Chapter 16

Jessica woke up early the next morning. She quickly got dressed and went down stairs for breakfast. As she headed towards the kitchen, she glanced at the answering machine. She had two messages. She paused and stared at the flashing light on the machine. Slowly she reached forward and pushed the button. Jessica closed her eyes as his voice played back to her.

"You were beautiful tonight. It was great to see you in the ring again." She stood still. He had been there. She thought to herself. He was watching her. She sat on the floor to catch her breath.

"Don't let him get to you. You're in control." She said aloud to herself. "He can't hurt me." Slowly her breathing returned to normal and a sense of pride began to build inside her. She was able to fight back. She had felt the fear build up and was able to push it back down. It was a good step she thought to herself and jumped up from the floor to make breakfast.

When she got into the kitchen, she opened the fridge. She thought of last night and wondered what Vince had said to the guys. Neither one of them had told her what was said, but judging from their silence on the drive last night, Jessica was fairly sure that Vince gave them hell. She decided to make it up to them and pulled out some items to make them breakfast.

By the time Matt woke up he could smell food coming from the kitchen. He jumped up and headed down stairs. When he got to the kitchen he found Jessica cooking up a storm.

"What is this exactly?" He asked. Jessica turned around and smiled at him.

"Good morning!" She went over to hug him. "I wasn't sure what you guys wanted so I made a little bit of everything." Matt looked at the table. There he found every type of breakfast food imaginable.

"You cooked all this?"

"Yea. Why? Isn't there something I missed?"

"Jess, there's enough food here to feed and army. What's going on?" Matt asked her.

"I just wanted to thank you guys, and I figured you weren't really the yogurt type."

"True. But you shouldn't have."

"Well, I did. Now go wake your brother before everything gets cold." She turned back to the stove. Matt went upstairs to wake Jeff up.

"Dude, you got to get down here!"

"Why what is it?" Jeff yawned. "Is Jess okay?"

"She's fine I think. Just come down and have a little breakfast." Matt laughed. Jeff followed his brother and was amazed but what he saw.

"Is that French toast?" Jeff said as he sat down.

"Help yourself." She said, and both brothers dug into all the food. Jessica went to the fridge to pull out her yogurt.

"You're kidding me right?" Matt said his mouth full.

"What?"

"All this food here and you're still gonna eat that damn yogurt?"

"It's what I eat every morning. It's good for you." She said as she pulled the lid off.

"Give me that." Jeff said. He grabbed the yogurt and threw it out.

"Hey!" She protested.

"Do us a favor? Eat some real food. Please?" Jeff said and went back to his plate.

"Fine, but just this once." She grabbed a plate and helped herself to some bacon and pancakes. "Mmm." She said as she took her first bite. "I guess this is better."

"Now you're talking." Matt shoveled a few more bites in. "Not that I'm complaining but what's up with the feast?"

"I'm celebrating."

"Okay, what are we celebrating?" He asked.

"He called again." She said and Matt and Jeff immediately stopped eating.

"What do you mean? When?" Jeff looked at her.

"Sometime last night. I heard the message this morning." She told them and took another bite of her food.

"What did he say?" Jeff asked.

"He said I looked good last night and he was glad to see me in the ring again."

"He was there last night?" Matt looked to his brother.

"Apparently." She said as both brothers went to the living room to play the message. She joined them in the living room. Matt and Jeff looked at each other as the message played back to them.

"And why exactly are we celebrating?" Jeff asked her.

"Because I'm okay." She went up to them. "He called to threaten me and for a few seconds it almost worked. But I fought it back. I'm standing. Well actually, I did sit on the floor for a few moments, but I got right back up. It didn't affect me like it used to. I just might be able to do this after all."

Jeff felt a large grin spread across his face as she smiled back at them. There was a light in her eyes that Jeff hadn't seen in ages. She looked to him.

"I know it's not much but it made me happy." He went over to her and gave her a hug.

"I'm proud of you." Jeff whispered to her.

"Me too." Matt said and pulled her away from Jeff to also give her a hug.

"Well, now we can get to this amazing feast." Jeff said. "Because I am starved." They headed back in and finished breakfast. Both boys were amazed at how different Jessica seems to be. After breakfast Jessica and Matt wanted to go to the gym before they had to fly out so they all piled into the car and drove down to the gym. They worked out for about an hour before they decided to head back to get their things and go to the airport. When they pulled back into the driveway, Jeff's cell phone rang. He answered it and gestured for Matt and Jessica to go inside.

"Hey Honey, are you okay?" Meg's voice came over the phone.

"Hi Meg.

"Is everything okay? You didn't call yesterday. I got worried."

"I'm sorry. Things were a little hectic."

"Aw, what happened?"

"They just kept changing the storyline and then we had to do a house show. I'm really sorry I couldn't call."

"Where you headed next?"

"We're leaving in a couple of minutes for Jacksonville. They want us to make a stop on RAW."

"Wow they have you going everywhere; that must be good." She said cheerfully. "You're still coming home on Wednesday?"

"Yup, I'll be there."

"Jeff, are you okay? You sound different." Meg asked concerned.

"I'm fine babe, just tired that's all." He said hoping she would believe him. "Listen, honey, I'm sorry but we've got to get going. I'll give you a call tonight."

"Uh, okay?" Meg said quietly. "I love you."

"Me too. Bye" He hung up the phone and sighed. He had been cold to her and he knew it. He just hadn't figured out what to do just yet.

"Jeff get up here!" Matt yelled from Jessica's window his voice filled with panic.

Jeff ran into the house and up the stairs to her room. When he got there he found Jessica crying in Matt's arms and her room was trashed. He gazed around the room and saw shredded clothing everywhere. Her mirror had been shattered and there was broken glass all over the place.

"Take her." Matt said to his brother. "I'm gonna make sure he's gone." Jeff went over and took Jessica in his arms. She was inconsolable. She looked up to him.

"He was in my house, Jeff" She said to him.

"It's going to be okay."

"No it won't be. I was stupid to think that everything was going to be okay. He got past the gate and the alarms. He got into my bedroom!" She sobbed into him. He couldn't think of anything to say to make her feel better, so he just continued to hold her and rock her back and forth. He looked to one of her walls that had once been full of pictures. Each one was now strewn on her bedroom floor, some of them ripped into pieces. On the wall he had written two words: Stay Away. Jeff wasn't sure if that message was for him or her. Matt came back up.

"I didn't see anything but I called the cops. They were on their way. They said we should leave the room and not touch anything."

"Come on Jess." Jeff said to her gently but he couldn't get her to budge. He looked to Matt not knowing what to do. Matt looked just as unsure. Finally, Jeff just picked her up and carried her out. He brought her down into the living room and laid her down on the couch. She wouldn't let go of him. So Jeff repositioned himself and sat on the couch with her.

"Jess, look at me. Honey, I need you to look at me. We're here. He's not going to hurt you, I promise." Jeff said soothingly.

"Jess," Matt leaned in and took her hand. "It's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."

"Jess, please say something." Jeff pleaded with her.

"He was in my room." She finally whispered.

"I know."

"Why won't he just leave me alone?"

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out. We'll figure something out. I promise." He held her closer and kissed the top of her head protectively. There was a knock at the door and she jumped up.

"It's okay." Matt said going to the door. "It's just the cops. Matt let the cops into the house. He walked them upstairs to Jessica bedroom. One of the officers came back down with Matt.

"Mam, I'm Officer Barrows. I don't know if you remember me but I was here a couple of nights ago." Jessica nodded to him. "Can you tell me what happened?" She looked to Matt.

"We had just come home for the gym." Matt started. "We went upstairs, to grab our bags before we headed to the airport. Jessica went into her room; she yelled for me and that's when I saw the room."

"Do you have any idea who could have done this?" He asked them.

"Jess has been receiving phone calls for awhile. They had died down for a little bit, but they recently started up again when she returned to work."

"Have you filed any complaints?" Barrows asked as he took notes.

"I believe so. Jess?" Matt looked at her.

"Jess, you got to help us out here." Jeff said to her.

"Uhm, yea but Vince took care of it all." She finally said.

"I'll call him." Matt walked away and the officer followed him. He turned to the cop when they had walked away. "I'm sorry she's really shaken."

"It's okay. Who is Vince?"

"Vince McMahon. He's the chairman of the WWE, where we work."

"Okay, you contact him, and I'll call this in and see if we have any information."

"All right. " Matt said. "This guy, he's also made threats against my brother."

"Does your brother have a relationship with the victim?" Victim. It finally hit Matt what Jessica had been going through. That one word changed everything for him.

"Sir?" The officer tried to get his attention.

"I'm sorry."

"Is your brother in a relationship with"

"Jessica." Matt cut him off. "Her name is Jessica and no, but they used to be."

"Okay. Why don't you make that call?" Officer Barrow said. Matt called Vince and tried to explain what was going on. Vince wanted to talk to the cops so Matt handed his phone off to him and went back into the living room to check on Jessica. Jeff had finally calmed her down and she was at least sitting up, holding Jeff's hand.

"What's going on?" Jeff asked him.

"The cops are talking to Vince now. He's giving them some of the information." Matt told him and Officer Barrow came back to them.

"Mr. McMahon gave us some stuff to go on and he's sending someone from your security department down to give us what he has. I'll also go over the files we have. "

"Do we have to stay here?" Jessica said. "I mean, I need to get out of this house."

"It's okay." Jeff said to her. "We'll get you out of here as soon as possible." He squeezed her hand.

"It will just be a little longer, mam. We just have a few more questions". He said to her and she nodded.

They stayed at the house for a couple more hours. By then they had answered what felt like a thousand questions, and Vince's security team had arrived with a lot of documents. Eventually they were free to go. Vince had arranged for someone from security to stay while they investigated. Stephanie had rescheduled their flight so that they would just fly down to Hampton, VA where Smackdown was taping and skip RAW.

"Do you need anything?" Matt asked Jessica as they were getting ready to leave.

"No." She said numbly. "He's touched everything." Matt understood and he led her out of the house. Before getting into the car, she looked at her house. It no longer gave her that comforting feeling of home. He had taken that away from her. Jeff came up behind her to help her get in the car.

"If they find him, I'll kill him." She said to him. He looked at her sadly. That happy, excited girl from this morning was long gone.