Disclaimer, etc., in part 1. Thanks to all that have reviewed/favorited/followed this one.
Part Nine
"That was not your best idea ever."
Seth rolled his eyes at Dean's words. "I didn't go up to her intentionally, man. I ran into her. I mean that literally." He made a face. "I hurt her arm."
Roman's brows drew down as he frowned. "What?"
"I grabbed her arm to keep her from losing her balance or whatever and... I know I hurt her." The youngest of the trio - though he really wasn't the youngest by much - let his head fall back against the seat of the car. "The look on her face. I never meant to..."
"Which arm?" Dean wanted to know. "The bruise I saw was on her left arm. Pretty high up. If you grabbed her left arm to keep her on her feet-"
"I grabbed her where the damn bruise is," Seth muttered, then hissed through his teeth. He hadn't meant to hurt her, but it had been reflex to grab her arm to keep her on her feet. It would have been better if he'd grabbed her around the waist or something... But after what had happened to her a few days ago, having some guy she didn't know grab her around the waist probably would have scared the hell out of her. As it was, he knew he made the diva nervous, and he really didn't like that. He sure as hell didn't want to scare her.
"Dude, you didn't know," Roman said, twisting around so that he could look into the backseat where Seth was, and Dean flicked a look into the rearview mirror as he drove.
"Roman's right. I never said which arm had the bruise before, and you just grabbed her to keep her from falling. I sincerely doubt she blames you for it," Ambrose said, and Seth nodded slightly, then reached up, hitting the surface above him.
"She had a bruise on her face," he said, very aware of the slight jerk of the car at his words. Dean had already told them he didn't know if she had any other bruises, but the small uncontrolled reaction to Seth's words let him know without a doubt that Dean hadn't known about that.
"What?" Ambrose demanded, his tone deadly, and Seth heaved out a sigh, his hands closed into fists as he dropped them down to his sides.
"You heard me. She had a bruise on her face. Covered pretty well by makeup, but definitely there. I'm guessing her makeup job faded over the course of the night and she didn't realize it. She knows I saw it. I'm pretty sure she was embarrassed that I saw it."
"She has nothing to be embarrassed about. Ryder's the ass that put his hands on her, and she fought the asshole off. And I say good for her on that. She left marks on him, too," Roman put in.
"Yeah, but it's obvious she doesn't want anyone to know what happened. I'm guessing she didn't tell anybody. She sure as hell didn't report it," Rollins replied. "I think Eve's a smart enough woman that she doesn't blame herself or whatever, but that doesn't mean she wants the world to know it happened to her. I'm guessing she doesn't want a guy she doesn't know to figure it out, either. We're a wild card to her. She doesn't know what we're going to say or do. No one back there trusts us."
"And do you really want the trust of some jackass like John Cena?" Ambrose wanted to know, his question drawing a snort from Rollins.
"Hell, no. But I don't want Eve Torres to be scared of me, either. I don't want her to look at me the same fucking way she would look at an ass like Zack Ryder," the younger man said, shifting around so that he was leaning forward in his seat as he spoke. "That's the line I won't cross, you know. We go after some guy that has a diva with him... I'm not going to let her walk all over me or whatever, but I'm not going to hurt her, either. I mean, she comes at me and tries to scratch my eyes out, I'm going to defend myself, yeah, but... That's it."
"Sounds fair. And a lot better than how some of the supposed good guys out there feel," Dean replied. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as they sat at a stoplight. "Before we found you with Eve earlier, I'd headed toward the trainers area."
"Yeah?"
"Seems to me that they were sending Ryder for x-rays, but that they didn't think we did any serious damage," the man said, and Seth made a face at that.
"Well, that's just too damn bad," he stated, and Ambrose smirked.
"My thoughts exactly. Although I did hear them say it was a miracle that he came away with just bruised ribs and not broken ones." He flicked a look over at Rollins, then returned his eyes to the road. "Especially with that little number you did when you jumped out of the ring and landed on his back. Since he was trying to get up when you did it, he jammed his wrist when you jumped on him and knocked him back down."
"Too bad I didn't break it."
"We busted up his face pretty good. I heard something about some place above his lip being so busted they thought it might need stitches. And then there's the black eye, which I think might have been from me. Roman's punch didn't break his jaw or anything, though. I imagine he'll get some good bruising out of the deal, though. I'm guessing he won't be cleared for the ring until at least the RAW after this next one. Maybe longer. If he stays at home where he's supposed to, at least that means Eve won't have to see his ugly face for a week or two," the man said, then shrugged. "Of course, he kept showing up last year when he was all banged up and shit."
"Yeah. And Kane threw him off the damned stage for it," Seth stated.
"We can't have Kane outdo us," Roman put in. "So if that little bastard shows up..."
"We take him down again. Make an example of him," Dean said. "We beat you down, you stay down until we say you can get up again. And Zack Ryder? Does not have my fucking permission to get up again."
