Chapter 5
Rajani got 2 cups of coffee, along with a shot of espresso since there was an espresso machine and headed right back out with a donut hanging out of her mouth. She grabbed Stephanie a bagel with cream cheese because the woman inhaled so much coffee, Rajani was afraid a hole would burn right through her abdomen. Rajani sighed with relief when she arrived back at the office, Stephanie nowhere to be found. Setting the coffee down with the bagel on her desk, Rajani got started on her daily duties.
"Raja, where's the boss?" Phil demanded, walking in with a smirk, having seen her strolling into the office with that donut hanging out her mouth. He wouldn't lie; he was tempted to crack off a joke, or several, but managed to restrain himself, storing it away for another time. "I didn't see anything in the line-up for myself, so…You know, it's odd that Stephanie's not here, but you are…you two are normally attached at the hip..." He scratched his beard, frowning. "She's not sick, is she?"
"I don't know. She was arguing with Cena when I arrived and asked me to run a few errands for her."
Rajani figured Stephanie was probably on the warpath trying to track Kane down since she hadn't been able to find the man...yet Rajani had...since the night before. Ryder was out of commission for two weeks. That much Rajani had overheard before walking in on her boss's argument with John.
"Let me look at the script and see if I can help you out." She set her paperwork down and walked over to look down at Stephanie's desk, finding tonight's line-up a few seconds later. "Ah, you have a promo with Jericho and that's gonna end with you giving the GTS to him." She handed over the paper without looking back at Phil.
"That's freaking awesome!" Phil cheered, really liking it when he got the last word in, so to speak.
"Rajani, we got a problem. Stephanie was found in a chair, out cold." Alex announced, poking his head in the room, frowning. "They're saying stress shut her down so..."
Phil cottoned on rather quickly, his eyes widening. "Wait, you mean...no way, no way!"
"She knows Steph's plans inside and out and Vince is dealing with issues on the pay-per-view so no one can contact him."
Phil didn't know whether to grin at how interesting this was going to be or feel bad for Rajani, settling for grinning.
"She's...I'm sorry what?" Rajani blinked, her mouth suddenly forming the shape of an O when Alex nodded at her. "You mean I'm..."
"In charge for the night, yes. Stephanie is being carted back to the hotel by her husband so he's also out of commission."
"I uh...Thanks Alex..." Rajani was in shock as she slowly sank down in Stephanie's chair, swallowing hard, trying really hard to keep her composure. "Okay...alright..." This was what the internship was about, learning everything about this type of company behind the scenes. "I can do this. How hard can it be...right?"
Everything was laid out for her, all Rajani had to do was settle problems that came up and Stephanie was pretty consistent when it came to them. Phil walked out with an extra kick in his step, knowing Chris wasn't going to be happy with tonight's script. News about Stephanie having a 'personal issue' spread throughout the locker room very quickly and, when John heard, he began smirking. Technically, Rajani was de facto in charge, which meant any decisions she made only applied to this night and she would probably follow whatever schedule Stephanie had already laid out. Whistling, and in such a better mood than he had been only minutes ago, John picked up a metal folding chair and headed down the hallway.
Rajani's head snapped up when Alex came rushing into the office an hour later, announcing that John had been spotted with a steel folding chair. "Seriously?" She groaned when Alex nodded. "Fine, I..."
A scream echoed moments later down the hallway.
Rajani raced out of the office past Alex, running as fast as her two inch heels would allow and stopped short at the sight of a crying Eve. "What happened?"
"K-Kane..." Eve couldn't even speak, pointing over to where an unconscious Beth lay prone with a dented steel chair beside her.
"She's in shock. Alex, call the EMT's down here and take Eve to see Larry please." Rajani ordered, scowling when the Superstars began circling around to witness what was going on. "There is a show to go on so everyone needs to clear out of here NOW." She ordered, taking charge while slowly helping Eve up from her crouched position.
Stephanie picked the WORST night to be out of commission. Once the crowd slowly dispersed, Rajani watched Alex cart Eve down the hallway to Larry's. Then she went on the hunt for John Cena, knowing Kane would stay in the shadows for a while. John didn't make it easy for anyone to find him, too busy staying the hell out of the way while he stalked Kane, who also seemed to be doing the same thing he was: stalking and staying out of sight. He heard about Beth, wondering what the hell was the reasoning behind that attack. Now if it had been Eve, that would have made sense. Beth, however...that just didn't add up. To Kane it made perfect sense. Beth was Rajani's friend. She was gone now just like Stephanie.
Neither men were nowhere to be found and Rajani had searched the entire arena for both, mainly John. He had the steel chair so he was the number one suspect in Beth's attack. She finally trudged back to the office; feeling exhausted and suddenly knew what Stephanie must've felt like on a nightly basis. Was this really the type of business she wanted to get involved in? Rajani shook her head and sank down in the chair, planting her head forehead first on the desk, closing her eyes. If she survived this night, it would be a miracle.
"What am I supposed to do about this?" She whispered, trying to make sense of everything and knew Stephanie wouldn't take Beth's attack lightly when she returned. "Writing both of them up is pointless because they don't listen! What am I supposed to do?" Rajani was very tempted to call her older brother, but decided she had to figure this out on her own, slowly looking up when a knock sounded at her office door. "Come in."
"I heard about Beth." John said, finally coming out of his stalking mode since Kane was being a total cock-knocker and refused to show his ugly ass. "Is she going to be alright?"
He seen the look on Rajani's face, right before irritation with his presence flashed across her features. He almost felt bad for her, getting stuck with all this shit. Almost. John had his own agenda to worry about.
"Cut to the damn chase, Cena, what do you want? I have countless problems going on without you being in here up my ass. Oh wait...you ARE one of those problems, so what the hell do you want?" She ignored the question about Beth, practically snarling her words as she slammed papers down on the desk, taking a few deep breaths. "My apologies, I didn't mean to snap at you like that. Beth was found unconscious with a steel chair beside her and I was told you were stalking around this building with one. If you attacked her, Stephanie is not going to take it line down and you know that. So just tell me the truth, did you attack her? Eve isn't speaking and she was the only witness. All she said was Kane, but he was nowhere to be found and you were the one with the chair..."
"First you bite my head off and then you ask me that? Dear lord woman, when the hell is Stephanie coming back because you are obviously not suited for this job." John shot back.
Many things John was, but a woman attacker, hell no. This woman obviously hadn't bothered with brushing up on 'sports entertainer' profiles. Not bothering to state the obvious, he didn't do it, John walked right back out. He was going to find Kane and beat the truth out of the monster.
"Well, speaking of the very son of a bitch I was looking for…"
"Congratulations boy, you found me."
When Rajani heard fighting going on outside of her office, she stood up and let out a small scream when John came CRASHING right back through her door. "What the hell?! Kane, no!" She hopped over the desk, after pressing the security button that was underneath the desk, and shoved her hands against Kane's rock hard chest. "ENOUGH! Both of you have to stop this!" Rajani shouted, having a hard time breathing because Kane was crushing her trying to get to John, who had already gotten to his feet. "You guys can't..." Rajani grunted out, only to end up being sandwiched between them, her sides aching from the pressure.
As much fun as tormenting Rajani was turning out to be, the last thing Kane wanted was for her to wind up hurt, yet. He wasn't finished with her, just getting started. Kane stepped back long enough to pull her out of the way and was just barely able to catch John's fist before it connected with his jaw.
"Almost hurt your girlfriend, Cena." Kane whispered, watching in amusement as John's eyes widened.
The minute John looked at Rajani to undoubtedly make sure she was alright, big mistake on his part, Kane lowered his shoulder and drove John across the room, crashing into the wall. John let out a groan of pain, but didn't stop swinging his fists, pretty sure he was going to be feeling that to come for a few nights. Rajani was too busy holding her side to hear what Kane said, tears stinging her eyes while they continued fighting and damaging the office.
"Stop...it..." She wheezed out, scooting away from them just as security burst in to separate the two Superstars.
"Whoa Rajani, you alright?!" Alex rushed to her side, having heard on the walkie-talkie that there was a problem down in her office.
She nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment and knew she would undoubtedly have bruised ribs, hoping nothing was cracked. If her brother found out about this... "Alex...we have to keep this...between us..." Rajani held her hand up when he went to help her up, doing it on her own slowly. Kane had been shoved out of the office by ten security guards, while the others checked on John, who was down for the count at the moment. "Please..."
John had slumped down against the wall, helping the EMT's remove his shirt and trying not to wince as he stretched his undoubtedly bruised back, looking at Rajani. What made the fact that he had been instrumental in hurting her was that Kane had been the one to move her out of further harm's way. Kane. Kane had been the one to do that, when it should have been him. He was the good one, right?
"She's going to be alright?"
Why did it seem like John was constantly asking that these days?
"I'm fine, let them inspect you, John."
There was no malice in Rajani's tone, just pure concern, knowing the show had to still go on and already chaos had started. She brushed the medics off when they tried looking her over, pointing over to John while she made it to her chair, fighting back the pain. Nothing two Tylenol 3's couldn't take care of later at the hotel. She sighed when they said John had a minor concussion and bruised ribs, which meant one thing.
"He can't compete tonight."
"I'll have someone replace him in the tag match then."
"He also needs to go to the hospital for x-rays to make sure his ribs aren't cracked."
Rajani sighed when John growled an affirmative 'NO!'
"I'm not going to the damn hospital and I'm not being replaced." John insisted, pushing away everyone who was trying to help him up. "Wrap my ribs, I'll keep my damn shirt on." John wasn't going anywhere except to the ring, knowing the minute he was to go to the hospital Kane would take that as a sign of even more weakness. That was not something he needed on his plate right now. "Just tend to her." He growled, holding out his arms and trying not to wince when they began wrapping bandages around them.
"Would you stop being stubborn and just do as they say, Cena?" Rajani growled, not in the mood to be checked over as she waved the EMT's away. "You could have cracked ribs and WrestleMania is around the corner! You can't afford a serious injury. Now go to the damn hospital, you're being replaced tonight. I've already got it taken care of." She'd sent Alex to inform Phil he was going to be in the tag match because Chris was being added to it, replacing Paul Wight AKA Big Show. "You're not on the show tonight so if you don't want to go to the hospital, then just go back to the hotel and rest."
"No, I've worked through worse than this, if you knew anything about me then you'd already know that." John said, more heat in his tone then he had intended. "I'll be fine for WrestleMania, but you're not replacing me." When she opened her mouth to tell him off no doubt, he shook his head. "That's the job, Rajani, we get hurt; we still go out there and put on a show. If any of us took the night off because of a slight concussion or hurt ribs, there would be no WWE because this shit happens." Rajani either accepted that fact now or...well, he'd just have to make sure Phil didn't make it to the ring.
"And what YOU need to understand, Cena, is that I'm doing what I feel is in the best interest for this company and what I feel Stephanie would do. You know damn well if you have cracked ribs or any kind of injury of that caliber, she would NOT allow you to compete tonight. So don't give me that high and mighty attitude about how shit happens." Rajani refused to back down from him, her dark eyes flashing with hidden anger. "Now if you insist on not going to the hospital as directed, then get the hell out of my office. I have more important things to worry about, like Beth's attack that I still don't know if you did or not."
Rajani was fighting back pain and the anger she currently felt was a perfect mask as Rajani sat back down in her chair, daring John to defy her. He would regret it if he did. She would make sure Stephanie saw to it.
"You are a damn idiot Rajani." John informed her, shaking his head and wondered if she really thought for a second Stephanie would send him home because of bruised ribs and a concussion.
Yes, Stephanie could be a sweet woman, but when it came to the business she was Vince's daughter through and through. Which meant working through the injuries. Snorting, he walked out of the room, having no intention of leaving the building and thanking God she was 'in charge' for only one night. Rajani took that with a grain of salt, too busy trying to breathe because the anger had diminished along with her adrenaline.
"I'm fine." She whispered when Alex asked if she needed anything, slowly shaking her head. "Thanks for your help, but I got it from here."
When Alex nodded and walked out, closing the door behind him, Rajani finally leaned back against the chair and turned around, letting the tears spill down her cheeks. Her side was absolutely killing her. Pulling her shirt up, Rajani could already see the deep bruising forming, the color of her tanned skin turning into purple mixed with blue. Pulling her shirt down, Rajani took a couple deep breaths before slowly turning back around, knowing she had to finish paperwork. Stephanie wasn't going to walk into a mess when she returned. Rajani couldn't let it happen.