Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Thanks so Ashjovillette, dashingconverse, justkimmy, poetic heart 75, and XxHoundsOfJusticexX for the reviews, and thanks to everyone that has followed/favorited this one so far.

Part Two

He flinched at the sound of a phone ringing, the man automatically reaching out to smack it off the night stand or something... Only to barely manage to catch himself from falling off the bed. His brow furrowing, he raised up a little, his gaze moving around the room... Quickly falling on Roman Reigns, who had now answered the phone, the man talking quietly as he made his way to the bathroom and closed the door. Ambrose frowned at the sight, unable to stop the flare of distrust that came, the man wondering why Roman would take the call there... But then he pushed himself up from where he'd been sprawled across the foot of his bed, his gaze going to the person that was actually sleeping in his bed... Eve Torres. Likely, Roman hadn't wanted to wake her up with the phone call, and Dean figured he couldn't blame the man for that. Eve hadn't taken what had happened the night before very well, and Ambrose knew that wasn't made any better by the way he'd first reacted when he and Roman had gotten back to the hotel and she'd come to check on them.

"Damn it," the man muttered, jerking a hand through his messy hair, his gaze going back to the former diva. She hadn't seemed to want to go back to her room the night before - the room that had technically been hers and Seth's - and in the end, she'd managed to fall asleep here, so Dean had left her in his bed, then debated about sleeping on the floor before just stretching out at the foot of the bed instead. Not the most comfortable way to sleep - the bed wasn't quite wide enough, so sleeping across it had left his feet hanging off the end - but it had been better than the floor, and he'd figured that Eve wouldn't react too well if she'd woke up to find him actually *in* bed with her... Even if he hadn't done anything.

Shaking his head slightly, Ambrose studied Eve with a frown. The covers were pulled up to her shoulders, so he couldn't see too much of her, though he knew that she was still wearing her clothes from the night before. The only thing she'd taken off were her shoes. He could still see the tracks on her face from her tears the night before, as well as the remnants of some mascara just beneath her eyes. She looked sad, even in her sleep, and he couldn't exactly blame her. Yeah, okay, Seth hadn't taken a steel chair to her like he had to him and Roman (and if he had, the little bastard would die even harder than Dean already planned to make him die), but he'd pulled his double-cross without letting her in on it, basically picking up and leaving and not even responding when she'd tried to contact him... Seth had deserted her as much as he had the rest of them, just without the added physical assault.

Shaking his head, Dean swung his legs out, letting his feet rest on the floor. Turning toward the mirror, he frowned, then stood up, making his way over. He was still wearing his jeans from the night before, having slept in them, but he'd taken off his shirt before going to bed, and he could see some definite bruising coming up in a couple of places from the chairshots he'd been hit with. Truth be told, though, the bruises weren't as bad as he'd expected. Given the fact that Roman had been beat up pretty bad at Payback to go along with the beating the night before... Dean figured he probably had fewer bruises all in all, and bruises would heal. He'd be good to go in the ring whenever they scheduled him for his next match.

And given the way he was ready for a fight? God help whoever he stepped into the ring against.

The sound of the bathroom door opening caught Dean's attention then, the man glancing over as Roman came out of the room, phone still in hand, a frown on his face. Dean arched a brow.

"What is it?"

Roman flicked a look at the still-sleeping Eve, then made a gesture that Ambrose was pretty sure meant that he should keep his voice down. Obviously, Roman didn't want to wake Eve up, and Dean couldn't really blame him. At least when she was sleeping, she wasn't crying. Making his way over to where Roman was standing, Ambrose arched a brow at his fellow Shield member. Roman held up his phone.

"I just got a call from SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero," he said, keeping his voice low, and Dean made a face.

"That is not a voice I'd want to hear in my ear first thing in the morning. Or, you know, ever," he muttered, drawing what was almost a smile from Reigns before the other man grew serious again.

"She wanted to talk to me - well, to us - about SmackDown this week. I told her I would give you the message, which means you *don't* have to hear her voice in your ear, which kind of means you owe me one, man," Roman said, and Dean nodded slightly, then frowned, arching a brow.

"Let me guess. We have to be at SmackDown this week for a match, and it's going to be some sort of seven-on-two handicap match or something," Ambrose said, and Roman shook his head.

"Nope. Pretty much the opposite, actually. She tossed around some faux concern about our possible injuries after Payback and last night, bringing up the fact that we'd refused medical attention and all of that. Then she told me that, in good conscience, she couldn't put us in any sort of match on SmackDown this week, not after what happened."

Ambrose snorted. "That woman has no conscience. That's one of the reasons she's lasted so long in a position of authority in the WWE. She panders to the bigshots, especially when they're assholes."

"Which likely means she was told to do this, too. She told me that we're not needed at SmackDown, and that, in fact, we aren't supposed to be there at all. We have that night off. It seemed pretty clear that we're not wanted there."

"Which likely means that Seth and his new friends *will* be there," Ambrose said, and Roman nodded.

"That's my thought exactly."

"Well, then... I guess me and you? Are going to SmackDown. Whether the Authority likes it or not," he said, earning another nod from Roman, the man then flicking a look to the woman that was asleep in the room.

"And Eve?" Roman asked.

"She's been gone from the company for over a year, and I don't want to see her get hurt. We leave her out of this, and hope to hell that Seth has the good sense to do the same."