When Jay walked into Erin's office, his first thought was how beautiful she was when she greeted him with one of those wide smiles that he adored so much. His line of thinking was hardly appropriate for a professional setting, but he didn't care in the least.

"Jay. Come in and have a seat," Erin said warmly.

Kelly Severide was already in the office, sitting on one of the metal chairs in front of the desk. There were three of them. Jay shook Severide's hand and took one of the available chairs.

"Hope you're both okay?" he asked. "I'm assuming this is about Hailey and Maya?"

"We're good," Erin responded. "And yes, that's why we're here. I've sent someone to get Hailey, so she should be here momentarily. You both know what the conversation is going to be about. Maya has agreed to return to WWE. The three of us are in agreement that we're in favour of the deal, but it's not going to happen unless or until Hailey agrees, given the history between them."

"Obviously we're not here to bully her into agreeing. That would be totally inappropriate," Severide said.

Jay realised why that had to be said. Severide was doing his job as Head of Talent Relations.

"Obviously," Erin said, showing a little annoyance. "We're pitching the idea to her, not attacking her with it."

Severide placated her. "I know. Just laying it out before she arrives."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Erin called out.

The door opened and Hailey Upton walked in. Understandably, she was on the back foot as soon as she saw who was waiting for her. "Well this doesn't look good," she commented.

Erin chuckled, intending to put her at ease. "It's nothing to be concerned about. Have a seat. There's something I'd like to discuss with you. I've already talked it over with Jay and with Kelly."

"You're not going to take me off the team with Sylvie and Stella are you?" Hailey asked as she sat down.

"No, that's not it," Erin assured her. Then she went right ahead and dropped the bomb. "I'm interested in bringing Maya Mizrachi back."

Hailey stared at Erin for a moment. Jay imagined she was trying to figure out if this was a rib of some kind.

"Why would you do that?" she asked after a moment.

"Because Maya is an excellent wrestler, and I see money and ratings in her returning," Erin said evenly. "For obvious reasons, I wanted to speak to you about it first."

Hailey grunted out a laugh. "For obvious reasons. You mean the fact that she smashed my face up and put me in hospital? Those reasons?"

"Watch your tone when you talk to Erin," Jay said. Being confrontational wasn't his style, but hearing Erin spoken to disrespectfully had triggered something inside him.

He noticed some surprise on Erin and Kelly's faces. Meanwhile, Hailey looked chastened.

"Sorry," she said to Erin. "This is... I just can't believe we're actually talking about this after what she did to me."

"From what I hear, she wasn't the only one at fault that day," Erin said carefully.

"What do you mean?" Hailey asked. Jay thought that even he could read people well enough to tell that she was being defensive.

"Listen carefully to what I'm about to say to you," Erin said, looking Hailey right in the eyes. "No action is going to be taken against anyone for things that happened five years ago, before I was in charge of the company. But what would be a serious mistake would be to start me thinking you're dishonest. I don't work with dishonest people. So, did you make a racist remark to Maya that night? And don't tell me you don't remember. I'm sure you remember every detail of that night. I know I would."

Hailey took her time before answering. Jay watched her trying to decide what to say, hoping for her sake that she told the truth, whatever that was.

"I did," Hailey admitted eventually. "I'm not proud of it. But it's not as simple as me just saying something to her. Maya had been..."

"Stop," Erin said, holding up a hand. "Thank you for your honesty. At least that is to your credit. Before we talk about anything else, let me be perfectly clear to you: If you make a racist comment to someone in my company again, I'll fire your ass. No ifs, no buts. Is that understood?"

"It is," Hailey said, unnerved by the way Erin was glaring at her. Jay was unnerved by it too. Boss mode Erin was not to be messed with when she was on the war path, he realised. "Can I say something?"

"You can," Erin replied.

"What I said that night was wrong. I've never done it before or since, and I do regret it. Maya pushed me to it. She was a constant pain in my ass for months, always giving me attitude and being difficult to work with. There's so much bad blood there, it's a bad idea to bring her back. It really is."

"You what I believe, Hailey? Forgiveness is a powerful thing," Erin said. "You've carried that negative energy around with you for five years. So has Maya. The two of you could put your differences behind you. At the same time, we could create a very memorable moment on TV, since most of the audience know the history between the two of you."

"I've spoken to Maya, and she's not the same person she was last time she was here," Severide said. "Motherhood and marriage seem to have changed her for the better. She's clean of the drink and pills. I think Erin's right, this could be good business, and moving on from past grudges is a very positive thing to do for your mental health. Trust me, I've been there."

"I agree," was all Jay contributed. Analysing other people's mental health was beyond him. He couldn't even understand his own most of the time. For that reason, he was content to sit most of this conversation out.

Hailey took in what had been said, then looked at Erin. "So what am I doing here? If you want her back so bad, you can go ahead and do it. You own the place not me."

"You're here because given the assault you suffered last time you were in a locket room Maya, I decided I would only sign her back to WWE if you were to say yes. I think that's the fair thing to do, and also I don't want to upset the current high morale in the women's locker room."

Hailey nodded slowly, signalling that she thought that was a decent thing to do on Erin's part. "So you're basically leaving it up to me whether Maya comes back or not?"

Erin said nothing. The position was already clear, and Hailey was thinking aloud rather than needing an answer. She took her time before coming to her decision.

"No," she said abruptly, to Jay's surprise. "Sorry, Erin. I say no. May I leave?"

Clearly not happy, Erin motioned towards the door with her head. Hailey quickly got up and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

"Shit," was Erin's verdict.

Severide grimaced and raised his eyebrows. "I didn't think she was going to say no. So, now what?"

"That's going to require some thought. But I'm not having this be the end of it."

"Didn't think you would."

"Can you give me a minute with Jay?" That was an instruction worded as a requested.

"Sure, boss." Severide got up to leave, and nodded to Jay. "Jay."

"Catch you later," Jay said.

Moments later, Severide was gone. Erin sighed and looked at Jay. "Would you come and rub my shoulders, please? I've been feeling tense all day."

"About that meeting?" he asked, getting up and going over to stand behind her. "Take your jacket off, honey."

"Partially the meeting. Just work in general," she said as she worked her way out of the jacket. Jay took it, laid it on the desk out of way, then went to work on her shoulders.

"Mmm, you are tense," he commented.

"That feels nice though," Erin sighed. "You know, the way you spoke to Hailey turned me on."

"What do you mean?" he asked, genuinely surprised.

"You were fiery, standing up for your woman. I enjoyed seeing that from you."

"I didn't realise I went in hard on her."

"You kind of did."

"Well, I don't regret it," he said.

"Good."

There were a few moments of silence as Jay worked on her shoulders, and Erin enjoyed it. After recently doing something similar on Raquel's very different shoulder and neck muscles, he wondered if he had missed his calling by not becoming a masseuse.

"I'm going to have to do some thinking about this Maya situation," Erin said.

"Why are you so set on bringing her back?" Jay had to ask. "You're like a dog with a bone on this thing."

Erin took a few seconds before answering. "Hell, if I can't be honest with you there's something wrong. Years ago, Maya was my favourite wrestler, okay? And I've always thought the way her career ended was something that needed to be rectified. I wanted to see her have one more run, and a chance to hang her boots up properly when she's ready."

Jay thought better of pointing out that she was running the company to suit her own personal preferences. Of course she was. That was pretty much inevitable. Hank had done the same, and with a lot more flaws in his decision making than Erin had shown so far. "Be careful not to blow things up doing it," was the best advice he could come up with.

"I hear you."

"It would be a shame to have some of the other women..."

"I said I hear you, Jay," Erin cut in. "That's why I'm treading carefully. I'm going to find a way to get Hailey on-board with it, and I've already spoken to Clem about it. She's open to the idea."

Keeping the locker room leader among the women in the loop was a good idea, Jay had to admit.

"It'll help that once Maya returns, she'll be teaming with Clem and Raquel. Clem will be able to keep tabs on her if needed. I've decided to add a younger woman to their team too, someone called up from NXT. So far, I've never been to an NXT show since I've been in charge. What do you say we go down there Wednesday?

All NXT shows were broadcast from the small arena at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. Jay had been there many times of course, but going there for a show with Erin sounded like fun. It would be a big surprise for the trainee wrestlers too.

"Alright, let's do it," he said with some anticipation.

"We'll take the jet," Erin said happily.

A/N: Erin continues to get Jay more involved on the business side of things in WWE, and she's doing it so skilfully that he doesn't seem to have thought much about the fact that it's happening. How will their trip to Florida go?