Chapter 119

"To have a loving chat with my daughter." Eric answered sarcastically, stepping into the room when she pushed the door open, hearing the shower going and gathered that her Neanderthal husband was in there. He wasn't here to put his hands on Alice, or any such nonsense, he liked breathing. When Alice shot him a tired but annoyed look, he held up his hands. "I had absolutely no intention of all this happening to you when I pulled you out of that strip club, Alice." He informed her, which was the honest truth.

"Which part? Being raped and having it videotaped? Or you divulging my secret PERSONAL information to a psycho, who was hell-bent on killing me to get to my husband?" Alice remarked, knowing if Mark walked out of that bathroom and spotted Eric, he would lose his mind. They had gotten rid of one nuisance in their lives and didn't need any more to deal with. "I want a paternity test. I don't believe you're my father." Greys narrowed on the man who had singlehandedly made her life a living, miserable hell. "I'll only believe you're my father when I have definitive proof and a blood test is the only way to do that."

"I already have all that." Eric snorted, shaking his head at her. "You really think when I pulled you into WCW, knowing who you were, and then when you had that health workup, I didn't have everything tested and sorted out?" He had because he was Eric Bischoff and not a complete fool. "And yes, the part with the rape, and everything else. That was not what I wanted for you." The three-minute warning thing, well… daughter or not, he wasn't about to be spoken to off the bat the way she had to him. Tough love.

"You had us paternity tested when I was a baby?" Eric pulled out some papers and she took them from him, having learned a couple lessons throughout the past few years in the wrestling business. "These could've been easily forged and made up." She pointed out, looking at him and didn't put it past this scumbag to do something like that. "I want a new paternity test now that I'm an adult." Even if he was her father, she wanted nothing to do with him. They would not be sharing holidays or anything like that. "So, did you know what religious psychos Margaret and Trevor were? Or did you not care where you left your so-called infant daughter?"

"When you joined WCW, can't you read?" He shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Or don't you remember the physical and workups we made you do?" Not always standard, but when he had been informed that she was his daughter, he had wanted proof outside of Margaret and Trevor's word. Trevor had been his best friend, sure, but with something like that… no, he needed verifiable proof. "And I don't want holidays and family time with you. I didn't want you to know about me, period." It was easier for both of them really. "And if you really must know, Alice, I never knew about you until after you were in the system. Your mother and I were not together, we were just fuck buddies and she had a drug problem. I didn't even realize she could get pregnant." Alice was lucky she hadn't been born retarded or something.

"A crack baby, in other words, fantastic." Alice snorted, rolling her eyes and thrust the papers back at him, folding her arms in front of her chest. "So why are you here then? You don't want holidays with me or anything and I clearly don't want you in my life. I'm happily married and, when I get pregnant again, I don't want you involved in your grandchild's life at all. You can keep fucking the old hag all you want, but I want BOTH of you to stay the fuck out of my life. I'm staying on Smackdown! and so is my husband, so we have no ties to you at all. I think that clears up any confusion on how I feel about you, Bischoff. So why are you really here?"

"To clear shit up, obviously." He said bluntly and then winced, hearing the bathroom door open. "Keep your pet leashed, Alice." He actually stepped behind her, putting her in between him and Mark. "I'm not here to fight, Calaway. Oh dear god, PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!"

Mark was tempted to punch Eric, while naked, just because he probably could. "Why is he here?"

"To make it clear I had nothing to do with Stephanie's bullshit." The last thing he needed or wanted was himself to come under public scrutiny.

"Oh, so you're covering your ass, then?" Agent Bartlow had already tracked Eric down to grill him about his relationship with Stephanie. No doubt in her mind they had fornicated since Stephanie screwed anything that moved, it seemed. "Don't you think you should be telling the FBI and Homeland Security this instead of me?" Of course not because that would mean getting involved with the authorities, which Eric steered clear of as much as possible. "Since you are here, if I were you, I'd tell the old hag to stay out of my life and business before she ends up behind bars next. I'm not being abused by my husband, as you can clearly see, so deliver that message for me, won't you, Daddy? You can see yourself out." Alice couldn't look or talk to him a second longer, leaving Mark standing there in all his naked glory to deal with her father.

"I can't take you seriously when your dick is hanging out, Calaway."

"I can't take you seriously at all, Bitchoff. You made her life a living hell, you let other people make her life a living hell and all you want from her now is to make sure your ass doesn't wind up being investigated or somehow tied to Stephanie." Mark shook his head, walking over, slowly because he was in no hurry at all, to get his clothes.

"Not wholly unreasonable, I'm not the one who murdered a bunch of people."

"You're a scumbag." How the hell his Red was related to this… slime… was beyond him.

"There is one more thing I wanna know, that I've been dying to ask you since you came into the company."

Why Vince hired him was beyond her understanding, but Alice wasn't thinking about that right now. She had come out of the bathroom to make sure Mark didn't maim this prick and stood in front of him, hiding her husband's body. In her mind, she was doing Eric a favor since he'd probably never get the image of naked Undertaker out of his head.

"Why did you sell me out to Stephanie? What did she do for you? You promised me nobody else would find out where I came from and how I got into WCW and broke your promise. I wanna know why. I DESERVE to know why, DAD." Her tone dripped with condescension as soon as that word, that term of endearment, left her mouth.

"Oh god, don't call me that…" He groaned, the word not sitting well with him any more than it was with her. "Ever. Again."

Eric had demanded that Stephanie leave his daughter alone, yes, but that was because Stephanie had figured out the relationship. He also had learned, by that time, Stephanie was somewhat psycho. More so than he dared to dream being on his wildest, most stressful day.

"And I did it, Alice, because she paid me a lot of money for information on you." Which, she had. "And…" He grunted, clearing his throat. "At the time, I didn't know how fucking crazy she was, she had told me about…. Calaway and shown me some personal things… when they were together, or whatever it was. I figured I'd be saving you some grief is all." Nope, that hadn't worked out and he regretted it, briefly. But also, lots of money.

Oh, Jesus… Mark rolled his eyes.

"Something tells me she gave you MORE than just money, Bischoff." Alice narrowed her eyes, seeing the sheepish look on his face and got her answer, which in turn made her stomach twist violently. "Money and sex, typical. Hope it was worth it because that information is what made Stephanie go to Page and ultimately lead to my rape." Eric paled visibly at that revelation and Alice could feel tears brimming her eyes. "You got your daughter raped instead of keeping your mouth shut. I hope you're happy. Now leave. Get the hell out of here and do NOT contact me again." When Eric didn't move, Mark took matters into his own hands and shoved the man out the door, making him land on his backside before slamming the door in his face. "Stupid mother fucker…"

Eric stared up at the door, tempted to start banging on it and, as soon as he calmed down, after being unceremoniously thrown out, thought better of it. He had nothing to do with Stephanie and her airplane fiasco, which was all he cared about, not being dragged into that circus. Eric wasn't about to get any more involved and, at this point, there was no reason to. He didn't want a relationship with Alice and he didn't need the Undertaker beating his ass again. However, he would strongly advise Margaret to back the hell off.

"Yeah, I want to go kill him." Mark had shucked on jeans and was eyeballing that door.

"You and me both, but he's not worth it, Deadman." Alice murmured, sliding her hand up his tattooed sleeved arm and accepted a soft kiss from him. "Thank you for throwing him out. He was getting on my nerves."

All the answers to her questions, including her dead mother, had been answered and she never wanted to talk to Eric Bischoff again. Granted, she would have to deal with him whenever it came to defending the Women's championship. Other than that, nothing personal would be exchanged between them.

"I can't believe he only came here to cover his own ass regarding Stephanie. What a fucking cumquat."

"Cumquat?" Mark echoed, the side of his mouth curving upwards into a half smirk and shook his head. He'd have to store that one away for later… maybe use it on Glenn. "Darlin'… honestly, what were you…" He stopped, considering it. Mark had been about to say 'expecting', but that didn't seem right. "Hoping for? With Eric?"

Her own foster family had screwed her over repeatedly and brutally throughout the years. Finding out what she had about her birth mother probably hadn't made her feel all that great nor having Eric Bischoff as a sperm donor. Mark crouched down before her when she dropped backward onto the edge of the bed.

"I don't know, honestly. I didn't think he'd come to see me, that's for damn sure." Alice turned her head to look at her husband, feeling his fingers stroking her flat stomach and smiled in spite of what just happened. "I never knew the truth about my mother, so that's closure I have now. I had a feeling Stephanie paid him off. I wasn't expecting anything…and I still don't buy the paperwork he had on him. WCW wasn't that…good with the testing and physicals, even though he tries to make it sound like they were. It was a dump compared to WWF, to put it mildly." Hell, Mark knew that better than her since he'd worked for them BEFORE they'd gotten their brief push on television for a year before completely floundering due to egos.

"Darlin', not to sound like I'm defending Bitchoff, because I'm not, but if he was told you were his kid, offered you a job and says he had the paternity thing done with that health workup… I'd bank on it that he did. Having a kid pop up out of the blue doesn't seem like something he's going to want coming back to bite him in the ass."

Groaning, Alice covered her face with her hands and knew Mark was right, hating the thought of being connected by blood to that scumbag. "I'm nothing like him. How the hell can I be related to someone I have NOTHING in common with?"

Did she take after her mother? Surely not – her mother was a drug addict and had died with them. Mark pulled her hands away from her face, kissing her wrists and fingers, comforting her the only way he knew how.

"I didn't know about being related to Bitchoff, Mark. You sure you still wanna be married to me, knowing he's my biological father?"

That was a stupid question. Mark had married her knowing what baggage she came with, her fucked up history, all the crazy situations and problems she seemed to attract… and she was asking him, again, because of this? "I didn't marry your Dad, foster family, or any of them fucks, Red. I married you." He pulled her palms to rest against either side of his face. Eric and a junkie… Alice really was his diamond in the rough, he thought, smiling at the thought.

How'd she get so lucky to find a man like Mark? He truly was one of a kind and nothing had scared him away. Mark had stuck by her through thick and thin, all the crap thrown at them had been reflected and their relationship had surprisingly grown stronger because of it.

"I love you, Mark."

Codependent she was, and Alice didn't want it any other way, refusing to leave her husband's side unless she absolutely had to. Stephanie was gone, and Eric was out of her life as well…could they honestly have a peaceful stretch of time in their marriage with no stress and no shenanigans? It was almost too good to be true.

Two months later, Stephanie was convicted on 282 counts of murder and several counts of terrorism, amongst other crimes, such as Alice's rape. She had been directly involved with the video recorder, the tape saved by none other than Stephanie's mother, Linda. Alice was shocked the older woman had kept a copy of it and so was Mark, but they were very grateful. It sealed her fate and Stephanie was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. The judge didn't think she deserved the easy way out with the death penalty and neither did the jury. They wanted her to serve every second of every minute in prison, locked up with no chance of ever escaping to ruin other lives.

WrestleMania came with Mark kicking the show off in a tag team match against the Big Show and A-Train with Nathan Jones as his partner. The higher ups and officials thought Nathan Jones was nowhere near ready for the ring, so they told Mark he'd have to do the majority of the match by himself in a handicapped match and Nathan would come out to save the day. Alice wasn't thrilled with it, but she understood why the company did that. Mark ended up winning, the save from Nathan Jones receiving a huge pop from the crowd and the rest of the show went on without a hitch.

Trish Stratus ended up winning the women's championship from Alice halfway through the night. There was a reason she had dropped the title and Trish had taken care of her in the ring to ensure no real harm came to her. Alice had dropped the title because she was 6 weeks pregnant and vowed not to let anything to happen to this baby. The match was quick with Trish delivering a few moves that made her fall on the mat lightly and Alice allowed the easy victory. She hugged Trish afterward, raised her arm and then left the ring to let Trish soak up the victory. Mark had been worried to death over the match, but Alice assured him everything would be fine, and she trusted Trish wholeheartedly.

Nine months later, a beautiful healthy baby boy was brought into the world by the name of Mason Lucas Calaway. Nine pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. He was a big boy, just like his Daddy and had wisps of bright red hair along with dark eyes. They couldn't tell if they would be gray or green, maybe a mixture of both. It was too soon to tell since the eye color on an infant changed within the first few months of life. As Alice held their bundle of joy in her arms, she couldn't help crying with Mark standing right beside her. He had decided to cut back drastically on his schedule and began the task of growing his hair back out again. He was returning at WrestleMania XX to face off against Glenn, both were looking forward to it. Mark was returning to the Original Deadman persona, the one that started it all and Alice was honestly excited for him. She would be watching him from home – it was January and she still had several months with him before he'd go back on the road to resume his career on a limited schedule.

The night of WrestleMania XX sent chills up Alice's spine. Mark had insisted on bringing her and Mason on the road with him for the event, wanting them to see it up close and personal. Granted, they couldn't be out in the crowd, but they were backstage in a comfortable dressing room with a nice sized television to watch the event on. Mark looked to be in his element once again. Big Evil never really suited him and the happiness shimmering in his clear green orbs sent her heart racing. No matter how many times she watched him go to the ring, it was always the same reaction. No matter how many kisses he gave her, how many times they made love, it always felt like the first time, full of passion and ecstasy.

Vince had told her to do it when she'd been raped. When she became a wrestler and established a legacy, despite what Diamond Dallas Page, Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon tried taking away from her. When she'd been in a plane crash that was sabotaged, all to get rid of her, at the hands of Stephanie, who was now waiting on death row to be executed for mass murder. Alice had overcome every single obstacle thrown her way, even when she was at her lowest, even when she wanted to give up hope that her life would finally balance out, even when she questioned if marrying Mark in a small chapel was the right thing to do, or when she was up late at night crying her eyes out because of the hormones from her pregnancy drove her crazy. Through it all, she had overcome the odds and now her life was finally content, happy, with the man of her dreams, her knight in shining leather and their beautiful growing family.

The End.