Monday. Another stressful day for Erin. They all had been since Friday. She hadn't been sleeping well, since her brain had decided that night time was a good idea to consider every one of a million different problems or stressful situations that might be coming over the horizon in the near future. The most immediate potential source of problems was the upcoming business dinner with Lucy Thorne.
Erin needed Lucy to agree to become co-CEO under Erin's own chairwomanship in order to have a fighting chance of getting the board to vote the new power structure into effect. But what if Lucy said no? Then Erin would be left trying to make a deal with one of the other board members, who would be someone she didn't want to work with. And if she couldn't make a deal with one of them, who the hell knew what would happen then?
Before that crucial dinner, Erin had the stress of being backstage for Monday Night Raw. The show's formats and scripts had been gotten out on time, somehow, but there was still the chore of wrestlers wanting to see her to discuss suggestions they had for changes to their segments. Erin's decision was final, but she did give people the opportunity to make their case. Sometimes their ideas were an improvement on what the creative team had come up with, so Erin would implement them. Other times she had to put her foot down and say no, which wasn't easy with some of the personalities and egos on the roster. On this particular afternoon, she could have done without any of it, but equally it wasn't the employees' fault that boardroom drama was going on. It would be wrong to take it out on them.
"Send in whoever's next, please," Erin said to one of the male wrestlers, who was leaving her backstage office with his request denied and a sulky look on his face. He walked out without acknowledging the request.
Moments later, the door opened again. Clementine walked in, dressed casually in jeans, one of her WWE merchandise t-shirts, and one of the best selling merchandise items in the whole company, her baseball cap. Those things sold like hot cakes.
"Hey, boss," Clementine said pleasantly. She always called Erin that.
"Clem. Have a seat," Erin said. She genuinely liked Clementine, finding her to be a nice person, a professional employee, and most importantly a truly outstanding performer. She was one of the rare wrestlers who didn't just portray her character, she was able to live it in front of the cameras. Her performances were therefore so real for the fans, and that got them invested in her character, matches and storylines. They never quite knew what the extremely unpredictable Diamond in the Rough was going to do, but they invariably enjoyed watching it happen.
Erin prepared herself to talk about another one of the reasons that the timing of the revelations regarding her dad's behaviour had complicated her life. They had happened to come out the week before she was going to have her own character return to TV, which was happening on that night's show. Now people were inevitably going to say she was back on TV to try and distract people from the mess going on back at HQ.
"Wondered if I could make a quick suggestion for the segment tonight?" Clementine asked as she sat down in front of the desk.
"What's on your mind?" Erin asked. Her return was going to happen in that segment, which involved a match between Clementine and Raquel. A former wrestler, former Women's Champion, Hall of Famer, and current on-screen authority figure called Sam Miller would also be involved.
Clementine made her suggestion, which in truth was only a minor tweak. Erin saw no reason not to go with it, and agreed.
"Thank you. I won't take up any more of your time," Clementine said, getting up to leave. But she stopped halfway to the door and turned back around. "Boss?"
"Yeah, Clem?"
"You look really stressed. Share the load. Whether it's your dad, Jay, or someone else you talk to, share the load with somebody. Sorry if I'm out of line."
Good advice, Erin thought, nodding slowly. "Thanks, Clem. You're not out of line."
Clementine nodded back and left the office. Erin felt grateful for the attempt to help. Clem definitely was a good person. At one time, Erin had challenged Jay to try and form a friendship with her. He had managed it, up to a point. Two introverted people who rarely spent time together were not going to be close. Friendly was probably a better description than friends. But Jay had pushed himself and made the effort, that was what mattered to Erin.
A couple of weeks after Wrestlemania, six months earlier, Clementine had won a match against Kim Burgess. The stipulation had been that if Burgess won, Clementine had to leave WWE. If Clem won, Erin had to leave. This was because Erin's character hated Clementine's character for costing her a match against Sylvie Brett. The feeling was definitely mutual, as Clem hated Erin for being a power-crazed egomaniac. Clem had therefore been only too happy to kick Kim's ass and get rid of Erin.
In reality, Erin had written herself off TV to give herself time to settle into her backstage role as Head of Creative.
After Erin's departure, Clem had gotten into a feud with Raquel Gonzalez over the Raw Women's Championship. At every turn, Raquel had managed to cheat or fluke her way to victory, keeping hold of the title in the process. She had also won a title unification match, which meant she was now WWE Women's Champion.
With Erin and Hank both out of the picture as far as the storyline was concerned, someone else had needed to be cast as an authority figure. That part had gone to Sam Miller, a former wrestler. She was known as the Commissioner of WWE, and had full power and privileges to make matches, as well as hire and fire people. For the fans, she had turned out to be another nightmare, frequently abusing her power to help heel characters, and screw over babyface characters. Currently, she was in the pocket of Raquel.
The story of tonight's Raw episode was that Clementine had offered Miller and Gonzalez a chance to get rid of her for good. She had challenged Raquel to face her in a match, with the stipulation that if Clem won, she would be guaranteed one last shot at the WWE Women's Championship. But if Raquel won, Clem would have to leave WWE forever. That carrot being dangled was too good to miss from Raquel's point of view, so she had accepted the match, for the main event of the night.
What Clementine hadn't bargained on was Miller naming herself as the referee for that match. With the corrupt official in charge, a screw job was on the cards right from the start of the contest. Miller and Gonzalez set about doing everything they could to cheat their way to victory, which would rid them of their Clementine problem permanently.
Irate that Clementine inexplicably continued not to lose, Miller got out of the ring and fetched a steel chair from the ringside area. She climbed back into the ring and approached Clementine from behind, while she was pummelling Raquel in a corner. Miller raised the chair and smashed Clementine in the back with it. The impact made an impressively loud cracking sound, and drew angry boos from the crowd.
After Clementine slumped to the mat, Raquel quickly covered her, feeling sure of a three count and a victory. Miller even counted more quickly than an unbiased referee would have.
"One!"
"Two!"
Incredibly, Clementine was able to raise her right shoulder from the mat in the nick of time. The fans popped loudly, cheering her on, although the odds were so stacked against her.
"Get her up!" Miller yelled at Gonzalez as she picked up the chair again. "Get her up, and I'll take her head off!"
Gonzalez started to do just that, but then the Voight family theme music began to play, not Erin's individual music that she had used as a heel during her previous run on-screen. Erin had specifically ordered that change.
Assuming it was Hank's character returning, and more importantly assuming he was coming to help Clementine, most of the fans cheered. However there were some boos from people who disapproved of his real life behaviour, which was by now very public knowledge.
Erin walked through the curtain and delighted in the loud cheer that her return received, not that she showed it. She was performing, and her character was clearly furious with what was unfolding in the ring. She had a microphone in hand, and spoke angrily into it on her way down the entrance ramp. Her music faded out.
"Miller, I don't know who the hell you think you are, but your ass is fired! Get the hell out of my ring!"
The fans loved that, and promptly went crazy. Miller and Gonzalez were both furious, and started protesting, both taking their attention completely off the match that was still in progress.
"I said get out of my ring!" Erin ordered. "And get out of my building, before I have security come down here and throw your ass out!"
Miller angrily took off the referee shirt that she wearing over the top of another white shirt and left the ring, mouthing off at Erin as she went.
Realising that a referee was now needed, Erin got into the ring, took her suit jacket off, draped it over the ropes and started putting the abandoned striped shirt on.
"What do you think you're doing, bitch?" Raquel demanded, squaring up to her.
Even out of character, Erin found that intimidating. There was something about Raquel that made her seem that way very easily, and it wasn't just her height and build. Erin couldn't put a finger on it, but whatever it was, it helped with portraying her character, who was nothing but a big bully.
Bravely, Erin shoved Raquel hard in the chest, sending her staggering back a couple of steps into the middle of the ring.
Suddenly, Clementine was back up on her feet as if from nowhere. As Raquel turned around, Clem hit her with the Diamond Cutter, a move that almost always defeated an opponent. The fans erupted.
Given the past animosity between Clem and Erin, it was bizarre to see Erin get down to make the count.
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
The fans roared their approval. Clementine had beaten Raquel, and was now guaranteed another match for the Women's Championship, thanks to Erin of all people, who had just become a babyface character.
As Clementine's music played, Erin took off the referee shirt, furiously threw it at the unconscious Raquel, took her jacket, and left the ring before Clem made it back to her feet to celebrate the win.
With the show about to go off air, Erin walked up the ramp, keeping the angry look on her face, making sure to convey how her character felt with what had almost happened.
When she got back through the curtain, the production team started praising her work. How much of that was genuine and how much was kissing her ass, she wasn't quite sure. Jay's was an opinion that mattered a lot more, although he would obviously be biased too. She picked her phone up from one of the production desks where she had left it. Sure enough, there was already a text from Jay.
Jay: You absolute badass! That was great. Gave me chills, for real. Love you so much.
Reading that Jay got chills watching her work make Erin feel goosebumps coming up on her arms too. The segment had definitely gone well. As ever, his support meant the world to her. She was going to be needing a lot more of it in the near future.
A/N: What did you make of Erin's return to TV?
Next time, Lucy Thorne will be visiting Eagle's Nest. Will Erin be able to secure herself the partnership she badly needs?