Author's Note: I own nothing, I am completely broke. Taylor is my only creation.

Legacy of the Rattlesnake

February 2nd, 2009

"Daddy… I'm an Austin. You have nothing to worry about." Taylor assured her father, and heard him laugh on the other end.

"Yes I know you're an Austin baby girl, but so am I, so I'm allowed to worry about you."

"Yeah yeah." She said, hearing the locker room door open as she did, turning to see the Legacy walking in. "I gotta go, work calls."

Randy scowled at her for a moment, but she ignored it, listening to her father snort on the other end. "Yeah. Work. Right. Have fun darlin'. You call me if you need anything."

"I will Dad. Love you."

"I love you too baby girl." He told her before they hung up, and she slipped her phone into her bag since she was already in her ring gear. Fortunately the phone call hadn't been cut short by her teammates entering, since Taylor had arrived at the arena early and met with Steph. After getting in a workout, she'd headed to the locker room that she was told belonged to her new stable and then called her father. He promised to check on her place every so often now that she was on the road and she'd mentioned that Randy didn't seem all that impressed by her. Her father said that he would come around soon enough. His faith in her made her grin, although she didn't need Randy's approval it was nice to think he would actually see her worth at some point. As for still calling her father Daddy at age 28… well she was a Daddy's Little Girl and always would be.

She held her hand out to Cody and Ted, who were looking at her curiously after placing their bags down. Each shook her hand in turn. "Nice to meet you. I'm Taylor Austin."

"Austin?" Cody asked.

"As in, Stone Cold?" Ted finished.

She nodded a little bit, "Yeah. That's me." She pointed at the tank top she wore for the night, bearing 'Austin 3:16' on the front. Both Ted and Cody looked embarrassed to have missed it. The rest of her gear was made up by black faux leather leggings, and wrestling boots with a red pattern along the side.

"Well that's awkward," Cody commented, getting a laugh in response from Taylor, who shrugged at him.

"Don't worry about it. I guess Randy didn't tell you guys about me, then?" Her eyes slid sideways to Randy as she mentioned him and noticed the way he scowled at her. Clearly he still wasn't that excited by their storyline but as long as he could fake it on screen, she didn't care what he thought back here.

"He mentioned that a Diva would be joining us, he didn't explain that you'd be the daughter of a freakin' legend." Ted replied, eying off Randy as well. Finally the Viper stood up and walked over to the three, scowl seeming to be permanently etched on his face.

"I didn't mention that because it doesn't matter who her father is." Randy turned to her and squinted slightly, "And as for you – as far as I'm concerned, you're a rookie – so you watch us out there, and listen to our critique, because we're the pros and I don't need you getting in our way."

Taylor's jaw clenched and when she spoke, her voice took on a silky quality, "You made your wrestling debut in 2000, in a promotion that you started training at. I started training in 2001. I am not that far behind you Orton. I'm new to WWE, sure, and I am more than happy to take critique on my performances because I know that you never stop learning and you're never too good to listen to critiques… but I've been wrestling for 8 years now, I'm not an idiot. I won't be getting in anyone's way."

Cody awkwardly cleared his throat beside her, "You know… She has a point, Randy. She's been wrestling longer than Teddy and I have. I mean, sure I was wrestling in high school when she started training but that was a little different."

This time, Randy's jaw clenched and then he stepped back from them, nostrils flaring briefly before he walked around the three and left the locker room. Taylor slung an arm around Cody's shoulders now and grinned at him. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

It was a while before Randy returned to the locker room, and when he did he found Taylor stretching – even though she didn't have a match that night – and getting along well with the other two members of Legacy. Ted had confessed that he thought he remembered meeting Taylor once, back in 1996 when his father had managed Steve and she was pretty sure that he was right. She could tell that Randy seemed put off by how easily she was fitting in but wasn't really sure why he was so bothered. All she could think was because it was a woman but if he was worried about her being weak because of her gender, Randy Orton had another thing coming to him. Her father had raised her to be tough as nails, and had certainly not held back on her training – and neither had anyone else that had helped her out, or wrestled with her over the years. In fact, a few years back she had intentionally sought out Bob Holly to give her notes because she knew that he was a man who didn't hold back. Taylor loved the man and since he was so good at what he did, he'd been incredibly helpful in refining her style a little more. Plus he was one of the toughest men that she had ever met and one of the proudest moments of her life was when Bob Holly told her that he thought she was tough. His seal of approval mattered a lot more to her than Randy Orton's did.

Taylor Austin waited by the gorilla, watching on the screen as Legacy gathered in the ring and anticipating her cue to head out there and debut to a WWE crowd.

Author's Note: I know, I know, another note. I just wanted to give you guys a little heads up about how I'm going to be writing this story. It won't necessarily be the case that 'every other chapter' is done like this, but when I write about the show, I am currently planning to write it in kayfabe, basically and generally a whole chapter to itself. Sometimes I might combine a couple of shows in one chapter but don't panic I will cover that time period in some capacity in non-show chapters. If you don't like the format, let me know because it's something I never tried in the past. With that said, if the show chapters are shorter/longer than average, please understand. I'm also going to try to make sure I have a story chapter ready to go with a show chapter, and update with both so that you don't feel as though you don't get a progression with an update. And finally, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry this update took a while! Unfortunately life got in the way but I'm anticipating having more time to write soon and that means I will hopefully update more regularly! I also have another story in the works, but it will be a far shorter project than this one is planned to be. Thanks guys! Hope you're enjoying this story so far, and that you stick with it because things are going to get bigger and better from here.