Well, I'm still in a bit of shock after what happened Monday night. I mean, for three hours, Raw didn't drag on nearly as much as I thought it would have, and it did have it's cool moments. I marked out hard for the APA and JBL doing the Clothesline from Hell, and it was really awesome seeing DX together as one big family again, so to speak. That being said...AJ as GM? I'm hoping she makes it work. I have faith in her though, so I'm sure she'll be just fine. And Punk turning heel? Absolutely loved it. I think it's exactly what he needs going forward. Can't wait to see where they go from here. And here's chapter seven! Hope y'all enjoy.


The Kiss Of Death


She stared at the voicemail icon on her phone. She had been doing this for days, her eyes barely leaving the bright lights that came from the screen when she looked at it. He had called her late Monday night, and she was going to answer it...until she saw Daniel walk in, so she ignored it and let it go to voicemail...and she hadn't done anything other than look at it since then. She was still wary of Daniel, waiting for the moment where he'd lash out at her like he used to, but it hadn't come (yet). He seemed to be really, really trying his best to make amends for what he did in the past, and she liked that he was enthusiastic about it...but her concerns and doubts still lingered under the surface. Why shouldn't they? A little under four months ago, the man ripped her heart out not once, but twice, and in no uncertain terms told her that he didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Now she was supposed to believe, that in that short time frame, he had changed his ways? The whole thing raised her suspicions tenfold, but for now...she was going to let this all play out. Maybe he really had changed, and everything would go back to how it was before he won the World Title. Then again, maybe he hadn't, and he was still a dickhead. Maybe...

She looked at her phone once more, the little message that said she had a missed call and voicemail from one CM Punk still staring her in the face. She so desperately wanted to answer his call, to hear his voice, to talk to him again. She contemplated excusing herself when it happened so that she could sneak down the hall and listen to the voicemail and call him back, but that wouldn't look suspicious at all, now would it? "Oh I'm just checking my phone and calling back your friend because it's him I really want." Yeah, that'd go over reeeeealll well. She ended up not doing it last night, fearing that Daniel might snap if he caught her.

It was early Wednesday afternoon now, and she was alone in the hotel room, as Daniel had gone for a run. She kept looking at her phone over and over, debating on whether she wanted to listen and call him back or not. On the one hand...he had pretty much ripped her heart from her chest, thew it into a blender and turned it on frappe. But on the other hand...whatever bits and pieces she recovered from it still ached to be around him. She had never got the chance to tell him everything she wanted to, and she was regretting it every second of every day. The very games she played with him did the one thing she didn't think they'd do; bite her in the ass, and hard. She had so desperately hoped that he wanted to continue on with their program, but when he said that she and Daniel should 'get hitched', a small part of her died on the inside. Sure, that sounded a tad pathetic and a wee bit overdramatic, but it was true nonetheless. She had the world in her hands and now that very world was crumbling around her. And try as she might...she just...couldn't get excited about getting back together with Daniel. That ship had came and passed a long time ago. Part of her still had her major suspicions too. He went from being ok with a healthy, working relationship to now wanting to try things out again on a personal and intimate level, out of nowhere? Yeah, if that wasn't sketchy at all, then she didn't know what was.

So she lay there, her upper body resting against the headboard of the bed, flipping through the channels on the TV, finding nothing to divert her attention from her phone. She must've gone through at least forty to fifty channels, and she found nothing. She reached over and grabbed one of the magazines she had on the dresser, and began flipping through it, before tossing it onto the floor. There she was, playing with her thumbs, nothing to watch on TV and bored to death with her magazines. "Oh screw it", she said to herself as she grabbed her phone and quickly brought up the voicemail, pressing the phone to her ear to listen to it.

"Hey AJ...it's Punk...I've got something that...I need to tell you", the message began. She heard him take a deep breath and mutter something she couldn't decipher under his breath before continuing on. "I shouldn't have let you leave with Daniel on Saturday...I know I told you that on Sunday, you probably don't want to hear it again but whatever. It was selfless of me to do, but it was also stupid, because...AJ, I'm feeling things I haven't felt in a while, and I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but...I'm willing to find out. I've got a day off tomorrow...if you do too, then come with me to Chicago. And I know that'll probably seem very forward of me, but I don't give a damn at this rate. I want to hear what you've got to say to me, if you even have anything left to say...and I want you to hear what I've got to say. I messed up the other night, and I can understand if you don't want any part of this. I'm a big boy, I'll live with it. But the door is open...and I hope to hear from you soon. Later."

The message ended and she removed her ear from the phone, looking at it for a second, almost as if it was going to grow legs and run away. She pressed play on the message and listened to it again, the same look on her face after it ended. She let every one of his words sink in, to the point where she muted the television so she could think about all of this in perfect silence. She ignored everything about him letting her leave with Daniel and how idiotic he was for that. He wanted her to come to Chicago. With him. Alone. In his home town. Just the two of them. No Daniel...no Kofi...no nobody. Just him. And her. If her life was a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared above her head. Slowly placing her phone down on the dresser next to the TV, she took a deep breath...and then squealed in enjoyment, skipping around the small room, before throwing herself onto the bed. All the happiness that had been sucked out of her over the weekend was back, as if it was magically pumped back into her body. She quickly checked her schedule to see if she had a house show tomorrow, and not surprisingly, she didn't. She couldn't believe it. She was going to Chicago...with him! It was like the gods had shined back down upon her. Her luck couldn't have turned out any better. But then again...

"Luck is for losers", she whispered to herself as she stared at the ceiling, a grin beginning to tug at her lips. Many thoughts then began to race through her head. What was she going to wear? Casual? Her usual? Dress up all girly? What about her hair? How was she going to have it? What was she going to say to him? Well, she already knew what she was going to say to him, she had been been wanting to say the same thing to him for weeks now. How would she do it? The endless thoughts ran through her head, none of them more important than the fact that she was going to his home town and doing who knows what. They could go rollerblading through the streets with nothing on but their underwear on and she wouldn't care.

She hadn't heard the door open and click shut, she was so wrapped up in her own little world. Still staring at the ceiling, a face came into view; Daniel's. He had a puzzling look on his face, staring down at her as she kept grinning. "What's got you so happy?", he asked as he walked over to the fridge and grabbed a bottled water. AJ stood up, sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, still grinning. "Huh? Oh, nothing of importance. Just a funny joke my brother told me", she lied effortlessly.

"What are you doing later?", he asked moved from the mini kitchen to the chair closest to the window, taking a seat as he looked out at the skies. He had something in mind and he was really hoping she'd be up for it.

"I don't know...Lay and Kait mentioned something about possibly getting everyone together for a girl's night, but I haven't heard anything...why, what's up?", she asked as she slid off the bed and walked over to the mirror, already checking her face for any unsightly blemishes that she didn't want Punk to see when she saw him tomorrow. Daniel must've said something, because she responded with a 'What?' as she spun around to face him.

"I asked if you'd like to go to dinner tonight. There's a really nice place about ten minutes from here, and it's on the waterfront so the view is great. How's that sound?", he asked, sounding hopeful that she'd accept, and he'd be one step closer to re-building the bridge that he had broken between them.

She thought about it for a minute, absent-mindedly twirling a strand of her brown tresses around her pointer finger. A nice dinner did seem...well, nice, even if she was still hella suspicious of Daniel and his motives...but after the last few months of pretty much alienating her friends, she wanted to see them and apologize for not being around. She felt she owed it to them. "Can I get back to you on that, Daniel? I wanna call Kait and see if there actually is anything going on between the girls tonight. If not, then dinner will be lovely", she said somewhat stiffly, a little too much for her taste.

His smile faded quickly into disappointment, but he covered it up as quickly as he could. He wasn't used to AJ making plans on her own...she'd always be up to doing whatever he wanted to do in the past. But there it was; that was the past, and this was the now. And now, she had become more hardened, more aware, less of a pushover and far, far more independent (not to mention clinically crazy, but that was another story for another day). "That's ok. Go do what you need to do", he told her, putting on a smile that seemed a little forced, and he knew it. She picked up on the fakeness of said smile as well, simply nodding her head before departing into the hall to call her (old?) friend, leaving Daniel alone with his thoughts.

This was harder than he had expected. Truthfully, a part of him had almost expected everything to go back to the way they were when she agreed to room and ride with him. He'd suggest something, she'd automatically say yes, they'd do whatever it was, and then they'd come back to the room to have sex, which, believe it or not, she was quite adept at. Maybe it was just her wanting to please him at any cost, but she was...creative, when it came to the bedroom. But he wasn't all about that now. He wasn't facing the pressure of being World Heavyweight Champion anymore, and he could go back to not being a colossal dick, dragging the poor girl around like she was his property, and almost forcing sex upon her, and treating her like utter shit. No, he was going to prove to her that he had turned a new leaf, that he could be the boyfriend she needed all those months ago, that he could keep his temper in check, all of it. So yeah, he was really hoping that she would go to dinner with him. It'd be a great first step out of many towards proving to her that he was being genuine in his advances. Yeah, it was harder than he thought it'd be, but he was up to the challenge, and he'd show her that.

She slipped back into the room, phone clutched in her hand, watching as Daniel turned to face her, the fake smile gone in place of another hopeful look. She could see it in his body language that he was hoping that she'd accept his dinner proposition...and if she hadn't been put through hell by him in the past, and hadn't become a better person because of said experiences, and wasn't thinking that he was up to something, she'd have said yes in a heartbeat. But alas, it wasn't in the cards tonight. She had just gotten off the phone with Kaitlyn, and indeed there was something going on tonight. The two tone haired girl was more than surprised when she said that she'd love to join the girls for a night out, and frankly, she needed it.

"So, how'd that go? Good?", Daniel asked her, a bit too excitedly. It was like he was almost trying to be too happy for even the smallest things, and it only heightened her awareness more. She shrugged her shoulders and politely smiled back as she flopped down onto the bed again, grabbing the remote and beginning the task of flipping through the channels again.

"It was alright. Turns out they are doing something tonight", she said, feeling the hope slowly seep out through his pores with each word. "I feel really bad for not being around them recently, so I'm gonna go out with all of them...it's been a while", she added, and without even looking at him she could tell how dejected he was based on the length and volume of the sigh she heard. A part of her truly did feel a little bad for popping his balloon like she just did, but the rest of her knew that he deserved far worse than this after being put through the emotional wringer a few times. "Are you available for lunch on Friday afternoon before the house show?", she asked, hoping herself to make it up to him a little bit.

"You're not around tomorrow?", he asked in return, and she grinned. 'Nope. I'm going to Chicago and having the time of my life with the man I'm meant to be with', she thought to herself as she shook her head. "I'm going home and visiting my family, plus my aunt is out visiting them so I wanna see her too before she goes back to Florida. Is Friday not good for you?"

He shook his head dismissively. "No, it'll be fine", he added quickly. "I can drop my other plans, it's no problem", he said, observing the look on her face. "Don't feel bad, they're nothing important. Lunch on Friday will be fine."

"Daniel, you don't need to drop whatever other plans you have just to have lunch with me. I'd rather you keep them, I'd feel bad if you canceled yo-"

"I said, it's fine, it's not a problem", he shot back, his tone growing more agitated along with the look on his face. She inched back from her position on the bed even though he was nowhere near her. "I'm trying, alright?", he then said/asked, drawing a confused expression from her.

"What do you mea-"

"I said I'M TRYING, ALRIGHT!", he screamed. He clasped his hands across his mouth and closed his eyes almost immediately though, regretting what he had just done. He slowly reopened them to see AJ sitting on the bed, her lips pursed and a knowing look on her face. She nodded her head and got up, walking over to her belongings and grabbing a brush from her bag.

"I'm going to shower and then I'll be heading out with the girls. I'll see you later, Daniel", she said sternly, her lips pursed tightly together as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Once out of sight, she could hear him curse to himself, and she shook her head; he had done exactly what she was waiting for him to do, and that was lash out like he always did. With a small grin tugging at the corners of her lips, she shed her clothing as she stepped into the shower and turned the water on, letting Daniel and everything else regarding him melt away.

Tonight was going to be great. Tomorrow was going to be even better.

xXx

After a wonderful night out with the girls and everything being swept under the bridge, AJ woke up super early the next morning to gather her belongings and prepare herself for what was sure to be a wonderful day spent in good old Chicago. When she had awoken, Daniel was still sleeping, on his side and facing the opposite wall. She left him a note saying that she had taken an early flight back home and would see him on Friday afternoon before the house show.

She thought about what had happened before she left last night, replaying it over and over in her head. That it had taken him a few days to snap like he did was a mild surprise to her; she had expected him to fly off the handle Sunday night or even sometime Monday, but he hadn't. It didn't matter now, though. She was going to go to Chicago either way; him finally flipping his lid last night only proved to her that she made the right choice.

Reaching the outside of the hotel, she waved down one of the cabs and threw her things into the trunk before sliding into the backseat, her destination the airport. After the twenty minute drive, she gave the man her fare and grabbed her stuff, racing into the large building with all the energy of a pre-teen at a Justin Bieber concert, trying to cop a feel as he walks by. Eventually, she reached the front of her respective line, brimming with joy as she reached the teller.

"One ticket to Chicago, Illinois please."

"Alright, that'll be $146, and I need to see your identification as well please", the lady behind the counter asked while the diminutive Diva produced it. "Alright, let's see here...oh, you're the girl from WWE, right? The crazy one?"

A small smile appeared on AJ's lips as she slowly nodded her head. "Yup, that's me. The resident crazy chick of the WWE."

"My daughter loves you. She skips around our house all the time like you do on TV", the lady said, smiling at her, her cheeks turning a light shade of red. "Well, your daughter has wonderful taste then", she commented back, the two women sharing a quick laugh as her ticket was finalized. "Here you go, all taken care of. Any reason you're going out there? Work related, I'm assuming?"

"No, not this time. I'm...meeting up with a friend. And I'm reeeeally hoping that everything works out for the best."

"Well, I hope that you enjoy your trip. Have fun!"

"Thank you", AJ said to the lady behind the counter. Before she left, however, she grabbed a pen from her pocket and asked for a piece of paper. Signing her name onto it, she slid her signature to the woman behind the counter. "Give that to your daughter. I'm sure she'll be thrilled", she added with a smile as she walked off toward her gate, the teller thanking her profusely for the autograph.

After bobbing and weaving her way through the massive crowd of people, she eventually found her way to her gate and waited. She had about an hour to kill before she could board, so she pulled out a book from her bag and began to read. Twenty minutes went by, and she saw out of the corner of her eye that a man had sat down next to her, himself carrying a rather large bag that rivaled her own. 'Must be a business man or something', she mused to herself as she flipped another page.

"Heavy bag ya got there for such a tiny little girl like yourself", the man observed as he looked down at it. "You a one woman traveling circus or something?"

She laughed at the question; she might as well be. "Uh huh! Face paint, red nose, big shoes, I got everything I need in there", she said with a smile before she returned to her book.

"Laurinaitis give you those shoes then? It wouldn't surprise me. That douche has a million of them."

Her head snapped up and her mood perked up as well at the sound of the voice. Turning to face the man, her eyes lit up like they only did when he was around. "Punk!"

"No, it's King Kong Bundy."

She smiled widely at that comment, one he had said to her before, and she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "I thought you were already in Chicago", she whispered to him as she held his head against hers.

"I stuck around after Raw and traveled to San Diego with the crew, they told me to take a few days off", he said, grinning to himself as his head was still pressed up against her brown mane. "Ready for this?", he asked her as the overhead speaker announced that the flight to Chicago was ready to board.

She removed her hands from around his neck and beamed at him, her pearly whites flashing as she stood up and grabbed her bags. "I've been ready."

He grinned down at her and shook his head as he extended his arm to her, which she happily grabbed. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that was going to ruin this day for her.

This was going to be the best day of her life.


And that's that! Thank you all to everyone who has reviewed and favorited and followed this, you don't know how much I appreciate it all. Hope everyone liked the little KKB reference I threw in there at the end as well, I thought it was nice. Next chapter should be up sometime over the weekend, and it's just them in the land of Chicago! See ya then!