Fakeclaimer: I've been trying to teach myself Roman numerals and it's going really well. The only problem I have are remembering what 51, 6, and 500 are. I'll tell you, it makes me LIVID


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Chapter Seven

{o}-{o}-{o}

Hell in a Cell
Main Event

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"The following is a Hell In A Cell, match, for the Raw, women's championship! Introducing the challenger, from New York, New York, It's May Devany!" JoJo announced, her voice sailing over the crowd, who cheered loudly. If May noticed, she gave no indication, she was too busy staring at her opponent, as any good wrestler would.

"Her opponent, from Venice California, she is the Raw Women's Champion, and the baddest woman on the planet, Rowdy Ronda Rousey!"

The cheers were louder for Ronda, and she couldn't help but get a bit of satisfaction. It wasn't that they were hugely louder, a much bigger group of Ronda fans drowning out the May fans, it seems that some people were more than willing to cheer for both, but there was an audible difference. She knew May heard it too, and couldn't help but give her opponent a smirk.

May's brows raised, as if to say, "Really? That matters?"

It does when you're the one getting more, Ronda thought, as the two of them began circling each other, sizing each other up. She found her hand going to her wrist, before she remembered that she wasn't wearing her black wristband. I need to be careful, especially in this match.

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{o}-{o}-{o}

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The beginning of the match was such a classic HIAC match that it could have been shown to wrestling hopefuls as the textbook match. Both women got their chances to throw the other into the walls of the cage, to attempt to pin, and several other things that looked nasty and actually did hurt badly, even though both women were careful to cause minimal damage to themselves and each other.

Ronda was the first to draw blood, and it was truly an accident. She had tossed May and instead of getting between the first and second rope to hang there, she miscalculated and the second rope snapped up, smacking her in the nose. Her nose seemed to realize that if you had to botch, do your best to make it look like part of the show and responded by not a trickle, but a downpour of blood. May felt an explosion of pain behind her eyes that made it seem like the blood from her nose had gone up instead of down, and painted her vision bright red.

"Now, that's not fair!" Renee exclaimed.

"Aww, poor May got a boo-boo?" Cory mocked, then his voice became its usual straddle between angry and irritated. "It's not Ronda's fault that May is clumsy!"

"Ronda needs to be more careful," Renee said, which was typical. Ronda tried to be careful when she wrestled, especially the last few years, but accidents did happen and the WWE enjoyed billing her as stronger than she realized. So, every time her opponent bled, Renee or whoever was the face color would point out that Ronda needed to be more careful. In her rational moments, May even found the comments to be a little nasty, like if Ronda was fighting nobody could possibly have an accident, that it had to be Ronda being too rough.

The referee came over to make sure May could still wrestle, which she certainly could. Doing his best to cover the view, he let May pinch her nose for a few moments to stop the deluge, and then stuff some cotton up to hopefully keep the trickle from rolling down her face.

Ronda paced nearby and kept making threatening gestures as if she was going to attack May, bloody nose or not. The commentators argued back and forth about the state of May's nose. May had to give it to Ronda, she was doing an excellent job of keeping the excitement high so the crowd hardly realized May was doing some fast first aid on herself.

Ronda was edging her way closer and closer, as the referee warned May to be more careful, that it wouldn't do good for the match to end early. When May knew Ronda was close behind her, she snapped up as if shot with a cattle prod, and went after Ronda, knocking her to the ground and throwing punches that barely missed the woman.

When the referee gave the signal that the match was at the halfway point, things changed. The cameras were doing a close up on May, something they had been doing a lot of to show that her nose was swelling and the bits of cotton that dangled from her nose were stained red. The WWE might like to pretend they didn't want blood, but when it happened, they sure were happy to show the audience over and over again. May was staring at Ronda, and she gave the slightest nod, so slight that it was easy to overlook.

Unless you were Ronda and had been waiting for it.

The match changed at that moment, and at first nobody realized it but May and Ronda. It went from being wrestling with various martial arts moves, modified for wrestling, into a true martial arts match.

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{o}-{o}-{o}

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The little bit of discussing they had been able to do, it was determined that Ronda would start off defensive and May would be the aggressor. After that hip blow earlier, Ronda had been a little wary that May might just decide to take her out, and when May gave the signal, she'd almost been tempted to ignore it. But, Ronda also knew she couldn't do that. She had never backed down from any challenge give to her, and she wasn't going to start now. Besides, she wasn't weak, she knew how to ignore pain and keep going.

A spinning, roundhouse kick to her hip again, told Ronda that yes, this was real, but May was being careful as she could be, exaggerating her moves and trying to slow them down, to give Ronda plenty of time to react and defend. Ronda had to be honest, May was not quite in her league when it came to martial arts, but she was very, very, close. Maybe, when this is over, the two of us can spar sometimes. There were other women in the back with an MMA background, and Ronda had sparred with a couple of them, but they weren't quite up to May's snuff.

Since May was that good, Ronda figured the least she could do was to be at least as good and likely better. When they switched off so May was defensive, Ronda did her best to do what May had done, make it real, but slow it down enough so the smaller woman could react.

It took a few minutes for Vince and the back crew to realize something had changed in the fight, and another minute or two for them to alert the referee. The audience had picked up on it by then though. There were probably at least a thousand folks in the stands that knew what a martial arts competition fight looked like, who figured it out first, and then the rest of the audience seemed to absorb it, this was not a normal match. This was a lot closer to real. The look on May's face when Ronda landed a good kick to her thigh wasn't an exaggerated expression of pain, it was real, May was hurting.

The referee was looking dazed, but someone must have shouted into his earpiece, because he came over and kept trying to get close to the girls, to tell them both to cut it out or he'd have the bell rung and have them both disqualified, to hell with it.

Ronda and May ignored him, speeding up so they just didn't have the energy to focus on anything but each other, taking turns being aggressor and defender. Ronda felt the kicks, the blows, and knew she would have to bathe in ice if she even stood a chance of getting rid of them, but she didn't care. This wasn't just a way to screw with the back and give the fans something extra, this was exhilarating.

She could have finished out the whole match this way, and she knew May could too. To hell with the rules of wrestling, to hell with a predetermined winner, just fight to see who would win this. And she knew May was feeling the same way. She wasn't grinning, that would look bad, but Ronda could see a gleam in her eyes that wasn't there in their earlier entanglements. This wasn't just about really fighting each other, it was about testing their own limits, realizing they could dish it out and take it and that nursing the bruises would even feel good in some ways, because they had pushed themselves and stood to tell the tale.

The back though, had other ideas and the referee finally steeled himself and got close enough to get in the middle of them, barely avoiding a kick May was aiming at Ronda. May was able to pull it back at the last second, and the only victim was her dignity, as she collapsed in a clumsy heap on the floor.

The referee took May's fall as a way to get into Ronda's face. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Ronda pretended to be trying to get around him to get back to May, but shouted back, "We're having a match!"

"This is not what you're supposed to be doing!" The referee cried, looking angry. Although the angry look was normal. Referees were supposed to look angry when they got between two fighters. "I am getting screamed at to stop this right now."

"The match? They want to stop the match?"

"No! They want the match to get back on track!" The referee made several gestures, looking as if he was forcing Ronda back into the corner. "And, time is getting short, the two of you have less than five minutes to wrap it up, so the two of you get your act together and do this right!"

Ronda looked over his shoulders, seeing May had rolled out of the ring and was rummaging under it. She looked back at the referee. "No problem, we're back on track."

"You'd better be! You're winning this thing!"

Runt was right, Ronda realized, although she wasn't that surprised.

The referee stepped away, and as he did, May had managed to appear to be sneaking around behind her, folded metal chair in the ready. Ronda spun around and grabbed it from her. May looked properly horrified and ran to another corner. Instead of trying to stop Ronda, the referee went over to May to "yell" at her to the audience, but to let her know she was to lose the match. Then he spun around as Ronda advanced, as if to yell at Ronda about the chair. Ronda dodged out of the way, came around May, and slammed her in the back with the chair.

May fell flat on her stomach, almost as good as Roman had when Seth had gotten him with a chair, the first time Shield had broken up. It was just such a shame May didn't have the weight Roman did, because she didn't bounce like Roman had. If she'd been able to do that, it would have been a glorious slo-mo moment that would have been shown for years. She did come off the mat slightly, but that wasn't enough. She did, however, get a look of pain on her face that Ronda would see later. Her eyes actually crossed, and her mouth opened in an expression that looked both exaggerated and amazingly real, then seemed to collapse on the floor, as if every bone in her body was broken.

Ronda put her in an armbar, a look of cold determination on her face. May milked it, pretending to struggle, pretending to fight as hard as she could against the pain, but then gave one yelp as Ronda pretended to shift her grip slightly, as if now she was risking breaking May's arm into a million pieces. Then and only then, did May, her eyes filled with extremely realistic looking tears, begin slapping the mat as hard as she could, kicking her legs too, as if she was in so much unbearable agony that she was tossing a fit.

The bell rang and JoJo joyously announced, "Your winner, and still the Raw Women's Champion, Rowdy Ronda Rousey!"

Ronda leaped off of May, who lay on the floor in a heap. The referee had gone to the door and gotten the belt for her. When he brought it back, Ronda snatched it as if it were her beloved, long lost, puppy and hugged it to herself, then raised it high in the air.

The crowd cheered loudly enough that Ronda was sure everyone in Los Angeles heard it.

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{o}-{o}-{o}

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"All I want to know is what in the hell were you ladies doing out there?"

May looked at Hunter, thinking she might never have seen him so angry. His voice was modulated, but there was a red glow to his face that she knew was anger. Holy crap, I really stepped in it, now.

"We decided to shake it up a bit," Ronda said and shrugged as if it was no big deal. "We knew we could handle it."

"You knew you could handle it?" Hunter said, his voice sounding incredulous. "And what made you decide you could handle it?"

May knew she should say something, speak up, but the first thing that came to her was, "Because we've got mad skills," and she knew that was about as likely to go over as a balloon filled with ball bearings was to float to the sky.

As it turned out, she didn't need to say anything, because Hunter kept right on talking. "Ronda, we've had this discussion before, you are not allowed to change matches to suit your whims. And May," he turned to her. "I'm surprised you went along with it. I know you and Ronda have -"

"Wait a moment," May couldn't let that one pass. "Why do you automatically assume this was Ronda's idea?"

"Because you've never done anything like this before," Hunter said. "Ronda, on the other hand-"

"Didn't want to do this," May interrupted. "It was my idea, Hunter. Completely mine." her hands were at her sides, but she crossed her toes in her shoes. "I forced her to do it. I suggested it, and she said no, but then when we got in the ring, I just went after her. She had to play along just to be safe, if anyone is to blame here, it's me."

She could feel Ronda staring at her, and see Hunter fixing her with a look. She refused to look at Ronda. It was my idea! I'm not lying about that. Just that Ronda was willing.

"Hunter, she's lying," Ronda said. "Yes, it was her idea, but I agreed with it."

No, May thought. Let me take the blame for this. It was my idea! She shook her head. "Ronda, you know-"

"That I was a willing accomplice," Ronda finished. "Hunter, we just wanted to do something different."

"It's not your jobs to 'do something different,'" Hunter said, mimicking Ronda in an exaggerated tone. "It's your job to do what we tell you! Vince is furious!"

"Vince probably gets furious when his toast gets cold," May blurted out before she could stop herself.

Hunter pinned his gaze on her. "What did you say?"

"I said Vince gets upset too easily," May said.

"Too easily?" Hunter's voice rose in both volume and octave. "He runs this company, and he calls the shot. You are the talent, it's not your job to override what he says, it's your job to do what you're told."

"I don't remember being told we couldn't have a genuine match," May said, and instantly wished she could take the words back, as she saw Hunter's face flush even redder.

It was a credit that he didn't scream, but merely spoke as if he were biting off every word from a leather strap. "You, May, are digging yourself a deep hole you may never crawl out of."

"Yes, sir," May said, hanging her head. It had seemed like such a good idea when she suggested it, but maybe she'd been stupid. She had managed to keep her head down and be a good girl for the most part since she started in NXT, what had possessed her to decide to violate the rules on this match? And why did she feel she had to drag Ronda into this with her?

"Since you're claiming responsibility for this whole fiasco," Hunter began.

"Wait a moment!" Ronda interrupted.

Hunter still scowled, but now he fixed that scowl on Ronda. "If I were you, Ronda, I would just keep my mouth shut, and you might come out of this relatively unscathed. You and Vince may not be at odds anymore, but your relationship is tentative at best."

"Hunter, that's bullshit, and you know it," Ronda snapped. "Vince may not think I'm up there with Charlotte Flair in being a company girl, but he knows I bring in the crowds. Every time I leave, the company suffers and when I come back, there is a resurgence of popularity. He can claim it isn't me, but I'm not that stupid, I can figure it out."

"Ronda," May said, trying to warn her. May knew she was walking on thin ice, but she also knew she had never been in this type of trouble before, and Ronda had. Her stupid idea, as great as it had been when they were fighting, had gotten Ronda into more hot water than she deserved to be in. May owed it to her to try to minimize the damage. "This was my idea!"

"Yeah, but I didn't have to agree," Ronda said.

"I was pretty insistent!"

"So?" Ronda shrugged. "You're not my boss, I could have refused, and you would have gone right along with me. I agreed because I thought the idea sounded good too." She looked over at Hunter. "I'm just as much to blame as May is, Hunter. If she's going down, I deserve to be standing on that ship right next to her."

"No, you don't!" May protested.

The two of them started to argue back and forth, both of them equally as passionate about what they believed. So passionate, that it was almost three minutes before they realized that Hunter had stopped talking completely and was just looking at the two of them, and his expression was no longer flushed and angry. He wasn't smiling, but there was a glint in his eyes that appeared to be one of amusement. Both Ronda and May turned their gaze to him. "Well, of all the things I never thought I'd see, this tops the list," he said.

"What?" May asked.

"Ronda Rousey and May Devany willing to take all the blame to protect each other," Hunter said, and now May swore she saw a faint twitch to the corner of his mouth, as if he were dying to smile at them both. "Before this competition, the two of you would have jumped at the chance to get the other one in trouble. I don't know what happened, but it looks like the two of you have found a common ground. Dare I say, the two of you might even be becoming friends?"

Ronda and May flashed looks at each other. "Don't count on it," Ronda said, looking back at Hunter. "But, that doesn't mean I don't respect her. And it certainly doesn't mean I expect her to take all the responsibility for something I have as much a part in as she does."

"I think I have a little more," May protested, but shrugged to show she wouldn't push it.

"Well," Hunter said. "If you don't want to call it a friendship, that's your business, but I am pleased to see the two of you are acting like your members of the same team. Ronda, you might be Raw and May, you might be Smackdown, but we're all supposed to be a family here, and having the both of you cooperating, makes it easier for everyone."

"Oh, we're on our way to becoming great pals," May said, doing what she could to keep any sarcasm from creeping into her voice, "Does this mean, we're cool now?" She ignored the shocked look Ronda shot to her.

"No." Hunter said firmly. "Since you're both taking blame, there has to be a punishment for both of you."

"Fine," Ronda said. "What is it?"

"We haven't decided," Hunter admitted. "Vince wanted to suspend both of you for ninety days, but I believe Stephanie has managed to make him see that would be cutting off his nose to spite his face. I agreed to talk to both of you and then talk to them and we'll discuss your punishment." He alternated between looking at the both of them. "I'm thinking a fine and maybe a lot of good will work in addition to what you usually do."

May didn't mind doing good will work, she was extremely active in the Make-A-Wish program, and had done a lot of other things for the WWE, and actually enjoyed when she could give back to the community. But, her free time was rare enough now, she knew that for as long as this punishment lasted, it would be non-existent. She wanted to ask him if she could at least count on the two weeks she and Dolph had been promised for their honeymoon, but decided that would have to wait. She hadn't realized when she suggested it, but her spur of the moment idea might have gotten her and Ronda in bigger trouble that they could have handled. Mental note, think more carefully before suggesting violating the rules in the future. "That's fair," she settled on saying.

Ronda looked less pleased, most likely due to being in high enough demand with the WWE Universe, but she nodded in agreement. "When will we know?"

"Tomorrow," Hunter said. "Before Raw." He looked at May, "You will be reporting for Raw tomorrow. This rivalry between the two of you isn't over."

Ronda's smile was sly. "So, even though we broke the rules, we obviously impressed the audience," she said, "Because why else would we keep going on the rivalry?"

"Don't push it," Hunter advised. "You're lucky enough to be getting off this easily." He gave a curt nod, letting them both know they were dismissed.

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{o}-{o}-{o}

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"So, how big a fine do you think we're going to get?" May asked as the door to Hunter's office closed behind them.

"It won't be small," Ronda said, thinking she should warn her. "When they fine you, they want to make sure it hurts."

"Okay," May said and shrugged. "I've been saving what I can, so I think I'll manage. How about you?"

"Money isn't that much of an issue with me," Ronda admitted. "I still get some pretty good checks from those bombs I made." She smiled, taking the rancor from her words.

May laughed, then said in a serious tone, "I actually liked those last two movies you made. The one that the critics loved, and the one that really took off when it went to DVD."

Ronda was shocked. "You watched my movies?"

May shrugged. "Well, sometimes I like to throw things at my TV and your movies give me a good excuse."

Of course, Ronda thought, without bitterness.

May laughed. "Yeah, I've watched your movies, I've even liked most of them. Maybe they weren't my favorite movies of all time, but they're good. You wouldn't have to hold a gun to my head to get me to watch one again."

Ronda shook her head. "Are you all right?" she asked, changing the subject. "I know this getting in trouble is new to you."

"At least to this extent," May said, as the two of them headed to the locker room together. "And I'm fine. I knew I was breaking rules when I suggested it, so I'd better be able to own up and take my punishment."

Ronda nodded, finding herself admiring May a little more. Sure, she was still a runt, and she still had slept with Seth, but she wasn't the pathetic asskisser Ronda always thought she was. And thinking about it, Ronda realized that a lot of what Ronda took to be asskissing, was just May being a nice person. Nice, but when she gets going, she's got a mouth on her.

"So, what are your plans now?" May asked.

Ronda was a little surprised May would even ask, but she shrugged, figuring May was just making conversation. "Seth, Roman and Dean are probably at a bar. I'll probably join them and we'll have some drinks. You?"

"Dolph is having some boy's time with Miz and some of the other guys," May said. "So, Renee and I are meeting at a place we found online for WCW."

"WCW?" Ronda was confused.

"Wine, cheese, and whine," May explained. "We meet, order a few bottles of wine, and one of those horrible cheese filled appetizers, because I love cheese. Usually nachos, the more loaded the better. And, we talk about whatever is bothering us, get it all out in the open."

"Whine," Ronda said, getting it. "Not W-I-N-E, but W-H-I-N-E."

"You got it!" May said, nodding. "It's like talk therapy, but tastier."

Ronda found herself smiling at that. For a moment, she could picture it, May and Renee and maybe a few other girls from the locker room, sitting at a table with a huge platter of nachos in front of them, glasses of wine, and everyone laughing. She did enjoy her times with Seth, Roman and Dean, but there were times when she missed her friend Maggie, and the way they could talk about things that "the boys" would find uncomfortable or foolish. She envied May her easy friendship with Renee. Due to her being Dean's wife, Ronda had spent some time with her, but it was always with the boys around, and their conversations always reflected that.

She realized May was studying her, and she frowned. "Something wrong?"

May hesitated. They were outside the door of the locker room now, but May made no move to push the door open. "Look, if this thing with Seth and the gang is optional, why don't you tell them you'll see them later and come with Renee and I? I mean, I know Renee and I are going, but Sarita, Alicia and Naomi might be joining us. And, I think Charlotte was invited too, possibly some of the other girls. So, it will be anywhere from two to seven or so of us."

Ronda's eyes widened. She had gone out with other girls from the locker room before, but never with May and Renee along before. And never for some type of ritual like this WCW sounded. Ronda had never been big on having a gang of girl pals before and she wasn't sure this was something she'd enjoy. "I-I appreciate the offer," she began.

"Then come along," May said, before she could decline. "It's not a big deal, just bad food, hopefully decent wine and a chance to piss and moan and get it all off your chest."

"No," Ronda said, although part of her wanted to say yes, for some reason she couldn't quite understand. "I don't think I should-"

"Why?" May asked, head tipped to one side. "It's not a big deal, we won't make you sign a pack in menstrual blood or something. It's just a girls night out, blow off steam, have some fun, you know, feel free to complain about stuff that guys will never understand, like boob sweat."

Now Ronda stared right at May's rather ample chest, with a faint scowl. "I don't have that problem," she remarked.

May looked at Ronda's chest, and shrugged, looking only slightly embarrassed. "Point taken," she said. "Okay, so Samoa Joe is more likely to have that problem than you, but there have to be things you'd like to discuss without having to worry. Like Seth's stinky feet."

"His feet aren't that stinky," Ronda said, feeling she had to defend him, he was her husband after all.

"Aww," May said, with a small laugh, "You are so much better for him than I was. You can't lie to me, Ronda, I dated the guy and the stench of his feet drove me up the wall."

"I bought him some of those socks with the built in odor guard," Ronda said, before she could stop herself. "They help."

Now May laughed louder and longer, "You'll have to tell me where to get them, Dolph's feet aren't exactly a bouquet of wildflowers." She became serious. "Look, I'm not asking you out of pity or because I've got some strange idea that now we've gotten into trouble, we're bonded. I'm asking because… well, I think I've misjudged you. I've gotten to respect you through this rivalry, and I'd like the chance to get to know you better. Maybe we'll never be pals like Renee and I are, but, maybe we can find a middle ground."

Ronda thought for a moment, and realized that she really did want to go along with May. It wasn't that she wouldn't have a good time with "the Boys" but there was a large part of her that realized being in the company of other women, free to discuss whatever bugged them about the business, the partners they had, whatever, could be a good chance to recharge. God knows I can use a recharge, she thought, remembering that her limited spare time was about to shrivel to nothing for awhile, when she and May were told their punishment tomorrow. "Are you sure…" she asked, hesitantly.

May grinned, looking genuinely pleased to see Ronda was considering. "I'm sure," She said, nodding. "Text Seth and tell him you'll catch up with him at the hotel, that you're coming to WCW with me and Renee. He'll probably freak the fuck out."

That did make Ronda laugh, because she knew it was true. Seth would freak out that May and Ronda were out having a night on the town, eating bad food, drinking wine. Well, Ronda wasn't sure about the wine, but she didn't think it was mandatory that she drank wine. Hadn't May been drinking shots of Everclear the night she first hooked with Seth? Slowly she nodded. "Okay, you're on."

May grinned as she opened the door to let Ronda go into the locker room first.


Author's Notes: So, we're here at the end. And I think it sorta ties up the whole controversy between May and Ronda. Do I think they'll suddenly be best friends? No, I don't. But, I could see Ronda sometimes going along with May, Renee and the other girls for WCW. Especially if Seth has done something to really piss her off.

I do have another idea for a story, but as far as I'm concerned, the series is closed.

Thank you to everyone who's been taking this journey with me. I appreciate the company!