Fergal Devitt walked back to the locker room, rubbing his neck.
"Hey, Man, you okay?" Braun Strowman asked, coming up with the newly won Money in the Bank briefcase.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Congrats, again." He smiled.
"Yeah, well, wait until Dottie hears about it. She's not going to be happy."
"Why?"
Dottie O'Connor was a worker for the WWE who was in her mid thirties and autistic. She was great with the sewing machine but not so great with social situations. The woman was nice, a little naive but she was respectful any time he came in for some costume mishap.
"She was all set for you to win." Braun said.
"Really?"
"And the sudden change probably upset her."
Matches being predetermined were standard in the WWE. But sometimes creative changed those plans at the last minute. While Fergal had been slated to win, the creative decided for Braun to have it. With great respect for the company, Fergal had no say in the issue but it seemed as if some fans were up in arms over it.
"Do you think I should go see her?"
"You could. I don't know if it'll make a difference. But maybe put some clothes on first." Braun patted him on the back.
Fergal did as the Monster Among Men suggested, he went to the locker room to get cleaned up. The man known as Seth Rollins as in there with his Shield buddy Roman Reigns. Colby Lopez and Joe Anoa'i were chatting it up.
"Hey, Ferg." Colby said. "Great match out there."
"Thanks. Apparently some people didn't like the outcome."
"Who?"
"Dottie."
"Bless her heart, she is like obsessed in you. Not in the stalker sense but she's wanted you to win." Roman said.
"Yeah, Braun told me. Apparently I don't talk to her enough to know that."
"Are you going to talk to her?"
"Yeah." He dropped his red Bálor Club jacket on the bench in front of his locker.
"Maybe you should give her a gift." Colby said.
Fergal looked at him. His brows were raised and his hand midair from his backpack. "What do you mean?"
The IC Champion shrugged. "Don't know. Just a thought."
Fergal sighed and went back to changing. Most of the others in the Men's Ladder match were coming in, talking amongst themselves. Kevin Steen, or Kevin Owens, dropped down on the bench leaning forward for his nearby phone.
"Great match, man." The Canadian said.
"Yeah, you, too. How's the back?"
"Don't know, how's your head?"
The former NXT superstars laughed together.
"Are you going to sleep?" Kevin asked.
"I have some place to be soon."
"Yeah? Where?"
"I'm going to check up on Dottie."
Kevin sighed, shaking his head. "Everyone but you know about her obsession on you."
"I understand autism enough. It doesn't bother me. It's no different than a little kid liking John Cena, right?"
"Rami sort of made a bet with her, though. So it might be worse."
Rami Sebei was a friend, going back to their days down in NXT together. He could be a riot to be with but then sometimes he had a mean streak in him, only that mean streak came from the heart.
"What did he do?"
"Made a bet with her that if you win, she'll get twenty bucks. He knew long before you weren't going to."
"Son of a…" Fergal grumbled as he found his pants.
"So she's out twenty and in a bad mood, is what I'm guessing."
All the more reason to get his clothes on and make sure she was okay. More than likely her sister Cait O'Connor was trying to calm her down. There was that incident with Ronda that he had witnessed to, the sports star calling her stupid or something.
The costume department were starting to take things down and put things away. Usually they were split like the rosters and some worked on SmackDown Live and its affiliated house shows. The same went with Raw. And wouldn't he know it, there was Rami taking a green bill from Dottie.
"See, that's why you shouldn't be so sure of things around here, Dot." He shoved the bill into his pocket. "See you around."
Dottie was sitting in a chair, her face as red as Rami's beard. She wiped her eye and grabbed for her nearby backpack.
"Did you really have to do that to her?" Fergal asked.
"I'm teaching her a lesson. Apparently no one told her about the sudden changes that could happen within a match. It's the only way I could get it through her head."
"Good, you did that. Give her the money back."
"Hey, I won it."
"You are a bleeding ass." Fergal shook his head. "Don't start gloating around her."
Rami shrugged and then walked away, whistling his own theme song to himself. Cait ran her shoulder into Rami as she came back, nailing the already sore ribbed man.
"Shit," Rami cursed as he looked at the short redhead woman.
"I will kick the shit out of you the next time you play my sister like that, Sebei." She said with clenched teeth.
Several of the nearby costume workers stepped back as Cait turned on her heel and walked towards her sister.
"That's another reason why you shouldn't do shit like that." Fergal jabbed his thumb in the direction of Cait.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll probably forget it by the next time."
Fergal shook his head and followed in behind Cait. Dottie was really cute, her lips pouting and hand clutched in a fist. She wore a nice shirt and her worker's ID pass was hanging around her neck.
"Come on, Dottie, time to get going." Cait said.
"Hi."
Dottie looked up so fast her ponytail hit her in the face. Fergal stood with his hands in his pockets, his red Balor Club jacket draped over his forearm. He smiled at Cait when she turned to look at him, her red brows crawling up her forehead. Dottie turned her head but he saw her wipe at her eye again.
"What brings you by, Devitt?" Cait asked.
"I came to see how Dottie was doing."
"Uh huh," she looked him over. "We're about ready to leave, so say what you have to say okay."
"Right." He stepped up to where Dottie was sitting and squatted down. "Hi, Dottie."
"Hi, Fergal." She said, sucking her lip between her lips. "I know I shouldn't be like this but I can't help it."
"Others feel the same."
"Did they cry over it?" She asked.
"Maybe. But I don't know them, so I wouldn't know." Her big blue eyes looked at him. "But I like that you think so highly of me."
"You deserve so much. I don't like how they treat you though."
Fergal sighed. "There's going to be more chances for me. I may not have won the briefcase but for all we know the Monster could fumble it. And there is the IC title." He took a chance and put his hand on her knee, his thumb rubbing her jeans.
She sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Are you okay? You took some, um, bumps." She looked down at his hand.
"I'm hungry more than anything." Fergal stood up.
"I was going to go out to get something but Rami sort of bet me out of my dinner money." She rubbed her face.
She stood up fast, Fergal hadn't expected it and he was almost hit in the chin with her head. His balance left and he grabbed Dottie by the waist, his jacket falling and her hands were gripping his shirt.
"I am so sorry, Fergal. I didn't mean it." She looked up at him.
He may not have been that big by male standards but at least her height was equal to that of Alexa Bliss. And Dottie refused heels, so she was about a head shorter than him.
"It's alright, Dottie. No worries." He smiled, dropping his hands to his side.
She looked down then grabbed his jacket. "I'm still sorry, Fergal."
"Go out to eat with me." He said.
It wasn't hard to read the confusion on her face. Her head tilted to the side, her ponytail falling over her shoulder. Hell, he hadn't really thought it through himself.
"I," she looked at her sister but Cait had disappeared. "I, I…" And the red in her face just added to her looking younger than her age. "Um, I…"
"I'll be going to Denny's. I can drop you off afterwards." He said. "Do you have your things?"
"Yes, but um."
"I understand you have a routine you like to follow. So this is what I propose. You and me go out. And then I drop you off at your hotel at say ten to eleven, which gives us enough time to talk. It gives you enough time to get some sleep before you have to get ready for Raw."
"Oh," her hand started shaking, a tic she had when she was in anxiety mode. "No. I can't."
"Okay, maybe some other time. I won't push it onto you so unexpectedly. Did you get your jacket?"
"No, I forgot it." She still held his jacket.
"You can have mine." When she opened her mouth, he held his hand up. "No, I insist. I prefer the black ones. Red always looks good on you."
"Thank you, Fergal."
He took a step away from her but he stopped. "Dottie, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Fergal."
"Can I give you a hug?" He asked.
"Um okay."
He'd never given her a hug before, and as Fergal wrapped his arms around her shoulders he felt one arm reach up and rest in the center of his back. His hands rubbed her back, and he smelt her hair, strawberries it seemed like.
"Better?" He asked as he stood there with his cheek rest on top of her head.
"Uh huh, much better. Thank you." She pulled back and he saw her redder in the face than last time. "I'll see you around, right?" She asked.
"Of course. And I promise you, we're going out to dinner one of these days."
Dottie nodded. Her blue eyes wide as she looked at him. She sucked on her lower lip as he left a moment later, a smile on his face.
"If you hurt my sister, I will end your wrestling career." He turned to look at Cait.
"Why, what's wrong?" He asked.
"You know what's wrong. My sister isn't something you wrestlers can screw with and ditch, leaving me to pick up the pieces."
"I'm not interested in her like that."
"Damn it, how stupid are you? If you hadn't noticed, she's got a freaking crush on you." Cait said in a hushed scream, turning away from the door.
"I get she has obsessions, autistics do. I know that."
"She's a teenager in a woman's body, Devitt. She's been down in an assisted living home because our mother thought she was defected. She's basically got this teenage crush on you, maybe a little bit in Rollins, because you two don't scare her. And Rami pissing did that shit to her."
The redhead woman was close to blowing a gasket.
"I'm trying to be friends with her first."
"Well good, at least someone is. But if you hurt her then I will hurt you. That is a promise." Then Cait turned and went into the room.
Fergal followed his gaze, but found his attention drawn to Dottie. She stood with the biggest smile on her face, his jacket now cacooning her as she stood with the sleeves hanging down over her hands.
He may have lost his Money in the Bank briefcase but at least he gained something that he could look forward to.
