Carry On

Chapter 1

Marrying the love of her life at age 25, Tressa Ellis thought her life couldn't get any better. She had a terrific job with World Wrestling Entertainment, which she'd worked for 3 years prior to meeting her husband. 2007 was when she started in the company as a seamstress, after being found online, surprisingly, by Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. She was Vince McMahon's daughter; the owner of the company and Stephanie had been in charge of the hiring team. Nowadays, she was the leader of the scriptwriting team, but back then, it was the seamstresses and other miscellaneous jobs throughout the company.

Tressa had her own business going outside of her home, in Birmingham, Alabama, doing costumes, wedding dresses, prom dresses, and anything else the city needed. She was the top seamstress in Birmingham and had gone to a few conventions, winning first place for her work. Tressa had started sewing at age 10 and fell in love with it, honing her skills as the years passed by. It was how she met her husband, Joseph; he had come in to have his pants tightened in the waist, their eyes met and when he came back to pick them up a few days later, he asked her out on a date.

Shortly after they started dating, WWE contacted Tressa with the job offer to be one of their on-road seamstresses and she couldn't pass up the money or opportunity to work for a multi-billion-dollar corporation. Joseph was on the road a lot as a truck driver, so the traveling part wasn't an issue since they weren't home a lot and didn't see each other often. Three years later, Joseph popped the question, on her three-year anniversary with WWE, and they were married in three months in a very small ceremony in August of 2010. Just close friends and family, a few people from WWE had attended, like Stephanie, who was one of her closest friends in the company. Tressa was exceedingly happy – she had the best job in the world and the best husband a woman could ask for. He was supportive, loving, sweet, and kind…everything a woman could've wanted in a man and more.

And it all came to a screeching, shattering halt one fateful morning that changed and crushed Tressa's life forever…


Snapping out of the daze she put herself in, Tressa blinked and looked down, holding the needle in her hand she was getting ready to thread. Sighing, she set it down and figured it was time for a break, standing from her chair to stretch her arms in the air. It was August 13, 2018, and the back was bustling with people since it was Monday Night Raw. Nothing new since Mondays and Tuesdays were always extremely busy, though she only worked on the Raw brand of the company. There were two brands – Raw and Smackdown!, along with a developmental brand known as NXT. Just as she turned the corner to head towards the exit for a much-needed cigarette break, her eyes landed on the LAST person she ever thought she'd see.

Jonathan Good, who was known to the WWE fans and all over the world as 'The Lunatic Fringe' Dean Ambrose.

Tressa had been friends with Jon for almost 5 years – wow, had it really been that long? Jon had been off the road with a horrible triceps tear for the better part of 2018. Eight and a half months to be more specific. It was the first major injury of the man's career and she had tried contacting him a few times, especially recently, but Jon had closed himself off to everyone and everything during his recovery. She had no idea just the amount of hell the man had been through, too busy wallowing in her own pain and misery to care about anyone else except herself. Instead of running up to him and giving him a hug, Tressa just nodded her head in his direction to acknowledge him and kept going on her way. She really needed that cigarette break now.

Jon almost didn't recognize Tressa. She was… smaller and had lost weight. Her face was pale, almost pinched, and if not for the fact that she'd had a thimble on her thumb, -she had told him once it was just a habit by now- he might not have placed her anytime soon. He supposed he had changed too from the way she had nodded, she had recognized him, changes and all. Frowning slightly, he turned to watch her keep walking down the hall, one brow raising when he saw her fumbling in her pocket to pull something out. Was that a pack of cigarettes in her hand? Since when did she smoke? He recalled her very empathetically being against cigarettes. Of course, he had been ignoring the outside world for some time now, including her, so he couldn't exactly be surprised that things kept going and some things had changed.

Everything changed, people changed. She had tried calling, tried texting, well… she had texted him; he had ignored them. Then she had just stopped with the texts, though he had gotten a few calls at weird times. Then those had stopped as well. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck, knowing he owed her an apology or something, probably not an explanation because he wasn't sure how to explain it. But an apology was definitely in order.

An apology wasn't necessary. Tressa honestly didn't care about why Jon had ignored her calls and text messages. She wasn't mad about them either. Her world was shattered into pieces during his injury leave, which was why she couldn't bring herself to care. Igniting the tip of the cigarette, Tressa took a long drag and closed her eyes, allowing the nicotine to filter through her system. Yes, she used to be against smoking and even got Jon to stop doing it, but…when her life shattered to pieces, she needed something to take the edge off. Drugs weren't an option due to her job, but she found cigarettes and alcohol…a lot of alcohol…to be oddly comforting. Alcohol numbed the pain she was in and cigarettes helped quell her addiction until she could get back to her room to drink herself into a stupor.

One would think, after his lovely personal experiences, Jon would have had more appreciation for his body and lungs, but…there was this thing about dying. He supposed some people took it as a new lease on life and did their living properly. He had gotten scared and panicked, then depressed and a bit morbid. Apparently, that was all 'normal', but Jon found that to be a relative term: normal. Normal was in the eye of the person and he had learned that what was 'normal' for one person, may not necessarily be normal for another.

"Thought that was bad for you." He rumbled once he had stepped outside, somehow not surprised, and surprised at the same time, at the sight of Tressa smoking. Not that his tone was anything other than just casual, light, because he was lighting his own. Old habits died hard. "When did you take up smoking?" He asked quietly, knowing saying 'hello, how have you been?', after ignoring her all this time, was just asking to be jack slapped or something and he would definitely have it coming.

"Three or four months ago, not really sure when. Should have done it a long time ago and I thought you quit?" Tressa raised a brow at him, blowing smoke out through her nostrils slowly, and flicked ash to the ground, taking another drag.

"Old habits die hard."

"Hmm…" Tressa made a weird noise in her throat, knowing that statement to be true, and leaned back against the building, dressed in black capris with a black sleeveless top, black sneakers on her feet with black socks. Everything in her wardrobe was black. Color was not something she wanted to wear anymore because her life was shrouded in darkness and pain. "Welcome back." She wished it sounded a little more heartfelt, but her tone was flat, and it wasn't against Jon. That was just how Tressa spoke to people these days – flat and straightforward.

Jon noticed the tone, assuming it was because he had been a jackass, and ignored her. He sighed, inhaling deeply, and exhaled the smoke slowly through his nostrils, after letting it filter through his system. He examined the cigarette between his fingers thoughtfully. All things considered, this was a death sentence, albeit a slow one, but it scared him less than other things. Life was insane the way it played out and the mind even worse because of the twists and turns it tended to take people down, him included.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you."

He wasn't entirely sure if he meant it or not, however. Granted, he was sorry he had potentially hurt her feelings, not that he had ignored the calls, but that he had put her off of him. It was complicated and, from the way her eyes barely flickered at him, he gathered that wasn't her damage.

"Don't worry about it, Jon. And don't take offense to how I am. It's not you, it's me and…shit I'm going through." Tressa didn't want to elaborate or talk about it, taking another shaky drag of her cigarette, and looked up at the sky, which was still blue. They were in Greensboro, North Carolina tonight for Raw, a suitable place for Jon to make his in-ring return. "I'm not mad at you for ignoring my calls and texts. You have your reasons, I'm sure, and no offense, I just don't care."

Flicking her cigarette on the ground, she stubbed it out with her toe and turned to finally face him. The light in her grey eyes was gone. They were clouds, stormy clouds, and there was no bringing life back into her after what happened. No happiness. No fire. Tressa was on autopilot, just living day to day and destroying her liver slowly, but surely, along with her lungs.

Well, see, that was just interesting, and Jon took a slow step towards her. His own pale, icy blue orbs swept over her blatantly, though there was nothing sexual in it. He had known for years that Tressa was happily married and had always respected that. Beautiful woman, yes, but Jon wasn't a total scumbag. At least not anymore, but back in the day he damn sure was.

"See," He began in his naturally rasping voice, bringing his cigarette back up for another puff while he considered her. "You say 'shit I'm going through' right after 'not to worry'. And usually, when people say something like that, it means 'worry'." All black. Her eyes were flat. Weight loss. Smoking. Jon tipped his head to the side, mulling all that over. He would put money on a divorce.

He was scrutinizing her, studying her like a test subject and Tressa took a tentative step back. "I think you have bigger things to worry about, like your comeback tonight and getting back into the swing of things around here." Her voice had dropped to barely above a whisper as Jon towered over her, the smoke circulating around them.

If only she was going through a divorce…divorce wouldn't be this painful, she wagered. No, this was something NOBODY at her age should have had to go through. She plucked the cigarette from him, took the last drag, and flicked it away, her eyes never leaving his.

"Do yourself a favor and worry about yourself. Break a leg out there." Turning, she headed back inside to leave him with that one piece of advice and didn't stop until she was back at her desk, proceeding to get back to work again.

Nobody in the company besides Stephanie and Vince knew what happened to her 3 months ago and Tressa made sure nobody ever would. It was one of the reasons she still wore her diamond wedding ring on her left ring finger, unable to bring herself to remove it. The wound was still fresh and would take time to heal. Shutting her eyes to block the pain out, Tressa immersed herself in working on one of the women wrestler's costumes, forgetting who it was. There were so many these days, it was hard to keep track compared to when she first started in the company.

The thing was, if Tressa really didn't want people to know whatever her secret was, she'd do a much better job at hiding her depression. One could not change their attitude, wardrobe, and everything else without arousing suspicion. Jon was not someone to be put off of anything. So when she gave him her bit of 'advice', that was one of two things. Purposefully drawing attention to the fact that something was wrong or she honestly believed people weren't going to go snooping and get curious. Either way, it was stupid. But Tressa was right about one thing, he DID have a return to focus on. Jon put her aside for the moment, knowing he would have plenty of time to dwell on it later.

Tressa couldn't even get excited about Jon's triumphant return as she watched him walk out to join Seth Rollins -His real name was Colby Lopez- to beat the hell out of Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. She couldn't remember their real names since she didn't work with them a whole lot. Dolph was on his way out of the company in a few months, that was about as much as she knew. Drew had come from TNA, after leaving WWE back in the day, and the company was trying to make him be this big star, only they were failing miserably. He was good in the ring, but his character was flat. Tressa cleaned up her area while glancing up at the monitor just in time to see Jon deliver Dirty Deeds to Dolph Ziggler, not able to crack the barest hint of a smile. She hadn't smiled in the past 3 months.

In the words of Shawn Michaels: She had lost her smile.

"Hey Tres, you coming out with us tonight to celebrate?" Roman Reigns -his real name was Joe Anoa'i, though she could never pronounce his last name correctly- asked with a smile, knowing Jon would love to have her attend.

"No. Have fun." Tressa answered flatly, grabbing her bag to swing it over her shoulder, and walked past Joe to head out of the arena, car keys in hand.

Normally, she would have gone out with Joe and Jon to celebrate Jon's return, but not these days. No, she went straight back to her hotel room, after stopping at a local liquor store to buy her new favorite beverage – Vodka. No juice or anything to chase it, just straight Vodka with a shot glass. Hell, she had so many shot glasses she brought home from the road, Tressa had to buy a curio cabinet to put them all in.

Without realizing it, she had accrued quite the collection in the past 3 months.