Chapter 1

The woman across from Maya Gilbert looked down her eagle beak-shaped nose at her.

"I'm sorry," the woman picked up the stack of papers and turned away. "You're not going to get a job right now."

Maya frowned. "Why? I mean why not?"

"You have to look better. Clean clothes, clean body," she left off the other obvious problem Maya was having.

"But I need a job to do all that. I don't have any way to do that." Maya closed her thin jacket around her even thinner shoulders.

"I'm sorry." The woman stood up. "I really am but you need to clean yourself up before coming back to this temp agency. Get some better clothes."

Maya stood up. "Please, I'll do anything."

"I'm sorry, miss. This agency only allows for at-risk employment. You're beyond that, I'm afraid." The woman with the nice blond hair, blue eyes, and nice clothes didn't even look at her twice.

Maya bit her lip but fought back tears. There were other people waiting for their turn with the temp agency worker. Ducking her head, Maya left the agency and went outside into the Las Vegas sidewalk.

Outside, where cars blitzed by and people staggered with bottles in hand, some missing articles of clothing and it was a Monday evening. Las Vegas, Nevada was a party city, and the street in front of the temp agency was just blocks away from the main Strip. As the sun was going down a breeze sent shivers up Maya's back. She closed her jacket again, as she walked down the street. The further away from the Strip the worse the streets got and some of the poor souls like her were caught up in those very streets she walked.

In an old ice manufacturing building was the women's shelter Maya had managed to get into. She had a cot in the back and to get that cot she had to take the garbage out. So when she got back from her failed attempt at the temp agency, Maya had to pull the large black bags from the equally large garbage cans. Maya grunted on the last one, the top of the can barely coming up to the center of her chest, but she managed to pull it and take it out back to the large blue dumpster. After the last bag was thrown into the dumpster, Maya came back in only to find a mess.

The woman had a small child crying at the shelter's head employer, aptly named Madam Miser.

"Please, I'm not safe. The man that did this…" the woman pointed to her face, which was turned away from Maya. "He's still out there. I have nowhere to go."

"Look, there's no room here. You're just going to have to go somewhere else." Madam Miser said.

Maya had taken the garbage duty for a cot and didn't want to deal with any more of Madam Miser's round-faced grumpiness. Yet the more the baby cried, and the woman obviously at her wit's end, Maya started to turn away but she didn't.

"Unless a cot is given up, you're not getting in." Madam Hitler said with arms crossed and legs spread wide. She was already bigger than the other women who managed to eke out a living within the shelter.

Maya sighed as she walked up to the two women. "She can have my cot. I'll go get my stuff." Maya said.

"Really?" Both mother and Madam Miser chorused together.

Maya's attention went to the little child in the woman's arms. Big blob tears ran down the cherub face of something she'd been denied. "Children should not be out on the streets. So I'll get my stuff and head out."

The mother followed Maya. "I can't express how thankful I am."

Maya went to her cubby and pulled out her backpack. "Dinner will be served at eight. You'll have to," she stopped when seeing the woman's face.

The woman had a split lip, a black eye and was in need of a brush. Regardless of the state of her own body, that little kid wasn't going to sleep out on the street. It wouldn't have been the first bruised face Maya had ever seen come through the waves of women.

"And to keep the cot you have a job. You'll have to take out the garbage every day. There is a dumpster out back, I'm sure one of the other women will help you out." Maya shrugged on her backpack. "You know, to help with your baby."

"Whatever it takes, I just need to get a hold of my mom." The woman said, hugging the now quiet baby to her chest.

With one last smile, albeit a little on the sad side, Maya moved to the front of the building. She'd only managed to get in for one night, but it was one night and a meal that would tide her over until she could get something better.

"Hey, lady." Madam Miser called as Maya opened the door. "Here. Summer nights are cold. You'll need it."

The jacket she wore had more holes than her sneakers. And this coat was better looking than the one wrapped around her. It also looked a little more professional, it could double as a blanket.

"Thanks." She took the offered clothing.

One last look in the shelter, Maya left. She turned left and headed towards The Strip once again.

He finally took the ring off. Dean Ambrose's wedding band was placed eye level in his locker, his blue eyes reflecting back at him in his shaving mirror. How long had it been? A year, maybe a year and a half since his downward spiral?

"You ready, Uce?" His friend and near brother Roman Reigns asked.

The Samoan Powerhouse, another bouncer, smiled at him.

"For more drunk assholes? Yeah, sure."

The owner of Rollins' Rockers walked in. Seth greeted some of the other male staff in the locker room before making his way over to Dean and Roman at the farthest end. The brown-haired man was dressed to impress, compared to Dean's usual blue jeans, white tank and cycle boots topped off with a black leather jacket. Rollins' Rockers wasn't upscale for being in the basement of Seth's equally famous Rockers Casino, but people loved it. At least he didn't have to wear a shirt and tie suit.

"Hey, I just got word that Bayley is on the mend and will be coming back soon," Seth said.

"That's great. We'll have a full security team again." Roman said.

Dean propped his foot up on the folding chair to adjust his boot lace. Neither man seemed to notice Dean's lack of speech. Roman continued to talk with Seth about the businesses.

"The rest of Shield will be up so if you want to jump over there go right ahead," Seth said.

"Yeah, I'll think about it. What about Rollins' Rockers? Don't you need security for the club?"

A club, as in Gentlemen's club, as in an expensive titty bar Dean had thrown a punch at the man who had grabbed Renee when they first came to Las Vegas. Now he was a bouncer for the same titty bar he'd been thrown out because that was how nice of a guy Seth was.

"Renee wouldn't want Dean to work here anyway," Roman said.

"Dude, don't bring up his hurt." Seth shoved the Samoan.

Stomping his foot down, Dean looked between his friends. Between the two long-haired brunettes, Roman knew when to be an ass.

"Yeah, Renee wouldn't. But she's not here so I can do whatever the hell I want." He reached back into his locker.

Dean pulled his ring out again. As he put it on, he slammed the locker shut. Roman and Seth stepped aside to let him by.

Zak Ryder, another bouncer, was walking in. "Alright, tonight is going to be good."

"Keep telling yourself that," Dean said before walking out of the room.

The locker room was across from the female workers' lounge slash locker room. The serving girls and performers were getting ready, one too many flashes of exposed skin resulted in Dean pulling that door shut as he moved along.

Down the black and red hallway, there was a black door like all other doors. Someone was sitting at the desk in this room going through a large book and tapping on a laptop at the same time. Dean raised his hand to slam the door open but the bespectacled man glanced up.

"If you're thinking of slamming that door open, Dean, don't."

"Don't know what you're talking about, Neville." He leaned on the door jam.

The Neville Satterly huffed, his eyes going back to the laptop. "Did you need anything, Dean?"

"Nah, not really."

Dean looked at Neville's left hand. Only a pale streak of skin was on his ring finger, his own ring missing for some time now. Neville hadn't spoken much about his former wife, but it mirrored Dean's own marriage. They both ended the same way.

"How are the numbers?" Dean asked.

"Not as good as they had been. I'm looking for the issue now." Neville responded.

Dean nodded. "I'll let you get back to it. I'm going to check on the line."

Neville raised his hand but went back to work. Whatever the numbers were telling him, Neville would tell Seth about it when he found the issue.

Dean left the main office, he approached the small kitchen across the hall from the door to the bar. The kitchen was getting ready for the rush, but the bigger draw wasn't the food but the chicks and the booze that was served. Dean swung the bar door open.

"Do you have to do that?"

Cesaro and he were face-to-face. The man that was from Switzerland had two cocktail bottles held out in his hands to his sides. "Use the other door, Dean."

"Not interested. Scuse me."

Dean walked around the bar, out onto the main floor of the club. The VIP booths face the stage were being prepped, the other tables were being set up and no one looked at him. Up the steps and into the Club's foyer, Dean looked around. Designed the same as the rest of the Club, red and black with a touch of metallic silver, it almost resembled his penthouse.

Outside, The Strip was fairly packed. Monday evenings on an early summer was not all that packed. Though college kids made up a majority of those visiting Rockers Casino, Seth's first major accomplishment in Las Vegas.

Shield Security was built out of Rockers Casino and Rollins' Rockers, but it wasn't ready for commercial use elsewhere. A lot of the security went through Shield for training. Dean, Roman and Seth figured it up between drinks as Seth tried building his own Vegas Empire."

"Dean?"

He glanced at the nicely dressed older woman who could have passed as his mother. Only his mother was six feet under and wasn't as well off as this woman appeared to be.

"Ms. Rollins, here to see your boy?" Dean shoved his hands in his pockets.

Diane Rollins, Seth's mother, looked him over. "Just passing through."

"Is something wrong?"

"Just some rumblings but nothing substantial." She shrugged.

"Did you want me to escort you in? I'd do that for you." Dean said.

"No, I'll talk to Seth later. Are you good, sweetie?"

Dean shrugged.

"Then I'll see you around." She started to leave but turned around again. "Dean, it's not the end of the world, you know. You'll find your other half again."

Dean's answer was to turn around and walk back into the club.

I decided that I would restart this story over and do it how I wanted. The last one went off the tracks for me but now as I made it a little better, I hope you like it, too. And no more requests in reviews, I hate that.