DISTRIBUTION: Flights of Fancy, WWF_DivaSlash
DISCLAIMER: Vince and company own pretty much everything but the intellectual idea is all mine.
SUMMARY: Molly reconsiders...
Amy stalked into the women’s dressing room, a set look on her face. She didn’t look like a happy camper, then again, she hadn’t looked like a happy camper since her break up with Stephanie. That had been dramatic to say the least. Steph, showing her possessive side, had always bitched about the time her girlfriend spent with Jeff and Matt, especially when the trio traveled together. Naturally, Amy had defended herself, assuring her girlfriend that nothing was going on between her and either Hardys. But Stephanie hadn’t believed her and had given Amy an ultimatum. Hardys or her.
Chyna smiled at her red-haired friend and Amy offered a weak smile in return. The younger woman’s heartbreak had apparently squeezed all the life and energy out of her. Steph’s ultimatum had torn her apart. But she’d chosen her friends, knowing that if Stephanie couldn’t trust her about Jeff and Matt, there would be someone else down the line she wouldn’t be able to trust her with.
“How are you surviving?” Chyna asked her.
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“Looks like it.”
“Well, it’s like this,” Amy said, “I feel kind of like an alcoholic going to AA meetings, only there’s no support group, no meetings, no little tag to say I’ve been without for thirty days or sixty days, no sponsors, just me telling myself I can do this and I take it one day at a time.”
“Barrels of fun, isn’t it?”
“It’s true. You’ve been through it too.”
“Not really. Mine was more of an unrequited love thing.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s easier.”
“Hell no it isn’t.”
“So how do you manage?”
Just then, Lillian came in, her garment bag over her shoulder. She stopped for a few moments to talk with Jackie and Ivory before spotting Chyna and Amy and waving at both of them.
“She helps,” Chyna said, grinning back at an approaching Lillian.
“Yeah, I suppose she does. But doesn’t she have a thing for Steph?”
“Well, that’s not for me to say.”
“Come on Chy,” Amy said, “I’ve seen her look at her.”
“Hey chickies,” Lillian said, giving Amy a quick hug and pecking Chyna’s mouth. “What’s up?”
“You like Steph, right?”
Lillian’s eyes went wide in shock at Amy’s very direct question. Looking surprised, she sat down next to Amy and ran a hand through her long hair.
“Shows, huh?”
“When you’re looking for it, yeah.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“Hey, I understand. I’m in love with her myself. It’s just… I was curious and Chy wouldn’t tell me.”
“It’s ok. I don’t know if I really care if anyone knows how I feel. She doesn’t know, she doesn’t notice.”
“She noticed,” Amy chuckled. “She was flattered.”
“She was?”
“Yeah. It’s always nice to know someone out there loves you.”
“I don’t know if it’s love,” Lillian whispered. “I know I’m totally hot for her body and I think she’s an amazing person. For now, let’s just say I’m definitely infatuated with her.”
“That’s how it always begins,” Chyna said with a smile as Molly came into the dressing room, her large bag over her shoulder. “And before you know it, BAM! It’s love and there’s no way out.”
“You make love sound like a trap,” Amy said.
“Well, look at you and Steph. You were in love with her and she was in love with you, right? But then, she gave you that ultimatum and you were trapped. Either you maintained that friendship with guys who know and care about you, who love you like a sister, or you gave that up for a woman who wanted to control your life. Tell me you weren’t trapped.”
Amy didn’t say anything but she did sigh and lean back against the cold brick wall behind the bench where they all three were sitting.
“Not like I’m much better off,” Chyna went on. “I love Molly but she only sees me as a friend and I’m, for all intents and purposes, trapped in that role as long as I love her. And I’m forcing Lillian into that trap because I can’t love her like she needs it.”
“Damn, we are a sad bunch, aren’t we,” Amy chuckled lightly.
“Are we ever.”
“You know, if they were to recast us a movie, it’d have to be Wizard of OZ,” Lillian sighed. “We all need a wizard to make us feel better.”
“I’ll be the Cowardly Lion,” Chyna volunteered, “since I never had the guts to tell Molly how I really felt.”
“I’ll be the Tin Man,” Amy added, “cause I didn’t have the heart to lose touch with my boys.”
“And I’ll be the Scarecrow… what did he want anyway?”
“Damn if I know… heart, courage and Dorothy wanted to go home… what else is there?”
“A brain!” Amy said triumphantly. “Lillian, you feeling a little light up top?”
“Hey, not funny! I’m gonna shove you off the yellow brick road!”
“Are we playing Wizard of Oz trivia?” Molly asked, joining them, a smile on her face and her hair in pigtails.
Laughing, Amy, Chyna and Lillian looked at each other before pointing to Molly: “DOROTHY!”
“Huh?”
“We’re recasting Wizard of Oz,” Lillian said. “Chy wants to be the Cowardly Lion, Amy’s the Tin Man, I’m the Scarecrow and you’re the perfect Dorothy?”
“I look that innocent?”
“Sure do.”
“That’s cool… as long as we cast Tori as the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“Done… and Mick as the Wizard?”
“Linda as Auntie Em?”
“Vince as Uncle Henry?”
“Trish as Glinda?”
“The Dudleyz, Tazz and Heyman as the flying monkeys?”
“And everyone else as munchkins?”
“Works for me!”
The four women laughed together and Molly sat on the floor, looking up at Chyna. The dark-haired Amazon was humming the first bars to the Yellow Brick Road song, an arm loosely wrapped around Lillian’s shoulders. Amy saw the look on Molly’s face and tilted her head to the side, wondering if the light in Molly’s eyes really meant what she thought it meant.
Just then, Molly caught Amy’s rather focused stare and she blushed to a dull red. She jumped to her feet and brushed invisible specks of dirt from her rounded bottom.
“I have to go,” she said quickly, “I was supposed to meet with Crash and Bob and you know Bob, he’s just not going to understand why playing around with characters from Wizard of Oz could explain my being late.”
“Sure…” Chyna said as Molly all but ran out of the dressing room. “Wonder what crawled up her butt.”
Amy was on the verge of saying that Chyna was the thing that had crawled up her butt when Tori came into the dressing room. Without saying anything to anyone, she grabbed her bag and rushed out of the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the door in surprise. Stephanie came through it a few minutes later, her face so set she could have sat down and conned Bradshaw and Farooq of their hard-earned money at a poker game.
“We had to let Tori go,” she said simply. “We don’t have a storyline for her right now and when we offered her a job as a trainer in OVW, she turned us down. I wish we could have come to an agreement but she chose to quit.”
That being said, Chyna leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to pretend she was glad to be rid of Tori but this was major. And try as she might, she just couldn’t wipe the silly grin off her face.
Ding dong, her heart sang, the bitch is dead
For the rest of the night, between matches, everyone talked about how Tori had quit. Rumors flew backstage, some saying that the Hollys had pressured Vince to get rid of her, threatening to walk out if Tori stayed. Others thought it was Chyna who had given her bosses an ultimatum. But deep down, everyone knew the ugly truth. Tori had been in contract negotiations with the WWF and they weren’t willing to give her the money she wanted. And according to a few people, she’d already made a verbal agreement with Russo to participate to an Australian tour he was planning.
After her interference in a match which had Ivory going up against Trish for the no. 1 contendership for her women’s belt, Chyna was walking backstage when she heard Spike Dudley and Jeff Hardy talking in hushed tones.
“I feel kind of bad about telling Vince about Tori’s deal with Russo but she was totally planning on selling us out to him.”
“Selling us out how?” Jeff asked.
“Truth? You promise you won’t tell.”
“Come on Spike. This is me! Of course I won’t tell. Now spill it.”
“Don’t ask me how but she managed to get her hands on JR’s password and she was going to copy his files and hand them to Russo.”
“You’re shitting me!”
“I wish! From what Shane said, they caught her in the act.”
“Fucking bitch!”
“Well, considering how she treated Chyna and Molly lately, I’d say she just got what she deserved.”
“Oh yeah. Just rewards.”
Oh yeah, Chyna thought as she walked away, shaking her head in dismay, definitely just rewards. She couldn’t believe Tori had been that willing to bite the hand that had given her so much but some people just didn’t get how lucky they were until they’d lost everything. And in her mind, losing Molly and her WWF contract would pretty much equate to losing everything. All I can hope for is that Tori appreciates how good life was to her until she decided to fuck it all up. If not, then what she’s getting is definitely her just reward.