Chapter 7
Taking a deep breath, Emery knocked on the dressing room door marked UNDERTAKER and waited for it to open, the smile immediately vanishing from her face, becoming stoic. "Evening Mark, mind if we come in for a chat? It won't take long." He was lucky she didn't throw every name in the book at him after what he did to her lately.
Mark looked back and forth between the pair, one black eyebrow slowly rising. He had dealt with them both individually, David a bit more recently. That meathead had bothered him during a workout and gotten punched for his trouble. His eyes narrowed and, reluctantly, he held the door open.
"By all means," He growled in a low dark baritone. "Make yourselves at home."
"Look, we just want to talk about the line, okay?"
"What? The one where you pretend you can actually beat me?" Mark snorted, making it quite clear what his thoughts were on that with his tone. David couldn't beat him on his best day, not happening. The idiot had some power moves, sure, but he was all tendons and muscles, nothing in the head.
"Look, would it make you feel any better if you were to kick his ass all over the place until WrestleMania?" Emery didn't flinch when those acidic eyes landed on her, holding her hands up in defense. "Just listen, Mark, please. You two have to learn to work together because, at No Way Out, you have to be a tag team…" They didn't know about this yet because the script hadn't been written.
"What?!"
"What?!"
"John Cena and Shawn Michaels are opponents at Mania just like the two of you are. Once you win the Royal Rumble on Sunday, you will have to choose which title to go after. Shawn will take advantage of that and go after Cena and Vince will decree the two of you teaming up from Smackdown! to face the two of them from Raw. The two WrestleMania title matches all in the same main event. It hasn't been written out yet, but that's what Vince wants to do. As far as Mania goes, I'm sorry, but there's no way of changing what happens. But you can show your dominance and power against Batista heading into WrestleMania." In other words, he can beat the living hell out of the man as long as he made it to WrestleMania in one piece. "Will you at least try to make this work somehow, someway? David is willing to work with you, anything you want to do, as long as you…give him WrestleMania." Boy did she feel nauseous after those words left her mouth!
"You're fucking serious?" Mark looked back and forth between them repeatedly, his face growing grim as he realized they were. "You are, you're fucking serious!"
As far as David was concerned, that was a pretty good deal; it wasn't like Taker would be on the receiving end of those beatings and he already knew Taker would hurt him. Badly. "What?" He demanded, his own voice low and gravelly. "You don't think that's a good deal? Man, this isn't just your show, you know that, right?"
"You're willing to lie down like a bitch, as long as I let you win WrestleMania?" Mark was offended and pissed; it was quite clear in his venomous tone. "Who the hell do you think I am, boy?" His finger just poked David's chest hard. "Beat your ass… and you take it, so long as you can end my fucking streak? You're not even thinking about earning it, you just want it. And you," He rounded on Emery, his finger going for her next. "You think you and your bosses can just hand it to him on a goddamn platter?!"
"Don't you touch her." David was between the pair instantly.
Emery blinked, not expecting David to defend her and swallowed hard, for the first time a hint of fear swirled in her eyes. "We're not handing him anything, Mark." Her voice remained low and quiet, knowing better than to mouth off at him right now. She could KILL Matthew for putting her in this predicament! "He's going to earn every bit of that win at WrestleMania because of all the ass beatings he has coming his way. He IS the new blood though…" Cringing at his eyes narrowing to slits at her, Emery could feel David's entire body tense. "You're the veteran. Veterans are supposed to put new blood over, to pass the torch and this is the perfect opportunity for you to do it to David. Please, just see reason…"
"No." He shook his head, folding his arms over his chest and took a step back before he did knock her head off her shoulders, everything in him tense. "I've put over plenty of rookies, more deserving ones at that." His eyes were filled with barely contained rage, spitting green fire as they narrowed at David. "You aren't but a few years younger than me and I can guarantee you won't even last half as long as I have and will. You're not in this for the love of it, or even the fans; you're in it for the money and the fame. I won't drop my streak, my legacy, to you." That was it, final.
David's face had gone blank, his own eyes hardening at each poisonous word that came out of the veteran's mouth. "You're not immortal, Taker."
"That's where you're wrong. Out. Both of you."
Everything Taker said was the truth, though Emery didn't admit that aloud. For the first time, she could see the mess she'd truly made with this line and hated herself for it, not remembering ever feeling regret with any line she came up with. WrestleMania was part of the Undertaker's legacy, a huge part, and she had written this line out, not taking that into consideration.
"Come on David, he's not going to see reason." They walked out of the Undertaker's dressing room, the door slamming behind them and Emery lowered her eyes to the floor. "I tried. Excuse me." Walking away from David, she went to find a quiet unused room to set up shop and let a few tears fall from her eyes once she was completely alone. "What have I done?" She whispered, covering her mouth with her hand and had no idea how to fix this problem.
David was irate to say the least. He would have done anything Taker had wanted and what he got in return for even suggesting it? Shit on. That's what! He would never admit it, but deep down, he suspected Taker was right and that bothered him too. He knew he'd have to game up because, regardless of what he did, Taker would go out of his way to teach him a lesson or two in the ring from here on out and he groaned.
"Fucked, I'm fucked."
"Yes, you are." Randy said in passing, not having any idea what that was about, but agreed thoroughly.
"So what's up with you and David?" Paul demanded a few days later, which was Sunday morning and bounced on Emery's bed in her hotel room. "Seriously, I saw you two having breakfast yesterday…"
"What?" This was news to Randy, his blue eyes widening and then narrowing at their friend. "Em, did he…bother you?" He would RKO David if the man didn't leave her alone.
"Actually…" Trailing off, Emery pulled out the Rubik's Cube lunch box David had picked up for her, for no reason at all. "He gave this to me and I invited him to eat with me." She watched both of their jaws drop to the floor. "What? He's not as bad as people make him out to be."
"Uh huh, sure he's not." Paul did NOT want David Bautista near their little sister. "Just don't fuck him."
"Not if he was the last man on earth."
"Good…maybe even then…get off with your finger…"
"RANDALL KEITH ORTON!"
"What?" Randy held up his hands defensively, though his blue eyes were both laughing and serious with a hint of concern. "Em, I know him; we worked together, traveled together and we partied together and that man… is a fucking whore, okay? He likes women, he likes to sleep around." David was a good guy, if one wanted a buddy, but he loved women a little too much and too freely. "Just… if he tries anything, let us know, okay?" So he could RKO the douche.
"Yes master, right away master." Emery remarked cheekily, laughing when he pinned her to the bed and began tickling her. Her glasses were off for the moment since she'd just gotten out of the shower, so everything around her was blurry. "I'm abstinence when it comes to sex, or didn't you know, Orton?" She shoved him away playfully, shaking her head and slid her glasses on, nodding. "Much better, I can see you two clearly and you're not blurry blobs anymore."
"How the hell can you be abstinent?" Paul blurted out, seeing Randy had the same question burning in his ocean blues. "You're a knockout, Em. People may not see it because of the jeans and t-shirts…"
Snapping her fingers, Emery pinched Paul's cheek and grinned. "You figured out my secret identity, damn you!" She smacked his arm and laughed, loving hanging out with her boys.
"Hold on," Randy dragged her upright and removed her glasses before passing them to Paul. He used his fingertips to muss her hair a bit, giving her a somewhat wild look and then he lightly pinched her lips, watching the red instantly appear. "You know… you are hot." He informed her, stepping back so Paul could see. Just a few changes and she had gone from nerd to sexy. Most people never saw that, just the geek. "I'd do you."
Paul was nodding, sipping his bottled water and then spit it out. "Wait, what?"
"You would? Well you would be the only one then."
Emery had accepted her fate long ago when it came to men and took her glasses back from Paul, slipping them back on. Nobody saw past the glasses and video game t-shirts. All throughout high school, she had to deal with ridicule and only had one picture with her all dolled up, which had been Senior prom. Her good friend had taken her as a favor since he couldn't find a date and they actually had a decent time.
"And I think you need to get your eyes checked. I am nowhere near hot. Now you, on the other hand, both of you actually, are definitely in the 'hot' category. Love you both like brothers though so it'd be like fucking my family." She shrugged her shoulders and bounded off the bed to fire up her portable PS3.
The problem Emery had was she didn't actually see herself as she was, not really. She knew she was a nerd and embraced that part of her, but she never actually took a good long look at herself in that mirror. The woman was smoking hot who could have her pick of men. But because she kept herself low key, and purposefully hid herself it seemed, nobody ever seemed to look twice. Minus them, of course. Randy was right, she was gorgeous and Paul sighed, shaking his head.
"Put on something fun and I'll spank you." He offered, eyeballing the games she was getting out.
"Fat chance of that happening, London, but you keep thinking that way." Emery remarked, putting on Call of Duty 3, which was one of their favorites together.
Randy and Paul would take turns whenever she blew them up, never playing on the same team. It was more fun that way. Emery would never look at herself as a beauty or see herself the way her friends did. She was fine with who she was – a dorky chick who loved video games and World of Warcraft. Hell, Emery hadn't had a relationship since she started in the company, just flings here and there with random people. Enough to get the sexual urgings to disappear and luckily, she didn't have that high of a sex drive.
"Oh man, come on, that's not nice, Em!" Paul shrieked, having absolutely no idea what time it was, but he did know they had been doing a lot longer than they should've been and she had just shot him in the head. Again. "Randy's asleep." He snorted, having turned to pass off the controller only to find Randy was sprawled out on the floor, face down, his face resting on his forearms. "You keep him up too late playing that World of Warcraft game." He liked video games; PC was acceptable, but he enjoyed his gaming consoles more. "One more round, I'll get it this time."
Did those idiots have any idea how LOUD they were being, Mark thought irritably, trying to sleep in the room that was next door to Emery.
"You can't beat the queen, Paulie!"
Emery laughed, glancing over her shoulder to see Randy was indeed out cold and shook her head. They didn't have to be at the arena until later that evening for the Royal Rumble. However, she also didn't want Randy to oversleep, so while Paul played solo for a second, she took his phone to set his alarm. He would wake up 2 hours before it was time to leave. Just as she went back to gaming, a banging sounded at her hotel door, causing Emery and Paul's heads to snap up. Randy was awake now as well. Opening the door, she looked up at an irate Mark Calaway and leaned in the doorway, holding her controller.
"You lost, Deadman?"
"God, I wish… you guys have been at it for hours, do you fucking mind?" She was short, he could see Orton passed out on the floor. "Some of us can't just pass out like a teenage idiot."
"That's because you don't try hard enough, old timer." Paul quipped from just behind Emery, sniggering when a vein throbbed in Taker's temple. "Need some sleep pills or something?"
Emery giggled, not bothering to hide the amusement in her sky blues and shrugged nonchalantly. "Get ear plugs, we're not going to stop having fun simply because you're an old man that needs your beauty sleep. Have a nice day!" She slammed the door in his face, making Paul keel over laughing and smirked, skipping back over to the bed to resume their game.
"D-Did you r-really j-just say t-that to HIM?!" Paul was howling with laughter, shaking his head and kissed Emery's cheek, wrapping his arms around her waist to give her a squeeze. "You definitely have brass balls, sweetie. Okay, time to kick your ass." Or try anyway.
Not even 30 minutes later, they were interrupted by the door being pounded on again. This time, however, it wasn't Taker. It was a bunch of women, obviously strippers, and before anyone could say boo, they burst through the door and began 'working'.
Randy woke up and was greeted to Emery trying to push off a tall, leggy blonde who was without any clothing except a G-string and rubbing her breasts all over the other woman. "I am still dreaming…"
Paul wasn't going to bitch about being assaulted, though he did notice they were all kind of… on Emery and he had to wonder what the hell that was about. "Did we order out?" He hadn't even known call girls worked this early.
"NO WE DIDN'T ORDER OUT!" Emery was livid, shoving the woman away from her and stared at her friends, hoping this was not a lame joke on their part. It wasn't funny! "GET OFF ME, BROAD!" She hopped up on the bed, swiping her shoe from the floor and tossed it at one of the stripper's faces, clocking her in the nose. "I'm only gonna tell you one time – GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!"
The women blinked, wondering what was going on and the other flipped her the bird for busting her nose with her shoe, all of them scampering out.
"If that Neanderthal did this, I'll…" She groaned when another knock sounded at her door and stalked over to rip it open. "WHA-" There was a clown in front of her, holding balloons and a second later, pie was tossed in her face.
As if he could go back to sleep with all that noise? Mark was out in the hallway, braiding his hair back, prepared to go work out or something since he obviously wasn't going to be allowed to rest; never mind the fact it was a pay-per-view tonight. When he seen a load of near naked woman come out of Emery's room, followed by the door being opened again, he was dying of laughter, slumping back against the wall. He had wondered what that dude with the pie was doing.
Emery was humiliated, slowly swiping the pie off of her face after taking her glasses off. It was a big enough ball in her hand of pie, her eyes narrowing to slits at a laughing Undertaker. He was openly laughing at her for being pied in the face! Scowling, Emery threw the ball of pie as hard as she could, nailing him right in the face and stopped his laughter cold. "Not so funny is it now, huh Neanderthal?" She snapped, storming back into her room and slammed the door so hard, the walls rattled. Randy and Paul had flown from the room as soon as the clown pied her in the face, not wanting to stick around for the aftermath of Emery's temper. She didn't lose her temper often, but right now it was UP. Tossing her glasses on the sink, Emery turned the shower on and shed her pie filled clothes, gnashing her teeth.
"Fucking PRICK!"
While Taker was wiping pie out of his eyes, Paul and Randy wasted absolutely no time at all in punching him. At the same time in the stomach. He had been laughing, in the hallway, it was obvious he was the one who had pulled all this prank.
"Not funny now, is it, asshole?"
"Stay away from her, Calaway, or else."