"...There's a reason you hired us to protect you and that little creampuff to your left, Randy Orton."
CJ couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips at Randy's little wave to Dean. She knew that all three Shield members were pissed off, and letting Dean preach the truth was a good way to go. She didn't pay close attention to what he was saying, but instead analyzed his movements while he spoke. His usual erratic pacing was a bit more controlled, but he was pissed off so there was no way he'd be completely still as he spoke. Even as Seth spoke, belittling Evolution and letting them know that they were well aware of everything they were capable of, Dean couldn't be completely stilled. The blonde was always ready for a fight and CJ couldn't be more attracted to that.
"Who is he calling a creampuff?" Beth asked, handing Lyric down to CJ before taking a seat beside the younger blonde.
"Triple H. Dean started it though when he called Randy one." CJ explained as the guys rolled out of the ring.
"Understatement." Beth muttered, looking away from the TV as the eleven guys from the week before lined up on the stage to back Evolution. "Does Dean ever sit still?"
"I don't think so." CJ murmured as she started gently rocking Lyric in her arms while she thought about it. "Even in his sleep, he's moving some part of his body."
"Does that get uncomfortable?"
"Surprisingly no. It's little things like gentle squeezing, rubbing my stomach, or back depending on how we sleep. The man doesn't do much sleeping from what I've gathered, but he is such a good cuddler."
"Somebody is going to sleep good once her Dean-bean gets here." Beth teased and CJ shrugged, trying to play off the heat spreading across her cheeks.
"What is up with you and Adam giving him nicknames that I wouldn't have thought of?" The younger blonde asked, looking to Beth for an answer. The older woman only shrugged, checking to see if Lyric was asleep.
"I don't know. It just rhymes and I went with it. Think he'll hate it?"
"He puts up with baby boo from that man of yours. I think the man can handle anything." CJ assured, smiling at Beth.
Dean was standing on the balcony of the hotel suite he was sharing with Seth and Roman. The two were taking about the events of Raw while he nursed a beer from the mini bar and smoked a cigarette. He didn't want to talk about what happened earlier in the night. He wanted to talk about what they were going to do about it durning SmackDown. He wanted all of their heads on sticks, which wouldn't be difficult because not one of those men(dare he call them men) had a backbone connecting their heads to the rest of their bodies.
"What are you thinking, Dean?" Seth asked in a low tone from the doorway, attempting to grab the older man's attention but Dean didn't turn away from the cityscape before him. "What do you want to do?"
"I want to take them all out." Dean stated simply, pulling the cigarette from his mouth and beginning to slowly grind it into the ashtray. "One by one."
"Should there be another eleven on three tomorrow night, how would you want to go about it?" Roman asked, watching the blonde as he pushed passed Seth into the main room of the suite, taking a long drink of his beer before looking to the garbage can. His two teammates knew that he was considering attempting to toss the empty bottle into the can, but were shocked when Dean just threw the bottle to the far wall.
"The hell is your problem!?" Seth shouted, eyes glued to where Dean was standing still for once. "We get that you're pissed about what's happening, but that's no reason to throw shit."
"At least he didn't throw it at you." Roman reasoned, pulling Seth back. "But seriously, we want your opinion on this, Dean."
Dean had plenty of opinions on how they should go about their attack. But instead of voicing those opinions, he was staring down the beer remounts that were on the wall. Five little splatters were on the wall and the bottle had broken into six large pieces among the small shards on the floor.
"Dean." Seth tried getting Dean's attention away from the wall, but the blonde only waved him off. The two other Shield members knew that their teammate wasn't always "all there", and his erratic behavior had never really bothered them in the past, but he'd never zoned out like this before. An almost eerie silence had fallen over the the three men, Seth and Roman staying quiet to let Dean think. Whatever Dean was thinking through, the guys weren't sure they wanted to know, it seemed really important if it made him stand still.
"We're not going to be able to make it a fair fight in time for the match, even if it's the main event." Dean finally mumbled, looking up from the glass on the floor to his teammates.
"What?" Seth asked, tilting his head when Dean dropped to his knees and crawled to the glass shards. "Be careful, man."
"We can't have more than six people on the other team without getting overwhelmed." Dean started to elaborate as he picked up the six large shards in his hand. "If we take out Swagger, Slater, McIntyre, Mahal, Fandango, and Curtis Axel or Ryback; we could make the numbers game work for us and decimate them like only we can."
Roman only nodded in agreement, not paying attention to the glass in Dean's hand until Seth rushed forward to force the blonde to let go of the glass. It was then that the Samoan realized the blood dripping from Dean's hand due to how hard he was squeezing the glass. It was almost as if Dean thought that crushing the glass in his hand would weaken their opponents. But he went to get the garbage can from the corner of the main room to pick up the glass while Seth guided Dean to the bathroom to clean up his hand. As far as Roman was concerned, Dean just proved that he was willing to bleed for this cause.
Seth watched as Dean stared down at his hand. The two toned man had poured peroxide on a washcloth and tied it tight around Dean's hand so that his wound didn't get infected. Dean wasn't sitting completely still, since his foot was tapping rapidly against the carpeted floor, but it was too still for Seth's liking. Usually his knee would bounce and he'd be checking his phone for a text every few minutes, but Dean hadn't glanced at his phone in the last hour. The younger man knew what Dean needed to set him right before. It was more of a who, and as much as Seth didn't like the idea of shipping Dean to the doorstep of the woman he loved, she would set Dean right.
It was more than obvious to Seth that Dean missed CJ. The two had connected on some weird level that he could only assumed was a level for damaged people, but it was a connection none the less. Seth also missed the beautiful blonde, he loved her, but setting Dean as right in the head as possible before Extreme Rules was a bit more important than keeping his jealousy at bay. He knew he'd get his time to see her sometime soon, but he wasn't losing his grip on reality without her.
After stealthily taking a picture of Dean; Seth stepped out onto the balcony, fingers already dialing her phone number while he shut the door behind him as quietly as he could. He hoped that she wasn't sleeping already, because desperation couldn't be heard in a text message and a voicemail wasn't enough for him
"Hi, Seth." CJ greeted, sounding tired.
"Hey, babe." He couldn't fight the smile that crept onto his face at calling her babe, even though he knew that he probably shouldn't. "Sorry, force of habit."
"It's fine, Sethie. It's late, is something wrong?"
"I'm going to send you a picture, and I want you to tell me." He had to be vague; telling CJ that he was worried about Dean would make her start asking questions about his behavior, when one picture would answer them all.
"What happened to his hand?"
"He squeezed pieces of glass in it. I'm not sure why. But I know you can tell that he's off, CJ."
"Yeah. What do you want me to do about it, Seth?" CJ asked, and Seth could hear how confused she was. He could understand, since she wasn't exactly mobile at the moment and wasn't really close. "By the way, nice hammer/coffin metaphor on Raw."
"Thank you, m'lady. Can you invite Dean to spend his off days with you? I think he's off because he misses you, CJ." It was easier to say out loud than he thought it would be.
"I can."
"Don't tell him it was my suggestion, though. I think that might make it worse."
"I wasn't planning on it. How've you been, Sethie?" CJ asked and Seth took a deep breath, not expecting her to ask about him with how concerned she was about Dean. He liked that she was thinking about him, though.
"I miss you, CJ. I'm obviously faring better than he is, but I still miss you. I'll look at the card and pray that I see your name on there even though I know it won't be for a few more months."
"I miss you, too, Seth. I miss the business, I miss kicking ass and making those models trying to be wrestlers tap out."
Dean didn't know what Seth was doing on the balcony or who he was talking to that he could stand the nighttime air for almost half an hour. He could only assume it was Seth's patents or maybe CJ; and if it was CJ, Dean could only hope that he wasn't professing his undying love for her. He didn't want to have to punch his best friend in the face for messing with his woman.
He knew by the stupid grin that was on Seth's face when he walked in that he was talking to CJ, and he also knew that it was most likely going to take amnesia to make the younger man lose his love for CJ. If need be, he'd figure out how to make it happen. He couldn't help but glare down the washcloth on his hand; not mad at Seth for patching him up as best he could, but mad at himself for giving CJ reason to worry about him when he saw her.
"Answer your phone, Dean. She's called twice." Roman said; pointing to Dean's phone that was laying forgotten on the couch cushion next to the blonde, who had been unintentionally tuning out the sound of it vibrating for the last hour. "Get some sleep tonight, man."
"Don't you worry about me, big man. I've got it."
"Hey, your highness." In CJ's opinion, he didn't even sound like Dean. It was the same lovely voice that she really loved, but there was something missing. "Were you just talking to-"
"Yeah. He wanted me to invite you to come be in Syracuse with me during your time off." CJ explained, leaning back in the recliner while she watched Ghostbusters and held Lyric.
"You want me there with you?" Dean asked and she wasn't sure if he was playing along as if he wasn't already to please Seth or if he was being serious right now.
"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want you around, Dean. I have PT, but-"
"I don't mind hanging out with Beth and Lyric while you're getting your knee right." He cut her off and CJ couldn't help but smile, even as Lyric started grabbing at her hair.
"Stop that." CJ gently scolded Lyric, using her shoulder to hold her phone to her ear so she could remove the tiny hand from her hair.
"Stop being a nice guy?"
"How did you get your hand tangled in my hair. Holy Jesus- no don't pull."
"Your highness, I don't think giving instructions to a baby who isn't even a year old is going to work." Dean teased, and CJ gave a dry laugh. "I can fly in tomorrow night, if you don't mind picking me up late?"
"I'm actually allowed to drive. We can stay at my new place and I can drop you off at Adam and Beth's before I have to go to PT in the morning." She suggested, finally getting Lyric's hand free. Of course, the baby shoved her little fist into her mouth when her eyes locked onto the Stay Puft on TV. "I hope that tastes good."
"What?" Dean asked, obviously confused.
"She's eating her fist. Can you just not shave ever?" CJ asked, enjoying the way five o'clock shadow looked on Dean in the picture Setb sent.
"For you, I will not shave tomorrow morning."
Creampuff situation update: I asked and he said not to be offended because he was just trying to be cute. I appreciate all of your support with this one.
Thank you to ArtisticLullaby, UntilNeverDawns, Sarcastic Nightmare, AshleighxAwesome, ChelleLew, ILoveAnime89, TaijiaK, and Tracy-Robinson47 for reviewing the last chapter! I appreciate that, too!