Three's A Crowd, Four's A Party

by raaeebrucee

What happens when Vince throws Bobbi in with the Hounds of Justice? She's used to people being like Russian dolls, he's used to staying hidden, and things don't quite work out how either of them had intended - but they have each other. And that's the most important thing, right? Right? (OC/Dean Ambrose) (semi kinda kayfabe compliant, but not really?) (slow-burn) (COMPLETED)

25. Chapter 25

Thursday Morning, April 4th

Bobbi was stood at the airport as inconspicuously as she could. There was a cap tugged low over her eyes, sunglasses on, hair tied back in a low bun that hid the black ends. A light dark blue jumper covered most of her tattoo and on her thighs were ripped light blue jeans, camel Timberlands on her feet.

As usual, Bobbi heard Vanessa before she saw the young girl. As she was laughing, a ball of orange launched right into her legs and wrapped around her ecstatically, wide grin on the young child's face as she looked up at her Aunty.

"Hey kiddo, how you doing?"

"Good!"

Bobbi laughed at her niece and bent down to give the girl a hug, lifting Vanessa up onto her hip when she was done. "Ooooh, you're gettin' so big!" she teased, and Vanessa just poked her tongue out.

"Now, where's your mother?"

"I'm here."

With a smile, Bobbi looked over her shoulder to the young mother. She stepped up to give the woman a half-hug and then motioned to the carousel. "You guys got suitcases?"

"Just this," Heather said, motioning to the carry-on.

Bobbi nodded in approval. "Good. Let's get out of here, chicken."

The young girl in Bobbi's arms beamed brightly.

Thirty minutes later and they were at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Vanessa had the VIP lanyard securely around her neck and was swinging off Bobbi's arm, eyes wide at the amount of people and the amount of wrestling memorabilia to look at.

From behind her, Heather grabbed Bobbi's shoulder. "I'm going to go grab a coffee and let you two girls enjoy yourself for a while, maybe have a look around."

"Sure," she smiled back.

Bobbi pulled Vanessa back up into her arms and smiled, wriggling her eyebrows at the child. "Looks like it's just you and me, kid."

"Yes," Vanessa hissed happily.

She laughed at her niece and started to walk them through the massive hallway, glancing up at the banners that hung from the ceiling. Vanessa merrily pointed out her favourite superstars, motioning to the John Cena and Bray Wyatt one, even the Daniel Bryan one.

"Who's gonna win the title, Ness?"

"Daniel," she said confidently.

Moments later, the young girl inhaled a deep breath. "Aunty Bob— that's you!"

Vanessa was pointing up at one of the last banners. It was indeed Bobbi, all brooding and menacing save for the deep smirk etched into her face. "Yeah, that's me."

"I want that…" she murmured in awe.

"I'll see what I can do for you," Bobbi laughed at her.

Slowly but surely, the two made their way through the memories, the Undertaker inspired graveyard, the giant posters of the different superstars, and when Bobbi spotted a certain Samoan up on one of the signing stages, she pointed it out to Vanessa.

"Please?" Vanessa begged her, "Pleeeaaase, Aunty Barbara, I really wanna go see him again!"

And how could she say no to that?

Bobbi made a bee-line towards where he was sitting and lifted the cap away from her face, smiling at the waiting guards and flashing both her and Vanessa's VIP passes. They gave Bobbi a knowing smile before cutting the moving line off momentarily.

And when she set Vanessa on the ground, the little girl launched up the stairs. "Roman!" she screeched, and the big Samoan only just turned in time to catch her.

Bobbi couldn't help but take a quick photo on her phone.

"Ness! Hey, baby-girl, what's happenin'?"

As the two conversed, Bobbi peered over her shoulder at the mumbling line behind her. Soon, one by one, the voices were echoing in a different kind of way— they recognised who she was. The cheers started then and the woman threw a little wave over her shoulder, blew a kiss.

"… and then I told them that Aunty Bobbi would send you to beat them off and they ran away from me!" Vanessa was saying as Bobbi turned back around.

Roman laughed at his friend's niece and shared a smile with the woman. "Maybe when I get off signing, you and Bobbi can come find me out the back, yeah?" He motioned to all the people waiting in line. "I'm sure these people wanna say hi, too."

The girl went red in the face.

"C'mon, sweetheart," Bobbi laughed as she reached over the table to gather Vanessa into her arms. She sent a wink to Roman. "Thanks, Ro."

Bobbi sent another wave over her shoulder to the gathered crowd and left the same way she came in, pulling the cap low over her head again.

Not thirty minutes later, the same situation was unfolding with a different Shield member. Seth laughed at the happiness radiating from the young child and then they were off moving again, Bobbi taking a few photos here and there of her beautiful niece.

—

What seemed like hours later, Bobbi was sitting in a closed off section of the convention centre that was only meant for the attractions of that day. But, considering she was one of the company's top stars at the current moment, they couldn't really say no to her.

It hadn't really sunk in that people liked her as much as they did. And didn't really consider herself to be one of WWE's top talents, but if she could pull numbers like she'd been told she had at the Elimination Chamber, then who was she to argue that? Plus, it plastered one hell of a smile on her face that lasted almost all day.

There was a warm cup of coffee in her hands and a sleepy Vanessa hanging off of her like a monkey, but she wasn't complaining.

"Look at this bundle of cuteness," a voice behind her said.

She didn't recognise the male voice and when Bobbi gazed over her shoulder, didn't recognise the man as a talent or stage hand, either.

The man seemed to notice Bobbi's blank gaze. "Sorry. I'm Jack, I do interviews for a podcast and for a blog. I'm not sure whether Hunter mentioned to you—"

"No, no, he did." The realisation dawned on her. Bobbi took a sip of her coffee and then smiled. "Sorry, I just kinda blanked for a moment there."

"Oh, that's fine!" he gushed. "That's fine, it must be a busy week for you."

"Definitely."

Jack grinned across at her then. "Yours?"

Huh? Bobbi looked down at the snoozing child and almost laughed out loud, shook her head. "No, no, I'm good friends with her mother and she's a WWE fan, so I thought I'd just show her around for the day."

"Looks like she's having a blast…"

Bobbi laughed again. "Been a tiring morning."

"I bet! I'll try and make this quick…" he set up a tape recorder and pulled out a piece of paper, looking at the dash of questions he'd obviously scribbled down. "So— let's start where it began. You got signed to NXT in early 2013, yeah?"

"Yeah," Bobbi affirmed. "January, actually. I'd been doing indie circuits for almost seven years, really had to give it everything I had for people to take me seriously, y'know? Women in the circuits have a notorious reputation, but I just wanted to get out there and wrestle. So when I got the call from John Laurinitis, God, I didn't look back."

"And how was your time down in the developmental brand?"

"Great! I was able to train with people who took me seriously and kind of hone my skills, and I was only down there for seven months before they threw me up on the main roster."

Jack hummed, his eyes widening. "That's right, you did a one-month stint on NXT televised events, right?"

"Yeah. They gave me a character and told me to roll with it an I did, through some attitude behind it and boom, ticks with all the right people."

"Tell me about the day you received the news that you were joining The Shield."

All those months ago… it felt like it had been years. But she'd only been up on the main brand for seven months. "Uh… I got a call from Stephanie McMahon that she and Vince would like to sit down and have a chat with me about my future. She sounded really happy and I kinda knew right then that I'd be going up, but I was still shocked because of the short amount of time I'd been in developmental. Stephanie told me that she and her father were big fans of mine and loved watching my performances, and one thing lead to another, and she told me I'd be joining The Shield."

"What was that like?"

"God," Bobbi laughed. "I felt like everything in the world was right. It felt amazing. They called me in a couple of days later and introduced me to the guys, and we just hit it off."

"Good, that's good to hear," he was nodding his head and smiling. "So you get up onto the roster, you get massive heat because of your 'heel' status, you match up to the boys— was that your idea, or Vince's?"

"Both, kinda. It was a lot easier for me back then to stand up to the guys because I wasn't, y'know, stick thin and I had a lot of muscle. The Big Show and I got along really well and he kind of spun this idea that I'd be the biggest pain in his ass, and somehow the chemistry and the hatred was there, and it just worked."

"So what's the hardest hit you've taken?"

"Ooooh," Bobbi drawled out, trying to think back to when she was hurting worse than other times. "Dunno. The Knock Out Punch was pretty bad, but so was running into that pole and splitting my head open. Come to think of it, getting my ribs done a few weeks ago didn't feel that great, either."

"They okay now? You'll be good for WrestleMania?"

She raised a shoulder. "Let's hope."

Jack's eyes widened and shifted over her shoulder, and when Bobbi looked in the same direction, a grin fell across her lips.

"Dean Ambrose!" he called out happily. "No better man to interrupt an interview."

"You're not harassing my favourite, are you?" Dean muttered as he ruffled Bobbi's hair.

"Not at all."

Vanessa shifted on her lap, but when Bobbi looked down, the young child was still fast asleep. "Want me to take her?" he asked softly.

She sent him an appreciative smile. "Please."

When two of her favourite people were gone from the vicinity, Bobbi turned back to the interviewer. "How we going?"

"Couple more questions, but let's just drift away from your work for the moment." His eyes brightened and he smiled widely at her. "It's WrestleMania Axxess! What are you most looking forward to?"

"Hmm," Bobbi hummed. "I was walking through the Undertaker's graveyard earlier, so that was pretty cool. And I'm looking forward to seeing a couple of the NXT matches! Should be a few of those that will have people talking."

"For sure! What about a match that you're looking forward to?"

Again, Bobbi thought for a moment— then, she chuckled. "Would it be narcissistic of me to say the Wyatt Family and The Shield?"

"I think everyone is looking forward to that match-up!"

"Yeah, definitely. Other than that, I'm excited to see what happens with the Tag Team titles and, of course, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship."

"Who's your pick to win those?"

"Daniel Bryan, hands down. I mean, the odds are stacked against him, but… the odds have been stacked against him his whole life. So, he'll pull through and win, no doubt about it. For the Tag titles, I gotta say the Usos. They've been really impressive as of late, and I hope they make it happen on the big stage."

"And tell me— how are you feeling about your very first WrestleMania?"

Bobbi laughed in disbelief. "Honestly, I can't believe it's happening. All those years, all the sweat and blood and tears, like… it's all been so I could get into this business. Am I nervous? Hell yeah! Am I gonna kick ass? Hell yeah."

Jack smiled at her and folded the paper in half, folded his arms across the desk and stared at her. "Now, before we finish, I want you to look ahead, ten years from now, twenty years from now. What have you achieved in the WWE?"

"Wow," she breathed. "What a question. I— I imagine a few championship runs, not specifically confined to the Diva's Championship, but maybe I'll petition for a WWE Women's Championship revival. Who knows, this company is always changing. But— one thing, I guess, it to co-main event a WrestleMania, I guess. It's unrealistic of me to imagine that I'll be main eventing against a WWE World Heavyweight Title match, but a co-main event? Maybe a WWE Bantamweight Championship match? Dunno, man, but you put any kind of title in my hands and I'll make people wish they came to every show."

—

It was late Thursday afternoon and Vanessa was back to tearing the place up, dashing between superstars and creating laughter everywhere she went. They were still out the back, but Dean had returned with the young girl in tow, fairy floss in one hand and a bag of merch in the other.

"Whaaat?!" Dean drawled when Bobbi shot him a look. "D'you know how hard it is to say no to that child?"

And, well, he had a point.

She didn't really know how long Roman and Seth were planning on staying out on the floor for, but neither of them had shown their faces and Heather was supposed to be back sometime soon as well.

In the mean time? God, Vanessa was bouncing between John Cena, her, Ambrose, and AJ Lee and Tamina, who had almost appeared out of no where.

"C'mon kid," Bobbi called out finally, "lets go for a walk."

Vanessa ran up to her and clasped her hands around Bobbi's, the bundle of red-headed energy more than happy to be moving. "Where're we going, Aunty Bob?"

"Away from these poor people," Bobbi commented with a smirk.

The bubble of laughter was almost infectious.

But when they made it through doors and to the chaos of Axxess and Bobbi's phone started ringing, she had to pause mid-step. "Hang on, Ness, lemme get this."

The screen was flashing with her brother's name and for a second she hesitated, looked down at Vanessa. But she still answered. "Hey, what's up?"

"So, because I was good with my rehab and haven't touched alcohol since you beat me up, I thought I'd treat myself to a little something," Craig said down the line. She could barely hear him over the noise, but his voice was still there.

"Oh?"

"And guess where I am?"

"I don't know, Hawaii? Australia?"

"I'm at Axxess, Bob."

Time seemed to still. The breath in her throat caught and suddenly everything was just… blank.

"Bob? You there?"

Bobbi glanced up, looked around. Her grip on Vanessa's hand tightened and the young girl looked up at her anxiously. "What do you mean you're here, Craig?"

"I mean exactly that," he laughed. "I've come to support my sister at WrestleMania! I thought you'd be happy to see me, y'know, since I got everything sorted and I'm on my medicine and my doctor said I'm almost back to normal—"

"No, no, it's good that you're here! I just…" Bobbi looked around desperately for Heather. Where was she? She was supposed to be here, to pick her kid up. "Where are you?"

"Right… next to you…"

Her stomach dropped. When Bobbi turned around, his eyes were locked on the small child she'd pushed behind her leg. Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Heather was going to kill her.

"Barbara," Craig murmured, frown creasing his face. "I… who's that?"

While Vanessa had her mother's orange ringlets, she had her father's striking blue eyes. And almost immediately Bobbi knew that he could see himself in the little girl. She sucked in a deep breath and glanced around again, eyes searching for a pop of orange.

"Barbara, answer me…"

Bobbi drew a hand down her face, but suddenly there was a hand at her back. "Want me to take her?"

She gazed over her shoulder at the large Samoan, her face the picture of relief. "Please."

"C'mon, little one," Roman said as he ducked down to lift the young girl onto his hip. "We'll go get you some ice cream."

Vanessa squealed happily and Bobbi watched them walk away before turning back to her brother. Who was still staring at her like he'd been slapped.

"Is that Heather's kid?" Craig questioned. "Is that my kid?"

"I— I can't do this here," Bobbi muttered as she apologetically looked at her younger brother. "Come on, let's go and do this talk somewhere else, yeah?"

Craig nodded slowly, his eyebrows furrowed, and Bobbi placed a gentle hand at his back to guide him towards a less crowded area. He looked numb. He didn't look like he was about to hit something, which was almost a God send, but Bobbi pushed back through the doors to the backstage area and dragged a hand down her face.

Dean immediately glanced up from where he was sitting and his eyes widened as he took in the sight of her brother and Bobbi's pale face.

This was going to be fun.

—

Bobbi had called Heather right away. The woman looked just as pale as Bobbi felt when she laid her eyes on the somber looking Arlett sibling, but he was just sitting with his head between his hands.

Dean had been stroking her back the entire time as she watched the interactions take place between her brother and the mother of her niece.

"I just— I just need time to process this…" Craig had breathed, excusing himself from the messy situation quietly.

He'd been good about it. In fact, he'd been more that good about it. He listened to Bobbi and Heather and had replied evenly, had told Heather that he understood why she did it, but had wished that she hadn't kept it from him for so long. He'd asked about Vanessa, what she was like, how she was going at school, whether she took after him at all. And he'd also told Heather about his recovery, his turn from alcohol altogether and his new outlook on life. She seemed impressed with him, not scared like Bobbi had anticipated.

And now she sat with Dean, her head thrown back over his shoulder.

"Coulda gone a lot worse," he reasoned with her.

"I know," Bobbi chuckled. "I'm proud of him. I mean, it was wrong of Heather to not at least tell him, but he understood why. So… I'm proud of him."

"You should be."

—

Saturday, April 6th

The next day was more of a blur for Bobbi than anything else. She'd said goodbye to Vanessa the previous day and watched Heather and Craig set up a tentative contact line, where Heather would slowly introduce the little girl's father into her life.

She met her assistant on Friday morning for her eight to ten signing, couldn't feel her wrist after that. Every single person, even the creepy looking people, put a smile on Bobbi's face— because each of them had lined up specifically to see her. She got a lot of good luck wishes, a bandaid from a small kid to use if her ribs got sore again, a rose from an enamoured fan. She'd laughed at the amount of cheers when Dean came to relieve her of her duties.

The rest of her Friday had been interviews that went much like the first one, questions about her and her past before moving onto the present and what she was most looking forward to.

Stephanie and Hunter had advised the interviewers that her personal life was off limits, thank God.

On Saturday morning, much like the previous morning, she was back up on the stands for another signing. However sitting next to her was a very large Samoan, and this time, the queue up was even longer. And she wasn't the only one that got gifts, this time.

The three hour flight to New York landed around lunch time, and the entire stable was sped from the airport to the stadium for a group signing that took another two hours.

By the time Bobbi was back in the air and flying back to New Orleans, she was exceptionally grateful that Vince had been kind enough to rent out a private jet for their use. Bobbi had the Hall of Fame to get ready for and she would have felt exceptionally awkward sitting in economy doing her makeup for everyone to see.

"Okay," Roman laughed loudly. "What the fuck is all of that?"

Bobbi groaned and looked up at him. "Makeup, you ass-wipe."

"She's puttin' foundation on," Seth called out easily, glancing over his shoulder to wear she sat. "Make her skin look smooth." At Roman's surprised look, Seth raised a shoulder. "Leighla's a makeup artist, it's hard not to pick that kinda shit up when she's doing it all the time."

"Point," Roman called back.

"Now, once you're done with the foundation, you wanna set it with some setting powder, make sure it's not too shiny," Bobbi commentated as she brushed the powder over her face. "Too much and you look fake, too little and you shine like a diamond."

Dean cackled. "Shine bright like a diamond—"

"Shut the fuck up, bro, I don't need that song in my head."

Bobbi laughed at Seth's outburst. "Next, you go for the lips. Since the focus is going to be on the outfit and the eyes, you wanna go for a subtle shade, like a nude or a dark pink," she paused as she looked at the base of the lipliner, "so for the lipliner, I'm going with a shade of the Nude Plum."

"Okay, we get the idea," Roman laughed. He looked around the almost empty cabin and sighed at the suit hanging up on the far wall. "We're going straight to it, right?"

"Yep," came Seth's reply. "If I'm already in my suit, you can go put yours on as well."

"It's so tight and—"

"Put it on, you oaf of a man."

Roman sucked in a breath and looked at Seth in mock hurt. "Oaf? You're breaking my heart, dude."

Bobbi let out a chuckle as she slid the plum looking gloss across her lips. Her eyes were next, a refined smokey look with a gradient between light grey and a shimmery navy that was almost black.

"I swear I'm actually going to jump out of this plane if you two don't shut up," Dean murmured from where he was trying to get some rest.

And so the bickering between Seth and Roman became louder.

Two hours later saw Bobbi's silver and black hair hanging in loose curls, the dress fitting snug on her body. Dean was sitting across from her with eyes that wouldn't leave her body, but he was all nice and spunky in his navy suit, camel coloured shoes and all. Seth had harassed him for weeks about finding a pair of shoes that matched the navy— Dean just didn't care.

"What are you lookin' at?" Bobbi asked him softly, a grin playing on her face.

He smiled a dimpled grin back at her. "You. You look beautiful."

She blushed at his compliment, but the moment was ruined when both Seth and Roman cooed at them.

The night was going to be exhausting, but at least she could sleep in for most of the morning.

Because tomorrow was WrestleMania.

And, oh fuck, that set off more nerves in her stomach than anything else did.

---

this was supposed to be hella long, but again, i can't write filler chapters for the life of me. however with that being said, some OC developments! cute moments between Bobbi and Vanessa, Craig finding out about his daughter, Dean being a saint, Roman and Seth being shits (but really, what's new there?)

to my wonderful reviewers; Raquel the writer (maybe ten chapters ago, I threw in LSW as Lake Side War - it's a wrestling company that Filipa and Bobbi were both at (and it also doesn't exist in real life, so it works :) )), calwitch (if the nightmare was weird for you to read, then you can only imagine how weird it was for me to write it! i had to redo it a few times, was too creeped out by it the first time around. sorry that I don't really go into the Hall of Fame!), quinzel harley (you predicted just right! some Vanessa, some group stuff, and one HELL of a WrestleMania match coming up that i just finished writing :O), and T (thanks for the separate reviews, lovely! unfortunately, i'll be sticking to their demise, but i DO want to put my own twist on it... heh. definitely a yes to the summaries on each! much happy! and dude, Nathan is BAAAD juju. that's coming up in the next few chapters as well... so much to happen, so little time. hope i answered the interview one a little here, too! glad that you're caught up, but make sure you keep up with your school work lovely ;)!)... thank you all so much for the kind words, I love talking to ALL of you!

hope you enjoyed this, and fingers crossed that the next instalment is out in a couple of days... adios, my favourites xx