I'll Bet You Didn't Even Know
-Smackdown, March 28-
The Divas Champion was in action against Tamina and she seemed to be a little out of sorts. Michael Cole and JBL kept pushing that she was nervous about having to face Nikki at WrestleMania and I guess we'll have to take their word. Tia picked up the win after some outside interference from AJ. It's a little iffy that they're having the Champ win by DQ so close to the biggest show of the year. She needs to be showing her strengths. I guess everyone already knows she's as good as they come?
-March 31, 2014; Washington, DC-
Tessa almost didn't believe it. Even after seeing the ring on AJ's left hand she struggled to believe it.
"Punk proposed?"
"Yeah, on Saturday night," AJ said. Tessa noted the lack of usual bite to her words. AJ was happy.
Tessa smiled sincerely, "Congratulations."
AJ smiled back before skipping out of the locker room, no doubt in the hopes of finding someone who hadn't yet heard the news.
"Never did I think I would see the day," Tessa said as she turned to Nikki.
"They're kind of perfect for each other."
"Yeah," Tessa agreed, "They are one hundred and ten percent perfect for each other. As long as I've known him, though, Punk has been so anti-marriage."
"Maybe she's blackmailing him," Nikki said with a cheeky grin and shrug. "You can beat the smugness off her face later if you want."
Tessa shook her head, the light smile never leaving her face, as she assured Nikki that she was genuinely happy for AJ. Marriage was a happy occasion – at least it was supposed to be – and Tessa was always happy for other people if they were happy.
Tessa, wearing a pair of leggings and a Dolph Ziggler shirt, left the locker room with no particular destination. The only real plan she had was to not speak to Rami. They were on a different set of house shows so she hadn't had to worry about seeing him since the Tuesday before hand but they were going to have to do another live segment during the Raw broadcast and she was pretty set on not going to the rehearsal.
"We gave you a perfectly good shirt to wear but you willingly choose to wear Ziggler merch? June, what are we going to do with you?"
Tessa turned around to look at Jon and walked backwards as she spoke, "What can I say? I like pink."
"You want to make someone's day?" he asked her abruptly, catching up to her.
"Always," Tessa smiled, turning back to walk normally. "Are you in the middle of granting a wish, or?"
"Not today. Reigns brought his daughter along and she is a huge Tia fan," he said, causing Tessa to grin even wider.
"Galina, too?" Tessa received a nod. "When do you think they'll get married? Punk proposed to AJ, did you know that? I think she mentioned something about a June wedding."
"I beat him to it, then," Jon said casually. Tessa whipped her head to look at him, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. "Oh, fuck it."
"You got married? You and Darcy got married?" Tessa asked quickly and loudly. "I didn't even know you were engaged!"
"We weren't. It was very spur of the moment about 2 weeks ago. Feel privileged, you and Saraya are, as far as I know, the only people who know. Probably Adrian Neville, too."
"That's really fantastic," Tessa smiled. "Congratulations. My lips are sealed!"
Tessa's smile disappeared when Jon turned to her and started to speak in a lower tone. She looked away from him and down at her feet.
"But next time she comes to you saying anything about me, you tell me. If you'd told me that she thought I was cheating on her then we could have prevented a pretty big argument."
"She asked me not to," Tessa said quietly. "I'm pretty dreadful at a lot of things but keeping secrets I can do."
Jon didn't say anything else to her as he led her to catering. She heard Joe's daughter before they even rounded the corner, the happy squeal caused Tessa to grin and walk just that bit quicker.
The 6 year old gaped when Jon called her name and pointed to the Diva beside him. Tessa was taken aback when Jojo ran at her legs without hesitation.
"Jo!" Galina said in a stern voice. "What did we say about hugging people you don't know?"
"Sorry, mum!" Jojo apologised as she let go of Tessa's legs and stood back, suddenly sheepish. "Hi Tia! I'm Jojo. You're my favourite Diva. I think you're really pretty."
"Thank you, gorgeous!"
Before she had really even registered what was going on, Tessa was sitting on the ground and trying not to cringe at Jojo started to detangle her hair. Tessa looked up at Joe a little confused but shook her head lightly when he opened his mouth to tell his daughter to stop. Tessa didn't mind.
After about five minutes of Jojo tying Tessa's hair up in unusual places, Tessa convinced Jojo to sit down in front of her. Tessa began to French braid the girl's hair.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Jojo asked suddenly.
"No, I don't."
"You and Seth should get together," Jojo said and Tessa tried her hardest to keep her breathing steady. "Daddy has mummy and Dean has Darcy and Seth and Leighla broked up and now he's lonely."
"Why should it be me?" Tessa asked as she pulled elastic from her hair and tied the end of Jojo's French braid.
"He thinks you're the prettiest Diva. I think you are, too," Jojo said as she stood up and smiled. "Do I look pretty like you?"
"You are the prettiest person in this room," Tessa said as she stood up too. Jojo hugged Tessa's legs again before she ran off to tell everyone what she'd just been told.
Tessa's eyes were drawn immediately to the ring on AJ's left hand. It was hard to miss, really. The four Divas – Nikki, AJ and Tamina – were all sitting near Gorilla waiting for their match.
"Aren't you going to take off your ring?" Tessa asked, catching AJ's attention.
"I think I want to the world to know," AJ responded, holding her hand out in front of her to admire the ring. "See how they react, you know?"
"I'm really happy for you and understand that you want to share it with the world – even if that means starting a riot on the internet – but I don't feel comfortable wrestling you while you're wearing it."
"It's fine," AJ said, tugging at the ring to prove her point, "It won't come off."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Tessa muttered to Nikki who was sitting beside her. AJ didn't hear her but Nikki looked sideways to see that Tessa was sighing.
AJ and Tamina were to go out to the ring first, so when they were called to the curtain Nikki stood in front of Tessa and asked for an explanation.
"I don't think people should wear jewellery in the ring," Tessa shrugged. "Things go wrong, things get caught. Besides, if someone asks you do to something you do it so that the match runs as smoothly as possible."
"What do you plan on doing?"
Tessa merely smiled coyly at Nikki before making her way to the curtain.
-Live on Raw-
Tia and AJ started off the match and, after they shook hands, Tia immediately unleashed a fury of low kicks to AJ's legs. The sound of kick pads meeting skin resonated throughout the entire arena and AJ's face contorted in pain. Very real pain.
AJ finally got her bearings and was able to place her hands on Tia's chest, pushing the champion away. Tia took a few steps back and smiled innocently at her opponent.
Tia was forced onto her back as AJ jumped at her with a Lou Thesz Press.
"Who do you think you are?!" AJ shouted as she grabbed handfuls of Tia's hair and began slamming her head down against the mat. "You think you're so good, don't you? But you'll never be better than me!"
Despite the might with which her head was being pushed into the mat, Tia was able to get her hands into AJ's face. She pushed her away, making sure to be as forceful as she possibly could. The Champion got to her feet just in time to see that AJ was trying to make the tag to Tamina.
She was quick to wrap AJ in a headlock and pull her back to the centre of the ring. She tightened her hold only to have AJ's elbow pushed back into her ribs causing her to let go. Capitalising on the fact that Tia was doubled over, holding onto her ribcage, AJ tagged in Tamina.
AJ had just tagged back into the match and Tia barely had time to register that it had happened. It was obvious to everyone that the champion was doing everything she could to avoid tagging Nikki Bella into the match and she, because of it, was beginning to show signs of exhaustion.
Wasting no time at all, AJ backed Tia into a corner and started striking her with fists – both left and right.
The stinging sensation that came from her cheek made Tia knee AJ in the stomach, perhaps too forcefully. Lifting her fingers up the sore spot, Tia winced when she came into contact with a particularly tender, slightly sticky spot.
She glanced over at Nikki. The look of surprise on her face confirmed Tia's suspicions. AJ Lee's engagement ring had managed to put a cut through Tia's right cheek. Grabbing a fistful of AJ's hair, Tia made her way over to Nikki. She allowed a tag to be made.
While Nikki wasted no time in taking control of the match, Tia ducked between the middle and bottom ropes. Her fingers were still brushing over her cheek as she stood up. When she pulled her hand away to look at them, she groaned at the sight of blood.
In the ring, Nikki had AJ Lee over her shoulders and was staring directly at Tia as she dropped to her knees. Tia nodded as Nikki covered AJ and got the pin.
Re-entering the ring, Tia tried to push her injury to the back of her mind, instead focusing on having her hand raised by the referee. Nikki wasn't smiling, though, and when the referee handed Tia her championship, Nikki's eyes never left it.
-Off Air-
AJ was waiting for Tessa at the curtain. She wasn't happy. Neither was Tessa.
"Why were you working stiff?" AJ asked, following Tessa who was already walking towards the trainers' room. Her hand was hovering over her right cheek and the small slice that was across it.
"I told you that I didn't feel comfortable with you wearing the ring during the match," Tessa stated calmly. "I told you and you didn't listen to me so I did what I know how do to."
"Work stiff? You think that's professional?"
Tessa took a deep breath before speaking through gritted teeth, "Listen, sweetheart, what you and I consider professional are clearly two different things because I would never have worn something that my opponent didn't want me to. Because of it, and your stiff punches, I have to go get my cheek checked out and hope that I don't have a nasty scar and black eye for WrestleMania. You know, the Pay Per View that you aren't on."
AJ's jaw dropped but Tessa wasn't going to stick around so that the argument could continue. She could feel her eye starting to swell a little and, no matter how much Nikki told her otherwise, she knew that it wasn't just a scratch across her cheek.
"It won't need stiches," Nikki opted to say as they were ushered into a room by Ferdinand Rios. Tessa was relieved to hear that the doctor agreed.
"WrestleMania week literally starts tomorrow and I get to go into it with a black eye and cut on my cheek," Tessa pouted at Nikki.
"Occupational hazard. Sucks that it happened before a week jam packed with appearances and signings."
Tessa sighed as she was handed an icepack to put on the bruising to make sure it didn't get any bigger. It wasn't the worst she had – in fact it was probably the least severe – but if there was anything she could do to prevent swelling or bruising she was going to do it.
With the icepack held up to her face, Tessa was given the order to return it in ten minutes and allowed to wander around the arena. Nikki disappeared to change out of her ring gear so Tessa walked towards catering in hopes of finding someone else to talk to – maybe vent to, she hadn't decided.
"She give you that as revenge for those kicks? They looked brutal."
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard Colby's voice. They hadn't really spoken since she told him that they couldn't be together and, as far as she could tell, he was trying to act as casual as possible around her. She could do that. Casual.
"Probably," Tessa answered, turning around to look at Colby. He lifted his hand up to the icepack and pulled it away to get a better look. He pulled a small face when he saw the damage. "I just hope it's gone down before the Hall of Fame because it'd be really crummy if I had to have my picture taken with a glorious shiner and a nice cut."
Colby shrugged with a small smile, "You look tough. The cut, though, was that from the rock she's got? If it makes you feel any better: it means she's got some skin and probably some blood wedged into it now."
Tessa couldn't help but laugh. It did make her feel better, as petty as it might have been, to know that AJ had to try and clean her DNA out of the, no doubt expensive, piece of jewellery. She put the icepack back up to her face as she realised that she had things she actually had to say to Colby.
"Did you talk to Jimmy? He's still posting those stupid pictures – no one needs to see me at 15 with braces and a million zits. I'd be quite happy if they just assumed I always looked this good."
"That one," Colby said with a nod, "might actually be my favourite photo that's he's posted."
"Colby!"
"I spoke to him!" he held his hands up in defence immediately. "He said that if you want him to stop then you have to ask him yourself."
"And you didn't tell me this as soon as he told you?"
"Would you have spoken to him?"
Tessa shut her mouth immediately. It was on her list of things to do she just wanted to make sure she didn't have a million things on her plate first.
"I will," she said firmly. When wasn't important. "Before you go... When you're talking to Jojo can you not mention me?"
"She loves you. She brings you up more often than not."
"She wants us to date," Tessa said quietly. "You need to get her to stop."
Colby's face contorted in utter confusion, "She's just a kid she doesn't mean anything by it."
Tessa sighed at him but opted to drop it in order to avoid an argument in the middle of the arena.
"I have to go be on television again," Tessa told him as she turned around to walk away. "Please don't let her make a big deal out of it."
It was probably an overreaction – they were pretty harmless comments from a 6 year old – but there was the possibility that someone would overhear a comment, any comment, and it would immediately be skewed into something that they couldn't afford to have out in the world.
As she walked into the filming area she was told that they had a change of script to accommodate for the icepack she was carrying and the injuries she had attained in her match. She was reprimanded for missing the rehearsal but there wasn't anything they could do to change that as they were moments away from going live. Of course, they would be adlibbing almost the entire thing because of the changes so it didn't really matter at the end.
Her professionalism – though stellar in the ring – apparently did not extend to filming backstage segments.
- Live on Raw-
Tia was stopped in her tracks as a hand came to rest on her shoulder. She turned around, moving the icepack from her face. She smiled.
"Sami Zayn," she said happily.
Sami Zayn stood before her with his eyebrows pulled together slightly, taking in her new injury.
"I was going to ask if I could take you up on that offer to hang out," he told her slowly, before lifting his hand to point at her face, "But now I'm just wondering if you're okay."
"Of course I'm okay," she nodded sincerely before shrugging. "Worse things have happened. I'd love to hang out, though."
"Yeah?" he asked, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. "We should do something after the show."
Tia continued to smile at him while she tried to ignore the growing redness of her cheeks. She agreed with him before wishing him good luck in his match and explaining that she had to go return the icepack.
"Don't hurt yourself again before we go out," he joked.
"I won't," she smiled at him, turning to walk away. She stopped, though, and turned back to him, "You should do the same. This was your idea, so you should at least be able to enjoy it."
"I'm not going to risk missing this date."
"Oh," Tia said with slightly wide eyes. Her blushing was no longer ignorable. "A date? I thought you said hanging out."
He closed his eyes and cringed before reopening them and smiling at her innocently, "Is that alright?"
"I would be more than happy to call it a date," she assured him. "I really do have to take this back, though. It's kind of making my hand numb."
"Sorry, go ahead. I'll see you later."
"I can't wait."
-Off Air-
Cut was called and the camera was turned off. Crew started to move freely around them and Tessa used it as her opportunity to get away. The plan didn't work as well as she hoped though because as soon as he saw that she was actually walking away, Rami followed her.
"Tessa-"
"I actually do have to take this back," she told him quickly, lifting the melting icepack. "My hand is really cold."
"I can walk with you," he said, clearly taken aback by the coldness of her voice. "I just wanted to know how you are. After the anaphylaxis thing and Summer said that you weren't feeling last week."
"I'm not dead."
"Well, yeah," he said gesturing to her limply. "Why are you being so rude? Am I not allowed to talk to you?"
They had reached the trainer's room and Tessa stood to the side of the door, looking around for anyone who might overhear them.
"I'm trying to not start something, okay? Can we please just keep this strictly for work?"
"Um," Rami hesitated, "Uh – yeah?"
Without another word, Tessa turned into the room. When she knew that Rami hadn't followed her in she took a few deep, shaky breaths. It wasn't going to be easy.
a/n thank you to deanambooty, ajroleplays, Imaginer1392, nmoxracha, Straight Edge Queen, Livin on the EDGE and CarolReigns for reviewing! :D