Chapter 2

"Why did I bother?"

"You're just trying to restore order and I don't blame you."

Rajani could feel Kane's eyes boring into her back as they all retreated hastily out of the bowels of the arena. Once they were back in light and around other Superstars, Rajani let out a full body shiver, hoping Stephanie ignored her. She couldn't help it. She was chilled to the bone and wondered why the hell Kane suddenly had an interest in her. That thought did NOT bode well with her at all, especially since Eve had to have an on-the-road fulltime psychiatrist in order to get through this storyline with Kane. He had scared her that much. Stephanie imitated Rajani a moment later by doing a full body shudder, not caring who saw her. One of the perks to being the boss, they couldn't say shit and she didn't really care what anyone thought. Kane gave her the creepy crawlies.

"Something like that." Stephanie said dryly, reaching up to massage her temples with her fingertips. "Why don't you go inform the writers to be ready to start any changes regarding the Cena/Kane line? Then inform the EMT's that they'll probably be used for real tonight."

Stephanie was just getting a feeling that tonight was going to be one of those nights. Rajani nodded and headed down the hallway without a word, having the same feeling Stephanie did regarding tonight. John seemed to be in his cocky state of mind while Glen/Kane was in his psychotic mindset. Tonight wasn't going to be good at ALL. Sighing wearily, Rajani headed to the writer's office first and knocked on the door before entering.

Felicia looked up when the door opened, smiling at the sight of Rajani. "Hey girl, what's up?"

She was the lead script writer for the Raw roster and one of Rajani's closer friends. Because of her job and what she did, Rajani didn't have a lot of friends, but then again neither did Felicia. They had the hardest jobs, in her mind, of the company because if they screwed up it caused massive chaos.

"Do I even have to say it?" Rajani remarked with a sigh, causing Felicia to laugh, and headed over to sit down in a chair to take a small breather.

"Stephanie sent you in here to tell us about changes that may or may not happen with the Cena/Kane feud." Felicia rolled her eyes when Rajani nodded, snorting. "I swear, why do we have to change the scripts just because these guys constantly have their thumbs up their asses?" Felicia spoke her mind and sometimes it got her in trouble, but she was also respected by a lot of the superstars and Divas of the roster. "What else is new?"

"Besides wanting to castrate a certain rapper wanna-be who refuses to leave me alone, nothing."

"I would prefer you to not castrate me and, for the record, I haven't been a rapper wanna-be in quite some time." John said as he walked in, obviously having heard that last bit of Rajani's sentence. He flashed a smirk before looking to Felicia, now fully dressed and ready for the night. "I'm here for my script."

As if she didn't already know. Apparently Stephanie had sent his original one back earlier in the day for revisions. John had to admit, he wondered why she even bothered sometimes. Felicia felt sorry for her friend and didn't say a word, simply sifting through the scripts in her hand and handed it over, wondering what Rajani was thinking.

"You really do have a huge ego, don't you?" Rajani shot back, though there was no malice in her voice, just sheer amusement. "What makes you think I was talking about you, Cena? I have better things to do with my time, honestly." Another reason why Rajani had been hired was her ability to lie smoothly, which Stephanie admired.

Rajani definitely had a fire about her, there was no doubt about that. "She has a point, Cena." Felicia added, draping an arm around her friend's shoulders. "So if you don't need anything else, you can exit the way you entered my office. Thanks."

Just shaking his head, John took the script, laughing openly on his way out the door. He had no idea who these women thought they were fooling, but it wasn't him. John might have acted stupid on occasion, however he was anything but. The laughter faded when he spotted Kane, or Glen, whoever the hell the man thought he was at the moment, emerging from the stairwell. Kane just stared right back at John, slowly tilting his head to one side as a slow, evil smile spread across his lips, his new mask revealing his lower face.

"Girl, you've lost your mind talking to him like that!" Felicia whispered, after poking her head out the door to make sure John was out of earshot this time, staring back at Rajani with wide eyes. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm sticking up for myself. I'm not going to let him intimidate me. He doesn't scare me." If anyone scared her, it was Kane and a few others on the roster who were bigger and badder than John Cena. "I should go, gotta go inform the EMT squad on possible changes tonight."

"Tell Michael I said hi and be careful." Felicia had no idea what John was capable of and hoped Rajani knew what she was doing.

"Will do, talk to you later honey." Rajani walked out and headed toward the back of the arena, where they always had an ambulance on standby, in case something went wrong or a Superstar botched a move.

"No, not happening, back off both of you!" Stephanie ordered, having been informed through her walkie-talkie that Kane and John had come face to face in the hallway, hauling her ass and security's to the scene. "I will SUSPEND you both."

"Bullshit." John challenged in a growl.

"For once, I agree with Cena." Kane sneered, not backing or looking away from the other man.

Flashing a disarming smile, John threw his hands up and stepped back, his eyes pure ice.

She was going gray, Stephanie just knew it, wondering if Rajani would be opposed to going out and buying her a box of hair dye, just in case.

Luckily, Rajani had gone in the opposite direction of the Kane/John confrontation, doing what Stephanie instructed by going to check on the ambulance for tonight's show. "Hey Raja, what's crackin'?" Michael greeted with a smile, seeing the look of annoyance on her face and chuckled. Rajani's short nickname was pronounced just like the tiger's name off of the Disney movie Aladdin. "Let me take a wild guess..."

"You would probably nail it." Rajani muttered, hopping up to sit beside Michael in the back of the ambulance, her legs dangling freely. "Stephanie..."

"I already know and I wish those guys would get a grip." Michael snorted, running a hand through his cropped black hair. He went to say something else when the walkie-talkie went off, informing him that Eve, one of the WWE Divas, was on her way to talk to him about that night's script. "Duty calls, I already know Stephanie is sending you to warn us about possible changes."

"Thanks Mike, talk to you later." Hopping down from the ambulance, Rajani reluctantly headed back inside the arena, passing by Eve on the way. "He's waiting for you."

Eve didn't look happy and simply nodded, murmuring a 'thank you' in response.

"Rajani, there you are..." Stephanie said, walking towards her assistant, then halted, frowning. "I sent you out, didn't I?"

She was actually flustered and felt like she was losing her mind. WrestleMania time was always hectic and she had seen more than one person have to take a 'break' due to stress, she had never figured on being one of those people. Rajani simply nodded, frowning at her boss and hoped Stephanie didn't have a breakdown.

"God, between Cena and Jacobs, I am losing my mind. Talk to Felicia?" She wasn't surprised at the nod and nodded in return. "Good. I feel so bad for the writers, I really do." Dirt sheets would criticize the writing, but what they didn't seem to realize was that the writers had to work around insanity, literally.

"Luckily though, you have a brilliant lead script writer who works with the insanity that surrounds us daily."

Rajani knew Stephanie had to hear something positive and managed to get a small smile out of her boss. It was better than nothing. She decided against telling Stephanie about her encounter with Cena in the writer's office. She had so much on her plate already, Rajani wasn't going to pile it on further. She would deal with John Cena on her own without anyone's help, he was harmless, or had been so far.

"This is true." Stephanie didn't bother bringing up John and Glen's little encounter in the hallway, knowing there wasn't anything Rajani could do about it so...why tell her? "Let's just get through tonight and hope," She crossed her fingers, flashing another small smile, pausing briefly. "Things don't go completely..."

"Apeshit insane." Alex said as he walked by, a box of bandages and wraps in his arms, just in case.

"Yes that, thank you."

They headed back to Stephanie's office, where they would be out of the crossfire and Rajani got to work on some papers that Stephanie simply didn't have time to go through filling out. She sat down and began the tedious work, knowing her wrist was going to ache from writing so much after tonight, but this job was worth it. Honestly, Rajani couldn't see herself doing anything else with her life and career choice, owing Stephanie McMahon-Levesque a lot for giving her this opportunity.

"Hey I'm gonna run down to the cafeteria really fast and get something to eat, do you want anything?" Rajani was starving and all the running around she'd done had increased her appetite, sighing when Stephanie shook her head. "Not even a fruit cup? You need to keep your strength up, boss."

"I will eat like a hog when I get back to the hotel room." Stephanie promised with a wan smile, also sorting through paperwork, looking up from the desk. "Right now though, I don't think eating would be a great idea."

Considering her stomach was doing back flips and sideways rotations, eating would probably be a really bad idea, especially if something went wrong. She did, however, promise herself that, as soon as Rajani was out of the room, she was going to pop a Tums or two. Hopefully that would help her tumbling stomach, waving her assistant off.

"Go on, go get something to eat."

"If you're sure..."

Rajani was worried about her boss and knew there was a ton of pressure because it was WrestleMania time. Every show counted. Every rating mattered. That was just the way it was, Rajani knew Stephanie was probably thinking her father was some force of nature, that managed to balance all of this out, without losing his mind. That didn't mean Vince didn't have his moments where he lost it on his fellow employees, but for the most part he glued everything together. Rajani felt her phone vibrate and ignored it, already knowing who it was, deciding answering any texts or phone calls at work was strictly prohibited.

"Hey Raji."

Phil -Most knew him as simply CM Punk- called out from behind, smirking when he seen her shoulders do a slight shrug that indicated she rolled her eyes at him. He couldn't help it, he loved her name and thought it was amusing. He curbed his inner mirth, remembering what he wanted to ask Stephanie's gopher.

"Is Steph in a decent mood tonight or should I tread cautiously?" He asked, falling into step with her.

"You know I hate it when you call me that, Philip." She smirked when the smirk fell from his lips, knowing he hated having his full name used. "Stephanie is in a great mood so you might want to catch her before it goes away." She suggested with a sweet smile, knowing Stephanie was anything BUT in a decent mood, but Phil could find that out for himself.

Phil did have a reputation as a loud mouth, occasionally opinionated jerk, but...only with people he disagreed with, like the higher-ups, minus Stephanie when she wasn't in 'Vince Mode'. He did get along with others, however, most of the time. He genuinely liked Rajani, in a purely platonic sense, because she was so far a straight forward type of person which he respected.

"Now you know, Raji-" He paused, circling her once. "I'm just picking on you. You're my favorite gopher."

Before she could whack him or something, Phil took off, really hoping Stephanie was in a good mood. Rajani laughed softly because Phil either didn't care that half his ass was hanging out due to his tights riding up his crack or he simply didn't care. Phil was definitely one of a kind with a quick wit and mouth that most couldn't stand up to. She liked him, but just as a friend, not thinking he was that attractive. Of course she would never tell him that, Rajani wanted to keep the peace between them and didn't want to damage Phil's pride. That didn't mean she wouldn't feed him to the proverbial wolves if he deserved it, like now.

"What a character." She chuckled, heading on her way to the cafeteria and sighed when a headache suddenly came on. The French braid her hair was in would have to be taken out immediately or the headache would turn into a full blown migraine.

Sometimes it sucked having long thick hair.

"Nose down, Cena." Randy Orton instructed, smacking his best friend upside the back of his head when John looked up.

It reminded him of a bloodhound, not exactly something he would have ever attributed to his friend until this line with Kane had started. He wasn't sure if it was the line, or maybe John was finally cracking under all the pressure on his shoulders on top of the fans less than nice attitude towards him, maybe both. It was like John just knew whenever Rajani was around and, sure enough, the moment she walked into the cafeteria, he had noticed it.

"Seriously man, leave her alone, she's not your type."

John disagreed, but didn't move from his perch on top of the table.

"Hey Raja." Beth greeted with a friendly smile, busy piling some food on her plate. "How's it going?"

Beth was a sweetheart off camera and Rajani couldn't help befriending her either. "Going okay, Stephanie is just under a lot of pressure and I'm trying my best to try to take some of the pressure off her shoulders. It's not easy by any means." She grabbed a wrapped sandwich along with a green apple, chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully. "God my stomach feels like it's in knots right now and my head is pounding, would you mind doing me a favor?"

Beth frowned, nodding. "Sure, what is it?"

"Please help me undo this French braid. I really don't care if my hair is all over the place right now, its better than getting a migraine."

"No problem." They sat down and Beth pulled the band out of Rajani's hair before beginning the unraveling of her ravenous locks. "Damn, I wish I had hair like this. You have incredible hair, Raja."

"Thanks, I'm glad one of us thinks so. I'm seriously considering cutting it off."

All Randy could do was shake his head, wondering if John realized his observation of Beth taking Rajani's head down looked like borderline stalking. Intense, was the word that came to his mind. "You're embarrassing yourself, and me."

"You're the only one who's noticing me noticing her." John replied with a smirk, turning his head to glance at his friend before looking back at Rajani. "Damn her hair is thick..." He could imagine wrapping it around his fist, tilting her head back and...and he really needed a vacation, and a cold shower. "Fuck..."

"You are my lifesaver, thanks Beth."

Rajani groaned in relief and ran her fingers through her hair, knowing it was really wavy due to being up in the French braid all day. It went to her waist, but when it was straightened, it went past her ass. As much as Rajani complained about her long hair, she was attached to it, which is why she hadn't chopped it yet.