Falls Apart

To say that Kalleasto McMahon was slightly miffed with her older sister, and the head of the WWF’s Creative Staff that Monday night, early December 2001, was most definitely, irrevocably, an understatement.

And okay, granted, it was *far* from her place to say anything anymore about storylines and what not, but in this particular instance, Krissy’s storyline hit a little too close to home.

The McMahon Heiress cleared her throat, stopping at Krissy’s office door and knocking softly. There was a short pause before she could hear her sister’s voice, “Come in.” Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Kalli clicked open the door, stepping inside slowly, poking her head around the door in search of her sister. When Krissy spotted her first, a slight look of frustration touched the woman’s face but she managed a lukewarm, “Hey Kalli.”

“Well...” Krissy struggled for a reason to not take a visit with her sister right then and there, still not entirely comfortable with the very notion of being alone with her. Eventually she had no choice but to stammer, “I guess so, yeah. Come in.”

Kalli’s smile deepened a little, “Thanks.” She stepped into the office, closing the door over behind her. “Listen...” She chose her words carefully, “I wanted to talk to you about one of your storylines last week.”

Groaning deeply, Krissy shook her head, “Kalli, can we please for once *not* fight about The Hardy's storyline? Jeff and Matt did great last Monday on Raw, and then on Smackdown, and that storyline is moving along really well...”

Surprised, Krissy exclaimed, “It’s not?” Kalli shook her head and she asked her younger sister, “Then what?” But Kalli did not answer right away, fidgeting nervously with the ring on her right index finger, her cheeks slightly flushed, she was evidently nervous, and it was slowly dawning on Krissy why. “Kalli...” She sighed, “If this is about Stacy...”

“It’s not!” Kalli stammered a little too quickly and Krissy’s brow pressed together in disbelief. The girl sighed, “Okay, it is a little, but only partially.”

Wondering how that was possible considering how much of her time Kalli devoted to fighting with Stacy Kiebler, Krissy muttered, “Please explain.” Again her sister struggled, and Krissy could see in her the little hints of anger just dying to seep through. In truth, she was surprised Kalli had remained this calm...

But her permanent suspension from the WWF was seemingly doing her at least a little good, and if nothing else, her learning to control her frightening temper would be a wonder in itself.

“Okay,” she spoke softly, “Krissy, I know it’s not my place to say anything anymore. And I know Stacy and I have some...” She offered the understatement of the century with her murmured “history,” she went on, “But... I... I’m disappointed with the way the Women’s Title has been defended lately.” She barely kept the passion in her voice in check, “The Battle Royal for the Women’s Title was great... And I think that Trish winning the title and all was great... And even her defence against Lita on Raw... All great.” She wrung her hands together, “But a Gravy Bowl match on Smackdown?” The girl nearly shuddered, “And then to follow it up with a Bra and Panties Match?”

The elder of the two McMahon girls shook her head. If anything, she should have guessed that Kalli would be unable to resist the temptation to comment on the type of matches she had been booking for the WWF Women’s Championship. “Kalli, those matches rate well...” She let the sentence trail away when Kalli have her a half-hearted glare, “Fine. So the cold hard fact of the matter is that Stacy isn’t good in straight up Wrestling matches. She performs much better in Gimmick Matches and you know it.”

The first true hints of agitation appeared in Kalli’s voice as she snapped without thinking, “Then why give Stacy a title shot at all? God knows the little Skank...” She paused, growling at herself under her breath, eventually continuing more meekly, “How is it that Stacy even deserves a title shot when she’s nowhere *near* the calibre of the other girls?”

“After you beat the crap out of her? Yeah.” There was spite in Krissy’s voice as she rushed on, “You forget, Kalli, an employee of WWFE was *beaten* just the other week. Beaten by someone who owns shares in this company. Stacy had to be appeased somehow.”

Krissy sighed as if exhausted by the entire conversation already, “Stacy threatened to sue you, Kalli. And not *just* you either. She threatened to sue WWFE...”

“Yes, and you pummelled her, Kalli.” The elder of the McMahon girls threw an angry glance at the younger, “If *anyone* should have fought back that night, Kalli, it was Tiara. Not you! You put this entire company at risk with your damn temper some times and you don’t even realize it.”

Growling under her breath, Krissy told her sister coolly, “I think you should go, Kalli. I have a lot of work to do for tomorrow night yet.” When she saw Kalli was about to protest, how it was eating her up inside not to, she waved the girl away, “Goodbye, Kalli.”

It was nearly killing her and Krissy could see it, but the girl turned on her heel and opened the door, mumbling to herself as she did so, “And once again Stacy Kiebler cheapens the Women’s Division...”

“Kalli?” Krissy called the girl to a halt, and though she groaned, she eventually cast a look back over her shoulder at her older sister. Smirking she asked, “Why do you think Stacy lost those title matches?”

She only needed to ponder a moment before a deliciously wicked smile crept onto Kalli’s face. She nodded knowingly, respectfully, to her sister, and then she walked out the door, her anger appeased by the knowledge that, in part at least, her big sister was still looking out for her.

“Ooohhh boy, I love you so, never ever, ever wanna let you go,” Kalli McMahon sang under her breath as she wandered, much more cheerily than she had thought she’d be, down the hallway of the arena. Jeff and Heidi would be waiting for her at The Hardy Boys locker room across the other side of the arena, the threesome all ready and raring to head on to the next town for Tuesday night’s Smackdown! taping.

Kalli smiled at the thought of actually being able to drive her Mustang again. For the last few days, it had been Jeff who had taken the wheel of her pride and joy. She had given him control of the Classic Ford after he had bitched and moaned all the way to Connecticut about leaving his Corvette in North Carolina. Unfortunately for Jeff, having Heidi along with them meant the Corvette was too small to carry all three of them, plus all their gear, from town to town.

But Kalli’s sympathy for Jeff’s lack of opportunity to drive his own baby was wearing thin. That Mustang was hers, and she was going to drive it even if it killed him.

“Kalli?” The girl froze at the sound of an all too familiar, and considerably angry sounding voice behind her. She turned slowly, her eyes creeping up the chest of the handsome blonde before her, eventually locking on his face. “Got a sec? I really want to talk to you.”

Adam Copeland had always known that Kalli was Matt Hardy’s most avid supporter. And he understood why. The two were best friends. Very *best* friends at that, and for that reason, Kalli had always supported, and above all else welcomed, any decision Krissy McMahon made that would involve her being with the elder Hardy.

And all the while, she never said a bad word about Adam, or to Adam. They were friends, and she always treated him as such. Did it hurt that she always seemed to be giving Krissy that gentle little nudge towards Matt?

Chills ran down Kalli’s spine at his words and though she knew him, though she trusted him, at that moment the tone in his voice near terrified her. “Adam, listen...”

“Then why the *hell* are you pushing her to stay with Matt?” He snapped coolly, “Why the hell are you making her stay where she doesn’t belong?”

“Then why isn’t that enough for you?” His voice was slightly louder this time, and the sudden jump in tone caused his voice to reverberate up and down the hallway.

“Adam,” Kalli cooed, “It’s not me that has to be satisfied with that. Its Krissy.” She told him gently, “Matt loves her, Adam. He really loves her.”

“Matt Hardy loves her money, Matt Hardy loves her power!” Adam’s voice was seething with anger, “You know him better than anyone, Kalli. He lives and breathes this God Forsaken business. He’ll do anything, *ANYTHING* to get to the top, and what better way than fucking a McMahon...”

The McMahon Heiress snapped furiously, “It’s not and you damn well know it!” She shook her head at him, “I tell you what Adam, when you calm down and start acting like you actually have a brain in that pretty little blonde head of yours, you can come talk to me then.” She whirled, hurrying down the hallway.

She got a grand total of about two steps when Adam pulled her to a halt, whirling her back to him, “I blame you for this, Kalli. If you and Jeff had just kept your noses out of our business, Krissy and I would still be together...”

“If you had kept it in your pants instead of whoring around with ring rats way back when, Adam, you and Krissy would *NEVER* have split up.” She spat angrily, “You couldn’t be man enough for her then, you can’t be now.”

Kalli cut him off again, “No, Adam. You listen to me.” Her eyes locked on his and she spoke with every tiny bit of honesty in her, “You’re my friend and I love you, but you let her down. You were what ultimately led her to Matt in the first place. And if you had just stepped back out of her life for five minutes and given her a chance to think, maybe she would’ve decided you were the guy for her after all. But you couldn’t do that, could you?” She sighed, “No, you pushed and pushed, and even when she and Matt fell in love you *still* couldn’t stay away and let her be happy.”

He followed closely behind her though, leaning forward to utter nastily, “You know what I think, Kalli? I think you push Krissy and Matt together so desperately because you’re trying to prove to Jeff, and to Krissy, that you don’t want him. That you really are,” he spoke the words in the most sarcastic voice he could muster, “best friends.”

“Then how do I know that if the two of you actually managed to get a clue, you’d realize that all you’re doing with Krissy and Jeff is wasting their time..?”

Every fibre of her being was screaming for the chance to lash out, and so angry with her now, Adam didn’t really care what she did either way. He leant forward, getting right in her face, “Wanna hit me, don’t you, Kalli? Because the truth hurts.” He chuckled darkly, “It fucking hurts.”

But so furious was Adam now that he grabbed her, turning her back to him, his hands tightly, painfully gripping her upper arms as he shoved her backwards, pinning her against the wall. “You’ll never understand it, Kalli, but I love her.” Tears brimmed in his angry eyes, “I fucking love her, and you and Jeff and Matt, you’ve taken her away.” Without thinking, he yanked her forward far enough to slam her back into the wall again.

“And you haven’t hurt me?” He cried out into her face, “Krissy has left me, Kalli. Krissy is gone. I’ve lost her. I’ve lost the only woman I will ever love again, and I’ve lost the baby... The baby Krissy and I created together, out of love. Someone else is going to raise *MY* baby with Krissy!”

Still completely unthinking he slammed her back into the wall again and she whimpered, tears coming to her eyes, “Adam, please... Please, you’re hurting me...”

Her voice trailed away when Adam was suddenly torn backwards and whirled around. His back was to her, but she could see past one side of him as a man stepped toward him, staring deep into Adam’s eyes. He breathed, “Don’t you *ever* touch her again.”

“Sticking your nose in my business again, or just sticking up for your little girlfriend, Matt?” Adam asked angrily, again not even thinking about the words that were falling from his lips. Just speaking, his voice a quiet rage, his every movement a taunt. “At least *she* can rely on you.”

“Has she?” Matt stepped closer to Adam, his distaste for the way Adam was treating Kalli evident. “How, Adam? By supporting her sister no matter what?”

“I don’t care, Chris. I want you to check that arm every show for the next two weeks at least...” Krissy paused momentarily to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone before eventually cutting in, “I know you think it’s fine, Chris, but you don’t have to put up with my sister if something happens to Jeff. You check it, got it?” She paused again, “I don’t care how much he complains about it, that’s my final decision...”

Krissy looked up, startled by the sound of footsteps, a good few of them at least, stampeding past her office door, the echoes of that one word filtering into her office.

“I’ll talk to you later, Chris. I have to go.” She hung up the phone, putting the papers she had been shifting though down and heading to the door, opening it to peek out into the hallway. She was just in time to see Andrew Martin fly past the door.

All those muscles added to all that testosterone, and from time to time, little tensions in the WWF locker room built into momentary bursts of chest bashing egotism in the form of good ol’ fisty cuffs. It was a rare enough occurrence, certainly, but it also meant most of the boys looked upon said incidents as a bit of a novelty, and until a McMahon, or someone else with a more senior position in the Federation came along, they would allow the insanity to continue. Considering more than half her family were still in Connecticut, Krissy knew that chances were, it was going to be she that burst in on this little scene and broke it up.

Adam’s fist smashed painfully into the side of Matt’s head, overbalancing him and sending him hurrying back a few steps. The Hardy snarled and went to step forward, but Adam rushed forward, spearing him, sprawling him out onto the concrete floor and then burying another fist in his face as a crowd slowly started to gather.

“Adam! Stop it!!!” Kalli rushed forward, grabbing onto Adam’s arm before he could get in another punch. He whirled to look at her and she started to say, “I swear to God if you don’t get off him Daddy will have your...”

His body falling backwards as Matt punched him yet again cut her off. Both men clamoured to their feet and Matt rushed the Canadian, the twosome falling into a pile of crates, Matt pinning Adam first, laying into him with both fists before Adam managed to shove the Hardy away and pounce on him instead.

“Matt!!! Adam!!! God dammit! Stop it RIGHT NOW!!!” Kalli pleaded desperately, whirling to look at the men who had started to gather around. Her eyes fell on Andrew and she near begged him, her voice starting to get hoarse from yelling. “Andrew, stop them, please!”

“You...” Kalli jumped back out of the way as the two men flew toward her, smashing the window of one of the nearer offices with the sheer force they hit the wall just beneath it. “Shit! Guys! Stop it!!!” She hurried forward again, this time as Matt pinned Adam beneath him, punching him over and over, years of anger that had been locked away, years of pain that had never been dealt with, all coming out at once. “Matt!” The girl ran around the back of him, taking a hold of his arm...

Without thinking, Matt flung his arm back, his fist smashing, full force, into Kalli’s face. The girl fell back, landing against the wall, her hands instinctively cupping her injured face.

He moved away from Adam, hurrying over to her as Adam sat up, his battered face filling with horror when he saw Kalli. The girl had buried her face in her arms, her knees pulled up against her chest, and he could tell instantly by her shaking shoulders that she was in tears. “Jesus, Kalli...” He crawled over to her, resting a hand on one knee as Matt knelt beside her.

Andrew shook his head, a near bemused smile on his face, “Man, I would hate to be those two when Vince hears about this...” He was silenced by Krissy when she pushed past the crowd behind him to stand next to him, taking in the scene before her.

“Kalli, look up, let me see.” Adam cooed gently, trying to prompt the girl to lift her face, but she would not. “Come on, please...” He took a gentle hold of her hair, softly tilting her face up. With he and Matt hovering so closely before her, no one behind them could see and he was suddenly grateful. Deep red was splattered across her face from her bloodied nose, and he could already see the makings of a bruise on her cheekbone.

“Oh, Jesus. Kalli...” Matt whispered, and the girl looked up at him, her tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry.” He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. She buried her face in his chest, sobbing softly while he cooed, “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean it. I just... God... I’m so sorry.”

She turned, walking back the way she had come before turning into the first corridor she came across. The steps started coming a little faster as she went...

Soon her fast steps, still growing in speed as she hurried along, oblivious to all else, turned into a frantic run and the McMahon fled down this corridor and that, not even sure where she was running to...

“Man, you should try it some time, Heidi...” Jeff Hardy, stepping outside his locker room with Heidi Jacobs in tow, paused as a figure sped by him, he looked after it for a moment before realizing it was his best friend. “Krissy?” He called out.

He turned to Heidi, “I’ll catch you up, okay?” Concern on her face, the girl nodded and he rushed off, running after his best friend as fast as he could. “Krissy? Krissy, wait up!!!” But even as he closed on her, dashing by the storage rooms at the rear of the arena, heading for the loading bay that had not been used by the WWF for this particular Raw, she kept on running.

As she neared the door that lead into the parking bay, realization hit him. It was dark in the loading bay, and she wouldn’t be able to see a thing once she got through the door she was nearing. Closing in on her he called out, “Krissy! Not that way! It’s the...”

She shoved the door open as she hit it, drowning out the last of his warning with the huge crash the door made as it was flung forward. He passed through the door a second or two after her, “KRISSY?” He dove forward, trying to snatch on to the back of her, his hand barely brushing the back of her shirt as she fell, disappearing from sight as he himself tumbled forward, his hand only barely snatching the fencing that separated the walkway from the loading bay and stopping himself from following her over.