Authors Note: So the reaction Emma has to seeing Matt at RAW with a broken hand? Pretty much my reaction when I saw him that night. You know it's gotta kill when he hits people with that cast!

Also, I really want to glomp Shannon for his tell-off to Matt in this chapter. Loooove!

P.S. Go check out the story banner on my profile! Oooh, Ahhhhh ;)

Disclaimer: If I owned Matt Hardy, we'd all be in trouble. I still want to put Shannon Moore on my mantel and squish his cheeks. Emma Keating/Keating family = mine all mine.

If This Isn't Love - Chapter 9

Emma turned her cellphone on in Raleigh just long enough to send a text to Beth letting her know she was okay, before turning it off again. She couldn't deal with the multitude of texts and voice mails that were sure to be waiting, especially if none of those were from the person she most wanted to talk to. Her dad picked her up at the airport, and if he knew at all what was going on he didn't let on. Emma had called her Mom tearfully before the plane had taken off that morning, asking them to pick her up and telling them she'd be staying there for awhile, and like the wonderful parents they were, they asked no questions. Pulling into the driveway of her parents house Emma thought back to just one month ago, when she and Matt had been there to celebrate her Dad's birthday. How could everything have changed so quickly?

"She's home," Beth reported, and Jeff exhaled in a mixture of relief and anxiety. No one had gotten much sleep the night before, and now Matt was in a meeting in Vince's makeshift office backstage with Pat Patterson and Michael Hayes, the same geniuses who came up with the ending that broke Matt's hand in the first place! He sighed as he glanced at the clock in the locker room .. a few more hours and Matt would be back in North Carolina as well, hopefully fixing things.

Emma's body finally called it quits around six pm, and she took a much needed long nap in her old bedroom, still adorned the way it had been in high school, stuffed animals and all. Matt had teased her about them as they squished in the bed together on their first visit to her parents, and had been downright merciless about the Justin Timberlake poster on the wall. But when they started to leave, Matt had grabbed the small stuffed bear that sat against her pillow, and had taken it with him. When she questioned him about it later, he simply shrugged and stuck it into his gear bag, where it had traveled since from city to city with him.

The clock read 8:57 pm when Emma opened her eyes again, and she couldn't help but wonder if Matt was home yet. She almost turned her phone back on, but the fear that Matt had not tried to contact her stopped her. Instead she rolled out of bed and opened her door, padding down the hallway toward the kitchen for some water. She stopped short in the living room when her eyes caught the television .. her Dad and little brother Tyler were watching RAW, as per every Monday night, and an entrance theme she could have recognized in her sleep was playing.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked in disbelief as Matt Hardy walked down the entrance ramp, holding his cast-covered right arm close to his body and looking completely worn out.

"Hey, what happened to Matt's arm?" Tyler questioned as Emma grabbed her cellphone and turned it on. Ignoring all the alerts that popped up as well as Tyler's question, she hit #5 on her speed dial and waited.

Beth tossed Jeff the ringing cellphone as he watched Matt's match from the monitor backstage, and he glanced at the screen before quickly answering.

"Hey Em," he greeted, then pulled the phone away from his ear quickly as she began yelling into it.

"HE'S STILL WRESTLING?!?!"

Jeff cringed and shot Beth a dirty look. She grinned at him and mouthed "payback", referring to him making Beth tell Emma about the eye-incident. Women were so cruel. He turned his attention back to Emma, who was still ranting on the phone.

"Well," he began, choosing his words carefully. "He can't give up this big heel push Em, he just switched brands and Vince .."

"Vince McMahon can bite my ass!" Emma declared, earning a stern look from her father and a snicker from Tyler.

"And as much as I'm sure he'd love that," Jeff continued, sighing, "Bottom line is that Matt can't give up this shot."

"Can't?" Emma asked, "Or won't?" She didn't need to hear the answer. It had become crystal clear over the past 24 hours what Matt Hardy's priorities were and always would be, and it sure as hell wasn't her.

"Look," Jeff sighed again, "He's coming home tomorrow and he'll be there 'til Monday morning. He got out of the MSG show and pulled his signing this week, but it's not like he can sign anyway .." Jeff started rambling, unsure of what to say, and Beth grabbed the phone from him as Matt's match was wrapping up on the monitor.

"Emma Keating, you listen to me," she started. "I don't care what Matt said last night, he loves you and he wants to fix this. Now he's coming home tomorrow and your happy ass better be at the house, the one you two SHARE, to talk to him, or so help me I will come down there myself and I promise you if I do it will not be pretty!" Beth threatened. Emma wanted to believe her, but how could she? Beth didn't hear the things Matt had said, didn't see the look in his eyes when he'd said them.

"I gotta go," Emma said as she noticed Matt reaching the top of the entrance ramp after his match, and she quickly hung up and turned off her phone.

"Emma wait, Matt .." Beth started, but it was too late. She was already gone.

Shannon picked Matt up at the airport the next afternoon, and neither of them said a word about Emma until Shannon pulled into the driveway and Matt noticed Emma's car wasn't there.

"I really fucked up," Matt muttered, shaking his head.

"Ya know, I wasn't gonna say nothin', but since you brought it up, let's go there. Yeah Matt, you fucked up." Matt looked at Shannon in surprise, in all the years they'd known each other Shannon had always taken Matt's side in everything. "Look, I'm not saying Emma's blameless in all this, but damn man, you've been stringing that girl along for years," Shannon continued. Half of him was afraid Matt was going to deck him for saying all this, the other half didn't really care. They'd all been thinking it, and it was about time someone said it.

"I know Amy fucked you over, but dude .. Emma's not Amy. That girl has never done anything but support you and encourage you from day one, and instead of marrying her like any other guy in that company woulda done in a heartbeat, hell like any of us would have done .. you basically tell her she ain't good enough!"

Matt listened as Shannon's words rang in his ears, and he knew that Shannon was right. He had spent the last three years waiting for Emma to screw him over the way Amy had, and when she didn't he had screwed their relationship himself.

"Remember when you said you thought Amy's injuries were fate's way of telling her to wake up and get her head on straight?" Shannon asked, and Matt nodded solemly. Shannon pointed to the scab over Matt's eye, and then to his cast. "Wake up Matt."

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