Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Nine

Booker T had given the divas - all of them - SmackDown off. Maybe he did so to be nice, but Eve really thought the main reason for it was because he didn't want to deal with all of the complaining that he was sure to hear after what he'd allowed Teddy Long to do. Of course, if Booker had done that in order to avoid listening to them complain... Well, that just went to show that, at least deep down, the man realized that they did legitimately have something to complain about. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to care.

"You ready for this?"

Eve jerked slightly at the sound of the voice, the divas' champion turning her head to see Kaitlyn making her way over to her, the younger diva yanking the strap of her bag a little higher up on her shoulder as she walked. Eve shrugged in response. "Not really," she admitted. She'd gone over her meeting with the Shield over and over again in her head over the past week, and she still wasn't sure what to make of it... Whether they'd meant what they said or not... And even if they had meant what they said, that didn't suddenly make them safe. They were volatile guys - or at least they seemed to be - and she had no idea what would make them angry...

Shaking her head again, she looked over at Kaitlyn, the two divas now falling into step with each other as they headed for the doors to the arena. "How about you?" Eve asked. "Are you ready?"

"Maybe. I... I'm not sure. I mean, on one hand, they are the tag team champions, which is cool, but on the other hand... Daniel Bryan and Kane can barely stand each other, and now I'm going to be stuck in the middle of it. And it's not even by choice. Teddy Long assigned me to them. And then I ran into AJ earlier, and she was totally making fun of me for it. Although she didn't appreciate it when I said that Teddy Long should have just had the rest of us all manage one of the guys she's chased after since she joined the WWE... Or even in the past year. There would have been plenty of them," the Houston native said with a smirk, and Eve smiled in response, then made a face, drawing a frown from Kaitlyn. "What?"

"I just realized that, if Teddy Long had gone that route, he probably would have forced me to manage John Cena. Which would have led to an endless stream of slut jokes at my expense. Of course, John Cena has an interesting definition of the word 'slut'. It seems to mean 'any woman that doesn't act like he thinks she should'."

"You never did anything more than kiss either one of them, did you? Cena or Ryder?" Kaitlyn asked, and Eve shrugged.

"Nope. And I didn't even kiss Zack until after he came out during one of my matches and called me names... That was when I decided that if he was going to try to embarrass me, I'd do one better. I'd find a way to embarrass him on wrestling's biggest stage. And that's exactly what I did," Eve stated, then shot the other woman a look. "You think I'm a bitch for that?"

"I think Zack Ryder was an idiot for not realizing that you were messing with him, to be honest."

Eve snorted. "True enough. And it's not like he was ever really interested in me, anyway. Just the idea of me. Like a status symbol on his arm. I turned him down for a date... Probably a couple dozen times, but he wouldn't give up, and then I got dragged into the whole thing with Kane, and..." The older diva shook her head, shooting Kaitlyn a look. "I know Kane's cleaned up his act in the past year, but still..."

"I know. Just because the fans love those two right now doesn't mean I don't remember the things they've done over the past year or so. Daniel treated AJ like crap, and Kane... Well, I don't have to tell you what he did, because some of the things... You were kind of the person he did them to. Hell, I wouldn't have blamed you if you'd told Ryder and Cena to leave you the hell alone because you didn't want to be involved with their shit," Kaitlyn said, and Eve shrugged.

"It wouldn't have worked. If I just walked away from them, then Kane could have still used me against them. I needed them to hate me," Eve muttered, then froze, turning to look at Kaitlyn, looking like she hoped the other woman hadn't caught what she'd said... But from the look on Kaitlyn's face, she obviously had.

"Wait a minute. Did you just say-"

"Kane cornered me in a locker room. Scared the hell out of me and threatened me. He chased me into an ambulance the next week, and... I don't know what would have happened. So I decided that staying in one piece was more important than being friends with Cena and Ryder, and I did what I had to do. If they hated me, then I figured I wouldn't be worth Kane's time any longer. Plus I was sick of Ryder refusing to accept that I didn't want to be anything but his friend anyway, and..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Whatever. It's over now. And if you're scared of Kane, if you're worried about being his manager, talk to Booker about it. Remind him of all the things that Kane's done."

"Teddy Long's in charge of this, though. I think I'm stuck. I think we all are. I'll just... Try to keep Daniel Bryan between me and Kane at all times, so if nothing else, if Kane comes at me... I can shove Daniel at him and try to run away."

Eve let out a snort. "Better plan than I've got when it comes to dealing with the Shield. I'm really just... hoping for the best," the older diva said. "There's nothing else I can do. This whole thing... Booker T approved of it, so I'm guessing it's set in stone. If he had any problems with what Teddy did, he would have made changes on SmackDown, but he didn't."

"And he made sure that we weren't there to try and plead our cases or complain, too," Kaitlyn said, and Eve nodded.

"That was pretty much my take on it, too," Eve replied, the two women turning down a hallway as they headed through the arena and toward the divas' locker room... Both of them stopping when one of the men they'd actually been talking about - none other than Teddy Long - stepped into the hallway as well, coming from one of the offices. He smirked when he saw them... Or, rather, he smirked when he saw Eve.

"Well, well. Eve Torres. Just the person I was looking for. I have some news for you," he said, and from the look on his face, Eve got the feeling she wasn't going to like the news... At all.