From the Ashes
Summary: After surviving a war against Legacy, Haley Mariano thought her life was finally back on track. She was drawing closer and closer to her wedding day, the impending birth of her goddaughter and her reign as the WWE Women's Champion was going strong.
But her world was about to crash and burn. Suddenly Dave Batista, the man she planned on spending the rest of her life with, breaks up with her and reveals an affair with fellow Diva Layla. And to add insult to injury, the night he breaks up with her, he costs her the Women's title against Layla in a match on SmackDown before getting her traded back to Raw, sans rematch. And if that wasn't bad enough, the house they bought in Ipswich had been put on the market without her knowledge and has been sold and she had two weeks to move out.
Devastated and at loss at what to do, Haley finds herself in a funk that not even Triple H and the Rock know how to bring her out of. Her friends and family are worried, her co-workers on Raw are baffled by her almost autopilot responses at work and she hasn't even started house hunting, choosing instead to take up residence in John Cena's pool house.
It'll fall to the last person anyone expects to snap her out of it.
Randy Orton has already begun his own journey on his road to redemption. Therapy, medication and anger management classes have brought the Viper mostly back to his old self, following an ugly intervention from his parents. He's drawing further away from Legacy and working on being a better version of himself. Seeing Haley as she is scares the hell out of him, as he arguably knows her better than anyone and he can't just sit on the sidelines and watch her burn to ashes.
Randy might be on a mission to save himself, but he'll be damned if he's not going to save Haley while he's at it.
Rated M for mature
Pairings: Eventual Randy/Haley with Haley/Dave undertones, Triple H/Stephanie, The Rock/Candice Michelle, Evan Bourne/Kelly Kelly, John Cena/Nikki Bella, Undertaker/Michelle McCool, Christian/Tiffany, Chris Masters/Eve Torres
Prologue: Battleships
"Cause I don't want to fight no more, even if the waves get rough. I don't want to see the day we say we've had enough. I don't want to fight this war, bullets coming off my lips. But we stick to our guns and we love like battleships. Like battleships." - Daughtry
Extreme Rules 2010
Inside the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, WWE Superstars, Divas and personnel milled around frantically as they put on the annual WWE pay-per-view Extreme Rules for the nine thousand people in the stands and the hundreds of thousands of people watching at home.
Adam Copeland, or Edge, as he was known more commonly, stepped outside his locker room ready for his steel cage match against Chris Jericho, which was due to go off in about fifteen minutes. He ran a hand through his long mane of blonde hair and started in the direction of the gorilla position, only pausing when he recognized the Diva up ahead, who was seated on the floor in v position, stretching in preparation for her own match scheduled to go on right after his.
Edge cleared his throat and came to a stop several steps away from her. "Haley?"
The young woman looked up at the sound of her name, her long auburn falling back over her shoulders in careless waves while the front section had been braided off her face and tucked behind her left ear. Like him, she wore wrestling attire, though hers consisted of black micro shorts and an emerald green crop top, with the stand boots, elbow and knee pads.
"Hey Edge." She greeted him friendly enough, as they'd never really interacted before now, but her eyes were full of curiosity. "Good luck." She told him, referring to his upcoming bout.
"Thanks." He relaxed down into a crouch beside her. "Listen, this is really none of my business and you can tell me to go screw or whatever, but do you mind if I say something?"
"It's a free country." She shrugged, giving him her full attention. "Like you said, I can always tell you to go screw."
He laughed, charmed by her response and the brief thought of Batista being a moron flitted through his head. "I know you've been through a really rough time for about a year now, and you've more than earned the right to break from all the drama, but before you get serious with Morrison, will you take a minute and consider Randy for a minute."
He saw the shield go up in her eyes, recognized it as he had seen that expression on Triple H's face many times in the past.
"Listen, I know Orton was a total douchebag to you last year. I saw it. But as a guy who's been desperate enough to do reprehensible things, unforgivable things, I can see where he's coming from better than most people. He's trying to find his own redemption. Hell, he's partnering you tonight to help get your title back isn't he?" He continued before she could tell him off. "I'm not saying you have to forgive him right away. I know he's got a long way to go, but you're giving him a chance by letting him back into your life right now, to help you."
"What are you trying to say?" A small line creased her brow as she studied him with confusion in her expression.
"I'm saying, you're good for him, always have been. And I know he went off the rails last year. I saw it happen." Edge reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "But as one of Randy's only true friends, I also know he loves you more than he's ever loved anyone. And he's standing aside, letting you rebound with Morrison without so much as a flinch, and it's killing him a little inside because he's trying so hard to be the guy he always should have been. The guy that's good enough for you."
Haley sighed. "Against my better judgement, I'm working with Randy again, even allowing a shaky friendship right now. But I don't know if I can even forget about what happened enough to let him get that close."
"I'm not saying to dump Morrison and get together with Randy right this second." He shook his head. "I'm just asking you not to rule him out. I can't tell you all the details, because he swore me to secrecy when I found out, but I think you should ask him why he did what he did to you last year. Ask him to really explain. You might be surprised at what he has to say."
Edge got back to his feet. "I'm going to stay out of it now. I just felt like maybe if I said something, you'd take time to consider how hard he's worked at helping you and maybe why you allowed him to. I'll wish you luck, but I don't think you'll need it. I have a feeling you and Randy will emerged undefeated as a team, just like you always have been."
Having said his piece, the Rated R Superstar resumed his walk to the gorilla position, ignored the frenzied backstage coordinator who yapped at him about only have five minutes left before he was supposed to take the stage.
Haley meanwhile, was left staring after him, a thoughtful expression on her face.