Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Eighteen

Eve tugged her bag up onto her shoulder, the woman nowhere near as nervous as she walked into SmackDown as she had been just a few days before when she'd shown up to RAW. As she headed into the building, her gaze darted around, not just looking for trouble, but looking for whatever member of the Shield would be meeting up with her tonight... It didn't take her long to find the figure clad in black, and she couldn't say she was surprised when the man waiting for her was the same one that had walked her to her car on Monday night.

"Did you draw the short straw again or something?" she asked as she approached the big man, and Roman Reigns smiled at her, shaking his head as he reached for her bag, taking it from her, the two of them starting to head down the hall, though Eve wasn't entirely sure where they were going... He could be taking her to the Shield's locker room, or he could be taking her to the office of the SmackDown General Manager.

"I don't exactly consider making sure no one tries to blindside you or something to be a punishment," he told her, then shrugged. "Besides that, it was probably going to be either me or Seth, and Seth has a match tonight," Roman continued, and Eve felt her eyes widen in surprise over that bit of information. In the time since the Shield had made their first appearance - going on two months ago now - the group as a whole had only had one match... Their six-man tag at the TLC pay-per-view, which they'd shocked some people by actually winning. The mixed tag match that Seth Rollins had teamed up with her for on Monday had only been the second time any of them had appeared in an actual match in that time... And now Seth had a singles match on SmackDown? She couldn't help but be a little surprised by it.

"Who's he up against?" the diva wanted to know.

"Dolph Ziggler, actually. He's saying that no one proved they could beat him since AJ was the one pinned and he's demanding a match against Seth. I guess he wants to try and prove that Seth can't beat him or something, I don't know."

"Or it could be a trap," Eve replied, and Roman gave a slight nod.

"True enough. He and AJ are mad that you and Seth beat them on Monday... I imagine that Langston is mad that I speared the crap out of him," the big man said, smirking a little as he spoke... Clearly, he had enjoyed that little bit of the altercation. Unfortunately, Eve had been on the floor during the time and hadn't seen it, and she hadn't had a chance to see a replay of it... Well, she hadn't exactly had the chance to enjoy the take-down.

"I'm guessing you'll be at ringside for the match?" Eve inquired, and Roman nodded his head.

"If Langston and AJ are allowed to be out there, they can't exactly ban me and Dean from being at ringside," he said, and Eve sent him a look.

"I'm going to be out there, too," she stated, and Roman stopped walking at that, the man turning to look at her.

"But don't you have to do the whole 'assistant to the General Manager' thing while we're here at SmackDown?" the big man wanted to know, and Eve shrugged her shoulders.

"I do... But the thing is, I'm also now the Shield's manager, which means I have an obligation to the three of you as well. Booker approved the whole thing about assigning the divas as managers, so he had to know that it lead to me having multiple obligations at the show. On top of that, since working as his assistant... I've still had matches on several episodes of SmackDown." She frowned, looking up at him. "Do I have a match tonight?"

"Not that I know of, and I did check. The divas match for the night is Kaitlyn against Aksana... Apparently, Kaitlyn requested it or something; I don't know," the wrestler said, and Eve smiled slightly at that. It appeared that since finding out that it had been Aksana and Teddy that had been behind the attack on her at Night of Champions, and not Eve getting Aksana to do it... Well, it seemed that Kaitlyn had found a new place to aim her anger - one of the people that truly deserved it. Personally, Eve hoped to get a chance to get some retribution against Aksana herself, but she didn't mind the idea of Kaitlyn getting to beat up the Lithuanian diva, either.

Instead of saying anything about that, Eve nodded her head, glancing down at what she was wearing... tight black pants, a pair of truly excellent boots that went nearly to her knee and that she absolutely loved, and a red shirt. Not necessarily the type of gear she usually wore when playing the part of the assistant to the SmackDown General Manager, but she had decided not to wear a skirt on the off chance that she would end up at ringside for the Shield... Truthfully, though, she had expected it to just be a precaution; she'd never really thought that any of the guys would end up with a match, not with how things had been in the first seven weeks or so since they'd debuted. But now... Well, it appeared that Rollins had a match, and she intended to be out there for it.

"Okay, so... I don't need to change for the show, since I don't have a match... And I should be able to be out there at ringside wearing this," she said, and Roman frowned.

"Are you sure that they'll let you be out there?"

"I'm your manager. Unless they ban AJ from ringside, they shouldn't be able to ban me. And unless they ban Big E from ringside, then at least either you or Ambrose should get to be at ringside as well. And honestly? If I didn't go out there to ringside, then Teddy Long would probably put out some sort of complaint about how I'm not doing my job as your manager... And with me planning to go out there, he'll probably complain about how I'm shirking my duties as Booker's assistant or something," the woman said, shaking her head. "I just can't win, you know?"

Roman sent her a smirk. "I could always just spear him through something, give him a real reason to complain," he said, and Eve snorted.

"As much as I would appreciate seeing that - over and over again - I don't think that would go over too well. He'd probably blame me and try to get me fired. It seems to be his MO. And if he can't get me fired, then he'll settle for trying to make my life miserable."

"Well, seems to me that, after Monday night, he's figured out that his latest attempt didn't exactly work out... Which means he'll likely come up with something else to try soon."

"I'm expecting a new attempt no later than next week," Eve said, and Roman gave her a look.

"Then we'll just have to find a way to make sure he's not at it then, now won't we? Jackass is going to regret putting you with us," the man said, and Eve gave a slight smirk.

"I'm thinking he already does."

"Then we'll just have to make him regret it even more."