A/N: There is another part to this and I might post it as early as tomorrow if you guys review this one. :)

Please Forgive Me

Part 1

August 19th, 2013

Anaheim, California

It was the night after SummerSlam and Skye wanted to be just about anywhere but in the Honda Center preparing for Monday Night Raw, but she was scheduled to accompany her brother out to the ring during his match with Curtis Axel who would have Heyman in his corner, so here she was.

"So," Brie spoke up from Skye's left side as they sat along with Naomi and Nattie in catering. "How are you doing?"

"Yeah, has that bitch left you alone," Naomi asked with a scowl.

"It's not like she hasn't done enough," Skye replied, poking at her salad. "I mean that picture is all over the internet."

"Oh sweetie," Nattie stated soothingly, "it's going to be okay."

Skye snorted, "I'm so sick of people telling me that. It's been an entire week now. What if it's not all going to be okay?"

"You can't think like that," Brie told her, firmly.

"Yeah," Naomi agreed with a quick nod. "Joe's just being a stubborn jackass. Brie and I saw him earlier and we about gave him a double dose of some ass-kicking."

Skye managed to crack a smile at that.

"I think that's the first time you've smiled since all of this began," Nattie pointed out.

"I haven't had a whole lot to smile about," she replied with a shrug. "I keep hoping that he'll come to his senses, but it all appears bleak at this point."

"Keep that head up," Nattie encouraged. "He'll figure out that he's in the wrong and things will work themselves out."

"Well apparently there's some friction amongst the Shield," Brie mentioned earning her a questioning gaze from Skye.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know the specifics," Brie admitted. "Bryan was just telling me that Colby has been catching a ride with Cesaro while Joe's been hitching a ride with Josh. I guess Jon rode by himself from LA. Apparently, something went down in Portland and they haven't been too chummy lately."

"Do you think it's because of what's going on with you and Joe," Naomi asked glancing at Skye.

"Hell if I know," Skye responded with a shrug. "Colby is the only one of the three who hasn't been treating me like I'm some side-show freak backstage."

Brie reached over to place a hand on her friend's arm, "You've still got us, girl."

"Thanks," the other woman commented appreciatively. She pushed back her chair. "I think that I'm going to go for a walk."

"Want some company," Nattie asked gently.

She shook her head as she gathered her trash. "No thanks. I kind of want to be alone." With a quick, departing wave, she threw away her trash and walked from the room.

Meanwhile down the hall, Joe stepped out of the locker room and released a loud sigh. Even though there were a few superstars milling about inside, the tension between Colby, Jon, and him was super thick after everything in Portland and he just needed a breather.

Dressed in his tactical gear, he leaned back against the wall allowing his head to drop back. His eyes closed and he tried to find some sense of peace even for just a moment. He had two handicap matches to think about now that the Shield was now part of the newly formed Authority which consisted of the McMahons, Triple H, and much to his dismay the newly crowned champion, Randy Orton.

As great of an opportunity as it was for the Shield to be put in a storyline with Triple H and Stephanie, the fact that he had to occupy the same space with the man who had kissed his girlfriend was a really hard pill to swallow. He had wanted to be anything but professional around the douche bag. As much as it would please him to punch the smirk off his egotistical face, he had two other guys to think about and he didn't want to jeopardize their careers as well.

Soon his mind went to thinking about Skye. He hadn't seen much of her lately other than on television or glimpses of her backstage. He still hated himself for allowing her to walk out that day in Pensacola. He just found that his pride seemed to have a stronger hold on him than his conscience.

After Colby going off on him and Jon back in Portland, he had begun seeing just how unreasonable he was being. Yes, she screwed up, but he never really gave her the benefit of the doubt.

He was too busy feeling hurt and pissed off that he never really tried seeing her side in things.

At the sound of clicking heels, he turned his head and nearly released an audible groan when his eyes caught sight of an approaching Summer Rae dressed in a red, skin-tight dress heading his way.

When the blonde came to a stop in front of him, he shook his head and gave her a look of warning, "I'm not really in the mood for company, Summer, so you might as well keep on walking."

"Aw, don't be like that," she cooed. "I mean I get that your girlfriend was caught making out with Orton which by the way was just outrageous. I can't believe she would do something like that to you." She placed a hand on his bare shoulder. "If you want to talk about it, I can be a very good listener."

He glanced at her manicured hand, resting on his shoulder a moment before eyeing her. "I'm sure you are." Obviously missing the sarcasm in his tone, she smiled brightly.

"You know I never really got what you saw in her," Summer stated flippantly "I mean yeah she's pretty I guess, but the whole I'm-better-than-you attitude that she has..."

He stared at her in amazement. She truly didn't know Skye at all. "You mean the particular attitude that you display 100 percent of the time?"

Instead of being miffed at the jab, it seemed to egg her on and she took a step forward to press herself against him. "Well, in comparison to her, you're damn right I'm better. I may not have the career that she has right now or the title reigns, but I will. I'm sick of everyone having to measure up the great Skyler Grace. It's bad enough we have that pint-size freak as our champion, but Skyler Grace is the top diva in the division, and I want to take her down."

With a smirk, she continued, "You see, Roman, I want to dethrone the queen, but I really could use a king to rule with if you get my drift. I'm not blind, I know you're going to be the next best thing, Roman, and you need someone more suited to be by your side."

"You do realize that this," he motioned around them and continued, "isn't real, right?"

"I'm not delusional, Roman, I do realize that we are just acting out there, but I want to be on top – be the top diva, be on the arm of a superstar with a future." Her other hand rubbed up against his vest-clad chest suggestively. "Plus, I could really rock your world. Certainly you've felt the electricity between us."

Shaking his head, his nice guy attitude was starting to wear thin at this point. Did she really not see how uninterested he was right now? "Look, Summer," he began before something caught his eye.

Someone had entered his peripheral and his eyes moved in their direction finding Skye frozen in place down the hall, watching them with a hurt expression upon her face.

He could only imagine what it looked like from a distance. It looked like Summer and him were sharing an intimate moment which would appear to her as him giving her a bit of a taste of her own medicine.

As her dejected eyes locked onto his, she slowly nodded in what he thought seemed like acceptance and immediately backed away from the scene.

Her body turned to leave and he opened his mouth to call out to her, but found that nothing left his lips. He watched her disappear and his eyes lowered in shame.

She didn't deserve this – any of it.

With a sigh, he lightly pushed Summer away who huffed in disappointment. "For the final time, Summer, I'm not interested. Go find someone else to latch yourself onto because it won't ever be me." He moved to walk past her, but paused, "For the record, you don't have a chance in hell in dethroning the queen."

He left the fuming blonde behind as he headed in the direction Skye had disappeared in.

Minutes later, he almost had given up his search until he rounded a corner and halted mid-way when he saw her just down the empty corridor sitting crisscrossed atop a box, looking so small and fragile.

She wasn't crying. She was just sitting there staring at the blank wall ahead of her vacantly.

As his heart broke a little, he realized that Colby had been right. He had broken her. Her lovely spirit was gone and now she was just an empty shell left behind because he was too damn stubborn and jealous to hear her out.

He needed to fix this - now. When he took a step forward, he stopped abruptly and ducked back behind the corner when he caught sight of Randy strolling down the hall from the other direction.

It would be his fucking luck that Orton would show up again at the worse time.

With his back pressed against the wall, he felt his insides tightening as he listened as Randy called out to her. "Skye, can we talk," the champion questioned lightly.

"I'm really not in the mood," she responded dryly. "Leave me alone."

"Come on, please don't walk away..."

"I don't want to talk to you," she reaffirmed furiously.

"I need you to listen to me," Randy countered almost pleadingly. "Look, I know you're confused and you don't want to hurt Reigns, but stop trying to deny that there's nothing here."

"There is nothing here," she declared, her voice cracking. "Now leave me alone!"

Just when he was just going to walk away and leave the two of them to hash it out, Joe had only taken a solitary step before he heard Skye cry out.

"Let go of my arm!"

"Don't walk away from me! You have to listen to me!"

"Randy, stop, you're hurting me! Let go!"

In a flash, he was around the corner and tackling the other man to the ground causing the man to break his hold on Skye's arm.

"What the fuck," Randy grunted as Joe's weight crushed him to the ground.

"If you ever lay your fucking hands on her again – I will end you, Orton, do you hear me?!"

"Joe, get off of him," Skye requested after recovering from the shock. She let out a yelp when Randy sent a right hook into Joe's jaw.

The punch sent Joe rolling off of him so the other man could get the upper hand. "You really should watch who you're threatening, boy," Randy growled as he gripped Joe by the vest he wore. "Don't forget your place in this business!"

Enraged, Joe was able push Randy off and managed to get a punch in before Skye snapped out of her stupor and went to grab at his bicep before he sent another round of punches that she was sure he was about to unload.

"Joe, stop it before you lose your job," she ordered quickly.

"Yeah listen to her," Randy guffawed. "You wouldn't want to look weak in front of her, would you? It might make her decision a little easier. She needs a real man."

"Shut up," Skye shouted shooting the man with a glare. She lost her hold on Joe's arm and he reared back to clock the Missourian again. She took a few strides backward and watched them roll around trading shots before she stepped forward to try and break it up again. "I think you've proven both of your points! Come on, guys, enough!"

As she reached for a flailing arm, she was knocked backward when an elbow connected with her mouth. She fell to the ground with a cry which seemed to cause the two men to stop fighting and stare at her with wide eyes.

She spat blood from her mouth and brought her hand up to touch her busted lip with a wince.

The man whose elbow had been responsible for the blow stared horrified at her. "Skye," Joe uttered in mortification before the hall was swarmed with WWE employees – Triple H being at the head of the line looking outraged.

"What in the hell is going on here," he bellowed eyeing both men before gazing down at Skye. "Somebody, please take her to the doc," he ordered then pointed at Joe and Randy, "You two - in my office now!"

Colby, who had followed the crowd to see what all the commotion was, pulled her up to her feet as she refused to meet Joe's gaze. They bypassed a few other superstars, divas, and officials and headed to the trainer's room. "Trying to break up a fight between two men who hate each other – real smart," he teased.

She snorted, "I was trying to prevent your friend from murdering my ex."

"Crazy that it was just a couple of days ago that I was doing the same thing for you," he teased which earned him an elbow.

"Well, the bitch was smart and has yet to show her face again," she commented as she licked her bottom lip. She frowned. "He's going to hate himself for this."

"Probably," Colby agreed.

"Or maybe he enjoyed it a little," she shrugged. "Payback for breaking his heart."

Colby shot her a stern look, "Don't even joke. That man would throw himself in front of a bus for you if he had to."

She sighed, "I know." She glanced down and asked, "So, what's this I hear about the members of the Shield riding in separate cars? I hope it's not because of me."

"Well, I was pissed off at the both of them because they were both being jackasses," he answered with a half-shrug.

"So, why didn't the two of them just ride together?"

"Joe's pissed at Jon for what he said to you," Colby explained which astounded her.

"Why was he pissed? He basically implied the same thing," she muttered.

"Yeah, but he's still not going to allow anyone to talk bad about his girl," he proclaimed. "What was Orton doing before Joe attacked?"

"He grabbed my arm pretty tightly to the point that I yelled at him to stop and then Joe appeared out of nowhere and went all human-missile on the guy."

"See? I think your guy is coming to his senses."

"I hardly think so," she remarked as her mind filled with images of Joe and Summer.

"What do you mean? He wouldn't just do that for anyone."

"I meant that I don't think he's my guy anymore."

Fifteen minutes later, she walked out of the trainer's room with an ice pack to her lips and found Mark Cerrano strolling up, "Hunter and Stephanie want to speak with you."

Half expecting this, she nodded and followed the head of Talent Relations down the hall to where COO's office was set up.

When they both entered, she found Hunter and Stephanie sitting behind the desk with Randy and Joe sitting in the chairs in front of them. In the middle where the two superstars sat was an empty chair.

"Skye," Stephanie greeted with a friendly smile. "Have a seat."

"Okay," she replied and squeezed through to plop down allowing the icepack to fall down to rest in her lap while Mark got situated in the seat to Stephanie's left.

"You okay," Hunter asked eyeing her closely. "You took quite a bit of a blow there."

"Just a busted lip, nothing to be alarmed about," she responded with a simple shrug. She had hoped that would put Joe's mind at ease. "So, what's up," she questioned after she settled back in her seat.

"Well, we brought you here because these two," Hunter stated motioning to the two gentlemen flanking her, "won't fill us in on what the whole altercation was about. In fact, they haven't spoken a word this entire time with the exception a few choice words here and there."

"We figured you were somehow involved," Stephanie added gently.

"Involuntarily," she answered truthfully. "Things just sort got out of control and I'm sort of just stuck in the center of it all."

"It's not her fault," Randy spoke up, shocking both of the people to his left. He let out a sigh and rubbed a hand over his shaved head. "It's not Reigns fault either. It's all on me."

"How it that," Hunter inquired, leaning forward with his hands linked atop the desk. "Would any of this have anything to do with a certain picture that was posted last week by that girlfriend of yours?"

"It would," Orton answered eyeing their bosses with a sheepish look. "Look, you both know that Skye and I have a history and I..." His eyes dropped down to his lap. "I guess I've been having a hard time letting the past go and so I thought I'd try and make her see that, so I kissed her."

His head turned in the direction of the Samoan who was staring at him with inquisitive gaze.

"She pushed me away right away. She didn't want it to happen, man."

As he said this, Skye merely stared at her hands avoiding Joe's surprised gaze which moved over to her.

"I took advantage of her kindness," Randy continued explaining to Hunter, Stephanie, and Mark. "And I'm ashamed of myself."

"You should be," Stephanie stated sharply. "What about the whole altercation earlier? Who is taking blame for that?"

"I tackled him," Joe admitted lowly.

"But, I threw the first punch," Randy added. "I was out of line – I grabbed Skye's arm a bit too roughly and Reigns had every right to intervene."

Stephanie cleared her throat, "So, let me get this straight, Randy, you not only kissed a woman without her consent, but then put your hands on her?"

"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled, head down. His eyes traveled over to the woman to his left. "I'm sorry, Skye. I'm not proud of my actions nor did I ever want them to hurt you in anyway."

Shaking her head, Stephanie's eyes went to Skye. "Skye, would you like to say anything?"

"Not really. I mean there's really nothing left for me to add, Steph. Randy's pretty much filled all of you in on this past week's events." With a soft, defeated chuckle, she continued, "As a result, my reputation has been dragged through the mud because of a picture that will never go away." Her eyes went to glance at the man to her right. "Not to be completely callous, but your apology won't stop the fans from tweeting that I'm some kind of cheater or I'm some other kind of disgusting term. It's out there and I can't exactly hide from it."

He went to speak, but she shook her head. Her eyes went back to her bosses. "As for my personal relationship with the man to my left is, well," she trailed off and swallowed, "whatever at this point. So, I'm left after all of this just sitting here with a busted lip and all I want to do is just get through Raw and forget all of this ever happened."

"Understandable," Hunter agreed with a soft, sympathetic gaze. "You're free to go. If anybody bothers you, you come straight to us, understand?"

Nodding, she stood up and eyed the two men for a moment before addressing the people in charge of their fates. "Look, I know there's a no violence rule that I know all of you have to enforce, but if I could make a simple request – go easy on them. I'm not worth them losing their jobs."

With that being said, she turned and walked out or the room to find her brother standing outside pacing.

She really wasn't surprised to see him there. Colby must have told him what happened or he had heard from someone who had seen the aftermath.

His eyes flew to her busted lip and growled, "Okay, which one do I need to fuck up for that lip of yours?"

"It barely hurts," she defended for he which snorted.

"Ah, so that stubborn boyfriend of yours then," he concluded. "Had it been Orton, you probably would have been cool with it."

"I tried to break up a fight or didn't Colby tell you that part," she questioned with an exasperated look.

"He may have excluded that part," he reasoned then admitted, "or I chose to ignore it."

"I'm fine," she reiterated to him and walked past him to head for the diva's locker room. As her brother followed her, she pressed the icepack to her lips. At his close presence, he let out a sigh, "Phil, I love you dearly, but I swear if you don't stop hovering I'm going to punch you in the face."

"Good to know that you appreciate the support that I'm trying to throw out," he joked.

"I'm sorry," she replied with a frown. "Just being in there between the two of them was just bizarre. Even with Randy admitting everything and taking blame," she paused when her brother glanced at her in shock.

"You're shitting me," he uttered.

"Yeah I know. I'm finding it hard to believe myself, but I shit you not." With a shrug, she continued, "I just really thought I'd feel better about things, you know?" Shaking her head, she snorted, "Look, I've got to go see if the make-up team can do something about this lip before your match tonight."

"You could always just chill out in my bus and not valet me tonight," he offered.

Shaking her head, she responded, "I need this. I need for things to go back to normal. At least, professionally that is."

"If you're sure," he remarked, slinging an arm around her. "You're one tough woman, you know that, Gracie?"

"I get my toughness from the best," she countered, placing a kiss to his scruffy cheek then winced as the action upsets her injured lip.

After the make-up team was able to cover her lip the best they could, Skye quickly headed toward the gorilla area to meet up with her brother who was no doubt there readying himself for his match.

Along the way, she came to an abrupt halt when Joe appeared from pretty much out of nowhere.

"We need to talk," he stated immediately, catching her by surprise. She didn't miss his eyes lowering to her wounded lip or the retched look that formed upon his face.

When she recovered from her initial shock, she felt herself grow a bit agitated at his assertiveness. "Oh, you want to talk? You want to talk." Scoffing, she shook her head, "I mean wow. Should I be honored that you finally want to talk?" She let out a bitter laugh. "I mean I've been trying to get you to talk to me for a week. You didn't answer my phone calls. You didn't answer any of my texts. You let me walk out of our home and didn't even say a word! But now you want to talk!"

"Skye, listen..."

"No, you listen," she snapped preventing him from uttering another word. "Maybe you should have believed me when I told you that I didn't do anything! Now, I have to go pretend that everything is okay and ignore all the booing from the crowd because for all they know I'm nothing but a cheating slut." When he went to interject, she cut him off with a shuddering breath and an unsteady smile. "You may want us to talk, but I have nothing left to say."

Turning away, she continued onward and left the large man standing there watching her go.