The Rivals

||Anita||
As Quinn walked away I turned to Paul. “What the Hell was that?”
“She’s making you fight Ani.” He started, but I held up my hands. I should have told him to begin with that I was not planning on bowing out.
“She isn’t making me; I decided to stay in myself.” I admitted. He looked at me like I’d just told him his family was dead.
“What?”
“It was entirely my decision, Quinn actually wants me to drop out, but I’m staying in for three months. Enough time to win the titles and drop out gracefully after a good run.”
“Three months?” He asked quietly. Then his eyes turned steely. “No.”
“Paul it’s my choice.” I said.
“Not if…” He looked around to make sure no one could hear us. “Not if I have the right to say no for you. You are not losing it.”
“I won’t. I’ve got Cody interfering in my match tonight so that nothing will happen.” I obviously had said something wrong as I watch Paul’s skin crawl with fury.
“That little punk is not going anywhere near you.”
“He has just as much of a right to protect me as you do.” I said. I put a hand on his arm and he calmed down. “Please, I have to go now.” I started to walk away, but Paul’s voice stopped me.
“I came to see who you chose.” He said. I took a deep breath and turned back to him. I had been thinking about this for a long time.
“Paul, I think the best thing for me…” I gently touched my stomach, “well, for both of us, is that whoever the father is, that’s who I’ll choose. It’s what’s best for the baby.” I said quietly. Paul looked at me for a long time.
“Cody was first wasn’t he?” I nodded softly. Paul let out a long sigh, he assumed, just as Cody had, that meant it had to be Cody’s baby. He looked back at me.
“No matter whose it is, I will always love you. I hope you know that. If you ever need me for anything, or if Quinn ever needs me either, I’ll be there. And I’ll apologize, I shouldn’t have snapped at her before I knew what was going on. I just worry about you.” He pulled me into a giant hug and I hugged him back. I should have told him about Eve and the steel pipe, and that it was more likely than not that it was his baby, but then he’d probably just pick me up and march me to Levesque’s office without another word. He pulled back and looked at me. “Now go kick Ron’s ass.”
I smiled at him as I started to walk towards the ring. No sooner was I away from Paul then Cody walked over to me. I felt my heart sink. I would have to tell him that I was choosing the father, when we both knew it was going to be Paul. He looked at me sadly.
“I don’t suppose I can talk you into quitting.” He said quietly.
“No. I’m being careful and I have you, Phil, Quinn, and Paul watching my back. I’ll be fine.”
“Paul..?” He stopped and looked at me. I felt like I was going to be sick. “You picked him didn’t you?”
“I’m picking the father. Whoever that is.” I said, trying to give him hope.
“So Paul.”
“We don’t know that for sure yet-” I tried, but Cody just chuckled meanly.
“You seemed pretty convinced.”
“Cody, I’m sorry. It’s what’s better for everyone.”
“Everyone except you and me.” He said. We didn’t get to talk anymore before we got to Quinn and Phil.
“Quinn I’m sorry about Paul.” I sighed.
“It’s fine Anita, I guess I understand why as I don’t want you fighting either.”
“What did he do?” Phil asked curiously.
“He blew his top at me. Reckons it’s down to me that Anita is still fighting. But Anita agrees she shouldn’t be fighting I’ll be the first to Paul’s office dragging her with me.” Quinn answered. I felt guilty at how childish my decision sounded.
“He’s a jackass.” Phil growled holding Quinn closer. I was about to defend Paul when Quinn did it for me.
“Yeah well it’s possibly his baby and you would flip just as much if it was me pregnant with your child.” Phil shrugged. I looked at Cody, who looked pissed at the mention of Paul’s name.
“I guess you’re right, but still he needs to back off.” Phil said finally.
“Good luck Anita. Cody will be here to go down ok?” Quinn said as she hugged me. “Just be careful please and don’t do anything reckless.”
“I won’t.” I smiled and walked out to my music and the fans screams. Ron was already in the ring and I let everything go as I high-fived people and slid into the ring, jumping up onto the turnbuckle and waving to the fans. But then I felt a hand on the back of my jacket and I hit the ground. I looked up to see Ron smirking at me.
There’s something you should know about Ron. Outside of the ring he is the definition of a perfect gentleman. But when he gets in here it’s like a light switch and he cares about nothing but winning, no matter what that means. I was going to seriously have to watch myself.
He grabbed me by the back of my jacket while my back was still screaming at me and picked me up, tossing me into the opposite ring post. I fell to my knees coughing, the wind knocked right out of me. Ron was even crazier than usual today. I pretended to be really hurt as he came closer to me. When he was only a foot or two away I lunged, spearing him into the ropes. But I had been going so fast that we went over the ropes and out of the ring. I felt pain shoot through my left arm as I hit the concrete. I grabbed my arm, hoping it wasn’t disconnected or something. I shook it, I was good. I stumbled to my feet and saw that Ron hadn’t landed as badly as I had, he was up, and he was pissed.
He started running towards me and I leapt to get out of the way, but he caught me and speared me into the guard wall. I tried to take a second to compose myself, Jesus, why was I already so tired? But before I could do a thing Ron grabbed me by the hair and tossed me back into the ring like a rag doll. I smacked the mat and jumped to my feet. If Cody was going to come out here and interfere I had to start fighting back.
That’s when it hit me. The last thing the fans had seen was Paul and Cody fighting and me telling both of them to get lost, so he could have come out at any time. And I knew Cody; he would’ve been out here the second I was knocked out of the ring.
So where the Hell was he?
I was so distracted being worried about Cody that I didn’t notice Ron coming at me until it was too late and he slammed me into the turnbuckle. Then out of nowhere crowd was gasping and screaming like crazy as I fell to the ground. I looked up to see Ron was staring at something going on near the entrance to the ring. I looked up onto the titantron and felt a cold chill race through me.
Paul and Cody were arguing backstage and it looked like it was about to turn violent as they were screaming at each other.
“She doesn’t even love you! She just used you to make me jealous!” Paul snapped.
“Using me?! That’s funny. Because she’s just picking you because she doesn’t want to ruin my life!” Cody spat at him.
“A baby doesn’t ruin your life, it makes it better you selfish asshole! You don’t deserve her!” I felt every eye in the stadium turn to look at me.
“You think I don’t know that?! Those were her words, not mine. But it doesn’t even matter because it’s probably yours anyway!” Cody roared. I felt sick as I slowly pulled myself to my feet, they must not know that someone was recording them.
“What are you talking about? She slept with you first!” Shut up shut up shut up you stupid idiots! I felt all the blood in my body rush to my face as people started making cat calls.
“But then Eve attacked her, there’s no way a kid survived if it was mine.” Cody said. I saw the complete anguish on his face and wanted to kill someone. This cameraman being the first one on my list. Paul looked at Cody for a long time in shock. “But it doesn’t matter, because I love her and you don’t deserve someone as great as she-” Cody stopped and turned to face the camera. “What the Hell are you-”
“Are you recording this?” Paul asked the mysterious camera person. Before we could see anything else the screen went black. I felt everyone in the stadium staring at me. I looked at Ron, who was just shaking his head.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have done half of-” He didn’t have a chance to finish before the titantron came back and Eve’s face flashed on the screen.
What the fuck was happening?!
“Hello Anita. Or Bobbie, whoever the Hell you are. I hope that you’re starting to feel a bit like I did when you and Quinn ruined my life you little bitch!”
“Eve, it’s your own damn fault for being a money grubbing gold digger!” I snapped.
“Save it, besides, you’re hardly the one to lecture me about morals if I heard that conversation right. You’ve got Cody and Paul wrapped around your little finger.” She smirked at me. “Well, not really your finger, but you get my point.” I felt sick. Everyone was just going to think I was a huge whore and I’d go back to being hated. Eve just smiled as she saw me slowly breaking.
“Alright, I’ve heard enough. You’re fired, so get the Hell out!” Quinn roared as she stormed down to the ring and stood by me.
“Quinn! So good to see you too. If you think this is bad, wait until you see what Chris has planned for you. But for now I’m going to have to say ta ta. See you soon.” Then the screen went black again. Quinn tried to hug me, but I shrugged her off and walked backstage to see the sorry looks on everyone’s faces.
I can’t stand it when people feel sorry for me. I had seen the same expressions after my parents died and I hated them so much, they made me feel so weak. I was about halfway back from the locker room when I heard a huge booming voice “ROSEWOOD! MY OFFICE, NOW.” I turned to see Levesque glaring at me. I followed him to his office and looked back to see Quinn. But before I could say anything he turned to her. “You’re next.” He warned. I plopped down in a chair as he slammed the door. “What the Hell were you thinking?!”
“I knew you’d make me go on maternity leave.” I said quietly.
“No, we would have talked about it. Made you see doctors to see how long you could compete. But now I’m thinking maternity leave!”
“You can’t do this to me!” I said. “Quinn and I have worked our asses off for you! Our match is Sunday! Do you have any idea what the fans will think if I just leave?”
“Do you have any idea what they’ll think of you if you don’t?!” He snapped. “You have a small life inside of you that you were risking every second you were out there with men who didn’t know you were pregnant!”
“But now they do, so it’s fine.” I said. “I’ve been being careful and I’ll keep being careful. It’s my body and my baby.”
“Does Paul know?”
“Yes. As you and the rest of the world saw, he knows. And they all know I’m a harlot because you can’t control your fucking camera men!” Just then Cody, Quinn, Phil, and Paul burst through the door.
“Levesque! It was Chris!” Quinn said. “He was the one who filmed the whole thing!”
“And they somehow hacked into the system to show it and have Eve show up.” Phil finished. Levesque looked like he’d just shit himself.
“That’s not possible. We have some of the best security-” He stopped and stared at us. “We let one of our techies go a few weeks ago when we caught him hacking into the computer system.”
“Shit.” Quinn muttered. “We have to do something!”
“I’ll tell you what we do.” Paul said. Then he grabbed Cody in a chokehold. “Where the Hell are they?!” I leapt up and pulled Paul off Cody.
“Will you stop?! He doesn’t work for them anymore!”
“How the fuck do we know that?! I haven’t trusted this weasel since the first moment I met him!” Paul snapped.
“Oh that’s rich coming from you! Has Ani talked to Barbie about what you two did while you were being “blackmailed” Paul? Because she told me, and must say I had no idea you were so flexible-” Paul’s face turned bright red as he glared at Cody.
“I was protecting Ani!” He growled.
“So am I!” Cody snapped at him.
“Really? So what were you planning to do to her while she was kidnapped? A little prisoner and guard handcuff action?” Cody turned burgundy and Paul took that as a yes. “Wow Runnells. I had no idea you were so into that kind of fucked up shit.”
“Shut up you asshole!”
“Make me pretty boy!”
“That’s enough!” I snapped, slapping both of them across the face. “Jesus Christ can you two stop fighting for TEN DAMN MINUTES?! It’s your fault that everyone knows I’m pregnant because you were so caught up in fighting you didn’t know there was a camera recording you!” They both opened their mouths to defend themselves, but they both stayed silent when they realized I was right. “Now can you two call a truce or something so we can get Eve and Chris in prison? Please?” They glared at each other for a really long time, but finally shook hands.
“I’m only doing this for them.” Cody growled, pointing to Quinn and I.
“So am I.” Paul growled. “After this I will beat your ass into-”
“Paul.” I said, crossing my arms. He sighed as he and Cody turned to the rest of us. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”