Fire and Ice/The Fine Line Between Love and Hate


Amy rushed down the hallway with one thought in mind - she had to go to her best friend, had to see Jeff.

She knocked on the door of the Hardys' locker room, sobbing, tears still streaming down her face.  She heard Adam calling to her from further down the hall, but she desperately tried to ignore him.

The door opened, and Matt stared at her in shock, his facial expression quickly transforming to one of great concern.

"What happened?"

The redhead didn't answer him and shoved past him, running directly to Jeff, who rose from where he was sitting as he saw her.  She threw herself into his arms and cried freely against him, her sobs increasing in volume as she burrowed her face into his chest.

"Ames...Sweetheart, what's wrong?" the younger Hardy brother asked softly as he gently stroked her hair down her back.

She pulled back slightly to gaze up into his face, and to Jeff, the look in her eyes was sadder than tragedy.  He felt as though his heart were breaking as she spoke so softly he could barely hear her.

Amy was only able to utter a single word - a sole name.

"A-Adam..."

"Oh, Ames...I'm so sorry..." Jeff said softly, holding her tightly, not having any idea what had happened between the redhead and her boyfriend.  He had to assume that it was bad - she obviously didn't even care that his brother was right here, able to hear anything she said - and he guessed they had broken up as well.

"What the hell did he do to you?!" Matt demanded, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as he eyed the sorrowful diva in his brother's arms.

"Amy!  Are you in there?!"  It was Adam's voice calling from the other side of the door.

Neither Amy nor Jeff moved from the spot upon which they stood, but Matt marched over to the door, yanking it open in an instant.

"Amy!"  The tall blond man made a move to enter the room and go to his girlfriend, but the elder Hardy brother grabbed him, preventing him from getting too far.

"Oh, no you don't!" Matt shouted angrily.  He shoved the Canadian back out into the hallway, just beyond the door.

Adam grew angry at the other man for preventing him from approaching the redhead.  "Get out of my way, Matt!"  He gave the dark-haired man a shove right back.

"You bastard!"  Matt pulled his right arm back and decked the blond man right in the face.

A short, feminine scream sounded just a few feet further down the hall, and the Hardy Boy turned his head, noticing Trish Stratus running in their direction.  The blonde's face looked shocked and horrified.

"Stay away from her!" the Hardy shouted.  "If I see you come near her again, I'll hurt you a lot worse than this!"  He glared at the Canadian man for another second or two before slamming the door, locking it behind him.

Finally having made it just outside the Hardys' locker room, Trish knelt at Adam's side, as the tall blond had staggered back upon the punch Matt had delivered.

"Are you all right?" she asked with concern, her hand on his shoulder.

Adam looked up at her wordlessly, an initial feeling of anger toward the petite woman surging through him, but he swallowed the feeling down.  It wasn't Trish's fault this had happened - no, it was his own.  He had no one but himself to blame for this mess.  After all, pretending he and Trish had something going on had been all his idea.

"Oh, my God..." the diva breathed as she noticed the blood dripping from Adam's nose.  "Y-You're bleeding..."  She pointed to his face, then moved her hand to her own, pointing at her nose.

As the tall Canadian man rose to his feet, he reached one hand up to his face, instantly seeing the blood on his fingers.

"Shit..." he muttered.  He gazed long and sadly at the closed door before them before reluctantly turning around and heading down the hall, back to his own locker room.

Trish briskly walked with him, biting her lip before she spoke again.

"Adam, I...I am so sorry!" she cried.  "I never meant to say a thing, but..."

"It's okay, Trish," he said in a surprisingly calm voice.  They were now at his locker room, and he opened the door as he continued.  "It's not your fault - it's mine..."

The blonde woman eyed him sadly.

"Holy crap!" Jay exclaimed as he looked up from his bag at the sound of them entering the room.  "What the hell happened to you?"

"Matt punched me out."  Adam grabbed a towel out of his open bag and held it up against his nose, thankful that it didn't feel as though it were broken.

"What?  Why?!"

As Trish continued to stand by helplessly, feeling completely guilty despite Adam's insistence that he was to blame, the battered man spoke.

"Let's just say he definitely found out about Amy and me...and Amy found out about Trish and me..."

The shorter man's blue eyes widened for a moment as he considered his best friend's words.  "Wait a minute...I thought you guys had nothing going on..."

"We don't!  And we never have..."

As Jay glanced over at the petite blonde woman, she nodded in agreement.  "Back when they started seeing each other, Adam had asked me to do him a favor in pretending we were doing stuff," she explained, her tone soft and low.  "And Amy thinks we both deceived her - that by doing this, we deliberately tried to hurt her..."

The blond man made a face of confusion.  "Let me get this straight...you two never did anything...and she's upset over that?"  When both of the other two Canadians nodded, he continued.  "That's weird...you'd think she'd be happy to know you two never did anything."

"Well, that's now how she sees it, Jay," the taller man said in annoyance and dismay.  He tossed the towel he was holding halfway across the room.  "As a matter of fact, I think it's all over between us...she said 'goodbye' to me.  Damn it, the way she said it - it felt so final...Damn it!"  He pounded his fist on top of the TV monitor, which just so happened to be beside him.

Jay and Trish exchanged glances, then watched him sadly, neither speaking another word.

"God damn it..."  Adam raked a hand through his long blond locks.  "I fucked up...I fucked up big time..."











Part 30

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