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Part Fourteen

Eve Torres shook her head, the woman still a bit shocked by what had happened that night on RAW. Not shocked by the fact that she'd beaten Alicia Fox - it was something she'd done quite a few times before - but by what had happened in the WWE championship match that night... The ladder match that CM Punk had been forced to compete in, his first match back since his knee surgery in early December. He'd been facing Ryback and, as expected, the match had been brutal. But one of the most brutal things that had happened in the match hadn't been something that Ryback and Punk had done to each other... It had been what the Shield had done to Ryback. The lights had gone out during the match, when it seemed that Ryback might actually win, and then, when the lights had come back on... The Shield had been out there, fighting against Ryback, the trio of men getting the upper hand on the big man and eventually triple powerbombing him, which seemed to be their signature attack move. This one had been a bit different, though... With this one, Ryback had ended up going through a table... Landing on the steel ring steps that had been used as a weapon earlier in the match. That move, more than anything else, had helped CM Punk to retain.

Shaking her head again, the divas' champion wound her way through the halls, heading toward where she knew CM Punk's locker room was that night... The woman hoping to find just the WWE champion and not Paul Heyman because, really, she didn't want to deal with Heyman.

And she was in luck.

As she caught sight of the WWE champion, he and Heyman were just parting ways, the older man heading off down the hallway to do something or other while Punk stayed behind... The man looking up when he felt her gaze on him, nodding slightly before heading her way. He gestured toward her cheek.

"The wonders of makeup?" he said questioningly, and she shrugged.

"It looks a lot better than it did. Barely there any longer," she told him, and that was pretty much the truth. After all, a week was plenty of time for a bruise to mostly fade away. Reaching out, she tapped her fingers against the title belt that was slung over his shoulder. "Nice work tonight."

"Still my title. That's all that matters."

"I never said it wasn't," Eve replied, then arched a brow at the man. "What happened out there tonight?"

"What do you mean? I went out there, and I retained."

"What about the Shield?" she asked, and maybe it was because she didn't sound the least bit like she was accusing him of something, because Punk didn't go off on her at the question, instead shrugging, his eyes on hers as he responded.

"I honestly don't know. I didn't ask them to go out there and attack Ryback. I don't deal with those guys at all. I wouldn't even know how to find them. They pretty much stick to themselves. Come out of the crowd, attack somebody, then go back. Kind of their shtick," he said, and Eve couldn't deny that. It was what they'd done ever since they'd shown up back in November... And no one really knew the logic they used to decide who to attack next. "Why they chose my match tonight? I don't know. Unless it was because they wanted to make an impact. Or else they just really don't like Ryback."

"He does seem to be a favorite target of theirs," Eve muttered, and that much was true. This wasn't even the first time they had attacked the big man during a title match - they'd actually made their Survivor Series debut doing exactly that.

"Yeah. And maybe they're still pissed about Ryback putting Rollins through all those tables at TLC," Punk continued, and Eve fought the urge to flinch at that. When Ryback had pulled Rollins off of that ladder and sent him through those tables... That had been hard to watch. It had shocked the hell out of her the next night when the Shield had shown up and Rollins had been with them as usual.

"Maybe. But sometimes... Sometimes it seems they attack people without any rhyme or reason," Eve replied, thinking once more about their attack on Zack Ryder... Not that she was upset with them for that. Obviously, she enjoyed seeing him get the crap kicked out of him, especially after what he'd tried with her. It just... It seemed odd that they would choose him of all people to go after.

CM Punk frowned, the man studying the expression on her face, which perhaps showed more than she had meant for it to. "Eve? What's going on? Those guys haven't tried anything with you, have they?" the wrestler questioned, his gaze sliding to her arm, and she knew he was thinking about the hand-sized (and shaped) bruise he'd seen there on Friday night. Not that he could see it now, since she'd showered and changed after her match, the diva now in a long-sleeved sweater and jeans.

The diva shook her head. "No. They... They've never..."

"Eve..."

"It wasn't them. Trust me on that," Eve told him, meeting the man's eyes. After a moment, she shrugged. "I've run into Seth Rollins a couple of times."

"Has he tried anything?"

"No. But he did see... He saw the bruise," she muttered, gesturing to her face, where the bruise that was high on her cheekbone had been skillfully hidden with makeup. "The same night you did," she told him. "He didn't try anything. He just... asked if I was okay."

"And I'm sure you lied and told him you were."

"I *am* okay, Punk. I'm fine. And I didn't come up to you for this... I just wanted to say congratulations and... And I wanted to ask you what you knew about the Shield. Which is apparently no more than the rest of us."

"Pretty much," Punk said, frowning as he studied her. "Those guys can be pretty dangerous, you know."

She arched a brow at him, surprised by his words... And a little surprised by the concern on his face, too. "The same could be said about you, you know."

"Maybe. But I would never hurt you," he told her, and Eve nodded slightly, glancing away for a moment before looking at him again, meeting the champion's gaze.

"Seth Rollins said the same thing. That he wouldn't hurt me. Actually he said none of them would hurt me," she stated, and Punk arched a brow at her.

"You believe him?" he asked, and Eve frowned slightly, thinking about the look on the man's face when he'd said it.

"Yeah. I think I do."