Over on the dance floor men and women, some couples, some strangers, dance slowly to Aqualungs, Strange and Beautiful. Some of the more inebriated gentlemen get on their knees to mime along with the verse to a group of woman, somewhat mastodon in appearance, who giggle like children at the welcome attention. Their inappropriate attire causes some disgusted looks from the vanity crowd at the edge of the dance floor, who dance with each other, much to the delight of the surrounding men, who watch them and fantasize.

Female Voice, with a French accent.
Wow, some people just don’t look in the mirror before they leave the house, do they?

A stunning blonde sits in one of the booths, her long hair dancing off her shoulders as she smiles, her perfect brilliant white teeth catching attention from passers by. She wears a black dress, of ruffled silk, it starts behind her neck, it covers her chest in two strips, leaving her cleavage and her flat stomach finished a diamond studded bar in her belly button, visible. Her back is completely bear down to just above her hips, where the silk comes together, tied tight around her waist, showing off her hour glass figure. It ties at the left, leaving her long toned thigh visible as it stretches across, underneath the table, her right knee pressed against the left of the man she sits with, who looks completely out of place at her side, but yet she smiles as him lovingly.

Her partner wears baggy black jeans and a long black leather over coat, his platinum blond hair catching some inquisitive looks. His right hand rests on the table, bandaged. A bloodstain on the bandage still wet. The girl takes his hand in hers and looks up at him with sincere concern. He keeps his eyes lowered, staring at his drink. A bottle of Budweiser, on studying the contents it’s quite apparent that it has gone flat, but still he stares. His left hand drifts to rest on her wrist, slipping his hand up her forearm and resting it on her elbow.

She smiles at him, her bright green eyes lit up, she seems to be satisfied with his distant demeanour. They pair sit together oblivious to the three kids being ushered toward the door by the bouncers after grappling with each other for a moment by the bar. Whilst the girl looks on at her companion, he continues to stare at his practically untouched drink. Any movement he can offer is slow and sluggish, bruises and small but deep cuts on his face barely healed… but by all rights he shouldn’t be standing.

The French Blonde
William, are you all right? I’m worried about you, and you really shouldn’t be drinking on those pain meds.

Stone looks up into her beautiful green eyes, a soft smile crosses his face for the first time you can remember. He trails the fingers of his uninjured left hand slowly down her wrist, resting his hand on her elbow.

Stone
I’m fine Laurie, and I wouldn’t worry about the pain meds, I’m not taking them, I took one yesterday, it knocked me out for hours.

She frowns; his steal resilience sinks as he is met by her big puppy dog eyes, every girl’s secret weapon. He looks away, somewhat powerless to speak strongly confronted by such a look of despair from her eyes.

Stone
He’s going to pay.... All this…

He waves his hand around the… many injured parts of his body somewhat dismissively.

Stone
It’s nothing.

He looks up with resolve into her eyes, she frowns… All the things she’d seen since they met, all the things she’d known him to do, he’d never raised his voice to her, never spoken an ill word, she is everything to him and they both know it. He’d told her that’s why she would never let her knee him when the camera was around, why he never spoke of her in public. A man such as James Spyder would think nothing of using her to get to her William his own benefit, and he wanted nothing more than to protect her from that. All the hatred in his black heart, what little good he had inside, it would appear, to be reserved exclusively for her.

Stone
The look on your face when you saw me lying in that hospital bed… for that he will pay.

She almost smiles, but firms herself trying to keep frowning, which leads to her looking like she’s about to laugh. Stone cracks a grin.

Stone
Another hit from that barbed wire and he might have scarred my beautiful face, I must kick his ass.

Laurie’s resolve cracks and she smiles, looking down and giggling quietly to herself.

Laurie in a mock American accent, mimicking American slash horror movie tone
What kind of a monster is he!

Stone turns his head away from Laurie as he begins coughing, the blow to his chest from going through that table causing some minor internal bleeding within his rib cage giving him some respiratory problems. He raises his bandaged hand to cover his mouth. After a moment of coughing, he turns back to Laurie, sustaining his smile.

The mood between them is somewhat relaxed, but Laurie sighs sickened as Good Charlottes Blood Valentine begins to play. The music isn’t very loud, it’s fairly early. A majority of the people here are having a quiet drink before moving on, or going home. So the music plays just loudly enough that it drowns out the conversation from the next table. Only the truly desperate are on the dance floor this early, because every woman seems to be under the impression that the most likely place to find that Mr. Right, is drunk out of his arse at 7pm on a Thursday in some deprived bar in New York… Whilst the guys have it down, get drunk, find some desperate tart that is bearably good looking whilst the beer goggles are primed, get on with it, and of course let her you that ’you’ll call her’.

The music begins to irritate Laurie and she looks up at William with half smile grabbing his attention.

Laurie
Do you want to go next door? This play list only has 8 songs on it, and the only one I can bear just finished.

He thinks for a moment, looking out through the huge glass front wall, with the big swinging doors manned by a pair of bouncers, trying to map where he is in his head. Which takes him a little longer than it usually would due to the severe knock he took less than 24 hours before. He smirks once he figures out where they are. As he turns back to Laurie she looks at him with an inquisitive smile.

Stone smirking
Yeah, we can’t go there. Me and JD got banned from there last Thursday night, they through me out.

She rolls her eyes playfully before he continues.

Stone
For wearing a hat.

Flashback Style.

Stone V.O
And when I say thrown out, I don’t mean they asked me to leave, walked to the bar and I said goodbye everybody I’ve gotta go…. 8 Bouncers hurled me out of the bar like I was a Frisbee. You know those bouncers that think bouncing is a really cool job… They hang out with other bouncers talking about bouncing, the ones that go home every night to watch Roadhouse and fondle themselves.

Laurie giggles as the flashback scene sets in your minds eye.

The bar next door is very similar in colour co-ordination. It wasn’t as busy as the last, people sit mostly on stools around the bar, or in the booths opposite the bar, two attractive young ladies dance on the dance floor seemingly just to kill the time, their boredom seemingly infectious. Johnny Dinucci sits at the bar by two bottles of Budweiser Ice. He sits and stares off at the girls on the dance floor, more in boredom than lust.

His eyes snap up as an inebriated William Stone walks in through the revolving glass door. He stumbles across the bar toward Dinucci, who reaches across the bar and hands Stone his beer. Stone wears his usual attire of leather pants, a black shirt and his black leather coat and a black cowboy style hat, which it would appear he‘d picked up on his travels which involved some heavy drowning his sorrows in Tequila after suffering defeat in PPW for the first time. Stone is just about to open his mouth to speak when a bouncer with dark brown hair, and dark blonde highlights approaches Stone and aggressively speaks to William, hiss

Bouncer real pissy
Take off the hat!

William blinks then glances at Dinucci, confusion flooding his face as he looks back toward the bouncer.

Stone
What’s the deal?

The bouncer’s puffs up his chest trying to exact authority.

Bouncer
I’ll tell you what the deal is, gay people in this area wear hats, and we’re trying to keep them out of our club.

Stone cracks a grin and turns to Dinucci, who shakes his head back at him suggesting he keep his hands in his pockets.

Stone
That’s interesting, the only way we can identify a faggot in England is if they have hair like…

Stone looks around the bar, before fixing his eyes on the bouncer.

Stone smirking
… Yours.

Dinucci cracks up as the bouncer takes a step toward Stone; Stone takes of his hat and holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender. The bouncer calms down and walks off shaking his head. Stone turns back to Dinucci and takes a swig of his drink. Dinucci laughs shaking his head as he takes a drink himself.

Laurie V.O
I Thought you got thrown out.

Stone and Laurie sit in the original bar still leaning toward each other over the table, Laurie staring into his eyes fascinated as he tells her his story.

Stone
Well, an hour or so passed and I put the hat back on… I forgot, you ever forget? Happened to me.

She giggles again.

Stone sits next to Dinucci, the black hat on top of his head once more as he delivers the punch line to a joke.

Stone
The English guy says, “I couldn’t help it, I saw the Irish Guy coming back with Pineapples.”

Both men laugh, cringing at the same time. At this point, the bouncer from earlier returns and stands over Stone who ignores him.

Bouncer
That’s it! You’re out of here.

Stone takes a drink, still ignoring the bouncer, until he pokes him in the shoulder with two fingers.

Bouncer
I said, you’re out of here!

Stone rolls his eyes and finishes his drink.

Stone
I don’t think so Scooter.

Stone V.O
I was wrong….

Again Laurie bursts into laughter, her timid giggling drawing attention from men around the establishment. He smiles.

Stone
We squared off in the parking lot and I backed down, because… I didn’t know how many of them it would take to kick my ass…. But I knew how many they were gonna use.

Laurie’s giggling causes her to loose her breath somewhat.

Stone
They called the police because we broke a chair one the way out and I wasn’t gonna pay for it.

Laurie tries to laugh and frown in disapproval at the same time, but fails and leans forward burying her face in her hands hiding her face as she turns an adorable shade of pink.

Stone
WE broke a chair on MY back.

Stone laughs to himself.

Stone
So the cops showed up, and at that point, I had the right to remain silent

He pauses

Stone Continues
But I didn’t have the ability.

Laurie coughs to give her a chance to catch her breath before looking back up at him, her head still lowered laughing as quietly as she can manage.

Stone stands in front of a policeman much shorter than him as Dinucci watches from the door of the bar. The Officer speaks with a southern American accent.

Officer
Mr Stone I am arresting you on the charge of Drunk in Public… You have the ri….

Stone interrupts waving his arm toward the bar.
Hey hey hey! I was drunk in a bar; they THREW me into “Public”. I don’t want to be drunk in public; I want to be drunk in a bar! Arrest them!

Stone V.O.
Well he didn’t arrest them instead he made me take a field sobriety test.

Officer
Mr Stone, please stand on one foot and raise the other foot six inches from the floor and count to 30.

Stone looks up and frowns before complying with the Policeman’s request.

Stone V.O.
I made it to…

Stone
Wuh….

William hit’s the floor as a dead weight, and pulls himself up against the wall, before looking up at the officer and holding his head in a somewhat drunken stupor.

Stone
… ne

He sighs

Stone hope filled
That gonna be long enough?

Stone slips his hand over the bicep of his hysterical girlfriend.

Stone
Well it wasn’t. He called in for my Arrest Records, Satellites are linking up in outer space, computer banks are kicking up at NASA, and there’s a telegraph in Brixton, London going…

Stone emulates the sound of a telegraph with medium pitched beeps for about 20 seconds before stopping…. Only to inhale and continue with the beeping.

Stone
This part takes a while.

Once he’s finished the beeping he smiles at Laurie who’s bewildered laughter has her struggling to breath, he lowers his head to get a better look at her face to make sure she’s all right. She looks up at him smiling brightly, still laughing maniacally.

Stone
When I was 16, I was arrested for being drunk in public.

Laurie
Somewhat of a pattern…

Stone smiling
If you knew Morse code you’d know that already.

He grins

Stone Continues
And one other case of DUI which was total bullshit, because as it turns out, they were stopping every car travelling down that particular side walk, and that’s profiling… And profiling is wrong.

Laurie shuffles around the booth, till she is side-by-side with Stone, she then rests her head on his shoulder, hiding her laughter from the rest of the bar in embarrassment.

Stone
When I was arrested for being drunk in Public, they took me to jail and the arresting officer asked me if I had any aliases… Needless to say I was drunk off my ass, and being a smart ass, so I said, “Yeah, they call me…. ‘Pasta Salad’”

Stone still leans against the window of a bar in New York holding his head. The officer returns from his car and looks down at William Stone

Stone V.O.
5 years later…

Officer
Are you William…. “Pasta Salad” Stone?

Stone V.O
You caught me, you caught the pasta! you can take those road blocks down now!

Laurie hangs her arms around his neck and whispers something quietly in his ear, her face bright red from the laughter fit, she rests her head against his chest and closes her eyes. As her eyes close Williams face sinks. His expression suddenly emotionless. He clenches his fist, which rests on the table in front of him, staring into nothingness.

For her eyes he will show her how much he cares, but for the rest of the world he feels nothing. His arm tightens around the only thing he has that matters to him as memories of the barbed wire wrapped fist of James Spyder tear into his skin, of the feeling of serenity for that time he was unconscious after a blow from the croquet mallet. That moment where his consciousness left behind the restraints of his body, he felt nothing but boiling revenge. At Battle For Supremacy in the first to 2 falls triple threat match, the third fall already decided by Spyder, to be a Japanese Death Match. The second as Stone told Dinucci minutes after he was dragged to hospital, would be a chain gang stipulation. The idea of such a match being that, the competitors are tied together at the ankle by 15 foot of steel chain.