Jeez, it was tough writing this chapter, to be honest. Thanks to everyone for encouraging me to take my time and write what I feel like writing. Writer's block is a bitch.
I'm not necessarily happy with this chapter, so please don't be too hard on me!
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Chapter 21: Shit's gonna hit the fan
"So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and placed an order with Carrabba's Italian Grill to do our catering for the wedding. I don't give a damn what Dean thinks about that. I'm not having a barbecue on MY day," Shannon huffed, making both Maxine and Karolina laugh.
They were all sitting on the back porch of Shannon and Dean's house organizing their wedding while Dylan and Leni were playing in the pool with their floaties tight around their arms, making so much noise that Joan and Hayley had a hard time falling asleep in their twin buggy.
"Who did he expect to prepare everything? I mean, you clearly wouldn't do the dishes in your wedding dress afterwards," Maxine said with a chuckle, shaking her head about Dean's crude plan.
"He would probably just throw the plates into the trashcan to stop me from doing so," she replied with a frown, rolling her eyes at her soon-to-be husband although he couldn't even see it as he was back on the road together with Seth and Roman.
"Okay, so we can cross out catering, the priest, all of the decoration stuff...uhm...what about the guests? Has Dean...you know...has he invited his mom?" Karo asked after scratching a few words out from their 'wedding plan' list, looking up to look at Shannon with insecurity reflecting in her big blue eyes.
"He doesn't want her to be there. He insists that she has never cared for him before. So why would she now? She still doesn't even know about Dylan," Shannon sighed, running a shaky hand through her messy hair as it broke her heart over and over again about how much hatred there seemed to be between her fiancé and his mother.
"What about your parents?" Maxine asked curiously, wheeling the buggy back and forth slowly so that her girls would finally be able to take a nap.
"They can't make it. My dad is in Indonesia on some business trip and mom claims she needs to stay home with the dogs," Shannon scoffed, taking a deep breath to calm herself down before she would completely lose her mind.
She always tried to avoid talking about her parents. Although she didn't hate them, she didn't love them that much either. She had more or less always been on her own. That's why she moved from Boston to San Francisco when she was 18. She was so sick of them always travelling around and only caring for themselves. Maybe that was why she was such a strong-willed, stubborn woman sometimes.
"So it will be just us?" Karo asked, making a few notes on her piece of paper before looking up at her friend again.
"Yes...that's all the family we need. I think that I a...," Shannon started to say but was cut off when once again a cell phone started ringing in the living room, making her sigh in frustration. "Ugh...I think I'm just gonna turn this fucking thing off."
"Whose phone is it anyways?" Maxine wondered, her eyes wide open in shock when she heard Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' as the ringtone of said phone.
"Dean's. He forgot it here this morning," she mumbled, ignoring the phone call that was coming in and putting the phone back on the table when she sat down next to her friends again.
"That explains why he didn't respond to my message," Karo said, chuckling when her best friend raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't worry. I'm not secretly texting with him or anything. I just asked him to send me that pic he took of Roman and Leni yesterday."
"I didn't even see you texted him. I can send it to you real quick though," she replied with a smile, immediately unlocking Dean's iPhone and opening his camera roll where he had about a hundred pictures and videos tops since he wasn't really into cell phones or even social media.
But that smile that was on her face when she offered her friend to send her the picture she so desperately wanted would quickly leave her features when she saw what else her soon-to-be husband had saved on his phone, making her stomach churn and her heart beat faster.
"You ok, Shan? You're looking really pale all of a sudden," Maxine said concerned, looking back and forth between Shannon and Karo, a frown on her face.
"I'm honestly not sure," she mumbled, closing her eyes tightly for a brief moment before looking straight into her best friend's eyes. "Any idea why my man has your sex tape on his phone?"
Shannon didn't even mean to sound threatening or even hateful but she simply couldn't help it. Seeing how the man she loved had some kind of porn video on his phone that starred anybody else but her bothered her terribly.
"Excuse me?" Karo dared to ask, not sure she could really believe her ears. What the hell was Shannon even talking about?
"THAT sex tape?" Maxine wondered, sensing the tension that was between the two women since she was sitting in between them, swallowing hard when Shannon shoved Dean's phone across the table so that it ended up in front of Karo, an expectant look in her eyes.
Neither Shannon nor Karo answered Maxine's question, both of them too shocked about the fact that her past with Drew was 'eternalized' on Dean's phone, however, each one of them for different reasons.
"I don't even understand. I mean...Drew...he told me that...that he had deleted it. What...I mean how..." Karo stuttered, not even wanting to press play and start the video since she knew she would only upset herself and therefore stress out her unborn child.
"So...you didn't even know Dean had it?" Shannon asked cautiously, eventually realizing that Karo would have never sent it to him on purpose, immediately feeling guilty for even thinking that.
"Of course not. I was hoping it was gone. I don't even know where he could have it from. This... god...this is awful," she sobbed, the tears she had been trying so hard to suppress now finally escaping her eyes one by one.
"Okay, let's call Roman," Shannon quickly said, curious why the tape was on Dean's cell phone because she knew for sure he didn't have it on there just for fun or to even get off of it.
"Don't you think we should call Seth first? Assuming that Roman possibly doesn't know about this, we wouldn't upset him. I'm sure that if Seth knows then Ro does as well. But let's not drive him insane with it just yet," Maxine retorted, instantly fishing her phone out of her purse, speed-dialling her husband's number, hoping he would pick up as he would normally be in the gym doing Crossfit at that time of the day.
"Hey angel, miss me already?" Seth asked with a chuckle when he picked up the phone after the third ring, his heart always pounding fast in his chest whenever he saw her picture pop up on the display of his cell phone.
"Uhm...yeah...sure, of course. I...well...I actually need to ask you something, baby," she almost stuttered, all of a sudden feeling extremely nervous although all of this didn't necessarily concern her.
"Ooookay, what's up?" he asked unsure, confusion written all over his face when he realized how nervous his wife seemed to be.
He shrugged his shoulders when Dean and Roman looked at him expectantly, all three of them indeed in a gym but ever since the twins were born, Seth always had his phone with him just in case something might happen to his three girls.
"Shannon, Karo and I are making some preparations for the wedding. And before I beat around the bush, I just get right to the point: Karo wanted Shan to send her a pic Dean took of Ro and Leni yesterday. And since Dean forgot his phone here, she wanted to send it to her. That was until she discovered a sex tape on his phone," Maxine explained, raising an eyebrow when she heard Seth sigh heavily on the other end of the line. "Care to explain?"
"Gimme a second...I need to go somewhere private," he whispered, waving to his friends to let them know that he would go out to get some fresh air, not wanting them, or anyone else for that matter, to hear what he was talking about. "Are the girls still with you?"
"They're right here. I'll put you on speaker now," Maxine replied, not even waiting for him to approve because she didn't ask for permission.
"Karolina?" he asked when he was behind the building, knowing he would have to address her in particular because this was more or less only just about her.
"Seth, what's going on? Why is the video on Dean's cell phone?" she demanded, still sniffling but she tried her hardest to calm down again for the sake of Siaki.
"Promise me not to freak out now, ok?" he pleaded, running a hand over his tired face, having hoped that she would never find out but he knew that he had to tell her now since she would probably not stop asking questions until she knew the truth. "Drew sent the video to Roman a while ago."
Shannon, Karo and Maxine looked at each other confused, not knowing where Seth was going with this as it didn't explain why it was on Dean's phone now.
"Go on," Shannon prompted, sensing that she wouldn't like what he was about to tell them.
"He threatened him to broadcast the sex tape shouldn't we leave him alone...you know, after the confrontation in the Performance Center and stuff," he replied, looking around to make sure that there was still nobody around who could hear him.
"So?" Maxine asked, rolling her eyes annoyed when she realized they had to worm all the information out of him bit by bit.
"Dean didn't want Roman to watch the video again. Since we all know how much this is still upsetting him. But as we wanted to keep the whole thing for proof, Dean sent it to his phone and deleted it from Roman's," he explained, hoping that this would answer their question since they only wanted to know why it was on Dean's phone in the first place.
"You wanted to keep it as proof? Proof for what?" Karo asked nervously when her heart started beating fast in her chest, her whole body shaking as if she was about to have a panic attack.
"Sweetie, just forget about it, ok? The only important thing is that it's over with. We took care of it," he replied softly, walking further around the building when he saw Dolph Ziggler and Titus O'Neil walking out of the gym.
"What the fuck does that mean? What did you take care of? Spill the fucking beans already, Rollins," Shannon snapped, her impatience eventually getting the best of her.
She really didn't mean to yell, regretting it as soon as she realized that Leni and Dylan looked over to their table wide-eyed while Joan and Hayley started crying as she seemingly has startled them.
"We took care of Drew, Jinder and Heath," he said quietly and with a heavy sigh, his voice almost a whisper. "We drugged them with sleeping pills, followed them to their room and took some very embarrassing pics. We blackmailed him with them, saying we would put them online if he didn't delete the sex tape. And so he did. He deleted it all. The video, any other copy he had...on his computer, USB sticks...you name it. It's gone for good now."
Karolina couldn't help but start crying again. While she was extremely relieved that the sex tape was indeed deleted now, she couldn't believe that they had gone so far. She was sure that Drew wouldn't have published it anywhere, he was too much of a coward for it, so she didn't understand why Dean, Seth and Roman would lower themselves so much as to blackmail him.
"Have you lost your fucking mind?" Shannon said through gritted teeth. "Don't fucking tell me you didn't beat him the fuck up. Don't fucking lie to me, Seth."
"Roman might have used his fists for a while there, yes," Seth answered in defeat, swallowing hard when he noticed the angry tone in Shannon's voice. He hated fighting with her. You were always on the losing end when it came to that.
"Seth, are you guys insane? You lose your damn job if anyone gets wind of this. Ugh, you guys are so immature sometimes," Maxine scoffed, without saying another word getting up and wheeling the buggy inside the house, her daughters getting more and more fussy with all the yelling and fighting.
"Are you seriously mad at us now? All we were trying to do was to protect Karo and this is how you fucking thank us? By yelling at me and cursing me out? You know what? Fuck it. I'm having none of that shit," Seth screamed, immediately hanging up the phone before furiously kicking the wall, thereby hurting his foot.
Shannon closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath, anger and sadness both making her whole body shake. But what worried her most was the blond-haired girl sitting across from her who was crying her eyes out. She was hurt and she couldn't blame her. All these years this had been haunting her. She had never been sure if this video would someday pop up somewhere and ruin her reputation and life. And now that she finally believed that Drew had indeed deleted it, she found out that he lied. What made matters worse was the fact that her husband risked his career by beating the man who had once taken advantage of her many years ago by blackmailing him and beating him to a bloody pulp.
"It's okay, Karo. Stop crying, sweetie. Shhh," Shannon said soothingly, standing up quickly to make her way over to her best friend, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and rocking her back and forth.
While she was comforting her pregnant friend, she couldn't help but once again feel anger rising up inside of her. She would give Dean, Seth and Roman a piece of her mind as soon as they were home again. Maybe she was overreacting, but she was so mad at them for engaging in Drew's little mind games and coming up with this childish game that not only endangered their careers in the WWE but also their peaceful lives as a family.
...
*Hey babygirl! I've been trying to call you for the twentieth time now but you're still not picking up. I don't know why you're giving me the silent treatment right now since I haven't done anything wrong, but I guess I need to accept your decision to give me hell. I'll be back home tomorrow and I hope you'll give me a chance to explain then. We did this for you. For us. Our family. I know it was immature but it needed to be done. It's as simple as that. I love you, Karolina. And a man who's in love does stupid things. And I stand by that. Just promise me one thing: take care of yourself and Siaki. Don't let this eat you up from the inside and stay strong for our baby. I'm standing my ground though and I'm not apologizing. I still need for you to forgive me for whatever you're mad at me. Don't give Drew the power to destroy us. We're so much stronger than that. I love you, with all my heart. Roman xx*
Although he loved her funny and adorable voicemail message, there was nothing better than hearing her voice when she told him she loved him. He was hoping that maybe his text message would reach her somehow, knowing that she would at least read it.
Seth had told them about his phone conversation with Shannon, Maxine and Karolina. Dean and Roman didn't even think about blaming him for telling them the truth. They knew that one day it would come out anyways. It was just unfortunate that it happened the way it had, especially since they were on the road and not at home to explain everything properly.
Shannon was also ignoring Dean, so that it was Maxine who was the only one reachable, still talking to Seth after she had ripped him a new one. She wouldn't tell him or them about the other two girls though. It was frustrating.
"Still no answer?" Dean asked as he plopped down on the couch next to his Samoan buddy, taking a deep breath when the bigger man shook his head no, sick and tired of Shannon and Karo ignoring them after they risked their necks for their ladies, since Dean was convinced he not only did this for Karo but his fiancée as well.
They were family now. And family protected each other. So if someone was threatening Karo, then that person was threatening him as well. It might have been difficult to understand for someone who wasn't Dean Ambrose, but that was his logic. He'd never had a family as a child, so he would give his life to the people that were close to his heart now.
"They are the ones acting immature now, huh?" Roman asked, more himself than Dean, but the messy-haired man next to him nodded his head frantically in agreement. "We should have told them from the get-go."
"Yeah...sure...so that they would stop us from pushing through with our plan. Ro, they'll calm down again. Your wife is a highly emotional and hormonal woman right now, my fiancée is bridezilla. And Maxine is just having their backs because she doesn't want to suffer their wrath. It's just another little obstacle we will overcome," Dean said with a reassuring smile on his face, patting his best friend's thigh before getting up again. "Come on, let's hit the gym. That will distract us a little."
...
"Karo? Leni? Girls...where are you?" Roman yelled as soon as he had entered their house, worried when all the windows and doors were closed when normally Leni would run him over as soon as she heard that he was back home.
He was distracted by the ringing of his cell phone, signalling him that he had received a text message.
*They're all here. Come over. Seth*
He sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment. He was afraid the girls would make a big deal out of it and he quite frankly wasn't happy with them discussing this in a group when he wanted to speak to his wife alone first.
He quickly threw his suitcase and duffel bag into a corner before leaving the house, jogging over to Seth and Maxine's place where everyone was already gathered in the living room. The kids were nowhere to be found, so he sensed that they were either with his parents or with their kindergarten friends when at the same time Joan and Hayley were asleep upstairs in their room.
"Babygirl...," he more or less whispered when he noticed just how tired Karolina seemed to be, but before he could make his way over to her, he was stopped by Shannon who placed a hand onto his chest.
"Just leave her alone for a moment, ok? I think we should discuss this before we get all lovey dovey here," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest before looking back and forth between Dean, Roman and Seth. "Anything you wanna explain to us?"
"I think I've said it all. What else do you want to hear? You're really overreacting, Shan," Seth mumbled, simply not understanding why they were reacting the way they did when he and his friends only wanted to protect them, and Karo in particular.
"Why did you do it behind our backs?" Karo asked quietly, looking at each of the men intently, expecting answers.
"Simply because we didn't want to bother you with it. I sure as hell didn't want to stress you out any further with you being pregnant. You know how it...," Roman started but Dean instantly cut him off.
"Don't even mention it, bro," he admonished Roman, now looking at Karo closely. "You girls would have stopped us. You would have told us to leave Drew alone but we weren't going to let that happen. That motherfucker once again wanted to fuck things up but I've had enough of that. Did you really want to live in fear for the sex tape to one day be published? How would you explain this to Leni? Or to Siaki when the time has come? Why the hell are you blaming us for the things we did when it was what needed to be done?"
"And here we go again. The Shield is fighting for justice...how cute," Shannon said mockingly, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Shut up, Shannon. All of you have no right to pillory us. It's just not fair for you to punish us by ignoring our phone calls or texts. I really don't get it. And I'm sick of it. What do you women want? You want us to protect you but if we do, then you freak the fuck out. How is that even logical? It's not," Dean ranted, pacing the living room like an enraged animal.
"Maybe we're really making a big deal out of it. I mean, in the end they really only wanted to help you, Karo," Maxine butted in, looking at her pregnant friend unsure, not wanting to upset her any further since she knew she had been crying a lot lately.
"And that justifies them blackmailing and beating up Drew?" Shannon asked no one in particular, hating that they were all fighting because of the Scotsman but maybe they needed to get it all out.
"You act like he was the fucking victim, Shan. He's been the one to fuck with my family. How would you feel if somebody tells you he might upload a sex tape of you for everyone to see?" Roman asked angrily, annoyed by the bitchy attitude Shannon was displaying, wondering if his wife had been acting the same way when they were about to get married a few years ago.
"I would have killed the bastard," Dean huffed, clenching his fists at his sides.
"And we would have helped you as well. It doesn't matter who this was about. It was about one of us and we need to have each other's' backs and not let this get in between us," Seth chimed in, wanting everybody to calm down and make up again. This discussion wouldn't be helping anyone.
Shannon growled in frustration when the ringing of Dean's cell phone once again interrupted them, still having it in her jeans pocket before she even had the chance to give it back to him now that he was home again. She fished it out of her jeans pocket and frowned at the unknown number. While the others were still arguing about who was right and who was wrong, her curiosity was peeked and she couldn't help but open the text message he had just received.
*Hey Mox. Changed your mind? I'm in the area again, shooting another movie. Care to practise a few new positions with me, baby? ;-) Hit me up, Trina*
Shannon swallowed hard, biting her bottom lip in anger. Could this day get any worse? She knew that she was an emotional wreck because of the upcoming wedding; add Dylan being a devil to the mix and now this text message and one could only imagine how furious she must have been.
"Who the fuck is Trina?" Shannon asked out of nowhere, interrupting the heated discussion that was still taking place, sighing heavily when she noticed how Dean, Seth and Roman all gasped.
Shit's really gonna hit the fan now...
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A/N: Yes, our boys are the real heroes of this chapter and the ladies are totally overreacting lol I'm sorry for this. haha you know they will still love each other.