Disclaimer, etc., in prologue.

Part Thirteen

Eve stood very still, the woman not moving from her spot leaning against the wall, her gaze on her ex-boyfriend. Punk was staring at them with anger on his face, though she figured that was aimed more at Ambrose than at her. He probably thought Dean was intimidating her or something; she was sure he would never even consider that there might be something between them. Not that there was anything between them besides one night, but still...

With a slight shake of her head, Eve turned her attention away from Punk, instead focusing on the man in front of her once more. Ambrose had turned his attention back to her as well, his eyes on her face, his hand still pressed against the wall near her head. She could feel the heat of his body close to hers, definitely too close for two people that were just supposed to be coworkers.

"I said get away from her," Punk ground out, clearly angry, and Ambrose arched a brow, not even looking at Punk as he reached up with his free hand, nudging her sunglasses down just enough that he could see her eyes. Meeting her gaze, he leaned in even closer to her, so close she could feel his body brushing against hers.

"If you want me... I'm sure you'll be able to find me," he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, his lips near her ear as he spoke. Easing back from her, he slid her sunglasses into place, then stepped away from her, starting to head down the hallway once more, seemingly unbothered that it seemed he would have to pass by Punk in order to get wherever he was going.

"You need to stay the hell away from Eve. She doesn't want someone like you messing with her," Punk more or less growled as Ambrose approached, the older man shoving the younger man, but the Shield member didn't seem to even care that Punk had put his hands on him.

"Did you see her shoving me away? Because I didn't see her shoving me away... And I'm guessing she's perfectly capable of doing that herself. Eve doesn't need you white-knighting for her. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want you to, either," Ambrose replied, and Punk glared at him.

"You keep your hands off of Eve from now on. And if you hurt her-"

"Since when have I gone around hurting women? That seems more like your thing."

"I never-"

"Hurt her? Maybe you didn't raise a hand to her, but I'm guessing the fact that you fucked around on Eve with AJ Lee of all people... I mean, come on. Given AJ's track record for the past couple of years, she doesn't seem too discerning about who she bends over for... And I'd say that Eve finding out about the two of you was pretty damned hurtful. Just so you know," the Shield member replied, sending one last look back at Eve before he continued on his way, purposely bumping Punk hard with his shoulder as he walked past the man. Eve half-expected CM Punk to attack Ambrose from behind, and she was both a little surprised and more than a little relieved when it didn't happen. Not that she didn't think Ambrose could hold his own against Punk; she just didn't want him to get into a fight with the Chicago native more or less on her behalf.

Her gaze was on Dean Ambrose as the man walked away, which probably explained how Punk managed to get so close to her without the diva noticing... When she turned her attention back toward him, she actually jerked slightly when she realized how close he was. Immediately, her expression turned withering, though in reality, he really couldn't see that through the dark lenses of her sunglasses. Sunglasses that she didn't want to take off, because if she did, he would see that her eyes were still a bit red from crying. Ambrose had seen that, of course, when he'd eased her sunglasses down, but he hadn't said a word about it, and she figured that he wouldn't say anything about it, either. Not even to his teammates.

"Ambrose is a dangerous guy, Eve. I know you've been gone from the company for awhile-"

"Gone or not, I still showed up from time to time. I mean, ever since Payback, at least. When I attended the shows as your guest. Or did you already forget about that? I know perfectly well how dangerous Dean Ambrose and the rest of the Shield can be. I don't need you to pretend to be concerned."

"I'm not pretending-"

"Just shut up," Eve snapped out at him, fighting the urge to jerk a hand through her hair, knowing that all she would do if she tried that would be to screw it up thoroughly, what with her hair being up in a ponytail at the moment and all. "We're over, Punk. I thought I made that clear last night. The last thing I need is you lurking around-"

"I'm not lurking," he stated, though he didn't quite meet her eyes as he said the words, which meant that he didn't quite believe what he was saying. Eve arched a brow at that, knowing that there was something there, but not really wanting to get into it. For all she knew, he'd just hung out in the hallway next to the divas' locker room a bit too long tonight or something.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm none of your business now, Punk. And I don't see why you're suddenly so worried about me, because it seems to me that if you cared much about me at all, you wouldn't have slept with AJ Lee while still dating me," she said, moving to brush past him, whirling on him when he reached out and put a hand on her arm. "Don't touch me!"

"Eve, please-"

"You lost the right to touch me the minute you went off with her. I don't know what you were thinking, and I don't want to know what you were thinking-"

"Please let me make it up to you," he forced out, the words almost seeming painful for him, his eyes on hers, somehow still making eye contact despite the dark sunglasses that she wore, and Eve let out a laugh that didn't hold a bit of humor to it.

"You can't make it up to me. You can't fix this. The only way you could fix this is if you found a time machine, went back in time, and made a different choice. But since Back to the Future isn't based on reality, you can't do that, so... You just can't fix it. You hurt me. You cheated on me, and you can't fix that. 'I'm sorry' doesn't cut it," she told him. "And the flowers don't change anything."

"I know I messed up. It was... huge. And I know..." He trailed off, apparently not sure what to say, and Eve shook her head.

"The great CM Punk at a loss for words. The Voice of the Voiceless... has lost his voice. Maybe it's because you know there's nothing you can say. Don't send me flowers again, Punk. You want to give them to someone, give them to AJ," she said, starting to walk away again, and this time he didn't try to stop her, though he did call after her.

"AJ's not the one I want," he told her, and she shook her head.

"Then you should have thought of that before you slept with her."