Saturday 29th September – 2:01 am

She must have been sat staring at her phone for the last half an hour. She wanted, craved to just speak to anyone who would listen. She was more alone than she had ever been in her entire life and that scared her more than anything in the world. She wasn't used to being alone. AJ had grown up with a close knit family, so no matter what she was always around someone, but where were her family now? Where were the people she used to call friends? Gone. That's where they are.

It's not like she can really call anyone right now. It's just gone 2am and everyone's probably asleep. If she wanted to call a family member she knew for a fact they wouldn't be awake due to the time difference in Puerto Rico. There was no-one there for her to talk to. No-one seemed to care.

Her mind wandered to the events that had taken place this past week. It still stung upon remembering Punk berate her in front of millions. She didn't know why he did it, sure he can be a jerk a lot of the time, but on Monday he had stooped to a new low.

She also had to deal with the fight between him and Dolph Ziggler that had broken out in the locker room after the show had ended. AJ, despite wanting to kill him on the spot, had asked Punk what had happened between them. Punk had replied with an odd few sentences that had been wrecking the 25-year-old's mind ever since Monday night, "Would you believe me if I told you it was because of you? I guess you're not the only one who despises me after what I said out there."

They had apparently fought because of her. She didn't know what to make of it. It's not like she could trust a word that came out of his mouth after what he had done, but what if he was right? If they had have fought over her… why? AJ had wanted to talk to Dolph about it. So many times she had created a text message ready to send to him, subtly begging to know what had gone down with them, but she couldn't bring herself to press the send button. Maybe it was because she didn't want to pester him or maybe it was because she was scared to know the full truth, but what the geek goddess did know was that the curiosity was killing her.

It was probably curiosity that caused her to make her next move. She picked up the object she had been staring at and went straight to his name and clicked the green button. Because she was general manager, she had managed to save his phone number from one of his files. That wasn't weird… was it?

After about three or four rings had gone by, Dolph picked up the phone. "Who's this? Do you have any idea what time it is?" He said groggily.

AJ didn't reply instantly, as she felt kind of bad because she thought she had woken him up. "Oh, crap. It's me, AJ. Did I wake you?"

"No… Well, I was just dozing off but no, I'm awake. Why are you ringing me up at this time AJ?"

"I uh… I needed someone to talk to. I'm feeling really lonely right now. You uh… said that I could talk to you any time, remember?"

That was true. A few weeks back, not long after he had comforted her when she had her little breakdown, she had thanked him and he told her he was available for a chat any time. I don't think he had planned for her to ring her at this unreasonable hour though.

"Yeah, yeah I remember. Um, so what's up?" He asked her.

AJ opened her mouth to reply to him, but no words came out. She didn't know what to say, because how could she explain exactly what was up with her without being on the phone to him for hours? She only really wanted to know what had happened between him and Punk, but she couldn't just jump right in and ask him about that, right? The main reason she had called was due to the fact that she wanted to hear someone's voice. Particularly his voice, but she would never admit to that.

"AJ? AJ are you still there?" He asked her after there was a brief silence on the line.

"Yeah, yeah I'm still here. Sorry I got lost in thought. I just… I guess I'm still a bit depressed after Monday, and well… I don't have anyone to talk to. I know that sounds sad and all, but honestly, no-one's really talking to me right now." She replied.

Dolph sighed, clearly feeling a little sorry for the GM. "Why is that AJ? Why don't you have anyone there for you? I'm sure you and Kaitlyn were best buddies not so long ago, why isn't she here for you now?"

"Oh my gosh, Kaitlyn? You obviously didn't pay attention when we had our big bust up and I got a little too slap happy with her. We're not exactly friends anymore, Dolph."

"So you mean to tell me that you don't have any friends?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you. It's really pathetic, I know, but I've kinda pushed everyone away. Now that I'm probably at the lowest point in my life, I realise that wasn't the best thing to do." She said with a deeply sad tone.

"I'm sorry about that AJ, I wish that wasn't the case for you. Look, if I were you I'd go talk to Kaitlyn and fix things with her. If she really cared about you, then I'm sure she'd want you back in her life."

AJ twiddled around with her bed sheets, contemplating the thought of patching things up with her former chickbuster partner. "I don't know, maybe I'll do that. Hey Dolph, can I ask you something?" she boldly questioned, finally getting round to asking what she had been dying to ask for the past four days.

"Sure, anything you want."

"What happened between you and Punk to make you have a fight with him in his locker room? I'm really confused by it, and you just walked out instead of explaining things to me which I found odd."

AJ heard the man exhale really loudly, and it felt like she was waiting a lifetime to hear his response. Her heart rate was speeding up a little in anticipation for what he was going to say. "It's pretty complicated AJ. The truth is we didn't see eye to eye on something. It doesn't matter now anyway."

That wasn't what the general manager of raw was hoping to hear. She wanted a little more information on the matter than that. "Are you sure you don't wanna expand on that Dolph? I don't want to get into my job role after hours, but I think as your boss you're inclined to tell me. I kinda deserve an explanation, don't you think?"

"Please AJ, just drop it." He firmly stated.

AJ was quite frustrated now. She didn't want to 'just drop it'. She wanted to know why two of her employees were brawling it out on her watch and she wanted to know why a man who had unexpectedly been kind towards her recently had been fighting with someone who had made her life a misery just a few hours before.

"I can't drop it Dolph, especially not after what Punk had said about it being…" She stopped herself mid-sentence.

"You spoke to Punk about it? What the hell did he have to say?" Dolph asked with a hint of anger.

AJ couldn't turn back now. She had to be honest about what Punk had said to her if she was going to get Dolph's side of the story. AJ braced herself before telling him what he wanted to know. "Punk said that the two of you were fighting over me. He said that you were pissed at him for saying the things he said about me. I'm not sure I believe it if I'm honest, I mean, I don't think you'd care that much if someone was humiliating me. I'm sure you'd laugh about it, well, I don't really know about you but I know Vickie would and…"

"I was pissed that he said those things to you," he interrupted her, "AJ we have had our differences okay, but I don't agree with what he did or how he did it. He was way out of line. You started crying for god's sake! I'm sure I've said this to you a few weeks ago, but I don't want there to be any more heat between us. I want to be on good terms with you, and I think that I am because you're calling me up at 2am to talk."

She paused, internally thanking him for interrupting her when she was rambling on. She processed everything he had said. It hit her that he was legitimately the only person in the world who was there for her. He was the only person who seemed to care, and he, the man who she wanted to get revenge on for saying a few stupid things, was the only person she could call a friend right now. A slight smile appeared on her face at that realisation.

"We are on good terms Dolph. But wait, so did you get into a fight with Punk over me or what?"

"Let's put it this way, he said some stuff about you that really crossed the line. I wasn't going to stand for it AJ. We ended up fighting because of that, but you ended it before it really started so there was no real harm done."

AJ was now trying to fight off the biggest, cheesiest grin on her face that was caused by knowing Dolph had defended her. Something made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside at knowing that in these dark days that she was living in, someone who was the most unlikeliest of confidante's actually cared enough to defend her. She'd forgotten what that had felt like.

"Well, thank you for defending my honour, Dolph. You really didn't have to do that though, it doesn't matter what he says about me anymore, nothing could have hurt me more than what he said about me on Monday. He practically slut shamed me, even though I never did anything like that with him, I swear!" She protested.

"I know you didn't, I believe you. It might sound weird coming from me, but I do care about you. It might have something to do with hating seeing pretty girls cry, but I can't stand seeing anyone hurt you like that, or any woman for that matter."

She could have sworn that she felt a few butterflies in her stomach when he said 'pretty girls.' He thought she was pretty. He didn't directly say that, but she knew what he meant nonetheless. It was… nice to know he thought that. Maybe a little too nice.

"I uh… thanks. Maybe I should let you get back to sleep. I'm sorry for waking you. I'll see you Monday, Dolph."

"I told you, you didn't wake me up. But yeah, I'll see you Monday. Sweet dreams, AJ." He said to her with a soft voice.

"Yeah, you too. Good night."

She hung up the phone, and was back into her previous stance of staring at the device. Sweet dreams. Two simple words that had been uttered by millions of people before, seemed like the cutest words in the world right now. Little hints were there that maybe, just maybe she liked Dolph as more than just a friend. But AJ Lee was stubborn, and no matter how many butterflies she felt right now, she would fight against admitting these feelings were present.

Quick filler chapter before the next big one. Hope you all enjoyed. :)