Chapter 38

When Dean came through the curtain, after finishing off his feud with Bray by beating him in the street fight, he was met by a worried Roman. "What happened, bro?" He demanded, blue eyes narrowing and began walking down the hallway with Roman toward the trainer's room.

"It's Macaria. I heard her scream out and when I got to her setup, she was alone on the floor, holding her face. Seth hit her, man." Roman stopped Dean from storming away, knowing the man wanted to kill Seth for what he did to his woman.

"THAT MOTHER FUCKER!" Dean erupted, gaining the attention of several Superstars and Divas surrounding him, since they were near gorilla position, and took off away from Roman to the trainers.

Roman sighed heavily, following and shook his head, looking down at his phone when it buzzed in his hand. It was Nyla checking on him and he smiled sadly, hardly able to wait to see her again and sent a quick text letting her know he'd call her once he was back at the hotel. More than likely, Macaria would have to go to the hospital to get an x-ray of her face, just to make sure her cheekbone wasn't shattered or any other damage was done.

When he arrived at the trainer's, Roman blinked at Dean dragging Macaria by the hand, brushing past him heading directly for the Authority's office. "Shit." He had to follow to make sure Dean didn't get either creamed by the Authority or fired for destroying Seth Rollins.

Stephanie's head snapped up when her door was tossed open, along with Hunter, Kane, Seth, J & J Security and The Big Show. "What is the meaning of this?!" She squawked, blue eyes widening at the site of Macaria and rushed around the desk toward them. "What happened?! Is she okay?!"

"Oh yeah, she's fucking peachy, Princess! Just got the shit knocked out of her by your golden boy!" Dean growled angrily, spitting nails and his eyes were nothing more than blue fire pulsating. "Is this how you treat NEW employees, you dumb bitch?!"

"HEY! That's my wife, Ambrose! Watch your mouth!" Hunter snarled, up out of his chair in a heartbeat and standing beside Stephanie, his own eyes full of concern for the new hire. "Seth did this to you?"

Macaria had stayed quiet, even through Dean's ranting and raving, along with dragging her in here. "Yes." She answered quietly, feeling Dean's arm wrap around her shoulders tightly to keep her against him, to protect her.

Hunter looked up at the ceiling and shut his eyes, wondering why Seth would actually strike a woman. He had never done that to Nyla, but she had been compliant with whatever he wanted. There was a reason he had asked Stephanie to look into Macaria, to hire her, and now he was starting to put the pieces together. Even after he was warned by Stephanie to make things right with Nyla, Seth was STILL defying them and pursuing women he wasn't supposed to!

"She's lying! I didn't touch her!" Seth shouted, lying through his teeth and held his hands up when Hunter's eyes snapped to him, along with Stephanie. "Come on guys, are you really going to believe HER, a nobody, over your future champion?!"

"Go ahead, believe him. I don't care anymore." Macaria muttered, already expecting this reaction and knew it was her word against his. "I'm done."

"Wait, what? No!" Dean frowned at her, his anger temporarily squashed because of the resignation in her eyes. "Macaria…"

"Do you see this, Dean? Do you see what he did to me? It's because of you that he did it! He's only going after me because of you!" Macaria shoved him away from her, hot tears streaming down her cheeks and wrapped her arms around herself. "I only got that stipulation of not being with anyone in the company for 6 months because of HIM! They're going to protect him. They're going to brush this under the fucking rug! I am DONE! I am NOT working for a company that ABUSES their employees! And dictates who they can and can't be with!" This was madness and Macaria was done with the games, wiping her tears away. "I would rather work for that dragon bitch than WWE at this point because at least she didn't abuse me. At least I wasn't struck down like a fucking dog for speaking my mind to a prick, who refuses to accept the word NO!"

Stephanie's eyes were narrowed to slits at Seth as Macaria stormed out of the office with Dean and Roman hot on her trail. "You are going to pay for that." She promised in a dark tone, nodding at Kane, who wrapped his meaty hand around Seth's throat. "I thought we had a discussion, hmm? I thought I made it clear to you NOT to do anything to force her to leave BEFORE the 6 months was up!"

"She…pissed…me off…" Seth wheezed out, knowing better than to try fighting Kane and could see the disappointment and anger written all over Stephanie's face.

"We don't tolerate men hitting women around here, Seth! Have you lost your mind?! If my father hears about this, if she goes to any presses or even those wrestling dirt sheets, she will DESTROY the Authority!" Stephanie snapped, slapping him as hard as she could across the face and then nailed him in the junk with her knee, watching him crumble like a sack of potatoes at her feet.

Hunter did not move from his spot, knowing better than to challenge his wife when she was in a mood like this.

"Now then, I have to go clean up your fucking mess and hope I can convince her to stay on." Stephanie stepped ON his back on her way out the door, slamming it shut.

"You really fucked up, Rollins." Hunter grunted, helping the man up and shoved him into a chair, ordering J & J to grab him some ice for his throbbing genitalia.


"Macaria, please don't leave! This is your dream job!" Dean was near hysterics watching her pack her things and wanted to stop her, but Roman forced him to stay where he was. "I know it's been hard, but not everything in life comes easy to us! We have to fight for it!"

She stopped what she was doing to look back at him, her face already bruising up heavily. "Fight for what? For you? For us? There can't be an 'us', Dean, and you know that! Not until this stupid probation is over with and Seth won't leave me alone! It's better if I just cut ties with all of you and go back to Vegas and try to find my way!"

His heart broke at her harsh words, understanding where they were coming from. It still didn't hurt any less. Shoving Roman away, Dean grabbed Macaria and passionately kissed her, throwing the rule book out the window. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't lose her because of Seth or the damn company! It hurt to kiss him back both emotionally and physically, due to her bruised cheek.

"Y-You're not supposed to…"

"I don't care. You're leaving anyway, so what do I have to fucking lose now?" Dean remarked, keeping her in his arms and felt her face bury in his chest, letting her tears soak his skin. "Please don't leave. Maca, I don't want to be the cause of your pain or the reason you quit this job. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. No matter how hard it is, I'll do anything to help you get through this."

There was only one thing he could do that would ensure she got through these next 5 ½ months. "Anything?" She looked up into his eyes, watching him nod and wiped her tears away, stepping back.

"Name it."

Just then, Stephanie arrived on the scene and stopped at the sight before her, staying silent.

"I can't be your friend, Dean. I need you to…stay away from me. It's the only way to ensure Seth Rollins doesn't screw with me anymore. You shouldn't have to keep an eye on me either or protect me or enlist others to do it. I'm a grown woman and I can take care of myself, just like I've been doing it since I was 17." Macaria stepped back a little more, noticing Stephanie was watching them and turned to pick her camera up, exhaling a shaky breath. "Until this probation period is up, I can't have any contact with you. No texting. No phone calls. No emails. No contact at all unless it's professionally. If you truly mean what you say about helping me through this, that's what I need from you. Let me find my own way."

"Once your probation is over, what are we supposed to do then?"

Macaria smiled sadly, fresh tears welling in her eyes. "Find our way back to each other. I'll understand if you don't want to be with me after this. Don't hold yourself back either. If you need an itch that needs to be scratched over the next 5 ½ months, go for it. You won't be faulted for it since you're single and you can do whatever you want."

After the wonderful morning they shared together, it was hard to believe the day was ending like this. "Okay Macaria, okay." He backed up, hands lifted in defeat and nodded solemnly. "I get it. If you need me though…"

"No, I won't contact you. Not Roman." Hell, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to keep in contact with Nyla because she didn't need the woman telling Roman things they talked about. "I'll be okay by myself."

Stephanie cleared her throat, stepping into the room. "Macaria, I truly am sorry for what happened to you and Seth has been reprimanded for it. He will be heavily fined for his actions."

A fine…that was it? That was what happened to women who were abused by men in this industry? Fined? "He should be fucking fired for putting his hands on me." She argued heatedly, holding her hand up before Stephanie could feed her a line of excuses. "Don't worry about it. I understand how everything works around here. I'm done with Dean Ambrose and he's done with me. The only thing I ask is that you relay the message to Seth and order him to stay away from him. If he needs pictures taken, have one of the other photographers do it. I don't want to work with him anymore, Stephanie or I'm leaving."

As much as Stephanie didn't appreciate being talked down to, she did not blame Macaria for feeling the way she did. "I was already planning on it. He asked me to work with you because he said you were the best. Obviously, I can see that was a lie now and just a way to get closer to you. I will make sure he stays away from you from here on out. You have my word on that."

Her word didn't mean anything until she proved it. "Fine. I'm going back to the hotel to rest my face unless you need something from me?"

"No, go put ice on your face and I'm giving you tomorrow night off, so you can go home for the holiday if you want. I'll even pay for your plane ticket." Stephanie was only kissing her backside because of that clause in her contract and she really didn't want to lose another photographer. They had already lost one and had to replace him because of his stupidity.

Going home to Vegas sounded wonderful, actually. Macaria had found a couple houses she could look at on those days off too. "Okay." She wasn't thanking this woman for a single thing and placed her camera in her bag, zipping it up.

"What about Christmas?" Dean asked quietly after Stephanie left and could feel Roman's hand on his shoulder.

"I told you no contact. I won't be there. You need to stop worrying about me. I'll be just fine spending Christmas in Vegas since I'm moving out of my shitty apartment, hopefully." Macaria touched her cheek and winced, still not believing Seth had put his hands on her.

"Dean, don't," Roman ordered in a low voice, knowing this was the best decision for both of them right now. That stupid probation clause was ridiculous and all Seth, but it had obviously backfired. "Come on, I'll buy you a beer, man."

Dean could only walk out with Roman with slumped shoulders, scrubbing his hands down his face and let out a shaky breath. Why did it hurt so badly to be completely cut from Macaria's life? He understood why she did it, but it didn't piss him off any less. He told her not to give up on them and she was doing exactly that! Dean was tempted to go back to her, take her into his arms and kiss her breathless, demanding her to keep him in her life in SOME capacity.

Walking out of the arena, Macaria slipped into the back of the cab and went to the hotel to grab her things. The cab waited for her and then it was off to the airport to catch a redeye flight home. Vegas would be a perfect distraction from what she was going through and feeling. The whole ride, she cried and ignored text messages and calls from Nyla, not wanting to talk to anyone right now. Macaria wanted to be completely left alone to get through the heartache she currently experienced. Sighing, she paid the cab fare and stepped out to head into the airport, going directly to the front desk to grab her ticket. Stephanie had made due on her promise and, turns out, allowed Macaria to use the company's private jet to go home. She blinked at the luxurious plane, wondering if this was right, but the flight attendant assured her it was.

"Do you need something to drink, ma'am?" The flight attendant asked cordially, smiling at the woman's bewildered expression.

"Do you have liquor?"

"Yes."

"Double shot of bourbon, please." She needed something extremely hard yet smooth to swallow down, once again needing a distraction.

"Coming right up."

The flight was only 2 hours long and very smooth, the chair extremely comfortable. She cried the entire way, thankful the flight attendants had left her alone beside refilling her glass. After three double bourbons, she had a nice buzz going on, but not enough to where she couldn't get home. Cabs were a beautiful thing in Vegas. Around 1 AM, she finally arrived at her shoddy apartment and opened the door, bombarded with pictures of her and Dean hanging all over the place. She forgot she had developed them during her time working for Aya. Feeling her heart splinter all over again, Macaria began ripping them all down, leaving them flooding her floor and collapsed on the carpeted floor to roll her body up tightly.

In that position, she passed out for the next 12 hours straight.