Chapter XXV: When Life Gives You Limes

"King, here we are again at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta for non-stop live WWE action. Our main event is going to be spectacular! Brock Lesnar is looking to hold the title for a second time by going up against the Undisputed champion, The Rock."

"This is going to be awesome, J. R. Can The Rock hold on to the belt or will Lesnar once again have the gold around his waist?"

"I'm putting my money on Brock."

"Yeah, right. The Rock is going to whip his ass from one end of the ring to the other," Lawler cackled.

"Also later in the show, we'll see Molly Holly and Victoria vying for the women's belt against the women's champion, Jazz, in a triple threat match, King."

"I can't wait for that one, J. R."

"You never can. On the other hand, tag-team champions Kevin Nash and Scott Hall will be putting the belts on the line against two yet to be named wrestlers," Ross explained. "We have an inter-gender tag-team match coming up first. RVD and Samia will take on Trish Stratus and Bubba Ray Dudley. King, do you realize it's been a year since Samia's run with the nWo ended here in this very place?"

"She was with the nWo?"

"You are an idiot," J. R. mumbled. "She's earned quite a bit of respect as a part of a tag-team and as an occasional singles competitor since then. I hope the nWo keep their noses where they belong this early on in the show."

"I doubt they'll bother, J. R. Since Scott Hall's return, they have done nothing but focus on The Rock and the Undisputed belt. The gold is all they seem to care about."

Samia gritted her teeth against the pain in her twisted arm. She was contemplating her escape but the wrestler was too tall and too wide, i.e. way too strong for her to fight. She would just have to forfeit this match, a match that was not worth getting her arm broken over. Every time she had pulled against his grip, he only twisted her wrist around tighter. Now, the valet-cum-wrestler was being led down a deserted hall with no inkling of what was going to happen. He may have been a massive wrestler but she knew where his jewels were hidden and nothing would stop her if he let her go.

Bubba Ray Dudley stopped before a maintenance closet and dangled keys in front of her face. "You can try everything but you can't get out," he said with a sneer. "Scream all you want but nobody'll hear." He jerked the door open and shoved her inside face first.

Samia was relieved that this was all he was going to do with her and she was physically safe. However, being locked in a small closet was hardly the next best thing. She immediately began to jerk around to try the doorknob anyhow but a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to the person's body.

"Charlotte," a male's voice whispered and then lips descended upon hers.

Over a year ago, she would have melted but that was hardly the case anymore now that she was definitely and loyally with Rob Van Dam. She pushed hard at the wide, muscular chest and jerked her head away. "Shawn Michaels?"

"Mia?"

"What the hell—" they both began at the same time but Shawn beat her to the next words. "What the hell are you doing in my closet?"

"Your closet? You think I asked Bubba Ray to stuff me in here? I wouldn't be surprised if you two set me up!" Samia yelled back but then gasped. "Oh my god, you did!" She jerked around and began banging against the door and jerking on the handle, screaming bloody murder. She had no idea what his plans were with her as the last time they actually spoke was a year ago and they were both making threats at each other. She beat against the metal door until the bones ached in her hands and arms and her voice was beginning to crack. When she could pound the door no longer, she realized that Shawn hadn't made one move against her. She couldn't see but could still feel his presence there. "Oh god, please don't hurt me," she whispered, leaning up against the door and then sliding down it to sit on the floor. She wrapped her arms around her raised knees and hoped for the best.

"God? Now that's something you never called me in bed. I was quite disappointed," he replied, fumbling around in the dark and stepping on her feet.

"Ouch, dammit!"

"Sorry," he mumbled. "At least I know where you're at now." He edged down beside her on the floor, their shoulders, hips, and legs touching. She tried to scoot over away from him but there was nowhere to go.

"Does Charlotte call you 'god'?" she bit out. "Is she your new flavor?" Samia had counted four different women that Shawn had been seen with on a semi-regular basis since she betrayed him. Charlotte was number five.

"Why? You jealous?" he returned in the same tone of voice. Samia huffed out a breath but didn't verbally respond. "RVD not giving you what you need? You shouldn't have left me," he continued in an 'I told you so' manner.

"Don't you dare," she warned.

"What are you gonna do? Put me in a headlock?" he derisively asked. Samia made a frustrated noise but said nothing.

They sat in silence for a while, neither one willing to speak to the other. After Shawn had shifted uncomfortably for what felt like the umpteenth hundred time, Samia turned her head towards him even though she couldn't see him. "How are we getting out of here?"

"Your guess as is good as mine," he replied, his tone much softer now. "You were always the brains of our outfit."

"Maybe you should have treated me that way," she responded under her breath.

"Yeah, well, we made a mistake there, didn't we?"

"Was that sarcastic?" she defensively demanded.

"No, but I can make it that way," he angrily replied.

"Sorry. I didn't exactly treat y'all all that great either," she quietly stated and could feel the look of shock on Shawn's face.

They once again slipped into a long silence but, this time, Samia began to shift uncomfortably. "I know you know why I left the nWo but do you know why I betrayed you?"

"Same reason."

"You know I loved you, or at least that I thought I did?" she asked and Shawn replied with a noncommittal noise. "I know things ended on a really bad note but that doesn't mean I hated you or anything." She could feel him shift his legs and wondered if it was due to physical or mental discomfort.

"If you didn't hate me or thought you loved me, why did you leave me?" he angrily asked.

"Because you didn't love me and you never would. I was tired of being one woman in a long line of them."

"I didn't cheat on you," Shawn blatantly replied.

"No but you might as well have. I played second fiddle to rest of you guys but that's beyond the point. I realized the nWo was manipulating me and that made me realize I couldn't stay in a dead-end relationship."

"You do realize that you did to us exactly what you said you were standing against by betraying us?" he asked with contempt.

"Yeah," she whispered. "I wasn't wrong in why I left but maybe I was wrong in how I left. I guess I should have tried a different approach."

"Yeah, maybe so."

Samia bristled at his comment. She was apologizing for how she left him and he was agreeing with her that she wrong instead of accepting her apology. "What else do you want?" she bitterly asked, "Me on my hands and knees begging your forgiveness for simply bruising your pride? Looks like y'all got over me real fast. What was the first girl's name—Bella? And then there was Cassie and Delilah, am I right?"

"Where you stalking me? Keeping track?" he asked with surprise.

"Okay, look, I felt guilty. I felt really bad for dumping you like that. I can't believe I'm confessing this," Samia sighed, "but it took a lot to get over you…and all the other guys too and I thank god that I had Rob there. You guys were my family, Hunter and Kevin the brothers I never had. I was going to self-destruct staying with y'all but I hurt like hell for months afterward. But, of course, I paid attention to what was going. Plus, I had to keep an eye out for y'all in case you tried to get revenge."

"You were that scared of us?"

"I think you asked me that question once before and the answer's the same," Samia replied with a tinge of anger in her voice.

"Well, if we're confessing here…" Shawn began with a deep breath, "I don't hate you over leaving us. Yeah, my pride was damaged and Bella was a rebound relationship. I guess we should have tried listening to you. Maybe…maybe things would have turned out differently."

"Yeah, maybe."

They were both quiet for a moment and then Shawn asked, "Did we just apologize to each other?"

"Yeah, I think so," she replied with a small laugh.

"Which means we can quit glaring at each other in the hall now?"

"I don't think so."

"What?" he spluttered. "I just basically said I'm sorry for using you and we can't make-up."

"Whoa, hold your horses. If anybody finds out what happened in this closet, do you realize the backlash that'll happen? I will never be trusted again. Rob'll think I've betrayed him again. That is not going to happen."

"Calm down," Shawn forcefully replied. "You've got a point."

"Thank you. But everybody's still going to think the same thing when we're found here."

"You gotta point there too," he replied with a shrug that she could feel. They lapsed into silence again. "I could claim I kidnapped you and brought you here to do unspeakable acts to you." She could feel that lascivious grin again.

"No good. Bubba Ray will claim he brought me here and it'll still look the same. Plus, Rob would attack you with a vengeance."

"I haven't had a satisfying feud in quite a while," Shawn replied as if he was talking about the weather.

"Shawn," she angrily said and slapped at him, making contact somewhere on his thigh, but then burst out laughing.

"Samia," he mocked and slapped back. When their laughter subsided, he lightly chuckled and said, "Oh, the trouble we used to get into together. Doesn't look we have to be actually be together to get into trouble."

"Yeah," she replied with a chuckle of her own.

"Do you remember the Jimmy Buffett concert?"

"Oh my god, how could I forget the trouble we got in there!" she exclaimed and burst out laughing. "Oh and when we—"

From there, the two of them digressed into reminiscing and lot of laughter.

Rob Van Dam was very unhappy with the situation and very unhappy with himself. He had committed an act with which he vowed he would never do—he physically hurt a woman…sort of. In his mind, he might as well have. Little did he know that he had twisted Trish Stratus' arm in the same manner that Bubba Ray had twisted Samia's. She was quick to give up the information when she was in danger of having a bone broken. He resorted to violence when an hour and a half of searching and asking got him nowhere.

Now, he was barreling down the hall with a maintenance man in tow. Unfortunately, he had acquired a camera crew as well. After hurting a woman, he wasn't about to hurt the somewhat innocent cameraman. "Open it up…" RVD ordered the maintenance man and then added softer, "please."

The keys jangled in the lock and it wasn't opening as fast as RVD wanted. He knew something was wrong when the man hurriedly shuffled backward. Rob's jaw dropped open when he saw Shawn Michaels pinned against the wall of the closet by a metal broom that Samia was shoving against his chest. RVD quickly pulled her out and shoved her behind him. She would have preferred a little cooing, 'oh, baby, are you alright?", and a little hug but he was a man afterall.

"Shawn," a voice called out, "so that's where you've been."

They all turned to see Scott Hall ambling down the hall with the nWo following behind. Samia wanted to smack Rob's 'just try me today' look off his face. If she could change one thing about him, it would be his 'take on the whole world because I can even though I'm outnumbered four billion to one' attitude. The nWo had given them both no trouble since her break with them but that didn't mean Rob wasn't willing to start or finish something with them.

"You knew she was here all along?" RVD angrily asked.

"She was missing all night, he was missing all night," Scott replied, holding out his hands and shrugging his shoulders. "Thanks for finding him, super sleuth."

For show, Samia shook the broom at Shawn as he edged out of the closet. HBK had actually been willing to let his pride be bruised just a little bit more to keep the speculation at a minimum and no one outside of that closet would ever know that he had been the one to suggest the broom/weapon episode.

When Samia emerged from behind Rob to 'threaten' Shawn, Scott exclaimed, "The infamous Mia! Miss September herself!" Hall had been back for about a month and two of those weeks she had spent on vacation. In the short time, their paths had not crossed. "Good to finally meet you, toots!"

"Likewise," she replied, ignoring his extended hand.

"Here, sign my calendar, since next month is September and all," he stated, pulling the rolled up calendar from his back pocket. She looked at him funny until he shoved it and a pen in her hands. As she flipped through it, she noticed some of the divas had already signed it but Adrienne's autograph was absent from their picture. "You know, it's a shame you left. We could have had some fun together," he continued as she handed him the calendar and pen back.

Rob instinctively put his arm around her shoulders and drew her back against his chest. "Well, you know, things happen, loyalties shift, some friendships broken, some mended…and all that sappy stuff in between," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, when life gives you limes, make margaritas," Hall replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Triple H snickered after Scott's comment. "Hunter, did you tell?"

"Tell? Tell what?" he asked and quietly laughed as he began to slowly backpedal down the corridor.

"Samia, tell what?" RVD asked.

"Another time, another place, hon," Samia said dismissively with the wave of her hand.

"Well, thanks again for finding him, Sooby-Doo," Hall said, wrapping an arm around Shawn's shoulders and shaking him. "See you 'round, chick."

Rob started to move after him but Samia put a hand out to stop him. "It's not worth it. How many times do I have to tell you that?" she whispered.

"'Till the next time we meet in a maintenance closet, Angel," Shawn called out as the five men actually turned their back on the couple and headed down the hall in the direction from which they had come. That was what he had said to her right before the closet door had been opened. It was their codeword, their pact. Everything would be alright at least between the two of them.

"You okay, babe?" Rob asked, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"Yeah. Just a little tired from holding Shawn off with a broom for what felt like hours."

"Sorry. I tried so hard to find you," he replied, nuzzling her neck.

"I know," Samia relied and patted his hand that rested on her chest.

"Soooo…what's this about margaritas?"

"Did you know that you can't set shots of tequila on fire?"

FINI!

Author's Notes: It's finally over! Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me until the end. Once again, a special thanks to all of those who have reviewed: LeelooJinn, JohnnyDeppFan, Shadow, Sparks, Earendel, AnimeWitch02, EdGeHeAdV1, Alisha, dragonmage5, FunkyinFishnet, pixygrl101, LittleKnux2008, Carrieanne, Eternal Sailor Serenity, Kora, Sharnhorst, Sugarshanesgirl, Aspiring Actress, Kora Flair, and Latisha C. I'm glad to not be worrying over it all but I'm sad that it's all over. I wish I could have kept going with everyone's suggestions, but then it would have probably turned into something unmanageable if it ended up being that looooong.

I have had interest expressed in a sequel by several people and have granted the request. Loyalty of Friendship is now up and I would love to know what you think.

Also, Playing Charades iscomplete and the sequel is being posted. Whilethey have nothing to do with this fic, I still wouldn't mind the comments.

Thanks again to all my reviewers. If someone is just now reading this, thanks for getting this far and don't be afraid to review. Thanks!