Disclaimer, etc., in part 1. Thanks to everyone sticking with this one.

Part Twenty-Five

She jerked a hand through her hair, the diva sitting quietly on the bed in her room, her foot tapping against the comforter as she thought about the events of the night. CM Punk was still the World Heavyweight champion... He'd lost the match, but he'd done so by disqualification, which meant the belt was still his. There had been a moment there when it had seemed that Jeff Hardy had won the match and the title, but Punk's foot had been on the bottom rope, stopping the count, the referee noticing and restarting the match, ending Jeff's premature celebration. During the fighting afterward, Punk had gotten a thumb to the eye courtesy of Jeff, and while he'd been in the corner, the referee had come up to check on him... Only to get a kick to the head as a thank you. Whether or not Punk had realized it was the referee and not actually Jeff that had approached him was anybody's guess, but the end result had been a disqualification and another delay to Jeff Hardy's dream.

Eve Torres couldn't think of anyone more deserving of the disappointment... Except maybe Maria Kanellis, the woman that had attacked Kelly earlier that night. Had attacked Kelly instead of her... The blonde woman hadn't deserved that, hadn't deserved it at all, but Eve knew that Maria had attacked Kelly because of the blonde's affiliation with her. She knew it.

"Stupid bitch. Asshole," she muttered, referring to both Maria and Jeff, knowing that Jeff had probably dropped some hints about Kelly being a problem... That was probably why Maria had taken her out. What Maria didn't realize was that by having her do the dirty work, the woman was the one being painted as the psychotic bitch... That Jeff was keeping his hands clean while Maria was looking like the nasty piece of work. She was the one with her hands dirty... But Jeff was just as much involved in it as she was. Because he was the instigator.

"When are you going to figure out that he's playing you?" Eve whispered to herself, shaking her head, the diva jerking and turning her head when there was a sudden knock on her door. Not caring that she was wearing nothing more than a tank top and a pair of very short shorts that she intended to sleep in, the diva made her way over to the door, checking to see who it was before unlocking and opening the door. As she opened the door and CM Punk took in her appearance, Eve saw the man blink and swallow hard, his gaze moving over her body before he forced himself to look at her face.

"Wow," he muttered. "Somehow... I didn't expect you to be wearing that when I knocked on your door. I like it."

The diva rolled her eyes, reaching out to grab Punk's arm and drag him into the room, quickly shutting the door behind him. "I'm ready for bed," she informed him, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know, I've done photo-shoots in a bikini before. It's not like you haven't seen this much skin-"

"Not yours. Not in person. Damn, your legs are long," he muttered, and Eve rolled her eyes, then sighed, rubbing her hands over her face... Punk wincing as he looked at her.

"Sorry. It's been a crappy-as-hell night for you, and here I am, just ogling you. How's Kelly?"

Eve sighed softly, going over to the bed in the room and seating herself on it. "She... She'll be okay. That's the important thing. But... She's hurt."

"Maria went after her with a tire iron. Of course Kelly's hurt." The man shook his head. "You think Maria did it on her own, or do you think she got a little push?"

"I'm guessing she got a push. Jeff's using her," the diva said, watching as Punk made his way across the room, the man sitting down on the floor in front of her. She wasn't sure why he didn't sit on the bed next to her, but she didn't ask. Given her distinct lack of clothing, maybe it was best for both of them if they didn't get too close to one another. Because despite her attraction to him, she wasn't ready to get to that point in their relationship... And she definitely wasn't going to make that leap after spending most of the evening at the hospital with one of her friends. She was too worn out and upset to make that kind of decision, and she knew it. Maybe Punk was sitting on the floor of the room because he knew it, too.

"Of course he's using her. He's a user. Drugs, people. Whatever," the man said, resting his arms on his knees. He was frowning. "Part of me is surprised that she didn't come after you instead."

"Jeff didn't want her to come after me. Too soon. It would have been a reminder of what happened before. When she attacked me, I got the upper hand, and he pulled be off of her by my hair and basically tossed me into the wall. People saw that, and they saw it as him choosing her over me. He wouldn't want that to happen again." She shrugged when Punk looked at her. "He may be an asshole and a druggie, but... He's not stupid. Not entirely. He knows how to play people. To get them to believe in him. He doesn't get his hands dirty because other people do it for him." Eve closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Now I'm making him sound like some sort of super-villain."

"Well, if he has anything to do with why Maria went after Kelly tonight, then he is, at the very least, a total asshole... And maybe he's only a few steps away from being a super-villain," the man said, then sighed. "You never told me. How Kelly is... You said she's hurt, but not how badly."

"Two broken ribs and another one that's bruised. She'll be out of commission for at least a month, probably more like six weeks," the diva said, rubbing her hands over her face. "I'm facing Maria on SmackDown. I asked Teddy Long for the match-"

"Yeah, I heard," Punk interrupted, and Eve lowered her hands from her face, the diva looking at the man, meeting his eyes. Despite knowing that he'd been in the room getting his wrists taped when all of it had happened, she hadn't really thought about him already knowing about the match she'd asked for.

"That's right. You were there when..." She heaved out a sigh. "Things didn't really go as planned tonight, did they?"

"You couldn't know that Maria would do that. There's no way that you could have suspected that she would go after Kelly."

"I feel like I should have. I can't help but wonder what Jeff said to her to convince her to do it. He had to come up with a way to make himself look like the victim..."

"Maybe he convinced Maria that Kelly would try to help me tonight. Or that Kelly had it in for him," Punk said quietly. "Maria's never exactly done anything to make herself look all that intelligent. She's already blinded by the crush she has on Jeff. She wants to believe what he says, so she probably doesn't think too much about whether what he's saying makes sense." He arched a brow as he saw the look on Eve's face. "Doesn't change the fact that she made her own decision tonight, Eve. She deserves to have her ass kicked for coming after Kelly like that, so don't start second-guessing the match you asked for. In fact, I want you to stay angry at her. Stay pissed off. Maybe he's using her, but she's letting it happen. She wants to be used by that bastard. And she made the choice to come after Kelly. She didn't challenge her to a match. She hit her with a fucking tire iron," CM Punk stated, and Eve sighed softly, shifting forward and sliding off the side of the bed to join the world heavyweight champion on the floor of the hotel room. He'd been sitting close enough to the bed that her leg grazed his as she settled herself.

"I know she did. And I know she deserves to have her ass kicked for it-"

"And you went about it the right way. You asked for a match, to settle it between the ropes. You didn't haul off and chase her down with a weapon in hand," he reminded the diva, and Eve arched a brow at him.

"I kind of wanted to. If Kelly hadn't needed me to be there for her, then I might have. I was so angry-"

"And rightfully so. Your friend was hurt."

"And it's my fault."

"No, it's not. Maria made her choice. You can't blame yourself for the fact that she's a bitch. You're not the type to blindside someone with a weapon - especially for no reason - so it never occurred to you that Maria might do that to Kelly."

"Yeah, well, I won't underestimate her again."

"You shouldn't. I want you to be careful in the ring on SmackDown," Punk told her, his eyes serious as he looked at her, and Eve frowned a little.

"I know I don't have all that much experience in wrestling, but... I'd like to think that I'm better than Maria is," she said, and the wrestler smiled the slightest bit before sobering once more.

"You are. You're a lot better than she is... Wrestling's not something she's shown the greatest talent for. But she proved tonight that she's not above coming after someone with a weapon. She could get herself disqualified and just go after you-"

"And if Jeff Hardy didn't come out to save me, then everyone would wonder why, and wonder what kind of a jerk he is not to help the person that's been his manager for so long," Eve replied, shrugging when CM Punk gave her a look. "I'm not discounting the possibility that it could happen. That she could try to take me out like she did tonight with Kelly. Jeff would probably enjoy it... Except for the fact that his connection to me would make people wonder why he didn't help me. And trust me... I'll make sure and bring that little bit of information of with him, just in case that's what they have planned and he plans to stay in the back and just watch it happen."

"If she comes after you with a weapon, then I'll go out there to help you, keeping up appearances be damned," Punk told her, his expression serious as he looked at the diva, his hand coming up to trace lightly over her cheek as he looked at her. Eve smiled slightly, reaching up to cover his hand with her own.

"I'm going to be careful, Punk. I'll keep my eyes wide open, and if it looks like she's trying to reach for something beneath the ring, then I'll stop her. I'll use a weapon of my own if I have to. I'm not helpless, and I won't let her blindside me the way that she did to Kelly. I expect her to pull something now, so I'll keep an eye out for it."

"You better," he told her, letting out a sigh, and Eve tilted her head slightly, arching a brow at him, the woman taking his hand away from her face, letting their arms drop down again, though she managed to keep her fingers tangled with his.

"Was it really necessary to kick the referee tonight?" she wanted to know, and he cringed slightly, then shrugged.

"I got better contact than I meant to. I mean, I held back... Obviously. The guy would have been unconscious if I hadn't, but... I still got him better than I meant to. You pissed?"

"I wish you hadn't had to kick a ref to do what you meant to do, but I know that getting disqualified was just another way to mess with Jeff. Of course, the fact that the ref actually counted the three for Jeff before realizing your foot was on the rope before that couldn't have been planned."

"No, but it was pretty great, wasn't it? Once again, he thought he had the title... Only to have the match restarted, and then... I ripped it away from him by getting myself DQ'd. I'm a bad, bad man, Eve Torres," he said with a smirk. "How'd a nice girl like you ever get involved with a bad boy like me?" he questioned, and Eve smirked right back at him, leaning in to give him a kiss, speaking when her lips were nearly touching his.

"Just lucky, I guess."