Alexa's ringtone took her by surprise. She realised as she sat up on her sun lounger that she must have been drifting off to sleep. That was no great surprise; a day lying in the sun drinking cocktails would do that.

"It's yours," Dean said through a yawn.

He hadn't been far from sleep either, she realised. Time to rest was not a common thing at all in their line of work, so it was good that they were making the most of it. "Yeah," she replied, picking her phone up from the towel that they had put on the sand between their sun loungers. "It's Lucy," she added when she saw the name on the screen. She also saw that it was a video call.

"Hey," she said when she answered the call and saw Lucy's face on the screen. She could tell that her friend was sitting in her living room.

"Lexi, hey. How are you? You look very warm!"

"It's beautiful here, LT," Alexa enthused. "Here, have a look." She turned her phone around to show the picturesque view of beach and ocean.

"Stunning," Lucy said when Alexa appeared on the screen again. "I don't think I've ever seen water that blue before. Not in person, anyway."

"Neither had I, until we came here."

Alexa heard Seth's voice in the background. "Tell her we saw that picture she put in the group chat. They looked like a pair of idiots."

Lucy chuckled at her man, then spoke to Alexa. "Seth says we saw that picture of you in your snorkelling gear yesterday, and he says..."

"I heard what he said," Alexa assured her. "And we know we looked like idiots, but we don't care. It was a lot of fun! There were all kinds of fish in so many different colours. It was a great experience. You should try it one day."

"Maybe I will."

Before her friend could move the conversation forward, Alexa decided to get down to something more important than looking at fish. "So, how are you guys? How's Clem? It must be really hard for you all right now."

"Yeah, it is," Lucy said frankly. "It's only been twenty four hours, so it's still kind of not fully hit us, if you know what I mean? There's been a lot of upset and crying from Clem, as I'm sure you can imagine. Honestly, we've felt like we're not doing enough for her."

"Lucy, don't ever think that. I know Clem won't think it. Apart from everything else, you gave her a home when no one else could. For that, she will always be grateful. Where is she now, anyway?"

"Upstairs. I guess it's because she's young, but she seems to be going through periods of being upset, being withdrawn and depressed, then she goes back to having fun like any other kid. Right now, she's upstairs in her room with one of her friends. By the sound of it, they're having a great time. It's really good to hear. I feel like I don't know what to expect, or what to do. I'm not a parent, Lexi, and I've been thrown in right at the deep end."

Alexa was willing to concede only the final point. "You have been thrown in at the deep end, but you are a parent. I've seen you with Clem. You might not feel like it, but trust me, you're amazing with her. Seth is, too. I'm sure your nanny will also do a great job, judging by what you've told me about her. Basically, what I'm saying is, yes, there will tough times ahead. How could there not be, when the poor thing has just lost both her mom and dad? But you'll get through it together, and you'll be a happy family. I don't doubt that for a minute, and neither should you."

"Thank you, that's so kind," Lucy said quietly, clearly feeling emotional.

"Hey, I asked Dean about you guys coming out to stay with us next time we're off work," Alexa said quickly, wanting to move the conversation on before it got awkward. "He's up for it, if you guys are?"

"We are. Definitely. It'll be a good time. Clem will love it; getting to spend time with her favourite wrestler, and Dean," Lucy added with a chuckle. "Speaking of Dean, is he there with you? Seth wants to talk to him."

Alexa looked over at her man, lying back on his sun lounger. She couldn't tell if he was awake, with his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses. "Dean? Want to speak to Seth?"

"Nope. What would I do that for?" he mumbled sarcastically.

Giggling, Alexa turned her attention back to Lucy. "I'll put him on now. I guess you're not going to be at Raw next week?"

"No. We'll be staying here with Clem."

"Okay, well I'll call you when we're back in the States?" Alexa suggested.

"Yeah, please do. Bye, Lexi."

"Bye," Alexa said with smile, then passed the phone over to Dean as Lucy handed hers to Seth.

"What's up, bro?" Dean asked his friend.

"Hey, Dean. Glad to hear you guys are having a nice time."

"Yep. At this rate, I might end up staying here for good."

"I'll sign up for that," Seth said, laughing. "Maybe we can have them revoke your passport or something?"

"You wish," Dean said dryly, before getting more serious. Although it might not have looked like it, he had been listening in to Alexa and Lucy's conversation. "I'm glad Clementine's doing okay, relatively speaking. Can't imagine what the poor kid is going through."

"Thanks, man. We're doing our best to just be there for her. I figure there's not much else we can do apart from that, even if it doesn't feel like enough when she's crying. It feels so bad when she's like that. This might sound weird, but it already kind of feels like she's our daughter. Does that make any sense?"

"Absolutely," Dean nodded. "And it doesn't seem like she's your daughter. Now that her mom died, she is your daughter, at least as I understood it from how you explained things."

"No, you're right. Legally, when her mom died, we took custody of Clem. It's just a lot of adjusting for us all to do, that's what I'm saying."

"I can't even imagine," Dean said honestly. "If there's anything me or Alexa can do, all you have to do is ask us."

"Thanks. That means a lot," Seth said as it occurred to him that his family were not the only ones who had problems. Dean and Alexa seemed remarkably chilled out, given what had happened. "It sucks that those pictures of you guys got out," he ventured.

"What pictures?" Dean asked.

Immediately Seth realised the reason they didn't seem bothered about the fact that their relationship was the hot topic among wrestling fans online, thanks to several pictures of them kissing leaking out. They didn't even know about it. Obviously they hadn't been online for a while. "Oh, shit. I assumed you would know already. Someone got some pictures of you guys kissing, and they're all over the internet with headlines like, 'Dean Ambrose and Alexa Bliss relationship confirmed.' Then most of them go on to bring up the Renee stuff again, thanks to that stupid podcast of hers."

"For fuck's sake!" Dean exploded, sitting up on his sun lounger. It took a lot of willpower not to kick his beer glass down the beach, since it was the closest thing at hand. "Can't you ever get any fucking privacy?"

"What's up?" Alexa asked with concern, sitting up herself. She had been drifting off towards sleep again, not listening to the conversation. His outburst had quickly changed that.

"Someone took pictures of us kissing. Fuck knows when or how, but Seth's saying they're all over the internet and everyone's talking about us, bringing up that shit with Renee again."

"Oh, no," Alexa groaned. Having candid pictures put out online was bad enough. When they intruded on her vacation, it was even worse. Yet worse still was when the pictures were used to stir up people who knew nothing about the actual situation to start calling her a slut again. Just when she had thought it was all behind them, this would kick it off all over again. Dean had some really crazy fangirls online, too. She felt like they were now bound to start bombarding her will all kinds of abuse for being with 'their' man. In that one respect, Alexa could sympathise with Renee for some of the stuff she had been forced to endure in the past. That sympathy only went so far, though. After all, Renee was the reason the reaction had been as bad as it had a few weeks ago.

Seth's voice made them both focus back on the phone. "You're by the beach in the pictures, sitting on a wall or something."

Dean and Alexa looked at each other, both making the connection at the same time. "Yesterday," he said.

"We were kissing in the street," she added, realising it hadn't been the smartest thing for them to have done, given the potential for something like this to happen if they happened to be recognised.

"Uh, guys, I'm going to leave you to it," Seth said. "I'm sorry to break the news like that and ruin your day, but I really thought you would know already."

"It's not your fault," Dean assured him. "Talk to you soon." With that, he ended the call and passed Alexa's phone back to her.

"Might as well see how bad it is," she said with a sigh. She opened up Twitter and searched her own name. Sure enough, the item at the top of the list was an article about her and Dean being together, with one of the pictures of them as the image. What really concerned her were the comments.

"What are they saying?" Dean asked, looking over her shoulder as she scrolled down to find out.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. Rather than abusive, all of the top comments – those with the most likes from other users – were supportive, actively slamming the site that had written the article, rather than Dean and Alexa. Other people had commented their well-wishes, saying that they hoped the new couple were happy together.

"That's not what I expected," Dean said, giving her a smile.

"Me either." Scrolling further down, she did find some negativity and abuse directed her way, but not many people had liked it, and others had leapt to defend her against the abusive users. It was actually very heart-warming to see so many people taking her side. Whether it was because both she and Dean were among the most popular face characters in WWE, or because people actually liked them as a couple, she had no idea. Whatever the reason, she certainly wasn't going to question it. Looking up at Dean and meeting his eyes, she felt her own tearing up. "I can't believe they're being so supportive of us. I'm genuinely touched. I don't even know what to say, Dean."

"Don't cry, darlin'. This is good news." Dean leaned forward and kissed her softly on the forehead. It was a gesture so gentle it surprised her that Dean was capable of it. Seemingly, it was a day for pleasant surprises.

"I'm crying because I'm happy," she said, wiping away the one tear that had escaped to run down her cheek. "When Seth first said that pictures of us were out there, I was imagining the worst. I mean, I'm sure there will be idiots sending me abuse. I don't doubt that for a minute. But to know that so many people are happy for us really does mean a lot to me."

If he was honest, Dean really didn't give a shit what random people thought of him or his relationship choices, and he didn't use social media. But that didn't mean that he wasn't sensitive to how his girl felt about it, and he could tell how relieved and happy she was with what they had just seen. "Maybe you should tweet something?" he suggested.

"You mean to thank people for being supportive?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe just put something like, 'Yes, Dean and I are in a relationship. We didn't want to make it public yet, but now that it is, we want to say that we're very happy together.' Something like that."

"It might not be a bad idea," Alexa said thoughtfully. "In fact, it might be best to be honest about everything, including the way we got together. I think a majority of people might respect that. What do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea," Dean nodded. He gave her a peck on the lips before adding, "And it's a brave thing to do. One of the reasons I love you, darlin'."

"I love you too, baby," she said, giving him a peck on the lips in return. With that, she pressed the icon to write a new tweet and read aloud as she typed. "Dean and I didn't want the news to break this soon, or the way it has, but yes, we are in a relationship. And yes, it started with us sleeping together before he technically ended his relationship with his previous partner. That's something we both regret and feel bad about, but cannot change. Thank you to everyone who has sent kind words. We love you all."

Dean nodded his approval. "I think that's good. Send it."

"Are you sure it's the right thing to do?" she asked, thumb hovering over the Tweet button. "What if Hunter's not happy that I mentioned the cheating?"

"Don't see why he wouldn't be," Dean shrugged. "After all, it's public knowledge already, thanks to Renee. We're acknowledging that we could have handled the situation better. I don't see how we can get grief for that. Besides, Hunter can't exactly stand there and talk down to us about cheating, now can he?"

"Okay then," Alexa said, willing to trust his judgment. She hit the send button. "There we go," she said nervously.

"Let's see what people write back," he said.

Despite the unpleasant situation, Alexa couldn't help grinning at the way he worded that. Any time he talked about anything to do with technology was amusing. He knew nothing about it, and made no attempt to learn. In its own way, it was endearing.

After a minute or so, Alexa refreshed the tweet, so that the first bunch of comments would appear. She read out the top one, which was already accumulating likes from other users. "This must have taken a lot of courage to write. It's sad that people feel the need to publish stuff about your private lives just to get views for their shitty little websites. Ignore them. Be happy. Real fans love you guys and wish you every happiness."

"That's nice," Dean said genuinely.

"Yeah, and most of the other comments are supportive, too. I'm going to retweet some of them." While she did just that, Alexa felt relief washing over her. What could have been a disaster for her had actually proven to be the opposite. The fans, or at least the majority of them, were actually getting behind her, not turning on her. It really did mean more than she could ever express in a tweet.

"So, we're officially a couple," Dean said, picking up his half-full glass of beer, which had been forgotten about since Alexa's phone had rang a few minutes earlier.

Alexa put her phone down on her sun lounger and gave him one of her most dazzling smiles. "We are. I'm so proud of being with you. I know how lucky I am, so I don't want you to ever doubt how I feel."

Returning her smile, Dean raised his glass. "I can drink to that."

"Me too." Alexa picked up her cocktail and clinked the glass against his. "To us. That's what people say, right?"

"To us," Dean repeated, even though it sounded corny. He downed the rest of his beer in one hit.

As she drank through her straw, Alexa found herself determined to ignore any negativity that came her way. There were a lot of positives in her life right now. In fact, she had never been happier. There was no way she would allow Renee Young or a few crazy wrestling fans to change that.

A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed the previous chapter. You guys are awesome!

So, Dean and Alexa are 'officially' a couple. I actually hate that term, but people seem intent on using it. Thankfully, the fans were largely supportive. Hands up anyone who thinks Renee might not react the same way when she sees the pictures?

Next chapter, we'll be back in America for Raw. How do you think they'll handle booking Twisted Thorne's storyline without Lucy being there?