Breakdown 1-19-23 #1
The day after I saw Dr. Lucio, Lisa Kagan, Dom's agent, called to tell us the TMZ fake deal was in jeopardy. A few days before, they had contacted the jackass who took an unauthorized picture of my son and was shopping it around to all the tabloid sites. TMZ wasn't going to actually buy and publish it though, it was just a ploy to keep the picture off the market long enough for Dom and I to release our own picture of Heath. However, the jackass called TMZ and told them that someone else had beat their offer and he wanted to give them a chance to match or beat it. None of us could believe there was another site that had the money to pay more than what TMZ offered. Lisa actually thought the man was lying and trying to squeeze more money out of TMZ. We sat on it for a few days, and then a few things happened at once that forced us to take matters into our own hands. But I'll get to that.
The holidays came and went. Wyatt, Amy, Loki, Jaina, and even Scott came to our house for Christmas. New Year's, I didn't attend SCW's End of the Year Special. I wasn't booked and I didn't expect to win any of the awards, so I didn't see the point. No one on the Board or in HR minded when I asked to stay home. On the off chance I would have won something, there were plans in place for them to video call me to speak a minute or two. But, as I expected, that wasn't necessary. Instead, after I put Heath to bed, Dom and I stayed up til midnight with some wine, brought in 2023 with a few kisses, then went to bed.
SCW kept moving right along, and with that came the rest of Trios. Surprisingly, Syren and I worked together just fine; it was Sarah Wolf that held us back. We didn't clear the semi-finals. At one time that would have made me angry, but this time, it doesn't bother me. I did what I could with the team I was drawn, and that's all I could do. I had other important things in SCW to focus on. I am still the Adrenaline Champion. Also, Datura and I still have plans to team up, which said plans were put on hold by Trios. Now that it's over... we can get this thing off the ground.
{{Friday, January 13
Kenner, LA
Bree's House}}
Breakdown last night was here in New Orleans. Unfortunately I was not scheduled to compete, but I did go out to the ring and speak to the crowd. James Evans took it upon himself to interrupt me, and even though I've slept on it since, I still don't know what he was trying to do.
The good news though, is that I managed to convince Liz to stay with me instead of booking a hotel. She and I have plans to go over and the convenience of SCW being in my backyard was too good to pass up. I had left Heath home with Nora, since Dom is out of town. He is in Los Angeles again, this time for two reasons. One, a meeting or reading or something of the SEAL TV show Lisa had given him a script for. He had told her he was interested, and now the proverbial ball was slowly rolling. But also, there was some legal stuff dealing with the scrapped movie and upcoming trial of Elias Stone, the actor accused of assault and rape during the filming of Deep Cover 2. The Los Angeles DA had wanted me to speak on the record too, about the incident I had with Stone at the Hollywood Backstage show taping. That show never aired and is still 'on hiatus.' But I declined. I told them weeks ago that I didn't want anything to do with it. Dom had walked in and saw Stone with his hand on my arm, they could use his testimony on that and leave me out of it.
Anyway, it's mid-morning now and Liz and I are out on the back patio having breakfast, while Nora has Heath in the kitchen for his. I had asked her to stay with me while Dom was out of town. I made coffee, and some omelets with cheese and ham. We make an interesting pair sitting out here... me in my ecru silk robe and loose blonde hair, Liz in her black tights, baggy dark gray t-shirt, and jet black hair tied back into a low pony. Add in her tattoos and we look like that internet meme with the girl dressed as a fairy sitting next to a goth girl on a park bench. I laugh to myself as Liz finishes her last bite of omlete and slides her plate away.
“You misled me, Bree. You claimed you can't cook, but this was really good.”
“Psht. It's literally eggs, cheese, ham, and salt and pepper. This was the one thing I knew how to make even as a teenager.”
“So you've had practice. That explains it.” Liz grins, and I nod while grinning back.
“Yes, exactly!” We both laugh. I finish mine and stack my plate on top of hers to take in when we're done. Liz's smile fades and she folds her hands over her coffee cup.
“May I ask you a personal question?”
“Babe, you're one of my best friends, you can ask me anything.”
“Alright. The woman here, Nora.” I nod. “I remember you saying you were apprehensive about leaving her with your son alone, yet you did so last night. Has she earned your trust now?”
I sigh. “Somewhat. I mean, yes. But that's not the whole story. Do you remember me telling you I was going to talk to my therapist again?” Liz nods once. “Well, I did. And we worked out that I have some kind of... anxiety, or PTSD, that causes me to be paranoid about Heath. So, she gave me this medicine.”
“What, an anti-depressant? Which one?”
“Yes, Wellbutrin. I've been taking it over a month now and I think it's starting to help.”
“Oh Bree, I wouldn't wish that kind of thing on anyone, especially not you. I've taken just about every anti-depressant known to man, and it's not fun. Have you had any side effects?”
“Not really, other than weird head thing the first week. Not like a headache, but like.... it felt heavy.”
Liz nods. “Yep, I remember that. But, it is helping?”
“I think so. I was so nervous about leaving Heath alone with her before Christmas, when Dom was in Los Angeles last time for that TV spot. But I didn't have a choice, he couldn't go with Dom, and I couldn't leave him here without me, so far away. I just had this feeling that something about Nora was just... off. Like she was fine to have around here to help and on the road when Dom was there, but leaving her alone with Heath...” I shake my head. “I didn't trust that. And now I feel bad for thinking that about her, she's absolutely wonderful. It was just the anxiety making me think things.”
“It'll do that. How was it the first time you had to leave him with her? I assume that was shortly after you started the meds.”
“It was. And it was hard. I didn't want to leave the hotel for the arena. That was the night I was facing Randy Ramon, I couldn't not go. Obviously everything turned out fine. When I got back to the hotel Heath was sleeping in the middle of my bed. Nora then left for her own room and I remember being so relieved that it was over and I was back with him.”
Liz glances sideways to the glass patio door that leads to the kitchen. I follow her gaze and see Nora is still in there with Heath, handing him a piece of toast. Liz grins and turns back to me.
“Something had to have made you feel more comfortable with her though. I know you Bree, you don't change your mind on something so serious without a good reason.”
“You're right. There was something. The next morning as we were at the airport to leave Detroit...”
I sigh and tell Liz the story.
* * * * * {{Friday, December 2 – Detroit}} * * * * *
It was almost 10AM and Nora, Heath, and I made our way through the airport in Detroit. I had won my match at Breakdown so that had me in a good mood, but I was still nervous about everything to do with Heath's picture being for sale. Lisa said her contact at TMZ had told the jackass to give them a few days to consider his terms, til Monday. In reality, they were trying to find out if there really was another buyer or if he was bluffing. The plan was to wait til Monday, then I would post a picture or two myself and TMZ would pull the plug and it would be over. Or at least, the chance for the man to make a bucket of money off my son would be over. The more I thought about waiting the whole weekend for anything to happen, the more nervous I got. I had only just started the medication Dr. Lucio gave me so I hadn't felt anything from it yet, she told me it would take a few weeks. I watched Nora pushing Heath in his stroller ahead of me; I had them go in front so I could keep my eye on them. If I can't see where he is in a crowd, it makes me ill.
As we approached the private plane gate, I sighed when I saw a handful of reporters hanging around. Typical vultures. I am not the only person in SCW with a private plane so I guess these few decided to wait here and see what they could get. I didn't see anyone else from SCW around though. Either they'd left early or were leaving later. It looked like the handful of reporters were going to leave us alone. Maybe they knew one of their ilk had violated us and they didn't want to lower themselves. But as we were about halfway down the hallway to the ramp, one of them, a thin woman who looked about my age, ran up and got directly in Nora and Heath's path. Nora had no choice but to stop, or she would have rammed the stroller into her. Before either one of us could say anything, the woman aimed her camera and snapped away. I heard two or three clicks before Nora pulled the stroller backwards and stepped in front of it.
“Hey! You can't do that, stop it!”
The woman smirked and waved her camera in the air. “You're on public property sweetheart, I can-”
Nora reached out and grabbed the woman's camera. She shrieked, and before I could speak or react or blink Nora slammed the camera down on the ground. The floor was polished concrete, so the camera broke into dozens of pieces. The woman shrieked again, then dove forward. I saw what for – the camera's memory card had come out and skidded a few inches away. Nora though also saw it and she lunged forward, placing a Doc Marten boot firmly on top. I heard the card crunch.
“I told you to stop.”
“You bitch! Do you have any idea how much that camera costs? You're gonna pay for that or I'll sue you!”
Nora stepped back, looking scared for the first time since this altercation started. “I... uh... well you kept on and... she already has...”
I walked up and pulled out my phone. “I will pay for the camera. How much? What's your Venmo or PayPal or whatever?”
The woman looked at me in disbelief. “I... uh, seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. But you should take this as a lesson in backing off when someone tells you to back off. Understand?”
She nodded. “Yes... I... I'm sorry. I just heard there was this guy, and he was gonna make mint, and-”
“Yes, yes. I know. Don't become like that guy, okay? You have the right to work but we have the right to privacy. We're people too.” She just stared at me, then down at Heath. He'd finally woken up due to the noise and talking, and I heard him getting fussy. A second or two later the woman nodded. I still had my phone in my hand, ready to pay for her camera. “Your Venmo or whatever? How much?”
“Oh... right. Hold on...” She pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, then showed me a Venmo QR code. “That model was a year old, it cost four hundred. The newer model is four-fifty, but-”
“I'll send you five. You need a new memory card too.” I scanned the code and typed the amount then hit send. A second later, her phone dinged. “There you go.”
She just stared at her phone as if she couldn't believe Bree Lancaster just gave her five hundred dollars. “I... thank you.” She finally looked up. “I... I'm sorry.”
“You should be. Now can you please clean up your mess and get out of our way? I'm late for my plane.”
Without a word, the woman bent down and started sweeping the pieces of her camera together with her hand. She opened her camera bag and started scooping the parts inside. As she did, I noticed that the other vultures that had been hanging around were gone. I shook my head at the whole ordeal. I then grabbed the handle of my luggage with one hand, the handle of Heath's stroller with the other, and walked away, pushing and pulling. I murmured comforting words to my son, and he settled down. Nora followed and a few steps later caught up and took the stroller from me.
“I can't believe that just happened. I can't believe I just did that!”
“You didn't think, you just reacted. I'm glad you did.”
“Really? I mean, I just destroyed her camera and cost you a lot of money.”
I stopped walking to look at her in the eyes. “Nora, five hundred dollars is nothing to me. I know it probably sounds trite or something but it's true. The more important thing is you showed her how it feels to be violated. I bet she'll never harass another wrestler or celebrity now.”
“I hope so. I wasn't even thinking about all of that, I just thought she was way to close to Heath and I didn't want him to be scared.”
“You are too good for this world, babe.” I leaned in and gave her a hug. She seemed surprised at first but hugged me back. After I pulled away, I gave her a smile. “We should get going, I know I own the plane but if we leave late, it puts everyone else in the queue here behind.”
Nora just nodded, placed her hands on the stroller handle, and we continued to the gate.
The next day, I told Dom what happened. We agreed that we had to put a stop to the madness. I chose some pics of our baby boy that I took at home and shared them on Twitter.
* * * * {{Present – Bree's House}} * * * * *
After explaining to Liz that the incident is what spurred our decision to share Heath's pictures ourselves, I hold my hands up in a shrug.
“But honestly, how could I not trust Nora after she put herself in harms way and literally destroyed someone's property just to protect Heath?”
Liz sits stunned. “That slip of a girl did all of that?”
“I know, right? I was shocked too. She did exactly what I would have done if I had been the one pushing him.”
“I'm willing to bet the vulture wouldn't have dared to get so close if you had been.”
“Likely not. But that's not the point. After seeing how she reacted to that..... I know she'd never allow anything or anyone to hurt him. I know I can trust her. And since then, I haven't been worried or nervous or anything about leaving him with her.”
Liz smiles. “I'm so glad to hear that. I didn't like the idea of you being so worried, so your relief is also mine. Have the reporters backed off since?”
“Actually... yes. That woman must have spread the word, because most of the vultures give us a wide berth now.”
“Excellent news!” Liz holds up her coffee cup to me. I raise mine and we clink.
“Although... I have to admit that some of that might also be from the little protection charm Amy showed me how to make. I keep it under the seat of his stroller.” In recent weeks I had moved on from just learning spirituality stuff from Amy, to small bits of the craft. I don't feel comfortable using the W-word just yet though.
Liz gives me a sly smile. “Now you're speaking my language. Amy has you fully entrenched into the dark side, then?”
I laugh. “I wouldn't say that. She just teaches me things when anything comes up that warrants a lesson. Besides. I am not the dark one of this duo. That would be you.” I point at her dramatically. Liz laughs.
“You are so right. Look at us. You are the light of the world and I lurk in the shadows.”
“This is why we are going to make such a great team. We balance each other out.”
“Lux et Umbra. That's us.”
“That's Latin, right? Light and shadow?”
“It is! You impress me, I didn't know you knew Latin.”
“I grew up Catholic...” I raise an eyebrow.
“Oh. Fair. My excuse is I picked up a few words here and there along my travels.”
“Well I like it. Maybe that could be our name. Lux et Umbra.”
Liz wags a finger in the air at me. “Nono. You already named us. Balance. Or, in Latin... Statera. That is us.”
I smile big. “I love that! Let's do it.”
“It shall be done.” Liz reaches her hand across the table. I grab it and we shake. “Now then. Tell me about this protection charm of Amy's.”
“Oh! It's really simple, actually. She gave me a stone, a Tiger's Eye. And told me to put it in a black bag, like fake velvet, you know like jewelry comes in? And then she said to add....”
We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing various things Amy taught me for protection and meditation, and Liz had a few suggestions to add. We are going to be such a great team, inside the ring and outside.