It was three in the morning when Kenna jerked awake with a pounding head.

Automatically her mind went to the cup of water that she always had by her bedside table, but it was pretty much empty and her throat was slowly drying out. Fuck.

Getting herself to the hotel had been no problem, but the reception had stuffed up her room and put her in this— tiny box with no air-conditioning. And now her head felt like it was being pulled apart by a bulldozer as subtle as a buzzing mosquito. Never again. Never again.

Scooping her hair up into a loose top knot, Kenna pulled a baby blue button down around her shoulders and slipped her arms into the silk material, then fumbled her glasses onto her nose. She made sure she had her keycard in the side of her bra and double checked that it wouldn't slip out, then grabbed one of the room's white cups and stepped out into the dimly lit hallway, making her way towards an ice vending machine.

It wasn't often that she was awake in the early hours of the morning, but somehow the calmness of everyone either sleeping or being elsewhere was soothing on her frazzled soul.

But that feeling didn't last for long.

Almost subconsciously she could feel someone slowly walking towards her. Instantly she regretted not doing the buttons up on her nightshirt and gripped the fabric tightly in her free hand, the other only just slipping under the ice chute. She didn't press the button. Instead, Kenna turned her head to regard the Samoan walking towards her, raised an eyebrow when he stopped short a couple of metres away and leant against the wall.

"Just gonna stand there and stare at me?"

"Tempting," was his low reply, and Kenna felt the noise travel down her spine. "Just tryin' to figure you out."

She grinned without humour. "What is there to figure out? I have a headache, I'm getting ice."

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Enlighten me."

Stormy grey eyes stayed locked on hers and then he was smirking, shaking his head. "That stunt you pulled on RAW last night— that why you were so nervous?"

Kenna pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. "That and because the Wyatt's are some scary motherfuckers. And because I knew Hunter was going to lose it when I called his mother a slut."

"Can't argue with that," Roman chuckled. "How bad is the blood between you and your brother? I worked for him for the past year and a bit and never once did he mention he had a little sister. Or talk about any of his family, for that matter."

Sucking in a deep breath, Kenna turned to face the machine and pressed the crushed ice button, waiting until it started to fall before answering the Shield member. "Don't suppose he'd talk a lot about the family he pulled apart. Never liked me as a kid because my father realised what exactly his mother was and then left her, and he had this genius idea to try and separate my parents because he liked dad just a little too much." She turned to regard him again and then raised a blasé shoulder. "He's got daddy issues."

"You here to get some kind of revenge then?"

"Me?" Kenna snorted. "Revenge? Revenge is child's play. I'm here to take over."

Slowly, her fingers dropped from the cup and she stepped away from the machine, her chin raising to look up at Roman as she closed the gap between them. "Humour me. Imagine, for a moment, that the Authority ceased to exist. That the only person you had to answer to was a mere woman who only wanted to do better than her fuck up of a brother. Imagine there were no McMahon's, no Helmsley's, no Guerrero's. Just me. Now imagine," Kenna raised her palms and laid them just under Roman's clavicles, let her fingers curl around his shoulders, and his eyes were burning into the skin of her arms, "imagine the WWE World Heavyweight Titles draped across your shoulders, that gold you've been striving for your entire career finally yours."

His hand caught one of her wrists and hazel eyes flickered up to his lighter greys. "And you're gonna make that happen?"

"I'll make your wildest dreams come true."

An inaudible gasp slipped from Kenna's lips when Roman placed a cool hand at the base of her spine, and this close, without heels, she had to arch her head back to hold his gaze.

"What's the catch?" He whispered.

"You gotta be my man," her voice was nothing more then a breathless murmur. "No Shield, no one but you and me. Protect me, fight for me, support me. I'm gonna take everything from him, but I need to know that I have someone worthy at my side."

Roman's grey eyes darted between hers as he mulled over the words. And slowly his head lowered, his eyes half lidded, and Kenna felt this surge of energy in her body. He was so close their noses were brushing, his breath washing over her wet lips, and almost like she had no control her lids slipped shut.

Time seemed to still. Her heart pushed itself into her throat.

But when she went to press their mouths together— Roman inched back slightly. She gazed at him through narrowed eyes.

"No deal," he murmured softly, "The Shield and I are a package. It's all of us or none of us."

"Think they're going to approve you wearing the pants?"

"They'll have their own gold. Get them in line for the Tag Titles and then we'll talk about it."

An amused and impressed smirk pulled the corner of Kenna's mouth up. "Are you bargaining with me, Roman Reigns?"

"We got nothing to lose. Do you?"

With a raised eyebrow, she pushed herself out of his grasp and back towards the machine, grabbed her full cup of ice and sidestepped past him. But she paused then, gazed over her shoulder to meet Roman's intense stare. "I'll get them their match. In the mean time, keep your eyes peeled. I might need you sooner than you think."

—

Finding her way to the airport was easy enough, and Hunter had set up some security to make sure that there was no way anyone could see her or make connections. The arena was another story altogether.

The traffic trying to get there was insane and by the time her driver had parked, the show had already started. She was glad she'd taken the time to get ready on the plane. Her hazel eyes were accented by the smokey green eyeshadow and the moss green top she was wearing, but over that was a black leather jacket, and black denim shorts barely covered the tattoo on her thigh. And, because she was naturally tall, the platformed ankle boots put her just under six foot.

Stephanie was the one to greet her at the backdoor.

"Kenna! The traffic must have been insane— don't worry about that, we need to get you set up to go out there."

She didn't even have a chance to respond before a paper was shoved under her nose. "Wait, wait, Steph—"

"No, we need to—"

"Stephanie!" Kenna almost yelled, and the other woman stopped automatically and turned to regard her. "I need to speak to Hunter, there's been a change in how things are gonna go down."

And now Stephanie was looking at her like she'd grown a second head.

Kenna sighed. "Just tell me where he is."

"In his office…"

"I'll see you later, boss woman."

Apparently, sauntering around back-of-house hallways was a thing that she was supposed to pick up extremely easily. But she couldn't for the life of her get out of this endless loop that she was walking in, and for fucks sake, the show would be finished by the time she got to his office.

So instead, Kenna pulled her cell from the back shorts and dialled his number, pressed the phone to her ear.

"—Kenna, where are you?"

"Dunno, I'm lost."

He sighed down the line and she didn't bother covering her smile. "Stephanie said something changed—"

"It's gonna take me a bit longer than I expected. And I need a few favours, too. Give the other two a chance to become to number one contenders for the tag titles, but make sure Kane goes down and attacks them, 'cause that'll set up their WrestleMania match." Kenna was rambling, and she knew she was, but there were ideas almost exploding out of her brain. "Also, tell Kane to go down as Corporate Kane and give me his mask, I'm gonna go out and wave it in front of his face afterwards. Maybe hit him."

There was silence for a long moment and just as Kenna was about to ask whether he was still there, Triple H hummed his approval. "All right, I'll make it happen. We'll put Ambrose and Rollins in a match against the Uso's, Reigns will be ringside. Any news on that front?"

"Three months. Maybe less. He doesn't wanna budge on the whole brothers in arms thing, but I can think of a few ways to get myself between them."

"Good," Hunter affirmed, "they've got enough power as it is already and I'm not letting them weasel The Authority out of business."

"That's not gonna happen, Hunter, as least not while I'm around."

"That's what I like to hear. Alright, go let them know and I'll find Kane. Oh— and be safe, would ya? It's nice havin' you around again."

Kenna smiled at the tenderly brother tone and gazed over her shoulder. Her blood ran cold. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll see you after the show."

Turning fully around to face the three men walking towards her, the brunette tried to make the blush on her face disappear. The corner of Dean Ambrose's mouth curved.

"You excited to see us, darlin'? You're looking a bit flushed in the cheeks."

"Yeah? I wonder why, when I'm running around an endless arena probably going in circles," Kenna shot back quickly, her eyes narrowed.

Dean smirked right back at her. "Need to get anywhere?"

"Honestly? I was looking for you lot."

That peaked all their interests, but Dean's smirk was still heavy. "I think we outta talk about what happened—"

Kenna ignored him, instead looked at Rollins. "Whatever you have tonight's been scrapped. Apparently my darling brother wants to reward you by giving you a title match against the Uso's in the main event. You and Ambrose, that is." Finally her eyes shifted to the Samoan man and her head tilted to the side, an eyebrow raised. "No catches, no anything. Just a simple tag match."

"As a reward?"

"Somehow having to deal with me warrants a reward to keep you on his good side," she remarked. "That, and he doesn't want you to believe that he had anything to do with Kane carrying out that hit on you a few weeks back. Something about humbling cocky talent."

"The only reward we need is another kiss—"

Roman snapped out a "shut up, Dean," before the Ohioan could continue.

"The next time I kiss you is probably the next time I'm drunk and desperate," Kenna shot at him, "and don't get your hopes up, because I don't drink."

"I could change that—"

"Dean, shut up!"

With an exasperated sigh, Dean locked his jaw and turned his cheek, gazing over Seth's shoulder with a pout that, despite his attitude, looked cute. Kenna couldn't stop her small grin.

"Look, I'm just here to let you know what's goin' on, okay? Hope you guys get a win, you deserve it."

Kenna was walking away from them before anything else could happen. Yet, she could feel Roman's intense gaze trailing after her figure, the man probably still trying to figure her out. From the looks of their immediate reactions, the Samoan hadn't mentioned their little discussion from this morning at all. She threw a glance over her shoulder and met his eyes with a little wink.

He was already playing right into her hand.

—

Just like she'd told Triple H, the moment Kane made his presence known, Kenna wrapped her nimble fingers around the red mask that Stephanie had placed inside a glass box and bolted towards the main stage, didn't even wait for the sound of her music before snatching a microphone off the table.

But by the time she got ringside, it was too late. Kane had chokeslammed Reigns onto the padded floor and laid his hands on Dean and Seth, essentially disqualifying the Uso twins and giving The Shield the win (even if it was just collateral damage).

He was about to deliver his third and final assault to Rollins when Kenna threw herself between the ropes and thrust the mask into his face.

And he stopped automatically, his eyes darkening.

"Where'd you get that?"

"The point is that I have it," she huffed at him, and somehow she felt the twins leave the ring with their titles without even seeing it. "And the next point is that you want it. C'mon, let him go, let's have some fun."

Kane let the half blonde man go and almost instantaneously, his fingers were tight around her wrist tugging her closer to him, and the noise of protest was picked up easily by the microphone under her chin. Kenna raised her head. "What are you gonna do, chokeslam me? Where's that gonna get you?"

The man didn't even flinch when Triple H's theme boomed through the arena.

"Kane!" He screamed into his own mic, "Don't you dare try anything! The moment you hurt a hair on her head—"

"Shut up!" Kenna yelled.

Like she controlled the entire arena, every single person fell silent at her words. "You want your mask back, Kane? Take it. But you're done out here, you've done enough damage, and all your actions have done is spark the idea of brutal retaliation. And if you hurt me right now, my brother won't be the only one after your blood."

His fingers slowly dropped from her wrist and he took a step back, finally raised his eyes from the mask to her own. "Good. Now get out and take this stupid thing with you."

It was only when Kane was up at the ramp with Triple H that she raised the microphone back to her mouth. "Oh, and Kane? If you dare lay your filthy hands on me again, I'm going to kick your nose through the back of your skull. We clear?"

She could see him mouth 'we're clear' from where she stood. Her brother looked at her inquisitively, but Kenna chose instead to pointedly look away to what was happening inside the ring she was standing in. Seth, recovered and now shifting his eyes between where she was stood and where Triple H was leaving, was helping Ambrose to unsteady feet, and behind them Roman Reigns was struggling to stand as well.

The microphone slipped from her hands and before she realised what she was doing, Kenna slid her way from the ring to wrap an arm around the big dog's waist, tried to steady him as best as she could.

"I couldn't get out here fast enough," she said, almost in a tone that was like an apology, and Roman's hand lifted to the side of her head, ruffled her hair softly.

"Don't worry about it, baby girl. We shoulda known this would be a trap."

Reigns stumbled a bit on one of his steps and Kenna found herself with a hand at his torso for more stability. "Don't go collapsing on me, yeah?"

"Makin' me look weak," he laughed lowly, "need a woman's help to walk."

"You'd need a man's help to walk after that chokeslam," was her even reply. "I mean, Rollins is pretty much carrying Ambrose, look at them."

When he followed her line of site, he snorted at the pair— Ambrose was trying to walk on his own and failing miserably and Seth was left to catch him and walk him around the side of the tron entrance, and slowly but surely, she and Roman were following them.

"You didn't tell them."

She raised an eyebrow and her eyes to meet the Samoan's gaze. Then, he shook his head. "There was nothing to talk about. We're done."

"You're done?" Kenna asked after a pause.

"Done working for him. Your brother is a spineless coward who hides behind others carrying out his orders. He has a problem with us but he's not doin' a damn thing about it, just making it so much worse. So, yeah, Kenna, we're done."

And, well— she didn't know how to respond to that.

By the time they reached The Shield's locker room, Roman was limping by himself without any aid from Kenna, and she was more than ready to excuse herself when Roman locked a hand around her arm.

"You, uh… you wanna go out to lunch sometime?"

A giggle slipped past Kenna's lips as she gazed across at him. "Are you asking me on a date, Roman Reigns?"

"Are you gonna say yes?"

"Possibly," she smiled and placed a hand on her hip, tilted her head a little to the side. "Maybe. I mean, if you were asking me on a date I'd inform you of some conditions."

Now, Roman was grinning back at her. "Conditions?"

"No movie theatre, no walks on the beach— I don't do cliché, it makes me cringe."

"Any hints for a man in need?"

Kenna hummed to herself and chewed on her bottom lip. "Keep it low-key. I don't need a football stadium hired out so we can get to know each other a bit better." Laughter rumbled out of his chest at that, and she grinned proudly, raised a hand to squeeze his arm. "It's a date, big dog, not anything special. Don't stress."

"No stress," he repeated, and that smile was still wide on his face.

"I'm in room 2204. Come and find me tomorrow and we'll exchange numbers, maybe go grab a coffee…" Kenna trailed off suggestively and pushed onto the tips of her toes so that she was almost eye level with him. "And don't worry about Kane or Hunter or anything— we'll deal with that on Monday, okay?"

And slowly, so he wouldn't pull away from her as he did last time, Kenna pressed her lips to his cheek and let them linger there for a moment before she smiled.

She didn't meet his eyes as she pulled away.

i apologise for the lengthy wait for this and if any of you are reading my Dean/Bobbi fic, i really do apologise for the wait on that one as well

thanks for the comments of support, hope you enjoyed this one :)