The papers- Finale.
(We see Jenn and Gracie are seen standing on the back porch of Jenn’s house, the back porch is overlooking the ocean, and the ocean is peaceful gently crashing along the shoreline It’s midday and the girls are under an awning that was just installed to make the back porch more moveable, and guests can soak up the LA weather as well.)
Jenn: How’s the house coming along? When I was there last time you had it down to bare bones with exposed wires hanging all over the place.
Gracie:: We got rid of those wires and they’re starting to put new ones in. Those wires were a bitch to get out! Those things were there since the 70s, I’m surprised that house didn’t catch on fire! It’s a huge project but it’s been ripping that house apart.
Jenn When i was there, some of it had rotted wood and it just didn’t look right, and it filled to the ceiling with garbage that nobody knew what to do with.
Gracie:: Without that garbage, you wouldn’t have found those adoption papers… Anyway, have they called back?
Jenn Not yet.
Gracie:: Jesus, it didn’t that long when you adopted me…
(Just as they were talking about it Charlee Knight, Jenn’s secretary calls. Jenn has a secretary because she’s so busy with stuff and she has the tendency to forget things because of that busy schedule she has, so she hired Charlee to help balance the workload, and Charlee is also a legal mind that Jenn turns to. As the phone rings, she picks up.)
Jenn: Hello?
Charlee: Hey! I just wanted to pass this along before you head off for your trip to Hawaii for Destiny week. A decision on your case has been made and the final documents have been mailed to you, I hope it’s what you wanted! I wish I could be there to see your reaction, but anyway have a good day!
(Gracie overheard the convo on speakerphone, and she quietly went back into the house. She makes her way through the kitchen, living room, and small hallway that leads to the front door. Once she got the mail, she came back through the same path she had before, with a hand full of envelopes, one of which had those documents in it.)
Gracie:: Here ya go.
(Jenn shifts through the envelopes before landing on the envelope that says “LA county court” You can see her hands starting to shake with nervousness as she doesn’t know what those papers would say yet, and she doesn’t want to have her heart broken.)
Gracie:: Cmon good news!
(Jenn slides her finger to open the envelope and grabs the paper inside of it. She starts to read the paper and her expression starts to turn into a frown face.)
Jenn: Well… I'm A MAKARIOS NOW! After all, these years later I finally have a family! About time something good happened for us! I’m so excited!
(Jenn hugs Gracie, as she does you can almost hear Gracie’s breath being taken out of her as she wasn’t expecting the hug.)
Gracie:: Oh god, don’t squeeze me too hard…. Grandpa I’m coming to visit….
(Jenn chuckles before letting go.)
Jenn: sorry! I gotta go tell my sister this!
(With all the yelling and happiness going on, Lexi’s parents come screaming down the stairs to see what’s going on, they think something bad is happening. Mr and Mrs. M just put Manny down for her afternoon nap moments before all the shouting happened, thankfully, nobody woke up the child. Jenn starts to text Lexi, and Gracie smiles towards Jenn as happy as can be, truthfully. But she has something else on her mind, and she’s holding the excitement in. She starts heading towards the door.)
Mr. M: Is everything alright?!
Gracie: Yeah, I gotta go record something real quick, and I’ll be back before Manny wakes up. Her naps are normally 2 hours.
(The scene comes to end with Gracie leaving the house, to somewhere.)
“Where have I been”
Later that day
(While everyone is getting ready to go to Hawaii, Gracie decided to stay back for a little bit and reflect on the changes that just accrued in her life, BIG changes actually. It’s about time too as the family has faced a lot of rocky emotions the last few months and they’re finally starting to get back on track. It led to an extended “Leave of absence” for Gracie, but it wasn’t the only reason, nagging injuries and being burnt out also played a factor. Gracie remains seated at the same place she was when we last left her, the fire has only coals remaining, and the sun has gone down as well but some rays are still poking through the mountain range.)
Gracie:: It’s been months since I’ve been in a PWS ring. The last time I was in that ring was back in late December and then I seemingly just vanished from TV. Was I injured? No, not really. Did I have other projects that needed to be done? Kinda sorta. But let’s be honest here, I’ve been an open book since I started my career, because it’s hard to keep anything secret, somewhere somehow people know what I’m doing. At first, I wanted to keep my daughter a secret but see how that one worked out for me? I guess it comes with being part of a well-known wrestling family, some people on this roster will know what I’m talking about…the other generational wrestlers.
(Gracie shrugs her shoulders before she chuckles. She knows that everything she does has a way of reaching out to people, and she has no issue with it.)
Gracie:: But the reason I was gone for a little while was that I had some personal demons to take care of. Let's take you back to last year and the holidays. Everyone knows my grandfather met a lot of me because he helped raised me when my dad went off to do his career, and he was there for me when I needed him. But, during the holidays, I saw the chair that he used to sit in and it almost broke me. But I stayed strong enough till the holidays were over….you know the saying, strong people can only be strong long enough before they get to their breaking point and during New Year’s I was at the breaking point. I needed to get away, away from people, away from the career that I love, and just go. So I packed up my daughter and we went.
(Gracie leans on the rail of the house in silence for a bit trying to move away from the emotion she had.)
Gracie:: Only the inner circle knew what I was up to, but everyone else didn’t. I didn’t want to be a burden to people you know? I just wanted to find peace with myself and just let go. From skiing to beach walking in Hawaii to the Bahama’s…I slowly started to finally let go and not look back, which I have. One person helped me get past that, and that person is my daughter. Sure, she doesn’t know how she helped me but she did.
(Gracie starts to smile a bit.)
Gracie:: Because of her I’ve grown up. I’ve grown up from a girl who did everything for herself with no care in the world, to being a mother who actually cares about someone else. Watching her grow and figure out life, how to stand, how to walk. She’s helped me and I’ve helped her. She’s the best thing to ever happened to me, and it happened at the right time. It sure didn’t seem like it when it happened, but we made it through those rough days. Yeah, there’s going to be more rough days head and some growing pains but we’ll ride it out together.
Gracie:: Just like Jenn’s adoption paperwork, we rode that out together, and now? Now she’s happy. I’ve never seen her this happy before and honestly? It’s a good change of pace if you ask me. I haven’t been around the wrestling world but I was with her the entire way, from the moment she found those papers to them finalizing them. That stuff that’s happening to her has a ripple effect on me, and my family now. I gained an aunt, and my daughter? She gained great grandparents. Why does this mean so much to me?
(Gracie finally removed the sunglasses that she had on, she places them on the rail. You could tell the emotion she has in her eyes from everything she’s been through the last few months.)
Gracie:: Because Jenn adopted me to be her daughter when her and my dad were married. She didn’t have to but she did. See, she can’t have kids and for her to look at me and my sister as her own makes me proud as hell, the way she speaks about us like we’re hers makes me proud. That’s why seeing her happy with people who actually care about her makes me emotional. She deserves it, she deserves the happiness. Even though all the shit I went through, I stayed by her side.
(Gracie sits on top of the wooded railing of the house that she’s at.)
Gracie:: While I was by her side through her adoption stuff. I was planting seeds for my own return, I was scoping out the talent for Destiny. It was always the plan for me to return to that show. Why? Because it’s the biggest show of the year for this company, and I wasn’t going to miss this show for the world. I don’t care if I wasn't emotionally ready or not. I WANTED to be on the show. I overheard my dad say that he was going to issue an open challenge and I thought to myself that it would be a perfect time to show up unannounced…
(A smirk appeared on Gracie’s face, she knows that it was an opportunity for her to get on the show and she was going to use that opportunity to take it.)
Gracie:: So, On that night he made that open challenge, I showed up with the loudest pop I ever had in my career. It felt good, I got goosebumps that night and if you didn’t pay attention, I was shaking when I was in the ring, not from fear but from excitement. I was happy to be back home, back where I belong, and back in my comfort zone. After that segment ended, I superkicked my daughter and I got a smattering of boos and I got some side-eyed looks from the people backstage, but I didn’t care. I got the match I’ve wanted and I was on cloud 9 at that point. But then I started to tell my friends that I had that match with my dad and they gave me weird vibes, asking me questions like “why would you face your own dad?” Wouldn’t that be weird to face your dad? Or the popular, “you have no idea what you’re doing!”
(Gracie shrugs her shoulders in disgust.)
Gracie:: You want me to give you a reason why I wanted this match? Here it is, back when I was a kid, my dad always wanted to have a match with his father, my granddad, but he couldn’t because of his health issues at the time, and declining health as the years went on. He never had that chance to do it, and I wasn’t going to let that opportunity slip through my fingers and have regrets. So, to me it’s not weird facing my dad, it’s no different than brother vs brother, father vs son. Both of us are competitive people, we bring the best out of each other, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in the ring or not. We’re both professionals as well, when that rings it won’t be father and daughter, it’ll be two people trying to put on the best match possible!
(Gracie leaps off the railing landing on her feet)
Gracie:: This is one of the rare times I get to stand in the ring with a person I actually respect, but if you’re coming here and thinking you’re gonna hear me disrespect my dad and “tear him” a new one, you’re mistaken me for someone else but I’m not. But what I will say is this, everything I’ve said so far is because I wanted to light a fire under him, and when I said I didn’t want to face a broken-down old man, it’s true. I didn’t. I know he’s not the same person he was but dammit, I WILL BRING THAT SIDE OUT OF HIM.
(Gracie shakes her head as she starts to think of something, and she refuses to let that thought happen.)
Gracie:: See, I refuse to let David Shane or Nick Madison be my father's last match. I had a dream of this match happening and I wasn’t going to let anybody get in the way of it. While I respect the 2 of them and everything they’ve done in this business, they weren’t going to do this… I was. And now that I am? I don’t care if it’s a no holds barred match. If this is how my dad wanted to end his career? So be it. There’s no way I’m losing…
(Gracie shakes her head, not in disgust but just her way of saying she’s not going to lose this match.
Gracie:: One final thing, if it turns out to be my dad’s final match, then I want him to go out in grand style. With fireworks popping at the end, everyone on their feet cheering for him, and one final hug. That’s how I want him to go to out. Almost like a big celebration for his years of dedication and years of wear and tear on his body for entertainment. I don’t want to think about that part yet because I don’t want to cry, I don’t want to get emotional, and yet I feel myself getting that way… I feel the emotion, I feel the excitement and I feel nervous... All wrapped up into one…..
(Gracie lets out a big sigh before walking away, you could tell this match is starting to play with her emotions but she wouldn’t be the type of person to say it, the scene comes to a close with her getting in her car and drive off into the dar California desert.)