16 Years Later

"Could you imagine though!" Paige let out a laugh as she asked the question to the woman currently lying flat on her back in the ring.

Kennedy grinned up at her training partner and scrambled to her feet. It was her first proper day of training at the Performance Centre after finishing college. Wrestling was something she always wanted to do but she had to get her degree first, that was the deal her parents had struck. And Kennedy was glad for it. She loved college from start to finish. But every break she had spent in the ring. Her spare time was spent in the ring. She had been training since she was four years old when her father would roll around with her and her brother in arenas across the country. Now she was hard at work, trying to get rid of any ring rust and that was what had sparked their current discussion of what it would be like for the new starts trying to wrestle without knowing how to do anything. It was coming to the end of their session and both had fallen into relaxed conversation. "It would probably look a little something like this…" Kennedy suddenly trailed off and grabbed her friend by the head, applying a sloppy headlock and staggering around the ring like a fool before they both lightly fell to the mat with a heavy plop.

"We shouldn't even do that," Paige smiled sheepishly. "They're probably about here and can hear us."

"Oh that's fine. They'll soon learn. Everybody has to start somewhere," Kennedy replied with no ill will to the new girls at all. The fact was, not everybody had been afforded the same privilege that she had been. Her life had involved wrestling from even before she was born. So had Paige's. That's why the two girls had bonded so quickly. They had been born into wrestling families and knew what it was like to grow up with the business in your blood. Granted, one experience was still vastly different from the other but they were still the same at heart. It just so happened that Kennedy was a member of the first family of wrestling. That's what set her apart from everybody else. Her mother always said it was both a blessing and a curse. The older she got, the more Kennedy agreed. Getting to her feet once again, she extended her hand and hauled the black haired woman up. "Come on, I think I remember something about a special promo class in an hour that we should probably go to."

Paige rolled her eyes as they exited the ring. She was looking forward to a nice long shower but sadly that was a luxury she couldn't afford these days. She was just about to respond when she noticed a man staring a hole through the both of them from the folding chairs a few feet away. They walked past and she swore she heard him mumble something under his breath. When her friend stopped dead in her tracks her suspicions were confirmed.

"Excuse me?"

The man shook his head teasingly and widened his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You heard me."

Kennedy looked at him in confusion. "I'm afraid I didn't."

Dean Ambrose stared at her blankly. "Well obviously. You must hear as well as you wrestle." He had arrived for his training session and had been watching the two of them in the ring for the past five minutes; just killing time waiting for them to finish up when the horror show they had put on made his gut burn. And he knew Paige could work so this new chick was clearly the reason for it.

"What the hell is your problem?" Kennedy glared angrily at the man pacing in front of her. She could feel the eyes of the entire room watching their every movement. But she didn't care. This asshole had picked a fight with her for no reason and she wanted to know why.

Dean suddenly stopped pacing and glared right back. "I don't have a problem. Looks to me like you're the one with the problem if you can't do a simple headlock." His head jerked forward to emphasize his point and he stepped into her personal space, suddenly infuriated by the faint waft of perfume that drifted up his nose. It reeked of arrogance and wealth, just like everything else about her. Her honey blonde hair sat perfectly around her face despite the strenuous ring activity she had just undertaken. Everything about her irritated him, right down to her latest edition Nike workout gear. Her brown eyes flashed with her own annoyance and he scowled, daring her to refute his point.

"Don't act like you know anything about me. Not that it's any of your business but we were messing around. It has nothing to do with you so back the hell off!" Kennedy squared up to him rather than step back. Who the hell did he think he was talking to her like that? He was lucky she didn't slap the bitter taste out of his mouth.

"It has everything to do with me. You think I'm going to sit quietly while the likes of you and all the other little bimbos get called up because you've get a nice set of tits? No!"

This time Kennedy did take a step back. It was the look in his eyes, a wild look, that forced her to move away from him. This guy was a fucking lunatic. His scruffy hair and unkempt appearance spoke to that. He was clearly unhinged at the very least and she no longer wanted anything to do with him. But before anything else happened, another unfamiliar man, this one with two tone hair, stepped between the pair and pulled the lunatic slowly backwards. He turned to her and apologized profusely and Kennedy nodded her head, thankful for this stranger's appearance. She watched them both, her eyes still flashing with rage, as the two tone haired man pushed the other guy until they disappeared to the changing area. It was only then that she let out the breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Ignoring the stunned faces surrounding her, Kennedy glanced to the apparent reason behind all this and half smiled. "Thanks for running the ropes with me, Paige. See you tomorrow."

Kennedy didn't wait to see the young Brit return her smile. She simply had to get out of there.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, man?"

"What the fuck is wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with you!" Dean screamed into the face of one of the only people he would describe as a friend, Seth Rollins. "Why did you pull me back? That fucking chick deserved to hear everything I said. I'm sick of these untalented bitches getting call ups because they flash their tits at the trainers. It's a joke."

Seth Rollins couldn't believe this was happening right now. Dean could be a complete fucking moron when he wanted to be. Funny how that seemed to be all the time. He rubbed a hand over his face and then stared at the other man pointedly. "Do you have any idea who 'that fucking chick' out there is? Because if you do then you're even more stupid than I thought." The confused look he received in response brought a somewhat welcome sigh of relief. At least Ambrose hadn't done it intentionally. He hoped. "You don't know, do you?"

"Why does it matter? They're all the same."

"No, you idiot!" Rollins murmured, accentuating his point with a light shove to the shoulder. "That 'fucking chick' is Kennedy Levesque."

It took all of a second for Dean to realize what he had done and all of a sudden he felt an uncontrollable rage consume his body. "FUCK!" He walked to the nearest locker and punched it fiercely, bringing back his hand to do it again when he was stopped. "I can't believe it-who the fuck-what is she even doing here in the first place…"

Rollins had to physically restrain the other man as he started speaking incoherently, his fists trying to lash out at anything in sight. "Stop! Alright? This is crazy, man. How many times has your damn mouth got you in trouble over something that was completely avoidable if you weren't such an asshole?"

If anybody else had said that to him Dean would have popped them in the face. But Seth was one of the few guys he considered a peer, that he respected. They had both worked the indies before coming here and in Dean's opinion, were miles ahead of everybody else in ability. They had been since they arrived in developmental two years ago. Yet they had watched call up after call up pass them by while they were still here. It made him sick. He deserved better, they both did. That's why he wasn't going to lay a hand on Rollins. He was only trying to help him after all. "I just…get so worked up. I can't…."

"I know. But Jesus, Dean. You just might have finally gone a bridge too far with this one. If Hunter finds out about this…"

Dean didn't even want to think about it, or what he had just done. He had berated the boss's daughter in front of everybody and had implied that she didn't know what she was doing. Although everything he thought about her during their interaction together had been proven right given the new information about her. That God awful stench she called perfume was a perfect match to who she was in his opinion; arrogant, wealthy and probably a spoiled little rich bitch who wouldn't know a hard day's work if it bit her in the ass. Of course she was going to go running to daddy the first chance she got. And at that moment the reality of his situation set in. Dean rubbed a hand over his face and uttered the only word to describe how he felt at that moment, "Fuck."

Hey everyone. The timeline for this story is set in modern times but I have taken a few liberties with the ages of the characters. If there's any confusion, just ask, but things will become more clear as the story progresses and flashbacks occur etc.

Thanks :-)