Voices in My Head

Her heart was racing as she made it backstage and Brad immediately pulled her in a congratulatory hug. She had the biggest smile on her face as she looked up to the monitor to see what was going on out in the ring.
She had gone way off script and this match was not actually scheduled at all, so she hoped that Steph wouldn’t be chewing her ass out for it later. But it simply didn’t make sense to her to just have a few words in the ring to test the waters between the trio and the crowd without it spilling over after she had heard the reactions from the crowd.

Brad wrapped an arm around her shoulder and stared at the screen with her.

“That was pretty gutsy though I assume that creative did not give you these exact words?”

Ana shrugged her shoulders and cringed as she watched Shane pull a filthy move on Randy.

“You like him, don’t you?”

Brad said quietly into her ear, causing her to whip her head around and give him a ludicrous look in response.

“Who, Shane?”

He laughed and shook his head, pressing his hand against his earpiece to listen to what was said to him from wherever.

“No you idiot, Randy! You had the biggest fucking lady boner for him in the ring; the entire world was able to see it! …or maybe it was just obvious to me because I have known for weeks that there is more than a professional relationship blooming. You’re fucking head over heels for the guy.”

She pushed him away and pulled a sneer, her eyes still on the monitor. Shane had the upper hand and was able to pin Randy to the three count. Any other person would have just walked away with the victory and left the loser in the ring, but Shane signaled for a microphone as he circled Randy’s body on the canvas.

“I have seen footage of you and Ana being cozy together. But that was before I came along. Heed my warning and stay away from her. She’s been doing a great job avoiding you backstage while she was working these last few days, take a hint and give up. She’s obviously found someone more worthy of her time. Sure feels good to be back!”

The arena erupted in cheers but also some boos as he climb out the ropes and made his way back up the ramp, taking photos with some fans and shaking hands, hugging kids.
The camera swung back to Randy and Ana hated the defeated look on his face, even though she knew that it was all make-pretend. Just as Shane had made his way back, Steph stopped next to them with an unreadable expression.
Before she had a chance to say anything, Ana launched into an apology.

“I am sorry that I went off script to this extend, but it…just made sense having listened to the crowd’s reactions. I am sorry that I totally pushed back the running order and all but..-“

Steph raised a hand to silence her, looking from Ana to her brother who had just joined the little group. Brad felt very much out of place and excused himself, scurrying off to somewhere unknown.

“I swear Ana, if you weren’t already working two jobs, I would hire you to do some work for Creative. Brilliant work! Especially with Randy being utterly defeated on both fronts…I have no idea why we didn’t think of this in our planning meetings.”

Just as she’d finished, Randy came backstage and joined the group of three, wrapping an arm around Ana’s mid section from behind.

“You better be telling this woman that she did one hell of a job with what she pulled, this impromptu match was fucking perfect.”

A blush rose to Ana’s cheeks as Steph just nodded, not paying any attention to the position Randy had put her in at all.

“Of course I did, settle down tiger. Now, what I came here to say: Ana, you need to be careful when it comes to your facial expressions. Most people out there wouldn’t have noticed with everything going on, but it was clear to me that you were about to jump Randy’s bones out there.”

She was about to protest, but Shane cut in, saving her.

“Agreed. But we have to remember that she is not trained for any of this and this was her first appearance. And for the books: she has done amazingly well, much more than we all expected. Anything else can be worked on.”

Ana was more than grateful for his comment and broke out of Randy’s one-armed hug and embraced Shane.

“My heart is still racing by the way.”

The small group laughed, and Steph walked off with a smile, leaving both men with Ana.

“This feels so fucking awkward, I don’t think I wanna see either of you for a while.”

Ana mouthed as she put her ear piece back in and grabbed her two-way before turning away from the guys and shouting directions in the two-way and continuing doing her actual job as if nothing had happened, leaving both men to themselves.

“We should maybe talk about public appearances and all that jazz.”

Shane said as they both moved towards the bowels of the arena. They both felt rather satisfied with the outcome but Randy still felt an itch and he needed to get it off his chest.

“I was serious when I said that she is mine as soon as we’re backstage. Her and I have a history and we’re close…don’t fuck this up for me because of your story line.”

Shane stopped with him outside the production office he knew his sister would be in and gave a sympathetic smile.

“Trust me, everyone told me about your chemistry way before I returned. I’m happy for you, she seems like a great chick. Just…remember what happened with her on that one tour, you wanna be careful and see if she happens to turn psycho on you.”

Randy’s head snapped up, and his eyes were suddenly fierce.

“What are you talking about?”

He had to play dumb. Shane had no idea that he knew part of the story and neither Ana, Brad nor Steph had been willing to give him details even though he had been begging for a name.

Shane pulled him to the side, making sure that no one else was listening in.

“Her employment record was fucking amazing, 11 out of 12 years. But there was one black spot, and she was brave enough to list it after Steph called her to hire her. I’d say she was hired just for disclosing it. Granted, it was in her first few months of starting out…but fuck.”

Randy was itching to just strangle Shane for the information, but he was remaining cool, calm and collected. Shane was the one with all the information he had wanted ever since Ana had broke down, and seen that no one else was willing to give him the information, he’d play dumb if that meant Shane would actually enlighten him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Randy was now leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, trying very hard not to frown.

“Apparently she got dumped in the deep end and her first ever job was a festival tour across the US. All went well until she apparently went psycho groupie and fucked with the singer of Stone Sour. Story goes that he fucked her and told her it was nothing, waking up to his hair chopped off and shit drawn all over his face and what-not. They had to cancel gigs because of it back then. I mean…obviously she is a different person now…but you’d wanna tread lightly with her?”

“Corey Taylor?”

Shane shrugged his shoulders, not recognizing the name, but patting Randy’s shoulder amicably.

“As said, that was years ago and she’s obviously changed a good bit judging by what I have seen…but if you wanna go any further with her, maybe just consider this, eh?”

He left him standing in the hallway and went into the Production Office to see his sister.

Randy’s body was heaving with rage. He’d gotten a name. Not just any name, but the name of someone he had met in person over the years. He suddenly felt disgusted with himself for shaking the man’s hand, for listening to the music even! Then his memory went back to a few weeks ago, when Ana had arrived at his bus in a Stone Sour shirt and hardly anything else.

“What the fuck!”

He ground out in doubt. Surely she wouldn’t wear this shirt if she got mutilated by the singer?

He pushed himself off the wall and made his way towards gorilla, hoping to see her there but he couldn’t see her anywhere. Brad was running around and he stopped him.

“Where is she?”

He must have looked close to kill, as Brad just pointed his hand and mumbled ‘catering’.

He took off, none of the thoughts in his head able to soothe him at all. He had a name. He only needed to get it confirmed.
He saw her sitting with AJ and Kevin, plates of food between them. Randy tried hard to reign himself in as he made his way towards them, keeping her smile as his sole focus.

As he reached the table, he placed his hands flat on the table, staring straight down at Ana.

“Well excuse us for…-“

Kevin tried to start a smart comment, but he stopped as soon as he saw Randy’s stoic face. Both him and AJ slid away from the table but decided to stick around close by, just in case Orton would get out of hand.

“Corey Taylor? Corey fucking Taylor?”

Her head snapped up as he harshly whispered the name, and she stood up instantly. He followed her example; he knew that this was nothing for anyone else to listen in on. He trailed behind as she wound her way through people and props, knowing that she’d be looking for a way out. Closing in on her, Randy grabbed her hand and pulled her with him towards a door he knew would get them out. He could feel her struggle, but as soon as the door opened and they stepped out, she relaxed.
Ana pulled her hand out of his roughly as she marched sternly in front of him, not daring to look back. She had no idea where she was going and ended up facing a fence, throwing her hands up in defeat and clinging her fingers into it.
He could see her upper body heaving in tears even before he could hear it.
Randy wasn’t so sure anymore if he should pursue his quest until she turned around, facing him, sliding down against the mesh fence.

“What the fuck do you want Orton?”

He was just about to let it go and try comfort her, but he knew that he had to be sure.

“Corey fucking Taylor?”

Ana pulled her knees towards herself and ignored him.

“Ana,…if this is who-“

“Shut the fuck up! You don’t know what you’re talking about, ok? I worked with him years later and he didn’t even remember, ok? Just…shut the fuck up!”

Randy dropped to his knees near her, far enough to not touch her but close enough to grab her if he needed to.

“Babe, just because he refuses to remember doesn’t make it right. You know that and I sure fucking know that.”

She wiped her nose with her sleeve, and looked at him, tears in her eyes.

“Why couldn’t you just let it go like I’ve asked you to? Why do you have to pull this shit back up Randy! I have come to terms with this years ago, why make me feel like shit again?”

Randy looked down into her raw eyes, tears staining her cheeks. She was right: she had been perfectly fine for years it seemed until he had torn the wound open again. He felt like an asshole.

“Because I want to be the one telling you it wasn’t ok what he did…and because I want to fucking put hos skull curbside and step on it.”

He could hear what he assumed was a laugh and he grabbed her arms and pulled her up.

“I fucking like you way too much to have people going around spreading lies. If I ever see his face, I will kill him.”

He allowed her to bury her face into his chest, looking around him to figure our exactly where they were.

“Either way, thank your new boyfriend for finally giving me the details I needed. He tried to warn me, saying you may turn psycho on me.”