Training Stephanie

Show No Mercy

After some much-needed rest, Stephanie awoke around noon, which was really late in the day for her, especially with her being a McMahon.

Throughout her life, Vince had always stressed the importance of being ahead of time as opposed to being on time, which is why he always left for a show several days in advance and was always the first person to be at the venues.

After grooming herself, Stephanie went downstairs and greeted Gracie in the kitchen, who was preparing lunch. However, something just seemed off. She didn't smell her mother's lingering fragrance wafting around, and with today being Sunday, Stephanie surely thought that Linda would have been hosting her weekly book club meeting out on the veranda.

But today, the outside was completely barren. There weren't any small pastries or tea being served, and there weren't any sounds of small laughter or polite jubilation, either.

In fact, Stephanie didn't see anyone.

Looking around the kitchen curiously, Stephanie asked, "Gracie, have you seen my mom? Isn't she supposed to be holding her book club meeting today?" Looking over to Stephanie while still preparing Vince and Shane's lunches, Gracie stated calmly, "I thought you knew..."

Smiling to mask her confusion, Stephanie asked curiously, "Knew what? She hasn't told me anything."

"Well, tonight is, you know, the special pay-per-view from Manchester; the one that the company holds in England every year. She left last night around eight. She's going to be the special guest referee for the main event, and you know... I thought you knew."

Sighing, placing her hands in her hair, Stephanie had completely forgotten how Shawn Michaels had announced that Linda would be the special guest referee for the Triple Threat Match between Mark, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Kenny, at the No Mercy UK event tonight.

"That's why she wanted me to go to bed so early," Stephanie thought to herself worriedly.

Now that Linda was gone, Stephanie's already plagued mind went into overdrive.

She and Mark were separated.

He had no allegiance to her whatsoever, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted, including causing bodily harm to the one McMahon whom he hadn't assaulted yet.

After intentionally dismantling both Shane and Vince, and after Mark showed her that horrible tape of him systematically brainwashing Ryan, there was no telling what he could do to her mom now that they were no longer together. And this frightened Stephanie to death!

Biting her fingernails in angst, Stephanie barreled out of the kitchen, making a beeline for the stairs. Running straight into her bedroom, Stephanie grabbed her cordless phone and attempted to call Mark, praying that she could talk some sense into him before he did anything crazy.

Looking at her clock on the wall, Stephanie saw that it was 12:15 p.m. Doing a bit of mental math, she deduced that it was about 5:15 p.m. currently in the UK.

Dialing his number frantically, Stephanie called over and over again, but she didn't get an answer. Trying his beeper now, Stephanie grabbed her pager from her nightstand, powered it on, and paged Mark to call her ASAP!

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Steph said agonizingly. "He's probably preparing for the show by now!"

Realizing that there was nothing that she could do, Stephanie quickly grabbed her remote control, powered on her television, turned to the nearest pay-per-view channel that was offering the show, and tuned into the countdown, impatiently awaiting the start of No Mercy UK.

-

The Ministry's locker room was unusually festive, though the Brood didn't look quite as happy as everyone else.