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As he ended the call on his cell phone, Adam Copeland suddenly became aware of a small commotion several feet away, by the exit of the arena. He'd left awhile ago to catch a quick bite at the diner across the street, but he'd returned for his rental car.
The tall blond man turned to stare in the direction of the noise, and, squinting, he realized the people making the commotion were his friends Rob Van Dam and Amy Dumas. The redheaded diva appeared to be leaning on the man, but she stumbled and seemed to be having trouble staying upright.
Adam frowned as he wondered what this was all about. He began to walk briskly over to them, wondering if Amy had perhaps had an alcoholic beverage or a few to cause her unsteadiness.
"What's going on?"
RVD focused his gaze on the other man, and as Adam eyed Amy, he realized she had been crying - and appeared to be in pain.
"She's been attacked!" the man exclaimed. "She's hurt, Adam..."
"What? What happened?" The Canadian moved closer to examine the woman, and as Van Dam suddenly took a couple of steps ahead of him, his green eyes widened in shocked horror as he noticed the blood seeping through the back of the redhead's T-shirt. "Oh, my God..." Without asking anymore questions, he raised his cell phone and dialed 911 to call for an ambulance.
"I don't know if we have time for that!" Rob shouted as Adam ended the frantic call. "She seems to be losing a lot of blood."
The taller man took hold of the redhead on her other side, taking care not to brush against her injured back. Very gingerly, he took hold of the edge of her shirt and peeled it back just slightly, his eyes widening as he saw the wounds. "Oh, my God...Who the hell did this? Who would do such a thing to her?"
"I don't know," Van Dam admitted. "I heard voices, but they were faint. And then, when I came over, the guy was gone."
Amy clutched either man weakly. Glancing with eyes that were nearly glazed over from Rob to Adam, she spoke, her voice small. "P-Paul..."
"Paul? Paul Levesque?" the Canadian asked.
The redhead nodded weakly. "He...he wants to hurt me for..." Her words trailed off as she began to lose consciousness, her head lolling over her right shoulder and against Adam's chest.
The two men exchanged shocked glances wordlessly. Adam felt a cold knot forming in his belly. Paul Levesque had attacked this woman... His character of Triple H was known as the Cerebral Assassin and was known for being a cold, calculating, sadistic type of guy, but he'd never guessed Levesque was even worse. And judging by the bloody mess of Amy's back, the man was much more dangerous than The Game...
*
An hour later, Adam and Rob were sitting in the waiting room of a small hospital, waiting for word on their injured friend.
"Oh, God! How is she?"
The two men looked up at the voice, seeing Stephanie McMahon running into the nearly empty room. Van Dam rose as the brunette rushed his way. Stephanie nearly threw herself into his arms as they hugged, and then looked up into his face questioningly.
"What the hell happened?"
"Someone attacked Amy," Rob explained.
"Not just 'someone,'" Adam muttered as he ran a hand through his long blond hair. "According to Amy, that bastard Paul Levesque did it..."
Stephanie released her hold on her boyfriend to sit down beside the Canadian. "What?" Her eyes widened in shock. "Oh, my God...he's tormenting her again..."
"What? You mean he's done this sort of shit before?"
"I..." Stephanie abruptly stopped herself from explaining. This wasn't her story to tell. The redhead was the one who had gone through hell and back, and it was her story to tell these two men. She wasn't going to violate her friend's privacy - even though she knew Amy well enough that she would tell Adam and Rob what this was all about - her history with Levesque, which probably only she knew about. Stephanie didn't even think Matt and Jeff Hardy, the redhead's best friends, knew about it.
The brunette ran a hand through her long hair. "Let her tell you...I-it's not my story to tell." A terrible sense of worry swept through her as she thought about her friend. It was odd how they'd even become friends, too.
Stephanie stepped into the women's locker room, her breathing heavy as she stepped up to the vanity to examine her reflection. She had just done a skit where she had to apologize to Triple H in the ring for what had happened to his beloved bulldog, Lucy. Chris Jericho, her business partner, had been extremely careless with the dog, which had led to her being nearly run over and left with a broken leg. Although this had only been for show and Lucy was in fact fine, The Game had to chase the brunette around the ring, as he blamed her for the incident. Stephanie had tried to run for her life, which had been difficult because of the heels she wore - not to mention the tight clothing she had on.
Paul had grabbed her a little more forcefully than she'd thought he had to, and Stephanie had yelped in very real pain. And when he had grabbed her by the back of her pants, he'd had hold of her underwear as well, giving the entire front row and those watching RAW at home on TV a clear view of her ass. That, to say the least, was extremely inappropriate. He hadn't had to go that far.
She'd been terrified he would actually get to Pedigree her after all, as he yanked hard on her long hair. Tears of pain had formed in her eyes as she'd waited for Jericho to make his move. Thankfully, Chris had appeared just in time to rescue her.
As the brunette continued studying her nervous, terror-stricken face in the mirror, she suddenly felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Hey...are you okay?"
She met the warm hazel eyes of Amy Dumas - Lita - in the mirror before turning to face the other woman.
"I-I think so..." Then, a beat later, she said, "No...no, I'm not. He...he tried to hurt me out there!" Stephanie felt tears burning behind her lids again.
"It's all right, Stephanie," the redhead said softly. "You're not going to be working with him much longer, right?"
"No..." The brunette had requested of her father that she no longer work with the man, as Paul Levesque scared her. Initially, when they'd first started doing the whole McMahon-Helmsley thing in late November of 1999, she'd enjoyed the storyline and had even liked Paul... But over the last couple of months - ever since he'd returned from the surgery on his torn quadricep, he had changed somewhat. He was so cruel, and more often than not, when the storyline called for something physical between them, he could be quite brutal.
"Then don't worry," Amy reassured her. "Just consider yourself lucky you didn't have to endure what I went through with that man..."
As Stephanie gazed at her questioningly, she began to explain...