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"Where is this gym anyways?" I asked as I drove the next morning to this gym that Seth said he knew of, but I was turning down streets and couldn't find it.
"THERE" He said, pointing across the street a few moments later and I did a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot.
"Are you gonna be able to hang with the big-boys today toots?" Dean bumped my elbow as we walked into the cross fit gym and Seth laughed under his breath at the question.
"The real question Dean is… are you able to hang with me today toots?" I mocked his nickname for me as I tossed my gym bag off to the side, pulling off the jacket I was wearing before getting into my stretches. I pushed my hands into the wall and arched my upper and then lower back to get out any kinks. Then I rotated my arms, elbows, wrists, ankles before stretching out my legs.
"Have you ever done Cross Fit before? Maybe you should start on something a little less hard" Dean mentioned while I pulled my black fingerless gloves on my hands and velcroed them underneath the arm hold bars.
"Dude she could run circles around you in this place, she's the one who got me into Cross Fit years ago" I looked over at Seth, smiling a bit as I crouched down and caught the bars in my hands with a good grip and pulled myself up and kept myself there balanced.
"She's the one that got you into this?" Dean asked "When'd you start doing this?" He asked me
"About 3 years ago, sorta went through a nasty break up, decided to go to the gym instead of binge on ice cream" I told him honestly, crossing my ankles while lifting my legs and lowering myself down but I wasn't touching the floor, letting myself hang there with my arms holding me up.
"What do you weigh? A buck?"
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that you shouldn't ask a woman her weight?"
"Mom was never around, so 100 pounds?" He asked, I didn't falter on the bars as I pulled myself up straight again, feeling the burn in my arms and abs.
"110" I told him
"110? No way" He laughed under his breath
"Are you going to stop asking me questions and start working out or…?" I huffed out
"Okay how about this, if you've been doing this for 3 years then you know the WODS" I nodded while lowering myself, hearing a challenge in his tone. "You ever do a Murph?" He asked and I smirked at his words. Roman was chuckling while pulling himself up and down on another bar.
"Are you challenging me Mr. Ambrose? Because you'll lose"
"I'm challenging you to a Murph WOD, 1 mile run on the treads, 50 pull ups, 100 push-ups, 150 body weight squats, and another mile run on the treads, think you can handle that?"
"It's 100 pull ups" I corrected him and he smirked bigger.
"100 it is then, so if I win I get to know you more…" Ro stopped doing the pull ups and I rolled my eyes at this but I quickly injected myself into the conversation.
"And when I win, you get the satisfaction of driving for the next 2 weeks"
"Done" He said and I smirked "You can have Ro counting for you, hey Seth wanna help me out?" Seth jogged over, interested in what was going on.
"I don't like this wager" Ro said while I hopped up on the treadmill next to Ambrose on the other.
"You really think I'm going to lose this? I used to do this against Seth all of the time back in NXT, you thought it was hilarious when I'd beat him"
"Okay, if you think you can beat him then give it a shot" I nodded at his words before pulling the long sleeve work out spandex shirt off and tossing it onto my bag by the wall, now I was just in the yoga shorts and a spandex sports purple bra.
"When the fuck did you get abs?" Dean asked and I smirked over at him
"I've had a lot of time on my hands to master Cross Fit, have fun eating my dust" Roman counted down from 10 before both him and Seth pressed the go button on the treadmills, slowly the walk went to a jog, went to a fast jog, then to a sprint and we were off. I paced myself, knowing full well that Dean would finish before me and start on the pull ups too quickly and tire himself out. I got done without breaking a sweat and hopped up onto the bar and started to pull and lower myself down while Roman counted how many, Dean was on his 39th while I was on my 14th but slowly I started to creep up, but still he finished before me while I was on my 78th.
He took a second before diving into the 100 push-ups and as I lowered myself to the ground from the pull-ups, I took the time to regain strength in my arms by shaking them out. When I was on my 99th, Dean was on his 87th. It was close but squats were my favorite and the easiest for me to do in a quick amount of time and as Roman counted lowly, I gritted through the burn in my hamstrings and calves.
"20 more" Roman said while Dean growled beside me against the wall while he did his squats. The squats became much harder to do with him making all of those annoying pain noises. Finally I was done and took in a few deep breaths before hoping back up on the tread mill while Dean was still doing the squats. I was half way to a mile when he was done and hopped on the treadmill quickly, and I gave it one last push and finished before him. Roman stopped the treadmill and I decided that the floor would be a great place to die.
"Fucking dammit" Dean muttered as I took in deep breaths to control myself while Roman grabbed my water container and handed it to my out stretched hand and I downed half of the cold bottle.
"Holy hell, you're not that bad I thought you had me there during the pull ups" I heavily breathed out "But never challenge me at Cross Fit again unless you have a death wish"
Dean ended up on the floor too trying to regain himself after he had finished his mile run. Hey, at least he finished. I hit his stomach with my hand when I pushed myself up to sit "Have fun driving for the next two weeks" I laughed under my breath and Roman took my awaiting hand and pulled me up onto my feet.
"That wasn't fair" he breathed out hard "You guys set me up by not telling me she was the Cross Fit Champion"
"I did try to warn you but I've gotta be a champ at something now don't I U.S. Champ?" He groaned as he pushed himself up to stand and when I was downing the rest of my water, he wrapped his bulky arm around my neck and the other around the back of my head to put me in a headlock
"Let's see you try and get out of this one" I pushed my ass back against his groin and his arms let me go instantly.
"Fuck" He muttered out
"Be careful what you wish for Ambrose" I laughed while Seth was laughing off to the side watching us.
We stayed at the gym for another half hour so the other two guys could finish their workouts, while I jogged on the treadmill. Dean was good on his word and took over driving duties while I stayed in the back with Roman. Showers were in order after getting back to the hotel, and then we were off to the WWE Live Event.
"Hey April, where's Punk tonight?" I asked her as she pulled on her long converses and started to tie them up in the ladies locker room. When she didn't answer, I asked her again.
"Oh what? Sorry I'm a total space agent today, Punk had a wizard world thing this morning, now he's at the UFC fights in Chicago and he's flying out tonight for the Rumble tomorrow" I nodded and narrowed my eyes a bit when she went back to tying her shoes.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah" She put on a smile
"Are you and him having problems or something?" She quirked an eyebrow
"Why would you think that?"
"Because I used to act the same way when he was in one of those moods, space agent" She sighed deeply and leaned back against the lockers.
"I don't know if I should be talking about this with you… but whatever, he's been talking about leaving a lot more recently"
"He does that a lot, when has he ever been good on that?"
"I don't know… he's distancing himself, I mean our relationship has always been rocky but last night he told me that we had to have a serious talk when he got here for the Rumble in Pittsburgh. I'm pretty sure he's going to break it off for good" She shifted her weight onto her other leg, she didn't look that upset about this, I would have been devastated.
"You really think he's going to break up with you?" She nodded
"To be honest… I don't know how to feel about it, you know how it is being in a relationship with him; it's stressful more than it is romantic. Especially with all of the health issues he's been having, he's complaining non-stop and I want to be there for him because I really care about him, but I don't know if I want to do it anymore" I swallowed hard, maybe I shouldn't be hearing this after all.
"It seems to me that you already want to be broken up" I told her
"I guess so… I'm sure if he doesn't break up with me tomorrow then I might do it."
"Oh my lord is fucking freezing" I whined while walking down the Pittsburgh street and inside the backstage door, bringing my hands together and moving them together to great some warm friction.
"Guess they upgraded" I heard as I walked down the hallway with Seth.
"Hmm?" I turned my head to a bulking Dave Bautista standing there in the doorway, his bag up on his shoulder.
"No I was just saying that it's good to know the WWE actually has real looking women wrestlers around here, was starting to get worried" I raised an eyebrow, what was he saying? "That's when you say thank you for the compliment."
"Do we have a problem?" Seth asked, his stance getting a big bigger as he faced Bautista. I put my hand down on Seth's.
"Thanks for the compliment; it's good to know you're still an asshole after all of these years"
"Ungrateful bitch" He said and Seth flinched as I wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him away from a retreating Bautista.
"He's such a fucking dick" Seth muttered
"I'm used to it" I told him "Don't let it bug you, he's always been a dick" I kept my arm wrapped around his lower back as his arm came up to wrap around my shoulders, pulling me into his side.
"Thanks for steering me away, that would have been a car crash"
"Yeah, no problem, thanks for trying to be a protective man for me" He chuckled under his breath and squeezed my shoulder before I let him go into the men's locker room.
"Oh Abigail, awesome I ran into you, I have your outfit" I smiled wide at Shannon's words and followed her "I'm sure you'll love it, I took into consideration that you didn't want anything to look manly like the other three and Hunter loved the idea, got the approval this morning" I nodded as I put my bag down on the floor by the wall and she pulled the garment bag from the rack and unzipped it "Do you have those wrestling boots still?"
"Yeah they're in my bag"
"Perfect, so you'll be wearing those with black knee highs and this" She pulled out the two pairs of shorts first, they were black denim but on one back pocket was The Shield logo and on the hem in the front of the right side it said "A.W" my initials. I smiled wide at the vest which looked more like Roman's with the straps but the zip stopped just on my bust line, with the shield logo on the breast. There was a black A.W. The Shield sports spandex bra too to go under it.
"Urg I love it" I gushed
"How do you feel about wearing that tonight?" I looked behind me as Shannon smiled wide; Stephanie was standing there with Melanie, her assistant who had a few pages in her hand.
"Tonight?" I asked while turning around, holding the soft vests in my hand and she nodded.
"We'd like for you to accompany all three men out there tonight"
"Seriously?" I asked, my mouth opening a bit
"Granted you won't be near the ring, I believe Seth is coming from the stands, Dean and Roman are coming from the entrance ramp" Melanie handed me the papers then and I looked down at them. "The Shield cut a promo a few days ago as you know hinting at another member joining soon, we'd like for that to happen tonight."
"So I'm going to pretty much send them all off"
"In any flirtatious way you can, give them a little pep talk before they hit the ring, but show more affection towards Roman" I nodded, flipping the paper. "They'll be a promo recorded in an hour and shown after Orton and Cena's match, you'll be the one that knocks on the door, Seth will open it and all you're going to say is "It's show time boys" that's all"
"I've got it" I smiled at her and she nodded with a big smile
"Are you ready to change the WWE?" She asked and I took in a deep breath, that was such a loaded question "My dad and I believe in you, just have fun with this new role" I nodded
"Thank you again Stephanie" She nodded once before smiling and turning around with Melanie to leave the area.
"Great news!" Shannon said "But we've got to get you changed and in hair and makeup quickly before this promo is recorded" I nodded as she put her hand down on my forearm, getting me out of my haze as I looked at her. "Are you okay sweetie?"
"I'm… better than okay. Changing, in here?" I asked and she nodded as I grabbed my bag and walked into the bathroom and quickly changed into the gear. I zipped up the vest after fixing my breasts; the vest was snug but overall comfortable. I took a few steps away from the mirror and looked myself over, I looked the part.
"Wow" Shannon said
"Damn mama you look hot" Naomi said while getting her outfit for the night.
"Thanks" I laughed under my breath
"How does everything fit?" Shannon asked
"Snug but it's comfortable" I had rolled the black knee high socks down over the top part of the wrestling boots that went up to just below my knees, apparently that looked better plus I wouldn't have to be pulling the socks up the whole night when they would roll down.
"So what are we doing with the hair, The Shield are brawlers so…"
"So straight" I told her and she nodded while setting up the hair straightener but she decided to do my makeup first, a very natural look, just some eyeliner and mascara. My hair was straightened after that quickly and put into a high ponytail and then I made my way back through the hallways to drop off my bag in the women's locker room.
"Holy cow" Seth muttered as I walked through the door downstairs to cut the promo with them.
"Uh… wow" Roman mumbled
"Shit you look hot" Seth hit Dean in the chest over the black hoodie he was wearing for saying that out loud, but all three men were thinking the same thing.
"Don't worry I know I look good" I told all three, the guy with the camera whom I had never met was just staring until I quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Oh right, okay Abigail you're just going to knock on the door when you hear Seth yell" I nodded
"That's just not fair" I heard Roman say as I closed the door and I laughed under my breath while pulling my hair over my shoulder and twirled the ends of the blonde hair between my fingers casually. When I heard Seth start yelling a couple of minutes later, I knocked my knuckles against the black door loudly and a few moments later the door swung open "What" He said in frustration as the camera panned towards me.
"Are you boys done bickering yet? It's show time." Roman bumped Seth out of the way a bit with his shoulder as his arm came around me, pulling me away first from the other two.
"Perfect, that's great guys. Good luck tonight, awesome job Abigail" I smiled at the camera man.
"Get your bulky wet arm off" I pushed Roman's arm away and he chuckled
"You look amazing" He commented "Definitely better in our gear rather than that Wyatt shit"
"You know what? I agree and thank you for helping me with the valet thing for tonight"
"Hmm?" He asked
"You didn't ask Stephanie if I could walk you three out tonight?"
"No are you?"
"Yeah but I'm supposed to be more flirtatious with you big guy" He smirked while pulling his hair back into a ponytail. "Who was it then?" I asked
"Guilty" Dean said and I raised my eyebrow in confusion
"Really? Thank you… that was really awesome of you to do for me"
"When I saw the character clothes you were wearing, how could I have not asked for it sooner?"
"Oh shut up" I laughed, Roman rolled his eyes at Dean's flirt. "You know what would be great right now? Food"
"That sounds like an awesome plan; I was about to head there myself, want company?" Seth asked and I nodded while we walked away from the two eye daggering men.
"Oh yum" I mumbled as I ate a large cookie from a silver tray a few moments later
"Damn cookie monster" Seth said as we sat down
"Well someone looks beautiful as ever, great ring gear" Dolph said and I smiled wide
"Thanks, I'm pretty stoked with it myself" My phone started to buzz in my back pocket and I pulled it out quickly and looked over the number that was calling me, raising my eyebrow in confusion "Excuse me guys" I mumbled while walking away and putting the phone up to my ear.
"Hi?" I asked
"Hey Abs, its Phil are you around the arena in Pitts today?"
"Yeah I'm in catering? What's going on?"
"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind meeting up with me. I gotta talk to someone before I blow a fucking gasket"
"Yeah sure… no problem, where are you?"
"Locker room, stay at catering I'll meet you there in a few minutes"
"Sounds good, see you then" I hung up and slid my phone into my back pocket and then took the last bite of my cookie before walking over to the table I was at. Seth nudged my elbow and I glanced at him.
"Everything good?"
"Yeah, I um… Phil just needs to talk for a bit" His eyebrows lifted a bit
"Really?" His voice was low, annoyed.
"Yeah, so don't be a dick"
"No reason to" He muttered and took a long sip of his water.
"Yeah okay" I muttered sarcastically
"Did you say Phil was swinging by?" Dolph asked and I sighed, of course someone else heard his name from my mouth.
"Yeah why?"
"You hear that AJ broke up with him this morning? She's not here tonight" Zack said and I raised my eyebrows, my ears perking up a bit.
"Really now?"
"Yeah way out of left field, thought those two were in it for the long haul" I nodded slowly, apparently April didn't think so. "You two used to go out right?" I glanced over at Zack and nodded
"Yeah that was a few years ago though, we've stayed friends sort of" I sighed again, feeling a pair of eyes on me from behind, I looked back and Phil was there covered in a gray Gracie hoodie, his gear on but his MMA black shorts were on over his trunks. "I'll see you guys later, if not, good luck in the Rumble tonight" I patted Seth's shoulder before getting up and walking over to him.
"Great ring gear" He said and I smiled gently and nodded
"Thanks, pretty great huh?"
"Looks badass to be honest, Seth was right to push for you to be in that group"
"I'm glad he did now, I'm accompanying them to the rumble tonight so that should be fun… but what's going on with you?"
"April and I broke up"
"I just heard from Zack, I'm sorry to hear"
"I'm not, I was going to call it off this morning but she beat me to the punch" I rolled my eyes and he pushed a door open and I walked through it as he followed close behind. We found some stairs in a hallway to sit down and talk in private.
"So you're okay with the whole break up thing, what else is going on?" I asked while looking over his face, he did look really worn out.
"The company wants to have me face Kane at elimination chamber, but wants me to tell fans I have a concussion, they're hell bent on this concussion shit and it's pissing me off"
"So you don't want to do it, tell them that"
"I have, they said they'll try and rewrite it but I got a meeting tomorrow with Vince and creative to figure something out that we're both happy with"
"Then hopefully that works out, they've always jerked you around I'm not really surprised they're doing it now" he nodded and looked me over before putting his head back against the wall with a sigh.
"I've got about 5 months left on my contract, I don't know if I can last that long…" Usually I could hear the confliction in his voice when he used to say that to me but now it was set, it was final.
"Are you just going to up and quit wrestling? Because I remember you telling me a few times that wrestling was in your blood"
"You're also the one that pushed me into coming back here, so maybe you'll be able to keep me here this time again"
"Phil" I whispered with a sigh, scooting over a bit to put my hand down on his as he looked at me now other than the ceiling "I can't be that person that keeps you here, sure I can tell you that hey I'm here now so you'll have me to look forward to when you come to work, or that your millions of fans will be upset if you just up and leave… but that final decision is up to you. I know we've had a rocky friendship after we split but I still consider us friends, you need to be happy and if this isn't what makes you happy then you need to figure out what will make you happy because it's your life" He nodded at my words and took a moment for himself to process that in his head.
"So we'd still be friends even if I just quit?"
"Of course, I'll be a little upset that you did it but I understand what this company has put you through probably better than anyone"
"You know you really do look great" I smiled and rolled my eyes
"Oh stop, this isn't about me right now this is about you"
"My problems are put on the back burner right now, seriously let's talk about you to get my mind off of this, how excited were you when you got the call up?"
"More nervous I'd say, happy that people have been nice other than the selected few like Alicia, Aksana and Dave"
"What did Dave do?"
"He still has issues with me since us… he gave me a compliment and just called me like an ungrateful bitch for not saying thank you after"
"He what?" He asked, bringing his head from the wall to look at me, his eyes flashing with anger
"It's fine, I took care of it already"
"Dave's been a dick since he came back last week, I don't know what's going on" He sighed and looked back at the closed door before looking back at me "So what have you been up to other than this?"
"Nothing really, Colt asked me to join his podcast next week so I'll be heading up to Chicago after Smackdown Tuesday night"
"That should be fun, I think he mentioned something about that last week, it's good he asked you to do that it'll be fun, I'm glad they're finally seeing the potential in you I know you'll be around for a while"
"Well I don't know about that, I only inked a 2 year deal but I know with this storyline big things are supposed to be happening so I can't really complain"
"So no boyfriends that are going to be missing you while you're on the road for 2 years?"
"None, I sort of sworn off guys, dates here and there but nothing really stuck ya know?" He nodded, sort of understanding the real reason why I had sworn off guys.
"Maybe we can grab a bite if you're in the city for Cabana's podcast"
"A bite or a date Punk?" I asked and he shrugged "I don't think we should touch that…"
"Just food" I nodded at his words before pushing myself up to stand
"Yeah we can get a bite to eat, I haven't been to Chicago in a while it'll be good" He nodded as we walked up the steps to the door "You obviously have my number, I'll shoot you a text when I'm in town and we'll figure it out from there"
"Sounds like a plan" I put my hand on the door handle and was about to pull it open but he put his hand down on my shoulder "Thanks for the talk, I really thought I was going to explode without talking it out to someone who understood" I let my hand fall away from the handle and turned towards him.
"You know I'm always here for you… we've been through a lot so I mean…"
"A lot is an understatement" He sighed "How are you doing with that? We haven't really brought that up since it happened…" I leaned my back against the steel door and shrugged
"I dealt with it, you dealt with it. It's not a great memory to bring up that's for sure"
"Yeah I know what you mean, I remember you saying you were okay but I know you better than that"
"I'm okay now, it was tough in the beginning, with my dad passing away and then on top of that all of those stupid tests I had to take and shit… but after I was done with that I got back into working out, I'm in the best shape of my life and I'm doing what I love"
"I would have stayed you know" he whispered, keeping his eyes on mine.
"I know you would have, that's why I pushed you to come back to this company, you needed wrestling and I sort of just needed to be alone to deal with it" I watched his jaw tense a bit "Look… what we had was awesome, it was a lot of fun but it just wasn't supposed to work out, or that's what my therapist said" He nodded as he brought his hand up and brushed the loose strands of blonde hair behind my ear before rubbing his thumb against my cheek gently.
"Those were some of the best times huh?" I nodded and brought my hand up to cover his once his palm covered my cheek to keep it there. "I saw you and Roman the other day, sure he'd be a little pissed if he found us like this right now"
"Roman's really protective" I whispered "He has his reasons"
"You two are bunking together" He mentioned
"If you're asking if I'm sleeping with him? Then I should tell you now that I'm not, I have a strict no sleeping-with-guys-who-I'm-traveling-with rule, makes it all less messy" He smirked as he brought himself closer, his other hand coming up to brush over my other cheek gently.
"I really fucking missed you ya know"
"I missed you too" I whispered as my hands went to his chest when he went to lean in a bit more "But this can't happen" I told him, keeping my eyes on his "I can't be in a relationship, I can't do this with you…"
"Relationship? Hell I can't do one of those either, I fuck them up all the time" I smirked when he said that so seriously and the corner of his lips turned up into a grin. "Seth and Roman want to kick my ass anyways, I'm just giving them more of a reason to" Before I could stop him again, he leaned in quick and pressed his lips against mine. My fingers stilled on the white CM Punk t shirt he was wearing under his unzipped hoodie before they started to curl to grip the material, pulling him closer as my lips molded against his. One of his feet nudged mine which slid to the side a bit to part my legs as his hand slid down my side to grip my hip.
"Phil" I breathed out as his lips pressed to my jaw lightly and down to my throat "C'mon" I whispered and he pulled his face away from my skin to look at me "We can't do this, as much as I missed kissing you and being this close to you, we can't" He let me go then
"I know, I know… lunch next week alright, that's all" I nodded
"Kick ass tonight alright?" He smiled softly and nodded
"You do look amazing" He looked me over again and bit his knuckle to emphasize it and I pushed at his shoulder
"Loser, get out of here" He chuckled as I let him pass out the door to leave me in the hallway alone. "What am I doing?" I whispered to myself as I crouched down against the wall and put my hands over my face to get my thoughts in order.
"You okay?" I quickly glanced up to see Dean standing there, body leaning against the side wall on the stairs
"Yeah… I didn't hear you there, I'm fine" He nodded and looked down at his black boots.
"I came to come find you to figure out what you're going to be doing to act 'flirtatious' towards me out there" He air quoted the word flirtatious with his fingers and I smirked before standing up.
"Now wouldn't you like to know" I winked at him, putting away the bad thoughts to the back of my head while pulling the door open.
"C'mon what are you going to do?"
"You're a professional, I'm a professional. It's not like I'm going to kiss you out there, that would throw EVERYONE for a loop" He chuckled behind me before he came up to the side of me and then he was in front of me walking backwards down the hallway so he was facing me.
"Just tell me, what's the big deal?" He asked with a grin on his face
"I might say something in your ear, I don't know, touch your arm… I haven't thought about it yet"
"Touch my arm?" He asked "You touch my arms all the time toots, I've seen you in the ring, you've got a burning fire, what are you going to do to stand out with me?"
"Someone's been you tubing me haven't they?"
"Might have… it gets boring at night… that ballsplex you do is golden" I smirked "Now come on" He stopped walking and it made me stop as I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Believe me all I need to do is touch you and whisper something in your ear as a flirtatious pep talk Dean" I walked by him, running my hand across his chest slowly with my fingernails and leaned up against his ear "Flirtatious is my middle name Dean, maybe you should stop being so damn cocky all the time" I nipped at the side of his ear gently, smelling his cologne "Go get 'em toots" I patted his shoulder and pulled away with a grin on my face walking away from him.
"What was that about?" Roman asked as I walked into the room he was standing outside of.
"He wanted me to show him how I was going to flirt with him out there" He chuckled as Dean finally moved from his spot.
"Not too bad" He commented
"She totally got you dude" Seth said with a laugh as Dean shook his head.
I knew I had him, I always had them.
