(BLACK VIDEO MATTE.)
HIGH FLYER(V.O.): The human body is a miraculous thing.
(FADE IN. A hospital’s surgery room. Two doctors and a few nurses surround a small child, no more than ten years of age. They seem to be working feverishly. A constant beep is heard in the background as medical equipment monitors the boy’s vitals.
Beep. Beep.)
HIGH FLYER(V.O.): Paper cut? Few days it closes up. Broken bones? Reset the fracture and give it a few weeks. Prostate cancer? Get a beam of radiation aimed at your junk and pray for the best.
Doctor: Can you hold that layer of skin, yeah…
(Beep. Beep. A nurse uses a clamp on the boys stomach.)
HIGH FLYER(V.O.): I was just reading an article about a zombie apocalypse. About how such a thing is non sense, not because of the fact that infectious disease that needs a bite to be transferred is fatally flawed in design, but the fact that an undead corpse mumbling and rambling about doesn’t have the almost Christ like ability of resurrection. The ability to close even the simplest of wounds with time. You find a zombie strain that can regenerate human tissue like a worm does as the dead decays, you’ve got one valid scary Zombie Apocalypse on your hands.
(The doctors continue their operating on the small child. Overhead, in a small viewing area, is a worried and stressed out brunette, twirling a cigarette in her dainty hands. She stands, refusing to sit, as a small girl plays with a Barbie on the old shag carpet.)
HIGH FLYER(V.O.): What does that have to do with me? Well, let’s just say I’m a broken and tattered individual. My wounds from Stalker are still not healed, and my stupidity to jump off a cage to defeat Fusenshoff last week has severely crippled me. I’m hobbling around like Dr. House, acting just as curmudgeonly as Mr. Laurie.
(Beep. Beep. The brunette places the cigarette in her lips and attempts to light it, but restrains herself due to the hospitals no smoking policy. Torn between fleeing and watching the operation below, she is a ball of potential energy, just waiting to be turned kinetic.)
HIGH FLYER(V.O.): But all the physical pain in the world is nothing compared to the pain of seeing your child helpless for the first time.
(The door to the observation room swings open, smashing against the back wall due to the lack of a door stopper. The brunette is startled and turns to see the source of the noise. Her face turns into that of a scowl before she turns her attention back to the operating table. The little girl playing with her Barbie chucks it aside and rushes up, hugging him around his shin. She’s not even three.
Flyer lets out a wince as she latches on. She’s clutching his injured leg.)
“Daddy!”
High Flyer: Hi Kate.
(Flyer waves his hand to his ex-wife, who responds rather cold.)
KATE: Jack.
(She turns sweet as she looks down at her little girl.)
KATE: Sweetie, let go of him.
(The little girl shakes her head from side to side.)
HIGH FLYER: It’s okay. She’s only seen me a few times, let her. I can fight through the pain.
KATE: It’s not for your sake. I’m y’know, disciplining her? Something you neglected to do with Allocca.
(Kate sighs)
Kate: I can’t believe I let you name him that.
(Kate turns her back to Flyer and continues to watch the operation below. With his daughter clutching his shin, he awkwardly lumbers over to her side. Cue the long awkward pause.)
HIGH FLYER: How’s he doing?
KATE: Fine. So far.
(Both Kate and Flyer continue to watch from above in silence. The heart monitor BEEPS, BEEP.)
KATE: You look like ****.
HIGH FLYER: Nice to see you too.
(BEEP. BEEP.)
HIGH FLYER: Y’know, I’m wrestling this guy named Anarky, yeah?
(Kate frowns, biting her bottom lip as Flyer continues.)
HIGH FLYER: And beyond the fact that he assumes I like reality television, which I don’t, you know that all too well… which, by the way, you aren’t letting Jess watch Jersey Shore, right?
(Kate blinks.)
KATE: So, while our son is on the operating table you question my television viewing habits?
HIGH FLYER: Wrong time. But he asked me something, it really got me thinking. I was lying in my bed recouping from being thrown off the top of a steel cage one week, and then jumping off the steel cage the next.
(Kate’s eyes narrow. She looks at Flyer out of the corner of her eye but quickly reverts her attention back to the surgery, seemingly ignoring the Lunatic.)
HIGH FLYER: He asked if I made the right decision. Y’know, to be a wrestler, to have this so called legacy. He asked me whether I’d be happier as an old married couple, sitting in a park feeding ducks, which, by the way, what old person still feeds ducks? And I realized, I am just as bit of a monster as he is.
KATE: You got that right.
HIGH FLYER: But then I think back to the good times, when we were on the road together, and for the last six years I’ve been trying to recapture that feeling.
(Flyer shakes his head.)
HIGH FLYER: And I think to myself now, sure. If I could go back and change it all I would, but I can’t. Time can not be dramatically altered no matter how many time machines you have. So, all I can do now is try to lift my foot and put it forward. To be a better man.
KATE: I’ve heard this before. Can you stop with the repeats?
HIGH FLYER: But I still know that I want to be a professional wrestler. If I could go back and change things, I wouldn’t change that. Ever. Because I don’t think you’d have ever fallen in love with me without that. And I’ll take our brief time together over no time at all. Jess… Allocca… deny it all you will but I wasn’t on your radar until I was a wrestler, and without the sport… they wouldn’t be here.
KATE: Why are you even here. It’s just an appendectomy.
(Flyer frowns.)
HIGH FLYER: Cause I’m his father. My days as a wrestler are nearing their end. I only have so many chances left to hear him cheer my name. So I’m gonna win the King of the Cage for him.
(Flyer rustles his daughter’s curls.)
HIGH FLYER: Just to make him happy.
(OVER THE SHOULDER, Kate and Flyer stand about a foot apart. Flyer goes to extend his hand to Kate as Kate taps her foot impatiently. Seeing no response, Flyer freezes, and slowly lowers his hand back to his daughter. The camera CRANES skyward and FADES OUT.)