To Jay's disappointment, Hank had booked the women's rumble match as the night's main event, and the men's equivalent as the second match on the card. It had left him feeling like his big win, as enjoyable as it had been, might be seen as a bit of an afterthought by the end of show. What he had enjoyed most about it was when he had come back through the curtain and found Erin waiting there to congratulate him, along with some of the guys. Just seeing her so happy for him had made him feel on top of the world in a way that a wrestling match never could.
It seemed obvious that Hank wanted Raquel to be the big story of the night – fighting all the way from the number one spot to win, and closing out the show standing victorious. Jay was fighting something of an internal battle, trying to focus on feeling happy for his friend instead of sour due to his own disappointment. Happily, he wasn't doing a bad job of it.
"She's so good, Jay," Erin quietly said to him.
They were standing in the production area right behind the curtain, watching the women's rumble match on a large TV on the wall. Erin was referring to Raquel, who was currently the only competitor remaining in the match, of the fourteen who had entered so far. Raquel had eliminated eight of them herself, including Gabby Dawson, who had just been sent flying over the top rope to the floor.
"She's a tank, isn't she?" Jay replied. Watching his friend dominating in her career-defining match was great, and he liked that the crowd were getting behind her too. They seemed more than ready for a babyface turn from her, and they were going to get one.
The production area was full, with all of the women who were yet to enter the match standing around waiting their turn. Hank was over at the production desk supervising the TV broadcast, and a couple of road agents were trying their best to organise the match.
"Number fifteen coming up!" one of agents called out. He had a format in his hand to refer to. "Kim Burgess! You're up!"
Kim stepped forward, dressed in her usual correctional officer attire and carrying her nightstick.
"I'm next," Erin said to Jay. "Number sixteen."
He put an arm around her, glad that people were in the way so that Hank wasn't able to see them. "How are you feeling?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "Excited, actually. My nerves have gone. Not sure if that's good or bad."
"I'd say that's good," Jay said with a smile.
In the arena, the countdown of the final ten seconds to the next entrant began. The fans counted down along with the clock that appeared on the big screen. When it reached zero, the buzzer sounded and Kim's music hit. It was greeted with boos, as ever.
"I wish I could look as badass as her," Erin said, watching Kim walk through the curtain, twirling her nightstick menacingly.
"You're not doing too badly," Jay said. He liked the black jeans and black sweater look on her, even though it wasn't the kind of thing he would choose for ring attire.
Earlier in the show, there had been a backstage segment with Erin, Raquel and Kim. Erin had instructed Raquel to ensure that Kim won the rumble match, making it perfectly clear that as the boss that was the outcome she wanted to see. Raquel has just looked at them and walked off, not responding to the instruction.
When Kim entered the ring, the plan seemed to be on track, as Raquel didn't attempt to fight her. Kim started giving orders out, and the two women waited for the next entrant. The fans booed the fact that they were not going at it, considering it unsporting.
"The crowd is hot," Erin commented to Jay.
"They will be in a minute when you enter."
Erin competing in the match hadn't been announced ahead of time. For the fans, seeing her was going to be a total surprise. An unpleasant one.
"Number sixteen! Erin Voight, please!"
Jay supressed a smile. The agent calling out the names hadn't said please after anyone else's name. He enjoyed the fact that his girl was treated with extra respect, as if she really was the boss. One day she would be, he supposed.
"Wish me luck," she said to him.
"Good luck," he whispered in her ear, giving her shoulders a squeeze. He could hardly give her a kiss in front of half the women's roster. They were not ready to go public with their relationship. That was some way off in the future.
Erin stepped through the crowd to wait by the curtain for the countdown to her entrance. Jay was surprised when Zelina Vega took her place beside him.
"Got to hand it to her, the boss's daughter doesn't have to go out there and get her ass kicked," she said.
Jay figured approaching him and talking to him was meant as an olive branch, probably at Raquel's suggestion. He decided to go along with it. There was no mileage in being at odds with his friend's partner.
"She loves performing, Z," he replied proudly. "Got to say, I'm not looking forward to Raquel giving her the Chingona Bomb."
"It's going to hit her harder than she thinks," Zelina said with a grimace. "But Raquel will make sure she doesn't get hurt."
The subject then changed to Raquel, who was shown on the screen.
"You must be proud of her, Z?"
"Of course. I don't even care that I was in the match for less than a minute. It's all about Raquel tonight. She deserves the big push she's going to get."
"Agreed," Jay said as the ten second countdown started again. In anticipation, the fans counted with it. Jay felt his own excitement building ahead of Erin's entrance.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
The buzzer sounded, then Erin's music hit. It was greeted by possibly the loudest boos of the entire show. Jay admired how well she had gotten the audience to despise her. It was the goal of everyone who played a heel character, but few could pull it off so well, so quickly.
Entering the arena, Erin walked briskly down the ramp, ignoring the fans as if it was perfectly natural for her to blank them because they were beneath her. She entered the ring, where Raquel and Kim waited. As they were both currently allies of hers to one extent or another, they made no attempt to attack her. Instead, Erin started giving out instructions, telling them both again that they should make sure Kim won the match.
With that done, Erin rolled out of the ring under the bottom rope and went over to the commentary table. The match rules stated that elimination could only occur by a competitor being thrown over the top rope, with both feet touching the floor. Therefore, as she sat down at the commentary desk, she was technically still competing, but wasn't actually competing. Her actions were definitely unsporting, but they were legal.
There was a spare headset at the commentary table. Erin put it on, allowing her to provide guest commentary along with the regular team of Christopher Herrmann and Kelly Severide. Their dynamic was that Herrmann would be slightly biased towards the heel characters, whereas Severide tended to favour the babyfaces.
"Ms Voight, welcome," Herrmann said, shaking her hand and immediately sucking up to the boss, which was what Erin's character was.
"Erin, you didn't seem to want to fight Raquel Gonzalez and Kim Burgess," Severide said with some irony.
Erin looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "What do you think, I'm crazy? I'm just out here to witness first hand that my choice, my pick to win this match, Kim Burgess, comes out on top."
"Why Kim Burgess?" Severide asked.
"Why not Kim Burgess?" Erin snapped at him. "What, am I supposed to want Hailey Upton to win? Or even worse, Sylvie Brett? We have a damn doctor in the rumble! What is that even about?"
In the back, Zelina chuckled at that. "She's mastered her character."
"I know, she's doing a great job," Jay said proudly.
For the next fifteen minutes or so, the match continued. Raquel and Kim both remained in the ring, while Erin continued to evade taking part by sitting at the commentary table. Then things started to go wrong for her character.
Hailey Upton had a hold locked on Raquel from behind. In an attempt to rescue Raquel, Kim picked up her nightstick from where she had left it in the corner of the ring and ran at Hayley, swinging the weapon at her. Sensing the attack coming, Hayley moved out of the way and Kim instead hit Raquel in the back with the nightstick.
"Oh no!" Erin cried on commentary.
The blow from the nightstick barely phased Raquel, who slowly turned around to see who had hit her. There was a furious look on her face.
Kim started to plead her innocence, but she didn't get very far. Raquel kicked her square in the face, knocking her down.
"Your chosen one just got her lights turned out, Erin," Severide took pleasure in saying.
And Raquel wasn't done. She was already hauling Kim up off the mat. Next, she lifted her up onto her right shoulder, making it look as easy as picking up a bag of potatoes. The noise from the crowd rose in anticipation.
"Here it comes again! We must have seen this ten times already tonight!" Herrmann cried.
Raquel lifted Kim up off her shoulder with one arm and drilled her to the canvas as hard as she could, with a loud bang that was cheered by the fans. Even the body armour that Kim wore wouldn't have done much to lesson the impact.
"No! No!" Erin shouted, knowing what was coming next.
Raquel yanked Kim up again and unceremoniously discarded her over the top rope as if she was throwing away a piece of garbage. Kim crashed to the floor, eliminated from the match.
"What the hell is she doing?" Erin raged. Tearing off her headset, she left the commentary table and got into the ring, where she stormed over to Raquel. The other competitors stopped fighting, perhaps sensing that they were about to see something monumentally stupid happen. They would soon be proven right.
Erin walked up behind Raquel, grabbed her arm and spun her around. She didn't have a microphone, but as she yelled at Raquel the gist of what she was saying was perfectly obvious. 'What the hell are you doing? I told you to make sure Kim won!'
Then came the really big mistake. Erin's anger boiled over and she slapped Raquel in the face. The crowd made the kind of noise that said, 'Oh, you've fucked up now.'
In the back, Jay was impressed. Erin had really laid the slap in hard, likely agreed with Raquel before the match. Now his heart started pounding though. Erin was about to get wrecked.
In the ring, Erin's character realised she had landed herself in hot water when the slap barely phased Raquel. She didn't get a chance to beg off though because Raquel kicked her in the stomach, then lifted her up onto her shoulder. The crowd popped big time, surprised and ecstatic that they were going to see Erin get destroyed.
Raquel barely held back at all with the Chingona Bomb, sending Erin thundering to the mat. The impact made Jay wince as he watched on.
Things didn't get any better when Raquel picked her up and tossed her over the top rope. Being inexperienced at how to go over the top rope to the floor and land relatively safely, Erin ended up landing on the ring apron on her hip before falling to the floor. Jay knew from past experiences where he had inadvertently landed on the apron that it was by far the hardest part of the ring. Her hip was likely going to bruise up and hurt for a while.
Kim was still at ringside, and she was able to help Erin up and walk her up the ramp without either of them needing to worry about breaking character.
Jay made sure he was closest to the curtain before Erin came through. She was limping, and he imagined she wasn't acting. "That was badass, Erin," he said with a grin. But then he showed his concern, wishing he could give her a hug. "Looked like a nasty spill out of the ring though."
"Yeah, I've hurt my hip," Erin groaned. "My left shoulder hurts too from the Chingona Bomb, but I'm okay, really."
She was clearly putting a brave face on it, but Jay stood aside to let the other people who wanted to speak to her have their chance. Hank couldn't join them as he was locked into producing the show until it went off air.
Eventually, Erin stepped over to join Jay as everyone else's attention gradually returned to the match, which wasn't far from its conclusion. Raquel had now already wrestled for over an hour.
"Sure you're okay?" Jay asked, putting a hand on Erin's shoulder. "I can walk you down to Doc Mikami's office?"
"No way. I'm staying here for Raquel. The girls are all coming to applaud her when she gets back here. Hailey organised it. Besides, she's a friend of ours. We should both be here. As for me, you can come to my suite and fix me up a nice bath to relax in."
"I'll do that," he promised. Part of him wondered if he might get to share that bath, but no, he had to focus on caring for Erin and helping her to heal. He couldn't let his dick do the thinking.
Raquel won the match about ten minutes later, completing her incredible feat of winning from the number one spot. Exhausted, soaked in sweat and bleeding from her left cheek which had been busted open by an errant punch or move at some point near to the end of the match, she looked to Jay exactly like what she was: a legit badass.
"I'm so proud. I'm tearing up," Zelina said. She had ended up standing with Jay and Erin.
"You should be," Erin said. "That was some performance. One for the ages."
"She's a beast," Jay agreed. "I know she considers that a compliment. She absolutely smashed that match. It'll be talked about for years."
Jay felt very proud of his friend as he watched her celebrate the victory until the show went off the air. Then, after the broadcast ended, Raquel was finally able to head to the back. By then, as Erin had said, everyone in the women's division had assembled to applaud her when she came through the curtain. Jay joined in, and saw that even Hank was clapping.
Raquel looked grateful for the recognition, but Jay could tell she was too worn out and beaten up to want people fussing around her too much. He had definitely experienced that himself in the past. He went to step forward to congratulate her, but Erin took a firm grip of his arm. For a half second he wondered what her problem was, but then his brain caught up. It wasn't his place, yet. Zelina went and embraced Raquel first, and rightfully so. He would have been seen as rude if he had gone first. He didn't say anything to Erin, but he appreciated her stopping him from messing up.
Zelina and Raquel hugged each other tightly, lovingly. Their height difference made them look a little odd together, but there was no doubting their love for each other. It shone through whenever they were together. They talked in Spanish, which prevented Jay from understanding a word of it. It wasn't hard to guess what was being said though, given the moment.
When Zelina stepped aside, Jay made sure to be the next one to hug his friend. She was sweaty and looked like every muscle in her body was hurting, but that didn't hold him back at all. There was a closeness starting to form between them, and it made him feel delighted for her.
"Congratulations, Raquel. What a performance. You looked like a fucking machine out there. Amazing job."
"Thanks, Jay. I appreciate you," she said tiredly. It sounded like that was all she could manage to say as her adrenaline rapidly faded and exhaustion replaced it.
Jay moved back, and Erin came forward next, hiding her limp so that Raquel wouldn't feel bad, not that she needed to. They exchanged a few words and a hug, with Raquel seeming more concerned about how Erin was than her own incredible night. Erin lied and said she was fine.
When that was done, Jay and Erin left the crowded production area. There were plenty of other people who wanted to speak to Raquel.
As they set off down the hallway, Jay looked at Erin limping and grimaced. "You honestly should get Mikami to check you out. At the least, you could use a massage."
Erin looked at him and flashed a smile. "You're right, a massage and a bath is what I need. But the doc isn't going to do it. That's what you're for."
A/N: What did you make of Erin's performance and Raquel's impressive victory?
How will Jay handle having to look after Erin when they get back to her suite? We'll find out next time.
