Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Twenty-Eight

"And here are your winners... Eve Torres and Kaitlyn!"

Eve pushed herself back up to her knees, smirking a bit as she saw movement just outside of the ring... Alicia Fox was grabbing for Aksana's ankles and trying to pull her partner out of the ring so they could drag themselves to the back.

"Nice job," a voice above her said, and Eve looked up to see Kaitlyn standing over her, the younger woman's hand held out to help her up. Arching a brow, she reached for the other diva's hand, letting Kaitlyn help pull her to her feet.

"Same to you. I don't see how Alicia's even standing again after that spear you gave her," the diva's champion said, referring to the move that Kaitlyn had used to neutralize Alicia when the other woman had attempted to interfere in the match on her partner's behalf. Obviously, it hadn't gone well for her... Or for Aksana, either.

"I didn't get as much behind it as I should have. Took her out long enough for you to do the neckbreaker and the moonsault on Aksana, though," Kaitlyn replied, sending Eve a contemplative look. "Been a little while since I saw you break that one out. The moonsault."

"Been awhile since I felt like it," Eve said with a shrug, the woman accepting her divas' title from the referee when the man brought it over to her. The man then positioned himself between them, reaching out to raise their hands in victory, and the two divas allowed it, Eve arching a brow slightly at the positive reaction from the crowd. When she'd first been announced as Kaitlyn's partner, the crowd hadn't seemed to know how to react but, as time had gone on, they'd ended up getting behind her as much as they were behind Kaitlyn when she was in the ring. It had been an interesting feeling, one she'd almost forgotten about.

Shaking her head slightly, almost as if to clear her thoughts, Eve stepped back, pulling her wrist from the referee's grasp, a glance to her right telling her that Kaitlyn was doing the same on her other side. Pushing her hair back from her face, Eve made her way toward the ropes, slipping beneath the second rope to the outside, then hopping down from the ring apron, Kaitlyn landing next to her an instant later.

"You know, when Teddy Long finds out we teamed together tonight... He's definitely going to realize that we must know something about what really happened at Night of Champions," the younger woman muttered, keeping her voice low, and Eve glanced over at her.

"He already knows," she whispered, watching as that news registered with the other woman. Luckily, Kaitlyn just looked surprised, not annoyed. After a moment, the diva shrugged.

"Makes sense, I guess. I mean, he did see us together at RAW on Monday," Kaitlyn mused, and Eve nodded, pushing her hair back from her face again.

"Well, there's that. But, um... When his plan didn't go the way he thought it would on RAW, he confronted us afterward-"

"He confronted the Shield? Does he have a death wish?" Kaitlyn wanted to know as the two women slipped through the curtain to the back. Eve spotted Seth standing about twenty feet away, clearly waiting for her, and she quickly signaled for him to give her a minute. She didn't think Kaitlyn would stick around to talk long if Seth was around.

"I'm beginning to wonder," Eve replied, looking at the other woman. "He wasn't happy that Seth teamed with me, and he basically threatened to take me away from them. The guys pretty much told him that they knew what he'd expected and he had to deal with the fact that it had backfired on him. And I... I told him that you and I both knew the truth about Night of Champions." Eve shook her head. "And then at SmackDown, he tried to convince Booker T to take me away from the Shield anyway, but I managed to get that stopped."

Kaitlyn blinked in surprised. "What? You had the chance to work with someone else, and you didn't go for it?" the diva asked, and Eve shrugged, vaguely thinking about how Dean Ambrose had pretty much posed the same question. He'd used different phrasing, yeah, but it was the same thing... Like Kaitlyn, the man had wondered why she hadn't let herself be assigned to someone else.

She gave Kaitlyn the same basic answer she'd given Dean Ambrose. "Teddy figured out that he made the wrong decision putting me with the Shield. He thought he was putting me with people that would hurt me or treat me like dirt. Do you think he'd make the same mistake twice? If I was reassigned, it would be to someone that Teddy would *know* would make my life miserable. Someone like Cena or Ryder or... Anyone else that he knows doesn't like me. Not just someone he *thinks* doesn't like me."

"You've got a point there. Even if the Shield's scary... They actually seem concerned about your safety."

"Which is exactly what Teddy Long didn't want," Eve replied, shaking her head, then flicking a look over to where Seth was still waiting for her... Rather patiently, actually. "Look, I should go. The guys have a match tonight still, and they probably need to talk strategy. Plus, with my match over... If Seth and I don't get back to the locker room soon, they might think something happened."

"Good point," Kaitlyn said, lifting a hand in a wave as Eve started to step away from her, then raising her voice a bit to call after her. "Hey, Eve?"

The older woman turned around. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for teaming with me tonight," Kaitlyn told her, and the divas' champion smiled.

"Anytime," she replied, and Kaitlyn arched a brow.

"I might just hold you to that," the Houston native said, and Eve smiled again before heading over to where Seth stood waiting for her. He arched a brow as she went over to him.

"Afraid I'd scare her off, huh?"

"She doesn't know you guys. I mean, really, I haven't been around you all that much, either, but... All she's seen is what you do on the shows, and maybe seen you and Roman with me once or twice. Not a lot to ease her mind, you know?"

"I get it. I guess I'm just still not used to being the scary guy," Seth replied, the two of them starting to head down the hall toward where their locker room for the night was. "Good match, by the way."

"Thanks... Now you guys just have to make sure that you pick up the win tonight, too," she told him, and the wrestler grinned.

"I think we can handle that."