Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Forty

In the end, Roman Reigns ended up facing Dolph Ziggler one-on-one on SmackDown. With AJ unable to compete because of her sprained wrist, Eve was taken out of the match as well, and things went about as well for Dolph against Roman as they had for him against Seth. Roman won with a spear, then finished up with a spear on Big E when the man tried to come after the rest of the Shield on the outside... And Eve finally got to see it happen, a feat she was proud of since she'd so far managed to miss seeing Roman spear Big E Langston (well, other than on video, that is).

And things began to settle into a routine.

It became normal for Eve to be around the members of the Shield and, as Dean Ambrose had suggested, she actually started traveling with the men from city to city. It was safer, really... A group of four traveling together instead of a woman alone. And it wasn't like she roomed with any of them or anything; she still had the privacy of her own room. Well, except for that one time when they'd had trouble finding a hotel and had ended up with the last two rooms at one place and Eve had ended up rooming with Seth, but that hadn't been a big deal, not really. Especially since it was the middle of winter, which meant Eve's sleepwear consisted of a pair of completely unsexy flannel PJ's with fluffy sheep on them.

They knew, of course, that there were still potential problems lurking around the various corners for them, so to speak. They had a bit of a truce with Team Hell No at the moment, if only because Kaitlyn and Eve were getting along (even teaming together on that episode of SmackDown when Roman faced Dolph, the two divas joining forces to take on Aksana and Alicia Fox, much as they'd done on the live events the previous weekend... And once again, they'd won their match). However, even though they weren't attacking Kane and Daniel Bryan at the moment, it didn't stop them from having enemies. Ryback was still around, the man always a danger, and Dolph and Big E were still a potential problem... Zack Ryder kept his distance when he'd reappeared (he'd missed a week due to the beating Ambrose had given him), but the look on his face when he saw them made it clear he was still mad about what had happened... Though without any backup, there was little he could do on his own. On top of all of that, Eve was still the divas' champion, which meant that she had a target on her back when it came to all the other divas and, thanks to Teddy Long's decree that all the women in the company had to be managers, that meant that all of those divas had someone that they could potentially convince to attack Eve for them... It hadn't happened yet, but it was a thought in the back of Eve's mind from time to time. She didn't figure Layla could talk Kofi Kingston - the man she managed - into anything like that, and Sheamus (who was managed by Alicia Fox) didn't seem the type, either, but there was always a chance.

And then there was Teddy Long.

Though he'd failed rather miserably in screwing things up for Eve when he'd assigned her to the Shield... And failed once again when he'd tried to take her away from them shortly thereafter, they knew that he was going to try something else. They just didn't know what.

Until days before the Royal Rumble, when the final participants in the match were informed they would be competing... And the Shield wasn't among them.

"This is complete and utter bullshit," Eve declared as she looked at the memo they'd been given, the diva shaking her head, her anger clearly written on her face. "You guys deserve to be in that match."

"Eve, it's okay," Roman said, and the woman shook her head.

"It's the Rumble. A chance at Mania, and you guys... They're not putting you in the match. You know Teddy Long is behind this, which means... You aren't in the match because of me," she said, and Ambrose rose to his feet, the man coming to stand in front of her.

"We knew that the little bastard was going to come after us again... Somehow, some way. We can't be surprised by this, and we aren't blaming you. He's the piece of shit, Eve. He's got a vendetta against you because you're smarter and younger and all of that-"

"And he's taking it out on you guys."

"We can handle it," Ambrose told her. "He's coming after us? Fine. He's not even being creative about it. Hell, he could put us in a 12-on-3 handicap match or something if he really wanted to screw with us. Or he could put you in some sort of handicap match and ban us from ringside. Mess with us by making us watch it. But he's not. So we're out of the Rumble. Okay. We can deal. Maybe we'll just find something else to do that night to amuse ourselves. Make him regret keeping us out."

"He give a reason for keeping us out? Besides screwing with you?" Seth wanted to know, and Eve rolled her eyes.

"Apparently, you don't have enough wins under your belts to warrant entry," the diva said with a shake of her head. "Which is bull. You may not have a lot of matches, but you've won all of the televised ones so far, and none of you have been pinned at live events, either, even if some of those matches have ended in a double-DQ. And I can pretty much guarantee you that there will be at least one person in that Rumble match that hasn't even set foot in a WWE ring in the past year. Not to mention the fact that the freaking Rock is getting a title shot at the Rumble despite the fact that he's had a grand total of one match in the past year." She let out a sigh. "And that's not all."

Dean arched a brow. "What else is there?"

"Tonight they're having a match to decide the number one contender to the divas' title. I'm defending the title at the Royal Rumble... Which is fine. I want a pay-per-view match, and while I've defended the title at a couple of live events in the past month, it's been a little while since I've defended on television," the woman said. "But it sucks that I have a match and you guys don't. And on top of that... You guys have to be out there for my title defense, though you won't be allowed close enough to the ring to interfere. Not that I would expect you to do that anyway, it's just... He's forcing you out of the Rumble, and then he's putting you at ringside for my match. He's..."

"He's trying to make us resent you. You get a pay-per-view match, and we don't, and then he wants us out there to watch you. He's hoping that you'll lose. He wants us mad about being out there and then he wants you embarrassed by losing in front of us," Ambrose said, and Eve nodded.

"That's my theory."

Ambrose gave a dangerous smile. "Well, tough shit for him. Because I'm fine with him pulling us out of the match because he will regret it... And I for one am perfectly fine being out there for your match at the Rumble, because I'm pretty damn sure that, whoever you go out there to face, you'll be kicking her ass. So by putting us out there around the ring, he's just making it that much easier for us to help you celebrate when you pick up the win. And when you win, and we go in that ring to help you celebrate, we'll just be showing him that his plan backfired yet again."

"You're pretty confident in my ability to retain, aren't you?"

"I have no reason not to be."