Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Twenty-Nine

Eve pushed her hair back from her face, the diva quietly cursing herself for leaving her cell phone in her rental car earlier, and cursing herself all over again for not putting on a jacket when she went down to get it... It was *cold* outside.

Shaking her head, the divas champion headed for the stairs in the hotel, the woman intending to walk up to the third floor instead of taking the all-too-slow elevator. It was a couple of hours after the live event for the night had ended, putting it close to midnight by now, and the halls and stairwell were pretty quiet. Odds were that most of her coworkers that were staying at the same hotel were already in for the night, if only because the drive to the next event was a fairly long one to begin with, and the weather wasn't necessarily supposed to be that great, which meant adding even more time to the drive. They'd probably spend half the day on the road just to do everything all over again... Almost literally, since many of the matches would be the same again the next night. Kaitlyn had already asked her to team up again - Natalya wouldn't be able to make the next night's show, either. Hopefully, she and Kaitlyn could get the same result tomorrow night as they had tonight... And maybe the Shield could get a different one than they had this particular evening. It wasn't that they'd lost their match - they technically hadn't - but when things had broken down in a brawl in and around the ring, the referee had thrown the match out totally, declaring it a no-contest. Things had broken down enough at one point that Eve, who had been ringside for the match, had found herself getting shoved over the barrier and away from the action by Dean Ambrose, the man making sure she was mostly out of danger before diving back into it himself. Seth had ended up taking a nasty hit from Ryback during the melee, but Ryback had gotten paid back for it when Roman had speared the big man, sending him flying into the ring-steps.

Pushing the thoughts of that night's events out of her head, Eve pushed open the door to the floor that she was on, the woman reaching down to pull her key card from her pocket as she headed for her room... Then nearly screamed as someone reached out to grab her, the person coming out of the vending machine alcove and more or less shoving her up against the wall.

"What in the hell-"

"You have to make him cancel the match," Zack Ryder said, his hands gripping her arms, fingers digging in as he spoke to her. Eve flinched when he pushed her harder against the wall, the woman twisting around until she could free one of her arms. When Zack tried to push closer to her, she brought that arm up, pressing the sharp edge of her elbow into his throat.

"How dare you grab me like this! You think you can intimidate me into anything? I don't think so, Ryder. I'm not scared of you." She smirked at him. "But you are scared, aren't you? You're scared of Dean-"

"Just tell him to cancel the match. You know it wouldn't be fair. The others will be out there, too-"

"You think I care what happens to you?" Eve spat back, shoving Zack away again, her elbow digging into his throat enough that he stumbled back a little, coughing. Unfortunately, he didn't let go of his grip on her other arm, his fingers digging in even more as he stumbled backward a bit, pulling her forward a couple of steps as he did so.

"Eve-"

"Why the hell should I stick up for you? After all the things you've said about me... I should call off the dogs? Forget that. None of this would have happened if you hadn't decided to act like a 'big man' and call me names on Friday night. You deserve whatever's coming to you."

Ryder yanked her toward him. "Just tell him to cancel it!"

"No!" Eve spat back, hooking his foot with her own and knocking him off-balance, them swinging around with her elbow, missing the throat shot, but getting him high on the cheekbone instead, close enough to his eye that he was likely in danger of getting a shiner.

"Hey! Back off and leave her alone!" another voice called out, and Zack took off running without even looking to see who it was... He was likely afraid that it was a member of the Shield. But it wasn't. Eve could tell just from the voice. She knew it wasn't any of the guys in the Shield, but she didn't know who it was instead until she looked over, the woman more than a little surprised to find Daniel Bryan headed her way... Kaitlyn just steps behind him. Both were still in jeans and t-shirts, jackets on as well, making Eve think that maybe they had grabbed a late dinner or something after the show before heading back to the hotel.

Eve took a step back as the pair approached. She trusted Kaitlyn well enough now - enough to team up with her and even consider the possibility that they might be becoming friends - but she didn't really trust Daniel Bryan. She had no reason to, especially considering that the one time they'd ever teamed up ended with him ditching her and refusing to tag into the match.

"What was going on here?" Daniel wanted to know, and Eve flicked a quick look at Kaitlyn before responding.

"He was just being an ass."

"Obviously," Kaitlyn replied. "But why was he coming up to you now?"

"My guess? Because at the shows, I've always got a member of the Shield around to make sure he doesn't pull anything," Eve said, absently rubbing at the arm that Zack had been holding onto for pretty much the entirety of the confrontation. Her right arm was fine; she'd gotten it from his grip pretty quickly... But her left arm was more than a little sore at the moment. "Not that he really paid attention to that at SmackDown."

Kaitlyn arched a brow. "What happened at SmackDown?" the woman wanted to know, and Eve shrugged, heaving out a sigh. It wasn't really a big secret... Especially if the match Dean had challenged Zack to actually happened.

"Ryder made a few not-so-nice comments, and he made the mistake of making them while Dean Ambrose was walking me to my car," Eve replied, shooting another wary look at Daniel Bryan before returning her attention to Kaitlyn. "Ambrose took exception and challenged him to a match on RAW. Zack wants it canceled."

"And he thought accosting you would make that happen?" Daniel Bryan questioned, and Eve shrugged.

"I guess he didn't really think it through," she said, then cleared her throat. "Now if you'll excuse me... I need to get back to my room. Thanks for the intervention, though."

"You were handling things pretty well yourself, from what I could see," Bryan said, then shrugged. "But you're welcome all the same," he told her, and Eve nodded, turning toward her room, pausing when he spoke again. "Eve?"

"Yeah?"

"You might want to be careful. With the Shield," he said, and Eve looked back at him, arching a brow.

"I'm nothing if not careful. But it's really none of your concern," she said, sliding the key card into the slot, then quickly slipping inside her room, locking the door behind her and trying to push all thoughts of what had just happened out of her head.