Las Vegas, Nevada -
Thanksgiving Day“I wish you would have been able to come to Hawaii.”
Tempest knew that this would be said the moment her phone rang and she saw who was on the other end of the line. Her family had asked her as far back as October if she’d be able to make it to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. She had initially told them it was up in the air, because she did not yet know that far in advance whether Sin City Wrestling would come calling and she’d have to work. Most of the family had been understanding - all except for her mother. Nalani was a master manipulator, even when she denied being or doing so. She had her ways to bring up little topics and work them until her children discovered themselves doing whatever it was that she wanted or needed. And she did not do it in a cunning way. Her children absolutely adored her and every one of them had little to no qualms at doing whatever they could to make her happy after everything she and their father had done for them.
This -- just was not one of those times.
Tempest: I know, but I told you I have to be in California for work this weekend. It’s three thousand miles there and three thousand back. That’s a hell of a jaunt for one day, and Austin is depending on me to be at my best. We’re defending against the same people we beat in New York.
Nalani: Why are they getting another match for your championships?
Tempest: I guess they impressed the bosses enough they wanted to see a return match? I don’t know. I just know they point me at whoever Austin and I have to beat, and we go and beat them.
Even though they were not on a video messenger for this call, she could just tell her mom was smiling. Whether out of pride or simply indulging her only daughter’s level of confidence, she didn’t know.
Nalani: And there was nowhere you could go there in Nevada?
Tempest: I had a couple of offers, I just didn’t … accept. Gabriel and Odette aren’t American but they do spend the day at a friend’s home and they invited me along. Gabriel said he understood when I told him I’d rather just stay home and watch the game and order a pizza…
Nalani: Pizza!? For Thanksgiving…?
Tempest smirked, a chuckle escaped her. Leave it to her Mom to be affronted by her choice of holiday cuisine, of all things. That would be as much a sin to Nalani Mahoe as simply being left on her own. She continued…
Tempest: … But something tells me he didn’t. Or didn’t like it, at least. But he respected it enough not to press. Then Austin and his friends and family are holding a dinner here in town and Austin asked me to come, but I just feel like I’d be intruding so I didn’t…
She sighed, shaking her head. She never did send Austin that RSVP, she simply hoped he would forget about inviting her and leave it at that. (Oh how she should have known better!) And if she was to be entirely honest? She felt terribly guilty for ‘ghosting’ Austin after he had proved his friendship time and again. He deserved better. She simply didn’t feel like she was good enough to give that to -- anyone.
Nalani: But why? That Austin seems like such a sweet young man. You should have gone! That’s what I don’t understand, dear. Nobody should be alone on the holidays…
Tempest closed her eyes as she listened to her mother’s words, but whereas normally she would pay strong attention to whatever her mom said out of sheer respect, this was an instance where words were just that, and they fell upon deaf ears, you might say. Her mom had always been of the mind that family was of the utmost importance, and possibly more so than that? That family should always be together during holidays and special occasions.
Tempest: Well, Momma, you know I’ve never been as into the whole holiday scene as you and Daddy. And it’s just been a pretty rough time … ever since I lost Malulani…
She closed her eyes and exhaled, the wave of pain evident in her voice as her mother did not press the issue further. Guilt could very easily be a mother’s best weapon against a stubborn child, but there was a time and a place for everything. This was not one of those times, even Nalani recognized that fact.
Nalani: I understand. I may not like it, but I understand. You can’t blame a mother for not wanting her child to be alone.
Tempest: I know, but I’m fine. Will be - fine.
Nalani: Well then! I’ll let you bet back to your day. Call me later, okay? So you can say hello to the family. Promise.
Tempest: I promise. Love you.
Nalani: Love you too, dear.
She hit the ‘end call’ button on her phone and set it aside on the kitchen countertop, and felt a sense of relief that it was over. And felt an almost sense of guilt for feeling that way. She adored her mom. She loved her, as well as all of her family, more so than she had ever let on. But there were times when she just did not want to hear it. Times when she simply wanted to sit back and be left alone. Stepping back into the kitchen, she picked up right where had left off when her mom had called; grabbing a few slices of pizza and opening a bottle of beer.
Carrying both around to the living room, she prepared for what she felt at least, would be a pleasant enough day; beer. Food. And a triple header courtesy of the NFL. The game between the Vegas Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys had captured her interest out of all the games, but she intended to make a day of this before worrying about making it to California for her title defense this coming Sunday.
But as fate would have it, some plans were not always to be. No sooner did she sit down and pick up the remote for her television when there was a resounding knock on her apartment door. She looked up in surprise, as few have ever deigned to simply show up at her door. She knew it could not be the neighbors, as she kept to herself so there’d be no reason. Perhaps Gabriel was to make one last minute pitch to go over to Synn and Despayre’s house for the annual feast? But as she dropped the remote and rolled her eyes before pushing herself to her feet, she was most certainly not expecting to open the door and find …
Tempest: What the hell are you doing here!?
Austin James Mercer.
Austin James Mercer: Thanks, I’d love to come in.
Yes, indeed. Austin James Mercer, her tag team partner and indeed - friend, was at her door in his holiday best and holding something covered in foil in his hand. And without so much as an invitation, he simply stepped inside her apartment, leaving her rather - confused? In more ways than one. He turned around and looked at her expectantly as she shut the door behind him, and she approached him, hands held up. Eyes closed, and shaking her head.
Tempest: Mercer, what are you… no, wait. Hold off on that thought. How the hell are you even here!? I never told you where I lived!
Austin James Mercer: Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. Real friendly like. Almost as much as you just ghosting my invitation.
It was a stare down between the tag team partners/friends, and neither was or would yield.
Tempest: Don’t change the subject! How the hell did you find out where I lived??
Austin shrugged.
Austin James Mercer: I asked Despayre.
Tempest: And he TOLD you!? Just like that!?
Austin shifted uncomfortably and clenched a hand over his mouth, clearing his throat.
Austin James Mercer: No. His, uh, teddy bear did.
Tempest just STARED at him and Austin closed his eyes.
Austin James Mercer: Please … don’t make me explain it!
He then opened his eyes again and there indeed was a hint of worry in his eyes.
Austin James Mercer: Why didn’t you accept my invitation? Or at least let me know you weren’t interested? Rather than just not showing? I had the others asking me where you were!
Tempest turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the sudden stricken look sweep across her face, or if he’d be able to sense the guilt awash on her features. She walked across the living room floor and made to retrieve her bottle of beer. But as she picked it up and turned back around, she found perhaps the biggest and juiciest turkey drumsticks being held up right in her face. She pulled her head back and away and gave him the biggest ‘WTF’ expression she was capable of mustering.
Tempest: What the hell do you think you’re doing!?
Austin James Mercer: My wife made you a plate, Alleyene!
Yes, he used her given name rather than call her by her ring name. That spoke more about the bond between the two that he could do so without being reprimanded for taking that sort of liberty. Austin then turned and looked down at her coffee table and the paper plate with the slices of pizza on it, then into the kitchen where the open box sat on the counter. He then mumbled as he gave his own ‘WTF’ look.
Austin James Mercer: And not too soon, I see.
He set the plate down and pulled the foil off, and revealed the mouth watering feast; turkey, cornbread stuffing, a literal mountain of mashed potatoes, greens, dinner rolls and probably the biggest piece of pumpkin pie she had ever seen. Tempest looked down at this and admittedly felt the pang in her stomach growl inaudibly. But she looked up to Austin…
Tempest: I KNOW you don’t expect me to eat all THAT!
Austin frowned.
Austin James Mercer: Oh give it a rest! I’ve seen you put away more than this whenever we hit the buffets! You and I made the manager of that place in New York actually cry!
Tempest: Why are you doing this?
Austin James Mercer: Because I give a damn, alright? Is that so hard to believe?
Tempest brought her one hand up and pinched together her thumb and forefinger in the universal sign of ‘a little bit.’
Austin James Mercer: Smart ass… So, why didn’t you accept? Or at least let us know you weren’t coming?
Tempest: It’s just another day to me, Austin. Most holidays feel that way. Have felt that way since…
She looked aside and shrugged, and to his credit, Austin didn’t press. He didn’t need to. He had deduced some time ago that something had happened in her personal life, to her husband to be specific, that had caused her such a great amount of emotional pain.
Tempest: Let’s just say I haven’t felt very thankful.
Austin James Mercer: Gee, thanks a lot!
Tempest turned to him with a frown, but to find him with a shit eating smirk on his own face, telling her without words that he was just ‘busting her chops.’ He reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder, and for once, she did not shrug it off.
Austin James Mercer: Trust me, I understand. I’m not going to press or try to force you to come with. If you’re not up for it, you’re not up for it.
Tempest: Well, thanks for understanding at least.
Austin nodded, then turned and headed for the door. He pulled it open and turned back to her…
Austin James Mercer: Eat up! Oh and I did the turkey so feel free to tell me later how much you loved it. Happy Thanksgiving!
Tempest: Same!
She raised a hand in farewell, watching as the door closed behind him. She then turned around and surveyed what was before her… an empty apartment, she was the only one there. A television airing a game. A half-drank beer bottle in her hand, a pizza in the kitchen, and a plate full of a homemade feast that someone had taken pain staking measures to share with her. It was as if a wave of loneliness had swept in from all directions and struck her at once. She closed her eyes and shook her head at how she was feeling inside until…
Tempest: Shit…!
Quick as she was able, she picked up the plate and ran it to the kitchen to put inside of the fridge. She then ran to the door and grabbed her favorite denim jacket from the hook and swept the door open wide…
Tempest: Austin…!
And there he stood, standing facing the door with an expectant smile on his face.
Austin James Mercer: I know EVERYTHING!
Tempest begun to slip her arms into the denim sleeves of her jacket, glaring at Austin.
Tempest: Yeah? You know how fast I’m coming to using that turkey leg as a catheter?
Austin snorted.
Austin James Mercer: A catheter? Please! You’d need a bigger drumstick!
Tempest rolled her eyes as she locked the door behind her and allowed Austin to escort her toward his car...
Tempest sat on the patio deck of her apartment complex in Las Vegas, having brought the Thanksgiving evening to a conclusion for 2021. The members of Wolfslair had treated her warmly, like one of their own. When asked where she had gone, the Stevens were not insulted that she had decided to spend the evening with Austin and company at the last moment. They were simply happy that she had decided to go somewhere - anywhere - rather than spend the day alone as she was wont to do.
But now, she sat on the wicker chair (fun fact: she had a love for all things wicker), leaning back with a cold beer in her hand as she looked out into the night sky.
“I was going to wait and cut this promo in Stamford, but after checking things out and asking around, I had to wonder what the point would even be. There is literally nothing to do in that city or any places of interest to even schedule a shoot!”
She took a drink from her bottle and for a moment, seemed relaxed and content.
“You know, part of me wishes I had taken the time to go home to Hawaii to visit my family. I can’t deny that I had a good time with Austin and his family and the rest of Wolfslair for Thanksgiving, but there is truly nothing like a Thanksgiving back home. Alex Jones had asked me about differences in celebrations and really, it’s just the food. Everybody knows what the traditional food is for Thanksgiving in the vast majority of the States, but in Hawaii? While we do the whole turkey and mashed potatoes deal, same as you, we also add a bit of flare to the rest of the table. Purple potato soup. Coconut sweet potatoes. Butternut squash dressing. Garlic- and pineapple-glazed ham. I think by the end of my explanation, I had Alex and Austin both wanting to go to Hawaii.”
“You are probably wondering where I’m going with this, and what it has to do with my match this what it has to do with the match that Austin and I have waiting for us this weekend.”
She sat there, shaking her head.
“Nothing, really. It was leading to an entirely different point, that I never quite understood this holiday. Oh I understand its history and the traditions behind it, but the sheer level of hypocrisy that so many people want us to swallow as the new norm. A holiday where you celebrate being thankful for everything that you have, when twenty-four hours later you stampede perfect strangers to get a hundred dollars off a giant screen TV. Or kids start screaming and crying until their parents give in and start sending those letters to Santa with more wants and demands. I guess what I’m saying is that all in all, I’ve had a rough past. Some of it by my own design, much more not. But I’ve had some good things happen as well; things like my training at the GO Gym and being made to feel like family by (almost) everyone there. A career I love in SCW where I get paid to travel and beat the hell out of a bunch of conceited, entitled Barbie dolls. And for my tag team partner Austin who isn’t as bad a guy as he might want you to believe.”
“I’m even thankful for what SCW has given Austin and myself as a bit of an early holiday present; that being our championship defense this weekend. Main Event no less, and a return match from High Stakes XI against Goth and Mercedes Vargas. When our defense in New York was first announced, I was beside myself. I think I made it all too clear just how thrilled I was to step inside of the ring with a woman like Vargas. A woman who I legit respected and admired as both a trailblazer in the ring, as well as being a certifiable legend. Then -- something unfortunate happened.”
“I watched her promos and realized just how high her head was in the clouds and how little she actually acknowledged the women she was up against and what they had to say. I say how much I look forward to facing her, she speaks as if I hate the very ground she walks on. I say that out of every woman I’ve been inside of the ring with since the ink on my contract for SCW first dried, she is the one I respect the most? She talks down to me about how I’ll never measure up to her accomplishments or her skill inside of the ring. And after hearing all of that, you would think that my respect for the woman was chucked out the window just like that!”
She let loose with a whistle and jetted her thumb back over her shoulder in a symbolic gesture. She then shook her head.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. I may have admitted annoyance with her acting as if paying attention to what I said was beneath her, but the attitude? The self assured sense of superiority? That much I can still admire, because the woman has earned every right to be a stuck up bitch! Everything she has said from day one about her endurance on the roster and her legacy is one hundred percent fact! That’s also why when Austin and I left New York still the Mixed Tag Champions, it made the win so much better. Knowing that for everything she said and thought of me, that Austin and I, not she and Goth, were the Mixed Tag Team Champions when all was said and done.”
“Just like I predicted, she gave me the best fight of my relatively short career. The woman was a freaking lioness going up against a storm, scratching and clawing and DAMN did she do me proud! Because I may not have been the one to secure the win for my team, but the simple fact that I was able to take the fight to a woman like that, even if she is a third my size, is something that I look back on with pride. And the rematch that she and Goth have been granted out of the blue?”
She shrugged.
“It’s just evidence to the fact that everything I said about that match, the higher ups felt the exact same way. I mean, why else would they be handing a championship match for the second straight time to the same team? Do they expect the end result to be different or the same? Who knows? But Mark and Christian loved the match. The fans loved the match, and quite frankly, so did I! Our title match at High Stakes XI was a money maker, and why wouldn’t they want to repeat that level of success?”
“And no, sorry to rain on the parade of any of Goth or Mercedes’ supporters, but the result this time will be no different than it was three weeks ago. See, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Mercedes was just as discomforted by this rematch as I am excited for it. Because we all saw how confident she was going into it. How she told the entire world how I’d never rank compared to her. And she brought the fight to me, but I did the same to her! Yes I dished it out just as everyone has come to expect from me, but I sure as hell was able to take it and maybe THAT was the last thing expected from Mercedes. So yes, Mercedes, I admit that I am not at your level - yet. But in time, I will be. Everything that I want to be and want to accomplish? I will! But do you know what I am that you aren’t?”
“A champion.”
“You are not, and you sure as hell won’t be. Not at my expense, and Austin already showed Goth it won’t be by his either. I heard a few people act surprised that Austin ended the match by pinning Goth, and I thought…”
She shrugged, scoffing audibly.
“Why? Austin has been one of the most dominant Superstars in recent memory! Goth was away for how long and thought he would just come back and pick up right where he left off? Honey, it doesn’t work that easily. Austin proved that then, and he’s going to prove it again. His pinning a Hall of Famer was no upset. It was a certification of just how damn good he is at what he does. I have a hell of a tag team partner that has my back, as well as a damn fine friend! For that, I am thankful. And the two of you…?”
She waved a finger back and forth in front of the camera, indicating the tandem of Mercedes and Goth.
“You two, have absolutely nothing to be thankful for.”
