Someone pointed out to me about me talking about Daniel Bryan being in the bedroom with Brie Bella instead of AJ. He and AJ are only together on the show. He and Brie have dated in real life in the past and apparently have started back up here lately. There's even talk of them working it into the wwe story line soon so that's why that's like that. . I'm thinking of creating a separate fb page or something where I can post all of the pics I have of around here because they're most of the places that I've chosen to put in this and other stories. I actually have a pic I'm looking at now that shows the exact view that Jeff sees in the first paragraph of this chapter. Does anyone think that's a good idea? I know pics aren't essential to the story but since I'm basing a lot in this story on these places (and a lot of my future stories I've planned because it's easier to write about places that you know) I thought some readers might like to actually see it. Plus looking back at some of the pics have actually inspired things I'm putting in the story like the tattoo convention (actually went) and the little girl with the temporary tattoos and pink hair (my neice Zoe). I thought it might be a good way to post pics and to also have updates. Please let me know what you think about the idea guys!

Chapter 8

The day dawned bright and early at the Arlington Convention Center and at 7am the heat was already setting the mood for the rest of the day. It was only the last week of March but already the north Texas weather could change from wonderful and breezy to stifling and humid at the drop of a hat. It didn't ease anyone's mind that tornado season was well upon them. Before Jeff headed into the convention center he took a minute to look around the outside. Right in front of him, the steps leading out of the building went down to the parking lot and right past that was a beautiful field that was obviously used for baseball in the warmer seasons with a rather large pond in it. Right past that was Rangers Ballpark where Texas' baseball team set records and won games. If he had gone down a couple of the steps and looked to his right he would have a great view of Cowboys Stadium. The thing that got him about Arlington was how it was a sizable but all of the more important attractions were all clumped together within just a mile or two's radius of each other. Yesterday Callie had shown him one spot right outside of Lincoln Square where you could stand and look out in one direction and see Cowboy's Stadium, Ranger Ballpark (better know as the Ballpark at Arlington to locals), Six Flags over Texas and Hurricane Harbor all at once. The convention center was nestled in a small groove merely a few hundred yards from Ranger Ballpark. Since it was still early morning everything still had that slight haze about it and Jeff had to admit, if only to himself, that the pond between where he stood and the ballpark was quite beautiful. He took a mental picture of the scene and turned to head into the building.

Seeing as how it was still really early and the events weren't due to start for a while the building was almost void of people with the exception of some crew members and personnel. There were a couple of news crews already setting up their cameras and some photographers getting some early shots for the behind-the-scenes articles in the WWE magazine. Off to Jeff's right was a small hallway that led off to other parts of the building. He took the long hallway right in front of him passing bathrooms on his right and offices on his left before seeing Stephanie halfway down the corridor. She was standing right in front of the double doors leading into the main convention room, an exceptionally large area set aside for various shows. Callie had told him once that she had come here with John right after they had first met. John had wanted to know more about her interests and hobbies and she had talked him into attending a tattoo convention in this very room. John still hadn't been really into the idea of getting tattoos (at least for himself) but he had gained a better understanding of her love for it and had gained a lot of respect for the artists that spent their lives training and working in the profession.

"Jeff, we weren't expecting you for a little while yet but I'm glad you're here," Stephanie beamed when she saw him. Stephanie's job as head of the creative department was something she loved but also something that could be extremely stressful at times. She always loved it when Jeff was around because with his energy and upbeat, joker attitude he always manged to liven up the party and sometimes she could end up laughing so hard that she could take a stressful situation she had been dealing with and look at it in an entirely new, happy light. He seemed to have that effect on people.

"Yeah, I've been up a while. Figured I'd get here early and seduce you before your husband showed up..."Jeff kept a sheepish grin on his face to go with his joking tone of voice. Stephanie, or course, laughed at his joke. Paul, better known as Triple H, was in fact there already but even if he had overheard it he would have joined in on the joke as well.

After she had laughed off the humor she reached into the attache she was holding and handed him a couple of papers. "There's been a couple of changes to the day's events. The Make-A-Wish foundation called at the last minute with a little girl who wants nothing but to see you! And we've switched around a couple of the autograph signings so just look that over if you could and let me know if there's anything on the schedule you're too crammed for. And don't worry, we've carved a lunch break and some down time for ya too." She added with her own joking lilt, "We all know how dangerous your ADD can be when you're stuck sitting at a table signing autographs and answering questions for too long!"

Jeff laughed at the memory. Of course she was referring to the one incident, a year ago, when he had been sitting at one of the long tables with some of the other superstars for far too long and had gotten antsy and bored. Eventually he'd decided to add his own version of entertainment and had randomly jumped up on the table and began doing the dance he performed every night as he came down the ramp for a show. Of course, he crowd had loved it and he had managed to bring some good humor back to some of the restless fans who had been standing in line for too long just for a simple photo op, hello and a quick autograph.

Looking down and skimming the schedule over Jeff noticed he'd be at a table with Orton, Sheamus and Punk. Not that he had anything against those guys but he had been prepared for Orton, Miz and Mysterio. "The autograph tables changed?" He glanced back up at Steph.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I try not to change things at the last minute but it happens. Instead of putting them right up here we're going to set them up in the back so we have room for the lines. They're also going to be an hour later so they don't coincide with the mock magazine photo shoot we've set up."

"It's not that, I was just looking forward to hanging out with Oscar and Mike." Had Jeff said Rey anyone would have known who he was talking about. The funny part about talking about his coworkers in public was that most fans didn't even know their real names.

"Well Oscar flew home to San Diego until tomorrow. His daughter have to have an emergency appendectomy. She'll be fine but he wanted to be there for her. And Mike requested a different table. Something about wanting to get to know some of the other guys better." It had seemed like a bullshit excuse to Stephanie but she'd been so busy dealing with all of the other details that she hadn't bothered to grill him for the real reason. She'd figured it had something to do with the little spat he and Orton had had backstage a while back. Something about them both going after the same girl (which was bull all in itself because Randy was happily married and anyone who knew him would know that he'd never go after another woman). Either way, she'd been too swamped to get into the details and just went ahead and made the change.

Jeff didn't have time to respond to her because from inside the event room Orton had called his name and was motioning for him to come over. Jeff quickly assured Steph that the changes were cool with him and headed over to see what Orton was calling him for. There were more people inside the massive room than out in the halls. Even though the Axxess event didn't start for another 2 days they were going to be doing a lot of photo shoots and autograph signings here for some organizations that the company worked with, including a lot of charities. If fans thought it was expensive and hard to get tickets to the Axxess events sometimes, they had no idea what some of these other visitors went through to get to the uber exclusive pre-events. Most of them had worked for years with charities, were victims of crime or disease and had been given help by the charities or had been associated with the WWE for so long that they were well acquainted with almost everyone in the company. Jeff waved to a few people he recognized before coming up in front of Orton.

"Wassup, man?"

"Hey Hardy. There's something I wanted to talk to you about." He pulled an envelope from his pocket. "Actually, John wanted to talk to you about it but he's busy at the moment so I thought I would."

Randy opened the envelope and pulled out a single piece of folded paper, handing it to the rainbow haired man. The same piece of paper that he had found on his hotel room door almost six weeks ago. This autograph signing would be the perfect time to try and identify if one of the wrestlers present had sent it to Callie. And both Randy and John knew that Jeff would be up for some covert ops.

...

She was mad. No, she was beyond mad. Callie was fucking irate and was seriously having some problems with not taking it out on everything and everyone around her as she furiously stormed around the corridors of the stadium. Wrestlers and crew members alike looked up at the sound of her approach; her heels stomping on the tiled floors, the papers in her hand flapping as her arms swung, she was muttering slightly to herself in hushed, angry tones. She had recieved the large manilla envelope late last night along with some other files that had been given to her at the meeting she attended after her lunch date with Jeff and Punk. All of the papers had been thrown into her bag and after heading back to her house, Callie had ended up watching movies and popping open a few beers with John, Jeff, Jeff's brother Matt and Randy . They'd ended up drinking too much and staying up so late Callie had never taken the time to go through all of the envelopes and paperwork she'd stowed away. In fact, she had had so many whiskey shots with Jeff and Matt that she really didn't even remember much about last night. There was a vague memory of Jeff leaping off of her dresser and flipping onto the bed and another of some late night truth or dare game but that was it. Well, almost it. She did remember that car that had sat outside for a couple of hours. She'd never seen it before and it didn't look like it had been bought by any of her neighbors. But after the alcohol had taken hold she'd brushed it off as some fan who had seen her and the boys coming back from the stadium and, after she noticed it had disappeared, compeltely forgot about it.

Today she wasn't even scheduled to be at the stadium til late afternoon when the trucks would arrive with the last of her set pieces but after popping some aspirin for her hangover and going through all of the papers, she'd stormed out of the house, ignoring the strange looks from Matt and Jeff as she slammed the door and jumped into her car. She made her way straight to the stadium and had not even answered anyone when they'd greeted her or asked questions. She was on a mission. Coming around a corner she saw the room she was lookin for and pushed through the door without even knocking or caring who else was around.

Dave was sitting in a chair going through his bag when Callie burst through the dressing room door and stomped immediately over to him. He was more than slightly surprised at the outburst that ensued, being more used the calm and collected Callie that he'd first met.

"When the fuck were you planning on telling me about this?" Callie very nearly screamed in Dave's face. She hadn't even bothered to acknowledge the two workers standing in the room. They were staring at her right now open-mouthed.

"Baby, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about THIS!" She threw the papers in David's lap, hoping like hell he ended up with papercuts all over his legs. She knew that was a pretty childish wish but at the moment, she didn't care.

Dave picked up the three pieces, making sure to grab the one that had floated to the floor, and scanned through them quickly, letting out a deep sigh without looking up at her. He waved the two technicians out of the room and slowly stood up from his chair to shut the door behind them, clicking the lock on the doorknob. Then he just stood there for a moment, hand on the doorknob, taking a couple of deep breaths. Not only had he never seen Callie this angry, but he knew completely well that it really was his fault and had he just been honest with her from the start then this wouldn't have happened. He'd been too scared of how she would react to tell her sooner but now he realized that he should have just come out and said it when he'd had the chance before. Before it had all gotten out of hand. Slowly he turned around and looked at her for a second before speaking. She was standing stiffly, arms straight down at her sides, her chest heaving with anger.

"Babe, let me explain," he lifted his hands up, palms out in a submissive gesture, hoping it help. The look in her eye had him picturing her doing a running spear on him, tackling him to the ground and clawing his eyes out.

"Explain? Okay, explain it to me David. Explain to me how you just up and decided to leave the company and everyone here and you didn't think that I would want to hear that from you! Instead," she took another deep breath, still yelling at him loud enough to make him cringe. "You decide to let me find out when I'm the one assigned to handle the set designs for your farewell promos! Yes, David, explain it to me because I'd just LOVE you understand your thinking behind all of this." She crossed her arms in front of her and glared at him, her eyes daring him to try to come up with an excuse.

"Callie, honey, I just...I didn't know how to tell you." He sighed again and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "I put it off because it would be too hard."

"And when were you planning on telling me? Or were you ever gonna tell me at all? Were you going to just leave and wait until I figured out you weren't coming back?" Callie stormed over to the couch in the room and flopped down onto it. She was still irate over the situation but the angry outburst mixed with the hangover was starting to get to her head. The throbbing started at her temples and spread outward over her brow.

"Baby, no, I was going to tell you, I promise." Dave walked over to her on the couch and carefully sat down beside her, not believing for a second that she was calm enough to not hit him. "I was going to wait until after Wrestlemania though. I just thought that with all the chaos, it would be better to talk about it when all of the events were over."

"Well that obviously didn't work." Callie said coldly, refusing to even look at him.

"Well, I put it off too because...well, because I was scared Cal. I didn't want you to get upset."

At that remark, the fire under Callie's ass was suddenly reignited. She leaped up from the couch and twirled around to face him, raising her voice once more. "YOU WERE SCARED! Really Dave? So me finding out this way was just SO much better? What the hell could scare your ass so bad that you couldn't tell me the truth, yourself? Why would it be so damn hard for you?"

"Because I Love You!" Dave suddenly screamed, standing up and shouting it down at her. All at once he regretted it. They had never said it to each other before, although Dave had been feeling this way for the past few months now. Knowing how skittish she could be when it came to personal relationships though, he had been trying to take it slow with trying for a commitment.

"You...what? You..." Callie couldn't seem to get the words out. She was stunned. But not just because of what he said. When Dave had jumped up from his spot and bellowed the words he seemed more angry than anything and as he towered over her she immediately became scared.

"Yeah, I love you Callie. I didn't want to tell you I was leaving because then it would upset and I don't ever want to see you upset like that...especially knowing it was because of me."

"You...you asshole." Cal managed the words out at little more than a whisper and immediately turned, unlocking the door and heading out into the corridor. Either the technicians that had been in the room before had spread the word or all of the yelling had attracted quite a bit of attention but either way, all eyes were on Callie as she stormed out of the room and straight down the hallway. She had to find her brother. She needed someone to hug her and make her feel better and she knew John was in the building as well. Jeff would have already left her house and headed to the convention center with Randy for their charity signings and Punk was off doing lord-knows-what with that chick he'd met last night.

She was most of the way down the hall to John's dressing room before she realized she had gone the wrong way. Looking up and down the hallway she groaned in frustration and went back the way she came, taking the second hallway on her left and following it down to the end. The door stood wide open and John was hanging out on the couch, staring at the monitor in the room tuned to Cartoon Network. She lightly tapped on the open door to get his attention.

John turned at the sound, reluctant to leave his episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. It was his favorite episode with the appearance of the maniac barber. Looking up at her face though, he immediately lost interest in the cartoon. John stood up and went to her, pulling her into his arms. "Hey sweetie, what's wrong? You look like hell." John could see the sadness and anger in her eyes.

"John," she didn't even try to return his hug, just standing limply in his arms. "Dave's leaving the company. I got the paperwork for his promo shoots. And John, you're supposed to be doing the promos with him. I mean, how could they not tell anyone about this?"

Now it was John who had to let out the deep sigh. "Well," he started but didn't get to get much farther. Callie had caught the tone in his voice and immediately withdrew from his arms, pushing him slightly away from her. She looked straight into his blue eyes, daring him to lie to her.

"You knew?" Somehow she managed to make it sound like a question and an accusation all at the same time. She took a few steps back from him again, almost all the way back out into the hallway.

"Callie, he told me a while back."

"How far back?" When John didn't answer she reiterated. "How FAR back John!"

John's head hung lower. "Right before the left for England." It was barely loud enough for her to hear. All Callie could do was back up into the hallway completely, shaking her head in disgust. Her own brother. It had taken her so long to ever learn how to trust him; so damn long. And now here was keeping a huge secret that he had known that he shouldn't. "CC, I told him to tell you. He wanted to wait."

"YOU could have told me."

"It wasn't my secret to tell sweetie."

"Don't call me that. And just shut it. I've heard enough excuses for one day. Just...leave me alone." And before John could say anything she was gone; making her way down the hall and out of the arena, never looking back.