Author's Notes: The first part of this is for a promise I made to Shannon1979 in Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXVI: Who Can You Count On?
Therese stepped between Stephanie and her father but Vince ordered her out of the way. She steeled herself and slowly replied, "What are you going to do? Hit me too."
"You got it," he evilly smiled and slapped her. With that out of the way, she punched at him but he deflected the blow. She threw a few more to distract him before she kicked him in the knee and then in the stomach. He doubled over and she shoved him towards the desk. Stephanie watched in awe as the other woman leveled him with a kick to the face when he straightened up from tumbling over the desk and then another to the back of his head to be sure he wasn't getting up.
Therese bent over to where he lay on the floor, struggling to get up. She sweetly smiled and said, "Report me and I'll claim self-defense. You did hit me first." She stood back up and turned around. "Do you need your office, Miss McMahon?" The GM nodded and Therese stared down at Vince. "I am a distant relative of a crime boss. I wouldn't attempt anything because he won't stop where I did. Now, pick yourself up and get out of this room."
Vince was still reeling from the fact that a woman had just kicked his ass. As he stood, he thought about how he would get her back, crime boss or not. "When I'm done with Zach Gowen, I will come after you," he growled, pointing a finger at her.
"Please do," she replied with a self-satisfied smiled as the door slammed shut.
"Are you really kin to a crime boss?" Stephanie asked, rubbing her cheek from where he had hit her.
"No, but he doesn't know that," she laughed and the other woman joined her.
"How are you going to handle him?" Stephanie asked, sitting down at her desk.
"I don't plan on it because I have an idea that I want to run by you. What if we tried to lure the stalker out?" Therese asked as the brunette checked the papers on her desk.
"But that means I would have to be alone and risk the chance…" she trailed off as she opened a card that she pulled from an envelope. "It's from the stalker but this one's different," she whispered and held out the card, the paper rattling from her trembling hand.
Therese took it from her and read over it. The message written inside was a simple sympathy note at first but then took a turn about how the author could make it better in a sexual sense. "We have to draw him out," Therese resolutely stated. "I've talked it over with Aaron."
"No!" Stephanie shouted in reply. "My mother amazingly survived a piledriver, my brother's gonna get himself killed over it, my father hates me and has set Sable up to kill me, my boyfriend cheated on me, and I thought you were the only one I could count on to keep me stable."
Therese pulled Stephanie to her feet and hugged her. "You can count on me," she said, stroking the long dark hair. The dam burst and Stephanie cried over everything that had happened in the past few weeks. All the anger, all the fear, all the stress, the pent-up emotions came out in the tears. Therese didn't stop her while she rocked the woman from side to side. As the sobs subsided into the sniffles, Therese pulled back to grab a tissue from the desk and hand it to her. "You can always count on me. After we leave, let's go get some ice cream together, okay?" Stephanie nodded and settled down to finish her work and watch the show.
Stephanie had been able to avoid any kind of substantial conversation with Shawn between yesterday's flight and the end of SmackDown! She groaned when her phone rang while she was packing up to go and Shawn's number popped up. "Answer it for me," she said, handing it to Therese.
"I don't know what to say," the blonde replied and pushed the phone back at her.
"Hello?" Stephanie answered.
"Steph, why did you let Cena do that?" Shawn asked, trying to mask the anger in his voice.
"No 'hi, how are you'?" she spat out. "I know about last Sunday and I'm not talking to you right now. Goodbye." She viciously flipped the phone shut. "That took care of him."
"You might want to try listening to him," Therese suggested as her phone rang. It was Nash. "This is Blair," she answered.
"Hi, how are you?" he asked, then tacked on, "Do you know what's going on?"
Therese laughed. "So, camp's going well, babe?"
"You can't talk right now?" Kevin knowingly asked.
"Exactly."
"Call me when you get a chance, will you?"
"I love you, too, babe. See you soon." Therese ended the call and stuffed the phone in her bag. "Evan," she said, nodding at the satchel. "He only had a couple of seconds to talk 'cause someone else was waiting. Don't forget we have to pick him up, not this Monday, but next Monday." Stephanie weakly smiled, doubting that her little brother was the one on the phone.
After sharing a needed half of a gallon of ice cream and many comments about how much they were going to have to work out to keep from gaining weight, they returned to the hotel. Therese secluded herself in the bathroom and called Kevin. "Hey, babe. Sorry it took me so long to call back," she apologetically said.
"What's going on with Stephanie?"
She was almost afraid to betray her client's, no, my friend's confidence, she corrected herself, but the situation probably wouldn't smoothly resolve itself if she didn't get involved. "Someone, who can totally be trusted, told her that Shawn was at a strip club Sunday night and, um, to put it their way, quite enjoyed himself." Therese was beginning to have her own doubts about Kevin since the two were almost inseparable.
"Really?"
"I won't be angry if you were there with him," Therese said, hoping he would tell the truth. "Not that I won't be upset, but I just want to settle this between them."
"I can tell you for sure that I wasn't there. After dinner and a few drinks at the bar, we both went back to the hotel. The only way was if he went back out while I was asleep," Kevin explained.
"You promise that you're not lying to get him out of trouble."
"Have I ever lied to you?"
"Not that I know of," she slightly laughed. "But, Shawn was seen in the joint that night. How is that if he was with you?"
"I'll find out. Goodnight, 'Rese," he softly said.
"'Night, babe," she replied and eased out of the bathroom. She poked her head into Stephanie's room to see the woman already in bed. "Steph?" No answer. "Stephanie?" When the brunette didn't answer again, she gave up and decided to go to bed also.
That didn't stop Therese from attempting to talk to her the next day. The GM spent the morning in the gym and then formulating a strategy. When Therese offered her a late lunch, she was at her laptop, plodding away at the work that she had missed the night before chasing Sable down. She agreed and began looking for clothes to go out in. "Can I ask you something?" Therese queried, settling on the bed.
"Yeah. What?"
"Why won't you talk to Shawn about what supposedly happened?"
"It was confirmed, so it wasn't supposed," Stephanie snapped. "At first, I was upset and wanted to deal with that before I talked to him. Now, I'm flat-out angry. He has the balls to ask me why I let Cena smack my butt after he was at a topless bar! No, if I talk to him, it'll get ugly."
"Then let me talk to him and find out what happened," the other woman pleaded.
"You mean you haven't already?"
"I talked to Kevin and he says he was with him all night and they weren't there."
"He's only doing it to cover his own ass," Stephanie replied, wagging her finger at Therese.
"I believe him. He said that Shawn might have gone out after he was asleep. He's supposed to be talking to Shawn to find out."
"Whatever," the brunette said and picked up her purse. "Ready to go." Therese sighed and nodded.
That night, Therese was finally able to get in touch with Kevin while once again hiding in the bathroom. "I couldn't talk with Shawn until late today," he began. "He's been with his family all day. But I do have good news."
"If you say that you saved a bunch of money on your car insurance…"
Kevin loudly laughed, breaking the tension. "No," he barely got out between snorts.
"Then, let's hear it because I don't have any," she responded and slid up onto the vanity to sit.
"Did you meet his cousin Michael Shane?" Nash asked.
"No, but I've seen him on TNA. Looks a little bit like Shawn, quite a—" Therese stopped before saying "hunk."
"What?" he asked, dropping the pen in his hand where he was scribbling across Shane's number on a notepad.
"Nothing. What about him?" she continued.
"He was in town for Shawn's birthday and came out with several of us to dinner. I called him and, after a threat or two, he admitted to using Shawn's name to get into this place where you have to know somebody who knows somebody to get in."
"You're kidding?" Therese laughed, relieved that it was so simple.
"No, but…"
"Oh, no," she muttered, leaning up against the mirror.
"Yeah," Kevin sighed, picking up the pen to scribble her name. "Shawn's a little pissed that Stephanie just assumed what she did and then did that routine in the ring with John Cena."
"Great," Therese sarcastically replied. "You work on him and I'll work on her. Deal?"
"Yeah. Now that that's over with, how's your week been?"
By the night of the pay-per-view, Stephanie and Shawn were still refusing to talk to each other. The GM was focused on her match and kept telling Therese that she didn't have time to think about it since she was playing double-duty as a wrestler and General Manager Sunday night. In all reality, Stephanie felt betrayed by Shawn and Therese—Shawn for jumping on her about Cena, whether or not he had been at the strip club, and Therese for telling when she had expressly asked her not to. However, relief had washed over her hearing that it was his cousin abusing the Michaels name and she secretly thanked Therese for butting in. But then there was the humiliation from saying what she had to him and assuming that she and Shawn were exclusively seeing each other. It was so complicated that she decided to sort out her feelings after her match.
Stephanie stood outside the black curtain, psyching herself up for the no count-out catfight, the fifth match of the night. Therese squeezed her shoulder and told her good luck before leaving her to join the wrestler again at the ring. Stephanie kept telling herself that nothing was at stake—only her pride, which was something she had successfully bounced back from after her ex-husband had so graciously gotten her kicked off of television. Still, she worried somewhat that Sable would do anything in her means to physically harm her, thinking about the statement that the woman had made before the handicapped match about taking over her place if something was to happen. Therese would stop it before things went that far. For all they knew, Sable was conspiring with the stalker, especially if the stalker was hired by Vince McMahon.
The GM attempted to make her face show the opposite of what her stomach felt like but assumed that her skin was as green as the churning of her insides. She stepped into the ring, sized Sable up, and the match began. Stephanie was in total control of the match, countering moves, getting a few good slaps in, and generally tearing the woman up. She was relentless in getting her revenge. The fabric of Sable's top ripped as Stephanie threw her out of the ring. She followed, pounded on the blonde some more, and rolled her back in.
Now the black top was completely ripped and Therese rolled her eyes when Sable was exposed. What is it about this sport that women have to be half-naked…she mused, averting her eyes until the referee could get his shirt off for the wrestler. When A-Train loped down the ramp, the agent couldn't decide if she needed to intervene. She stood up, then sat back down, but was quickly moving when the hulking man clotheslined Stephanie. He was immediately out of the ring to avoid being caught by the official and no significant damage seemed to be done to the GM, so Therese backtracked and waited. Of course, she wanted to stop the three-count so Stephanie could win, but this was none of her business, friend or otherwise.
When Stephanie came to, she knew she had lost but it became the last thing on her as she struggled to breathe and fight the pain in her ribs, which were aching worse than the attack from the fourth of July. She was grateful for Therese's cool hand that slipped in hers as the trainers helped her to the back. After some drugs, the pain finally abated somewhat. The prognosis was the same as that from three weeks ago, just some bruising.
Not much of Vengeance was left, so Therese attempted to persuade Stephanie to return to her hotel room to rest and not worry about anything else. She then pointed out that even Zach Gowen was doing fine after his loss to Vince McMahon and that John Cena had successfully survived the Last Ride. At the mention of Cena's name, Stephanie glanced at the wrestler that had come to see the trainers as a precaution after his match with the Undertaker.
The brunette slid off the table and eased her way to where John sat. He looked up to see her coming and grinned. "Losers should stick together," he said, patting the seat beside him.
"Thanks," she sarcastically replied but then added a smile before sitting down. "I think I owe you an apology."
"About what?" he asked with a furrowed brow.
"When I turned you down for dinner, I wasn't completely honest as to why."
"I know about Shawn Michaels. That's why I said what I did in the ring, even though it didn't come out the right way," he said with a nervous laugh.
"You really got my attention but I have to apologize for that too. I was mad at Shawn and let you…do that because I wanted to make him jealous," Stephanie explained.
"Oh," he quietly replied.
"I'm really sorry," she said and laid a hand on his arm.
"Are y'all…exclusive?" John asked, completely turning his body in the seat towards her.
"I want it to be that way. I'm really sorry."
"Me, too," he responded and his eyes dropped to the floor. For a moment, they said nothing but then he looked back up at her. "Well, if he ever does you wrong, you know where I work. I'll take care of him."
She laughed and held out her arms to hug him. "Thank you. You'll be the first to know."
Therese stood over to the side to give Stephanie privacy but she had still heard the conversation. "Exclusive, huh?"
"Yeah, I think so," the brunette said, slowly nodding her head. "You and Kevin look so happy and I want that."
"You better start with a phone call," Therese advised, holding an arm out for Stephanie to use as support.
"I know, but I don't know what to say," she replied, leaning on the other woman.
"Start with 'I'm sorry.'"
"It's not that simple, but I promise I'll call tomorrow."
Several times on Monday, Stephanie picked up the phone but immediately set it back down. When she wasn't sleeping from the exhaustion of the night before, she was pacing and thinking about what to say. She had to be the one to make the first move. Shawn was the one wronged by her for more than one reason. They were all four supposed to meet up tomorrow since both RAW and SmackDown! were in Colorado Springs, so she put it off until she could see him in person—something that Therese had to almost beat out of her and was, of course, passed along the two-person grapevine. She and Kevin had been talking, passing on whatever Stephanie and Shawn had said to them. Both were looking for just the rights words to say to make-up from their first fight.
Watching RAW was a little difficult for more than one reason. Of course, having to watch Shawn verbally spar with Jericho brought up her impending confrontation with him tomorrow. Then there was the situation with her mother and Kane. Linda was at home resting comfortably and attempting to do business through conference calls. She was doing well and was only having problems with her neck that the doctor said would go away in the next few weeks. No permanent damage was foreseen unless she didn't take it easy.
Vince threatened Kane, not because he was a good husband he said, but because Kane was an animal. Stephanie couldn't reason out why words such as those would still bother her. She resisted calling Shane after his attack on Kane. The Big Red Machine was unaffected by her brother's assault on him and she feared the worst. Instead, she called Marissa and they consoled one another, telling each other that this was something that Shane had to do and that everything would turn out alright in the end.
Stephanie was on the phone with Shane about Monday night when Kevin knocked on Therese's door at the appointed time for dinner. The blonde opened the door to see Shawn standing behind him, looking a bit nervous. "Stephanie's almost ready," she said. "But I've been thinking, Shawn. Maybe you two should talk before we go out." Shawn nervously glanced at Stephanie's room. "We'll meet you at the restaurant."
"Yeah, bud, don't worry about," Kevin added and patted Shawn on the back.
Therese peeked into Stephanie's room and she hadn't heard a thing. "Go knock on her door," she encouraged Shawn and quietly closed her own.
As the couple stepped into the elevator, Kevin asked, "Did you order room service for them?"
"Yeah," she replied with a smile, "and I changed our reservations to a private table for two."
"Why don't we forget dinner and go back to my room?" he said and wrapped his arms around her.
"After dinner, I promise," she replied against his mouth.
Stephanie set the cell phone down and blotted her lipstick as the knock sounded at her door. "Just a moment." She pulled it open to see Shawn in a pair of jeans and a navy blue sports coat. "Hi. Let me get my purse."
"Wait. Can we talk before we go?" he quietly asked. "Therese and Kevin have already gone."
"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. She sat down on the edge of the bed and indicated he should sit beside her. "I'm so sorry I didn't ask you what happened and just assumed what I did. I'm so sorry I tried to make you jealous."
"Princess, I'm sorry I jumped on you for letting Cena smack what I thought was mine," he apologized, putting a hand on her cheek.
"You thought my butt was yours?"
"Yeah, I thought we weren't seeing anyone else and, well, I was extremely jealous," Shawn explained.
"That was my plan," she slightly smiled but he gave a sideways look. "No, I mean, that was what I was doing but I'm sorry I did it n—"
"It's okay. I was kidding. I'm sorry about all of this."
"We've said 'sorry' so many times that maybe we should just show it instead of saying it."
Shawn looked down at his watch. "We've got a little time," he said suggestively.
She slid into his embrace and ran a finger over his bottom lip. He bent his head down and, as their lips touched, someone loudly rapped at the door and yelled, "Room Service."
They both looked at each other curiously and Shawn went to answer the door. A man stood there with a cart that had covered dishes on it. He held out a note and said, "This is for Stephanie McMahon. Are you Shawn Michaels?"
"Yes," he said, taking the note from him.
"Miss Blair requested that I inform you that she won't be in until tomorrow morning."
Shawn lightly snorted and replied, "Thanks. Come on in."
Stephanie had heard everything and reached for the note. It was from Therese and basically said that she had taken the liberty of ordering the dinner and to keep Shawn busy because his room would probably be occupied. "Well," she smiled. "Let's eat. There are other things on our agenda this evening we should be getting to."
As little time as they had spent in bed, Therese was quickly growing fond of laying on her side, snuggled against Kevin, her leg thrown across his. She drew lazy circles across his chest as he played with a tress of her hair. "What if we moved in together?" he offhandedly asked.
"Move in together?" she repeated, completely stunned at the question.
"Yeah, we would definitely see a lot more of each other. It's not like you'd be moving states."
"True…"
"I don't think either of us is ready for marriage—" he began, pushing away to look at her in the face.
"Marriage?" she interrupted, staring up at him.
"I'm just saying, 'Rese, that I love you so much and I don't know any other way to tell you how much except to ask if you want to move in," he explained and cupped her cheek with his hand.
"Oh, babe, I love you too. I just don't know. It's not that I don't want to. The last time I moved in with someone, it didn't turn out so well," she lied to cover for not having an immediate answer. "Give me time to think."
"Alright," he said and leaned down for a kiss. "Just don't take too long. I'll understand if you say 'no' but I hope you don't."
Kevin situated himself back under her and she laid her head back down on his chest, her mind reeling over what he had just asked. The only lie that had passed her lips was the one about a previous boyfriend. She knew that without truth, nothing was going to happen between them. The agent opened her mouth to tell him but stopped herself. If she did, she would lose her job and possibly endanger Stephanie…but she had to tell him. He deserved to know that he was in love with another woman. However, her hopes were that he would still love her no matter what. The more she thought about it, the more she believed he would understand. If she knew him like she thought, he would be a little upset at first but they would move on from there. Whatever may be, she wasn't going to spoil the moment and snuggled closer to his warm body before falling into a light sleep.
TBC...
Author's Notes: A bit of a slow chapter, I know, but I promise, on my honor, to reveal the stalker in the next chapter. Also, I know very little about Michael Shane other than he wrestles for TNA and he's got beautiful eyes. :) So, I hope I didn't slaughter his character by writing him in this way.