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Sometimes Stephanie McMahon wondered why her father, the great Vincent Kennedy McMahon Jnr, had ever made the WWE a publically traded company. She was a clever business woman and understood the financial benefits, for the company and her family's deep pockets, and although she loved being the billion dollar princess and having more money than she could ever spend it was a royal pain in her ass having to deal with the board and the investors.
They picked and pulled at every decision her husband, Triple H and herself made regarding the company. They asked would it be more beneficial if they were more caring to the roster, they begged them to be more gracious to the paying audience.
But why the hell should they? It was her company and she would run it how she felt would be best for business. Sure, they held a handful of shares, but her family held the majority and with her father nearing retirement and her brother out of the picture, she was the rightful heir to the throne and she would treat her subjects as she saw fit.
She sniggered at some ill-informed opinion of one of the board members, speaking as if they had any idea of what it took to run the WWE, of what it took to be the Authority.
Noticing her husband's stern jaw she followed his intense eyes across the boardroom to the hallway outside and immediately her head tilted to the side and her lip began to curl.
Dean Ambrose.
He was walking along slowly, dragging his fingers across the transparent glass, a wide lunatic smile taunted Stephanie and his bulging eyes screamed that he was going to do something erratic that would more than likely anger the Authority.
Steph's sinister blue eyes followed Dean as he made his way to the door, his tongue poking out of his mouth in a devilish way. What the hell was he doing there? Did he think that Seth would be here? She could feel her blood beginning to boil, it bubbling like an angry volcano; she would kill him with her bare hands if he took one step inside that board room. As if he hadn't caused her and the rest of the Authority enough trouble recently, with him stealing Seth's Money in the Bank briefcase and a duffel bag full of stolen merchandise before he planted the briefcase with a spraying green goo and gave it back to Seth. He'd watched from the crowd as he embarrassed the Authority again. She was not going to let him embarrass her in her boardroom too.
Dean opened the door slowly, a mischievous grin on his face. He poked his head through the door as every member of the board turned to stare at the intruder, the room falling into a deafening silence.
"Don't mind me," Dean said with wide insane blue eyes. Steph hated the lunatic. "Continue. Ohh doughnuts, score." Dean said heading towards the head of the table right beside Steph and Hunter, where a tray of untouched pastries sat.
"What are you doing here, Ambrose?" Hunter asked, his voice strained.
Dean bent low to the table inspecting each doughnut with an inquisitive eye before taking a bite of one, chewing for several seconds before spitting the contents from his mouth into the tray.
"Disgusting," he muttered as he threw the rest of the offensive snack over his shoulder, it hitting the glass of the wall. The majority of the board members gasped in horror, whilst a few sniggered quietly under their breath.
"Enough!" Hunter roared sternly, standing quickly, his black leather chair sliding behind him.
"I'm sorry, boss" Dean said sarcastically. "Did you want the rest of that?"
Hunter stepped forward his nostrils flaring. "Outside now."
Steph stood, unable to hide her sadistic smile at the thought of her husband finishing Ambrose once and for all.
Dean chuckled darkly though his eyes were anything but playful. He squared his shoulders as if he had any hope in taking on Steph's beloved husband. Steph had always thought Dean was stupid, all lunacy, anger and idiotic courage bottled into the twitchy mess that was Dean Ambrose. Steph couldn't understand why the crowd cheered him so much, why they cheered a psychotic whacko like him, and then boo the heiress of the company. Not that she cared, she was better than all those stupid fans anyway.
Hunter gripped Ambrose's arm and Dean immediately went ridged, his eyes widening and his jaw tightening. Dean shrugged Hunter's hand off him without taking his glazed over eyes off the older man.
"You're crazy Ambrose; I said outside," Hunter said threateningly quietly.
"First my therapist says that, now you." Dean's head tilted to the side. "If people keep saying it I might start to believe it."
"I said outside," Hunter spat through gritted teeth.
Dean stared menacingly into Hunter's small eyes before a mischievous grin spread across his face. He reached down, his eyes still boring into the former champion's eyes, and picked up another doughnut slowly. Taking a bite, Dean chewed slowly. "Okay, let's go." Dean said, his mouth full.
Steph watched disgusted as Dean turned and headed outside whilst munching on the pastry.
"God, he's so intense," a middle aged female member of the board gushed, a coy smile on her thin lips and her cheeks blushing bright red.
Steph threw her a hateful look as she followed her husband and the insubordinate imbecile out of the meeting room. She closed the door tightly though she knew that the whole room were watching through the glass wall.
Hunter opened his mouth to speak but Steph cut him off.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Ambrose?" She pointed a finger aggressively at him, her lips curled into a snarl. "Who the hell do you think you are? Interrupting a board meeting? Ignoring your superiors?"
Dean smirked.
"It's a publically traded company, and I'm a member of the public and I figured I'd head up here to see what was going on." He said clearly before taking another bite of his snack.
"That's not how this works," Hunter fumed, taking a step closer to Dean.
"I know," Dean replied taking a step forward.
"I should kick your ass right about now," Hunter seethed.
Dean sniggered, his eyes flicking to the members of the board who stared shamelessly out at the warring pair.
Steph followed Dean's eyes and as much as she wanted to see her husband kick Dean's ass, she knew that in front of the board was not the place to do it. It wasn't even her husband's place to be teaching Ambrose a lesson, Hunter was too good for that. It should be Seth's, and Steph made a mental note to put more pressure on her and Hunter's chosen one to end this annoyance for once and for all.
Putting a hand on her husband's chest, Steph told Hunter silently to back off, before turning her eyes to Dean.
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
"Athena," Dean replied quickly.
Steph scoffed as Hunter let out a dark grumble of a laugh.
"We can make her do a lot of things, but we can't make her have a relationship with someone. If we could, she'd be with Seth." Steph tilted her head to the side, an evil smile on her lips, her eyes glowing with the pleasure of hurting someone.
His hand curled in and out irately. "It's not fair that she isn't getting any matches," he said, ignoring Steph's jibe. "I said those things, not her."
Doing up his suit jacket Hunter said, "the problem is Ambrose, you said some pretty degrading stuff on that video, and we run a PG show; we can't take the risk of the crowd chanting one of those," he considered his words. "Indecent things. It's a shame it got leaked, really." He smiled.
"Yeah, and I wonder who leaked it." Dean said seriously, a frown forming between his eyes.
"You know what would have stopped the leak?" Steph chirped in. "If you'd never said those things. If anyone's to blame for Athena not getting any ring time, it's you."
Dean ran his hands through his already dishevelled hair. "You're going to regret this."
Steph's mouth opened wide. "Are you threatening us? We could have your job for that little stunt you pulled in there?" She pointed furiously into the boardroom. "Do you really think you're in any position to threaten us?!"
"I'm not stupid, I know that if you want to fire me for something that isn't in my contract you've got to get the approval of those schmucks in there," Dean smiled and waved at the board members who were staring at him and the majority of them waved back. "And they're not going to approve it, are they?" Dean smiled charmingly. "I sell way too much merch for them to sign off on that. The same way they wouldn't sign off on Punk, all those times you tried to get rid of him."
Steph was almost spitting venom. How dare he speak to her like this?
Dean began walking backwards, his arms outstretched in front of him. "So yeah, you're gonna' regret this."
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Naomi rolled on the balls of her feet as she stretched her arms above her head, her fingers clasped together. "I just need someone backing me, someone to see I can do it. That I deserve it." She sighed, feeling frustrated.
"You do deserve it, you know you do," Athena reassured her.
"I mean you come into this business and you're told to prove yourself, to win matches and grab that brass ring and then you'll get a title opportunity, but I've been winning most of my matches, people are saying I'm the most athletic diva, no offence."
"None taken," Athena smiled at her friend.
Naomi smiled at her close friend. "But they still won't give me a chance. It just seems to me that unless your name is AJ or Paige or Nikki since she screwed Brie, you don't get looked at around here."
Athena knew her friend must be feeling extremely frustrated to be complaining to her. Naomi very rarely said anything negative, never wanting that type of energy around her.
"I know it sucks, but would you really want to be in the title picture through screwing over your sister?" Athena said, still shocked that Nikki could turn on her sister like she had at SummerSlam.
"No, I'm just feeling sorry for myself," Naomi brushed her curly hair from her face before beginning to stretch her legs.
Athena dug her hands into her hoody pockets. "God, I know, let it go already!" Athena playfully mocked. "It could be worst, you could be me and you could never have a match again in your life," she snorted.
Naomi stopped stretching. "Didn't you see the call sheet yet? I didn't mention it because I thought you might be nervous-"
"Why, what's on the call sheet?" Athena interrupted, desperate to know what Naomi was on about.
Naomi smiled. "You've got a match tonight with Summer."
"You're kidding?!" Athena almost yelled jumping up and down excitedly, her ponytail bouncing with every jump; her eyes were wide and rapturous. "I've got to see this for myself, I'll see you later."
She turned and rushed down the corridor heading towards the board where the call sheet would be pinned. Could this really be real? Had the Authority decided that she was no longer a risk of embarrassment in public; could her career not be over as she'd previously thought? She'd assumed the hierarchy were devastated that she'd recently signed another one year contract with the company, and they were quietly waiting out the contract before quietly not renewing it. She'd already started making plans; she was going to move back to her home town and hopefully get booked on all the independent shows she'd worked on before being signed to the WWE. She was going to put all the business with Seth and the Authority behind her.
Athena didn't know if she'd be able to put Dean behind her.
She skidded around a corner, almost crashing into Dolph Ziggler. "Sorry," she called after her.
Stopping in front of the notice board Athena frowned at the Big Show and Mark Henry, who were standing shoulder to shoulder blocking her view of the board.
"Ahem," she coughed though neither of them moved. She stepped forward placing one hand on the Big Show's arm and one on Mark's and pushed against them roughly, failing to budge them once again though grabbing their attention. "Excuse me," she squeaked, smiling cheesily up at them until they moved.
Her eyes raked the call board, brushing over Dean and Seth's name, of course they had matches, until her eyes fell on her name second from the bottom.
She squeaked and jumped up and down excited, her stomach dancing with butterflies. Athena was pretty sure she'd never been that excited to wrestle Summer Rae in her life.
"Athena," Kane's deep voice broke her elation. She turned and stared up at the seven foot former monster, wondering what he wanted with her. They'd never spoken before.
"Yes."
"Mrs. McMahon said I'd find you here," he said.
"Oh?" Athena's stomach filled with dread.
"She told me to inform you not to get too excited about your match tonight, because it's not going to happen."
Athena's mouth opened in horror, her eyes instantly stinging. "What? Why?" How could they build her hopes up only to break her heart a moment later? How could they be so cruel? What had she done to deserve that?
"She also told me to tell you that you can thank your boyfriend."
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"So I heard the interview," Naomi's voice echoed through the hands free of Athena's rental.
Athena groaned as she sped down the highway, desperate to forget the horrifically uncomfortable live interview she'd had to endure that morning, though her brain and her friend would not let her forget.
The day had started off exactly as all press days did. She was carted around all morning answering the same questions over and over again, and she smiled over and over again. Until one arrogant orange tinged tanned television presenter from some daytime TV show that nobody had ever heard of, asked her the forbidden question. The question that WWE officials had banned from all of Athena's interviews.
The tall tangerine had asked, "How do you feel about what fellow WWE Superstar, Dean Ambrose, said about you in that infamous tape?"
Athena's smile had instantly faded as her brain exploded with thoughts. What should she say? What would Steph say? She'd been told explicitly not to talk about Dean, Seth or the tape; when every interview was arranged WWE officials told the organisations that they were not to ask about any of those three things and all of them had agreed and stuck to the agreement, until that day.
He'd asked it completely out the blue, live on television. Athena wanted to stand and walk the hell out of there, but knew that she couldn't, she had to scrape her smile back on her face and answer him. Even if it was the last thing she wanted to do.
"It was an insensitive joke, he has a very strange sense of humour," Athena had lied, refusing to open up about the truth about Dean and Seth and that tape. "Which you'll all see for yourself if you come to Monday night Raw next Monday, right here in Los Angeles." Athena desperately tried to steer the conversation back to the upcoming Raw.
"Going back to the tape," Athena nodded curtly, her smile etched across her face though her blue eyes bore holes into the orange man. "It must have come as quite a shock to you that your boyfriend, Dean Ambrose, felt that way about you? That he didn't care for you at all." He'd asked, clearly smug that he was the first interviewer to get what he thought was the scoop.
"Like I said, it was an insensitive joke," Athena could barely keep up the pretence of a smile.
"You don't expect us to believe that do you?" The man probed.
"Well that's what it was," Athena had cited, the lie rolling of her tongue like poison directed at the interviewer.
The oompa loompa like man had sighed loudly, showing his annoyance at Athena's reluctance to give him the scoop he was after. "So are you still in a romantic relationship with Dean Ambrose?"
"No, but we remain very good friends. In fact we'll be hanging out this Monday before we head to the arena for Monday Night Raw," Athena once again had tried desperately to turn the conversation back to what she was meant to be there to talk about.
"Are you once again in a romantic relationship with Seth Rollins?" he'd asked clearly aggravated she wouldn't give him the juicy gossip he wanted.
The question had slapped her in the face. She knew to the casual viewer of WWE who happened to catch the interview she would come across as a man eating whore, moving from one rising star to the other. They'd be waiting for the vicious interviewer to announce a list of her conquests.
"No, I am not." Athena said, her eyes huge and intense, her mind blank with how to get out of the situation other than to walk off air, which would have given the interviewer and his producers an even bigger news angle.
Athena had known the question was coming before the interviewer had asked her. "Are you in a romantic relationship with anyone at the moment?" Before she could answer, he began speaking again. "What about Dolph Ziggler, he's a good looking guy, or Roman Reigns, there are a lot of pictures of you two looking very cozy together."
"Roman and I are friends!" Athena insisted, interrupting the man.
"Well that's all we've got time for," the interviewer said reluctantly, flashing a bright dazzling smile at Athena. "I'd like to thank Athena Robbin's for being such a wonderful guest." Athena had stood quickly, ripping the microphone from her shirt before heading out the door.
"God, it was awful. Why would someone do that?" Athena echoed down the phone to her friend, hating that the memory seemed to be burned into her brain, destined to be replayed over and over again for the rest of her life.
Luke sat up straighter in the passenger seat, tossing the magazine he'd been reading to his feet. "I wish I'd been there, I would like to have met that piece of shit interv-"
"Hey," Athena interrupted, scolding her brother even though they were still on speaker phone to Naomi.
"So you're telling me he's not a piece of shit?" Luke retorted.
"I agree with your baby brother," Naomi's voice glistened through the phone. "What that man did was just wrong; I heard this isn't the first time he's done something like this. Did the same thing to some young singer when she didn't want to answer his inappropriate questions. Seems like the guy is trying to get his show over by being an intrusive manipulative jerk."
Athena scrunched her nose as she listened to this new information. She wished she'd done research into the show, she wished she hadn't just assumed every interview she ever did would be a cut and dry generic one. That every producer and presenter would stick by their words on what not to ask.
"What did Steph say?" Naomi asked as Athena pulled into her grandmother's street.
"She was mad, like really really mad. But surprisingly, she didn't actually blame me. I think she was mad I didn't handle it better, but she was furious with the show for asking those questions and said something along the lines that she was personally going to make sure that presenter once finished with his stupid show would never work again."
Naomi snorted the same time Luke did. "And how does she plan on doing that?"
"I don't know, the woman think's she has more power than she does," Athena replied without feel an ounce of the guilt she normally felt when speaking ill of someone. She pulled up outside her grandmother's house and turned off the engine. "Anyway, I've got to go, we're at my grandma's. Thanks for calling to see how I am." Athena said her goodbye's to her friend before gathering up her bag. Athena had two days off before Raw and she and Luke had decided to head back to visit their grandmother; she wasn't sure if Luke would continue to travel with her once she went back on the road, as much as she'd enjoyed having his company on the road, she wasn't quite sure if it was doing him the good that she and her grandmother had hoped.
They'd hoped he'd see sense and realise you have to work hard to achieve your goals in life. Athena wished that he'd gain some goals. Whenever she tried to speak to him about the future he would clam up and instantly go on the defence as if she was trying to attack him.
She knew most seventeen year olds would feel the same.
Gathering her bag over her shoulder whilst Luke pulled both his suitcases from the trunk of the car, Athena then headed up the pathway to the old rickety porch, dragging herself up the steps, feeling weighed down by the horror of her day. She sluggishly headed through the front door dropping her bag to the floor, ignoring Luke who was attempting to wheel both of his suitcases up the porch steps.
"Grandma," Athena called, her grandmother's petite frame appearing from the kitchen before she'd even finished her call.
"Hyena," Ruby beamed rushing forward and pulling her granddaughter into a tight embrace, smattering a kiss on her cheek. "Lukey," she said as she let go of Athena and pulled Luke, who had just stumbled into the house, into a tight hug. "My baby," she said as she rocked him back and forth, his back bent in half as he tapped her back patronisingly.
They all sat for over an hour each of them catching up with one another. Luke whined of his boredom on the road, of how much he missed hanging out with his friends before resorting to saying how much he missed Ruby. Athena and Ruby both bashed the show she had done earlier that day and Ruby expressed over and over again how she would like to teach that piece of shit (Luke had looked extremely smug as Ruby used that term) some manners. Moving into the kitchen once Ruby's famous lasagne was ready, the small family sat at the dinner table, the conversation flowing naturally until Ruby changed the conversation.
"So I had an interesting conversation today," Ruby spoke, holding her empty fork in mid-air.
Athena swallowed a mouthful of food. "Oh yeah?"
"Dean called," Ruby said.
Both the women fell silent, the only noise coming from Luke who seemed to be inhaling his food, desperately enjoying his grandmother's cooking.
"Why?"
"Last time I saw him before you two broke up, I made him promise not to hurt you, and he wanted to apologise for breaking that promise." Ruby's twinkling eyes stared down Athena, attempting to gage her only granddaughter's reaction.
Athena dropped her cutlery with a clang onto the plate. "How did he get your number?"
"I gave it to him," Luke's muffled voice spoke, he seemed to still have a mouthful of food. His blue eyes were wide and innocent as he swallowed his food.
"What?" Athena's voice was high.
"I said I gave it to him," Luke shrugged his shoulders.
Athena's mouth opened and closed several times, her eyes wide. "Why Luke? Why would you do that? When did you do that?!"
"Well he asked for it a couple of days ago whilst we were jogging-"
"Whilst we were jogging?" Athena's voice rose.
Ruby interrupted. "Don't raise your voice at the table, Athena."
Athena barely shot a glance to her grandmother, instead staring down her younger brother.
"You told me to be nice to him," Luke said, narrowing in his eyes.
Athena gasped and held her hands out in front of her. "I said be nice, be polite, not to go jogging with him. How long have you been hanging out with the guy who broke my heart, Luke?" Athena's voice broke towards the end as her eyes filled with salty tears.
"Only a couple of weeks," Luke said, his attitude disappearing at seeing his sister getting upset. "I went for a walk after you'd pissed me off saying I had to be nice to him and bumped into Dean by the pool, we started talking and then I bumped into him the next night and the next night when I was going out for a walk and we talked."
"And jogged," Athena added irately, annoyed at herself for assuming when he was going jogging he was going alone. She was feeling annoyed with herself a lot lately.
"I knew you'd be mad if I told you," Luke stated, getting up from the table and leaving the kitchen. They felt the shudder of the front door slamming moments later.
"So what did he say?" Athena said, sniffing slightly.
Ruby reached forward and placed her hand over Athena's. "Don't be upset, sweetheart. He just wanted to apologise for breaking his promise and for hurting you. It was a surprisingly nice thing to do."
"It's surprising that he's done that. It doesn't sound like him at all."
"Well, maybe." Ruby gently shrugged her shoulders, not letting go of her granddaughter's hand, squeezing it softly as a tears began slowly spilling from Athena's wide blue eyes. "But that doesn't mean he's not sorry, for everything."
"Why are you defending him?" Athena now sobbed, the tears falling fast and heavy. The stress of last few weeks and her horrific day finally bursting out. "How can you?"
"I'm not defending him, sweetie, what he did was shitty but that doesn't mean he's not sorry and that he doesn't love you." Athena let out a snort and a sob in one. She wiped roughly at her eyes, her blue orbs quickly becoming as red as her hair. "Or that you don't love him."
Athena stared down into her lap, trying to cry quietly though random loud wails escaped her. As much as she tried to push all of her feelings inside, no matter how much she tried to stomp them out, she couldn't. All of her emotions seemed to be bursting from her in the form of tears, and as much as she wanted to, she just couldn't stop.
"That doesn't change anything," Athena cried. "It doesn't matter how much I love him or h-he loves me, it doesn't change what he did, grandma." She leaned into his grandmother's arms, quietly sobbing into her shoulder, feeling like a child again.
"I know, I know, Hyena, but you're not happy now, what if you could be happy with him? I believe him when he says he's sorry and that he regrets everything he did, and that he loves you." She gently strokes Athena's red curls. "You're both miserable apart, why don't you forgive past mistakes and give being happy a chance?"
Please review : D Please please please. Yep, I'm begging.