Chapter 26
Steve barely made it into the hotel, stumbling over his own feet as he slumped in the hallway, blood trickling still from a gash on his forehead. He couldn't believe he'd even made it this far without having an accident. Spots formed in his vision as he held the wall for leverage, trying to make his way to his room without passing out.
"Sumbitch." He groaned, wiping blood out of his eyes.
Restless, Geneva decided to go down to the lobby, trying her best to hide her hair with a scarf and heard a curse near the staircase she'd come down. Elevators were too risky. Ocean blue eyes widened at the sight of Steve's bloody face, looking completely annihilated. It was Taker, it had to be.
"Jesus..." She whispered, taking her shades off and looked into his dilated blue eyes. "Come on Steve, I've got you."
Geneva nodded when he called her Doc, draping his arm around her neck, hers around his waist and guided him to the elevator. The doors closed just as Taker and the Ministry entered the hotel, going up to her room. Geneva could only pray Taker hadn't spotted them, her heart thundering powerfully against her chest while Steve leaned against her, his blood smearing her shoulder.
"Steve, stay awake for me, please. I can't possibly carry you." She coaxed, seeing he was trying, and sighed when the elevator doors opened. Grunting, Geneva stumbled with him down the hallway slowly, heading straight for her room. There was no way they could make it to Steve's room, not even knowing what floor it was on. Quite frankly, in his current condition, Geneva guaranteed he wouldn't remember it either. They arrived at her room, rushing inside and closed the door.
Just as they entered Geneva's hotel room, Taker got off of the elevator, not knowing what room she was in. His nostrils flared, having spotted her helping Austin to the elevator and knew he should've killed the man. It wasn't hard to follow them, Steve had left a trail of blood in his wake from the deep laceration in his forehead. Taker pounded his fist on her door with the smeared blood, his voice deep and low.
"Geneva, open the damn door and explain to me what the hell you're thinking?" He gestured for the Ministry to buzz off, not needing a crowd right now.
"Don't…" Steve groaned, struggling to get up from the bed. "Don't open the door, Doc." He wavered on his feet, determined to protect her if necessary.
Geneva put her gloved hand over his mouth, silencing him and stared into his blue eyes, telling him silent to keep quiet. The doors were metal in this hotel, mercifully, so it would take a lot of strength to bust through it. There was no point in acknowledging Taker outside, not when Steve needed medical attention. Thankfully, Geneva always carried a first aid kit around with her that also had a few extra medical goodies that others didn't. She went back to check on Steve's wound, tears in her eyes by how deep it was.
"You have to relax." She whispered in his ear, straddling his lap since Steve couldn't sit upright. "Sorry, but this is the only way to keep you from falling asleep on me. You have a bad concussion." Geneva winced when the banging got louder, knowing if he kept it up security would come.
"Damn it, Geneva, OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!" Taker roared, finally losing his patience.
Hauling off, Taker punched it with everything he had and, even though the door was metal, he left one hell of a dent in it. He was so enraged he didn't even feel the broken bones in his hand. He cursed loudly when, after a few minutes of silence, he heard nothing and stormed off.
"Christ..."
Geneva tried like hell not to tremble as she cleaned Steve's wound, her focus needing to be on him at the moment and what she was doing. If she lost concentration, she could seriously hurt him by jabbing the needle in his eye. Silent tears spilled down her cheeks as she started stitching Steve, swatting his hands away when he tried to comfort her, swallowing hard.
"You don't need to tell me what happened. I already know. I know everything." Geneva murmured quietly, the tears subsiding as she put all of her focus and concentration into stitching his forehead up. If this kept up, he'd have a permanent dent in his head.
"God, Geneva, I'm so sorry honey." Steve whispered regretfully, seeing the pain she was in and blamed himself. He never should have brought her to the WWF. Ultimately, Steve knew he was the one who had caused all this because he had wanted her there. "This is my fault. I should have just left you alone. I'm sorry." He repeated, blue eyes filled with guilt.
"Don't apologize, Steve. It was my decision to come to this and I didn't do it for you. I did it because I wanted to spend more time with Uncle Mick and…" Geneva trailed off, not sure if bringing up her past with Taker was the best move right now.
Finishing up, Geneva grabbed the bandage and began applying some cream that would help prevent infection. She didn't move though and burst into tears, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her face in his neck as she cried her heart and soul out. Mindful of his injuries, Geneva just needed to feel some kind of comfort to soothe her aching heart, hating that she wanted to open that door earlier for Taker.
"I-I trusted him..." Her entire body shook from head to toe, feeling another piece of her heart break off, having fallen in love with a monster who only cared about himself and nobody else.
Steve rubbed her back, feeling better now that he wasn't losing blood and pulled himself into a more comfortable sitting position, cradling her on his lap. "Calm down honey." He soothed in a rugged voice. "You didn't know, you couldn't have known." His mouth rested over her ear, stroking her hair and back, trying to calm the woman down. "Please Geneva, calm down. This isn't your fault, it's his honey, it's his."
"W-What kind of person would mutilate himself like that? He needed surgery, life-threatening surgery! He needs psychiatric help!" Geneva moved from his lap, wrapping her arms around herself and walked over to stare out the window, the tears streaming harder like two nonstop rivers. "I can't believe I slept with him...that I actually let him put his filthy hands on me..." Dropping to her knees, Geneva pressed her forehead to the carpeting below, closing her eyes tightly shut.
Even though it made his head pound, Steve moved to kneel next to her, pulling her up into his arms. "Honey, don't do this to yourself. He's sick and he plays mind games. He plays them so damn well none of us know what's really goin' on till it's too damn late." He tried consoling her, letting her know she wasn't the only one who had fallen prey to the Undertaker's tricks.
Geneva knew he was in a lot of pain and quickly guided him back to bed, laying him down, checking his pupils. "You're good to sleep. Don't worry about me. I just want you to get better okay?"
Sitting beside him, Geneva started stroking his bald head, her doctor instincts kicking in, pushing her heartache in the back of her mind for now. She was glad she'd come on the road with the WWF and taken this job, but she had to learn like everyone else how certain people were. Finding out what kind of man Taker really was and that he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted opened Geneva's eyes as she bit back a shudder.
Steve felt this was completely a turnabout, wondering how he had gone from soothing her to her soothing him. He just wrapped his arms around her, deciding they could comfort each other from their own inner pain. After a long time of nothing but their breathing being the only noise, Steve decided to break the silence.
"What're you goin' to do now, honey?" He asked softly, pulling away to look down at her, gently pushing a stray chestnut curl out of her face.
"Go on with life the best I can. Do what I do best. I'm not quitting my job, Steve. I love it here, I have friends here and I refuse to let some asshole drive me away."
Geneva tried injecting valor into her voice, knowing she would have to try avoiding Taker, except he'd need medical attention. Maybe she could go to Vince and ask him if there was anyway Taker could be sent to Larry every time he got injured, due to a personal problem? No, that wouldn't work. Vince would think she couldn't do the job and would fire her.
"Now rest. No more talking, Steve." She ordered in a calming murmur in his ear, stroking his back up and down, his head on her chest and shoulder, knowing he needed it.
Steve woke up, not remembering falling asleep, but he felt a lot better. He frowned, looking down at Geneva, guessing from her tearstained face she had only recently fallen asleep. He quietly used the bathroom, hunted up his bag he had with him when Geneva found him in the hotel lobby and showered, knowing life at work was about to get extremely hectic.
Geneva woke up about an hour later, feeling a headache from hell pounding away against her skull, knowing crying herself to sleep wasn't a smart thing to do. She slid out of bed, stumbling a bit and popped some aspirin to try dulling it a little. The coffee would have to wait because caffeine would only fuel the headache further if she drank it now and turn it into a full-blown migraine.
Knowing she had a long drive ahead of her to Phoenix, Arizona, Geneva already had a rental car waiting for her out in the parking lot. She knew she had to leave within the hour and seen Steve had already left. Geneva didn't mind, deciding to handle this on her own and the drive would help her sort through things. Changing into a pair of blue jean shorts with an ivory halter top, Geneva swept her haphazard curls up on top of her head with a clip. She then packed her things and walked out the door, heading down to the parking garage.
Steve had left because he didn't want to burden her at the moment with his injured head. That and he needed some alone time. His blue eyes focused on the road ahead of him, sighing and wondered just what kind of hell he could expect. Though he'd take the long miles of the road and be grateful for the peace.
Taker hadn't driven, he had flown somewhere else.
Around 6 hours later, Geneva finally arrived at the US Airways Arena and stepped out, looking up at the huge building. She could sense something wasn't right and quickly rushed inside, heading straight to her office, hating that she had to keep looking over her shoulder. Taker could pop up at any second. Geneva closed the door and began her nightly ritual, trying to keep her mind focused on her job and nothing or nobody else.
"Doctor Bryant to the visitor's desk, STAT."
Lance groaned, wondering what in hell they wanted him for. Cursing fluently under his breath, he took his own sweet time, halting when he seen a giant in all black waiting for him. As far as he knew, Callie wasn't seeing anyone else besides him. The closer Lance got, the more recognition dawned on his face at who the giant was.
"We need to talk." Taker said, leaving no room for argument and stared down at the doctor friend of Geneva, green eyes peering over his shades.
"There ya go Jeffrey, good as new. For god's sake stop jumping off of ladders." Geneva scolded, patting his shoulder, taking her gloves off just as her cell phone blared. Raising an eyebrow at the UWMC number flashing on the screen, she answered it, flipping it open and put it to her ear. "Hello?"
It was Lance. "Geneva, there is an extremely large and terrifying man in my office who insists you speak to him." He said calmly, staring across his desk, eyes taking in the giant pacing the room. "If this is who you've been blowing me off for...good call." He changed what he'd been intending to say when the giant glared at him.
Standing slowly, ocean blue eyes widened as Geneva covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my god...Lance, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" She sighed with relief when he confirmed he hadn't, causing her to start pacing back and forth nervously. "Fine put that dead bastard on the phone." She ordered gravely, not believing how low Taker stooped, feeling tears sting her eyes. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?
Lance arched an eyebrow. 'Dead bastard?' He mouthed to the giant.
Taker shrugged, taking the phone. "Darlin'," He began hesitantly, glaring when Lance snickered at him and made a threatening gesture. Apparently Geneva's friend didn't watch wrestling or he would keep his mouth shut. "Would you let me explain?"
Now Lance was curious. Explain what? He leaned forward, not hiding the fact that he was blatantly eavesdropping with glittering hazel eyes.
"There's nothing for you to explain to me, Taker." She replied coldly. "You will stoop to any level to get what you want, including threatening people that are close to me." She shook her head, closing the door to her office after putting the sign on it and flipped the lock, pressing her back against it. "I fell for your tricks and your lies. It was my own stupidity to think that maybe, just MAYBE, you had a shred of human decency inside of you. I was wrong though, DEAD wrong. But I will do whatever you want because I refuse to let my friends suffer for what I've done. So if you want me, come get me. I'm at the arena in Phoenix, Arizona and we're here for the next three days. Just leave my family in Seattle alone."
Taker blinked, wondering what the hell she was talking about and decided to settle it when he got to Phoenix. "Fine, I'll see you then." He handed the phone back to Lance who hung up.
"May I ask just what you did to Gen to piss her off like that?" Lance asked, making it more of a demand then a request.
"It's a very long, very disturbing story. I'll tell you some other time, I have a flight to catch."
Lance watched him exit, raising a brow and hoped Geneva was alright, deciding to call her as soon as he had another break.