Tumors And Hearts

Xx-nikki-xX

I walked into the Impact Zone the next morning with AJ Styles, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to on the plane ride down to Florida. We had become pretty good friends and actually ended up riding together to Universal Studios.

AJ bid me goodbye and left to talk to Dixie and Terry about the show tonight. I kept walking in the direction of the locker rooms when I ran into Shannon and Jesse.

“We’ve been looking for you.” Jesse said smiling. “We wanted to give you this.”

Shannon held out an Ink Inc shirt.

“Thanks.” I said taking it.

We brushed fingers and I quickly looked down at my feet, trying to hide that I was blushing.

“Ready to be our manager?” Jesse asked, hopefully oblivious to what just happened.

I looked up and glanced at Shannon. His cheeks were a little red too.

“I think so.” I said turning to Jesse. “What do I do?”

“Just stand there and look pretty basically.” he said.

“That might be a little hard for me.” I said mentally comparing how I look now to how I used to look before the tumor.

“What are you talking about?” Shannon asked. “You’re hot!”

I felt my cheeks heat up, and knew I was blushing. “Th-thanks.” I said looking down at my feet again.

“You’ll do fine Nikki, don’t worry.” Jesse said clapping me on the shoulder. “There’s just one thing.”

“What?” I asked looking up again.

“You can’t be in Ink Inc and not have any tattoos.” he said smiling. “We’re gonna need to fix that.”

“How?”

“I can help you there.” Shannon said whipping out a bunch of different colored Sharpies.

x-later-x

I walked slowly to the entrance place for the wrestlers as Shannon continued to draw all over me.

Angelina Love and Madison Rayne had a non-title match right now. When it was over Ink Inc had their match against the Motor City Machine Guns.

“Are you done yet?” I asked Shannon.

“Almost.” he said staring at my arm in concentration. “I still need to finish the one on your stomach.”

Jeff showed up a few minutes later and handed me a red sharpie. “Tattoos look good on you.” he said smiling.

“Thanks.” I said as he walked away. “I actually really like them.”

Shannon capped the black Sharpie and I handed him the red one. He knelt down next to me, had me lift up my shirt, and started working on the “tattoo” he had started on earlier. It was a gas mask almost exactly like the one on the back of Shannon’s hand.

I giggled as he started shading in part of the mask; my stomach was really ticklish.

“Try not to laugh.” Shannon said.

“Sorry.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. I tried to ignore the tickling feeling and concentrated on something else. I settled on Shannon, he was interesting enough. I stared at his face, memorizing every detail of it I could.

“Done.” he finally said a few minutes later.

He stood up and put the cap back on the Sharpie. I looked down at my stomach and smiled.

“It’s amazing.” I said fixing my shirt so it was visible.

“Thanks.” he said. “Jeff’s right. You should get some real tattoos when you come down to North Carolina.”

“When?” I said raising one of my eyebrows.

Shannon’s face turned red. “Well… I… I meant… if… you…”

“Will you be the one to do them?” I asked smiling.

“If you want me too.” he said smiling back.

We were close. Really close. If either of us moved an inch we would be kissing.

Shannon looked like he was considering it, but thought better of it when Manda, Alex, Chris, and Jesse all seemed to pop up out of nowhere at once.

“Ready to hate each other?” Manda asked.

I quickly took a step back and turned to face them.

“Of course!” I said going over to stand next to her. “Bitch, you’re going down!”

“Oh, I don’t think so!” she said lightly shoving me.

Angelina’s music started playing and a few minutes later she and Madison came backstage. There was a quick commercial break and then Ink Inc’s music started playing throughout the Impact Zone.

I took a deep breath before heading out with Shannon and Jesse.

“Introducing at this time,” Jeremy Borash said as we made our way to the ring. “The team of Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal, accompanied to the ring by Nicolette – Ink Inc!”

We made it to the ring and our music died down. It was replaced with the MCMG’s music and they came out a few seconds later with Manda.

“And now, introducing their opponents, the team of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, accompanied to the ring by Fallon Chase, they are the TNA Tag Team champions – the Motor City Machine Guns!”

The Impact Zone cheered loudly as the three of them climbed into the ring. Manda walked by me and rammed into my shoulder. I went after her and got all up in her face. It turned into a bit of a shoving fight and I had to try really hard not to laugh as we made it clear we didn’t like each other.

I felt Jesse wrap his arms around my middle at about the same time Alex grabbed Manda. We were both hauled out of the ring as the bell sounded.

I couldn’t help it. I really got into the match. I even climbed in the ring and yelled at the ref when he was yelling at Alex and failed to see that Shannon had Chris pinned.

“COME ON SHANNON!” I suddenly yelled, making Jesse jump.

He managed to get out of the submission hold Alex had him in and run to our corner of the ring. He tagged in an eagerly waiting Jesse and crawled out of the ring.

“Are you okay?” I asked, remembering earlier in the match when it looked like he had actually hurt himself.

“Yeah.” Shannon said slowly rotating his shoulder. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

I turned back to the ring and continued watching the match.

A few minutes later I caught Manda’s eyes across the ring. Both of us were eagerly waiting for our sign from Jesse for what the two of us had planned. We didn’t really tell the guys what we were going to do; we just told Jesse to make sure he tried to Spear someone.

I watched him pull and Irish Whip on Chris and fling him into one of the corners of the ring. He was getting ready to Spear him when Manda climbed up on the apron behind Chris. I climbed up on the apron with Shannon and we yelled at the ref as Manda tried to flirt with Jesse to give Chris time to get up.

“And it looks like Nicolette isn’t too happy about this.” I heard Taz say from the commentary table.

I jumped down from my place on the apron next to Shannon and ran over to Manda. I quickly knocked her feet out from under her and she fell down to the ground outside the ring.

She jumped to her feet as I started to walk back to Ink Inc’s side of the ring. She grabbed my shoulder and whipped me around to face her again. She punched me in the face and I tackled her to the ground. We started rolling around outside the ring while the match was still going on in the ring. Pretty soon we actually had a bit of an audience; the commentators even seemed to have temporarily forgotten about the match.

I knee’d Manda in the stomach and jumped to my feet. While she was lying on the ground, groaning in pain, I look a chance to see what was going on in the actual match. I looked up in time to see Alex and Chris pull one of their signature moves on Jesse and Alex pinned him for the full three-count.

By then, Manda was up and we started fighting again as the MCMG’s music started playing throughout the cheering Impact Zone. I tackled her to the ground again and started punching her repeatedly when Shannon and Chris pulled us apart.

Chris dragged Manda away from me and backstage, with Alex by their side.

“This isn’t over!” she screamed as Chris, and now Alex, continued to pull her.

Shannon finally let go of me when he was sure they were gone and we headed backstage with Jesse.

x-later-x

The show ended about an hour ago. I already changed and was ready to leave. I was waiting on Manda, who had offered to drive me to the airport before heading to the hotel. I wasn’t staying in Orlando overnight because I had a doctor’s appointment for my tumor the next morning.

“All right, let’s go.” Manda said coming out of the bathroom.

I grabbed my bag and said bye to all the Knockouts that were still in the locker room before leaving.

“Too bad you can’t stay.” Manda said as we made our way out of the Impact Zone. “A bunch of us are going out for drinks again.”

“I wish I could.” I said.

Is it bad that I was only thinking of Shannon?

Speak of the devil, we ran into him, Jeff, and Ken just outside the doors to the building.

“Leaving so soon?” Ken asked.

“Yeah,” Manda said adjusting the bag on her shoulder. “I gotta get Nikki to the airport before her flight leaves.”

“You’re not staying?” Shannon asked.

I shook my head no.

“I was hoping we could hang out tonight.” he said blushing a little.

“Sorry.” I said. I really didn’t want to leave now. “I… my sister’s flying out early to see me tomorrow... and I have to get ready tonight… I can’t cancel on her… cause I’ve already had to do that a few times…”

Manda gave me a weird look and I pleaded with my eyes that she not call me out on my lie.

“Oh…” Shannon said.

“I have an idea!” Manda said suddenly. “Since Shannon wants to hang out with you, why doesn’t he drive you to the airport? You guys can spend at least a little bit of time together that way.”

I looked at Shannon who smiled. “I’d love too.” he said. “If that’s alright with you, Nikki.”

“Of course.” I said smiling back.

He offered me his arm. I looped my own through his and he led me to the rental car he and Jeff had used earlier.

The drive to the airport seemed to take no time at all. But then, what is it they say? I guess time flies when you’re having fun.

We made it to the airport about an hour before my flight was supposed to leave. Shannon, being the gentleman that he is, offered to wait with me until then so we decided to get coffee at the café in the food court.

“Why thank you kind sir.” I said as he pulled out a chair for me.

“No problem.”

I sat down and he scooted the chair in for me. He walked around to the other side of the little table we had chosen and plopped down in his own seat.

We spent most of the hour just talking about random stuff and drinking our coffee. We had just finished a discussion on the types of music we listened to – which were basically the same – and now there was silence between us.

One of my hands was resting on the table, the other around my Styrofoam coffee cup. I glanced up at Shannon and saw him staring at my hand. It looked like he was trying to decide if he wanted to hold it…

A few seconds later he seemed to make a decision. I slid my hands off the table and into my lap as one of Shannon’s slid out to take mine.

I pretended like I didn’t notice as his face turned red and he quickly grabbed a sugar packet and added it to his coffee.

I felt kind of bad for doing that too him. I really liked him, but I can’t get close to someone when I’ll be dead in less than four months. I mentally cursed my tumor as I took a drink of my coffee.

You know what? Screw it!

I slid my hand across the table to where Shannon’s was resting and laced my fingers through his.

We’re just holding hands... nothing too serious about that… right?

He smiled and looked up. We locked eyes and I looked away blushing as my flight was finally called to board.

I stood up as Shannon went to throw our cups away. We started walking to the terminal and Shannon laced his fingers through mine.

We reached the terminal sooner than I would have liked. I turned to face Shannon as people walked around us to board the plane.

“Thanks for waiting with me.” I said hugging him.

“No problem.” he said.

I looked up into his eyes and had to fight the urge to stand on the tips of my toes and kiss him.

He kept glancing down at my mouth and then back up at my eyes. I wasn’t exactly the best at reading people but I was pretty sure he was going to try and kiss me.

Sure enough, he slowly leaned down and parted his lips slightly. I turned my head at the last second so that he ended up kissing me on the cheek.

I felt bad. Again. But I wasn’t going to fix this one. Holding hands is one thing, but kissing is on a whole other level.

“I’m sorry.” I said stepping out of his arms. “I have to go.”

I turned around and hurried off to get on the plane, leaving Shannon with his face blazing red from embarrassment.