Chapter 3

"No problem..." Beth glanced over at the table where Randy and John Cena were sitting, groaning softly. "Don't look now, but I think you have an admirer."

"What?"

Rajani made the grave mistake of turning her head wherever Beth was looking, instantly regretting it. Sighing, Rajani turned back to open up her sandwich. Ignoring John was the best thing she could do at the moment and she would do it, no matter how hard it was. John wondered how heavy her hair was and if Beth was planning on stopping shooting him 'fuck off' looks anytime soon. He waved exaggeratedly at her, smirking when she scowled and turned to sit down on the bench, aware Randy was doing the same.

"What are you thinking John?"

"I'm thinking Rajani really needs to relax and have fun. Look at her, that woman is stressed and tense."

"I don't think you'd really help relieve those situations so much as make them worse..." Randy sighed, knowing he wasn't getting through to his friend so instead began occupying himself with his food.

"No, I'd relieve them...frequently."

Randy groaned, pushing away the tray.

"Christ, he has a fucking staring problem." Beth growled, not amused in the slightest and couldn't help getting perturbed by the way John was looking at Rajani. "How do you put up with that?"

"Put up with what?" Rajani asked, looking at Beth with a raised eyebrow and then looked over her shoulder at John again, shrugging. "Him? He's not that hard to ignore contrary to what people believe."

"You have one hell of a thick skin on you, girl." Beth commended, taking a bite out of her pasta salad.

"Yeah I suppose I do." Rajani began eating with gusto, knowing Stephanie would want her back at the office.

When John got up and strolled out of the cafeteria, Randy didn't know whether to let out a breath of relief or feel worried. Hell, forget that, John was his best friend, but he was definitely glad that he was on Smackdown! for the most part these days. He did not need to put up with his friend's drama. Shaking his head, Kane slinked back from his rather concealed place, stowing away everything he had just observed. Chuckling darkly, he headed back to his locker room to prepare for the night's festivities.

Once Rajani finished eating and promised to meet up with Beth tomorrow for lunch in the next town, she headed out of the cafeteria toward Stephanie's office, feeling a little better. Though, Rajani made a quick stop in the women's bathroom to check over her hair to make sure it didn't look too wild. Luckily, her hair was thick, but it didn't frizz often, so at that moment it had loose wavy curls throughout it, which actually gave it style. Rajani fixed the part in her hair so it was angled before heading back out, feeling a little better and made sure to drape it over her shoulder. It was official. She was having Janet cut it to the middle of her back as soon as possible, even if she had to be strapped down to the chair. Stephanie blinked when Rajani walked back into the office, taking note of the change in hairstyle, arching an eyebrow. She had always been aware that Rajani had extremely long hair, but she was very used to seeing it pulled back.

"That is...different." She said after a moment, flicking her own shorter hair, behind her shoulder as an unconscious afterthought. "You feel better now that you've eaten?" She glanced at her wristwatch, aware the show was getting ready to kick off soon. "Because game time is in ten."

"Shit, sorry Stephanie. I ran into Beth and got this horrible headache from having my hair pulled back..."

She hoped Stephanie didn't mind because there was no way Rajani was putting it back up, not unless it was in a low ponytail. Her headache was slowly diminishing. Rajani wanted to keep it that way since they still had the show to get through. It wasn't wild looking so it would suffice for the time being.

"It's fine." Stephanie waved her off absentmindedly, too busy looking over paperwork, not caring what Rajani's hair looked like at the moment. "I need you to look this over and figure out how much we owe that vendor while I take care of a few last minute details for tonight."

"Gotcha."

Rajani took a seat and began her work, slipping in some earplugs and kept her IPOD on low so she could clearly hear everything that was going on around her. Music helped her configure numbers and that's what Stephanie currently had her doing, so Rajani needed to zone out. It was the only way for her to do so as she began using a calculator, fingers flying over the keys as the music blasted in her ears.

Kane listened as the show kicked off, busy reviewing his 'script', mentally making changes to it. He smirked slightly at the segment with Eve, knowing that would just make her night totally complete. Skimming the part at the end of the show with Ryder, Kane read and then reread that part. Make sure he goes down the ramp...nah that was too boring. Off the stage, now that...that would much more interesting and lord knew Stephanie was constantly getting her ass grilled about the ratings. Well, he would just have to help her out on that now, wouldn't he?

Surprisingly enough, the show went smoothly...up until the segment that involved Eve and Kane. Rajani felt bad for the Diva having to work with that lunatic, but at the same time, ratings had picked up extensively since they began this whole Cena/Ryder/Eve/Kane angle. Her eyes widened slightly when Eve jumped out of the ambulance and planted a mean lip lock on John. He'd just saved her from nearly being carted away in the ambulance by Kane, but Rajani never recalled Eve kissing John being in the script.

She glanced over at Stephanie, who looked surprised and knew her suspicions had been confirmed. Eve had jumped script and added even more fuel to the fire with this feud, as if it needed anymore. The show continued as it should've...right up until the end when Kane came out and attacked Ryder once again, unscripted. Pushing him off the stage in his wheelchair with the crowd gasping in shock, her dark eyes widened as Stephanie cursed and immediately rushed out of the office. Leaving Rajani sitting there looking stunned at the monitor, her heart instantly went out to the injured Zack Ryder.

Kane was smart enough to retreat, knowing that John would eventually come out of his shock and guilt and be looking for a fight. Not to mention Stephanie would probably be ready to fine him to hell and back. Not that either one of those situations mattered, but...he had other plans to make. Being detained in a fight, one he knew he could and would win, or by a McMahon shrew, just wasn't in the cards, not tonight. John's blue eyes were wide and wracked with guilt when he made it backstage, alongside the stretcher Zack lay on.

"Bro, I am so sorry..." He whispered, knowing Zack couldn't hear him at the moment. He heard Stephanie's heels clacking rapidly and looked up at her, all traces of arrogance and cockiness gone.

"You're not to blame for this, John." Stephanie stated, knowing tonight it was all Kane's fault, though she did glare at an approaching Eve. "What the HELL were you thinking jumping script like that Torres?!"

Eve lowered her eyes to the floor, swallowing hard. "H-He said if I didn't do it...I would regret it..." She whispered, trembling slightly and looked up when John placed a hand on her shoulder, looking up into his eyes. "I didn't want to do it..."

Stephanie rubbed her temples, knowing Kane had been responsible for that fiery kiss Eve gave John, scowling. "Alright fine, you're off the hook. Does anyone know where the hell Kane went?" Everyone shook their heads. Stephanie rushed off, ready to fine Glenn Jacobs to hell and back for the stunts he pulled tonight. "Mother fucker..."

"He's gone, he left already..." John muttered, unable to do anything but watch as Zak was wheeled towards the waiting ambulance.

Groaning in frustration, he turned and ran his hands over his head, feeling his short, damp hair. A second later John had hauled off and slammed his fist into the steel post that was used to help support the titantron. Of course Kane would be gone by now! It wasn't his style to stay around and watch the carnage; Kane would already know what was happening. Eve was already backing away, not wanting to be around as it looked like John was ready to start tearing the set apart.

"Is he..."

"He'll live." Stephanie muttered, brushing past her assistant to gather up her things, having quite enough for one evening. "Time to pack up, Johnson."

There was no way Rajani could stay in the office and not try to do something to help her boss, noticing that John had lost his temper once again. Rajani could only nod, knowing when Stephanie called her by her last name it was not a time to question the boss...at all. She helped Stephanie gather her own things so she could get out of the arena. Packing up her own things, Rajani was not in as much of a hurry as Stephanie. Once she was packed up, Rajani locked up Stephanie's office and headed out of the arena, letting a yawn escape. Tonight had been tiring to say the least and it would only get worse the closer WrestleMania came.

John was sitting near the employee exit, which led to the underground parking lot they all used. He was sitting on a folding table, still wearing the same clothes he had wrestled in, his bag sitting on the floor at his feet. He saw Stephanie on her way out and gotten a clipped 'we'll let you know' about his questions concerning Zack. It was technically scripted that Ryder get 'hurt' every night Cena didn't 'give into the hatred', but it was supposed to be SCRIPTED, not real. This was all real. He was pretty sure he was feeling the hate right about now, but it was mostly directed at himself.

When her cell phone vibrated against her side for the millionth time, Rajani finally pulled it out to answer the text message, rolling her eyes. She answered it and knew the person wouldn't appreciate her attitude, but Rajani was too tired to give a damn at the moment. Rajani pushed open the door to the underground parking lot and jumped nearly a foot in the air when a crash echoed throughout it. It sounded like a damn gun had just been fired! Rajani's dark eyes widened slightly when she looked to her right and saw Cena, who had just thrown a chair against the wall. The chair was now bent and dented, there would be no fixing it. John picked the chair up again, preparing to hurl it and whirled around, stopping himself before letting it fly. It registered that someone was standing right there looking at him like he had lost his mind, which he probably had. Then it hit who he had almost thrown the chair at.

"Rajani." He said, sounding hoarse and dropped the chair. The twisted steel hitting the floor sounded louder than what it was and John looked down at it. Knowing he could have seriously injured her, John met her eyes, his own wide as saucers. "I'm sorry..."

"No problem." She quickly replied, keeping her distance from him because honestly Rajani had no idea just how unstable John was at the moment, not wanting to find out. "I'm just gonna go dislodge my heart from my throat now. Good evening."

She began walking away from him toward her car, trying not to seem like she was in a rush to get out of there, when it reality, that had scared the living hell out of her. Rajani had no idea John had a temper of that magnitude and tried getting her heart rate to slow down before it leapt right out of her chest. Cursing under his breath, John snatched up his bag and chased after her.

"Rajani, wait!" John called, groaning when she didn't stop and ran ahead of her, blocking her path.

In any other situation he probably would have grabbed her wrist. At the moment, he was hyper-aware of his actions and of the fact that she would probably both scream bloody murder and give him a brutal knee shot to the balls. That wasn't about to happen, so John was being a little more cautious just for tonight. Not to mention, he honestly felt terrible for scaring the hell out of her with that steel chair.

"I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean to scare you."

Rajani had to stop herself from smacking into John because of how fast she was walking, almost on the verge of jogging. "It's fine."

She instinctively backed away from him, barely stopping herself from colliding into his body. Under normal circumstances, this would've been the time for Rajani to tell John to get out of her way, but she didn't want to fire up his temper anymore than what it was. The character he portrayed on television wasn't always the fun loving John Cena behind closed doors and Rajani knew better than to push his buttons right now, not after what happened with Kane.

"No reason for you to apologize. Excuse me." Rajani went to step around him, sighing when he stepped in her way, stopping her. "Something you need, Cena?"

John realized he was still standing there, staring at her like an idiot and swallowed, smiling weakly. "Um, yeah, actually..." He looked around the mostly empty lot, knowing the stage hands and the rest had parked at the loading entrances with the semis. "Randy left without me, could I hitch a ride with you?" He must have really irritated Randy for him to just leave him like this, of all nights. "I promise not to be annoying." John held up a hand, doing a very poor imitation of a Boy Scout.

Did he really just ask her for a ride back to the hotel? Rajani wondered if she'd heard him right, tilting her head slightly. He had harassed her right in front of Stephanie and now he was asking her for a ride? This man was definitely unstable and...hot as hell. Rajani wanted to slap herself for that last second thought, not believing she actually found a man of his caliber attractive. Of course she would never admit that to anyone, not even Felicia. Truth was, Rajani had a crush on John Cena ever since the night he asked her out, her first night on the job, and she turned him down for one very important reason. If he found out…no, that wasn't going to happen ever.

"I suppose I have no choice, but if you mention one syllable regarding me going out to dinner with you, I'm ditching you on the side of the road. We clear?" When John nodded, Rajani couldn't believe she was actually doing this and guided him toward her rental car, a black Lexus with tinted windows.

The idea of taking Rajani out to dinner was honestly the last thing on his mind at the moment. John quietly got into the car, adjusted the seat back to accommodate his large, long frame and stared out the window. Of course, at a later time, when he wasn't feeling totally guilty over a co-worker being hospitalized because of him, he would probably use this against her somehow, but...not tonight. Or at least, not until the car was parked and he was sure he wouldn't be hoofing it.

"Now that," Kane murmured, pausing and stepped out from behind a pillar he had been leaning against, his own ride parked in the back with the stage crew. "Is interesting..."