Dean had taken Alexa out for something to eat at a Chinese restaurant after Raw, knowing that it was among her favourite styles of food. He had expected a pleasant meal, hopefully to be followed by a night of hot sex in their hotel room, ideally involving the PVC lingerie that she was still yet to wear for him.

However, by the time they returned to the hotel, he had the distinct impression that it wasn't going to go like that. Alexa just hadn't been herself the whole time they had been out. Despite her repeated insistence that nothing was wrong, Dean didn't believe her for a minute. Even so, getting her to open up about what was on her mind was proving to be a difficult task.

"I know something's wrong," he tried when they walked back into their room, hoping that she would confide in him now that they had some real privacy. "I want to help, but I can't if you won't tell me what's going on."

Alexa slumped down on the end of the bed. She knew she would have to admit to Dean that she had told the truth about their relationship, the entire truth, to everyone in the women's locker room. The problem she had was that she didn't know how he would react. That was the frustrating thing about Dean: sometimes he would have a strong reaction to things that were pretty much insignificant, whereas other times he would show total indifference to things that had much bigger consequences. In that respect, he was a strange guy, but that was one of the things that made him attractive. She supposed, with that being said, that she had to take the rough with the smooth. "I did something you might not like," she mumbled, looking down at the floor.

There was only one thing that came quickly to mind for Dean. "You told someone the truth about us?" he guessed.

"Well, yeah," Alexa said, not looking up at him. "Actually, I told the entire women's locker room."

"Fuck's sake!" Dean exclaimed angrily, turning and pacing back towards the door just to do something other than punch the wall. He stood at the door, a clenched fist placed on it for a moment, trying to get himself under control. Yelling at her now wasn't going to change what she had done. That didn't mean that he had to be happy about it, though. Now everyone would know they were liars as well as cheaters. While people's opinions of him didn't concern her per-se, it still wasn't a good thing to have a bad rep backstage. The higher-ups in WWE took a lot more notice of that kind of thing these days than they had in the past.

"Dean, I had to do it," Alexa said desperately. "Please don't be mad at me."

Taking in a deep breath to compose himself, Dean turned back to face her. "Why? Why did you have to do it?" he asked, sounding a little calmer.

Alexa got off the bed and walked over to him. "They were all acting like they hated me, Dean. None of them believed the lies we came up with. They felt like they knew we had gone behind Renee's back, then we'd lied to try and cover ourselves. Let's be honest, that's exactly what happened. No one apart from Lucy and Bayley would even speak to me when I walked into the locker room tonight, and I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was on the point of crying when Lucy spoke up for me. She gave them a lecture about how they were treating me, but I knew that wasn't really fair on them. It was my fault, not theirs. That's when I realised the only way to actually fix things was to tell the truth, and to apologise to everyone, so that's what I did."

There wasn't much that Dean could say to counter that. The mess they were in was of their own making, when all was said and done, and the last thing he wanted was for Alexa to be vilified by the other women as a result of it. She had done what she thought was best to try and rectify the shitty situation. "How did they take it?" he asked, forcing his irritation aside.

"Quite well, all things considered. Sasha said I should be apologising to Renee as well. Honestly, she was right. I need you not be mad at me about this, Dean," she finished, looking hopefully into his eyes.

It was impossible for Dean to be angry with her, partly because he had no real grounds to, but mainly because of the puppy dog eyes she was giving him. He told himself it was his role as her partner to support her when she made important decisions about her future, such as this one. And also there was the fact that standing in front of the women and admitting the truth could not have been easy at all. She must have had an awful night, even without worrying about his reaction. "I'm sorry for going off like that, darlin'," he told her, leaning down and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm not mad at you; it's the situation that makes me angry. But that's our fault, just like you said. I'm certainly not going to take it out on you. Telling them the truth can't have been easy."

"It really wasn't," Alexa said, accepting his embrace and cuddling up to him as tightly as she could. It felt so good to be in her man's arms after such a stressful day, knowing that he wasn't angry with her. "I've still got to apologise to Renee," she said after a long moment.

"That's not going to go down well," he assured her. "I get why you want to do it, but you need to be prepared for her to slap you one. Trust me, I know her. You wouldn't think it to speak to her, or to look at her, but she has a temper."

"Frankly, I'll take a slap if it puts all the drama behind us," Alexa muttered into his chest. "It's a price worth paying. What about you, Dean? Hasn't anyone given you any grief?"

"I doubt they'll bother," Dean said offhandedly. "They know I don't give a fuck what they think of me, so what would be the point? As long as Seth and Rome are on my side, which they are, the rest of them can say or think whatever they want. I have to work with them, not like them."

Alexa pulled away slightly so that she could look up into his eyes again. "I wish I could be like you, Dean."

"No, darlin', you don't," he said gently. "You're perfect just the way you are."

On tiptoes, she reached up and kissed him. "You say the nicest things to me, baby."

"Yeah, well don't tell anyone. I got an image to keep up," Dean said with one of his trademark grins.

"Then I can't tell them you took me out for a lovely meal, either. I'm sorry I didn't say much, or look like I was enjoying it. I'll pay for us to go out somewhere tomorrow night to make up for it," she promised.

"Now you're talking," Dean said, deciding to push his luck. "And when we get back, I think it's about time I got to see you in lingerie I bought for you."

"But I already wore it the other night," Alexa said, her face a picture of innocence.

"Not the pink set, the other one," Dean said, his voice taking on that gruff tone she was used to hearing when he was getting turned on.

"Oh, that one!" she exclaimed, making like she had just remembered it. "I guess I could be persuaded to wear that one."

"No persuading. You already promised."

"Maybe I did, but sometimes I'm a naughty girl," Alexa said coyly, slipping somewhat into her WWE character.

"That you are," Dean agreed. "And that's just the way I like it." With that, he kissed her, simultaneously picking her up off her feet and carrying her over to the bed. The talking was over for the night.


The latest travel arrangement was for Seth and Lucy to carpool with Dean and Alexa. It cut down on everyone's expenses, and it gave the four the chance to spend more time with each other. On this particular occasion, driving to Tuesday night's house show, the guys were in the front, with Seth driving, and the girls in the back.

"Do you know if Renee will be there tonight?" Alexa asked, keeping her voice low, so that Dean and Seth didn't hear her over their own conversation.

"She usually is," Lucy replied. "She'll be doing Network interviews, website clips, all that bollocks."

Alexa giggled. "I love that word! It's just so… English."

"That would explain why I use it," Lucy said dryly. "So, are you going to speak to Renee tonight? I assume that's why you asked."

"Yeah, I think I will. I figure the quicker I get it done, the quicker I can try and move on. Maybe Renee can, too, depending on how she feels about it all."

"I'm going to guess she's not exactly happy about it," Lucy said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"What I meant was, she told Dean she's dating someone else. Maybe she's already moving on and she wants this whole mess behind her, too?"

"Hmmm," Lucy said, not the least bit convinced by the idea. "Even if that's not the case, it's still a good idea to get the apology out of the way."

Alexa had to admit that there was another likely scenario. "What do I do if she slaps me? I think that's a real possibility."

"If she does, take it, then walk away," Lucy advised. "That's what I'd do. At least you will have done your bit by apologising. You heard what the girls said last night: if you apologise to Renee, they will accept your apology to them. It's not contingent on Renee's reaction."

"Good point. I said to Dean last night, I'd take a slap if that was the price to pay for moving on. I'll go and see her, then whatever happens, happens."

"Look on the bright side, Alexa. By the end of tonight, the worst of the drama should be behind you."

Seth had just driven into the parking garage at the arena. "Thank god we're here," he was saying. "There's a strong cup of coffee in catering with my name on it."

"That's not a bad idea," Dean agreed.

There were plenty of free spaces in the garage. Seth chose one of the closest ones to the entrance to the arena, leaving them less of a distance to take their cases. He parked up, and all four people got out of the car. The job of unloading the cases from the trunk was left to the men.

"Thank you," Alexa said sweetly when Dean set her case in front of her.

Next came Lucy's case. Seth lifted it out and put it down in front of his girlfriend. "Thanks," she smiled.

Meanwhile, Dean had hauled his own case out of the trunk. He turned around with it and froze in place for a moment.

Seth noticed the change in his close friend on instinct more than anything else. He looked at Dean, then in the direction he was staring. He saw that Renee had just gotten out of a car a few spaces away. That wasn't the problem, though. What had caught Dean's attention was the person who had been driving the car, who now walked around and kissed Renee on the lips when they met each other by the trunk. She was dating Finn Balor, of all people; someone Dean had never gotten along with to put it mildly, for reasons that no one could probably even remember at this point. Whatever had started it, the two men had just never seen eye to eye.

"What the fuck?" Dean asked quietly as he dropped his case to the floor, with an undercurrent that Seth recognised. Even though Dean had cheated and ended the relationship, and was more than happy with Alexa, he was still going to go and kick off with Finn.

"Dean, leave it, huh?" Alexa asked, not wanting a confrontation to make things worse than they already were.

Dean was not in a listening mood. All he could concentrate on was Finn Balor kissing Renee, and noticing that they seemed so happy with each other. To him, the only way Renee could be as happy as she looked with Finn this quickly was if she had been cheating on him, just as he had been cheating on her. Yes, he decided, that must be what had been going on. And Renee had had the nerve to get on her high horse and drag his name through the mud; to drag Alexa's name through the mud. And if all of that wasn't bad enough, the man in question was Finn Balor; someone she knew he hated. Finn had probably been banging his girl behind his back, and laughing at him the whole time he was doing it. The fact that Dean had happily moved on with Alexa was immaterial for the moment.

"She's right, man," Seth said. "Come on, let's go inside." He put a hand on Dean's shoulder to try and guide him towards the arena's entrance.

But Dean was having none of it. Shrugging Seth off, he began to charge over towards Renee and Finn. "I'll fucking kill him," he growled.


A/N: Three chapters in three days! I think that might be a record for me. :D

I know I say it every time, but special thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. You guys are being so supportive of this story, it really is incredible.

The question is obvious this time: what's going to happen next?!