Downtime was finally here and Dean Ambrose fully intended to relax. Hell, he figured if anyone deserved it? He most definitely did.. What the private man was not expecting was neighbors in the beach house next door.

He grumbled to himself as his car turned into the driveway, and he saw the swingset, the pink bike, the toys littering the yard next door. "Damn it."

Roman looked over at his friend and then said "It's just a kid, Ambrose."

"Yes.. And I'm not known for bein' kid friendly, Reigns." Dean grumbled, until he happened to look beside the porch and catch a glimpse of the kids mother..

Then he had the loudest coughing fit known to human kind, and blinked, two, no three times just to see if he were seeing things correctly..

In the flesh and living less than a few feet away, in the next beach house was someone he really never expected to see again.

"What the fuck is she doin movin in?" he grumbled to himself as Roman gave him a look and asked, "Problem over there?"

"Yeah.. that girl.. She's this girl I hated in high school. Never thought I'd see that bitch again." Dean admitted quietly, as he raked his hand through his hair then thought to himself, you know ya full of it, Ambrose, because hell, the girl, she got under ya damn skin, bein all loud and feisty like she was, tellin ya that ya didn't scare her.'

Sensing by his friend and stablemate's silence that this was NOT an issue he wanted pushed, Roman didn't correct him like he started to before he'd seen the look in the guys eyes. Something was defintely going through his friend's mind, but he wasn't going to sit and dig for it.

Either one of two things would happen, as far as Roman Reigns was concerned, and one of them well.. He'd be a lot harder to deal with when they went back out on the road, if it did happen.. But Roman was going by the things he already knew inherently about his friend, and somehow he just didn't see Ambrose settling or falling for some chick.

So, it was safe to say that eventually, Dean would blow up, have one of his 'Ambrose tantrums' and there'd be no more mystery where his new neighbors were concerned.

They stopped in Dean's driveway and Roman smirked as he said calmly, "Just try not to make her so mad that she beats the living shit out of her, okay? And be nice to the kid.. I didn't see a guy around.."

"Me either.. Not that I was fuckin lookin or anything, of course." he added almost immediately as he'd given his answer, calling out, "Hey.. You and Rollins come back up tonight.. We'll drink a few beers or something."

"Are you admitting you get lonely, Mr. I don't need anyone?" Roman joked as Dean waved him off dismissively and then gave him the customary middle finger salute before unlocking the door to his beach house, walking in and throwing his bags down, letting the silence wash over him in waves.

Silence that was broken a mere ten seconds later by a grown up female swearing and a little girl screaming at the highest volume possible. He growled and rolling his eyes, he looked upward and mumbled, "Really? Ya coulda let 'em go anywhere else.. And ya let her come here.. With a kid.. To live right next fuckin door to me?" as he peeked through the venetian blinds on his side deck's door, tried not to fall over in laughter..

When he'd bought this beach house, right after getting signed to WWE, he'd bought it strictly because the realtor assured him nobody wanted the house next door, someone had died in it or something and people were kind of 'iffy' about buying houses where tragedies took place, so he'd have complete privacy and if he so chose, access to both docks and private beach areas behind the houses.

It'd been overgrown and old, dilapidated, the paint peeling, the windows busted, various other things wrong with the place beside his, so Dean figured that the realtor was right and nobody was going to buy the terd on a foundation..

But apparently, the stubborn caramel blonde who stood in the middle of the lawn screaming like a damn banshee at the top of her lungs, while holding her daughter who seemed to be getting a huge kick out of this, had.

And apparently, they were not going to be the 'unseen,unheard' type of neighbors, either.

As Dean chewed on a Tylenol and sipped his beer, watching the two females intently, trying to figure out just what the blue hell they were gaping and screaming at, he grumbled, "Somethin tells me I shoulda crashed on Seth's couch this fuckin week."

Finally, he saw it, what the two females were screaming at and when he did, he almost hit the hardwood floor in his den laughing hysterically.

"It's a fuckin possum. It's more scared of you two screamin ya damn head off than ya are of it." he muttered to himself before grabbing his beer and stepping out onto his deck, calling out that very statement..

As soon as she heard his voice, Angel Harper froze in her tracks.. She groaned and swore under her breath.. She'd bought this craptastic house because for one thing, she was a newly single mother, looking to escape an abusive ex husband and it was in her price range (her grams had willed it to her, so she owned it, free and clear), and another, the realtor told her speciffically that the neighbor was a professional athlete and that he was gone so much that he'd "hardly be a bother"..

She turned slowly, still, just to confirm her suspicions and shielding her eyes from the sun called back, "Really? And what made ya think that, exactly, Captain Obvious? He just caught me off guard is all."

"Sure it did, blondie.. Sure it did.. Ya mean to tell me ya buy a piece of shit house like that and ya don't expect a few assorted wild animals to already be livin inside?" Dean said with a smirk as he watched her rolling those deep green eyes of hers and biting her full lower lip.

He took a long pull from the beer bottle in his hand and walked over, closer to them as he said casually, "That you, Angel?"

"Obviously, Jonathan." Angel replied bitterly as she looked at him. Of all the men she had to accidentally move next door to, it had to be him..

The one guy who made her so damn crazy in high school that she could have murdered him in his sleep.. The one guy who got under her skin so quickly that she almost hated him on sight.. Even as she thought this, she knew it to be a lie.. She'd had quite the crush on the man standing in front of her, but he always called her names or picked on her, or cut her down in front of everyone.. He'd made her so angry once that she'd decked him, it'd resulted in her one and only time of getting sent to the principals office.

And now, he was living mere feet away from her. She had mixed feelings about it, really.

On the one hand, she had this feeling that this was not going to go well, he'd always been a wild and brash, quick to anger person back then and..

Then on the other hand, she thought of the threat her ex husband posed and she felt a little safer knowing that the biggest psychopath she'd ever had the displeasure of knowing was living right next door.

Somehow, she got the feeling that endless nights of cold showers lie ahead of her, because the guy always made her think of sex. Anything he did or said, or wore even, hell.. Back then, her mind had taken those things, turned them into endless nights of fantasies that she hated herself for having.

But she wasn't a kid anymore. She was a mother now, she was jaded, disillusioned and down on her luck.. She knew that she had to keep him at arms length.

The possum moved towards them and she screamed, bolting back, stumbling over a loose stone in the stone walkway leading to the steps on her side deck.. Dahlia giggled in her arms and then said "Mommy, you fall.."

Dean snickered and then eyed the rake, walking closer to the possum, wondering why in the hell he was even doing this, they'd already managed to sufficiently piss one another off in a matter of seconds, really.. The damn thing moved towards him and he ran back, swearing as he threw the beer bottle as a last resort.

"Son of a.." he grumbled as he looked at her and then shrugged as he said casually, "Hope there's not more of 'em in there." before walking back into the sanctuary of his own house, his own personal space and flopping down on the couch.

"Yeah.. she's still got that effect on me.. Don't know whether I wanna take her to bed or tie her behind my car and drag her down a road doing about 90." he muttered to himself as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ward off the impending migraine.

Angel gaped at the house next door then muttered, "Damn it.. He still pisses me off and turns me on, even now." whilst covering her daughters ears with her hand.

Dahlia looked at the house next door in curiousity.. She'd been so shocked by the little rat looking animal she and her mommy found in their new house, she'd almost completely overlooked that the man next door, well.. He was one of her favorite wrestlers.

Dean Ambrose.

She tugged her mommy's sleeve and said with a small and confident smile, "Mommy, that man next door.. He probably more scart of us than we are of him."

Angel burst into laughter and said calmly, "You might just be right, spidermonkey.. But let's get indoors, okay? Looks like it might rain in a few minutes."

"Otay.. Ya know who he was, right, mommy?"

"Mommy went to school with him."

"No, mommy, you silly.. He on tv all the time."

Angel raised her brow then asked, "What do you mean?"

"He on that show I watches. He wrestle. He good."

"You mean the show that you're not supposed to be watching, but you sneak into mommy's room and watch on her tv?" Angel asked, hiding an amused smirk as Dahlia gaped at her and then said "Can I go over? Please?"

"Yeah.. Something tells me that's probably NOT a good idea, Dahlia." Angel said as she looked at the house next door one final time before stepping inside of her own. She looked around and groaned... Had she bitten off way more than she could chew when she made the choice to move here to her gram's old beach house?

It had been standing empty for almost 30 years and her worst enemy as well as greatest temptation was living right next door...

Seth and Roman pulled into the driveway and knocked on Dean's door.. Dean flung open the door and then said "Ya got the cards, right?"

"Yeah. You have the beer.. Right?"

"Noooo, Rollins, I fuckin drank it all.. Tempting, but no.. I still have more than enough beer.. I'm gonna have to get the hard shit in an IV now, apparently.. I have neighbors." Dean muttered as Seth snickered and Roman mouthed, "Told you he was pissy about it." to Seth who asked, "So.. Is it true you know her?"

"Unfortunately, yeah."

"Wow.. So I'm takin it, the Ambrose charm wasn't in effect back then or..."

"Let's just say it's a mutual understanding.. We hated each other for reasons, okay?" Dean growled as he shuffled the deck of cards, lit a cigarette and added, "To be honest.. I didn't exactly hate her.. Treated her like shit, but I didn't hate her."

The other two males looked at one another then back at him as they snickered and asked, "If you didn't hate her, why treat her like shit?"

"Because she was too damn good for me, damn.. Can we stop growin lady parts and start playing poker here guys?"

The three men started their poker game, Dean fuming about his first run in with Angel as an adult who finally had all the good things in life, and not the shitty end of life, and Seth and Roman wondering what exactly his statement just now meant..

Did it mean the guy still liked her?

He hardly told them anything about the time he'd lived in Ohio, his life before wrestling and what little that they did know, was because he'd gotten way too wasted and just blurted it out..

So they knew it was pretty much all bad.

It appeared to be the start of a very long and awkward messy situation, if one were to ask either Dean or Angel what they felt..

And it was only just beginning.