Every Day's A Second Chance

-May 14, 2014; Greensboro, North Carolina-

Their flight to Glasgow had been delayed. They hadn't even made it to New York – their stopover destination – yet and things already weren't going their way. No one was able to tell them how long the delay would last, only that they were having some issues with the plane. It is for these that the WWE avoids putting all of their talent on the same overseas flights.

There were five people still sitting at their designated gate in Piedmont Triad International Airport: Tessa, Rami, Summer, Curt and Dolph Ziggler. None of them were happy and all of them were tired.

"I'm sorry, Tessa, but seeing as you're the new guy: this is all on you."

"I guess it has to be, doesn't it?" Tessa smiled tiredly at Dolph.

"It's not supposed to be that easy," he laughed, receiving smiles from the others. "If I ever rob a bank, Tessa, you have to be there because I reckon you might just take the fall."

"You're not supposed to take advantage of the nice ones!" Summer interjected. "Besides, if you tell her the plan then she's not going to go along with it, is she?"

"I'm pretty sure the nice ones are the only one you can take advantage of."

Tessa didn't respond, instead choosing to fall completely silent. She knew all too well about being taken advantage of and it wasn't on the list of things she liked to be reminded of. No one seemed to notice her sudden disinterest in the conversation as they continued to joke around about her overly nice demeanour.

"Does anybody want coffee?" she asked during a brief lull.

Dolph asked for a double espresso, Curt for a latte and Summer for a mocha and Tessa stood up, ready to go to the coffee shop. All Rami had to do was nod for Tessa to know what he wanted.

The conversation started back up as she walked away and Tessa was thankful to be getting away from it. She wasn't even half way to the coffee shop when Rami fell into step beside her.

"They don't mean anything by it."

"Mean anything by what?" Tessa asked, opting to take the clueless approach.

"No one is going to take advantage of you," he told her simply and Tessa turned her head to see that he had been looking at her. "They're just joking. They don't know."

"I know," she said with a small nod. "I just wanted a coffee."

It had been ten days since they got coffee and McDonalds in New Jersey and they had spoken nearly every day. It would have been hard not to given that they had started riding together, too. Tessa had just expected it to be the one day from East Rutherford to Albany but then the next day they drove through to Buffalo. He had surprised her even further, the next week, when he waited for her at Greenville airport and driven her to the arena in his rental car.

It was making her head spin.

Rami opted to change the topic of conversation, though Tessa wished he hadn't.

"You've barely spoken to Colby since I got called up."

"Haven't I?" she asked, again feigning cluelessness.

"You don't have to stop talking to him just because I got called up. You two were spending a lot of time together-"

"Because Jon is very persuasive," Tessa insisted as they walked up to the counter. She continued talking while they were waiting, "It's for the best; I can't pretend to be good at CrossFit forever."

Rami nodded, "I heard you weren't too bad at it, though."

"Oh, sure," Tessa said slowly. "The first time I clocked in at just over 10 minutes. The second time?" she asked rhetorically, shaking her head. "15 and a half and I vomited afterwards."

Rami's eyebrows pulled together. "How do you get worse?"

Tessa shrugged at him, though she knew the answer was related to having had a few too many drinks the night before followed by an exhausting night with Colby. She didn't think Rami needed to know that.

By the time they returned to the seats, Rami carrying a tray with three coffees and Tessa carrying one in each hand, the conversation had shifted from 'nice' people to the European Tour they were soon to embark on – a conversation Tessa was more than happy to participate in.

"I'm pretty sure the most important part of this whole tour is that this guy right here," Dolph patted Rami on the shoulder, "is going to become Intercontinental Champion."

Rami played it off, pretending that winning the championship was going to be no big deal but they all saw through his acting and could tell that he was more than just a little excited about what was soon to take place.

Another lull in conversation followed soon after and everyone tried to think of another topic to discuss. It was Summer who broke the silence.

"Oh! I know! I want to hear The Alex Shelley Story!" she exclaimed gleefully, clapping her hands together. Dolph and Curt lifted their heads at her excitement, Rami laughed under his breath.

Tessa cringed, "No you don't."

"No, I do!" she said. "It's brought up all the goddamn time; I want to know what it is."

"It's not going to meet any expectations," Tessa told her with a sigh, shifting in the uncomfortable airport seat.

"Come on!" Summer all but pleaded. Tessa rolled her eyes, sighed again and crossed her arms over her chest.

"When I was a Senior I asked Alex Shelley to my Senior Prom," Tessa said without emotion. "He said no."

"Oh," Summer frowned.

"Why'd you ask him?" Curt asked and Tessa shrugged.

"He was friends with Jimmy, I had a crush on him and in a moment of stupidity I summoned enough courage to ask him. Everyone on the independents knew within a week, I think. Easily one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. And it continues to be because no one seems to want to forget it."

The group was hushed at the clipped tone. It was far from Tessa's usual jovial voice and all of them were a bit shocked. Rami was still looking at her, knowing how awkward this topic always made her feel.

"Who'd you go with, then?" Dolph asked, leaning back in his seat. Tessa looked over at him and shrugged.

"I didn't go."'

"This isn't funny," Summer said with a sad smile. "It's actually a little sad."

"If you could tell that to Rollins it'd be much appreciated."

Rami had been watching her carefully the entire flight and she had been pretending to ignore it but, after nearly 5 hours, that was getting harder and harder to do. It was about the crash and the state of her ribs because he had noticed her wince when she pushed her carry-on into the overheard compartment. The pain was nothing more than she would have experienced from a normal match at JWP and she wished that people would believe her when she said it.

"It's really hard to watch this when you keep looking at me," Tessa said, pointing to the small screen that was playing The Monuments Men. "Did you want to say something?"

"Only if you're going to be honest with me," he responded and Tessa nodded at him. "How sore are you right now?"

"Not sore enough for you to be asking that question," she said tiredly. "Why don't people believe me? When are we ever not sore?"

"Sure," Rami said, shifting in his seat so that he could look at Tessa properly. "We're all pretty beat up but we also didn't get pushed head first into a tree."

"It's been a month," Tessa stated. "I swear that nothing I'm feeling is because of that."

"You swear?" Rami repeated.

"On the Divas Championship," she said sharply, her teeth lightly gritted.

Rami held his hands up in defence, "Okay, I believe you."

"I don't mean to be snappy," Tessa sighed. "People have been doubting me and I'm adult, you know? I can look after myself."

"Of course you can," he said sincerely, his eyes softening considerably. "People just worry."

Tessa nodded. She knew all about worrying – she did a lot of it herself – but when it was constantly thrown at her it was hard not to grow frustrated. It hadn't just been Rami and Colby – Jimmy had been asking her questions, Alex was sure that she shouldn't even be back in the ring and Brie was watching her carefully every time they were in the locker room together. It was nice to know that people care she just wished they didn't care so much.

"How was Japan?" Rami asked suddenly, tearing Tessa from her thoughts.

She grinned, "It was amazing. The wrestling over there is so different but I learnt so, so much and I am really happy to have had that experience."

"That's great," he said, "but I want to know about Japan – not puroresu. I've done puroresu but I haven't spent more than couple weeks in Japan at a time."

"Oh," Tessa breathed, realising that she hadn't been asked that question since she got back. Everyone had wanted to know about the wrestling style and the crowds, not one person had asked her how she spent the rest of her time.

"Oh?"

"Sorry, I just don't know where to start," she laughed.

"Can you speak Japanese?" Rami prompted though Tessa was sure he already knew the answer. She was terrible with foreign languages.

"Not fluently. I can hold a conversation about what I want for dinner, though!" she said excitedly. "And I can understand almost everything. I had more than a few conversations where I was speaking English to someone who was speaking Japanese."

Rami was impressed. He had seen her struggle when speaking to his family as she tried to wrap her head around the Quebecois they were speaking so to hear that she was able to understand and even converse in another language had him pleasantly surprised.

She told him all about her time there – the huge issue she had had with being allergic to fish, the March 2011 earthquake that was nearly enough to make her head back home for good, learning to drive in the Japanese countryside and how comfortable she felt despite the lack of personal space.

Her face was lit up the entire time she was speaking and it was easy to tell that she had enjoyed her time there. It didn't matter to her that she would always be considered gaijin because, to her, she had no problems calling Japan home.

"I missed everybody," she said, her smile fading a little. "It probably doesn't seem like it at all but I wished everyone was there with me. I was really lonely for awhile – the girls were fantastic but they weren't... They just weren't the idiots I had gotten used to. When Alex came over that's when I really started to love it."

"Do you think you'd ever go back?"

Tessa paused and looked at Rami, noticing the hesitation in his voice. She bit into the side of her cheek as she thought.

"I don't ever want to have to."

I don't ever want to mess up so bad I leave the country.

I don't ever want to be fired from WWE.

I don't ever want to be away from you.

a/n am 110% aware that this is probably considered filler content but I do believe that it's important to have insight into Tessa's history and how she interacts with Rami.

Merci beaucoup to Imagineer1392, CarolReigns, AeonBlue, UntilNeverDawns, piper14798, lookitsria, Straight Edge Queen, Livin on the EDGE for reviewing! Extra special thanks to AeonBlue for having a nice chat with me yesterday :)

I started writing 3 possible 'what if?' scenarios for Tessa: what if Tessa had never cheated on Rami, what if Tessa had never gone to Japan and what if Tessa had never been signed by WWE. The third one is now up! Check out the latest chapter of When You Mess With Fate!