Seth walked into The Shield's locker room first and let the door almost close behind him, just in case either Roman or Dean was in any state of undress. He saw that was not the case; his two brothers were just sitting there talking. Opening the door again, he said, "It's okay, Clem, you can come in."
"Hey, Clementine," Roman said warmly when the young girl walked in. Unlike Dean, he was used to how to best talk to children, since he had a daughter of his own.
"Hi," Clem replied shyly, hesitant to walk further into the room.
"It's alright," Seth encouraged her. "You can sit in front of my locker."
Clementine did as he said, but sitting on the bench in front of Seth's locker meant sitting next to Dean. Her body language gave away that she wasn't confident about that part of the arrangement.
"I don't bite," Dean said, trying to make light of her unease.
With a reassuring smile, Seth said, "Remember what Alexa told you, Clem."
"Oh, yeah," she said, brightening up a bit. Alexa had told her Dean was really a big softy, and she trusted Alexa not to lie. Maybe it was okay to sit next to him after all.
"What did Alexa say?" Dean asked, looking first at Seth, then at Clementine for the answer.
"I don't think I should say," Clementine said cautiously, looking to Seth for guidance.
"I think you should," he said. "Then we can see if it's true or not."
"Go on, tell us," Roman encouraged her, sensing that it was going to be something amusing.
Clementine summoned the courage to look Dean in the eye as she said, "I said you're a bit scary, but Alexa said I don't need to be scared of you because you're really just a big softy."
Roman roared with laughter, which helped Dean to laugh it off as well. He could understand why Alexa had said that, wanting to put the child at ease, but he was still going to have to have a word with her about it. Being described as a softy by his girl was not exactly something to be proud of, in his opinion. Even so, he realised that the best thing to do with Clementine was to play along. She was understandably nervous at being in their locker room, and it was up to him and Roman to make that feeling go away. "You got my number," he admitted with a grin. "I am a big softy, but you need to promise not to tell anyone else. Imagine if someone like The Miz found out? I'd never hear the last of it."
"You're right," Clem said, imagining The Miz cutting some promo about Dean in the ring based on the information she had on him. "I won't say anything to anyone, I promise."
"That right there is what The Shield is all about," Roman said. "Hey, I've got an idea. Since Lucy is off doing her thing with Alexa, we've got a bit of a free spot on the team. We could recruit Clem as an honorary member."
"I think that's a great idea," Seth said, nodding his approval. "Dean, what do you say?"
Dean studied Clementine carefully, managing not to react to the eager, excited expression on her face. "I don't know. Can we trust her?" he wondered.
"You can trust me!" Clem said immediately. "I'd be a good member of the team."
"You'd always have our backs?" Dean asked, pushing her.
"Of course I would!"
"And you'd never tell our secrets to anyone?"
"No!" Clementine insisted strongly.
"You'd never tell anyone I'm a big softy?" he pressed on, making that sound like the most important point.
"No!" she replied emphatically.
"And you'd never tell anyone that Lucy farts all the time?"
"She does not!" Clem exclaimed while Roman roared with laughter again.
"Okay, you passed the test," Dean said, nodding his satisfaction. "Not only did you promise to have our backs, you defended Lucy's honour. That's an important part of being a Shield member."
"So I'm in?" Clementine asked hopefully.
"You're in," Seth said. He was pleasantly surprised by how good Dean was being with her. Maybe Uncle Dean really would be something that suited him after all.
"We have to make it official," Roman pointed out. He held out his enormous clenched fist. Dean followed suit, and so did Seth. "Let's go, Clem," Roman said.
To be able to join in, she had to get up and walk over to them. With a huge smile on her face, she touched her little fist to the others.
"There we go," Dean said. "Now, if anyone messes with you, they mess with us."
"Awesome!" she said.
Seth could tell that the number one objective had been achieved: Clementine would not feel nervous walking into The Shield's locker room again. "And do you know what else it means?" he asked her.
"What?"
"You get to watch Wrestlemania in here, as part of the team. We'll have on it that TV up there." He pointed to a flat screen on the wall opposite the benches.
"Cool! I can't wait! Lucy and Alexa are definitely going to win!"
BREAK
As they walked into Hunter Helmsley's office, Lucy and Alexa had the exact opposite in mind. They had been told several weeks earlier that they would be putting Paige and Becky Lynch over as the first ever WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.
"Ah, good," Hunter said from behind his desk when they entered the room. He rose to greet them. "How are you both?"
"Good, thank you," Alexa said politely.
"Yeah, good," Lucy agreed.
"Is Clementine enjoying herself backstage?" he asked. As talent relations was one of his areas of responsibility, he was fully up to speed with the adoption situation.
"It's a bit overwhelming for her, but she's enjoying herself," Lucy said. "Seth's just taken her off to the Shield locker room."
"And I sent her with a message to tell Dean he's a big softy," Alexa added, grinning.
Hunter laughed. "I'm sure that'll get a laugh from Roman and Seth." With that, it was down to business. "So, the reason I wanted you both to come is that Becky and Paige came to see me earlier. They wanted to ask me to change the finish of your match tonight. They want to put you over for the titles."
"Why?" Lucy asked. Bring patient and listening wasn't one of her strengths.
"I'm about to tell you," Hunter said without any sign of irritation. "I had to agree with some of the points they made; namely that they haven't been getting great reactions as a face team of late, and you two certainly don't have enough heat as heels, or any heat all at all, to be honest. Most of the time, people are cheering for you over them. I know the in thing is to cheer the heels over the faces anyway, but even so, it's not going the way we planned. Becky and Paige put forward the idea of you getting the win, with them turning heel on you after the match. I think that would be a good outcome for all involved."
Lucy and Alexa looked at each other while they thought over what he had pitched to them. Both could tell that the other liked the idea. Twisted Thorne had undoubtedly proven to be popular, and Paige and Becky had seemed to go a bit stale as faces in recent weeks.
"I like the idea, but it might be better for the turn to happen tomorrow night," Lucy suggested. "Raw after Mania, you know it's going to be all Brits in the crowd, and you know what that means when I'm in the ring. They'll be white hot for me and Alexa. If Paige and Becky turned on us then, they'd get so much heat."
"Maybe you're right," Hunter said pragmatically. "Or maybe they'd also get behind Paige and Becky as well? Either way, that's not what I promised them. They put the idea forward of giving up their title run, so I think they deserve to get their moment by turning at Wrestlemania itself, in front of tonight's huge crowd. Leaving the two of you laying will be a massive deal for them, and we can push them hard on the back of it, both against you guys and other teams like Baymella."
Alexa had to admit she could see the logic in the idea. She also felt grateful to Paige and Becky for offering to put her and Lucy over on the biggest stage of them all. Although both teams would be getting something out of the deal, making it good business all round, Twisted Thorne would still be the ones getting the Wrestlemania win and a run with the title belts. "I can get on-board with that," she said happily. "I think it's an idea that works well for everyone. As you said, taking us both out after the match will be a big deal for them, and it should get quite the negative reaction."
"And it could actually get me properly over as a face for the first time," Lucy added. It had been the McMahon's wish for her to be the top female baby face character ever since she had been with the company. The problem had been that they had gone about it way too blatantly, and the fans had therefore rejected her. That adverse reaction now seemed to be subsiding at last with Twisted Thorne, so seizing the moment was probably a good idea.
"I agree," Hunter said. "Things seem to be coming together from various angles to make this idea a success. The key, though, is that you have to do a good job of selling their attack after the match. To look like our new badass heel team, they have to destroy you. Anything less, it will run the risk of falling flat."
"They could put us through the commentary tables?" Alexa suggested. "What better way to round off a comprehensive beat down than that?"
"Both of you going through tables," Hunter mused, picturing it happening as he spoke. "Yeah, that would work. It would certainly make quite the statement, and that's what we're looking for here. We'll go with it," he decided. "I leave the two of you to sort out the table spots with Becky and Paige."
"We'll do that," Lucy said. Then a smile spread across her face. "Clem is going to be so happy when we get the win. She's been telling me all day that we're going to win the titles for sure. She can't even picture Alexa and I losing. Alexa is her favourite," she explained to Hunter.
"Really? That's different. I'm surprised it's not Bayley."
"She likes Bayley, just not as much as Alexa."
"Or her new foster mom," Hunter guessed.
"We're not going to call ourselves mom and dad. It'll be Clem's decision when, or if, that happens. We're just happy to be able to take her in and give her a good home. The more time we spend with her, the more we're coming to love her already." She raised her right wrist to show him her new wristband. "She bought me and Seth one of these to say thank you, for giving her somewhere to live, as she put it. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."
"Bless her, that's so heart-warming," Hunter said with a big smile. "She's found herself in such an awful situation, but from what you've told me I know she's a strong girl. With your help, she will get through it. I'm really proud of you and Seth for what you've done for her. As I've said before, if there's any way Steph and I can help, all you have to do is ask."
"Thank you, Hunter, but you've already done so much for us. We owe you after how much time off you've given us, and will give us once Clem's mom approaches the end of her life."
"There's nothing to thank me for. This a little girl's world being turned upside down we're talking about."
They chatted for another couple of minutes, then Hunter brought the meeting to a close, saying that he had plenty of work to get through before the show started. Dismissed from the office, Alexa and Lucy headed for the women's locker room.
"You know what I'm looking forward to?" Lucy asked as they walked along the hallway.
"Our entrance later?" Alexa guessed. They were sure to get a good reaction from the enormous crowd in the Superdome, particularly with a lot of British people there. Since WWE's American fans had always booed Lucy, the Brits had made a point of backing her to the fullest extent.
"Well, yeah, that," Lucy conceded. "But I was actually thinking about having a glass of wine or two tonight at the after party. There's been so much going on lately, the chance to have a good time is much needed."
"I can't claim to have had the few weeks you have, but the chance to unwind will definitely be good," Alexa agreed.
"Seth and I won't be getting wrecked, though; Clem will be there with us. Better start getting used to that kind of thing I guess, now that I'm basically a mom. It's so weird to think of myself that way, I can't even tell you."
"Yet you're really good at it, from what I've seen," Alexa said, emphasising the positivity.
"Thanks, Alexa. I'm doing my best, that's all I can say."
They walked in a companionable silence for a moment, then Alexa said, "There is one thing that troubles me about tonight."
"Oh?" Lucy asked, looking at her with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Dean will get drunk, and Renee and Finn will be there, presumably drinking as well."
"You think it's all going to kick off again?"
"I'm worried that it might," Alexa said with a grimace. "I should be thinking that it's a good thing that those two have kept out of our way for the past couple of weeks. Maybe they've decided to grow up and move on? But I just have a feeling that's not the case. I think they'd love to have Dean go off the deep end again like he did in that parking lot, only right in front of everyone this time. I'm going to keep my eye on them."
"Not a bad idea, but you shouldn't have to go into a celebration thinking like that. Those two really annoy me," Lucy said. Even though neither Renee nor Finn had done or said anything directly to her, they were upsetting her friends, and she wasn't the kind of person to stay indifferent to that. "You know, Charlotte called me the other day when I was at home. She told me Renee told her that she'd had a row with Finn."
Alexa grunted derisively. "I guess that's what happens when you rush into a relationship just to try and prove a point to your ex."
"Right," Lucy agreed. "Finn's a weird little shit anyway. I've always thought he was creepy."
Sometimes the way things sounded in Lucy's English accent made Alexa giggle like crazy. That was one of those occasions. "He really is," she said once she had gotten herself under control. "Hopefully I'm wrong and they don't try and start something tonight."
"I'm sure they won't," Lucy said as they reached the women's locker room. Before opening the door, she added, "And if they do? It just makes them look bad. I wouldn't worry about it."
A/N: Shout out to ThatWrestlingFan and Ads611 who correctly predicted that Twisted Thorne would get to take the titles out of Wrestlemania.
What do you guys think of our latest Shield member?
And do you think Lucy was right to tell Alexa not to worry about things kicking off again at the after party?
The next update will be towards the end of next week. I'm off work for a few days and my wife and I are going to Raw in Manchester on Monday. It should be a lot of fun.
Until the next update, take care everyone.