Turn It Up

Dark Times

Around a week had passed since the conversation Joe and Lexi had with Fergal and Pam, respectively. It was a weird week due to the fact that Fergal had practically disappeared from everyone's radar, including Pam. The nervous energy filled the woman's body as she had no idea where he had gone and she was anxiously watching her phone for the text that Lexi said she would send her as soon as she tracked the seemingly vanished Irishman. The tiny blonde spent a long time each day to find him, performance center, parks, restaurants, bars even. She just couldn't find him and it was beginning to seem like Fergal did not want to be found at all and he was doing a damn good job at not being found. FINALLY, after a whole day of stress with Matt and NXT, she went to a tiny little sports bar, unassuming as all hell and looking to just drop off some of her stress to just relax. She turned her head and saw a familiar face underneath a dark black hoodie. She quickly figured out that it was the man she was looking for and almost without any form of hesitation, she approached him and sat in the stool right next to him. She nudged his arm, showing that she did indeed recognize him and she broke the silence, "Hey. Where the hell have you been? You've been ignoring my calls and texts for days now..What happened to you?" Lexi was confused, her blonde locks fell to the left side of her body as she turned over to look at him. A certain curiosity set into her body and her mind as he turned his head over to her. Fergal had been battling his own inner demons, (no pun intended) and to be honest he was losing. The fear of growing too attached to Pam too fast was setting into his guts without any kind of stopping happening. Little did he know that Lexi knew that Pam has strong feelings for him too. It just seemed like the universe was not wanting to help him out whatsoever and it was growing tiring. He cleared his throat and whispered quietly, "Just had to sort some stuff out Lex. Nothin' special." He picked up his tall glass of dark beer and took a big swig of it. Lexi was worried, her normal friend Fergal would never ignore her like this or keep her in the dark about anything. Especially when it came to his feelings and suffering.

I just needed some time..That's all Fergal could think, but at the same time he really couldn't get his words to flow very well. He looked back over at her after letting his glass rest on the nice little coaster, "I'm sorry Lex..you want a drink? I'll pay." She shook her head, "Listen, just tell me what happened..What sent you into hiding so fast. This little Miami thing Pam told me about went down and you went into isolation. Was she really that banged up? Or did like..Something happen..or.." Lexi placed her hand on his forearm as he was visibly getting uncomfortable, "Just relax..I'm not here to like, judge you or anything. I just miss my friend." Lexi was one of the most sincere people in the NXT locker room, and Fergal was actually really lucky that he had someone like her in his life who cared about him so much. "No, she's alright. Pam and I actually had a ton of fun, it was a blast to get away from the grind and worry of work sometimes. And it went well." Lexi now was confused after he spoke, he shook his head and looked at her, "Nothing happened, Lex I'm tellin' you.." She paused in her train of thought, only formulating the sentence, "Then what was it..What happened that made you run. Please just tell me..And, yes, I'll take that beer if you're still offering."

Meanwhile in planet Panicking Pam, she was in the performance center, perhaps being there for ten hours constantly running around and working out, rolling around in the ring and taking about a thousand and a half bumps from literally everyone who worked there. Pam sat on the steel steps, head hung low and she was dripping with sweat, her entire body ached and just nothing but pain ran across her back, her legs, her butt was sore, down to her feet and her shoes now have a little hold on the bottom. Literally, the point is that her entire body ached and was sore. She sat there, rubbing the back of her head and just pondered over what the hell happened with Fergal, where Lexi was and why she hadn't returned any of her texts. It was a scary moment, just scary, there was a loud crash from the outside and it turned out to be a thunderstorm beginning to form up. The performance center housed only a handful of people right now, as the rain began to fall as if the heavens were falling down to Earth. Pam looked over and saw Natalie talking to Rami. The two had become good friends since Rami's return to WWE in ring action. Natalie on the other hand needed..guidance in her in ring work, she struggled to keep up with the other women sometimes and it was hard to watch. Rami went out of his way to make sure that everyone felt included and welcome, he was the embodiment of what a Superstar really should be in the WWE. Pam felt a pain in her chest, a tightening per say. Maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the fear of history repeating itself again. She had no idea but it hurt, she placed her hand overtop of her chest now and grasped at the middle of her shirt and tried to make the pressure go away. At this time the storm ramped up immediately, causing her to jump as an immense flash of bright light was seen outside. The storm was close, this was far too normal for the realm of Florida. And she did enjoy the rain from time to time, but thunderstorms alone were something she couldn't handle. Pam felt her tears well up inside of her little brown eyes as she remembered how she bonded with Fergal about their past thunderstorm worries and stories that they felt like sharing. She remembered how he literally shivered when he recalled the story of when lightning snapped a branch off of a tree right in front of his house. She missed him. She missed him alot and it was beginning to hurt inside of her heart. Natalie looked over only for a moment and noticed that Pam seemed to be struggling, she made a gesture towards Rami and the two wrestlers went over to their seemingly beat up friend with concern drenched over their voices and body language. "Pam? Oh my gosh, honey what's the matter??" Natalie dropped to a knee on one of the steps and grabbed both of Pam's hands, holding onto them tightly. At this time, Rami placed a hand on her shoulder gently and patted her, "Yea, what's wrong? You seem sick..or sad..or sick of being sad..or..Let me shut up, are you okay?" Rami rambled sometimes, but this caused Pam to shine a momentary weak smile, and she looked over at Natalie, then up at Rami. Her glossy eyes revealed her true feelings as she was on the verge of breaking down in a simple sob session. But she was curious about what happened, Natalie pressed onwards with her quest to find out what happened to her friend. "Really though, Pam what happened..Why are you about to cry..Do you need water?" Her honest concern made Pam feel a little better, she sniffled quietly and shook her head, "You guys..I'm fine. I'm just having a rough day. Honestly." The fact that Pam's increasingly strong feelings for Fergal was getting so..intense. And he didn't even know? It was beginning to dawn on her that this could either be a huge problem, or something that could turn out rather nicely. But right now? She had her friends, two people to try and talk her out of her dark hour.

Lexi was battling right now. She was struggling to figure out why the hell Fergal was being so dismissive, so short with her. She hated this. This was the type of shit that he wasn't famous for. "Please Fergal, just open up. I won't judge you, and I won't tell anyone else.." The two were also close, it was well documented that they were indeed very close. They had so many inside jokes about anything ranging from Disney, to YouTube, right back to wrestling itself. She took a sip of her tall glass of alcohol and exhaled deeply. Fergal on the other hand was just battling to explain to his friend why the hell he was so quiet, why he was just unable to put it into words why he felt the way that he did. For this was the first time that he had ever felt this strongly about a person before. In his entire life, Fergal had never gotten attached to a person before, and she was breaking down his walls seemingly without breaks. He finished his third glass of beer before he finally was able to give her more that two words. "It is about Pam, Lexi." She perked her head up from hanging it low momentarily, and that was all she needed to hear to know that this night had only just begun. She cleared her throat and moved a little closer to him, extending her tiny little pinky at him, "I pinky swear that I won't tell anyone what you WANT to tell me Fergal.." He looked over at her and weakly nodded, wrapping his pinky around hers and closing his eyes shut tight. For now Fergal had to explain himself and figure out how to just tell her the truth about the issue at hand which was how his heart felt. She pulled their pinky's apart reluctantly and looked at him with concerned, worried little eyes. "What happened.." She was worried that the two perhaps fought, or maybe they got mad at each other for some reason, who knows at this point. Maybe they hooked up and it was now super awkward at work knowing that they had had sex just days before. "How bad is it.." Lexi was confused but she was still trying to leave open ended questions for him to just dabble in and hopefully get his issue out before he shut down again.

"It isn't anything bad, and before you ask, no we didn't have sex. I promise you that, shit, Lexi you should know me better than that!" He actually offered a weak smile to her and she returned it with one of her own. She shook her head now and raised her eyebrows, "No, I wasn't ACTUALLY wondering that. I mean there is a buttload of chemistry you guys got and stuff, so I didn't know, but I didn't assume you guys had sex. Pam would have ran right to me and babbled on and on and on about it." They both exchanged giggles and then it fell silent again, Lexi reactivated concerned friend mode and tapped him on the forearm once again, "Then what was it buddy. Just tell me. You know me better than anyone to be honest, I won't say a word of this to anyone if you don't want me to. Okay?" Fergal loved that she was so understanding and nice to him when it came to his battered emotions. He cleared his throat. "I'm fallin', Lex, I'm fallin' hard and I don't know what I can do to stop myself from flattenin' my face on the ground." Lexi immediately formed an 'Awww' face and her eyebrows dipped on the outsides, she smiled wide and was now the only person who knew that these two actually had SIMILAR strong feelings for one another. "I don't know what it is..Whether it's her face, or how she talks..Maybe it's her tiny little lisp she's got on certain words..But I am definitely growing super fond of this one..She's different.." Lexi listened, she just listened, the time peeled on and a half hour later, he finally had gotten his words out, the feelings rest on the table, now it was time for Lexi to make her assessment. "What do I have to do to get you guys in the same room, alone together..?" He shrugged, "Honestly Lex? At this point..uh.. All you gotta do is ask.."