A/N: Warning: this chapter is going to be a little dark.

The fifth time it happened was in Seth's home in Davenport, Iowa. After the recent events that transpired, Sasha had been too traumatized to even use the bathroom on her own. Every time she did, she'd have to ask Seth or Bayley to stay right outside and talk to her—just to keep her sanity intact. She felt safest at night sleeping in Seth's arms, which she started doing everywhere they went, and which of course he was more than willing to oblige. The investigation continued, with the police tracking the records of the hotel where "Earl" had requested to send flowers up to Sasha's room. Unfortunately, the hotel manager explained that the request had been done over the phone, that the flowers had already been paid for through a bank deposit, and that they could no longer trace the number that made the call. Even if they did, the stalker might have been too smart to be using a traceable phone number.

Security was much tighter in every arena Sasha would make an appearance in, and just for her safety until the investigation was over, Hunter pulled her from live shows and media appearances. "We can't risk it right now," Hunter explained when Sasha gave him one of her classic pouts. "You do know people will start speculating, right?" she pointed out.

"Let them speculate," Hunter waved it off. "The media will do anything to get fans to engage. Just let them be. For now, you'll only appear on RAW unless I say otherwise."

"Fine," Sasha slumped and walked off with Seth, who placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple.

One evening, Hunter approached Seth in the hallways backstage, making sure Sasha was out of earshot. "Hey. How is she?"

"You know our girl," Seth shrugged. "Trying to put a brave front as always, but it's killing her," he sighed. "I woke up twice with her screaming in her sleep."

"Shit, that's rough."

"Tell me about it."

"How are you holding up?"

"Honestly, man," Seth rubbed the back of his neck. "I haven't been getting that much sleep either. This whole thing is driving me crazy. I had CCTV's and alarms installed all over my house. I feel like the moment I blink, she'll be taken away from me."

Hunter fought the smirk creeping up. "You really have it bad for her, don't you?"

"Dude, I'm 32. At this point, I'm just about ready to buy her a ring and ask her to marry me," he rolled his eyes.

Hunter laughed out loud. "Maybe you should try getting her on a date first."

"I have been!" Seth pulled on his hair jokingly. "For the last seven years!"

"Keep trying," Hunter snickered, clapping him on the back. "You probably won't believe how long it took before I got Stephanie to say yes."

"Ha," Seth cackled, shaking his head. "Thanks, Hunter. That means a lot coming from you."

"You'll be fine," Hunter assured him. "In the meantime, just keep our girl safe, yeah?"

"You can count on it."

After his conversation with Hunter, Seth walked towards the Women's Locker Room where RAW had just finished airing. Since Bayley and Finn took off together to catch a movie, he promised Sasha he'd come and get her after the show was over. "Come in!" he heard Alexa's voice inside after he knocked on the door a couple of times.

"You girls decent?" Seth popped in.

"Yup, we were just getting ready to leave," Alexa grabbed her scarf from the shelf and tied it around her neck. "You're okay, Sash?"

"Yeah, thank you!" Sasha smiled at Alexa who left her with Seth, appreciating the fact that she had stayed to keep her company. They weren't the best of friends, and they had a semi-strained relationship from all the backstage heat during the peak of their rivalry. But they were professional and apparently, tonight proved that Alexa was kind enough to have stayed with her, knowing what Sasha was currently going through.

"Hey," Seth greeted her, watching as she grabbed her jacket and bags. "You feel like ordering Chinese take-out and just eating it in our room?"

"Can we do Mexican? I've been craving for some soft tacos and guacamole lately."

"Sure, whatever you want."

Sasha smiled at him and tiptoed to kiss his cheek—a gesture that was new to Seth, and that definitely caught him off-guard. "Okay," he laughed almost awkwardly, placing an arm around her shoulders and walking together towards the car.

In the hotel room, seated on the carpeted floor with their food, Seth watched as Sasha stared hard at one of the empty food boxes. "You going to burn the thing?" he asked.

"What?" Sasha looked up from her dazed state. "Oh. Sorry," she shook her head, beginning to pick on her cheese quesadilla.

"What's going on? Talk to me," Seth raised an eyebrow, taking a sip from his water bottle.

"I guess this whole thing is just making me re-think things," Sasha shrugged, biting her lower lip and suddenly turning red.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember that night years ago that we promised we'd never talk about?"

Seth could swear he felt his heart leap out of his chest, and he jokingly teased her. "Are we going to open up that can of worms now?"

"Shut up," Sasha laughed, pretending to kick him. "I'm trying to talk here."

"Sorry," Seth grinned. "Go on."

"It's just that—with everything that's been happening, it's making me realize how short and how crazy life can be."

"Uh huh," Seth nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"And I think it's helped push me to the realization that I need to stop wasting my time, especially now that I know what I really want."

Looking up at Seth shyly and tucking a strand of purple hair behind her ear, she smiled at him. "I want what you want, Seth."

And just like that, Seth dropped his water bottle on the floor, lunged forward, and grabbed Sasha by the back of her head, kissing her with all the passion that had built up in him for the last seven years. She giggled and kissed back, ignoring the fact that she had burned her knees slightly from the carpet. "I love you," Seth breathed out, closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of Sasha's lips on his. "I've always loved you, Sash," he said softly, their foreheads touching.

"I know," she beamed, leaning over to kiss him again, which he gladly accepted.

"Wait a minute, you do not get to be Han Solo in this," he leaned back. "I refuse to be Princess Leia."

"Seth, you were always Princess Leia in this," she laughed and teased him. "But you know I love you, too," she grinned, before kissing him again.

The next few days in his house were pure bliss—as if to make up for all the lost time. They kissed each other openly and made love everywhere, Seth practically walked around his house naked. The night he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand, he ignored it. It was probably from all the giddy feelings that wanted to explode from inside of him ever since Sasha had said the words, "I love you," to him. Pulling a clean shirt over his head and wearing a pair of boxers, he headed out to the kitchen where Sasha had been preparing a couple of sandwiches for their midnight snack.

"Sash?" he called out, noticing that it had been quiet. The kitchen was empty, with two unfinished sandwiches sitting on the island counter. "Hey, where are you?"

Seeing that the back door of his house had been left open, all the hairs on Seth's body stood. There were dirty foot prints on the floor leading out to the forest that was his backyard, and without thinking twice, Seth dialed 911 while grabbing the baseball bat signed by Mike Piazza leaning on his fireplace. "911, what is your emergency?"

"Hi. This is Seth Rollins. My house has been one of those on high alert due to an investigation going on. Someone broke into my house and kidnapped my girlfriend. I'm headed towards the forest in my backyard right now. Can you send some guys over?"

Without waiting for the operator to respond, he used his phone as his source of light, and made a beeline for the dark forest he had never bothered to explore before. He followed the footsteps with the baseball bat gripped tightly in his hand, hoping to God that Sasha was alright.

"Sasha!" he called out once he got to the opening. "Sasha!" he yelled again, using the bat to clear out stray branches. Suddenly, he heard muffled screams from a few meters away, and hurriedly followed the voice. Arriving at a clearing, he found her being held hostage by a tall, pale, and slender man. He had a small knife to her neck, with his other hand covering Sasha's mouth, and he stared at Seth with the most deranged expression he had ever seen in his life.

"Stay back!" the man threatened. "Stay back, or I'll kill her!"

Seth raised his hands up in surrender. "Hey, man," he spoke calmly, his heart thumping thunderously against his chest. "Please, just let her go." Carefully, he put the baseball bat down on the ground and kept his hands up. "Please," he said.

"She's mine! She was always mine!" the man yelled, pointing the knife at Seth. "You don't love her the way I do!"

Sasha cried, never keeping her eyes off of Seth. "Look, man. Let's just talk about this. You're hurting her," Seth told him.

"I don't want to!" the man returned the knife to Sasha's neck and poked her slightly. "This is your fault!" he told Seth. "If I can't have her, then no one will!"

"Hey, man. Please. Just calm down. Please," Seth slowly walked towards them.

"You stay back!" the man warned. "I'm going to kill her, then I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill us all!"

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a police car approaching. "You called the cops! You called the fucking cops!"

"I had to!" Seth yelled back, his anger flaring. "You broke into my house and kidnapped my girlfriend!"

"I was so close, I was so close," the man started crying against Sasha's purple hair. "I'm so sorry," he whispered to her. "But you're mine, and you will always be mine."

"What are you doing?" Seth cautiously approached until the man and Sasha were just a few feet away.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," the man kept whispering and crying. "All I wanted was to have you to myself." Like a switch that was flipped, the crying stopped and his eyes had an angry and aggressive look to them. "If I can't have you, no one can!"

Gripping the knife tightly, he raised it in the air and stabbed Sasha on her side, causing Seth to scream. "Sasha!"

Running to catch her before she fell to the ground, the stalker ran the opposite direction of Seth's house. "Oh my god," Sasha panted, looking up at Seth with eyes wide. Pain shot through her whole body, and she fought hard to stay awake.

"Stay with me, Sash. Just stay with me," Seth cradled her. "You'll be alright. Just stay with me, alright?"

"Seth," she croaked, her breathing becoming labored. "I'm scared."

"Ssshhh, I'm here. You'll be fine, you'll be fine," Seth kept whispering. "Oh god," he cried, kissing Sasha's forehead and wiping away her tears with his thumbs. "Stay with me, babe. Just stay with me."

Lifting her hand to grip his forearm, Sasha gave him a reassuring squeeze, as if to tell him she wasn't letting go that easy.

A/N: Aaaaaah! Oh gosh, this was such a hard chapter to write. I'm working on an epilogue soon, but I just need to piece it all together. But please, please let me know what you guys think! And if you have suggestions for the epilogue, I'd be more than happy to consider them!