Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Ten

"I can't believe he did this! He shouldn't have been allowed to just come out there and demand a title match!" Maria complained, and Kelly and Eve exchanged a look, both divas just barely managing to avoid rolling their eyes at the older woman's words. After a moment, Kelly stepped forward, the blonde woman clearing her throat before she spoke.

"Um, Maria... I hate to break it to you, but... That's the thing with the Money in the Bank contract. CM Punk could cash it in whenever he wanted to. Everyone that's ever won it has done the same thing... Except for RVD, maybe, but he was probably too stoned to realize the rules," Kelly stated, and Maria glared at her.

"This isn't funny-"

"I'm not saying it is... But look at the history of the contract. Edge cashed in on Cena after John had been in the elimination chamber. I may not have been a part of the company then, but I remember watching it on television," Kelly stated, and Eve nodded.

"Not to mention last year... Batista beat the crap out of Edge, and then Punk came out and cashed in. It's just the way things go with cashing in. They can do it whenever they want to do it," Eve said, and Maria sent her a nasty look, the older woman standing up and glaring at Eve, her hands on her hips.

"You're his manager. You should have done something!" Maria nearly shouted, and Eve arched a brow at her, fighting the urge to ask why in the hell she should have helped Jeff Hardy.

"What was I supposed to do?" Eve questioned instead. "Grab Punk by the arm and beg him not to do something that, as the winner of the contract, he had every right to do?"

"You should have interfered or something! Jeff had just won the title, and now it's ripped away from him! I could understand it if Edge had won and CM Punk had decided to cash in his title match then-"

"It's not about who he cashes in against; it's about the title itself. He wanted to be champion, and he saw a way for it to happen," Eve said. "It's the way it goes, Maria. Jeff will have a rematch-"

"He should be the champion now! If I were his manager, he would still be the champion!" Maria shouted, getting in Eve's face, and the brunette simply arched a brow at the other woman. Maria was one person that she was definitely not scared of.

"Well, then, maybe you should be the one managing him then," Eve said, then turned to look at Kelly. "I'm ready to go if you are," she said, and the blonde nodded.

"I'm ready," she said, grabbing her bags, Eve quickly doing the same, the two women leaving a fuming Maria alone in the locker room... Eve turning to look at the younger woman as they made their way down the hallway.

"I'm shocked that she isn't at Jeff's side telling him how unfair it is and fawning all over him," the brunette said, and Kelly snorted.

"I think she tried. Jeff said he wanted to be alone or something. Otherwise, she probably would have been yelling at you for that, too," the blonde said, then looked over at Eve with a smirk on her face. "I guess this means the victory party that Maria had planned won't be happening."

"Well, technically, he did win the title... He just lost it again five minutes later," Eve replied as they made their way through the hallways... Nearly empty hallways, which meant they didn't have to pretend to be overly dejected over what had happened to Jeff earlier that night.

"Somehow, I don't think Jeff will consider that much of a reason to celebrate," Kelly mused, and Eve rolled her eyes.

"Yeah and somehow, I think Jeff drowning his sorrows about losing the title will still have some of the same elements as him celebrating a title win. I mean, either way, he'll probably end up wasted tonight." She frowned. "Hopefully, he'll wait until he gets back to the hotel before he does whatever he does. I'm kind of past worrying about him, but... I don't want him hurting anyone else."

"Well, I stole the keys to his rental car during his match tonight just in case there was going to be excess celebrating, so you don't have to worry about that," Kelly declared, then shrugged and smiled when Eve sent an incredulous look her way. "What? It was the least I could do."

"Good thinking, too. I'm sure Maria will give him a ride back to the hotel, and we'll find a way to get the keys back to him. Maybe leave them at the front desk of the hotel tomorrow," the older of the two divas said as they made it out to the parking area, which was nearly deserted. The pay per view had ended awhile ago, and a lot of the talent had left pretty quickly after the main event. Mostly just those that had been out there for the main event... And a few like Kelly, who had stuck around because she and Eve had ridden together and Maria, who had apparently stuck around originally to congratulate Jeff and, when it turned out he wasn't leaving the show as the champion, she'd decided to spend her time yelling at Eve instead. Of course, just because most of the people in the company were gone, it didn't mean all of them were. In fact, Eve and Kelly weren't the only people that were currently in the parking garage.

CM Punk was there as well.

The man looked over as they stepped out, the new world heavyweight champion standing at the back of a car, in the process of slamming the trunk shut. Eve stopped short at the sight of him, the diva not at all sure what to say. Part of her wanted to approach him, to say congratulations or something, but the rest of her just wasn't sure if that was a good idea. The decision was made for her, however, when Kelly gave her a sharp shove in the back, pushing her forward a few steps... Eve sending an exasperated look her friend's way before she continued to walk over toward Punk. The man stood there silently as she made her way over, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and a baseball cap and looking nothing like a man that had won the world title just a half hour before. When she was just a couple of feet away from him, she stopped, meeting his eyes. He shrugged as he looked at her.

"I told you a couple of weeks ago... I'd choose my time and my place. I'd make him hurt. I'm not saying that getting my hands on the title isn't an awfully big perk for me, but... Tonight was the time, and it was the place," he told her. "It also gives me an excuse to beat the shit out of him repeatedly for a few weeks."

Eve frowned. "Excuse me?" she questioned, not sure what he meant, and Punk shrugged.

"He gets a rematch. He was, after all, the champion, even if it was only for five minutes," the man reminded her, smiling slightly. "I'm sure he'll want to call in the rematch clause as soon as possible, but I'm hoping to put it off for a few weeks. You know, so I can kick his ass a few more times between now and then and have the excuse of saying I wanted to soften him up for the rematch."

"Punk..."

"If you're going to tell me that I shouldn't have done it... Don't. It's done. I did it. I'm glad I did it. The confused look on his face when I walked out there with the briefcase in my hands was almost as good as the lost look on his face when I walked out of there with the title." He nodded in the direction of the doors to the arena. "You two should head out before someone else comes out and see you talking to me. I can think of a few people that wouldn't be too happy about that. Not to mention that some people would think you were in on it tonight... And we both know you weren't."

"Or," Kelly piped up, the blonde speaking for the first time since they'd run into CM Punk, "Eve can head out with you, and the two of you can talk some more."

Punk glanced at Eve, looking like he wanted to agree, then cleared his throat. "If someone sees us-"

"They won't. Not if you hurry. And if anyone asks... Eve was with me all night. Rode with me, roomed with me... And she'll be in the shower if anyone calls our room looking for her. So go," Kelly said, waving a hand at them, and while Eve wasn't entirely sure why the blonde was insisting that she should head off with Punk, she couldn't deny that she wanted to talk to him some more. They really hadn't spoken at all since he'd come to her hotel room to check on her the night after this whole mess had started.

The man looked at her. "Eve?" he questioned, and she knew he was asking if she actually wanted to talk to him, or if it was just Kelly being, well... Kelly. When she nodded her head, she could have sworn that he relaxed a bit. Quickly, he stepped forward, starting to take her things from her, but Kelly shook her head.

"I'll take her bag. That way she won't have to worry about it later. Now scoot. Before Maria comes out here and throws a fit," the blonde said, and Eve and Punk nodded, the man opening the passenger side door for her and Eve quickly climbing in... The brunette glancing back to see Kelly heading off toward their rental car, the blonde walking with a bit of a bounce in her step, obviously proud of herself for being able to send the two of them off together. Of course, Kelly had been bugging Eve to talk to Punk for the past two weeks, saying that Punk was obviously a better person to spend time with than Jeff was, so Eve supposed she shouldn't be surprised by the other woman's attitude. For his part, Punk appeared content to let the fact that Kelly obviously wanted them to spend time together slide, the man instead focusing on something else that the younger diva had said.

"So... Is Maria still giving you problems?" he asked as he put the car in drive, able to pull straight through the parking spots because the person that had been parked across from him had already left for the night. For a moment, Eve wondered why he would ask about Maria *still* giving her problems... But then she remembered that she'd told him that Maria had believed Jeff's version of events.

The diva gave a slight shrug. "If by problems you mean is she glaring at me like I'm unworthy to be in Jeff's presence whenever she gets the chance... Yeah. And she thinks you're a terrible, horrible human being for what you did tonight."

"Well, I'm just so sorry about that," Punk muttered, though Eve could still hear the sarcasm in his voice, not to mention see the smirk on his face. After a moment, however, he grew serious once more. "Would she tell on you?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she had seen us talking tonight... Or if she'd walked out and seen you get into my car or something... Would she tell Jeff Hardy?" he wanted to know, and while Eve wanted to deny that Maria would run and tattle on her to Jeff like they were children or something... She found that she couldn't deny it, because the truth was, Maria probably *would* do that.

"Probably. I'm pretty sure she hopes he'll get rid of me as his manager and pick her instead. Of course, she wants to be a lot more than just his manager," the diva said with a roll of her eyes, settling herself a bit deeper into the passenger seat of Punk's rental car.

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," CM Punk muttered, then frowned. "What would you do?"

"Excuse me?"

"If Jeff suddenly decided he didn't want you to be his manager?"

"I... I don't know. I'd like to wrestle. But the divas division on SmackDown seems to revolve around Michelle McCool and whoever she likes, so..." Eve shrugged. "If I started wrestling more, I'd probably get ganged up on. Kelly would team with me, but... I'm not sure anyone else would help me out. Especially if Jeff started spreading lies about me or something."

"And you don't want to be the villain."

"I didn't do anything wrong-"

"I'm not saying you did," Punk said. "Jeff's in the wrong. If you'd cost him the title tonight as retribution for the shit he pulled on you, then it would have been justified."

"In your mind, maybe."

"In mine... in Kelly's. And it should be justified in your mind, too. He'd deserve it." He shook his head, sighing. "I get that you're scared. You're scared of what would happen if he came after you. Or if he convinced other people to come after you."

"I just..." She shook her head, and Punk sighed again.

"It's okay. I don't mind being the one to go after him. I sure as hell don't mind being the villain of the piece-"

"You're not-"

"To everybody that saw that match tonight? Hell, yes, I am. Because they don't know why I did it. That there was something behind it besides the title. And I don't care. I don't care what those people think of me. I don't care what Jeff Hardy or his fans or the announcers and superstars and divas that kiss his ass and think he hung the moon think of me. I'm fine with being the bad guy. I can take it," he said, and Eve closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, then opening her eyes again and looking over at him.

"I wish I could be as strong as you. Strong enough to do what I should," she said quietly, and he shrugged, glancing over at her.

"You are. You just haven't figured it out yet."