A/N: Hey everyone! I'm SOOO sorry for taking forever to update. I know how much it sucks to be reading something and then the author doesn't update, but I promise to try and do better. Real life really did get crazy. Anyways, I just want to thank those of you that reviewed, you're the reason this is being added tonight! It's extra long too, so maybe that helps with the lateness. I hope you enjoy and please review!

xoxo

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Maria muttered under her breath when she was back in her hotel room. She'd been on this assignment for just over 24 hours and she had already fucked up. She had laid out a set of rules for herself a long time ago and here she was breaking the very first one: Do not get personally involved with the people you work for. Sure, maybe the reason behind her ending up in Phil's arms had been an accident, but allowing herself to stay there, to enjoy it, that had been on her. She'd worked a lot of cases and met a lot of different people during her time at the agency, but she had never gotten close to breaking a rule. Especially that one. She barely knew this guy and yet something about him felt so familiar, like they had a connection. Maria shook her head at the ridiculous idea, not knowing where it had come from; she wasn't known for being a big romantic. Sparks flying and love at first sight had never held much weight with her. She would have to pull back she decided, ask to work more with the girls instead. The slender woman hadn't realized she was pacing until her phone ringing stopped her. It was Graham.

"Hello?" Maria answered on the third ring.

"Maria, how's it going?" Graham's cheerful voice came through the speaker, oblivious to her inner turmoil.

"Uh, it's going fine. No leads yet."

"Alright well I was just calling to check in. Let me know if you need anything from our end."

"Will do. Thanks." Maria hung up and flopped down on the bed, the action reminding her that she'd just spent two hours in a wrestling ring. Groaning she rolled onto her stomach and grabbed one of the folders off the floor containing copies of the letters from the stalker. If she was lucky she might get a little work in before they had to leave for the next show.

"And she just left?" Kofi asked. He was sitting in 'his' seat on Phil's bus. The two had been riding together for almost two years now.

"Yep." Phil answered, popping the 'P' as he flipped to the next page of his comic book.

"Huh. Maybe she was worried about getting in trouble with Johnny." Kofi suggested.

"Maybe." Was all Phil said in response.

Kofi turned in his seat to face his friend. "Come on man, cheer up. You'll see her at the show and you can talk to her."

"I just can't figure her out. One minute we're laughing and talking about the Cubs and the next it's like she has this wall up."

"Gee, that doesn't sound familiar at all." Kofi's words were laced with sarcasm as he raised his eyebrows at Punk. Phil wasn't exactly an open book.

Phil threw his comic at the Intercontinental Champion. "Dude, shut up."

Kofi just chuckled and turned back to his video game. "Whatever you say man."

Maria sat in the women's locker room listening to the different conversations all going on at once, but not really paying attention to any of them. She had caught a ride with Eve and they'd spent the four hour drive talking about her fiancé, Rener and his family's role in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Eve had also explained some things about backstage etiquette and the role the girl's played in the show. Maria had dutifully avoided talking about Phil and was gracious for Eve's lack of questions.

"How'd your first training session go yesterday?" AJ asked, sitting down beside the red head.

Maria looked over at the petite woman. "I'm sore, but it went pretty well I think."

AJ smiled. "That's totally normal. I was completely bruised the first couple of weeks I was in the ring."

"Well, I've definitely got that part covered." Maria laughed.

"You worked with Phil, right?" AJ asked.

"I did." 'Keep it short and simple' Maria thought to herself.

"Isn't he awesome?"

"Yeah, he was great, but I think working with a female might be more productive." Maria answered.

"Oh..." AJ trailed off before her cheerful expression returned. "Well, I would be happy to help if you wanted."

Maria smiled. "That'd be great. Eve and I talked about it and she said she would help me out too."

"Cool." A knock at the door interrupted anything else AJ was about to say. Kaitlyn opened the door. "Oh hey Punk, what's up?"

Maria's heart sank. Why was he at the women's locker room door?

"Hey Kaitlyn, is Maria in there?" She recognized his low voice immediately. 'Of course.' Maria sighed and stood up walking over to the blonde.

"Hey." Was all she said when she saw him.

"Hi. Could we talk?" Phil asked.

Maria glanced at all the girls watching them and stepped out into the hallway with him. "Yeah." Kaitlyn still stood at the door watching them. "Your locker room?" Maria asked. She didn't necessarily want to have this conversation, but she certainly didn't want to have it in front of an audience.

"Sure."

The walk to Phil's locker room was silent and Maria found herself wishing it was the comfortable kind they had shared the first night. When the door was shut Maria turned around to face Phil.

"About yesterday-" They both spoke at the same time.

"Go ahead." Phil offered.

"I'm sorry for running out like I did, it's just that Mr. Laurinaitis is basically my boss right now and I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression." Maria explained.

Phil nodded. "I wouldn't worry about Johnny if I were you. He's pretty harmless. Besides, we didn't do anything wrong yesterday."

"I know that." Maria said a little too quickly. "Look, I appreciate your help yesterday, but I think the best thing for me to do is start training with some of the girls." The flash of hurt she saw on Phil's face only pushed her on. This was the right decision. She could not afford to get emotionally involved with someone while working a case. "I was hired to protect the women of this business and the only way I can do that is by being with them."

"Maria-"

Again she cut him off. "My job is my life, Phil. And right now they are my job." Maria moved to walk past him to the door, but he stopped her.

"It doesn't have to be that way." Phil tried to reason.

Maria looked at the floor, "I'm sorry if you don't understand, but that's just the way it is." A second later and she was gone.

The next week went by fairly uneventfully. Maria continued to travel with Eve and they quickly entered into an easy friendship. The stalker had not tried to make contact with AJ again which was both good and bad. On the one hand, it gave AJ a chance to relax a little, but he would eventually need to make another move in order for Maria to catch him.

Things with Phil had been...different. She tried to avoid him as much as possible, sticking close to the girls and throwing herself into the job to help distract her from the looks he'd give her backstage on the rare occasion they crossed paths. Some of the Divas had asked if there was something going on between them, but she had assured them that it was nothing. And she wasn't lying, she told herself. There was nothing going on between Phil and herself. So they'd gone to dinner together? It wasn't like it was a date. And maybe ending up in his arms at the end of their training session hadn't been the worst feeling in the world, but it didn't change the fact that it couldn't happen again. With that in mind Maria continued to warm up just outside of the Diva's locker room using one of the production crates to stretch. Tonight's house show wouldn't start for another couple hours and Eve and AJ had promised to meet her in the ring.

The trio had been hard at work for the past seven days, Maria constantly pushing herself and surprising her impromptu trainers and even some of the guys that happened to catch them practicing. The red head was in the middle of stretching, her left leg propped up on the crate and her head touching her knee when she noticed a pair of wrestling boots stop a few feet away from her. Looking up her eyes locked with the one pair she'd been actively avoiding.

"Hey." Maria finally spoke once she had both feet on the ground.

"How's it going?" Phil asked.

"Well my bruises have bruises and according to AJ that's a good thing. I think her idea of 'good' might be a bit skewed though." She tried to keep things light-hearted.

Phil chuckled to Maria's relief. "I remember those days."

"Do you remember how long 'those days' lasted, because I'm running out of clothes to wear that hide the bruises and I'm afraid someone will think I'm being beaten."

Again Phil smiled. "Give it a month or so. You getting ready to go out to the ring?"

Maria nodded. "Yeah, I'm meeting Eve and AJ. I should probably get going actually."

Phil looked resigned. "Alright, well, be careful."

"Always."

The three women in the ring had been going back and forth for almost an hour and were starting to wind things down.

"Come on, I really want to try the move from the top rope one more time." Maria tried to convince Eve.

"You've done if perfectly twice, I don't know that we should push our luck." Eve said.

"Just once more before we call it a day?"

Eve and AJ exchanged a look before conceding. "Fine, but just one more time."

Maria's smile lit up her face. They'd been working on getting her comfortable on the top rope and today they'd introduced the cross-body. AJ stood in the opposite corner while Eve waited for Maria to get to the top turnbuckle before getting in position to take the bump. Maria was just getting her balance when it happened. AJ watched in horror as Maria's foot slipped and she fell to the floor outside the ring, landing hard on her head and neck before the rest of her body smacked the thin pad that provided very little protection from the concrete below. Eve felt like it had happened in slow motion from her position just a few feet away, but immediately went into action. AJ was already running to the back for help as there was no one else around at the moment and Eve rushed to Maria's side. She didn't dare move her even though she was laying at an odd, uncomfortable looking angle.

"Maria! Oh my God, can you hear me? It's going to be okay, help is coming." Eve spoke, trying to keep the panic out of her voice even though Maria was unconscious and might not be able to hear her anyways. Looking up she saw AJ running back down the ramp with Phil hot on her heels. "Where are the doctors?!"

"They're coming, Phil was already on his way out here." AJ's voice was breathless.

"What happened?" Phil asked, going to his knees beside Maria.

"She fell." Eve said. "She slipped from the top turnbuckle and she couldn't catch herself. I think she landed on her head, she's not conscious."

"Maria, can you squeeze my hand?" Phil took her small hand in his, tuning the rest of Eve's explanation out. The trainers arrived and immediately started assessing the situation. After securing a neck brace they placed her on a stretcher and took her to the back with the three wrestlers following closely behind. Once they had her in the training room and on one of the tables they told them it was best they left so they could do their jobs, but Phil absolutely refused and eventually they relented.

"What happened?" Chris, the head trainer asked and the girls went back over the events. "And she hasn't been conscious since?"

Eve shook her head 'no'.

"Well I don't think anything is broken, but she probably has a concussion. When she wakes up we'll need to keep her calm and still so we can do some further tests." Chris explained.

"I'll stay with her." Phil volunteered earning several looks from the trainers, but the glare they got in return had them shuffling out of the room. Phil stood by the head of the padded table shifting his weight from one foot to the other in nervousness. He hated feeling useless and that's exactly what he was in this situation. All he could do was wait. Several minutes passed by before Maria's eyes started fluttering open. Slowly she returned to consciousness and her surroundings came into focus. The bright overhead lights nearly blinded her and she blinked several times. There was a throbbing pain in her head and neck and she felt like she had when she'd fallen out of the tree in her back yard as a young girl.

"Maria?" Phil's eyes searched her face.

The sound of a male's voice had Maria going into action immediately. Her instincts and years of training went into overdrive. All she knew in that moment was she couldn't remember the last thing she'd done and now she was on her back in a strange place and in pain. The last time that had happened she'd found herself captive and had had to literally fight for her life to escape. Sitting up and ignoring the nauseating feeling the motion caused, she swung her legs off the table and used that momentum to launch her clinched right hand at her assumed attacker. Phil ducked at the last second and her fist just barely missed connecting with his jaw.

"Whoa! Maria it's me!" Maria's eyes locked onto the shocked hazel ones imploring her to sit down and immediately she relaxed. Unfortunately, the adrenaline that had rushed her system also faded and that, along with a probable concussion, caused her to instantly feel sick to her stomach and double over. Phil had her in his arms a second later and helped her ease back onto the table. After a few minutes the nausea abated enough for Maria to talk.

"I'm sorry about that." Her voice was almost shy, something that surprised Phil. In the little time he'd known her she had been just about everything but shy.

"It's fine, I'll remember not to startle you from now on." Phil tried to joke and make her smile. It didn't work.

"What happened?"

"You were practicing with AJ and Eve when you fell off the top turnbuckle. You were knocked unconscious."

Maria just nodded as the memories came flooding back: the second before she felt her foot slip off the rope and how she had tried to keep herself from falling on her head. Obviously she had failed.

"I'm going to go get the trainer." Phil said when Maria gave no sign of responding.

Chris was waiting just outside the door and came right in when Phil stuck his head out saying Maria had woken up. "It seems you had quite a tumble Ms. Kanellis. How are you feeling?"

"I've felt better," Maria answered honestly. "But, I'll be fine."

"It's likely you suffered a concussion but you'll need to go to the hospital to confirm that." Chris said.

"That's not necessary."

"I really think you should go get checked out." Chris insisted.

"And I think I'll be okay." Maria wasn't trying to be rude, but she really didn't think going to the hospital was needed.

Chris looked to Phil who was standing a few feet away. Phil's eyes clearly questioned what he was supposed to do about this when he looked back at the trainer. "Phil can take you." Chris volunteered.

Maria's eyes shot to Phil and then back to Chris. "Phil has a match tonight."

She was right, he was scheduled to be in the main event for the show that night, but finally getting to spend some time alone with Maria was too tempting to pass up. "There's a reason the tickets say 'card subject to change'." Phil answered easily.

Maria frowned. Why did they insist on making this more difficult for her than it already was? "You don't even have a car."

"I'll have one pulled around for you now." Chris interjected.

Maria looked between the two men again. 'Seriously, what is this, some kind of conspiracy?' She thought before finally conceding. "Fine."

Ten minutes later Phil was helping Maria into the car that had been pulled up to the exit of the arena, just as Chris had promised. The ride to hospital was quiet, and Phil began to question whether this had been a bad idea. The waiting room for the ER was close to being full when they got there and were handed a clipboard and instructed to fill it out. Maria led them to two chairs near the back of the room as far away from the chaos as possible. She really didn't like hospitals. Nothing good ever happened at a hospital as far as she was concerned. Once Maria was done filling out the endless paper work she walked up to the receptionist.

"Thank you dear, someone will be with you as soon as they can." The older woman smiled at Maria after taking the clipboard.

"Thanks." Maria hoped she didn't sound too terse. It wasn't the woman's fault she had been forced to come here.

Back in her seat Maria knew conversation couldn't be avoided much longer. "I'm fine you know? Nothing I haven't dealt with before."

Phil looked a little surprised that she was the first one to speak, but was relieved nonetheless. "I don't doubt it."

"Then why are we here?"

"WWE has pretty strict medical polices." Phil said.

"It's a good thing I'm not under contract with the WWE then." Maria grumbled sarcastically.

Phil chuckled. This girl was something else.

"My boss is going to kill me." Maria said.

"Johnny? I doubt that."

"No, my real boss, Graham. I shouldn't have taken such an unnecessary risk that could have compromised my mission." Maria corrected.

"This Graham guy sounds like a real hard ass."

"He's actually not too bad. Except when it comes to stuff like this." Maria sighed. She really was not looking forward to having that conversation with him.

"I'd say I would kick his ass if he gives you a hard time, but if he's anything like you he might make me eat those words." Phil offered.

Maria actually smiled at that. Why was he so endearing? "You could definitely kick Graham's ass. The closest he's ever been to a fight it through a TV screen."

"Well, in that case, consider him a marked man." Phil joked. He loved it when she smiled.

"I'll be sure to let him know." Maria laughed. The tension between them from earlier seemingly to have totally disappeared and reminding her why she had enjoyed spending time with him in the first place. Things were just so easy with him. And that's how they stayed for the next hour; they bantered back and forth about anything and everything.

"You mean to tell me a guy like you has a tiny little lap dog?" Maria tried not to laugh at the image of Phil with some kind of prissy little dog in his lap.

"What's 'a guy like you' supposed to mean?" Phil asked, pretending to be offended.

"I'm just having a really hard time picturing you with a lap dog."

"Well, I had a hard time picturing you punching someone in the face but I was wrong about that, wasn't I?" Phil teased.

Maria rolled her eyes. "I guess I'll believe it when I see it then."

"I guess so."

Before Maria could say anything else a nurse called her name from the doorway. They both stood and walked to the nurse, her eyes widening a little at the sight of the couple.

"Maria Kanellis?" She asked, glancing at the chart in her hand.

"That's me."

"Right this way."

Leading them to a small room down the hall the nurse began the standard procedure of asking questions and taking her temperature and blood pressure. "A doctor will be right with you."

Fifteen minutes later a young man wearing a white hospital coat and blue scrubs walked into the room. He couldn't have been much older than Maria or Phil and he immediately zoned in on Maria. It wasn't often he saw an attractive woman in his ER, but he had never seen someone as beautiful as Maria.

"I'm Dr. Hamrick." He stopped staring long enough to introduce himself. Phil sat in the corner giving the over-eager doctor a death glare. "I see you suffered quite a fall. How are you feeling?"

"I'm a little sore, but other than that I feel fine." Maria said, hoping to make this a short visit. She really didn't appreciate the way the doctor was looking at her and had to stop herself from reminding him that she had hit her head, not any other part of her body.

"In any case, I'm going to have my nurse schedule an MRI for you. I'll make sure to put a rush on it so it shouldn't be long." Dr. Hamrick added, looking to impress the gorgeous red head.

"Thank you." Was all Maria said and then he was gone. Turning to Phil she noticed the hole he seemed to be trying to burn through the door the doctor had exited, but chose not to say anything. It looked a lot like jealousy, but she dismissed the thought. He had nothing to be jealous for after all she reminded herself.

The MRI didn't take long, just as the doctor had said, and he was back with the results in record time. "It looks like you have a slight concussion, but nothing to be too worried about." Dr. Hamrick reported. "If you feel nauseous or your head begins to hurt worse be sure to come back immediately, otherwise I think you'll be fine. Just take it easy for the next couple of days."

Maria nodded and stood to gather her coat and bag. "I'll be sure to do that, thank you."

Before she could make it out the door the doctor stopped her. "If you have any questions or concerns, here's my card. My cell number is on the back, feel free to call any time."

Again, Maria resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the doctor's implication and took the card and quickly made her exit with Phil right behind her.

Without even realizing what he was doing, Phil placed his hand on Maria's lower back to guide her through the hall and waiting room back to their car. The doctor's obvious interest in her had him wanting to let people know that she wasn't available. That she was his. Even if she wasn't. Once they were back in the car Maria fished the card with the doctor's phone number on it out of her pocket.

'Call me' was scratched onto the back along with his phone number and Maria snorted causing Phil to look at her from the driver's seat.

"Something funny?" He asked.

"Just that he thinks I'd actually call him." Maria said, crumbling the card up and tossing it in her purse to throw away later.

Phil didn't answer, just nodded, but it was obvious her answer had pleased him.

"I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted." Maria said with a yawn.

"It has been a long day." Phil agreed.

"It's been a long week."

Again Phil just nodded, unwilling to over think her answer. Had it been a long week because she had missed their interactions as much as he had or was she just tired? The rest of the ride was quiet except for the radio and when they finally made it back to the arena parking lot Maria was fast asleep. Looking at her now, her face void of makeup and lashes brushing her cheeks Phil thought he had never seen anything more beautiful. Reluctantly he turned the car off and reached over to wake her. "Maria, we're back."

Fingertips gently brushed her cheek and pushed the hair that had fallen out of her pony tail behind her ear. Maria sighed and decided she quite liked that feeling before realization hit her and she opened her eyes. Phil's features were soft as he looked at her and she couldn't help the small smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth. "Thanks for taking me, Phil." She whispered, somehow afraid that anything louder would ruin the relaxed atmosphere.

"Thanks for letting me." Phil whispered back and unconsciously leaned a little closer.

Maria's eyes fell to his lips and the way the light danced off the silver ring there when the back door to the arena opened and slammed shut. Quickly she opened the car door, cursing and thanking whoever had interrupted them simultaneously. Phil was still sitting in the car watching her with a distinct look of disappointment etched across his face. "I'll see you tomorrow?" The question fell from her lips before she had time to stop it.

Phil's eyes brightened a little. "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."

Maria nodded and looked around feeling slightly awkward. "Okay. Goodnight, Phil."

"Goodnight Maria." Phil stayed in the car even after Maria had closed the passenger door and walked back into the arena. Tomorrow needed to hurry the hell up.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it, please take the time to review. Even a few words is incredibly motivating to update faster. See you next chapter!