Chapter 14 - Happy 18th Birthday
"I can't believe this is happening right now," Lillian Garcia sighed.
"You and the rest of us Lil," Christian added as he looked around the room at the rest of the people there.
There was himself and Vikki sharing an armchair on one side of the room, Batista had an armchair to himself whilst Lita was sandwiched between Lillian and Maria on the remaining 3-seater couch in the room. All sets of eyes were staring at the floor. Everybody's mouths were shut. Bodies were almost completely still. This hadn't been the first time Christian had been in the Orton living room in Lita and Randy's beautiful 4-bedroom home in Louisville, being that himself and Vikki lived only a few short blocks away, but this was definitely the first time in his memory that he was here in this room without a smile on his face.
"Who the hell are these sick people anyway?" Vikki suddenly spoke, snapping Christian out of his thoughts.
Vikki had wanted to say the words with more conviction. She'd wanted to sound angrier and more upset but the words just came out blank. They didn't register a single emotion. Just plain and simple shock and disbelief.
"Fucking sick bastards," Dave added, shaking his head as he crouched over himself and ran his large hands through his very short hair.
And once again the silence enveloped the room. There was nothing anyone could say that could cut the tension or even lift it slightly. There was nothing that anyone could say that would change anything right now. Nothing could change the circumstances. Nothing could change the plain and simple fact that Randy and Lita's 17-year-old daughter, Heidi Maree Orton, had been kidnapped from the backstage arena halfway through what has been described, time and time again, as the grandest stage of them all. Wrestlemania. It would be the only thing remembered from Wrestlemania 38. It would be forever infamous. Forever the most tragic Wrestlemania in WWE history.
Ding Dong! Ding Dong!
"I'll get it," Lita quickly spoke as she immediately got to her feet.
Her voice was so quiet yet shocking in the dead silence of the room. All eyes watched as she rushed herself out of the living room and into the front foyer of the house to the front door to answer the doorbell.
"I'm so worried about her," Lillian spoke, her eyes lifting to meet those of the others in the room.
"I think we all are Lil," Maria nodded at the ex-ring announcer as she reached out a hand to soothingly touch Lillian's knee.
"I can't even begin to imagine how she feels," Lillian blurted out, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to hold back the tears that she could feel in the back of her throat.
"God I'd be a wreck if my Maggie or Phil went missing," Christian sighed as he put his arm around Vikki, pulling her close against his chest.
"It's not even just that," Vikki stated, shaking her head in disbelief "Heidi hasn't gone missing, she's been kidnapped. I mean she's been kidnapped."
"Fuck it's just plain awful!" Dave suddenly exclaimed, his anger getting the best of him as he clenched his fists to try and control himself.
"I can't believe Li is so calm about it all," Maria suddenly spoke, changing the topic "I mean she's been so quiet, she's hardly said anything at all since we got back here."
"She's not calm Ria," Lillian explained, her eyes fixed on a patch of carpet underneath her feet "I think she's still in shock. I don't think she can quiet believe that this is actually happening to her right now."
"I don't think any of us can," Vikki chimed in.
"Ruff!"
Lillian jumped slightly as she turned to face Maria. A sad smile crossed her fair features as she glanced at the current occupant of Maria's lap. She had almost completely forgotten about the small dog until her sudden random outburst. The small Chihuahua was happily panting away as she sat inbetween Maria's legs, clearly dying for a little attention from the silent room. Maria's mind was obviously elsewhere but one of her hands was absentmindedly stroking the long tan coloured fur on the puppy's head making the small dog loll it's small head from side to side in clear enjoyment at the simply physical contact. The light from the chandelier in the centre of the room was bouncing off the small heart shaped silver nameplate hanging around the puppy's neck. The name 'Honey' engraved into it. Lita had definitely picked the cutest dog she could have possibly found for her daughter and then teamed it with the cutest name she could think of. With the large red bow around it's small neck it would have been the perfect 18th birthday present.
Lillian's eyes then travelled around the room and she felt like crying as her eyes travelled over the red and white decorations all around the room. There were streamers and there were balloons in either red or white decorating the room. There were even red sparkly cardboard stars hanging from the ceiling. The centrepiece of the entire thing was a gold banner hanging from the ceiling on the wall above the fireplace with 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI' printed across it. Lita had been so excited about the prospect of throwing Heidi a surprise 18th birthday that she had enlisted all the diva's help in not only keeping the party a surprise and helping with decorations, but in also keeping the young Orton busy all day on her actual birthday until the birthday party that night so that the Orton house could be sufficiently organised. That was meant to be tomorrow. However, with Heidi rehearsing for Wrestlemania all day today, Lita hadn't been able to help herself from putting up the decorations a day early. Lillian had found it ridiculously cute how excited Lita was about it all, but then again it was Lita and she would do and did do anything to make her daughter happy.
"Hey guys," John Cena spoke as he suddenly entered the room.
Everyone simply nodded simultaneously as Maria shuffled over on the couch so that Cena could take her seat and join the group in the room.
"Where's Lita?" Maria inquired as she finally took notice that the red head hadn't followed Cena back into the room after leaving a few minutes earlier.
"Out in the foyer with Orton," Cena simply stated.
"Who was at the door?" Vikki asked, a little hope in her voice for finally some good news or any news at all.
"It was just me and Orton," Cena brushed off casually "He left his keys with Li when me and him headed out to the police station from the arena, so we had to ring…"
"What did the police say?" Dave suddenly interrupted Cena, trying to get to the most vital information.
"Fucking bullshit that's what," Cena sighed, not even the least bit phased that Dave had just cut him off mid-sentence.
"What do you mean John?" Lillian quickly asked, her eyes widening with the pure need to hear what had happened after Randy Orton had completely ditched his main event match and the rest of Wrestlemania entirely in order to head down to the nearest police station with the nearest available calm and sane driver: John Cena.
"They gave us all this bullshit about not being able to file a missing person's report until tomorrow!" John suddenly exclaimed, his voice and his body language getting all worked up at just having to re-tell the story "All this fucking bullshit about 24 hours having to pass since Heids went missing before we can file that she's fucking missing! We know she's fucking missing alright, that's why we're fucking here!"
"Are you fucking serious?" Dave suddenly exclaimed, getting just as worked up as Cena at the news he had just heard.
"Fucking serious," Cena nodded, pursing his lips shut and taking a deep breath in to try and steady himself and calm down slightly.
"That's the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard!" Christian exclaimed, joining in "Why does 24 hours need to pass to report something we already know has happened?"
"I don't fucking know!" Cena exclaimed again, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Did you show them the text message John?" Lillian inquired, trying to piece everything together to try and make sense of John's statement.
"Yeah!" John exclaimed, nodding his head furiously at Lillian as he spoke "Orton showed the officer the text message and even then went on to tell them all about all the prank phone calls and the flowers and the dress for Heidi and all that shit."
"Cause obviously it's all linked right?" Vikki stated.
"Well obviously," Cena answered nodding his head "And then the stupid prick at the front desk starts lecturing Orton about not reporting all the phone calls and all that shit sooner."
"Are you fucking kidding me Cena?" Dave exclaimed, not quite believing what he was hearing out of John's mouth.
Cena simply nodded and rolled his eyes.
"He started lecturing a man whose daughter has just gone missing?" Vikki asked, her jaw dropped in pure shock "A man whose daughter has just been kidnapped?"
"And you know what was the worst part?" Cena spoke, his tone and his voice suddenly lowering altogether "Now I think I know Orton pretty well right? And knowing how Orton is in that kind of situation I know that he would have not even thought twice about giving that price a straight right hand square in the mouth, or the eye or the closest part of his body right?"
"Right," Christian agreed with a nod of his head.
"Definitely," Dave also agreed.
"What did he do?" Maria asked curiously.
"Fuck," John said, bending over his knees and sighing "I mean he didn't do anything. He just stood there and looked at the guy and then he just had to turn away, and just the look on his face. It fucking broke me to see him like that."
"Like what?" Lillian asked softly, she could feel the tears welling in her eyes again and she no longer had the strength or the desire to hold them back.
"I have never seen Orton like that before," John continued shaking his head "I could see the tears in his eyes and I thought he was just going to sniffle a little, wipe his eyes and get on with it like Orton normally would. Like I've seen Orton do before, but he just completely broke down. He didn't care who saw after that. He just crouched down in the middle of the police station and broke down. I thought he was going to stop breathing, he sounded like someone who was running out of air, who was having all the trouble in the world breathing. After awhile he didn't even bother to try and wipe his tears away because they were just everywhere, and fuck the look in his eyes. The look in his eyes was just like he'd just lost the will the live. I mean he'd just lost his fucking daughter so I don't know what I was expecting from him, but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if I should move him or take him aside. It was fucked up. This is all fucked up! In what kind of world do we live in where a man's daughter just goes missing from the fucking secure backstage area of Wrestlemania 38?"
"You see that's what I don't understand either!" Vikki said raising a finger at the point that Cena was getting at "What kind of security do we have backstage that lets people like that into the arena and BACKSTAGE ontop of it!"
"Forget about letting him IN Vik," Christian added "Who the fuck let those bastards out of the arena?"
"I don't understand how they would have managed to smuggle Heidi out of the arena without someone backstage seeing something," Lillian added "I mean a superstar or a stagehand or a security guard for fucks sake should have seen something because Heidi's been around WWE backstage since she was born so everywhere knows who she is and everyone knows what she looks like!"
"And you know that Heidi wouldn't have gone of her own free will!" John emphasized, not letting anyone's mind wander to the possibility that Heidi had gone off and left the arena with some strangers or even people she would have known.
"Of course not!" Dave exclaimed, shaking his head "That girl is 18 years old and makes her own decisions but don't forget this is the 18 year old daughter of Randy Orton and Lita. They're fantastic parents and they raised a smart kid."
"Heidi wouldn't have left the arena without letting one of us know!" Lillian exclaimed "That's the bottom line. She wouldn't have left willingly. She just wouldn't have and even if she was intending on doing it she would have at least called someone. She would have picked up her cell phone and rung Lita or she would have rung Randy or left a message with someone or left a voicemail or something."
"She's been raving about Mania for months now Lil," Vikki stated "There is no way that she would have just got up and left the arena and missed out on it all."
"Especially not the Money In The Bank match," Maria added "That was the match she was looking forward to the most."
"And she never misses her father's match either," Batista added "Especially not her father's match at Mania. It wouldn't have happened."
"Then who the hell took her?" John asked the people in the room before him "Someone had to have taken her because there is no other explanation for it especially teamed with that sick text message. Who the hell would want to kidnap an innocent 18 year old?"
"Heidi was never on anybody's bad side," Maria chimed in "Everybody backstage loved that girl."
"That's because thankfully she has her mother's, and not her father's, charm and good looks," John said with a small smile, a thought crossing his mind of what Heidi's own reaction would have been like to his last statement.
It was always predictable. A slap upside the back of the head. Unfortunately for Cena, she always managed to catch him off guard though, even when he knew he was going to deserve it.
"So then we're right back where we started," Christian stated.
"What about Randy's enemies backstage?" Lillian suggested, trying to keep the brainstorming going in hope that the group of them could stumble across something of importance to all of this.
"C'mon Lil," Dave said shaking his head and turning to face his wife "None of the guys backstage hate Randy enough to kidnap his only daughter. I don't think any of the guys backstage would even dream about going that far to get back at Orton."
"Lita maybe?" Lillian suggested again.
"Li's been retired for more than a decade now Lil," Vikki said shaking her head "All of the diva's from mine and Li's wrestling time are all long gone from the WWE."
"And it has been 13 years since Li retired too," John stated "13 years is a hell of a long time to hold a grudge."
"Not just a grudge," Dave emphasized "But a heavy enough grudge that you would want to kidnap Li's daughter. People don't do that!"
"No one does that!" Vikki exclaimed sighing "No sane person does that anymore!"
"Right back where we started," Christian sighed.
Ding Dong! Ding Dong!
"That's probably the detective," Randy spoke quietly as he pulled Lita towards him for one last hug.
The red head closed her eyes and relaxed a little further into her husband's embrace. They had been sitting there up against the wall on the cold tiled floor of the foyer to their beautiful house with the foyer light turned off. The only light illuminating the room was the full moon outside shining through the windows as well as it's reflection hitting all the clean, polished surfaces of the tiles on the floor, the wooden ballistrate of the large staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms and the large mirror behind the front door. The couple had been almost completely quiet as they sat in eachother's company. The other sound between them was the sound of their breathing in time and in sync with eachother's. There were too many thoughts between them running through their minds to say everything that they felt in this moment. It was all still trying to settle and to sink in. Lita just wanted to feel Randy's strong arms around her. She loved the feeling of being in his arms, but tonight it wasn't about feeling safe in those arms. Tonight it was about knowing by feeling his embrace that there was hope and that he was going to be there for her. They were going to be there for eachother to help eachother through this because everything up to this point - all the hardships they'd faced in the past before and all the obstacles they'd faced to be together - nothing could measure up to the hardship and the obstacles that were ahead of them as they searched for their only child. Their only daughter. The child that had brought them together all those years ago. The only thing in the world that they loved more than they loved eachother. And as Lita felt tear by tear roll down her back from his beautiful blue eyes, she knew that Randy felt the same. She needed him right now just as much as he needed her. She held him closer. She wanted to let him know she was here.
"We should answer that then," Lita suddenly spoke as she shook herself from her thoughts and started to help herself up.
Randy soon joined her and they helped eachother get to their feet. Lita quickly took his hand in hers as they headed for the door together. Randy unlocked the front door and opened it.
"Hi Ash," Lita spoke as the couple caught sight of the young man on the otherside of the door.
The red head tried to force a smile in Ash's direction but nothing prevailed on her face and neither did one on Ash's.
"Hi," Ash simply replied quietly looking at Lita and then turning his gaze towards Randy.
Randy simply nodded to acknowledge Ash's presence.
"Mrs Orton I'm really really sorry," Ash spoke again as he turned his gaze back to Lita "I…uh, just found out what happened."
Lita simply nodded, not knowing exactly what to say to the young Irving. She could have said that it was alright but they both knew it wasn't.
"I'm sorry," Ash spoke again "I just don't know what to say."
Lita looked at the young man before her and she was so happy that her was her daughter's best friend.
"Thank you for coming Ash," Lita replied "We appreciate it very much."
"Mr Orton," Ash said, taking a deep breath and composing himself as he turned to look Heidi's father in the eyes "I think I may have been the last person to see Heidi before…um… before, well…"
Randy simply nodded his head. Ash nodded back. He didn't want to have to say it. He didn't want to have to state the heartbreaking truth right here right now.
"We had a fight," Ash continued, biting down on his bottom lip every now and then to compose himself so his sentences were clear and complete "It was not too far away from your locker room Sir. I think it was just near DiBiase's locker room, um… I think. And then after our fight, Heidi… well, she got angry with me and stormed off. She was headed for your locker room Mr Orton. I watched her… um, I mean I saw her head off in that direction and I didn't see anyone follow her or anything. I mean I only saw her until she turned the corner just before your locker room and because we'd just had a fight I didn't want to follow her, and um… well I didn't want to make her any more angry than she already was. It was supposed to be her big night and I ruined it. I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to make her angry. I didn't mean to start a fight it just kinda happened. Tonight. This wasn't how it was supposed to be… so, I mean…."
"Ash," Lita spoke softly, reaching out a hand to rest on Ash's arm "Maybe you should talk to the detective with Randy when he gets here."
Ash took a deep breath and simply nodded.
"Just tell him what you told us OK?" Lita continued "He should be over soon so you can just go with Randy and talk to him too."
Ash simply nodded, his eyes not staring at the floor beneath his feet.
"Did Heidi say where she was going before you two had a fight?" Randy suddenly spoke, the sound of his voice drawing Ash's eyes back up to eye level.
Ash simply shook his head.
"I only got to speak to her for a couple of minutes before Tyler Hadson came and picked a fight with me for no reason," Ash recounted, his voice serious and almost expressionless as he looked at Heidi's father "She'd told me last week that she had front row seats with Lillian and her mom and that once she was done with her part in the show she was going to change and head straight out there. I'm sure that when I caught up to her she was heading straight to your locker room Sir. There was no ones dressing room down that part of the backstage area that she could have possibly been heading to. The women's locker room, catering and pretty much everyone else's locker rooms are on the other side of the backstage area."
Randy simply nodded as he processed the information that Ash had just given him. It wasn't much but at least it was something and hopefully it could help. Every little bit was supposed to help and that was what Randy was counting on and praying on right now. At least now the detective could speak to the last person that saw Heidi before she went missing if not anything else.
"Thank you Ash," Randy finally spoke "Thank you for coming."
Ash simply nodded. A silence enveloped the room. Everything had been said. There was almost nothing left to say now.
"Oh my god!" Ash suddenly burst out, his eyes rushing to his face to hide the tears that he knew were just out to burst out of him.
He was surprised that he had lasted this long without breaking down.
"Hey it's going to be OK Ash," Lita quickly moved forwards and embraced the young man, shielding his face from her husband's to at least save the young man a little face "She's going to be OK."
"I am the worst friend ever," Ash muttered into Lita's shoulder as he hugged her tightly, letting it all out "The absolute worst friend she has."
"You've been an amazing friend to Heidi," Lita replied, tightening her embrace "You've been such a good friend to her all these years now. You've been her best friend."
"We got into a fight and I told her she was stupid because she was with that asshole," Ash mumbled as he continued to cry into Lita's shoulder "It was the last thing I said to her. I told her she was stupid. Oh god. What if it's the last thing I ever say to her? What if that's the last word I ever speak to Heidi?"
Lita simply held Ash towards her as she finally felt her tears roll down her own face. The shock was gone. She had to believe what was happening right here and right now. She had never once thought since her daughter was born about the last words she might ever speak to her little Heidi Maree. It had seemed more far away than anything and tonight that reality became too close for comfort. She didn't have to think about what those words might be because she might have already said them. She might have already spoken the very last words she may well ever speak to her daughter again.
A/N: So who has taken Heidi Maree Orton? Who has kidnapped her? If you wanna take a guess please write a comment and post it as a review – it'll be super interesting to see who you guys think it is. Maybe it's one person or maybe it's more than one person. Let me know what you guys think….
This was one of the hardest chapters I have ever had to write I think. It was super awkward to try and figure out how to piece it all together and how to make it work and I really hope it did so please let me know by READING AND REVIEWING! Look out for the next chapter: Chapter 15 – She's Not Safe. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! READ AND REVIEW! (Many thanks to those that are already reviewing – I love you guys!) God bless, Mrs Bridget Orton xoxox