Chapter 12

This was an absolute blast! Of course, he'd been to Wrestlemania events before but this time he was having the time of his life. Of course, being a heel he didn't have too many fans knocking each other down to get his autograph but being the resident Brit on RAW he had his fair share of British fans rooting for him. Wade was loving every minute of it. Even more so because he knew when he left here, he had someone else waiting for him. It was so liberating knowing he had an outlet to get his aggression out on. Although he had had to rein himself in on occassion. He couldn't risk killing her just yet or else it would screw up everything he had planned for Wrestlemania. It was obvious to him she'd already lost a lot of blood and probably had some broken bones already but no worries. He'd take it a little easier on her for the next couple of days to make sure she was ready for her world wide debut. Too bad it would be her last. Wade smiled to himself as he handed the autographed magazine back to the smiling woman and contemplated trying to get her back to the hotel to entertain him for the night but decided against it. He had something much better waiting for him just a mile away.

...

The convention center had been booming since eight that morning and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. The turnout was yet another record breaker for the WWE and it delighted the Chairman himself, but he could feel the dark cloud over the atmosphere, even if the fans who had come couldn't. He had to admit, his employees had gone above and beyond when it came to putting aside this week's emergency and getting down to the business of putting on smiling faces for their fans but he saw their worry all the same. Every time he saw one of them heading to the bathroom or sitting alone with a bottle of water for a few minutes he could see it in their eyes. They were all worried, as he was himself, and Vince wondered how it would affect their performances on the grandest stage of them all. Most of them he didn't worry too much about. They were friend with Callie but weren't actually close. Jeff didn't have a Wrestlemania match either but his brother, Matt, did and Jeff was only set to come out at the top of the ramp as a distraction and Matt wasn't nearly as close to her as Jeff was. There shouldn't be any problems there. Phil might be a problem though. If Jeff had been her best friend then Phil was definitely second in the ranks and he seemed to be taking her disappearance pretty hard. Granted, he'd been running interference between John and everyone else, which Vince thought was admirable, he had his moments as well and he didn't need anyone getting hurt during a match because they were distracted. John was definitely a problem but he kept insisting he'd be able to perform because Callie would have insisted on it. Vince had his doubts but had worked with Cena long enough to keep the faith in him. That only left Dave. Batista wasn't scheduled to wrestle at all at Wrestlemania and had even already made plans to leave the company but Vince had a feeling he would show up anyway. Dave had been on a rampage ever since he'd heard about the incident at her house and no one knew how to tame him. The only other thought Vince could come up with was to ban him from the Axxess event and keep some extra security around backstage during the show. It was amazing the difference in the two men in Callie's life; they had become polar opposites. John had managed to pull himself together long enough to put on his character for the fans but backstage he was silent and withdrawn. Dave was suspicious of everyone and likely to snap at the smallest things. It wasn't just the wrestlers and emplyees he was eyeing either. Vince hadn't been able to allow him at the three day event because he was even starting to look at the fans in a different light, constantly wondering at each person he saw if they had been the one to harm her. In reality, there was no telling who had done this and there were so few clues that it wasn't looking like they were going to find out anytime soon.

...

Punk couldn't stand it anymore. Even though he was supposed to be working the room and hanging out with fans he just didnt have it in him anymore. He'd been doing this all day, even skipping lunch for some extra photo ops and he just needed some space to clear his head again. The sudden knock on the door caused him to jump slightly before the door opened a little.

"Mind if I come in?"

"Sure, free country Orton." Punk went back to staring into the water bottle he had been holding in his hands.

Randy sat down in the metal chair a few feet from the other man and studied him for a minute before speaking. "I saw you leave and come in here. You okay?"

Punk gave a dirisive snort, never looking away from the bottle. "Oh yeah, just peachy. In fact, I'm thinking about throwing a damn party later. You know, invite some hotties and hit up the hotel pool, maybe trash some rooms, get laid."

"Sarcasm isn't going to make you feel better, you know."

"Orton, nothing is going to make me feel better right now. I don't see how you all do it."

"Do it?"

"Do this, all of this," Punk waved his arm towards the door leading back out into the convention center. "Why the hell are we just sitting here with our thumbs up our asses acting like nothing in wrong when Callie is who knows where? She's obviously hurt, lord knows she's scared and we're hanging out with fans? What the hell is this?"

Randy winced a little as Punk's voice raised, hoping no one outside would be able to hear it but understood how he was feeling at that moment. He felt the same way himself. "What are we supposed to do Phil? Cancel the show and start going door to door to search every house in the city? We can't do that," he countered, ignoring the glaring look that was being thrown his way. "The cops are looking for her. There's nothing we can do. They'll find her eventually."

"Yeah, it's that 'eventually' part that gets me. Hell, she might be beyond our help already."

Randy noticed that he had avoided actually saying the word dead. All of them had and over the past few days it was amazing how many different ways people have been able to come up with to get around actually saying that one word. Almost like, if they said it, it would make it real. The world's scariest jinx.

"We can't afford to think like that, Phil." Randy reached over and placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. "We have to keep the faith that she's alive and she'll come home." He let out a large sigh and stood up. "Look, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Take your time."

As the door shut behind Orton, Punk was slightly dumbfounded. The two had never been close even though they were often in the vicinity of each other either through work or Callie and Randy's sudden concern for his well-being had taken him offguard. It seemed things were going like that lately though.

Punk sat back and downed the last of his water before tossing the bottle aside and standing up to rejoin everyone, stopping just before opening the door and leaning his head on it. Everyone out there knew he and Cal were friends. They all knew he was upset. What they didn't know was that it wasn't for the reasons that they thought.

...

Later that night, after all the fans had gone and his coworkers were packing up their belongings, Wade headed out of the convention center and threw his bag into the trunk of his rental. He had a date with a red haired beauty and he wasn't going to be late...not like she was going anywhere. He smiled to himself at the thought before speeding out of the parking lot.