My Number One Fan

“You could be,” Jeff said. “ But you’ve always been like that. You do what you want.” I groaned and sat back on the bed as a knock sounded at the door. Jeff stood up and looked through the peephole. He stood back as he opened the door, revealing Matt, Dad and Shawn in the doorway.
“Hey, we heard people complaining of a woman screaming in here.” Dad said, walking in. “What happened?”
“Nightmare,” I muttered, sitting up to face them.
“That bad?” Matt asked
“Guy next door came over and told me we’d better cut back on the sexual activities we’re in here doing or else he’ll report us to the manager.” Jeff replied.
“Was that the guy you was talking to?” I asked. He nodded.
“Yeah, I told him to go fuck a pigeon to get religion and slammed the door in his face.” Jeff replied, shrugging.
“Very nice Jeff.” Shawn said, rolling his eyes.
“Well, I was woken up, I’m a little hung over, he’s trying to start crap, and all the while my wife’s in the bed shaking, terrified because of a dream. Not putting up with it.”
“I didn’t say anything, just said very nice.” Shawn defended himself.
“Are you okay Riley?” Matt asked, stopping Jeff from arguing further.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “There was a part where you and Shawn started talking to me about taking breaks. You said I was basically over working myself. I think I am.”
“You are,” Dad said. “You’re slaving for McMahon, along with everything at home. I think you should go work on stuff there, and just get away from the stresses this job causes.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m just confused right now,” I said suddenly. “What part was the dream?”
“What are you talking about?” Jeff asked, confused.
“It seemed so real, I have no idea what part the dream was, and what part was real.” I said.
“Go get Jason or Adam,” Dad said to Matt. We were quiet while he was gone.
“They’re rooming this week so I got them together,” Matt said when he walked back into the room. Adam and Jason walked in at the same time.
“Finally get to sleep?” Jason asked, smirking at me.
“You saw me before I went to bed?” I asked him.
“Adam, Phil and I all three did. You went into the weight room because you couldn’t sleep and did want to disturb Jeff. You told us about some woman who was claiming to be your grandmother, and we were talking about how overprotective Matt and Jeff can be of you. You storm out and that’s all we remember.”
“You think we’re overprotective?” Jeff asked, looking over at me. I gave him an impatient look and turned back to Jason.
“So, Matt and Shawn didn’t come in?” I asked. They both shook their heads no.
“You must have passed out in the hallway and someone found you and brought you up to bed.” Jeff said as a knock came from the door.
“Someone did find her,” the person said. “I did.” I looked up and it was Randy. “I was on my way to my room and found her in the hall. I got a housekeeper to open the door to the room and put her in here.”
“Okay,” I said. I looked down, and finally realized I was in the outfit from the dream. White shorts and a black t-shirt. I rubbed my hands over my eyes, taking in a deep breath.
“You know, I need more than just a break.” I said finally. “I’ve been having nightmares like that since I was a kid. I think I need therapy.”
“Well, the company psychiatrist is in the hotel,” Dad said. “You can talk to her later, see what she thinks.”
“No, I just need to go home, take a break, and see someone close to home.” I said. “I’m going to McMahon in the morning to tell him.”
“Okay,” Jeff said, rubbing my back. Everyone left the room, going back to their own.
“I won’t be able to get back to sleep after that,” I told Jeff.
“I know sweetie.” he said.
“I’m going to go take a bath.” I informed him. He nodded as I got up and grabbed a change of clothing. I also grabbed my mp3 player and a book. Jeff knew then I was planning on being a while. I’ll probably have to reheat the water with how long I’m planning on staying in there. I filled the tub with very hot water and quickly undresses, getting in with the water still running. The heat helped my muscles relax, which felt great. I turned the music on and put it to a song that people would consider noise, but I thought was a work of genius. I opened the book and picked up where I left off, bobbing my head along with the beat of the song playing.
I stayed in the bath so long, the water was ice cold by the time I got out. I quickly dressed and looked at the clock. 7 in the morning. Vince was already up and down in breakfast. He always left before everyone. Jeff was sleeping in the bed, but he didn’t look to be in a full sleep. I quietly left the room and went down to the breakfast room. Vince was sitting by himself.
“Mr. McMahon,” I said, walking up to him.
“Riley, have a seat.” McMahon said.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” I said. He nodded and took a bite of his eggs. “I was wondering if I could take a vacation. I need a break and there’s just a lot going on.”
“I heard about the incident last night,” Vince said. “The nightmare that woke up half the hotel.” I just picked at my fingernails. “I’ll grant you the leave, as long as you get help with those nightmares.”
“I was planning on it anyway,” I replied. “I’ve been having them since I was a kid and I just can’t think of why I have them.”
“Well, just get them worked out.” he said. I nodded and stood.
“Thank you,” I said before walked away. I passed the gym room and noticed someone was in there. I glancing in and it was Dave Bautista, more known with his last named spelled Batista. He looked up and saw me standing there.
“Hey, I heard you screaming last night.” Dave said, walking out of the room.
“Is my scream that noticeable?” I asked, exasperated.
“Not really, I was just in the room next to you. I was the one Jeff cussed out last night.”
“Oh, sorry about that.” I said.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I was an ass, I deserved it. So what are you up to?”
“Heading back to the room.” I answered.
“You look tired.”
“I wasn’t able to sleep after the nightmare,” I explained. He nodded.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” he said. I nodded and walked down the hall toward the elevators. When I got back into the room, Jeff was awake.
“Talk to McMahon?” He asked when I walked in.
“Yeah, I’m going home.” I told him. “I’m just going to stay with my aunt and uncle.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” He replied. He grabbed my hand as I sat down next to him. “The test begins.” he muttered.
“Yep, we’ll get to see what it’s like to be separate while one of us is on tour.” I said.
“We managed before the marriage, we can survive this.” he said. “I just want you to finally be done with those nightmares.”
“Me too,” I said. “One good thing was you didn’t go anywhere. You were right beside me almost the whole time.”
“And it’ll be that way for a long time,” Jeff said, wrapping his arms around me. I leaned against him with my head on his shoulder.
“I better go tell Matt, Shawn and Dad.” I said after a while. “You have to get ready to head to the show, Mr. WWE Champion.” I looked over the dresser where the title was laying.
“Yeah, I thought you’d be here with me during my reign.” he said, rubbing my knee.
“I’ll be back before you lose it.” I assured him.
“You better be,” he growled, burying his face behind my ear. “Ugh, lets start getting ready. We’re heading to the airport together, so we’ll separate there.”
“Fine by me,” I said, standing up. When my stuff was packed, I walked out of the room and down the hall to Dad’s room.
“Hey shorty.” he said when he answered the door. “What’s going on?”
“I’m going home,” I told him. “McMahon granted me leave so I’m going home to work things out, and also to see a therapist on my nightmares.”
“Good,” Dad said. “Maybe something from your past that you can’t remember is causing all of this.”
“Most of them surrounds abandonment,” I said. “Maybe the social working leaving me was what triggered them, or mom dying and her family not wanting me.”
“Could be, but we’ll leave that to the professionals.” Dad said. “You going to the airport with us?”
“Yeah, I was going to go tell Matt as well.” I said. Dad nodded, and stood up.
“Well, see you in a few kiddo. Did you call your aunt and uncle yet?”
“I did on my way back to the room.” I told him. He nodded again. I left his room and went next door, Matt and Shawn’s room. Shawn answered the door.
“Matt up?” I asked him.
“Shower,” he said. “He takes longer to get ready than my wife.” he grumbled. I laughed as Matt walked out of the bathroom.
Are you talking about me?” he asked, walking toward his bags.
“Why would you think that?” I asked in a mock-hurt tone. He glared at me before returning to his bag. “I actually came in here to let you know I’m going home. I’m going to check on things with the house.”
“There’s more,” Matt said. “You’re going to get help with the nightmares.” I nodded.
“I’m tired of them Matt,” I said. “I wake myself up with them. I wake Jeff up with them. I know I’ve woken you and Mandy up a few times, and they keep getting worse.”
“How often do you have them?” Shawn asked, confused. “I mean I know from your Dad you have pretty vivid dreams, but I don’t know the extent.”
“Just recently they started getting more often and more terrible.” I said. “Last night was the 4th one I had this week.”
“Wow, you do need to go talk to someone then,” Shawn replied.
“I know,” I said, sighing. “I just want them to end.”
“Well, good luck sis. I hope you get better with them.” Matt said, hugging me.
“Me too,” I replied.

~The next day~
“Morning Riley,” Aunt Marylyn said as I walked into the living room.
“Hi,” I said, running into the kitchen. I grabbed and apple from the bowl on the table. “I’ll see you later,” I said.
“Where you goin’? Uncle Paul asked.
“To check on things with the house,” I replied. “Then I have an appointment in Raleigh.”
“Okay, be careful dear.” Marylyn said. I nodded and rushed out of the house, jumping into my new car. The dealership finally gave me a new one a week ago, and my old car was destroyed from the fire 6 months ago. I drove to the street and halfway to Gilbert’s property before turning, where Dad’s house and mine and Jeff’s house shared a driveway. I took it all the way back and stopped the car, staring in amazement. The house was coming along great. They had the framing up and it looked like they were doing electrical and plumbing, getting ready for the drywall. I got out of the car and walked up to a man wearing a white hard hat.
“Excuse me miss, this is a hard hat zone.” he said when I walked up to him.
“I’m Riley Hardy,” I said, introducing myself.
“Oh, Mrs. Hardy,” he said. “I’m Brandon, I’m the contractor. Let’s get you a hat and I’ll tell you what’s been going on.” I walked with him and put the hat on, following him around the base of the frame.
“Now, like requested, the old house is still over there, but we worked on the driveway and made it go more this way.” Brandon said. I nodded, seeing it right away. “We’ve just finished putting up the framing, we’re just working on dry walling and the electrical and plumbing, then it’ll just be minor details from then on.”
“I hope one of the minor details is a roof,” I said, looking at the hole at the top.
“It’s high up on our list of priorities.” Brandon relied. I nodded, knowing the house would actually look nice when it was done.
“Well, I’ll be on my way. I’m home for now, so if there’s anything, call me.” I informed Brandon. He nodded and went back to work. I got back into the car and left, making the nearly hour drive to Raleigh. I had called around last night until I found a therapist who seemed sensible. I had an appointment with her this morning, sort of a preliminary test. I found the building and started to pull in as someone pulled out in front of me, forcing me to slam the breaks to avoid collision. Cursing the driver, I pulled into the parking lot and made my way inside.
“Riley Hardy here for an appointment with Dr. Grace.” I said to a woman behind the counter. She nodded and picked up a phone. She gave the doctor the information, and nodded as she hung up the phone.
“She’s ready for you.” the woman said. “Hang on, Riley Hardy, you wouldn’t happen to be the very Riley Hardy from WWE would you?”
“Yeah, actually I am, but I’m just here to get some help.” I started walking into the room when I stopped. “Please don’t let anyone know I’m in here.” I said. She nodded and I walked into the doctor’s office.
“Ms. Hardy, how lovely to see you.” Dr. Grace said.
“It’s Mrs. Hardy actually. I’m married.” I informed her. It was still crazy telling people that, even after 7 months, but I was getting used to it. “But you can call me Riley please.”
“Okay Riley.” Dr. Grace said. “What seems to be going on?”
“A lot.” I replied. “To be able to understand fully, you’ll have to hear the whole story.”
“Go on ahead.” she said.
“Well, when I was 6, my mother died. I never knew my father, and her family wouldn’t take me in. I was in an orphanage until they could locate my father or someone from his family. The closest relative they found was my aunt and uncle here in North Carolina, Cameron to be exact. Well, they sent me with a social worker, and I don’t know I guess she was getting tired of driving me because she stopped in the middle of nowhere, told me to keep going a certain direction and left, leaving me to find my own way.”
“Your social worker abandoned you, right when you were getting ready to meet strangers?” Dr. Grace asked. I nodded. “And all this happened after you get abandoned by your own family. How long was this after your mother died?”
“About 2 weeks,” I replied. “She was really sick. I don’t really remember a lot because it was so long ago and another reason I’ll get into later. Well, I get to a driveway, and I can’t go on anymore. I’m exhausted, hungry, weak. I can’t go on, so I collapse on the driveway. A voice wakes me up suddenly, and it’s a boy my age, almost literally.”
“Who was the boy?” the woman asked.
“He lived in the house where I collapsed, but he later becomes my best friend. Now he’s my husband.” I explained. “He told me I was on his driveway, and I was so embarrassed I ran. I ended up on another sidewalk when he found me, but we didn’t go to far. It was the house I was looking for. My aunt and uncle’s house. Jeff, my husband. His father informed my uncle what was going on, so they took us in.”
“Did you find your father?” Dr. Grace asked. I nodded.
“Two years after I got there. He was still in school, so he couldn’t take time away.” I informed her.
“Your father was still in school, high school?”
“No, college. He was 16 when I was born.” I replied. “He wasn’t ready to be a father, especially to a 6-7 year old, and I know to an 8-9 year old girl. So he left me with my aunt and uncle. They raised me and took care of me.”
“So, your father basically abandoned you as well.” Dr. Grace tried to clear up.
“Not exactly. See, he’s a professional wrestler, so he was working on getting his career started out as well.”
“Wrestling seems to be a major theme around your file.” Dr. Grace said suddenly, looking down at a manilla folder. “You’re a wrestler, along with your father, husband and brother in law. Has that impacted your life in anyway?”
“Only a lot,” I replied. “the first thing that happened was I was dating Jeff, and we were at a hotel. He answered the door and was hiding something. It was a girl. At first I thought he was cheating on me, so I ran. I left the company, I left NC and I moved to Texas. I was there for about 8 years, until I got an invitation from our boss Vince McMahon. Every Christmas for a while they went overseas to do a tribute show for the Troops. I was invited to go along, but it was really a secret way of getting me and Jeff back together, which it started working.”
“Until…” Dr. Grace prompted when I stopped.
“Until a guy interrupted our match,” I replied. “He came up behind me with a chair and hit me in the head. I suffered severe head trauma and was rushed to a Russian Hospital. The head injury caused me to get amnesia, so for the longest time I walked around not knowing who I or anyone was. I had no idea where I was. I was just lost.”
“Okay, so to the reason you’re here.” Dr. Grace said.
“For years I’ve been having nightmares. They either revolve around my husband not being there for me, or just a couple nights ago I had one where I was bleeding out, you know, down there. I was in so much pain and was just, bleeding out and no one could help me.” Tears started rolling from my eyes as I recalled the dream. “Every one of them keep getting worse and worse.”
“It’s okay Riley, I’m here to help you.” Dr. Grace said, handing me a box of tissue.
“I’m not meaning anything by this, but I just want, no, I need to know, are you going to be here with me every step of the way? I don’t want to form a trust with someone if they’re just going to leave me high and dry.”
“I can tell you’re a really sweet person, and you didn’t deserve to go through anything you was put through. I’ll be here for you 100 percent.” Dr. Grace answered. “So, what we’re going to do is schedule a sleep study on you, see how active your brain gets while you sleep, and if you have a nightmare if it’s something physically neurological rather than psychological. If it turns out to be psychological, we’ll go from there. If it’s physical, than I’m no help to you, but I’ll recommend you to the best in the field, and walk you through the process every step of the way.”
“Thank you,” I said. We scheduled the study for that night. The sooner it got done the better. I pulled out my phone as I walked to my car, noting the time in the time zone WWE was in. He would be in the hotel or out running around with Matt. I dialed his number and pressed send.
“Hey sexy,” he answered. “Miss me already?”
“Oh you know it,” I replied, unlocking my car and sliding in. I turned the car on, but didn’t move. I don’t talk while I’m driving. “What are you up to?”
“Oh, I went out last night and got drunk with Matt. If you find another woman’s panties in my bag, don’t worry about them I’m sure they’re the stripper’s.” I laughed and shook my head.
“You’re a goof,” I said. “So I just wanted to let you know that you won’t be able to get a hold of me tonight if you try to.”
“Why not? Got a secret lover up there already?” Jeff asked teasingly. I chuckled, but stopped quickly.
“No, I’m having a sleep study done.” I answered him.
“Oh, really?” He responded, all joking out of the way. “You went to a therapist already?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “She’s going to see if the problem is physical or psychological, and the sleep study will test that.”
“Oh, and it’s tonight?”
“Yep, the sooner the better.” I answered.
“Well, call me tomorrow and let me know what’s going on okay?” Jeff replied.
“I will, but I doubt I’ll have the results of the test by then.” I said, leaning my head against the steering wheel. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long process.”
“Don’t worry if it is,” Jeff said. “I just want you better, and if it takes a long time, then so be it.”
“I love you,” I muttered, my voice cracking.
“I love you too.” he answered. “Please, don’t cry, you know I can’t stand it when you do.”
“I know.” I replied.
“So, what are you doing?” he asked, trying to change the subject.
“Sitting in the car, getting ready to leave.” I said. “I’m going to go home and tell Paul and Marylyn what happened, then go check on Lucas, Whitey, Little Man, and Brownie,” I replied. “I checked on the house this morning.”
“Really? How’s it lookin?” Jeff asked.
“The frames up, they just have to add electric, plumbing, air, heat, and drywall. Then do the inside details.”
“So they still have a lot of work to do?” Jeff replied, sighing.
“Yeah, but they still got a lot done as well.” I said, trying to cheer him up.
“You know what we’re going to do when the house is finished, with furniture and everything?” he asked me suddenly.
“What?” I couldn’t help but to giggle.
“We’re going to break in the new house.” he replied, his voice going low.
“Why, Mr. Hardy,” I said in a thick southern accent. “I do declare your tryin’ to seduce me.”
“Well, I do declare it sounds like it’s workin’ ma’am,” he replied in a similar accent.
“Hey, I’m gonna get off here and hit the road,” I said after our minute of laughing.
“Okay sweetie, I love you. Be safe.” Jeff replied.
“Love you, and you too.” I said before hanging up the phone. I sighed and pulled out of the parking lot, heading home.