Nothing Fails

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When she returned to her hotel room, Amy found herself being nearly hounded by telephone calls.

She should have expected it... After what had happened, all of her friends had naturally reacted.  After all, they all knew that what Eric Bischoff had put her through, what he'd done, had not been part of the show.

"Ames, I can't believe what that son of a bitch did.  I'm gonna do something about it, I swear..." Jeff Hardy's voice spoke on her cell phone's voicemail system.

The redhead sighed as she ran a hand through her long locks.  Jeff was one of her best friends, and she knew by the tone of his voice that he meant business.  He was the type of person that would go on a hunger strike for her.  She bit her lip at the thought of that kind of intense loyalty, but hoped Jeff wouldn't go to such extremes.

There were seven additional voicemail messages on her phone.  None of them were really that much of interest to the diva, as they were all standard issue from friends and fellow WWE superstars reacting to what had happened.

She spent the next several minutes sifting through the voicemails, subsequently erasing them and promising herself to return the calls to her friends later - after she'd gathered her wits about herself.

The final message had Amy sitting up straight, her ears perked.

"Amy, this is Stephanie McMahon...I saw what happened to you out there on RAW.  Please give me a call whenever you get this message.  Thanks...Bye."

"Oh...God..." the redhead muttered, and instead of deleting this last voicemail, she hurriedly dialed the number the General Manager of SmackDown had left her.

Amy had never really expected Stephanie to actually call her, even if she had witnessed her humiliation on live television.  She'd sort of expected that she would have to make the first move as far as getting a chance to be on SmackDown was concerned.  But the tone of Stephanie's voice told her exactly what the brunette had in mind.

Amy held the cell phone up to her right ear, her heart actually hammering in her chest as the other end began to ring.  Why was she so nervous about this?  Stephanie had called her, and it was obvious why.  She wanted the most popular diva since Joanie Laurer's Chyna on her show.  Hey, business was business, right?

"Hello?"

"Hi, Stephanie - it's Amy," the redhead spoke.  She reached up with her left hand and began to twirl a lock of her hair around her forefinger.  It was a habit she found extremely annoying - not only was it just a childish thing to do, it also reminded her of Torrie Wilson, who did the exact same thing often.  And she and the tall blonde diva had never much gotten along.

"Amy!" the brunette exclaimed.  "I'm so glad to hear from you.  Thank you for getting back to me so quickly."

"You're welcome...No problem."

"Listen, as I said on the voicemail I left you," Stephanie continued, "I saw every disgusting little bit of what Eric put you through out there tonight.  He's a disgrace..."

Amy could clearly hear the disgust and disdain in the other woman's voice.  She couldn't help but recall what the man had pulled with the SmackDown GM back on Halloween of last year.  That had been low - but then again, that was Bischoff...

"It was definitely an experience I wouldn't want to relive..." the redhead replied, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she recalled the man's grimy, grubby hands on her.  She was in no way afraid of Eric Bischoff or threatened by him, but the truth was, he gave her the creeps.

"I don't blame you one bit," the brunette said.  "Look, Amy...I'll cut to the chase here...Would you like to be a part of my show, SmackDown?"

The redhead let out a small laugh.  "It's funny that you ask, Stephanie - because before you left me that voicemail, I had planned to call or visit you to ask if I could join your roster."

The General Manager chuckled a little herself.

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm actually glad Eric fired you - because now I have the perfect opportunity to snatch you up for SmackDown.  As far as I'm concerned, Bischoff's loss is definitely my gain..."

Amy smiled as though the brunette could see her.  She had to admit one thing - Stephanie was a smart woman.  And she was right in what she'd just said...







Part 3

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