Reality (Linstead AU)

Chapter 66

Sunday night, Erin thought. Monday morning, and another busy work week, were fast approaching. The weekend had flown by, with the enjoyable company of Jay, Zelina and Raquel. It had been a busy weekend, which now had her feeling very tired.

Now that the guests had left, Erin's plan was to curl up on the couch with Jay and enjoy some relaxation, along with a drink. She had consumed too much wine over the weekend, but she figured indulging for one weekend wouldn't hurt. Hitting the gym hard during the coming week's workouts would make up for it. At least, that was what she was going to tell herself.

Returning to the living room with a beer for Jay and a green tea for herself, Erin handed Jay his bottle. "I was just thinking how bad this weekend was for us, with all the food and drink."

Jay shrugged and chuckled. "I'm out of shape anyway. Not much point worrying about it until I can train properly again. A stupid elbow injury affects you way more than you think it will."

"I'm sorry you've had to suffer with it," she said, getting onto the couch beside him and cuddling up to him.

"Thanks, honey. It's just part of being a wrestler. The more you do it, the more beat up your body gets. I guess that's one reason why some kind of backstage job seems appealing."

"Have you thought about what kind of job you might like to do?" she asked, looking at him. "Please take this the right way. I couldn't give you a job that involved managing people, or that required a lot of working as a part of a team."

"I know," he cut in, speaking in an understanding tone. "My people skills aren't anything like as good as yours. Honestly, I wouldn't want to be on a team or in charge of people anyway. The thought of constantly having to deal with groups of people sends a shiver down my spine. What I'm good at is wrestling. I know all of the skills, and I think I did an okay job of teaching you the basics ahead of your match with Brett."

"You did," Erin said, nodding thoughtfully. "Maybe a trainer would be a suitable job for you. I don't want to give you that though because the Performance Center is in Florida, and I need to be up here for the office. We'd hardly see each other."

"That's right. So that's not an option," he said without even wanting to consider it further.

"Severide suggested we do more talent scouting. His idea was to resume sending people to small, independent shows and try to snap up promising young talents. He said he has no idea why my dad stopped doing that, and I have to admit I agree."

"Well, I can answer that. Hank changed tack from signing young wrestlers to signing young athletes and training them to become wrestlers. I'm not sure that's an approach I agree with though. Severide's idea is better, and since he's in charge of talent now, I guess his opinion carries some weight with you."

"It does, as does yours. And in any case, I too think that's how we should recruit new talent. Are you saying you'd be interested in some scouting work?"

Jay looked at her as he thought about it. Erin tried to use her expression to encourage him with verbalising his feelings. By now she well knew what helped him, and she was only too happy to do so.

"I think I would," he eventually said. "Wrestling is what interests me. It always has been. Showing you some skills was fun, and I always like to see up and coming wrestlers improve their skills and evolve as performers."

"Really?" Erin asked happily. That was something he had never told her before. But she wasn't surprised. Until she had come into the picture, wrestling had been Jay's entire life, by his own admission. "Who would you say you've seen improve the most since they joined WWE?"

"Ruzek, probably. He was a mouthy little punk when he first showed up. Thought he was great when he was a long way from it. But he got himself straightened out, and he put the work in. Then there's Clem, of course. As far as the women are concerned, she's a generational performer in my opinion."