Diamond In The Rough

Wednesday, August 18
Orlando, Florida

“Are you really sure you don’t want me to stay?” Lachlan’s blue eyes took on a sheen of worry as he looked to his wife Sierra sitting beside him. The harsh lighting in the hospital corridor emphasized the dark circles under her eyes from the countless sleepless nights she had spent at her father’s bedside.

She gave him a tired smile, squeezing his hand. “This is important. Your baby sister is about to have babies of her own. You should be there for her. She’s probably terrified out of her mind right now. She needs her big brother.”

“But you’re my wife.”

“She’s been your sister longer than we’ve been together.”

“...OK, fair enough. But my point still stands. You’re going through something incredibly tough, and I want to be here for you.”

He almost thought he saw tears in her eyes, and her voice did waver slightly. “Lachy, you have been with me through absolutely everything, and I love you for it. But you really should go see Alanah and the rest of your family. We’ll be OK here. I promise.”

He let out a defeated sigh. Even as emotionally drained as she was, he knew that her stubborn streak would win out in the end, so it was best if he just went ahead with his travel plans. “Alright, but promise me you’ll call the second there’s any change, OK?”

She nodded, and he leaned in to kiss her forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Is breá liom tú.”

She gave him a sweet, soft kiss to the lips. “Yo también te amo.”

A few hours later…

He stared out the window of the plane, his mind fractured into a million pieces. Almost literally caught between heaven and hell.

Behind him, his wife and extended family, all keeping vigil at the bedside of his father-in-law, praying for a miracle. Though the two men had a bit of a rough beginning, over the years they’d developed a strong bond. Lachlan enjoyed picking Oscar’s brain for wrestling advice and hearing the stories of “the good old days”. It had filled a void in his heart that had been there since he was thirteen and lost his own father. And now, that void was in danger of opening all over again.

But ahead of him, his sister Alanah was mere weeks away from giving birth to her babies, a set of twins. His brand-new niece and nephew. When she had first announced her pregnancy at her and Jack’s surprise wedding months ago, he was over the moon. He’d always loved being a big brother, he was the first one to babysit the neighbourhood kids growing up, and when he and Sierra had become a couple, he had grown to love her girls like they were his own flesh and blood. The thought of two new additions to his ever-expanding family filled his heart with warmth and love.

And then, to add to all the insanity of his whirlwind of a personal life, he had made the leap and signed with an up-and-coming company, Pro Wrestling Excellence. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy his time in PWS, but he felt that he needed a new avenue to branch out to. Somewhere where he could make his own name again, much like he had done when he first came to the US to wrestle.

When he first met Sierra.

His thoughts traveled back to her, conjuring up an image of her curled up in a chair at her father’s bedside. Half of him pitied her, but half of him also envied her. Pity because she was forced to watch the man she idolized waste away from the cancer that was slowly destroying his body. But he envied her because she had the time to say goodbye to him as well. Something he hadn’t got with his own father. He had come to terms with it long ago, but the current situation dredged the feelings back up to the surface.

At some point during the flight, he dozed off into a light sleep, where he dreamed of his thirteen-year-old self, standing over his father’s coffin in the Waterford cemetery. Hearing the sobs of his mother and sister, his hand resting on his brother’s shoulder. The priest giving the last rites as the casket was lowered into the ground. The lone sound of a fiddle playing a mournful song as the crowd began to disperse. He knew he should go, but his legs wouldn’t move. He just stood and stared as the grave filled with dirt...He felt a hand on his shoulder…

“Sir, we’ll be landing soon.”

He jolted awake, startling the poor flight attendant who had woken him. He apologized to her, rubbing his face to wake up. Time to put on a happy face.

—————-

“This feeling never gets old.”

Sitting at the edge of the ring set up in the centre of the brand-new Wolfslair training facility in Orlando, Lachlan Kane had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. The Irish fighter looked positively giddy as he rested his hands on the tops of his knees, looking to the camera with his piercing blue eyes.

“That crackle of anticipation. The electricity of starting anew. Not only starting in a new place, but the thrill of getting in on the ground floor of a brand-new company. That’s adding an extra layer of excitement to the whole thing. And I gotta tell ya, I love that feeling. I live for that feeling.”

He climbed to his feet and stepped between the ropes of the ring, moving to the centre and standing with his arms folded across his chest. “Seems that the opening of PWE is causing quite the commotion in the wrestling world. Fighters from far and wide have descended on this place, looking to either kick-start their career or add one more accolade to an already impressive resume. Me? I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve already been in the business for nearly a decade, mostly overseas. I came to the US three years ago to find that next challenge, to continue building on the legacy that I created for myself across Europe and Japan. And while I’ve been in my fair share of companies, held a little bit of gold, I’ve yet to reach that upper echelon. But I think that PWE just might be the place where I finally put my stamp on the wrestling business.”

“First edition of Victory, and every single one of us has the chance to step up and claim greatness. We’re all on even footing. Doesn’t matter if you’re a green-as-grass rookie, or an old time veteran of the mat. Everyone’s got an equal chance to become the face of the company.” He chuckled slightly, reaching up to scratch at his stubbled cheek. “Granted, it’s not going to be an easy journey by any means. It’ll be a Herculean task not only to overcome five other people in a match, but to then go on to potentially two more matches in the same night before claiming the title and becoming the face of a brand-new company.”

A confident smirk graced his face as he tilted his head from side to side to loosen up the muscles in his neck. “But I know that I’m more than up to the challenge. The pressure’s on, and I’m your diamond in the rough.”