006: A Little Help From My Friends

Nessa Wall sat in the middle of the ring in the deserted gym in downtown Toronto, hoping that paying for private use of the facilities for the day would turn out to be worth it. Ever since the match against Kenzi Grey had been announced, she'd been in full-on panic mode. Every bit of preparation she'd done for the upcoming title defense had been in anticipation of her rematch against Smith Jones at Oblivion. She hadn't counted on that nonsensical contract of their throwing her a curve-ball. Just when she started to doubt his arrival at all, she heard the door open. From here she couldn't see the entrance, but she held her breath, hoping.

It had taken him hours to get there, which was to be understood as he was coming from the Nation's capitol in response to a panicked text message he had received in the middle of the night previously. It's been awhile since she had texted him like that which was the main reason why he had agreed to come out in the first place and certainly wouldn't keep doing it should this become a pattern of hers, but for now, he was here to help her with whatever she needed. Her former partner Matt Stone walked into the gym, with a can of Monster Energy in his hand (clearly the sponsor of the day). He spotted the blonde in the ring and approached. "Hello," he offered, finding the least personal opener for no particular reason.

The relief in her voice was echoed on her face, "thank God you came." Realizing how bad that sounded, she was quick to amend. "I need you, Matthew. Really and truly."

A smile spread across his face as he heard that, though choosing not to take it as the way he might have wanted. "I figured, what with the booty call in the middle of the night. Though, for future reference, those work better when we're in the same area code." Stopping, looking her over, it had been a bit since he'd seen her in person. "And wearing something sexier never hurts."

"You used to like the way I looked in yoga pants," she replied as she stood slowly, eyeing the energy drink in his hand. "Rough night?"

"Somehow didn't get as much sleep as I'm used to." He accentuated his point by taking a sip from the green can. "Turn around for a second?"

She stared at him for a few seconds, trying to puzzle out the reasoning behind the request before finally just doing it. "Do you want me to bend over and touch my toes, too?" She snarked back at him, unable to keep the smile off her face now that he'd actually arrived.

He smirked at that remark, actually contemplating it for a moment. "Nah, better not, best not be too distracted." He slid in the ring, getting to his feet, presuming that's where she wanted him to be. "Though you're right, you do look good in yoga pants, still."

"Well, at least that one thing hasn't changed." She turned around, all pretenses of joking laid aside. "I'm… completely freaking out. Not even trying to be dramatic here - I had no idea I was going to be defending the belt this quickly and now…" she shrugged, "I'm completely boned. I could lose to that terrible wannabe actress."

"This is news to me. You're a strong, confident woman, I thought." He paused for a moment, leaning back on the ropes. "Besides, you have your ninjas, don't you? They'll be there to save you, won't they?" He asked, obviously a little annoyed at that whole situation.

"They aren't my 'ninjas'." Nessa sighed, "Erica and Mercy pulled that stunt on their own. I legitimately had absolutely nothing to do with it - I simply profited by the fact that they had as much of an axe to grind with ol' Smitty as I did."

"That's your story and I'm sure you're sticking with it. I just wanna point out that Lex Luther had a couple of henchwomen too and one of them was named Mercy. If you want to say that's just coincidence, I believe you. After all, you would never lie to me." He added with enough sarcasm to make it a full entree.

"I'm serious!" She took a few steps towards him, "and now the whole world thinks I'm… well… for lack of a better word: lazy. If I lose on Friday, I'll never hear the end of it. I need your help. Like old times. Provided you've got the time today - I suppose it is rather presumptuous of me, even though you did come all the way here." She sniffed, shaking her head, "and my allergies are going bananas because I haven't been sleeping well at all."

Matt looked at her for a moment, sighing. "Well as much of a jerk as I like to be, even I wouldn't drive all the way out here to simply say no and leave, at this point, so yeah, I'll help you, at least as much as I can." He paused for a second though, having not missed that last thing she said. "Though if you're trying to entice me into doing you a favour, you have an odd way to going about it."

"Fair warning, sweetie." She tapped the end of her nose, "this thing could go off at any time, so try and stay out of the splash zone."

"There's a lovely image." He replied, dryly, looking around the gym. "You don't have a window opened in here, do you?" He asked, teasingly.

"Not that I know of. Think it's a closed ventilation system." Shrugging, she moved closer to him, nose wrinkling as her gaze shot to the energy drink can, "oh God, is that thing apple Jolly Rancher flavoured? That's all I can smell."

Matt looked down at the green can, then back to Nessa. "I'm pretty sure it's not cherry, anyway." He shrugged, never knowing what the actual flavour was of his drinks, simply identifying it by the colour of the container. "Why? Is that going to be an issue for you?"

"Well I'm not allergic to that scent - as far as I know, anyhow." She laughed, starting to gather her hair into a ponytail. "You know how it is when they're like this. I can smell the guy walking down the road three blocks away's body odour." Again her nose wrinkled as she twisted her hair and secured it with the elastic around her wrist. "I just really, really hate Jolly Ranchers."

"Oh yes, Bloodhound Nessa is on the case." He watched her putting her hair up, raising an eyebrow. She didn't explicitly tell him what she wanted him to help her with, but he was starting to get a clearer picture. You'd think the fact that they were meeting in an empty gym with a ring would have been a pretty clear indicator. "Good, means I don't have to share." He added, putting the can down in a corner.

"Do you remember the drills we used to do when I had the Pride Championship in SVW? We could start with those. Unless you want to watch tape with me first. I've got all the clips I could find of Kenzi's recent matches from LAW and a couple other places. They're on my iPad." She bounced on the balls of her feet, rolling her shoulders. "I'm game for whichever."

"I suppose we should do the drills first, it's easier to get the harder work done first and we can relax and watch tape afterwards. I say relax, but I'll still make you take notes because you used to spend the majority of tape watching just looking at me." He added with a grin, remembering the 'good old times' of three years ago. "Besides, if we do the drills first I'll still have the memory of you turning around to fuel my energy levels." He added with a wink.

Nessa swatted at his shoulder, laughing as she said, "oh you, stop it." The whiff of air as she connected with nothing fanned the loose strands of hair framing her face as he stepped out of reach and she ended up doing nothing more than tickling her own nose with her own hair. Her nose twitched and she took a step back, eyes widening as she murmured, "gonna sneeze," a split second before she did. It wasn't as loud as they usually were, thanks to her hands coming up to block it as she turned away but in the empty gym, it was still borderline deafening.

Matt took a step back from her as well, partially out of habit and partially just to avoid any splash as she had previously warned. "That's attractive." He stated sarcastically, watching her rubbing at her nose in the aftermath. "Well I suppose you were right earlier when you said some things don't change. I presume you're going to wash your hands before we get started?"

"I can, if you need me to." She glanced in the direction of the washroom, "maybe I should. Give my nose a good blow while I'm in there." She moved towards the ropes, "go on and finish your caffeinated sugar death drink. I'll be right back." She rolled out of the ring and then he got to watch her walk off across the room.

Watch her he did, leaning on the ropes in the process, grabbing the can out of the corner after she was out of sight and finishing it off, wondering if it was a good idea coming all this way, but it was for Nessa and no matter how many ups or downs they may have had, he wanted to be here for her.

A few minutes later, she rejoined him, still sniffling a few times as she crossed the room. "I took an extra allergy pill. Maybe it'll help," she called out, knowing he'd appreciate that thoughtfulness. "And thank you. For coming, I mean. I know you're really busy with your trainee and your own work so…" she blushed, looking down at the apron as she rested her hands against it. "I really do appreciate it. And you."

Matt nodded, hearing her appreciation and ushering her into the ring. "Yeah, yeah, I'm great, good for me, you going to get in here and get started or are we going to stand around and wait to see if you decide to try and deafen me again?" He asked with a slight smile, but wanting to focus, as best he could anyway, on helping out with her training.

She nodded, finding a smile tugging at the corners of her lips in return as she slid into the ring. "Show me what you've got, Matt." She stuck her tongue out, deliberately trying to egg him on, "let's see if you can shut me up!"