Chapter Three

Flashback...

2010...

Kellie, Tammy and the three men that would eventually go on to become The Shield all initially met in Florida, on the developmental territories of the WWE. During a match that had involved The Undertaker, Kellie had taken a nasty fall, resulting in both her right hip and knee being virtually smashed to bits. She had spent months in hospital and in physiotherapy in order to learn to walk again. As a result, she would never wrestle again, not intensely anyway. But when she was given the opportunity to become a trainer/mentor for the developmental territories, Kellie had taken it. She had been there ever since.

Tammy's father, Mark Calloway, had felt awful for what had happened. He felt responsible for causing the younger woman's retirement at such an early stage in her career. He had worked with Kellie's father, Bret Hart, and her uncles, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog, for years and both men's daughters had been childhood friends. Kellie told him straight that it had been an accident that nobody could have predicted, and he shouldn't beat himself up over it. After all, neither of them were to know that the announcer's table would fight back that night and decide to take her hip and knee out in the process. Mark argued that she was letting him off too lightly.

Kellie was perched on the edge of the ring, going through her diary and working on her iPad on the day when he walked in. Kellie had been informed a week or so before that there would be some new trainees joining the company and they would be coming to her and her fellow trainers for training and preparation for FCW and then, hopefully, eventually move up to the main WWE roster. She became aware of people walking in and glanced up briefly before going back to her iPad. At first she didn't pay a huge amount of attention as it was the regular trainees and the FCW stars arriving for that day's training.

But as they filtered in and went off to either the rings, the mats or other equipment areas, that's when she saw the two new boys. She guessed this must be Colby Lopez and Leati Joseph Anoa'i. When Kellie's brain caught up with her and she laid eyes on the tall Samoan man, she very nearly fell off the ring. He was stunning! Leati Joseph Anoa'i was tall, had long black hair and it was obvious he worked out hard. Kellie found herself wondering if, under his clothes, his body matched what she thought he would look like naked.

When she became aware of someone giving her a shove in the shoulder, Kellie pulled herself back to reality. It was Tammy Calloway, one of the women that Kellie was personally training. Tammy always arrived early to get in some extra training before the others got there. She was determined to make it on her own merits, not just because her father was one of the biggest stars in WWE or because Kellie was a childhood friend of hers.

When Tammy had first come to the training facility, many people had thought Tammy was going to use her name and her friendship with Kellie to get ahead. But if anything, Kellie was probably tougher on her friend than anyone else. Being friends outside of the business was one thing but, once you got in the ring, Kellie was a professional. She was from one of the most famous wrestling families ever and she had a reputation making the new trainees work damn hard for a place on the main roster. She was the one to impress as it was her that Vince McMahon went to when he needed 'fresh meat' for his shows.

Tammy followed Kellie's line of sight and clocked the two newbies. "So, that would explain why I've just spent the past few minutes trying to get your attention but thought you were ignoring me."

Kellie, feeling slightly foolish, smiled shyly. "Um, yeah, sorry, I got a bit distracted." Putting her diary and iPad away, Kellie dragged herself into the ring to join the awaiting Divas-in-training.

Tammy took to Colby right away. She thought he was cute and proceeded to start flirting and chatting him up almost immediately and, within the week, she had talked him into going for a date. The Friday evening when they finished up training for the week, Kellie wished Tammy luck and jokingly told the two of them to not get into too much trouble, as she was still expecting them to turn up for training on Monday, date or no date. Within weeks they were officially dating.

Over the next few weeks, Kellie found it hard to concentrate with Joe around. She would often find any excuse to just watch him training in the ring with the other trainers and recruits. Not only was he nice to look at, Joe could also hold an intelligent conversation. But despite how she felt, Kellie just didn't have the courage to ask him out for that all important first date.

It was the most random thing that ended up getting them out on that first date. It was late on a Thursday evening and Kellie thought she was the only person still left in the building, apart from the cleaners and the security guard. She was sat in one of the rings and had originally been sorting out her last bit of paperwork before calling it a night. That week had been incredibly busy and stressful and Kellie was on the verge of tears. It didn't help that she was hormonal. Stopping her paperwork, she went to her bag and pulled out her diary. She knew the signs; she was due on her period. As she got her diary, the small photo album she always kept with her fell out.

Picking it up, Kellie forgot about her paperwork and her diary, and looked through the photos. It was full of her favourite family photos; the family members she actually cared about like her parents, her grandparents and the two uncles she was – or had been – close to. It was the photo of her, as an eleven year old, with her uncle Davey-Boy Smith, at Summerslam Slam '92 that caused her to start silently crying. Even years later, she still missed him like crazy. She was glad she was on her own...or so she thought.

Joe was late leaving the building that evening. He had gotten into a telephone conversation in the changing room that had taken a lot longer than expected and, when he finished it and finally got to finish dressing and leave, everyone else had gone apart from the usual evening staff of cleaners and security. Or, at least, he thought they had gone. He spotted Kellie at on her own in one of the rings, looking incredibly sad, staring at what looked like a photo album. It looked like she had been crying.

"Hey," he said quietly, approaching the ring with caution. "You okay?" Kellie nearly jumped out of her skin. Joe smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Frantically wiping the tears away from her face, Kellie try to force a smile. Dammit! He would have to go and find me when I look and feel like shit. She closed the photo album. "I, um, I'm fine."

Joe slid under the bottom rope and sat, cross legged, almost in front of her. He gently placed a hand on her arm. "Are you sure?"

"Yes..." Kellie wasn't sure she sounded as convincing as she was hoping.

Joe paused and seemed to be thinking about something. "Look, I was wondering. Would you like to, maybe, go for a coffee or something? There's an all night cafe near here and Colby won't be home for hours yet, knowing him, assuming he comes home at all... and I don't really fancy the idea of going back to an empty apartment."

The offer was tempting. Kellie also faced the idea of going back to an empty apartment. She and Tammy shared a rented place not far from the training facility. From what she had heard from Tammy, Colby and Joe also shared an apartment nearby. Tammy and Colby were both out on yet another date and, from what Kellie could gather, they wouldn't be back especially early. It sounded like Tammy had her claws well and truly into Colby but he didn't seem to be complaining.

Kellie packed up her paperwork and, with Joe's help, she took it back to the office area. She took up Joe's offer of that coffee. They walked together slowly towards the cafe, enjoying the warm summer evening and chatting all the while. Once they were at their destination and had ordered, Joe got up the courage to ask about the photo album. Kellie was a little reluctant to talk about it. It was an area of her life she didn't like to talk about it with just anyone, especially after she nearly had a breakdown at one point thanks to her family. It took a lot for her to open up about it to somebody she didn't know so well.

Kellie pulled the photo album from her bag and slid it over to Joe's side of the table. "It's of my family...well, the ones I actually care about."

With gentle coaxing from Joe, Kellie found herself opening up a little that evening; telling him some of why she didn't talk to about ninety percent of her living family apart from her parents and her uncle, Owen Hart. She didn't mention the part about her being into BDSM, only that her family didn't approve of her sexuality or her lifestyle, which wasn't exactly a lie. At the end of their unofficial date, Joe walked her home. Kellie saw Tammy's bedroom light was on.

"I bet you a dollar Colby's in there too," Joe said with obvious humour in his voice.

Kellie grinned. "I wouldn't put it past her considering how many times he's stayed over recently."

With a parting kiss on the cheek and wishing her goodnight, Joe headed back home. That kiss felt so good. Kellie watched him disappear and then let herself into her apartment. They had been right, by the sounds of it, Colby would be there for the night again. Kellie shook her head, smiled and headed for her own room. I swear, Tammy, you're the biggest slut I know, she thought good humouredly.