"I can't believe you've kept that thing," Jay said to Erin. They were in her office on the top floor of WWE HQ, and he was looking at the Tyrannosaurus rex skull on the wall. It was a genuine one, not a replica, bought by Hank several years ago, when this had been his office. Genuine or not, it was a hideous thing to have on an office wall in Jay's opinion.
"Leave Stan alone," Erin said playfully, sitting at her desk.
"Stan?"
"That's what dad named him. It would feel wrong to take him down or sell him."
"What kind of family am I marrying into?" Jay quipped.
"A pretty crazy one. This is not a new discovery for you."
Jay grinned. "That's true."
It was a few days after his breakdown, which was how he thought of it, in that hotel restaurant. He was feeling a lot better now, thanks as usual to Erin. She had gotten a recommendation through a friend of a friend for a therapist that Jay could see. Dr Kalinda Rai's services were expensive, but there wasn't a long waiting time to see her. Jay had an appointment set for the following week. The fact that he was kind of looking forward to it surprised him. It came down to the fact that he really wanted the help.
"What are you thinking about?" Erin asked, getting up and approaching him.
"Going to therapy," he mumbled. She saw every change of expression on his face and knew when he needed her. She was a truly remarkable person, and a better partner in life than anyone had a right to hope for.
"It'll be good for you, Jay. Please don't be worried about it. I'll go with you, and Dr Rai will help you. There's no doubt in my mind about it."
"There's such a stigma about going to therapy. I'm embarrassed," Jay admitted.
"Fuck the stigma," Erin said, putting her arms around him. "There's nothing wrong with getting help. It shows strength to do that, not weakness. You're a brilliant, strong, courageous, talented person, who was forced into believing he's broken and useless due to the behaviour of some appalling people. You are the only one who sees yourself that way, and that's what we're going to work on. We're going you see yourself the way you should, which is the way I see you, and Raquel, and Z, and my dad..."
"Your dad sees me that way? Come on," Jay said, implying that he thought she was bullshitting him.
"You think we'd be getting married if he didn't?"
That was a very good point, Jay had to admit.
Erin glanced at her watch. "You should head to the meeting, if you're still okay to do it?"
"I'm okay to do it."
Erin had asked Jay to come to HQ to join Kelly Severide in a meeting with Maya Mizrachi. She wanted the opinions of her Head of Talent Relations and the producer for the women's division on whether they thought bringing Maya back was the right call to make. If all were in agreement to move forward, talking to Hailey Upton would be the next step.
"Okay. I'll talk to you later then and get your thoughts on it. Love you," Erin said, and gave him a peck on the lips.
"Love you, honey. See you soon."
With that Jay left Erin's office, took the elevator down one floor and went to Kelly Severide's office. The door was open, and Severide was at his desk.
"Jay! What's up, man?" Severide said, getting up and greeting him with a handshake.
"Kelly. How are you?"
"Doing good. Have a seat. Before she gets here, what do you think about Erin wanting to bring Maya back?"
The two chairs in front of Severide's desk had been arranged so that they formed a triangular shape with his own chair behind it. It was a good setup to have for the upcoming three-way conversation.
Jay considered his answer before speaking. Although he liked Kelly, the man wasn't exactly a friend. And it had been five years since he had seen Maya, so he was feeling a little anxious.
"There's money in it. No doubt about that," he said eventually. "Erin seems confident that Maya has calmed down since she was let go, and maybe it's true. She has got married and had a kid. Being happy in a relationship with someone can change your life a lot. I know that from personal experience."
Severide nodded his agreement. "Right. My concern is having her in a locker room with Upton. Can you remember that night when they went at it?"
"I didn't see anything of it. It had all happened before I found out. Hailey got her ass kicked by all accounts."
"And then some. The version I heard is there was some verbal, Maya shoved Hailey, Hailey threw a punch, then Maya fucked her up. I didn't see her that night myself either, but Stella has told me about it. Maya got three or four punches in before the other women separated them and Hailey's face was pretty mashed up. She also had a bite on her hand from where Maya tried to bite her face, but Hailey got her hand in the way."
"Jesus Christ," Jay muttered. "Remind me not to get into a fight with her. Trying to bite someone's face is just savagery."
"Yeah, that's why Hank decided to let her go. Didn't have much of a choice really. I think he talked Hailey out of filing charges. Told her the company would handle it. As you know, that's how we do things in the wrestling business."
"We're going to have to get Maya's side of that story," Jay said. "That must be what Erin's after."
"That, plus we need to see if we think she really has changed, and will be able to integrate into the locker room. The women are a group without much drama right now as you well know. Someone rocking the boat isn't what we need. Like any wrestling locker room, there are egos and strong characters in there."
A thought came into Jay's mind that made him smile. "Imagine Maya and Raquel going at it?"
"You could sell that shit to UFC," Severide said with a smile on his face. "Who would your money be on?"
Jay never got the chance to say he would back Raquel all the way because the phone on Severide's desk rang. He looked at the small screen on the it before answering the call.
"The front desk. This'll be to say Maya's here."
"That's good," Jay said. Waiting around wasn't something he liked doing. He looked at his watch and saw that Maya was slightly early. That was a good sign.
Severide answered the phone and asked the receptionist to send Maya straight up to his office.
"I'll go meet her at the elevator," he said to Jay once he was done on the phone.
"No, I'll go. You stay there," Jay said. The idea of handling his own greeting without a third party being there sounded good.
"Alright, thanks."
Jay got up and left the office. The elevator was at the end of the hallway. He only had to wait there for a minute or so before there was a quiet ping and the doors slid open. Maya was alone in the elevator. It was the first time Jay had seen her in five years, and she seemed to have barely aged a day in that time. She was dressed in a smart back dress and a matching jacket, and there was a happy smile on her face. She was a good-looking woman for sure, but paled in comparison to Erin in his mind. Everyone did.
"Jay! It's good to see you. You look very well."
He liked the foreign accent she had, that hadn't changed at all despite her living in America. "Hi, Maya. So do you. It's been a long time."
There was a moment of awkwardness where they were both unsure if a handshake or a hug were appropriate, and they ended up going with neither.
"Follow me to Kelly's office. As I'm sure Erin told you, we need to have a chat and find out if moving forward with offering you a contract is right for all parties."
"Let's do it," Maya said. She continued talking as they set off along the hallway. "I'm so grateful to Erin for this opportunity, even if it doesn't go anywhere. I've been watching the shows again since she took charge and it's been freshened up a lot. She's very talented and I can tell she's a good person. You're a lucky man, Jay."
"Thank you," was all he said in reply. She was talking quickly and saying a lot, which wasn't how he liked his conversations. He realised she was nervous, then in turn realised that the fact that he noticed and understood that showed the development of his own people skills.
They entered the office, where Severide greeted Maya with a professional but warm handshake. Then they sat down and the small talk began. Jay disliked it greatly, but he knew it was something that had to be done. Mercifully, after a few minutes Severide got down to business.
"Okay, so you know the reason you're here today. We're exploring the possibility of bringing you back to WWE. We're considering offering you a one year contract. Before that though, there are concerns that we want to address, and assurances that we need."
Jay saw that as an opportunity to join in. "I'm aware that Erin told you I do pretty much all of the producing for the women's stuff now."
Maya nodded.
"Right now, it's a happy locker room. The girls all support each other, and there are no major beefs in there. I don't want someone blowing in there like a hurricane and stirring everyone up. Given what happened in the past, you can see why this is a major concern for us."
Maya nodded again, regretfully this time. "The way things ended is not something I'm proud of. Hailey Upton did provoke me that night. She mumbled an anti-Semitic slur at me, then pushed me when I got in her face for it. But I accept that I went too far with the way I beat her, and some of my behaviour towards her before that night was also unacceptable. Back then I was drinking a lot and eating painkillers like candy. Looking back, I'm ashamed of the way I was living. I'm three years clean now though. No drink, no pills. My life has turned around."
"Congratulations," Severide said seriously. "Upton said an anti-Semitic slur to you?"
"Not too me exactly. Mumbled it about me is more like it. But I heard her."
Jay didn't know what anti-Semitic meant. But he imagined it was some kind of racial thing. If that was true, Upton had deserved an ass kicking.
"Thank you. And yes she did," Maya said. "That's why I beat her, and she did deserve it. We have to forgive in life, and that's what I'm here to do. I have a family now, so wrestling or no wrestling I have a reasons to be happy and to keep drink and crap like that out of my life. With wrestling would be better though," she added with a smile.
The conversation went on for almost half an hour, including discussion of a vague outline of what the creative would be for Maya's return if it happened. Jay didn't say a lot, instead choosing to listen and pay attention to Maya, wanting to see if she really had changed or if she might be more trouble than she was worth. By the time Severide wrapped things up, Jay had his verdict ready, not that Maya was going to get it yet. That would come from Erin when she had made her own decision.
"Thanks, Jay. Nice to see you again," Maya said when it was Jay's turn to say goodbye. Now standing, this time they shook hands.
"Likewise. Thanks for coming in. You'll hear something in the next few days."
After Maya left, Severide closed his door behind her and spoke to Jay. "What do you think, man?"
"I believed what she said about bettering herself and admire people who can do that. If Upton can get on-board with it, I say we pull the trigger. Like Erin said, there's money in it. Sounds like they owe each other an apology to me."
Severide was in agreement, and said that he would write up a report for Erin.
"I'll leave you to it," Jay said. The two men shook hands, and he left the office. Rather than head straight home, he decided to go back and see Erin first. After all, no one was going to stop him. That was one of the perks of being engaged to the boss.
A couple of minutes later, Jay was back on the top floor and walking into Erin's office after her secretary confirmed no one else was in there.
"Hey. How did that go?" Erin asked, stopping work on her computer and looking at him expectantly.
"Severide's going to write it all up for you. It wouldn't be right for me to get ahead of that. He's Head of Talent Relations, not me."
"You're right. Good call," Erin said, sounding impressed with his professionalism. That made Jay proud of himself – a very rare feeling indeed.
"Got something here you can look at," Erin said, moving on smoothly. "It just came in from the media team."
Jay walked over to stand behind her desk where he could see her computer screen. He watched her navigate to an email that requested her final approval on the file that was attached.
"What am I about to watch?"
"Things are always changing in WWE, Jay. You know that as well as I do. One thing that hasn't changed since I took over from my dad is our set designs. We still have the same stage, big screen, entrance ramp, and so on for Raw. This coming Monday, we're debuting a completely new setup. It's bigger, more modern, better-looking, and I'm upping the amount of pyro we'll be using, especially at the opening of the show. I think it fires the crowd up if they get a big pyro display. I want my crowds hot at the top of the show."
Jay smiled. Erin was getting in her passionate zone when her love for the wrestling business really came through. That was one of the main things that made her great at her job, in his opinion. Wrestling was in her blood, and it showed.
"This video is going to be used as the cold open next week, as a one time only."
Erin doubled clicked the file and the video opened. Jay was surprised to hear a piece of trance music begin to play over shots of wrestlers performing their signature moves. A voiceover was provided by Adam Ruzek.
"In life, we all need someone to rely on. Someone who will be there. Someone constant. Someone who makes us feel like we belong."
The music ramped up, including upbeat female voice chanting in an operatic style. Jay saw flashes of some his own personal favourite WWE moments on the screen, and he began to get chills.
"Wrestling ecstasy, anger, despair, joy," Ruzek's voice continued. "It's part of our past, and it will be part of future. It's our religion. These are our moments. These are our memories. This is our life."
The music and video continued, now with some short commentary excerpts from some of the most spine-tingling moments in WWE history, including Clementine's recent Women's Championship victory over Raquel.
But it was the end of the package that really got Jay. The final voiceover came not from Adam Ruzek, but from Erin.
"We know how you feel about wrestling... because we feel the same."
The video ended with a full screen WWE logo.
"Then we open with a shot of the brand new stage, and pyro starts going nuts," Erin said expressively, turning her chair around to look at Jay for his reaction.
Jay had goosebumps on his arms and was close to tearing up. "That entire thing was your vision wasn't it?"
"Yes. Please tell me it doesn't suck?"
"Suck?" he asked incredulously. "If there's a person in that arena or watching that open a show and they've not got chills they're not human. They're damn sure not a wrestling fan. The vision you've got, honey... the talent you've got. The way you make people feel things through the content you create. You put Hollywood directors to shame, I mean that."
"Oh, Jay," Erin said affectionately, getting up and hugging him. "I don't know about all that, but thank you for always being able to say such wonderful things to support me, to love me. You're the one that matters most in making all this possible. Without you, I couldn't do it."
Words failed Jay as he searched for a response. "I can't wait to marry you," was all he came up with. Somehow, it still felt like the right thing to say.
"You won't have to wait much longer, honey."
A/N: Do you think Maya deserves a second chance with WWE?
