Ruzek walking out was the last thing Erin needed. But now, after sending Jay and Severide away, charged with the task of finding Ruzek and bringing him back, she told herself that she might have expected it from someone. Everyone on the roster had spent their entire WWE careers working for Hank. They owed him a lot, and some felt very close to him. She wasn't the only one hurting over what had happened, she had to remember that. For that reason, Erin decided to rule out going with the severest disciplinary responses available to her for Ruzek leaving a show after the call time. Being strict and authoritarian no doubt had it's time and place. This was not one of them, she thought, at least on the assumption that he returned quickly. If he stayed gone, he was in big trouble.
As it played out, Erin didn't get an update for nearly an hour. Walking out of the office where the writing team had set up for the day with Clara in tow, she found Jay waiting in the hallway for her. She made sure not to only be the boss around her man, and gave him a peck on the lips. "Hey. You get Ruzek to come back?"
Jay nodded as they started walking together. "Severide and I did between us. They're in your office. Hope you don't mind me telling them it would be okay to wait in there?"
"No, it's fine. Thank you for helping to sort that out for me."
"Of course. Erin?"
"Yeah?" she said, looking at him.
"If I can offer some advice? The gentle touch might be a better idea than the rocket up the ass. He's pretty upset."
"I thought the same thing. Don't worry, I'll handle it."
"You will," Jay said confidently. "I'll leave you to it. Going to spend some time in the locker room with the guys. Text me if you need anything."
"Thank you, I will."
With that, they reached Erin's office and she walked in, ignoring several people who were lined up outside, waiting to see her. They were going to have to wait.
"Sit down," Erin instructed Ruzek and Severide, who hadn't taken the liberty of doing so before she arrived. Her anger was obvious, but she didn't lay it on too thick.
"Ruze and I had a talk," Severide said as all three of them sat down at the desk. "He didn't mean any offense to you by walking out. It was an emotional reaction to an emotional moment."
Ruzek sat there looking down, avoiding making eye contact. He was clearly upset, and also possibly regretful about walking out. He well knew what a serious disciplinary matter it was.
"You might at least look me in the eyes," Erin said.
Ruzek did so, and found the courage to say what he was thinking. "This is bullshit, Erin. Hank deserved better than this. That man did so much for me, and for so many other people here. Now he's forced out of his own company, and we don't so much as get the chance to shake his hand and thank him? Fuck that. It's wrong."
"Are you done?" Erin asked evenly.
"I had to say what I think. This is not right."
"You don't know the full picture. In fact you're far from knowing half of it. The behaviour that was uncovered by the board investigation would have resulted in a firing from any business in this country. My dad was given the chance to retire instead, which was gracious of the board. I might add that you're more upset about this than he is. Hank's moving on to going into business with Mandy, and he's very much looking forward to that. In any case, you throwing your job away would achieve nothing. If you want to thank him, please do. Call him. Go out to the house. Do whatever you want, so long as it doesn't involve tossing your own career in the trash."
"I just don't think it's right," Ruzek insisted. His tone however showed that he perhaps saw the wisdom in what she had said.
"Just so everyone's clear where everyone stands, is this a 'I'm upset that Hank is gone' thing, or is it a 'I've got a problem working for Erin' thing?"
"I don't have a problem with you," he said, believably. "It's just this whole thing, I still think it's bullshit. Walking out was wrong though, I know that."
"This is where you apologise," Severide prompted him gently.
Ruzek looked at him, then back at Erin. "Sorry, Erin. I, uh, lose my head sometimes. I get worked up and... well, stuff happens that I come to regret."
Erin nodded acceptance of the apology. "Today has been upsetting and emotional for a lot of people, myself included. For a first offense, walking out of a show after call time is punishable with a suspension of up to six months without pay under your contract, as you well know. That would see you miss Wrestlemania. My guess is Hank would have sent you home for a month, maybe three, if you did this on his watch. What I'm going to do, because of everything that's happened today, is let you walk out of here with an official warning on your record. You can consider yourself very luck. If you leave a show after call time again, you'll be going home for six months. Do we understand each other?"
"We do. It won't happen again. Again, sorry, Erin."
"I accept your apology. You can go." She motioned towards the door.
When the door closed behind Adam, Erin looked at Severide to see what he made of how she had handled the situation.
He nodded, showing respect, some of it maybe newfound. "Good job, boss."
By the time Monday Night Raw went live that night, the rumour mill had been on fire for hours. Speculation online was rife about all manner of things relating to WWE, after Hank's public announcement of his retirement on Twitter and the WWE website.
Erin liked to have a look at what the audience were thinking when she had a few minutes to spare. Today, she hadn't had spare time, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her anyway. What she had discovered was people speculating about her role within the company, people speculating about what her being in charge might mean for their favourite wrestlers, people speculating about all manner of changes that she might make to WWE's televised product. There was also speculation about what might happen with Raquel, the day after she killed a man, albeit in self defence. Yet all of that was put in the shade by the hottest topic: Clementine.
Word had gotten out about Clem and Erin having a meeting. As a result, there were two competing rumours, both sending people into meltdown. One was that Clem had reaffirmed to Erin that she would be leaving when her contract expired towards the end of January. The other rumour was that she had signed a new contract. Erin knew which one was true of course, but the fans did not. In her mind, still acting as Head of Creative albeit now with a more senior job on top of it, that uncertainty was something to work with as far as TV was concerned. To that end, she had made further changes to the show.
The biggest change had been to totally remove Clem from the show, and from the following week's episode as well. In two weeks, Monday Night Raw was going to be in Chicago, Clementine and Jay's home town. Unfortunately Jay wouldn't be on the show that night due to his injury, but it would be the perfect opportunity to have Clementine return and announce that she had indeed signed to stay with WWE for another four years.
"I'd like to keep the fact that you've re-signed quiet until then," Erin had said during her second meeting of the day with Clem, when pitching the new idea to her. "We can make it a really special moment for the audience, and, quite frankly, for you. That Chicago crowd will be red hot when you walk out there, and they'll go into meltdown when you announce you're staying."
"I've got chills thinking about it. Let's do it that way," Clem had said, showing more excitement than her usually calm demeanour allowed. Erin was aware how much going home on TV meant to Clem. There had also been more than one special moment between her and the Chicago fans over the past few years.
"You, me, Jay, Clara and Severide are the only people who know that signed contract exists right now," Erin had said. "I'll hold onto it until that Monday before filing it. As soon as I file it, it'll go public, there would be no way of stopping it. Keeping it under our hats will mean you won't be paid at your new rate for the next two weeks. Will that be a problem?"
"No," Clem had decided without needing to put much thought into it.
"I'm also thinking about characters changes. Don't worry, I'll definitely keep you babyface. Your story with Raquel is not done. Let's say we're heading into its second season. Are you open to character changes? Obviously we'll discuss them closer to the time, probably next week."
Clementine had smiled. "You're the chef. I'll let you cook."
When the show went live, it was Erin's music that played first after the cold open. The fans gave her a warm ovation, which she greatly appreciated. Some of the wrestlers might not have confidence in her yet, but a majority of the audience seemingly did.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... Erin Voight!" cried the ring announcer. Erin made a note to give him a pat on the back after the show. She had forgotten to instruct him not to refer to her as 'one of the owners of WWE' as part of the introduction anymore, yet he had shown the intelligence to do that himself and simply use her name. As of next week's show, she would be introduced as 'the Chairwoman of WWE' whenever she appeared. That was worth a smile.
Entering the ring, she noticed that a section of the crowd were trying to get a 'thank you, Erin' chant going. She found that offensive if anything, not that she showed it. What were they implying, that she had knifed her dad in the back so that she could steer the ship onto a better course? If they thought that, they were dead wrong. Dismissing those thoughts, she took a microphone and stood in the centre of the ring.
Under Hank's ownership, one thing he had absolutely insisted on, even when Erin had become the one in charge of getting the shows written, was that whoever was the first person to speak in the ring on each episode had to begin by enthusiastically saying, "Welcome to Monday Night Raw!" Erin hated it. The wrestlers hated it. The fans saw it as a meme.
Raising the microphone to speak, Erin had only one line to deliver. "Welcome to the Erin Voight era!" She ended with a mic drop, and her music hit again as the crowd popped loudly. With that, she left the ring. It had been a very simple yet effective promo. The fans now knew for sure that things were going to change. The hype was real. Everyone in the arena could feel it.
"What a day. Jesus Christ," Erin said later that night as she flopped down onto a couch in the hotel suite she and Jay were staying in. The adrenaline of it all was wearing off, and she now felt burned out.
"You were amazing, honey," Jay said. He sat down beside her, put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her gently, lovingly.
"Thank you. And thanks for being there, like you always are. Behind every good woman there's a good man. I think that's the saying? Anyway, I couldn't do it without you. I walked into that conference room, and as soon as I saw you sitting in the front row and our eyes met, you just told me I could do it without saying a word. It helped more than I could possibly explain."
"I'm glad. Anything I can do, I will. You know that."
Erin moved even closer to him, cuddling up to him. "And I will for you. You know, I got to thinking today when I asked you to help Severide get Ruzek to come back to the building, would you like a backstage job? I'm not saying I want you to do one, I'm asking if you want one."
She watched him think about it for a moment, clearly for the first time.
"I don't know," was his honest reply. "Maybe it's something I can think about?"
"Sure. If you do decide you want to take something on, I'll make it happen. No pressure at all though. It's your decision. Love you, Jay."
"Love you too, Erin."
Jay leaned in and they kissed again, this time longer and more passionately.
A/N: Quite a first day in charge for Erin!
What did you make of how she handled Ruzek? Would you have done it differently.
Clem has said she will 'let Erin cook' regarding character changes. What do you think the 'new' Clem might look like in order to continue the rivalry with Raquel?
And do you think Jay would be good at a backstage role?
We've not long left in this book, but I am considering a third one. The questions above would impact it, if I decide to write it so please do provide your feedback.
