Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Thirteen

CM Punk was still the world heavyweight champion.

The triple threat match had been a pretty tough one, all three men wanting to get their hands on that title - or, in the case of Punk, *keep* his hands on the title - and it had very nearly gone the other way. Would have if Punk hadn't pulled Jeff off the pin when Hardy had gotten the Swanton Bomb on Edge. Punk had just dragged Jeff out of the ring, then pinned Edge himself, and some small part of Eve had wondered if he'd let that happen on purpose. If he'd been hoping for a moment like that... Jeff thinking he had the title back, that he had the win... Only to have it yanked away again by someone else stealing the pin. Maybe it hadn't been the plan, but odds were that Punk probably rather liked the idea of it anyway. Of course, he probably didn't like the idea that he'd have to face Jeff again one-on-one at the upcoming 'The Bash' pay per view. Or maybe he did like the idea... He had, after all, told her not so very long ago that he hoped to put off the rematch for a few weeks so he could soften Jeff up by repeatedly kicking his ass. Maybe that still held true... Even after she'd yelled at him and slapped him tonight. Maybe Punk still wanted to get a few more hits in on her behalf.

She couldn't deny that the idea of Punk beating up on Jeff sort of appealed to her. But what really appealed to her was the idea that, at some point, maybe she'd get to go after Jeff herself. Sure, she knew that she didn't have enough wrestling experience to do much damage to him. But she knew well enough that a hard kick between the legs would hurt any man... Even Jeff Hardy. And if that was the best she could do to him at this point? Then that's what she would do. Eventually. If she found the right time and place.

"This is all your fault!"

Eve Torres looked up at the sound of the voice, unsurprised to find Maria standing there in front of her. Maria Kanellis, one of the people that thought Jeff Hardy could do no wrong. She wondered what Maria would say if she knew what Jeff had done to Eve, then decided she didn't want to know. Because the sad thing was, even if Maria did know about everything, Eve couldn't say with any level of certainty that Maria would side with her. Maria was the type to excuse anything Jeff did and Eve had the oddest feeling that, since CM Punk had shown up and rescued her, Maria would somehow file this into the 'no harm, no foul' category.

"I'm back here in the locker room, Maria. How is Jeff losing my fault when I'm not even out there?" Eve asked, keeping her voice even despite the fact that she wanted to yell at the woman she'd once considered her friend. She'd figured out the truth now, though. Maria had only tolerated her because she was Jeff's manager. And now that Jeff had shown some displeasure with her - the lies he'd told about her messing up his rental car then ditching her, the lies he'd told to cover what had really happened, the things had he had done - well... Maria was done pretending to like her. Eve couldn't say she really cared. At least she knew now who her real friends were. And it seemed the only friends she had were Kelly and CM Punk. And she'd made the mistake of slapping one of them earlier tonight. Not exactly her best moment, even if he hadn't seemed too angry with her about it.

Maria glared at Eve, her hands on her hips. "How is it your fault? That's easy. It's your fault because you weren't out there to stop Punk from cheating his way to a win!" the older diva said, and it was actually Melina that responded, the dark-haired woman having apparently been paying attention to the argument - or whatever it was - that was occurring in the divas' locker room at the moment.

"Actually, from what I can tell, CM Punk didn't cheat. It was a triple threat. He just took the pin. Anyone would have done it, especially if it meant a successful title defense," Melina stated, then gave a sly smirk. "Not that you would know anything about title defenses, seeing as you've never even won a title before." Her smile widened. "And I'd put money on Eve winning a title before you ever do."

Maria's glare turned toward Melina for a moment. "This has nothing to do with you. So butt out," she said, then turned her attention to Eve again, actually stomping her foot in annoyance when she realized that the brunette was a not-so-captive audience... In fact, Eve wasn't really an audience for Maria anymore at all, since the younger woman had gotten to her feet, grabbed her things, and headed for the door. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"Somewhere that you're not. I'm too old for a lecture, Maria," the diva said as she stepped through the door, not at all surprised when Maria stomped after her. The woman was not to be deterred.

"Listen, you ungrateful little twerp, you should have been out there-"

"I was banned from ringside!" Eve spat out, whirling around to face the other woman, well aware that they were close to the catering area, which meant that their argument was likely to be overheard, but not really caring at the moment. If Maria wanted to have this out, then fine. "How the hell was I supposed to do anything when going out there at all would have gotten him disqualified?" She sneered when Maria stood there blinking almost stupidly, the other woman clearly trying to figure out what to say to that. Eve arched a brow at her. "Oh, wait, let me guess... You didn't really think that one through, did you? You just wanted someone to blame, someone to yell at, and you decided to pick on me. Well, screw that, Maria. And also? Screw you."

With that, the brunette spun on her heel and started to stalk off, swearing when Maria crashed into her from behind, clearly attempting something like a tackle or even a spear, but really only doing enough damage to send Eve stumbling instead of knocking her to the ground. Annoyed with both Maria for starting this and herself for not being able to walk away, Eve quickly spun around and slapped the other woman, sending her reeling backwards, though Eve wasn't sure if it was because of the force of the blow or sheer surprise that she had retaliated.

"You do not want to pick a fight with me, Maria," she warned in a low voice. "You won't like the way it turns out."

Maria arched a brow at her. "You really think you can take me?"

"I'm sure of it," Eve tossed back, the brunette quickly ducking when Maria went to attack her again. While Eve hadn't been with the WWE nearly as long as Maria had - less than two years compared with Maria's nearly five - she made up for her lack of experience in the ring with the fact that she actually studied Brazilian Jujitsu in her spare time, and she'd also done so much self-defense that she'd ended up taking and passing the class to be an instructor. She was good at evasion and pretty damn good with kicks, too... Unfortunately, she was also wearing high heels at the moment, which hindered her balance a bit, especially in an actual fight, which meant that when Maria lunged at her and literally tackled her, the two of them went down like a ton of bricks. The good news was, Maria didn't seem to have a clue how to attack her once she'd knocked her down, so Eve was easily able to get the leverage to flip them over, the brunette now pissed off enough that instead of just getting up and telling Maria to go to hell, she actually went on the offensive, slamming the other woman's head against the floor, then drawing back to actually hit her again... But she never got the chance to do that because a hand fisted in her hair and yanked her to her feet, then jerked her toward the wall, which she slammed into back-first. Hard.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jeff Hardy yelled at her, reaching out to shove her back against the wall again when she went to take a step away from it. "Answer me when I talk to you-"

"Hey! That's enough!" another voice declared, and Eve jerked in surprise when another body came to stand in front of her, getting between her and Jeff. She felt another wave of surprise when she realized who it was that had intervened, because it wasn't CM Punk. It was John Cena.

"This has nothing to do with you. It's none of your business," Jeff stated, and Cena snorted.

"I'm making it my business. You wanna break up a fight, you wrap your arms around her waist and lift her off. You don't yank her up by the hair and slam her into the fucking wall," Cena snarled, and Jeff glared at the man... Though Eve really felt that the glare was meant for her.

"She shouldn't have attacked Maria-"

"She didn't," Melina Perez said as she stepped closer, the dark-haired diva giving Jeff Hardy a look of great distaste. "Maria attempted to pick a fight in the locker room, and when Eve decided to be an adult about it and just walk away, Maria then proceeded to follow her and attack her. From behind. Eve just defended herself. Rather well, actually."

Jeff glanced around them, perhaps realizing for the first time that he'd just done something that people wouldn't approve of. Something that people would think less of him for. Squaring his shoulders, he glared at Melina. "Well, that's not what it looked like."

"I don't give a damn what it looked like. You don't yank a woman around by her hair to break up a fight. And besides that, Eve's *your* manager, man. You think you'd give her the benefit of the doubt," Cena said, shaking his head, then turning to look at Eve, meeting her eyes. "You okay?"

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, the woman refusing to show how she really felt about the situation. Refusing to show just how much she felt like crying at the moment. "I'm fine," she told him, her voice far more confident than she felt at the moment. She was proud of herself for keeping her voice from shaking. She wasn't so sure that she could keep her hands from shaking at the moment, so she held them down at her sides, clenching them into fists. Not wanting to look at the concern on Cena's face or the contempt on Jeff's, Eve glanced around, fighting the urge to cringe at the crowd that had gathered, her gaze going quickly to where CM Punk stood, and she could see the fury in his eyes. The anger over what had happened. And from the way she saw him looking down at her hands, she knew that he realized that she was more upset than she was letting others know. That he knew her hands were fisted to keep them from shaking.

Cena shifted his weight as he looked at her. "You sure you're okay? You hit the wall pretty hard-"

"She's fine," Maria spat out, the diva awkwardly getting to her feet, Eve fighting not to roll her eyes at the way the older woman leaned against Jeff as he went to help her up.

"I didn't ask you; I asked her," Cena replied, his eyes on Jeff as he stepped to the side so that he was no longer in front of Eve. The look on his face made it clear that he didn't really trust Jeff not to lunge at her again, and despite the situation, Eve was kind of glad to see it. She was glad to see that there was someone else that maybe didn't buy all of Jeff Hardy's bullshit any longer.

"I'm okay. I just want to get the hell out of here," Eve replied, and Jeff arched a brow at her.

"Well, I'm not leaving yet."

"And from what I remember, she didn't ride with you," Melina put in. "She pulled up around the same time that I did, and I'm pretty sure that it was Kelly that was in the passenger seat. On top of that, Eve doesn't have a match tonight, so I'm guessing Teddy Long wouldn't have a problem with her taking off. In fact, if she wants to head out and Kelly can't or something... I'd be glad to give Kelly a ride back to the hotel. No problem. No worries."

"That would actually be really nice, Melina. I should probably go and check with Teddy-"

"No need to, actually," Kelly's voice piped up, the blonde woman coming down the hallway with her own bags, stopping once she got next to Eve. She started to bend down to gather the bags of Eve's that had ended up on the floor when Maria had attacked her, but Cena got there first, quickly gathering Eve's things for her, though he didn't hand them over just yet. Kelly arched a brow at that, then looked to Eve and continued talking. "I went and checked with Mr. Long, and we're cleared to go, so... Let's go."

"I'll walk you to your car," Cena said, and Eve shook her head.

"That's not necessary-"

"Don't argue. Just let me try and be a gentleman. No big deal to carry your stuff for you," he told her, and Eve nodded slightly, unable to keep herself from glancing at Punk at that, but his expression was unreadable.

"Okay then. Thanks," Eve said, allowing Cena and Kelly to lead the way toward the parking garage, knowing that neither Maria or Jeff would attack her now, not with an audience and the clear disapproval of a guy like John Cena... The diva very aware of the crowd dispersing behind them now that the excitement was over... And equally aware that someone still remained standing there, watching her as she went. She didn't need to glance over her shoulder to see who it was, but she did anyway, and it was exactly who she expected it to be.

CM Punk.