The Undertaker's Apprentice

Chapter 16 - Pushing Her Away

Two days later, Lexie was at the gym as usual. As The Undertaker came in, he paused and looked over at her as she lifted weights. Bruises littered her body, her left eye was black, her lip had been split Monday and was now scabbed over. She was struggling, that much was clear, but she was there, just as he'd told her to be. Every day since Wrestlemania, she'd been in whatever gym he told her to be in, done exactly as he'd asked, without complaint, without argument. Never shirking from the fight, even if it was stacked way against her. The aforementioned wrath she was going to lay on him never appeared, although he found himself frequently wondering if it would pop up any second. A brief wondering if he was being too hard crossed his mind, and if it was because he felt guilty over how he treated her, before he dismissed it. No, it wasn't him, it was how he had to train her. She was going to learn to be tough, just like him, and if he had to be hard on her, so be it.

Others littered the room, he paid them no heed as he went over and took the barbell from her as she struggled to raise it again and set it back on the bench.

"You should be resting." He said. Lexie scowled back up at him.

"And if I rested, you'd say I should be here. Which is it?" She asked, sitting up, wiping her forehead free of sweat and grabbing her water bottle.

"If you keep pushing yourself, you will hurt yourself." He said as she stood up.

"If I keep pushing myself? I'm not the one doing all the pushing here!" She said, her voice rising. She could take it no more, and Lexie let everything out. "You make me suffer, push me to my limits day in, day out and all you ever have to say is my ring work is sloppy, I'm too slow, I'm not good enough, you're wasting your time. You don't give a flying fuck if I get hurt in or out of the ring!" She said, her voice escalating in to a yell.

In a corner of the gym, Roman, Seth and Dean were watching as Lexie read The Undertaker the riot act, as she told him exactly what she thought of him.

"I didn't know she had such a temper on her," said Roman, as The Undertaker stood there once Lexie had finished shouting at him, laughed, told her she would be back tomorrow morning as usual, and she knew it, before walking off. His friends looked at him incredulously, remembering the beat down she had handed out to him. "Ok, maybe I knew a little of how bad a temper she has. It's different when it's not directed at you."

"She's a right little fireball, isn't she?" replied Dean, as Ceridwen growled in frustration, walked over to the punch bag and began to punch and kick it in a fury.

"Yeah. She is." Roman replied, watching her.

"I know that look," said Seth, smiling at his friend.

"What look?" Roman asked as Lexie left the gym, and he turned to face Seth.

"You know damn well what look. Don't go there. You don't have a hope in hell." Seth replied as Dean clocked on to what he was saying, and shook his head.

"Roman, with The Undertaker as her trainer, you've got no chance. He won't let anyone near her." Dean added. "You already know that. And he knows you like her, so what makes you think he's going to let her within ten feet of you?"

"Who says he has to know?" Roman asked.

Lexie was in her trailer that evening, one of the few perks of being The Undertaker's apprentice. The show was over, yet again she had been beaten, and he'd simply walked off, leaving her alone in the ring as Christian flattened her. On her own, Ceridwen lay on the bed, and began to cry. She didn't know how much more she could take of being alone in a world she had wanted to know so badly, since she was a kid. This hurt more than any punch, than any body slam ever could. All she had ever wanted was to train with The Undertaker, to learn from him and have him tell her yes, you are good at what you do. She had never, ever considered the possibility that Undertaker was such an asshole, such a hard taskmaster that she would be bleeding almost every night. And yet, she realised, it was perhaps her own fault too. John's words hadn't meant to be taken to heart like she did. But...maybe if I show him I can be what he wants me to be, maybe he'll want me back?