The Gift That Keeps On Giving [TAG: Any]

[Deleted]

December 20, 2014

Queensland, Australia

The Gabba

At the conclusion of the 2014 Christmas edition of Mayhem, David had every reason to be angry.

One was that he was backstage, seated on an examination table in the medical trainer's room, forced to keep his eyes closed and the rest of him stock-still as the EHWF's on-call physician cleaned and sealed up the myriad cuts and gouges that adorned his face. These had all come as a result of the main-event tag team match he'd just been in - a match that, were it not for Connor Creed fucking up again, he could have and likely would have won singlehandedly. But no, apparently that was too much to ask. The chucklehead had gotten himself pinned.

Another was that, immediately following said match, Nick Rissi and Brandon Bash had stripped him of the North American Championship - a championship he'd earned, one he'd defended, and one that right up until it had been taken from him, he hadn't been quite ready to part with. They'd had no reason, they'd had no right, but of course they'd gone ahead and done it anyway.

The final straw on an increasingly strained camel's back was Santa. Yes, you heard right, Santa Claus. Kris Kringle. Saint Nicholas. Fucking Sinterklaas. The jolly bastard - or rather, someone dressed as the jolly bastard - had seen fit to interfere in what David had decided to call venting, and had done so by way of a Superkick to the face. He, David Gideon Smith, had been punked by Santa.

He should've been mad. He should've been livid. He should've been furious...

But he wasn't. As a matter of fact, sitting there, waiting for his face to be fixed, David couldn't stop himself from smiling, because even after all that, he'd found himself gifted. At the end of this Mayhem - the Christmas episode, of all things - he'd found himself the recipient of a gift that would keep on giving for a long time to come, not only to him, but to the EHWF and professional wrestling as a whole.

He was no longer the North American Champion. He was no longer tethered to the North American Title division. That meant he could go wherever he wanted; do whatever he wanted; challenge whoever he wanted... and as far as he knew, the number-one contendership to the EHWF Heavyweight Championship was currently vacant.

Merry Christmas to me.

It took him a moment to realize that the physician had stopped messing with his face, although he could tell that there were still open wounds on his cheeks and forehead. "Um... hello?" he asked aloud, eyes still shut. "You gonna finish with me, or what?"

Someone cleared their throat, but it wasn't the doctor. It came from over by the training office door. David sighed, wondering who it could've been without necessarily caring, and opened his eyes.

"Yes?"

TBC: Anyone - Just felt like killing some time until the next Mayhem.

[Deleted]

Ryan Morgan: Dave, my lad!

Ryan appears, wearing just a towel. His hair is a curly mess and his stubble a light spray. He smiles at David, as the former EHWF Champion tilts his head back towards him.

Ryan Morgan: I thought it was you... Always in the treatment room, huh?

He smirks. David sighs.

Ryan Morgan: I've just checked the next televised card. We're against each other in a tag match. It'll be good to face you again... I've got huge respect for you. We've put on some great matches before... Let's do it again.

David cocks his eyebrow.

TBC: David Smith

[Deleted]

David blinked. Frowned. The show hadn't been over for an hour yet, and the first card of 2015 had already been drafted and circulated? That wasn't like EHWF Management - someone must've been in a hurry to start their holiday break. And in more pressing news...

Since when was Ryan Morgan something - anything - other than a piece of shit?

David glanced over his shoulder at the physician who'd been working on him, but the doc merely held up his hands in a gesture of neutrality; clearly, he knew better than to get between two members of the EHWF roster, regardless of what his reason might've been.

"Huge respect, huh?" He turned back to Morgan, one eyebrow arched. "Since when?"

TBC: Morgan/Anyone/Whatever

[Deleted]

Suddenly, the door opens up, and Maddie comes in, with a concerned expression upon her face. Taking in the scene, she sees Ryan Morgan, dressed in only a towel. She looks him up and down, cocking an eyebrow, and then looking at DGS.

Maddie Murdock: Bad timing?

Her voice shares some of her amusement at the sight to be hold.

[Deleted]

The frown on David's face deepened, not because of who was in the doorway, but because there was anyone in the doorway at all. He just wanted to get his face fixed - was that really too much to ask? After a few moments of silence between all parties, a tiny trickle of blood slipped down into his eye, and he decided that maybe it was.

"You." He turned and pointed to the doctor, gesturing for him to come back over to the exam table from where he'd been idling against the far counter. "Come here - yes, now - and finish what you started." He turned back around, wiping the blood from his eye and closing both, and sure enough, a few seconds later he felt the doctor's hands on his face once again, continuing to clean and seal up his wounds.

"Now... " He sighed deeply. "Ryan. If you have something important to say to me, please spit it out, go back to the locker room, and put on some pants."

He almost ended it there, going silent in anticipation of an answer, but added at the last second, for no other reason than that he could feel the indignant glare she was giving him: "I'll be with you in a second, Madison."

TBC: Morgan/Maddie

[Deleted]

I take my hands and place them on my hips, and glare at DGS, and watch as the doctor fixes his injuries.

"No," I say. "I'm not some one that is placed on the back burner until its convenient for said persons time. You'll deal with me now."

I hear him let out a sigh.

"If you don't like it, tough. That match out there? The one that your team just lost? That is NOT, I repeat, is NOT going to happen for a second time in a row. I'm sure that the towel boy over there," I say, and turn to look at Ryan, "no pun intended, has all ready informed you of next weeks match?"

I see Ryan look down at his towel, as though he sees nothing wrong with this picture.

"O M G for the love of the lord will you please, find some shorts to put on!" I yell at Ryan.

[Deleted]

David opened his mouth to reply, only to shut it again when Madison turned on Ryan, wincing slightly at her use of the acronym "OMG".

"... yes," he said a moment later, eyes still closed. "He told me I'm booked against him in a tag match, and I'm guessing - since you seem so terribly invested in the matter - that you're my partner. That about the size of it?"

TBC: Maddie/Morgan

[Deleted]

I turn my attention back toward David. I find his eyes locked on me, as our gazes meet. I narrow mine in his direction.

"Damn, you're good. I think you missed your calling as a detective. Moving on. I also came to check on you to make sure that my partner was going to be one hundred present after being attacked by Kris Kringle," I tell him.

The blood smeared on his face has me concerned. But I'd never admit that to him. Especially with Ryan there.

[Deleted]

The doctor's fingers ceased their dance across his face, and David opened his eyes to see Madison staring at him. Something he couldn't quite identify - in the way she was looking at him, speaking to him - left a stinging, bitter taste in his mouth, and so when he hopped down off the exam table and turned to gather up his longcoat, it was perhaps done a bit more brusquely than he had intended.

Not that he cared.

"Well, then." David redonned the coat, grasped its lapels, and snapped out the wrinkles - again, with a bit more force than he would have applied otherwise. "Allow me to put your mind at ease. Your partner... " He put two fingers to his forehead, looking for a moment at the crimson stains they came away with, and then turned to glower down at Madison. "... and, by extension, your streak - unbeaten, unpinned, whatever - will be fine."

There was a subtle change in Madison's face; his words had struck her at an odd angle, as hers had him. He chose to ignore it and instead walked past her, heading towards the door... only to halt when he drew up alongside Ryan Morgan, who had become conspicuous by his silence in the last several minutes.

"Last chance," he said flatly, eyes on the open doorway rather than his upcoming opponent. "If you have something to say, say it." He glanced sidelong at Morgan without turning his head, eyes boring a hole into the young man. "Now."

TBC: Madison/Morgan

[Deleted]

Ryan winced playfully. He pulled his towel tighter and smirked.

Ryan Morgan: I've been told about your obsession with big penises...

The room grew silent.

Ryan Morgan: So I just thought I'd tell you... It's not you. It's me. You're uh, just not my type. I don't like fallout wannabes and I don't enjoy your uh, style. However, in a wrestling ring... You have my respect.

Ryan turned to Maddie.

Ryan Morgan: As for you Maddie... Nah, the same really. You're both huge superstars, great wrestlers here... I just wouldn't put my penis in either of you.