A rumble from the female's stomach echoed through the room. Sure, she was hungry, but she was too damn nervous to eat. Never in her life had she been this nervous - so nervous that she'd shown up to the arena two hours before anyone else. Well, if that wasn't dedication, she didn't know what was. Really, she needed the time alone to prepare for seeing everyone again. The Divas had no idea she'd be here, and were completely unaware that she'd signed a new contract. She wondered if the Bella's had any idea, either.

It was no secret that Maria Kanellis and the Bella Twins weren't on the best of terms. In her opinion, it was all in the past and she was willing to let bygones be bygones, something she'd admitted to on Twitter - in a message directed to the twins. But, she didn't know if they would want to accept her as the newest returning Diva to the roster, or if they would do everything they could to get rid of her. Maria didn't think they'd be that spiteful, though. If anything, they would most likely keep their distance from her. After all they were all adults, and if they had issues with one another, they could easily put them aside for the sake of their jobs, right? She hoped so. She'd seen all the fallout on Total Divas, and knew these girls could get pretty crazy when they were riled up. Maria didn't need to be the butt of any jokes right now.

She was still wondering if this was the best idea for her career. She'd been doing well with her career in Ring of Honor - as the First Lady she'd been starting a massive craze for ladies to get into that company. It was becoming a really massive thing with the fans, ROH was becoming as big as WWE, almost, and everybody wanted to see what was going on there. So, why leave? Maria couldn't stay in Ring of Honor any longer. It had just been released on the internet that herself and Mike Bennett had split. They'd been having issues, but had gone through with the wedding. It wasn't long after that they filed for a divorce, and went their separate ways. But, given that Maria was still a part of the same faction as Mike, the two continued to work together - despite their obvious personal differences.

However, it became too difficult for her. Maria asked for her release from Ring of Honor, and the second WWE got word of her leaving, they were very quick to call her up and offer her a contract to start over in WWE. Well, she had become one of the most improved women in the independent circuit, having held championships, gotten better in the ring, and she'd started doing some pretty decent promos as well. They wanted her back, and she was happy to sign up.

That was until now, when she was questioning every single decision she'd made since the divorce.

Maria didn't get much longer to worry over the decisions she'd made, because the door swung open and in walked Natalya Neidhart. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see-" The blonde apologized, as she'd somewhat stormed into the room and nearly knocked Maria's bags over. The redhead was too busy smiling at the former champion to give a damn about her luggage. "Maria?!" Natalya exclaimed, smiling just as brightly as Maria.

Almost instantly, Maria got up, and closed the space between the two ladies, embracing her old friend in a massive hug. "Oh, Nattie." She grinned, squeezing the shorter woman a little bit. All of her worries washed away the second she saw her old friend. The two of them hadn't always worked together, but Maria always looked up to Nattie, and considered her a really good friend, one of the closest she had in this locker-room.

"What are you doing here?" The blonde asked, as the two females stepped apart, only a few feet away from one another.

"Well, I'm back." Maria shrugged a little, though her expression was just as bright and happy as it had been moments ago.

"You're back? As in... you've signed again?" When Maria nodded to this next question, Natalya released a noise of pure excitement, and the two girls hugged again. That was when the door swung open again, and Layla walked into the room.

The next hour or so was filled with Maria and several Divas she'd worked with in the past all getting giddy over her new contract and the fact that she was back. But, when Layla asked about the rumors regarding Maria's marriage, she went somewhat quiet, and nodded her head, silently confirming that she and Mike were now divorced and well, barely even spoke anymore.

"Oh, sweetie. I'm so sorry." Layla exclaimed, reaching out for Maria's hand.

"Don't apologise. We've been divorced a while now, and it's alright. We weren't working very well before the wedding either. But, we both thought that if we went through with it, we'd be okay, because we were married. Silly, I know." She shook her head, laughing lightly at the memory of it.

The girls all attempted to comfort Maria, despite her insisting that she didn't need comforting. If anything, she wanted to celebrate that she was here, she was back, and she was gonna come in all guns blazing. She was just wondering where within the Divas Division she'd be placed. The Divas had recently all been split into teams, and Maria didn't think she'd fit with any of them. Naomi, Tamina and Sasha Banks were Team BAD, Nikki, Brie and Alicia Fox were Team Bella, and Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch had gained the name Team Powerpuff Girls from the fans, which was honestly a very adorable name for them. She knew it wasn't the name they were using, but Maria thought they should. It seemed suiting.

The girls stopped talking when the door opened again, and the Bella Twins walked into the locker-room. Maria parted herself from the other Divas, and stood upright, wanting to face both of them properly. Whether they'd agree to get along, or tell her to go fuck herself, she would be looking them in the eye and taking whatever may come like a woman.

"We heard you were here." Brie started the conversation, which didn't surprise Maria too much. The beef had truly been with Nikki, rather than her sister, but of course Brie would stand up for her sister - just like Maria would have for her sister as well. "We wanted to speak to you. Alone." Brie's eyes glanced to the other Divas, who then nodded and took the time to leave the room, after letting Maria know they'd catch up later on.

Maria stayed quiet, knowing that there was more to be said from the twins - besides, she could wait her turn to say what she needed to.

"We know that you're going to be here for a while." Nikki perked up, "And we don't want any trouble. So, we're willing to put everything behind us. I'm willing to put everything behind us."

The redhead nodded, and parted her lips for a moment. "Thank you. I know we've not exactly gotten along well, but I figure if we're all here, we might as well try to. I'm not saying we should be best friends. I'd just like for us to be able to work alongside each other in a civil way, at least."

"I'm sure we can all do that." Brie agreed, while Nikki nodded her head. "We're actually quite interested to see what you're going to be doing."

Maria appreciated that comment from Brie, mostly because she didn't expect either of them to show any interest in her. The two of them were at the top of the division - they were the 'it' girls. So, for them to show interest in her was really something.

Before Maria could thank the girls for speaking to her, a crew member peeked his head in and caught Maria's eye. "Mark's looking for you. Said he needs to speak to you." He said, before ducking out again.

The redhead exhaled softly, and nodded. "I guess you'll know sooner rather than later." She said, a small smile on her face as she turned around and grabbed her phone from the seat behind her. She then turned back towards the girls, "Thank you. It means a lot that you're willing to get along." She said, before raising a hand to signal a goodbye, and then disappearing out of the locker-room door to find Mark.


"That sounds amazing, Mark. But, how would you go about putting me into the Authority?" She asked, sitting with her legs crossed in front of her opposite Mark, as he explained that she would be making her return to WWE as a member of the Authority - the most dominating group WWE had seen since the Corporation. It was quite a big deal, and it meant that she would be able to bring out her heel side within the WWE for a change.

WWE fans had only ever seen Maria as the ditzy, bubbly babyface. When she went to Ring of Honor, she became the heel, and she was damn good at it. So, now to be able to show off that heel side within her, here in WWE, it was a dream come true. She wanted to be taken seriously by WWE fans and by WWE talent, and she knew that if she were able to show off the heel inside of her, she would definitely get the respect here that she was getting from Ring of Honor. The only question was how she'd be able to weasel her way into the Authority. They weren't exactly hiring.

"Well, we're going to have you come in as Kane's assistant. He's the Director of Operations, and since he's having so many issues with Rollins right now, he'll need someone to handle the lesser matches and stuff on the shows. So, that's where you'll come in. You'll handle the Divas matches and probably the tag matches as well. Kane will have control over the main events, and the other champions. You'll be working a lot alongside Kane, too. So, you'll probably want to get on good terms with him." He explained, much to Maria's amazement. She'd never really gotten the chance to work with Kane in the past, or Glenn, as he was known to a lot of people backstage. She knew him when she was around a few years ago, but she didn't know him on the level she'd like to for this storyline. So, she figured she'd have to find him and get to know him on a better level.

"Thank you so much for this, Mark. Trust me, I won't let you down." She grinned, as the two of them shook hands and Mark hurried off to deal with some more issues going on backstage - that or to appear on Total Divas as a bit of an ass. Either way, Maria was simply grateful she'd been dealt such a damn good hand. She was excited about working with Kane, and simply needed to find him before the night was over, just to arrange some time for them to get together and talk about how things would work with them.

She wandered the arena for what felt like hours, and began wondering if she wasn't finding Kane because he was in the ring. She stopped by one of the monitors to see who was in the ring at the moment, and exhaled somewhat disappointedly as she spotted the New Day shooting a promo about the Prime Time Players, who'd taken their championships not too long ago. Turning on her heel, the redhead decided she'd have to find him somewhere. Maybe Stephanie would know where he was.

Making her way through the arena, she finally found the area where Stephanie and Hunter did their Authority promos, and as she was turning the corner to the right office she came face-first with a suit-clad chest. "Oof-" She exclaimed, as she stumbled backwards a little bit, blinking to regain her sight.

"Damn it, are you alright?"

Looking up, Maria realized she'd found the seven-foot man she'd been looking for all night. A smile etched across her face as she nodded her head. "I have been looking for you all night long."