I'm so sorry that I've been so MIA from posting! Life has gotten kind of crazy: work changes, a new gym schedule, and going back to school and I have just been SO tired that I curl up with my iPad and Netflix and fall asleep as soon as I'm home every night.
I haven't forgotten about this story, though, and I promise that more is on the way! I have ideas and I'm finally falling back in to a schedule/rhythm where I can write! So I hope you'll stick with me!

Chapter 5: Another Sunday In September

You know you don't have to check up on me… Jennings sent back a text response to Seth, followed by a series of side eye emojis.

It was mid afternoon on a another Sunday in September where she found herself on the road and in a new gym, flanked by her friends Becky and Charlotte, knocking out her workout for the day before grabbing lunch and making it to the arena for call time. She had finished up before the other girls. That was one thing she cherished about their bond. They were there for each other but they knew how to do their own things at the same time.

She had grabbed her post workout drink mix and topped off her shaker bottle with fresh water while checking the text messages she knew she had gotten during her workout based off of the vibrating notifications on her wrist.

All three of them had been from Seth. Not that she minded that they were from him, but she was slightly miffed by his rapid fire questions he had sent through separate messages.

How are things going this morning?
How do you feel after your workout? Did you get your weight up?
You're going to be at RAW tomorrow, right?

She had responded and then retrieved her notebook to fill in her weights and times; sitting crossed legged on top of an empty box while she waited for her two compadres.

I'm checking IN WITH YOU. There's a difference. His response came back.

There's zero difference.

One is something a doting dad or manager would do and one is something a friend does.

You're pretty much a doting manager AND also a friend so it's still a zero difference…

He responded back with a middle finger emoji and she laughed out loud, shaking her head.

"What's got you over here laughing with such joy?" the thick accented voice of Becky Lynch broke through the air.

Jennings lifted her head from her phone screen and looked up at Becky. "I'm just giving Colby a hard time and having too much fun doing it."

"As you should," Becky responded.

She smiled brightly and moved the few steps that closed the distance between them to take a seat next to her friend on the box.

"What's this?" Becky asked, pulling the notebook out from under her, she had sat on the edge of it. "Are you taking a cue from me and writing down your life story?"

"Are you writing my life story, Becks? That's awfully sweet of you!" Jenn quipped.

"I deserved that," Becky nodded, pouting slightly.

"It's a workout journal; it has my programming in it, you can look at it if you want. It's not a secret or anything."

Becky flipped it open and started to look through the first few pages of detailed workouts.

"This looks like Josh's type of stuff."

"It is," Jenn looked over her shoulder at her friend. "Colbs set me up with it, courtesy of Josh."

"Welcome to the club but why?"

Jenn had turned her attention back to her phone, another text coming in, and she shrugged as she spoke. "That's just what we do. We bond over this stuff; being in the gym, wrestling. We're just…reconnecting I guess and he wanted to help me so this is what we do. This makes him happy."

"Help you?"

"Mhmm," she nodded and turned to look at her friend again. "I'm just trying to get abs like you."

"These abs are born from plants, my love, you can't get them in a gym."

"So you're saying that I have to get on the Rebecca Quinoa plan?"

Becky gave her a friend a silent, almost shocked 'o' face at her quick response back to her. "I can't believe I hadn't thought of Rebecca Quinoa yet. I'm so ashamed."

"You have full permission to use it," Jennings laughed.

Jennings could hear her mumble a muffled 'Rebecca Quinoa' exclamation under her breath as she shook her head.

"But really," Jenn interrupted her, "I don't know I just wanted to get myself back in better shape again and Colby offered to help. It was good timing, all of it."

"Any particular reason why?" Becky smiled.

Jennings cut her a slanted look before glancing towards Charlotte who was making her way towards them, "no."

"Mm, I don't believe you."

"What do we not believe?" Charlotte asked, coming in to earshot just in time to catch Becky's response.

"Jenn and Rollins have a secret," Becky answered.

Jennings cut an unamused look from one friend to another. "There is no secret."

"I'm not sure I believe you," Charlotte interjected, smiling.

"You just got here. You can't good cop/bad cop me without knowing what's even going on."

"He hand wrote a workout plan for her and they're hanging out. They're reconnecting."

"What kind of reconnecting?"

"Reconnecting like trying to be friends again; he's helping me get back in shape a little bit and I'm helping him with a little training at his gym."

"Oh now there's wrestling involved! The story has changed!" Becky excitedly stated.

Jennings rolled her eyes, "fine! Sheesh, you're like a little gnat just buzzing around me. You really want the full, whole truth then I'll tell you all of it, ok?"

Becky's face settled to a more serious look, "Oh…I didn't think there was actually a secret."

"Well there is," Jenning's inhaled deeply and trailed a look from friend to friend again. Charlotte's face was as equally serious as Becky's. "It's…I don't know, I don't know how to even really tell you guys. I haven't told anyone yet. I mean clearly he knows but that's it…"

She trailed off and looked up in to Charlotte's concerned eyes. She could swear she saw her lean forward slightly, anticipating whatever it was her friend was about to spill to her.

"What's really going on is…nothing. I'm fucking with you guys. There's no big secret."

Becky exhaled loudly and playfully pushed Jenn, glaring and then grinning. "You had me. I was sold."

"Well that's what you get for making a mountain out of a mole hill."

"You're mean and rude, do you know that?" Charlotte questioned, laughing lightly.

Jennings shrugged, "I've been called worse."

"In all seriousness, though, it's good to hear that you two are doing something; being friends again. I know it's been…rough waters with him."

"Mmm, well, I appreciate that. I'm not counting any chickens just yet but we'll see how it all goes."

"At the least you'll have some abs of steel, right?" Becky chimed in.

"Yes and if you two are done, let's go ruin these future abs of steel with one last pancake binge before I skip shows, ok? We've earned it and I need one more tea party."

The next day, Jennings found herself entering the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, her eyes adjusting to the change of bright afternoon sunshine to the dark of the arena. She flashed her name badge to the security guard at the door and then continued in to the belly of the tunnels to find the locker room to discard her bag. She had hopped a flight that morning, leaving behind her last live show at Smackdown and her two partners in crime, to start her in ring run on the titular Monday Night Raw.

It didn't take long to find the locker room. She dropped off her luggage and slid her phone in to her back pocket of the black skinny jeans she was wearing and began her trek through the arena. She was on a mission: get to the ring. She had a production meeting in a little over an hour but one thing she always loved to do before the live shows was to spend a little bit of time in the mostly empty arena as the superstars ran through their matches. It was there, and catering, where everyone usually congregated to socialize.

And the hair and makeup tables.

It was there that Seth found her. She was hugging Finn Balor before he turned to walk away when he entered the arena from the back stage arena. She had settled back in her seat by the time he made it to her.

"Hi you!" she greeted him with a smile.

"So you're here," Seth replied.

"Did you not believe that I was going to be here?" she chuckled.

"No, I just wasn't sure if you'd made it here yet."

"You hadn't asked."

"Mmm, well I didn't want to be accused of checking up on you too much like a 'doting dad' or frienager would."

Jennings rolled her eyes and scoffed at him. He laughed at her very visible response as he took a seat in the empty padded chair next to hers.

"Firstly, you're very annoying with that whole smarmy throwing things back in my face attitude. Secondly, there's a difference between asking if my flight went okay and hounding me about my workouts. Thirdly, frienager?"

"Just write down a guidebook for me so I can remember what I can and can't do, how's that?"

"Annoying."

"Same to you." He responded and leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. They sat quietly for a few seconds, watching Sasha and Emma in the ring as they talked through their upcoming match that night. There wasn't a strain in the air; both of them could tell that the jesting was in fun. He glanced to his left, stealing a glance of her in his peripheral vision before sitting back up straight and settling in the chair.

"I miss this," she stated out of the blue, breaking the silence between them.

"Sitting in annoyed silence next to me or…?"

She looked at him, a mixture of a glare and a smirk playing on her face. "I'm not annoyed."

"Oh-kay," he replied, smirking.

"I just miss this," she continued, motioning her hands to show she meant everything. "I think there was a part of me that had gotten disenchanted by everything for a while. The people I were super close to for the most weren't around and then once I realized I was being fully transitioned out of the ring I just…tuned it out. If there wasn't a big bump or something I wouldn't even pay attention to matches sometimes."

He nodded slowly, acknowledging what she was saying and agreeing. "I can relate to that; I've been there. Watching everybody do something you can't do or used to do…you get kind of detached from it."

"Yeah and I'm sure it showed in some things and I feel bad about that but…" she trailed off and shrugged.

"Like with Nathan?"

"No," she snorted, "that was a whole different set of problems. Nothing would have saved that."

"I can also relate to that."

"I just meant in how I interacted with people, how much I put in to work, maybe even the fans some but I don't know…I feel like I would've heard about it if someone thought I was a twat head. Ever since Summer Slam, though, it's been different. I'm more tuned in to things and watching the matches closely and I feel so much better; lighter I guess."

"You're excited about something again; something you love. It's a good feeling. It's a good look on you, I can tell you're…excited. Except for when I'm annoying you."

"I guess sometimes the things you love really do come back to you," she smiled wistfully towards the ring.

Sasha and Emma were both climbing over the ropes to head towards the ramp, finished until their match came around that night.

"I really want to be back in there and do well. I know that all these girls who are here now are fantastic. I just want to be part of it, and be good, and not just be some eye candy that says some names."

"Don't worry about the ring stuff; that's my job to worry about that. You're going to be fantastic and incredible because you always have been."

"I'm glad you're helping me."

"You're very sentimental today."

"I know," she chuckled, "I blame it on Ash and Becks. They got all in their feelings about me leaving for RAW and I think it's all carried over. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize."

They fell in to a shared silence, Jennings uncrossing and crossing her legs again, as they watched the collection of people mill around.

Seth shifted in his chair and Jennings started to speak but before she could get a full word out of her mouth, they were interrupted by an enthusiastic Dean hopping over the soft barrier and landing softly on his feet in front of them, wiggling his eyebrows at the pair.

"Hi, Jon," Jennings smiled, standing up to meet him for a hug.

"I heard that our little Jewel was going to be here today," he said, "welcome."

"Yeah I'm back on the red team for now."

"I also heard you're going to be traveling with us again, so welcome back to that, too. I still claim rights over the back seat."

"Now wait a minute!" she exclaimed in protest, throwing a look at Seth. "I never agreed to be travel buddies with you two."

"I was going to ask you…" Seth stated.

"And I definitely never agreed to be all time shotgun rider. I've traveled with you guys before, I know how this goes. I have other offers on the table, you know."

"We're grown men now, Jenn, things have changed," Dean argued.

Jenn frowned at him.

"Besides it's just been me and him lately and somebody else needs to pay their shotgun dues of keeping him awake and changing to the next crappy song he wants to listen to. It'll be fun. I'll throw in my wife as a bargaining chip; I'll get her to travel more. You know you've missed us; or at least me."

"My music isn't crappy," Seth interjected.

They both frowned at him before Dean gave a pout to Jennings.

She sighed heavily, glancing from the two men, her friends, before settling on Dean. "What if we trade off- one night for you, one night for me, and we paper rock scissors for the third night."

"Whoever gets the back buys the snacks," Dean added.

"Within' a budget because I know how you two are."

"Deal," he said, extending his hand.

Jennings laughed and shook his hand before she turned her smile on Seth. "You gotta stop telling people I'm going to do things or help with things before I even know about them, you know?"

"I was going to ask."

"Speaking of my wife, she told me to send you her way when I saw you, she's in catering."

"Why didn't she just text me?"

"She likes the drama of a personal message delivery," Dean shrugged.

Jennings shook her head and rolled her eyes slightly but reached out to hug her friend again. "It's gonna be good to be back with you."

"Ditto."

She motioned for Seth and he stood, letting her give him a quick hug as well. "I figured you earned one, too."

"Were you going to tell me something?" he asked as they parted from their hug.

"I was but I can tell you later, it wasn't important."

He nodded and let his eyes follow her as she stepped away and rounded the barrier.

They watched her hurry away in silence before Seth turned his own frown on his friend. "You have bad timing you know that?"

"Wha- I said hello," Dean defended.

"Horrible timing," Seth muttered and shook his head before nodding towards the ring, "come on, it's our turn."

Follow, favorite, review and share! Thank you mucho for reading!