Walking out into the arena's parking garage, Grace felt excitement and uncertainty in pretty much equal measure. She was looking forward to checking out the tour bus that was about to become her home on the road. She was also looking forward to meeting Elena for the first time, as well as Seth and Roman for pretty much the first time other than a few random hellos that had been exchanged here and there when they had crossed paths backstage at various events.
"You should know that there is a rule for new additions to the bus," Zelina said.
"What's that?" Grace asked seriously.
"You have to stock the fridge up with beer."
"Oh, okay. That I can do," Grace said, smiling broadly in amusement.
"You know, I'm so jealous of you two," Bayley said. "You both have such stunning smiles. I can't relate."
"Oh, shush, you're the cutest, Bay, and we all know it," Zelina said playfully.
"You know, you should do something with that, for your characters I mean," Bayley said thoughtfully, not really taking in Zelina's reply. "Work on making those smiles look cruel or vicious. It could be a great look for you. Very powerful."
"She's got a point," Grace said, looking at Zelina.
"She has. We'll talk about it later for sure," Zelina said.
They were approaching the bus, which was parked in a corner of the garage. Grace couldn't imagine how Elena had managed to back it in there, but that was probably why she was a wrestler and not a bus driver. The bus's door was open, with Elena sitting on the steps, waiting. She got up as they approached and stepped forward to meet Grace.
"You must be Grace. I'm Daga," she said in a strong Italian accent, offering a traditional Italian peck on each cheek in greeting.
"Really nice to meet you, Daga," Grace said warmly. "Thank you for inviting me onto the bus. I'm looking forward to being a part of the crew."
"I'm sure you are. They always do, at the start," Elena said, drawing laughs all round.
"We're supposed to actually get her on the bus before you say that," Zelina scolded, playing along.
Grace stood there smiling while Bayley joined in with the joking around. She had the impression that she was going to like travelling with these people a lot. Once she came out of her shell with people, Grace liked to have a laugh, and was no stranger to ribbing people either. It seemed like that would be for the best, for she could imagine there would be some ribs coming her way before too much longer.
"Okay, time to get on the bus," Elena said.
Grace couldn't help smiling at her accent. To make matters worse, Elena happened to look at her at that moment.
"What?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh god, I'm sorry," Grace cringed. What an awful first impression she had just made.
Bayley put an arm around Grace's shoulders. "Don't be sorry. Daga gets teased for her Bond villain accent all the time. She doesn't mind."
"I don't mind, but I do expect you to die!" Elena said, doing a proper Bond villain impression, drawing more laughter.
When the funny moment passed, Zelina slid her case over to Elena, who took it and loaded it into the open luggage compartment in the side of the bus. "Grace, take anything you'll need while we travel out of your case, then Daga will load it up for you. You'll be able to bring it on-board when we park up for the night."
Bending down, Grace unzipped her case's front pocket and took out a phone charger. "Good to go, thanks," she said to Elena, who took the case and loaded it into the luggage hold.
"Right, let's show you around the bus," Bayley said, making her way up the steps.
"Aren't we a couple of passengers short?" Grace asked as she followed.
"Seth and Roman are always out last," Zelina said, third up the steps. "And men always talk about women taking ages to get ready to go anywhere."
Grace laughed. She found herself in what looked like a living area. There was a comfortable couch on either side of the bus, opposite each other. At the opposite end of the couches from the front of the bus there were two comfortable chairs that were bolted down to the floor. There was also a large flat screen TV fixed to one wall.
"This couch is mine and Seth's," Zelina said, pointing to the one she was standing closest to.
"And the other one is for me and Bayley," Elena said, walking up the steps.
Bayley was standing by one of the chairs. She put her hand on the back of it. "This is Roman's seat, so you'll be taking the other chair."
Grace sat down to try the chair for herself. Her first impression was that it was very comfortable. That shouldn't have surprised her on a tour bus like this, she realised. "Nice. I like it," she said.
Zelina walked past her and into a galley area with a fridge, microwave and a sink. "There's space here to make simple meals. The fridge is most often full of beer."
"Okay," Grace said, getting up to continue the tour. Bayley and Elena had stayed at the front of the bus, allowing Zelina to do the honours.
"Here are the bunk beds," Zelina said next. She pointed to each of the spaces, announcing who they belonged to. "Bayley, Daga, Roman, and this one will be yours."
"Okay," Grace nodded.
"It might take you a while to get used to the snoring, but you'll manage. At least Joe isn't with us anymore. His snoring almost blew the windows out sometimes."
"Yes, I remember when the bus was first on TV," Grace said, her memory triggered by the mention of Joe. "It was back when The Vega Cartel was a thing."
"That's right," Zelina said a little wistfully. "Those were good times. It was me, Seth, Bayley, Joe and Bobby. OGs right there."
"You clearly miss them," Grace said.
"Yeah. They were both pains in the ass at the time, but I'll never forget when they moved Joe over to Smackdown and we had to part ways. Sad times. He's still over there, but at least it went we'll for him. He's doing a great job as WWE Champion. And Bobby, well, he's living with Lucy Thorne. Can't say I blame him for choosing her private jet and her mansion over our bus." Zelina shook off her moment of reflection, opening a door that she was standing near to. "Anyway, this is the bathroom."
Grace looked inside, seeing a nice shower cubicle, as well as a toilet and a sink.
"It's on a first come, first served basis in the mornings. My advice, get in before the men wreck the place."
"Noted," Grace said seriously. "Speaking of wrecking the place, what happens about keeping the bus clean and stuff?"
"We all pitch in with that, apart from Daga. She gets a pass because she does all the driving."
"Fair enough. I assume you and Seth sleep back there?" Grace asked, looking at a curtain that was pulled across the passageway towards the back end of the bus.
"That's the love nest," Elena called from up at the front.
"You heard the woman," Zelina said with a grin.
Laughing, Grace followed her diminutive new friend back towards the living area. "This is a really awesome bus, guys. Thanks again for letting me join you."
Before anyone had a chance to reply, Seth's voice came from outside the bus, calling out with sarcasm. "Whenever you're ready, Daga. Or we could stand here all night."
Elena went storming down the steps, triggered by his words. "Try loading your own cases," she said heatedly, adding something in Italian that Grace was sure wasn't complimentary.
"Is this always how it is?" Grace asked, smiling in amusement.
"Mostly," Bayley said. "Seth and Roman enjoy riling Daga up. They're quite good at it, as you can tell."
Cases could be heard thudding into the luggage compartment as Roman walked up the steps. He smiled when he saw Grace standing there with the rest of the group. "Hi. Welcome to the mad house."
"Hi, Roman," Grace smiled. "Thanks for letting me join you."
"You're welcome. Nice debut out there tonight."
"Thank you!" she exclaimed. "It wasn't much of a match, but it sure was a rush going out there."
Seth came up the steps next, and more greetings were exchanged. Before long, Elena was pulling the bus out of the parking garage. Grace settled into her chair for her first journey with her new travel companions.
The journey to the city where the next night's live event would be taking place took just over three hours, including a stop at a supermarket for Grace to fulfil her obligation to stock the bus up with beer for the week. To make a good impression, she had gone the extra mile, also buying some cakes and donuts.
One of the questions she had been considering had been answered when they had parked out for the night. She had been wondering how the security of the bus was guaranteed overnight. Secure parking lots were a thing, she had discovered. You learn something every day, she had thought.
Not long after Elena parked up, Seth and Zelina had made their excuses and headed to their bedroom, if that was the right description for it. Elena and Bayley hadn't been far behind them, leaving Grace and Roman as the last two in the living area. She felt tired, but opted not to go to bed now that she had the chance for a one on one chat with one of the guys she barely knew. The quicker they got the ice broken, the better, she figured. The only problem was that he was busy typing away on his phone, engrossed in what he was doing.
"Sorry," Roman said eventually, putting his phone back in his pocket. "I write to my daughter every night and tell her how the show went," he explained. "It's almost always too late to FaceTime her by the time we get out."
"It must be hard being away from her so much," Grace said sympathetically.
"Yeah," Roman said in a melancholy tone. "We talk every day, but it's not the same. The traveling is a killer in this job, so much time away from home. If you're with someone who's not in the business, you hardly ever see them."
Grace felt a bit awkward, reminded of Roman's recent divorce that was no secret backstage. It seemed obvious to her that he was hurt by it, making it a subject that she was wary of getting into with him. "I've never been in that situation. I can see it being tough for both sides," she said cautiously.
Roman sighed. "It is. I thought we would make it work. You assume it's forever when you're with someone you love, you know? But we drifted apart, largely because of my never being around. We tried to stay together and make it work, even if it was only for Layla's sake, but it wasn't happening."
Grace got up and went to the fridge, fetching another bottle of beer for each of them. She returned to her chair and handed both bottles to Roman so that he could crack the tops off them.
"Listen to me moping to you when we barely know each other," he said, shaking his head. "Sorry. I'm finding it hard to snap out of it lately."
"Don't apologise. It's good to talk about problems when you have them. I'm happy to listen, even if there's not much I can say that is going to help with your situation. I know what loss is like. It can affect you for a long time, in fact it can stay with you forever if you let it."
Roman's eyes widened a bit as he recalled what she was talking about. "Of course, your mom was killed in that plane crash. That must have been awful for you. I can't even imagine."
Just over two years earlier, Grace's mother had been one of ninety-three people who died when their domestic flight had crashed into a field minutes after take-off. The horrifying disaster had been caused by, of all things, a software error that had forced the plane into a dive despite the pilot's attempts to override it and keep the plane in the air.
As an only child, and with her father already dead after suffering a heart attack five years earlier, Grace had received a large sum of money as a compensation pay out from the aircraft manufacturer, not that any amount of money could possibly make up for such a heart-wrenching and senseless loss of life.
"Yes," Grace said with a heavy breath. "I've been thinking about mom a lot tonight. She would have been there to see me make my debut."
"I'm sure she was there," Roman said compassionately.
Taken by surprise herself, Grace burst into tears. She had been doing okay all day, until actually talking about her mom, which had apparently been the final straw needed to bring her emotions to the surface. "I miss her so much," she blubbered. "I lost my mom because some fucking idiot couldn't program a computer properly. How could that happen?"
Roman quickly got up, moved over to her chair and crouched down to give her a hug. "I don't know, Grace. I don't know. Let it all out, come on."
Holding him awkwardly but tightly, Grace cried into his shoulder. Now that she had started, she couldn't stop.
Unbeknownst to her, Bayley quietly approached the living area with a look of concern on her face, having heard the crying. Roman sent her back to bed with an expression that said, 'I've got this.'
"Fuck, I'm sorry," Grace managed to say through her tears. She hated herself for losing it so completely in front of someone she had essentially only just met, dreading to imagine what he thought of her.
"It's alright," Roman said comfortingly, continuing to hold her until she got herself under control. "If nothing else, we can be heartbroken together."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review last time.
Roman and Grace have reasons to be upset. Might it give them something to bond over? What do you think might happen the next morning?
