Title: Fresh Start
Rating: PGish
Warnings: You know wrestling violence.
Summary: The Shield are no longer together. Dean's ready for a fresh start. He just never thought he'd be the one back in the company.
Author's note: FINAL fic of the Cracks in the Shield series. As the summary indicates, the Shield completely shatters in The Shield's Final Stand. Takes place about a year later.
Dean sat on the top turnbuckle watching the action in the middle of the ring. Sami Zayn was working with Zack Ryder. Dean figured this was at the moment the safest place to be in the ring. He was sure Dr. Andrews would kill him if he even knew he was sitting on a top turnbuckle. He had gone a year without rebreaking his ankle.
"Good," Matt Bloom, who wrestled for the WWE as Prince Albert and later Lord Tensai called from where he was standing on the other side of the ring. "I think you're both ready to be back on the main roster. What do you think Ambrose?"
"Looked good to me," he said hopping down off of the top rope and walking over to them. "I'm glad I don't have to wrestle you Sami," he joked. He knew Sami quite well from the indy circuit and knew Zack Ryder from both of their days on the main roster.
"What about me?" Zack asked.
"Didn't the Shield used to beat you?" Dean asked.
"Nah I think you're forgetting things again. We totally used to beat you guys!"
"Hey don't go blaming my memory," Dean shot back jokingly. "I remember quite well we used to beat you on house shows. It was before 2013."
"Nope." Zack shook his head laughing.
"Man if I wasn't retired I'd kick your butt in the ring right now!" He said getting in the face of the Long Islander.
"My moneys on Ambrose," Enzo Amore called from the second ring where he and his tag partner Colin "Big Cass" Cassidy were working on a few moves.
"Mine too!" Cass called back.
"Oh come on," Zack said looking around at everyone in the Performance Center. "Doesn't anyone think I could beat Ambrose?"
"Nope!" Came the reply.
Zack sighed melodramatically before grabbing his water bottle.
Dean exited the ring and took a seat in a chair in the front row. He took his cellphone out and sent a text message to his girlfriend Renee Young. He had gotten to know her the few times he had been at a WWE show making sure the called up wrestlers made it through their first night. Life was perfect.
He just wished he remembered anything from 2014.
