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Amy Dumas put her silver Nissan Sentra in park in the driveway and then got out of the car, trekking up the short, stone-covered walk to the house.

Instead of ringing the doorbell, she knocked - quickly three times, followed by two more deeply-spaced knocks.  She supposed it was pretty corny, but she and Jeff had always used secret codes for stuff like knocking on one another's doors.

She raked a hand through her long red hair and sighed, still unable to beieve what she'd heard earlier that day.  How could the WWE release Jeff?  It was ludicrous!  Then again, it had been just last night when she too had gotten the axe by Eric Bischoff.  But, unlike her best friend's situation, she had only lost a job on RAW - the company hadn't gotten rid of her - so she could just as easily get a job on Stephanie McMahon's SmackDown.

Amy frowned when the door still didn't open.  Liger wasn't even barking, and he always did with excitement whenever she visited, as he loved his 'aunt' Amy.

This was weird.  She couldn't imagine Jeff would have gone out after finding out something like this.  Knowing him, he would spend all day basically moping, and then tomorrow he would do something about it.

The redhead stepped off the porch, deciding her best friend had to be somewhere on the property, and she headed for the backyard.

Then, sure enough, Liger suddenly bounded out from that area and started barking just a little.  The boxer jumped up excitedly, and Amy stooped over to pet the dog.

"Hi, sweetie...Where's Daddy?  Hmm?"  She knew Jeff had to be nearby, as he would never leave Liger alone when he was loose.

After a moment, she straightened back up and started for the yard, and the dog trotted up ahead her, as though leading the way.

And then, she saw him...

Jeff was sitting on the ground, back against the house, his knees drawn up, hands clasped around them, his head down.  He appeared so deeply lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even look up as she stood there.  In fact, he was totally unaware of her presence until she approached him, then sat down beside him.

"Hey..."

The young man barely reacted, just glancing at her quickly before shifting his gaze down once again.

"Hey..."

Amy felt her heart lurching at the expression on her friend's face, the sadness in his voice.

"I heard what happened," she said, her tone growing angry as she continued, "and I think it's such bullshit!  They can't just release you like that!"

"Are you kidding, Ames?  Bischoff is totally drunk with power - he does whatever he wants," the young man said, raising his head to gaze into her eyes as he spoke.  "Look at what he did to Steve Austin a few weeks back..."

"I know..." Amy said.  "And that was totally illegal.  It'll be all right, Jeff," she said, putting an arm around him.  "We'll fight this - we'll protest."

"And what about what he did to you just last night?"

The redhead's face fell as she recalled her horrible experience on RAW the previous night.  She had virtually quit because Bischoff had been sexually harassing her.  The jerk had made some crude comments about her, even going so far as to call her "worthless" because she couldn't wrestle for another two months.  The last straw had been when Bischoff had invited her to come to his hotel room after RAW so he could get a sneak peek at "the goods" - he'd mentioned something about her taking the Torrie Wilson route.

Amy had been furious and sickened.  Although many fans probably thought it had been for the show, as Bischoff had used her in-ring name and never her real one, that hadn't been the case.  None of what had transpired had been in the script.

Finally, she spoke.  "That's different - I wasn't released by the WWE...Besides, even though the asshole was yelling 'you're fired,' I pretty much quit when I told him to go to hell...All I have to do is go to Stephanie and voile - I'll have a job on SmackDown."

Jeff nodded.  "That's true...There's no way she would turn you down to be on SmackDown."  He grew silent again, his face sad.

Amy bit her lip as she pondered the whole situation.  Somehow, none of it made any sense.  And how about the fact that they both had endured what they had with losing jobs?  One day after the other, at that... The redhead found it very suspicious.  And then, it suddenly hit her...

"Oh, God...Jeff!"

"What?"  The young man looked up and into her face with alarm.

"I'll bet you're just a pawn in all this!"

"Huh?  What do you mean?"

"Think about it..." Amy said.  "Last night, I lost my job on RAW because I refused to be Eric Bischoff's plaything...He was so bitter and so pissed that I didn't comply with his sickening desires that he fired you - my best friend!"

Jeff stared deeply into the diva's hazel eyes, his own eyes widening at the implications of what she'd just surmised.

"Holy shit, Ames!  You might be onto something...but how would we prove it?"

"Correction - we could and will prove it...because I know I'm right..."  She began to devise a loose plan as she continued to speak...