"Daddy, come on! This isn't fair! I don't wanna do this anymore. Please don't make me," Stephanie whined as she pouted at Vince.
"Steph, I've had this match booked for over a month now. I can't drop it just because you all of a sudden don't like your partner," Vince replied.
"Daddy, please, I'm begging you! Make this one little change for me!"
"I said no, Steph, and that is final. On your way out, tell Brandy to go ahead and come in," Vince said coolly, and began looking through some papers on his desk.
Stephanie let out a frustrated cry, and stomped out of the office. When she saw Brandy standing by the door, she narrowed her eyes at her and said, "I hate you."
Brandy cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Now go in there, cause my dad wants to talk to you," Stephanie replied, and stormed away.
Shaking her head, Brandy walked into the office. Vince looked up, and smiled at her. "Hey there, Brandy. Have a seat."
She sat down, and asked, "So…what is it you were wanting to talk to me about?"
"How would you like to have your first match?"
Brandy's eyes went wide. "I would love it! Do you seriously think I'm ready?"
"I most certainly do. Shawn sent me a video of one of your practice matches, and I was extremely impressed. Your first one is going to be a dark match, of course, but if I'm impressed with what I see then, then I just might have you do a match on-air the following week."
"That is awesome!" Brandy gushed. "Who will I be going against?"
"I thought to start you off easy, we would put you in a mixed tag-team match. The Monday before this, I'm going to have some sort of turn on your storyline, to where you and Greg get into some kind of dispute with Steph and Mark. I was thinking it could be you and Greg, against Mark and Stephanie. How does that sound?"
Brandy was suddenly even more excited at the idea of being able to finally get her hands on Stephanie. "I love it," she replied.
"Great! I'll talk about it some more with you closer to the match, and until then work on your skills, and don't hurt yourself."
Brandy smiled. "I will, sir, and I'll make sure not to get hurt. Thank you again for this, I really appreciate it," she replied as she shook his hand. They said their good-byes, and Brandy headed out of the office, suddenly ready as ever for this match.
"You're going to do fine," Gregory said as he massaged Brandy's shoulders.
"I know, but I'm still nervous as hell," she replied, rolling her neck back and forth.
"Yeah, I know. Just don't think about who it is you're going against. Concentrate on doing your best," he said, patting her shoulder before pulling away.
Brandy turned around and smiled at him. "Thanks Greg," she replied, giving him a hug.
Just then, Kevin walked up to them. "Hey Brandy! Excited about your match?" he asked with a smile.
"I'm more nervous than anything."
"Oh, you're going to do great. I just know it," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Thanks. I'm just ready to get this out of the way, because I know once I get this one over with, it'll only get easier from there."
"Exactly. Listen, I need to go meet someone, but I wanted to stop and wish you good luck. I'll see you later, though, okay?"
"Okay," she replied, and Kevin gave her a hug before walking off. Just then, Mark and Stephanie walked up to them.
"You better watch yourself, Brandy, because when we're in that ring, I don't play nice," Stephanie warned her.
Brandy rolled her eyes. "Okay Stephanie. I hear you loud and clear," she replied, and brought her attention to the match going on as she peeked out the curtain. "You just wait until we get in that ring, bitch. I'll show you what not playing nice looks like," Brandy thought to herself, her jaw clenching as she thought about what she would do to Stephanie.
Mark gazed over at Brandy, wishing so badly that he could still call her his own. Unfortunately, it was Gregory that she wanted, and there was nothing he could do about it. "Just think about the match, Mark," he thought to himself, and pushed these thoughts out of his mind.
Linking her arm with Gregory's, Brandy and Gregory headed down to the ring first. Hearing the boos coming from the crowd only spurred Brandy on more. Then, Mark and Stephanie made their way down to the ring as well. Brandy's mouth went dry as she watched Mark. God, he was so handsome. Then again, there was never a moment when he didn't look good.
Mark noticed Brandy watching him, and could have sworn he saw lust in her eyes. "She's probably thinking about Greg, and how she'll fuck him after the match," Mark thought to himself, and suddenly wanted to tear Gregory apart from limb to limb.
It was Mark and Gregory who started off the match, with Mark dominating nearly the whole time. Brandy felt bad for him as she watched the vicious beating he was receiving from Mark. He did absolutely nothing, yet because of Mark's stubborn ways he was now getting the snot beat out of him. Finally, Gregory was able to scramble into his corner, and tag Brandy in. She looked up at Mark, and hesitantly got into the ring. She could see he was pissed.
Even though Mark wanted to stay in that ring and give Brandy the beating she deserved for cheating on him, Mark reluctantly tagged Stephanie in, and got out of the ring. As soon as Stephanie was in the ring, Brandy ran towards her and plowed Stephanie down to the mat, pulling her hair and hitting her head against the mat. Stephanie struggled to get Brandy off of her, but Brandy wasn't going anywhere. Eventually, the referee forced Brandy off of her, and gave her a warning.
Brandy looked back over at Stephanie, who was struggling to get up, and grabbed her by the hair, flinging her across the ring. "That's what you get for taking Mark away from me, bitch," Brandy growled as she yanked her back up onto her feet, and sent a right hook straight into her jaw. Stephanie groaned as she grabbed her jaw, and stumbled over to Mark, tagging him in.
"Just try and punch me, little girl. See what happens," Mark growled as he made his way over to her. Brandy backed up and tagged Gregory in, quickly exiting the ring as the two of them went started going at it.
Everything was going just as planned, until suddenly another wrestler rushed down to the ring. Brandy saw it was Hunter, and wondered what he was doing down there. Grabbing a chair, he slid into the ring and hit Mark over the head. The bell was immediately rung, and Brandy realized that her and Gregory had just lost. Pulling Mark back up to his feet, Hunter gave him the piledriver. Brandy could immediately tell something was wrong when Mark didn't move after it.
Stephanie jumped into Hunter's arms, kissing him before looking down at Mark. She kicked him in the side, and the two of them made their way out of the ring.
Brandy quickly slid into the ring, and made her way over to Mark. "Mark, can you hear me?" she said, kneeling by him. He remained silent. "Mark, come on. Answer me," she said, tapping his cheek. Still there was no answer. "Greg, go get help!" she called out to Gregory, and once he left to get the paramedics, she looked back down at Mark. "Mark, please. I'm begging you…wake up," she whispered as tears came to her eyes. Suddenly, she could see his eyes moving around beneath his eyelids. "Mark?" she said, touching his cheek.
Finally, his eyes opened. He blinked a couple of times, and started looking around. He then looked up at her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Brandy?"
"Yeah, Mark, it's me," she said as relief filled her. When he tried to get up, she stopped him. "Don't move. I think you were seriously hurt."
"My neck is killing me," he commented. When he went to lift his arm, he suddenly realized he couldn't move it. "I can't move my arms. Brandy, I can't move my arms," he said in a panicked voice.
"Calm down, Mark, you're only going to make it worse. Greg went to get the paramedics. Help is on its way."
"Don't leave me, Brandy. Please don't leave me," he begged.
"I won't, I won't. Just calm down, Mark. Take some deep breaths," Brandy coached him, and was eventually able to get him to relax. Finally, she saw the medics rushing down to the ring with a stretcher.
"You can go ahead and go, ma'am. We got it from here," one of them said as they put a brace on his neck and got Mark onto the stretcher.
"No, I want her to come along," Mark protested.
"I'm not leaving, Mark. I promise I'll stay right here by you," Brandy said, taking his hand in hers as they strapped him down.
"Alright, you can come with him," the same medic said, and they slid him out of the ring.
"You're gonna be okay, Mark," Brandy whispered as they wheeled him up the ramp, tightly holding his hand as she walked with them by his side. Once they were in the ambulance, Mark once more lost consciousness, and the last thing he cold feel was Brandy stroking his hair.
When Mark woke up, he was greeted to a pounding headache. He groaned from the pain, when he suddenly felt a cool washcloth being patted against his forehead. When he opened his eyes, he found Brandy sitting there by him, wiping his face with one hand while she held his hand with the other.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I said I would stay with you, and I'm keeping that promise, unless you want me to go," she replied, setting the washcloth aside.
"No, I don't want you to go," he replied.
"Can you move anything yet?" she asked in a hopeful voice. "Try squeezing my hand." Mark did as she said, and was able to somewhat squeeze, but was still having difficulties. Seeing the frustrated look on his face, Brandy said in an encouraging voice, "Hey, it's a start."
"This is all so frustrating," he replied, letting out a weary sigh.
"Hey, don't let it get you down. You're showing some improvement, which is a good thing. It's going to take a while, so you'll just have to be patient. Besides, you're lucky this didn't turn out worse than it did. You could have gotten a broken neck, or...or worse yet. Just try to stay positive, okay?"
"I know. It's just hard to stay patient, or think positive," he replied, when another wave of pain made him wince and grit his teeth.
"Is your head hurting?" she asked.
"Yeah," he whispered, and Brandy grabbed the bottle sitting on the table by him.
"Here, take this," she said, popping the pill in his mouth and helping him into a sitting position long enough to let him get a drink of water. She had him lay back down, and said, "You need to get some more sleep."
"No I don't," he protested.
"Yes, you do. Now relax," she said, and softly stroked his hair. After only a couple of minutes, he was once again out like a light. As she watched him sleep, Brandy whispered, "Why, Mark? Why must you toy with my emotions like this?"