Reality (Linstead AU)

Chapter 10

"Mr Halstead? Mr Voight would like to see you in his office."

Jay looked at the backstage crew member with annoyance. He was sitting in the catering area, trying to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace. There was no such luck, as he might have expected.

A summons from the boss couldn't be ignored, so he got up and trudged out of catering. He wondered if he might be about to get the riot act for spending too much time with Erin outside of work. But no, that wouldn't make sense. Hank wanted them to be seen together to get the storyline over with the audience. He had no way of knowing that things were heating up between them for real.

Jay had been extremely frustrated after the opera date and the kiss. He had genuinely expected more that night, but Erin had left him with blue balls. As time had passed though, he had been able to take the positive from it. The kiss had come entirely from her, so she was definitely into him. She was simply enjoying the game-playing, making him wait for more. For that reason, he had managed to resolve himself to cooling off himself. His reasoning was that two could play that game. The next move would now have to be Erin's. At least, that was his current plan. What he would do if she failed to make a next move was something he didn't have an answer for.

Paper signs taped to the arena's walls directed people to 'Hank's office', always the busiest location backstage. Jay followed the signs and wasn't surprised to find several people waiting outside to see the boss. Adam Ruzek was one of them.

"Hey," Jay said, exchanging a fist bump with his friend. He ignored the other people. "Do you know who's in there?"

"Hank, Erin and Sylvie Brett."

That left Jay with even more questions rather than answers. He knocked on the office door and walked in.

"Jay! Come in!" Hank said in what was as close to a cheerful manner as he ever got. The boss was in a good mood.

At every televised show, the backstage crew put together the same setup for Hank's office. There was a desk with a comfortable office chair for Hank on one side and a couple of cheaper ones for other people on the other side. For less formal conversations there were two black leather couches, with a low glass coffee table between then. Hank and Erin were currently sitting on one of those couches, with Sylvie Brett on the other. She looked quite nervous again, mingling with WWE's higher-ups.

"Hank. Erin. Sylvie," Jay said as he walked over. "How's everyone doing?"

"Doing good," Erin said with a smile. Jay noticed the gorgeous dimples appear for a second.

"Very well, thank you," Sylvie said quietly.

"We're all good. Have a seat, Jay," Hank said. Small talk was never his thing.

Jay sat down next to Sylvie, waiting to see what could possibly involve him and her.

"Jay, we've just been talking about plans for Wrestlemania," Hank said.

Wrestlemania was WWE's biggest annual event. It took place over two nights, on a Saturday and a Sunday, in sold out stadiums seating up to and sometimes even over 100,000 people. No expenses were spared on the event, which made it an attraction like no other for the audience. Matches that would never happen at any other event just might happen at Wrestlemania, sometimes even featuring celebrities.

"Erin's going to wrestle, and it's going to be against Sylvie," Hank went on.

"Sorry, what?" Jay asked, taken by surprise. He looked at Erin. "You're going to wrestle? You didn't say anything about training."

"Why do you think you're here?" Erin said dryly.

"We've got four months until Wrestlemania," Hank said. "That's plenty of time for Erin to learn some fundamentals, and for Sylvie to gain main roster experience. Jay, the reason you're here is I want you to help train Erin. It makes sense, considering you already have a relationship."