Punk looked down and Christian was clutching his face, moaning and rolling around on the ground in a puddle of spreading liquid.

Christian reached out to grasp Punk's calf, "You touch him and you'll get the next one in the balls!"

Melina was standing in the hallway, a can of Pepsi in her hand being brandished like a weapon. Punk looked back down and saw a can of Coke spewing its contents on the floor. Melina had obviously thrown the can at Christian, hitting him square in the head.

"You are so dead," Melina screamed planting a kick to Christian's middle.

Punk's back began to slide down the wall until Melina grabbed him under the arms, hoisting him back up.

"Get yourself together, we are so out of here," Melina exclaimed, grabbing Punk by the hand and pulling him down the hallway towards the woman's locker room. Melina ran in and retrieved her things, then led Punk toward his locker room.

"Get your stuff, and if you take more than 10 seconds I'm coming in, I don't care whose modesty I'll be offending."

"But John, the show…"

"Our men can take care of themselves, hopefully, we're going back to the hotel." The two made the cab ride in silence, finally arriving at their destination.

"We're going to your room, what's the number?"

Punk just stood there mutely.

"Christ," then Milena started going through the pockets of Punk's shorts not caring that this was taking place in the middle of the lobby. She found the key card with the room number and escorted Punk to his room, pushing him through the door.

"Okay, we're here, you can do whatever you want now, scream, yell, throw things, toss the TV through the glass door onto the balcony…"

Punk looked at her blankly, and then went into the bathroom closing and locking the door behind him.

"That wasn't one of the choices."


John began to walk his way to the curtain. He had kept an eye out for Punk to tell him that he had found a group of guys who were competent, in Punk's opinion, to have his back in case del Rio's guys came through for him and he found himself cornered in the ring, but Punk was nowhere to be found.

John made his way out to the ring, the crowd split as usual. He started in again about how del Rio wouldn't face him. Rodriguez came out to announce del Rio's entrance into the arena. Del Rio entered in his rented vehicle, stepping out in a suit. Just because the man didn't have wrestling gear on wouldn't stop him from clocking him.

Apparently del Rio's backstage campaign had worked. Barrett, Swagger, Ziggler and Christian came to the ring and started quadruple teaming him. Even while being beaten down John thought that del Rio must be really scared of him if he needed to find 4 guys to take him on.

Right on cue, Riley, Sheamus, and Morrison came out to help him clean house in the ring. They managed to clear the ring, and then, inexplicably, Teddy Long came out. John wondered if he had sustained a head injury because he was pretty sure before the beat down he had been on Raw not Smackdown.

Apparently Teddy had been authorized by Triple H to make matches on Raw. It would be a 4 on 4 tag elimination match; John really couldn't find any fault with that idea. Del Rio's representatives didn't exactly look thrilled at the prospect.

Minutes into the match John had to admit that his team was not exactly in control of the situation. He was finally tagged in against Christian, close up he could tell that something was amiss. Christian looked as if he had already been in a match due to the swelled and bruised area on his temple. Christian was also not wrestling his usual style. The slaps to the face were nonexistent and he seemed almost tentative in the ring, as if he didn't want to anger John unnecessarily beyond the usual back and forth action of a match.

The match finally came down to him vs. Swagger and Ziggler, finally defeating them both. Of course, seconds after winning the match del Rio charged the ring trying to get the jump on him. He managed to land the AA on him, and then del Rio ran for the hills.

He walked back to the locker room, passing the monitor bay, but Punk wasn't there. When he got to the locker room he looked around again.

"He's not here," Morrison told him without even having to ask the question. It was odd that Punk wouldn't wait for him like he usually did.

John changed and then Morrison grabbed him, "Let's go get Melina, we can share a cab back to the hotel."

Morrison knocked on the woman's locker room door, but Beth stuck her head out saying that Melina had already left, "They must have cut out early together."

John went up to his and Punk's room. They had taken to sharing a room with separate beds so it at least looked like they were just friends splitting the cost of the room. He opened the door and Melina was sitting on one of the beds, staring at the bathroom door.

"What's going on?" John asked, but when Melina turned to face him he knew he was about to hear something that wasn't good. "Where's Punk?"

"In the shower."

"Not that I mind seeing you, but what are you doing here if Punk's in the shower, you're just staring at the door."

Melina moved her mouth as if to speak and then just planted her face in her palms.

"Okay, you're going to tell me what's going on."

"Punk's in the shower."

"I think we covered that."

"He's been in there for 45 minutes."

"Melina."

"I don't know if I should say, I don't think it's my place. Punk might not like it."

John went to the bathroom door, banging on it, "Phil, its John, come out." John waited for a few moments, with time passing it was clear that Punk had no intention of coming out.

"You're going to tell me what's going on and you're going to tell me now."

Milena remained silent for a minute, "It was Christian."

"Does this have anything to do with the huge bruise on his head?"

"It bruised, I'm glad, I wished it would have cracked his jackass skull open."

"What did he do!"

"Punk and I were hanging out. I went to get some drinks and when I came back Christian had him pinned against the wall in the hallway."

"Fucking hell," John yelled but looking at Melina he could tell there was more to the story.

"Tell me Melina."

"He tried to kiss him."

"I'm going to kill that bastard! At least Punk got a shot in."

"That wasn't Punk. I hummed a full can of Coke at him and clipped him in the temple, and then after he fell over I kicked him in the ribs while he was down."

"Thank you Melina, who knows what else Christian would have tried if you hadn't shown up."

They both looked to the bathroom door when they heard the shower cut off.

"I'm going to go back to my room now. John's probably worried about where I am. If Punk needs me tell him to call."

"Thanks again Melina."

Melina left the room and about a minute later the door to the bathroom opened, Punk stepping out, skin a blazing red. John rushed to Punk, wrapping his arms around him. He noticed that Punk did not hug him back.

"Did Melina tell you what happened?"

"I didn't really give her a choice."

Punk just nodded, walking over to the bed and lying over the foot of the bed.

John lay behind him, wrapping his arms around Punk's middle, but Punk scooted almost to the edge of the bed, putting a few inches between them.

"You didn't do anything wrong. It was all that bastard."

"Didn't I do something wrong? Wasn't I the one the defended him time and time again."

"You thought he was your friend, how could you know what was really going on in his head."

"I don't know how you can even touch me. I can still feel his hands and lips all over me."

"You didn't ask for any of it to happen and I don't blame you in the slightest. Phil, I love you. Nothing that asshole did is going to change that."

Punk flipped over slowly to face John, "Really?"

"Phil, nothing is going to change how I feel about you," John leaned forward and kissed Punk. His lips were still for a moment and then he kissed John back. They kissed chastely for a few minutes until John turned onto his back, pulling his cellphone out his pocket.

"Who are you calling?"

"Hunter."

"What!"

"He's COO, he needs to know that one of his employees is running around sexually assaulting people."

"You can't do that. Why would you even think he would care?"

"You two may be having your issues but this is bigger than that."

"John, I'm begging you, do not make that phone call."

John hesitated. "Fine. I won't."

"Promise me."

"I promise I will not call Hunter."

"And could you not call him that. I'm facing the man at Night of Champions; he's not someone I want to be on a first name basis with."

"I know you're feeling better now, back to trying to foil Triple H's schemes."

They stripped down and lay spooned beneath the covers together. It took almost an hour before Punk finally fell asleep.

John waited another half hour before getting up, pulling his cell phone out of his pants and walking out onto the balcony. He waited while the phone rang on the other end.

"John, this better be fucking important, it's the middle of the night."

"Randy, something happened."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's Punk."

"What about him?"

"Christian tried to force himself on Punk last night during the show."

"Fucking hell."

"He won't let me call Hunter and all I want to do is find Christian and kill him for daring to put his hands on Phil."

"Unless you plan to knock on every door in the hallway in the middle of the night until he answers the door I think you're going to have to put that urge on hold. On the upside, considering our employment, the opportunity to knock his teeth out will probably present itself fairly soon."

"Actually, Melina already got in a few choice hits."

"Melina? That woman just went up a few points in my book."

"Randy, I need some advice here. What do I do that doesn't involve me committing a crime?"

"Wait, hold on. I have an idea."

Randy came back on the line a few moments later. "Put this number in your phone."

"Whose number is this? An assassin, a good lawyer?"

"Even better, just call it and hopefully your Christian problems will evaporate."

"You're being awfully mysterious Randy."

"I'm not trying to be. If I tell you whose number it is you won't call, and trust me when I tell you that you need to make that phone call."

"Fine. We'll be keeping all this between us won't we?"

"Besides giving Melina a pat on the back, I won't tell a soul."

"Thanks Randy."

"Get back to your boy before he wakes up and finds you having secretive phone calls you can't explain."