Reality (Linstead AU)

Chapter 44

A/N: Welcome to book two. In contrast to book one, we will experience book two from Erin's point of view.

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BOOK TWO

Feeling nervous was a rare thing for Erin. She was about to have a conversation with Jay that she had known would have to happen at some point. He wasn't going to like it. But she did feel fairly confident that he wouldn't blow up at her. It was the prospect of hurting him that made her nervous.

It was Thursday evening, and they were at home at Eagle's Nest. Six months after first moving in, Jay was calling the place home now most of the time. There were still occasional times when he would choose to spend a night or two at his apartment in Chicago, either for travel convenience while on the road with WWE, or because he needed some time to himself. Erin always made sure to be understanding because she was aware that from time to time his childhood trauma flared up, as she described it, and he had a bad day or two with his mental health. At those times, although she wished it wasn't the case, he liked to be alone.

Exactly what he had been through in his childhood was still pretty much unknown to Erin. Jay had never wanted to talk about it. She had made sure he knew he could if he wanted to, but she definitely wasn't going to question him on it or try to force the issue. Her job was to love him and care for him when things got tough, as he did for her when the stress of her job took a toll on her.

Walking from the kitchen to the living area, Erin carried a glass of red wine for herself and a glass of beer for Jay, having poured it out of the bottle for him. Jay was relaxing on the couch, where she joined him, handing his glass to him.

"Thank you, honey," Jay said as they settled down together.

"How's your elbow?" Erin asked. For almost a month, he had been nursing an injury that he had picked up in a successful pay-per-view defence of the WWE championship. Erin had needed to write the past few Raw episodes in such a way that Jay could appear and cut promos, but didn't have to wrestle.

"It's still not right," Jay said with a sigh. "As you know, I saw Doc Mikami about it yesterday."

"Yep. What did she say?"

"She said it needs more rest, and in an ideal work a small surgery to clean it up a bit would be better. That would put me out for two months of rehab though."

Erin took a deep breath. "Ordinarily I wouldn't have this conversation in a personal setting. Church and state and all that. But in this case, I wanted to make an exception. Jay, I need you to drop the title to Ruzek at the next pay-per-view."

Jay gave a sigh of resignation. It showed that he had probably figured this was coming. Also, he knew that Erin wasn't really asking him, she was telling him. She was in charge of the team that wrote the shows, making her the only person in WWE who had a final say on decisions like who got to be WWE Champion.

"If that's your decision, I'll do it. You're in charge of creative. Can I have a reason at least?"

"Thank you, Jay," Erin said, feeling more relief than she showed. She gave his hand a squeeze and downed some of her wine. "Of course you can have a reason. Firstly and most importantly, I want and need you to be healthy. And I'm talking as VP of Creative here, not your girlfriend. You're one of my biggest stars. I can't have you making an injury worse and potentially being out for a long time. So, I'm going to ask you to do a favour for Ruzek, then I'm going to have my dad put you in for that elbow surgery. We're in October now, so if we get you the surgery by the end of this month, two months for rehab would take us to christmas. Another month to regain full fitness, I'm thinking we bring you back at the Royal Rumble in January. That's if everything goes to plan."

"I guess that's the plan then," Jay said glumly.

Erin understood why he felt that way. How could he not when he was going to have to lose his championship and miss three months of action?

"Some time off might be nice though. I've not had any in about three years," he said next, trying to find a positive in it. Even that showed how far he had come as a person since she had known him. It never failed to make her feel happy and proud.

"That's the spirit," Erin said brightly. "I could take some of my annual leave and we could go on a vacation. How does that sound?"

Jay looked at her and smiled, despite the dose of bad news he had just been landed with. "That sounds amazing. Sign me up. A week with you uninterrupted is worth dropping the title for."

Erin felt like she was melting inside. Jay struggled to express his feelings, yet he had a knack for saying incredibly sweet things when he did manage to get his thoughts out.

"Jay, that's so sweet of you," she said, and gave him a kiss on the lips. "I'll do my best to make that happen. I'll look into it tomorrow when I'm in the office."

Her phone made a distinctive chiming sound. It was the notification tone she had chosen for messages for the official group chat with her fellow members of WWE's board of directors, which was used exclusively for business reasons. It was unusual to receive a message there in the evening. She picked her phone up off the table and opened the email.

"Everything okay?" Jay asked, obviously noting her expression as she read the troubling message.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "An emergency board meeting has been called for tomorrow."

"An emergency one? What for?"

"I don't know," she said again, with a very uneasy feeling in her stomach. "I'll find out tomorrow. Whatever it is, it won't be good. When are emergencies ever good?"

Jay grimaced. "That's a very good point."

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A/N: I was considering writing a different story before book two of Reality, but so many people reached out asking for more that I couldn't say no. So, I hope you enjoy as the journey goes on.

Why do you think the emergency board meeting has been called?