Underrated

xiii.

you might not know this, but i'd go out of my way just to make sure you're okay.

The fleece blanket was wrapped loosely over Lucy's body. The television continued to drone on the rerun of a soap opera as the family dog, a golden retriever named Ripley, lightly snored from the other end of the couch. Her body seemed mostly drained as this had been one of the few moments she had to relax since returning home.

A month seemed to go by within a blink of an eye to her. With all the legal situations she found herself in since returning caused her life to move at a mile a minute. Trying to give leads on where her father may be, helping plan her mother's wake and funeral, and figuring out paperwork around her property kept her on her toes constantly. Grieving became especially hard because of the constant activity, making her feel like she would never be over it.

When the spinning seemed to cease, friends in the area tried to help lift her spirits, taking her out to eat, getting her out to town to see the sights, and generally trying to help her get out of her funk. She appreciated their efforts and even found it helping relieve her stress. However, she couldn't deny the fact that she was still hurting.

What seemed to make her feel the most happy was hearing from her co-workers and friends on the road. They made sure she was caught up on all the backstage life, as well as their personal lives. It made her feel better than she was included in details she was missing, but when they asked her when she would be returning, she was disheartened to tell them that she just wasn't sure.

As the show ended, her heart felt warm up as she noticed RAW coming on. She had kept a watchful eye on the show for the booking once she started to come back around. This was mostly because she noticed Rami was facing a bit of a troubled spot in his career, a fact she learned from some of the ranting sessions they had. She decided to check it out for herself.

Something she picked up on instantly was how the company was treating those like Tenille "Emma" Dashwood, Victoria "Alicia Fox" Crawford, Danielle "Summer Rae" Moinet, Frederick "Darren Young" Rosser III, Benjamin "Neville" Satterley, and even Rami. Such wasted talent thrown aside, and for what? Was it because they weren't big enough, weren't liked enough, weren't championship material?

The thing they all shared in common was that they were underutilized, underestimated,

underrated.

It sickened her, really. In a pro-wrestling promotion, it seemed necessary for there to be others to be the bigger guys over. But at what expense? Talent was being wasted because the company was too blinded to see their potential. If you were no Roman Reigns or John Cena, it seemed you were overlooked.

Lucy groaned as Rami fought in his much demanded Last Man Standing Match against Adam "Braun Strowman" Scherr. The thing that scared her about his matches was Rami was never the type to give up, wanting to show the company that he was championship material. However, in doing so, he disregarded his own health and safety. She'll admit, there was moments she had to turn away because she couldn't see him go through that.

"Hey, I see you're up." Olivia's voice was soft as she walked into the room. Ripley perked up at the sound of her, his tail thumping against the cushion. In her hands was a warm bowl of homemade soup, which she kindly accepted, "You look better today. How're you feeling?"

Lucy shrugged, her eyes looking back at the television to see Rami bodyslam Adam off the stage to the hard floor. Olivia looked over her shoulder at the screen watching the man slowly get back to his feet. Since coming home, she had noticed the young woman spend more time talking to him. He seemed to be a sort of comfort to her. Lucy claimed that they were nothing more than friends, but she could see that he felt otherwise.