Randy sipped at his coffee. He had made it on the coffee machine that came in his room, but it wasn't as good as the stuff you got in a real coffee shop. It was definitely not strong enough for him, and he wished that he had dumped the entire packet in the coffee machine, or maybe two or three packets because he needed something stronger. At the very least, the brown liquid heated him up some.

He hadn't been able to get to sleep the night before; not since Trish had left his room. His mind had been up all night, trying to think of various scenarios to get out of Evolution. Trish's face was imprinted in his mind, the dark bruises had been emblazoned on his conscience. There was no way that he could not think about what had happened to her.

He himself also felt betrayed by Hunter, and Ric, in the case of Molly, she hadn't been in Evolution long enough for him to really care about her or give her a second thought most of the time. He had thought of Hunter as his friend, but obviously that assumption was proven incorrect last night. He had been having a great night until Trish had come knocking on his door in the middle of the night.

He set the coffee down, finding nothing was coming from drinking that. He was already in his gym clothes and decided that he would take out his anger in the form of burning calories. At least it would give him something else to focus on. If he thought anything more about Trish and the Evolution situation, he might think himself into a corner.

Randy got up and jumped a couple of times, just trying to calm himself enough to walk down the hallways. Dave looked up from the newspaper he had been reading as he saw Randy jumping up and down.

"Hey man, you ok?" Dave said, a man of few words.

"No," Randy said, a sarcastic chuckle escaping his lips. "They always say that things look better in the morning, you know, but that's not true."

"I think that's just a saying to make someone feel better," Dave deadpanned.

"Well it's not working," Randy said, "I need to go work out or something. I just need to get away from here because I just can't sit here and think about her and, my blood is boiling right now."

"Then get out of here," Dave said, stating the rather obvious.

Randy nodded, knowing that's exactly what he had to do to calm himself down. He left the room and went down to the hotel gym. Blissfully there was nobody he knew there, just a few other people. He really didn't want to talk to anyone right now anyways, so this was the perfect situation. He went over to a treadmill and got on it, setting it for a slow level and starting a slow jog.

He focused on jogging and nothing else, looking out the large floor-to-ceiling windows to the pool area. He kept his mind focused on the steps he was taking and the pounding of his feet against the treadmill. If he did let his mind wander, he might get so unfocused that he would fall right off this machine.

"Hi."

Randy almost fell off the treadmill anyways, but managed to stop it just in time, panting from having jogged for at least thirty minutes. He turned to her, and she had done an amazing job of hiding the bruises on her face from the world. He could still spot a little bit of the bruise through the matted makeup, but it was almost unnoticeable.

"Hey," he said, his voice still concerned.

Trish picked up on it and she smiled, "I'm ok."

"Good," he nodded slowly, trying not to sound as relieved as he felt. A part of him had thought that perhaps she would be attacked again, and once again he would be unable to protect her. He was glad that she seemed to be at least in good spirits. "Did Lita and Christian take good care of you?"

"Yeah, they did," she answered. "I'm just glad they were around. They've made me feel really welcome."

"Good, you know, if you need someplace, like if you don't feel safe, you can always come find me."

Trish grinned, "That's a very bold offer from you Randy, I mean, we've only been on one date, and to get so forward as to suggest we bunk together."

"Oh, I um…I didn't mean to imply that…I just meant…" Randy said, stumbling through his words. This never happened to him, but with Trish anything was possible. She made him completely useless in so many different ways. He just felt weird around her, but in the best possible way.

"Randy, I'm joking!" Trish said coyly, patting his arm. He put his hand on top of her hand.

"Oh, see, I'm just…tired," he said, trying to cover his faux pas. Trish just laughed and turned her hand over to hold hands with him.

"I…understand," she winked. "So I might let a guy who takes me out two times invite himself into my hotel room, would you happen to know such a guy?"

Randy smiled, feeling more at ease now than he was before. "I might know someone who might like to take you out. He would wonder if you were going to be busy in a couple of days after the house show, and might want to get some dinner."

"I would love to go out with this guy, where can I find him?"

"Right here," he said, leaning in a little closer. She raised her eyebrow as he leaned in closer to her. He ran his hand up her arm and to her shoulder, and then back down to her hand, grabbing it so he was holding onto both of her hands. He leaned down to reach her lips, and she leaned up to reach his. They met in the middle, kissing for real this time, and Randy was so excited that he almost started jumping up and down.

The kiss didn't last all that long seeing as how the both of them weren't all that keen on making out in a public place. Randy started to pull away but Trish let go of his hand to pull him back by placing her hand on the back of his neck. Randy did not argue with her protest. Finally she pulled away and winked at him again.

"So I'm guessing that we're going to be on for that date?" she said.

"You better believe it…um, do you think there's somewhere that we could talk?"

"About what?"

"About what happened last night," he said nervously, wondering whether or not she actually wanted to talk about it. He figured that it was going to be a sensitive subject for her. Sure, she went into the ring every other night and subjected her body to unusual forms of abuse, but this had been a malicious attack on her being, and well, he probably wouldn't be too keen about talking.

Trish's hand went instinctively to her cheek as she sighed. "It's fine, I don't really care that we talk about it."

"Good, I mean, Dave and I were talking about it last night, and well, we came up with something, and I just don't feel like talking about it here, in front of all these people."

"Ok, we'll go somewhere," Trish said, and he noticed that she still had her hand in his large one. He looked down as he smiled at that. He hadn't even realized they were still holding hands. He wanted to hold hands with her, but he wasn't sure if they could walk that way through the hotel, in case Hunter saw them. But what did Randy care? Wait, yes, he did care because maybe him being around Trish would cause another attack.

"Maybe we shouldn't hold hands around the hotel," he whispered to her. Trish looked at him questioningly. "Hunter might see us."

"I don't care," Trish shrugged nonchalantly. "Hunter is not going to start dictating what I do. I do what I want when I want and just because he got the better of me one time does not mean that he's going to control my life."

"But I'm worried," Randy responded. "I don't want anything to happen to you because of me. Especially not because of me."

"Ok, fine, if that's the way that you feel," Trish said, and she tried not to sound too hurt. She didn't want to be handled with kid's gloves just because she had been beaten up. She was fine, she wasn't too hurt, and she came out of this stronger if you will. She had more determination now than she had before.

Randy could sense the hurt, and he really wanted to take her hand again, or show some other gesture of attraction, but he just didn't want anything else to happen to her. He was already feeling nervous right now with just being seen with her. He didn't know where Hunter could be lurking, or Ric, or Molly even, and he didn't want to think about them getting caught.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I just, I worry about you," he said with immense feeling.

Trish didn't respond, but she appreciated the gesture. He was more concerned about her than he was about himself and how could she not appreciate that in a man. They started off walking next to each other, trying to remain inconspicuous to everyone. They walked out of the hotel and then to a nearby coffee shop and Randy had to chuckle to himself because this was essentially how he had started his day, with a cup of coffee.

"So you needed to tell me something?" Trish asked, sipping her coffee.

"Yeah, I did," he said. "Dave and I are getting out of Evolution."

Trish was surprised, but more so about Dave being willing to leave than about Randy leaving at all. She figured that he might, but she didn't figure that Dave would be following Randy's lead. "Him?"

"Dave's my best friend, I never even should've doubted him last night in his involvement in your beating. He said that wherever I go, he's going to go too. He didn't know about the beating, and they didn't even bother to tell him, so he feels just as betrayed. And if he did know, he would've told me about it."

"Wow, I didn't realize you two were so close."

"Well, you know, with Hunter and Ric being buddy-buddy, we didn't have much choice."

"Are you sure that you want to leave Evolution?" she asked. She didn't want him to do it because of her. Evolution had been such a big part of his wrestling career, and she didn't want him to do this because he felt some sort of obligation to her.

"Yeah, I want to. I considered Hunter and Ric some of my best friends, and the minute they knew that I was attracted to you, they decided you were a target, and for whatever reason they went after you, and that's just not my style. I'm in the camp that if you betray a friend, you shouldn't be my friend any longer. That's it."

"Ok, well, if you're sure, I want to help."

"Trish, no…"

"Yes Randy, if I can get retribution for what they did to me, then I want retribution…and maybe Molly's title."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, whatever you want me to do. Even if you want me to be a decoy, I can do that too. You just name it and I will do it. I want to get back at them just as much as you do."

"Ok, if you really want to."

"Oh yes, I want to."