TAoMFatAiLB :: Ch. I - Clean the Slate (DR Secret RP)

[Stormm]

The Allure of Moving Forward and the Agony in Looking Back
Chapter I
Clean the Slate

I Can Learn to Live with All the Things I've Done
No words could describe how much joy their smiles brought. There was no way to express just how heartbreaking their cries were. From the tears and pouty lips to the deepest of belly laughs, the two little bundles of joy that Justin and his wife Lindsay had brought into the world a little over two and a half years ago had become their everything. On the surface Justin, known to some the world over as many different names, was just as elated as Lindsay to wake up and spend every day with the twins, Joseph Eugene and Remington (Remi) Marie; but the void that was left inside of him could only partially be filled with the miracle of bringing life into the world.

The Force of Nature had mostly kept to himself over the last two years, choosing to spend as much time with his real family than the one he's made performing in front of the camera for the last two decades. No longer stepping inside of a squared circle was only part of the hole that had yet to be filled. The rest? Well that was going to be a lot harder to fill, especially when he had been unwilling to let anyone know just how hard every day was for him.

For twenty years the late Doctor Damian Sorrow had stalked Justin like a predator to his prey, but would never capture him for long before letting him go. It was the most sadistic game of cat and mouse that those close to him would witness or even be a part of. While there was no way to measure the relief that Justin felt when he watched Damian put a bullet in his head, he's felt nothing but confusion since, now that the chase was over. How could anyone else possibly understand exactly what he went through? There was nobody he felt he could talk to about any of it, and so he'd just bottled it all up. He doesn't wake up every day expecting to be harassed, but when that had been his world for over half of his life, it put him into an emotional whirlwind every morning.

Justin's extended presence at home had not gone unnoticed, though. Lindsay was starting to catch on to how inseparable he had become, not just to her or their children, but home in general. While he had started to take back on more responsibilities with his world-wide sports entertainment corporation, Havoc Entertainment, he had done so from home, rather than traveling to Atlanta where it was headquartered. The lawsuits he had been through with former employer, Pure Class Wrestling, had involved a lot of mediation and more recently settlement proceedings, all of Justin's involvement was done over the phone.

It was a chore for Lindsay to even get her husband out of the house for a nice dinner, even when leaving their children with more than capable hands to watch over them for a couple hours. In fact, the furthest Justin had gotten from Michaels Manor in months was to the barn out back that he had converted into a fully functioning wrestling gym some years prior.

He was obviously struggling, more so each day, and she couldn't figure out a way to get him to open up to her. Justin knew Dr. Sorrow was no longer around to torment him, but he seemed to prepare for the worse anyway. The only thing that seemed consistent was just how good of a father he had been to little Joey and Remi since the day they were born. The rest of the time, Lindsay could only guess what was going through his head. For a time there appeared to be progress, Justin started to confide in her, but there had been an incident the last time he left the Michaels Manor estate for a routine visit to the Southwind Gardens mental facility earlier in the year. Ever since, it was more like two random people raising their children than the couple they had grown into for the last eleven years.

But that day was different.

Lindsay hadn't seen Justin smile as much in months, maybe even an entire year. The bounce was back in his step, and his hazel eyes appeared a little more golden than brown or green, like normal. When she walked down the stairs that morning, Justin was already up, had the kids dressed and fed, and was playing with them in the living room. He flashed his pearly whites at her as she meandered in, and Joseph squealed as he stood up and ran to her as fast as his little legs would get him there, nearly pushing his sister out of his way in the process.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked, picking up the eldest twin and making her way towards the couch.

Remi had started to cry from her brother's hastily reaction to seeing their mother. Quickly scooping her up, the quick movements of Justin standing up as well sent a rush of adrenaline to the youngest twin, and she quickly calmed down. "You were overdue on some extra sleep." His declaration was followed with a little peck on Lindsay's forehead and a tousle of his son's dark blonde hair. "There's a little breakfast left if you're hungry."

Before she had a chance to answer, Justin had already made his way towards the kitchen, and she couldn't say no. "Sure." Kissing little Joey on one of his chubby little cheeks, she stood up and followed. "Coffee?"

"We don't drink coffee..." There was some hesitation in his response as if her question threw him off.

Perching onto a high chair at the massive island in the middle of the kitchen, where the two used to share many breakfasts together, she smiled. "Just making sure it was still you."

Justin shook his head with a smile as he sat Remi down and proceeded to pull a pan out of the warm oven with the last of the breakfast he had prepared earlier. Transferring it to the plate he already had set out at Lindsay's spot, he moved the conversation past the obvious ridicule. "My parents will be here a little later this morning, but it doesn't sound like Aaron was going to make it after their loss yesterday in Texas." Justin's younger brother, Aaron, had enrolled at Kansas State University on football scholarship a couple years prior, and had started his Junior year as the starting quarterback for the squad. "I talked to Brian right before you came down too."

"And?"

"They were having some issues with Lena this morning, but the three of them will be here in a couple hours." Brian McCallister was one of Justin's oldest friends, and business partner. He and his wife Catie had their first child almost two years prior, and she has been quite the handful for the couple.

With a cute little voice, Lindsay looked at Joseph was still in her arms. "They didn't get as lucky as we did with you and your sister." He looked back at her with a smile before Justin picked him up to let Lindsay have both hands free to eat her breakfast.

"Your future wife is kind of whiney, let's hope she gets over that before you get ahold of her." Lifting him up, Justin fake nibbled on the child's belly, causing a fit of hysterical laughter before sitting him down.

Both of Justin and Lindsay's smiles faded as their children ran around together. "So, are you ready for this?" The question was one that had run through his head several times since the meeting had been scheduled, rescheduled, and then rescheduled some more. Justin was unable to answer verbally and just shook his head, which caused Lindsay to sigh heavily. "So why don't you just..."

"Those people don't listen to me!" His words echoed off the walls of the kitchen and he realized how much he had raised his voice. "They don't care about me or what I have to say, and they certainly don't care about anything I have done for them over the years." He was wearing his heart on his sleeve with obvious frustration. "As soon as they filed that lawsuit against me last year, and everything I've gone through with them since, there's no way that I step into another Pure Class Wrestling ring again." Nothing had been announced on the man known as Stormm returning to active competition in the promotion he had most recently competed in, but he surely couldn't see it any other way.

"You're probably right." Lindsay said, regretful for asking in the first place, despite feeling the need to ask. She had done so to get any kind reaction from her husband and did she ever get one. "It couldn't hurt to try though."

Justin nodded, agreeing, but too stubborn to change his mind.

Several moments passed with Justin just standing there, his arms crossed, staring off into the distance, while Lindsay finished her breakfast. Chewing on the sides of his mouth was a tic Lindsay was all too familiar with seeing, and she gave him time to work through the thoughts bouncing around in his head rather than press the issue. However, this time, Justin didn't really have anything else to add, and instead decided to move on as Lindsay started to clean up the kitchen. "So, I'm probably going to just..." He sighed. "Can you..."

"Yeah, I can handle the little ones while you're out there." A half smile appeared on both of their faces right before he turned and made his way out. "I love you." Lindsay called out.

"I love you too." The words were muffled coming from the hallway as Justin made his exit, but they had the same meaning to her as if he said them right to her face. It was the first time they had said it to one another in days.

Progress.


Dreaming of a Way to Start My Own Revolution
"You don't give that woman enough credit, Justin!" Brian exclaimed from the floor, just outside of the old IAWF wrestling ring that Justin kept in his gym to train with. His workout had been over for over an hour when his best friend entered the gym to find him sulking in one corner of the squared circle, nearly in tears.

Lindsay was always the easy-going type when it came to Justin's past. She would let him work things out on his own, and reach out to her in his own time. Brian had given up on being patient, and when he saw his best friend sitting there feeling sorry for himself, he was through. "How am I supposed to talk to her or anyone else about what I'm going through? Nobody has been through all of that!"

His day had started out great, but from the time he stepped in gym to then, he had fallen to pieces yet again. "What about your parents? Last time I saw Gene and Michelle, they seemed like they had pretty good heads on their shoulders." Brian pointed out, referring to a couple of individuals who had been dealing with the psychopath for much longer than Justin had. "I was a part of that mess too, and even let that piece of trash kidnap me to help you out." Climbing into the ring himself, Brian pressed on. "You've got to stop letting Damian control your life like this, he's dead!"

"But he's still here." Justin stood up, as if to defend himself against Brian who had stepped into the ring with him. "That Southwind patient said, 'I'm everywhere.' before he tore his eyes out." Looking at his own hands he relived the moment in his head again, something he had done several times since it happened. "With his bare fucking hands." He sniffled.

Nodding, Brian took another step closer towards Justin, who tensed up. "They're just words. Words from a sick man who got taken advantage of by an even sicker man. Don't let him turn you into another one of his footnotes. You have too much to live for to let him take the rest of your life from you."

Backing into the corner of the ring as far as he could go, Justin groaned, still not expecting it to be as easy as everyone was making it out to be. Escaping inside of himself for a moment, he muttered the first thing that came to mind. "Lindsay..."

"That woman has loved you in some way or another for longer than you know. You took her for granted then and lost touch with her because you were too damn stubborn to admit you had similar feelings for her." Brian explained, some of this information coming from his own past with the Force of Nature, the rest obviously coming from his wife Catie and her conversations with Lindsay. "You still take her for granted, and refuse to understand that she's been with you through at least half of this mess. Even if she doesn't understand exactly what you are going through, you have to know that she'd go to Hell and back to try and help you out."

"But..." Justin couldn't even begin to get the excuse out before he was cut off.

"But what?" Brian interrupted "Nobody needs any more of your flimsy justifications for being a selfish asshole, Justin, we've gotten enough of that. So, what is it?" He questioned. "Huh? Tell me! What is it?" Brian continued to poke the bear, hoping to get under his best friend's skin enough to get a straight answer, though he fully expected Justin to hit him in the process as he could see his hands starting to ball up into fists. "Spit it ou..."

"I'm scared!" Hanging his head, Justin dropped back down to the mat and let his hands fall out of the fists he had made. "I know Lindsay would do anything for me, I'd do the same for her. I know there's companies out there that would still love to sign Stormm, I've got the mail to prove it. And I know that I could still help make Havoc Entertainment successful when the time comes to hang 'em up, the numbers speak for themselves." His voice trembled, but he managed to fight it. "I don't know how to do any of that without always looking over my shoulder. As fucked up as it sounds, knowing I have nothing to worry about scares the shit out of me more than when I had to." Glancing back up at Brian from the mat, the look of concern on his face grew. "I'm scared of losing everything, and it actually being my fault."

Suddenly, it made much more sense for Brian. When Dr. Sorrow was still alive, Justin always had an excuse for when things got bad, but now that he's gone, he's afraid that without that pretext, he's going to lose everything. "Your cynicism has always been the one thing that annoys me the most." Brian admitted. "Your wife has loved you more since before you two were even together than some people will ever love another person." He laughed out loud, thinking to himself about he and Catie's marriage and if that statement were true for them as well. "You've always had some of the rawest talent inside one of these things than most people who spend years training. I don't think I even have to tell you about how Havoc Entertainment would not be where it is today if it wasn't for you."

"But?" Justin waited.

"But you will lose it all if you keep everything bottled up inside like you have been." It was a hard truth to tell, but Brian was relieved when he saw the look of determination that Justin had as he nodded in agreement. "It's okay to be scared, but it's not okay to try and do this all alone when you have people you can rely on."

"What... am I supposed to do?" Determined, but still lost, he asked hesitantly.

Extending a hand that Justin quickly grabbed, Brian helped The Force of Nature to his feet. "I think I speak for everyone inside when I say that you've got a whoopin' or two still left to give."

Both men chuckle. "It'll be a cold day in Hell before Stormm steps inside of a Pure Class Wrestling ring again." Justin confessed. "I don't think trying to start over somewhere else is really in the cards anymore, either. I'd be trying to ride in on my own coat tails from successes years in the past, and I don't want that either."

Putting his hand on Justin's shoulder, the two began to walk towards the ropes. "Isn't the whole point of your final meeting with PCW tomorrow to figure all this out?" He pondered.

"I got a look at the settlement paperwork already, they don't want me back, and I don't want to deal with the hacks Luis continues to hire to run the place while he's off doing whatever it is that he's doing." Justin confirmed. "Maybe I'll just start coming back into the office for a week or so every month."

Brian laughed nervously. "Maybe we'll just see how your meeting with their lawyers goes tomorrow."


That Was the Old Me and It's a New Day
Sitting across from five men in suits were Justin and his lawyer, Matt Mendez. He had several others on retainer for Havoc Entertainment that helped him work on his counter suit, but only required services from the best on his team that day. The five men seated across the conference room table from them were mostly fresh faces. Given the nature of the lawsuits that PCW ultimately settled out of court for, it's no surprise that they'd be seeking new representation after the fact.

One man, though, Justin was familiar with. Not on a first name basis, because he could not remember it for the life of him, but he had been there through the entire process. One of the talent relations people working under Vivian White, and the man responsible for Stormm's outright release from his contract without penalty in the settlement. This would also be the man that would do everything in his power to keep Stormm out of the Pure Class Wrestling ring if it was the last thing he did.

The uncomfortable silence as the big shot lawyers sorted their paperwork finally came to an end as they started to communicate back and forth all the legal jargon that Justin paid others the sort out for him. He, instead, would stare daggers through the salt and pepper haired man that helped bring the lawsuits to an end, by perhaps killing Justin's wrestling career in the process.

"Now if you turn the page, you'll notice some changes made at the request of Pure Class Wrestling prior to this meeting." Justin was not paying attention, but the PCW lawyer that looked to have a few more miles on him than the rest was doing all the reading of the settlement agreement that Mr. Mendez was reviewing for The Force of Nature.

After the rustle of paper, though, the grey-haired man let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, which cause Justin to turn his attention back to the reading. "It says here that my client will be paid out all merchandise royalties owed to him over the course of the lawsuit that PCW withheld, as well as buying out the rest of his contract, which is the same as the previous draft, but this next line is a little concerning." Matthew compared the new agreement with the last one he received. "The last draft stated that my client would be able to pursue other opportunities outside of Pure Class Wrestling, but this latest draft..."

Grabbing the new settlement paperwork out of his lawyer's hands, Justin skimmed through it until he came to the part in question. "You've got to be fucking with me?" He tossed the papers back in front of Matt and slid his chair back and standing up, turning his back to the table and looking out of the windows from the conference room.

Several emotions were going through The Force of Nature's mind as Matt continued with the proceedings. "If I'm reading this correct, and I'll paraphrase here, it's stating that my client is being offered a new contract with PCW, for more money, without locking him to any specific time frame?"

"Correct." The man with the salt and pepper hair confirmed with reluctance. "If he chooses to decline the offer, we will pay out a severance for his release, and PCW and Stormm can go their separate ways. Should he choose to accept the offer, he will technically be paid more, but only for his appearances, however many of those he chooses to show up for." The man pressed on, working it in a way to jab at Justin ever so slightly for his refusal to show up for the last match he was booked for a year and a half prior.

Justin kept his back turned to the table as they continued to discuss the changes, and the head lawyer took back over. "The only stipulation, should he choose to accept them, is he has to appear at Deadly Intentions, and compete in the Deadly Rumble match."

"How about I jump across this table and compete right now?" The Stormm persona started to come out as he turned back around and fixed his gaze once more. "Is this some kind of joke? Whose idea was this anyway?"

All four of PCW's lawyers exchanged looks, but the aging talent relation worker's stare never wavered, and he was the first to speak up. "It's no secret that Pure Class Wrestling has seen bigger rosters over the years..."

"Aha!" Sitting back down, Justin knew there was going to be some sort of catch.

Biting his tongue, the man continued. "Vivian thought it best if we could..."

"She thought if I'd drop all of this and come back, it would help your numbers? What makes you think I'd want anything to do with the place now?" The sound of the conference room door opening and closing, and another man in a black suit walking in went unnoticed by The Force of Nature. "I mean, after all the shit you've put me and my family through for the last year, now you want me to come back and do you a favor?" His question was followed by an uncontrollable and very sarcastic laugh. "Hell will freeze over before that happens, so we can go ahead and agree right now that I'll be opting out of that new contract offer."

Slouching down in his chair and crossing his arms, Justin stared down at the table and proceeded to wait for the portion of the meeting where he could sign something and leave. But another wrench was thrown into his evening as the new attendee, with his feet planted firmly on top of the table and leaning back in his chair, spoke up. "Must be cold down there right now."

Shooting a nasty glare over at the man who Justin assumed was just another PCW suit running late, words came rushing out of his mouth before he had a chance to even think. "Stay out of this Johnny!" He turned his attention back to the table, and it was only a few short moments later when it finally hit that which his eyes and mouth had already made clear. His brother-in-law, and former PCW superstar in his own right, Johnny Matthews, known to the Pure Class Wrestling faithful as Johnny Vivacious, there in the flesh. "Johnny?!"

Lowering the trademark pitch black glasses that he refused to completely take off, even inside of the office building, he said something that Justin would have never expected. "Maybe you should stop running your mouth for once, and hear them out."