3

Dallas herded Taker from one place to another. And yes, he thought herded was the perfect word. She did not let him linger too long in any one place, since his schedule was so full. The conference call was a special kind of hell. He hated doing interviews in general – interviews where the assholes thought they had a right to know about his private life just rubbed him the wrong way.

Dallas took care of that too, steering the interview by offering her questions, and keeping a running list of things that Taker could bring up on his own. After that was finally over, she left him to talk to a couple of their writers to work out his promo for that night. She returned after thirty minutes, and talked them into changing the time of his appearance. It was the only thing he argued with, but had to admit, she was right. Coming out first thing, saying his piece, and leaving without explanation would have more impact. That meant he could leave as soon as he was finished, right around 9:30.

Most of the roster started to trickle in around four. Dallas made Taker go to his locker room and went about erasing his existence. She absolutely hated the internet for giving away all the surprises. So far, only a few people knew Taker was here, and she wanted to keep it that way. At least until closer to show time.

That gave him a few lonely hours to kill. Taker found a few hand weights and kept on nervously using them. He'd been doing this for twenty years – he'd have thought by now that the nerves would have been worn out. It was sort of pleasant though. He'd missed this.

Dallas entered without knocking, flipping through a stack of papers. "You have some contracts to sign. And your insurance company called, wanting to know if you scheduled a follow up for your knee." She looked up finally. "Or was it your elbow? Shoulder?"

"All of the above?" Taker puffed out a breath and lowered the weights. "It was my shoulder, this last time. And yes I already had my follow up. The doc was supposed to email the paperwork."

"I'll take care of it." She had his folder again and she scribbled a reminder. Taker shook his head and she caught it. "What?"

"You and your pens. Will wouldn't be caught dead without his laptop."

"Will has handwriting that makes chicken scratch look legible." Dallas finished her newest update and glanced back over her other notes. She checked off several. "If I have to write it out, I can remember it better. So be grateful."

"I am." Taker smiled and lifted the weight again, this time trading arms. He lifted rhythmically for a few minutes, studying Dallas as she sat down to continue marking off items. She really had gotten a lot done by the look of it. He was suitably impressed. "What's up after this?"

Dallas glanced up at him and back to her notes. "You can stay the night here, or we can move on. It's about a 4 hour drive to the next venue. Tomorrow night though I booked you a flight. Too far to drive that one in time."

"I thought I was leaving earlier…"

"Nope. You're going to shoot another promo for Smackdown. Of course, you could go ahead and do that now, if you want to get dressed and let me get a crew in here." Dallas shrugged. "I checked with Michael, and he said you are only doing promos with no physical stuff for at least a couple of weeks. Your call."

Taker thought it over. He could get it over with. That was always nice. But for what? It wasn't like he had something more pressing to do. Then again, an earlier flight would mean he wouldn't have to deal with getting in to the next venue four hours after everybody else. "I guess we can knock it out. Gonna say about the same thing. Just not in front of an audience."

"Right. You'd better put your scary underwear on then." Dallas smirked and got up. "Let me see who I can hunt down. Anybody in particular?"

Taker shook her head and dropped the weight as she stepped outside. He had been playing this character for so long, he could step into it with ease. He took a quick shower and toweled off as he gathered his gear. He glanced at his watch, saw it was nearing on 8, and decide to just go ahead and get ready for both appearances.

In ten minutes he was in full Undertaker mode. Well…as full Undertaker as he was going to get for a pre-taped promo. He sat down on the bench after moving his bag out of the way, keeping his eyes closed, trying to roll what he was going to say through his head. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, just alerting him to the fact that someone was coming in.

It didn't take long. Taker ran through his promo twice, changed a couple of lines, did it one last time for the camera, and that was it. His small contribution to tomorrow's taping was finished. Now he just had to get through the live stuff tonight. Dallas emptied out the room again and disappeared. He smirked at that. She could have stuck around. He could use the distraction.

Thirty minutes later and Dallas was back. "You ready? Showtime in five minutes."

Taker nodded and stood up, adjusting his hat. Dallas walked with him as far as the curtain, where the technical producer was sitting. She was not acting like her normal self. She was being quiet. It put Taker on edge.

"Somethin' wrong?" He asked quietly before the opening theme of the show could drown him out.

Dallas shook her head. But she definitely looked distracted. There wasn't time to worry about it as the producer turned off the arena lights and his music began playing over through the arena. Taker through that hearing the crowd go nuts was something that he would never get tired of. He glanced at Dallas one last time, and resolutely put on his Undertaker persona. He had twenty minutes of air time, pretty good for somebody who had disappeared a few months back. It was twenty uninterrupted minutes, with no one coming out to rain on his parade, so to speak.

He stayed in the ring until the show cut to commercial. Taker walked through the curtain and saw Cana and Phil were standing there waiting on their cue to go out. Dallas was nowhere to be seen. Taker took his hat off and shrugged out of the heavy coat as he walked back toward his locker room.

Dallas was in there, talking on her cell phone. Taker shook his head and went to his bag, pulling out his street clothes. The short time he'd been in character was hardly worth the effort of changing. He kind of missed the old biker-Undertaker days when he could just roll in, do his thing, and leave. He ducked into the bathroom to change and get cleaned up. When he exited, Dallas was still on her phone, talking quietly to whoever was on the other end. She saw him packing his bag and ended her call.

"That's it until around noon tomorrow. They want you to do autographs for an hour at the arena. It's invite only, so there will only be about 300 people there. Radio contest winners or something." Dallas rolled her eyes. "Do you need me to set up your rental after your flight tomorrow? And do you want me to reschedule your flight for an earlier time? You're clear after five tomorrow."

Taker shrugged. "I wouldn't mind an earlier flight, and I can get my own car. You don't have to do everything little thing for me, you know."

"I've been babysitting you guys for a long time. So yes I do." Dallas grinned.

"You riding with me tonight?" He asked, bending to lace his boots.

Dallas had not really given it any thought. She had turned her rental in, thinking she could catch a ride with Rachel for a change. Watching her flirt with Phil for 4 hours had entertainment potential. Of course, it also got old after a while. "I…guess?" She frowned, running through her mental list to see if she needed to do anything else. Taker looked like he was ready to go. "I just need to turn your papers in, if you signed them all."

"I did." Taker nodded.

"Ok. Well…give me five minutes." Dallas ducked out of the room. Taker smirked and finished stowing things in his bag. He checked to make sure he hadn't left anything behind and stepped out into the hallway. Dallas was coming back, her own bag over her shoulder.

Taker wondered what kind of rumors this week was going to start, but it was brief. He didn't get where he was worrying about how his nosy co-workers gossiped. It was sad that they could amuse themselves by speculating on things they did not understand.

"All ready. There's still an hour of show left too, so if you wanna escape unseen, now is definitely the time. The parking lot is pretty empty."

Taker nodded and held the door open for her. His rental was parked near the door, so even if the parking lot was full he would have been unobserved. He stowed their bags in the trunk and slid behind the wheel.

"Do you know where you're going?" Dallas asked as he pulled out of the lot. He glanced at her with a 'woman, please' expression and said nothing. Dallas cracked up laughing.

They were for a while. Dallas had reclined her seat a little. She was looking out the window, up at the stars which were being blocked out by clouds, unreadable expression on her face. Taker glanced at her from time to time before giving up on the thought of conversation and turning the radio on. He found some rock music but kept it at a low volume. Just in case Dallas was planning on taking a nap.

After a couple of hours, halfway to their destination, Taker pulled into a rest area to get something to drink. Dallas got out and stretched her legs, looking around the parking lot. They had parked to the side, mostly so that random fan-types would not pay them any attention. Taker did it more out of habit than need. This place looked deserted. Taker ambled over with a soda in each hand. He passed one of them to her as he walked by.

It started sprinkling when he got back into the car. He turned the key and messed with the radio, looking for a weather report. There was a storm heading into the area, but apparently it was going to be all blow and no bother. A little rain, some thunder, and gusty winds were being predicted. That wasn't too bad.

Dallas got into her seat and set her drink down in the holder as she shut the door. It began raining harder, and a rumble of thunder came from the distance.

"Ah. Great." She muttered as the huge drops fell on the windshield.

"What? Don't like storms?" Taker asked, lowering the volume as a Rob Zombie song replaced the weather update.

"I love a good storm. I hate being on the road during them. People forget how to drive."

He couldn't argue with her point. "We can sit and wait for a few minutes. It's supposed to be moving fast." Even as he spoke, a fork of lightning split the sky overhead with a roaring clap of thunder. Dallas snickered.

"The gods hath spoken. Stay ye at the rest area." She picked up her drink and took another sip, listening to the rain hitting the roof of the car.

Taker sighed and adjusted his seat, sliding it back and reclining it a little bit. The sound of the rain was hypnotic. For ten minutes they sat in silence, just listening. There were a few more big claps of thunder, but it was moving off to the east. The rain stayed heavy though. He was ready to get back to driving though. He could relax and sleep at the hotel in just a couple of hours.

Taker adjusted his seat once more and looked over at Dallas. She was looking through the water clouded windshield at main building to the rest area. Apparently while he'd been relaxing, the power had been knocked out. "Good thing I got those drinks a few minutes ago."

"Yeah." Dallas had all but forgotten hers, she was so lost in thought. She was doing that quiet thing again, and he did not know why it bothered him. Did he honestly expect her to keep rolling out the smart comments to entertain him? No. But he did expect some of her sarcasm to kick in every now and then. It was her nature.

Instead of bringing it up, and resisting – successfully! – the urge to reach over and grab her and kiss her senseless, Taker started the car. He turned on the wipers and the lights, then the heater. The windows had fogged a bit. Since she was being so quiet, he entertained, or tortured himself, with thoughts of doing naughty things to her in the car. He hadn't done any such thing since high school, but he figured he was overdue for some vehicular sex. And Dallas was the adventurous type, she might have gotten a kick out of screwing around in the car at a rest step.

"Damn." Taker did not realize he'd spoken out loud until Dallas looked at him.

"What's wrong?" She asked him, glancing around.

Taker smirked. Tell her the truth? He didn't think she would mind he was kicking himself for not taking advantage of a perfect opportunity. So he lied. "I forgot to check the game scores. Guess I can wait til we get there."

Dallas raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I bet the team with the most points won."

"As usual." Taker sighed and forced himself to go the rest of the trip without dirty thoughts. It was a challenge but he was sure he could manage it.