Disclaimer, etc., in prologue.

Part Twenty-Four

She stayed in Daniel Bryan's locker room during the divas' match. It was a little weird, seeing as it meant she was alone with Daniel since Brie and Natalya were out there for the match and Nikki was at ringside for them, but she'd decided that she would rather hang out in his locker room than she would the regular divas' one... At least partly because she'd happened to walk by Aksana and Alicia earlier tonight and heard them making a few snide comments about the whole debacle that was her breakup with CM Punk. She'd been half-tempted to throw a few punches then and there, but the truth was, she'd already managed to beat them twice since her return - once in a regular tag match, once in a six-diva tag - and she didn't need to prove to herself that she could beat them again, because she knew she could. She also knew that neither of them wanted to get in the ring with her again anytime soon, because that had been written all over their faces when they'd spotted her nearby. So instead of attacking them, she'd given them a smile that had just unsettled them further, told them how much she was looking forward to facing them in the ring again, tossed in a jab about Aksana's former relationship with Teddy Long, then headed off with her head held high while Alicia tried to calm down a sputtering and angry Aksana.

But yeah. Avoiding the divas' locker room? Still kind of high on her list of things to do so, a little weird or not, she was currently hanging out with Daniel Bryan while the others headed off for the divas' match for the night. So here she was, alone with Daniel Bryan, figuring on an extended awkward silence until the others got back.

Or, given the way Daniel had just cleared his throat and looked over at her... Maybe not.

"I want you to know that I was never going to report back to Punk or anything like that. The whole thing he said about Ambrose backing you against that wall... I was just going to look out for you. I wasn't going to tell him anything," Daniel told her, the man looking over at her and meeting her eyes for a moment before turning his attention back to the television, the two of them watching the divas' match as they spoke. "In fact, I kind of got on his case for his stalker-like behavior since he seemed to be following you around that night."

"Natalya caught him outside of the divas' locker room that night," Eve said quietly, and Daniel nodded.

"See? Stalker-like." He took a deep breath. "So... Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I'm not spying for him or anything. That was never an intention. It's just that you're a friend of Brie's, and I think we both know that she's worried about you right now, and if she's worried, then I'm worried. Plus... I've had more than my fair share of run-ins with the Shield, including Dean Ambrose, and so I know how dangerous those guys can be."

"He wasn't trying anything," Eve told him, and Daniel sighed.

"Brie told me that. Or that you said that anyway. And don't get me wrong, Eve... I know you are a strong and capable woman. I've heard some stories about what's happened to people that don't respect your boundaries. But when one member of the Shield is around, there's usually more and, tough or not... That would be three against one."

"They've been here since Survivor Series last year," Eve reminded him. "How many times have you seen them - or even heard about them - putting their hands on a diva?"

"I haven't."

"Even when they had their problems with you, they left Brie totally alone," Eve said, taking her eyes off the screen long enough to see the way Daniel tensed at that. Yeah, he definitely had some concerns about the possibility of someone going after his fiancée in order to get to him. Given the problems he was having with Randy Orton right now, and the fact that Orton had once taken Stephanie down in an effort to get in Triple H's head... He was probably right to worry. Plus, at the moment, his problems weren't just with Randy Orton. Orton had Triple H's full backing... And Triple H had shown in the past that he wasn't above knocking around a woman. Not only that, but he and Stephanie could make Brie's life miserable if they so chose.

Daniel cleared his throat, his eyes on the screen, watching Natalya fight it out with Tamina - Brie was on the ring apron recovering after having tagged out of the match - as he spoke. "I guess you're right about that. But as someone that has been on the receiving end of several of their beatdowns... I can't say that I'm leaning toward trusting them."

"I'm not asking you to. And I feel that I should point out that the only member of the Shield that has so much as spoken to me is actually Dean Ambrose," she said, then made a face. "Okay, so that's not entirely true, but the one time I spoke to Seth Rollins was so long ago that it feels like it shouldn't count, and that was just telling him the stipulations for the match at the TLC pay-per-view." Shaking her head, she laughed slightly. "I'd almost forgotten about it, believe it or not. Teddy Long basically volunteered me to be the one to tell them the stipulation because he didn't want to do it, and neither did Booker T or Vickie. I'm pretty sure Teddy hoped I would end up going through a table or something for my troubles."

"Obviously that didn't happen."

"Nope. All Rollins did was listen to what I had to say, then he said 'thanks for the info' and went on his way. No big deal," she said with a shrug. "And Ambrose didn't do anything wrong the other night. He just let me know that he thought I'd handled AJ well that night."

"And you did. You didn't let her get to you. You deviated from her plan because you didn't freak out or break down," Daniel said, looking over at her for a moment, Eve meeting his eyes briefly, the two of them quickly turning their attention to the screen when Brie's music started playing... She'd just won the match, tagging back in when Natalya was in trouble, Tamina not noticing the tag in time, allowing Brie to get the roll-up and the win for her team... Nattie, Brie, and Nikki quickly leaving the ring area as Tamina started to rage. Kaitlyn left, too, the woman not seeming to care all that much about the loss, probably because she didn't care all that much about her tag team partner, and so it was AJ and Tamina that were left out there... AJ ignoring Tamina's rage as she stepped into the ring, microphone in hand, the woman skipping around the ring a few times before lifting the microphone to her lips... Eve tensing a little at the sight, preparing for AJ to start talking trash or demanding that she come to the ring. But it wasn't Eve's presence that AJ demanded.

It was CM Punk's.