Prologue
Shay has no idea how she ends up in the parking lot alone. Of all places to end up alone, anywhere, she ends up in a dark parking lot in the middle of the night. Raw has just concluded for the evening and all she wants to do is head back to the hotel and sleep. And, at some point, see a doctor and make sure Tamina dropping her on her head did not result in a concussion.
Jobbing isn't a particularly charming result of being a wrestler, much less a new one that the company wants to lose constantly. She never really understood just how corrupt everything seemed until now, when she's at the short end of the stick and seeing how many of her fellow wrestlers are forced to compete in ridiculous matches, losing over and over again despite how well-loved they were back in NXT or their choice brand before Hunter and Stephanie took over.
Naïve little girl that she was, she once thought that anyone running the company would be better than Vince, especially after he started more or less disposing of the smaller wrestlers left and right. What happened to Drew set her off worse; knowing him now only makes it worse, and if she ever meets the former head of the company, she might be inclined to see if any of the moves she knows can inflict real damage outside of the ring. But she honestly believed Hunter would know better—at one point, he had seemed like a guy who knew his shit, but not anymore.
She retrieves her phone from her pocket and dials a number. "Hello?"
The voice belongs to Cathy, another one of the newer Divas; the two of them have more or less bonded due to being paired together in tag matches. Why the company bothers with tag matches at all half of the time makes no sense, especially given the overall lack of storyline anymore.
"Hey, it's me. I stayed late and now I'm in the parking lot alone." She retrieves her keys from her hip pocket, flipping through them quickly. "Stay on with me until I get to my car."
"Not a problem. Stay late to finish watching the matches?" It's been a common thing the two of them have done since joining the company. While they go back to the hotel if there are no interesting matches left to watch, they stay if they know the wrestlers or simply like them.
Shay starts toward her car with quick steps. "Of course I did. I'm surprised you didn't."
"I seriously screwed up my ankle. I just wanted to get back here and rest for a bit before it causes me problems. But I watched the last few matches on TV." Cathy shifts and something on the other end of the line rattles. "It was nice seeing Flair endorse the Shield, wasn't it?"
"It's one of the only nice things that's happened to them, and I don't even know if it was planned or not." Shay locates her car key and traps it between two fingers so as not to lose it again, glancing around the parking lot to make sure she is still alone. Alone is better than not.
Cathy chuckles softly. "Agreed. Randy and Hunter looked like they didn't know what was going on, and Hunter is a notoriously bad actor. Heard your car unlock. Later."
Of course the car alarm is loud enough to be heard over a cell phone; Shay rolls her eyes but smiles and hangs up, sliding the phone into her back pocket. She can't wait to get back to the hotel herself; wrestling anymore is taking a lot out of her, and there is not much more she can do in way of a job. Besides, she spent most of her childhood watching wrestlers on television and wanting to be one of them; she cannot very well quit because the job hurts a little.
As bad as jobbing can be, and as painful as it often is with the more voracious girls like Tamina, she knows she has to start somewhere. And this just happens to be where you start: at the bottom, just like all of the people you idolized when you were growing up.
Just as she reaches for her door handle, a voice calls to her from behind her. "It's really not safe to walk in dark parking lots alone."
"Shit!" She whirls around, pressing herself up against the car and combing through what self-defense techniques she knows when she recognizes the broad shoulders and the accent. "Oh, screw you, McIntyre. That is not a funny joke and it never will be."
"I didn't mean for it to be funny." Drew cocks his head at her, a smile tugging at his lips.
She scowls and straightens up. "I know. I didn't realize what I was doing until I came out here."
"And you could've gotten hurt in the process." He steps closer, bracing his hip against the side of her car. "I can guarantee a lot of the moves you've learned would be hard to do out here."
"Considering I don't have ropes or a bouncy mat to help, yeah, I can see how that would be a problem. Still. I can defend myself." Sort of. Not really. Maybe I need to buy a taser.
Drew raises an eyebrow at her until she sighs and shakes her head—no, she can't really defend herself, at least not in the dark. "Are you at least heading back to the hotel now?"
"Yeah. You need a ride?" When he nods, she waves him around the front of the car.
Drew had been one of her many favorites before she made it to OVW, much less to NXT. There was something about his presence in the ring and his ability from the get-go she found charming, and very little had changed in way of that since the first time he had set foot on the show. Once she joined Raw and had a chance to meet him, she more or less went out of her way to suck up her normal anti-social personality and defend the Scotsman. Thus far, it's been an excellent decision; he, Heath, Jinder, and Hornswoggle are all amazing people to hang out with.
Of course, some of the older wrestlers had made noises about befriending the people the company didn't like; she ignored them since most of them tended to be rude backstage.
Preoccupied with her thoughts, it takes her a moment to pick up on the fact Drew is talking; she glances toward him as she exits the parking lot onto the main road so he knows he has her attention now. Unsurprisingly, the subject is Heath Slater and Wade Barrett, the two who tend to play as more than friends behind closed doors. Drew has a thing for the little redhead—the fact he's taller than her be damned—but hasn't said a word considering Heath being happily taken by Wade. Most people assume Drew is a fierce and domineering person in reality, but if anything, he's just a giant, heartsick, Scottish puppy who needs hugs and chocolate.
"I get that they're happy together, but it still hurts to see it sometimes. They're not as discreet when it's just us, you know?" He glances at her for confirmation, and she makes an affirmative sound and nods her head. "Which, I don't want to say anything because I don't have a right to say anything, and I mean, I don't want to lose his friendship. Or Wade's. Or anyone's."
"If it helps, you're not going to lose mine whether you say anything or not. I know your heart's in roughly the right place." She stretches out a hand to pat him on the knee.
He laughs softly and leans back in his seat, running a hand through his long hair. "It helps more than you'd expect. Not having any friends here was the worst part in the very beginning."
She nods; it tends to be the worst part for everyone new to the company unless they made friends back when they were in NXT or OVW. Unless they happened to be social butterflies who made friends easily, something that was neither common nor uncommon among the roster, they tended to stay off on their own until someone approached them or they were put up against someone they needed to converse with. Friendships have been born due to Creative sticking random people together, and they tend to be ten times as strong as the originating weak storylines are.
"I just..." Drew breaks off and shakes his head, then turns to face her. "I mean to tell you. There's rumors going around that Stephanie is actually going to set foot in the ring soon."
"Oh God, it's going to be Vickie Guerrerro all over again except markedly less amusing because of who she is." Shay stops at a red light and turns her full attention to Drew, waiting for him to give her the goods news—if there happens to be any, and there had better be good news.
He nods and glances over at her. "She's going to be messing with the Shield alongside her husband, not to mention what she's got going with Bryan. They'll want a Diva or two."
"What, to stick with the Shield since they can't hit Stephanie themselves?" She shakes her head; the idea itself is ludicrous. "Who are they using? Is it going to be Paige?"
"Not from what I've heard. Which isn't much, but... They're talking about dragging either you or Cathy out there since you both job and of course Stephanie will win, head of Creative in all." Drew rolls his eyes, but Shay just groans and thunks her head against the steering wheel.
"Please tell me they're leaning more toward someone else and not one of us," she insists, cursing softly when Drew remains silent. Then they seriously are considering one of them, then.
Drew clears his throat slightly. "It's not exactly the best circumstance, but it's not that horrible."
He is being generous, though, and they both know it; working with the Shield will be amazing, but jobbing to Stephanie McMahon will make either or both of them a laughingstock. At least Hunter has been a wrestler for a long time, and a well-known one at that; losing to him isn't nearly as bad as losing to his wife. And Shay despises the woman fiercely; she nearly always has, and time has hardly changed her feelings. Finding out Stephanie is just as much of a bitch as she portrays on TV, if not more so, really has done nothing to soften her feelings toward the woman.
"Why?" She turns her attention back to the road once the light flickers to green. "Why don't they make Brie do it since they're already busy screwing with Daniel? Seems effective enough."
"Apparently it's not going to have anything to do with that and everything to do with the Shield." Drew shrugs; not even he understands why Hunter picks on the trio the company put together.
She scowls as a particularly slow car—probably only going five miles under the limit, but still—forces her to pass. "I don't want to job to her. Anyone but her and I'm fine with it."
"You can always just say no." Drew pauses, seeming to consider his words. "I mean, you have a contract, so they can't just fire you for it. But you'll miss out on working with the Shield."
Working with the Shield is not an opportunity she's keen on missing; the three are easily the up-and-coming stars if the company would just let them do it instead of beating them down more often than building them up. She doesn't really talk to them, considering the fact that even though Dean is a sweetheart, Seth and Roman come off as more than a little intimidating. But she knows what style is, and the three of them have it; in-ring, they are easily one of the better teams put together and splitting them apart would be criminal at this point.
And like damn near every Diva on the roster, she has her eye on one of them and working closer to him would be phenomenal even if they keep their relationship professional at best. Well, given her lack of desire for a relationship of any kind at the moment, it isn't like she would purposefully go after him. Dating backstage can be a hell of its own, and a good deal of the couples don't last while a handful have managed to thrive. Others still end in divorce; she doesn't particularly like TNA but was still watching around the time Kurt and Karen divorced and she hooked up with Jeff of all people. Things like that, while common and sometimes easily dealt with in real life, cause more turmoil when you have to work with the people you hurt.
"I'm pretty sure saying no isn't going to help out my career at all. And, you know, it's screen time with guys the fans care about. Even if some of the fans are slightly insane and maybe even a little too devoted." She catches the snigger from Drew and smiles herself, rolling down her window a few inches to let some of the cool night air waft into the car.
Then he sobers and clears his throat, turning almost sideways in his seat and pulling his knees up against his broad chest; his shoulder strap is probably across the seat, then. "I say do it. It's not pretty, and I'm sure it's going to piss you off more than once, but publicity will do you good."
"Even if it results in attempted murder?" She shoots him a look, and he cocks an eyebrow at her. "Oh, come on. All those weapons conveniently hidden under the ring. I might get excited."
"If you do end up hitting her with something you're not supposed to, make it count since you'll probably get in trouble for doing it in the first place." His eyes glitter with glee even in the darkness of the vehicle, and she grins wickedly at him. "Besides, aren't you excited at the idea of working with them? I could've sworn you said you had a little torch burning?"
She scrunches her nose at him and shakes her head. "Yes. But no. No, I'm not going to do that. Going after a guy I'm supposed to just work with might cause too much unneeded trouble."
"I highly doubt either of you would let it go that far," Drew argues, and she frowns at that.
Well... Admittedly, probably not. Enough bad relationships to last a few more years and an overall lack of enthusiasm when it came to pursuing anyone had given her time to think about said past relationships. She'd put up with a lot, like most people tended to do when they thought the other person was worth it but was too blind to see they were far from worth it. And he came off as pretty down-to-earth, so it was likely he would be smart enough to know if anything happened. But it really is a moot point; she isn't dating within the company for a reason.
"It's not really worth speculating about when it's not going to happen. I don't really need another relationship to break down to know it's not for me right now." She shrugs, and he lets it go.
They reach the hotel after a few more minutes and head into the elevator together, separating only when they reach their floor. He heads one way, and she the other, digging her key card out of her back pocket and seriously considering just sticking the damned thing in her bra where she's less likely to lose it or worry about digging it out. Cathy is already asleep when she steps inside, so she does her best to change out of her street clothes quietly and into one of the oversized t-shirts she sleeps in. She's not tired, but she doesn't want to wake up Cathy, either.
As she settles into bed and drags the comforter over top of her body, she thinks back to Drew's words; why did the Authority want to push her and Cathy into this? Surely they had better-known Divas who would play the parts better... Or maybe they didn't. They do so little with the Divas that maybe they have no idea if they already have the perfect person to do this or not.
If she has to job to Stephanie, she will; it will hurt, and she will be mortified until she finally gets written into something worthwhile, but she can handle it like an adult if it comes. She might try what she told Drew she would and get in a few unnecessary swipes just to say she had the pleasure of doing so, but maybe not. She isn't sure yet. All she does know is that while working with the Shield would be an honor, it might also end up being more awkward than it should have to be. Especially if Creative decides to be a dick and write another stupid romance storyline.
If they end up doing that, she might just refuse after all and deal with the ramifications.
Sighing, she drapes her forearm over her eyes and starts running over possible ways to refuse the offer if it includes romance. I have more self-respect than to let myself be put into that role sounds too offensive while I am not letting you write me with a guy I actually like is childish and stupid. She dozes off long before she has a proper line ready, but considering how long the drive will be to the next city, she might have more time to plan it out properly before they arrive.