A/N: Reminder that this story is mostly A/U with a splash of realism. I will try my best to keep the timeline for Live Events and PPV's as factual as possible. But everything else is fan-fiction fun!Enjoy.
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Friday 18th, January 2019:

The next morning:

Belle laid in bed sweating profusely after she woke herself up from a dream. She laid in agony with tears in her eyes as the pounding in her head and behind her right eye got worse. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP... She closed her eyes and tried to relax her mind and concentrated on her breathing. She cried out when the pain got worse and stumbled out of bed in search of her medication.

She hated taking pills but when the pain got to this level it was the only thing that worked. She managed to get herself into the bathroom and found her medication in her small toiletries bag and filled up a small glass with some water. Sitting down on the closed toilet she swallowed two tablets and pressed the cool glass against her forehead. "Please work."

After a few more minutes she could feel the pressure in her head start to ease and tried to refocus her vision the best she could before she crawled back into bed. Her first night hadn't gone so well, and she hoped it wouldn't prove to be a precursor of what would come over the next few days.

She had tossed and turned all night trying to find a comfortable position to lay in, during her days at the Express her body adapted better to traveling but it had been quite some time and her body was letting her know exactly how it felt. But the real problem wasn't the mattress it was the star of her dreams... Ben. It had been many months since the last dream of her ex, but it felt that every time she closed her eyes all she saw was his smiling face. Once again reminding her of a broken past and of the future that he obliterated.

"Please, I just want to sleep and not see you anymore."

Meanwhile:

The Superstars of the Raw roster were in San Antonio Texas getting ready for their live show that evening. A handful of Superstars had decided to stay close to the Arena and had booked rooms at the Holiday Inn San Antonio-Riverwalk, including some Female Superstars.

Nattie, Mickie and Pam (Bayley) had made plans to meet up mid-morning to get in a gym session before their scheduled 6 person tag team match that evening. The women had been working out for close to forty-five minutes when Dori (Ruby Riott) and Gionna (Liv Morgan) walked in.

"Where is she even getting this from!" Gionna asked looking down at her phone. "It's like she's got her little spies everywhere, do you think she works for us?"

Dori chuckled and shook her head. "Babe, I don't think she works for us and I have no idea. She's probably got her paid little minions going through trash for all we know."

Nattie stepped off of the treadmill and wiped her face and neck. "What are you girls talking about?" She inquired walking over to them.

Dori turned around with a smile, "Oh just the recent Gossip Girl blog...we're so sad."

"I want to know if it's true or not!" Gionna stated and jutted out her bottom lip. "And I'm not addicted, don't hate me because I like to read."

"Blondie, that isn't proper reading," Sarah, (Sarah Logan) teased affectionately and patted Gionna on the head as she passed by. "And I think we can all agree that we've checked it out more than once or twice."

The other women all shared a look of confirmation and laughed. "So what's this newest one about?" Nattie asked.

"It's from a few days ago but it's more about Nikki of course and a little about Cupid striking for a certain Emerald Isle Superstar." Gionna responded.

"Which one, there's a couple?" Sarah replied.

"Oh, I don't know but what about Fergal, he's been in a pretty good mood lately." Gionna smiled.

Dori chuckled and rolled her eyes again, "Please don't even think about going there...again."

The Women looked over to where the bubblegum loving Liv was standing a little shocked at what Ruby had just revealed. "What's that I'm sorry?" Pam inquired from the exercise bike.

Gionna stood there with a silly smile and twirled her ponytail around her finger. "I was just being nice and I offered to show him around a while back."

Dori and Sarah looked at each other and couldn't hold their laughter in anymore. "Between his accent and her talking a mile a minute, neither of them could understand a word the other was saying. They ended up just standing there staring at each other." Sarah choked out.

"Shut up!" Gionna glared as the Women all laughed. "His accent is really heavy, and I was nervous." She admitted coyly.

"Come on babe, forget it lets's go stretch." Dori said and wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulders. "It may not be about him."

"Was it really that bad?" Gionna mumbled.

Dori squeezed her shoulder, "We're just teasing. And no, it wasn't totally bad."

Colby arrived back at the hotel after an early morning radio interview and headed straight for the in-house restaurant for some breakfast. It was quiet which he preferred and followed behind the waitress as she showed him over to a small table next to the wall of windows that overlooked the River-walk below. He placed his phone and wallet on the table and sat down. He thanked her for the menu and nodded when she said she would give him a few minutes to look it over.

After he looked over the menu, he decided on the Breakfast Platter consisting of three sunny side up eggs, potato hash with onions and tomato, a piece of sourdough toast with a coffee. He was hungry after not eating well the night before due to car troubles and issues at home which needed to be sorted out sooner rather than later. The waitress walked away with his order and he turned his attention back to the beautiful landscape.

The Hotel was built overlooking the famed River-walk, a network of interconnected paths through the native park lands on the banks for the San Antonio River. It was an absolutely beautiful view which he also enjoyed from the small balcony in his room.

Colby's attention was dragged away from the window down to his phone when it chimed. He pressed the home button and sighed when a familiar name appeared on the screen "Becca".

"What now?" He angrily murmured to himself. He unlocked his phone and swiped on the message. "Stupid crazy..." He seethed as a photo appeared of a pile of broken dishes on what looked like to be his wooden kitchen floor.

"Similar to what you've done to my heart. You're an asshole Colby, I loved you and trusted you...enjoy the clean up!"

The waitress placed his breakfast down as he sent a message to his friend Dan to go over to the house and clean up for him and to go to Walmart and purchase a new dinner set. The last thing he wanted was for his Mom to come back from her Cruise to all of that crap.

"Thank -you." He nodded.

Colby's Mom had recently moved in with him after a few financial and minor health setbacks. He had suggested she move in as he didn't see the point of her trying to find somewhere new to live when he had a perfectly big enough house for the two of them, and it wasn't like he was ever really home enough for them to be in one another's way. Also she proved to be a good buffer between he and Becca.

The last six months of their relationship had been an utter nightmare. They had met in their senior year of High School but had only reconnected within the last two years. At first things were great, but slowly over time they lost their way and the ease and connection they shared got more and more strained. They soon found themselves going up and down almost on a weekly basis with unfair accusations being thrown at him like she was an A grade Baseball pitcher. Whenever a photo of him and a female fan or even a fellow female superstar appeared online she was straight on the phone berating and yelling at him. Eventually after many sleepless nights he summoned the courage to end it once and for all and asked for his keys back.

There had been a few near slip ups and weak moments but that photo was more than enough proof that he had made the right decision. He just wished they could have ended on more civilised terms.

"Note to self, no more crazies!"

After breakfast Colby left the waitress a nice tip and headed back up to his room to change for the gym. He was headed back down when he saw Pam and Nattie exit the elevator on his floor. "Good morning Ladies." He smiled.

"Hi!" They replied in unison.

"How are you, when did you get in last night?" Pam asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I got in a little after two AM. AAA took forever in coming out to look at the car." He sighed and shook his head.

"Oh man that sucks. You should have called and I would have come back for you. We had plenty of room in our car."

"Next time I'll take you up on the offer. Sorry I've got to get to the gym, I'll see you both later."

"No worries, see you later." Pam smiled as they walked off.

Colby rode the elevator down and entered the near empty gym. It wasn't as big as some but it had the essentials and it was better than nothing. He gave a quick nod in the other superstars' directions and turned his music on through his headphones. He lost himself in the music and his intense workout, it was his time to get his mind and body in-tune and after such a hearty breakfast he needed to get moving; fast.

"Alright, here we go..."

WWE PC, Tampa:

Paul and Coach Bloom exchanged notes as they walked back to their respective Offices after watching the morning session with the newest inductees to the P.C. There were a few minor standouts but none that really grabbed either of their full attention. Usually they had at least three or four that caught their eye straight out of the gate, but it looked like this group would have to simmer for a while before anyone rose to the surface.

"Let's wait and see how they are in the afternoon. Sometimes it takes a little while to settle in." Matt shrugged.

"True, but I was hoping to see a little glimmer. Keep an eye on the promo class and let me know. I've got a few calls to return but I'll be around for the afternoon session at this point." Paul replied.

"No problem. I'll talk with Shawn and see if we can make a few changes and shake things up a little."

"Sounds good, thanks man." Paul smiled and shook his hand.

He opened and closed his door just as his phone started to buzz. "Hey babe, good timing I was just walking back into my Office. How's everything going?"

"So far so good. I got all of the paperwork submitted on time which is a miracle in and of itself." Steph said with a slight chuckle. "I'm just going over a few notes and changes for the PPV, before my meeting with Dad. How was your morning?"

"Lack luster to say the least. Actually Matt and I were just talking about it, we're hoping for a little more this afternoon." Paul replied taking a seat behind his desk and starting up his laptop.

Steph frowned, "Oh, really? I'm sorry I know you thought this group looked really promising."

"Yeah, well on paper they all look like potential Superstars but you know how that goes. Anyway they have their first promo workshop with Shawn soon, so I'll let him work his magic and see if we can get some better results."

"I'm sure things will get better. So how are the tapings going?"

"They're looking really good. I'm actually in two minds about showing Vince, I don't want him to raid my roster again." Paul laughed.

"He'll do it anyway just to spite you." Steph teased.

"Knowing him you're probably right. All set for next week?"

Steph sighed into the phone. "I hope so. She arrived last night safe and sound I got a message from the car service. I'm just hoping I've made the right move here."

Ever since they had found out Bella's true identity they had gone back and forth about how to handle the rather delicate situation and how to move forward. Obviously keeping it a secret from everyone other than her Father was paramount, but trying to find a convincing way to get her on board, had proved to be much more difficult than they had originally thought. But Like Paul told her at the time, she had to believe in it if she wanted any chance of convincing Bella or Vince that it was the right move.

Flashback:

November 2018:

JJ, sat in his darkened office on the sixth floor at WWE HQ going over all the information that he had been given by his sources in regards to the mystery Aussie blogger. After exhausting all of his normal investigative methods and getting nowhere, he found himself having to dive head first into the murkier waters of his profession - something that he wasn't all that happy about. But he had tried everything else and getting to the bottom of this mystery had moved to #one on his list and to be honest the lengths this person had gone to to hide their identity was actually quite impressive.

But after a lot of hard work, his tactics were beginning to show some promise. His sources had been able to gather enough information for him to put the pieces together and once all laid out it was rather interesting to say the least. At the start he had no idea what sort of minefield he had entered but there was certainly no backing out, not after all of his hard work. Finally confident in the facts he called up to Stephanie's Office and asked her if she could come down when she had a free moment.

Shortly after lunch Stephanie went down to the sixth floor and knocked on JJ's door. He called out for her to come in and she closed it behind her again. "Did you find out anything else?"

JJ smirked as he handed her his file. "Take a look at this. You were never going to believe me if I told you what's going on without proof."

Stephanie frowned and leaned forward to grab the file and began to read. "Are you serious?" She asked, blown away by what she was reading.

"No wonder she's gone to the lengths she has to hide her identity. If I was in the middle of that I would have done the exact same thing." He replied. "I feel sorry for the girl, she's certainly gone through a lot because of him."

Steph slowly nodded as she continued looking at the photos and reading the report. Everyone knew of the 'Madoff 2.0' scandal but very little was ever mentioned of what happened to any of the associates and family members. They all seemed to just slip off of the radar so to speak. "I'm not even sure what to say about all of this."

JJ nodded in agreement. "Steph, it's up to you but if she can help stop the leaks then I think you have to at least meet her. But considering everything that has happened since, I'm not entirely comfortable in people knowing about her identity."

"No I'm in complete agreement. Can you trust your people to keep quiet?"

"Oh absolutely. I only got bits and pieces from a couple, never enough for them to cause any issues on their end. I trust them." JJ stated quickly.

"Ok, good." Steph exhaled. "I wasn't expecting this when I first started looking into what was happening. Thanks for all your hard work JJ, I really appreciate it."

"Of course. You can keep that, I have a copy but it's in a safe place just in case."

Steph thanked him again and made her way back to the elevators. She didn't like the idea of 'outing' this poor Woman, but if it shut down the leaks then JJ was right; she really had no other choice than to tell her Father. She sent a quick text message to Paul asking him where he was and that she's coming to his Office as she stepped onto the elevator. She also sent one to D asking her to hold all calls for the afternoon and to call up to Vince's Office and see when he would be free this afternoon.

"Hey what's going on?" Paul said meeting her as the mirrored doors opened on his floor.

Steph shook her head and handed him the file. He looked at her confused but followed her in as he glanced through papers.

"What's all of this?" He asked and closed the door behind them. "This can't be true?"

"It's all true, JJ's verified everything." Steph sighed and leaned back on the leather couch. "This is crazy right? It's like the plot to one of our movies."

"You know you're going to have to tell Vince right? He's going to want to hear it from you and not anyone else."

"I know. I've already messaged D to ask her to call up and set a time for me to speak with him. For the first real time I'm kind of lost for words." She replied tiredly. "I want the leaking to stop and I think she could help us with that, but I also don't want to turn her life upside down again."

Paul closed the file and blew out a deep breath. "OK, let's think about this maybe there's a way to find out what's going on and keep her a secret at the same time. We need to work this to both of our advantages." He explained. "Just hear me out let's brainstorm."

"What are you thinking?" Steph asked turning her body towards him.

"From what I can remember of her articles she was pretty good at her job, so let's use that as a positive for us. Perhaps we could hire her as an in-house investigator? Does JJ need a new assistant?"

Steph shook her head. "No he's all set and his budget has already been approved, no wiggle room at all there. But I do like the idea of hiring her... What are you thinking Mrs. Levesque?" He smirked at the look on her face.

"We could hire her but not exactly tell her the reason for her hiring, well not the real one anyway."

"How does that work exactly?" Paul wondered.

"Okay, so she writes this blog that everyone is already talking about, and we're always looking to blur the lines between what's real and what's not so real." Steph smiled. "So we bring her in because we like the concept of her blog and encourage her to keep writing but not tell anyone and along the way she can pick up the trail of the leaker and tell us who it is."

"How do you know she will go after the real story?"

"Babe, like you said, she's an investigative journalist it's in her blood she won't be able to help herself." She replied.

"So we get her to come all the way over from Australia offer her one job but hope she performs another but keep it from her and everyone else?"

"Exactly!" Steph grinned.

Paul laughed and shook his head, "Now all you have to do is find a way to make this all seem like your Dad's idea."

"And I have five minutes." Steph said looking down to D's message. 'Wish me luck."

"Better you than me." Paul quipped giving her a chaste kiss.

"Thanks a lot!"

"Steph, you've got this. We have everything in place to protect her and keep it all up, everything will be fine."

"You're right I'm worrying about something that hasn't and probably won't happen. I should go I have to get these to Dad. Good luck this afternoon." She smiled.

"Thanks babe, you too. Talk to you tonight love you."

"I love you too baby."

Paul laughed to himself, "Only in the WWE!"