Underrated

xiv.

turning a setback into a comeback.

Looking herself over in the mirror of the bathroom, Lucille's eyes scanned her reflection, hardly recognizing it. After going through what she deemed to be the equivalence of hell, she thought that a change was in order. Her hair was dyed a darker brown shade, extensions covered her trademark shaven section, and another tattoo was added to her canvas.

It was a small crown that wrapped around the band of her right ring finger. When she learned her parents bared similar tattoos, a milestone they had partaken in as young lovers, she believed that getting one of her own would be paying homage to her late mother.

The king, the queen, and their little princess. If only their story had a happy ending.

She huffed out a breath, fogging the glass in front of her momentarily. Her fingers twitched against the counter top as the nerves settled in her head. She should be happy, but fear trumped those emotions instantly. Everything was already laid out before her and she just had to do as she was told. Normally she turned her nose up at taking orders, but she obeyed this time around.

A small knock sounded from outside her room. Recollecting her thoughts, she opened the door to an unfamiliar woman. She smiled at her sweetly, loose papers in hand.

"Are you ready?"

Lucy nodded, her confidence returning as she able to find a bit of strength.

"Let's go."

Rami flipped through the sheets of papers once more, waiting for his cue to emerge. Currently, Stephanie McMahon was belittling the moral of Mick in front of the Miami St. Louis crowd. In her eyes, it was because of him that the show was becoming second best to Smackdown LIVE. In her eyes, he was the one making bad decision after bad decision. In her eyes, he needed to be punished. Rami would no longer stand for her treatment of the Hall of Famer. As the stagehand called him over, he took the microphone from her and found a bit of strength as his music hit. The roar of the fans fueled him and the second glances from the youngest McMahon made him feel his message had such a strong meaning behind it.

"Hey! Stephanie, what you're doing to Mick Foley right now is wrong. As a matter of fact Stephanie, you've been wrong about a lot of decisions. But no one has had the guts to tell you to your face." He rose up onto the the ring apron and found himself face-to-face with the woman herself. But she didn't care for his presence. All she saw was a simple mid-carder who had no right to be in her face.

"Thank you for the morality lesson, Sami. Now if you could help your broken down old mentor down the stairs and to the back, we can move on with the show."

Rami felt appalled by the treatment she was showing the men, but Mick tried his best to convince him that everything would be okay. He proclaimed his name had been through enough and he could take whatever she and her henchmen threw at him. If he continued to go against her, Rami could be in a world of hell, moreso than he'd already been through. Slowly he made his way down the steel steps, even though the fans pleaded for him not to. Rami watched him, finding it hard to move from the spot on the ring. He knew this wasn't right and he wanted that to be known to the woman.

"You know what? You talk about following in my mentor's footsteps? That man has shown more class and integrity in nine months as general manager than you have in your whole life. And now, the fact that you want to erase his legacy, just because he never became the corporate yes-man that you wanted, you should be ashamed of yourself." He declared as he stepped foot into the ring and made his presence known to her. She still couldn't care less.