Chapter 3: Don't Thank Me Yet

Coffee in one hand, her elbow perched on the arm of the director's chair she was sitting in, and iPhone in the other hand; Jennings was settled in a corner of the underbellies of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.

She was scrolling through an article about the current major league baseball playoffs race while absentmindedly sipping a coffee and enjoying the peace and quiet before the arena started to fill up with fans, superstars, and the rest of the WWE crew for the night's pay per view event.

Her dark grey jegging clad legs were crossed and her booted foot was bouncing to some unknown tune in her mind.

She sighed contentedly and set her phone in her lap and took a sip of her drink before lifting her eyes and taking in the sites down the hallway. Despite the fact she was essentially 'hiding' at the moment; this really was one of her favorite times of the year.

Summer Slam; the end of summer, the steady upswing to set the ball rolling for stories that would culminate at Wrestlemania, the weather shift, her favorite holidays.

And on top of it, she was feeling happy and content. The changes she had made personally and the changes the seemed to be in store for her in her career had her hopeful and excited.

This was going to be a good couple of months. She could feel that.

Her quick venture in to her thoughts and head had distracted her and a light tap on her shoulder pulled her back to real time.

"Mrs. Gray?"

She looked quickly to her right and up and smiled at, who she suspected was an intern based off of the khakis and button down and ID badge hanging around his neck, speaking to her. "Yeah?"

"Mr. Dunn said you were expecting these?" He responded, holding up a thin stack of papers. "It came through to the office."

"Oh! Yes, I am. Thank you for tracking me down, I had already forgotten about them. You're a doll!"

"You're welcome," the intern responded and after a few seconds of silence that started to breach over to awkwardness he turned on his heel and headed back down the hallway he had come from.

Jennings started to skim over the papers he had handed over, resting her coffee cup on her knee and using one hand to flip a page.

"What did you do to that poor intern to make him scramble away like that?"

Jennings looked up in to the deep chocolate eyes and amused smirk of Seth.

She frowned at him, "he didn't scramble."

"He scrambled."

"Did he really?" She glanced over her shoulder to see if he was able to be spotted at all. Of course, he wasn't. "I didn't do anything, I said thank you and called him a doll."

The amused look continued and she could see a smile start to form.

"Shut up," she said, speaking before he could say anything. She waved the papers, "he brought these to me, and I was being nice."

"You can't call a kid like that 'doll', Jenn."

"I can list the things I can call a kid like you, though."

Seth rolled his eyes slightly and moved his bag to the side so he could sit on the edge of the chair that was next to Jennings's chair. "What is that anyways? Creative notes? That new contract?"

"No," she said looking down and thumbing through them quickly, "and no, that meeting is tomorrow."

"So, no clues for me for this meeting I'm about to walk in to?"

"No," she said again, smiling. "It's house stuff for my realtor. It's very boring."

"You found a place in Chicago already?"

"Selling the house in California. Nathan decided he didn't want to stay there."

Seth snickered, "your name was on the house?"

"I'm not a total idiot, Colb. If I'm going to move across the country for someone I'm not going to get put in a position where I get kicked out and I have no place to go."

"So now you're kicking him out?"

"He made his choice," she shrugged, "he doesn't want it. So I'm selling and using the money to get out of my poor sister's hair."

"I'm sure Jaime likes having you around."

Jennings shrugged lightly and took a sip of her drink, "you're here earlier than usual."

"Creative meeting," he reiterated from the question he had asked her just a few minutes earlier.

"Right. I knew that."

"Drink that coffee and wake yourself up; you're slow on the uptake today," he made a slight head nod towards the cup cradled in her hands.

"Go to your meeting and let me get back to enjoying the calm before the storm."

Seth smiled and stood, "good luck with the house."

She smiled softly and nodded and glanced briefly as he started to walk away. She paused for a moment and then turned her head fully to glance over her shoulder, "hey."

Seth paused and looked at her.

"Congratulations."

"What?"

"You and Jon...congratulations. That's all I'm saying about it."

Seth's smile widened as he processed what she was saying to him. "Are you serious?"

"Be sure you act surprised."

"I will thank you."

She nodded, smiled, and waved him off to continue down the hallway. As she turned back around she could just make out the entrance to the arena and see a few of her coworkers starting to file in to the arena. The crew was starting to get busy around her as well. In just a short time the glam squad would descend on the area she was in and the ball would be rolling.

Might as well give in to the action and go mingle... she thought to herself.

She rolled the papers slightly and slipped them under her arm and began to trek down the hallway towards the true hub of the backstage area; catering. She exchanged a few 'hello' and pleasantries with some crew and superstars as she made her way.

The person she was looking for was exactly where she expected her to be. Renee Young was busy making herself a cup of tea as Jennings walked through the curtained opening to the lounge.

Jennings swatted at the back of her legs with her papers and grinned as Renee's head snapped back at the contact.

"I thought you were Jon misbehaving," Renee giggled, turning to face her friend.

"Just me getting a little handsy," Jennings shrugged.

"I'm not going to complain about it."

Jennings turned her attention away from Renee for a moment to say a quick 'hello' to Nia Jax as she walked by them, with a quick hug, and turned back to a smile from Renee.

"What?" Jennings questioned, moving to the row of coffee containers to refill her cup while they were in the vicinity.

"I was going to come grab you earlier when I walked in. I saw you down the hall but you had company so…" Renee shrugged and sipped her drink.

"I didn't have company. He was saying hello."

"Since when?"

"Since always."

"Mhmm," Renee uttered softly.

Jennings rolled her eyes, "I have to reschedule brunch tomorrow."

"Jenn, no!" Renee gave a strong but playful pout.

"I know, but my meeting got rescheduled and it's at 1:00 and the last thing I need to do before that is drink mimosas and have 25 waffles."

"What kind of meeting are you having?"

"It's nothing, really. Just a quick chat with Carano and…Vince." Jennings shrugged and cut her eyes at Renee before taking a sip of her fresh coffee.

"Vince?" Renee asked. "Jenn, you don't just have a quick chat with Vincent Kennedy McMahon. That isn't an actual thing. Are you in trouble?"

"No."

"Are you getting fired?" Renee dropped her voice.

"Renee, they wouldn't have me on the pay per view tonight just to turn around and fire me in the morning. Seriously, it's nothing that's a big deal."

Renee studied her for a moment, "okay, we're finding a safe space. Let's go."

She latched on to Jenn's arm and gave her a soft tug and they headed towards the hallway to find an empty corner or abandoned equipment where they could talk freely without the overly sensitive ears of the WWE Universe being so close by.

"Alright, let's hear it," Renee stated as they came upon two folding chairs that were on their own in the hallway down from catering and away from the locker rooms.

"This wasn't necessary," Jenn frowned.

Renee perked her eyebrows and folded her arms as best as she could with her cup of tea still in her hand and crossed her legs.

Jenn sighed and reluctantly took the seat across from her friend.

"A couple weeks ago when I went down to Florida for that shoot with Lana, I got pulled away by Sean and Mark for an extra meeting. They, our powers that be, want me to come back to competing on the roster, being in the ring."

"Jenn!" Renee exclaimed, tossing her hands up in surprise at the news. "Jenn that's great! Holy crap! When? How?"

"That's part of the meeting tomorrow. They're being kind of super secretive about it, which is fine, and also why I hadn't really mentioned it to you yet...I just know it would be at the start of the year. I have to have some time to get myself back in ring shape and... that's when they want it. I don't know against who or for how long or any of that yet."

"Okay well you can't cancel brunch tomorrow now because we have to celebrate. I'm seriously happy for you, Jenn, you're back!"

"Not quite yet."

"You're coming back. Can I tell Jon?"

"Of course, you can, and we should probably move it at least dinner. Neither of us have call tomorrow..." She shrugged.

"Dinner works; and it's on me."

Jenn shook her head and bit back an amused smile at her friend. She was happy for her enthusiasm but she had a suspicion that Renee was going to blow this out of proportion; at least for what it was at the time. Renee did have a flair for dramatics.

"So where does Colby come in?" Renee asked, pulling Jenn from her wandering thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"Where does he fit in? I know how to piece a puzzle together."

"If you know how to piece a puzzle together then why are you asking me where he fits?" Jenn quipped.

"You know what I mean. Spill it."

"I told him," Jenn answered, forthright and short. "He happened to be in Tampa, too, and I told him about it. It just seemed to be kind of right. I knew what he would say before I even told him and I think it's really just what I needed...wanted to hear."

"Makes sense."

Jennings nodded and picked at a piece of lint on her knee, furrowing her eyebrows slightly. "He wants to train me."

"What?"

"I went to Davenport last week to check out his gym...hopped in the ring for a few minutes, had some dinner. He wants to be the one to train me, well retrain me, get me in to shape, whatever..."

"Why not the PC?"

"Davenport is closer. I just got back to Chicago, you know, I want to see my family, my niece, and get settled. I don't want to hop planes for the next four months or live out of a hotel. Logistically it makes sense, and he's the one who taught me to wrestle to begin with...I don't know, it's like a circle of life thing, I guess."

"Is that it?" Renee smiled.

"I could work with Becky, but that's California, or Finn, but he's in New York."

"Can you work with him, though? Without killing each other, I mean. I know you were yin and yang back a few years ago, but now..." Renee let her question trail off.

"I mean I told him I would probably end up killing him and he was all 'that's just what we do' so he reaps what he sows," Jenn joked.

"You know what I mean."

"We didn't get that deep in our conversation. It wasn't that serious; we caught up on things, talked about work."

Renee nodded in understanding and offered her own small shrug. "I know, personally, I would want to dive a little deep on some things. That's a lot of time together, and it's your career, Jenn, I don't think that it would hurt things."

"I know and I plan to do that."

"I'm not trying to butt in to your business."

Jenn snorted and rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "That is exactly what you're trying to do. That's basic Renee 101."

"I make no apologies for that."

Jennings ran her hand through her hair and glanced around at the motions going on around her. "You think it's a good idea? All of it?"

Renee was quiet for a moment, measuring her response. "I do. It's redemption in more ways than one and I'm really excited to get to watch it all happen. Second chances are rare and most of the time they're a good thing."

"Thank you," Jenn smiled. She nodded and inhaled deeply and stood up, "I still don't know what I'm wearing tonight, let's go narrow it down. And also, your husband is winning the tag titles tonight."

"What?!" Renee exclaimed.

"That's the last secret I'm sharing with you for the foreseeable future."

Seth was packing up his handful of clothes that weren't already in his bag, maneuvering them in to smaller folds and pushing them to the side to make sure there was room for his belt to tuck away in his bag. Mid-morning on Monday and he was ready to knock out his day and get to that night's RAW. He admittedly was on a high at the moment. Only a few things, career wise, could make him happier than the position he was in and he was thankful for it, ready to tackle the task.

His phone began to ring from its discarded spot on the bed and he glanced at Jennings' name and picture showing up on his screen before reaching for it.

He chuckled to himself at the contact image that was still set for her on his phone. It briefly crossed his mind that this was the first time she had actually called him in quite a long time; at least a year.

"Hello, Jenn," he answered smoothly, a hint of laughter still in his voice.

"Hi," she responded, her voice coming in loud and clear over his speaker phone. "Are you laughing about something?"

"Um yeah, a bit. Your picture on my phone is still that one of you pouting about Kevin shoving his face in your ice cream and it just made me laugh."

"Ew, you're going to have to change that," she chuckled.

"I like it."

"I probably look like an idiot, too. That was like four years ago. We were babies."

"We were four years younger than we are now I wouldn't exactly call us babies."

"Practically an infant in wrestling years..."

"What are you up to?"

"I'm on my way to my meeting; I'm pretty much around the corner. I just wanted to...say hi real quick, I guess."

He paused in his movements and made a face, even though nobody could see it.

"Are you nervous?" He chuckled.

"A little, yeah. Carano scares the piss out of me."

"Carano? Not Vince?"

"No, Vince is a teddy bear. Carano is a grizzly..."

"He's not that bad and there's nothing for you to be nervous about. This is practically a done deal, right? It's a formality."

"Yeah, I know, I just hate this stuff. I um...I don't know what your schedule is for the rest of the day but do you want to meet me for coffee when I'm done or something? If you're free..."

"Uh, yeah, I can meet you. I have to go to the gym but I'm not going to turn down coffee."

"Don't postpone the gym for me."

"It's fine," he sighed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, just text me and I'll meet you."

"Ok, thank you. Wish me luck I guess."

"You don't need it."

Almost two hours later, Seth found himself nestled at a corner table of the coffee shop across from the hotel most of the Superstars were staying in, taking in the aromas and sounds of his surrounding while he waited for Jenn to make her appearance. Judging from the time she had text him, she should be walking through the doors at any moment.

He crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the chair and let his eyes wander the room.

Not surprisingly, he heard her voice before his eyes settled on her walking through the door. She tossed a wave of acknowledgement towards him and then rolled her eyes and pointed at her phone, drawing a smirk from him.

He watched her, amused, as she tried to wrap up her phone call. She was obviously irritated, or flustered, judging by the fingers she kept raking through her hair and the faces she was making.

"I'm sorry," she said, slightly breathless, as she finally made her way to his table. She gave him a wide eyed look before sliding in to the seat across from him.

"It's fine…you looked like you were having fun." He watched her twist to hang her bag on the back of the high chair, slip her phone in the side pocket, and lightly flip her hair over her shoulder as she turned back to him, "you look nice."

"Thank you, I figured I should ditch the joggers and t-shirt for today," she smirked, "and yeah, that was Nathan so you can imagine…"

"You're finally answering phone calls?"

"I didn't have a choice; really, he's been bugging me all morning. Apparently, his dog who he wanted so badly to keep custody of has been a total nightmare since I've been gone and he wanted to know if I wanted to bring her to Chicago."

"Yes, always yes to dogs."

"Of course yes. I hated leaving her to begin with but I was really just exhausted with fighting. So I'll be picking her up from Midway on Wednesday morning."

"I hope I get to meet her."

"I hope you do and I hope she steals your ice cream," Jennings grinned.

"Touché," he chuckled.

They were interrupted briefly by a barista delivering a drink to Jennings. She raised her eyebrows at Seth across the table.

"You ordered for me?"

"Yeah when you said you were headed this way. I figured your drink order hadn't changed much since you drank the same thing for roughly ten years."

"Fourteen," she responded.

"Fourteen?"

"We met fourteen years ago," she answered. "I mean, I know we weren't friends right off the bat but it's been fourteen years…"

"Time flies."

"And, thank you," she tipped the coffee mug slightly, "this was very gentlemanly of you."

"I'm singlehandedly bringing chivalry back," he commented, watching as she took a sip of the fresh, hot beverage. He adjusted how he was sitting, resting his forearms on the table and leaning forward slightly, playing with the stirring straw still in his drink. There was a short silence as he watched her follow a few passersby on the sidewalk with her eyes. "So what's up?"

She turned her hazel eyes on him and smiled softly, "why does there have to be something up?"

"Because it's been three years since we hung out and got coffee."

"It's been two."

"Two and a half."

She pursed her lips together at his arguments, slightly amused. "There's nothing 'up' really," she shrugged, mirroring his posture leaning against the table. "I figured you would want to know how everything went and…I don't know…we could just talk."

"Of course I want to know, I just had a feeling there was more to it. That's easily remedied with a text or phone call. 'Hey Colbs, everything went great, can't wait to get started. See you tonight.' Or something like that with a few praise hand emojis. How did it all go?"

"Everything went great," she teased, chuckling at his blank face. "It was good, it was…I have to go through a physical but the plan would be to make my re-debut after the new year."

"Against who? Did they say? It seems they would have something planned to get all of this going…"

She smiled, tight lipped, and glanced down at her drink.

"You aren't going to tell me?" he exclaimed.

"No, not right now."

"Oh, Jenn, come on! How am I supposed to back you up, or train you, if I don't even know what you're preparing for? I'm not…you can trust me."

"It's not about trust, with you, and plus I don't for sure, one hundred percent know, but when I do you'll get the full scoop."

"I'm calling full bullshit on that," he retorted.

Jennings shrugged and smiled and a short silence passed between them.

"Why is this so important to you?" she dropped her question out of the blue, not bothering with formality or sugar coating.

"There it is."

"I just…" she started to speak and he shook his head, leading her to cut off her response.

"You don't have to clarify, I know what you mean. It's important to me because it's great for you and you deserve it and I want to see you excel." He shifted again in his chair and cast a quick glance at the passing barista, "and, to be honest Jenn, it gives me a chance to hang out with you, if that's what you're waiting to hear."

"I wasn't waiting to hear anything," she replied softly. "You know, when I left for California we didn't exactly say goodbye on great terms. I know we've seen each other here and there since then and I mean, we work together, but this…you've just really latched on to this. I'm not mad about it, it's not an issue, Colby I just wanted to know why."

"I wasn't there for you the first time you worked for a comeback. I had pushed you away, and I was stuck up my own ass as well as other people's asses and I was a shitty person and then you got your infection, and another surgery, and more recovery- and I wasn't there for that either."

"That wasn't all on you."

"Most of it was."

"You had your own comeback to focus on."

"That doesn't mean I couldn't have helped you, or been there for you."

"So…it's atonement?"

He chuckled and settled back in his seat again, "I guess you could call it atonement, or a makeup, or whatever, but…I know I can't make up for any of…our shit. I would very obviously go back and do a lot of things over but I can't and I made peace with that, but our friendship is something I never should have sacrificed. If I have the chance to have a second chance, then why not latch on to it? Besides you came to me…and you know that if anyone is going to get you back in to shape it's me."

"You think so, more so than being at the performance center?"

"Between me and Nick, yeah, we started this."

She inhaled deeply and trailed her finger lightly around the rim of her coffee mug, realizing she had only taken the one sip so far. She took another sip and set the mug down, lifting her eyes to meet his again. He was, impatiently, waiting for her to speak.

"I don't want to spend all of my free time in Davenport," she stated, matter of factly. "I came back to Chicago for a reason, as opposed to staying in LA, and you're close but you're still three hours away, so how does that work?"

"I don't, I wouldn't expect you to be there every day of every week. I can come to Chicago some; you can do some stuff on your own; your strength and conditioning. It's doable and it's still a better option than moving to Tampa."

"You're fine with that? Because I know you and I know how you get but I'm a grown ass 32 year old woman now and I don't need you riding me like you used to. I'm also not giving up donuts so don't even try to suggest that."

"I would never."

"And Nick is going to help," she half stated and half asked.

"So is this a thing we're doing? Because it feels like this is officially a thing that we're doing."

"Vince and Carano actually really liked the idea," she answered, "and truth be told, I like it, too. It feels…right- and…it gives me a chance to hang out with you some."

He grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners and she responded with her own grin.

"Also, I'm not calling you coach."

"You can call me anything you want, I've heard it all before," he replied.

"I guess it's a thing we're officially doing then."

"Good, I'll have my lawyer send you a contract."

She stiffened slightly and gave him a wide eyed look, "wait what?"

"I'm kidding."

"You're an asshole," she breathed.

His cell phone that was sitting on the table vibrated two times and their eyes both cut to it. He glanced at the message on his screen and looked up. "I'm supposed to meet Bayley for the gym."

"I told you not to postpone anything for me."

"I didn't, you wanna come with us?"

"Nu-uh," she shook her head, "I'm going to finish this coffee and then I'm going to spend one of my last free days with some shopping and dinner and cocktails with Renee."

"Fair enough," he moved to stand up, "come here you have to hug me."

"Do we have to?" she frowned.

"Yes, come here."

She continued to frown and stood up; letting him pull her in to a hug and despite her faux objections she wrapped her arms tightly around him. They hugged for a moment, in silence.

"Thank you, Colby," she finally stated.

"Don't thank me yet but you're welcome."

Hope you all are enjoying! Who watched the WWE GRR today? The neon green was back! Woohoo!

Yes we'll be getting in to some wrestling stuff now that we've gotten the background and storyline set up and moving along!