Five minutes after Hunter returned to the creative meeting, Ronda also walked back into the room. The cold water she had used to wash her face in the bathroom had helped her to calm down. She now felt ready to continue the discussion, but returning to the room also made her feel embarrassed, given that she had left it in tears. Crying was a fairly regular thing for Ronda, which she knew was a fact that would surprise a lot of people, however she would always do her best to avoid crying in front of other people. Showing weakness like that wasn't how she had been raised. Showing weakness of any kind wasn't how she had been raised.

"Are you okay, Ronda?" Stephanie asked with a pleasant smile.

Ronda knew that Hunter would not have told Stephanie what they had discussed minutes before because he would not have had the opportunity to do so with Sarita and Tom in the room. There was no doubt that the two bosses would discuss it later, but for now Ronda decided to try and go on with the meeting without bringing up what she had been upset about at all. First off, there was an apology to make. "Yeah. I'm okay. I want to apologise for being rude to you before."

If the apology surprised Stephanie, she certainly didn't show it. She merely gave a nod of acknowledgement as Ronda sat down beside her once more. "Forget it," she said easily. Without missing a beat, she got the meeting back underway. "I was just talking with Sarita about the fact that she's going to go on a losing streak until Summerslam. It'll give the fans and the commentators something to speculate about in terms of a possible motive for her joining Evolution, once it's happened."

"Alright, that makes sense," Ronda said. She picked up her glass of water as she asked, "Hunter, earlier, you mentioned four people being on this team?"

"I was just going to ask about that," Sarita joined in, sounding keen to learn who the fourth member would be, as Ronda downed her entire glass of water.

Hunter smiled as he took in the eager expressions on both Sarita and Ronda's faces. He imagined that Ronda was probably hoping that it would be her friend Nikki Bella, whereas Sarita was possibly hoping that it might be Natalya, who she had teamed with successfully in the past. Both women were going to be disappointed because he had other ideas. "As Steph mentioned earlier, we've managed to end up with a lot of faces in the Divas division. We're already going to be working on turning you, Ronda, and you, Sarita. Attempting three heel turns at once might have been a bit much to ask, which is why I've decided to add someone who's already playing a heel to the team. Devon Dawson, to be specific."

"Oh," Sarita said quietly, a smile breaking out on her face as she considered the announcement. Working with one of the brightest prospects from NXT was something that definitely appealed to her. "I think that's a good idea. Devon's really got something going on. She's a little raw, but she has talent. There's no doubt about that."

Seeing everyone now looking in her direction for a comment, Ronda knew that she was in a difficult spot. She knew the name Devon Dawson and would recognise her if she bumped into her in a hallway, but that was about as far as her knowledge went. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she had watched an episode of NXT or paid any attention to what went on there. Saying so would hardly be diplomatic, even she realised that. "I think it's a good idea too," she smiled, hoping that it looked convincing enough.

It didn't. That became apparent with Hunter's reply. "You don't know who Devon is do you, Ronda?"

"Sure I do. She's the African-American girl in NXT. Short, but muscular. Uh..."

Sarita laughed heartily at Ronda's obvious awkwardness as she ran out of words. "Give it up, girl. You don't watch NXT, do you?"

"Fine," Ronda huffed, glaring at Sarita. She was not at all happy with being laughed at in front of the bosses. "I don't watch NXT. Let's all have a good fucking laugh shall we?"

"Enough," Hunter said firmly, grimacing at Ronda's latest show of temper. "Calm down, will you? There's no need to go off the deep end like that. Sarita's right with her description of Devon. She's a little raw, but she has a lot of talent that we can definitely capitalise on if she develops and gets over. That's where I want the two of you to come in. Sarita, you've been with us for four years including your time in NXT. You've never taken on the role of mentoring someone before, but I want you to do so now. You have experience that you can pass on to Devon which will only help her to improve."

"You got it," Sarita said, sounding pleased with what she had been asked to do.

"What about me?" Ronda asked a little testily as she absently picked up her already empty glass once more. She then looked at it as if it had offended her by being empty and set it back down on the table. "I'm willing to take time out to train with her too."

Hunter caught the sideways glance from his wife. This topic had already been the subject of much conversation in the days prior to the meeting. Having Devon work with Ronda was an obvious double-edged sword if ever there was one. The area of Devon's work in the ring which needed the most improvement was her technique, her mat wrestling, which happened to be one of Ronda's strengths, along with her powerful physique. Devon had impressive strength for a woman who stood at only five feet three inches, and she also had quickness. If Ronda could mentor her and improve her mat wrestling, Devon could become a very impressive performer indeed. Unfortunately, the obvious problem with having someone work with Ronda was that she could be a nightmare outside of the ring, both to manage and to work with.

Thanks to his one on one discussion with Ronda a few minutes earlier, Hunter now knew that potentially this could be put down Ronda having NPD, which was a condition that he had heard about in the past. While that knowledge made him feel like he was willing to help her, he still didn't want conflict between her and Dawson, or even worse, for Ronda's bad attitude and ego to start to rub off on the younger woman. It had been a tough decision, but he had decided that, to start with at least, Ronda would also mentor Devon with the objective of improving her technique. Ronda was looking at him expectantly, obviously wanting to join Sarita in mentoring the up and coming star. It wasn't clear whether that was because she actually wanted to do so, or because she didn't want to appear inferior to Sarita in some way.

"Yes, Ronda, you're going to be involved too. What I want you to do is work with Devon on her technique. Mat wrestling is her weakest area..."

"I guess I can help with that," Ronda cut in, sounding less enthusiastic than she had seemed a moment before. No one else in the room paid much attention to Hunter's unfortunate phrasing, given that a turn of phrase was all that it was, but it had included a trigger word for Ronda. Weakness was definitely not something that was acceptable to her. What right did someone who was weak have to be on the same team as her? What right did someone who was weak have to be on Raw at all? Weak people should be made to stay in NXT where they belonged, or they should be released, period. When this Devon character showed up for training she would quickly learn that weakness wasn't going to fly, that was for sure. "If anyone..."

Hunter made no attempt to hide his irritation as he quickly cut back in himself. "I'm speaking." He noticed that Ronda looked chastised by the firmness of his voice, as she had done previously. Part of him wondered if she was going to start crying again, but she didn't, thankfully. That would have been borderline ridiculous. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and listened as he continued with explaining what was going to be required from her in regard to mentoring Devon. It was then announced that Dawson would be backstage at Raw for several weeks prior to her introduction to the Raw roster and to Evolution. This was the first of those weeks, meaning that Ronda would get to meet her for the first time later in the day.

Following that discussion, Tom took over and ran through some of the details of the early stages of the Evolution storyline. When that was complete, so was the meeting. Hunter thanked Tom, Sarita and Ronda for coming in and then dismissed them. Stephanie waited until the door closed behind Tom, who was last to file out of the room, before speaking to her husband. "You were a lot firmer with Ronda today. I would have said that was a good thing if she hadn't rushed out of here in tears. That seemed a bit over the top on her part."

Hunter massaged his face with his left hand. As usual, dealing with Ronda had been much harder work than it should have been. "When I followed her out, she admitted to me that Rollins thinks she has NPD. They're looking to set her up with a therapist. I told her I could help with that and I'd get her a number for someone. I need to make a call to the office on that."

There was no response from Stephanie for a moment as she thought about the revelation. "Narcissism," she said eventually, as if saying the word aloud helped with the thought process. "That would explain a lot, wouldn't it? Hey, at least she's acknowledged it and she's willing to see someone. Once she's gotten help for it, it should start to get easier to work with her."

"I don't think easy is a word I'm ever going to associate with Ronda. What I did learn today though, was that she responds to me being firm with her. That means I'm not going to take any more crap from her, NPD or not. She needs to get the idea in her head that she works for us, just the same as everyone else in the locker room." With that, Hunter pushed his chair back and stood.

Stephanie grinned as she followed suit. "I love it when you take charge."

"I know," Hunter smirked back, looking forward to doing exactly that when they got back to the hotel after Raw. When they walked out of the room, they were surprised to see Ronda and Sarita still standing nearby, having an animated discussion. "Everything okay, ladies?" Hunter asked as he walked towards them.

Ronda turned to face him and didn't miss a beat before passionately launching into her answer to his question. "Not really. I don't like the idea of me having the Intercontinental title. I'm not trying to kick off or make a scene here. I'll have the title if you insist on it, but my question is, why? Why have me win one of the men's titles? Why not focus on making a better division for the women instead? If you want me to have a title and have me and it be the focal point of Evolution, great, but make it the Divas title. Actually, fuck the Divas title. We're not Divas, we're women. Make a Women's Championship and have me win that instead. Make a women's tag team division with titles. Bring back the Women's Money in the Bank. Why the hell you only did that once, I'll never know. It was a great idea. You want women to main event your shows? Great. It's awesome that you're finally willing to do that, but let's do it right. Let's have women wrestling women, in well written women's storylines, for women's titles."

No one said anything for a moment. Ronda looked at the faces in front of her. There was surprise on Hunter's and intrigue on Stephanie's, particularly in her eyes. She liked the ideas that had put forward, that much was obvious. Hunter glanced at Stephanie and she raised her eyebrows a little. "We have talked about bringing back a Divas, or Women's, Tag Team Championship in the past," she pointed out.

"All of us would love it if that stuff could happen," Sarita said, unable to help the fact that part of her admired the way Ronda went about her business at times. She imagined that it must be nice to be in a position where you felt like you could say whatever the hell you wanted and get away with it.

Hunter said, "Your comments will be considered, Ronda, and I'll get back to you with a decision. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough," Ronda nodded as a smile appeared on her face. "Thank you."

With that, Hunter and Stephanie walked off along the hallway. Ronda watched them go with the smile still on her face.

Roman Reigns smiled as he held the fingers of Ronda's left hand while studying the engagement ring that she was proudly showing to him. It was beautiful. What the ring, and what it symbolised, should have made Roman feel was happiness, but it didn't. What it actually made him feel was relief. The fact that Ronda and Seth were now engaged had partially lifted a weight from his shoulders. It was a weight that could never be completely lifted. This was as good as it would get in that regard. At least now that Ronda was engaged to Seth, she had a more compelling reason than her friendship with Roman to keep her mouth shut about what had happened between them.

It wasn't that he thought Ronda would deliberately set out to tell someone about what had happened, and therefore ruin his marriage. No, Ronda was a friend, a real friend. The problem was that she could be very unpredictable, especially when she was unhappy. That was largely the reason that it had happened in the first place. He had feared when Ronda re-signed with WWE that all it would take was for her to have a bad night backstage and then go get drunk as a result, and her mouth might loosen up a little too much, causing her to say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Actually, saying anything to anyone about what had happened would be disaster enough.

The saying was that if two people knew something it wasn't a secret. Two people definitely knew that not long after Seth and Ronda had broken off their first relationship, Roman and Ronda had slept with each other. It had only been once, but that would be no defense as far as Roman's wife was concerned. She had always been very clear that there was a zero tolerance policy in their relationship as far as cheating was concerned. It had been something that he had totally agreed with, until that night with Ronda. The truth of it was that if he hadn't been married when Ronda first joined WWE as a referee, and if Seth hadn't made his own move on her so quickly, Roman would definitely have made a move on her himself. Instead they had become close friends, until that night in the hotel when they had become even more.

Ronda had been miserable backstage at a Smackdown taping, with everything being made worse by seeing Seth with May Devany, and Roman had found her crying, although she had tried to hide the fact from him. Wanting to be there for her, he had invited her join him in his room that night for a drink and a chance to unload on someone. He realised later that he should have seen the potential right then and there that he might end the night doing some very different unloading of his own, and so it had proved to be.

It wasn't even as if he had drunk enough to make him unable to recall the events of the previous night when he had woken up with Ronda in his bed beside him. No, he had remembered it very clearly. Ronda had always insisted that she would never say anything, but Roman had never been able to rely on that with any kind of certainty. She was much too temperamental and unpredictable for that. Even now, with Ronda engaged to Seth, there was no absolute certainty of her mouth staying shut, but it was at least a lot closer to certain. If she spilled the beans now, she had almost as much to lose as he did, for there was no doubt about how Seth would react to the news, whether Ronda has been single at the time or not. You just didn't sleep with your best friends girl, let alone within a couple of weeks of them breaking up. Almost. That was the key word. She had almost as much to lose. She didn't have a daughter to consider.

When Ronda had left WWE, Roman hadn't doubted the fact that she would return some day. That had put him in a minority of one at that point, but he had been proven right. It had taken more than two years, which was much longer than he had actually expected, but he had been right nonetheless. He had also known exactly what Seth was like. He was never happy with a woman, never happy in a relationship. Cheating was certainly not an uncommon thing among the guys in WWE. Too many lonely nights away from home saw to that. Even so, Seth was something else. The only time that Roman had ever seen his friend truly happy in a relationship had been during the first few months with Ronda, until either her ego or his jealousy of her popularity, probably both, had soured things.

Often, reading Seth wasn't a difficult thing for Roman to do, and it had quickly become obvious that he wasn't committed to, or even particularly interested in, May Devany. It would have hardly taken a mind reader to figure that out. In fact, it seemed to border on the ridiculous that May hadn't seen it for herself. Roman knew of one occasion where Seth had cheated on May for sure, and he would have been willing to make a bet on there being others too. The truth of it was that May had been treated the worst by everyone involved, but Roman could live with that without losing any sleep over it. In any event, she seemed to be moving on quickly enough with Dolph Ziggler.

Throughout all of this, Seth had continued to pine after Ronda. He would even talk about her when May was around. It was a little pathetic in Roman's opinion, given that all Seth had to do the first time was put more effort into the relationship and try to figure out how to get her vastly expanding ego under control.

To Roman, what all this had meant was that it would be for the best for everyone involved, including himself, if Seth kicked May to the curb and pursued Ronda once more. He had remained friends with Ronda during her absence from WWE and chatted to her on a semi regular basis, largely because it helped to put his own mind at ease that she wasn't going to go running her mouth about their night together. It also gave him the opportunity to openly tell Seth multiple times that she missed him and regretted how things had ended, just as much as Seth did himself.

Sure enough, when Ronda had shown up at the Royal Rumble, the spark had been there between her and Seth immediately. Seth hadn't wasted much time in breaking up with May, and here was Ronda wearing an engagement ring. It seemed that the two of them were willing to actually commit fully to each other this time. Roman was happy for them both about that, but nothing like as happy as he was for himself.

It was a little strange that Ronda had come to him alone to break the news of the engagement. She had explained it away by saying that she and Seth had agreed that she would get to tell him and Seth would get to tell Dean, which was presumably where he was right now. The fact that he was alone with Ronda in the privacy of his locker room gave Roman the opportunity he needed to reiterate how important it was for her to keep her mouth shut about their night together. The question was, how to actually go about it? "It's beautiful," he said with a smile, referring to the ring.

"It really is," Ronda beamed back. "I'm still not used to wearing it, honestly. Jewelry isn't really my thing."

Roman decided to let his tone of voice do the job for him rather than actually saying anything specific as he let go of Ronda's hand. "You'll both be really happy together."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ronda demanded quietly but aggressively as her expression hardened.

"Nothing," Roman shrugged. "I meant exactly what I said. You guys will be real happy together. I'm really happy for both of you, you know that. I just wouldn't want to see it get ruined by you saying something about... you know."

"Why are you bringing that up?" Ronda hissed at him, instinctively glancing towards the door, which of course remained closed.

"Just to remind you to keep quiet about it, that's all," Roman said just as quietly, making sure that he didn't sound threatening. After all, this was a reminder, not a threat.

"I know that. I'm not a fucking idiot," Ronda hissed once more, getting even more worked up. "Why would I want to run my mouth about that and wreck your marriage and my own? Tell me that?"

"Easy, easy. Calm down," Roman urged, placing a hand on Ronda's arm. "I said what I had to say. We're both on the same page, so let's drop it. Okay?"

Ronda glared at him for another couple of seconds before her expression softened a little. She sighed, then said, "Alright, let's drop it. But don't ever mention it like this again. I don't need to be told what to say and what not to say like some kind of stupid kid."

"Okay, message received." Roman said. "Shall we go try and find where those two have gotten to? Maybe we can get something to eat as well?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ronda said, following him towards the door.