Exploring the Unknown

by blacksand1

Renee liked to think she had encountered everything they had to throw at her in the dangerous, insane, questionably legal, petty, metaphorically and sometimes literally magical world of Professional Wrestling. And then in the middle of the night Dean Ambrose appeared at her door and asked her if she believed in ghosts. Renee Young/Dean Ambrose, Rated for Language.

Many people had told Renee before she came to WWE that working in Wrestling was like stepping into a completely different world. She'd scoffed at that idea up until the exact moment she'd first seen Kane.

It had been a bigger adjustment than she'd planned for, but through years of constantly traveling with very little time to go back home, witnessing harrowing fights near to the death between people she'd come to see as not only friends but family, and conducting countless interviews that were interrupted by various flavors of violence, she had sure as Hell adjusted. Renee liked to think she had encountered everything they had to throw at her in the dangerous, insane, questionably legal, petty, metaphorically and sometimes literally magical world of Professional Wrestling.

She was about to learn exactly how wrong she was when at two-thirty in the morning she heard three loud, rapid knocks on her hotel door. Bleary-eyed and bone-tired after the long drive there (not to mention the hard day's night of work before the drive), Renee slid out of the bed with a groan and lurched over to the door. She fumbled with doorknob for just under a minute and opened it just in time for Dean Ambrose to nearly punch her in the forehead as he went to knock on the door again.

Now that immediately woke Renee right up.

On camera Dean was Dean, no different with her than with anyone else holding that microphone. But Renee and Dean didn't really talk much outside of interviews– well, to be fair, she would make polite conversation when they ran into each other but Dean would respond in monosyllables and seemed to want to look at anything else but her face. He was at least tactful enough to wait until she said goodbye to leave, but when she did he'd shove his hands in his pockets (jacket or jeans, he wasn't picky) and take off almost at a run. Dean never acted like this with anyone she'd seen, so she'd gotten the impression that he didn't exactly like her. To see him outside her door at two in the morning looking down at her with a wild-eyed, intense expression on his face was… troubling, to say the least.

Renee just barely began to speak; "Dean? What are you–"

The words came out of Dean's mouth in a tense rush; "Do you believe in ghosts?"

Renee was tempted to pinch herself; she could've sworn she'd had this exact dream once before…

Her mouth slowly opened, and all she could think to say was the truth; "… Yes?"

"Good," Dean replied, barging into her room and shutting the door behind him, "Because there is some weird shit going on in this hotel."

Renee groped around for the light switch as Dean paced around her room, muttering as she did, "Dean, we work with a hillbilly cult and an undead wizard. Please explain how this particular weirdness calls for waking me up at two in the morning."

She turned on the lights just in time to see Dean shaking his head and running a hand through his perpetually greasy hair, "No, no, this isn't Undertaker or Wyatt-brand weird. They like to make a show of it. Besides, none of those kinds of guys are even here. I checked. No…" Dean stopped pacing and looked Renee right in the eye, "This is different."

Renee just stared at Dean for a moment, before she walked further back into the room, brow furrowing as she asked, "Different how? What've you seen?"

Dean shook his head again and as he did Renee had to wonder if he ever washed his hair; "Haven't seen a whole lot yet. Heard a Hell of a lot though."

Renee frowned and remarked in a deadpan, "So… you woke me up because you heard some scary noises?"

Dean scowled back at her and put his hands on his hips as he snapped, "Hey! I thought you said you believed me!"

Renee crossed her arms over her chest; "I said I believed in ghosts, not that I believed you! You haven't even really told me what's going on!"

Dean rolled his eyes; "Gee, could that be because you keep interrupting me?" Renee opened her mouth to fire back, but after playing the conversation back in her head… technically speaking, he was right.

She pressed her mouth into a thin line, nodded, then replied, "Alright. That's fair," Renee walked back over to her bed and sat down on the foot of it, "Okay, tell me what's going on. From the top. And I promise I'll try to suppress my instincts and not ask too many more questions… Or be too much of a smartass."

Dean's pacing resumed full-force as he launched right into his explanation; "Alright. So. I got into the hotel around midnight. Everything's normal, I can't sleep even though I'm dead tired, you know, normal shit." Renee resisted the urge to tell him that was not normal shit.

"A couple minutes ago, I'm pacing around like I am now when I hear… This," Dean darted over to the nearest empty wall and scraped his nails as loudly across the wall as he could.

Renee winced, but Dean just went back to pacing, continuing, "Like that only about twice as loud. It sounded like something was doing that up and down the hall."

Renee couldn't stop herself from breaking her promise; "Did you see any marks on the wall?" The part of her that wanted to get back to sleep could already hear him admitting that he hadn't.

But to her surprise and immense dread Dean immediately answered, "Yep. Come on, I'll show you."

Before Renee could react Dean had taken a hold of her hand and pulled her to her feet, nearly dragging her over to the door. He didn't need to take her far– the minute Dean opened the door the light from her room illuminated five thin, deep lines gouged in the paint on the opposite wall. Renee craned her neck out around the doorframe, eyes following the lines as they disappeared down into the darkness. From the corner of her eye she could see identical marks gouged into the walls around her door.

Renee slowly stepped backwards, too shaken to care that she bumped into Dean behind her and was standing with her back pressed up against his chest; "Okay… That is weird."

Dean took her shoulders and spun her back around to face him, launching right back into his story; "Yeah, when I went to see what was up with the scraping sounds I saw those. They're on the stairwell walls too, but not on the doors to the rooms or the elevator. And when I was thinking about what the Hell to do next I heard–"

Dean was struck silent by a sound that rumbled through the hallway and right into the pits of their stomachs. It was deep and guttural, and more than hear it Renee could feel the sound, from her chest down to the tips of her toes. She struggled to classify it– the noise was caught somewhere between a groan, a moan, and the creaking of an old metal beam about to break under strain.

And despite that, something about it felt familiar and painfully… human.

It made the hair on the back of Renee's neck stand straight up, and it was all she could do not to give into her frightened child instincts and cling to Dean. The low, dark sound tapered off into silence, but neither Renee or Dean spoke for a good thirty seconds afterwards. They both just looked towards the doorway before Renee finally looked back around and met Dean's wide eyes.

"Let me guess… You heard that," Renee said, voice barely above a whisper. Dean only responded with a mute nod, his hands trembling on her shoulders.

Renee carefully pushed Dean's hands off her shoulders as she stammered, "A-alright, I'll agree that what we're hearing is… probably not normal, and potentially a ghost. But why did you come to me about it?"

Dean frowned for a moment, probably thinking over what she'd just said, before he replied, "I was thinking we could find the ghost and either make it leave or beat the crap out of it."

Renee shook her head; "No I kind of guessed that's what your goal would be, but I meant why did you come to me? You don't even like me and now you're asking me to come ghost hunting with you?"

Dean blinked owlishly down at her; "What? That's not true. Where'd you get that idea?"

Renee could only stare back at him, mouth hanging ever so slightly open, before responding, "Because you never want to talk to me unless I'm interviewing you and whenever I let you out of small talk you literally run away?"

"… Huh. Well. Yeah. That'd do it," Dean muttered, rubbing at his scruffy chin, "I like you fine, I just never know what I should say when you're not asking me about wrestling. You're…" Dean made a vague gesture at maybe her sweatshirt, "Classy and pretty and stuff. We probably don't got much in common."

Renee only realized when she opened her mouth to speak that she'd been smiling; "Well, now we know we both believe in ghosts! That's something!"

Dean grinned back at her with a wry chuckle, "Oh man, this means I have to talk to you from now on, huh?"

Renee patted him on the shoulder; "Just talk to me about ghosts and you'll do fine."

Dean let out another snicker before he moved around her, heading towards the door; "Speaking of, let's get to busting this one. You don't fight so," he fished around in his jacket pocket and tossed Renee a smartphone with a screen so cracked she could barely make out the unevenly cropped picture of him and Roman set as the wallpaper, "You're on flashlight duty."

Renee pouted, mumbling, "I could fight… If I wanted to… I'm tough," as she pulled up the flashlight and turned it on. Dean almost looked like he was going to respond (more than likely by teasing her), but as he opened the door the sound of nails scraping on walls from not far enough away dried up their reserves of witty banter.

"Sounded like that was coming from the next floor down," Dean whispered, creeping slowly down the hallway, his hand running along the clawmarks in the wall. Renee just gave a shallow nod, trying to keep the hand holding the phone steady and shoving her other hand in her sweatshirt pocket to keep it from grasping Dean's jacket. She held onto her car keys she forgot to take out of there for dear life. Now that she was out here in the dark, the idea of tracking down and potentially fighting a ghost was finally starting to sound as stupid, ludicrous and dangerous as it actually was.

"Do you actually know anything about fighting ghosts?" Renee wondered, voice quivering despite her best efforts.

Dean shrugged too easily, smirking tightly over his shoulder at her; "Nah, but I've fought the Wyatts, can't be too much harder than dealing with their bullcrap."

It wasn't the fact that he obviously didn't know what he was doing that made a cold bolt of worry shoot down Renee's spine. It was the fact that for all he was doing to hide it, she could tell he was more frightened of their potential ghost than she was. And he was dealing with it the way he dealt with everything that scared him, upset him, or pissed him off– finding it and beating the crap out of it.

She took her hand out of her sweatshirt pocket and put it on Dean's back. He looked at her hand in shock for a couple seconds before turning quickly away and muttering something she didn't catch. They made it all the way to the stairwell before Dean stopped in his tracks and Renee bumped into his back.

"What is it?" She hissed through clenched teeth.

"There's a light," Dean whispered back, "Coming up the stairs." Renee's breath caught in her throat. Dean reached back on what looked like reflex to put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't push it off– trying to calm her down seemed to calm him down.

"Alright, here's the game plan," Dean muttered, turning to face her, "When that light reaches the top of the stairs I'm gonna punch that ghost in the face. If that doesn't work you're running the Hell away."

Renee closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed, "We're going to die."

Dean gave her another wobbly grin; "Give us a little more credit than that. You're too pretty to die and I'm too stubborn to die. Between those two things I'd say we've got about a seventy five percent chance of living through the night."

Renee found herself inexplicably smiling once again; "Better than nothing."

Dean clapped her on the shoulder before he turned away again. Renee stayed where she was, still as death, watching as the stairwell slowly grew brighter and brighter. As it neared the top of the stairs, she could swear she heard whispering– as if there weren't enough creepy noises going on in this hotel.

And just as she thought she saw a shadow coming up around the corner, Dean let out something between a roar and a yelp as he launched himself into the stairwell and onto whatever was coming. His momentum took them both down the stairs, disappearing along with the light. Renee's own shriek of surprise did nothing to drown out the loud swearing from two unfortunately familiar voices. She scurried into the stairwell and revealed via her circular beam of light Chris Jericho somehow managing to lock Dean into the Walls of Jericho in the middle of a flight of stairs while Kevin Owens, holding his own phone-turned-flashlight, shouted many things he would never get away with saying while cameras were rolling.

Renee took a moment to just stare at the tableau before her, the shouting and swearing from all three men sounding like it was coming from miles away rather than right in front of her. She had to wonder what her reaction would be if she were to go back in time and tell her younger self that working with the WWE would directly lead to being awake at two in the morning watching a coworker get put into a submission hold on a flight of stairs by a living legend of the business while another man yelled obscenities at him. Renee had a feeling that knowing this, that plucky little Canadian girl might not have sent in that application.

She was brought back to the present by Kevin shouting, "Oh what the Hell is SHE doing here?!"

Jericho immediately looked up from Dean's knees to her face; "Renee? What th–" Dean quickly took advantage of Jericho's lapse in focus. He wriggled out of the hold, grabbed Jericho by the collar of his obnoxiously nice shirt and flung him down the stairs. Kevin smoothly stepped out of the way of the older wrestler's trajectory, leading Jericho to roll back first into the corner with a resounding thump.

"Forget her," Dean snapped around some ragged breaths, "What the Hell are you two doing creeping around?!"

"Not before you two tell us what the Hell YOU'RE doing creeping around and attacking people in the middle of the night," Jericho shot back, struggling to stand up as Kevin made absolutely no attempt to help him.

Renee rolled her eyes and groaned, "This is gonna go around in circles until one of us gives in so I'll just save us the trouble. Me and Dean are looking for what's been clawing up the walls and making–"

Renee's sentence died in her mouth when the deep, dark, loud noise they'd heard before echoed through the stairwell. Dean went completely still while Jericho let out a strangled yelp, clinging to Kevin's side on instinct. Kevin was apparently too shaken by the sound to push Jericho off.

When the noise faded away again, Renee sputtered, "Y-yeah. We're investigating… that."

Kevin scowled, pushing Jericho off of him as he grumbled, "Well shit. So are we."

Dean raised an eyebrow; "Why did you bring Jericho with you?"

Jericho rolled his eyes with an exaggerated huff; "He didn't bring me, I'm not his pet you stupid idiot. I was already up and looking around when he bumped into me and almost knocked me on my ass."

"And a veteran wrestler is a lot more help against whatever the Hell is in here than her," Kevin scoffed, gesturing to Renee with his free hand, "What's she gonna do? Show the thing pictures of her ugly dog?"

Dean and Renee both scowled and snapped "Hey!" in unison, though Dean followed it up with, "Her dog is adorable!"

Renee looked over at him with raised eyebrows; "You've seen my dog? I thought you didn't have an instagram."

Dean shrugged; "Roman follows you. He shows me everything you post for some reason." Renee wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, though Jericho and Kevin both looked over at each other with a raised eyebrow and a frown.

"Well, this has been a waste of time," Jericho remarked, resuming his climb back up the stairs, "Get out of our way."

"Oh Hell no," Renee snapped, stepping in front of Jericho with a frown, "People splitting up and running around doing whatever with no plan leads directly to everyone dying gruesome deaths. I don't like either of you, but I don't want you dead. We should stick together."

Jericho recoiled, nose wrinkling in disgust; "What?! I'm not teaming up with you and I'm especially not teaming up with him," Jericho jabbed a finger in Dean's direction, nearly poking the other wrestler in the eye, "And besides, you're assuming we're working on horror movie rules. We might be on Scooby Doo rules– splitting up always works for the Scooby Gang."

"Look, all we know about this thing is that it's clawing up the walls and making creepy noises," Dean said, roughly pushing Chris' accusatory finger away, "We should assume horror movie rules and be extra cautious so nobody has to explain to Vince tomorrow morning why three of his wrestlers and one of his interviewers were turned into big red stains in the hotel carpet."

Kevin heaved a deep sigh; "Jericho… They're right."

Jericho whirled around, his scarf that Renee guessed he slept in whapping her in the face; "What?!"

"Four heads are better than two against whatever creepy bullshit is crawling around here," Kevin explained, rubbing his temple with his free hand, "And besides, if those two are with us we can use them as human shields."

Renee raised an eyebrow, frown etched in deep; "Were you this straight up with Sami about screwing him over?"

Kevin looked her in the eye and fixed her with one of those pointed glares that reminded her he wasn't just a jerk, but an intelligent and malicious jerk; "Not the time, Young."

Dean stepped in front of her, cutting Kevin's eye contact; "Alright, we'll save the personal shots for the morning. Back to ghost hunting. The scraping and moaning was coming from downstairs. Let's hustle, people!"

Dean pushed his way down the stairs ahead of the others, leaving the three Canadians to share one last dissatisfied glare before they all followed him down to the floor below. As they did, Kevin turned his phone's flashlight off and Renee's frown turned into an out and out scowl– seems she was stuck on flashlight duty whether she liked it or not. She put her hand in her jacket pocket to make sure her car keys didn't fall out as they went down the stairs.

The four of them emptied out onto the floor below, falling completely silent as they all caught sight of the claw marks. Jericho was the only exception, the veteran wrestler staying close to Kevin's side while his eyes darted around the hallway and he muttered a bunch of what Renee was going to classify as hysterical nonsense under his breath. Renee held her breath, creeping slowly and steadily forward on her tiptoes. As she let her free hand trace the fresh grooves in the wall, a thought occurred to her. Renee hadn't actually looked at the other side of the hallway. She moved the flashlight slowly around to the opposite wall.

"Guys," Renee whispered, brows drawn together, "There's no clawmarks on the other wall."

The guys all stopped in their tracks, looking to the wall. Renee slowly moved the flashlight across the wall, making it clear to everyone what she'd seen.

"What does that mean?!" Jericho muttered, running a hand agitatedly through his hair.

"There's only one stairwell, and we just came out of it. So I'm guessing," Dean murmured, voice wavering ever so slightly as he turned to look at the rest of them, "The ghost is still on this floor."

"No need to guess that," Kevin whispered, pointing to the end of the hall, "Look over there."

Everyone there knew better than to trust Kevin Owens. They all turned and looked anyway.

There was a window at the end of the hall. More importantly, standing in the moonlight through that window was a massive shape. Standing easily over seven feet tall, this shape's "head" nearly brushed the ceiling even as it stood slightly slouched. Renee couldn't see much, the shape was all the way at the other end of the hall, and standing against the light it was covered in complete shadow. But she thought she could make out gangly legs and arms that ended in clawed fingers.

Chris nudged her with his elbow, hissing with a shivering voice, "Go on! Shine the light on it!"

"Not yet," Kevin muttered, "I gotta check something." Without another word, Kevin yanked the scarf off Jericho's neck. Jericho choked on a swear as Kevin tied the scarf up into a tight ball, took a couple steps to the side so he was even with the dark shape, and with a grunt chucked it straight at the shadow.

It hit the thing square on the head, and it let out a much quieter version of the ungodly, hair-raising roar they'd been hearing throughout the hotel.

"Alright, it's solid," Kevin muttered with a nod, "The chances of it being a ghost just went way the Hell down."

"Why did you have to use my scarf to find that out?!" Chris sputtered, a hand buried in his hair as his eyes flickered between his balled up scarf and the mysterious shape. Dean looked over his shoulder at Renee, and she knew exactly what he wanted her to do. She just wasn't so sure she wanted to do it.

The interviewer took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth. If she didn't shine the flashlight directly on that thing, they'd never know what it was and how to deal with it. She had to take the plunge. Slowly, deliberately, Renee stepped around Dean and to the head of the party. Dean's hand went to her shoulder again and she almost wanted to thank him for that. With several shaking breaths she raised the flashlight, bringing the beam up and even with whatever they were facing.

It was covered in hair.

Thick, coarse, black hair.

The hair thinned out only around the creature's hands, feet, and face. Its hands and feet, easily as large as Renee's head at the end of arms and legs twice as long as hers, both ended in ragged but sharp black nails. Its skin was an ashen gray, and its face was right on the borderline between that of a gorilla and an early human ancestor. Its breath from its large nostrils came out in puffs of steam in the cold of the hallway. Even shaded by its prominent brow, Renee could see a gleam in its dark eyes that could be the reflection of Renee's flashlight or a spark of intelligence.

And it was just standing there. Staring them down.

Waiting.

Jericho was the first one to speak, his voice barely above a whisper; "That's not a ghost."

"No fucking shit," Kevin muttered through gritted teeth, cuffing Jericho on the back of the head.

Renee looked over her shoulder to Dean, but she did a double take when she realized he wasn't looking on in mute terror like the rest of them. No. On his face was a small but quickly growing wide-eyed grin.

"Oh yeah," he muttered, cracking his knuckles and bouncing from foot to foot, "Oh-ho-HO yeah. That's a fucking bigfoot."

"And that makes you happy?" Renee hissed, suddenly thinking those hundreds of t-shirts proclaiming him to be an unstable lunatic might be onto something.

Dean let out what Renee could only describe as a giggle; "I've wanted to go sasquatch hunting since I was twelve! This is the best night ever!"

What Renee meant to be a reprimand died in her throat and was reincarnated as half a scream when she saw the bigfoot move. It had stopped waiting and was now loping towards them, long arms swinging at its sides while it let out a deep, earthshaking growl that resonated in the cavern of Renee's chest. Dean grabbed her arm with a manic laugh, dragging her back towards the stairwell while Jericho and Kevin scrambled to keep up on his heels.

"Here's the game plan," Dean bellowed as he all but carried her back up the hall, "We lead this thing downstairs into the open and beat the tar out of it!"

"That's a horrible plan!" Jericho screeched, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Actually," Kevin huffed, looking over his shoulder to see if the creature was giving chase, "It's not. The lobby should still have some staff around and the lights should be on. It's the best place to fight we got."

Just as he finished his sentence he ducked under the monster's long arm as it swiped at his head; the claws just barely grazed the back of Jericho's neck, pulling a high-pitched yelp out of the Man of A Thousand and Four Holds. For a split second Dean's grip loosened on Renee's arm and she slipped out of it, pushing past him to run ahead of all the guys. Sure, she couldn't fight that thing, but she could sure as hell light the way down the stairs so none of them tripped and none of them tumbled down the last remaining flight.

The creature letting out another unearthly bellow almost rendered that moot, shocking Renee into nearly tripping over her own ankle, but she just barely caught herself with a free hand on the wall. She sprinted down the stairs taking two at a time, the sounds of Dean, Jericho, Kevin and the monster drowned out by her heart beating in her ears. One floor. They just had to make it down one floor and there would be lights and people and–

"OH COME THE FUCK ON!" Kevin's exclamation echoed throughout the empty hotel lobby, lit only by the moon and streetlights through the glass doors.

Renee's momentum carried her nearly all the way across the lobby as she yelled, "Where is everyone?!"

"Ain't that just perfect timing!" Dean crowed, barreling past her and just barely skidding to a stop.

Jericho tripped at the bottom of the stairs, rolling across the smooth marble floor, but Kevin immediately turned around when he hit the bottom of the stairs. With a snarl that would make a grizzly bear quake in its boots, Kevin reached into the darkness of the stairwell and yanked the sasquatch out by its gangly arm. Its momentum carried it face-first into Kevin's fist.

Kevin punched the sasquatch two more times before he wrapped both arms around its waist, lifted it up with a mighty grunt at the effort and suplexed it straight onto the stone floor. Renee couldn't help wincing. The creature struggled into a kneeling position just in time for a screaming Jericho to hit it with a running clothesline. The sasquatch nearly fell back over and Jericho kept running– he turned on his heel right in front of Kevin, who caught him and pushed him forward to give him momentum enough to punt hit the monster in the back with a running kick.

The kick forced the creature up to its feet and Dean ran in to meet it, grabbing two fistfuls of its fur and latching on tight; With a primal roar of his own, Dean took off at a run, dragging the sasquatch along for the ride and slamming it headfirst into the front desk. Dean staggered backwards as the creature fell onto its knees, clutching at its undoubtedly injured head as it let out a low moan. Then, the creature did not move quickly or gracefully, but it moved with purpose. It rose to stand at its full height, turning around to look down at the wrestler that had just attacked it.

Finally getting its turn to roar, the sasquatch kicked Dean square in the chest with one of its massive feet, sending him flying backward. As he bounced and rolled across the floor, Kevin came running from the other end of the lobby straight at the monster. Whatever his plan was it died when the sasquatch turned to meet him, grabbing him and wrapping its massive arms all the way around the prizefighter. The creature lifted him off the ground with barely any effort and threw him across the lobby– Kevin nearly landed on Dean, just barely missing him and rolling into a wall.

Renee's pulse was racing and it was all her sweaty hands could do not to drop the phone; they were all outmatched. If that thing was big enough and strong enough to throw Kevin Owens around like he was a child, none of them stood a fair chance against it. Her mind was running at a mile a minute, desperately trying to come up with something to give them the edge or turn the tables on this thing before it tore them all to shreds–

And just then, in a moment of sparkling clarity, Renee remembered something.

Her car keys were still in her jacket pocket.

Renee threw the phone to Jericho as he ran to try and get another hit in on the monster; "Hold this! I'll be right back!"

Before Jericho could even think to yell at her, the interviewer had run out of the lobby, double glass doors swinging in her wake. He couldn't help a scowl– even with no one of consequence of watching he couldn't stand the idea of Dean and Kevin getting all the good hits in on this thing and stealing the spotlight. But someone had to hold the flashlight. Jericho was not nearly as good on Flashlight Duty as Renee was, but despite his shaking hands and the fact that he kept muttering the words "stupid idiot" under his breath Dean and Kevin seemed to be able to see the sasquatch just fine as they climbed back to their feet.

It didn't help them much. The minute Dean stood up the sasquatch came charging into him, grabbing him by the head and tossing him aside like a broken rag doll. As Dean went spinning away, Kevin had managed to maneuver around behind the sasquatch, locking his arms around it again for another suplex. But the creature was prepared this time, breaking easily out of Kevin's hold and turning around to backhand him with one of its long arms.

It didn't knock Kevin down, but it did break his focus, and that's all the sasquatch needed to kick him in the stomach. The kick pushed a deep wheeze out of the prizefighter as it knocked the wind right out of him while the force of the kick sent him back-first into the front desk. The sasquatch turned its eyes to Dean as he scrambled to his feet, its shadowed gaze almost daring the brawler to run back in and try again.

This was Dean Ambrose. Of course he ran back in and tried again. The sasquatch met him halfway with three long strides, reaching right past Dean's arms as they wildly threw punches and clamping its hands down around his throat. The wrestler immediately flew into something of a panic, hands scraping and scratching at the fur-covered arms of the monster and legs flailing, desperately trying to kick at the feet, knees, stomach, anything on the creature that would cause it to lose its grip and let him go. Nothing took. The creature's grip just kept getting tighter as it snarled down at him, lips pulled back to show frighteningly sharp canine teeth.

Dean was trapped in the monster's iron grip and would pass out in seconds. Kevin was still sitting dazed against the front desk. Jericho gritted his teeth– that was it. He had to get in there, who cares if he could see or not?! He was not letting that thing kill him after it killed the others, to Hell with holding onto Dean's trashy broken phone!

The lobby doors burst open.

Renee came barreling through, a steel folding chair in her hands while she shrieked at the top of her lungs like an ancient Norse berserker. She flew across the lobby and slammed the steel folding chair into the creature's back– The sasquatch let out a strangled bray, its grip on Dean's throat going limp and allowing the wrestler to skitter backward out of its unnaturally long reach. Renee didn't waste any time, winding up another swing and cracking it on its left flank as it turned to face the new threat.

It staggered to the side and Renee chased it down, hitting it one last time and sending it spinning right into Dean's line of sight, who with a running leap grabbed onto the sasquatch, one arm around its neck the other under one of its arms. Using his own weight and a kick with both feet to the creature's stomach, the two of them fell backwards and Dean hit Dirty Deeds on the monster from two feet off the ground onto a hard marble floor.

For a brief, loaded moment, both Dean and the sasquatch just lay there on the ground, completely still. Renee held her breath, the chair threatening to slip out of her sweaty hands as she just waited, eyes wide and mouth shut tight. And then, mercifully, Dean shoved the creature off him and wobbled to his feet.

Renee dropped her chair and scrambled over as fast as her legs could carry her; "Are you okay?!"

Dean was already giggling by the time she got close enough to hear, and as he closed the distance she could see the childlike grin putting dimples on his cheeks. She didn't realize she was smiling too until he was right in front of her– damn but that smile of his was infectious.

Dean took her by the shoulders, shaking her as he shouted, "Okay?! I just hit Dirty Deeds on a GODDAMN BIGFOOT! I am on top of the world, baby!" Renee had just opened her mouth to speak again when Dean's arms went from shaking her to wrapping around her, picking her up in a rough hug complete with half a spin. She barely noticed Kevin and Jericho jogging up to them, she was too busy laughing and blushing like a schoolgirl.

Kevin brought her back to Earth just as Dean put her down, rolling his eyes and asking, "Are you two done?" At any other time, Renee would try to be mature. But with the adrenaline from her first major, potentially life-threatening fight still coursing through her veins, Renee opted to just stick her tongue out at Kevin instead. Everyone's eyes shot back to the floor as the dazed sasquatch pushed itself up into a sitting position. Even then it still came up to Renee's chest.

Jericho let out a little cackle, grinning down at the hairy figure beneath them with an almost manic glint in his eye; "Alright, now we'll see who this thing REALLY IS!"

Before any of the others could think to stop him, Jericho reached out, grabbed the top of the creature's head and yanked.

He did not pull off a mask, but rather violently pulled a clump of hair out of the sasquatch's scalp. As the beast let out another ghastly moan of pain, the three wrestlers and one interviewer just stared down at it, mouths clamped shut in perfect tight lines. Eyes would dart to each other and the bit of fur still in Jericho's fist, but other than that, nobody moved.

Kevin was the first to break the stillness, putting a hand to his chin and rubbing at his beard in thought. Jericho slowly uncurled his fingers and let the coarse hair fall to the ground with an expression that made it clear all he wanted to do was melt into a small circular puddle of The Goop of Jericho. Renee remembered how she drove a chair into this thing's back and suddenly felt a profound sense of empathy for him.

Kevin's jaw clenched and his hand moved from rubbing his chin to rubbing his temple as he finally spoke; "So. Not only did we spend the night chasing after a ghost that wasn't actually a ghost, we all just beat the crap out of an animal that is more than likely part of an endangered species, and maybe even the last of its kind."

Dean put his hands in his jacket pockets with a shrug; "Well when you put it that way it sounds–"

Kevin glared over at Dean; "Completely idiotic and like a waste of all of our damn time?"

Dean shot a glare back; "I was just gonna say 'terrible', but sure Kev, tell us all how you really feel."

Kevin grumbled a couple more words he wouldn't get away with using on camera under his breath before turning on his heel and stalking towards the elevator; "I'm going back to sleep."

"You can't leave now!" Renee exclaimed, "We need to get him… her… it out of here! We can't do it with just three of us!"

Jericho frowned at her, nose scrunching up in disgust; "When did I agree to doing that?"

"When you ripped the poor thing's hair out," Dean replied without missing a beat, smirking over Renee's head at the veteran wrestler. Jericho scowled deeper, but said nothing, preferring to cross his arms tightly over his chest and stare intently at the bald spot he created on the large primate's head.

Kevin stopped at the elevator and glared back over his shoulder at Renee; "Give me one reason I should stay up helping people I hate do something I don't care about."

Renee put her hands on her hips, narrowed her eyes, and replied, "If you don't help us I will give The New Day, Enzo and Cass, and Sami Zayn your contact info. Sure you can change all of that, but considering how long it would take to do that and give the new information to all the people you actually like…"

"FINE!" Kevin snapped, turning around and stomping back over, "But just know I am going to bitch about this for the entire rest of the night and well into tomorrow."

Jericho raised his hand like a shy student trying to contribute to the class discussion; "Technically it's already tomorrow–"

"SHUT UP CHRIS," Kevin growled through gritted teeth. Jericho shut up.

Dean volunteered his truck for the transport of the beast and no one disagreed– Renee's car wasn't big enough and neither Kevin or Jericho wanted the thing anywhere near their stuff. Moving the creature wasn't as hard as they'd thought it would be, likely because the creature was at best dazed at worse concussed. Kevin and Dean had picked it up by the shoulders and the legs, carrying it out of the lobby and both of them taking ample time to complain about how terrible it smelled. Now that the adrenaline was petering out, Renee wrinkled her nose and agreed.

They strapped the sasquatch down in the bed of Dean's truck, but they all took a moment and looked hard at the straps. They were strong, designed to keep large amounts of cargo from coming loose on the road. But they weren't designed with a giant ancient ape that could toss around two hundred pound professional fighters like they were made of paper in mind.

Renee looked up from the strapped down primate with pursed lips; "Someone should stay back here with it. Just in case."

Jericho grimaced; "Isn't that illegal?"

"What is and isn't legal matters a whole lot less at three in the morning," Dean remarked, speaking with a sage tone that would better fit spiritual advice rather than advice on how to break the law.

"I'll do it," Kevin grumbled, "Punching this thing in the mouth if it acts up will be good stress relief."

Jericho glanced at Renee and Dean with a scowl; "I'll stay back here too. We could be driving for a while and I don't want to spend that time trapped up front with those two making kissy faces at each other."

Renee rolled her eyes; "You're delusional, Jericho."

Just then she caught sight of Dean out of the corner of her eye, looking for all the world like he was either trying to hold in a sneeze or had just remembered he left the oven on. What didn't fit with either of those explanations was the fact that Dean's face suddenly looked very red. With a grumble Renee couldn't quite catch he hopped out of the bed of the truck and quickly got into the cab, slamming the door behind him. Renee couldn't help but sigh. Seems after tonight they were back to square one, and next time they talked he'd avoid looking at her like he always did. Maybe when that happened she could take some time and think about why that was making her sad all of a sudden.

Renee was snapped out of her thoughts by Jericho elbowing her in the ribs. "Go on," he waved her away, "Chop chop, Young. Get up front. And here, use my phone to get directions. You can't read a damn thing on Ambrose's screen." Jericho shoved his much fancier phone, already unlocked and opened up to the maps application, into her hands before giving her one last shove towards the tailgate. Renee frowned, but relented and made her way around to the passenger seat.

Renee buckled her seatbelt as she fiddled with the map; "So there's a forest pretty close to Seattle, but it's pretty small and if we leave this thing there it'll probably end up in the city again. The furthest we can get away with driving is up to North Cascades National Park, and that's a two hour drive. We might have to break in somewhere or go driving off road. Are you fine with that?"

She braced herself for him to just grunt in response or say nothing. But instead, Dean let out a light chuckle through his nose, voice sounding slightly unsteady as he asked, "Would you believe this won't be the first time I've broken into a national park?"

Renee let out a relieved laugh as she handed Dean his phone back; "I would not be at all surprised. I hear rumors about your criminal record they have hidden in Triple H's office– they say it's novel length."

Dean finally grinned over at her, an odd warmth blossoming in Renee's chest when she saw it; "Nah, I'm gonna guess it gives The Bible a run for its money."

Dean's truck rumbled to life and they pulled out of the parking lot out onto the empty, misty streets of Seattle; "So where'd you get the chair?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

Renee couldn't help another chuckle; "I didn't take my car keys out of my jacket before I went to sleep, and I had agreed to help the crew taking down the ring move some of the chairs they keep under it. I don't remember why I did it or why they needed me to– Maybe it was just fate or something."

Dean smirked as he remarked, "You can pull off a wicked chair shot. You sure you wanna stay out of the ring?"

Renee shook her head; "I'd like to keep my number of concussions at zero, thanks."

Conversation between the two of them flowed at a graceful and natural pace, moving into how Dean's fascination with Bigfoot had come to be when he was a kid to Renee having to break the unfortunate news that she was Canadian to Shield stories that danced carefully around the fact that there had been three members to Renee telling stories about her own family that took some of the edge off of how much she missed them and how long it had been since she'd been home. Renee told Dean every terrible joke she knew and many Summer had shared with her– every time he laughed she would smile, like clockwork. She decided that no matter how odd a phenomenon that was, she liked it.

Every now and again at stoplights they would check on Jericho and Kevin, who would take a break from swearing at each other and the sasquatch to swear at them. Aside from being cold, damp, and smelling like ape, they were fine. The sasquatch had only shifted under the straps, not struggling to break free or attacking either of them. If it were any earlier in the day, Dean and Renee would find that strange. But it was late and they'd been awake for far too long, so they were just relieved.

As they drove on conversation dropped off, mostly because Renee kept falling asleep for five to ten minute intervals and she didn't want to distract Dean when he was most likely as tired as she was. But when they passed by Marblemount and started driving into the national park proper, Renee stared out at the trees illuminated in the headlights and couldn't shake a nagging question.

"So you didn't actually answer me back in the hotel," Renee remarked, leaning on her hand as she stared thoughtfully out the window, "You may like me fine, but we're not exactly friends," she could see Dean swallow hard out of the corner of her eye, "Or I guess we weren't before all this. Roman was in the hotel too. Why did you come to me?"

Dean didn't answer her for a moment, frowning ahead at the road and tapping his fingers on the wheel as he thought. His whole body was stiff, his shoulders tense and frown tight. Renee stayed quiet; he'd speak when he was ready, and they still had a ways to drive. She could wait.

Dean sighed, then started pulling the sentences out word by agonizing word; "It wasn't really a… conscious decision. I just sort of remembered that you were on the same floor as me, and if something dangerous was in here… Like, you can work under pressure, you could find a way to deal with it fine, maybe you could fight it. But I just… I didn't like the idea of leaving you by yourself when I knew you were there and something dangerous was running around."

Dean then let out a little scoff, all the tension disappearing from his face as he continued, "And Roman's wrestling tomorrow. I couldn't get him all caught up in this. I'm not doing anything important tomorrow, I can afford to fuck around until four in the morning."

Renee looked at Dean, almost feeling like she was doing it for the first time. A smile slowly spread across her face.

"I don't care what any t-shirts say. I don't even care what you say," Renee stated, "You're a good man."

Dean probably thought what he did was laugh, though the sound he actually made was more like a cough; "Been a while since I was accused of that." Renee shook her head, smile refusing to fall. That would do for now.

They drove along the winding North Cascades Highway until they found the Ross Lake Overlook and finally pulled over. Dean and Renee exchanged looks before they got out of the truck; the drive had been incident-free, but there was no telling what would happen when they let the sasquatch out of the truck bed. Well, there was nothing to do but take the plunge.

The two of them left the safety of the cab for the misty early morning Washington air, and the first thing Renee heard was Jericho groaning, "Oh thank God."

"Let's get this damn thing loose," Kevin snapped, already working on the buckles on his side of the truck bed, "The sooner it's gone the sooner we can go back."

Dean gave Kevin a cheeky grin as he opened up the tailgate; "Awww, don't tell me you didn't have a little fun, Kev. I could hear you two singing songs and sharing stories the whole way here–"

"Ambrose, if you don't shut your damn mouth I'm taking you all the way down to the lake and throwing you in it," Kevin growled.

"Now THAT sounds like fun," Dean muttered, grin only getting wider.

"Can you two stupid idiots please keep it together long enough for us to get back to the hotel?" Jericho whined.

"I think you're asking way too much of them," Renee replied dryly, rubbing her arms and hopping from foot to foot as she tried to stay warm. Everyone shut up when the last strap came loose and the sasquatch slowly sat up. In this faint, early morning light, the creature looked almost like a completely different animal; without the harsh shadows its face looked more innocent, less sinister. But its dark eyes still shone with an intelligence Renee couldn't ignore. As it groggily crawled off the truck bed and fell to the pavement below, Renee almost felt sorry for it. Remembering it kicking Dean in the chest was all it took to bring her healthy fear of it back.

Jericho couldn't keep his mouth shut, frantically snapping, "Go on. Get going. The forest's right there. Just get going you Wyatt Family reject!"

The creature stood up and turned to look at Jericho. Everyone's breath caught in their throats and Jericho went pale. The staredown lasted for a good minute before the sasquatch slowly turned and made its way to the edge of the overlook. It bent down and rummaged around on the ground just past the guard railing before it picked up what appeared to be a vine with leaves attached. The creature slowly made its way back, walked up to Jericho, and draped the vine over his shoulders.

Renee maintained her composure for all of a second before collapsing into giggles. Dean let out a much less dignified bark of a laugh. Most miraculously of all, Kevin smirked and let out a weak snort of a laugh. Jericho just stared at the creature, mouth opening and closing like a Goldfish of a Thousand and Four Holds.

"I think that looks better than your actual scarf," Kevin remarked, finally snapping Jericho out of it so he could glare at his fellow Canadian.

The sasquatch loped back to the guardrail and stepped over it, walking down the steep slope and into the forest. Renee couldn't help but walk up to the guardrail to watch it go– after all, this could be the last time she'd ever see something like it. The sasquatch made it all the way to the tree line before it stopped. It turned to look back at them, its dark eyes meeting Renee's, and raised one of its large hands in what looked like a wave. Renee could only stare, mouth hanging open, before dumbly waving back at it. The creature lowered its hand, turned back towards the trees, and disappeared into the forest.

For a moment, the four of them just sat there, staring off into the distance. There were hundreds of words they all could use to describe what had just happened, but none of them were sure which ones were right, or which ones they wanted to use around these people. Perhaps they just didn't want to break this moment. If they spoke the night would end. Against all odds, against all better judgement and sanity, they didn't want this night to end just yet.

Finally, Kevin broke the silence; "This was weird."

Dean just nodded; "Yep."

Renee looked over at Dean with a bemused smile; "Is this how you thought your first sasquatch hunt would go?"

"It's Ambrose, he probably thought there'd be more barbed wire and staples involved," Jericho remarked, looking thoughtfully at the vine around his shoulders.

"And fireworks," Dean added with a smirk, "I was expecting a LOT more fireworks."

After some bickering about who was allowed to drive Dean's truck, Dean and Renee had to ride in the truck bed after Kevin and Jericho had spent the whole trip back there. They couldn't really talk all that much since they couldn't hear a thing over the rushing wind (Jericho drove like a damn madman) and had to lie down under a ratty old blanket Dean had in the cab so they wouldn't get spotted by the cops ("The law starts to matter again at around five in the morning," Dean had said in that same old sagely voice), but every now and again they did grin at each other and collapse into snickering over how ridiculous this whole thing was.

They stopped at a diner in some small town Renee didn't catch the name of and she ate two whole sides of bacon while Dean, Jericho and Kevin had a spirited debate about the merits of chocolate chip pancakes. They all chugged as much coffee as they could stomach, enough that they arrived back in Seattle looking and feeling like reanimated corpses being pulled around against their will by dark magic. Jericho may have driven like a maniac, but that maniacal driving got them all back before anyone had noticed they were out of place.

The four of them scattered after that– it was understandable, they all ran on different tracks. But throughout the day between yawning and feeling like she wanted to die Renee felt odd not hearing Jericho chattering and Kevin grumbling while Dean instinctively put a hand on her shoulder. It all felt like a bizarre dream she'd never have again. Renee almost thought it was until two hours before that night's show; she'd ducked away into one of the hallways, leaning against the wall and staring at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling to try and stay awake when a warm paper cup was pressed into her hands.

She took the coffee cup on reflex, only to nearly spill it when she heard Dean's voice from right in front of her remark, "Yeah, thought you'd want coffee but just in case you don't I've got an energy drink. If you don't want either I'm chuggin' both." Renee blinked rapidly, trying to banish the hallucination her tired mind conjured up, but no dice. Lo and behold, Dean Ambrose was standing in front of her with a can of some ungodly concoction in his hand, smiling at her as easily as he had all last night. It felt too good to be true.

She learned it wasn't when Dean waved a hand in front of her face; "Renee? You in there? You can't be that out of it. You're starting to look like me when you'd make small talk."

Renee snickered, giving Dean a soft shove; "I in fact can be that out of it. Don't forget how long you kept me up. I haven't even gotten a chance to sneak a nap in anywhere."

"Oh I didn't forget," Dean groaned, leaning against the wall next to her as he popped the tab on his energy drink, "Thank God Roman's driving tonight. Also gives me time to tell him the whole story of what happened with the bigfoot."

"Do you think he'll believe you?" Renee wondered, taking a sip of the coffee Dean had apparently dumped an entire jar of sugar into.

"When you work here for a good amount of time you'll believe anything," Dean replied, "You're basically living in an entirely different world the minute you step into this place."

Renee let out a light laugh through her nose; "I used to think I knew how different it could get. Last night was… enlightening."

Dean shrugged; "I'm used to it. I'll take whatever this screwed up place throws at me. But you… I've always wondered how types like you that don't have to go for the belts feel about being here," he looked down at her with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes, "How do you feel about this place? All the weirdos in here?"

Renee beamed up at him; "I don't think there's any other place I'd rather be."

And for the first time her smile made him smile in return.