It's Never Gonna Feel Quite The Same
-July 20, 2014; Tampa, Florida-
"Good luck tonight," Tessa said to Darcy as the latter pulled her suitcase away from the car.
"Thanks," Darcy said, pausing to turn around and face the woman she had just driven with from Orlando. "I don't like you," she said firmly, "and I sure as hell don't like what you did. Sami isn't really my friend but he's a good guy and you don't deserve him. Leighla doesn't deserve what you did to her. One and a half hours in a car together isn't going to change how I feel about you."
"I wasn't expecting it to," Tessa responded. "I admire your loyalty a lot."
"Yeah, I try not to fuck over the people I care about, you know?"
The smile Tessa had been forcing dropped completely when Darcy turned her back and started to walk into the arena.
There was a large part of her that didn't want to be going back to work, purely because of the way people were going to react, but it was all negated by her need to be back in the ring. The past week had been spent in Orlando where she used the Performance Center to her full advantage: getting involved in drills, having practice matches, using The Mirror, working out in the gym, spending a lot of time talking to the physicians. She wanted to put all that hard work to good use.
It had been long since decided that Brie would meet Tessa in the parking lot so that she wouldn't have to feed herself to the wolves. As promised, Brie met her at the roller door and her smile was only getting bigger with every step forward that Tessa took.
"You look great," Brie commented, helping Tessa with the bag that had been hoisted over her shoulder.
"The Performance Center is next level," Tessa said. "It's unbelievable how good a place that is. I would have given anything to get my start there."
"Tell me about it!" Brie agreed. "They've got it so easy! Everything in one place, sturdy equipment-"
"I'm pretty sure FCW was better than The Academy," Tessa said to remind Brie that she hadn't had it too bad. "Better than Punk."
Brie laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right."
The atmosphere backstage in the arena was no different than when Tessa had left a month earlier. It didn't seem like people cared very much about what she had done but she was also aware that the people she was passing had little reason to care.
They didn't stop on their way to the locker room – Tessa wanted to drop her things off and get ready before she had to think about being confronted by Rami or Colby. She didn't even want to see Claudio. In the locker room the girls had clearly made themselves at home with clothes and make up scattered throughout the room and Tessa rolled her eyes.
"You all got worse," she commented, dropping her things down into an empty space. Brie didn't say anything she just started rifling through her own bag. "Do I look okay? I can wear this out there, right?"
"Of course you can," Brie answered without looking up. "You look cute. Perfect for turning on Sami."
Tessa patted down her dress and looked at herself in the mirror situated on the wall before pulling a pair of heels out of her bag.
She had discussed her new storyline with Triple H when he had been down at NXT. She had talked to neither Rami nor Dolph about how they would all be working together but what she was to be doing that night was easily enough organised during the few hours before the show. The storyline wasn't exactly something she wanted to be doing but Stephanie had kept to her word and there would be no mentions of Tia cheating on Sami – she hoped the WWE Universe wouldn't assume that themselves.
"I guess I should report to Carano."
By the time she found Carano, she had been found by the other Divas – most of whom were more than happy to see her. AJ, to nobody's surprise, steered clear and Tessa was grateful. It was only a matter of time before they had to work together and she could wait until then for the guaranteed clash. She had also passed most of the Superstars, a few had smiled while others hadn't even acknowledged her. As she had expected.
"Did you make it okay? Darcy was okay?"
"She was great," Tessa answered and it wasn't a lie. Darcy had been perfect until they got out of the car.
"How's your knee?"
"Great. The physicians down at NXT really know what they're doing."
"I'm glad to hear it. When you get the chance you should talk to Stephanie and she will discuss some of the finer details of your return," he pulled some papers off of the nearby table. "These are yours – I trust that you received them during the week but just to be sure. Dolph and Sami go on in the fifth segment, you'll need to talk to them both before they go on. Any questions?"
"No sir, none at all."
"Welcome back, Miss Scobille."
She smiled as genuinely as possible but she knew that it looked tight – that's exactly how it felt.
Summer was the next person to speak to Carano, so Tessa hung around outside the temporary office for her friend. She played on her phone while she waited and smiled at anybody who actively tried to get her attention and say hello.
"I'm a little devastated that we aren't working together anymore," Summer said as she walked out of her meeting. "It was good for me."
"It was so fun working with you. I'm just as devastated, believe me. I wish I could just go back to wrestling instead of being used to further guys' storylines. We could have a proper feud instead of it being because of the boys."
Summer shrugged, "TV time is TV time. That's what we're all fighting for here."
Tessa sighed. "We shouldn't have to fight. I mean, of course we should be fighting for our places but it should not be fighting just to get more than two minutes on television."
"I've said it before, if you want to go to Vince with a fire lit under your ass and then by all means, go ahead," Summer said, extending her arm to gesture Tessa in the direction of their boss. Tessa rolled her eyes because even if she wanted the changes she also liked her job enough to not cause too many more problems.
A smile grew on Summer's face at something over Tessa's shoulder which caused her to look backwards and see Dolph Ziggler walking in their direction.
"How's my newest girlfriend?" Dolph asked as he casually dropped his arm over Tessa's shoulders. "She looks great."
"She feels a bit nauseous," Tessa responded quietly.
"No need – it's going to be great!"
"I really hope so."
Summer disappeared moments later with a kind smile and Tessa wasn't sure why – until she saw Rami walking towards them. She tried to not be obviously startled because it was always going to happen but when he greeted Dolph with a hand shake Tessa couldn't even squeak out a 'hello'. Any hopes of even offering him a shy, sad smile were dashed when she realised that she was frozen in place.
"We've been talking about the match," Dolph said quickly, sensing the tension. "We've got it all organised. There isn't a specific time you have to come out but the end is DQ by title shot. We need you to come down, hold the title like you used to and then-"
"Somehow get it to you," Tessa said quietly. "I've done it before."
"Just making sure," Dolph tells her. "Just look sorry when you come out, have everyone believing that Tia wants to get back with Sami."
"Have you got one last run through?" she asked, keeping her eyes on the writing on Dolph's shirt.
"Yeah in about twenty minutes we have the ring. You gonna come down?"
"Of course."
Live at Battleground
Tia walked down the ramp slowly, watching with fearful eyes as the two men in the ring continued their match. When Sami Zayn noticed a figure walking towards the ring, he turned around and his jaw dropped when he saw Tia.
"Concentrate!" she told him, pointing back into the ring where Dolph Ziggler was ready to take advantage of Zayn's momentary lapse in concentration.
Hastily walking to the small closed off section beside commentary, Tia reached over and asked for the Intercontinental Championship.
"I always hold the belt," she reminded Lilian Garcia who hesitantly handed it over. Everyone was shocked to see Tia.
"What is she doing here?" JBL asked his broadcast partners, taking his eyes off of the match just as Ziggler locked in a sleeper hold.
"She's here to get her boyfriend back!" King exclaimed. "She's even holding his belt like she always does."
"Tia has no business being here! She hasn't been seen in nearly a month. She and Zayn are broken up!"
Tia, who was standing in front of the commentators, turned to the three men with a sad smile before facing the ring. She held the championship closely to her chest and watched the match intently, cheering on Zayn and trying to build up some momentum.
Zayn was moments away from hitting the Helluva Kick when Tia climbed onto the ring apron, getting the attention of Scott Armstrong, the referee. She had left the championship on the ring mat as she argued with the referee, gaining the attention of both Zayn and Ziggler.
"T, I've got this. Just get down," Zayn told her, walking towards her. While neither he nor Armstrong were looking, Tia discretely kicked the white championship in Ziggler's direction and he reached down to pick it up, quickly hitting Zayn with it before dropping it, kicking it back to Tia and covering the champion.
"He can't win this way!" King shouted in horror.
"Zayn shouldn't have gotten distracted!" JBL defended Ziggler while Michael Cole called the action.
Dropping down off the apron with a shrug, Tia smirked widely as the crowd jeered and Armstrong slid onto his stomach, counting the pin.
The boos from the crowd filled Tia with a huge sense of accomplishment and she continued to smile as she climbed back onto the apron and into the ring. Ziggler was waiting for her with in the centre of the ring so she bent down to pick up his new championship and handed it over to him before she moved into his arms.
They both jerked away from Armstrong as he tried to raise Ziggler's arm and officially declare him the winner and Tia did it herself. Ziggler looked at her and then she smiled up at him. He leaned forward, kissing her as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"This isn't right!"
"This is beautiful! Look at Tia; she looks happier now than she ever did with Sami Zayn!"
a/n I know, I know, I said it wouldn't take long and well… It did. I've kind of gotten out of wrestling a little recently with most of what I know coming from Tumblr so it's a bit hard to write wrestling fanfic when I'm not as into it any more. Hopefully that'll change and I'll pick it up again soon.
