie in the room when Bischoff did appear and they shared a laugh both times before Stephanie disappeared to begin conjuring her new plan. When Helmsley thought that he would pull off the night's title match by naming Ric Flair as his opponent, Therese was too interested to turn it, especially when Flair wasn't so keen on laying down for him. Besides, she knew Kevin was in attendance and was just waiting to see what trouble he was going to cause. As inevitable as the rising sun, Nash showed up in the ring in the main event. Steve Austin granted him a Hell in a Cell match at Bad Blood with The Game. Nash grinned the most evil smile that Therese had ever seen. Oddly, the smile and the evil gleam in his eyes turned her on. She couldn't believe herself and angrily clicked through the channels to see who had won the hockey match.
Kevin called immediately to see if she had been watching. They talked for a few minutes before he had to go to take care of something else at the arena. She had barely hung up when she heard Stephanie's phone go off.
"Shawn! Did you give it to him?" Stephanie immediately asked after the greetings.
"I didn't actually hand it to him. I'm sure you found out that he wasn't in the best of moods and I couldn't exactly talk to him. So, I slipped it in a pile of papers that an assistant brought in."
"So you don't know?" she sighed, the question being more of a statement.
"Oh, I know," Shawn confidently responded. "Were you watching when he blew chunks? It wasn't only the beer. He had just read your note."
"Really?" she almost squealed.
"I have my sources. Sweet, isn't it?"
Stephanie laughed. "If only I could have been there."
After their laughter died down, Shawn spoke again. "I hate to change the subject, but Kevin and I were talking. Therese has been a little tightlipped on things she likes. You're her close friend. Give us the lowdown."
Of all the things to ruin her night, she had to be talking about the one person she wished would disappear. "Well, she likes…" Oh, hell, I haven't a clue. I haven't even taken the time to find out any of this stuff. "Well, um, she's obsessed with the World Series and has to know the score every five seconds."
"Steph, the World Series isn't until October," Shawn bluntly remarked.
"Oh…then what is it?" she shot back.
"Does she watch hockey?"
"Yeah, that's it. I told you," the brunette answered.
"No, the World Series is baseball and the Stanley Cup is hockey," Shawn pointed out as if it didn't really matter, not wanting to hurt her feelings.
Then the light bulb went off. "God, I'm so stupid! Yeah, I knew that." Well, I didn't know that was what you call the hockey equivalent to the World Series.
"She got a favorite team in the play-offs?" Shawn continued, glossing over her mistake.
"The Rangers?"
He wasn't going to even bother to tell her that they didn't even have a chance this year of going to the finals. "What else can you tell me?"
"You watch hockey?" Stephanie wanted to change the subject quickly. She couldn't tell him a lot of what he was wanting and would rather have talked about him than anyone else. The diversion was successful and they talked for a while longer about his favorite sports teams.
On Tuesday, Stephanie received another call from Shawn. "We have a plan."
"We?"
"We have the perfect plan to get Therese to go out with Kevin," Shawn replied, sounding a little giddy with excitement as his brilliant idea.
"Give it to me." After a quick run-down, Stephanie replied, "Perfect. Now, what am I going to do all alone?"
"Well, you and I could go out," the wrestler commented as if the date would be a grocery run.
Exactly, she thought. "If you want to."
"Sure. We'll talk later. I've gotta go now." They hung up and Stephanie sighed. Now, how do I get out with Shawn and Therese not know about it? At the moment, it didn't matter, she would figure it out by next week.
The next evening, Therese had no idea what she had just accepted in the overnight package for Stephanie. She handed it to Stephanie as if it was nothing but junk mail. The dark-haired beauty disappeared with the package and made a quick phone call. Therese settled back into some work while watching what would become the Ottawa upset over New Jersey. She couldn't have had a clue how ironic "The Mission Impossible" theme was that was belting out from her cell phone. It was Kevin.
"Did Stephanie's package arrive?"
"Yeah, how do you know about that?" she asked with a crinkled brow.
"Go ask her about it," he urged.
"What?"
"Just go ask her about it," Kevin replied without trying to sound pushy.
Therese pushed the papers off her lap and headed for the door. Stephanie met her there. "I'm supposed to ask you about what came."
"Tell Kevin I've got it."
"She's got it, whatever that is. You know you can call her," Therese said as Stephanie held up a small, rectangular piece of stockcard.
"I have two tickets to the third game of the Stanley Cup," Kevin said with a smile, waiting to hear her gleeful answer.
It didn't come. "That's good. You'll have a great time, but I didn't know you were a hockey fan." Is he calling to gloat? Stephanie waved the stockcard in front of her face. Therese squinted focusing in on its print. It was indeed a ticket. Why did he send a ticket to her? He better have a good reason for dangling this in my face.
"I didn't tell you?" Kevin asked as if she should already know the answer.
"No. Interesting though. So who's your favorite team in the playoffs?" Therese wasn't buying it.
"Anaheim."
"Really? Mine too," Therese agreed, watching Stephanie tap the ticket in her other hand rather absentmindedly. "Are they your favorite team?"
"No, that's Atlanta."
"So you know who won the Calder Trophy last year?" Therese asked, baiting him.
"Um, yeah, that was…um…"
"Dany Heatley?" She asked, giving a hint to see if he recognized the name.
"Yeah, that's the guy. But what does that have to do the Thrashers?" Kevin sealed his doom with those words. Even Shawn groaned out loud enough for Therese to hear.
"Kevin! He is the best player for the Thrashers! You're not a hockey fan!" Stephanie fanned her face with the ticket and Therese's eyes followed every move the ticket made. "You have taken two tickets away from some die hard fan."
"Well, it would only be one fan since I need someone else to go with me," Kevin hinted again.
Yeah, that someone else should be me. She had never hated Stephanie more in her life. If it wasn't for babysitting her, she would be able to go to the Playoffs. "You mean Shawn can't go?" Stephanie flipped the ticket over and pretended to read the back. Stephanie waved it around and olive green eyes continued to follow. Stephanie thought she was going to laugh out loud at Therese's obvious desire for the ticket.
"My intention wasn't for Shawn to go. Get the ticket from Stephanie and look at it."
"Kevin wants me to look at it," Therese stated, holding her hand out.
Stephanie wasted no time and before commenting, "Don't drool on it."
"The seats are on the ice in the curve," Kevin pointed out. "See the seat numbers."
"You are kidding me! How did you get these?!" Therese didn't know whether or not to be angry at him for having swiped a diehard fan's dream or to be astonished at the fact that he had pulled it off.
"I have connections. Now, are you going with me or not?"
"Well, I…you know, Stephanie…and…"
"She said you could have the night off," Kevin cut her off before she could formulate an excuse.
"Hold on just a minute." Therese put her hand over the phone. "Stephanie, did you tell Kevin I could 'have the night off?'"
"We'll work it out. Just tell the poor man 'yes' before he has a heart attack." With that said, younger woman disappeared into her room.
"Okay, I'm back. Yes, I'll go." They talked for a few more minutes before ending the call. Therese was literally jumping on the bed with excitement. She actually had tickets to the Stanley Cup! She really couldn't explain it to Evan and he would probably be so jealous he wouldn't speak to her, so there was no one to tell.
Stephanie appeared at the door when she heard the commotion. "You like hockey that much?"
"How much do you like wrestling?" Therese asked, folding her arms across her chest and staring down at Stephanie from the bed.
"Enough to work in the business," she answered with a shrug. "Enough for it to be my life."
"Okay, if I could play hockey, coach, whatever hockey job you can name—including driving the zamboni and it putting food on the table for me and my brother, I would do it."
"What's a zamboni?" Therese just rolled her eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Stephanie was outraged at Vince blaming her for the "mistakes" of SmackDown! regarding Mr. America and his decree that he was taking over the show for the night. The only thing stopping her from storming down to the ring and telling him off was that he knew nothing about Zach Gowen's interview later on in the show. Her anger subsided when she convinced herself that there was nothing she could do about it since he was the boss. Deciding a little bit of water would do her good, she and Therese left the sanctuary of her office. Stephanie didn't back down when she saw her father coming down the hall. Her first thought was to let him pass by but changed her mind. She may not be in charge of the show at the moment but she was in charge of her life. "Dad, you okay?"
Those words opened up a spiel on his mania. She hated doing this to her father. She would prefer he get over his fixation and they could go back to when he had instituted her as general manager. Somewhere something had went wrong. She said she just wanted to make sure he knew what he was doing because he was acting out of control. The woman had often witnessed him devoid of his faculties and she didn't want to see it again. Then he stared her down and said he was obsessed with mistakes. The look in his eyes made her feel like he was calling her a mistake. That was enough. In that one moment, concern for her father evaded her. When she muttered "Great," she was saying that in more than one way. Now she would have to pull out all stops if necessary.
Even after their conversation in the corridor, Stephanie wasn't surprised that her father would go back out to the ring and demand an apology from Roddy Piper for not "getting the job done." No one was amazed when Sean O'Haire piped up that he would take on Mr. America to stop Piper and McMahon from fighting since he was at fault for the match at Judgment Day. He idolized Piper more than anyone really should. No one would be amazed if he walked in next week wearing a kilt. Stephanie would have protested the match, not the kilt, believing that Hogan needed the night off. However, the power wasn't available to her at the present and she hoped for the best—that Mr. America would wipe the mat with O'Haire. Since Piper would be fired if O'Haire lost, she had her fingers crossed that she would be waving 'goodbye' to Piper and maybe Vince would start to cool down.
The interview went well and provoked the sympathy for which she was looking. The young man had lost his leg when he was eight due to cancer. His mother was the only support he had because his father had bailed on him when he four. Now, as he is currently training as a wrestler, his dream was to be hired by the WWE. The fans would be behind him, which meant they would be behind Mr. America and not McMahon. The controversy would spark low ratings. For a moment, she almost felt guilty for setting up this charade just to invoke fan interest and to gain an advantage over her father's meddling. Gowen was what every underdog wanted to be. He was the fan living out the fan's dream. The audience would be eating out of her hand.
Stephanie was watching the monitor when Vince called out after Hogan and she flinched when the man responded although he was not supposed to be "Hogan" but "Mr. America." McMahon tried to add a provision to Mr. America's match with O'Haire—if he lost, he would submit to a lie detector test. If he didn't agree to this stipulation, Gowen would never have the opportunity to wrestle in WWE, or anywhere for that matter. Reluctantly, Hogan agreed.
Stephanie had full confidence in Hogan. She didn't however have full confidence in Hogan when he was outnumbered 3 to 2, an unseasoned kid aspiring to be a wrestler being the only one on his side. Vince stooped low by trying to arrest Gowen for criminal trespass and personal assault during the match and Hogan wouldn't stand for it. The consequence was a count-out for Mr. America. Now she was worried. One question next week would destroy what she had been working on for weeks. She would be made a fool and might as well kiss her job 'goodbye.'
The minute Hogan lost, Therese was pushing her to get ready to leave. Even though Stephanie was determined that no one would have the slightest inkling that she was so worried, Therese knew the brave front that was being put up. Determinedly packing her briefcase up, Stephanie brushed off any wrestler that approached her about a question. She smiled at them and told them to call her tomorrow. When Vince appeared across the parking lot in search of her, she pulled Therese into the limo behind her. "I refuse to listen to him gloat at this moment. I will deal with him next week," she bit out, jerking the door shut as Therese righted herself.
After calming down, Stephanie re-opened the leather case that held all her papers and straightened the ones that had been tossed in quickly. An envelope that had gone unnoticed before now caught her attention. Her fingers twitched as she nervously grasped the paper. Therese glanced up to notice Stephanie's pale face and shaking hands.
"Stephanie?" She didn't respond. Therese slid around the seat beside her. "Stephanie, is that another…" Stephanie gulped and slightly nodded. She held the unopened letter out. Therese took it from her and immediately opened it. The words were not as brutal this time. Actually, it was very simple. Yet, two sentences stood out: "Play your cards carefully. Those who play unfairly always get what's coming to them." Her job was not to figure out who the stalker was, just to keep the target safe. Yet, she knew she had figured out exactly who the person now was. Stephanie looked up at her with expectant eyes. "It's no different," she muttered. "I'll send this one back to the agency. Don't even worry about it." Stephanie's eyes gave her a sarcastic stare. "Well, do your best not to…Think about Shawn. That ought to do it." Stephanie just rolled her eyes.
Therese anxiously waited for Stephanie to disappear in her bathroom so she could call Aaron Pendleton. Stephanie did not need to know at this juncture who Therese thought the stalker was.
"There's another letter," she stated without emotion.
"Tell me everything," Aaron demanded, quickly pulling out paper and pen.
There wasn't much to tell. "I think it's Bischoff," she added.
"Don't jump to conclusions," her boss replied, dropping his pen.
"Think about it. Well, you can't. The letter before she came to us was a week after Steve Austin was named co-general manager. The next two came a week after she baited Bischoff."
"She did what?" Aaron exclaimed in question.
"She sent him a note on two separate occasions to rub in his misfortune…basically to piss him off. The letters came right after those. The first one mentioned a date she had gone on only in a RAW location—"
"We need to talk about that," the man interjected.
"Another time, okay? I know exactly what you are going to say and it won't happen again. Just listen to me." She continued on, walking over his interruption, "The second mentions something we had done after the pay-per-view that also included RAW."
"I'll pass everything on that you've said tomorrow morning."
"I have plans to handle this next week but I hope I will not have to keep making plans," she hinted at him to get this figured out and over with.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
TBC…
Author's Note: I am soooo sorry this has taken me so long to get posted. The semester is almost over but all the assignments are killing me. I have good news though. In two weeks, all of my finals will be over with and I will have over a month for holidays. Updates galore!