She wouldn't admit it, but Lucy missed Joe. Nessa was fortunate, she worked house shows, which meant she could see Jon whenever she wanted. Lucy couldn't see Joe for a while. He had that house show on Friday before he had to be at the venue for Raw and she had already left early Thursday morning to get to the next venue. Even as she went about the next couple days, she was bored. She was able to talk to him every evening since leaving on Thursday.

"The writers and management have figured out what they want to do with me." Lucy said over her phone, staring at the skit on her lap.

"What? We haven't gotten our scripts yet." Joe said, trying to lay still on his bed. Pain flared through his stomach before dulling out a little bit.

"The Shield comes out to pay some well needed justice on my behalf. Word for word. But then later in the show, Vince ends my run as Vickie's PA, at the request of The Shield. Won't my brother be thrilled about that." Lucy settled back on her hotel bed. "How are Nessa and Jon doing?"

"Acting like rabbits, otherwise good." He could faintly hear his friends from the room next to his.

"How long before they get each other out of their system?"

"Who knows." She heard him groan slightly, could hear the distinct sound of his neck moving.

"What happened? Are you okay, Joe?"

"It's nothing, Babygirl. Just a hard show today."

He wasn't going to tell her. He wasn't going to tell her anything about what her brother did, what Orton did. It wasn't the match that had bruised his abs, it was her brother and her brother's friend. It was after his house show match, Joe was in a part of the venue where no one was hanging out and he had just gotten off the phone with Lucy at the time. John had cornered him in a hall. Joe had acknowledged John with respect.

"Hi, John. How's it going?" Joe asked.

"Are you sleeping with my sister?"

"No, man. We've barely known each other not even a week. We're just good friends."

Orton had come up behind Joe, wrapping his arms around Joe's neck in a headlock, which allowed Cena to direct some well placed punches to his midsection. Three to be exact. Orton tossed him down, letting the young crumple to his knees, holding his stomach. Joe was left with a message by Lucy's brother.

"You come near my sister again, outside of work, you are a dead man walking." John had said, face inches from Joe's.

As John left, Randy had shoved Joe's head into the cement wall, not enough to cause serious damage but enough to earn him a headache. Colby had found him, luckily, doubled over and in pain. The once defensive tackler was brought to his knees because of his friendship with the sister of John Cena. No, he wasn't going to tell Lucy what happened. It would be too much for her to bear.

Lucy spoke up again. "Um, do you have anything happening after Tuesday's tapings?"

"No." Joe felt his brows arch.

"Because I got a call from Naomi, I mean Trinity and Jonathan. I'm not sure if he's talked to you, but he wants to meet up for a family dinner. He invited me along. I hope that's okay with you."

In a group setting, especially since The Usos were a face group, Joe thought it was a good idea. Joe wouldn't have to worry about John's backlash, but he still wasn't sure even on that point. He's told no one except Colby what happened, threatening the younger man into silence to not mention this to anyone, especially to Lucy. Joe liked it that his cousins had grown close to the shy girl. He was happy that Trinity McCray warmed up to Lucy fast and he'd been happy that she had finally befriended one of the divas.

"If that's what you want." He finally told the auburn beauty.

"Yes!" He could hear the excitement, true excitement in her voice. "Nessa and Trinity will be taking me out Sunday to go cloths shopping for the dinner. I'm not sure if it's black tie but it's not a casual thing. And I got another call from one of your cousins."

"Yeah which one?" Joe mused, thinking about his large family.

"Dwayne Johnson. I guess your family is really close, he somehow got my phone number and a video of you and I at the fair. Get this, he asked me if he could bring his ex-wife and his daughter to the dinner. I told him it's okay with me."

Joe knew he could listen to Lucy talk all day and night. After the trip to the fair, with a minor exception to the water fountain and sling shot ride, they'd all ended back at her room, where he'd earned his well needed back rub, he saw her changing. He saw how she was opening up, how she was a little more assertive and smiling. He lover her smile, especially if she was wearing her lip gloss.

Lucy was still on the fervent pursuit of friendship with Joe. She was well guarded, a little niave about some things normal adults would understand fully, but otherwise she was a normal person with odd interests. She could talk at length about dinosaurs as if she had been a paleontologist. She was a bookworm. He'd seen her go through at least four short stories on her Kindle as he, Jon, Colby and Nessa sat in the airport waiting for Lucy's departure. In no time flat he found out why Lucy liked to hold his right arm, so she could stare at his tattooed sleeve Joe had there. She was fond of the sea turtle near his wrist.

"Mom said that my eyes were as green as a sea turtles." She said looking at Joe in the face, a feat he rarely saw between her and anyone else. "I've always liked sea turtles, because they remind me of underwater dancers with how graceful they are."

Lucy started talking again over the phone, making Joe come back to the reality that he was in. John Cena, Lucy's brother, was out to get him because of Joe's bond with Cena's sister. If John wanted, he could have everyone in the locker room gang up on Joe at onces but considering that a lot of the others were friends and family with Joe, Cena wasn't going to risk a backstage scandal that could ruin his life with the WWE.


"Where are they?" She mumbled, looking around the airport.

Jon said that they would be flying in on Saturday after the house show, and she told them that she would pick them up from the airport so that they could have one rental to use. Lucy had been in a little bit of a funk for the last couple of days, her parents worried that she was getting in over her head with Joe. They thought the world of Jon, even though he was the psychotic person he was on television.

"You slept with a man you don't know..." her mother had said over the phone during one of many phone calls Lucy had received lately.

"I didn't or haven't sleep with him, Ma. My roommate wanted the room to herself that night and Joe offered his extra bed in his room." Not that she was going to tell her mother what really had happened. "He's been very nice to me and has not tried pressuring me into a relationship that I don't want. He's nice. He's kind and gentle. John has no right making Joe look like a bad man for helping me. You know I have more morals than that."

Someone spoke up, breaking her out of the memory of so many family phone calls. "Looking for me, Sunshine?"

Lucy turned quickly, seeing that it was Jon and Nessa standing there. Joe and Colby were approaching with their things. All of them looked worn out.

"Well, what do you have to say?" Nessa pressed her friend.

Smiling, the auburn woman hugged her friend. "Good to see you again, Nessa. You haven't killed Colby yet, I see."

"No, but I finally did get that ferrett off his face. Now it looks like a hampster." She smiled.

"I don't know who did it, but someone filmed her running after me with an electric razor. All the while threatening to cut off every single follicle on my body if I didn't stop running." Colby added, side hugging Lucy.

"And where were you while all of this was happening?" Lucy asked Jon before hugging him as well the same way.

"I was filming it." He grinned showing off the dimples in his cheeks. "Then Joe speared Colby and caveman carried him back to the makeup room."

"Why does this not surprise me?" She asked, looking at Joe.

He opened his arms to her, a motion that spoke as to what he wanted. Stepping between Jon and Nessa, Lucy instinctively wrapped her arms around Joe's middle, pressing her head into his chest. He smelled so good. And it felt so good. But the hug was different. With her hands pressed into his back she felt him stiff, as if she had hurt him. How could she hurt him so badly?

"Come on, the rental is waiting. I'm sure you three would like to go back to the hotel and crash for the night." Lucy said once she stepped away from Joe.

"Damn straight, Sunshine."

All of them were tired but Joe looked the worse though. Still, he refused her to help put his things into the rental SUV she had brought. She also noticed how he seemed to cringe when he would lean down to do something. What happened at the house show, she asked herself once everyone was situated in the SUV.

"Goodnight, Joe." She said, looking at the man as he and Colby got to their room.

"Night, Babygirl." He replied, leaning down and kissing the top of her head. "See you tomorrow."

"Yep."

Nessa and Jon were sharing a room together, this gave Lucy some time to herself. She'd been neglecting her passion as a writer, sure she'd done some things in the time that she hadn't been with The Shield but nothing substantial. Lucy sighed as she stared at the blank piece of paper while twirling a mechanical pencil in her right hand.

It seemed like life was always against her. From the start to now, it was giving her problems. Learning to deal with them was always the issue. Sports had allowed her to be more oriented with people, soccer especially. Working as a team, talking through that stuff. It allowed her not to be so timid around people, but mainly women. But it seemed like John was oblivious to his girlfriend's attempt at making her feel like crap. Like he was walking with blinders on at everything. She wondered if it had been the same with her family. The only people that seemed to notice her at all were Nessa, Joe, Jon and Colby. At this she considered them her true friends.

Then Lucy began to write. She recited the things that she knew that made her happy. Jon's oddball psychotic behavior, his flirtiness towards her when it was obvious that he and Nessa were working on something. Colby's childish behavior sometimes. Then there was Joe. No matter how big he seemed to her, he was always so gentle towards her. From his hands, to his arms. He was so accepting of the fact that she didn't want a relationship right now.

But is that what she wanted? Did she want something more from this? She didn't have a lot of male friends that she acted like this towards, not like she had with Jon, Colby and Joe. Lucy even found a friend in Trinity McCray, and Jonathan Fatu, and his twin brother Joshua. They were the first that she sent the sling shot video to, and from the sounds of the texts they sent her, they loved it. Big Booming Man Screams Like a Girl. Lucy hadn't so much as make a peep during the entire ride.

It was the fact that she hadn't known Joe for long and these feelings were so strong. When he started calling her Babygirl, it was even harder to tell him the truth. But she was fighting the obvious, she didn't want him to get hurt because of her. Yet it felt that he didn't forget about her, that he could listen to her about some of the things she was willing to talk about. Yes her family loved her, she's sure, but sometimes it felt like she was forgotten about.

Did she have the strength to really tell Joe what was going on?


Yep, I'm evil. Randy as a bad guy now, I'll be flamed for sure. Trust me, there is a back story to that one. More to come soon, I promise.