Chapter 26

All Keyla could do was stare and blink repeatedly at her best friend, listening to every word that came out of Lennox's mouth. She was shaken up and crying, apologizing profusely for revealing not only her identity to Roman, but Keyla's as well. She could wear the hat all she wanted to keep her blue hair hidden, but now…Roman Reigns knew her name. As much as Keyla wanted to yell at and berate Lennox, she couldn't because it wasn't her fault for what happened. Roman Reigns had been the one to approach her and sat next to her at the table, not the other way around. It was a right place, WRONG time situation, especially where Stephanie McMahon-Levesque was concerned. One simply didn't lie to the woman because there were severe consequences and Keyla didn't want any distrust between her and the bosses.

"So that's why Stephanie called me into her office after the taping ended Tuesday…" Keyla muttered thoughtfully, standing from the bed to stare out the window of her bedroom and pressed her forehead to the cool glass. "You only said Keyla – not my full name?"

"Yes…wait, why did Stephanie want to talk to you?" Lennox hadn't missed that bit of information, not moving from the bed and hoped she hadn't gotten Keyla into any kind of trouble.

Truthfully, Keyla didn't think anything of it at first and figured Stephanie was just checking on things to make sure the job was going well. It was natural for a boss to be concerned about an individual who wasn't on the roster or employed by the company. Keyla figured it was a 'touching base' type of meeting and answered all the questions Stephanie asked to the best of her ability. Now that Keyla realized what happened prior to that meeting, the pieces of the puzzles had come to together and she didn't know how to feel about it.

"She wanted to make sure you hadn't lied about knowing me. Apparently, there's been incidents where crazed fans have snuck into the backstage area and lied about knowing one of the wrestlers in order to get close to whoever they're nuts over." Keyla explained, keeping her voice low and calm, lighting up a cigarette for a much needed nicotine fix. "She also asked me what you used to do for a living…" That had been weird, but Keyla was tired after the taping and meeting, so she put it out of her mind…until now.

Lennox lowered her eyes to the floor, having a sinking feeling she knew why Stephanie wanted to know more about her. "What did you tell her?" She was afraid to hear the answer, wrapping her arms around herself.

"The truth. You owned your own tattoo parlor and had to give it up for personal reasons. I didn't tell her specifics and she didn't seem interested in them. She did say you are a talented artist though." Keyla took a long drag from her cigarette and opened the window to let the breeze in, not pulling her gaze from looking out at the long stretch of land Sami and Gina owned. "I'm sorry Len, but I'm not lying to my boss, not even for you."

"No I get it and I'm not mad. She must've liked the design I was working on before that Samoan dick decided to interrupt me." Lennox muttered, trying her best to loathe the man and found it hard to keep the animosity alive with him. Hell, she started watching the Shield matches just to see him in the ring and thoroughly enjoyed the sheer athletic ability he had. "Here, look for yourself. I don't like it, but apparently she did…"

Turning, Keyla took the drawing notebook and stared at the design, settling down on the carpeted floor near the window to study it for a few minutes. "You do realize this looks somewhat like the Spiderman logo, right? Only…its back-to-back R's…" How did she come up with something like this? "Lennox…"

"It's just a stupid design, nothing more." Lennox snatched the drawing notebook from her best friend and closed it, setting it beside her. "I don't think its R's, but whatever. Bottom line is your boss liked it and mentioned it to you, so maybe she's gonna ask me to use it or something…"

Keyla knew better than to press the issue, noticing how agitated Lennox became every time Roman Reigns was brought up. Did the logo have something to do with his name? It was the only name in WWE today she could think of that had two R's. What the hell was going on with Lennox lately? Did she like the Samoan and was afraid to say or admit it? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it was just a logo and nothing more, like she'd said. Keyla highly doubted it, leaning her head back against the wall and went back to the current obstacle in front of her. What would happen if Roman Reigns mentioned her name to Jon? Surely they were friends outside of the ring, right? If they weren't, Keyla would dodge a HUGE bullet and hopefully her name wouldn't come out of Roman's mouth.

Something told her it already had.

Saturday night before a big pay-per-view event found Jon at a local bar down the street from the hotel, knocking back a few beers with Roman. Over the past several years, Jon had grown to know Roman personally outside of the ring and honestly thought of the man like the brother he never had. Jon was a lonely child and didn't have a huge family like Roman, so when his mother, Lisa, found out about his past the woman welcomed him with open arms. Roman's family had enough love to go around and they were the nicest people Jon ever met. Hanging out with the Samoan changed Jon for the better and settled him down compared to how he used to be in the Indies. No longer did he feel the need to be completely plastered to where he couldn't remember his name or where he was the next day when he woke up. His body was in the best shape it'd ever been, thanks to the incessant and grueling workout routine him and Roman did together at the gym. Every day on the road, they made sure to work out and Jon didn't feel right if they missed one, which didn't happen often. Jon was a better person both inside and out thanks to the Samoan sitting next to him and would never be able to repay him for helping Jon appreciate the finer things in life.

They truly were brothers.

"So, do you remember that honey blonde I mentioned a while back?" Roman had to talk to someone about her, unable to get Lennox Sparks off his mind no matter what he did.

"Vaguely, but yeah. What about her?" Jon could tell something heavy had weighed on the big man's mind lately, but hadn't pried because he knew Roman would talk about it when he sorted everything out in his head. "Run into her again?"

That was an understatement. "Several times, yeah. I saw her in catering at the taping last Tuesday and sat at the table with her. She tried brushing me off again and this time I stopped her. I actually put my hands on her…" Roman still felt guilty about doing that, taking a long swig from his ice cold beer. "I asked what her name was and she tried brushing that off too…until Stephanie walked in…"

"Oh shit." Jon chuckled, shaking his head and could only imagine what happened, listening as Roman explained the situation. He froze mid-drink as soon as the name Lennox came out of the Samoan's mouth and slowly set his beer down, blue eyes sliding over to stare at his best friend. "Say that name again."

"Lennox. Come to think of it, I don't recall her last name, but I know she said it to Stephanie." Roman scrubbed a hand down his face, not seeing Jon's demeanor change and continued talking. "She's a fucking knockout, bro. Curves for days, an ass that needs to be squeezed every second of every day and her purple eyes…"

Jon was officially losing his mind, remembering an incident with Seth when they were in NXT back late last year for a few weeks. He'd run into someone with dark blue hair and blew it off, thinking Seth had gone mental. Now the woman Roman had been fantasizing and having wet dreams over was named Lennox. She had honey blonde hair and purple eyes…there was only one woman who fit that description in Jon's head. It wasn't possible though. There was no way it was THAT Lennox. She was happily engaged to his friend, Danny Havoc, back in Philadelphia and probably popped out a few puppies by now.

"So, does she work for the company or what?" Jon pried, not bothering to hide his curiosity and could see the smile on Roman's face spread wider.

"That's just it, she doesn't. She's here with some chick on the camera crew. Name starts with a K, but I can't remember what it is." Roman didn't have the greatest memory and he wasn't interested in Lennox's friend, just Lennox. "Dean, you alright man?"

All the color drained out of Jon's face as soon as he heard that, immediately standing up from the bar to pay his tab for the night. Dark blue hair and the name of Lennox started with a K…Jon needed fresh air immediately and walked out of the bar, leaving Roman sitting there perplexed. It was still in the dead of winter in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is where the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event was taking place the following night. Jon leaned against the wall of the bar and closed his eyes, sucking in as much of the cold air as possible, wondering if Seth hadn't been lying several months back after all about the blue haired woman he ran into.

Lennox vowed to stay put in the dressing room and not leave for any reason, making sure to pick one that had a bathroom. She'd caused enough problems for Keyla and really didn't want to add to the list, locking the door as soon as her friend left to head down to ringside. Tonight was huge for Keyla because it wasn't just another Raw or Smackdown! show. Tonight was Elimination Chamber, the last pay-per-view event before the biggest of them all – WrestleMania. It was amazing watching how calm Keyla remained, but Lennox wondered how long that would last. Pulling out her drawing notebook, she flipped to the page with the double R logo and started working on it, turning her music on to get lost in her work while glancing every once in a while at the monitor.

The Shield was about to go to war against the Wyatt Family in a six man tag team match to see who was the more dominant force in WWE. Naturally, Keyla was put at ringside and warned to stay out of the way because it would be a brutal match. She wasn't looking forward to watching the possibility of Jon getting hurt, but it was her job. Keyla had to do it. The preshow ended and the event began, the arena darkening as the titan tron lit up with a video montage of all the feuds happening in the company currently. Keyla watched it, cracking a smile at the sight of Jon and knew he'd come a long way, having well-deserved, well-fought career in the WWE. His dream had come true…without her in his life. That reality bit stung, but Keyla shook it off and prepared for the show to begin, the first match of the night commencing.

Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta – SHIELD

Keyla watched the group make their way down to the ring, prepared for war and saw how intense Jon was. He was ready for this and Keyla swore his arms were getting bigger every time she saw him. Maybe it was just her imagination. Then again, he was in tremendous shape and had meat on his bones unlike the Independent days. He was muscular and filled out in all the right places of his body and Keyla found herself devouring him visually through the camera, somehow being discreet about it. The United States championship looked amazing around his waist as well and how he wore it hanging from his crotch was a vision that would be seared in her brain for a long time to come, possibly forever. She turned the camera as the Wyatt Family made their entrance and soon, both teams were in the ring face-to-face, nose-to-nose, ready to tear each other to shreds.

Before the match began, the crowd chanted 'This is awesome!' repeatedly, more than ready for the battle. It was thunderous in the Target Center, the fans clapping their hands and stomping their feet, making the camera slightly vibrate for a minute or two. 'Let's Go Wyatt's, Let's Go Shield' was the second chant from the fans and it was far louder than the 'This is awesome' one. Not surprised when Jon threw the first punch, due to Bray Wyatt talking trash to him, Keyla could already tell she would have a rough time trying to keep up with the action. Then again, she wasn't the only one camera person out there and had to keep reminding herself of that, moving all around the ring from all the chaos. 25 minutes into the match turned the tide of the match with Jon and Bray Wyatt spilling to the outside to continue their brawl.

Keyla's back was turned toward the ring, filming the action and didn't see the two bodies flying in her direction. Until it was too late. Jon's body collided with the camera person, the body flying over the barricade and hitting the hard concrete flooring with a sickening thud. Keyla was knocked out instantly, the hat she wore for the past almost 3 months soaring into the crowd several rows back. Both Jon and Bray kept brawling with Jon sending Bray into the steel guardrail, his crazed blues turning back to stare at the individual lying on the floor. Dark blue hair was the first thing he noticed about the individual as he stumbled over to look at the camera person they knocked over the barricade with them accidentally.

"Shit!" Jon cursed, squatting down to check on the woman and turned the body toward him, his heart stopping for a split second in his chest.

Lying prone and lifeless on the concrete was Keyla…HIS Keyla. Jon covered his mouth with his hand, looking around to make sure cameras weren't on him and did the X sign toward the officials, knowing Keyla was hurt. She needed medical attention immediately. Jon turned just as Bray came charging at him and pushed the man back away from the barricade, their brawl continuing backstage. Once they were out of the cameras, Bray listened to Jon quickly explain the situation and sent him back to the ring while he waited for Keyla to be brought backstage. All of his questions and suspicions were confirmed and now Jon knew without a shadow of a doubt Keyla Jensen worked for the same company as him.

She had some serious explaining to do.