Family First

[The Spencers]

Bloop.

Buck Spencer was awoken by a message notification on his phone. Initially, he considered if it was in his imagination. The haze of half-sleep was slow to leave him, but as more of his senses came back to him, he registered the warm body he had been lazily spooning. Gingerly, he shifted so as not to wake her, rubbing crust out of his eyes with one hand, and reaching for his phone with the other. The woman mumbled something, but stayed asleep.

The Family group chat had lit up with 39 new messages in the last few hours, apparently he’d slept through most of them. Bucky groaned, he was not reading everything right now, it was too darn early. He skipped to the end.

Bucky: Ain’t reading all that. Someone give me the TDLR.

Abby: Pooler asked me to tell you to meet him at the IWF Coordination Center in Dallas. Jeb and Ricky are freaking out that y’all are being let go. I said I wouldn’t let that happen. Spence has my back, I assume you do too?

Bucky: Firing us just before IWF has a show in our home state would be a real shit move. If Verona is letting us go, he better have the balls to do it himself, not send Pooler as his stooge.

Jeb: You know Pooler has never thought much about us. The dirtsheets are speculating that they’re going to cut talent from the PC, downsize and restructure.

Ricky: For the longest time, Pooler has relied on April’s opinions as a coach, who herself relied on the opinions of Emma who never liked Abby and tried to sideline us all after Spike died. With April having even more power in The Murder, what if our number is finally up?

Spencer: It won’t be if we do what we’ve always done, stick together. Nothing is ever going to come between us. We’re family first. Right?

Abby: Right. Fuck April Madrox, fuck The Murder, and most of all, fuck Emma Danielson. She always had a problem with Eternity and didn’t like when I’d try and stick up for her. I’m glad she got fired, she couldn’t spot real talent if it put her out on her drunk ass. I would have if Spence hadn’t told me she wasn’t worth definitely getting us all thrown out on our asses.

Jeb: Right.

Ricky: Right.

Bucky rubbed his temples, distracted once more by the mixed race beauty in his bed. He leaned over and tucked her blue hair behind her ear. She had the look of the orient about her, she had probably told him, but it wasn’t a fact he recalled any more than he recalled her name.

Bloop.

He remembered picking her up at some local bar here in Chicago, but not much more than that. He had become such a part of the furniture in the Chicago based site of the IWF PC that many of the city’s bars and clubs had become second homes, most especially on the long, lonely nights.

Bloop.

Of his four brothers, Buck had had the most exposure on IWF TV, likely due to his college football background. He was the most natural sportsman of the family, something that should have easily made him a star in professional wrestling, but he also had a messed up right ankle and a right bum knee. Both were old injuries that had haunted him for years. He was so embarrassed by how several sports coaches had laughed when he told them that he had fucked up his ankle trying to round up pigs on the family farm that he never told anybody outside the family the truth about how he’d sustained the knee injury.

Officially, only his doctors knew he even had a knee injury. Unofficially, it was a closely guarded secret, one he had every intention of taking to the grave. He had decided decades ago that sometimes the truth wasn’t good enough, sometimes keeping up appearances was much more important, so that’s what he did. As far as this latest piece of ass knew, the injuries were sustained on the football field and inside a wrestling ring. He didn’t need to know her name to know that she’d never have slept with him if he appeared as anything other than what she had expected after judging him solely on outward appearances. Clearly, he was just a jock.

Bloop

All things considered, Buck decided that being considered a big dumb jock was infinitely more preferable to being considered a backwater farming hillbilly, so he leant as hard as he could into the former and never brought up the latter with anybody he didn’t trust completely. That particular list of people was as short as it was exclusive.

Bloop

Bucky finally snapped himself out of his reverie and returned his attention to his unanswered chat messages.

Spencer: Bucky?

Jeb: Answer us, numb nuts.

Abby: You there, Buck?

Ricky: O, Brother, where art thou?

Bucky: Right, sorry. Of course, I’m in. Family first, remember?

Abby: That’s settled then, we all go see Pooler, together. I’ll see you guys in Dallas in a couple days.

Bucky sent his reply quickly and sighed as he swung his legs out of the bed and gathered up his scattered clothes that marked the journey from the hotel room to the bed. He got dressed quickly, his haste expedited by the sudden realisation that she wasn’t in his hotel room, he was in hers.

He then gathered up the used condoms and disposed of them with a well honed efficiency. He may be a mediocre athlete but he was an Olympic lover. He then left a note on her pillow thanking her for an unforgettable night, even though that was far from the truth. He had already forgotten much more of it than he remembered. There was no need to leave contact details, he never intended to see whoever she was again, anyway.

He had much more important family priorities to deal with right now. When Abby was unavailable, it was his responsibility to keep the family together, just like the pigs on the farm. Spencer and Ricky were both too soft to be in a position of leadership and Jeb too naturally indecisive. Bucky was the most level headed option when Abby wasn’t on a warpath. Unfortunately, with everything that had been happening in the women’s division lately, Bucky knew that she very much was and thus he would not abandon her or any member of his family, no matter what Bob Pooler had to say.

*******

Buck was the last member of his family to arrive at the IWF Coordination Center, fifteen minutes later than they had all agreed. Bob Pooler was already there, talking to his four siblings about the finest Canadian Maple Syrup. He even had a bottle of it with him. As a termination gift, it was absurdly lacklustre, Bucky thought, and of course Pooler seemed far too relaxed and jovial. Was he really that glad to see the back of them?

“Ah, Mr Spencer, glad you could finally join us,” Pooler smiled. “Abigail insisted that we couldn’t get down to business until the gang were all here.”

“Of course, she did, sir,” Bucky said.

The word ‘sir’ almost refused to leave his lips, he did not respect Pooler that much, but he also wasn’t about to give the Canuck any more reason to hold the grudge he so obviously did against the entire family. The boys had not been featured prominently in any meaningful capacity on IWF programming in almost a year. Every promise management had made since last year’s Roulette had been broken, and the family had only not kicked up a stink about it so as not to jeopardise Abby’s most recent contract negotiations. Family first, after all.

Pooler gestured for Bucky to join them around the table where the rest of his family were already seated. Bucky accepted the invitation and took the empty seat next to Jeb. He didn’t even bother to remove his shades, he expected this to be over quickly.

“I don’t want to waste anybody’s time here, so I’ll cut straight to the chase. As a show of good faith, Mr Verona would like to guarantee you boys all spots in this year’s Roulette this year. He recognises your continued contributions to the Performance Centre and values each of you,” Pooler said.

“We were in the match last year too, so what’s the catch this year?” Bucky asked, eager to cut through the bullshit he sensed Pooler was setting his family up for. “We all know Verona never does anythin’ just out of the goodness of his heart, not for us.”

“No catch, not only are each of you guaranteed to be a part of this year’s High Stakes event, but each of you will have a chance at Sacrifice in a few days time to be in a very special exhibition match. Consider it a homecoming of sorts. If you all work together and win, you will automatically improve your chances significantly in this year’s Roulette Match.”

“What about if we lose?” Ricky asked.

“Then the odds will be against you ever more than they already are.”

“And what is this exhibition match, exactly?” Jeb asked.

“A four on one gauntlet match, the four of you against Cyrus Daniels.”

Bucky felt faint. He had heard the rumours about Cyrus, a hardened Aussie ex-con who had spent a decade behind bars for armed robbery and was now literally in bed with the woman he had wasted so much time trying to fuck whilst they trained together, Vivienne Rodgers.

Bucky had breathed a sigh of relief when Rowan had been taken out, he figured he was safe from any repercussions, surely Vivienne wouldn’t be vindictive and petty enough to set him up, would she?

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, he reminded himself. He considered Pooler’s casual announcement of what could be Bucky’s literal murder in a few days, on live TV and in his home state, no less with a quiet dread. He missed anything else Pooler had had to say, rejoining the present moment only after the long serving Head Trainer had left his family alone to contemplate their fates.

“Earth ta Bucky,” Ricky waved a hand in front of Bucky’s face. “Ya there?”

Bucky swatted Ricky’s hand away, as Jeb pulled out a deck of cards. He took them out of their box and started shuffling them.

“Sorry, what are we doin’ now?”

“High card draw to decide the order in which we tackle the big Aussie,” Spencer said. “Highest card enters last, lowest enters first.”

“Like that’s gonna make a damned difference,” Bucky said.

Jeb then passed the shuffled deck to Bucky, who quickly shuffled it again, before passing it to Spencer. Spencer reshuffled it himself before passing it to Ricky. Ricky shuffled it once more so that it was entirely fair. The brothers each had a part to play in how randomly their fates would play out in this numbers game.

Ricky passed the throughly randomised deck along to Abby who fanned out the cards, going around the table with a very simple request of each brother. “Pick a card.”

Jeb picked first, then Bucky, then Spencer and finally Ricky. Each brother took a moment to consider their card, and Bucky tried to maintain a poker face as he looked around at his brothers. His ten of hearts could have been better, sure but it also could have been so much worse.

Jeb placed his card on the table with a frustrated sigh, the Three of Diamonds. Bucky cracked a small smile, he wouldn’t be first into the big Australian meat grinder. He placed his higher card next to Jeb’s. Spencer’s Queen of Spades had everyone beat, even Ricky’s Jack of Hearts.

“Well, looks like it’s gonna be Jeb, Bucky, Ricky, Spence,” Abby said. “Remember, family first.”