Pressure Point

Carly readjusted the ice-pack on her knee. The medic had determined that it was in fact sprained, and recommended that she ice it before heading back to the hotel for the night. Seth and Roman stayed with her while they waited for the medics to clear Dean.

"How are you doing?" Seth asked.

"I need mouthwash. Or bleach. Really anything to get that taste out of my mouth. That was the most vile, disgusting thing I've ever done," Carly grimaced.

Roman shook his head, grinning incredulously, "I still can't believe you actually bit Randy Orton's arm. You don't know where that thing's been."

"Don't remind me," Carly groaned.

At that moment, Dean strutted in, still keyed up from the match and looking pleased as punch at his victory.

"If I bruised his pride half as bad as I bruised his stupid-looking face, Randy's not gonna shake this one off anytime soon," he said.

Seth and Roman chuckled in agreement. Carly wished she could share Dean's enthusiasm, but she was still annoyed. Oddly enough, it had less to do with the fact that she'd been RKO'd and more to do with the way Dean had blatantly ignored her advice.

"You're awfully proud of yourself," Carly said, narrowing her eyes at him, "Considering the way you literally ran headlong into a trap."

Dean's eyebrows arched in surprise. Seth and Roman glanced at each other, electing to stay out of the argument. This was one fight that would be far better for them to observe than to risk getting caught in the line of fire. Carly knew she should be glad that Dean had managed to get through his trial-by-fire unscathed, but it could've so easily gone the other way that she wasn't about to let him off the hook.

"By my reckoning, I still won," said Dean.

"True, but not before you ignored everything I told you, completely lost control, and got yourself duct-taped to the ropes," said Carly.

"You expect me to stand there and do nothing? You expect me to let that psychotic scumbag get away with stuff like that?" Dean folded his arms, glaring at Carly.

"He was being creepy," Carly sighed in exasperation, "It's Randy Orton. I expected it, and I can handle it myself."

"But you weren't handling it," said Dean, leaning over Carly to point in her face, "You were just standing there."

"I was trying to keep you from flying off the handle. I told you not to worry about me," said Carly.

"He shouldn't touch you like that," said Dean.

"You started losing it the second he put his arm around me," Carly snapped, "What's the big deal? You do that to me all the time!"

"But I stop when you tell me to! He didn't stop!" Dean yelled.

Carly was taken aback by the ferocity of Dean's sudden outburst. What a weird thing to get that worked up about. It's not like Orton had been hurting her, at least not at that point. Dean held her gaze for a moment before straightening up and looking away.

"He didn't stop," Dean muttered, "You don't treat a woman that way, I don't care who you are. He shouldn't touch you like that. It's not right."

Carly watched him in confusion. Chivalry? That's what this was all about? So that whole mess had been Dean's way of being a gentleman. To be honest, Dean Ambrose was the last person Carly expected that sort of behavior from. But it made sense the more that she thought about it. If Dean was going express protective concern for somebody, he would do so with impetuous violence. Roman stood and went to Dean, putting a hand on his shoulder. The contact seemed to pull most of the rage from Dean's darkened expression.

"Hey, go get changed, alright?" Roman said gently, "Then we can all get out of here."

Dean nodded and walked off in the direction of the locker room.

"Go easy on Dean," Seth said, as soon as he was out of sight, "I mean, it was his fault, but try not to stay mad for too long."

"I was gonna say, that was actually a pretty big improvement for him," said Roman, looking at Seth.

"What do you mean?" asked Carly.

Talk about being damned by faint praise. Under what circumstances could 'going off half-cocked, resulting in getting your friend RKO'd and yourself beaten with a chair' be considered an improvement? Seth and Roman were silent for a moment. They glanced at each other significantly before speaking.

"You didn't know Dean back when we started out," said Seth, "He was… different then. He's still himself. I mean, he's still Dean Ambrose. I don't think he could be anything else, but… I guess you could say he had a chip on his shoulder."

"He was the man with the mission" said Roman, "He's the one who brought the three of us together. All that fighting for honor and justice stuff, that was his idea. Without Dean Ambrose, there would be no Shield. I still don't know how he did it. I don't know how he managed to convince us to work together. But you know him, Carly. If there's something Dean has in spades, it's drive. It's charisma."

"He had it rough growing up," Seth said, "I won't go into the details. That's his place to tell you, not ours. But anybody could see that it scarred him pretty good. He didn't care what happened to him. He didn't care if he got hurt, and he definitely wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone who got in his way. And he didn't smile. I mean, he smiled, but there was nothing behind it. It was like there was just this void inside him, and all he had was this pain and the drive to lash out at anything that struck him as unjust."

"But after fighting alongside us, he started to change," said Roman, smiling faintly, "He seemed happy. Like, actually happy about life and everything. He started cracking jokes and singing before we'd go out for matches. And he started trusting us, and caring about us. He laid himself on the line for us, not just for his mission. That's when we started seeing each other as brothers."

"And I think we're all better men because of it, sappy as that may sound," said Seth.

"He still isn't too good at trusting people," said Roman, "Which is why we were surprised that he took such a shine to you, Carly."

"And he really didn't like you when you first came here. I mean he really… but that isn't the point," Seth hurried on when he noticed Carly's nonplussed expression.

"The point is," said Roman, "There's a reason Randy used you to get at Dean. You're a pressure point for him, just like me and Seth are."

"Dean trusts you, Carly, and that's a big deal coming from him," said Seth, "He cares about you. I mean, we think he-"

"Seth," Roman interrupted warningly.

Seth immediately broke off and looked apologetically at Roman. Well, that wasn't suspicious or anything. Carly glanced between the two of them. It wasn't like them to be evasive.

"What it all boils down to," said Seth, "Is that Dean's come a long way, but you still gotta be patient with him."

"Especially when he starts acting like a fool," said Roman.

"Or gets you RKO'd," Carly added, deadpan.

"Or gets you RKO'd," Roman repeated with a sympathetic wince.

"Hey, what are you guys sitting around looking all serious for?" said Dean, sticking his head in the door, "Come on, let's get out of here."

xXx

Carly was beyond ready to turn in for the night. She'd brushed her teeth twice and gargled the entirety of a little travel-size bottle of mouthwash trying to rid herself of the memory of biting Randy Orton's arm. She had just changed from her work clothes into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt (Shield merchandise, naturally) when she heard a knock on the door of her hotel room.

It was Dean. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, seeming unable to make eye contact.

"Can I, uh… Can I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," said Carly, mystified.

She opened the door a little wider to let him walk past. What a range of emotions she'd seen in Dean today. Everything from smug confidence to berserker rage, and now this. He spoke to her over his shoulder as he walked further in.

"I just wanted to check on you," he said "Y'know, to make sure you were alright after what happened."

"I'm fine, Dean," said Carly.

That couldn't be the whole reason he was here. Dean knew she was alright, minus the sprained knee. They'd all come back to the hotel in the same car, after all. She followed him into the room. Dean turned, still not quite looking at her.

"I know that. There was something else I-" Dean broke off suddenly as he noticed her limping, "Wait a minute. You're hurt. You shouldn't be walking around. Why aren't you in bed?"

Dean brushed past Carly. He went to the bed and began turning down the covers.

"Well, I was about go to bed, but then you came over?" Carly said. Somehow the statement ended up a question.

"Don't make excuses," Dean called over his shoulder.

Carly laughed in spite of herself. Somehow, Dean Ambrose managed to make a stunning lack of self-awareness into an endearing character trait. He tossed the extra pillows aside and walked back to Carly, taking her arm.

"Dean, what are you doing?" Carly asked exasperatedly as Dean pulled her along and sat her down on the bed.

"That's a sprained knee," he said, "You aren't supposed to walk around on it. Come on."

"Walking across a hotel room isn't going to make it worse," protested Carly.

"Don't argue," said Dean, "You need to rest. Doctor's orders."

"Roman is right," Carly said drily, "Your bedside manner does need work."

"Yeah, well, it'd help if you weren't such stubborn patients," said Dean.

He took her by the shoulders and firmly pushed her back onto the pillow. Carly watched him with confusion that bordered on amusement. Apparently Dean was trying to take care her. This was decidedly odd, since Dean was the one who typically needed looking after. He pulled the covers over her and straightened up, pointing a finger down at her authoritatively.

"Now go to sleep," he ordered.

"Alright, Dean," said Carly, biting back a bemused smile.

Dean took a few steps towards the door, then turned back.

"Do you need a glass of water?" he asked.

"Already got one," said Carly, pointing to the nightstand.

"Oh. Alright, good."

Dean took another step, then paused again.

"Want me to tell you a bedtime story?" he said.

"What?" Carly's eyebrows arched in surprise, "Dean, I'm a little concerned about what would happen in one of your stories."

"No, it's cool. It'll be good, I promise," said Dean, "Give me a minute, I'll think of something."

Dean stretched himself out on his stomach next to Carly, gathering a few of the extra pillows and propping himself up on his elbows. His face was a picture of concentration. Carly had no idea what to make of this. It was impossible to understand what had possessed Dean to come here and start fussing over her all of a sudden. But then again, it was pretty impossible to understand what motivated Dean Ambrose to do anything. Maybe this was his way of apologizing. She might as well humor him. It was an odd situation, but Carly was surprised to find it was not an entirely unpleasant one.

"Ok, I've got it," Dean said finally, "Once upon a time, there were three soldiers. Knights. They were knights. This is a fairy tale."

"Oh boy," Carly sighed.

"Shut up, I'm talking," said Dean.

Carly giggled. Dean was so serious about this, it was impossible to take him seriously. She rolled onto her side to face him and settled in to listen.

"There were these three knights," Dean continued, "The first one was also a ninja. The second one was probably a superhero, we never found out for sure. And the third one was charming, charismatic, incredibly handsome…"

Dean glanced over at Carly and grinned. She rolled her eyes, but didn't interrupt.

"Anyway, the third knight decided that the three of them should team up and go off into the world to fight injustice, which they did. But somewhere along the way, the knights sorta lost sight of that mission. They got hired by an evil king to do his dirty work, and they did everything the evil king told them to. What's worse is they enjoyed doing it. But eventually the knights realized that they'd become a force of injustice, so they decided to rebel against the evil king and take him down."

That was interesting. Until today, Carly never really heard the Shield address the fact that, in their early days, some of the action they took in the name of "justice" was a little suspect. But Dean almost looked ashamed when he mentioned losing sight of their mission.

"Now the evil king was married to an evil queen. They said she was the daughter of the devil himself," Dean went on, "But the devil had another daughter, a princess, little did the king or queen or anybody else know. And about the same time as the knights turned against the king, the princess came to live at the castle. Nobody wanted her there, least of all the queen. But the queen couldn't get rid of her, because the devil liked the princess more than he liked her. So the king and queen put the princess to work fighting against the knights. Well, the knights didn't like that, and they didn't like the princess very much either. Nobody really knew why the princess would work for the evil king and queen. The people said the princess didn't have a heart, but maybe they'd just put her under a spell that made her heart stop working, I dunno.

"One day, everything was going wrong for the knights. With the princess's help, the evil king cornered the first knight (he's the ninja, remember) and beat him half to death in an unfair fight. Just as the king was about to finish him off, something revived the princess's dark, cold heart, and she knew she had to save the knight. She turned against the king and struck him down. Now that gave the knight time to get to safety, but the king swore he'd get revenge on the princess."

Strangely enough, Carly found herself enjoying listening the story. Dean Ambrose, of all people, was spinning reality into a fairytale. And it was interesting to hear his perspective on everything. Carly hadn't really thought of herself as heartless back then, but that's how she must have seemed to the Shield.

"The queen still couldn't get rid of the princess," said Dean, "But to punish her for what she did, the queen ordered three of her minions to torture the princess. If the princess tried to run away, the first knight would get banished from the kingdom. Now the second knight, the superhero – yeah, I know you know. Be quiet, Carly, I'm trying to tell a story here. Anyway, because the princess risked her life to save the first knight, the second knight was convinced that she really was good, in her heart y'know, and told the other two that they had to do something to help her. The first knight agreed right away. The third knight wasn't completely sold on the princess yet, but he agreed, too.

"So the knights offered to rescue the princess, but she wouldn't let them. Said she wouldn't do anything to risk the first knight getting banished, which was noble of her, but not very smart. So when the time came, the princess handed herself over to the evil queen's minions. The knights waited 'til the queen's orders were carried out, just like the princess asked them to, before they chased the minions off. But by that time, the princess was hurt pretty bad. And the third knight-"

Dean broke off suddenly, clearing his throat. When he started speaking again, his tone had softened.

"And when the third knight saw just how brave, how stupidly brave the princess was, he knew she really was one of the good guys, and he wanted to do whatever he could to protect her. From the evil king and queen, I mean. But anyway, the princess decided to join the three knights, and did everything she could to help them out. It didn't hurt that she was protected by the devil himself. Eventually, they were able to banish the evil queen, but there was still the king to worry about.

"The evil king called up his two henchmen. One was a monster called the Animal, and the other was a sick, slithering snake called the Viper. And both of them were really ugly. The knights and the princess fought hard against the king and his henchmen. Once, the Viper even got his hands on the princess, which wasn't even a little bit alright, and he hurt her while the third knight was trapped and forced to watch, which was even less alright, and the knight just wanted to take the Viper and kick the fangs out of his stupid smug face and-"

Dean paused again, trying to relax his hands from the stranglehold they'd had on the pillow. He'd gotten a little worked up during that last part. He took a deep breath, shook his head as if to clear it, and went on.

"But everything was okay, in the end," he said, "Because the first knight and the second knight saved the princess, and the third knight got to beat the hell out of the snake. And eventually, with the princess's help, the third knight pulled out the Viper's fangs and tied him in about a dozen knots so he couldn't slither up on anybody ever again, the second knight overpowered the Animal and beat him half to death and put him in a cage and sent him to the zoo where he belongs, and the first knight tricked the evil king and stole the throne right out from under him. And then there was peace in the kingdom, and the knights and the princess lived happily ever after. The end. Now what are you smiling at me like that for?"

Carly hadn't even realized that she was smiling.

"It was a good story, Dean," she said.

"Yeah, well," Dean grinned sheepishly and looked down.

For a moment there was silence. Dean fiddled with the seam of one of the pillows. Something was still on his mind, clearly, but Carly knew better than to try to force anything out of him. She waited. Dean sighed, then looked over at her remorsefully.

"I messed up, Carly," he said, "I let you get hurt. No, no it's worse than that. You got hurt because of what I did. I just got so mad 'cause I wanted to protect you, and I screwed everything up. I'm sorry."

Dean looked away again, resting his chin on his folded arms. Carly didn't quite know what to say. She nearly spouted reassuring clichés to the effect of saying it wasn't his fault, but she knew Dean wouldn't have any of that nonsense. It wouldn't make him feel better, anyway. Instead, she reached over and ruffled his hair gently, like Seth or Roman would've, the sandy curls soft beneath her fingers. The touch brought a faint smile to Dean's lips.

"I'm alright, Dean," said Carly, "I've been through worse than this. I wasn't mad at you because I got hurt. I was upset that you almost did."

"You really were that worried about me?" said Dean. He looked surprised by the thought, and his voice was almost timid.

"You idiot, of course I was," Carly said fondly.

"Well, I'm sorry for that, too," said Dean, looking down again.

Carly laid her hand on top of his.

"I forgive you, if you forgive me for yelling at you," she said, "And if you promise to try to keep your head on straight in the future. No matter what happens."

"Promise," said Dean.

"Thank you for the story, Dean," said Carly, smiling.

"You're welcome. Now," said Dean, switching back to the officious tone he'd used earlier, "I prescribed rest, and I haven't let you get any. So I should probably actually let you get some sleep. Goodnight, princess."

He took her hand and kissed it. Without another word, Dean got up, turned off the lights, and left the room. Carly rolled onto her back, gingerly straightening her stiff, aching knee.

Well, that was weird. The fact that Dean Ambrose had just told her a bedtime story, let alone a fairytale, was odd enough. The fact that he had gotten so worked up over wanting to protect her from Randy Orton was beyond comprehension. Well, it would have been beyond comprehension, before that conversation she'd had with Seth and Roman.

She'd seen Dean beat men senseless. She'd seen him fly into a rage at the drop of a hat. Sometimes she was convinced that he'd even drop the hat himself just so he could fly into a rage. They called him the Lunatic Fringe for good reason. Dean Ambrose could be a rough, erratic, violent man.

But whenever he was with his brothers, he was loyal and kind, even loving. And whenever he touched her, whenever his lips pressed against her cheek or forehead or hand, he was only gentle. Carly sighed resignedly and closed her eyes. Perhaps it wasn't possible to ever truly know Dean Ambrose. And, perhaps that was alright.

(Note: Thank you to the lovely people who left feedback!)