Chapter 32
Big Evil… what the hell ever. "I have business in the forge." Taker retorted flatly, his eyes moving to Abigail, who was standing there looking almost petrified, with Ambrose's arm around her waist. The forge was on the other side of the lake and under lock and key.
His lock and key.
"Big Evil?" Abigail tilted her head, trying to figure out why Dean would call him that and giggled. "Yeah, yeah I can see why. I don't know why, but with that red bandana around your head, you look like a red devil." She nudged Dean's arm from her waist to walk up to Taker, her eyes telling him all he needed to know. "What's the forge? Can I go with you? Explore more of Wonderful, maybe?"
Since she wouldn't be spending a lot of time with him after today…today was all she had with him before all hell broke loose. They would be going on separate journeys, each for their own reasons. No doubt they would clash once they returned, if she made it back alive.
"You? Go into the forge? Fat chance." Dean snorted, folding his arms over his chest as he watched the two.
Oh, he wanted to say yes just to shut that idiot up and his teeth gnashed visibly. "You can't, darlin'," He said slowly, reluctantly. "I… have something important to do, and I can't have any distractions."
"He's working with My-th-rriiilllll…." Dean sing-songed obnoxiously.
Taker wanted to throttle Dean Ambrose, his hands clenching.
"It's okay, I understand."
What could he possibly be using Mythril for? That was curious considering, as far as she knew, it was only used for weaponry. Maybe he was fastening a new weapon to take on his journey? Abigail didn't know and could only speculate, smiling softly up at him. Dean was purposely baiting Taker, but she couldn't berate him due to what they had planned. Abigail had to play this carefully and stepped back from Taker to stand beside Dean again.
"It was worth a shot to ask. Never been down there before, but if I can't go, I can't go. Have fun, Big Evil."
His green eyes rolled, and Taker reached out, pulling Abigail back into him, bending down to brush his lips against hers. "I'll show you 'big evil' later tonight, darlin'." He rumbled against her mouth, hands moving down to palm her backside before roaming back up. "When I'm done, I'll come find you."
His babe and the Undertaker, that was gross. Also interesting, since she was plotting a big 'fuck you' to the guy. Dean did enjoy himself a good 'fuck you' and he turned his back on them, giving them some privacy. And he began singing, loudly.
Her taste in friends was horrible. "Are you really spending your day with… that?"
Up until now, nobody really knew Abigail and Taker were intimate, but now THAT cat was out of the bag. She had no idea if he did it to prove a point to Dean or…because he wanted to actually kiss her. Probably a little bit of both. She smiled, smacking his chest playfully, and tried looking at him sternly.
"Be nice." She murmured, pecking him one final time and reluctantly pulled away, not wanting to. "You better, since you're leaving tomorrow morning." At his surprised look, she grinned and waved three fingers at him. "See you in a bit, Big Evil." Winking, she watched him saunter off and shook her head, turning her attention back to Dean. "You can stop singing now, he's gone. You two REALLY don't like each other, you weren't exaggerating."
"He's a hypocritical cocksmoker with a capital C," Dean remarked, making sure the last bit was loud enough for the walking away Taker to hear. He was rewarded with a middle finger. "He hates magic, but he's off to fucking use it; seriously, that's jacked." His eyes were on her now, half amused, half disappointed. "So, I'm guessing that was his way of telling me you're off the market."
It was indeed, and because he wanted to remind her he hadn't forgotten about her. Taker just wasn't able to put off important things for the woman he was starting to care about. Abigail would have to understand that, or they'd just have to end things now, while they still could and manage it amicably. Once inside the forge, he groaned, eyeballing the waiting Mythril. Taker couldn't be gone for perhaps a month and leave Wonderful completely unprotected… he just couldn't do it. He could practically feel his heart thudding itself out of his chest and placed his fist over it.
"Just temporary…" He reminded himself, turning to seal the doors behind him.
"I didn't think he wanted anyone to know about us yet, but apparently so." Abigail couldn't focus on that right now, or the fact Dean and Taker did NOT like each other one bit. They had a dangerous task before them, one that would require her full attention instead of worrying about men. "I meant what I told him though, you are my friend, Dean. And since I may not even make it back alive…" She ignored the look he shot her, folding her arms in front of her chest. "Nothing else matters right now except what we discussed. Just in case you wanted some form of payment for it, here." She brought the silver coins and gestured him to hold out his hand, dropping them into his palm. "I don't know what you can use those for, maybe trading or something, but I didn't expect you to do this completely for free. And I'm not taking them back, so don't bother trying."
Shrugging, Dean tossed them out into the lake. "Make a wish, doll." He laughed, having absolutely no use for them and ignored her dropped jaw. "Hey, you said you weren't taking them back, so… they were mine to do with what I wanted." He wrapped his arm around her. "Just friends, sure. Fine. Let's get something straight, Abs," His tone had gotten deadly serious. "That isn't the first time you've mentioned you not coming back and I'm telling you right now, knock it off. I don't deal with people who have death wishes and that's what you sound like. This world ain't no place for heroes, got it? We do what we got to do, but we live through it and keep on trucking." He was grinning again. "Besides, I haven't lost a man yet."
"Yeah well, as you can plainly see, I'm not a man, I'm a woman." Abigail retorted with a smirk, though it didn't touch her eyes.
There was a very good chance this would all go south, either in the cave with the invisibility cloak or at the castle. She just hoped Dean didn't play hero if she got into a bind or in trouble. It was obvious he cared about her already; was she really that…beautiful, enchanting, that two men wanted her?
"I can't believe you just tossed those in the lake." She muttered good-naturedly, rolling her eyes at his grin and nudged him playfully. "Alright, I'm gonna leave you to do the preparations…and head back up to help out with the common house." It was going on 4 and she promised Trish she wouldn't be late today. "Tomorrow night, where do you want to meet up?"
"My place." Dean tugged off his bandana, staring at her and grinned. "I'll walk you up to the common house, been a while since I've seen… them." He bet Trish Stratus still had those very lovely bouncing bosoms too. "Shit, Roman is cooking tonight anyway, might just eat there too." Roman couldn't cook to save his life. Abigail looked like she was torn between being amused and panicking. "What's wrong, doll? Afraid of what people will say if I'm with you?" He didn't know whether to find that funny or feign being somewhat hurt. Dean reached down, tugging his beater out of the waist of his jeans and peeled it off, using it to wipe the sweat off his muscular chest before wrapping it around his neck, groaning. "Shower first." For once, the cold water in the building was going to be very welcome.
"No, no I just…didn't think you'd want to slum it up with Taker's 'circle'."
Abigail laughed at his eye roll, trying not to notice the body he had on him. There was no doubt in her mind, if she hadn't met Taker first, Dean would've been the next choice to lose her virginity. Speaking of that…Abigail wondered if that would happen tonight, really not wanting to die without experiencing sex at least once. Would Taker be up for it though? She couldn't push the issue or else he would know something was going on.
"I could care less what those people think of us hanging out together, Dean. If I'm 'slumming' it up, so be it. You are my friend and you're doing something none of them would do." For her, she knew that was the only reason he'd agreed to do it, besides seeing Taker's head possibly explode. "Now come on, shower and then we'll head up there. Try to be quick, okay?"
"You should quit your little gig as Stephanie's scullery maid." Dean informed her after they had stopped, so he could retrieve his cooler before heading towards his 'house'. "You can come work with me. When I'm not on the 'everyone pitches in' gig, I do… other things, fun things. You're a budding adrenaline junkie, you'd have fun."
Anyone as ballsy as Abigail was being wasted in a kitchen, running errands like some little maid. She needed to be out of that place, free, and she'd probably enjoy being able to see little slices of the world. Dean was able to do that, give her that. Hell, if Taker wasn't such a straight-laced son of a bitch, Dean bet he'd have been a bit surprised at just how much Shield could have done for him and Wonderful. As it was, since they weren't exactly wanted, or always trusted… they did things under the table. A lot of it still benefited Wonderful, just not necessarily in the way Taker wanted.
"Oh really? You do realize I have a bed in the common house and that's why I work there, right? You willing to put me up if I were to leave the common house and come work with you?"
Granted, if things kept progressing with Taker…no, Abigail didn't think that would happen after Malcolm was rescued. He was going to be furious with her. She smirked when he nodded and highly doubted that, following him into the Shield building upstairs to his loft.
"I'll think about it, but tonight, I still need a place to sleep and I still have a job to do. I can't leave them hanging, especially since Stephanie is out right now." At Dean's raised brow, Abigail frowned and wrapped her arms around herself. "It's one of the reasons I want to rescue Malcolm. They're running low on the type of medicine she needs for her pregnancy. It's…complicated and since you're a guy, you probably care less. I'm worried about her though – and a few others are pregnant too that run the common house, so training it is."
"Oh, the blood pressure meds, right?" He laughed, pushing open the door and guided her inside. "Yeah, Roman got to hear all about it. That's one of the reasons why they're raiding that hospital. Meds, beds, generators, equipment, also a reason why they need my big Samoan."
"Not my name, Ambrose."
"Could be, sweet cheeks." Dean pinched Roman's cheek on his way through, stopping to shuck his boots. "We're getting a roomie, Romie."
Roman pinched the bridge of his nose, flashing Abigail a quick smile and then groaned. "Why can't you undress in the bathroom?"
"Don't look." Dean snorted, bare assed now, and kicked his jeans to the side. "Because as soon as I'm out, I'm tossing them into the wash pile, jackass. You were bitchin' I leave everything laying on the bathroom floor. Be out soon, Abs."
"Did I hear somethin' about a new roommate?" Seth Rollins came waltzing in, stopping at the sight of the stunning ebony-haired beauty standing in the middle of the living room/kitchen, raising a slow black brow. Her hand was currently covering her eyes and her cheeks were…red. "Who do we have here? Another one of your flings, Ro-Ro?"
"Not my name, jackass."
"Yeah – yeah, whatever. Sweetheart, you can take your hand away from your eyes now. He's in the bathroom." Seth informed her with a grin, also naturally tanned, though not as much as Roman, with straight shoulder-length black hair, naturally curled and a black full beard, trimmed neatly. "I'm Seth, and what is your name, beautiful?"
Just how many men lived here? Abigail pulled her hand away from her eyes and looked at Seth, not sensing immediate danger from him. "Abigail, most people call me Abbie." She shook his offered hand and cleared her throat, not believing Dean just went bare-assed in front of her. Good GOD! "So, you three…live here together?"
"Yep." Roman was busy getting a pair of tongs out of the backroom, big old barbecuing ones. They used them for whatever. In this case, he was using them to get Dean's scummy pants off the floor. "Dean needs two full-time babysitters."
"Ain't that the truth." Seth chuckled and then realized Abigail might be getting the wrong impression about them. "We're not gay."
"Who the hell said we were gay?" Roman shot Seth a look and then glanced at the pants he was holding out at arm's length when Seth gave him a look. "I'm not."
"Roman," Dean popped his head out of the bathroom. "Man, you got anything else besides fruit smelling wash?"
Seth had to turn away.
"You sure about that, big man?" Abigail snickered, ignoring Roman's blatant glare shot her way and folded her arms in front of her chest. "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of a man having fruit smelling body wash."
Seth was trying, really trying, not to laugh at his comrade and failed, losing it when Dean did a double thumbs-up before slamming the door in Roman's face.
Abigail lost it as well, laughing hard and held her stomach, tears filling her eyes from the pain. A quick glance at the clock told her she couldn't wait for Dean to finish up, eyes widening. "Oh shit, I gotta go. Tell Dean to meet me at the common house if he still wants to come. Didn't realize the time. Catch you later, gentlemen!" She hightailed it out of the building and ran smack into… "Taker. Sorry!" Trish was going to kill her if she was late again. Maybe a job profession change was in order…after Malcolm was rescued. "Done already?"
"Yes," He said simply, feeling rather… drained. In the satchel at his side was Wonderful's protection while he was gone. "I'm sorry I couldn't take you into the forge, darlin'." His tired emerald eyes moved to the building behind her, knowing damn well who lived there. "I can show you what I was doing though." He smiled slightly. "If… you promise to keep it to yourself." Taker hadn't missed her disappointment earlier, but working at very high temperatures with a magical mineral was a recipe for disaster under the best of times.
Doing what he had done, that was just a death wish.
Common house or Taker…that was a no-brainer. "I told you I understand, it's okay."
She reached up to touch the side of his face, smiling softly and then frowned at how drained he was. Maybe they wouldn't be spending the night together after all. That made her heart twinge painfully in her chest because she had no idea what the future held for them once tomorrow came.
"Show me. I won't tell anyone."
At his nod, he took her hand and guided her up to the front of Wonderful to his tower. Abigail didn't care about anything else, not even the common house, and walked up the stairs with him until they were completely alone in his room.
