Six months ago, the thought of having children couldn’t be further from the mind of the soon to be twenty year old Aaron Helms as he focused on his career and truly getting his teeth into the world of professional wrestling. He’d had a up and down career to date, with two title runs to his name including a run as a World Tag Team Champion with his tag partner Shaun Cruze and had even come close to becoming the World champion at the End of Year Special, capping the end of his full rookie year in Supreme Championship Wrestling in a disappointing yet encouraging way to say the least. And yet a visit to the doctor’s office had confirmed that the lives of Aaron and his girlfriend Scarlett Pearson were about to be changed forever with the confirmation that a little bundle of joy was due to arrive kicking and screaming into the world in only a few months time. August the twenty fifth, a date that had been of little to not significance for the teenager until that doctor’s office visit, was now the most important date that Aaron could imagine and was also the catalyst for a lot of changes in their young lives, now that everything was confirmed! He was going to be a father, they were going to be parents, and while they were both incredibly nervous about the whole idea, Aaron couldn’t remember ever being more excited either! This wasn’t just a huge deal for the teenager because there was going to be a baby on the way in a few months, it was a huge opportunity for Aaron to prove what sort of man he was, to show that he had learned from two of the best men he had ever known in his biological father Alan Jacobs and his adoptive father David Helms, two better leading examples of fatherhood Aaron couldn’t have even begun to imagine!
And that nervousness, as stomach churning as it had been for a while, had been subdued with the love and affection of everybody they had shared the news with! David and Regan, despite wincing slightly at the thought of being grandparents when they were still young enough to have children themselves, had been over the moon for the young couple and Scarlett’s cousin and extended family that lived in Los Angeles had shared the excitement. Their friends were overjoyed, the majority of their co-workers showered them in congratulations, save the psychotic lunatic who had given Aaron and Scarlett such a difficult time over the last few months… in short, they couldn’t have wished for a better reaction! Only, the job wasn’t quite finished yet, because while the majority of the people in their lives now knew the happy news, there was one very important pairing that didn’t…
Scarlett’s parents.
To say that Aaron was apprehensive about the whole thing was something of an understatement; the New Jersey born teenager was under no illusions about how little Scarlett’s father Robert liked him. It hadn’t been his imagination like Scarlett suggested when Aaron had broached the subject several times over the course of their relationship, Aaron knew for a fact that Robert Pearson had believed that the teenager wasn’t good enough for his daughter and Aaron actually wondered if any man ever would be… so the thought of travelling to New Orleans to break the news to Scarlett’s parents made him equally as queasy as the thought of becoming a parent had done originally! But it wasn’t something that the pair could avoid, and it wasn’t as if Scarlett shared Aaron’s apprehension either, as she was excited to break the news to her parents, expecting them both to be over the moon at the news… Aaron quietly told himself that he thought she was being optimistic to the point of naivety but he kept that thought to himself; the last thing he wanted was to upset Scarlett when she was so excited. And so they made arrangements for another flying visit to the home of Robert and Barbara Pearson, under the pretence that Scarlett simply wanted to visit her folks and that they had some time free thanks to the relaxed schedule after Hazardous Envy in St. Louis. Barbara had told her daughter that they’d be delighted to have them stay for a few days and Aaron didn’t doubt that she would be delighted; at least Scarlett’s mother seemed to have taken to him when he was first introduced to them, but that didn’t mean that Aaron believed that they would be treated to a warm welcome from both of Scarlett’s parents… at least not him anyway.
And yet Aaron hadn’t put up a fight, he hadn’t disagreed or tried to put the trip off, he had simply nodded his head and agreed with everything, not complaining once as they headed for the airport in St. Louis the day after the show to board the commercial flight instead of taking a ride on the Next Level jet back to California with the rest of the gang. At least the trip was a comfortable one; Aaron had paid the extra for a first class seat so that Scarlett had plenty of extra room, given her condition. She may only be around ten weeks gone at this point but the bump was there to see when she wore slightly tighter clothing and Aaron was overly conscious of that fact, not just because he wondered how they’d keep Robert and Barbara from working it out for themselves the minute they met them outside of the airport in Nola but because he didn’t think he could ever be so protective of someone the way he had been with Scarlett the minute he’d found out she was pregnant.
As the two lovebirds stepped off the plane in New Orleans a little under two hours after takeoff, Aaron couldn’t shake the idea that the weather was providing an all too ominous sense of foreboding; the rain hammered at the tarmac as the passenger’s walked down the mobile stairway and ran across the asphalt to the shuttle bus that was waiting to take them to the terminal. The sense of dread only grew stronger as they walked through the terminal and collected their bags; they only had a small case each, only packing a couple extra outfits on top of what they would normally take for a show as they didn’t plan on staying in New Orleans for too long, but the weight in Aaron’s s
tomach told him that even one day would probably be more than what was comfortable once Robert found out that his little girl was pregnant. Stepping out of airport, the couple huddled under the veranda to avoid the rain, which hadn’t let up one single iota while they’d waited to go through security, but as Scarlett looked up the row of taxi’s, she spotted the frantically waving arm of her mother standing by the side of the waiting car. “There they are!” Scarlett said, pointing excitedly and Aaron turned to look in the direction where she was pointing, spotting Barbara Pearson as she bounced up and down in excitement while continuing to wave. “Come on, it’s only rain… and I can carry my own bag you know, I’m not an invalid,” she added, crankily; Aaron had impulsively grabbed Scarlett’s bag, he’d been doing that sort of thing since the doctor’s office had confirmed she was pregnant weeks earlier and while it wasn’t like he was trying to suggest that she couldn’t pull her own weight, he didn’t want to. She was carrying his child and he wanted to do everything he could to make sure it wasn’t any more stressful that pregnancy naturally was. If he could carry her bag, he would. If he could run errands for her, rub her feet, do anything for her so that she didn’t have to, he would. Because this was the mother of his child and he loved her for that more than he ever believed possible. He already thought he loved her beyond words, but now…
“I know you’re not,” Aaron replied, putting a smile on his face as they headed towards where Robert had parked the car. “But we’re about to tell your folks that I put their grandchild inside of you, so do you really want the first thing they see to be me letting you carry your own bag?”
Scarlett rolled her eyes but she couldn’t avoid smiling. “Okay, fair point… but do me a favour; when we tell them, please don’t use the phrase ‘put a grandchild in her’ yeah? It sounds so wrong…”
Until that point, the tension in Aaron had been palpable, but he actually cracked up laughing when Scarlett said that, even if it wasn’t particularly funny. It was nervousness, it had to be and Aaron knew it was a ridiculous reaction but he couldn’t help it. 
Scarlett didn’t have the time to tell him to pull himself together though, because her mother had jogged towards them and she threw her arms out as she approached.“Scarlett, honey!” she said as she threw her arms around her daughter’s shoulders and if anyone with even a hint of suspicion had been watching, they wouldn’t have been able to miss the fact that Scarlett leant forward to hug her mother as she approached, protecting her own stomach… but other than Scarlett’s father, who was still standing by the car and only really saw his wife’s back as she hugged their daughter, and Aaron sure as hell wasn’t going to raise the issue. “Oh honey, you look so well! I’ve missed you so much,” Barbara added as she let her daughter go and turned to Aaron. “And it’s really lovely to see you too Aaron… I read that it was a good night for you last night?” she went on as she pulled Aaron in for a hug too, though he couldn’t really return the gesture as he was still holding the two bags on his shoulders.
“I didn’t know you took an interest in the shows mom,” Scarlett said as Barbara released Aaron from her embrace.
“I don’t watch them,” Barbara said, laughing as she linked arms with her daughter and the trio started to walk back to the car. “I daren’t watch them actually, in case anything happens to my baby girl or her handsome boyfriend… but I do look up the results, to see how well this one here is doing,” she added, prodding Aaron in the arm, raising a slight smile from the teenager as they neared the spot where Robert Pearson was still standing.
“Well, it didn’t happen how I’d have liked, but yeah it was a good night for me and Shaun,” Aaron agreed as they reached the car and Scarlett unhooked her arm from her mouther’s to greet her father.
“Hello little swan,” Robert said as he engulfed his daughter in the biggest bear hug possible for a man who was definitely under six feet in height and not much taller than his daughter was. Despite the fact that Scarlett had ‘run away’ to California to escape her father and his wishes for her to follow him into the family business – a computer firm which manufactured the guidance chips for missiles among other things – Scarlett was well and truly a daddy’s girl, the true southern belle stereotype for want of a better description. She deplored his business interests, that was partly why she went to stay with her cousin Kathryn in Malibu and never returned, she wanted nothing to do with Robert Pearson’s company and definitely had no interest in following in his footsteps as the head of its board of directors… but she loved him as a person to the stars and back, which was probably why she was so blind to his dislike of Aaron that she was just unable to see. “You need to stop leaving it so long before you visit your doting parents, sweetheart,” Robert added as he let his daughter go again and turned to Aaron, who he shot a grudging smile towards as he held his hand out. “Aaron,” he said as he clasped Aaron’s hand in his own and shook it firmly. The handshake of an honest man… though the teenager wasn’t sure just how honest the man could be given his line of work. “A pleasure as always, son…”
Yeah right, Aaron thought as he took his own bag back and picked up the bag that he’d dropped to shake hands with the man. “A pleasure to see you again sir,” he said, not exactly believable but Robert chose not to make a point of it. In fact, he turned away from Aaron as soon as the pleasantries were over with, stepping to the trunk of the car to lift the hood so that Aaron could stow their bags. The teen carried the two bags and dropped them in before slipping his rucksack from his back and placing that on top and Robert slammed the trunk again before making his way around to the drivers said of the car, a big Porsche 4x4 that screamed ‘I’ve got too much money’ to anyone who happened to set their eyes on it.
“So, shall we?” Robert said as he opened the door and stood with one foot on the sill, and Scarlett held out her hand towards me before we walked hand in hand towards the car. The drive from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International airport to the ranch where Robert and Barbara lived and Scarlett grew up wasn’t a long one, but every second was excruciatingly painful for the teenager from New Jersey; the conversation was mostly filled with Barbara and Robert asking Scarlett all sorts of questions, the family playing catch up before they’d even arrived at home, and while Aaron didn’t really have to say much or even really listen to the conversation, it was still agonizing for him because he could just sense how little he was wanted there by Scarlett’s father. This wasn’t going to be an easy trip, especially with what else he had planned on top of the big reveal over the bump that was already showing under Scarlett’s top.
Making it to the house, Barbara wanted to show the pair to their room, but Scarlett was adamant that having lived in the house for years, she didn’t need a guided tour and Aaron was astounded to find out that they were actually sleeping in the same bed this time around! The last time they’d gone to visit Scarlett’s folks in Nola, they were in separate bedrooms and Scarlett had flat out refused when he suggested he snuck over to her room once everyone had gone to bed. Clearly her folks had accepted that the pair shared a bed more often than now, what with them now living together in the pool house of David’s place. “So… nervous?” Aaron asked as he placed their bags down on the middle of the bad and turned to sit down on the end of it himself. Scarlett, subconsciously rubbing her stomach, walked over and sat down on the bed next to Aaron and rested her head on his shoulder as she sighed.
“Incredibly nervous,” she admitted, biting her lower lip as she tried to calm herself down. “I don’t even know what the hell we’re going to say! I mean, do we just come out with it? Do we show them the printout of the scan? I don’t know what to do!” she said before sighing in frustration, still clutching at her stomach with both arms, almost protectively.
Aaron could understand her trepidation; it was probably for entirely different reasons to why he was feeling unsteady about the idea, his doubts based entirely on the fact that he knew that Scarlett’s father disliked him, but at least they were in agreement, even if the basis for their views was different. But he also knew he had to try and be there for moral support as he knew this was so important to Scarlett that her folks were happy for her, which means trying to be optimistic instead of pessimistic. “Well, I had an idea about that,” Aaron said, slipping an arm around her shoulder and waiting for her to look up at him before going on. “You know how you said you were going to bring the photos from our vacation in November? Did you actually bring them?”
Looking unsure, Scarlett nodded. “I brought the one’s we had printed out at Walmart, yeah…”
“And you brought the scan photo?” Aaron asked, getting another nod from Scarlett before smiling at her. “Okay, so here’s what we do. We unpack our stuff and then when we’re ready, we go downstairs for a chat and maybe some coffee – because I really need a coffee right now – and we say we want to show them the vacation photos… and we’ll just put the scan photo in the middle somewhere and wait for them to get to it.”
It was a dreadful plan, but it was at least one that was better than simply saying ‘so we have some news…” and then simply telling them that she was pregnant. “I… kind of like that. We’ll be able to see the surprise register on their faces when they get to the scan and we won’t have to just blurt it out… I’m in!” she finished, nodding her head before climbing off the bed and turning her attention to their bags. They didn’t plan on completely unpacking, but they at least needed to take their toiletries from their bags and fresh underwear. They sorted things out as quickly as they could and Scarlett grabbed the vacation photos from her bag before the pair headed back downstairs where they found her parents sat in the kitchen and, much to Aaron’s delight, the coffee machine was bubbling away on the counter top!
“Just in time!” Barbara said as she spotted the young couple walking into the kitchen, Aaron deeply inhaling as the smell of coffee hit them. “And by that reaction I’m guessing I don’t need to even ask if you want a drink?” she went on with a chuckle, smiling at Aaron before turning to look at her daughter. “What about you honey, do you want a coffee?”
Scarlett shook her head, seemingly surprising her mother. “I’m actually off caffeine at the minute…”
“Ridiculous,” Robert chimed in, shaking his head. “How can anybody be ‘off’ caffeine? That’s like saying you’re off oxygen at the minute…”
Aaron could tell that Scarlett was already struggling to explain herself and it was only the first question; it wasn’t like she could just tell them she wasn’t allowed caffeine, was it? But Aaron jumped in to the rescue when he realized that she was struggling. “It’s a charity thing,” he said, grabbing Scarlett by the hand and giving it a quick squeeze as they walked to the breakfast bar where Robert was sat. “Raising money for Autism Awareness; one of our trainers, my dad’s oldest friend Matty, has a son with severe autism and we’re doing a challenge to give up something we enjoy or that we’re addicted to or just something we spend a lot of money on,” he lied, marveling at how quickly the lie was spilling out. “Scarlett gave up coffee and I gave up chocolate… not long to go now, just until the end of the month,” he added, as Scarlett squeezed his hand back while they took their seats.
“Well, I think that’s very admirable,” Barbara said, giving the two of them a smile. “So no coffee… can I get you anything else?” she asked as Scarlett placed the envelope containing the photo’s onto the counter top. “Tea’s out, but we have juice, flavoured water, milk…”
“Juice is great, thanks mom,” Scarlett replied with a smile, before Barbara busied herself with fixing the drinks. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard before filling it with juice from a carton in the fridge and she slid the glass in front of Scarlett before making the coffee.
Thirty seconds later, Aaron held his mug in front of him, taking a deep breath to soak up the aroma of the coffee before he took a sip, a small satisfied sigh escaping his lips as he lowered the mug again. “Now that is the sound of someone who truly appreciates his coffee,” Robert said, looking up over the top of his reading glasses, that he had perched on his nose while reading the paper. “Enjoy it while you’re still young enough though son; when you get to my age, you need that stuff just to wake up in a morning, instead of a little kick to increase your energy…”
“Believe me sir, with the amount of late nights and early starts we have, I’m at that point already!” Aaron said, actually managing to bring a smile to Robert’s face before Barbara noticed the envelope on the table.
“What's that you have there honey?” Scarlett’s mother asked, and Scarlett’s body stiffened for a moment before Aaron rubbed her back supportively.
“It’s the photos I had printed from our vacation in November,” Scarlett told her mother, opening the envelope and removing the photos from inside so she could hand them over. “We had a couple of weeks off the road after Under Attack so we decided to go on a spare of the moment trip to England, Aaron booked us in a fancy hotel and we did all the sights,” she went on as her mother started to look through the photos. “That’s us after landing in Heathrow, we were so jetlagged and couldn’t wait to get to the hotel,” she laughed as her mom passed the photo to her dad.
“And everything was delayed because of a backlog in the baggage area,” Aaron remembered, with a laugh. “Instead of waiting fifteen minutes or so, we were in the baggage collection area for almost an hour as they tried to deal with the backlog…”
“Oh, and that’s the hotel!” Scarlett said, as her mom looked at the next photo in the pile. “I don’t know how Aaron afforded the Savoy, but he did and it was amazing!” she added and Aaron actually got the impression that Robert was actually impressed. “And that’s the room, obviously… that bed, oh my gosh if I could have got that bed shipped to our place, I would have! It was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in!”
“And that’s the restaurant we ate in that night,” Aaron said as her mom moved onto the next photo. “It had two Michelin star’s but I can’t for the life of me remember what the place was called…”
“And that’s from our first full morning,” Scarlett went on. “Aaron ordered breakfast from room service while I was still sleeping and we ate breakfast in bed before hitting the town to see the sights…” The next few photo’s in the series were exactly that, photos of them seeing the sights around London; a picture of them both riding the London eye, standing outside of the houses of parliament, Buckingham palace, the usual… and the nervous tension was building as they got closer and closer to the scan that was hidden behind a selfie of them riding an open top bus… which Barbara had just reached.
Scarlett’s mom smiled as she looked at the photo, the wind sending Scarlett’s hair flying and – typically for England – it was also drizzling, but the young couple didn’t seem to care, judging by the grins on their faces… and then Barbara passed the photo to her husband and stopped dead in her tracks as she took in what the next photo actually was. The photo’s slipped from her hands as she brought her hands up to her mouth, her eyes widening as she realized what it was. “Is this… are you…” Barbara said, suddenly looking up at her daughter and Scarlett couldn’t do anything but smile as she sat back in her chair so that her mother could see the bump. Robert, who was still looking at the photo from the top of the bus, turned to look at his wife and he looked confused before he looked down at the photos and saw the baby scan… and his head snapped around to see Scarlett smiling nervously as she looked to him. And in that moment, Aaron saw it; unhappiness, distress. He wasn’t happy, even if the look was gone within a matter of seconds and then the screaming started. “Oh my god honey, this is… oh my god! Oh god, I’m so happy for you!” Barbara shrilled, jumping up from her seat to rush around the table so she could throw her arms around her daughter. She kissed Scarlett once, twice, three times on the cheek before going back to hugging her daughter, then reaching out to drag Aaron into the hug too. “Oh, I’ve got so much I need to do! We need to, oh my god Robbie, we need to sort out one of the guest rooms, turn it into a nursery!”
Barbara was clearly over the moon, and she was also in the midst of a mild breakdown as she flapped her hands as she rushed around the kitchen not really knowing what to do. It wasn’t Barbara that Scarlett and Aaron were now looking at however, but Robert. And while he had managed to put a smile on his face now, Aaron wasn’t entirely convinced by how genuine it was either, regardless of whether he thought it was believable or not. “So… what do you think daddy?” Scarlett asked nervously, biting her lip again as she waited for her father to answer.
“I think,” he started, pausing to pick up the baby scan which he looked at for several seconds, like he was taking in every aspect. “I think I’m going to be a grandfather…” he finally replied, placing the photograph back down on the table as he stood up to walk around to where his daughter sat, kissing her on the top of the head. “Congratulations, both of you,” he went on, holding his hand out to Aaron for the second time that day and Aaron skeptically took his hand and shook it, the handshake much stronger than it had been that morning, which added to the belief of Aaron’s that Robert Pearson wasn’t exactly happy about what he’d just found out. “I have some calls to make, I was meant to be working tomorrow but I’m going to let the board know I won’t be coming in again. This clearly deserves a celebration and I think I can afford to take some time off, don’t you?” he said to Scarlett, smiling as he kissed her on the head again before heading out of the kitchen and Aaron watched him the whole way until he finally disappeared from view as he began to head upstairs.
Scarlett didn’t seem to notice that her father wasn’t really as happy as he was letting on though and Aaron didn’t want to burst her bubble by pointing it out, but he knew that things weren’t as they seem. Fortunately, Barbara was now bombarding her daughter with questions and throwing out all sorts of ideas, insisting that they went shopping the next morning in order to get them anything they wanted or needed and Scarlett was busy trying to tell her that it wasn’t necessary yet, given that she was only ten weeks into the pregnancy, but Aaron couldn’t concentrate on the conversation. “I’m uh, I’m just gonna go hit the bathroom,” Aaron said, excusing himself before following Robert out of the kitchen. The big news wasn’t the only reason for them to visit New Orleans and see Scarlett’s parents, he also needed to talk to Scarlett’s father about something equally as important… but now he felt that that question was at the other end of a very angry conversation but it was also one that had to take place. And while Aaron wasn’t sure it was wise to subscribe to the ‘strike while the iron was hot’ method of approaching things, he decided that this just couldn’t wait… there’s no time like the present as the saying goes, and if Aaron was going to have to do this then he’d rather get it out of the way. But not before he smoked a cigarette, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to do this without nicotine to calm his damn nerves!
[Rec]
AJ HELMS: “Where the fuck do I even begin…”
AJ stands there, looking into the camera, not entirely sure of what he should even say; it’s clear he’s in a strange place as he sighs and let’s his head drop, bringing both hands up to the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair before he looks back up to the camera again, a pained expression on his face.
AJ HELMS: “This isn’t even the first time I’ve tried filming this thing, you know? I’ve started recording three times now, the first two times I had to stop because I just lost track of where I was going or my thoughts were just a big jumbled mess… it’s hard standing here, knowing I have to address something I really don’t want to address, because it’s a subject that I still find hard to even believe, you know? You know what I’m talking about here; the whole wrestling world was buzzing with what I’m talking about last week after Breakdown… that video… ugh, fuck bro, what the hell can I even say to that, huh? And you know, I’m surprised I didn’t take way more fucking heat than I did myself, not just because I’m Shaun’s partner but because I defended him; you all saw the show, you saw how I jumped to his defense… and in a lot of ways, I stand by what I said that night, but at the same time… how do you defend the defenseless, huh? Everyone makes mistakes, that’s a fact of life and one that I had to learn pretty quickly in this business, but… I mean, I… there’s just some things you don’t expect from certain people, man! Fuck, I get Shaun was angry and I get he regrets everything he did, I get that he’s beating himself up worse than what anyone can do or say to him, but… fuck!”
AJ turns away from the camera and paces a little, unable to actually look back at the camera as he paces back and forth, picking up his thread as he paces without actually looking into the lens as he continues to speak.
AJ HELMS: “Shaun isn’t a bad guy, I know that much… I believed that before the video, I believed it after the video as you saw when I came to his defense, and I still believe that now… but sometimes good guys fuck up and make bad decisions, they do bad things… I mean, the irony is that people seem to fucking love my old man, he’s universally loved by you all, but don’t you remember how he tried to kill one of the two women I’ve got to face this week on Breakdown? I do. I remember the news leaking on the dirt sheets, how he tried to attack her backstage all those years ago… and this is a guy who was called SCW’s Superman, you know? Everybody fucks up, nobody’s perfect. Kelcey may disagree, but for the most part that statements true guys, and Shaun may have done a fucked up thing, but it doesn’t make him the scum of the earth either! It means he did a scummy thing, and believe me… I mean, knowing that he did that, that he attacked a pregnant woman the way he did, which he doesn’t deny either, that’s the thing… I mean, it would be easier if this was a case of him claiming the tape was doctored or, like, if it was fake or… you know what I’m saying, right? Fuck this is so hard! I’m so fucking torn, because on the one hand I want to defend him, I want to defend the guy that hasn’t just taught me so much since we started working together, who hasn’t just helped me grow as a competitor and as a person, but who has also had my back at every single god damn turn since Honour Code became a thing… seriously, how many times has he helped me deal with this Lexi bullshit since she started turning SCW’s incarnation of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, huh?! But at the same time… all I can think of is that footage, it’s like it’s fucking engrained on the back of my eyes or some shit, imprinted in my god damn head or some shit! And Scarlett… fuck man, all I can think about is Scarlett… she’s six months pregnant now, our little bouncing bundle of joy is due into the world in August and all I can think about is how much I wanted to kill Lexi when she tried going after her when we made our announcement, how much I wanted to rip her to fucking shreds, I… I…”
A growl of frustration escapes AJ’s mouth as he rubs at his eyes with both hands before bringing them up to the back of his head again as he looks at the camera again. This is really difficult for him, that much is evident without him having to spell it out.
AJ HELMS: “I don’t remember when I was this fucking conflicted about anything, pretty much guys… and it’s killing me, because this week Shaun and me, we have to defend our titles against Kayla Jones and Ravyn Taylor and all I can think about is the crap people have been talking about us, “DisHonour Code”, “So honourable”… did I fucking do anything?! But that’s what I’m going to try and do right now bro, I’m going to try and separate the personal from the professional here, because I know that if I walk into Breakdown on Wednesday like I am right now, we’ve lost before that bell even rings! And I don’t want that… that isn’t gold lust talking, it’s not me trying to place the World Tag Team championships above all else, it’s about you guys at home, the one’s who have supported us since we started the quest to become champions! Shaun and me, we did have to bust our ass to earn these belts, and we gave it hell to get them back when The Sisterhood won them from us… and I’m not going to give up without a fight, even if I’m disgusted in something that my partner did! Because you guys, you deserve to see a hell of a match regardless of the media circus that’s surrounding Shaun right now, you pay your money for tickets, you buy the merch, you invest in us guys and it’s our duty to repay that by making damn sure that you enjoy every single moment of the fucking show! And that means we walk out there with our heads held high – more than we probably deserve to do in all honesty – to face the two people who grabbed their chance to face us at Fatal Fortunes! And so for now, I’m going to put my business head on while I talk about Wednesday night, because when the bell rings that’s all we can do, think about the job in front of us and I’m under no illusions how difficult a task this one is going to be either! I mean, Kayla Jones already showed how fantastic she is in the tag team division over the course of her career and is there anyone more linked to the World Tag Team championships in this company than Ravyn Taylor?! One half of the Sisterhood and one half of Dark Fantasy, teaming together… well, they already won one match to get this opportunity and I’m more than conscious of the fact that another win will spell the end of our reign as champion’s too…”
AJ HELMS: “Kayla must be absolutely sick of seeing us by this point… this will be the third time in a few short months that’s she’s stepped into the ring against us with the tag titles on the line, the last of which was when Kayla walked in as champion and at this point, she has to see it as sort of last chance saloon for her in the division, at least for the foreseeable future at any rate… it must be difficult for her to know that Fatal Fortunes has resulted in leaving her own tag partner on the outside looking in, frozen out so that Kayla and Ravyn can have this opportunity… I won’t make that claim about Ravyn and her partner Syren, because I doubt the tag titles are even on their radar right now, but I know The Sisterhood still want these belts and this could very well be the final shot for some time if they don’t walk out as champions this week. That makes Kayla more dangerous than she usually is, and we have to be careful of that, make no bones about that one; Kayla already made it obvious that she was willing to go to any lengths inside of a ring to secure victory, there’s no sacrifice she isn’t willing to make and it’s up to us to ensure that we have an answer for that one. It would be easy to say that Shaun and me, we’re the team that has the chemistry, the experience together, all that stuff… but I know as much as anyone that three seconds is all that’s needed to surprise anyone in this business and that could very well be the case here if we switch off!”
AJ HELMS: “The thing is, it must be difficult for those two right now because one has to deal with knowing that they have to team with someone who wants nothing to do with them and the other… well, she doesn’t want anything to do with her ‘partner’, that bit is kind of obvious. Ravyn Taylor is a law unto herself in this place and it makes you wonder if she’ll play nice and compete or leave Kayla high and dry on Wednesday night, simply because she’s not interested. And while I can’t argue with what Kayla said about how we’re going to have the issues surrounding Shaun hanging around in the back of our minds for this one, we’re not the only ones who will have certain thoughts hanging around back there because if Kayla isn’t dwelling on the will she/won’t she bullshit with Ravyn and her participation on Wednesday then she’s not as smart as I’ve come to think she is! Kayla is a tag team specialist, she’s proven that one over the years, but even she’ll have to admit that you have to be on the same page in the ring at the very least in order to be an effective tag team, even if it is only for one night… so I doubt we’re the only one’s distracted right now as we head into this one! Hell, the same could even be said for Ravyn right now as well… I mean, the shit she’s been going through with Dante as of late, the stuff she’s gone through over the years and her work to become a better person without the recognition, that’s got to build up you know? Ravyn has to be wondering whether Dante is going to pop up again and try and cause trouble, even if she isn’t overly concerned about whether he will or not. And when you add to the fact that she’s made it more than clear how little she wants to be a part of this match, you can probably guess where her heads at going into this… but I’m not dumb enough to automatically count her out because of that! This is a woman who has been labelled as one of the smartest people in the business, she’s as cunning as anyone who has walked through the doors of this company and her title reigns in this place prove what she’s capable of, so if you think I’m going to take what she says at face value and assume we’ve got this one in the bag then you’re so far off base that you’re in enemy territory!”
AJ HELMS: “I’m treating Ravyn as every bit of a threat as I know her to be, because you don’t become a champion in this place without being dangerous, especially the world championship… and when you add in the record-breaking run as a World Tag Team champion she has with Syren, you have to think that Ravyn is as good a partner as Kayla could ever ask for in this match, short of teaming with her actual tag partner. As Kayla said though, this is going to come down to whether these two can actually work together or not when that bell rings on Wednesday and I don’t have an answer for that, one way or the other… all I know is that Shaun and me, we can work as a team, we have two tag title reigns in SCW to prove that fact and I’m going into this expecting as much of a challenge as we’ve ever had, regardless of how it may appear from the outside looking in! But all I can do is look at the facts and hopefully do them justice; because on one side you have two exceptionally gifted tag team wrestlers with a pedigree in the division… but they’re not on the same page and one of them doesn’t want to be there. On the other side, you have us, the champions. And while there’s the personal drama going on, which has had an effect on our relationship, in the ring we’re still very much on the same page and we don’t plan on letting these titles slip through our fingers just yet! So Kayla and Ravyn, you’re going to have to get your shit together this week if you want to walk out as champions, because right now I’m in that frame of mind where anything but a win won’t be good enough and that’s exactly what I’m aiming to do, regardless of what happens in that ring!”
AJ nods confidently, still clearly troubled by the stuff he was talking about at the start of the video, but also beliving in what he just said with every fibre of his being. With a deep breath that comes out calmly, he turns to the camera and speaks for the final time.
AJ HELMS: “And lastly… because I feel this is more than relevant right now; a message to the Cannon brothers. Because what’s a show without those jackasses sticking their noses in, huh? I wasn’t at Supreme Saturday, but I saw you jump Shaun again before the show on the replay. You broke his hand and you’re probably pretty proud of that, huh? This week, we walk into a title defense with Shaun sporting a bust up hand and that’s going to make it difficult for us, not that you’ll care about that fact, but understand this bro… if you get involved again this week, no matter how justified you may believe your actions or how disgusted I may be over what Shaun did… if you get involved during this match, regardless of whether you only target Shaun or not; I’m going to kick whoever the fuck I have to kick in the face to take you out! There’s a right way to go about your fucking business and if you think constant attacks are in any way the right way to go in order to get your message across then you don’t have a brain cell to rub together between the three of you and I’m not going to let you fuck Shaun over in a match again, so just try it. I fucking dare you, try it! If you want him to suffer then go to the police; that’s what rational people do, instead of hopping barriers and attacking them! That’s justice, not what you guys are dishing out and I’m not going to let you keep fucking things up the way you have been… that isn’t a threat gentlemen, it’s a promise and one I intend to keep. Try me…”
And with that, AJ glares into the camera for a moment before the scene fades out and the video comes to an end.
[/Rec]
