Disclaimer: I do NOT own anyone in this story, unfortunately.

A/N: Another re-write with a new couple. Enjoy!

Never Again

"Noooo. No, no and no."

The pretty blonde known as Maryse Ouellet stated in dismay as she frantically shook her head in denial. What she was seeing was really bad; no, it was horrible and she could scarcely believe it. It was almost like watching a really bad movie that had no end and for a long moment where she believed herself to be in shock she could only remain sitting stiffly with her mouth hanging open and her warm hazel eyes glued to the monitor of her laptop.

'It just can't be true.'

She was trying to put her mind at ease by repeating that to herself, but the rational part of her brain that was still working knew that there was no way her eyes could be deceiving her. This was no longer a rumor, now it was pure fact.

She leaned forward, studying the disturbing image more closely. The man in the picture was clearly him; there was no possible way she could mistake him for somebody else, and although the woman's face was looking away from the camera she could also recognize her just fine.

She could also see in the picture that their hands were linked together, their fingers intertwined as she leaned comfortably against his taller frame for a kiss.

"You have to be fucking kidding me!" She let the words roll out of her mouth in a whisper. Not that it mattered, she was all alone in her hotel room so there was nobody to hear her anyway.

Still in shock, she gasped, blinked a couple of times and still the image didn't disappear or changed itself into something less sickening.

It can't be true… It just can't!

But yet it was, the proof was right in front of her eyes and she was staring at it. Crawling out of her denial phase, Maryse ran a hand through her long blonde hair while her horrified eyes focused on the screen.

"This is awful." She said while her mind was all messed up and in turmoil; emotions ranging from denial, anger and dull acceptance fighting their way to be on top. It was like a grieving cycle and if the situation wasn't so tragic she would have laughed about the absurdity of it all.

Tragic… Was it really that tragic? She considered for a moment and made her conclusion. It wasn't only tragic, it was fucking chaotic! Destiny had messed up with the balance of the universe and something horribly wrong could result out of it.

They weren't supposed to happen. Not in this lifetime, not while she lived.

"But what am I supposed to do?" As much as she hated it, the rumors circling around the web for the past few weeks were true. She was finding picture after picture to prove what her heart wouldn't accept. They did happen, and as far as she knew they were still happening.

It wasn't supposed to be that way.

With a grunt of frustration that escaped from the deepest part of her being, Maryse slammed the laptop shut, not bothering to turn it off and caring even less if the damned thing could break with the forceful impact.

The computer was the last thing in her mind; he was… he and the pictures she was seeing.

"No… it can't be true." Hit by a wave of determination that she would probably regret later on, she sprung out of the bed and reached for the hotel phone that was on the nightstand. She was going to find out for herself what was really going on. Oh yes, she was going to find out before the night ended.


She was feeling antsy. Back in the sanctuary of her hotel room she had been determined to carry on with this, but now that she was standing right in front of his door she wasn't so sure anymore.

What if he was with her?

Her heart clenched at the thought of the two of them together in that room. Would he be so careless as to do that? The picture circling around the web of the two of them kissing came into her mind and she shuddered. Yes, he was being careless.

He was letting himself be photographed with her all over. Out eating, arriving to the arenas, at the gym… they were everywhere together!

Back in their time she was never to be seen in public with him on a personal basis. Why? Because careless was a thing he had never been with her and he was always freaking out about things ike that. He always made sure to keep on the low with her and she understood his reasons, after all theirs wasn't an ordinary relationship.

But that was a long time ago and it was obvious that the man that was letting himself be photographed with a woman that wasn't his beloved wife was not the same man she had once loved.

Once…

Shaking her head, Maryse lifted her hand to knock on the door, but before it even touched the hard wood she drew it back and turned around. She paced through the long deserted corridor some more, her arms folded against her chest.

'What would I do if I knock and she's the one who answers? And even if she's not in there, what would I say to him?'

There was also the fact that she had no right to meddle in his affairs, she had lost what little right she had a long time ago when she let him go.

But it wasn't so easy, she cared about him, how could she not care? She had loved him once, and through nights like this he had held her in his arms, loving her too. That in this cruel present she did not have his love could not stop her from caring.

She stopped her pacing and took a deep breath. 'Just knock and improvise, it's not that hard.'

Shaking her head she re-assumed the pacing. No, she shouldn't care, she really shouldn't. But she did nonetheless, she cared greatly and it bothered her to no end that after she had renounced his love for the sake of his marriage some skank came along and took him away.

Ugh, and what could he even see in her? He deserved better than that girl, he could do way better. Not that she cared, he was a past episode of her life and he could do as she pleased. Well, actually she did care because sure, she no longer loved him, but when she did, she had loved him with all the power of her being.

There has even been a dark long time when her soul had not been satisfied with the fact of not having him with her; but that was no more and she had since then moved on with her own life. Back to that crucial time when she decided to let him go his absence had been unbearable, at least until she got use to it and learned to live with it… without him.

Sure, some nights when she was lying alone in bed she still thought about him; but nowadays thinking about him wasn't what it used to be. Yes there was melancholy, but because she knew she has done the right thing there were no regrets.

She just… moved on.

Oh but it wasn't easy getting there, after all she had to see him almost every day of her life, so close and yet so far. But with time she managed to deal with it, she decided to work things out with Mike and everything was going good. She was trying to be happy and he seemed happier than ever.

With time they both moved on and after some time they were simply not the same beings that had loved each other with a passion hard to control, they had become strangers.

How it had saddened her. It still did. In her mind she couldn't understand how it could be that love was too short but forgetting so long…

Running her hand through her hair, Maryse bit hard on her lower lip, realization hitting her hard as a blow to the gut. 'What am I doing?'

She stopped dead in her tracks. She couldn't do it; this could unleash some feelings that would be better off buried deep in her subconscious. She should go back to her own room and think of anything but him. Let him screw the entire women's locker room if he wanted to, it was not of her concern.

Determined to put that episode of insanity behind, the French-Canadian turned away from his door and started to make her way back to her room before someone would see her roaming through the corridors. But that night she found out that destiny was indeed a bitch, she had not given two steps away from his door when none other than Randy Orton appeared right in front of her.

She wasn't quite sure where he had come from but there he was. Surprise, surprise…

He gazed at her through half closed eyes and she just remained frozen where she stood; there was no point of trying to flee now, she has been caught. For a moment she thought that he was going to keep walking and pretend he hadn't ever see her, but when passed her by he turned and looked at her with query in his eyes.

"Hey-" She said stupidly and as soon as the word left her mouth she wanted to take it back.

"Hey yourself." He responded as he tilted to the side, his stunning grey eyes sparkling as he looked down at her.

She could remember now how easy it was to get lost in the depths of those eyes…

He lifted his eyebrows, never taking his eyes away from hers as he probably waited for her to give a good, coherent explanation of why she was stalking his room.

Feeling the weight of the situation falling on her shoulders, Maryse let out a nervous chuckle and shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "Um… Can we talk?"

He straightened his head and squinted his eyes as if considering her request. "Sure." He responded at last, turning around as he walked towards his room. Once he got to his door he opened it and held it open so that she could enter.

On her part Maryse stood there, watching him watching her.

"Do you want to talk right here or do you want to go inside?"

The WWE Diva smiled slightly at him but it felt as a grimace. The truth was that she was feeling awkward; his eyes on her, the familiarity of the moment… it was all kind of surreal. But anyways, now that she was already there she shook out of her trance and walked in.

His room was not much different from hers and as he turned on the lights she noticed that there was no sign of a woman staying here with him. But that didn't mean anything at all, she could arrive anytime now, he could be going over to hers soon after. Who knew, but because she didn't want to think about that shrugged and then she took the liberty of sitting at the edge of his bed.

"So shoot." He said while leaning against the closed door as she turned her head to look at him. By the look he was giving her he didn't seem pleased to have her invading the privacy of his room.

She shrugged once again, not sure if she should just ask him. By right she should be back at her room and she just didn't know how to proceed by now. "So how are you?" Lame but it was the only thing that sprung into her mind.

"I'm doing good… thank you…" He replied, furrowing his brow as he quirked his lips in a half grin. "You?"

Nodding, Maryse tilted her head to the side and without taking her eyes from him she licked her lips. "I'm good."

He arched an eyebrow. "Go figure, it seems like we are both doing good." He smiled and for some unknown reason she felt her heart skipping a beat with the intensity of his eyes on her and the sight of that smile.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that he had that effect on her; after all, ever since the first day she saw him she found herself oddly drawn to him. What was amazing was that he still possessed the power of messing up her entire world with just one smile.

Randy Orton… damn him.

Biting hard on her lips, Maryse held her head up high and held his gaze with hers, wondering what was he thinking in that moment.

There has been a time when she could know what he was thinking by just looking into those hypnotic eyes of his. Back then they wouldn't need words to communicate with each other, a single touch could be enough to demonstrate their love, and with just one look they could talk poems if they wanted to. But those days were gone and she could no longer decipher his eyes.

"But you didn't come here to know how I was doing."

"I didn't." She confessed. It could be that she no longer knew his eyes but it seemed like he still knew hers so there was no point on circling on the matter. "Are you going out with Barbie?"

He chuckled. "I see that you are blunt as always." He scratched his chin, considering his words carefully. "I don't see how that concerns you."

"It doesn't concern me, I just don't like her at all and I want to know if it's true. So is it?"

Randy walked towards her; he walked very slowly and with something resembling a bemused expression on his face. When he got to her, he bent down a little so he could look into her eyes. "Are you jealous, Maryse?"

The blonde snickered. "Oh please!" She rolled her eyes a little too overdramatically and getting in full haughty mode she flipped at her hair. "She's not even half the woman I am so don't be ridiculous, ugh." After saying that, she stood from the bed in a hurry. She decided that the conversation was not going to lead anywhere so she was leaving. It had been a stupid mistake to go there in the first place.

She mumbled something of the sort to him but in her haste to leave she could barely remember what she said or if he even heard her. For all she knew she probably spoke in French.

But then, when she was reaching the door he grabbed her by the arm and made her turn around, making her face him. His semblance was somber as he looked down on her and she tried in vain to sneak out of his hold.

"What are you doing, let me go."

"Why did you come here?" His tone was calm and eerie, and as she stared up into his eyes she couldn't help but to remember that she had never liked that tone.

When he talked like that it was almost as if he was in full Viper mode, he wasn't her Randy but a character played and she didn't like that. She never had.

Trying to look indifferent, Maryse opened her mouth to speak her answer, but as it turned out she did not have any good one. "I don't know." She confessed in defeat. "Maybe because I care about you and I don't know, I… I just don't want to see you hurt and that girl will do just that. She's not good for you." She sighed before she could go on with her ramble. The truth was that she had come to him because she had once loved him, maybe she still did.

This time he was the one who snickered. "Really? Well that's funny, I mean considering our past."

Maryse actually flinched at that. She had indeed hurt him and hurting him was like hurting herself. It had honestly been the most difficult decision she had ever made in her life. "I had to do what was best for both of us. You are married…"

Randy tightened his grip on her. "You knew damn well that I would have leaved her in a heartbeat just for you. God Maryse, I was crazy about you and you knew that. I would have done anything for you."

The French-Canadian chuckled bitterly, shaking her head while her jaw tensed. "Well I couldn't let you do that, I didn't want to break your family apart… you have a daughter and I just couldn't…" Her voice cracked a bit, just the sightless but she was sure that he noticed.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Maryse blinked a couple of times and casted her eyes down. What she said was the truth, she knew that he was capable of leaving his wife for her and that's why she walked away. Not because she didn't want him to do it, but just because she knew that he loved his daughter more than anything else in the world and in the long run it was going to kill him being away from her.

She couldn't do that to him. She loved him too much to do that to him.

Feeling his eyes piercing her, Maryse held her breath when he finally let go of her arm with a bitter chuckle. "Whatever, I'm not going to fight for a lost cause. Go back to your little boyfriend and let me live my life as I please."

"I don't have a boyfriend." She said as a matter of fact while looking up to him. They had split up a little more than a year ago.

Randy squinted his eyes and tilted his head to the left. She still knew him a bit and she could tell that he was trying to find the truth in her eyes.

"How long?" He asked in a somber low tone but his eyes had a certain glint that she couldn't quite place. Hope? Or maybe it was her own hope reflected into his eyes.

"Almost a year." Didn't he know that? Her breakup with Mike had provided a lot of gossip around to last the whole year, especially when he started dating Eve soon after and rumor started to fly around that she was cheated on and left behind.

Maryse didn't care what people said, her breakup with Mike was very clear and transparent and still to that day she considered him one of her best friends; they would even go out on occasion after his relationship with Eve went downhill and that was one of the reasons people still talked about them.

But anyway, like she stated before, she didn't care for gossip because Mike was a great man and she cared about his friendship. When they were together she tried her best to be happy with him, but at the end their breakup was inevitable because he wasn't Randy.

"You know what?" Randy said as he let his body fall in a sitting position at the corner of the bed, a blank expression on his face. "This is all messed up, when did we become so messed up?"

She walked up to him and sat at his side, letting her hand find his to take it in. With her thumb she caressed his skin, drawing clumsy circles along her way. It felt good to touch him if only this lightly, it felt right.

"Right from the beginning." She said with a sigh. From the moment she first saw him she knew she was doomed and once he confessed that he felt something very similar when he lay his eyes on her.

Love at first sight? If such thing existed she would call it that. But no, she didn't believe in such crap so she liked to say it has been like a fatal attraction; and yeah, as much as she tried not to fall for it she did, she fell into temptation and consequentially she fell in love with him.

With his shoulder brushing against hers, Randy entwined his finger with hers and for a peaceful moment the two of them remained in silence, lost in memories of long ago that wanted to resurface.

It was crazy, but having him so close and feeling his hand engulfing hers made her realize something; she knew right there the truth that she had been denying to herself for so long. She loved him, she will love him till the day she died and then in eternity she will keep on loving him.

"I officially divorced three months ago." His voice was lost in the silence of the room and it took her a moment to register its meaning.

"What about your daughter?"

"I have shared custody, when I'm not on the road I have her with me so it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"I didn't know about that…" God, if she had known! How come that Barbie not only knew before her but she also struck at first chance? Damn that slut!

Randy shrugged. "I didn't think you would be interested, I thought you were still dating Mike."

Was he being serious? How could she not be interested in that? Oh, and even if she has been dating Mike or anyone else she would have kicked them to the curve for him. But wait… what if…

"Wait, did you get divorced because of Barbie?" She asked, feeling the pangs of jealousy consume her inside out. "Randy, she's no good for you, she has done half the locker room already and she probably thinks that sleeping with you will finally take her to the top. She's as dumb as she looks, she's an attention whore and ugh, I swear I'll make her life a living hell to a point where she either leaves or she leaves."

"Wow, are you sure you are not jealous? Because you are getting catty."

Maryse sucked into her mouth her lower lip and folded her arms against her chest. "She doesn't care about you; if she cares she wouldn't have made you get apart from your daughter."

"What if she cared so much that she saw that my happiness was with her by my side? Now don't get me wrong, I love my daughter to death but I think she will have a better childhood if she sees me happy with the person I love instead of unhappy with her mother."

'No, this can't be happening. It's like a nightmare come true.'

With her mind racing a thousand miles per second, Maryse yanked her hand away from his and hid her face with both her hands as she doubled over. "No, this is not right." She whimpered, feeling frustration hit her full force.

"What is not right?" Randy asked as he grabbed her shoulders to make her sit straight.

"Everything!" She spat, fixing her eyes on his. "Do you love her?"

Her former lover snorted. "You mean Kelly Kelly? Of course not; I'm not even with her."

At his words Maryse's eyes sparkled. "But I saw some pictures, you are always together and there's even one of you two…"

"Kissing?" He said with a shrug.

"Yes."

"That's an old picture, I don't know if you remember but we were once in a story line together and production took that picture but never used it. As for us always being together, well… she is dating Cody and since we've been traveling together she kinds of hangs there. So you see, if your main concern was me getting hurt or me getting an STD then you can leave in peace, I've never been better but thanks for your concern."

Taking in a deep breath, Maryse closed her eyes and swallowed on dry. She was glad Randy wasn't with Barbara like she thought but for some reason their talk still left a bitter taste in her mouth. "I cared about you, that's why I did what I did. You know I loved you… I think I still do."

As soon as her words were out, Orton leaned into her and kissed her, his lips warm and soft against hers; just like she remembered but maybe even sweeter. But he didn't linger for long; it was just a soft probing kiss that ended too soon.

"You think you love me… well, I know I never stopped loving you so it's obvious that we still have a discrepancy here. Not that it matters, love or no love I moved on and I'm focusing in the goals I want to accomplish instead of getting stuck in the past."

"Randy…" She began to say but he cut her up by pressing one finger to her lips.

"So, if I satisfied your curiosity for the night I think it's better if you leave; I have an early flight tomorrow and I don't want to oversleep."

The blonde nodded, she knew when a quiet exit was needed and she was about to make one in that same moment. Oh, but it wasn't because she was lacking on things to say; no, she actually had a lot to say. But she was also feeling confused about how their conversation turned out and she needed to organize her thoughts first. She was going to do that in her room and then she would see what to do.

So with that in mind, she got up from the bed and walked to the door.

"Oh, and Maryse." At the sound of his voice the blonde turned around, finding his eyes immediately with hers. He was smiling and she found his smile to be endearing and full of promises. Who knew, maybe there was still hope for them, they just needed time. "She is a dumb as she looks."

"I know…" She stopped her words there and looked down. Yes, in her mind she knew that she had to think about everything before doing anything, but because she thought it was needed and because she was sure of what she was feeling, she lifted her head and smiled back at him. "And by the way Orton, I do love you."

"I know." He said with a confident smile and responding with a wink she turned around and left. This time she left happy because she was sure that it was not going to be for good.

~*FIN?*~