Bitch Tar-tar.

[Ayla St. James]

"Come... back..."

Huh..? What..? Where am I? Who's there? I can hear.. very faint.. sounds like people. The voice.. there it is again.. louder..

"Come... back... to... us.."

Who? Come back? I don't.. It's dark.. I can't see. Is that.. Emma?

{Suddenly I was standing in a locker room. A place I hadn't seen in months, yet was as familiar to me as my own home. What arena was this? I can't tell. I can't even tell which company this is for. nCw? AFPW? I just don't know.}

"Come... back.. to... us..."

Who are you? I don't understand. Come back where?

{I thought I heard someone behind me. I whirled, but there was no-one there. When I turned back around, she was standing before me. The rough and tumble bar girl with a bad ass attitude, Emma Danielson.}

Emma? What are you doing here? Where are we?

"Come back to us.."

What do you mean? I'm right here.

{She shook her head at me, and as she did so her blonde hair shifted into being black, and then I was looking at a face I haven't seen in... too long.}

Sandy?

{She smiled at me. And in her distinctive voice, said the same thing.}

"Come back to us..."

Us? Who is us Sandy? You and Emma? But.. where are you that I need to come back to?

{She reached out, and put her hands on my shoulders, again saying plainly.}

"Come back to us.."

I don't get it.

{She stepped back, taking my hand in hers. I looked down, expecting to see Sandy's traveled hands, but instead, they were someone else's. I looked back up into the smiling face of the sexiest redhead I know.}

Aly...?

{She nodded, pulling me towards the door. When we reached it, she pushed it open and I could hear the voices of a throng of people shouting in unison. She pulled me closer, towards a black curtain behind which light peeked from the small opening.}

What's this? Where are you taking me?

"Come back to us..."

{She opened the curtain, and I saw the people, standing on their feet, cheering, clapping, watching the action going on inside the ring.}

Come.. back?

"Yes."

{The crowd chanted in unison.}

Ay-la! Ay-la! Ay-la!

{I awoke with a start, my body covered in a cold sweat. I was shaking, chill bumps running up and down my arms, but neither was I really cold or scared.}

Something wrong?

{I turned to look at my loving boyfriend, Kyle, who was sleeping in the bed beside me. His eyes, ever watchful, were focused on my face.}

I'm.. I'm ok.. just..

Nightmare?

{Without waiting for my response, his arms pulled me toward him, and I settled next to his body.}

No.. just.. I dunno. I saw Emma.. and Sandy.. and Aly..

{If anyone could analyze it, it would be him. He thought it over for a long moment.}

Did they say anything?

Come back to us.

{He held me for a few moments, then reached over and grabbed the alarm clock next to the bed. It was almost 5 am. He placed it back down, then kissed me on the forehead, covered me with the blanket, and slid out of the bed.}

Ok, Princess.. you have one more hour of sleep.

Until what?

Until I wake that perfect ass up to train. You're hardly in ring shape.

{I didn't even mention being in the arena, or anything else other than who was in the dream. He was either very perceptive, or just lucky as hell. Either way, I had a long day ahead of me. I settled back into the blankets.}

You're lucky we're still in that, "I'm going to just do what you want to make you happy since you can't wrestle any more" phase.

Uh huh. One hour princess.

{He left the room, leaving me in the stygian darkness just before the dawn.}

......Thank you.

I missed this whole thing, really I did. Most people would complain about the hours spent in the gym to remain in this kind of shape. The pain that we put ourselves through day after day just for the sake of someone else's pocketbook or someone else's entertainment. But, you know, I came to terms with the fact that this road wasn't going to be easy. I pushed ahead when I should have given in. I became strong when I should have crumbled. And I did it because I had the love and admiration of several special people, as well as the supprt and respect of everyone who sat in a seat every week to watch the spectacle that we worked our asses off to put on.

They say you can't take a step forward in life unless you learn something new. Well, let me just say I've been burned by enough of life's lessons to learn that the good old times weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.

Yea, I just went all Billy Joel on you. What of it?

I could spend all day justifying where I've been, what I've been doing. But frankly, it doesn't really matter. Though if Kat Conway keeps flapping her gums about her having the pleasure of "future endeavoring" me, I'll be glad to smack her fake lips off her face and super glue them to her own ass. Doesn't take any sort of genius to realize that I walked away on my own accord, because my boyfriend had just been forced to give up a career he loved, for reasons he couldn't help. See, I do things for my love off camera too. Other than, you know, flopping between loving on him like a good wife and then on pay-per-view week find something stupid to bitch about just to play up the drama.

Am I right or what?

But hey, some people do different things in the limelight, and that's just peachy keen. I'm sure at some point she'll have some witty cat based humor to throw at me, but it won't change the truth. But even that's neither here nor there.

Oh dear god, why me?

You know what Alexis, I'm going to spare you the trouble.

--Mimic--

Oh, it's that stupid airheaded bimbo my sister beat up that one time. Hi barbie or other assorted insult for being blonde. Trish did this, so I can do it too! Trish beat you, so I can too! But I'm not her! I'm not like her at all! I hate her! Don't compare me to her! But she's totally better than you, so I am too! I'm my own person!

--End Mimic--

There, I've just done the crappy parts of this job for you. Oh, wait, I forgot. You love the crappy part of the job because the only thing you enjoy more than someone singing your praises is the sound of your own voice. You think you're special? For ANY reason? You think there's anything about you that seperates you from these stuck up, arrogant, anally retentive hoebags? Please, enlighten us. I'd like to hear the reasoning why you are anything more than diet Trish Newborn with a horrible dye job and a bad complexion.

Angry now are we?

Good. Because I hate this situation almost as much as you should. Why do I hate it? Because the fact that you have a job here sickens me just a little. Newborn, while I don't particularly have any kind words to say about her either, at least she had some impact in this legacy your just waltzing into. You? You're just gonna slide on in here, with your ivory tower attitude and your bad quips, and start pretending like because the acronym changed, it's a different story instead of a different chapter, and you have some kind of right to be here. You can damn well be sure that if this whole heiress thing doesn't get fixed right quick we'll be sure to "put the band back together" to fix it. And no head of a division, no company big wig is going to stop us.

Just remember that.

Especially loud mouth little tarts like you, Morrison.

I don't really care about being the first champion, or any champion really. I just want to make myself and my trainer proud by working my tail off until I'm finished. Because that's what makes me happy. But if I get to slap the taste out of your mouth first thing...

Well, that's just a great welcome back present.

Kisses,

All of my hate,

Ayla.