Story Title: Apprehension

Author: Tammi aka SkittlezLvr79
Spoilers: Mentions past Jeff/Trish TV interaction
Category: Wrestling/Het

Pairing: Trish Stratus and Jeff Hardy. Other wrestlers make cameo appearances
Rating: M, just be on the safe side
Summary: Trish gets news about her new angle and she's apprehensive about it. But why? Is it for the reasons she claims or is there more to it?
Warnings: Mentions of past drug use
Disclaimer: No infringement is intended and I don't own the people used in this work of fiction. They belong to themselves. The company and their respective onscreen persona's belong to Vince McMahon.

Trish Stratus came out of the office and leaned wearily against the wall for support. People milled about around her, preparing for the show but she didn't see or hear any of them. The bombshell that Vince had dropped on her had sent her reeling toward shock. She wanted to forget what he had said or pretend that meeting had never taken place but she couldn't.

Her mind wouldn't allow her to.

Her boss's words replayed over in her head, taunting her.

"Jeff Hardy's coming back at Summerslam." Vince smiled, obviously proud of himself for stealing his former employee away from TNA. "We're going to resume the angle you two had started before his departure…"

She wasn't able to respond verbally because her voice had been robbed from her throat. All she could do was gape at her boss in complete shock. Summerslam was only four weeks away. That meant that her angle, and more importantly her life, would be altered as of tonight.

He sat back in his chair, a smug, pleased smirk on his pugnacious face. "We're going to make this as dramatic as possible, for the benefit of the fans of course. After your matches, starting tonight, a message will appear on the titantron; I'm coming for you Trish." Vince's eyes sparkled in delight. "To the audience, it'll seem ominous, like someone threatening you but then when they see who the sender is, they'll go crazy."

"Trish! Trish!"

The sound of her name brought her out of her flashback and she turned her head, meeting the concerned eyes of Amy Dumas. "Huh?"

"Are you all right?"

"I-I don't know." She conceded weakly, shaking her head to try and clear her mind but it didn't work. A frustrated sigh slipped over her lips and she closed her eyes, feeling the turmoil swelling inside of her. "I just don't know."

Amy frowned and guided her over to a trunk, pushing the smaller woman into a sitting position on top of it. She sat next to the dazed blonde, scowling. "What did Vince want to meet with you about?"

"My new angle…"

"It's not a romance with Randy Orton right?" The redhead rolled her eyes, "Because that's not an angle, that's a punishment."

"No, not that."

"Do you have to job to Candice Michelle?"

"No."

"Did Vince and Stephanie go along with Mickie's idea of having you two develop amnesia and think that you're each other for real?"

"No."

Amy sighed in exasperation, growing tired of trying to guess. "What is it then?"

"Jeff."

"What?" The redhead asked quietly, hoping that her friend was talking about another Jeff and not the one who immediately sprang to mind.

"Jeff's coming back. To Raw." Trish informed her, her tone hovering between disbelief and apprehension. "They're going to pick up our angle where they left off."

"Wow." Amy leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. This piece of news made her feel conflicted. Jeff and her had been the best of friends at one time but once everyone found out about the whole Adam debacle, he had severed that friendship completely. Seeing him again would definitely be hard but on the business side of it, there were worse angles to be put into. "That's a good thing right? You two know each other, know how you work and had insane chemistry."

"I guess that's true but I'm wondering why he's coming back."

"Well, he wouldn't come back if he didn't want to…"

Trish turned to her friend and shook her head. "I'm not sure that I want to work with him again."

The redhead sat up, quirking an eyebrow at the blonde. "Why not? You two were friends…"

"And he just disappeared. No warning, no goodbye." The blonde reminded her, "I found out about his firing on the Internet, just like the fans. Did he bother to call me after and try to explain? No, he didn't."

"So you're worried that he'll do it again."

"Don't get me wrong, Jeff's a good guy." Trish sighed, "But he gets bored easily and flakes out on things. Last time that happened, I paid the price for it. I just don't want to go through that again."

"I can understand that." Amy pushed a hand through her hair. "But it's not like you have a choice. Vince and Stephanie already have this angle planned. They won't change it just because you're apprehensive about working with Jeff."

"I know."

"So, what are you going to do?"

Trish thought about that then shrugged, knowing her options were extremely limited.

If she called Jeff and felt him out to see if he was really invested in working for the company again, it would backfire. He'd get mad that she was questioning his commitment or worse yet, accuse her of not thinking he could handle the pressure. There was no need to start out an angle with any more tension between them when she was pretty sure there would be already.

If she took her concerns to Vince or Stephanie then she would be jobbing to the likes of Candice Michelle, Torrie Wilson and Maria for months as her punishment. Neither one of them took too kindly to having their brilliant ideas be questioned by their lowly employees. No reason to do any unneeded damage to her career by angering them.

"Matt." Amy said suddenly, ripping her from her thoughts.

"What? Where?" Trish asked in confusion, looking around the hallway.

"I didn't mean that he was here." The redhead heaved a sighed. "I meant that if you want to find out if Jeff's really ready for this then your best bet would be to ask him."

"I don't know." The blonde replied slowly, not liking the idea of calling the older Hardy brother and asking him to give his opinion on his younger brother's mental state. "If I called him, it might come out wrong."

"Well, we're off tomorrow and Smackdown's only down in Providence. That's what? An hour away from here?" The shorter woman nodded and she rolled her eyes, "Then why not go visit Matt. That way, you can explain your fears to him and get his perspective in person."

Trish frowned, "I'm not sure. What if he told Jeff?"

"So what if he did? At least he'd be prepared for some tension. And who knows, maybe he'd call you and try to work it out sooner rather than wait for the inevitable blow up."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like Jeff won't pick up on the fact that you're not exactly thrilled to be working with him once he starts back. At first, he'll shrug it off but it'll get to him after a while and he'll confront you on it." Amy informed her flatly, "Do you really want you and Jeff to be at each other's throats while you're working together?"

The blonde sighed, "No."

"Then your best bet is to pay Matt a visit and settle this now."

Trish was about to respond when a stagehand let her know that it was time for her match. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment then nodded at Amy. The redhead gave her a tenuous smile as she hopped down from the trunk then walked away.