Title: I Can Handle Myself (But Thanks for the Assist)
Author: Karen U/revivingophelia
Pairing/Character: Eve Torres, Zack Ryder, Roman Reigns
Disclaimer: no one you recognize belongs to me
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Eve has an unpleasant encounter with Long Island Iced Z, but someone unexpected intervenes
Spoilers: set around December 2012.
Warnings: mild language
She pushed her hair back from her face, the woman rolling her eyes as she looked down at the paperwork in her hands. Improperly filled-out paperwork, as usual, thanks to a combination of Teddy Long's vendetta against her and his general incompetence. Honestly, she had no clue why Booker T kept the other man around... Unless it was just because he wanted someone else to join him in his little 'boys' club' mentality. What was even more difficult to grasp was how it was even possible that Teddy Long had managed to be the General Manager of SmackDown for so long in the past. Shouldn't someone have notice his complete and total incompetence at some point along the line? Seriously, the man was nothing but tag team matches and botched paperwork.
Shaking her head slightly, Eve Torres began to make her way down the hall, intending to go and show Booker the errors in the paperwork that Teddy had turned in. In truth, she knew that she would be the one that ended up having to correct them, so really she could just correct them and then turn them in... But at least this way, she would get credit for fixing the paperwork and Booker would know that Teddy had screwed it up; it was clearly signed by him and in his handwriting. If she just fixed it without bothering to tell Booker that something was wrong with it, well... Then Booker would give Teddy all the credit even though she deserved most of it. Yeah, she wasn't about to let that happen.
With a roll of her eyes the Assistant to the SmackDown General Manager shifted her grip on the papers in her hand, heading for the office of the GM himself. Flicking a look at the papers, she found herself already starting to correct them mentally, and because of that, she wasn't paying the greatest amount of attention to her surroundings.
Her mistake.
She stumbled back slightly as she bumped into someone, an apology on the lips of the current divas' champion... But then she looked up and saw who it was that she'd run into, and she quickly swallowed the apology right back down. No way was she going to say she was sorry to this guy... Not for anything.
"Watch where you're going... Hoeski," Zack Ryder said with a sneer, and Eve arched a brow, looking the man up and down, her expression making it extremely clear that she did *not* like what she saw.
"You're wearing your ring gear? Why? Do you think if you do that enough someone might actually forget how ridiculously inept you are and give you some television time?" She snorted. "Oh, please. That's not likely. Maybe if you hurry, you can stand around where they do the backstage interviews and actually get yourself in the frame for a second or two."
Zack shifted uncomfortably, giving her the nasty look that she'd come to discover that he used whenever he was very angry but didn't have a good comeback. She'd seen it quite often, actually. "Oh, yeah? Well, you're not dressed to wrestle, so it looks like I'm not the only one that doesn't have a match tonight-"
"Yes, well, unlike you, I actually have other things to do," Eve broke in, lifting the papers in her hand. The woman adjusted her glasses as she looked at him. "I am, after all, part of the administration here on SmackDown."
"You only got that because-"
"Because I won a match that earned the job?" she interrupted, not about to let him insinuate anything else... Especially when it clearly wasn't true. She'd beaten Kaitlyn for the job, fair and square, and no one could say she hadn't. "You're right. I did win the job. In an actual match on SmackDown. Because unlike you, I actually do get matches sometimes. Like a few days ago, live on RAW... You remember RAW, don't you? I mean, it's been so long since you've actually had a match on that show..."
"You're such a bitch."
"And you're such a loser," Eve replied, going to step around him and continue on her way, the diva somehow unsurprised when Ryder reached out to grab her arm. She was surprised, however, when he used his grip on her to basically shove her against the wall.
"I wasn't such a loser when you were hanging out with me. I could have had you-"
"Keep saying that. Maybe someday someone besides you will believe it," Eve shot back at him, lifting the hand that wasn't holding paperwork and shoving him away from her.
"Oh, please. You know you wanted me-"
"To leave me alone? Yeah, I did. I would have been your friend, Zack. Mainly because I felt sorry for you, but there it is. But you couldn't leave it at that. You kept pushing and pushing and trying to guilt me into something and I got sick of playing nice. If you'd taken my original 'no' gracefully instead of pushing, then none of it would have happened. If you'd accepted friendship instead of trying to push me into more... Well, I never would have kicked you in the balls at WrestleMania. To be honest, if you hadn't made your big comeback by interrupting my match and calling me names... Well, you wouldn't have gotten your balls kicked at WrestleMania. But you did. So I did. And I'm not sorry," she spat at him, shouldering past him with enough force that he actually stumbled back a few steps. Apparently, Ryder didn't like that, because the man grabbed her again, once more yanking her back, this time shoving her harder, Eve stumbling a bit as she hit the wall. The man sneered at her as he smacked the papers out of her hand, sending all of the paperwork she'd been bringing to Booker flying.
Zack got up in her face. "Listen here, you little bitch-"
"Back off!" Eve spat back at him, the woman raising her voice to the point of yelling as she lashed out, planting both hands on his chest and shoving hard. He stumbled back and, when he went to approach again, she kicked him in the knee, a pretty effective move since she was wearing high heels. Unfortunately, it wasn't effective enough, because Zack was right back in her face again, hands pinning her shoulders to the wall. Absolutely furious now, Eve prepared to jerk her knee up between his legs - the man wasn't even guarding against the move despite the fact that she'd actually kicked him there before and had actually just mentioned that she'd done so - but before she could, an arm wrapped around Zack's neck from behind, more or less putting the wrestler in a chokehold as he was dragged away and forcefully thrown to the ground.
"I think the lady told you to back off, so I think that you'd best be doing that," a gruff voice said, and Eve's eyes widened when she saw exactly who it was that had interrupted.
Zack sneered, rubbing at his throat. "First of all, she's no lady, and second, this is none of your business, so why don't you get out of here?" he demanded, taking his time in looking up and, if he'd actually looked up before speaking, Eve was pretty sure that he would never have said what he did... Especially judging from the look on his face when he realized who it was that had intervened.
Roman Reigns. The largest member of the Shield. Even without his teammates around at the moment, the man was plenty dangerous on his own.
"I'm making it my business. So I suggest that you get out of here before I decide to make an example of you," Reigns declared, the big man taking a menacing step toward Ryder as he spoke, and Eve had to choke back a laugh at how fast Zack was on his feet and running down the hallway. Clearly, he wanted nothing to do with Roman Reigns.
Shaking her head slightly, Eve crouched down to start picking up the papers that Zack had sent flying, the woman making a face as she realized that she'd have to make sure they were all in order. That was going to be a pain in the butt. Heaving out a sigh, the diva stretched out to reach some papers that had scattered a bit farther out then the rest... Freezing when they were actually handed to her instead. Blinking, she lifted her head, finding herself looking into the dark eyes of Roman Reigns. She'd assumed he would go on his way after scaring Ryder off, but obviously he hadn't.
"You okay?" he asked her, the sound of his voice snapping her back to the here and now, the divas' champion quickly reaching out to take the papers that he was offering her, adding them to the stack she had already gathered.
"I'm fine."
"You sure? He swung you against the wall pretty hard."
"I've been in the ring against Beth Phoenix and Natalya before. I've had worse," the woman replied, concentrating on gathering her papers again, or at least trying to do so. She was all too aware of the large man that was crouched down in front of her. "I was just about to knee him in the balls, actually," Eve said conversationally, then winced a little at her own words. Saying she was about to get rid of Ryder on her own was probably not the best way to say thanks to a member of the Shield for helping her out. "I mean-"
"I'm sure you could have handled it. And no offense, but... You could have gotten away from him, but who's more likely to be able to keep him away? Me, or you?" the big man asked. "If he thinks someone else out there won't stand for it, someone that can do some serious damage..."
"I understand what you're saying. I just..."
"Wanted to run him off yourself. I get that. But I'm not going to apologize for intervening," the man stated, holding out the last of the papers, and Eve took them from him, lifting her gaze to look him in the eye.
"I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I'm not. I appreciate the help because I know that a lot of men in this company wouldn't have tried to stop him."
"Anyone that would stand by and watch him pull that kind of crap on you isn't a man at all," Reigns replied, the man getting to his feet, and Eve looked up at him for a moment before going to stand herself... Jerking slightly in surprise when the man reached toward her, his hand cupping her elbow as he helped her to her feet. He released her as soon as she was standing, but he didn't step back, his large frame very close to hers, and despite the fact that his size was intimidating, it was very difficult not to notice how attractive the man was. He frowned slightly as he looked down at her. "Are you sure he didn't hurt you?"
"I'm sure. He just made me angry. He's just... an irritating little jerk that isn't worth my time."
"And maybe, now that he knows that there are people out there that won't stand for it, he'll leave you alone and you won't have to waste time getting away from him."
"Hopefully," she replied, moving to step around him, stopping when he suddenly bent down to retrieve something. When he rose again, she realized that he held her glasses in his hand. They must have fallen off when Zack was shoving her around, and she'd been too rattled to notice it. Reaching out, she took them from him, trying not to react as his fingers brushed against hers. "Thank you," Eve said quietly, looking up at him again, then quickly looking away.
"No problem," Reigns said, the man watching as she put the glasses on, a small frown on his face. "You want me to walk you to Booker's office?"
"Thank you, but no. Ryder's the only person that really gives me any problems, and I think that you've dissuaded him from that."
"Anything to be of service," Reigns replied, and Eve's gaze lifted to his again, the diva meeting his eyes for a long moment before she took a deep breath and stepped back.
"I should be going. I need to get these to Booker, and then, since Teddy Long screwed them up as he always does, I'll be filling them out again, and that could take a little while."
"You ever think that Teddy Long messes up on purpose to make your job more difficult?" the big man asked her, and Eve actually smiled a little as she looked at him.
"I'm wouldn't be surprised if he does. I mean, I'm pretty sure he's rather inept anyway, but I doubt he's really this bad. But that's why I always make sure to show Booker his mistakes. It just makes him look more and more incompetent, and when I fix them... Well, I just look even better. So he's not really hurting me by doing this. Wasting my time, maybe. But he's making himself look stupid and me look even more necessary than I already do. A win-win for me, actually. And I really should be going," she said, and Reigns nodded at that, stepping aside so that she could pass, Eve heading off down the hallway, the diva able to feel his gaze on her as she walked away... The diva fighting the urge to look back, but finally giving in as she started to turn the corner, the woman turning her head to look down the hall again, finding Roman Reigns's gaze, the big man still watching her.
And then, with a smile and a nod, he turned and walked away.
The End