Now at the locker room, the petite brunette turned the doorknob and let herself in - and gasped at the sight before her.

"Oh, my God!  Amy!"

Nidia instantly rushed to the redhead's side, helping her up from her sitting position on the floor.  Amy had been brutally attacked or gotten into a fight with someone, as evidenced by the fresh but darkening bruise on her left cheekbone and bloody nose.  She clung onto the smaller diva, leaning against her.

"Oh, God..." Nidia said softly, a look of concern etched on her pretty face as she glanced around the room quickly.  She helped Amy to sit down on the sofa and then crossed over to her locker.  The brunette rummaged through her duffel bag for a few seconds before coming up with a white T-shirt.  She rushed back over to the battered woman and handed it to her.

"Here - use this for the blood..."  Brown eyes gazed over Amy for a beat.  "Hold on - I'll be right back..."

Amy didn't say anything but held the T-shirt balled in her fist against her face to soak up the blood.  She wordlessly watched as the young woman hurriedly left the room.

After a moment, the door was opened again, and Dawn Marie stepped in.  She instantly caught sight of her friend, her brown eyes going wide with alarm.

"Amy!"  The brunette instantly rushed to her side, sitting beside her on the sofa.  "My God!  What happened???"  She noted the bloody nose, the bruising flesh of the other woman's cheek, sensing that Amy might later develop a shiner over her left eye because of them.
 

Before the redhead could reply, Nidia suddenly returned, throwing open the door, shutting it behind her and hurried over, an icepack in her right hand.  She kneeled in front of the hurt woman, her eyes briefly meeting Dawn's.

Amy gratefully took the icepack from the little brunette, replacing the T-shirt, which was now soaked with blood.

Dawn Marie's face was serious as she peered into her friend's hazel eyes.  She reached a gentle hand over to move strands of auburn off of Amy's face before she spoke again, this time in a soft voice.

"Amy...Matt did this, didn't he?"

Nidia gasped as she shifted her gaze to the other brunette.  Amy, however, swung her eyes Dawn's way, and, unable to contain herself any longer, she burst into tears as she nodded furiously.

Nidia's look of shock instantly turned into rage.  "That asshole!"

Dawn Marie felt much the same toward the elder Hardy Boy, only she felt as though she might just go seek him out and kill him.  But for now, she kept calm, as she needed to tend to her best friend.

"Amy, you have to tell Stephanie about this..."

The redhead met her eyes fearfully.  "I...I can't do that - not right now."

"Why not?  Honey, look at what he did to you!  You have to tell the General Manager," Dawn said.  "What's more, if I were you, I'd call the police - and get a restraining order against that bastard before he had a chance to come near me again."

Nidia nodded.  "She's right, Amy..."

The redhead eyed each woman in turn through her bitter tears.  She knew Dawn Marie was indeed one-hundred percent right.

"I...never in a million years expected he would..."  Her voice trailed off as she became choked up again.

Dawn Marie leaned over and pulled her into a hug, and Amy sobbed against her shoulder.

"I know, honey...I know."

*

Amy leaned on Dawn Marie after the brunette helped her out of her rental car.  The redhead had shared a ride with her friend because of Adam's absence.

Amy suddenly pulled back, determined to walk into the hotel unassisted.  Damn it, she wasn't incapacitated - Matt had gone for her face, not her body.

"You wanted to ruin Torrie's beautiful face, huh?!  Well, how 'bout I mess up your pretty face, Amy?!"

She shuddered as she clearly recalled every word her former boyfriend had yelled as he'd begun hitting her.  He'd been absolutely maniacal.  Amy never wanted to witness anything like that again.  She never wanted to see Matt again.

"Amy...honey, are you all right?"

Dawn Marie's voice brought her back around, and she glanced at her.

"Yeah..."

The brunette didn't look convinced.  "Here, hold onto me."

"No!"  Amy was instantly sorry for the sharpness in her tone as well as for how quickly she'd moved away from her friend's gentle touch.  Dawn Marie winced, which made her feel even worse for that.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Dawn...I didn't mean that."

"Don't be silly, Amy," the other woman said.  She was silent as they made their way into the hotel together.

The redhead was grateful that the lobby was deserted, for she didn't want to have to endure stares from patrons.

Dawn Marie walked her all the way to her door, and she thought the brunette would leave then, but she was wrong.  Dawn had her own ideas, insisting on coming in and staying with her, at least until Adam came back.

Too weary and too shaken up to argue, Amy relented.  Besides, she realized she didn't want to be alone right now, anyway.

The first thing the redhead did was to go into the bathroom.  Flipping on the light switch, sending the small room alight, she went to stand in front of the mirror over the sink.

Her heart sank at her reflection.  Her left cheek had swollen up a bit, and the bruise had darkened to a mottled purple-blackish hue.  Her nosebleed had stopped earlier, but she suspected her left eye might have a shiner, as it too was just slightly puffy.  She was a mess.

Amy looked up, her eyes meeting the concerned brown ones of Dawn Marie in the mirror.  Both women were silent for a beat, then the brunette spoke.

"I could just kill that piece of shit for what he did to you!"  Dawn Marie's face looked angry as she continued.  "Next time I see Matt Hardy-"

"Dawn, no..." Amy said firmly as she whirled around to face the other diva.  She was shocked, not by the anger the other woman felt but at her usage of a profanity.  Dawn Marie very rarely cursed - even at her angriest, it was a rare thing.

"He hit you because of Torrie, didn't he?"

The redhead bit her lip, and after a beat, she responded.  "Yes..."

"What kind of man is he?!" the brunette cried.  "And I'll just bet Torrie asked him to do this to you...next time I see her, I may just give her a good pop in the nose myself!"

"No!"  Amy's voice was loud and shrill enough in the cramped, echoey space of the bathroom to hurt both their ears.  She took hold of her friend's wrist and pulled her out of the room.  Sitting down on one of the beds, she calmed herself, then faced Dawn Marie again.

"Dawn Marie, please...if you hit Torrie, Matt will only do the same to you that he did to me.  And if that happened, it would be all my fault.  I would never forgive myself if he put his hands on you."

"Oh, Amy...okay, I won't do anything - I promise."  A devious look came over her face.  "Well, maybe the next time Torrie and I have a physical confrontation in the ring, I'll hit her a little harder, but that's as far as I'll go..."