Chapter 50.
Warnings: Sexual Content, Language, & Sensitive Situations.
Sunday's match at Extreme Rules didn't top the house show at Madison Square Garden for obvious reasons but it was still another highlight of my life. I retained my championship after using Dirty Deeds, but Dean wasn't there at ring side because he was icing the back of his head that bounced off of the cement once Seth dived off the balcony railing in the audience.
The Shield versus Evolution was by far the best thing I'd seen my guys do and I was only out there for only one spot and that was to slap Batista in which I took great pleasure in considering he still thought of me as a 'ring rat'. Well he couldn't say that anymore, especially after he witnessed my match against Paige in the back with everyone else.
"Last minute change, Dean you're kicking off Raw and you're retaining the US Championship in a twenty-man over the top battle royal" Michael Hayes said backstage with the four of us there with him. I glanced at Dean next to me and he only nodded, he didn't really care about the championship belt; but I was happy he was going to retain. "Abby, you're going to form some type of distraction on the apron and then Dean you do your thing…" He continued "The Shield minus Abby is going to have a backstage segment; Seth and Roman are going to talk about how you all dominated Evolution last night. Roman you ask Dean why he's being quiet, Dean talks about how him and Abby got married last night… adlib at best and cut..." Michael looked at me now and then at Dean "You two are on your own, all it says is 'let me be moved' in big bold letters."
"Don't worry I've got it" Dean said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. Dean still wouldn't share with me what he came up with; he said real emotion is what Stephanie wanted so it would ruin the surprise.
"You better… go on, the tech crew is waiting" He said and I walked alongside Dean down the hall.
I stayed off to the side as they found a good hallway where a few tech guys were and they started filming. Seth spoke about dominating Evolution at Extreme Rules and it was all up from here, Roman spoke about spearing the hell out of Batista for the win and how they were going to get rid of The Wyatt's for good tonight and Dean stood with his shoulder against the wall humming a bit to himself while stretching out his wrists and fingers. Roman asked him if his head was doing alright after it hit the cement last night and he hit the side of his head with his closed fist to make sure everyone knew he had a hard head.
"Then what's up with you then man? You're acting stranger than normal" Seth said and Roman laughed "This have anything to do with you disappearing with Abs last night after you refused treatment for that bump?"
"We went to Vegas, hopped on a plane to get back tonight" Roman raised his eyebrows
"Why Vegas?" Seth said and then started to laugh "Don't tell me you two got married; I might actually break a rib from laughing."
Dean then pushed Seth up against the wall and Roman broke it up "Why would you think that's funny, huh? You have a thing for her?" He asked.
"No, man… Ambrose I know she's your girl but you two together you gotta know it's only trouble, you're both a little…" He motioned to his head.
"Yeah we're both crazy and that's just the way I like her" He said as he pushed his shoulder against Seth's to get out of the shot.
It was so well done that I kind of wanted to punch Seth in the face for calling me crazy, but I held back as him and Roman said a few more words and the scene was wrapped up. It's funny though, that Seth was the one that said we would end badly on scene, but in real life; it was Roman who said those words to me. We still had to clear the air about all of that but he still didn't make a move to apologize so I wasn't talking to him.
"Chest, face and arms" I said to Dean as he held the spray bottle of water in his hand as I stood there waiting. Our backstage segment was being shot now but it was supposedly taped last night after my win while Daniel Bryan and Kane's match was going on. He sprayed the cold water on me and I intentionally shivered and he stopped "I'm kidding, keep going." He sprayed my arms one last time and then I grabbed my towel and wiped my face down so I looked somewhat like last night. "Are you really not going to tell me how you're proposing?" He shook his head.
"Ready kids?" Ryan asked and I glanced over at him, he was the same age as us, so every time he called us kids, or kiddo's I had to give him the stink eye. He grinned over at me and took the spray bottle from Dean before he could chuck it somewhere.
Dean walked away from camera shot for now and I leaned back against the wall with my Diva's title in my hands. Ryan started rolling, just wanting to capture anything really and I was okay with that. I ran my hand over the steel butterfly plate and then my fingers traced my name just below it. "Urg" I groaned softly and pressed my hand against my jaw where I remembered Paige Super kicked the chair at my face, we kept that in our Extreme Rules match because it went over so well during the live-show.
I heard clapping and I turned my head as Dean came into view, his shoulder was leaning against the wall on the opposite site. "Shouldn't you be lying down?" I asked him
"Considering you wouldn't let me out there for your match against that Raven haired freak, don't ask me questions" I leaned my back more so into the wall once he stepped forward to invade my space.
"Well you said you'd tie me up if I got involved in your match, I don't see myself tied up so…" He smirked and pressed a hand to the wall by the side of my head "You're thinking pretty hard there, what's up?" I asked and brought my hand up and ran it back through his silky hair that had his gel in it so his usual curly locks would stay straight.
"Wanna go to Vegas tonight?" He asked suddenly and I paused and dropped my hand onto his shoulder.
"As much as I want to party right now, I don't think we'd be back in time for Raw tomorrow night" I smiled gently up at him.
"We'd have plenty of time, c'mon let's go to Vegas; I'll make it worth your while" I narrowed my eyes at him and slid my hand up to the back of his neck and gripped it gently.
"Why Vegas?" I asked him and he leaned down and whispered the words as he pressed his forehead against mine so the camera wouldn't pick it up.
"Marry me"
I felt my heart quicken and had to remind myself that this was for the camera, but it just reminded me so much of what happened two weeks ago. It felt real again.
"Wait… what?" I asked him and he pulled back and pressed his back against the opposite wall and he just looked at me.
"You heard me princess" He said smoothly and I swallowed hard.
"I could have sworn you just said 'marry me', but that can't be right because that's crazy" I nervously laughed and raked my fingers back through my damp straight hair.
"Live a little" He said "Crazy is kind of my thing and from the way you beat down Paige tonight, it's safe to say that you're a little crazy too." Ryan pulled his camera from the tripod and walked around us but I couldn't even look his way as a distraction because the way Dean was looking at me right now… I felt like every nerve in my body was lighting on fire.
"That's a little too crazy" I whispered "Even for you." That drew a laugh from him and he started to rub his fingers into the back of his throat. Then he slipped that hand into his black cargo pants pocket and came back with my ring. I looked at it and then looked at his face. "Is that my mom's ring?" I asked him.
"Yeah, and this is your dads" He said as he pulled his other hand from his pocket and brought out his wedding band. I took in a visible shaky breath and took a step forward "Let's go get married toots."
"You're so crazy" I whispered and he started to talk but I brought my hand up to cover his mouth "But I guess your right that I'm a little crazy too… when do you think the next flight to Vegas is?" I asked him and a grin broke out on his face once I pulled my hand away. His arms wrapped around my waist and picked me up from the floor and spun me around twice as I laughed. Then as I slid down and my toes touched the floor, he squeezed his arms around my waist and kept me there so I was the same height as him and our eyes were level. "I love you" I whispered and one of his arms unlatched from my waist but he kept me up with his other, then his fingers were running back through my hair on the side of my head and then he kissed me. I didn't stop kissing him until we heard Ryan make some sort of noise and I pressed my head against Dean's neck and let out a small laugh.
"Sorry bud, forgot you were there" Dean said as he tried not to laugh while letting me go back onto my feet.
"That's the point. That was great and congrats guys on actually getting married" I nodded at Ryan and smiled gently, still too embarrassed to even form words.
"Thanks man" Dean said while his hands moved up and down my back. I just wanted to throw Ryan out of here and lock the door so I could be alone with Dean. Usually I never got this way around him at work but recently… actually since we got married all I've wanted to do was keep him to myself.
"The battle royal is kicking off Raw right?" I asked and he nodded while we walked back up to the main hallways of the Times Union Center. Superstars was just starting so we had another hour until Raw which meant I had to be in Diane's chair getting my hair and makeup done. "I'll see you out there at some point then, Diane's probably wondering where I am" He nodded as I leaned up and kissed his scruffy cheek. As I was walking away, he started talking.
"Hey, what's this distraction gonna be?" He asked and I turned around with a smile.
"Don't know yet, might have to pull a Kelly Kelly" He narrowed his eyes as me in confusion but I started to unzip my vest and he instantly started to shake his head. "Not all the way, that's only for you stud."
"It better be" He called as I was walked away.
Diane was on a tight schedule and Renee was actually in the chair when I arrived, so I waited off to the side and tossed my Diva's championship title onto a table and hopped up there to sit and check twitter. " TheAuthority thinks they can screw Dean out of his US Title by this battle royal tonight… I guess they forget who we are. #TheShield" I pressed tweet and watched it pop up and then automatically it started to be retweeted and favorite, with some voicing their own opinions on the matter.
"Abigail" I heard to my side and smiled at Melanie who had a few papers in her hands as always. Being Stephanie's assistant couldn't be easy.
"Hey Mel, what's up?"
"Stephanie wanted me to come find you and tell you that you're going to be in a match against…" She looked down at her papers and then up at me "Charlotte tonight, before the main event which is going to be The Shield versus the Wyatt Family" I nodded slowly "But she wanted you to go out there and cut a promo first, asking for another opponent… the time slot for your promo is three minutes before Charlotte's music cuts in."
"Charlotte got the call up?" I asked with a hint of excitement in my voice and she nodded with a small smile.
"It seems they're going for a triple threat match between yourself, Charlotte, and Natalya at Payback. Sort of a daughter of a famous professional wrestler thing… but you didn't hear it from me" I grinned at the small woman
"Thanks for that and my lips are sealed" She smiled and was off. Charlotte was finally getting her call up… she didn't even tell me when I was with her at the club last week, maybe she got the call yesterday like most people around here.
"All ready for you Abby" Diane said as Renee walked away. I hopped up into the chair and let her do her magic with curling my hair. I had three minutes of just an open microphone tonight. So of course I had to talk about the match last night, give Paige props, ask for another opponent and stuff like that. But three minutes? That was a lot to be honest.
As I walked around before Raw started in ten minutes, I found Charlotte at the monitor bay area sitting next to Joey while Superstars wrapped up. "Hey stranger, fancy seeing you here" I said and Charlotte looked up and smiled over at me.
"Hey, I was trying to find you earlier"
"Segments to film kept me away from catering, congrats on the call up, is it for good?" She nodded
"I dropped the NXT women's title on Thursday to Sasha, Hunter told me after that I was going to be in a match with you on Raw so here I am" I nodded and sat down next to her. "You're cool with this storyline right? I know Steph said you were okay with it but I feel sort of like I'm stepping out of bounds."
Now I was confused.
"This is the first I've heard of you coming up to be honest, what storyline?"
"Dean and I, that's why I'm here" I looked at her with more confusion "You didn't know? Stephanie said that you were okay with this though…"
"Dean and you are what? We're married Charlotte" She nodded quickly
"I know that, I'm playing this woman who is pining after him to get a rise out of you. We already filmed our segment, you really don't know?" I shook my head
"What was the segment about? Dean didn't say anything to me…"
"Come to think of it he did look confused when he saw me there. We were just talking, I was flirting. It was all harmless stuff" I nodded slowly and watched the monitors change over to the Raw logo and the opener started. They showed bits and pieces of what happened last night and then The Shield's music started. "You're not mad, right?"
"No, at least not at you. I just wish Stephanie told me this but thanks for telling me, they're probably going to show your video segment after you come out tonight right?" She nodded "They probably wanted it to catch me off guard so I had some real emotions out there. A simple test they like to throw at us sometimes." At least I hoped it was that simple test, but this sure as hell didn't feel like it.
I watched the nineteen men walk out past us through the curtain for the Battle Royal and then it kicked off. I leaned back in my seat and watched while the minutes ticked by. I had to wait until Dean had Ryback on the apron, so I had about eleven minutes. At the fourteen minute mark, I stood behind the curtain and tossed Charlotte my title.
"Hold onto that will ya?" She nodded eagerly, always wanting to hold that title since she was a little girl.
Taking in a deep breath as I shook out my arms in preparation while watching Joey for the cue and he pointed at me to go and I pulled the curtain to the side and started to jog down the ramp. Various cheers started once I was spotted and Roman and Seth looked back at me. "What are you doing out here? He doesn't want you out here!" Seth said and I moved past him, just as Dean knocked Ryback off of the apron and had him eliminated.
"Seth, move out of my way. Do you want him to win?" He nodded "Then trust me" I put my hands against his upper arms and he looked back at Dean while he slid into the ring. Seth stepped aside and I ran over to the apron after Dean got knocked down with a nasty brogue-kick. Sheamus got Dean up to his feet and held onto the back of his neck while he started to walk over to the ropes to toss him over but I hopped up just in time and Sheamus stopped his actions.
"Get off the apron" He yelled and moved his arm to the side for me to go away.
"No" I shook my head and spread my arms out wide to block even more of the rope so he couldn't toss him over. Dean was recovering as he had one knee down on the mat and Sheamus let him go so he could come over to me and physically remove me from the apron. Once he was in arms reach, I quickly glanced over at Dean who was making his way up to his feet and I smirked at Sheamus in front of me. "You really are easily fooled aren't you?" I hopped down from the apron as Dean came at him with a clothesline and knocked him over the top rope and he went spilling down onto the floor at my feet.
I quickly rolled into the ring and wrapped my arms around Dean. Roman and Seth joined us a few seconds later once they disposed of Sheamus who tried to enter the ring. Then Triple H's music hit and I glanced up at the entrance ramp while the referee handed Dean his title back. A title he didn't want, but he definitely deserved. Triple H went on and on about how The Shield's luck was going to run out sooner rather than later, and that I wasn't going to be there to bail them out of every match. That's when he scheduled me to be in a match against a special opponent and The Shield to be in a match against The Wyatt's.
"So you and Charlotte, huh?" I asked Dean once we were backstage and he cracked out his back from being thrown around.
"I didn't know about it" he said and I nodded
"I know, and I didn't know about it either. So what can I expect from this segment?" He looked me over and sighed while wiping a towel against his face and back through his hair.
"I think that sort of defeats the purpose of it having it sprung up on you, toots."
"Just tell me or I might have to rearrange someone's face tonight" He shook his head "Okay then just tell me if I'm going to be pissed or not?"
"You'll be pissed, I was pretty fucking pissed when it went down so…" I raised my eyebrows and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his wet chest. "But don't worry about it until later, you'll probably think way too much into it and work yourself up even more."
"You were pissed about it, that just means it's awful and I might break Charlotte's jaw"
"Not before you break a few knuckles though" I hit his stomach for the back-handed joke and he let out an 'oof' noise as I pulled away from him.
Just after nine o'clock they showed The Shield's segment. It wasn't confirmed that we got married but it was out there and my twitter was blowing up to say the least. My segment was going to be shown on WWE's YouTube channel after Raw tonight so I didn't really have to explain myself out there to the fans once my segment was up. I was wearing my ring though and so was Dean even if you couldn't see it that well from his white tape.
At ten twenty The Shield's music hit and I walked from behind the curtain and down the ramp leading to the ring. The fact that Dean wouldn't tell me exactly what went on during his backstage segment with Charlotte had me more worried than I probably should have been. Once I was in the ring, I leaned over and grabbed a microphone from Joey, one of the stage hands. My music cut and the John, the referee looked over at me.
"Before you bring out this special opponent, I just wanted to say a few things…" I looked around at the fans and hooked my thumb into the leather waistband of my championship. "Triple H made a comment earlier about how I won't always be around to help my guys out. The Shield is a family; we have each other's backs in and outside of this ring and yeah I will hit and distract some people who are bigger and a lot stronger than me sometimes, but only if it will help my family win and earlier tonight I knew Dean Ambrose could win so I distracted Sheamus, Dean did the rest of the work and he deserves that United States Championship to stay around his waist." The crowd clapped at that and then I looked up at the entrance. "Last night at Extreme Rules, Paige and I put on a show stealer…" The crowd cheered a bit louder "She even knocked a chair into my face at one point but at the end of the night I was the one putting her through a table, and I was the one that pinned her 1,2, 3 in the center on this ring. I hope that Triple H and Stephanie have picked a great opponent for me tonight because after what everyone saw last night, there's no stopping me and there's no one in the back that's going to take this Diva's championship away from me."
That's when Charlotte's music hit and about half of the arena was confused and I acted confused while going up to the ropes near the entrance and leaned against them a bit to watch the six foot, blonde haired woman step out with a microphone in her hand. Her music simmered down and before she could even get a word out, I put the microphone back up to my lips.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Charlotte Flair. Yes, I said Flair, as in Ric Flair, her father" Charlotte grinned sarcastically at the top of the ramp "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in NXT?"
"Shouldn't you be?" She asked into her microphone and I smirked "I mean you did stay in developmental for what? Four years was it?"
"I didn't think we had a problem with each other Charlotte, what do you want?"
"I just wanted to show you a little clip from earlier is all, I just know that you'd love it so I wanted to share" She pointed up at the titantron above her head and it showed the camera man sneaking in on her talking with Dean in an empty catering room. I looked on as their voices became louder so we could all hear it.
"So I thought maybe now that I'm here on the main roster I could finally take you up on that offer" She put a hand on Dean's arm and he just looked down at it and then at her face.
"That offer no longer stands" He shrugged her hand off of him once she didn't get the hint.
"Why? Because you're with Abby…? It's funny, coming from a man who thinks he knows it all, you are kind of clueless" She said and he tried not to pay any attention to her while she continued "So you haven't heard the rumors then? Rollins is totally with her behind your back, pretty surprised you haven't seen the look those two give each other, it should be X rated and I-" Dean cut her off.
"Abby and Seth aren't with each other. Seth's my brother and Abby is well…" He trailed off as the camera zoomed down at his wedding ring and back up at his face. I couldn't help but like the sound of cheers radiating from the audience once the confirmation was out there. "Abby's my wife, so that offer of us getting together… you can forget about it."
The camera went back to Charlotte's pissed off face and then as Dean was getting up to leave the table, Charlotte grabbed his arm and pulled him back down and she kissed him. Full on lip lock, kissed him. He didn't kiss her back and didn't have enough time between being shocked to push her off either. She pulled back after a few seconds and smirked at him and then winked. The blood started to boil in my veins. That segment went from being cute to full on rage the next. She fucking kissed him.
"I'll see you around Dean, and oh, tell Abigail I said congratulations" Charlotte said on the screen and I was already jumping down off of the apron and running at her.
Before the segment even ended on the titantron, I had my hand in a fistful of her hair and I was throwing elbows at her but then she brought her knee up into my stomach and I crouched down with an arm wrapped around my midsection. That's when she went for it, her finisher Natural Selection; right there on the entrance ramp. I made sure to block my face from implanting right into the steel when it happened and she put a hand to her back once she stood up and I laid there face down not moving.
"Congratulations Abigail" She said into the microphone and then tossed it to the side. As she walked off, I still laid there while Peaches came from ringside and checked me out. He signaled in that he needed extra help and told me that he was going to bring out the team to sell it even more. If we were heading into payback and this was the fight I was going to have, I'd make Charlotte look strong and then have her eat my dust at the Pay per View.
The EMT crew worked around me, wrapping a brace around my neck as I blinked my eyes open and brought a hand up to the bulky blue brace. Seth was there by my side before Dean was and now I understood what was going on.
The splitting of The Shield was happening, and it was happening soon.
