Well, welcome to this crazy (in real life) week everyone. Dean is now officially Mox, he's gone to AEW, he's explained why he left etc. etc. Won't lie, the thought of him not being on the road every week with Roman (and Seth) is still kind of a bit of a downer. I loved the thought of those two side by side, goofing off, I mean, who doesn't want a road trip with their best friend every week? But hey, at least I get to keep on making all that crap up in my head and writing about it. So, without further ado, let's get on with this story, shall we?

xXBalorBabeXx, I can confirm or deny nothing at this point (as usual) so you'll just have to read to find out who turns up in this chapter (hope you like it though!) Also, we'll get some more of Kelly in the following chapters, so hopefully all questions will be answered soon!

Wolfgirl2013, Nice guess, but nope, not this time!

Mandy, Aww, well good luck! My mum broke her ankle last week, so she needs some surgery, but other than that we are well. As for Seth in real life? Well, there's two sides to every story and Dean/Jon, Roman and Renee all like him, so he can't be that bad. And he's not that bad in this chapter either…

Minnie1015, Are you ready for the crazy? Because the twist in this chapter is definitely pretty left field. I defy anyone to have guessed it (no idea where it came from either. Let's call it a bolt out of the blue!)

HannonsPen, Well, here is the beginning of the crazy chapters. Although this one is more huh? than anything else. Building to super duper crazy though, so strap in!

Skovko, Well, don't worry, the stalker thing is going to come to a head pretty soon and well before they have the chance to move. We're creeping towards the end of this thing, which means...yep...drama!

Debwood-1999, I like the way your mind works, but in this case, not quite. I plan on Dean and Lauren doing the whole kids thing at some point, but not yet. Although pregnancy might come into things somewhere in this story...just not with Lauren!

I-Am-WarKitten, Hope you like this chapter! And hmm, funny you should mention Mox, because I'm just writing a Mox story, albeit pre WWE Mox (roughly in the same universe as the Squeaker series) so be sure to look out for that!

Phoenix lord of rebirth, Aww, thank you, I'm very fond of my brand of crazy, although I never thought of it as a USP. I will now though! Hopefully this is very much in the same vein as the crazy you're used to and it's going to continue on in the next few chapters too.

Right, back in the time machine to 2014 folks...

All Out Of Luck

Elbowing my way through the cluster of bodies with my phone clamped to my ear, I squinted and scanned the crowd, who were bellowing and buzzing with pre taping expectation as they spilt over the sidewalk beyond the arena doors. But none of whom of mattered to me like the people I was looking for who were buried within them.

I blinked,

"Okay, so tell me exactly where you are again?"

"In front of the entrance," Kelly shouted back, in a bellow that practically blew off my ear lobes.

"Okay," I nodded, "I'm nearly there."

Ouch.

As a man with no concept of spatial awareness elbowed me clean in the middle of the boob, I winced and then shot him my very best death glare — which wasn't too impressive — while Kelly carried on,

"We're stood next to the man with the inflatable crocodile."

"Um, okay then."

I narrowed my eyes across the crowd but then finally honed in on something borderline reptilian over to my left beside a little low wall and next to a buxom blonde woman in stilettos and a top that showcased her envious shape and whose perfectly manicured baby pink fingernails were clamped to a cell phone.

Aha.

"Got you, here I come."

Slaloming through the bodies I kept my phone held up in the hopes that it would help me blend in, since I had mostly been hoping to fly beneath the radar and not cause too much excitement or else an autograph stampede. Not that I was the most popular person in the company, since that role had recently gone to Dean, but people loved anyone that they knew from their TV screens.

Not that best friend much helped my anonymity,

"Laurie, woohoo. Over here."

Darn.

But in spite of the shouting I bustled towards them positively bursting with an ear to ear beam and then fell heavily into the hold of my bestie as we squealed in tandem like we had been parted for years. Brent scratched the back of his neck and then chuckled. He was holding her purse.

"Sweetie, we saw her three weeks back."

Kelly snorted,

"But she was hopped up on pills then and besides, it was three and a half weeks, which is totally longer."

I giggled at her,

"Yep," then cinched my hold in a little bit tighter before letting her loose and then moving onto Brent, who was looking a whole lot more casual than his wife was in a pair of khaki shorts and a wrestling tee, that had likely just been bought from a hawker, since it neither fitted properly nor had the catchphrase printed right, but if nothing else showed that he was at least having fun there and so I plucked at it teasingly,

"A Cena fan huh?"

Brent scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and then flapped a loose hand,

"Dean Ambrose shirts sold out a couple of hours back."

"Naturally," I grinned, before reaching up regardless and sweeping my arms around him super tight. He lifted me up off my toes and I really was a big teddy bear and I had missed him so much. Roman was like that too come to think of it and speaking of which —

I turned to Kelly with a wince,

"Um, dare I ask to see the infamous banner?"

Brent blew a breath out and then handed over the hefty knapsack on his shoulder from which there a large piece of rolled up paper poking out. Kelly took it from him and pulled it out proudly before unfastening the ribbon and then unfurling the thing, which revealed more sparkles than I would ever have thought possible and a sentence in red with an illustration too.

Oh my —

I blinked back at it in wide eyed astonishment.

"Do you like it?"

"Holy — Kel, this is a family show."

Brent snorted back in a measure of humor which I presumed meant that the two of them had broached the topic before, then hustled to take back the very graphic banner as a small boy beside them tried to work out what it said. His mother glanced up too and based on her open mouthed horror look either saw the final line or else the anatomically correct cartoon.

Kelly shrugged her shoulders without a hint of embarrassment,

"Consider it a lesson in biology. Especially sex."

Fortunately for her though my reply about maybe burning it was abruptly cut off by the crowd noise picking up, as the main entrance to the venue was finally unbolted to release the excited fans — and their crude banners — into the halls to fill up on beer and food.

It was go time.

"Here."

I fished out their tickets and then handed them over like I was doing an illegal deal, but which was actually because they had the words front row printed in bold type and I was worried about kick starting a riot or worse.

Kelly hugged me a second time,

"Thanks sweetie."

"Anything for my bestie. Enjoy."

Behind us the swarm of bodies was moving and not wanting to be swept with them as they flooded the venue, I instead tried to pick my way back through the mob, thankfully managing to bypass elbow-boob man, but at the same finding a few eyes blinking my way as a handful of people started to notice me.

Oops.

I put my head down and picked up the pace. Because as much as I liked having the chance to meet the fan base, who pretty much across the board had been lovely to me, being stranded in a crowd of match hungry strangers was possibly not the best plan in the world and besides which, Dean had already been antsy about me heading out beyond the safety of the backstage area on my own. Particularly with my former flame come probable stalker out there.

Handsy Andy.

I shivered and then pulled my lanyard out, which I flashed to the beefcake on security at the back entrance who nodded at me curtly and let through the door, which led into a maze of typical boring whitewash. Although Wisconsin whitewash, which made it better.

Woo. Badger state rules.

Dean was leant back casually on the brickwork, cracking his taped knuckles but he stopped when I skipped up and then let his hands fall low to cup my hip bones in a possessive little motion I found both comforting and hot.

"Kelly and Brent make it in okay?"

"Yep, think so."

I tiptoed up to kiss him then leaned my body into his, hands pressed flat up over his heartbeat as he laced his own behind me to rest loosely across my butt. His blue eyes blinked back at me with a teasing little half smile and it made me tremble and then shut out the rest of the world. I mean, the presidential helicopter could have landed beside us and still been less impressive the perfect view I had.

Dean brushed my hair back,

"Looks like someone is feelin' happy to be home, huh?"

I hauled a teasing breath in,

"Yep. I mean, even the venues smell a little bit sweeter. Is that even possible?"

Dean blinked,

"Uhh."

Because the answer was pretty much a big no no that one, since the bowels of every arena smelt like men and stale sweat. Dean pulled me close then nuzzled into my neckline, which instantly made my tickle reflex erupt as he rumbled both low and huskily beside my cheek bone, so that my whole head buzzed from it.

"Know what smells sweeter to me?"

"What?"

I breathed the word out in little more than a whisper, then braced a hand hard flat back against the wall, because I felt like my body was melting towards him and needed the stability to stop me from becoming ball of mush and especially as his lips brushed in over my ear lobe.

Good lord he was Satan and he knew it.

"My wife."

His kiss was pressed in over me before I could respond to him and even as the beautiful rush of the spouse word bubbled on, since it was still kind of new and I freaking loved hearing it. I smooched him back harder, with my hands in his hair like I was racing the clock and trying to memorize his body for some couples experiment.

Hmm.

Vince would have probably loved that.

Although as it turned out we were both so heavily into our lip lock that we had pretty much both totally forgotten where we were and so therefore neither one of us paid any attention to the person striding towards us until they were practically on our toes and who then chose to lead with a sneer of condescension that echoed off the brickwork.

"Do you two ever stop?"

Uh oh.

Dean broke our passionate clinch in a heartbeat, his head turned so fast that I was worried it might snap and which brought him face to face with his brother, or at least his former brother since our loyal powerhouse was still laid up. Dean's face darkened and his fists curled up so fast that I was forced to clamp one and soothe it in between my palms in case it suddenly shot out without warning.

His voice was a growl,

"Rollins? The fuck do you want? 'Cos if you're lookin' for the briefcase, then I got some bad news for ya."

For once though instead of biting, Seth winced guiltily.

"Lauren — damn it, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

But not that I had to wait long for the answer, because at that exact moment two forms rounded the bend, chatting like the pair of them were old friends or something, but which all of us knew in a heartbeat they were not, since as far as I knew they were pretty much strangers and which was therefore why I gaped.

It was Andy and Steph.

As in Andrew freaking Taylor and my Greek Gorgon of a stepmom, strolling round backstage like it was a super normal thing and not – more correctly – the weirdest thing ever.

I spluttered a word out,

"Andy?"

He suddenly stopped, at which point they both seemed to notice me stood there. He blinked and then looked sheepish, which was actually kind of nice since at least he had the decency to be slightly embarrassed, whereas Stephanie merely sneered and –

Dear god I loathed her.

I mean at this point did her face even do anything else? Or had the wind changed one day when she hadn't been looking and stuck her like that?

She beamed,

"Oh Lauren. There you are. I thought I might have missed you before you went out to commentary. Allow me to introduce you to my brand new best friend. Although, wait. I think you might have met him already. Andy, do you know Lauren?"

"What are you doing here?" I hissed,

"I – ,"

Andy opened his mouth to answer only Steph got there first,

"I invited him," she sneered, "I thought it might be nice for you two former lovebirds to catch up and, — you know — reminisce on old times and all the fun things that you used to get up to."

Had I mentioned I hated her?

Because I really really did. Steph didn't want to engineer a reunion. What she wanted to try and monumentally piss off Dean and stick a billionaire spanner in our marriage and just generally make sure that he took his eyes off them and let them get on with their latest evil dealings. Especially with Roman being away.

Except –

Nope.

No way in hell was that going to happen. Because my husband was too smart to fall for that shit and way too awesome and in control of his emotions and –

"You son of a freakin' bitch."

Huh?

He launched across the space, grabbing Andy up by the front of his collar – because of course he was wearing a button down shirt – and then slamming him back hard into the brickwork as Seth flew in after him.

"Dean, whoa, hey. Easy man."

"Ambrose," Steph yelled, only my husband wasn't listening. He was too busy snarling at the person who'd hurt me once. Or more than once if you factored in the groping and not to mention the breaking my actual elbow part.

Yep.

It sure did suck to be Andy.

"What did I tell you asshole? What did I tell you? Didn't I tell you to stay away from her? Because I'm pretty sure I did. Broke your fuckin' nose an' everythin', an' yet here we are, nine months down the line with you freakin' sendin' her creepy ass messages an' then freakin' showin' your face where she works."

"Dean," Seth hissed, "Leave him alone. Back up, man."

Pushing him away Seth slotted in between, breaking up the two warring factions. If my ex could even be counted as a faction that was, since he was mostly just blinking in measures of confusion.

Not to mention alarm.

"What messages?" he frowned, as he haughtily straightened his mildly rumbled shirt out and then neatened his tie.

Yep. His actual tie.

In the background Steph waved a hand then rolled up her eyes. Her presence as reassuring as an oil tanker fire.

"Evidently our dear Lauren has a little stalker problem."

Ouch.

"I'm sorry?" Andy coughed, his eyes wide, "Did — did you say stalker?"

His total obliviousness caught me surprise and kind of threw me off my game, since frankly his acting had never been that good and certainly not when he was doing it on the hoof. So maybe he really didn't know what we were talking about.

My husband however seemed less converted.

"Oh come on. Are you freakin' kiddin' me with this shit?" he barked at them, "Are you really gonna stand there an' pretend this wasn't you, or freakin' make out you've changed or some crap, when the last thing you did was force yourself on her? Get off — ,"

The last part of the sentence was spat out at Rollins. The semi murderous former brother who was holding him back. He also threw in a flat handed shove for good measure, which made Seth stumble and then crash hard into a packing crate.

"Oof — ,"

"Ambrose," Steph bellowed pointing a nail in his direction as Andy spluttered behind her. Because, yep, hiding behind a much smaller woman. Always a manly look.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Dean growled,

"Once a gutless weasel freakin' always a weasel dude. I mean do you even know how fuckin' scared she was? Is that how you get your rocks off, huh asshole? Do you like scarin' women?"

Andy turned white,

"What? No – ,"

"Dean."

Heaving himself back up off the packing crate, Seth performed a rapid skid across the floor, arriving just in time to again push Dean backwards and probably stopping him from fucking Andy up.

"Ambrose, I'm warning you," Stephanie shouted as things went from bad to bad and then to worse and as everyone started to talk at the same time.

My head hurt.

Ugh.

"Keep away from my freakin' wife."

"But, I told you — ,"

"Dean, hey easy, calm down man."

"Fuck you."

"Ambrose listen, I won't tell you again. This man is under my personal protection – ,"

"He's a jackass."

"I'm – ,"

"And believe me I will suspend your ass if you lay so much as a grubby hand on him for. Do I make myself clear?"

"He's fuckin' stalkin' Lauren."

Boom.

Andy exploded, pretty much from out of nowhere in a bellow so loud it echoed out into the hall and then bounced off the walls, complete with a spittle fleck,

"God damn it, I'm gay."

I blinked at him,

"You're what?"

"You're what?" my wicked stepmother screeched louder, as everyone froze like in a slapstick cartoon, where someone is trying to crack a safe open and yells at an ongoing fistfight to be quiet.

"You're gay?"

It was the first time I had spoken uninterrupted in two minutes. Not that I would have been heard much before. I mean, I could have recited the Pledge of Allegiance or the Gettysburg Address in all of the noise and nobody would have known it over the shouting. Although suddenly there I was, back front and centre.

Andy frowned,

"But – but I told you already. When we met in town a couple of weeks ago."

I gaped,

"What? No you didn't."

Because I would have remembered if the man that I had frittered ten years of my life on had randomly announced in the street that he was gay and on our very first meeting since he had drunkenly groped me.

Yep.

I definitely would have recalled that.

"B-but," he stammered, "I showed you the picture. O-of me and my boyfriend."

"Toni?"

"Yes," he nodded back,

"But how can Toni be — ,"

Oh dear god.

It was Tony with a y. He really had told me about it in the street and I hadn't realized because, well, why would I? Plus his stupid thumb had been over the shot and –

Holy freaking crap.

My ex-boyfriend was gay.

No wonder he'd been so damn weird at the reunion. He must have been trying to figure himself out and besides which I guess it made sense of on some level, considering he had always been so fashion conscious and apathetic to other women and so vanilla in bed.

Andy liked men and I had never realized.

God.

I felt like the stupidest person alive.

Had he been laughing at me? Cheating on me? My head spun. Although, on the plus side Steph's smirking had stopped, presumably because a very newly outed gay man was not quite the marital threat she'd had in mind. So, you know, silver and linings and all that jazz.

Maybe.

"I'm sorry. You're gay?" Steph barked confirming my theory in a neat McMahon nutshell, "And you didn't think to – I don't know – mention that before?"

In the background my husband huffed a growl at his brother,

"Get off me dude."

"Fine," Seth put his hands up at once as he sensed that the pulsating anger had tapered — and yet there he had been again. Stepping in to help. Stepping in to help us out to be specific, which I would probably have grinned at had my head not been a mess. Dean padded over to where I was standing, hugging myself and sort of blinking into space.

"Hey," he grunted, rubbing my shoulders and then ducking his head down so he could look at me, "You okay?"

I shook my head at him,

"No, not really."

"Fuck. Come on Princess," he took me by the arm, turning the both of us away up the corridor and further and further from Andy and Steph, who were still busy fighting over his non-obligation to announce his sexual preferences to a madwoman he barely knew.

He noticed me going though.

"Lauren?"

I shuddered and in response Dean tucked me in under his arm and then pressed my head down into his shoulder as he steered me past boxes and incoming production crew.

"Easy baby, I'm gettin' you away from 'em. We're gonna go somewhere nice an' quiet ya hear?"

But oddly that wasn't the reason I was shaking. Or, okay, so maybe it was. At least in part. Because the real reason seemed deeper and darker and more elusive. Oh and add way more confusing to that as well, which I murmured as Andy kept calling from behind us and as Seth held him back.

God.

What was going on with Seth and what was going on with anything at the moment?

"But," I hiccupped as we rounded the bend and as the weight of the world promptly landed on my rib cage, "If Andy's not the stalker, then who's sending the messages?"

Dean blinked for a second and then groaned,

"Aw fuck."

Next week, we finally get to find out who's behind the texts and things take an even more worrying turn. You won't want to miss it...or at least I hope you won't...please don't!