All characters... does anyone even read these????????

A Twist of Fate

Ace and Adam circled each other, waiting for even the smallest of openings. The only blow that had landed was Adam's one punch. Other than that, just a lot of posturing and other semantics.

"This'll be fun. Once my bud has taken care of your friend, you're all ours. And this time, there's gonna be no one to save you... not your friend with the hair or his fuck-buddy or anyone else for that matter." Steele amused himself by repeatedly opening his knife and flicking it closed.

"You really don't know who you're messing with, do you?" Randy kept one eye on Adam and the other on Steele. "You can't mess with the WWE and get away with it. We took out Ted Turner and all his money... do you think we're gonna let a bunch of street punks bother us?"

"We'll see who has the last laugh." Steele chortled

The back of the car suddenly shook. Both men looked back; one in shock, and the other in awe. Ace's face was pressed against the now-shattered glass.

"Go get 'em, Adam!" Randy yelled

"Quiet, you!" Steele backhanded him.

They watched Adam drag Ace off the windshield and throw him to the concrete. Crouching, Adam waited a familiar look in his eyes.

"Get up you son of a bitch!" He yelled

Ace staggered to his feet. His eyes widened slightly when Adam charged at him, spearing him back to the floor. His head hit with a loud bang.

"This is for Jeff." He growled, dragging the barely-conscious punk to his feet. One Edge-cution later and Ace was out cold.

"Better do something, eh?" Randy taunted Steele, who looked extremely uncomfortable. Backing away from Randy, he stared at Adam, to Randy, then back. Adam grinned, taking a step closer. Ace wasn't moving.

"You ain't seen the last of me!" Steele ran from the parking structure.

"Now to finish the job." Adam picked up Ace's body.

"What are you gonna do to him?" Randy asked

"Get rid of the trash." Adam replied "Unless you'd like to do the honours?"

"Anytime, man." Randy slung Ace over the railing to the ground five floors below, but not before giving him an RKO for good measure. If Ace wasn't dead when he hit the ground, then he was five seconds later when a garbage truck ran over him. From where they were located, both Adam and Randy could hear the crunch of broken bones.

"Better book." They both stepped back when a crowd started to gather.

"Yeah. Murder is a crime, isn't it?"

"So I've heard." Adam and Randy quickly took off, only stopping to gather the evidence. By the time police arrived, there was nothing to be seen except an idling car with a broken windshield, a cast-off leather coat, and several bloodstains. Not a whole lot to go on, and once identification of the 'victim' was made, the police were even less interested in pursuing the matter. Though the sign "THREE DOWN. ONE TO GO!" might've given a clue, it was more like an "oh-well-one-less-punk-on-the-streets-let's-go-through-the-motions" kind of mentality by the officers assigned the case.

Anyway...

Randy and Adam ran several blocks before slowing.

"Thanks, man, I owe you." Randy panted

"Didn't we say we'd take care of you?" Adam heaved, leaning against the side of a building.

"Yeah. I owe you, Eric, and Jeff a lot." Randy replied "Oh, shit! How's Jeff?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Is he okay?"

"Sorry, I have no fucking idea what you are talking about." Adam replied

"You don't know? Those guys stabbed him in the restaurant before grabbing me!" Randy shouted

"What? Then why the hell are we standing here? Where'd they take him?"

"How should I know?" Now both Randy and Adam were yelling at each other.

"You've got Eric's number. Call him!"

"Oh, yeah, good idea." Adam hastily dialled.

"You've reached Eric..." Adam snapped it closed.

"Damn voice mail."

"Maybe they're already at the hospital?" Randy suggested hopefully.

"One way to find out." Adam started running again.

"I was afraid you'd say that." Randy followed.

"Where is he?" Eric yelled.

"Where is who?" The receptionist asked, remaining calm. This only irritated Eric further.

"My husband!" Eric shouted

"Eric, let me handle this." Chris guided him to a seat in the waiting area. Eric glared at him, almost daring him to make him sit. "Trust me."

"You better find out..." Eric whispered, noticeably shaking.

"Relax. I'll find out where he is from that assclown." Chris returned to the desk. "I apologize for my friend, but you must understand the situation."

The nurse smiled slightly.

"We're looking for a patient by the name of Jeffrey Nero Hardy. He was brought here with a serious stab wound. Any information you could possibly provide would be a great help." Chris turned on his charm. More often than not, it got him what he wanted. The odd time it didn't... well, that's for another time and place.

"I"ll see what I can find out." She replied "Would you wait with your friend?"

Chris returned to Eric, who was staring at the floor between his feet.

"She said she'll see what she can do."

"Thanks." Eric didn't even meet Chris' gaze.

"I don't mean to pry, but what exactly is goin' on?"

"Huh?" Eric still refused to look up.

"With you, Jeff, Edge, and Orton. I mean the four of you have been inseparable lately. I'm starting to feel left out."

Eric finally looked up. "I guess I owe you at least that..." He told Chris the entire story from the start.

"...I guess Adam is taking care of the other two right now. I just hope he left me a piece of one of them."

"What if I didn't?"

"Adam!" Eric jumped from his chair and into Edge's arms.

"Sorry I took so long."

Chris and Randy waited, embarrassed, for the hug to end. It seemed to last forever, and when the separated, both their eyes were wet.

"They won't tell me anything!" Eric pleaded

"I'm sure they will soon." Adam answered "Would you like some good news? One of our friends took a five story dive from the top of a parking garage."

Fortunately, the waiting area was practically deserted or someone might've taken his comment the right way.

"You know, guys, you really didn't have to do this." Randy added

"What do you mean 'we didn't have to do this'?" Eric retorted

"It was probably my own fault. For God's sake, I am married. I shouldn't be chasing after girls anymore."

"Randy, no one deserves to have happened to them what happened to you, no matter whose fault it was." Adam responded, looking sternly into his partner's eyes. "They did you wrong and we're gonna take care of it for you. ALL of it!" The look Adam was giving him convinced him that now was not a good time to try reasoning with either of them.

"I'm looking for the family of Jeffrey Hardy."

"Right here." Chris pointed to Eric. He quickly wiped his face, trying to appear calm as he faced the doctor.

"Would you like to discuss this privately or..."

Eric shook his head firmly. "These guys are the closest things to family Jeff and I got. Just talk."

"Okay. Things are not looking good right now. We've been able to stop the bleeding, but the knife punctured his right lung..."

"Fuck..." Adam muttered softly.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Chris asked the question on all their minds, but not coming out of any of their mouths.

"He is stable for the moment, but right now, we are playing the waiting game. We were able to sew up the puncture, but there were complications following surgery. We were forced to induce him..."

"What are you saying, doc? Is my husband gonna live or not?" Eric shouted

"Right now... it's fifty-fifty. He's in a coma right now... it was the only way we could stabilize him. When he comes out of it, if he comes out of it, we'll know for sure what his chances for a full recovery are."

Eric suddenly wished Kane were there. Maybe a tombstone piledriver would change his attitude. Eric always hated doctors and their God-complexes. Just because they held lives in their hands, it doesn't mean that they could play hell with people's emotions.

"Can I see him?" Eric barely got the words out, he was shaking so badly.

"I will have a nurse escort you to his room. Right now it is not a good idea for the patient to have a lot of visitors."

"The patient has a name." Eric gritted his teeth.

"Sorry?"

"I said I'm game."

"Please take a seat. Someone will be along shortly."

"Anyone want a snack or something?" Chris eyed the snack machines. No one replied, so he went over himself and made friends with the junk food.

Time crawled while Eric waited for his accompaniment. The only sound was Jericho stuffing his face with chips. Finally, Eric snapped.

"Can't you pig out a little quieter!" He hissed

"Sorry." Chris balked

Chris' apology, while sincere, did nothing to qualm Eric's rising anger. Finally, just when he figured that he couldn't take any more, he heard four of the most beautiful words ever...

"Mr. Hardy? This way."

"We'll be here when you get back." Adam promised

Eric followed the nurse to the intensive care unit. It was funny, Eric thought, that not so long ago his and Jeff's roles were reversed. Now it was up to him to be the strong force in their relationship, but he doubted that he'd be crawling into the bed with Jeff any time soon.

At the door, Eric took a deep breath.

"Are you going in?"

"In a minute, nurse." Eric breathed deeply again, trying not to go to pieces again. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Just try not to be too loud. I'll be down the hall if you need anything." Her heels clicking on the tile floor, she scuttled back to her station.

One more deep breath and Eric was ready. Well, he was as ready as he thought he was going to be. "Here goes." He stepped inside.

Back in the waiting room, the silence was deafening.

"Eric told me everything." Chris finally broke the quiet.

"Yeah?" Adam asked, wondering to himself why Eric would do something as jeopardizing as that. They'd agreed to keep what was going on strictly between the four of them.

"Yeah." Chris replied

More silence.

"So I was kinda wondering, y'know, if you needed an extra hand or somethin'..."

"You want a piece of this, do ya?" Adam replied

"Yeah, I do."

"You know how serious this is? This isn't like work... Jeff isn't going to miraculously wake up after the cameras go off!"

"There's one thing you haven't considered... or maybe you have, I don't know... but from what I know, if this last guy has any brains, he'll go after one of you again and with Jeff out of action, you need me!" Chris replied

"Jericho's got a point." Randy added

"Whatever."

"We'll talk later." Adam settled in his chair, his eyes closing. Randy was already dozing.

Chris waited, watching their chests rise and fall evenly. Soon, they were both asleep.

"I'll show you." Chris snuck past both Randy and Adam and hurried out the door. Unlike some of his coworkers, he read the newspapers and he had a good idea of who he was looking for. He wanted to tell them more about his connection to the case, but feared retribution. Not from the survivor, but from the guys themselves.

Outside the hospital, Chris used his cell phone to call a number he hadn't used in over a year and one he thought he'd never need again.

"Mike... it's me Chris... listen assclown, we got a problem! Your friends messed with the wrong guys. If you know what's good for you, you'll get out of town and fast."

Something intelligible from the receiver. Chris looked at his phone with disgust before putting it back to his ear.

"Don't fuckin' argue with me... if you want to see sunrise, you better do exactly what I say! Don't call me, I'll call you."

"This just got complicated." Chris tiptoed back into the waiting room.

"Where'd you go?" Randy wasn't asleep, Chris realized

"I needed some, um, air." He replied, hoping that his bullshit was believable.

"Oh." Randy said, "okay."

Chris retook his seat, trying to conceive a workable plan to save Mike as well as prove his loyalty. If Mike decided not to listen to him, and based on his past he probably wouldn't, both he and Chris were gonna be in tough.

"I wonder how Eric's doing?" He thought, falling into a dreamless sleep.

Not much better, as it turned out. Sitting on a chair beside the bed, he stared at his husband's motionless form.

"I really screwed up this time, didn't I?"

Eric looked into Jeff's tranquil face.

"C'mon, Jeffro. You gotta shake this thing, man." Eric felt his voice start to break. "Please... I know you're thinking about Matt and your mom but you got people here who love you too and want you back. I need you.... please don't leave me... " Eric collapsed in a heap, sobbing fiercely.

"Mr. Hardy," The nurse had returned "I'm sorry to interrupt, but visiting hours are almost over."

"Can't I...?"

"I wish I could, but the hospital has a strict policy about visitors." Eric believed her sincerity, but then again, he'd also believed in Santa Claus until he was ten.

"You can come back tomorrow."

Eric sniffed, gently kissing Jeff's hand. "I love you." He whispered. "I will." He said to the nurse, reluctantly returning to the waiting room. To his shock, Randy, Adam, and Chris were all zonked out. He stood for several seconds, waiting, before Randy finally opened one eye.

"Eric... you're back!"

"Yeah... visiting hours are over..." He tried to hide his disappointment. "...they kicked me out."

"Wake up, you two!" Randy hissed at the two sleeping blonds beside him. "We're going."

"Going? Where?" Adam yawned, stretching. Beside him, Chris also yawned.

"Nowhere. Just home. I need to think." Eric stated "Can I get a ride from someone?"

"Sure." Chris volunteered, much to Adam and Randy's chagrin.

"Let's go. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

"Cool, man."

Eric and Chris left, leaving a confused Randy and Adam at the hospital. "What do you make of that?"

"He's stressed, Orton. I'm sure he'll be better tomorrow." Adam answered

The drive home was completely silent, save for the occasional sniffle from Eric. Several times, Chris wanted to talk to Eric; find out what his plans for the last member of the gang were, but he couldn't find the right words. Eventually, he gave up.

"Call me if you hear anything?"

Eric nodded. Nothing else to say, was there? Standing at his door, trying to find his key, Chris noticed how haggard he really looked. It was like he'd aged 20 years in the past day. And the annoying thing to Chris was he could've done something about it. What really burned him was Eric's lack of trust. After all the help he'd given Eric and Jeff over the past year, to not even be included in their little escapade... what kind of gratitude was that?

Reason taking over, he drove back to his hotel. He figured a nice hot shower would relax him. If that didn't work, maybe a little R and R with his favorite ring rat was sure to settle him.

The house looked so different without Jeff, Eric thought. He also thought of taking a shower, but soon, the thought of a nice warm bed overcame that. He lay on the bed without bothering to undress and waited for sleep to come.

His mind raced with evil thoughts, praying that he would get a chance for revenge. It was almost dawn when Eric finally fell asleep, and even then it was short, consisting mostly of visions of Jeff walking away from him, arm in arm with Matt... Team Extreme reunited once more.

TO BE CONTINUED

In case anyone is wondering, the ending I had planned for this novel has gone right out the window since I started writing this chapter! It might take a while for the next update, but I will try to get it to you ASAP!

Thanks for all the feedback... it is appreciated.