Going Home
Kasey-Calaway Home
Las Vegas, Nevada
The apartment smelled like breakfast, coffee, and the faint desert dust that always seemed to sneak in through the sliding balcony door. Suitcases lay open across the living room floor, one decently sized black roller for Alexandra, another with tag on the handle for LJ, and a purple hard-shell case Ashlynn had covered in band stickers.
Alexandra stood in front of the hallway mirror, tightening the ponytail with her shaky hands while balancing her phone between shoulder and ear. She had called home, to see if they could take the estate for the weekend. She wasn’t actually on a call anymore, the screen had gone dark, but she’d been staring at an old photo of her and her siblings outside a gym in Dallas. She caught her own reflection and forced a smirk.
“Don’t start that,” LJ said from the couch.
She glanced at him. “Start what darling?”
“That face.” He zipped his suitcase and tossed it upright. “The one you make when you’re pretending this is just another match.”
Ashlynn’s bedroom door creaked open. “Mom only makes that face when she’s about to ruin someone’s life,” she said matter-of-factly, stepping out in ripped jeans and an oversized hoodie. “But this is more than just a match isn’t it mom, it’s with that bitch?”
Alexandra gave her daughter a look. “Language Ashlynn.”
“You literally choke people for a living, mom.” Came the retort from the teenager.
“Technically I out-wrestle them.” Alexandra responded.
LJ snorted. “That’s one way to describe what you did to Barnhart in Washington.”
“That’s what I always do to Barnhart.” Alexandra ignored him and turned back to the mirror. “It’s Blaze of Glory. That’s it. Big stage. Big crowd. Same business.”
“Big history,” LJ corrected gently.
She didn’t answer.
Ashlynn plopped down on the arm of the couch. “It’s in Fort Worth, right? That’s like… basically where you grew up?”
“About thirty minutes west of Dallas,” Alexandra said automatically. “Different world, though.”
LJ leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “It’s still Texas, Angel. Your stomping ground, your home, your kingdom.”
That word hung in the air for a moment. Texas. Home. Heat. High school gyms. Friday night lights. The first time she’d ever laced up her first pair of boots and decided she wasn’t going to be ordinary.
She finally peeled her eyes away from the mirror. “Yeah. It is.”
Ashlynn studied her mother. “Are you nervous?”
Alexandra laughed too quickly. “No.”
LJ raised an eyebrow, that knowing smirk crossing his features.
She sighed. “Okay. A little.”
“Because it’s there?” Ashlynn asked.
“Because it’s her,” Alexandra replied.
Silence settled heavier this time.
Victoria Lyons.
Even saying the name felt like biting down on something sharp. LJ stood and crossed the room, stopping just in front of Alexandra. He didn’t touch her yet, he knew better than to crowd her when she was wound tight.
“You’ve beaten her before,” he said quietly. “You can do it again, love.”
“And she’s beaten me repeatedly.” Alexandra’s jaw flexed. “We’re not tied in matches that matter. This one decides who walks into the year with the edge needed to reshape the divison.”
Ashlynn tilted her head. “Is she the blonde one who tried to end you repeatedly last year?”
“Yes.”
“And you took the chance away from her and..”
“Okay,” Alexandra cut in, laughing at her. “No play-by-play needed.”
“But that was awesome,” Ashlynn muttered. “You all showed everyone how tough the women in Sin City Wrestling are.”
LJ finally reached out, resting his hands on Alexandra’s hips. Grounding her. “It’s not just the rivalry,” he said. “It’s going back home and doing it there.”
She exhaled slowly. “You know what the worst part is?”
“What?”
“I used to sit in my bedroom in Dallas and watch tapes of women like her and promise myself I’d never let someone like that push me around. Now I’m flying back as her equal. In front of people who remember me before any of this.”
Ashlynn slid off the couch. “So let them see.”
Alexandra blinked. “See what?”
“The you now,” her daughter said simply. “Not the old one.”
LJ smiled faintly. “Kiddo’s got a point.”
Alexandra looked between them, her chest tightening in a way that had nothing to do with pre-match nerves. “You make it sound easy.”
“It’s not,” LJ said. “But it’s yours.”
He stepped back and grabbed her suitcase, rolling it behind him. “Besides, you think Victoria doesn’t feel it too? Big anniversary show. Blaze of Glory fifteen. Packed house. Your hometown state. She’s walking into your territory.”
Alexandra’s lips curved slowly. “It’s neutral ground.”
“Is it?” LJ challenged.
Ashlynn grinned. “You said it yourself Texans are loud.”
“They are,” Alexandra admitted.
“And stubborn,” LJ added.
“And proud,” Ashlynn finished.
Alexandra shook her head, a reluctant smile breaking through. “You two are ridiculous.”
“But we’re right, love,” LJ said.
She walked to the coffee table and picked up the folded black leather jacket she wore to the ring. The back was scuffed from years of travel. The stitching at the collar was coming loose. It had been with her through her first main event with Sin City Wrestling, through injuries, through nights when the crowd booed and nights when they roared. Through every chapter of the war with Victoria Lyons. She slipped it on. The weight felt familiar. Steady.
“Fort Worth isn’t my territory,” she said quietly. “It’s my reminder.”
“Of what?” Ashlynn asked.
“Of why I started.”
LJ watched her carefully. “And why was that Angel?”
Alexandra met his eyes in the mirror. “Because nobody was going to tell me I couldn’t.”
A beat passed.
Then Ashlynn clapped once. “Okay, that was cool. Can we go now? I want Whataburger as soon as we land.”
Alexandra burst out laughing. “There it is. The real motivation.”
“Food is important,” Ashlynn said solemnly.
LJ grabbed the last suitcase and headed for the door. “Flight leaves in two hours. If we hit traffic, I’m blaming you.”
“You always blame me,” Alexandra shot back.
“Because you’re usually at fault.” Lj gave her a flirty wink and Ashlynn faked a gag.
She followed him toward the door, Ashlynn right behind her. Just before stepping out, Alexandra paused and looked back at the apartment: the small couch, the dent in the drywall from when she’d accidentally thrown a kick too high while shadowboxing, the little kitchen table where Ashlynn did homework while Alexandra iced bruised ribs. To the doorway that led to the bedroom where she slept with LJ every night. Las Vegas had been a new home, a new beginning for her and Ashlynn, a life with LJ Kasey. Texas had been her beginning, her old home. Blaze of Glory would be something else entirely.
“You ready?” LJ asked softly.
Alexandra turned, fire settling into her eyes like it had a permanent home there.
“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s go remind Victoria exactly who she’s stepping into the ring with.”
Ashlynn pumped a fist. “That’s my mom.”
They stepped out into the desert evening, the apartment door clicking shut behind them as they headed toward the airport and toward Fort Worth, toward history, toward the war that had been building for over a year, through many small battles.
Visiting the Family Estate
Calaway Estate
Dallas, Texas
The second the plane doors opened, Texas air rolled in, thicker than Vegas, heavier somehow. Familiar.
Ashlynn stretched on the jet bridge. “Okay, yeah. This feels different now.”
“That’s humidity,” LJ said, adjusting the strap on his duffel. “You and your mother grew up in soup.”
Alexandra didn’t laugh. She’d gone quiet the moment they touched down at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Inside the terminal, it didn’t take long. A couple of fans near a coffee stand froze mid-sip. One whispered. Another nudged his friend.
“That’s her.” Fans whisper to each other.
“And that’s LJ, right? From Sin City Wrestling?”
“He’s so handsome..” A girl spoke.
“I heard they just got engaged during the Christmas offtime.” Her friend spoke.
LJ exhaled under his breath. “Told you.”
Alexandra smirked faintly. “You love it.”
“I tolerate it. Sometimes, love.”
They didn’t make it ten feet before a small cluster approached, respectful, excited, buzzing.
“Alexandra! We’ll see you at Blaze of Glory!”
“LJ, man, your matches last month were insane!”
Ashlynn stepped slightly to the side, used to this choreography by now. Alexandra signed a boarding pass, LJ took a quick photo with two college-aged fans in SCW hoodies.
“Are you ready for Victoria?” someone asked.
The name hung there. Victoria, Victoria fucking Lyons. Alexandra’s smile sharpened. “Always.”
LJ clapped a fan on the shoulder. “Fort Worth’s gonna be loud. Y’all better show up.”
“Oh, we will!”
As they walked toward baggage claim, Ashlynn leaned in. “You two are like celebrities.”
“We are celebrities,” LJ corrected.
“Wrestling ones,” Alexandra added dryly.
Baggage claim was more of the same, double takes, whispers, a few discreet photos. But it wasn’t hostile. It wasn’t invasive. It was anticipation. Outside, the Texas night wrapped around them. Not desert-dry like Vegas. This air carried grass, asphalt, and something sweet she couldn’t name.
LJ tossed the suitcases into the back of the rental SUV. “You sure you want to go straight there?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Ashlynn slid into the backseat. “I want to see if my room still smells like my candles.”
LJ gave Alexandra a look before getting behind the wheel. “We don’t have to stay long.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “But there’s something I need to grab while we're here."
They pulled onto the highway, headlights stretching endlessly in front of them. As they drove east, the skyline rose in the distance, glass and steel catching the glow of streetlights.When the illuminated sphere of Reunion Tower came into view, Ashlynn leaned forward between the seats.
“I forgot how big it looks.”
“You never really forget,” Alexandra murmured.
Traffic thinned as they turned into the gated neighborhood. The Estate loomed ahead, white stone, manicured lawn, wide windows that once felt like victory. The gates opened with a soft mechanical hum.
“It looks the same,” Ashlynn said.
It did. The porch light flicked on automatically as they pulled into the driveway. For a moment, none of them moved.
LJ broke the silence first. “You want me to go in first?”
Alexandra shook her head. “No. Damien and Mika have been keeping it up. Probably turned it into a goth paradise.”
She stepped out, the gravel crunching under her boots. The house stood still, pristine. Untouched. Just months ago, it had been everything. Now it felt like a chapter already printed. She unlocked the door and pushed it open. Stillness greeted them. The air smelled faintly of cleaner and old wood. The furniture remained staged and immaculate. The staircase curved upward like it always had.
Ashlynn walked inside slowly. “It feels smaller.”
“It’s not,” Alexandra said.
“I know. It just… feels like it.”
Upstairs, Ashlynn disappeared toward her old room. LJ stayed near the entryway, watching Alexandra instead of the house.
“You okay?”
She stepped into the living room, eyes drifting to the fireplace. “This place was supposed to mean we made it.”
“You did.”
“I thought it would feel different.”
Footsteps sounded overhead. Then silence, too long of one. Ashlynn reappeared at the top of the stairs. “My room’s so empty."
Alexandra blinked. “Empty?”
“Just walls.” She shrugged. “None of my posters. Just a bed. Nothing.” A quiet settled over the house.
“That’s good,” LJ said gently.
Alexandra climbed the stairs. Each step felt heavier than it should. She stopped in the doorway to Ashlynn’s old room. Bare walls. Soft light. Echo.
Ashlynn stood beside her. “It’s weird, right?”
“Yeah.”
Ashlynn bumped her shoulder lightly. “But I kinda like that it’s empty.”
“Why?” Alexandra asked.
Ashlynn looked around once more, then back at her mom. “Because it means we didn’t leave something unfinished,” she said. “We outgrew it.”
Alexandra swallowed hard.
Downstairs, LJ called up, “Hey.” They both looked over the railing. He stood in the foyer, hands on his hips, half-smiling. “You two coming? Or are we moving back in?”
Alexandra glanced around one last time, the quiet, the polish, the version of herself who once believed this house was the destination. Then she slipped an arm around Ashlynn’s shoulders.
“No.” she said. “We’re just visiting for the weekend. Easier than booking a hotel. Besides we came because there’s something I need to pick up from the attic.”
Ashlynn blinked. “The attic?”
LJ’s eyes narrowed slightly, not suspicious, just curious. “You didn’t mention that part.”
“I didn’t need to,” Alexandra replied gently. “It’ll only take a minute.”
Ashlynn made a face. “Hard pass. Attics are horror-movie territory.”
“That’s because you watch too much late-night streaming,” LJ said.
Alexandra slipped off her jacket and draped it over the banister. “Stay down here. I’ll be right back.”
LJ caught her wrist before she could turn away. His thumb brushed over the back of her hand, grounding. “You want company?”
She held his gaze for a second too long.
“No,” she said softly. “I need to do this part alone.”
He studied her, then nodded. “We’ll be here love.”
Ashlynn flopped onto the couch. “If you get attacked by a raccoon, I’m not coming up there.”
Alexandra smirked faintly. “Duly noted.”
She moved toward the hallway closet and pulled the cord that lowered the attic ladder. The wood unfolded with a creak that echoed louder than it should have in the quiet house. For a moment, she just stared up into the dark opening above. For decades it sat up there, wrapped in its silk guard, with a ribbon keeping it closed to the dust and debris.
Then she climbed up, each step groaned under her weight. The air changed as she rose, warmer, thicker with insulation and old dust. The single pull-chain bulb flickered to life when she tugged it, casting a pale yellow glow across boxes, covered furniture, and forgotten corners. The attic felt smaller than she remembered. Or maybe she was just bigger now. She stepped carefully across the wooden beams until she reached the far wall. There it was. An old cedar chest tucked behind two plastic storage bins and a folded treadmill that hadn’t worked in years.
Her chest tightened.
For a second, she just stood there, staring at it like it might disappear if she blinked. Downstairs, faintly, she could hear Ashlynn laughing at something LJ said. The sound drifted up through the ceiling, alive, warm. Alexandra knelt in front of the chest, cust coated the lid, she ran her palm across it, leaving a clean streak through the gray. Her left hand caught the light as she reached for the latch.
The engagement ring shimmered under the bare bulb. She paused, her hand hovered there, suspended between past and present. The diamond wasn’t oversized or flashy. LJ had known her better than that. It was strong, simple. Clean lines. Something that would survive wear and tear. Something elegant, yet tasteful, something so very her. What LJ saw in her. She twisted her wrist slowly, watching how the light fractured across the stone. A promise, not just of love, but of stability. Of partnership. Of a future that wasn’t built on proving something to the world. Her throat tightened.
“You’re really doing this,” she murmured to herself. “It’s time to set that date.”
She opened the chest. The hinges creaked softly. Inside, folded with careful precision and wrapped in protective cloth, lay the wedding dress. Ivory. Structured bodice. Elegant but not delicate. Strong seams a clean silhouette. No excessive lace. No dramatic train to trip over.
It was her.
Or at least, the version of her who believed she could have both war and peace in the same lifetime. She lifted it slowly, fabric whispering as it unfolded in her hands. Dust motes swirled in the air around her, caught in the single beam of light. Alexandra stood, holding the dress up in front of her. The attic was silent and empty. She swallowed.
“I didn’t think I’d come back for you,” she admitted quietly to the still room. “Yet here I am.”
When she and Ashlynn left Texas months ago, she’d told herself this chapter was closed. The Estate, the expectations, the version of success she thought she needed. But this, this wasn’t about proving anything. Her fingers brushed the bodice, then drifted back down to her ring.
She remembered the night LJ proposed. Not flashy. Not public. Just the two of them in their living room in Las Vegas as LJ and Alexandra finished the puzzle box together. Telling her daughter, Ashlynn, pretending not to cry. Alexandra pretending she wasn’t terrified of wanting something permanent. Victoria Lyons had once sneered that Alexandra didn’t know how to build anything she couldn’t tear down. Alexandra looked at the dress again.
“Watch me,” she whispered.
She lowered the gown slightly, letting it hang from her hands. For the first time since landing in Texas, the tightness in her chest eased. This house wasn’t her proof anymore. The ring on her finger was. The family downstairs was.
And the fight waiting in Fort Worth? That was just business.
She folded the dress carefully, reverently, and placed it back in the chest, then paused. No. She lifted it out again. Time to push the fear of the future aside. This wasn’t something to hide in an attic anymore. Cradling it against her chest, she reached up and switched off the light. The attic fell into darkness as she descended the ladder slowly, step by deliberate step. When her feet hit the hallway floor, LJ and Ashlynn both looked up.
Ashlynn’s eyes widened. “Is that?”
Alexandra met LJ’s gaze first. She kept the dress tucked in the wrappings. “Yeah,” she said softly. “It’s time.”
LJ nodded knowingly. “Alright Love.”
“For now, we have a show to get ready for. Let’s go get some dinner.” She put the wrapped dress on the hallway table, near their suitcases.
The Estate stood quiet behind them as they walked toward the SUV, not as something lost, but as something completed. Ahead of them was Blaze of Glory. And waiting in Fort Worth, Texas, just thirty minutes west.
Victoria Lyons, and another shot at Gold.
This is War
Dickies Arena
Fort Worth, Texas
Alexandra was standing outside the Dickies Arena, looking up at the looming building she saw being built years ago. She took a deep breath, her eyes focused on it for a moment before she turned back to the camera and spoke.
“A Kingdom is nothing if its Queen isn’t strong enough to fight it. This isn’t your kingdom anymore Victoria, it never really was. You sit around acting like you run the division, but I have yet to see you claim the real crown. The Bombshell Roulette Champions, the Bombshell Internet Title, Queen for a Day.. they are all nothing compared to the World Championship. That’s the real crown here, yet, you haven’t gotten close to that yet. Been there, done that. Didn’t claim that crown, but I got damned close, closer than you ever have.”
She thinks about the past between her and Victoria. It was long and storied, battling all over the world, over a strap, bleeding each other every single time, the threats, the thrown words, the call for someone to destroy Alexandra, ordered by the so-called Queen Victoria.
“You stand around, barking orders, taking your spot as the Queen within the division. Perhaps in a way, yes, you are. You had the title, just as I did. We both have been Queen for a day, there’s the kicker, a day. You let that power go to your head. You believe yourself to still be a Queen, based on the fact of a few wins, but you forget the way you got there. That’s where you slipped up. You aren’t a Queen because you were born to do this, you are a Queen because you don’t care who you step on to get there. And that’s where you are going to make your biggest mistake. I give you this, you’ve never discredited my career or time here, or my accomplishments. In that respect, I appreciate you, but it will not stop me from coming for that Bombshell Internet Championship.”
Being the Bombshell Internet Champion would be an amazing way to walk out of Blaze of Glory, but Alexandra knew it wouldn’t be as easy as the tournament to get here had been.
“We don’t live in a fantasy world here. Being a Queen here is no different than being a Disney Princess at a Theme Park or a birthday party. It’s as fake as your throne was and I burned that to the bloody ground. So yeah, I never give up, I’m resilient, every single time you’ve thought you banished me I come right back. So what does that mean for you this time? It means that this time, I'm ready for you.”
She took a moment, pausing to look at the world around her.
“I need you to really think about this here. You have so much going for you, so much, yet you choose to continue to put your boot on the heads of those who got you there, you learn nothing from your mistakes. You see, I almost let that crown go to my head too. I almost became like you, but then I remembered those who had my back. I made mistakes and I had to pay for them, I almost lost my best friend, Miles. He made sure that I checked myself, before I fucked up everything good in my life. I found myself and I reclaimed not, not on the backs of others, or at the destruction of others. I found it through my own sweat, blood and tears.”
She thought about everything she had just said about what happened. She had almost lost herself in that crown, thanks to Miles, he verbally smacked her back into her right mind. She found herself again through her hard work, now she had the chance to claim the Bombshell Internet Championship, from her biggest competitor, Victoria Lyons. The false pretender Queen of Sin City Wrestling.
“And I say this this, to reach this point, I respect the things you’ve done, you carried a portion of the division on your back. You took on all competitors, you brought them to their knees one by one. Including myself multiple times over. But then I realized something, all this, bravado, this attitude. This persona you are putting on, it’s all an act. It’s a cover up for the fact that you know, deep down inside, eventually, it’s all going to fade away, just like it did for me. After that it’s back to the bottom and building your way up, like I did.”
She laughed at the thought that they’ve both been on the same path this whole time. Chasing each other around the world.
“There’s also the fact that the path you are going on, it’s going to lead to your very destruction. You can believe however you want, believe you are the best, that you are unbreakable, undefeatable, and indestructible. But in the end someone will always have your number. This time, I plan on it being me.”
She took a few moments to pause again, looking up at the Dickies Arena, the banner for Blaze For Glory XV hanging on the side of the building. Was there more that could be said? Always, but for now, she was going to play it close to the hip. To make her point perfectly clear once and for all.
“Victoria, you and I are two sides of the same coin. Our paths run parallel to each other and we are bound to consistently be on opposing sides. You and I, we are always going to be locked in this embroiled battle with each other. We are going to consistently find a way to fight each other. And in the end you are going to realize one simple fact, resilience means everything. See you soon Vicky.”
With that, Alexandra turns and walks up the steps to stand in the light that shines upwards onto the Dickies arena as the scene fades to black.
