Monday, March 27th 2023
Gnaw Bone, Indiana
Backstage

Blood dripped from her face down onto the faceplate of the UGWC world title, streaking the once pristine metal with remnants of the battle she’d just gone through. The match was everything that Lucy had thought it would be. Zane put her through hell, and as she pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the backstage – Lucy could only hope that Zane had gotten everything he’d hoped for.

Well, besides the world title that was still draped over her shoulder.

As tired as she was, when she looked up and saw Rogan standing there, she couldn’t contain herself as he rushed forward and grabbed her up into his arms – she winced a bit as he embraced her, but that didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around him as well.

“I’m all bloody…” She managed to say, trying to pull away.

Rogan wasn’t having any of it. “Does it look like I care, Lass?”

Lucy smiled and buried her face into the nape of Rogan’s neck. He squeezed her again.

“I’m so proud of you.”

The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and the reality of everything she’d put her body and her mind through began to rear its ugly head and suddenly she felt incredibly tired. Her eyes opened and she looked around the backstage area at everyone mulling about – eventually settling on a familiar silhouette stepping out into the hall, turning away from where she stood.

While her gut twisted with nerves, it also told her that now.. Now was the moment that she had to talk to him. Lucy pulled away from Rogan, who glanced down at her curiously.

“I’ll be right back, okay?”

Rogan followed Lucy’s gaze and he nodded his head. “I’ll be here. Go.”

Rogan knew what she needed to do and he wasn’t about to keep her from it. Lucy took a deep breath and made her way through the sparse crowd, trying to catch up to him – Even as her body begged her to slow down.

“Joe?” She said, but he didn’t hear her at first. For a moment, she second guessed herself, wondering if he was just ignoring her. She couldn’t blame him if he were, but she pressed on anyway, getting closer before she tried again. “Hey, Joe?”

He stopped and she nearly ran into him as he turned around. The look on his face, seeing her was… Well she couldn’t quite place it. She used to be able to figure him out, she used to be able to figure out the little intricacies of what little emotion he showed on a daily basis. Being this close to him again, it made her feel.. Awkward and scared. She was frightened of how horribly this conversation could possibly go.

“Hey, I..”

“Yeah?” He replied, an air of annoyance in his voice. Or maybe she was just imagining that. She didn’t know.

Lucy sighed and shook her head. “I just… Um.. Can we talk?”

He didn’t answer right away, his eyes looking her over – making her feel insecure, that was until she realized how horrid she must look. She ran her hands over her matted and bloodied hair and chuckled, humorlessly.

“I’m sorry, I’m a mess…”

“I, uh, no.. It’s okay, I mean..”

“Maybe we can do lunch, or something? I don’t want to like… I’d just like to talk to you.” Lucy finished, her voice was a bit shaky. The truth was, she didn’t know what to say, even though she’d been thinking about it for weeks now. And now that he was in front of her… She couldn’t find the words.

Joe, to his credit, took all of this in stride – Simply shrugging his shoulders after a few moments of awkward silence. “Sure, whatever you wanna do.”

“Oh, good… Good.” Lucy said, relieved. “Wednesday? Is Wednesday okay for you?”

“Yeah. Probably.” Joe replied with another shrug of his shoulders.

Lucy could easily tell that he had other, much more important things on his mind besides whatever he could imagine she wanted to discuss with him. It made her even more unsure of her timing, but well, she was here now – and she’s already dug herself into this hole. Might as well see it through.

“I.. Um.. Okay cool. Wherever you wanna go… Well, that’s fine with me.”

Joe subtly tilted his head to the side, and after a few seconds he sighed. “This is your idea, so..”

Lucys eyes widened and if she weren’t already covered in blood, the pink that rose to her cheeks would have been obvious. She chuckled again, shaking her head. “Yeah, that’s right.. I’ll let you know tomorrow, yeah?”

“Okay.. Then I guess I’ll see you then.”

He turned and started to walk away again and for the first time in the last few minutes, Lucy heaved a heavy sigh of relief. But then she looked back at him and saw that Cross-Hemisphere title hanging over his shoulder. “Joe?”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder, letting that be his response.

“Congratulations.”

His eyes moved to the belt and he nodded.

“Thanks.” He replied quietly before he began moving once again.

Lucy watched him until he left her view and then she turned around to see Rogan off in the distance, a hopeful look in his eyes. Lucy could only shrug her shoulders. She didn’t really know how that particular conversation went, but truth be told, the real conversation was forthcoming – and that was the true test.

 

Wednesday, March 29 2023
Union City, New Jersey
Fork Hill Kitchen

Lucy had arrived over a half hour early for their meeting. Rogan had told her multiple times that it wasn’t going to take her as long as she thought to make it over here for lunch – but nervous energy drove her out the door and down the highway all the way here. She knew she was going to be early but she also knew that she didn’t want to lose what courage she’d built up over the last two days.

Her hands shook as she lifted her coffee to her lips, watching as Joe stepped through the front doors of the establishment, his eyes scanning the room until they settled on her. She smiled and waved awkwardly – and set her coffee back down onto the table before she ended up dropping it all over herself.

“Hi…” She said quietly when he got close enough to her to hear. There was no denying that seeing him in this setting, this capacity.. It frightened her in a different way than she’d ever been frightened before.

“I’m not really sure what to say,” he said, shrugging as he did so, almost apologetically. “This is the last thing I thought I’d ever do again.”

Joe wasn’t actually looking at her when he said it. In fact, it seemed like he was trying to look anywhere but her. He didn’t even make contact when he spotted her. That was new.

“I-I’m glad you showed up..” Lucy replied, her eyes never leaving him. She noticed that he wouldn’t look at her, and she knew that was her doing. She accepted it. But that didn’t stop her from needing this meeting.

He sighed and tapped the table.

“I didn’t want to.” He instinctively rubbed at his arm, where a cut was still healing. The memory of it hadn’t quite come close. “I almost didn’t.”

“You’d of had every right not to…” She said, even quieter than before. Hearing that admission, it stung, but after what she did she knew damn well that she’d earned all of it. “You don’t owe me a damn thing. But I do appreciate you being here, even if you didn’t want to be.”

The words confused him. At one point he might’ve blamed her, but it was so long ago the concept seemed alien to him now. He had fully taken the blame these days.

“Well, I am.” He said, shrugging again.

He wasn’t really sure to say, but tried to make sure he wasn’t being unkind. No reason for it.

“I just mean, you must’ve had a good reason.”

She nodded her head as she absent-mindedly fiddled with her coffee cup in front of her. She herself was at a loss for words, or rather she just didn’t know how to say what she’d waited this long to say. Things are completely different when you’re by yourself, when the words truly don’t mean anything. But here, she knew that everything she said had a lot of weight to them.

“I’d like to think so..” She started off, taking a glance in his direction – the proverbial edges of the bandaid beginning to loosen. Lucy pulled in a hard breath, knowing there was no better time to rip that bandaid off. “Joe, I’m sorry.”

He had had a rough couple of months. Maybe that was why he was thrown off, but it made him make eye contact.

“I guess I’m not sure what to say about that, either.” He said quietly.

Lucy shrugged her shoulders. “I mean.. What is there to say? I.. I did a shitty thing to you. I was wrong. Ain’t anything I can say or do to change that fact. I shouldn’t have walked out the way I did, no matter what was going on or how I felt. You didn’t deserve that. All I can do is look at you right now..”

She looked up at him.

“And tell you how sorry I am for the shit I put you through.”

He figured out why he was confused earlier. This felt suspicious too. Like a set-up. He didn’t actually believe that, but it seemed too perfectly timed with everything going on at the moment. He accepted it as legit anyway, because it was still Lucy and in spite of everything, he never could hate her.

“Thank you but, I blame myself more these days.”

He smiled briefly, a little sadly. He was happy for the apology, but happier that they were at least talking.

“I just assumed I did something,” he said. “Because the leaving wasn’t really the worst part.”

“I’m not proud of the way I acted. I don’t really know what else to say. Relationships are two way streets, but really… at the end of the day, I took any choice away from you when I did what I did. I messed up and whatever I was thinking or feeling, I should have just talked to you. Instead, I did what I always did and I ran away.” She let out a sigh and looked down into the dark liquid abyss inside the cup, feeling her cheeks burning as if she were in the middle of a raging inferno.

Joe let out a sigh. He let himself relax a little. Now that he was sure things were okay, he didn’t need to be on edge.

He was currently battling one of the thoughts in his mind about every single thing he could remember doing wrong. As one does when something tragic happens.

“Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”

The last two words were quieter, but he didn’t realize it.

“Me too.”

Lucy sat back, letting out a sigh of her own. While it was true that the two of them hadn’t spoken in quite a while, it was also true that Lucy missed Joe. And she knew just by looking at him that the man had a lot on his mind. She only knew that something was going on in his life, and that she was approached by a detective trying to figure some mystery out… The only question Lucy had, however, she wasn’t entirely sure how to ask.

Or even if she should.

Was it her business?

She sighed again. “I.. um. I know this is weird, but something is going on, and.. I just want you to know that I’d never.. No matter what happened between us, I’d never do anything to hurt you or your family.”

Alarm bells started going off in his head. This really did seem suspicious. How would she even know?

He leaned back and eyed her cautiously.

“That’s…a very specific thing to say.”

As far as he knew, she should have had no idea about what had been happening to him. He felt uneasy.

“Why…why would I think that?” He asked.

“Well, when I get a call to come to the Jersey State Police headquarters to be questioned about you… and how I currently feel about you… I got the feeling something bad was going on.” She replied, matter of factly, the features on her face softening as she leaned in. “I know the answer already, but are you okay?”

He felt angry. Both with a certain detective that dragged her into his personal business and also himself. Because while he never suspected her before this conversation, he did briefly just minutes ago.

“Motherfucker,” he said quietly. “That motherfucker.”

He held up his arm and gave her a better look at the cut he had.

“This wasn’t from the match with Ezra,” he said.

“Jesus…” She practically whispered. “What the hell happened?”

“Somebody…”

He considered not telling her, because that might make her a target. But she could take care of herself, and had the right to know. No matter how vulnerable it made him.

“Somebody has been…targeting me, in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “Through people I care about. This new tattoo…”

He held up the arm again.

“…is the first time they came at me directly.”

Lucy took in this new information, all while just staring at his arm. She knew it wasn’t her place, and that he probably didn’t want or need anything from her – but seeing that she could tell he felt as alone as she’d felt quite a bit over the last couple of years… She couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Joe.. What can I do to help?”

(To be continued)

 

Sunday, April 9 2023

Hi, Ken.

Congratulations. It’s obvious, but I know how difficult it is to get through five defenses to get to where you’re at right now. I was hoping it would end up this way. You versus me. I know we’ve been here and done this before – back when I myself was holding the Conquest title. You were one of the people I had to best in order to get here.

But you already know that.

And while, back then, I was sorry that you had to be one of the people I went through on my journey back to the World title… I can’t say that I’m sorry now. I’ve got the prize that everyone aspires to… And it’s my job to keep it that way. I’ve never made it past two defenses in my World Championship history.

You, Ken Davison, are my third defense.

The last time I made it to my third defense, I lost the title to Alan Wallace.

But this time around, I have no intentions on losing this belt to ‘Godly’ Ken Davison. Not because I don’t like you, or not because I don’t respect you. Other people wanna call me a hypocrite, or all this other shit – Yeah, hi Zane. I hear all your bullshit. But hey, you think whatever you wanna think about me.

I know who I am.

Ken, I know we don’t know each other very well. But I hope you at least know enough about me and how I present myself to know that I’m not bullshitting you. You’re a multiple time world champ in other places, you held the Cooperative titles here for a nearly historic reign with my sister. I’ve seen your talent. I understand your talent. And not for a moment do I underestimate your talent. And I know you’re gonna do what you gotta do tomorrow. Hell, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.

I also know what you’re fighting for.

I think that’s honestly the most important part of all this. You can have all the ‘God’ given talent in the world, but if you ain’t got something to fight for… What’s the point? You fight for Kyra, Adina and the rest of your growing family. And whilst I don’t have what you have… Maybe you’d assume that my reason to fight isn’t as strong as yours.

But just because my family isn’t typical, doesn’t mean it’s any less of a reason to come out here and do what I do each and every time I get the opportunity.

You’re not like the rest of them though, are you?

You aren’t the type to judge someone like that, at least not someone that you respect. The respect is mutual, Ken. After our last match, you apologized to me about how you handled things, and that really drives home the kind of person I see you as. I know we’re both coming into this to win, and contrary to what people like Konrad will say, people who respect one another can have matches that’ll put some of the grudgiest grudge matches to shame.

That’s what’s coming on Monday. Second world title defense in as many weeks. I’m excited. I wish you the very best of luck, Ken. I’m gonna unapologetically bring everything I have to this fight and I hope you do the same. But you will. I don’t doubt it.

See you tomorrow.