Breakdown 6-15-23
After the harrowing day that Nora snuck into Dom's TV show set and took Heath, a few things were decided. First, Chris Safford, the director of the show, pushed the start of filming back a week. He wasn't going to make Dom work right after his son was literally kidnapped. The actress, Amanda Verot, was beside herself with guilt, since Heath was plucked out from under her nose. Dom and I both assured her we don't blame her. Nora had likely been hiding somewhere then called to Heath when she saw him... and since he's known her his whole life and doesn't understand that she's the reason he was so sick, he just went to her. Amanda cried and I hugged her. She's a sweetheart and I'm glad Dom has a nice lady to work with for once.
Dom and I made a decision, too. We had been planning to take Heath with us to Milwaukee for the Flame, with Marie coming with us to care for him, but we decided it might be best for him to stay home for a while, have a little stability. Marie agreed to stay with him at our house, and there were a few people she could call if she had any problems. It was hard for me to leave him behind. I had rarely been anywhere without him since he was born. I trust Marie as much as Jaina or Amy with him, and he'll be home, sleeping in his own bed. I always knew the day would come where we'd both have to get used to being apart. I'm just not sure if I'm really ready.
{{ Sunday, June 4
Milwaukee, WI
Taking Hold of the Flame }}
Liz and I go through the curtain after my match is over. I have the United States Championship belt over one arm, Liz holding on to the other. She is also holding the TV belt for me. My arm is a little sore but I am otherwise okay.
“Holy shit, Bree!”
“I know, right? Holy shit!”
Liz hugs me, hard, the two belts in between us. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and Liz pulls away. I look up and it's Dom, he'd been watching from gorilla. He has one hand on me and one on Liz.
“Mind if I cut in?”
“She's all yours, hubs.”
Dom laughs, then turns to me and grabs me into a hug, lifting me off my feet and spinning me around.
“Look at you, Mrs. Record Breaking US Champ!” He sets me down and I laugh, but he silences me with a kiss. I pull away quick though.
“Ew, stop, I'm sweaty and gross.”
“Sweaty, yes. Gross... never. This?” He looks me up and down. “You just did your job, better than most people in this building. This is you at your most beautiful.”
“Baby-”
He shut me up with another kiss. We break and I turn to Liz. She's still holding the TV belt for me.
“Oh... would you take care of this one too while I get cleaned up?” I hold out the US belt. Liz takes it, nodding with all the seriousness in the world.
“I'll guard them both with my life.”
I laugh. “I doubt that will be necessary, but thanks.”
The three of us make our way to my locker room.
Once in the locker room, Liz is in the front part with our bags and the belts, while Dom and I are in the inner section of the locker room, where the showers are. I've already showered and changed, and I'm brushing my damp hair back while Dom waits.
“How are you feeling?”
“What do you mean?” I look at his reflection in the mirror rather than turning around. “Like physically, or...?”
“Everything?”
“Well...” Done with the brush, I pull my damp hair back into a low pony and tie it with a fabric scrunchie. Better for wet hair than a plain hair tie. “My arm feels better after the hot water. It's still sinking in that I actually won, and I'm US Champion again.” I grin into the mirror, and see Dom smiling back at me. “It just feels a little weird that we're here alone. One of my first thoughts when I was handed the belt was, 'Heath is gonna love how pretty this one is.' And then I remembered he's at home.” I turn to Dom finally, and his smile is gone.
“Yeah... it's definitely different. But you'll still get that reaction when we get home. It really was best for him to stay put, you know.”
“I know. He's fine. Marie is great and he loves her. It's just... me.” I go over and sit next to him on the bench. “The last year or so, his whole life, I've spent almost every waking moment worried about him. Is he sleeping well, is he hungry, is he happy? And then when Nora started waving red flags all over the place. I worried she was getting too close, what if he loved her more than me? What if-”
“That... is ridiculous.”
“I know. But anxiety doesn't. And then he was sick. So sick. And she....” I stop myself, shaking my head. I don't have to say it, he knows. “But now she's out of our lives. For the first time ever... I feel like Heath is actually safe. And.... I don't know how to deal with not worrying.”
Dom tilts his head at me a little, with a confused grin. “That's got to be the strangest complaint I've ever heard.”
I sigh. “I'm not complaining.... not really. It's just, all of my energy had gone into worrying about him, making sure he's safe. Now I don't have to. Or... not excessively like I was. It's just a strange feeling. Like.... I have all this energy that I don't need anymore.”
“No, I know what you mean. I felt it too, to a degree. But I know how much stress you felt all time about it, and especially Nora... I'm really sorry I kept downplaying your worries, I should-”
“Stop, you've apologized like a dozen times already, you don't have to.”
Dom nods. Maybe he's right to a degree that he should have listened to me, but even I couldn't have known how far Nora would actually go. “Yeah, you've said. I'll try to stop.” He grins.
“Thank you. Neither one of us need to take any blame for anything that happened. We need to just move on.”
“Can you do that? I mean... are you sure you won't be so anxious anymore?”
“Am I sure? No. I mean it hasn't even been a week yet. But.... well, on the flight here I was thinking, and I realized something. The reason why I was always so afraid that something would happen to him.”
“You mean other than just bad vibes from Nora?”
“Yes, other than that. Because I felt it as soon as he was born, before she started doing anything odd at all.”
“Okay. What is it?”
I hesitate, even though I brought it up. Touchy subject is touchy. “Well... every other child I ever got close to, I lost in one way or another.” Dom gives me a look; he doesn't understand. “Kayla... Blake's Kayla.” Not Nadine's Kayla, my niece. Dom nods. “Then Nathaniel... Sienna made me his Godmother, then gave him back to Kelcey. I was sure I would never see him again.” That's proven to be wrong, I have seen him since. Those two are on good terms now because of Chris and Nathaniel, and we've visited a few times. “I loved both of those babies like my own, so is it really a stretch for my brain to think my actual own child might be taken somehow, too?”
“When you put it that way... no, not really. Especially with everything else you'd dealt with, the anxiety developing and getting worse. Yeah.... yeah I see where you're coming from with that.”
“And then just this week, he was actually taken away. Just for a few hours, but....” I take a deep breath, calming the panic I feel creeping up, even though there's no danger anymore. “I thought I was going to lose my sanity, baby. I really did.”
“I could tell. Why do you think I kept so close to you?”
I smile. “I know. You're the only reason I didn't completely lose it. You were so calm.”
“Maybe on the outside.” He grins.
“And now.... all of that is over. I'm glad, obviously. And understanding now where my fears came from helps me make sense of it all. But it's like... what do I do now? With all this mental energy I was so used to spending on worry?”
“Well, that's easy. You focus it on something else. Something positive. Like... Oh, I don't know... the two championships you now hold?” I smile at that. “Or all of the good things with Heath? He's walking, soon to be running I'd bet. Getting closer to saying something other than ma or ba or da.” I wanted to count them as words, 'mom', 'bottle', 'dad.' But Dom wouldn't let me, they're just sounds. “Obviously other bad things are going to happen, that's how life works, but you have to focus on that, live for those things. If you look for things to worry about, you'll end up missing all of the good stuff.”
Like when I nearly missed seeing Heath walk the first time at the park for his birthday. I never told Dom about that, and I don't plan to.
“Yeah. You're right. I just need to figure out how to... redirect, everything.”
“You can start now. Tonight, even. You did something big, you know. That woman took you to your limit and you overcame. You broke a record. I know I'm not in this business at all but I know how had it is to break anything in this place. You should be proud of that.”
I smile. “Oh, I am. You have no idea.”
There's a knock on the door, than can only be Liz. She's the only other person in the locker room.
“Come in, I'm decent.”
The door opens and Liz grins. “We've showered and changed together before, Bree.”
“Yes but not with my husband in here with me.”
Liz gasps, then laughs. “I had not considered that.”
“Shit, me either.” Dom smirks.
“Anyway... I'm just letting you know that the battle royal is starting soon, you said you wanted to watch it.”
I stand up, and Dom does too. “Yeah, I do. Thanks. Let's go find a good spot.”
We leave the locker room, and follow Liz, as she said she knows the perfect place.
ON CAMERA
The familiar mantle in Bree Lancaster's home opens the scene, but the view is different. On display on the mantle are now two championship belts – the Television Championship to the left, and the United States Championship to the right. The shot widens and we see Bree standing on the left, closest to the TV belt. Dressed casual in a solid navy blue t-shirt dress, with a thin white belt tied in a loose bow over her left hip, Bree has a warm smile on her face before she begins.
Vacant no longer.
Neither that space on my mantle, or the United States Championship. I did it. I went to Taking Hold of the Flame, followed the light down the path set before me, and here I stand as your United States Champion... one more time, for the fourth time.
I said I wanted the record, I shined the light of truth about my motivations to the world. I knew, I just knew that I was meant for this, and I had to go out there and put in the work to see it through. Amelia Blythe did not make it easy. In fact she made it very, very difficult. At the end, I thought she was going to reach the ropes and then I had no idea what else I could do, I was nearly spent. But she was too far away. She chose to tap, she gave up that night to save herself to fight another night. There's no shame in that, and any time she wants to test herself against me again, I'm more than willing to do so.
Bree eyes the US belt for a moment, smiling.
You know, this is really a full circle moment for me. Forget the record, let's go back to the last time I was United States Champion. I went into a winner take all match against the then-World Champion James Evans... and I won. I was a double champion then, too. United States and World. I could be wrong but I don't think anyone else has ever done that here in SCW. I carried both for a short time, but eventually decided that it would be in the best interests of the United States Championship and of SCW... if I gave up the US, vacated it, so that I could focus on being World Champion, and that the US Championship would get the attention and focus it deserved. So... I gave it up. I never lost it.
Here we are, years later... and it was vacant again. Owen Cruze vacated it when he retired after doing the same thing I did – becoming World and US Champion in the same night. The championship wasn't lost. So now I've reclaimed it, not by beating the former champion, but by winning a tournament. I'd say that's pretty fitting, wouldn't you agree?
Bree steps in front of the fireplace, standing in the middle, so that the title belts are over each shoulder.
All of that said. I want to make something clear right now. I am not going to do with the Television Championship now, what I did with the United States back then. I have no plans to vacate either one. I think everyone knows that back then... I was a very different person. I had a whole different thought process, different priorities. I found it very hard to focus on more than one thing at a time.
I'm not that person anymore.
I will say to my dying day that back then I gave up the US with the best of intentions, but I wouldn't make the same choice today. No matter what the titles involved are. I have every intention of being a fighting champion, of defending both the Television and the US whenever asked, even if that might mean one night having to fight twice. I'm up for that. I once spent far too long insisting that I was the best, yet finding ways to only back that up when absolutely necessary. Now though? I'm here to prove I am the best I've ever been, by fighting every chance I get.
Words are meaningless without actions. The truth isn't visible if you hide it from the light of world exposing it's reality. Lux Veritatis demands that we put the truth in action. If I want the world to believe I am one of the best, I need to light up the ring every chance I get and prove it.
Willow Aspen. You're my next challenger, and the next person to share the light in the ring with me. I admit I don't know much about you, but you landed yourself a contract with the best wrestling promotion in the world, so that right there is enough for me to respect your talents and take you seriously as a challenger. It's true that you've had a rough start here, but I know from experience that doesn't mean you're not talented or that you'll never be successful. I'm looking forward to getting into the ring with you and finding out exactly what you're capable of. You might surprise me, catch me off guard somehow, and beat me. You could be Television Champion when the bell rings. And if that happens, if you get the better of me and claim the championship? I will hand you that belt-
Bree points back over her shoulder.
-myself with a smile on my face and shake your hand. I might get some heat for saying that but I don't have any reason to not show you respect. I truly hope you don't give me a reason to change my mind.
With a pause to punctuate the point, Bree then steps back closer to the mantle and the TV belt, placing her hand on the mantle in front of it.
SCW... Breakdown.... here we go. First time defending this as a double champion, of what I hope will be many. I'm ready.
Bree smiles as the shot fades out.