Title: Enough For Now
Author: Empress
Email: Empress@thewaysideinn.net
Distribution:
Empress' Private Library and
The Wayside Inn All others ask
first.
Rating:
R for language and implied violence.
Content:
A little drama, a good amount of angst,
and lots of foul language.
Characters:
Hunter Hearst
Helmsley/ Nan; Edge/Karen; Shawn & Becky Michaels; brief appearance by
Evolution - no pairings
Spoilers:
Badd Blood
(6/13/04) major spoilers for the Hell In A Cell match.
Warnings: None
Summary:
I suck at
summaries….Aftermath is a bitch.
Author's Notes:
Having a
Triple H Muse is sometimes a weird experience. Especially when it takes
a turn for the dramatic. I don't know if this will go any further,
considering what MAY or MAY NOT happen tonight on RAW. But my Muse
wanted it done tonight before RAW, and I've learned to listen to him
when he gets this way. This snippet and DOES involve Triple H, and
doesn't paint him as the evil bastard most think he is. It will also
play with other RAW characters and hint at some of Nan's past. If any of
these things offend you, please skip it.
Feedback: Always.
Disclaimer: Characters
from RAW belong to Vince McMahon and WWE and no copyright infringement
is intended. I'm just borrowing them and will return them all --
eventually <evil grin>. All of the other characters are either on loan
from the people whom they represent, or are purely of my own creation.
Remember -- I'm just having fun. I realize that I'm using the characters
without permission. I'm NOT using them for profit. I swear; no money is
being made. Hey, if you don't believe me, check my bank account…it's
sad….really…
Nationwide Arena
Columbus, Ohio (10:45 p.m.)
It was over. Finally.
She had known going into it that the night would end on a low note, no matter who won. And she'd been prepared for that too. Or, at least, that's what she'd told herself. Oh, she'd assured herself that with all of her friends in the sky box with her that she'd laugh a lot, have a great time, and alternately cheer on and boo those other matches of the evening. And for the most part, that's exactly what she had done, too.
Until the last match.
Hell In A Cell.
It was aptly named, she thought as that steel monstrosity had begun to lower to the arena floor. It gave her the shivers, and made her stomach feel like a sack of wet rags in her middle. As it came closer and closer, all she could hear in her head was that line from Beyond Thunderdome, "Two men enter. One man leaves."
Then his music had cut in.
Time to play the Game…
Hunter came down the ramp, pausing only long enough to look back up over his left shoulder towards the sky box where she sat. Then he headed to the ring like a vengeful ancient god, grim determination on his face. He took his customary glance around the arena, threw his water-bottle into the seats, climbed up on the apron, spewed water and roared at the crowd. But it was when he took his place in the corner of the ring, that she saw the tension in his back and legs.
This wasn't going to be good.
And it hadn't been. Granted there had been some lighter moments, such as Shawn's little evil grin at finding the ladder under the ring. And Hunter's emphatic response of "Fuck me!", when the ref asked if he wanted to give up. The match had been brutal, bloody, and at times even cruel. But mostly, it had been long, insufferably long for the woman who didn't care if he won or lost as long as he was all right at the end.
But when the bell finally rang, all she could find the strength to do was collapse back in her chair and breathe shakily through the unending barrage of tears that had started the moment Hunter's head first met the cage, and blood had been drawn.
"It's over. Thank God," her whisper, though heartfelt, was lost in the noise of the cheering in the sky box by Karen and Edge.
"Sonofabitch!!" Becky bellowed over everyone.
But Nan didn't hear any of it. Her eyes were trained on the bloody man lying, unmoving, on his back in the middle of the ring. His music was playing…and playing…and playing…then it started over.
"He's not moving." She looked around at Edge and Karen, her eyes wide and glassy. "He's not moving."
"Neither is Shawn," Becky whispered, moving closer to the glass, placing one palm on it's cool surface.
"Edge?" Karen murmured quietly.
"Yeah," he mumbled. "I'm on it." The tall lanky blond grabbed up the courtesy phone and punched some buttons. "Yeah, Chris? What the fuck is going on down there?!"
Tuning out the noise around them, Nan got up and moved to the glass as she saw Evolution come down the ramp and go into the cell after Hunter. Holding her breath, her eyes didn't stray from the scene unfolding before her as his friends eased him out of the ring.
"That bastard," Becky whispered. "Get your finger out of Shawn's face, you fuckin’ dickhead!"
"Yeah," Nan replied with a watery half-smile. "It's Ric. What do you expect?"
Becky chuckled. "Not much, that's for sure."
Karen and Edge joined them at the glass, and the four of them stood quietly, all a bit unnerved at the unnatural silence that had fallen over the crowd. They were just about all on their feet, but there wasn't any noise, and no one was making a move to leave. Finally, Evolution got their leader up the ramp and carried him through the curtain leading back stage.
But the crowd still didn't leave. They were waiting for something. At last, Shawn got up on his knees, looking beat up and relieved at the same time, and gave the crowd a wave. In return, the audience honored him with a standing ovation. The building erupted in sounds of applause, cheers, whistles and screams.
Nan plopped back down in her chair and covered her face with tissues that Karen pressed into her fingers. Karen sat down next to her friend, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Nan. It's okay. It's over."
She looked up, smiling. "Thank God for waterproof mascara, huh?"
As the women laughed, Becky plopped back down with a big sigh. "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me tonight."
"You love it and you know it, so quit yer bitchin'," Karen taunted.
"True." Becky acquiesced, with a sly grin.
Laughing, Edge reached for the phone as it rang. "Sky box. Yeah. She's here." He looked back over his shoulder straight at the three women and all laughter ceased. "Yeah. Okay. I'll bring her."
"What is it, honey?" Karen asked.
Sighing heavily, his face slightly pale and drawn, Edge pushed a hand through his long blonde locks, and held out his hand. "Nan, we've got to go downstairs. Now."
~<>~
Mount Carmel East Hospital
Columbus, Ohio (12:45 a.m.)
As waiting rooms went, it was fairly comfortable, meaning it was only one or two steps down from excruciating. The atmosphere in the waiting area was tense to say the very least. Karen sat on one side of Nan, and Dave sat on the other, his meaty hands clasped into a single fist between his knees. Edge, always one for pent up energy, paced the length of the waiting room, mumbling to himself.
"Fucking piece of shit," Randy mumbled. He was kicking a cola machine that had definitely seen better days when Ric's gloating began to get loud.
"Brother, I tell you, the Champ handed Michaels his ass tonight! I've not seen a beating like that since the LA Riots!" Ric crowed.
"Ric," Nan began, her head down, red hair hanging in her face. "If you don't shut the fuck up, I swear to God, I'm going to get that gun in my purse and change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!"
Ric tensed, but looking around at the agreement on some of the faces he saw staring back at him, he smiled at her stiffly. "Now, Nan…come on! You should be celebrating! This feud is over! Finished! The end!"
"Celebrating?!" She looked up at him, her face red, and eyes lit up with a hatred that ran too deep for too long. "I don't care about that fucking feud! All I give a shit about is that Hunter's lying back there somewhere, having God knows what being done to him, and these fucking people won't fucking tell me what's going on! And unless you wanna join him in the ER, I suggest you get your ass out of here!"
She was on her feet and advancing on the older man, when Dave stood up, and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Randy, maybe you two had better go on. I'll stay and find out what's happening."
"Yeah, Ric. Let's go." Randy urged. "I've got someone waiting on me and I don't wanna make her wait any longer than necessary, if you know what I mean." He leered at the other man.
With a blazing glare at the infuriated red-head, Ric turned to his protégé and nodded. "Sure thing, kid. We're outta here."
Dave had volunteered to stay with Nan, knowing Hunter would want someone from Evolution with her. When Randy and Ric had gone, she had collapsed back into her seat, nearly bending double, both arms clutching at her middle. Dave clasped a meaty paw down on Nan's shoulder, both squeezing and caressing at the same time, trying to offer comfort when there was none to be found. The big man's soft brown eyes got that hot prickly feeling when you're trying to swallow tears as he watched her scrub absently at some of Hunter's blood that still covered her hands.
"He'll be okay? Right, Dave?" Nan looked up at her friend, tears brimming, threatening to spill down her face. "I mean…he's come out okay after worse, right?"
Dave nodded and rumbled, "Sure he has, kiddo."
"Nan," a deep gravelly voice called quietly from the other side of the room.
They all looked up to see Shawn and Becky enter the waiting room. He looked like he had been through mortal hell. Beaten, bandaged, and bruised. His right hand was taped up tight, from his knuckles to past his wrist. His shoulders were bowed like they carried the weight of the world on them. And he moved slowly and stiffly. But his eyes, they were heavy, turning down at the corners and filled with an unnamed emotion.
Dave stood up, growling, "What the fuck are you doing here?!"
Edge, who paced a few feet stopped his pacing and crossed to Shawn. "You sonofa…"
Forgetting all of the years she'd known him, forgetting the years that he and Hunter had been friends, only one thing stood out to her. Shawn was moving under his own power, and Hunter lay somewhere in behind those damned Emergency Room doors. She shocked them all by rocketing to her feet, glassy brown eyes wild and feral, and darted across the room before Dave could grab her. Becky moved to intercept her friend, but Shawn waived her away.
Nan grabbed Shawn by the lapels of his leather jacket, her bloody fingers scrambling to get a hold on the larger man. "Tell me, Shawn! Tell me that he's gonna come out of this! Tell me, goddamn you! You left under your own power! He didn't!"
Shawn put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Nan. I…"
"Why?" She whispered brokenly, tears flowing again. "Why do you two have to do this?"
"I don't know what to tell you." Shawn didn't even notice as the others moved back, giving them some room, as his friend collapsed in body-wracking sobs against him. He gently cradled Nan to him, similarly as he had done for her one other time that he didn't really want to remember right then.
But Nan didn't hear him, locked as she was in her own private hell. Shawn eased the young woman back down onto the unforgiving plastic orange chair, then moved away, coming up in a cold glare at both Edge and Batista.
"I'm staying." Shawn voiced quietly at Edge, as Becky slipped her arm through his.
"So stay then." Edge threw a hand up in irritation, slumped down into a chair beside Karen, and slung his arm across her shoulders.
Michaels then turned that cold stare, on Batista, his voice a dead calm. "What about you? You got a problem with me being here?"
Dave just smiled thinly, shook his head, and sat back down. Becky and Shawn took their seat a few chairs away from the group, and in silence, they all began the mind-numbing process of waiting, all over again. About ten more minutes went by.
"Who's here for Mr. Helmsley?"
They all stood. But it was Dave who helped Nan to her feet, and moved over to the doctor who was standing just inside the waiting room doors.
"I am," Nan answered softly, feeling like she was choking to death.
"Ah." The doctor nodded. "Well, I won't lie to you. He was cut up pretty badly and lost a lot of blood. But he's extremely strong and doing fine. We'd like to keep him for a few more hours for observation. But, provided all goes well, he should be able to be released in the morning."
"Yes!" The muffled whisper came from Edge who moved shakily to sit back down.
Shawn slumped back in his chair in relief, throwing his arms around Becky and pulling her close to him.
"When can I see him?"
"Soon. I'll send a nurse for you when he's moved." With that, the doctor turned and left the group to their own devices.
Dave walked Nan back over to the hard chair and just did make it before her knees gave out on her. She folded in on herself, whispering, "Thank you, God. Thank you, God."
~<>~
Mount Carmel East Hospital
Columbus, Ohio (1:15 a.m.)
Silently, Nan eased along side the hospital bed, the soft beeping of the various different medical equipment she never could identify droning in her ears. Hunter lay motionless and quiet in the bed, the blue hospital gown standing out in stark contrast to the white sheets and his equally pale face. His forehead was swathed in snow white bandages, and his face was bruised and puffy. Butterfly bandages held the skin on the bridge of his nose together, and his left eye was already blackening. She noted absently that they'd even washed the blood from his hair. Watery eyes took in the I.V. bag hanging by the bed, following reflexively down the line that lay taped flat on the back of his left hand. The blip of the heart monitor, attached to that weird finger clip looking thing, was strong and steady, and she was equally relieved to see that he wasn't on an oxygen tube.
That was the damage she could see. The injuries she couldn’t see terrified her even more. But she refused to think about that right now.
His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping, until she laid her hand over his. Then his lashes fluttered, opened, and those whisky brown eyes went straight to her. The corners of his lips turned up in a gentle smile. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," she smiled back at him, her eyes filling up again.
"No…no…now…none of…that. I'm in tip…top shape," he breathed heavily, as if the words themselves were to heavy for him.
She nodded, sitting down by his bed. "Yeah, you look it."
Hunter curled his large fingers around hers, squeezing gently. "Brat."
"Bully."
He smiled weakly, "You…saw?"
Nan nodded. "Yeah…the whole thing. You won."
He moved his head, a millimeter as if to shake it. "No one…wins a match…like…that one. You just…survive…it."
His eyelids fluttered and closed slowly, but his hand still gripped hers. Scooting her chair a little closer to his bedside, she laid her head down on his arm. He was alive, semi-conscious, and she was with him.
That was enough. For now.
<End>
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