Sitting in the office in Stamford, Ary and Colby are holding hands and waiting for Stephanie and Paul to arrive. Ary had spent the night in hospital, her boyfriend not once leaving her side, not even when a couple of concerned nurses came to check on him, and had been released in the morning.
They'd flown both of them on a private jet back to Colby's house in Davenport, let them recuperate, let them discuss things, let them have the next two days off. On Friday, they were both back travelling again, but this time towards the head office in Connecticut.
"You sure you're ready to do this?" Colby asks her, squeezing her hand softly as he gives a gentle smile.
Ary just nods.
Their conversations had gone something along the lines of Colby making his point very clear. And he was getting his way, but it was something that Ary was comfortable with.
"Jon okay with it?"
"Yeah," Colby gives her a reassuring smile, "He thought it was a great idea."
Paul walks into the office shortly afterwards and sends the couple a soft smile, and Stephanie isn't far behind him.
"How are you doing, Ary?" Stephanie asks. Her face is pulled down in a smile, one of the comforting ones, and Ary thinks it looks a little mocking, but that's just the face Stephanie has.
So she nods and gives a little grin. "A lot better. Don't know why everyone was making a huge fuss, just a little concussion."
Looking at her with a hint of amusement, Paul is quick to get on with things. "So we figured that you called this meeting to give us some news, and I hope it's nothing to serious."
"No, no it's not that bad," Ary laughs. "Colby and I have come up with a little compromise, if you'd like to hear us out?" With no objections, Ary continues. "So we know that heading into the Elimination Chamber, Jon and Colby are going head to head with a 'betrayal' kind of story-line, and Colby thought it would be a good idea to see if I could bring that into action."
Colby takes over and his voice is excited, like a puppy. "I was thinking that Monday, Ary could come out and cut another promo on me, talk about Jon. Not as a manager, but just as two people that have something in common - wanting to stop me and take everything away, y'know what I mean? So we go down that line, take away most of the ugly bumps from Ary, give her decent matches with Trinity and Nicole, throw Paige into the mix the following Raw, something like that."
Stephanie and Paul look amused but not really too put off by the ideas. They look at each other and nod and Stephanie turns to smile at the couple. "Doesn't sound half bad. I'll go talk to the rest of the Creative and see what we can do, and tonight we want you to head back to the main roster and go to the house shows, see how everything is. You have medical clearance for Sunday, right?"
"Yeah," Ary reaffirms, and then she smiles slowly. "I really did enjoy this storyline, Paul, you know I did, and I'm still willing to take a couple of hard hits," she shoots a look to her boyfriend at this, "as long as they come from Colby."
When both parties are in agreement, Colby and Ary leave the building hand in hand.
"So, I was thinking about bringing Kevin along-"
"Seriously?"
He gives her a big cheesy smile and then tugs her into his side. "He misses me."
"He likes me more."
—
PAYBACK PAY-PER-VIEW, 2015
While it seems that Ary has caught a break, no one could have prepared her for what's about to hit her next.
She sits alone up on one of the production boxes Sunday night, getting into the mood and going through her pre-show routine, when her phone rings. Usually, she'd leave it in the dressing room, but tonight she didn't want to let it go.
Her sister's name flashes up on the screen and she answers with brightness bursting through her tone, "Hello, lil' sis!"
The happiness isn't returned. Instead, there's a sniffle, then, "Ary…"
Something's not right. "Suz? What's going on?"
"Uh…" her sister takes a shuddering breath and Ary is off the box and her eyebrows are furrowed. "Dad's not doing too well, Ar."
And her heart drops into her stomach at the same time that it lurches up into her throat. When she speaks, her words are quiet. "What do you mean?"
There's silence on the other side of the line and Ary's breath comes out harder and tears spring to her eyes. "Suzanne, what do you mean that he's not doing too well?!"
"I'm sorry, sis," she whispers, and Ary's heart, where ever it is in her body, breaks. "They can't do anything more for him, Ar. He's on life support, and the doctors think that it might be time to pull the-"
"No," Ary says, "No, no, no. Why- why are you even considering this? He can't, he can't go, I'm not ready…"
"You never will be…"
Ary pulls a shuddering breath into her lungs and forces back her panic. "Don't do anything, okay? He'll wake up, he always does."
Ary…"
"I need to go."
And while she held it together when she was on the phone to Suzanne, Ary couldn't do it anymore. She lashes out at anything she can and pounds her fists against the the wall and the production crate, kicking it as well.
Tears flood her eyes and it's a mixture of physical and emotional pain and she can't really tell the two apart. But she's also angry, angry at her father for thinking he can just up and leave her, angry at Suz for even considering pulling him off of life support. How could she even think it?
The area has quickly dwindled in numbers and she yells as loud as she can into her hands, then slaps the container as hard as she can, almost in a fit.
"Whoa, whoawhoawhoawhoa," Colby yells as he walks into her line of site, "Ary, what're you doing, c'mon, settle down, whatever's wrong-"
Ary's still screaming, gripping her hair, tears pouring from her eyes like she can't control her emotions or her headspace. "I can't, I can't, she can't do it with me not there and I-I- I can't!"
His hands wrap around her biceps and though she struggles and flails against him, Colby is still stronger than her by a long way. But it's like as soon as she's restrained and the fight leaves her body, the chaos in her mind leaves as well.
She gradually settles into him, curling against his body and the way he's holding her. Her hands are knotted in his shirt and his arms are wrapped tightly around her waist and he's whispering breathe, breathe, into her ear and somehow this helps. She can feel the air starting to slip back into her lungs as she gulps in big breaths. And slowly the ground comes to meet her as she sinks to her knees.
This can't be happening. She'd seen him not two months ago, been by his side, things can't have escalated so quickly for him to be back on life support. He can't die while she's not there, he can't fucking die without her permission and she isn't granting it anytime soon.
Colby is murmuring into her ear and holding her tightly against his chest and she realises that she still has to go out there and deliver an intense fifteen minute match against Trinity and her soul just shatters. She can't do that, not now.
"Baby, talk to me," Colby breathes into her hair. "C'mon, Ar, you can't go out like this."
He's right.
She collapses into his hold and rolls her head back onto his shoulder. His brown eyes look red, like he's holding back his own tears, and slowly Ary presses her lips under his jaw.
"Dad's back on life support," she whispers slowly, "and the doctors and Suzanne want to take him off of it."
The hum reverberates through his body as he finally understands why her reaction had been so horrible. "I'm sorry, princess."
"Yeah," she replies, and Ary sniffs back a deep breath and closes her eyes. "I don't know if I can do this match, Col."
"It might be good for you, Ary. Get you distracted so you don't have to think about it for a little bit, and then when you come back out you can look at it more subjectively."
She snorts at him. "My dad's about to die, what's subjective about that?"
Colby nods at her words, tightens his arms around her waist. "When Gran'ma was in hospital, mom wanted to keep her on life support for as long as possible. Gran had three strokes, each worse than the last one, and by the time the third one rolled around, mom couldn't handle seeing it anymore. I know how hard this might be for you to consider Ar, I get it, y'know what I'm saying? But… for him, for Tony, it's only going to get worse from here on out."
It makes sense, what Colby's saying. And he's right. She needs to get away from the situation for a bit and come back to it when she's less emotionally charged.
He helps her stand and then they embrace in a tight hug, Ary's body shaking as she holds him as tight as she can. There's a cough behind them, and when Ary looks over her shoulder, a concerned Paul is regarding them with a careful expression.
"You right, Ary?" Her boss asks. "Heard that you were freaking out…"
Ary offers a soft smile and shakes her head. "It's Padre."
And Paul understands straight away. He holds his arm out for her and she slinks into the hug, saying a quick thank you before letting him get back to his business.
Slipping his fingers between hers, Colby pulls her along to the locker room so she can get changed into her outfit for the night. She makes him stand there afterwards as she shoulder knocks him, warms her body up, and then Colby watches with a frown as her eyes glaze over before she goes out.
—
"The following contest is scheduled for one fall and it is for the WWE Diva's Championship!"
The crowd cheers a bit, but most have left for a bathroom break. It still dawns on Ary every now and then that people don't really care for the Diva's, but she wants to make them.
"Introducing first the challenger from Orlando, Florida, Naomi!"
The woman under question steps forward to jeers and smiles mockingly at her 'supporters', looks Ary dead in the eye.
"And her opponent from Monterey, California, she's the current WWE Diva's Champion, Ary Hale!"
More cheers. Louder, this time; maybe the crowd isn't as dead as she thinks it is. She steps forward, almost chest to chest with Naomi, and holds the butterfly belt high in the air with every ounce of pride that she can muster.
The bout starts simple enough. They circle each other, lock up a few times.
Ary pulls Naomi into a headlock which passes a minute, but then she's pulled down in a jaw breaker and flies back into the ropes. The other moves forward to try and capitalise. She pulls Ary away from the edge of the apron, but the diva has other ideas. She turns and plants a foot on Naomi's hip, launches her leg up so that she's sitting on Naomi's shoulders. As she leans forward, her weight pulls Naomi down and into a quick roll-up — but the cover is only a two count.
Allowing time to let Naomi back up, they circle each other again. Naomi lurches forward and interlocks her fingers around the back of Ary's neck, then brings her down. As the curvaceous diva falls onto her back, she plants her feet in the woman's stomach and pushes as hard as she can to flip the champion over and off of her, the latter of who lands right on her tail bone.
And then she's on the attack.
Naomi launches herself into the air and hangs for a good while before slamming her calf into the side of Ary's head. The champion pushes herself into the corner and Naomi assaults her with a corner splash.
Trying to find any kind of relief, Ary falls and rolls out of the ring. There's a hand in her hair and Naomi's pulling her up, and Ary has the time to quickly slam her elbow across Naomi's jaw — and that does the trick.
She pulls herself up onto the ropes and bounces off them into a diving clothesline, and Naomi lands square on the back of her head.
The crowd is more involved now, and Ary stands up, yells out at them "Come on!" and then throws her arms out wide. They cheer for their champion loudly and when she's satisfied, Ary turns around and pulls Naomi onto her feet. When the back of her hands hit Naomi's chest, the sound echoes through out the arena.
The face Naomi pulls is hilarious, and Ary finds herself smiling at her pain. She's not sadistic… at least, not yet.
She flies forward in an attempt to deliver another clothesline, but Naomi ducks and picks up her own momentum to bounce off the opposite ropes Ary's rebounded from. They run at each other and launch off the mat, the hard hit of the double cross body leaving them both in a heap on the floor. Ouch.
It's slow going as Naomi and Ary try to lift back up onto their feet. Ary has the good foresight to roll away from the woman who is up before her. She slips from the ring and grimaces as she holds her stomach. Ary turns her head to give Naomi the stink eye — but Naomi's unrelenting pace sees her bounce off the far ropes, running to throw herself over the ropes and hit Ary with a plancha so loud the ringside crowd gasps.
Naomi moves to hobble back inside the squared circle and Ary is slow to get up, and when she reaches the ropes, Naomi's hand threads back through her hair. She pulls her neck down on the tope rope, executing a harsh hangman that sees Ary fall from the apron completely and land right on her back.
Dazed, Ary stares up at the bright lights. Her vision swims for a couple of seconds, but she's okay.
Hearing footsteps on the mat next to her, Ary's prepared when Naomi pulls her up. She intends to throw Ary into the ringside steps, but the champion is able to swing the movement into her favour and her opponent goes crashing into the steel steps.
The crowd pops for Ary and she sinks to her knee for a second to recuperate.
When she's standing, she pulls Naomi back into the ring and throws her against the ropes. The woman rebounds and Ary wraps her arms around the diva's midsection, lifting her up to deliver a winding spinebuster.
She pushes her opponent into the turnbuckles when she manages to get back up, but out of instinct, Naomi turns and grabs the top ropes to launch up. She lands her ankles on Ary's shoulders — Ary knows that she's planning to go for her signature Bootylicious move, so she's quick to wrap her wrists around the ankles on her and jumps back to tug Naomi away from the ropes. The diva lands face first on the mat.
Momentum is now in Ary's favour and she intends to keep it that way.
Slipping out of the ring and dragging Naomi with her, she rushes the woman spine first into the barricade not one or twice, but three times, and all in different spots.
Ary moves them back into the ring and the cover isn't successful - Naomi kicks out at the last second.
And the look on Ary's face shows that she shouldn't have. Because it's only going to get worse from here on in.
She clutches onto Naomi's arm without blinking and pulls her into the famous kimura lock. Naomi screams in pain and thrashes around, but ultimately reaches the ropes before she has to tap out.
In the next thirty seconds, Ary closes the match out. She locks her arm around the back of her opponents head and runs at the turnbuckle. She plants a foot on the second one, flips over Naomi, and pulls her down in an inverted DDT.
The referee's hand hits the mat one, two, three, and Ary's music sounds over the speakers to signify her win.
"And in convincing fashion, John, Ary Hale has undoubtedly shattered all concerns for her health with her win over a game Naomi."
—
Ary, absolutely exhausted, walks backstage and right into the arms of Jonathan Good. He hugs her tightly and she almost collapses into his embrace, and when he pulls away and receives more hugs from both Joe and Randy, she knows that they know about her father.
Of course they know. It's not like Ary was quiet about her fit, in fact, she was the exact opposite.
Colby is the last to wrap his arms around her.
It's fitting that they have their match after the next one, which means they have time to spend with her, but she doesn't feel like talking and just wants to go back to the hotel room and cry.
"I talked to Paul while you were out there," Colby whispers into her hair. "Wednesday and Thursday we don't have anything, so we can fly out to Cali and sort it out, yeah? Together?"
She nods and lets him walk her back to the dressing room.
When he goes to leave, she wraps a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him into a tantalising kiss, moves her lips slowly against his and then presses her forehead to his.
"I love you, Colby."
"Love you too, Ar."
sorry about the wait for this one, guys! was kinda over taken by my dean/oc fic (check that out if you haven't already!), but managed to get through some major writers block for this one :)
if you enjoyed it (doubtful with the emotions, unfortunately), let me know in the comments section - in saying so, thankyou BellaRayne, Seth rollins babe, Raquel the writer, and Amnbama for the comments for the previous chapter, you guys are the bomb diggity.