Betting on the Zebra Chapter 24

For Disclaimer and other details please see Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 24

Looking around the ring at the competitors Lenny resisted the urge to let out a sigh. Yeah she loved her job but it was at times like this that she wished she had another pair of eyes. Granted a match like this wasn’t quite as hectic as say, a TLC match where you had to pretty much give up all pretence of being a referee at all and instead turn into mommy making sure that no one had hurt themselves, but still it was pretty busy. She knew that at some point all of the guys would end up in the ring kicking the crap out of each other and that would be her cue to make sure that she didn’t get hit. Then it would be all about trying to keep herself out of the way while still making it look like she was seeing every minute of the action ... at least the action that they wanted her to see. Then about three quarters of the way through the match she would do her ref bump and miraculously wake up just in time to see someone make a cover and award the match to them.

She was sure that Paul’s matches had way too many ref bumps in them. Not that she minded doing it at all. Yeah it could hurt at times but it was part of her job and the other guys in the ring took way more of pounding than she did so she could hardly complain about being knocked on her ass a couple of times a week. But even she could see the sense of predictability that was starting to take over in the ring when Paul was in here. She wanted to just yell at him that he didn’t need all of that crap. Why couldn’t he just get on with things like he used to? But she was smart enough to know when to keep her mouth shut. True it was a talent that very few people knew she possessed but at times even she knew enough about self preservation to know when it was time to just fade into the background.

She watched closely as Triple H and Booker spoke total trash to each other in the centre of the ring and she waited till they got just that little bit too close to each other before she stepped forward and insinuated herself between them acting as if she was trying to separate them. She had managed to push them apart slightly when she felt a firm shove from Paul that sent her firmly into Booker and she spun her head around to look at him incredulously.

Paul smirked at her widely then held his hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Didn’t mean that ref.” He said and then he smiled. “Just got a little carried away.”

“Make sure it doesn’t happen again!” She snapped out as she spun on him. It was really the last thing that she wanted to do but she knew that the crowd had seen that ... they were waiting for her to do something or say something in retaliation. Damn, she was certain that she wouldn’t be happy till this match was over. Yep, now might be a good time to start growing that extra pair of eyes.

Chris felt his eyes narrow as he watched from his position on the apron. Looked like Kevin hadn’t been worrying for nothing. That move from Paul had struck him as nothing more than childish although he knew that no one else would see anything untoward. It would just be contributed to his character and nothing would be done or even thought about it. He again found himself wondering just what the hell had happened here. Just yesterday both Nash and Levesque had been falling all over themselves to impress Lenny. Of course he knew that it was because of the bet but he couldn’t imagine what had gone wrong to make everything change quite so rapidly. Then he stroked at his chin. Perhaps Lenny had picked Nash and Paul was feeling pissed off about that ... maybe it was starting to sink in what he would have to do now. And although he didn’t want to Chris could feel himself start to laugh at the thought of the man that he was looking at right now parading around the locker room in women’s underwear. Thankfully he caught himself just in time. It really wouldn’t do for Jericho to get caught on camera laughing his ass off at something. “C’mon Ref!” He called out just to give himself something to do ... somewhere for the impetus to go instead of having it coming out as laughter.

Jerking her head up Lenny shot Chris a pointed look but inside felt like hugging him. He had just snapped her out of whatever kind of funk she was drifting into. “Let’s do this gentleman.” She said lightly and took a few steps back as the bell rang.

-o0o-

“How’s it going?” Trish asked as he paused by a monitor to stand next to Kevin. “Ouch.” She winced as Chris took a particularly brutal looking slam from Booker. “Looks like the crowd is really getting their money’s worth tonight.” She added but eyed the odd way that Kevin seemed to be watching what was going on in front of them. Yeah he was watching the match but if she didn’t know any better then she would swear that he hadn’t taken his eyes off Paul. “Hello! Anyone in there?” She asked as she waved a hand in front of his eyes quickly.

Suddenly realising that someone was talking to him Kevin jerked back to reality and felt his eyes focus on whatever was being waved right in front of them. It was a hand. Turning slightly he forced a smile onto his face. “Oh hey Trish. Sorry about that sweetheart, I was kind of into this match.” He admitted and then turned back to look at the monitor.

“I see that.” Trish said with a light laugh. “It will be over soon.” She added as she looked at her watch and then hurried to cover up the yawn that spread across her face.

Kevin laughed as he spotted that action out of the corner of his eye. “Feeling a little tired there Trish?” He asked and laughed again. “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to feel insulted.”

“Yep sorry about that. I’m just kind of counting down the minutes till Lenny’s done here so we can head back to the hotel.” She said by way of explanation. Then she leaned forwards slightly. “Looks like it’s time for her to take her bump.” She added and didn’t notice the way that Kevin seemed to tighten subtly at her words.

-o0o-

Bending slightly Chris got ready to climb through the ropes into the ring. Lenny had just given him the signal that meant it was time for her to take her bump. He sighed to himself. Time for him to go in there and make sure that a girl took a spinning heel kick to the face. Wow, didn’t he have a great job? Then he frowned, as Paul didn’t move towards him to make the tag. Hell he wasn’t even coming anywhere near the corner at all. Looking at Lenny again he could see the slight confusion there but she just gave him a tiny shrug. He paused briefly wondering if perhaps he should just head on into the ring anyway. Could it be that Paul had gotten confused and wasn’t quite sure what was coming next. Nope, no way was that the case. The guy wasn’t an idiot and he had been doing this long enough to know what was happening in his own match. Something was definitely going on here and he hated the fact that he was out of the loop.

He knew that he couldn’t just charge in there ... the crowd would expect Lenny to toss him out as soon as he did so he waited and after a moment he got what he was looking for when she turned away from him. He grinned trying to stay in character and climbed through the ropes. And that was when it happened. She turned and spotted him right away as he had hoped she would and began to move towards him quickly. Great! It looked like this could be salvaged after all. He acted like he hadn’t noticed her at all and saw Booker coming towards him out of the corner of his eye. He began to set up the spinning heel kick turning away from Lenny as he prepared to jump in the air.

Smirking to himself Paul knew exactly what was coming. That is he knew what everyone else thought was coming. Oh well he knew that Lenny was supposed to be taking a bump right about now but he wanted to be the one to do it not Chris. Yeah it was childish but he still wanted to be the one to do it. Her ass would hit the canvas and the crowd would be none the wiser as to who had been supposed to do it. Of course she would probably attempt to tear him a new one when they got back behind the curtain but by then he planned to be asking her just what the hell she thought she was up to this morning.

So letting himself lean back against the ropes slightly he took their impetus to slingshot himself off them and moving at speed he watched the way that she was hurrying across the ring seemingly not even noticing him at all. He hit her with the running high knee perfectly ... ok so he had hit her side on but he knew that she was ok. At the most she would be winded by his actions. He heard the roar of disapproval from the crowd then spotted the look of total shock on her face as with the unexpected move she started to fall. She started to fall forwards.

And that was when it happened. Chris’s set up for the spinning heel kick had been pretty much perfect. But he hadn’t expected Lenny’s trajectory to have changed quite so drastically. He had been turned away from them after all. He had heard the crowd starting to freak out but it wasn’t as if he could stop what he was doing to find out what had just happened. So he ended up kicking her ... just as had been planned but she had been in the progress of falling anyway when his kick struck. He knew that his eyes were widening as he almost kicked her head clean off of her shoulders. When she hit the mat it was with a sickening thud and she hadn’t tried to protect herself at all. Then there seemed to be silence as the crowd realised that this wasn’t what was supposed to happen.

She didn’t move at all.

“Fuck.” Chris whispered and then wondered what the hell happened now.

-o0o-

“Get another ref out there!”

Kevin heard the yell from someone at Gorilla position and jerked his head up. Surely they couldn’t be considering keeping the match going after that. They needed to get her the hell out of there ... she needed urgent medical attention. But sure enough another ref pushed between him and Trish and rushed down towards the ring. He eyed the monitor critically. Right about now everyone looked as shocked as each other. They were making a few halfhearted attempts at keeping the match going but you could tell that it was the last thing on their minds. Still she had fallen almost to the side of the ring ... they could keep right on going if they wanted to. But he could hear J.R’s frantic calls for help and knew that it wasn’t the guy’s usual frenetic hyperbole. This time the calls were genuine ... they knew that she was hurt ... really hurt. He clenched his fists at his sides. “Fuck this!” He finally burst out and made a move to go out there.

“Kevin what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Trish almost screamed as she clutched at his arm in an attempt to get him to stay in place. “They’re cutting the match short ... see!” She added as she pointed at the monitor that showed Earl sliding into place just in time to count three and declare Chris and Paul the winners. Still no one could deny the look of anger and disgust on the senior ref’s face. Then as soon as he had done that he was moving to the side of the ring to check on Lenny. “They’ll be bringing her back here soon enough.” She said and wondered if it was actually for Kevin’s benefit or her own. She could feel her heart pounding and was pleading internally that her friend was ok. It was at times like this that the danger of her own job was brought home to her.

-o0o-

Out by the ring the crowd were still sitting in almost total silence. The show had just that second gone off the air and they all watched as Earl got face down on the mat beside the young woman that was lying there. “Lenny? Lenny, talk to me girl.” He instructed. “Are you ok?”

Taking a couple of gulping breaths Lenny realised that someone was talking to her. True it sounded like they were doing so from the other end of a long tunnel but she had recognised her name. “I can’t move.” She slurred out the words. “Earl, is that you?” She asked as she tried to open her eyes and gave up when it became obvious that even that simple task was too much for her right now. “I just ... I can’t move.” She added and just lay there. She wanted to sob out loud ... she wanted to scream. But she didn’t. She just lay there and waited.