June 21
Backstage at CC 271
Lachlan tore through the curtain that separated the main arena from the backstage, breathing heavily as the sweat beaded and dripped off his body. He pushed past groups of people as he stalked down the hallway, hearing his name being called behind him but choosing to ignore it until a strong hand grabbed his arm and forced him to turn around. He came face to face with Sierra, who looked slightly out of breath as she stared at him with wide eyes.
“What the hell, Lach?” she said. “I’ve been calling your name since we got back here. You just took off like a bat out of hell.”
Lachlan just shook his head and turned back around to continue walking. Sierra caught up to him, pulling on his arm again to get him to stop. “Lachlan, what the hell is your problem?” she snapped.
“My problem?” he said through clenched teeth, nearly ripping his arm out of her grip and whirling on her, fury blazing in his clear blue eyes. “What the hell was that out there, Sierra? I had that match well in hand.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “I just thought -”
“What? That I couldn’t win on my own?”
“NO! Lachlan, that’s not -”
“You’re just damn lucky the referee didn’t see you and disqualify me!” He ran his hands through his thick brown hair, pulling at it in frustration as he paced the floor a few steps. “You know how much I’ve been struggling, Sierra. This was the match that was going to put me back where I belong. I wanted to show everyone that if I could beat a current champion, then maybe I wasn’t a colossal fuck-up. That I wasn’t the failure that I’ve been for too long around here.”
Her eyes softened as she reached up to cup his cheek. “You’re not a failure, Lach. You’re an incredible athlete, and you deserve a title.”
He stared at her coldly, reaching up and grasping her wrist to pull her hand away from his face. “For so long, people have said that I can only win if you’re involved. This match was going to help me shake that stigma. But after what you did tonight...I guess you just proved them all right.”
He released his grip on her wrist, turning his back on her and stalking off down the hallway as Sierra stared after him with a look of regret on her face.
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June 22
The following morning
The sun peeking in through the part in the curtains fell directly across the face of Lachlan, making him squint in annoyance as he rolled over on the couch and buried his face into the cushions, trying to get back to sleep. He had nearly succeeded, until he heard the patting of small bare feet on the tile floor coming closer to him. He rolled back over and looked up to see Jade standing over him, her ever-present stuffed unicorn clutched in her arms as she stared down at him with a bit of a frown on her face.
“Daddy, why are you sleeping on the couch?”
Despite his annoyance at being woken up early, he felt the smile creep across his face. I will never get tired of hearing that, he thought to himself as he sat up. Almost immediately Jade had climbed up and sat herself on his lap, and he smiled even more as he brushed back some of her sleep-tangled hair, before his face fell into a look of slight sadness.
“Well, your mum and I had a bit of a...disagreement last night.”
“You and Mommy were fighting?” Her eyes went wide, looking as if she was on the verge of tears. “Does that mean you don’t love her anymore?”
He wrapped her up in a tight hug against his chest, kissing the top of her head. “Of course not, mo stoirín. Just because we had a little fight doesn’t mean we don’t love each other.”
“But Mommy and my real daddy fought lots of times. They sometimes even had to go to see a judge. He tried to take me away from her.” She sniffled as a few tears streaked down her face. “I don’t want you and Mommy to break up.”
Lachlan gently cupped Jade’s chin in his palm and tilted her head up so that they were eye to eye. “Listen to me, Jade. I promise you that your mum and I are not going to break up. I love her, and you and Olivia, with all of my heart and soul. You understand?” He wiped away her tears with his thumb as he gave her a warm smile. “What would I do without my girls?”
She sniffled one last time before returning Lach’s smile, reaching up to wrap her little arms tightly around his neck. He hugged her again, hearing a noise that pulled his attention to the doorway leading to the bedroom. He looked up to see Sierra holding Olivia in her arms, giving him a small smile.
“Alright, how about we get you set up with some breakfast,” he said, standing up from the couch and leading Jade into the small kitchen area of their suite. Sierra followed them with Olivia, and after they got the girls some cereal she tilted her head towards the balcony.
“Can we talk for a minute?”
He nodded and they walked out to the balcony, closing the door almost all the way but leaving it part way open so they could still hear inside. Lachlan leaned against the railing, folding his arms across his chest and looking at Sierra expectantly.
She let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through her long hair. “Look, I know you’re angry because of what I did, but I won’t apologize for it. The guy’s a fucking douchebag, running around thinking he’s some kind of immortal warlock or whatever. He had that coming to him, and I knew you were too noble to do it.”
Lach let out a sigh of his own. “But now you just reinforced this belief that everyone has about me that I can’t win a match without you. You know how much I’ve been struggling since December, Si. Every time I get a real chance at a title, I just can’t seem to pull the trigger. I get so close, and every time…” He ran his hands down his face. “I need to know that you’ve got my back. Because after what happened...it just made me feel like you don’t think I can do this on my own either.”
Immediately, Sierra moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, resting her head on his chest. “Lachy, I do. I’ve told everyone over and over again that you’re one of the most underrated and overlooked stars in the entire locker room. And I know that you can do this.” She looked up at him, reaching up to cup his cheek in her hand. “I said I wasn’t sorry for what I did, but I am sorry that it made you doubt my faith in you.”
Lach let out another sigh, wrapping Sierra in his arms and kissing her forehead. “I know, macushla. I just need to do this. Not only to prove it to everyone else...but to myself as well.”
“You will.”
He finally smiled at her, and she smiled back before the sounds of the girls started to grow louder through the door.
“Well, better get in there and assess the damage,” Lach chuckled.
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July 10
The desert heat of Las Vegas was relentless, even sitting in a shaded area at the poolside of the hotel. Even dressed in little more than a pair of swim shorts and a tank top and doing nothing more than reclining on a lounger, Lachlan could feel the sweat coating his skin as he watched Sierra and the girls enjoy themselves in the pool. He smiled at the scene, before his gaze turned deadly serious as he looked to the camera set up on the table beside him.
“So, I’m back in the saddle again this week, and going up against a guy that’s already familiar with my family in Caleb Storms.I know you haven’t exactly had the best run of things here Caleb. But I truly believe that with time, you could be something in SCW. Make a big name for yourself. Just...not at my expense. See, I’ve been struggling myself lately. I’ve been trying to pick up the pieces of my career since losing the mixed tag team titles, and coming within a hair’s breadth of every other title I’ve had opportunities at. So, you can imagine that I’m slightly frustrated. Add in to that what happened nearly three weeks ago….” He sighed, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck. “I mean yeah, I may have won that match, just not exactly in a way I would have liked. I am on a mission to prove to everyone that I can be a solo contender in this company. I will do whatever it takes, face anyone in this company to prove it. And this week...the target just so happens to fall on you.”
He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, staring down the camera with a look of pure determination across his boyish face. “I don’t want you to think that what I will do to you in that ring come Sunday is anything personal, because it won’t be. It’s just that I need to show the world just what I’m capable of. I need to do whatever it takes to keep climbing this ladder and finally, finally reach the pinnacle of this company. So, if Mark and Christian decide that I need to beat you to start that journey, so be it. I won’t apologize for what I’m going to do, because I’ve come to realize that I need to start tapping into a place inside of me that I haven’t touched since my days in Japan. Something more aggressive. Maybe even a little bit darker. But if that’s what it takes to finally start getting what I deserve around here…”
He gave a little shrug of his shoulders. “Like I said before Caleb, I think that with time and the proper motivation, there’s a chance you could be something special here in SCW. But as for right now, the only thing you are is an obstacle in my path to glory. And much like my brother, I have a tendency to remove obstacles that block my path. You found that out firsthand with Malachi some weeks ago. And unfortunately for you, you’ll be getting more of the same with me on Sunday night. So if you learned anything from your encounter with Mal, I would hope that it was to stay down and know when you’re beat.”
With a final stare from his icy blue eyes, Lach reached over to cover the camera lens with his hand, cutting the feed straight to black.
