Chapter 6
"Randy!"
"That is Maria and she's a real life ditz." Cody said, watching as Maria jumped into Randy's not so happy arms, then Randy set her back down. "And Randy is her crush of the week."
Layne could only nod and smiled when Maria came over to her, shaking her hand. "I'm Layne Runnels."
Maria blinked, gaped with wide eyes, and asked, "You're Cody's sister?"
"Yes and the American Dream's daughter." Layne was cracking a hesitant smile when she said that. "Sorry, but we really have to go. We have a meeting with Vince."
"Well...can I come?"
Layne smirked and shrugged. "Ask Randy, he's the driver." She walked away with her brother, leaving the blue eyed leader of Legacy to deal with Maria.
Oh so now Layne was a comedian? Randy groaned, wondering why it was his turn to be the object of unwanted affections. Though... "Hey Maria, could you do me a favor?" He asked sweetly.
"Uh huh." She nodded, hurrying along as fast as her heels would let her to match his stride.
"Layne is going to be working with Legacy, think you could help her with a look?"
"Okay!"
Layne stopped dead in her tracks when she heard that and blinked at Randy, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I'm pretty sure I can make up my OWN look and you'll be fine with it." She REFUSED to let this ditz help her, was he out of his mind? "Thank you anyway, Maria." She flashed a smile. "You two should date." The elevator doors closed before Randy and Maria could get on, both her and Cody laughing their asses off.
"That was CRUEL."
"I know."
Randy just smirked, hoisting Maria up over his shoulder and took the steps, arriving just as they were stepping off the elevators. "I'm driving."
"I got shotgun."
Maria beamed at Layne. "We're going to bestest friends!" She squealed excitedly, smiling down at Reed. "Hello sweetling."
"Wow...you're cool to watch, but you're loud, did you know that?"
"Yes."
"Reed, that wasn't very nice..."
Though Layne was laughing softly along with Cody, shaking her head. They slid inside the car, Cody sitting by Maria while she was on the other side, her daughter between her and Cody. Layne wished she had popped some aspirin because Maria wouldn't shut up. When they arrived at the arena, Layne was the first person out of the car, pulling her daughter with her along with Cody, all three of them making a beeline for the arena doors. She was late for her meeting with Vince and hoped he was lenient.
Reluctantly, Cody stopped her. "We have to wait for Randy; he's the key to all of this." He groaned, turning and let out a sigh of relief when he saw Randy was politely, but firmly, blowing Maria off. "You shoulda seen it, last week she was digging on Kaners and that went BADLY. He finally had to duct tape her mouth shut and lock her in a closet."
"I'm hoping she goes for 'Taker next." Randy said, finally joining them.
"Sorry, I just had to get away from her before I ended up knocking her out." Layne stated quietly, seeing the amusement in Randy's blue eyes, and heard her daughter shrieking with laughter as Ted, once again, had her over his shoulder. "Would you mind-"
"Hell no, I'll watch this little angel. Come on, I'll show you Legacy's locker room."
"Yay!"
Layne laughed as she looked up at her brother, nodding silently to let him know she was fine, knowing he couldn't go with her to the meeting since he wasn't the leader of Legacy. She took a deep breath, needing a cigarette, but knew they couldn't waste anymore time. "Lead the way, Mr. Orton." She smiled at him, chuckling when he groaned, and lead her inside.
"Call me, Randy. Mr. Orton is my father." Randy said, moving his body in front of hers to clear a path. They were running late and the halls were packed like sardines in a tin can. "Here we are." He knocked once before all, but shoving her into the office. "It's a damn zoo out there, Vince."
"You expected any less?" Vince replied, not looking up from his desk.
'Just how I remember it.' Layne thought as she looked around the office, her hands clasped in front of her and watched as Vince looked up, cracking a hesitant smile. "Hello Mr. McMahon." She greeted professionally and extended her hand, smiling when he took it before taking a seat like he requested, Randy remaining where he was. It'd been years since Vince seen Layne; he probably didn't even recognize or remember her.
"So Lay," Vince studied her intently. "The last time I seen you, you were about this tall and had gangly knees." He smiled jovially when she just stared at him. "It's good to see you back. And in search of a job?"
From behind her, Randy nodded, meeting Vince's curious look. "Valet for Legacy." He said bluntly.
"What do you think about that, Layne?"
"I think it would be a great opportunity, Vince." She replied with a smile, knowing he hated being formal, glad he had remembered her. "Though if this is going to happen, I feel inclined to tell you that I do have a ten, soon to be eleven year old daughter that will have to travel with me."
Vince waved her off with a smile of his own. "That's not a problem. Any particular reason why you want to valet Legacy and not someone else?"
"Um...well...Cody, my brother. I haven't seen him in ten years for personal reasons and he wants to spend more time with me and get to know his niece." She wasn't lying to the man, but not fully telling him the truth either. "I mean...if you feel Legacy doesn't NEED a valet..."
"Legacy-"
"Is going to need something. We can't go around beating up Paul all the time, now can we?" Randy asked with a grin, smirking when Vince just shrugged. "Unless you need one less person to put in your will."
Coughing, Vince shook his head. "That wasn't right, Randy. Legacy will need a new kick after this angle is finished, I agree with that."
Layne crossed one leg over the other, folding her hands on her lap, and just waited for them to stop talking; wondering if this was the right move for her. Obviously Vince didn't want Legacy having a valet; she could clearly see that, so she would do anything he gave her. Reed would be disappointed, but in all honesty, what other choice did she have? Layne was on limited funds, she had to take whatever was available for her daughter's sake.
Vince seemed to consider it for a moment longer, finally nodding. "With Legacy it is then. How you portray yourself is up to you, so long as it fits in with the stable."
"And, I'm sure you're aware, Randy is the-"
"Head of the pack."
"Yes, that."
"Thank you Vince." She smiled as he pulled out a contract and handed it over to her. She nodded and blinked repeatedly at how much she'd be making before signing on the dotted line, handing it back to him. "I'll try my best not to let you down."
"You'll be fine. You're a Runnels, the business is in your blood."
Layne couldn't argue with that and walked out with Randy, feeling a huge weight lift from her shoulders, and stopped him before they walked too far. "Thank you, Randy. You have no idea how much this means to both me and Reed."
"I have an idea." Randy said, coughing, and ran a hand down the back of his neck. "Just so you know your insurance kicks in tomorrow, for all of it. Dental, vision, the works." He didn't know if she needed it or not, but there was usually a waiting period of sixty days. He had all, but begged for that to happen immediately, glad Vince hadn't been in one of his moods and poked fun at him for it.
Layne was all smiles as she walked into Legacy's locker room a few minutes later, seeing Reed was busy playing a video game with Ted, and shook her head. "You're corrupting my daughter, Teddy Bear."
"Okay, that's not cool." Ted stated, frowning. "Baby girl can call me that, you can't. That's just not right and you're far too hot to- OW!"
"Dude, shut up! That's my sister!"
"Code, you really need to stop that. What are you going to do when men in the audience are staring and hollering at me?"
"That I don't care about cause it's the fans. Ted should know better."
Layne walked over, pulling Reed into her lap, sighing when she groaned and went back to the game. "I feel so loved."
"So Vince is cool with it?"
"Course he is. I only had to sell my soul, dignity, pride; all of it." Randy said, letting out a long suffering sigh.
"Sure. You just promised no tongue on Steph and he was sold."
"Psh, don't you wish. YOU kiss her."
"I'd rather Paul NOT put his foot up my ass, thanks."
"I'll try not to get in your way, Randy." Layne quietly said while running her fingers through Reed's hair, frowning when a thought came to her. "Who is going to watch her while we're out in the ring?"
"Shit, that is a problem..."
Ted frowned as well, stroking his chin in thought, and snapped his fingers when the perfect person came to mind. "Hold that thought." He walked out of the door and came back a few minutes later with a grumbling Beth.
"Holy cow it's Beth Phoenix!" She was Reed's favorite Diva besides Trish Stratus. "Is she going to watch me?"
Layne wasn't comfortable with this, but knew she had no choice, as Beth immediately took to Reed. "I guess so, sweetheart."
"You guys owe me." Beth said, though she didn't sound upset, she liked kids.
"Uh, what do we owe you?" Cody actually blushed when she shot him an appraising grin, coughing to hide it, and ran a hand through his hair.
"You're not in my way, Layne." Randy assured her. "I just hate my current line, makes me look like a nut job."
Layne just nodded back at him, with a hesitant smile, before going back to seeing how Beth interacted with her star struck daughter. She was going to have to get used to this as she leaned back against the chair, not having much to say. "I'm still your favorite right?" Cody asked his niece, blanching when she waved him off while she chattered with Beth. "I've been replaced!"
"Uncle Cody, quiet!" She demanded, sounding perturbed, and grinned when Beth started laughing.
"Damn she's a spitfire isn't she?"
"Reminds me of her mother."
"Bethie and Reed, oh man, there's a match made in he-" Ted trailed off when he got warning looks shot at him from Beth, Layne and of all people, Randy. "Heaven, I was going to say HEAVEN."
"Sure you were. Lay, want to go to wardrobe and rifle through the racks?"
"I can take her."
"You sure? I was thinking you and Bethie could hang out with Reed." Randy teased.
Cody started blushing again.
"He's scared of me." Beth stated bluntly.
"Hey, I'm not afraid of anyone, especially a woman."
"Stay here, Code, and try not to get into trouble." Layne laughed softly when he turned redder, standing up, and allowed Randy to guide her out of the room. "So I take it what I'm wearing isn't what Legacy is about?" When he shook his head, Layne understood as they walked down the hallway of the arena. She honestly didn't know what to say to him so just kept her thoughts to herself, following him.
While they walked, Randy began explaining to her about Legacy and what it represented, knowing she needed to have a background history. "We're all third generation superstars. Rhodes, DiBiase and Orton. Though since you're familiar with the business, I'm sure you realized that when you heard our names." He said as they strolled towards wardrobe, trying not to come off sounding condescending. "And the line we're in now is..." He groaned, really hating it.
Layne listened to Randy as he told her about the current line he was in with Triple H, whose real name is Paul Levesque, and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, who Paul was married too and Vince's daughter. Layne remembered Stephanie from when they were younger; Stephanie was eight years older than her and they hardly knew each other. Layne didn't want to know the McMahon woman. She just wanted to do her job, make money and support her daughter, the only love of her life.
"I understand, but it'll be over soon, so just think about that." She said, patting his shoulder gently with a soft smile.
"Yeah...hey, we're going to swing by the cafeteria so I can get some tuna fish." Randy said with a grin, finally stopping, smiling sweetly at the women who were now looking at him. "Janet, this is Layne, she's going to valet for Legacy."
"And...?"
"And whatever she wants, make it happen?"
"And...?"
"And I owe you and all the rest of the ladies," He bowed to them playfully. "Dinner?"
"Yep."
"That's fine." Layne watched as Janet and Tiffany -the wardrobe ladies, though Janet was also the hairdresser of the WWE- circled her critically. She was used to this and just stood there, finally meeting Janet's brown eyes, before being pulled over to the rack.
"Gold?"
"It's going to have to be considering that's what Legacy is all about."
Layne was shoved into the changing room with the gold dress and came out a few minutes later, looking down at the material. It was a shimmery gold dress, which had a scoop neckline that had spaghetti straps, and went two inches above the knee. Her boots were swapped out for black open toed two inch heels. Her choker was replaced with a black one that shimmered with gold.
"We have to change her makeup."
They sat Layne down and replaced her blue eyeliner with black, making it delicate, before putting gold eye shadow on her eyes, bringing them out. The clear gloss stayed put.
"Now then what about her hair?"
"Up or down?"
"I think we'll leave it down for tonight. It would be too much with the dress and we don't want to take away from that."
"You're done honey." Tiffany smirked over at Randy as Layne stood up. "So, does she approve for Legacy's new valet?"
"Hot damn!" Randy whistled, circling her slowly, his eyes raking up and down her body, taking in the dress, hair, her makeup, the whole picture.
"Uh, Randy, her eyes are-"
"I know where they are." Randy said softly, staring into Layne's beautiful sapphire blue eyes. "They're the most gorgeous part of her."
Her cheeks turned a deep crimson red as Layne stared back at him, used to wearing heels from her stripping days. "Thank you Randy." She softly replied, allowing him to take her hand and gently turned her around in a circle, admiring her even more. Her body was heating rapidly by how he was staring at her and smiled back at the ladies, who smirked in reply.
"We want Chinese for a week."
"No, a month."
"We should make it a year. That wasn't easy to do in the span of a half an hour." Layne was giggling at Randy's exasperated look and watched as he bowed humbly to them, shaking her head. "Come on, we have to go to the cafeteria for your tuna, remember?"
"Oh yeah, big kiss tonight!"
"Not a big kiss, just a brush of the lips, chill out ladies." Randy said, shaking his head when they all just started laughing at him, and guided Layne away.
