It was the second time in two weeks that Emma and her boys surprise attacked Sasha, leaving her laid out in the middle of the ring. Seth watched the beat down from a monitor at the curtain, he had never quite gotten used to watching her take moves like that. Even knowing it was all a performance, he wanted to go out there and help her up, make sure she wasn't hurt. She rolled out of the ring and slowly started up the ramp, and a producer cued Seth's music to start.

When he got out to the top of the ramp, her face was twisted with annoyance. He couldn't help wondering if she was putting on a good show, or if she really, truly was sick of seeing him already. Grumpily, she continued up the ramp, trying not to make eye contact with him.

"You alright?" he asked with a small nod as they crossed paths.

"Fine," she didn't stop and Seth walked backwards just to get another shot.

"Are you sure?"

This time she did turn around, right at the top of the ramp, and crossed her arms. He shrugged at her before turning back and focusing on his match. Looking back at the ramp, she paused a second before swiftly disappearing behind the curtain.

After the match it took Seth a while to find her again. She'd hit her shoulder pretty hard against an exposed turnbuckle and was icing a nasty bruise outside the trainer's room when he came across her.

"Hey what happened?" he didn't bother asking if he could sit down first.

"Just a small botch," she shrugged, "hit too directly."

"That angle looks tricky."

"Seth-"

"C'mon," he took the icepack and scooted closer to her, "just let me help."

She sighed but didn't shrug him away. "What is it with you and this knight in shining armor complex?"

"Maybe it's that I keep hoping that eventually you'll believe me when I tell you how much I care about you."

"Ohh you care about me, I see," she scoffed, crossing her arms. "That explains why you've been sleeping with a new girl in every town we go to."

His stomach knotted, he hadn't done it to hurt her. She had to know that right?

"I'd trade it. In a heartbeat, I'd trade it. It's just sex, it doesn't mean anything to me."

"Classy, Rollins."

"I thought you didn't care?" his voice was sharper.

"I said you could do what you wanted, not that I didn't care."

"So you do care?"

"This conversation is over." She hopped off of the production crate, taking the ice from his hands. "Thanks."

"Hey," he grabbed her arm as she tried to take off, "wait. About Xavier, thank you, but you didn't have to do that."

"It's between you and me, he doesn't have to be in the middle of it."

"Ha I think he's in the middle of it. But if he hates me, he hates me," he shrugged, "I'll live."

"He doesn't hate you."

"Oh, he hates me. He wants you and so he hates me."

"He does not," she scoffed, "he does not want me."

"Yeah, Sash, he does. He's swooping in while you're vulnerable-"

"There you go again! I don't need saving, and definitely not from Woods."

"Do you really not see what's going on here?"

"Xavier has been there for me," she said sternly. "He's a good friend, and all you've done is hurt me. So don't, just don't, Seth."

"I'm trying to protect you," he stood up, towering over her and looking into her eyes, trying to get her to understand. "I'm the one who's being a friend."

"You're being a jerk is what you are. A jealous, paranoid jerk."

"Fine, but I'll be a jerk who loves-"

"We're done here." She turned on her heel, her purple hair flashing behind her as he stormed off.

He groaned, rolling his neck. All he wanted to do was stop her from getting hurt. Why couldn't he get through to her? It felt like every time he tried to make progress, she just got more and more angry with him. What was he supposed to do? He sighed, needing a drink and a distraction.

XXX

Seth glanced around the hotel bar nervously, Sasha was nowhere to be found at the moment, neither were the New Day or the other girls. They'd probably found a hotspot in the city to check out instead, tired of hotel bar after hotel bar. He sipped his beer and leaned on the bar, it was probably better not seeing her after hours. Especially if he ended up with another girl tonight, which wasn't too much of an "if". There was a group of pretty women across the bar eying him and laughing to each other. One in particular, a redhead, looked over at him and blushed.

He pressed the bottle to his smiling lips and winked at her. Going through the movements was easy for Seth. He'd gotten good at it in the months between Jenna and Sasha, most of the single guys did. It seemed gross to him at first, but it was lonely on the road. Once he started getting recognized and tried it once, he stopped judging. From time to time it still felt a little weird to take star-struck girls home, but he assumed that they'd tell everyone they knew about it the next day and that seemed to level the playing field to him.

"Sorry, you, you're Seth Rollins," she said the statement with a shy smile.

"Well I'm Seth Rollins, but that's not really something to be sorry about, now is it?" he turned towards her on the barstool and she laughed lightly. Yup, that one usually worked.

"You use that line a lot?"

That genuinely made him smile. "Almost always."

She laughed again, shy and sweet.

"What's your name?"

"Samantha. I'm a, well, pretty big fan."

"How about I buy you a drink, Samantha?"

"Yeah," she sat on the stool next to him, "I'd like that."

He smiled again as she ordered a glass of wine and started asking him about what it was like to be Seth Rollins. The usual, but it wasn't a boring conversation by any stretch of the imagination. She was a funny woman, quick witted. Although he had to push out the thought that it reminded him of Sasha whenever she had a snarky comeback to his usual bullshit, he was enjoying it. He was biding his time and starting to think about making a move out of the bar soon when they were interrupted by a pair of broad shoulders wedging themselves in between him and Samantha.

"What're we drinking?" Roman asked to Seth's shocked face.

"Uh…"

"Eh I can't do that light shit, I'll just get a rum and coke," he looked over at her, offering her a hand, "Hi, Roman Reigns."

"Yeah I-I'm aware."

"Good to meet you, but I actually gotta talk to my buddy here."

"No, you don't," Seth said looking from Samantha to Roman.

"I really do, brother. She doesn't mind, do you?"

"Uh no, of course," she looked flustered but not overly disappointed, probably had kept her expectations low. "Thanks for the drink."

Roman took the bar stool she left empty and Seth watched as her and her friends walked out of the bar.

"Oh don't pout," Roman said with a laugh as he sipped his drink.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell am I doing? No, bro, what the hell are you doing?"

"I thought it was fairly obvious,"

"It was, that's the point. Everyone sees your little hook-up spree. Everyone. Including-"

"Yeah. I know Sasha knows," he stopped Roman halfway thorough. It hurt less to say it than to hear it.

"I thought you loved her."

"I do love her,"

"I thought you wanted her back."

"I do want her back, but that doesn't appear to be happening, now does it?"

"Maybe that's because you're fucking strangers."

"No, no, she shut that door long before this started. I'm moving on with my damn life."

"You're running like a coward, you are. It scares you shitless how much you love her, doesn't it?"

"No it-" he sighed. "Okay, it scares me, a little, how much of a grip she has on my heart. I hate feeling like this, man. I feel like I'm being ripped apart. Strangers in bars are simpler. It hurts less."

"Man up, love hurts sometimes. It comes with the territory."

"Yeah well, maybe I'm not strong enough for love. She seems to have figured that out."

"You really giving up on this?"

He looked at Roman for a second, debating that question.

"I'm trying to."

XXX

Sasha felt the crowd cheering as she walked out to the top of the ramp. She wanted to enjoy the chants of her name, but had to get right to it. In the ring stood Mick Foley with Paige, Emma, and Bayley.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies, certainly we're not discussing the Women's Championship without the Women's Champion?" she held the belt up and shifted her hips.

"Sasha I'm glad you're here," Mick said, "we do have to work this out. This is the biggest moment in the history of women's wrestling, Sasha Banks will be main eventing WWE Fastlane, but the question is who will be her opponent?"

"I pinned her, two weeks ago," Emma steeped forward.

"That's really nice, Emma, but the thing is," Bayley tried to reel in the smile on her face. "You're a cheater and we all know it. Now, Mick, I know that I've been out of action for a few weeks but I got medically cleared today, and I am owed a rematch."

"Well if we're talking about rematches,"

"Yeah, yeah, Paige, you want your rematch, I'll give it to you." Sasha unzipped her jacket, "Right here, right now."

The crowd roared as Paige threw her jacket to the side too.

"Whoa whoa, hold up," Mick got in between them before it got ugly. "Sasha, if you're willing, Paige can certainly have her rematch tonight. But that still leaves the issue of these two."

Sasha looked at Emma and then at Bayley, who smiled at her like they knew what the other one was thinking.

"Alright, let them fight for it," she said with a smirk, "If Paige manages to win tonight, I'll take my rematch against both of them in a triple threat."

"Really Sasha?" Mick asked, concerned.

"I love a good triple threat Mick. Let's do this."

They set up the first match, Bayley and Emma sitting at commentary. Sasha and Paige fought it out, giving Paige a few near falls to keep drama high. They didn't have a large amount of time with the back-to-back segments, but they made sure it was a hard-hitting 10 minutes. With the Bank Statement, Sasha got Paige to tap, and she proudly held her title over her head. Making her way back up to the ramp, she looked over at Emma and Bayley, mouthing "Sunday" at them before turning her back and leaving them to their match.

Backstage, she found a monitor to watch as Bayley and Emma would determine the number one contender. Stretching out her tense arms, she took a seat in a hard medal fold up chair.

"Hey Boss, good match out there," a voice said behind her. She turned and was surprised to see it came from Roman. "Can I join you?"

"Uh, yeah, of course."

He smiled and sat down next to her, making small talk for a minute before getting to the point.

"Hey, listen, I'm really sorry about what happened with you and Seth."

"Don't be, he's not your responsibility."

"Heh, you sure about that?"

"Well," she laughed with him.

"I know it might seem like he's been fucking around lately."

"Seem? Roman, I literally saw her coming out of his room."

"Okay, let me rephrase. I know he's been fucking around lately."

"I'll say."

"Sasha, he loves you."

"Oh not you too," she rolled her eyes.

"I know, I know. He's being a moron. But that doesn't mean he's lying when he says he loves you."

"Don't you think it's the slightest bit suspicious that he didn't mention that word once until he was trying to get me to stay?"

"For anyone else, sure. For Seth? Baby girl, you know he can't get his shit together unless his back is up against the wall."

"Well his back is up against the wall now, but I can guarantee you he's sleeping with some chick tonight."

"Okay, fair." He looked back at the monitor and they sat in silence for a minute before he tried again. "I'm just telling you what I know."

She sighed, "And you know that he loves me?"

"Yeah, that's what I know. Because he's putting a lot of time and effort into trying convince himself otherwise."

"He's doing a good job."

"Nah, he's doing a shit job. "

They laughed, "he's doing a good job of convincing me."

"I know he is, but he feels like he's not getting any signs of you coming back to him."

"I-" she looked over at him. "I miss him. Okay? Every second of every day since that morning. But what am I supposed to do here? Put my trust back into a man who's been fooling around since we broke up?"

"Look, I know that the women, it's a bad deal."

"What even are they to him? Why is he doing it?"

"If I had to guess? A poor substitute for you, and the only one he has. But I think if you gave him the chance, you'd see his heart's stuck on you."

She looked over at him again, wordlessly shaking her head, and unsure she knew how to do that. The bell rang on the monitor, Bayley and Emma had taken each other to their limit and caused a double count out. The Revival was unable to do anything without risking losing the title shot for Emma, but they'd be in full play on Sunday.

"I gotta go get ready to do the interview," she told Roman and he nodded. "Um, thanks, you're a good friend."

"He's my brother, I'd do anything to stop him from screwing up the best thing he ever had."

She smiled and walked off, his words swimming around in her head. JoJo nodded to her, fixing her hair as they set up for the interview. A producer got in to place and counted to three, cuing JoJo on.

"Please welcome my guest, Sasha Banks."

Sasha walked into frame, keeping her confident smile and thanked JoJo for having her.

"Sasha, we just saw a double count out by Bayley and Emma, what does that mean for Fastlane?"

"Well JoJo, technically speaking there is no number one contender since this was a no contest. But history is going to be made Sunday night by the Boss, Sasha Banks, when I defend my title in the main event, and I'll need an opponent for that. I told Paige earlier I would happily participate in a triple threat at Fastlane, and even though it sacrifices my championship advantage, it's the right thing to do."

"So you're saying we'll be seeing you take on both Emma and Bayley in this historic event?"

"That's right, JoJo. It's going to be a match for the ages, I hope you're ready."