Amy Dumas was excited.  She was going to be making her debut on RAW, the WWF's biggest prime time TV show.  She had only started working for the company a week or so earlier and was nervous.

But the butterflies in her stomach were not just from jittery nerves, they were also from the delicious anticipation of being out there in front of "the thousands in attendance tonight and the millions watching at home" - as WCW and boxing announcer Michael Buffer always said.

After she finished lacing up her wrestling boots, she went out into the hall to wait for her friends Matt and Jeff Hardy.  They went back a few years, to their indy days together.  Amy was thrilled by the prospect of working in the same company with them again.  Maybe sometime in the future, they would all be able to work together as a team.

"Hey, Amy."  She looked up when she heard the voice.  It was Jeff, and she smiled as she met his merry green eyes.

"Hey, Jeff."  She reached out and ruffled his long hair, which was currently Manic Panic orange with slight traces of dark purple.  He ducked away from her playful hand and she laughed.  "Where's Matt?"

"Oh, he's talking with Drew - Test," he replied.  "They were discussing the storyline Drew's gonna be involved in real soon.  He'll catch up with us later."

"Okay, cool," Amy replied as they walked down the arena hallway together.  Jeff and Matt had together and separately been introducing her to wrestlers all week.  This evening, she would get to meet a lot more of their friends, since this was RAW, a much bigger show than the Sunday Night Heat taping she'd done the previous week.

"Come on," Jeff urged as he suddenly spotted a couple of friends she had yet to meet in the buffet room.

*

"Dude, this is going to be great," Jay Reso was saying to his best friend, Adam Copeland.  He shoved a forkful of broccoli in his mouth and gestured with his fork as he spoke.  "We always have fun wrestling against the Hardys.  I'm really looking forward to No Way Out."

"I know, but don't you think it's time they let us feud with another team, Jay?  It's always-"

"Well, speak of the devil..." Jay said, interrupting Adam, "...Well, one of them, at least."

Adam glanced over to where Jay was looking but was taken aback.  Beside their friend Jeff Hardy was a gorgeous redhead clad in a skintight red outfit - obviously her ringside attire for the night.  He let his eyes slowly scan her from head-to-toe and then back up again, drinking in her as she neared with Jeff.  Adam's mouth suddenly went dry, and he couldn't take his eyes off the young woman.

"Hey, Adam, Jay," Jeff chirped.  "I want you both to meet my friend Amy.  Expect to see a lot of cool action from her real soon."  He looked at the redhead with a grin.  "Amy, these are a couple of friends of mine and Matt's.  Jay and Adam."  He gestured from one to the other as he introduced them.

"Nice to meet you, Amy," Jay said warmly with a smile and a nod as he shook her hand.  "Welcome aboard."

"Thanks," Amy replied.  She turned to the taller of the two blond men.

"Hey," Adam said.  He felt slightly at a loss for words.  "Real nice to meet you."  He too shook hands with the newcomer.

Beside him, Jay was unable to stop grinning.  He had noticed Adam's inability to stop checking Amy out.

"Hey - Edge and Christian," Amy said with a smile that Adam noted went all the way up to her lovely eyes.  "You guys do some fantastic moves in the ring."

"Thanks...We try," Adam said, flashing her a toothy grin.  He had trouble shifting his eyes off her.  She was incredibly beautiful, and he stared directly into her deep hazel eyes.  She appeared to be completely unfazed by the intensity of his gaze, and in fact, Adam realized that she was looking at him just as intensely.

"Well," Jeff said after a few moments, "I've gotta get ready for our match..."  He was to be competing in a triple threat contest against Edge and D-Von Dudley - the winner and his tag team partner would go on to face the New Age Outlaws for the Tag Team titles at No Way Out, that month's pay-per-view event.  He gave Adam a meaningful look.  "...you're already dressed for it, but I'm still in my street clothes, as you can plainly see."

"Always one to be fashionably late, huh, Jeff?" Jay joked.

"Unfortunately...Well, I'm gonna grab some food and see you guys later, okay?"

"Okay, later, Jeff..."

Amy gave Jay and then Adam each a smile and wave in turn and then joined her friend by the buffet table.  Adam watched the redhead's every move, his emerald eyes drinking in her form appreciatively.  While he watched her grab a Granny Smith apple, he leaned in closer to his best friend.  "Looks like the WWF's newest femme fatale is nothing more than a pretty face and more T n' A," he said sotto voce.

"Excuse me???!"  Amy's face looked angry as she glared over at Adam, who was dumbfounded that she'd overheard him.

"How dare you!  You don't know a damn thing about me!" she shouted as she marched over to stand in front of him while she gave him a piece of her mind.  "You know what?" the young woman demanded, her voice rising with every word.

As Adam stared at her, he noted that her face was no less beautiful to him in her annoyance.

"I could say the same thing about you, pal...look at your pretty face!  Maybe you are nothing more than T n' A!  And at least I, unlike you, don't have blond hair to prove it!"  She cast one last furious look at him before pivoting and storming out and down the hall.

"Amy, wait!" Jeff called, watching after the angry redhead.  "That was just plain rude," he said, turning to glare at the taller blond.  "Way to make a good first impression, Adam!"  He ran out of the buffet room and took off after his friend.

Jay, who could no longer contain himself, burst out in hysterical laughter.  Adam turned to glare at him.  "What is your problem?"

"Oh, man!  She sure gave it to you - she threw all your sexist, stereotypical words right back at you!"  He covered his mouth with a hand in an attempt to stifle the uncontrollable laughter.

Adam was not amused.  "Aw, shut up!"  The truth was, he felt like complete shit for having said what he had.  He'd never intended for Amy to hear what he had said to Jay.

"Oh, God!  That blond crack she made was just hilarious!  She really got you with that one!"

"Umm...newsflash, Jay - you're blond, too!" Adam yelled as he cupped his hands around his mouth.

*

Amy was still fuming when Jeff finally caught up to her in the hallway.  The younger Hardy brother grabbed hold of her arm.  "Amy, hold up!"

"I can't believe the nerve of that...that...that blond bimbo!" she cried, gesturing wildly.  "I mean, this guy just met me!  He doesn't even know me, and he's already chalking me up to be-"

"Amy, forget about it," Jeff cut in.  "Adam's a good guy - he really is..."

"Yeah, You mean he isn't always a complete ass?"

"No...I promise," Jeff said, holding up one hand.  "I'm sure he'll apologize to you later."

Amy pouted as she listened to her friend's words.  She felt a myriad of emotions swirl through her at once, and not one of them was pleasant.  She'd been insulted and felt angry and hurt because of it.  She'd felt shocked as well, as the comments Adam had made had been totally unexpected.  She had no tolerance for that kind of nonsense - she'd been unjustly and completely wrongly assessed by someone she'd just met.  On top of all that, she felt horribly disappointed.  This Adam Copeland had so taken her breath away.  He was gorgeous, and she'd felt instantly attracted to him.  But those good looks had pretty much no longer mattered to her when he'd made those insulting remarks.  She actually felt like crying.

Amy wouldn't succumb to tears - not over something like this.  She sucked it all in and eyed Jeff, as they were suddenly in front of the locker room he was sharing with Matt.

"Are you okay, Ames?"

"Yeah...of course," she responded.  "Go get dressed...I'll see you later."  She marched down the hall in the direction they'd come, leaving Jeff staring after her with concern.

*

Later that night, Amy was back in her hotel room relaxing instead of out at a club with Matt, Jeff and a group of their friends.  She was pretty tired after her first RAW appearance, even though all she'd done was hurricanrana Crash Holly to the arena floor during Essa Rios' match.

Amy was just resting on the bed when she heard a knock at the door.  She looked up, wondering who could be paying her a visit - it certainly couldn't be Matt or Jeff - those two wouldn't be back from hanging out at a club as early as ten past eleven.  She set down the book she was reading to answer the door-

-and when she opened it, she was so surprised to see Adam Copeland, a single pink rose in hand, in her doorway.  His handsome face looked full of humility as he looked directly down into her eyes.  She forced herself to remember how the man had insulted and humiliated her only a few hours earlier.

"Yes?  May I help you?"  She rolled her eyes and attempted to close the door in his face.

Adam wedged his foot between the door and its jamb, literally preventing her from shutting him out.

"Amy...please," he said pleadingly.  "Please hear me out."

She opened the door just slightly wider and stared out at him impatiently, one hand resting on the edge of the door frame.

As Adam gazed at her, he noted that she seemed to be dressed cozily and casually, her red hair damp and piled on top of her head in a ponytail.  She was wearing a faded pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt with the band Tool's logo on it.  She wore no makeup and looked fresh-faced, and she smelled wonderful as Adam inhaled the scent of her shampoo.  He was happy to realize she was also a natural beauty.

"Well?" Amy demanded.  "I don't have all night..."

"I know," Adam said.  Nervously, he raked one hand through his mane of long golden hair, then looked her directly in the eye.  "I am so sorry about earlier tonight...it was stupid and presumptuous of me to say what I said - or to even think it."

The redhead's facial expression did not change one iota.

Adam suddenly became aware that he was still holding the rose.  He held it out to her.

"Here...this is for you."

Amy took it.  "Thank you."  She didn't move a muscle as she continued to glare at him.

Adam began to feel uncomfortable and even a bit stupid by her lack of response to his apology.  "Err...well, I just wanted you to know I'm sorry," he stammered.  "I really am sorry, and I promise I won't ever say anything like that about you again."

Amy continued to stare at him, unwavering for another moment, then finally sighed resignedly.  "Okay...apology accepted."

"So, will you forgive me?" Adam asked hopefully.

Amy turned her eyes back toward him and subtly took in his appearance.  He was wearing black jeans and a gray muscle T-shirt that clung to his chest and left nothing to her imagination.  Then again, she didn't have to imagine what that looked like, since, unlike Jay, he didn't wear a shirt in the ring.

Finally, she spoke.  "Okay...yeah, I forgive you."  She chased her words with a small grin.

Adam was glad to see a smile on the redhead's face - a smile that he'd caused to form, at that.

"Do you want to come in for awhile?" Amy asked as she pulled the door open a little wider.  "I wasn't doing anything - just reading."

The tall blond grinned at her.  "Sure...I'd like that."  He stepped in and she closed the door behind him.

Amy gestured to the small table one corner across the room, and Adam took the cue and sat down in one of the two matching chairs.  Instead of taking the other, the redhead seated herself primly on the edge of the bed and quietly eyed the man in her room.

"I saw what you did tonight out there during Rios' match - pretty cool."

"Thanks."

"Where did you learn to do the hurricanrana?" Adam inquired.  "I mean, usually when a woman in this company does that move, it's more or less really a Frankensteiner - the other person is sitting up on the turnbuckle, and then she climbs up after him and takes him down."

Amy wanted to interrupt him by rolling her eyes and saying, "I know the difference between a hurricanrana and a Frankensteiner," but she held her tongue.  After all, he'd been man enough and nice enough to apologize to her, so she felt she ought to be nice.  Instead, she rose and walked over to her suitcase, which was a few feet away from the bed.

"Hey, you want to see a really cool movie?"

Adam was confused.  He'd just asked her a question and she was ignoring him and avoiding answering.  Maybe she didn't know too much about wrestling after all.  Maybe his rude remark about her wasn't quite so off the mark.  He felt like a big jerk for thinking these things, but why else would she not respond?

"Yeah, sure...what movie do you have?"

Instead of replying, the redhead strode over to the TV and VCR, which were a couple of feet away from where Adam sat.  She turned the set on and popped the videotape in the player, then sat back down on the edge of her bed, eyes glued to the television.

Adam didn't know what to expect and was suddenly surprised when he realized this was a wrestling video.  A woman was in a ring against a man.  After a beat, he turned to stare at Amy with surprise.

"Hey - that's you!"

"That's right," Amy acknowledged as she shifted her eyes to meet his.  "And to spoil the surprise for you, I won that match."  As the blond continued to study her with awe, she explained, "I'm a trained wrestler.  I learned the basics with Matt and Jeff, which I'm sure they've told you, but it probably all went in one ear and out the other.  Later, when I received formal training, I learned from Dory Funk's wrestling school - along with twenty-six men.  I was the only girl in my class."

"Really?" Adam asked, his jaw dropped.  "Wow!"  He laughed sardonically.  "Jeez, I sure had you all wrong tonight.  Again, I'm really sorry for being such an ass."

Amy laughed heartily.  She realized it was the first time since he'd come that she felt truly comfortable in his presence.  "Good thing you didn't have a bet going with your friend Jay.  You'd have lost!"  She tucked a stray lock of auburn behind one ear.

Adam laughed along with her.  He realized he loved the sound of her laughter.  Was it possible that he and this beautiful young woman could become friends after all?  He certainly hoped so.

They continued watching the video, which was a compilation mostly of Amy's earlier matches, including a couple of which from when she was still only training.  Adam was simply in awe of this beautiful, amazing woman.  She could perform just about any move he or any male wrestler in the WWF did on a regular basis.  And here, he'd thought that Chyna was the only legit female wrestler in this company.  He had a feeling that Amy had a lot more in her than what was captured on this tape.

"Wow," Adam breathed as the tape came to an end after showing a clever succession of clips of Amy performing the moonsault.  "You're really amazing, Amy, absolutely ama-"

Adam cut his own sentence short as he suddenly noticed that the redhead was sound asleep, curled up in the fetal position on the right side of the bed.  He smiled and tiptoed silently to the TV and VCR and shut them both off.  Afterward, he moved closer to the bed and gently rearranged the blanket somewhat so that it was covering Amy.  He dared to place one hand softly on her head and smoothed a lock of her auburn hair away from her face.

"Goodnight, Amy."

After that, he crept quietly to the door and let himself out.