Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Nineteen

Eve gave a perfunctory knock on the door before opening it and stepping inside, Booker T looking up and nodding at her as she made her entrance.

"Eve... Good, I'm glad you're here," the SmackDown General Manager said, the man gesturing to some paperwork that was on his desk. "I've got some stuff I'd like you to look over. I need a new challenger for Cesaro's United States championship. If you could go through some won-loss records, come up with some ideas by next week, that would be great."

"Of course," Eve said, making her way over to the desk and picking up the paperwork, and Booker nodded.

"Good. Thanks," he replied, then looked up, frowning as he noticed the rather large presence that was standing just inside the doorway. Straightening up, he arched a brow at Roman Reigns. "May I help you?"

"I'm with her," the big man replied, stepping farther into the room, giving Eve a questioning look before he put her bag down on the couch in the room, Eve taking a seat next to her things. Roman went to lean against the wall, the man no more than a few feet away from her. Booker T gave them both a perplexed look.

"What is this?" he wanted to know, looking from Eve to Roman and back again, and Eve gave a slight shrug.

"As it turns out, the Shield is very protective of me. Who knew?" she said with a slight smile, looking over at Roman, who gave her a slightly amused look of his own. She wasn't surprised by the fact that the big man was still in the room, but only because he'd flat-out told her that he would be staying with her during the show. Maybe it seemed a little excessive, but if it served the purpose of making Teddy Long too afraid to come up and harass her, then she was all for it.

Schooling his expression back to one of vague annoyance, Roman looked back over at Booker T. "Eve is our manager. That makes her a potential target of anyone that considers us an enemy. Therefore, one of us will be staying with her during SmackDown while she does her job as your assistant," he stated, and Booker frowned, looking over at Eve, then back at Reigns.

"Eve is perfectly safe here."

"Well, we prefer to make sure of that ourselves," Reigns replied. "Also, when it's time for Seth's match, I will be walking Eve to where the others are, and the four of us will be going out there together. Unless, of course, we're banned from ringside."

"And if we're banned, then I fully expect both AJ Lee and Big E Langston to be banned from ringside as well. After all, it would only be fair," Eve put in, the diva looking down at the paperwork that Booker T had asked her to go through, the woman acting like it was perfectly normal to have a member of the Shield stationed just a few feet away from her like some sort of a bodyguard. Well, okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly correct to say that she was looking down at the paperwork... Yes, her head was lowered, and it appeared that she was going through the paperwork, but she was really angling her gaze just so she could look up enough to see Booker's reaction to what was happening without him knowing she was doing so. It was hard to fight the smile that wanted to emerge at the perplexed look on the man's face.

"Eve, you don't have to walk out there for Seth Rollins's match," Booker said after a moment, and Eve looked up, arching a brow at the man.

"I'm sorry, but why not? I am, after all, his manager, right? Or, actually, the manager of all three members of the Shield, not just Seth," she said. "That was my assignment, wasn't it?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"And all the other divas are expected to walk out with the men that they're assigned to manage on both RAW and SmackDown... As well as pay-per-views, of course. That's correct, isn't it? Well, unless I have a match of my own that would prevent me from doing so," the divas' champion continued, and Booker's frown deepened, the man once again looking between the diva and the member of the Shield. He looked very confused and like maybe he didn't understand what was going on here.

"Well, I..." The man trailed off, shooting a look at Roman, then focusing his attention on Eve once again, taking a deep breath before speaking. "Eve, I spoke with Teddy Long during the week, and he thought perhaps he acted too rashly in assigning you to the Shield. I want you to know that, if you would like a change, then-"

"I'm fine with things the way they are," Eve broke in, tilting her head slightly to the side as she spoke, giving the man a winning smile. For his part, Booker looked more than a little incredulous. Frowning, he shot another look at Roman, then cleared his throat, still eyeing the man.

"I'd like to speak to Eve privately for a moment," he said, and Roman looked over at Eve, then back at Booker.

"That's up to her," the big man replied, and the diva rolled her eyes.

"It's okay, Roman. I can handle it," she said easily, and the wrestler nodded, then looked back over at Booker.

"I'll be right outside the door. Just in case," he stated, the warning obvious in his tone, the man then heading out the door, carefully closing it behind him. Eve eyed the closed door, then looked back at Booker.

"Yes?"

"Eve, I want you to be honest with me. You can speak freely now; Roman Reigns can't hear you. Now, Teddy Long called me earlier this week, told me that he has concerns that the Shield will hurt you, that they might threaten you or something."

"Did he now? Interesting that he didn't think of those potential concerns when he chose them as my assignment in the first place," the woman replied, shaking her head slightly. They should have known that this was coming... Teddy had basically threatened to take her away from the Shield at RAW on Monday after he'd figured out that his plan was backfiring big-time. The four of them had basically laughed at him then, but apparently he'd decided to at least go through with the attempt to take her away from them. Maybe he thought that he didn't have anything to lose. And if he got her away from the Shield... Well, he probably figured it was worth it to take the chance.

Booker shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe he was a little rash in his original choice-"

"And maybe he wasn't. Maybe he just regrets the fact that he inadvertently gave me three very tough men as backup. He assigned me to the Shield. And since that assignment, I have actually tagged with a member of the group. Seth Rollins was an excellent partner, and when Big E Langston attacked me after the match, Roman protected me, and Dean Ambrose helped me get out of there. It seems a little ridiculous to me to think that they may hurt me in some way after all of that, doesn't it? I mean, even now, Roman Reigns is standing outside the door, prepared to protect me if one of their enemies comes calling. So you can tell Teddy Long thank you for his concern, but I'd like to stay with the Shield. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to tell Roman that he can come back in now, and then I'll get down to reviewing your paperwork."