Jessie got out first, helping Elphie out of the limo. After leaving the driver a large tip, she put her arm around Elphie, walking with her to the door.
"We're tired of coming to get you, green bean." Before Jessie could turn around, she found her head flying through the thin glass window in the door. Seconds later, Elphaba found herself being grabbed by two men.
"Jess!" Elphaba yelled, as she began fighting the two men trying to drag her away. Her knee flew into one of their crotches, as the other grabbed her from behind, lifting her up.
"Maybe we should snap her this time." The one holding Elphaba said laughing. Jessie fell backwards, her head bleeding.
"HELP!" Elphie yelled, as the other two began wailing Jessie with kicks and punches.
"Bitch…." The one she kicked said, raring back. Before he gets a chance, a fist flew into his gut. Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief, seeing K, as five clicks of guns being cocked were heard.
"Get up, motherfucker. I just polished these boots." K said, as the other put her down. The minute she was free, she ran to Jessie's side.
"Jess?" She said, nearly crying. Taking advantage of the distraction, Elphie ran her hand over Jessie's face, her fingers getting bloodied. When she pulled away, Jessie's cuts were minor and were no longer bleeding.
Jessie looked up at her, face bloodied, and managed a grin. "I'm OK, beautiful. Don't worry," Jessie pulled her in, kissing her head, "Thanks, K." Jessie said.
K nodded. "No prob, Jess. You OK, little E?" K asked, Elphaba nodded, "Then lets get inside before the LAPD comes around." K's group rounded the four up, and Elphie and K helped Jessie up. K's group sat them in the middle of the floor when K and Elphie walked in with Jessie betweem them.
"Sit here." Elphie said, leaving no room for argument. As badly as Jessie's head was hurting, she didn't argue.
K looked at the four men sitting on the dojo floor, seeing one of them reaching for something in his jacket. K pointed the gun at his head. "Unless you feel like dying, I wouldn't do that, amigo." K said, "As a matter of fact, all jackets off and weapons on the mats. Get creative, and you're going back to Vegas in a ziplock balls first."
They looked at each other, they had little choice but to cooperate. Four guns, two knives, and a pair of brass knuckles were laying on the mat a few minutes later. Elphaba came back with a pan of water and towels.
"K, their ankles. Check the ankles." Jessie said, coughing a little.
"You heard the lady." Sure enough, four 38 specials were laying on the floor a few minutes later.
"How did you know?" Elphie whispered, as she began cleaning Jessie's face.
"Nobody goes with one gun." Jessie said, matter of factly, as K's men collected the weapons.
"Nice. Other than adding to my collection, what the fuck are you bitches doing in my neighborhood?" K asked.
"Hey, look, we came to get property she stole. Give us our property, and we'll be off your turf for good." The 'leader' of the group of four said.
K listened to the man, looking at Elphie. Jessie's arm slid around her, primarily to hold her back. "You saying little E is property?"
The leader rolled his eyes. "Look at her. Could the freak be anything but property?"
K took two steps, before burying his doc martin into the man's mouth."Call her a freak again, and I'll punt your skull through the fucking wall. But since you pretty bitches want to talk about property, how about I turn you four out on the corner. I'm sure someone would pay top dollar to pop your virgin asses." K said, chuckling.
With the blood gone, there was still a small gash on Jessie's forehead. Elphaba couldn't finish healing her here, there were too many eyes that could catch it. "Oh, Jess." Elphie said, worriedly.
"Please! I get deeper cuts shaving my legs." Jessie said, dismissively, "K, just remember, we split the profits." Jessie said, like they talked about this all the time.
"Of course. I wouldn't cut you and little E out of the profits. After all, you brought MY property to me." K said, looking all four over.
"What….What do you want?" One of them asked, nervously. He hoped they were just talking smack.
"You four are going to take a message to Tony. Tell him Big K Martins said he's going to cut the balls off the next sorry sonuvabitch that sets foot near Big Jess and Little E. Tell him he's gonna be my bitch if this keeps up. He will leave her alone."
"What the fuck do you care? She's a mutant, and she belongs to the boss." One of them said, scoffing.
"Pounce him." The other three watched, as K's crew beat him within an inch of his life.
"K, call them off, please." Elphaba said, she wasn't one to normally balk at an evil person getting the punishment they deserve. However, these four idiots were just messengers.
"OK, guys." K said, waving them back, "Collect your trash, and get the fuck out of here." K said, as Marcus walked in.
"What the fuck happened to….." He paused, seeing the scene in front of him, "What the fuck?"
"They tried to snatch Elphaba." Jessie said, her grip on Elphie increasing. Seeing the gash, Marcus shook his head sadly.
"Morning, K. I see you have the situation in hand." Marcus said, walking to the back office.
"What about our guns?" One of them asked, getting a laugh from the whole group.
"You're lucky you're breathing. Get your asses out of here." K said. They collected the semi conscious one, and left. K's crew followed them, just to make sure. K walked over to Jessie and Elphaba.
"Thanks, dude." Jessie said, giving him five.
"Anytime. Are you OK, E?" K asked, genuinely concerned. To his surprise, she hugged him.
"Thank you." Elphie said, her voice shaky.
"Don't sweat it. You're part of my crew. They won't fuck with you again." K said, hugging her back comfortingly, "Now that the trash is taken out, you guys gonna be OK? I gotta go get little K from his music class."
"We're good, bro. Thanks." Jessie said, hugging him
"No problem." K said, leaving.
Elphie led Jessie upstairs. "How are you feeling?" She asked, when they got there.
"I'm OK. I know what you did." Jessie said, looking at her. Elphaba looked down. Jessie gently cupped her chin, looking her in the eyes. "Thank you." Jessie said, kissing her cheek.
"So, do you want me to finish healing you, or take a bath?" Elphaba asked, clearing her throat to rid the butterflies.
"Can we do both?" Jessie asked, chuckling as Elphaba blushed even deeper.
()
Elphaba was relieved. Other than the interview with IWMMA representative Tamara, Jessie had a free schedule for the week. As Tamara was setting up in the dojo, Elphie watched from the back office with Jessie.
"And you're sure it's OK to talk a little about you?" Jessie asked, concerned. She didn't want Elphie being in a bad spot.
"It's OK, Jessie. Just don't talk about Oz. Vegas is fair game." Jessie walked up behind her, her arm slipping around Elphie's waist, as Elphie watched the setup.
"I promise, I'll make sure it's accurate." Jessie said, getting a nod.
"I know you will." Elphaba said, resting her head on Jessie's, and closing her eyes. She wasn't comfortable at all with being on display, but Jessie had done too much for her not to trust her to deal with this appropriately. It just felt like Oz again. Morrible spreading all of those lies about her throughout Oz, and no one speaking out in her defense. She nodded at the thumbs up from Tamara, letting her know that she was ready. Jessie, in her fight shirt and shorts, sat down in the folding chair across from Tamara.
"Jessie, thank you for joining us." Tamara said, smiling warmly.
"My pleasure. Good to see you again." Jessie said, returning the smile.
"It's not very often you're on the receiving end of this kind of attention. Normally, you're one of our most popular and approachable fighters." Tamara said warmly.
"Yeah, this has been kinda out of my norm," Jessie agreed, "But I'm still approachable. My fans are still number one."
"So what happened out there?" Tamara asked, leaning in.
"Well, Maria made some disparaging comments about my friend and personal assistant, Elphaba West. Unfortunalty, I lost my temper and made quite a spectacle of myself. Thank goodness Marcus Raimes, Rick 'the dozer' Gruber and Mike 'The brick' House were there to pull me away from the cage. That's not the impression I like to make, but I wasn't going to listen to her disrespecting Elphaba, either. I made a choice, the wrong reaction for the right reason. I'm sure every single adult fan of mine has had the same situation happen." Jessie said, being as truthful as possible.
"I would think so. Now, Maria was terminated from the company for this incident, but it hasn't stopped her from releasing more accusations about Miss West. For instance, one of the rumors is she was a Vegas performer that she was caught in a compromising position. Is there any truth to that?" Tamara asked, trying to vocalize it as respectfully as possible.
"It's a half truth. Miss West WAS a performer in Vegas attempting to get out of the performing business. Her and I came to an agreement for her to come work for me." Jessie explained.
"Jessie, I hate to spring this on you, but the IWMMA received a video last night. It's involves both you and Miss West in a very compromising position." Tamara said, getting an eyebrow raise.
"I'd like to see that." Jessie said. She was a bit confused, her and Elphaba hadn't done anything compromising least of all in public. What could they possibly have? Jessie was shocked to see a video of that damn Jell-o match between her and Elphaba.
"Any explination?" Tamara asked, a little accusingly.
"None. I had met Elphaba at a diner in Vegas the night before. She told her boss, Tony, or was it Tonya? Anyway, she told him that she wanted out of his mud wrestling shows. He wasn't too thrilled with that prospect. Her green tattoo makes her very recognizable, and a favorite among his crowds. He gave her this Jell-o match as a way of punishing her. She was homeless when she arrived, and he held that over her head to force her to do whatever matches he wanted, if she wanted to eat and have a place to sleep. I had given her my number in case she needed to talk. When she told me the match he was forcing her to do, I agreed to come in, and take the match myself." Jessie said all of this calmly; however, the memory still angered her.
"This Tony sounds like a real sleeze." Tamara observed, relaxing a little at the explanation. The IWMMA was very aware of her work with the homeless and domestic violence issues, and fully supported her in them, even promoting some of the shelters like the one in Pittsburgh.
"Oh, he is. Not only that, he's a coward. He attempted to assault her in the diner, even going so far as to threaten me with a gun for interviening." Jessie stated.
"Sounds scary." Tamara said, leaning in.
"Oh, it was. I was terrified, but at least it distracted him long enough for her to get out. Unfortunatly, with no where to go, she had to return to the club." Jessie was still upset that Elphie didn't trust her enought yet to let her help.
"I'm surprised, Jessie. We've seen you actually take in people yourself to prevent them from having to go back into the situation." Tamara said, a touch disappointed.
Before Jessie could answer, Elphaba walked into the shot. "She did. She rented a hotel room for me. Unfortunatly, if I wanted to eat or make money, I really didn't have a lot of other options due to my skin color."
Jessie was shocked to see Elphaba standing there. "Elphaba…." Elphie looked at Jessie with a smile that said I know what I'm doing.
"Miss West, I was told you were off limits." Tamara said, surprised.
"Yes, Jessie's been trying to protect me from the media. But you have been incredibly nice and respectful, I felt you deserved an answer from me personally." Elphaba said, getting a wide smile from both Jessie and Tamara.
"Get Miss West a chair." Tamara said. Moments later, she was sitting next to Jessie. Jessie's hand discreetly brushed Elphie's in support. She mouthed thank you, getting a smile from Elphaba.
"Please, call me Elphaba." Elphie said, getting comfortable, as they attached the microphone to her collar. Jessie watched in awe, as Elphaba fielded the questions with an ease and grace that had Jessie both proud and floored. She couldn't have been more impressed. Not only had Elphaba won over Tamara, but even her crew liked her.
"So, Jessie, do we sense a little something other than a working relationship between you two?" She asked, getting a blush from both of them.
"I'll leave that to the fans to determine." Jessie said, getting a knowing smile.
"OK, Champ! Thanks for explaining everything. And good luck, Elphaba." Tamara said, smile in place, as they cut.
"Thanks, Tamara. I appreciate you letting us tell the truth." Elphaba said, shaking her hand.
"My pleasure. To be honest, this is the first time that Jessie's ever had a problem like this, at least at an event. The girls and I were just hoping that she wouldn't get fired." Tamara said.
"The girls and I?" Elphaba asked.
"Yeah. Jessie and I work on the domestic violence hotline together. When I graduated, she got me the interview." Jessie looked down, blushing.
"No, your transcripts, resume, and audition tapes got you the interview. I just dropped it off at the office." She said, dismissively.
"Yeah, and she'll go down saying that." Tamara said, grinning.
"I've noticed." Elphaba said, as Tamara gave Jessie a hug.
"Don't worry. All of this will blow over, I promise." Jessie nodded, as the crew began breaking down. Seeing Marcus in the office, she excused herself. Walking into the office, she closed the door.
"Marcus, I want her." Jessie said.
Marcus looked at Jessie curiously. "You want who?"
"That bitch. She sent the IWMMA a video of the Jell-o match." Jessie's anger was unmistakable.
"Oh, shit." Marcus said, shaking his head. He knew that could be bad.
"I handled it, but I want a piece of that skank bitch. I don't care what you have to do, make it happen." Jessie said through her teeth.
"Jessie, she's fired. The IWMMA won't sanction it." Marcus said.
"I don't give a shit about what they sanction or not. I don't care if it's in a hotel, in a parking lot, in a back alley. You just make sure it happens." Jessie said, seething.
Knowing that Jessie wouldn't give up on this. "OK. I'll see what I can do."
"Anytime, anywhere. I'll even put up a million of my own money if she can last three rounds with me." Jessie was beyond pissed that this bitch stooped that low.
"Jessie…." Marcus warned.
"Marcus, I'll have Elphie arrange a press confrence and do it myself if you don't do it." Jessie warned.
Marcus groaned, "I'll get it done." He said, smirking, "You gonna let her make it out of the first round?"
"I haven't decided yet." Jessie said as she walked back out.