A/N: Hi guys! The opening scene for this chapter picks up right after the ending to RonTheRonin's Pride: Watch the Throne story! So make sure you read that to avoid the sense of confusion! Enjoy chapter nine! And thank you so much for your help with this chapter Ronnie! Much appreciated!
Chapter Nine: The Consequences of Our Actions
"Damn sweetheart," Dean panted, as the Lunatic Fringe tried his very best to catch his breath. "That was really fuckin' fantastic," he told the woman who was still lying beneath him.
Paige watched as Dean picked his shirt and jeans off of the floorboard of the car before started to get dressed. "Yeah, gotta admit, it was pretty good." She replied, getting dressed herself. Then it hit her that Dean had thrown the keys hours ago, which meant they still had no way of getting back to their hotel for the night. "It doesn't change the fact that you're a bloody twat though. Because you threw the goddamn keys we have no way to the hotel."
"Sure we do Casper, it's called hitchhiking." Dean said, giving her a grin as he slid his leather jacket onto his shoulders.
Paige glared at him. "You really are bloody stupid, aren't you?" She asked, pulling her own shirt over her head as she sighed. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that really didn't have a choice in the matter.
Fifteen minutes later, Dean and Paige were in some random semi with some random truck driver. Needless to say, the ride to the hotel was filled with an awkward silence while the driver ate a sub more more obnoxious than what was necessary.
"Thanks for the ride, Larry." Dean said with a wave as he hopped out of the truck landing smoothly on his feet.
The Lunatic Fringe decided to get his own hotel room for tonight, even though he had agreed to meet up with Renee after the show, he knew it wouldn't be a good idea to meet with her now. Not after sleeping with Paige. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to look Renee in the eye.
Not after making a mistake like this one.
He was such a goddamn idiot.
Ambrose went to his hotel room, lying on his back on the bed. He knew that he had screwed up, and now there was no taking it back. Part of him said that it was no big deal, and the other half
of him knew that this was going to hurt Renee, and it was going to hurt her deep.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, he turned off the light, and closed his eyes, trying his very best to get some sleep.
The next morning, Dean went to the gym to do a workout. He had been up most of the night. It was like having a devil and an angel on his shoulder. The little devil on his shoulder telling him that the fact he had sex with Paige was no big deal. It was hot sex. good sex, and everyone needed to have good sex every once in a while.
The angel on his shoulder….well, it was telling him that he fucked up the best thing to have ever happened him.
The angel was probably right.
He wasn't sure how he was going to handle this. Cheating on Renee wasn't something he could just come out and admit. He knew that if Renee ever found out about this, that it would break her. He knew it would not only break her spirit, but her heart, too.
The Ohio native knew that Renee really cared about him. He could tell just by the way Renee looked at him. The way the blonde touch him, or the way Renee would kiss him.
He couldn't stand the fact that he had hurt her.
Again.
He really was no good for her.
Until he could figure out how to handle this, or until he could figure out what to do, he was going to keep this to himself.
But that didn't change the fact that he felt guilty. Guilt wasn't something that Ambrose felt often. He quickly learned that he hated this feeling.
The fact that Dean didn't have a match at Battleground was upsetting to say the least. He deserved better, and he was well aware of that. Not having a match also gave him a lot of time to think. He had been thinking about Renee a lot lately, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to the beautiful blonde.
He knew that if he so much as looked into her eyes, he would immediately feel terrible. Although logically it didn't make sense for him to feel any other way. The fact that he had made the choice to cheat on Renee was something that was always going to be something where no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't be able to get the angel or devil off of his shoulders.
As if karma wanted to mess with him, he could see Renee walking towards him. He sighed heavily, swearing under his breath as he raked a hand through his messy brown hair.
"Hi Dean!" She happily greeted him as she sipped on her Starbucks drink. "I haven't seen you lately, so I just wanted to make sure everything was alright with you," she smiled serenely, but that dreaded rain cloud hanging over Dean was more noticeable than ever.
"Everything okay? You look like something's bugging you? Is Emma at it again?" Renee quickly asked, rapid firing questions faster than Dean could keep up with.
"I uh...nothing, I just got a migraine is all, nothing too serious I promise darlin'," he offered the worst type of chuckle possible, but Renee luckily went for it.
Renee smiled at him, her heart rate picking up slightly. God, she was really falling for him. She couldn't believe how fast she was failing him. She never saw something like this coming. Herself falling for someone like this fucking guy.
But she did. She wouldn't take it back, though. She wouldn't take any of this back. She giggled as she stepped forward, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "I hope you feel better soon," she said in a low whisper before taking another sip of her doubly chocolate chip frappuccino.
Dean forced a smile. "You know, those things aren't really that good for you, sweetheart." He said, pointing to her oversized drink that was about halfway gone.
"Hmmm, maybe not," Renee responded, titling her head slightly as she studied her boyfriend. Something wasn't right, but she couldn't figure it out. She wasn't sure she wanted to figure it out. "But they're really good. My favorite, actually."
The Lunatic Fringe nodded his head. That feeling of guilt was starting to creep up on him again. "Listen, I told Ro that I would meet him at the gym so the two of us could do a quick workout. So I'll see you around, alright?"
Chewing on her green straw, Renee forced herself to nod her head. "Okay," she said quietly as she once again got the horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to question him. She wanted to know what was going on, but she knew there was no point.
Dean glanced up at Renee, he could tell by the look in her brown eyes that he had hurt her. Goddamnit, he thought to himself. I am such an idiot.
As Dean departed from the coffee shop, leaving Renee alone to her thoughts and her coffee, a friendly, albeit scruffy face immediately took his seat afterwards. It was a face that Renee knew all too well while working down in NXT the previous year.
The face of one Alex Riley.
"Can I help you?" Renee asked, her tone of voice changing suddenly. Maybe it had to do with the fact Dean just walked away without even saying goodbye. Or kissing her for that matter.
Riley offered a reassuring smile to his friend. "I couldn't help but notice that you looked a bit upset after that lunatic left, so with us being tight and all, I'd thought to spend some time with you while I deal with my injury," he explained.
Renee couldn't stop the feeling of anger that rushed through her veins, and the next thing she knew, she had slapped Alex across the face. She hated when people labeled Dean. "That lunatic is my boyfriend," Renee said through her gritted teeth.
Riley quickly put his hands up in self defense. "Look I'm sorry! I'm sorry, alright? Just thought I'd catch up with you and stuff, but I didn't know you'd slap me! But hey, you know what they say about Ambrose Renee," he cryptically spoke.
"What the hell are you talking about Riley? I'm going to slap you again if you don't get your hot morning breath out my face," she swiped at him, but he quickly dodged. A smirk grew on his face as he observed the irritated Canadian.
"Let's just say I know a little something about your boyfriend that would absolutely break you. I know you've been dying to find out exactly what he's been up to, but perhaps some things are best left unsaid," the former NXT announcer stated. With that, he stood up and turned away, the biggest sinister grin etched across his face.
Renee stood up, grabbing Alex's wrist. She pulled him back to where she stood. Her heart was racing, and she felt like she was going to throw up at any moment. "Alex….this isn't funny anymore….something is up with him and I don't know what it is. Please don't keep this from me," she quietly begged him. "Please."
Alex smirked. He was going to use this for as long as he could. "I'm sorry Renee, but I have to go," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Hunter is calling me," he explained, picking up his phone as he held it to his ear. "What's up?" Renee heard him ask as she watched him walk away.
The blonde looked on sadly as she watched him go. So now Alex had a secret. To make it worse, it was about her boyfriend. She had no idea what to do next, but she needed to figure out what this secret was.
It seemed as if a week had passed by now, but the Miz wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. His phone was completely dead now and there were no pay phones or toll phones anywhere in sight. He was hot and he was tired, and the fact that he got thrown into this situation while wearing some sort of monkey suit was completely ridiculous.
He tried to hitchhike and catch a ride from somebody, anybody at all, but all they would do is coast by, driving through puddles and splashing all the dirty puddle water into his face. The only thing he could find to eat was dead armadillo on the side of the road.
It seemed as if the Awesome One was truly at the end of his rope.
Just as if all hope seemed lost, he happened to come upon a bar right next to a gas station. Convenience at last.
He stepped into the gas station, the cool air feeling so good on his skin. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He looked around, and then he noticed that he would finally be able to eat something. He pulled the twenty that he had out of his pocket, running his thumb over it. He was going to have to spend this wisely.
He knew that water was going to be the best thing for him to drink, so he grabbed two bottles of water. Then he started to wonder around, and was confused. He noticed the food, but couldn't understand what kind of food this was. "What the fuck is all this shit?" He muttered, looking at all of his choices.
Sighing heavily, he decided to go with the small bag of Gator Chips. "I hope this tastes alright," he mumbled to himself as he went to the man behind the counter. He tried to hide his embarrassment, but considering he was in a monkey suit, that was hard to do. "Your total is $8.43." He told Miz, and then took his money.
He handed Miz $11.57 back, and then Miz walked out of the gas station.
A few blocks from where he stood, Miz could see a bar. He downed both of the water bottles so quickly that he had almost spit them back up. Then he shoved the gator chips down his throat so fast that he did choke. But he was just so hungry.
He ran to the bar as his legs would allow him to run, and he stood at the entrance of the bar bent over as he tried his best to catch his breath as he placed his hands on his knees.
He stepped inside, and once again the air felt amazing when it touched his skin. He walked over to one of the stools. "Hi," he said to the bartender. "Can I get uh….a gator burger, medium-well and um...I guess some gator fries. A Pepsi to drink, please."
"Sure, coming right up."
As Mike sat there waiting for his food, he started to think about Eve again. He missed her like hell. He hadn't heard her voice in ages, and god did he miss her. He couldn't help but to think that Eve had given up on looking for him. Not that he blamed her. He didn't even have the slightest idea of how long he had been away from home.
Wiping his tears away with the back of his hand, he took a deep breath. He promised himself that he would see her soon. He jumped about a foot when he looked to his right and saw someone who looked just like him. "Who the fuck are you?" He rasped as his plate was set down right in front of him. Miz immediately began to chow down. But this time he knew he needed to eat slowly this time around, so he forced himself to do so.
"Hey there, Sonny! You aren't from around here, are you?" He asked, taking notice of Mike's monkey suit, as well as the flies around his head.
"What makes you think that?" Mike mumbled, taking a bite of his burger.
"Well you're in a monkey suit, and you're dirty. You don't smell too good, either. You should really take a shower soon."
Mike took another bite of food, "and who the hell are you?" he asked, swallowing his current bite.
"My name is Matt Mizanin!" Matt proudly responded. "You know, even though we look exactly the same, I, obviously am the better looking out of the two of us."
Miz couldn't stop the loud laugh from leaving his lips. "I'm sorry," he said with a shake of his head. "Did you just say that you're better looking than me?" He laughed again. "If you think that, then you really are an idiot, sir. Because believe it or not, I am an A-Lister movie star, goddamnit! And back at home, I have a girl at home who is breathtakingly beautiful. What do you have here in this hell hole? Besides your fuckin' gators?"
Matthew laughed. "Okay, whatever makes you feel better," he said with a shrug. "My life here is pretty great, especially compared to yours pal."
Mike frowned. "Look dude, I don't know where the fuck I am, or what the fuck this place is. All I do know is that I want to go home. I want to go home to my girl, and my life." He admitted, sighing heavily.
"Well since you want to get back to your life so badly, Sonny, how about I let you crash in the back of my pickup truck. I can give ya a pillow and a wonderful blanket that's made out of gatorskin!"
Sighing once more, Miz swallowed his final bite of food. "Okay, sure." He said quietly.
He couldn't get back to Eve fast enough.
Bayley pulled into the parking lot of East End Market, one of Orlando's local coffee shops. She had agreed to meet Sami Zayn for coffee. The bubbly Diva had just returned to action down in NXT, and was feeling really good about herself. "Hi Sami!" She greeted Sami with a wide smile.
"Hi," he responded as he returned the smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm great! I'm on the road of getting my hands on that NXT Women's title, and it feels so good. I can't wait for that to be in my hands, Sami. All of my hard work will finally pay off!" She gave him another bright smile before taking a sip of her drink.
Sami smiled back as he relaxed. He felt happy in this moment. He felt kind of….at peace. With everything that had been going on lately for Sami, he needed time to get away. He needed to smile. He knew that being around Bayley would allow both of those things to happen. "I'm really glad that we got to spend sometime together, Bayley. Things have been kind of rough for me lately, so it feels good to relax for once, you know?"
Bayley looked at Sami, frowning a little. "I'm sorry that things are so rough for you, Sami. But don't worry, it has to rain before you can see a rainbow! Things will get better! I promise!" She exclaimed happily.
Sami chuckled softly, and then he took a sip of his drink. Once he swallowed it, he looked at Bayley and he said, "they already are getting better Bayley."
Renee couldn't shake the sad feeling that was still settled so deeply inside of the pit of her stomach. The beautiful blonde couldn't stop thinking of Dean, no matter how hard she tried to get the Lunatic Fringe off her mind, she couldn't.
She wandered the hotel hallways aimlessly, too much on her mind to go and sit down in her own hotel room or the lobby. She was trying to hold back her tears, but it really wasn't working. Dean was hurting her, and he was cutting her deep.
She looked down at her gold iPhone 6, trying to look for a new song to listen to. She had her music on slightly loud, but it was helping the blonde stay slightly distracted. God do I hate the shuffle option sometimes. Renee thought to herself as May I by Trading Yesterday started to play.
The lyrics in this song spoke to her. It was perfect. If she and Dean had a song, this would be it.
Let me raise you up, let me be your love.
May I hold you as you fall to sleep.
When the world is closing in, and you can't breathe.
May I love you, may I be your shield.
When no one can be found, may I lay you down.
Renee hummed along to the lyrics quietly as a soft sigh left her lips. Yep, this most definitely would be their song.
She opened her photo app, scrolling until she came across one of the very few pictures she and Dean had taken together. The Ohio native wasn't very open to taking pictures, so when he agreed to take one with her, she made sure to always save them.
Her brown eyes stared at the photo as they began to burn due to the fact she was holding back her tears. He looked so happy in this photo. What had changed? Why had the Lunatic Fringe suddenly become so distant with her? Did she not make him happy the way he made her happy?
Renee sniffled as one of the tears rolled down her left cheek. This pain was starting to cut deeper and deeper with every day that passed. But it didn't change the fact that she cared for Dean so, so much.
They really didn't know each other for that long, but there was something that drew her to the blue eyed Ohio native.
She felt this need to save him. To fix him. To let him know that he indeed was a lovable man. In fact, Renee could almost say that she was in love with him already. In this very moment.
Almost.
The Canadian refused to give up on him now. That's probably what he wanted, and most definitely expected. She knew that's what he was expecting, and that's why Renee refused to give up on Dean or walk away from him.
She wanted him to know she was different. She wanted him to be able to finally grasp the fact that she cared about him. Truly cared. She wasn't like Emma who was creepily obsessed with him. She was going to show him what it was like to love and be loved.
That was a promise. Her promise to Dean.
A sharp pain in her lower back caused Renee to scream in pain as she fell to the ground. Her hand immediately went to where the feeling of pain was coming from, and she slowly pulled it away to see that she was bleeding.
Soft whimpers left her as she felt a hard blow to the head, and a rough kick land in the area of her rips once she was down on the ground fully. Just as she was going to open her eyes to check her surroundings, she felt a pinch in the back of her neck, knowing that someone had poked her with a needle.
Within moments, she slipped into darkness.
Emma knelt down beside Renee, brushing the blonde hair out of her face as a smirk crossed her lips. "I told you to stay away from Dean, Renee. But I guess it doesn't matter now since he doesn't want you either." Emma commented with a shake of her head as picked Renee up, and walked out into the parking lot where she had parked her car. "Buckle up Renee," Emma said as she closed the back door of her small rental car and got into the drivers seat. "Because you and me...we're gonna go on a little road trip."
A/N: Yayyyyyyyyy! Another chapter is finally done! I hope you enjoyed this one! Please don't forget to review! Thank you! - Melly
