A/N: Thanks for the reviews last week, guys, keep it up, I really appreciate it when you review. Hope you enjoy! :)

"I think you should still go see your parents."

AJ turned on her side, looking over at him as they lay in the bed in Dolph's childhood bedroom. "You do?"

"Yeah, I mean, that was your original plan, right? You and Erica going to visit your mom and dad? I don't see why you shouldn't go do that," Dolph told her. "I still have work, and you have to clear your head, and you know, why not take advantage of not being there? We never get any real time off, so you should use this to go visit your mom and dad."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"No I'll be working, so I'm not going to mind because I'm going to be busy anyways," he told her. "You miss your parents, I know you do, and you should go. When I go to St. Louis, you can fly to either Tampa to meet with Erica or San Juan, I'm not sure where, but yeah."

"I'd really like that," AJ said.

"I mean, you don't need my permission, that's not what this was. I know that you only need my permission when you're about to choke me with the leather collar."

"Oh God," she buried her face into her pillow and laughed.

"It's nice to hear you laugh again, I was so sure you'd lost your smile," Dolph told her, and she peeked one eye out from her pillow and he winked at her.

"I'm not HBK, thank you very much," she said, her voice muffled by her pillow. He reached his hand out and rubbed her back. She purred at the contact. "That feels nice."

"Magic fingers, that was my nickname in high school, jk, jk, it was magic di—"

"You can stop right there," she said, turning to him again. "So you really wouldn't mind me going away. I mean, I might stay there for a week or something, would you be okay with me staying there for a week or maybe more? I know that Briley is leaving for Australia soon, and you'll be alone at the house…"

"AJ, babe, you do know that I lived by myself for years now, right? I'm going to be okay, besides, I'm going to Vegas next Wednesday, remember? To the Britney concert, the one that you said I would actually have to drag you physically to if I wanted to take you."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," AJ said, "I'm going to miss having Briley around the house for a whole month, it's going to be so weird without him there, Nacho is going to miss him. I mean, I think I'll come back sometime next month, so Nacho will just have to travel with us."

"That's fine," Dolph said, grabbing his phone off his nightstand and looking at it.

"So I'm talking to you, and your phone is more important now?" AJ asked him.

"I was just checking something," Dolph said, "I wanted to see if Damien tweeted me yet, I'm not sure how he can come back from that burn I dealt him earlier. I think he'll be licking his wounds for a while on that one."

"It was good, I may have hissed because I could feel the burn from where I was standing."

"Thanks for coming tonight. I know that it had to be hard for you, especially because I know I heard people talking to you about losing the title, and I know that you probably weren't up for it," Dolph told her. They'd spend the night at her brother's fundraiser, and AJ had been gracious to everyone, signing autographs, auctioning off some of her t-shirts with her signature on it. She'd helped raise a lot of money for charity.

"No, it was my pleasure, your brother does a lot of good for those dogs, and anything I can do to help I'll do," she leaned over to kiss him. He yawned as she pulled away. "Nice to know my kisses make you sleepy."

"Nah, I'm just sleepy from the week," Dolph yawned again, "it's nothing to do with you. I just, you know, worked this week, had some…time on the panel."

"Oh yeah, so hard, I bet you pulled a muscle standing there all night," AJ pretended to pout at him. Dolph yawned again and closed his eyes. "Get some sleep, I'm just going to get a glass of water downstairs, you want one?"

"Mmm, no," he said, already drifting off. "I'm gonna dream about my boo, Brit-Brit, she's so fierce."

"Aww, you know, if you get to meet her and by some chance she wants to sleep with you—"

"Some chance," his eyes popped open, "babe, if she met me, there's no way she wouldn't want me, have you seen me? And I'm sorry, but you'd find your stuff on the front lawn and the locks changed. I'd keep Huevos though, my boo likes dogs, she'd take good care of him."

"Nice to know who comes first in your life," AJ pretended to be offended that he would choose Britney over her. "I mean, I can work it, bitch. And you can hit me one more time, and our relationship is slightly toxic…oh my God, what have I become?"

Dolph acted like he was talking into a recorder, "Note, assimilation nearly complete on subject, AJ Lee. Next step, breast implants, thigh implants, butt implants, dye hair blond as well."

"Yeah, not happening, buddy, but she can be your freebie," AJ told him.

"Wait, wait, wait, I get a freebie?" his eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious, in the event that Britney would sleep with you, that's your freebie," AJ told him. His jaw dropped open. "I'm banking on the fact that Britney is never going to want to sleep with you though."

"But what if she spots me in the crowd and it's love at first sight?"

"Then I'm screwed."

"No, I think it'd be Britney that'd be screwed," he told her as she burst into more laughter. It was contagious and he started laughing too, pulling her closer to him. He yawned once again, the sleepiness creeping back up on him. He settled back against the pillows. Once they both quieted down, "Who would be your freebie?"

"Hmm, who indeed? Well, since he kept saying we did, maybe it would be Punk—"

"I would kill him before I let that happen."

"Um, if I said Hugh Jackman—"

"I would kill him before I let that happen," Dolph repeated.

"This is my freebie, but what if it's a fictional character?"

"Totes fine since they're fake," he said.

"I don't know who I'd want to be my freebie, Briley?"

"Not even funny, not even the tiniest bit funny," Dolph deadpanned.

"Not even this much?" AJ held her thumb and index finger together so there was barely any space between them. He shook his head. She moved her fingers a fraction of an inch closer together. He shook his head again. "Well, if your brother isn't my freebie, I'm not sure who would be."

"I won't have a freebie if you won't have a freebie."

"Not even if it's your precious Brit-Brit? Remember the first time I drove your car by myself, and I nearly got blasted out of it when I'm a Slave 4 U started playing so loud I thought my eardrums would burst."

"You can't listen to that song on low volume," he scoffed, closing his eyes.

"Okay, sleep now, my cute Britney fanboy boyfriend," AJ kissed his cheek then reached across him to turn off the light on the nightstand. She slipped out of bed without much protesting from Dolph and headed downstairs to grab a glass of water. She turned on the kitchen light, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and got herself a glass of water, taking a quick sip before leaving. She gasped when she saw Kelly just walking in. "Oh my God, Kelly, you nearly scared me to death."

"Sorry, I was just checking to make sure I locked the back door and saw the light turn on," Kelly explained. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just getting a glass of water," AJ held up the glass like it was the evidence.

"Thank you so much for coming tonight, you and Dolph, you helped make it a success, I know that more people came once they heard you and Dolph were going to be there. I'm happy you both could come."

"We wouldn't have missed it," AJ said, "we both love dogs, and we both love Donny, so there's nowhere else we'd rather be."

"Briley told me that you've been having a hard time of it, and I hope that you're doing better now." Kelly didn't really want to bring up the loss of AJ's diva's title, but when Briley said she was having a hard time getting over it, she felt compelled to just make sure her daughter's boyfriend was doing okay. "I didn't get a chance to really talk to you tonight with all the hubbub going on, but I've got a few minutes if you do."

"Yeah, Dolph's asleep upstairs," AJ's eyes lifted towards the ceiling. "It takes him like a week to get over the international tours, so he was exhausted."

"Understandable," Kelly said, sitting down at the table and beckoning for AJ to join her. She sat down across from her as she took another sip of her water. She knew what was coming, and she knew that Kelly was concerned, but she was feeling much better now. Seeing Dolph, having him come after her, knowing that he loved her enough to not let her run away, it was more than enough to pull her out of her funk, at least for the most part. "So how are you though?"

"I'm doing better, I really am. It was hard at first, really hard, just…it just wasn't the loss, you know, it was my own stupidity, it was the way the other divas treated me, it was the way Vickie treated me, and I just couldn't handle it. It was overwhelming to think about, and I just…I know it looked like running away, and it was a little bit, but I needed the time away."

"I get that, sometimes we need to get away, just get over things. You and Dolph are okay though, right? Briley said—"

"He is the worst gossip," AJ laughed, shaking her head.

"I actually sent him to live with you two as a spy, he reports back to me," Kelly joked.

"Dolph and I are fine, I was never mad at him, not really, and he wasn't mad at me, not really. He sees things in me that I don't even see," AJ sighed, running her finger around the rim of her glass. "He just sees more in me, like, I don't know how, but he just sees more."

"Well, that's because you're a good person, and you had the longest title reign, and that's something you should be proud of, not something you should try to downplay. You fought hard to keep that title, and one fluke win means nothing."

"You think it was a fluke win?"

"Absolutely, you just weren't prepared, and you don't have much experience against Paige, and she capitalized on it. Briley told me about her, and how she's been wrestling since she was 16, and that's hard to beat on a good day, but when you're not prepared, it's even harder. You'll get it back when you're ready."

"I was going to take some time to visit my parents in Puerto Rico," AJ told her. "Stephanie was kind enough to give me as much time off as I needed, and it's been so long since I've just been able to go see them and not worry about work or leaving after a day or two. My sister and I were probably going to fly there next week. Dolph has to work, and he encouraged me to go."

"That should be nice. You all work too hard sometimes. I know it's the nature of the beast, but that still sucks," Kelly put it bluntly. "What I wouldn't give to have Dolph here for a week."

"I take good care of him…for the most part," AJ said.

"Well, at least I know he's getting taken care of…for the most part," Kelly told her, "now let's both get to bed before we just fall asleep here, what do you say?"

"Kelly, I appreciate the offer, but I am dating your son so going to bed with you would be extremely awkward," AJ joked and Kelly laughed and shook her head. There were times when it was so incredibly clear why her son was enamored by AJ. They were similar in a lot of ways. They both stood up and headed upstairs to their respective bedrooms.

The scene at the airport was just downright movie-like. Dolph and AJ standing in front of his gate before his plane left for St. Louis. She was going back to Tampa to meet up with her sister before heading to San Juan to see her parents. They were holding hands, and AJ was looking up at him sadly. She was going to miss him, and she wished he could come with her. Her family liked him, and while she thought before she'd want to see them without him, she realized now that she didn't really want to be anywhere without Dolph.

"Have fun, alright," he told her, leaning down to kiss her forehead, "and I'll see you next week. Just enjoy spending time with your family."

"I know I will," she said, "I still can't believe that Hugh Jackman personally wanted you to introduce his new movie and him, that's so not fair. It almost makes me want to go there just to see him and meet him. I mean, I love the X-Men franchise."

"I know, I'm only going to rub it in for a week or so though."

"Why do all the movie stars want to hang out with you?" AJ wondered. "First Aaron Paul and his cool car, now you get to hang out with Wolverine…"

"It's my natural charm and charisma, they want some of it to rub off on them so they choose me to hang out with, I don't blame them, when you look like this, being my friend is like an automatic boost on the scale. If you were a one, you're a two, see, I'm an eleven."

"What am I?"

"You were three when I started dating you, but now you're a solid four, maybe even push you up to a five."

"Yeah, well, this five can get a hundred—"

"You think I'm a hundred, awesome, see, I had to bump you down because you're from, ugh, New Jersey, plus, I know we've only briefly addressed the breast issues…you know, how you don't like chicken breasts and prefer the drumsticks."

"Get on your flight, jerk," AJ leaned up to give him a quick kiss. "Hey, are you sure Hugh isn't going to punch you out again? I mean, he did punch you last time, probably because you were with Vickie and he was trying to knock some sense into you, but maybe he's setting you up again."

"No, I mean…wait, he wouldn't really do that, do you think he would do that? Crap, he would probably totally do that!" Dolph spoke out his thought process.

"I'm just kidding," AJ tried to amend what she said. "He has no beef with you anymore, besides, that was like three years ago, you're not the same guy three years ago, you moved up from a negative infinity to a five."

"True, that's true, plus, it's Damien that's been talking so much shit to him," Dolph said, "I think if he's going to punch anyone, it's going to be him. He's really been annoying, but then, when isn't Damien annoying?"

"I don't know, he's got this certain…je ne sais quoi."

"Did you just simultaneously actually speak French and say that Damien was attractive?" Dolph made a face that said how disgusted he was by that thought.

"The situation called for it, and that's like the only French I know, well, besides—"

"Omelette du fromage, we get it, we get it," he said as they started calling the boarding for his flight. He leaned down to kiss her. "Travel safe, okay, and give your family my love…wait, no, I'm giving you my love, you can give them whatever scraps you decide to get rid of, I don't care."

"So romantic," AJ sigh dreamily. "Have fun with your new BFF, Wolverine, and have fun at your boo's concert, but remember, what happens in Vegas eventually makes its way to your girlfriend who knows a pretty nasty submission move."

"You had me at submission," he grinned. "I'll bring you back a t-shirt, do you think they'd have on that says, 'My boyfriend loves Britney more than me' or 'My boyfriend went to the Britney concert and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'?"

"Those are oddly specific."

"You're right, I'll have it specially made," he said as they called his section for boarding. He sighed and took in her face one last time, "I'm going to miss you. It's not the same driving by myself while arguing over what music to listen to or have your always cold feet trying to burrow under my legs or have all your hair products all over the sink…oh wait, that's me."

"I love you, and I'll be watching you at Raw," AJ leaned up to give him another kiss. "I'll miss you too, but hey, don't they say that couples should spend time apart? Something about it being good for mental health?"

"Then we need to spend years apart," he said as she slugged him in the stomach, "jk, jk!"

"Okay, you really do have to go and I have to get to my gate, I love you," AJ repeated herself, "I will call you when I get in, alright?"

"Good, and I love you too. Don't find any freebies while I'm away."

"I'll try hard to beat the guys away with a stick."

"I'd go for a 2x4 like Dwayne in Walking Tall."

"I'll look into it."

Dolph started to pull away, but he had to lean in for one more kiss. Then they really did have to part. AJ let go of his hand when it was only absolutely necessary. She watched him hand his ticket over to the Ops agent collecting them and he started walking down the jetway towards his plane. He turned once to wave at her, and she waved back before he disappeared from sight. She waited there until the plane taxied away from the gate before heading to her own gate.

Being without AJ for a second week in a row was jarring to say the least. Her presence was sorely missed, and he felt like there was a hole in the building where she should be. It wasn't even because he missed her as a girlfriend, but AJ was the best of the best within the diva's division, and he respected the diva's work ethic and drive, none of the were AJ, and it just felt empty without her around.

At least he had the distraction of Hugh Jackman to take his mind off his girlfriend. AJ phoned him the night before to let him know she had made it to Tampa, and they were flying to Puerto Rico today. She was actually already there, but hadn't called yet. That was fine, she knew he had work, and she knew his schedule so she was probably waiting until after the show. Since he didn't actually have a match, he just kind of sat around. He thought about going to see Hugh, maybe clearing the air beforehand, but he'd heard that Hugh was talking with everyone so he figured he'd let that happen and just talk to him after their segment together.

While waiting for that, he happened to catch the opening segment with Bray Wyatt and John Cena. He couldn't help but love seeing John squirm like that. He remembered back in 2012 when he and AJ were sneaking around behind John's back (not that he was dating AJ), and how them getting together messed up John's chances with the briefcase. This was like that, but on a psychological level. The kids singing was kind of creepy, and John seemed frazzled, and Dolph loved that. AJ would have loved it too, and he ignored the pang when he thought of her. It wouldn't be long before they were together again.

When it was time for his segment, he went out there, actually thrilled to have a microphone in his hands again. He hadn't been able to cut a promo in forever, everyone else needing time to speak. Now was his chance, and while he was promoting Hugh's movie, he still could manage to get in some of his own self-pimping in there, which he did. He was there to entertain, that's all he ever wanted to do, and he felt like he was able to do that. Knowing AJ was watching made him want to be even funnier because in his mind, he could picture her throwing her head back in laughter like she always did.

He introduced the clip of the movie then introduced Hugh himself, who came out to a huge pop. He got in the ring and cut his own promo, and he and Dolph officially buried the hatchet after showing what happened years ago. He was glad that it was water under the bridge for the both of them. He'd been a different man back then, one who was just angry at everything. Sure, he was still angry with a lot of things, but he had AJ, and she was like a salve that made all of that easier to take.

He and Hugh were just going to leave when Damien's music hit and he came out dressed as a poor man's Magneto. Dolph could barely contain his laughter (okay, he couldn't contain his laughter) when Damien came down and started actually saying he was Magneto. Dolph knew that Damien might interrupt them, but like this? Well, this wasn't what he expected, but he should have. Damien had been off the rails since his break-up with Cody. Since then, it was like Damien was trying desperately to get attention he wasn't getting elsewhere, and this smacked of desperation. He was just an attention-grabber.

Hugh was a man after his own comedic pursuits when he pretended like Damien was actually grabbing the microphone with his magnetic powers. Of course, that just led to Hugh giving him a rather nice hip toss before Dolph hit him with the Zig Zag. He and Hugh preened around the ring for a while (he took his shirt off, it felt right in that moment) before heading backstage. They were headed off for an interview together before Dolph actually caught a few minutes with him.

"Hey, thanks, man, for all of that, and for burying the hatchet," Dolph said.

"No problem, it's been a long time, probably shouldn't have socked you then either," Hugh laughed.

"Before you go though, I was wondering if you would sign a couple things for my girlfriend. She's a fan of the X-Men franchise, and she was jealous that she wasn't going to be here tonight," Dolph explained. "If I got a couple things signed, it would mean the world to her."

"Of course, of course," Hugh was extremely kind. "Are you still with that bird, Vickie, that you were with before?"

Well, that just proved Hugh didn't watch the shows, but that was okay. He knew that he'd been a fan in the past, and maybe he'd start watching again. "Actually, no, that was…it's been a while since I was with her, and…yeah, but I'm not sure if you remember her, she'd just come up to the main roster, sort of, her name is AJ, she's petite, long, dark hair—"

"Oh no, I remember her, I remember she's the champion, right?"

"Was, but she's not here, and so I wanted to get something for her."

"She's cute if I recall, nice step up," Hugh told him.

"Tell me about it," Dolph said as they reached his locker room. "She's great, and she really wishes she could meet you, but she's visiting her parents right now, and yeah."

"It's no problem," Hugh said. Dolph gave him a few things to sign, which he did, and Dolph was grateful for it. He didn't get punched out this time, and he got some nice souvenirs for his girlfriend. After saying his goodbyes to Hugh, and promising to keep in touch, he was done for the night. All he had to do was get through SmackDown tomorrow then he was home free, and it would be time to see his boo, Britney. He couldn't wait to see her.

His phone rang, and he answered it knowing who it was already, "Okay, that was great," AJ said as soon as he answered, "and funny."

"Thank you."

"My favorite part was when you ripped your shirt off though."

"That was specially for you," he told her.

"No, it wasn't, but I appreciated the view, so are you ready for Britney?" she asked, knowing his excitement. She had contemplated going with him, but knew that he would be constantly checking on her to see if she was having fun, so him going by himself would let him have more fun. And she wanted him to have fun.

"I think it's Britney who has to get ready for me."