"Mummy, mummy, mummy, Aunty Cat want's to go shopping. Can we go shopping?"
Amber opened her eyes groggily, there were days when having an over excitable five year old was no fun at all. She had to smile though when she saw what her daughter had decided to wear for the day. Her darling little five year old had decided to wear cut off jeans; she had a feeling her dear sister had, had something to do with that. A skull and crossbones t-shirt, an eye patch and a bandanna.
"If I say no, will you make me walk the plank?"
Beatrix, knitted her eyebrows together, a look of absolute concentration on her young face before she grinned "Yarr!"
"Well we wouldn't want that happening would we?" Amber pulled herself out of bed, lifting her little pirate into her arms as she did.
"Ahh your up then." Her sister commented as Amber made her way into the lounge of their suite.
"Captain Beatrix here decided her mother had, had enough sleep. How long have you two been up?"
"A couple of hours. So can we go shopping?" Cat put on her best pleading face, which Beatrix copied. Her sister was rubbing off on her daughter a little too much.
"Don't worry, your Captain here threatened me with walking the plank if I didn't agree. I won't be coming with you though."
"Are you really going to stay holed up in the hotel until Wrestlemania? You're so paranoid."
"One Wrestlemania is tomorrow, and two I'm not paranoid. Steph has put a lot of work into keeping my return a secret, and I'd like to keep it that way."
Cat sighed, "There will be nowhere to hide tomorrow."
"Why are you hiding Mummy?"
"Mummy's not hiding baby, Aunty Cat is just being annoying." Amber lifted Beatrix to the floor, "go put your shoes on, and you and Cat can go shopping."
Beatrix grinned from ear to ear, and ran out of the room.
"Stop looking at me like that." Amber put her hands on her hips and faced her sister. "Yes I am aware that I'm going to have to face everyone tomorrow, I'm not going to hide, I'm going to go in there with my head held high and deal with it."
"Are you going to tell him about her?"
Amber sighed and ran a hand through her hair, she really didn't even want to think about that, "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
"Mummy I'm ready!" Beatrix called out as she ran back into the room, the laces to her converse high tops smacking against the ground as she went.
Bending down Amber did up Beatrix's laces, turning her attention back on her sister as she did so, "be careful, don't let her out of your sight, and..."
"Keep my mobile on, don't feed her too many sweets. I know Amb, don't worry. We'll be fine." Caitlyn grabbed her bag and made a show of putting her mobile in her pocket, before taking Beatrix's hand and leaving the hotel room.
~/~
Caitlyn and Beatrix hadn't been gone long when there was a knock at the hotel door. Dragging herself up off of the sofa Amber got up to see who it was.
"You, me, gym."
"Hello to you too Paul."
Paul grinned, "come on, I passed Kitty Cat and Captain Beatrix on the way here, so I know you're free."
Amber raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure you have better things to do."
"I need to go to the gym, you can't go two days without going to the gym, so let's both go to the gym."
"Alright, but only cos I don't have anything better to do."
"You really know how to make a guy feel loved." Paul laughed, and then realised what he'd said, "shit! sorry Amb I didn't mean.."
"Give me a minute to get dressed, and we'll head down." Amber waved Paul's comment off, and headed into the bedroom. Yeah she really knew how to make a guy feel loved. If practically dumping the love of your life on live TV was a way to show how much you cared for them.
She really didn't want to think about that night, and it wasn't as if she hadn't tried to talk to him before she went out into the ring, but he'd been off preparing for his match, and she'd spent quite a while throwing up.
Her music hit and Amber made her way down to the ring to a loud pop. Her Women's championship secured tightly round her waist.
Walking up the metal steps, she climbed into the ring, walking over to the other side, she grabbed the offered mic, and took a second to compose herself.
"I know you were all expecting me to be in action tonight, and I was really looking forward to giving you guys a great match." The crowd had fallen relatively silent, waiting with baited breath to hear what she was going to say."But I won't be wrestling tonight."
The noise picked up again, the crowd confused.
"In fact, my successful defending of the women's championship at the Royal Rumble, was my last match. I won't be wrestling again."
A chorus of 'What's' emanated from the crowd, but Amber continued.
"I'm leaving the WWE."
The crowd went berserk, no one could quite fathom what they were hearing.
"The last four years have been absolutely awesome. I've loved every minute of it. But for now I'm hanging up my boots, and," Amber paused and took off her championship belt, "as I'm leaving, I think it goes without saying that I'll be giving up my championship."
Walking over to one of the turnbuckles Amber rested her title on the top ropes, her fingers lingering on it for a second "so Trish, Lita, Torrie, Gail and Molly, and any of the diva's who've wanted to see me rid of this belt. It's no longer mine."
Amber took another pause, dipping her head and closing her eyes.
"I'll miss you all."
With that Amber placed the mic on the mat and made her way out of the ring, shaking a few fans hands as she made her way up the ramp.
JR and Lawler, were going mad on the commentary, they had no idea what Amber had been out there to do. Apart from Vince and Steph no one had.
Blinking back tears, Amber finally made it backstage, her heart pounding.
He was waiting for her, she knew he would be.
~/~
"Keep up old man" Amber grinned at Paul as she upped the speed on her treadmill.
They were nearing the end of their work out session, Amber always liked to power down with a run on the treadmill, Paul had always hated it, and that wasn't entirely due to his injuries.
Powering down his machine Paul stepped off, "Hey I'm not that old. You know this reminds me why I like training at the gym on my own. Specially without twenty somethings."
Amber followed suit and powered down her machine, stepping off she took a swig of her water and smiled. "How old are you now, 50? 60?"
"Very funny kiddo, very funny." Paul lightly bumped his fist against Amber's shoulder, before gathering his stuff together. "So what you got planned for the rest of the day?"
"Well no doubt I'll be alone for a while, Cat could win an Olympic medal in shopping, so I'll just be chilling in my room, making sure that my place is ready for us to move into, and then I suppose I'll be watching you lot swanning about in all your finery at the Hall Of Fame ceremony."
Paul put an arm around Amber's shoulders as they made their way out of the gym and into the main hotel, "Don't worry babe, after tomorrow you won't have to hide out and you can enjoy being back."
"Speaking of which." Amber pulled her hood up and moved away from Paul, "looks like we've got some fans checking in. Have fun tonight."
Making her way through the new arrivals, Amber managed to slip into an unoccupied lift unnoticed, she had to smile to herself once the doors had closed, no doubt the fans would have spotted the great Triple H as soon as he stepped foot into the lobby.
~/~
Caitlyn and Beatrix returned from their shopping trip five hours after they had set out. Caitlyn's hands were full of shopping bags. Amber rolled her eyes, no doubt her sister had maxed out her credit card.
"You girls have fun?"
"Aunty Cat made me a t-shirt" Beatrix grinned as she jumped onto the sofa and snuggled up against her mother.
"I thought she could wear it tomorrow." Cat smiled and dug through her bags, fishing out a baby pink t-shirt she held it up for her sister.
Amber had to smile as she read the wording on the t-shirt, "Future WWE Diva."
"You like it?"
"It's cute, I'm still not keen on you two coming though."
"Come on Sis, she'll be fine, it's not as if she hasn't seen wrestling before." Cat knew why her sister was worried, yes there was the violence, there was also the fact that Beatrix's daddy would be in action, not that she was going to bring that up. "Besides I wanna get some kick ass photographs of my big sis in action."
Amber looked down at her now sleeping daughter, the shopping trip had really tired her out, "God I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't let you go would I?"
"Absolutely not."
Amber shook her head, and gently lifted up Beatrix, the little one would no doubt be more comfortable in a actual bed.
~/~
The day of Wrestlemania 25 arrived, and Amber was so nervous, she thought she might throw up. This wasn't her first Wrestlemania, but it certainly was her biggest, despite the fact that she was one of twenty five divas.
Hiding out in Steph's office, was no fun. Every time there was a knock on the door, she jumped and high tailed it into the adjoining bathroom. It was getting a bit tedious, not to mention ridiculous. And Steph was having far too much fun watching her best friend diving for cover.
Lacing up her boots, Amber looked at herself in the mirror, suddenly feeling extremely self concious. Her ring attire certainly seemed a lot skimpier than she remembered it.
Her outfit consisted of black denim shorts that barely covered her arse, black wrestling boots with orange laces, and an orange top that criss crossed on her back and barely covered her boobs, she was thankful for the black bikini top underneath that let her retain a slice of decency.
At least she still had the body to carry it off, in fact she was in better form now than she had been. Her abs were taught, and her muscles well defined. She looked healthy.
"Amber, time to get going." Steph's voiced called out from the other side of the door.
Taking a deep breath, Amber took one last glance in the mirror before grabbing her hoodie and exciting the bathroom.
"Remember, you and Michelle are taking each other out of the match, work with the other girls, and don't do anything stupid."
"Steph I do this for a living remember."
"I know Amb, but you've never wrestled against most of these girls, and I'd like to have them all in one piece at the end of the match." Steph gave Amber a stern look, and the both of them burst out laughing.
The walk from Steph's office to the gorilla position wasn't a long one, and by some miracle they didn't bump into any wrestlers.
The other divas were already waiting, Nora and Gail were the first to spot her, the looks of surprise on their faces soon changing to joy as they hugged their old friend.
Their reunion was soon broken up though.
"So this is the big surprise."
Gail rolled her eyes, and Amber turned to face Michelle McCool.
"That would be me." Amber smiled and held out her hand to the other diva, "I'm Amber by the way."
Michelle sneered and walked away, leaving Amber to retract her hand like an idiot.
"Don't worry Amb, she's just jealous cos she knows she'll never be as good as you in the ring." Nora smiled and hugged her Amber, "It's good to see you again."
"Likewise."
The girls were given their cue, and started making their way out onto the stage. Disposing of her hoody, Amber grinned at Nora, "ready to do this again?"
"Oh yeah!" Nora grinned back and the two made their way out onto the stage.
~/~
"Woah would you look who it is?" Randy Orton exclaimed, as a bunch of the male wrestlers settled down to watch the diva match.
"Tony was swanning about here in that get up earlier, why are you so shocked." Adam asked with a laugh from the other side of the locker room.
"I'm not talking about Tony, I'm talking about Amber."
At mention of her name, a few heads shot up, and everyone's attention turned to one superstar in particular.
Jeff Hardy was now engrossed in what was happening on the television, his eyes glued to the girl he hadn't seen in six years. The girl who had left him without