Summary:

This is the sequel to 'Guardian' featuring AJ Styles and OC Chara Wright. However, this is written so it can be read as a sequel or a stand-alone.

''As Fate Would Have It' follows Nikki Bella, who has it all. And so does her fiance, John Cena. But the one thing that John Cena doesn't have is a match at Wrestlemania. With the Undertaker not cleared to compete, the WWE quickly come up with televising John and Nikki's marriage.

But, as we have seen throughout history, marriages on WWE TV never end well. Naturally, this one doesn't, either. What starts as a storyline slowly turns into something more real. Will Nikki stick by John's side, or will she begin to see things for what they really are?


"Well, look what the cat draped in," Nikki Bella stood with a hand on her hip, suspiciously eyeing up the current Smackdown Live Champion, AJ Styles.

"Are you serious, Nicole? You mean dragged," Brie Bella rolled her eyes at her sister, adjusting the chubby little baby that she had been wobbling between her knees. Brie looked down at Birdie, making a face. "Auntie CoCo is loco," she said, and Birdie gurgled as she laughed.

AJ smiled at Nikki and Brie, always enjoying the banter between the two sisters. Indeed, it had been awhile since he was on Smackdown. But with WrestleMania quickly coming up, he had a lot of work to do. Luckily, the WWE had been willing to give him a little bit of time off before the biggest show of the year, writing him off as "injured" so he could jet across the ocean to Japan.

"Whatever, Brie," Nikki shrugged. "You guys knew what I meant. How was your time off?" she turned her dark brown eyes back towards AJ, a tiny smirk beginning to appear.

"Excellent. It was really a great time, being able to do whatever I wanted without sticking to an itinerary. Well, kind of. Chara had a bit of an itinerary," AJ gave Nikki a smile, knowing full well that she was fishing for anything about his love life.

Just a few months ago, AJ Styles would've sworn up and down that his former protegee, Chara Wright, meant nothing to him. Their relationship dated all the way back to TNA, where he would eventually spend every free evening he had training her. As much as he pretended not to, he had been falling for her. Only problem was, she had a boyfriend.

And that turned out to be a giant mess. All three of them had ended up getting hurt, and Sami Zayn-her boyfriend at the time-had ended up with a bloodied face. So when she'd showed up to play the part of Sister Abigail, AJ had made a point to let her know that he had no feelings for her, whatsoever.

And well, that didn't work out. Because he found himself completely in love with her, as he'd always been. He just had been too stubborn to admit it.

"Sooo," Nikki rolled on the balls of her feet, her eyebrows raised. Her tone was excited, though she tried to mask it. "Is there anything else that you need to share? Any...you know, diamonds exchanged between you two?"

AJ Styles chuckled. "Nah, not yet," he drawled. "We didn't go to secretly elope. Why would you think that?"

Brie turned her attention to the champ. "Because some of those online bloggers or whatever are saying that you guys might have," she told him. "Nicole has been keeping tabs," she rolled her eyes playfully, holding on to a toy that Birdie kept putting into her mouth.

She is an excellent multi-tasker, AJ thought to himself. But he supposed that all that came with motherhood.

"Well, I didn't want to be the last to know," Nikki stuck her tongue out at Brie. "Where is Chara, anyways? I didn't see her come in through the parking garage."

"She should be in a meeting with Bray," AJ stroked his chin, curiously. Chara had asked that they arrive separately since she didn't want rumors to start right away. Of course, they already had. The internet was excellent at finding out about relationships well before everyone else was ready to reveal them. But it had been awhile, and that meeting with the producers should be done by now...

"Oooh, is he going to be winning back the belt?" Nikki crooned. With the help of Sister Abigail, Bray Wyatt had finally been able to capture the WWE Championship from AJ at the Elimination Chamber. Unfortunately, Bray had lost it only a few weeks later after he was unsuccessful in channeling Sister Abigail for help. In the storyline, Bray had not been successful in any singles matches and had managed to upset his Sister. So, when he gave a lengthy, deranged promo asking for her knowledge and presence during his title defense, she had no-showed.

In reality, that was because Chara, too, had taken time off to go to Japan. She was busy at home packing, and met AJ at the airport the next morning to leave.

"No, he's not," AJ confirmed. As it stood, he would be defending his title against an old friend at this year's 'Mania. "I think they are going to keep up the battle with Matt Hardy," AJ conceded. "And it sounds to me like Bray is going to be drafted to RAW. So I'm pretty sure Sister Abigail and Bray Wyatt will be parting ways soon."

"Oh, that's so exciting," Nikki clapped her hands together. "Finally, we can see her in a little singles action! I'd love to go up against her."

"Yeah, but you'd actually have to get in the ring again," Brie piped up once more. Nikki shot her a look, her mouth hanging open in bewilderment.

"Obviously, we've been busy with other things," Brie covered quickly, realizing she had come off harshly. "I really want to get back into the ring, and I know you do, too. But you have other things to focus on. Like, oh, you know...a wedding," Brie tapped her chin as though she was deep in thought, raising an eyebrow up at her sister.

Nikki shrugged. "Okay, but that's easy. We already know we're doing it in Mexico with our closest friends and family. What else is there to plan?"

AJ was admittedly shocked to hear Nikki say this. From what he knew of Nikki Bella, she didn't do anything half-assed. Especially not a wedding, which was something that she had been looking forward to for the last year. Nikki wasn't shy in what she wanted, and it would not have surprised him at all had her wedding to John Cena been televised. So, the way she spoke about what should be one of the happiest days of her life really made him wonder what was going on behind the scenes.

"Nicole, we don't even have our bridesmaids dresses figured out yet. Lola has been texting me like, every day, with pictures of what she thinks you might like."

"Yeah, but I don't like any of them," Nikki replied, swooping down to pick up Birdie from Brie's lap. She held her up in the air as she made funny faces at the baby.

"You would actually have to look at them," Brie responded, standing up. She gave a stretch, trying to look around AJ's shoulder as though she was searching for someone.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to run and find Bryan," she turned to her sister. Before Nikki could respond, Brie had walked out into the hallway, on the search for her husband.

Nikki adjusted Birdie on her hip, who didn't seem to mind that her mother had left the room. Nikki turned her attention back to AJ, giving him a small smile. He was about to excuse himself, feeling awkward suddenly. Instead, he found himself intrigued by the way Nikki had been acting about the entire wedding planning bit.

"Getting cold feet?" he blurted out. Immediately, AJ shamed himself. He didn't want to upset his friend, and he really didn't want to say anything out of line. Girls were weird like that. Especially ones that were about to tie the knot.

Nikki shook her head. "No, nothing like that. It's really hard to plan a wedding when we're just so...busy, you know? That's why we opted for the destination wedding to begin with. We just don't have the time to spend hammering out silly details. We're getting married, and that's that."

Still, something in her face told AJ she wasn't being completely honest. He decided not to push her any further.

"So, is John going to be here tonight? Heard he's supposed to square up with 'Taker," AJ drawled, trying to change the subject.

"He won't be here until halfway through the show. He had a business meeting with Tap Out this morning in Tampa Bay," she said briskly. "He's going to call out Undertaker, but we don't know yet if they will have a match. Last time I spoke to Michelle, Mark hasn't been doing very well."

It took a minute for AJ to realize that Nikki was talking about Michelle McCool, Undertaker's wife. Once he did, he nodded once, understanding the predicament. If The Undertaker wasn't cleared to wrestle and John Cena wasn't in the title picture, he really didn't have a reason to be at WrestleMania at all. The WWE had put all their eggs in a basket as far as Cena and Taker went despite knowing that there was a possibility of Taker's health not being up to standard. And what would WrestleMania be without John Cena?

"Do they have any other potential leads if that feud doesn't work out?" AJ wondered out loud, already knowing the answer.

Nikki tickled Birdie under the chin, causing a big, spitty giggle. She was purposely avoiding AJ's gaze, and he knew it.

"Of course they don't," she finally admitted. "You know the WWE creative team. Always flying by the seat of their pants."


The next week...

"Hello, Nicole. John. Thank you guys so much for meeting up with me today," Mark Carrano welcomed the couple into his office. Nikki's heels clicked against the tiling of the floor as she followed behind John, who was giving her a clammy hand as he led the way. Of course, in true gentleman fashion, he pulled out her chair for her before sitting down.

It had been a wild week. Although Nikki hadn't been performing with the WWE, Brie had dragged her along last week because she'd been missing Bryan immensely. But between last week's show and a few meetings for Birdiebee, Nikki hadn't been to her own home in a little over a week. And, in fact, this was the closest she'd been to John since Smackdown Live, when she kissed him quickly before he hopped into a cab to get to the airport after the show.

And we can't even enjoy our time together, Nikki thought bitterly. They had a stupid business meeting in Stamford, right at WWE Headquarters. This probably could've been a conference call.

"Mark," John Cena gave his trademark boyish smile. "Always a pleasure."

"And to you too, John. Nicole, looking beautiful as always."

"Thank you," Nikki replied politely. She folded her hands carefully on her lap, anxious to hear what this whole thing was going to be about.

"First off, I really want to thank you two for coming tonight, despite the short notice," Mark said smoothly, shuffling around on his desk before pulling out a manila file folder from a stack of them. It was clearly labeled "WM34".

"Of course," John gave yet another charming smile. Nikki found herself wondering how he could remain so calm and collected. This was seriously cutting into their time together. And after the totally awkward interaction between herself and AJ Styles last week, she was beginning to realize that maybe she ought to start getting her wedding plans going. So the time spent in Stamford was taking away from finalizing flower arrangements.

Not that John cares, she thought. She shook that from her mind quickly, hating that the thought would even dare pop into her head. Of course, she knew that John cared. He was just as busy as she was, though, and couldn't really be bothered with such petty details.

"As you two know, the plan was for John Cena to take on The Undertaker at this year's WrestleMania. Ideally, it would be a career against career match, in which John would win. That would force Taker to retire for good," Mark folded his hands on his desk, holding a pen in his hand. Nikki liked him but hated when he spoke to people as though they were characters in a book. He did this quite often.

"Did the plans change?" John's brow furrowed. "It sounds like they might have."

Mark cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, they did. Taker won't be cleared to wrestle by WrestleMania. We've been in touch with his doctors, and his surgery has had a few complications. He'll be fully ready to get into the ring by SummerSlam, but for April, that definitely won't be happening."

"WrestleMania isn't very far away," Nikki tapped her manicured nails on the desk. "Are you telling us that John is getting scrapped from the card?"

Mark looked pained for a moment. "No, that's not it," he said finally. "Unless he wants to be."

"Well, if you have something in mind, you know that I'm all ears," John replied, perhaps a little too eagerly.

"We do, actually. But after the troubles last year, you know, trying to get you guys to agree, it's completely understandable..." Nikki tuned out what the VP of Talent Relations was saying as her stomach slowly fell to her knees. She had a feeling that she knew what was coming.

"Okay, so how do I fit into this?" she finally cut in, and John sent her a disapproving look. He hated to be interrupted, and she knew it. But she didn't care.

"Well, we think it would be a great way to get eyes on Total Divas if people think you've broken up," Mark said finally. "And we've been in contact with E! as well, and they agree. We can't have another season like last season, or the contract between them and WWE could be terminated."

"So, what do you want us to do?" John asked.

"Well, here's what we're thinking. Let's have your wedding at WrestleMania."

"But our real wedding is in Mexico," Nikki replied curtly. "Sorry, but I don't really want to get married in New Orleans."

"You don't have to. But we're thinking of a Test/Stephanie McMahon/Triple H reboot angle. Remember that?"

Nikki did remember it, actually. Stephanie McMahon was all set to marry her sweetheart, Test (God rest his soul), but it would be revealed that she was already married to Triple H before they could say their vows.

"It's going to take a lot of work on your part, though. You can't travel together. Try hard to keep out of public together. At least until the end of May, when the new season starts back up."

"That's nearly three whole months!" Nikki objected, crossing her arms angrily. "We have a real wedding to plan, and you're telling me we shouldn't be seen in public? Are you kidding?"

Mark pulled out a piece of paper, keeping his eyes on the couple. He pushed the paper over to John, who took one glance at the paper before letting out a low whistle.

"That's...a lot of money," John said.

"Yes. That's how important it is that we save the contract between WWE and E!," Mark said. "Again, if people hear that you guys have broken up, they'll have to tune into the show to see for themselves. And anyways, it sounds like you know how things went for Test and Steph. WWE weddings never turn out very well."

"So you're going to bring in a third person into this storyline," John stated. It hadn't been a question.

"Yes," Mark replied coolly. "It's someone from RAW, heading to Smackdown after WrestleMania. I think he needs this push."

"Well, who is it, then?" Nikki was not bothering to mask her dislike for the entire idea. Sure, she understood the business side of the whole ordeal. But it really got under her skin that the WWE would ask her and John to keep their distance. It also bothered her that it looked like John was more than eager to go and do it, being driven by the amount of money they were going to pay them as a bonus for agreeing. She was getting anxious, wanting to call Brie immediately. She usually was the voice of reason when it came to John, and Nikki could use a little calming down after this.

Not a moment later, there was a sharp knock on the closed, wooden door.

"Well, I'm glad you asked, Mark said as he got up, straightened his tie, and rounded his desk to reach for the doorknob.

John had turned to look, but Nikki stood, back turned, still pouting. She knew it was ridiculous, but she didn't really care.

"Mark," a familiar voice filtered through the office. "Good to see you. I'm here to hammer out the details of this new angle."

"Of course," Mark's tone changed quickly, as he pulled up a chair from the corner right next to Nikki. Something about this felt like she was in the damned principal's office at school.

"Guys, you already know Seth Rollins. He's the one we've decided best suits this storyline."


First chapter down, guys! It's been a long time coming. Let me know what you think.