Better With Time

“Hey Randy, what’s up?” Cody asked his partner as Randy walked into the locker room.

“Just got in,” Randy muttered, tossing his duffle bag that held his ring gear and regular clothes.

“Hear anything on Kari?” A voice asked behind them. Randy glanced up toward Mike Hickenbottom, Paul’s best friend and tag team partner.

“Paul hasn’t told you anything?” Randy asked, pulling out his grip tape and placing it on the bench beside his bag.

“He’s probably too preoccupied to think about calling me,” Mike stated.

“True,” Randy sighed. “She woke up fully yesterday.” He told them both.

“That’s good,” Cody muttered with a sigh. “Anything seemingly long term though?”

“Uhm, yeah, she has amnesia. She doesn’t remember a single thing, and what she does know right now is what Paul and their family told her since she woke up.”

“Wow,” Mike breathed. “That’s terrible.” He shook his head and stood up. “I think I’ll give Paul a call real quick.”

“I don’t know man, he’s getting into it pretty heavy with his parents and Lynn right now.”

“Why?” Cody asked.

“Paul wants Kari to stay in Connecticut with him and the girls, but their parents want her back in New Hampshire with them.”

“I think her going back to New Hampshire would be her best bet. She has so many memories up there.”

“Yeah, but she has just as many with Paul and Stephanie as well.” Randy pointed out.

“I don’t know, I guess they’ll figure out what’s best for her.” Mike sighed. “I’m still going to go call him though. Check up on him and what not.” Mike left the room, leaving Cody and Randy alone.

“So, you and Hardy got a match tonight?” Cody asked, trying to distract Randy from his thoughts of Kari;

“Yeah,” Randy said simply, taking off his wedding band and watch.

“You might want to stop wearing that ring man. The divorce will be final soon won’t it?”

“I still have a few months to go, so until then, the ring stays.”

“I still can’t believe you and Sam are divorcing. You two have been so close for years.”

“Just a mutual thing. Like I said before, we don’t feel the spark anymore.” Randy shrugged as a knock sounded on the door. He looked up as Jeff Hardy walked into the locker room, already in his ring gear with his face painted.

“We’re the last match of the night,” Jeff informed Randy. Randy just nodded and stood up off the bench, pulling his trunks and knee pads out of the bag on the bench.

“Hey man, I know we’re rivals and everything, but I like to consider us friends in the locker room and outside of work. If you need to talk about anything, I’ll listen.” Jeff pointed out. Randy thought for a long moment before deciding that would be a good idea. Jeff has been away for a while due to a suspension, so he doesn’t really know anything that’s been going on with him. It was safe to say Randy could talk with Jeff because Jeff was a third party with no biased ideas.

“Thanks man, I might have to take you up on that later.” Randy nodded.

“I was gonna hit the gym tomorrow morning, want to join me? We can talk then.” Jeff suggested.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll be there.” Randy said, giving Jeff a bro-hug. Jeff left the locker room, leaving Randy to get changed into his ring gear for the match coming up. He wanted his talk with Jeff to go good, but it was hard to tell.



Randy stood behind the curtain, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he heard Jeff’s music start to die down. Just as his music started up, he closed his eyes, but immediately opened them to erase the image of the face he received.

He heard his cue, so he slowly walked out from behind the curtain, staring toward Jeff who was standing in the middle of the ring, ready to go.

“Ready for this?” Jeff asked from across the ring. Randy gave a slight nod, one that only Jeff would be able to see, before moving to the ring post to finish with his entrance with his signature pose.

Looking back down at Jeff, the minute the bell rang, something took over him. A beast, a viper, was unleashed.

At one point in the match, Jeff had ended up on his back, which Randy saw as a perfect opportunity. He threw himself to the ground, punching the mat as he stared at Jeff. When Hardy was on his knees, Randy quickly stood up and waited even more patiently as Jeff got to his feet. Randy went to wrap his arms around the other man’s head, but Jeff knew it was coming and was able to push him away, staggering into a corner to catch his breath. Jeff knew this match would be like this, but it still had him panting and there were moments that caught him off guard.

“We have to end this soon,” Randy muttered to Jeff.

“Let’s do it then,” Jeff replied, allowing himself to be tossed toward the corner across from where he was standing. Instead of hitting the corner though, he climbed up and performed a flip, getting Randy in the back of the head. Jeff turned him over, climbed out of the ring, and up to the top turnbuckle, performing his finisher and getting the full three count.

“And here’s your winner, Jeff Hardy!” Todd Grisham called out to the fans, raising Jeff’s arm in victory. Randy was already making his way to the back, going into his locker room and jumping into a shower to rid himself of the sweat and baby oil covering his body.

Checking his phone, he noticed the time, and figured it out in his head. If it was eleven at night here in North Dakota, then it was only midnight in Connecticut. Paul would still be awake, but it’ll still be too late to call because of the girls being in bed. He decided to send Paul a text instead

With a heavy sigh, Randy threw his stuff into his bag when his locker room door opened, revealing Cena.

“Hey man, ready to head out?” John asked, shutting the door behind him.

“In a sec,” Randy replied, picking up his phone as it went off. He read Paul’s reply, saying there were no changes in her, and he and his family was still arguing on where she would go after she gets released. Paul also added that they had to figure it out soon because the doctors are wanting to start her on rehab to get her moving around again.

“They’re wanting to start rehab on Kari soon,” Randy informed John.

“Really? That’s actually a lot sooner than I thought they would be. They’re really pushing to get her out of there huh?”

“Paul and all of them probably are. They probably want her home so they can try to get her memory back for her.”

“It’s not going to work that way,” John muttered as Randy picked up his bag to leave finally. “They saw how clueless she was. It’s going to take a long time for her memory to return fully, if it ever will. For all we know she could go the rest of her life without remembering any of us.”

“They need the hope that she will get her full memory back though,” Randy pointed out. “This is Paul’s sister we’re talking about John. You know how Paul is towards her.”

“Yeah, I know,” John sighed, walking out the door and toward the rental car and Randy had driven in. “It just sucks, besides you, she’s my best friend. She’s a sister to me, and I want to help her so badly, but I don’t know what I can do.”

“Just be there for Paul, be there for her, do what you can to help, even if it’s just talking to get for like an hour a week or whatever.”

“You’re going to do the same thing right?” John asked, his frown suddenly turning into a smirk. Randy rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

“Yes, I’m going to talk to her and everything, because she’s a good friend of mine as well.” Randy replied, sliding behind the wheel of the car.

“It will happen Randy, just wait and see. One day you’ll be waking up with another beautiful woman beside you, and you’ll be a little part of the Levesque/McMahon troop. Except you’ll be adding Orton to it, so technically it’ll be the Levesque/McMahon/Orton troop.”

“And technically you’re a dumb ass,” Randy smirked toward his best friend. John scowled at Randy for a long minute before shrugging and turning back to the window.

They reached the hotel and quickly checked in, each of them getting their room keys and head up the elevators to their floors.

“I’m hitting the gym with Hardy in the morning, want to tag along?”

“Nah man, we have a free day tomorrow. I’m gonna finally sleep in a little.” John replied, stopping outside his door.

“Okay, later man,” Randy said, walking to the next door. He unlocked it and stepped inside, dropping his bag on the floor and collapsing onto the bed. Too tired to even change, he just let himself drift off to sleep.



Kari’s eyes fluttered open as she became aware of a presence in her hospital room. She looked up and saw and older man with graying hair sitting in a chair, Paul sitting next to him, talking like they were old friends.

“Kari,” Paul said when he saw she was awake. “Sorry if we woke you.”

“I need to wake up anyway,” Kari muttered, though she didn’t truly understand why she needed to wake up. All she did was lay in bed all day and watch television or talk to whoever decided to visit her that day. Normally it was her family who would come and see her. The two men, Randy and John, hadn’t been back for a while.

“Kari, this is Vince McMahon,” Paul said suddenly. “He’s Stephanie’s father and also our boss for the WWE.”

“Hello,” Kari said kindly.

“How are you feeling sweetheart?” Vince asked, grabbing the hand on her good arm gently and smiling at her.

“Confused, sore, tired beyond belief.” Kari answered him.

“Well Kari, you were just in a huge crash,” Vince shrugged. “It’s understandable, considering you nearly died on us a few times.”

“I-I did?” She turned to her older brother, seeing him staring at the ground. He just nodded, not wanting to talk or even think about the waiting they had to do to know for absolute certainty that his sister would live. He had almost convinced himself that she was going to die on the operating table, but Stephanie and the love he held for his little sister is what kept his faith in her alive.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he finally said out loud. “It was hell realizing that I could possibly lose you forever. I never wanted that to happen. I never wanted for this to happen.”

“I didn’t have time to stop it,” Kari said suddenly, seeing the bright headlights coming straight at her.

“What?”

“I didn’t have time to prevent the accident from happening, he was coming straight at me at full speed, I couldn’t stop it.” Kari whispered.

“You remember the accident?” Vince asked, his voice shocked as he looked toward his son-in-law.

“Bits and pieces,” she admitted.

“But you remember?” Paul asked to clarify. She nodded and looked up at him. “It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

“Yep, her memory is slowly returning back to her. We have to be careful though, because we won’t know what’s a memory, what’s a dream, or what she made up in her head.”

“She’s remembering though, that’s all I really care about at this point.”