Seth is back in this one then and being his fantastically weaselly heel self! Can I also say at this point how fun it is inserting Lauren into this storyline? Hope you agree too!

Mandy, Oooh, not surprised you fangirled, I get to meet some celebrities at work sometimes but if it was one of the Shield boys I know I would freak! Yep, Seth is back to his usual annoying self in this one, I had so much fun writing the bickering so I hope you like it!

Wolfgirl2013, Yep, he's back and being totally smug and arrogant like he does better than anyone! Lauren is happy to go toe to toe with him here though. Hope you enjoy!

ShieldGirlBecky, Well good news because here is Seth and even though he and Lauren are not friends anymore, the other good news is that their spiky relationship is still intact. Poor old JBL is going to be caught in the middle here but then he deserves it!

Ohana1337, Haha, don't worry, I'm late night (early morning actually) writing so I know the vibe! Love me some Lauren and Dean fluff but I also love the drama so that's what you are getting and then some in this chapter and the next one too...then fluff will be resumed!

Minnie1015, I know, two shirtless scenes in two chapters. Aren't I good to you (and also myself by proxy...okay, maybe mostly to myself because naturally I have to look at pictures to make sure I'm describing it right and then imagine it too...sorry, what were we talking about?)

Skovko, Oh my, can you imagine Lauren in a sex shop? She would probably accidentally knock everything off the shelves or maybe something would fall into her purse and she would be arrested for trying to shoplift something weird! *Writes down idea for new short story*

LunaticxLass, Well, Dean might not be the best behaved patient but he's certainly the cutest and I think we can all agree on that. Glad you liked them having some time together, but now we're back into the action again and being joined by our little two-toned turncoat. Enjoy!

Like the chapter title says then...

The Beat Goes On

In life there were probably a million and one things that I hated with a passion and hoped I never had to do and the list of which included hang-gliding and holding a tarantula but were both topped off by having to be in close quarters with Seth. Fortunately however the first two things I was still safe on because nobody had sprung either one of those things on me backstage, but on the latter my luck seemed to run out pretty rapidly as I realized the next night as his entrance music blared out.

I groaned into the microphone in front of me,

"What does he want?"

Because honestly I figured it was a reasonable enough request since the main event for the evening had not in any way included him and so therefore he had no reason to be out there, lording it up or parading his stupid his briefcase and he had certainly had no right to be –

Heading our way.

"Ugh."

My head lowered promptly to thump on the announce desk as an extra chair suddenly materialized by my side and looking up again towards my smirking former brother confirmed my worst fears that he was joining us for the final fight. I grumbled and then swatted JBL hurriedly in a way that made him blink at me in total bewilderment,

"Move."

"Huh?"

He couldn't have been any less understanding than if I had said the word in a peal of whistles and clicks and so instead of waiting for the idiot to comprehend it, I merely continued to flap a mildly testy hand his way as I clambered from my chair and then gestured for him to copy me in a hiss of true frustration,

"I refuse to sit next to him."

He grabbed up his hat and then shuffled out uncomfortably like I was some crazy pregnant lady who had taken this seat on the train before carefully lowering himself into my old chair and then proceeding to scrape the thing a few inches further away. Seth was almost on top of us by that point but having traded our places made me feel much better about that fact and so I simply went back to scowling at him huffily and mentally making fun of his horrible black suit.

Because god it was awful.

He rounded the ring towards us and then smiled over the top of the monitors like a snake,

"How are we tonight folks?"

I knew what he was doing and I hated it because the whole thing was simply a crappy plan to get at Dean and pay him back for the trouble he had been causing since he had gate crashed his grand briefcase cash-in twenty four hours before and again when my fiancé had interrupted the one man monologue that his backstabbing teammate had used to kick the show off. In total it had only been forty eight hours since the stupid gold case had been undeservingly unhooked but already Dean had made it pretty clear to everyone that he would never allow his former brother to use it to win the belt or possibly even make it through another sentence.

Seth took his seat and slipped a pair of headphones on.

Damn.

Michael Cole kicked off the unwarranted introductions by leaning in across me as the camera focussed in and then tried his level best not to glare at me distastefully since sitting side by side was by no means either of our favorite thing. In my world however, it beat sitting next to the turncoat that had gleefully creamed me over the back of head and so instead I frowned and all but dared him to say anything which he thankfully chose to gloss over instead,

"As you can see we've been joined here at ringside by Mister Money in the Bank Seth Rollins and first of all congratulations on winning the ladder match – ,"

I snorted loudly.

"Winning?"

Flat out cheating was more like it since the big red machine had been supporting the steps, luckily though Seth seemed not to hear me or else wasn't bothered enough to need to take me on, since he merely patted his precious little briefcase and simpered proudly,

"Thank you very much and thank you for the proper introduction, I like that."

I rolled my eyes and groaned into the microphone,

"Please stop."

Seth scowled back at me from over the monitors and for a minute his expression was so haughty but well known that it took me straight back to our former near constant bickering which had been sparky but ultimately underpinned by love and which made my made heart ache for the old him a little right up until more loud theme music kicked in. Randy was swaggering out from behind the hoardings and the sight of him alone sent a cold shiver through my bones, since whenever I saw him or thought about him or heard him, the only thing I could picture was him pinning me beneath his form and his wet lips slopping up hungrily against me as I had screamed and begged and tried to prize him off. I hated even being in the same state that he was and so therefore being ten foot away was almost too much.

I swallowed and then curled my hands to stop them shaking.

I felt sick and pathetic –

I hated him so much.

Luckily on that front though I wasn't flying solo, since the booing of the crowd nearly drowned his theme out and although his stride and smug smirk shone indifference, since I knew he wasn't deaf then he at least must have heard.

Good.

Michael Cole butted into my reverie and made me startle momentarily,

Huh?

"So in this matchup we have action between Orton and Ambrose since Roman Reigns has been barred from coming ringside to help – ,"

I huffed a little at the hypocrisy of that one while mentally replaying the events of the night which had seen my fiancé being set upon by his enemies before our ever faithful big dog had come pounding right out and started throwing fists and evening the score up which had then brought my livid looking father out as well. Dean had been tossed into action thereafter and Roman had been threatened against interfering in the match which frankly would have been perfectly acceptable had the blonde streak of hair not been sitting to my right.

I gestured towards him,

"Um, so then why is he out here? Does that not seem unfair to anybody else?"

I turned my hands over and then looked between my colleagues who were purposefully attempting to avoid my probing eyes, since clearly neither one of them wanted to get into it or else get caught up in a bitchy slanging match, but which unfortunately they seemed to have precious little say in because my former ally and I had always been good at that.

"Why wouldn't I be allowed out here?" Seth shot back innocently, "What did I do? I was out here talking and minding my own business when your crazy ass boyfriend and his buddy laid into me."

Fiancé.

I clenched my teeth and fought the bark back hotly, since announcing it there and then would not have been smart and especially not considering my talk with Dean the day earlier when he had insisted the silence was to try and keep me safe.

I bit my lip instead,

"You hit them with a steel chair and you gave me a concussion and – ,"

"None of that matters now, I've already moved on from that."

I bristled like a lioness,

"Easy to do when you've sold your soul to my old man, or maybe not your soul but another part of the anatomy which is happy to bend over and take – ,"

More music blared out and the crowd around us erupted in excitement which pretty much matched the happy bleating in my own heart since a copper blonde head was striding out beneath the titantron to the twang of a guitar riff that had recently become his theme and which had already fast become my favourite entrance melody because the notes were his and entirely his.

No more sharing themes and no more moving through the fanbase.

Dean Dimples Ambrose the solo performer had arrived.

From beside me Michael Cole blew a sigh of relief out but probably because ping-ponging throughout our bickering had been beginning to hurt his tiny little head and so therefore my fiancé proved a welcome distraction from the animosity that had fast enveloped the whole commentary desk.

He hurried to fill the pause,

"Dean Ambrose heading out now with that left shoulder of his looking heavily taped up – ,"

He gestured towards the bum limb as he said it which he honestly hadn't really needed to do, since pretty much the entirety of my fiancé's left collarbone was secured up with almost a mile of white tape in a move that had very nearly cost the trainer who had put it there the tip of his thumb since Dean tended to like to bite and in that respect was like a great big lovable street dog in a battered pair of jeans that were going through at the knees. He pointed towards the ring then muttered at Randy and my stomach flipped over because I knew what it meant. It was literally the first time the two men in front of us had been allowed one-on-one since before I had been attacked so for Dean it was totally his chance at retribution and to score some very long overdue payback for his hassled fiancée.

Yes.

His being there fired me instantly with a bubble confidence and I frowned towards the turncoat clutching the briefcase to his chest and looking for all the world like a hurricane survivor who had plucked up his most precious worldly possession and fled.

Briefly in the moment I very nearly sort of pitied him.

Not much though.

"Oh stop pretending Seth, because we all know that if my father hadn't sent Kane out to help you, then my fiancé would be the one holding that case and challenging for the belt that you hurt your family to get at."

Brown eyes gaped back at me startled,

"What did you say?"

For a moment I was blindsided by the openness of his expression which was weirdly sort of stunned or perhaps bizarrely impressed and so therefore jarred strongly with the facade of total asshole that he had brushed out recently and fully become. JBL too spluttered loudly beside me as he struggled to fight off the last reserves of his cold but then coughed loose an actual sentence that sent a chill through me,

"Did you say fiancé?"

Oh no.

Oh crap.

Beside us the bell suddenly rang out loudly and I positively launched from my seat with the shock but which fortunately took all eyes back towards the match up and so therefore managed to briefly let me off the hook even though I knew I had messed up pretty royally.

Interestingly enough though it was Seth who changed tack,

"Look, there are no rules in a Money in the Bank ladder match, so the bottom line here is I'm the one that climbed the ladder and I'm the one who took that case down, how I did that isn't important – ,"

Dean punched Randy hard in the gut and I couldn't help but chirp into the microphone a little because for the most part I still forgot the stupid things were turned on,

"Yay."

Blue eyes spun rapidly over in my direction as my fiancé wasted time by pacing around the ring while Randy tapped his nose in a check for blood in one corner like a true primadonna.

Princess you alright?

Evidently he was asking if I was happy with Seth so close to me and even though we both knew that the answer to that was no, it wasn't as if the turncoat weasel was baiting me or somehow trying to upset me and so I nodded.

I'm fine.

Even so it didn't stop him throwing out a death glare that I had to admit was sexy as hell and which Michael Cole picked up on as it flashed fiercely across the table and fuelled the next topic on his long random-chatter-points list.

"Seth earlier tonight Ambrose said that he would haunt you and that every time you tried to cash in that briefcase he would be there."

I smiled.

He had said that and I had liked it.

Beside me JBL let out a snort as he moved into the fully rounded Authority-Ass-Kissing mode that he had perfected to a fine art over the years and which he pulled out whenever he thought he could get himself brownie points as if backstage my father was hanging on his every word.

"Well it sounds to me like Ambrose is a sore loser."

Seth waved a hand in agreement,

"He is, the man doesn't understand that I'm smarter than he is and that I'm better than he is and that I have been this entire time."

"What a pile of – ,"

My microphone cut off sharply at the exact same moment that Randy rolled from the ring and then hovered on the side lines looking up at my fiancé who was irate and had the momentum of things fully on his side. Ever since Dean had busted into my makeshift prison not three months back and rescued me from hell and then had to listen to my story of near-assaulting, he had been itching he get his hands in a full match on the poor excuse for a man and finally having been given the chance to do it meant that he had decided to waste precious little time. Randy blinked and then snorted a little, like he had from nowhere remembered a funny like joke and then he slowly began to circle the ring posts moving in towards the announce desk and in particular to where I was.

Oh god.

Nausea welled up swiftly in my windpipe even though Dean was a mere twenty feet away and I bodily shuddered and even let out a tiny whimper as he pointed at my fiancé and then turned fully towards me. He stroked his chin a little like he was thinking about something then let his beady eyes track me up and back down as Dean attempted to surge forwards behind him but was held back by the harassed and repeatedly counting referee.

"Four, five – ,"

"Orton don't you fuckin' touch her."

Luckily those words went unheard across the feed, otherwise there probably would have been a bunch of unhappy fathers and in particular mothers writing in to complain. Randy grinned at the effect of his proximity then turned to swagger his way into the ring at which point I realized that Michael Cole had leaned in close to me in a protective little motion that was surprisingly nice.

Huh.

He then cemented our tentative truce further by pecking at Seth with another of his long rambling thoughts,

"Why would you expect Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose to act any differently? I mean, you guys had just come off an amazing victory over Evolution, you were the most powerful faction in perhaps the history of this company and you went and turned your back on them and joined the Authority."

I nodded in a rare moment of agreement,

"Well said."

Back in the ring Dean was still control of things and his eyes were glinting with the knowledge of that fact and also the longed-for sense of retribution that briefly made me wish it was myself in his place, being able to repeatedly smack the taste from Randy's features and making big angry red slap marks that rose up across his chest. Seth held up and then pointed to the briefcase that still made him look like the tackiest businessman in the world but his smug little reply about his career trajectory and recent victory fell on deaf ears as Randy dropkicked Dean –

Right into the middle of his injured shoulder.

My fiancé went down to the mat with a thumping and actually let out a pitchy growl of sheer agony that even the microphones in front of us picked up and my stomach flipped over as I leaned in closer and let my head fall into my hands.

"Cover by Orton and a kick out – ,"

Dean was still fighting like he would had done because my beautiful man would never say die and to that end somersaulted himself out of an arm lock and instead flipped Randy onto his front. He paused very briefly then pounded his wounded shoulder and I wondered if he wasn't trying to beat the joint back in, but then that thought was lost in a shiver of excitement as we all heard him yell,

"You wanna play games, huh?"

Yep, he was angry and was it maybe a little weird perhaps that I found that side of him totally hot?

Looking up as he pinned Randy's legs and pulled his head back, Dean made eye contact roughly with Seth and then pointed towards him with a grin of sheer warning that his pathetic former brother briefly even gulped at before trying to play it off like a kid in the schoolyard,

"Oh, you – you wanna fight? Come on, come bring that to me."

I snorted,

"He doesn't want to ruin that nice suit of yours."

His brown eyes swung towards me hotly from over the brim of JBL's resting hat but I ignored him brightly as I continued to watch the action although Michael Cole chuckled and took the thought on,

"Seems like every time he's wanted to fight you, you've run away from him."

JBL gasped,

"Are you tryin' to pick a fight here?"

But instead of respond our eyes were taken back towards the ring again as Randy tripped Dean right into the ring post and then began to wrap the injured shoulder around the rope coils.

Uh oh.

Randy jumped off the apron towards the flooring and hauled Dean's arm along with him as he went, producing a bark of pain from my fiancé then an opening for The Viper to slither in over him again, trapping my man beneath his overly pumped body and then prizing the shoulder up and away.

Michael Cole managed to sound unusually sober,

"Orton working on the injured shoulder – ,"

Eek.

Evidently that sentence was the theme of the night though, since the next sequence of moves saw Dean battle up onto his feet again before being roundly super kicked in the hurt collarbone and propelled out of the ring to land in a heap beside the rampway screaming up into the sky.

I launched to my feet,

"What are you gonna do Lauren?" Seth taunted gleefully, "You gonna go save your man?"

"Maybe you could hit me in the head with a chair again?"

My instant biting sarcasm thankfully shut him up again but rather than rip off my headphones and stalk to the rescue, I instead paused for a second unsure of what to do because I knew for a fact that if I ran to help my fiancé then he would be pissed at me and Randy would probably strike me down.

"Ambrose is getting back into the ring again – ,"

I blinked in response to Michael Cole's words but sure enough there were the familiar copper blonde bangs hauling themselves wearily back into view and probably with full knowledge that I was thinking of interfering and so therefore trying to stop me from doing something badly thought out. Even so the next few minutes were torture because from flying high Dean swiftly moved to on the back foot as Randy pounded hard at his injured shoulder with holds and pin attempts and kicks and brutal drops.

I hated him –

I hated him more than I hated anyone and that included the turncoat man sat to my right as Seth tried to fight his own corner more verbally like he could in any way defend all the shit he had done wrong.

"What is Ambrose so hellbent on getting back at me for?"

I balled up the paper list of matches in frustration and then barked at him stormily as Randy speared Dean into the post, because I had never been good at handling pressure and the combination of terror and worry was virtually eating me whole.

Ugh.

"Because you gave me a concussion you moron, because you beat them with a folded up chair and probably because we loved you like family and you threw that away for a selfish shot at gold."

Michael Cole even backed me up a little,

"Nice suit Seth, been going to Triple H's tailor?"

Evidently the two of us were a verbal tag team now and even though it didn't lessen the out and out horror of watching my fiancé writhe around in pure pain, it felt nice to have someone to in the same place that I was and refusing to take the Authority's endless shit.

Seth grumbled mildly,

"It is a nice suit isn't it?"

My own response was short but unflinchingly firm,

"Nope."

By that time Dean had been thrown from the ring again and then unceremoniously hauled right back in and even though I was pouring the bulk of my frustration into bitching at Seth, it wasn't really helping things, because there was only so much more punishment my man could fully handle and it looked to everyone like he was fast approaching that point and so as Randy lined him up for another toss into the ring posts I shut my eyes sharply, unable to watch.

Instead the crowd burst.

"But this time it's Orton who goes shoulder first as Dean Ambrose creates a little bit of space – ,"

I blinked then looked up.

But sure enough there was Randy, hanging from the ropes like a pathetic suckling pig while my fiancé caught his breath then drove his shoulder into the matting to try and click the thing back into place. I honestly had no idea whether or not he managed it but regardless of that point, he swiftly hustled control back and then knocked Randy clean off his feet over the top rope before backing up like he was going to –

I shouted,

"Dean, no – ,"

"Look at this lunatic," JBL shouted as my man bounced off the ring ropes and then took to the sky, launching himself right out of the relative safety of the fighting square and landing pretty solidly on Randy's head.

Ouch.

But yay.

Dean tossed him back in again and then paused on the threshold like he had left the oven on and I blinked momentarily because I could hear his mind whirring and from the way he had fallen silent, I figured that so could Seth.

"Get up, get up Randy – ,"

Dean turned towards us and in less than a second was steaming our way, hitting the announce table in a full movie baseball slide and then shooting off the edge of it and barrelling into Seth.

"Oh look out, look out – ,"

Dean hit him beautifully in a move that knocked his former brother onto his ass and took them both to the floor in a tangle of body parts which my fiancé wasted little time in flailing fists into as well, before hauling Seth up then throwing him into the barricade with so much frustration that he let out a yell. He was stumbling a little and unsteady on his spent legs, but he staggered back towards us regardless of that and then leaned in over the monitors almost absently to grab me up in a fantastically sweaty kiss, cupping the back of my head and mashing our lips up in a sticky, warm hold that I melted wholesale into,

"Mmmmm."

JBL gaped,

"Hey now, this is a family show."

Both of us resolutely and pointedly ignored him and instead let the kiss reach its natural end, which then seemed to give Dean the strength to continue, like a pit stop for fuel because he bounded back into the ring and then kept up laying his best moves all over Randy which worked pretty well in keeping the momentum in his court and which made me love him more than physically possible since he was frankly the most perfect human being in the world.

"Ugh – ," Seth meanwhile was still writhing beside us, half stunned from having had his head bounced off the cordoning wall but at the sound of his grunting I couldn't help but chuckle,

"Better check up on our little buddy don't you think John?"

Randy suddenly hit Dean with a power slam and then set him up on the ropes for his signature DDT but which was then swiftly countered as my fiancé put his feet down and then used his shoulder to propel his enemy out of the ring. Dean was readily and almost literally on fire and he followed that up by trying a suicide dive again, which I had never particularly liked watching him doing but in that moment was actually pretty excited to see because I knew if he hit it then the match would be over and I was so more than ready for that to be the case.

"Get him baby," I grinned into the microphone.

Dean took a breath and turned airborne through the ropes –

Before launching himself right into the metal corner of the briefcase which Seth had suddenly hefted up in an attempt to block Randy and turn the whole match up and which worked in that respect since it battered Dean hard and planted so solidly into the middle of his shoulder that it sent him tumbling face first back to the earth.

"No – ,"

I startled at the feeling of JBL grabbing me as I once again instinctively tried to surge up and which prevented me from flashing around the desk without thinking as the bell loudly sounded the abrupt finish of the match.

Randy gestured back towards the empty ring anyway,

"Get him in there buddy."

Seth complied right away, hauling the man he had once called his brother onto his pained and totally bewildered feet, while I struggled to extract my sleeve from the Texan as I yelled across the table,

"Seth please don't – ,"

Naturally he ignored me, because everything we had been through and had meant to one another had been completely thrown away and so in the end I could only watch in total growing panic as Dean was pulled precariously upright and then ate an RKO.

Michael too seemed utterly disgusted,

"Make no mistake about it, this is why Rollins was out here."

JBL predictably took the villain side,

"The man was simply trying to do commentary when Dean Ambrose attacked him for no reason at all."

He was still holding onto my shirt sleeve as he argued in an attempt to pull me into a sit and I followed the tug numbly as I gaped at my fiancé who was lying pretty much prone in the ring as Seth tried to tear the white bandage off him and then stamped on his poor and newly unprotected arm while I squirmed and yelled and panicked in protest,

"Let go of me, I – I have to help him."

"How?"

Michael Cole threw the question at me rapidly but for once not in censure because it was a genuine request as if he thought that I possibly held some mythical answer on how to take on two evil and turncoat wrestlers alone and on which point I was more than likely to disappoint him since I didn't have the first clue about holding my own.

"Come on Dean, please."

Randy swiftly pinned his head down and then twisted the injured shoulder back and up in the air, as Seth climbed up onto the top of the ring post to prepare for a jump that would break Dean's bones for sure and which I honestly couldn't really even fathom was happening because –

Because Seth wouldn't do that.

No, just no.

No way could he cause an actual lasting injury, not when I knew that deep down he still cared. No way could he have faked being happy with us for so long and no way had he so rapidly thrown those feelings to one side or somehow convinced himself they hadn't meant anything. Dean was his brother and would forever be that.

I hoped,

"Oh no, they're gonna reinjure that shoulder – ,"

Seth paused for a second and then boldly stood up at which point my heart dropped into my guts heavily because from that point surely there was no going back and I chickened out and clamped my eyes swiftly together since the noise of the attack would no doubt be bad enough, but which meant that I therefore missed the arrival of a familiar vested figure.

"Hey look, it's Roman Reigns, the match is over, Reigns can be out here."

I gasped then looked up in amazement,

"What?"

In front of me Roman was clearing house rapidly with a fury I hadn't seen since they had taken my father on and which was fuelled by the love that Seth had turned his back on as he punched Randy hellaciously then pounded his fist into the ground. Behind us the crowd was exploding like crazy as the prospect of a body shattering spear loomed large and Roman too seemed eager for it to happen based on his arm swinging and yelling and glaring.

"Ooooh."

Managing to finally shake JBL from my shirt sleeve, I slipped my headphones off and then scurried towards the ring, before skirting to the side where Dean had been rolled limply then pooling down next to him before cupping his sticky face,

"Oh god, are you okay?"

Blue eyes blinked back up painfully,

"Is uce gettin' 'em for me?"

Peering up revealed both Seth and Randy retreating but not broken in half like I'd hoped they would be, so instead I bit my lip and then nodded reassuringly as I stroked his wet hair back from his face,

"They know they've lost."

Roman swung through the ropes and then landed between us as his modified version of their old music rocked the ground and then slid a big broad hand beneath Dean's shoulders to sit him back upright,

"Uce, you okay?"

"Shoulder fuckin' hurts."

Roman nodded sympathetically and then turned his big brown eyes towards me, looking to check on both his travelling partners but managing to say precisely the wrong thing.

"Hell of a time to drop the news of your engagement, I thought you two were going to wait on it."

"What?"

Dean's barked shout echoed out loudly around us and I winced in response to it then bit my lip.

Uh oh.

Surprise Dean, people know you're engaged now! Next chapter we have the fallout from that and it turns out that he might not be the only one who is unhappy…

Drama, drama, drama!