Chapter One

Roman checks his watch one more time, and growls in annoyance.

Dean leans over, takes one looks at it and rolls his eyes, "Dude, what the hell?" He looks around the performance center and notices Lita working with a willowy built dark haired woman.

Hunter sighs. "Give her a few more minutes. I am sure there's a reasonable explanation for the delay. She's not someone to not take work seriously. It's why I think she's the right choice for reforming the shield with you all."

Dean doesn't really hear Hunter as his attention has shifted to watching the woman work with Lita in the back ring. Currently, she and Lita are working through how to handle the RKO variant she's doing off the ropes if it gets avoided. The woman adapts and does a land and roll out to make it work. Lita nods in approval and suggests they give it a rest for a few minutes and talk about her entrance.

Kennedy moves to cool down and sit on the apron next to Lita, making it easier to talk about Kennedy's ring entrance. Kennedy shrugs. "I really don't have any immediate ideas to be honest. I just am not going to do any of this Barbie Bella Booty Bullshit."

Dean slowly smirks at the comment, then just outright starts laughing.

Lita breaks out laughing and hugs Kennedy. "I love you, kiddo, and your way with words."

As Dean listens in from a distance, Kennedy smirks and starts to discuss with Lita ways she could come into the arena and then enter the ring that are more aggressive and still hot like Lita's entrance was. It's clear to him that this is Lita's protégé. After a few more minutes of standing and waiting, Dean can't take it anymore and hops up to sit on the ring apron by the women. He half turns and rests one arm along the middle rope, "So... gonna head bang your way down to the ring?" As amused as he sounds, it doesn't come off the least bit sarcastic.

Roman just sighs and shakes his head some watching Dean wander off over to the ring where Lita and the girl are. He stays and continues to talk to Hunter to keep the man from really paying attention too much to Dean's wandering off in that ADD way that Ambrose tends to do.

Lita laughs and moves to hop down and head over to hug Dean. "What the fuck are you doing here? Aren't you a little big for NXT now?"

Kennedy just tilts her head down and turns to look at him, her long black hair in its ponytail flipping as she does. "I don't know about head banging, but I'm sure as hell not coming into the ring looking like I just found the imaginary stripper pole that apparently hides up on the Gorilla area and by the entrance. I was thinking of something more aggressive than what most of the Barbie squad is doing. I mean, Sasha, Becky, and Char have real entrances." She shrugs.

Dean grins at Lita and the hug, then rolls his eyes, "Came down to sit on my damn hands, apparently. Hunter's got us waiting for a project, but we've got a fucking 'no show' on our hands so far." He nods towards where Roman and Hunter are waiting, then looks up at Kennedy. "That's because they're real wrestlers. I mean, not to make anyone else sound bad, but they're out there to actually fight and entertain, not have a fucking beauty pageant like most of the Divas in the WWE seem to be most of the time. Don't get me wrong, there's something to be said for a good bra and panties match but, not going to get you taken seriously as a wrestler." He grins at Kennedy, clearly poking to see if he can get a bit of a rise out of her.

Lita shakes her head. "Kennedy Barlow this is a good friend of mine, Dean Ambrose. I know you know who he is ... but I'm being polite." She moves to get up on the apron again. "You want to see something that will make your day? I know you like to know what's going on with the up and coming potential around here."

Kennedy nods politely to say hi and then smirks. "Nope... never heard of the guy. I live under a rock." She then rolls her eyes at Lita and moves to get up like her break's ending apparently.

Dean shrugs his shoulders and turns a bit so he can watch what's going on in the ring, "Sure. Hell, I've got time to kill, apparently. Lay it on me."

Lita calls out for a taller thick built bleach blonde to come over. The woman looks like an amazon that is way too over proportioned in the chest to be natural. "Okay... you two just like you did earlier. I want you to make sure that you nail this." Lita whispers a few minutes with the two women.

Kennedy's eyebrows shoot up and then an almost feral smile crosses her lips. She nods to Lita and a mischievous spark dances in her icy blue eyes.

Lita signals to ring the bell. The two women square off and go through all the moves to a real match like they would for NXT. Kennedy easily uses some of Lita's moves that she clearly taught her. Her black hair whips around her as she does an off the ropes version of the RKO to slam the blonde down once when she fails to get out of the way. Then later there is a gracefully executed tornado DDT as well. Finally, after letting the blonde slam her down and knock her around a bit first, Kennedy closes it all out with an inverted version of Dirty Deeds. Lita counts out the three count and seems to glow with pride at how well everything was executed and seemed natural.

Dean nods and grins, obviously recognizing the first couple moves right out of Lita's personal playbook. Then, his eyebrows shoot up when he spots the modified version of HIS finisher. "Whoa... damn! The hell was that!" Ambrose glances Lita's way, clearly impressed. "Alright, you weren't fucking kidding when you said something to see."

Kennedy stretches out afterwards, taking her time to cool down and make sure she doesn't pull any muscles from the work. She also takes a moment to chat with her partner. She seems like she's trying to get her to work on a couple things where she had to cover for the blonde a few times still.

Lita walks over and leans on the ropes, looking down at Ambrose. "Kid's a freaking natural. They aren't going to fucking know what to do with her on main roster eventually. I don't see her being down here long at all. I mean, she's as bad as I was, wrestling the guys around here when they will let her." She grins, clearly proud of Kennedy and the work that they have accomplished in a few short months.

Dean glances Kennedy's way again while talking to Lita, "Oh yeah? That good, huh?"

Lita shrugs. "I would've considered her solid contention and a threat to the belt when I had it."

Kennedy finally finishes trying to help the woman and just lets it go, the frustration evident on her face.

The woman says something under her breath that Dean and Lita can't quite hear.

Kennedy gives her an almost sneer. "You're lips are moving but all the fuck I hear is picked my ass up off the mat again." The woman turns and Kennedy smiles a feral grin at her. "You want to go again? We can go again…"

Dean smirks, still watching Kennedy while saying to Lita, "Shit... so what the hell is holding her back right now?"

Lita snaps at Kennedy, almost like you call off an attack dog and shakes her head. She gestures for the blonde to get going and hit the showers, then turns her attention back to Ambrose. "No one's looking. They're so busy with projects already and all the road shows and PPV's right now with ratings down, no one's really looking hard to move up another baby face into the women's division."

Kennedy finally turns to walk over to where Dean and Lita are. She just shakes her head. "Tried to help her. She wants to just prance around the ring when she enters, like a bad version of Betty Boop, that's all freaking her." Kennedy dusts her hands like washing them free of the situation.

Dean says off handedly, "Well, maybe someday she'll stop playing with the same damn arm and shaking her ass. Then she might remember she's supposed to fucking wrestle, too."

Kennedy laughs a bit. "Uh... I wouldn't hold your breath there, tough guy. You might wind up passing out."

Lita grins. "I'm gonna grab a bottle of water, either of you want something?"

Kennedy nods. "Yeah... water would be cool. Thanks."

Dean shrugs, "Same." he then looks up at Kennedy, "So, she's a 'same shit, different day' girl, huh?"

Kennedy says, "That pretty much sums up a lot of the women here sadly. It's like they completely missed all the work some of us put into getting that image ripped away. Some of them don't even know anything about the sport let alone have an idea of what being in her entails truly. I mean did you notice the Diva's that had to come back to NXT from the main roster to retrain?"

Dean shrugs, "I get that... hell, most of them should be fucking tearing each other to pieces to take over the spots Banks, Flair, and Lynch left, you know?"

Kennedy nods in agreement. "Oh... believe me I know. And they don't get that it makes a damn shit show for us when we have to fight them. I mean Nora there gets pissed I keep kicking her ass but... I mean really? She's a freaking two trick pony that can't hardly wrestle." She shakes her head and leans on the ropes, looking down at him. "I have to watch saying shit like that though around here or someone might write me up for "poor attitude" issues." She rolls her eyes.

Dean leans back on the middle rope so he's looking up at her, "Let me guess... 'Ooh, I have some muscles and it's hard to notice I took a forearm to the face'?"

Kennedy grins. "Something like that. So you doing something for Tough Enough or some deal down here right now?"

Dean smirks, "Something like that, yeah... just a fucking meet and greet, but they'd have to fucking show up." He sighs and shakes his head, "So... saw that move at the end there." He grins at her.

Kennedy shrugs and smirks. "It's a good move and puts 'em where I want them."

Dean says, "On the ground and out like a fucking light?"

Kennedy licks her lips and then chews her lip a moment. "Yeah... pretty much how I prefer them rather than trying to take me apart." She smiles at him. "Figured you get that."

Dean laughs, "Well, it's MY move, so yeah, I get that." he smirks up at her, turning a little so he can more easily see her. His blue eyes meet hers a minute.

Kennedy moves to duck out between the ropes and find a seat on the apron while waiting for Lita to get back. "Well it's based off Dirty Deeds, but not exactly the same." She shrugs. "Carmela has a version she uses as well sometimes."

Dean looks a little surprised, "Well damn... sounds like other people are gonna be swinging out my moves soon. I'm kind of flattered. Hey, anyone whipping out the old RKO down here, or just the classics?" He smirks and hooks one legs up on the apron so he can turn to face her.

Kennedy says, "Couple of folks do the RKO. I use the variant of it off the ropes because it lets me hit guys with it as well. I mean it's all more or less a cutter so..." She shrugs.

Dean nods a little, "Well, Sammy's down here, so people should be springing off the fucking ropes into just about everything around here."

Kennedy laughs. "Oh my god... I love Callihan. He's amazing and way too much fun outside the ring as well. He helped me with a lot of my flying early on so I could actually come off the ring post and through the ropes. He's a really great guy. You two used to tag a while back in the Indies didn't you?"

Dean grins at Kennedy, "Yeah, like... fucking forever and a day ago, you know? Figure I'll go drop in on that bastard at some point while we're down here dealing with this shit." He glances over towards Roman.

The large half Samoan shrugs and shakes his head, then rolls his eyes and feigns shooting himself in the head while Hunter isn't looking.

Kennedy glances over to where Dean is looking just at that moment and laughs at Roman's gesture. "Seems like you all aren't having great luck with the plans today."

Dean shrugs and smirks at her, "Depends on your definition of luck."

Kennedy laughs and just shakes her head. "Cute..."

Dean grins a bit more, "Oh yeah?"

Kennedy watches him a minute. "You seem like a pretty cool guy right now, so I should let you know that I've already been warned and heard all about you. And you are way more stress and drama in my life than I'm looking for so you can keep the boyish charm on low." She grins at him.

Dean looks almost shocked and points at himself, "Me? Well, I don't know what they said, but unless you liked it, it's all untrue."

Kennedy rolls her eyes and laughs. "Oh... I seriously doubt that. You are pretty funny though."

Dean thinks a moment, then shrugs, "Hell, I'll take it. It's a start."

Kennedy just shakes her head. "Really? You and I are definitely looking for different things in life."

Dean raises an eyebrow, "You sure about that one?"

Kennedy nods. "Oh yeah. Being that you're the guy I'm to understand that broke up with his girlfriend and then she walked in on you in bed with someone less that ten hours later while on the road. Oh yeah, very different way of doing things."

Dean shrugs his shoulders, "What? We broke up first. I'm not a COMPLETE asshole."

Kennedy blinks and widens her eyes in that 'you really just said that' sort of look. "What the hell? OH, and has managed to get in the pants of half the divas in this company, set crew, reporters, and anything with a pulse... only to drop them flat right after fucking them. Not to mention as well as kick them out before morning even..." She crosses her arms and quirks a brow at him. "Yeah... definitely looking for different things."

Dean smirks at her, not even attempting to deny any of it. "Yeah? Maybe they just weren't what I was looking for? I mean, seriously. You sitting there making me sound like some kind of enormous man-whore is a bit one sided. They all wanted to as much as I did. How DARE you, ma'am." he delivers the whole last line with a straight face, then grins at her.

Kennedy says, "I believe you're the guy that said you got in this business to get in fights, drink, and chase skirts. That was you saying that wasn't it?"

A blonde that's a bit on the small side but very well endowed shows up and hands Hunter a traffic ticket while explaining. She looks like she was crying some. Apparently there was a car accident and that's why she was late. Her cell phone was crushed in the accident as it was on the dashboard. She apologizes a lot and makes sure Hunter gets a great view of her cleavage.

Dean shrugs at Kennedy and grins, still leaning a bit towards her and not noticing the new girl at all. "Me and my boy Roman over there? We're good at three things... fighting, drinking, and breaking hearts."

Kennedy says, "Well I'm down for the first two... but thanks I'll skip the last part. You can just look around and find one of the inflatable live action blow up dolls that work here. Look... there's one of H's favorites now." She gestures to the Diva now talking to Roman and H, still flashing her chest at Hunter.

Dean glances over for just a moment, then looks back at Kennedy, "So... not up for heartbreak, huh? Damn... guess that means I'm just gonna have to not break it."

Kennedy shakes her head and laughs. "Yeah... all the way from where ever on the road. Thanks... I'll pass. Looks like H wants your attention there, lover boy." She says the nick name with a teasing tone to it. "Nice meeting you, Ambrose. Thanks for the pointers and time." She moves to lean and roll back into the ring.

Dean smirks up at her a moment, then stands and walks backwards away from the ring, "Yeah, you too, babe." He laughs then turns to head over towards Hunter and Roman.

Kennedy rolls her eyes and audibly groans at being called babe.