Title: With a Tainted Heart
Author: Karen U
Pairing/Character: Eve Torres/CM Punk, others
Disclaimer: no one you recognize belongs to me.
Rating: R/M
Summary: it wasn't the path she expected her career to take... or the man she expected to be with.
Spoilers: my own version of January 2011. I blame this fic on the fact that I spent way too much time re-watching the 2011 Royal Rumble match the other day
Warnings: language, violence, adult situations
Part One
She heaved out a sigh as she weaved her way through the backstage area, a small frown on her face as she made her way down the hallway toward the locker room, a bottle of water in hand, the diva unable to shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen tonight... Of course, given the match she would be at ringside for, it wasn't too farfetched to think something bad would happen. Odds were that R-Truth, the man she managed, would likely try to convince her to stay in the back for the eight-man tag team match that he would be a part of. And while she couldn't necessarily blame him for it if he did try to get her to stay backstage, she also knew that he would accept it when she decided to go out there anyway. She was his friend and his manager, and she was going to be out there for his match... Even if he was facing CM Punk and the New Nexus. At least Truth had partners and it wasn't some sort of handicapped match or anything. And he had good partners, too... R-Truth would be teaming up with John Cena, Randy Orton, and John Morrison to take on CM Punk, David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, and Husky Harris... The last three men being the ones that had actually gone through with Punk's psychotic initiation stunts the week before. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater had shown that they weren't completely insane by refusing to take part in the end, and the two men had now defected to SmackDown and joined up with Wade Barrett again... Which at least meant that the match tonight really was four-on-four and that there weren't any other New Nexus members at ringside to interfere. Of course, there would still be eight men in and around the ring, which made things a little bit dangerous for her at ringside...
Shaking her head slightly, Eve made a face at that, the diva knowing that she wasn't going to chicken out just because of who R-Truth and the others were facing. She was smart enough to stay out of it, and she trusted the guys to look after her if one of Punk's goons tried to go after her. And maybe she could be a bit of a distraction and help the good guys win one or something. Even if she would probably get yelled at for putting herself in harm's way if it came to that.
The diva gave a slight shrug of her shoulders as she made it to the locker room she'd been heading toward - all four men had decided to meet up in Cena's locker room to talk strategy, and from the sound of things, it seemed they had all made it there. Of course, that didn't necessarily mean they were all decent yet, so Eve quickly lifted a hand to knock on the door to the locker room, pausing in the motion as she heard R-Truth say something.
"This is bullshit. They can't do this. We didn't agree to this stipulation-"
"But we agreed to the match," Randy Orton said, Eve easily able to recognize the man's deep voice. He sounded calmer than Truth did, though there was a definite underlying anger to his tone. "Apparently Punk either snuck the stipulation in there without us noticing, or he got it added afterwards."
"We've got to get it taken out," another voice said. This time it was John Morrison... Eve able to tell that more from the process of elimination than by immediately recognizing his voice. She just knew it wasn't Truth, Randy, or Cena that had spoken.
"Who do we complain to? The RAW GM is basically a computer. And Vickie Guerrero is the acting SmackDown GM with Teddy Long out of commission. She ain't gonna change this," John Cena said, the anger more easily evident in his voice than it had been in Orton's. "Basically, we're fucked-"
"What's going on?" Eve asked as she opened the door, the woman forgetting to even knock as she'd originally planned to do, her stomach tied up in knots from the words she'd overheard. Apparently, she'd been right that something bad was going to happen tonight... Because whatever the stipulation for the match was, it was obviously bad. It was also obvious that none of them wanted to tell her the stipulation, because none of them would even look at her. "Guys... What's going on?"
"CM Punk got a stipulation added to the match tonight," Randy Orton finally said, and Eve nodded slightly.
"Yeah, I got that much from what I heard through the door. What's the stipulation? Is it handicapped or something? You have to tag in but they can all be in the ring at once? I mean... Just tell me."
"It's none of those," R-Truth stated, the man still not looking at her. "Seems that, after we agreed to the match, Punk got something snuck in there. If we lose, the New Nexus will be getting a new member," he told her, and Eve swore softly, taking a step back.
"What? Who? Which one of you?" Eve wanted to know. She figured it wouldn't be Cena... If only because certain members of the New Nexus remembered what it was like when John had taken out every member of the original Nexus. They probably didn't want a repeat of that. Glancing around the locker room, Eve noted that none of the men would so much as look at her, and the feeling in her stomach got even worse. "What is it? Just tell me."
It was Morrison that finally spoke up.
"It's not one of us that they want. It's you."
