The following night, WWE was airing its weekly episode of Monday Night Raw. After the usual pyro display and intro music, the ring announcer addressed the fans.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome one of the owners of WWE, Erin Voight!"
Boos filled the arena as Erin's brand new theme music began to play. It was a rock track, much more suited to the bad boss lady character she was now going to play, as opposed to the homely, sweet and innocent young woman she had portrayed before.
Backstage, Jay watched Erin walk through the curtain into the arena. He liked the heat she was getting from the fans. It bode well for their storyline, as did the confidence she seemed to have. He had feared she might wilt under pressure, but there was no sign of that happening so far.
"She looks great, doesn't she?" Kim Burgess said. She was standing next to Jay, dressed in her full 'correctional officer' attire and holding her nightstick. Kim, Jay, and several other people were all going to be involved in this opening segment, and were waiting for their cues.
"Yeah," Jay replied. And it was true. Erin had her hair done differently, makeup done differently, both a lot more attractive than before, and she was dressed in black leather pants and a silver top that showed off her stomach and plenty of cleavage.
As Erin made her way down to the ring, Jay looked away from the large TV monitor and noticed the night's debutant standing by herself, looking like she was about to crap herself. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him, but he felt the need to go and say something nice to her.
Sylvie Brett wasn't particularly young by rookie standards, but she was talented. Jay had seen some of her work on WWE's developmental show called NXT. A pretty blonde was always worth a watch. Originally, Sylvie had been assigned a paramedic character to play when she joined the Raw roster, Jay knew. Initially, she wasn't going to be portrayed as a wrestler at all. Instead, she would start out by being presented purely as a member of the medical team.
At some point, someone with a brain had apparently pointed out that it made no sense for the same paramedic to be at shows in various arenas across the country every week, so the character was now going to be Dr Sylvie Brett, who would basically act out the role that Violet Mikami worked in behind the scenes for WWE.
Standing there in simple dark blue pants, a black WWE fleece style jacket and black nitrile gloves, Sylvie looked the part as WWE's doctor, apart from the nervous look on her face.
"Relax. It'll come naturally to you when you're out there," Jay said to her. It was the best he could do since he found it hard to relate to other people.
The few kind words from one of WWE's top stars seemed to help Sylvie a little. She managed a shy smile. "Thank you. The waiting is the hard part."
That was true. Jay could remember feeling the same way when he had been a rookie. The wait wouldn't be too long for Sylvie, for Erin was now in the ring and about to begin her promo. Jay already knew her lines. The question was how well she would deliver them. She was to begin with a reference to the previous week's episode, where she had told Hank that no matter what happened in the pay-per-view match with Jay, she loved him very much.
"Just for the record," Erin began, only to be drowned out by booing. She raised her voice in impatience – perfect for her new character. "Just for the record, I meant every word I said to my dad last week on Raw. But all I've heard since last night is, 'Why, Erin? Why did you turn on your dad?' Everyone I've seen has tried to demand an explanation from me. I've been bombarded on social media with it too. The fact is, I don't owe anyone an explanation, least of all you idiots."
More booing rained down in response to the insult. But the boos instantly turned to cheers when Stella Kidd's entrance music began to play. Stella was a former UFC fighter, who played a character with a very short fuse. She was currently one of the fan favourites in the women's division, and had been friendly with Erin when Erin had been one of the good guys. The look on Stella's face as she walked quickly to the ring didn't bode well for the friendship.
After entering the ring, Stella took a microphone from the ring announcer and practically squared up to Erin. "After what you did last night, you can bet your ass you owe an explanation. You owe an explanation to everyone who stood by you, which includes your dad, and includes me. By doing what you did last night you spat in everyone's faces. No one spits in my face, so the explanation had better be damn good. And you'd better start giving it right here, right now."
Unbeknownst to Stella, despite the fans trying to warn her, Kim Burgess had appeared in the ring behind her, nightstick in hand.
"I hear you, Stella," Erin said patronisingly. "You don't get it, right? Well get this."
On cue, Kim blasted Stella in the back of the head with her nightstick, knocking her out cold.
Erin and Kim both gloated over the fallen Stella for a moment, but then Hailey Upton's music hit. The crowd pop was huge. They knew Hailey was coming for Kim, as the two had been in a rivalry for the past few weeks.
Bailing from the ring, Kim beat a hasty retreat out through the crowd, with Hailey going after her. Erin was left in the ring, talking smack to the unconscious Stella. Only moments later, a medical team arrived to address the potentially serious injury. There were two men dressed as paramedics, and as far as the audience was concerned, a random blonde woman who looked like might be a doctor. The commentators would confirm that for the audience at home.
"That's right, get in here and take that piece of trash out of my ring!" Erin shouted at the medics, using her microphone.
Sylvie made an effort to look like she was conducting a cursory examination of the unconscious patient before the two men with her carefully turned Stella onto her back and started to put her on a back board.
"Hurry up! Get her out of here! I've got a company to run here!" Erin shouted at Sylvie, the fans continuing to boo her.
With Sylvie's help, the paramedics strapped Stella to the back board and slid her out of the ring under the bottom rope.
"About time! Now get her ass out of here!"
Now out of the ring, Sylvie looked at Erin, held out her arms and said something that was inaudible to the audience. It looked like, 'There's no point shouting at us.'
The impertinence enraged Erin, who climbed out of the ring behind Sylvie, who was now walking away behind the paramedics. Erin rushed Sylvie from behind and shoved her forwards, running head first into the ring post. Attacking a defenceless doctor made the crowd even angrier at her.
The paramedics had to continue carrying Stella up the entrance ramp, so Sylvie was left lying at ringside as Erin got back into the ring.
"Now, as I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted, allow me to introduce the man who kicked my dad's ass last night, the man who showed me he was willing to fight for me last night, my husband, Jay Halstead!"
Jay's music hit and he walked out into the arena, receiving yet more boos. Outwardly, he looked smugly satisfied with his wife's introduction. Internally, out of character, he was very pleased with Erin's performance. Contrary to his own expectations, she seemed to be a natural heel. She had absolutely smashed this segment out of the park. Her delivery had been near perfect. He no longer needed to be concerned about their storyline flopping, at least not due to anything on their end. The actual writing was out of their control of course.
When he entered the ring, Erin was standing in the middle of it. This was a moment he had been looking forward to. He walked over to her, they embraced, then they kissed. All they had been told was to kiss each other, so he was surprised when Erin properly lip locked him, but he went with it.
Then she surprised him again by sticking her tongue into his mouth. That definitely hadn't been necessary for the show. She had done it to give him a proper taste of her, and of course to throw him off balance. It seemed that was her favourite thing to do. She was good at it too. The moment seemed to last a longer than they few seconds it actually happened for. It really was an amazing kiss.
"Mmmm," Erin purred when it was over, solely for his benefit. They had just had a genuinely intimate moment while standing in front of twelve thousand people, and they were the only ones who knew it.
Jay had to keep his head in the game and cut a promo about kicking Hank's ass and making sure he was gone from WWE for good. He got it done, but it was no thanks to Erin. All he actually had on his mind was that kiss. That was how acting out this marriage was going to go, he realised. He had planned to string her along for a while before making a move, but now he had the distinctly uneasy feeling that he was the one on the string. The gleam in Erin's eyes every time he looked at her told him that she was of the same opinion.
A/N: Jay and Erin are now officially a married couple on TV, and they run the show.
But out of character, has Jay met his match in Erin?