The ringing of her phone's alarm woke Ali up from her sleep. Groaning, she extended her arms out, feeling the bed, trying to find the offending object. She shot up in a sitting position when she felt an unfamiliar body next to hers. That woke her up fast.

She saw the body stir. "What the fuck is that?" the body growled, voice laced with sleep.

Quickly, Ali looked around the room for her purse, finding it at the foot of the bed. She grabbed her phone and shut it off, still trying to wrap her head around her situation.

She looked down on her body, noting she was fully clothed, albeit wearing the same thing she was the night before. She took a peek at the man in her bed, and with a sigh of relief, realized that the familiar dark blond curls belonged to Jon. He looked like he was wearing last night's clothes too.

She poked him in the arm. "Jon?"

He let out an unintelligible grunt.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

He rolled himself onto his back, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. He stared at the ceiling before answering. "Because you asked me not to leave."

"Oh." She didn't know to say to that. Had she really asked him to stay?

She watched him as he yawned and got up slowly. Running his hand through his messy curls, he gave her a small wave with his other hand, then left her room without another word.

Ali stood there, staring at the door until the phone's snooze alarm shook her back into the present.


"Mind if I join you?" Colby asked, watching Ali take a bite of her waffle.

Ali covered her mouth as she chewed, pointing to the seat across her in acknowledgement.

He waited until she was finished chewing her food before he started talking. "Ali, I'm really sorry about last night." Colby said apologetically. "We didn't mean to force you to go drinking."

She shook her head. "No, no. It's fine. It's really sweet that you're apologizing, but there's nothing to apologize for. I enjoyed."

Colby snorted. "Right."

Ali laughed, shrugging it off.

He signaled to a waiter and gave his order, letting Ali eat in silence for a few minutes.

"You know, Ali, you can always hang out with us. You're always alone. And you've been looking so sad lately."

She looked up, startled to hear that Colby had noticed her. She thought she had been doing a good job hiding her emotions. Gently, he took her right hand into his left. "I know you like being alone," he continued, "and I respect that. But I want you to know that I'm here any time you need someone. And not just me, the guys too. Joe's a really good shoulder to cry on, and Jon may act like an ass most of the time, but he's a good guy deep down inside. Somewhere.

Her heart melted at his sincere offer. "Thanks, Colby. That really means a lot."

"You don't have to go drinking with us. We can just hang out. I know things are busy backstage, especially after Punk left, but don't let work run your life."

He had noticed her tense, her blue eyes flashing a look of pain before she struggled and got herself in control. He wondered what he could have said to set her off. He was about to ask her what was wrong, when it clicked. Understanding suddenly dawned on him. The timing of everything now made sense.

He held her hand a little tighter. "So, you and Punk, huh?" he asked with a soft smile.

She looked like she was going to deny it at first, but at the last second decided against it. "You know, you're sharper than you look," she teased.

"Hey!" he feigned a look of hurt.

She shook her head and smiled sadly. "It's not what you think." She looked down at her plate of half eaten waffles. "We weren't really together, not officially. But i thought... "she trailed off.

His thumb rubbed her hand in comforting gesture.

She looked at him, shoulders squared. It was time she accepted it. "I guess I just felt more for him than he did for me. I mean, I couldn't have meant much to him if he could just up and leave, right?"

...

She saw the medics fuss over Punk when he finished his Hell in the Cell match against Ryback and Heyman. She wanted to go check on him, but knowing that he would be in pain and in a horrible mood, she stayed clear of him the rest of the night. How he could refuse to take an Advil after a match like that, she would never understand.

She spent the rest of the evening noting crowd reactions to the matches, typing down possible angles and ideas on her laptop. Happy that the pay per view went pretty much according to script, she collected her things and made her way out. The show going on as planned meant there wouldn't be too much changes to the script for RAW, and she could get some early sleep.

The knocking on the door stirred her from slumber.

Looking groggily at her phone for the time, she saw the lcd screen flash 2:47am.

She made her way to the door, going up on her tip toes to reach the the peep hole, opening the door when she saw who was on the other side.

"Punk?"

He was leaning on the frame of the door, his eyes closed, his left hand holding an ice pack against his hip.

"Hey. You okay?" Ali asked, her brows furrowing in concern.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

She blinked in surprise. "Um. Sure. What happened?"

He didn't reply. Instead, he took his hand in hers, and pulled her into the room with him. He climbed into her bed, still silent, motioning for her to lay down beside him. When she settled in, he switched off the night lamp and wrapped his arm around her. They both stared into the dark in silence until sleep took over.

...

"I am in the mood for something sweet and sticky," Jon announced sliding into the booth next to Ali. She was surprised to hear his raspy voice near her ear, and one glance at him showed his hair was damp, looking like he had just finished a shower. "Mmmm, just the thing I was looking for," he said grabbing her and giving her cheek a lick. She gaped at him and pushed him away. "Ewww! Ambrose!"

"After the wild night we had, I expected a more enthusiastic greeting,"

She gasped and slapped his arm. "Nothing happened!" she exclaimed. She scowled at Colby who was trying to stifle his laughter.

"Well, I'm hurt. I pull out all my moves, and she calls it nothing."

She slapped his arm again.

"Normally, I like doing the spanking. But with you Princess, I can make an exception,"

"Shut up!"

"Good morning to you, Sunshine" he grinned. He took her fork and stole a bite of her waffle, making an exaggerated show of licking the maple syrup off the fork. "Sweet and sticky," he winked.

Ali just rolled her eyes.

Joe arrived a little moment after holding a familiar black case. "My laptop!" Ali exclaimed happily. "Thank you, Joe!" He gave her a genuine smile before taking a seat beside Colby.

Jon snorted. Ali responded by slapping his arm for the third time, quickly retracting her hand before Jon could comment or retaliate. "Your script for tonight is in here."

"Anything good?" Colby asked.

Ali nodded. "Wanna read it?"

Colby nodded enthusiastically.

She opened her laptop to look for her files. The rest of the morning was spent eating, laughing and discussing the scenes of Shield for that evening's show.


Dean Ambrose was in the middle of defending his US Championship title against Mark Henry when the CM Punk chants started. Staff watching the monitors backstage winced. No matter how good a show they were putting out there, the audience still wanted their 'hero'.

Ali shared a worried look with Bill, who was seated beside her. Aside from writing and scheduling, the Creative team monitored audience reaction. The Punk chants were still continuing show after show, even after his name was removed from the marketing materials. What else do they have to do to make the WWE Universe forget him?

Bill caught her attention and pointed to the monitor. Seth Rollins had just just grabbed a mic. That wasn't in the script.

"CM who?" they heard him shout. "That's Dean Ambrose right there, that's the United States champion! That's the man you all wish you could be, and that's the man all your ladies want to be with tonight!"

The people surrounding the monitors erupted into smiles. "That man is a genius!" Bill exclaimed at Ali. "We need to give that guy more mic time!"

Ali beamed. She had been pushing for more promos for the Shield, and Colby's little show just helped their cause significantly.

They watched the match end in a disqualification, and the succeeding face off with the Wyatt Family. The electricity and energy the two factions generated was amazing. She was giddy at the thought of writing and producing their next segments leading to the pay per view.

When the Shield arrived backstage, Ali ran to Colby, giving him a huge hug. "You were brilliant!"

Beside them, Jon was breathing hard, rolling his neck and shoulders in attempt to work off some of the pain from the match. "Hey, I was the one in the match, why doe he get the hug?"

She flicked her hand at him. "Yeah, yeah, you were okay." She looked up at Joe with a big smile. "You were great out there too! The energy for you three is amazing!"

The three were still pumped with adrenaline, and Ali backed off from Colby just as quickly as she had latched on. Almost immediately, Jon snaked his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

"Jon! Ewwww!" Ali wrinkled her nose as the sweat on Jon dripped down on her.

"You know you like it dirty" he rasped near her ear. That voice was sounding sexier every time she heard it, and she was surprised she actually acknowledged that to her herself.

"Knock it off, Jon," she heard Joe, the voice of reason, say.

They headed towards the locker room, Jon loosening his hold, but not letting Ali go quite yet. "We going out tonight?" he asked no one in particular.

Colby saw Ali shake her head. Not wanting a repeat of last night's incident, he replied "Naw. I'm beat. How bout we stay in tonight?"

The two men looked at Joe to break the tie. The big man looked at Ali. "Pizza night?"

She looked a little unsure.

"You get to pick the flavor," Joe offered.

"Pizza it is!"