Aidan was sitting in the women's lounge watching the other women quietly. She had noticed the Undertaker and Kane rush past earlier and head down the hallway. She had briefly wondered where the fire was, but none of the other women seemed to think there was anything odd going on, so she dropped it. She wondered if she wasn't being just a little to over observant, seeing monsters in every shadow.
A woman walked in the door, one that she had not yet been introduced to, but had seen with Jim Dotson, the WWF's head of security. She embraced Rip when she walked in the door, and then walked over to stand in front of Aidan.
"Excuse me, are you Aidan?"
"Yes." She held out her hand waiting for the woman to introduce herself and tell her what she needed.
"My name is Icewolf, but my friends call me Icey. I was asked to come and get you all for an emergency meeting in Steve Austin's dressing room. I was specifically told that you were to join us."
Aidan smiled, wondering in her mind what on earth they could possibly need with her in a meeting with Steve Austin. The fact that they sent Icey, who was apparently a high ranking member of the security team, made Aidan a little nervous. ~Surely they haven't figured out why I'm really here. I wonder if there was another threat or some other problem that has come up.~ She rose from her chair and followed the other ladies out of the lounge and down the same hallway that the Undertaker and Kane and rushed down earlier.
The reached the dressing room labeled for Austin, and when they entered, she saw Kane, Undertaker and Alex all sitting on the couch. The other women she had been with had all filed into the room and she noticed Steve Austin, standing off to the side watching everyone as they settled around the room. Aidan was expecting Austin to speak, but instead turned to look at the Undertaker as he addressed her.
"Aidan, there is a situation that has come to our attention, something that we felt was necessary to deal with immediately to prevent any future surprises." She groaned inwardly, fearing the worst. ~My god, they know. How did they find out?~ She looked around the room at the faces, then stopped cold when she saw a woman she hadn't noticed before step out from behind Steve Austin.
"Lashana? Jesus is that you?"
Lashana watched the reaction on her little sisters face, and her heart fell when she saw the anger that finally settled there. "Yes Aidan, it's me." She walked toward her sister, hoping to get her to sit back down in the chair. When she was close enough she reached out to touch her arm. "Aidan, why don't you sit back down so we can chat. I've missed you more than you know."
Her sister shocked her to her toes at that point when she reared back and smacked her clean across the face. Steve reacted immediately, putting himself between the woman he loved and the virtual stranger who had dared lay a hand on her.
"You've missed me? How dare you. You disappeared, vanished into thin air, leaving behind an entire family to wonder and fear for what might have happened to you. Not a phone call, not a letter, nothing, just gone. And all the while, you were here, enjoying the good life with your new Friends. Do you have any idea what you have put our mother through, do you?" She spat the last out with a force of venom that shocked just about every person in the room.
Lashana was stunned, and stepped around Steve, telling her with her mind that it was ok, she would be fine. He moved back a little, but stayed close enough to prevent another attack from happening. "Aidan, what are you talking about? I sent a letter, sent it the day after I left, telling mom not to worry, that I would be fine." Lashana looked at Kane and Taker, waiting for one of them to back her up. She had written that letter, painstakingly, telling her earth mother that she appreciated the protection she had offered her as a child and that although she was with her new family, she would always love her.
Aidan just stood in front of her, glaring, "We never saw a letter, we never heard a word. Mom has spent I don't know how much money on PI's trying to find you. How could you do that to her? To Us? My god I used to look up to you, wanted to be just like you, but right now I don't even want to be in the same room with you." She moved past Lashana and headed out the door, slamming it behind her.
Leah, who had been sitting quietly to the side walked up to Lashana and hugged her. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure this will all get straightened out. I will go and check on Aidan, make sure she's ok." Lashana hugged Leah back and gave her a weak, sad smile, "Thanks Leah…just keep an eye on her for me ok?" Leah smiled and nodded as she walked out the door, pulling it closed behind her.
Leah caught up to Aidan just outside of the Outlaw's dressing room. She knew that they were on their way to the ring for a pre-show interview, and had figured that she could get some privacy there. She turned when she heard Leah calling her name.
"Leah, please just leave me alone right now."
"Aidan, look, I know what just happened in there was a shock to you, but I'm sure that whatever reason Lashana had for disappearing from your family was a good one. Lashana is not the type of person that would ever intentionally hurt someone she loved, unless there was some necessity to it."
Aidan shook her head, "I always thought that myself, but I can't think of any reason that would keep her from at least sending us a note to let us know she was alive and o.k. She devastated our family when she vanished like that."
Leah put her arm around Aidan's shoulders, "Look, tempers were flying high in there, and you and Lashana obviously have a lot to talk about. Why don't you calm down a little, take some time and think about things and then the two of you can sit down later and figure this all out."
Aidan smiled at her new friend, "You're right, We do need to get this all straightened out. I was going to call mom and tell her that I found Lashana, but I think I'll wait until after we talk. I don't want to get mom's hopes up if Lashana has no intention of coming home."
They walked into the dressing room and closed the door behind them, just as Leah was agreeing with Aidan's plan.
Lashana turned on Kane and Taker as soon as the door had shut behind Leah, "Ok, you two, what happened to my letter?!"
~We were instructed to destroy it.~
"You WHAT! Who, as if I need to ask, told you to destroy my letter? And why in the name of the gods didn't you tell ME!?"
Steve had pulled her into his lap, trying to calm her down, He'd seen her like this before, and she tended to throw things when she got this worked up. Taker and Kane were both looking a little sheepish, wishing that they were anywhere else than where they were at that moment. The pain and anger that was emanating from Lashana was of a depth that neither of them had ever seen from her before.
Taker answered her question, "Your father told us to destroy the letter. We meant to tell you, but by the time we had the opportunity, we were in the middle of that whole mess with the imposter Gangrel and Kordac'Nol. After that, it just sort of seemed like a bad idea to bring up your past, you were still trying to settle into your life with us."
She looked at the two men who had obviously meddled in her life, but she couldn't maintain her anger at them, knowing that they did what they did for her own good. At least that was what they thought and she knew they loved her as much as she did them. Her father, on the other hand was going to catch an earful when she finally got a hold of him.
Lashana leaned back against Steve and tried to relax, the stress of the day getting to her. "Ok, so now I not only have to figure out how to keep her out of danger, but I have to find a way to convince her that I didn't just run off and party, without word one to her or our family."
She looked over at Rip when she heard her clearing her throat, "Um, Lashana, sis, you seem to have forgotten that you don't have to deal with this all by yourself. We will all help you take care of your baby sister. Leah is already trying to calm her down and get her to listen to reason, and she doesn't even know the whole story. We'll get it straightened out…don't you worry about that."
Alex pulled Storm, Kane, Taker and Jakx aside as they group left Austin's dressing room. "You all, I need to talk to you about something."
The five of them headed toward Kane's dressing room, and once inside listened to Alex, "There's something not right with Aidan. When she walked into the room, I got a sense that she was mildly curious about what was happening, but when you started talking about there being a situation, well, I got the distinct feeling of fear from her. She's hiding something, something she is terrified we will find out."
Taker looked at Alex for a moment, realizing that her empathic abilities, although still new to her, were almost ninety nine percent accurate all of the time. "We can't say anything to Lashana about this just yet, lets deal with one problem at a time. Once we get their relationship repaired, then we'll see if we can ferret out what our little Aidan is hiding from us."
They watched quietly from the shadows as the group left Austin's dressing room. They knew that Austin was due at the ring and his woman was leaving with the rest of them.
"Stupid bi*ches, they are all going to pay for what they did. I will make sure of that!" The woman spat out that statement, her eyes burning with a raging hatred that would be very difficult to quench.
"Look, I know you want revenge, but we will have to bide our time, find the weakness. That group is so tightly linked that we can't just start destroying them without bringing the whole plan down around our ears."
As they watched the group round the corner, they crept slowly toward the door, the man pulled out the master key he had stolen from the janitor and in a matter of seconds had the door open. The woman, still in a burning rage started systematically destroying the room. Making sure to leave a calling card once they had finished, they slipped silently back out of the room and back into the shadows. Waiting for another opportunity to strike.
Aidan was sitting, watching the New Age Outlaws wrestling the Hardy Boys in the ring. She had immerced herself in their match, trying to erase the memory of the conversation she had had with her big sister no more than an hour ago. She couldn't believe that after a year of searching, she walked into that dressing room and found her. Now she had to decide what to do about it.
The knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts and back to the present.
"Come in…"
The door opened and Aidan watched as Lashana walked into the room. "Aidan, I know you're angry with me, but I was hoping we could talk."
Aidan nodded, motioning her sister toward the chair on the other side of the monitor that showed the happenings at the ring. Lashana sat down, and after a minute of silence, looked at her baby sister. "Look, I don't know exactly where to start, or how to really explain all the things that have happened to me in the last year. Some of it is just so unbelievable that I won't even try."
Aidan looked at her sister, noticing the tension and the concern in her eyes, and something else, something that looked like fear. "Lashana, first of all I want to apologize for slapping you earlier. We were raised better than that, and I guess I was just so shocked to see you and hurt to realize you hadn't even tried to contact us that I needed to lash out in someway."
Lashana smiled, "Aidan, I know, I understand that. I'm sorry for the way Steve reacted though, he is just a bit overprotective of me sometimes." She leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. "I did try to contact you, I promise you that I did write you and mom a letter. I have no explanation for why you never received it, but I did write it. It nearly killed me to walk away from you all. I actually was kind of surprised that Scotty didn't tell you where I was. He found me not long after I had left."
Aidan shook her head, "He had tried to get information from us for a long time after you disappeared and eventually decided that we were keeping it from him. He quit talking to us a few weeks later, and we haven't heard from him since. How exactly did you end up here anyway?"
Lashana chuckled, taking her time in relaying the parts of this story that she could. "Well, its kind of an odd story actually. I had gotten myself into a situation where I was in some considerable danger and needed a way out of town that would isolate me from the people I cared about. You see, as long as I was around you all, you were in danger too."
"What kind of danger, Lashana, what happened."
"Honestly Aidan, I would really rather not talk about it. Its been dealt with, and its over. I don't want to relive it. Just trust me when I say there were some really nasty people looking to do some pretty nasty things to me and they would have used anything and anyone necessary to get to me."
"Ok, so how did you end up here?"
"Well, it was really kind of a fluke. I took off and ended up at this old house, really more like a mansion. It was dark and cold and raining and I decided to see if I could crash there until I could find a hotel. The mansion ended up being owned by Kane and the Undertaker. When I told them my story, they took me in and help me get a job working here. You see, very few people, with the exception of the group that was in Austin's dressing room, know about my past. That allows me a certain amount of anonymity and allows me to have my life and to avoid the people that may or may not still be out there."
Aidan listened to the story her sister told, and although it sounded incomplete, it was a plausible story. Partially because she knew that Lashana would never abandon her family unless there was a very good reason, and partially because she could tell by the look in her eyes that she was telling the truth, Aidan began to believe the story that Lashana told.
They sat together and talked through the rest of the show, catching up on their lives over the past year. Aidan told Lashana the same story she had told to Leah and DX about her getting a job here and her work experience over the last year. She hated to lie to her, but she knew that she could be jeopardizing the case if she told anyone why she was really here.
When Lashana heard the familiar sound of the breaking glass for the second time that evening, she knew that the show was over and Steve and Kane, who had been slated to wrestle each other in the main event, were headed back up the ramp. She hugged her sister and smiled, "Goddess Aidan, I've really missed you."
"And I you Lashana. It's nice to have a big sister around when you need someone to talk to."
"Well, I'll tell you what, we'll probably all go out to eat after Steve and Kane get cleaned up, so if you want to join us you're more than welcome."
"That would be nice…I'll meet you at the door in about half an hour then."
"See you then."
Lashana closed the door behind her, feeling a little guilty for lying to her sister about what she had been through in the last year, but knowing it was for her own good. She headed down the hall to Steve's dressing room hoping to get there before he got back from his match. She opened the door, and when she looked inside she screamed.
Jim and Icey came running down the hall, followed closely by Austin, Kane and Storm.
"Lashana, what the he*l? Are you ok?" Steve wrapped his arms around Lashana and looked inside the room. "Sonofabi*ch!"
They walked into the room, looking at the disaster in front of them. The furniture had been overturned. Steve's clothes had been shredded as had the extra trunks and boots he had brought with him. The walked into the room a little further and Steve stopped cold when he saw the message written on the mirror. It had been written in blood red lipstick, and stated simply, "The whore must die!"
Icey called Vince on the radio, telling him that they had a situation, and turned to look at the mess in the room in front of her. Steve and Lashana were wading through the mess, looking for anything salvageable, and Jim, Kane and Taker had each headed in a separate direction, hoping in vane that they might find the person responsible for the threat.
Aidan had heard Lashana scream, and arrived at the doorway moments later. "Lashana? What the hell happened in here?"
Her sister stood up straight and shrugged, "I don't know Aidan, I got back here and found this mess. "
"God Dammit, not again!"
Icey looked at Vince, "Apparently whoever has been targeting the wrestlers decided it was Steve's turn."
Austin looked up when he heard his name, "Hell Yeah, they decided it was my turn, but how the hell did they get in here? I locked the god damned door when we left earlier."
Aidan looked at Vince and Vince looked back at Austin, "You locked the door? Are you sure?"
"What the hell do you mean, am I sure? Of course I'm sure, I locked the fucking door!"
Aidan logged all the information she was getting in the back of her mind, ~I need to find out if anyone reported any missing keys today." ~
Lashana walked up behind Steve and wrapped her arms around his waist, ~ Baby, calm down. Cussing out Vince is not going to help this situation. ~
She felt him stiffen, and then he let out a slow breath, "Look Vince, I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. But dammit, its bad enough that everything I had here is now no more than confetti, but have you seen the little "note" they left on the friggin mirror? That is something that I will NOT have…no body, and I mean NOBODY calls Lashana that, threatens her life and gets away with it!"
~ Lashana, maybe you should get Steve out of here. He needs to calm down and we're not going to get anywhere with him in this state. ~
Lashana looked at Icey and smiled, ~ I would love to get him out of here, but we can't seem to find anything for him to change into that is in one piece. Dragging him out of here is one thing, but in his trunks? Never gonna happen. ~
She heard Taker and Kane chuckling behind Icey. Austin looked up when he heard them, "Just what the hell do you think is so funny about this?"
Taker walked into the room, "Steve, I have no doubt that you want to kill someone right now, but no one in this room is the appropriate target. Believe me, you are not any more interested in getting your hands on the asshole that's doing this that Kane and I. Lashana is just as important to us as she is to you."
"All right you too. That's enough!" Taker and Steve both stopped and looked at Rip, who had been watching the exchange between the two. "Look we all know that the two of you would kill for Lashana, as well as the other women here, but killing each other is NOT going to help." She turned and looked at Icey, "Does Jim have an extra pair of shorts he can lend Steve so we can get him out of here?"
Icey turned and headed down the hall to find the requested shorts and returned quickly. Steve headed into Kane's dressing room to change, and Lashana smiled at her sister. "Thanks Rip. Sometimes when he gets like that there's just no calming him down."
Rip walked over and put her arm around her sister's shoulders, "Well, anytime I can help. You know I have no patience for that macho bullshit they like to pull."
The women laughed and Alex walked over, "Lashana? Does this belong to you?"
Lashana looked at the earring that lay in Alex's hand, "No, I've never seen it before. It's pretty though!" She picked up the earring and dropped it into her pocket and figured someone had dropped it during the 'meeting' they had earlier.
Steve walked back into the room, and pulled Lashana back against him, "You ready to get out of here?"
"Yeah, let me get Aidan, and we can go." She walked over to her sister, who was busily rooting through the debris on the floor. "Aidan? Steve and I are going to get out of here. I need to get away from this mess before I go completely insane. You wanna ride with us?"
Aidan looked at her sister, torn between wanting to spend more time with her and needing to continue gathering what little evidence she might be able to find in this disaster, and she needed to get pictures of the 'message' that had been left for her sister on the mirror. "Actually Lashana, I promised the outlaws I'd ride back with them. They've taken a bit of a protective position with me. Its kind of funny."
Lashana looked over at the 'Outlaws' as they chatted with Leah and Hunter. She noticed that now and then Billy would watch Aidan, but only when he knew she wasn't looking. "Well, if you're sure Aidan." She looked over her shoulder when she felt Austin tugging on her mind, ~ Lashana, Kane, Taker and the girls are waiting for us…is Aidan coming?" ~
~ "No, she's gonna wait for the Outlaws. I guess I'm ready, give me one more minute and I'll be there." Lashana turned and smiled at her sister who had gone back to digging through the mess, "Aidan, you know you don't have to do that, there's really nothing there that we can't live without."
Aidan straightened up again, "Yeah I know, but I need something to keep me occupied while they are gabbing over there." She was amazed at the fact that she was able to look Lashana in the eye and lie to her without giving herself away, and even more amazed when Lashana smiled, and nodded. "Well, Steve's waiting for me, and he tends to get a bit impatient sometimes, so I guess I'll see you in the morning?"
Lashana hugged her baby sister and headed out of the room, looking for Austin and the others. She found them waiting by the door and smiled as she approached them. ~ Lashana, is Aidan staying behind?~
~ "Yeah, Kane, she wants to wait for Billy and Jesse. I guess she'll be ok here without us."~
~ "Rip and Alex are still here. They'll keep an eye on her, don't worry."
The group headed out of the Arena, walking arm in arm to their respective cars and heading back to the hotel.
~ Stupid Bitches. They think they can just clean up the mess and it will all go away? Look at them all together, living their happy little lives, they don't understand pain, couldn't understand pain. Not yet anyway…but before its over, they will ALL know pain, they will know MY pain! ~
"Where did they go?" The man snuck up behind her and she jumped. They walked together down the hall away from the chaos and destruction that together they had caused only a short time ago.
"Back to the hotel I guess…"
"Who's the new little one?"
"I don't know, but she is important to Austin's whore…she took special care to say good bye to her before she left."
"Really? That's interesting….."
Billy walked up behind Aidan as she was picking up the hundreth piece of shredded material, looking for anything that might be useful, "Aidan? You about ready to head back?"
She looked over her shoulder, and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess there's nothing here that's salvageable. I feel bad for Lashana…this is such a mess."
"Well, I don't think you're gonna find anything worth saving. Lets head back to the hotel."
Rip walked up behind Aidan and Billy, just as he was finishing his sentence, "That's a good idea. With some crazy person wondering around here, I don't think its too smart for any of us to be out too long." They all wondered out to the parking lot, talking about nothing in particular.
~ "Lashana? It's Rip. Just thought I'd let you know that we're bringing Aidan back to the hotel safe and sound. We should be there shortly." ~
Billy was walking behind Aidan, watching her as she played with Jesse and Hunter on the way to the cars. Leah smiled as she watched him, "She's cute isn't she?"
He looked at her, startled that he had been caught watching her, "I umm…well…sure. She's cute."
Leah chuckled, "Give her some time to get settled in before you start hitting on her Billy. I don't want you running her off."
Billy tried his best to look insulted, but ended up grinning at Leah, "You know, I never could keep a secret from you. I'll take it easy on her, I promise." The laughed as they ran to catch up with the rest of the group. Leah pounced on Hunter, jumping on his back for a piggy back ride. Billy didn't stop until he was right on top of Aidan. She squealed as he scooped her up and continued running toward the car with her tossed over his shoulders.
"Billy, put me down!" She was laughing so hard that she barely got the words out. They reached the car, and he sat her down on the ground. They were both smiling, and chuckling.
"What am I going to do with you? You're nuts!"
"Ok you two, keep your hands to yourself!" Jesse walked up to the car shaking his head.
Billy smiled at him, "Man, you're just jealous cause I snatched her from you!"
"Shit, Billy you couldn't snatch a lolly pop from a baby, much less a woman from me!"
Aidain giggled, watching the two men arguing over her, ~ You'd think they were serious the way they were carrying on. They're both NUTS. ~
They piled into the cars, and rode the short distance back to the hotel. Aidan, after being escorted to her room by Billy and Jesse flopped down on the bed, mentally running over the information she had gathered. She picked up her laptop and started an email to Bryan, hoping he might have some insight that she was missing.
Brian,
There was another incident tonight, this one involved SC Steve Austin and his Personal Assistant/girlfriend. Apparently someone broke in and pretty much shredded everything in their dressing room. There was a message on the mirror that read "The Whore must die."
I took some pictures of the mess, as best as I could given the fact that there were about twenty other people in the room, and I'll send them to you as soon as I can get them downloaded into the computer.
Obviously whomever is behind this has some serious personal issues with the women. Based on what Vince has told me and what I saw tonight, all of the actual threats are aimed at the women. The destruction of the room and the sabatoge of the actual shows…that's different. It doesn't make sense that someone would be trying to destroy Vince's company simply because they didn't like the women that worked for the company.
Look over the pictures and let me know what you think.
Thanks
Aidan
Aidan had just finished the email, and hit the send button when she heard a knock at the door. She closed the laptop, hopped off the bed and opened the door.
"Leah, hi! What's up?"
Leah smiled and walked into the room, "Well, a bunch of us are getting ready to get some dinner and go out for a bit this evening. We thought you might want to come along."
"Oh, well, sure, that sounds like fun. Who all is going?"
"Well, I know the outlaws are coming, and I think pretty much all the other guys are coming. Lashana and Steve are finishing up answering some questions with Vince or she'd be down here getting you herself."
Aidan nodded, understanding that Vince was wanting to get all the information as soon as possible. She was sure that anything new he learned he would be sharing with her in the morning. She grabbed a brush and ran in through her hair, checked her make-up and followed Leah out the door to the lobby.
When they stepped off the elevator, she saw the Outlaws and Hunter waiting with Kane and Undertaker. Storm and Jakx joined them shortly, coming off the second elevator. "Aidan, I'm so glad you decided to join us." Jakx smiled at the new woman and then looked at the guys, "So…where are Lashana, Icey, Rip and Alex? I'm quite sure their men are not going to miss a night out partying…its not like we get this chance very often."
Taker draped his massive arm around the tiny woman's shoulders and grinned, "Oh, they'll be along shortly. I'm sure Vince is just about done with his questions, mostly because Austin will only sit still for that sort of thing for so long." The other guys chuckled, and just as he finished the statement, the elevator bell rang and the doors opened.