Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Riley.

Summary: Riley MacIntyre has been sidelined by an injury. She is forced to watch her best friend, John Cena, be terrorized by the Nexus and the one man she can't stand is leading the assault. Riley takes matters into her own hands as things suddenly become more complicated than even she could have imagined.

Better Days

Chapter 1: Little Riley MacIntyre

"Fucking Wade Barrett again!"

Riley MacIntyre sat backstage as the man in question had just so rudely interrupted the scheduled Bret Hart and Undertaker match. He wanted to do something drastic and no one, except the Undertaker, was even trying to stop him. Riley had never liked the way Wade Barrett barged into her life, into her wrestling the way he had, beating up on her friends.

When the Undertaker had him by the neck she was on the edge of her seat, she never hid her hatred for the British asshole, not even to his face. She was praying he'd go down but once again he had managed to turn the tables and stood with the Undertaker on his shoulders, ready to let Justin Gabriel finish him off from the top rope.

"Roll dammit!" Riley stood up and screamed at the screen she was watching the match on getting more and more pissed off with every failed attempt to take the Nexus out.

She had seen many a man get taken out by Justin Gabriel and his stupid flip thing off the top rope, she didn't even care to learn the name, she just knew it was stupid, and so was he. She didn't much care for Justin Gabriel, dumb little shit disturber that he was.

Riley sat back down, cradling her sore arm, as the man behind her let out a chuckle.

"Fuck off Cena! That's how he's going to take you out in about fifteen fucking minutes!"

John Cena rolled his eyes at her. He was bigger than most of the Nexus guys, at least in a fair fight environment.

"Mac come on. It's a 5-on-5, I'm not going down that easily." John replied calmly, he was bigger than most of the Nexus guys, everyone except Wade Barrett.

"Whatever, I don't get how you can just sit there and accept the fact that Nexus is fucking picking you guys apart one by one and you're making very little progress in kicking their asses." Riley shook her head, calming down slightly.

Riley shifted her arm slightly, the pain in her shoulder becoming too much for her to handle after her outburst. It wasn't that she had re-injured her shoulder, it was just that she kept getting excited and forgetting she was supposed to not throw her arm around like it was dead weight.

"Now look, you've gone and hurt yourself again Mac." John chuckled, knowing full well she was still supposed to be wearing her shoulder sling.

If it hadn't of been for Alicia Fox tearing the ligament in her shoulder a few weeks back, she would have been in the 900th episode, wrestling away like her best friend John Cena, maybe even having her turn at Wade Barrett and his high horse. Instead, she got to watch from behind the scenes as Nexus wrecked everything once again.

Lately all she found herself wanting was for Wade Barrett to mind his own god damn business and leave Cena and his buddies alone. They were rookies, they should stay at the bottom of the food chain and work their way up like other rookies. God forbid he actually get the message they were trying to send him to get out of the way, stupid ugly gorilla.

"Mac don't worry about it. Settle your butt down, let your shoulder get better and watch the big boys play with big boy toys, okay?"

Riley rolled her eyes and flopped down onto the chair she was using. Soon enough she would get to watch her best friend John Cena march his way into the ring, join up with four of his WWE buddies and take on the five remaining Nexus members, hopefully kicking their asses good. It didn't matter how they were taken out to her, as long as they eventually understood that they were no longer welcome on Raw, at least not while they continued to cause destruction wherever their stupid Nexus feet walked.

XxxxxxXxxxxxX

Riley stood behind the entryway waiting for John to join her after he was eliminated. Seconds earlier he was pinned and eliminated from the match leaving Randy Orton alone against the remaining Nexus, Justin Gabriel had taken her friend out with the same move Riley had warned him about earlier, shocker John didn't listen.

"Good job Cena, I'm so glad you completely ignored me once again!" She scolded him. He simply shook his head at her, set his arm around her tiny shoulders and forced her to walk with him to the locker room.

She ducked out of his grasp as he entered the locker room, then she turned on her heel and headed right back to where she was standing just minutes before. She got back to her spot just in time to see the Viper pinned by Wade Barrett himself, she had missed the part where Randy RKOed the other remaining Nexus members. Riley growled at the outcome of the match. Once again Nexus was crowding her vibe and she was clearly not happy.

"Fucking Nexus pricks." She mumbled, seeing Barrett walk up the ramp, right towards her in his stupid little Speedo that he liked to called his outfit.

When Riley wrestled, she wore tight black spandex short shorts and a simple tight black t-shirt with a picture of a bright red apple on it, it was a cheesy symbol seeing as her wrestling name was Mac. It made sense to her.

Riley glared at Wade Barrett as he marched up the ramp and right towards her exact position. She knew he was purposely going to come right at her, he always had to say something to her.

Riley remained leaning against the wall, looking up at Wade Barrett. He was at least a foot and a half taller than her and twice her size yet somehow she remained unafraid. She glared at him as he stood in front of her. He simply smirked at her, knowing what he did to her.

"When are you going to get the hint Barrett?" She asked, starting the verbal attack.

"Little Riley MacIntyre can't stand the Nexus. I get it. I don't care."

Riley pushed herself off the wall and stood at her full height, standing up to him, her eyes were level with his chest. She reached her sore shoulder up and poked him in the collarbone as hard as she could muster with her injury. It wasn't much but her finger hit the right spot. Wade let out a small grunt as he stepped back slightly, not wanting to let her know she was really too weak to move him.

He regained his stance and stared down at her, knowing exactly which shoulder bothered her, he had watched her original injury happen, desperately wanting her to be okay but not letting anyone know that he might have felt someone sorry for her. She was an amazing wrestler, good-looking too.

It wasn't that he had a soft spot for her, he certainly didn't it was just that he hated to see a talented little girl hurt because her opponent had taken a cheap shot at her. He in fact loved to see her wrestle, he could tell she cared about what she did, anyone could see it in the way she moved. She was by far the smallest girl size wise but her personality was easily the largest, in the ring and out of the ring.

Riley reached up and tried to shove him with her palm, again using the bad shoulder. He didn't let her have that one, not moving an inch.

"If I had two good shoulders, I'd kick you in the ass so hard you'd see my toes wiggle through your mouth." She threatened, her jaw clenched.

"You bloody well know I'd enjoy that too much."

And with that, he was gone. Riley despised him. She tried so hard to get him to back off and intimidate him but in the end, he rejected any lame attempt she threw at him. Sure she could get under Justin Gabriel's skin easily but he wasn't the leader of the Nexus, he was in fact her size. He was smaller and more easily irritated by the tiny brunette that called herself Mac when she wrestled.

Justin Gabriel was the only Nexus member that she even remotely measured up to. They were about the same height, he was obviously built bigger than she was but he was a man. If she ever had a chance to wrestle Gabriel though, she'd fight harder than anyone ever fought before.

Shrugging her unpleasant confrontation with Wade Barrett off, Riley held her head high as she made her way back to the locker room where John Cena had disappeared. She threw open the door and growled loudly, catching the attention of the few guys who had remained in the locker room, John standing in the middle of the room pulling on his clean clothes.

"Maybe you should leave them alone Mac!" John called out, his eyes remaining focused on his shirt, not even bothering to look at her.

"Seriously! How are you not pissed off to the point of wanting to bash his skull in with a fucking hammer?" Riley asked back.

Randy Orton was paying attention to her now, he couldn't possibly ignore her. She was standing in the middle of the 'big boys' locker room as she called it, yelling about the Nexus leader. Randy could see her irritation easily. She never did hide her feelings towards people.

Chris Jericho just watched Riley silently as John finished with his shirt. Chris just stared, always entertained when Riley came around.

"I believe it's called self restraint, maybe you should try it sometime." John chuckled, finally turning around to face her.

"Maybe you should quit picking fights with Barrett." Randy added, trying to get Riley to stay out of trouble, even though he knew it would never happen, Riley's middle name was trouble.

"As long as the Nexus pricks still walk around thinking they own the place, I will not stop picking fights with fucking Wade Barrett!"

"Fine Mac but don't say I didn't warn you." Randy shrugged her off as if she didn't even bother him.

The Viper constantly worried she'd end up at the receiving end of one of Nexus' attacks, a good five guys against the tiny girl. Sure it would be entertaining and Riley wouldn't go down without a fight but he knew she was no match for five guys, even if she claimed she did.

Riley stood in silence, ignoring their pleas to be civil to the nexus. She waited for John to make a move away from his locker. They had plans to grab food on the way back to their hotel and she wasn't about to let him ditch her. John set his arm back around her shoulders and forced her to walk alongside him as they made their way out of the locker room and then out of the arena all together, the Nexus forgotten if only for a few moments.

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