Disclaimer, etc., in part 1.

Part Thirty-Nine

She stood at the sink, her hands resting against the sides as she stared down at the drain, the woman gritting her teeth before taking a deep breath... Wincing as she did so. Shaking her head, Eve stepped back from the sink, reaching up to run a hand over her ribs... Then jerking her head up in surprise at the sound of the door to the divas' locker room being shoved open. Her eyes widened as she saw the man that entered the room, the woman taking an automatic step back despite the fact that she didn't actually think he was there to hurt her. The man, however, noted her reaction, and he instantly lifted his hands in a placating gesture.

"I'm not here to cause trouble," Dolph Ziggler told her, and Eve nodded slightly at that. Ziggler had been one of Jeff Hardy's opponents for the night - Jeff had been teaming with Rey Mysterio while Ziggler had teamed with Chris Jericho - and the match had ended up breaking down into something of a mess... At least partly because CM Punk had been out there. Not that Punk had actually started the trouble. He'd actually been seated with the announcers when Jeff had tried to shove Chris Jericho into him, and Punk had managed to avoid the contact... And had then retaliated by shoving Jericho into Jeff and knocking Jeff into the steel steps. Since Jericho was the one to be shoved, his team had won by DQ, but that hadn't been the end of it. Even with the match over, things had continued, including a Dolph baseball slide on Rey Mysterio that had sent the man straight into Eve... And Eve into the barrier. Even with the barricade being somewhat padded, it had hurt to be slammed against it, especially with Mysterio adding to the force by falling as well.

"I didn't say you were," the woman replied after a moment, and the bleached blond man arched a brow at her.

"Well, your reaction had me fooled. I didn't realize that you were there, which I should have, since you'd just had to run from the other side of the ring to avoid getting in the middle of the mess with Jericho and Hardy and Punk."

"Jeff started that," Eve muttered, unable to stop herself, and Dolph frowned slightly as he looked at her... Looking like maybe he was starting to wonder why it was that she still walked out with Jeff Hardy.

"Yeah, I guess he did. And Punk continued it... And Jericho finished it," the man stated, obviously referring to the fact that, while things were breaking down all around them, Jericho had ended up locking Jeff into the Walls of Jericho, wrenching back as far as he could and really putting the pressure on Jeff's back. Punk had pretty much cheered him on, but more than once as she'd sat on the outside trying to appear small and keep the attention off of her as she'd rubbed at the ribs that had slammed into the barricade, she'd caught the world heavyweight champion glancing at her with concern in his eyes... The looks making Melina's words about them having to be even more careful now slam into her like a freight train, because the older diva was right. They had to be careful... Far more careful than before, especially when they were out there around the ring together.

"He definitely did," Eve said quietly, not sure how to react to that, because the truth was... She'd kind of liked seeing Jeff get put in the Walls for so long. But Dolph Ziggler didn't know that, couldn't know that, so instead of smiling at it, she kept her face calm, serious... Maybe tried to look a little concerned despite the fact that she really wasn't concerned at all and kind of thought that Jeff deserved it since he'd been the one to start it by throwing Jericho in Punk's direction in the first place.

Ziggler nodded, then cleared his throat. "Look, I'm sorry."

"Excuse me?"

"For tonight... Knocking you into the barricade like that. Like I said, I didn't see you there, but still... I didn't mean to hurt you. You've never done anything to me-"

"I don't blame you for what happened. There's always a risk, being out there at ringside. It happens. I suppose it could have been worse. Maria could have been out there as well," she said, frowning a bit as she looked at him, knowing she was pushing it by mentioning his girlfriend... A woman that Dolph was now aware was far more interested in Jeff Hardy than she was in him. Ziggler eyed her for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders, probably trying to look a bit nonchalant, though he wasn't really successful with it.

"I guess she could have been. But even if she'd been here tonight, I wouldn't have wanted her out there."

"Too dangerous?" Eve questioned, and Ziggler gave her a small smile, shaking his head.

"Not for her. Maybe for me and my partner. I think our last discussion made it pretty damn clear that I'm not who she prefers. She thinks I don't know that, but I do. She wants Hardy, which... One of these days, I'm going to tell her to go for it. Leave me the hell alone because I don't need a woman that wants somebody else. I can find a woman that only wants to be with me. So I'll end it. And because I'm an asshole, I'll probably do it publicly."

"She hurt you. You want to hurt her."

Ziggler shrugged. "I could say that's bullshit, but we both know it isn't. But whatever. She wasn't even here tonight. I'm sure you know that."

"Might have heard a rumor. Plus I didn't see her in the locker room. I thought her head wasn't that bad?"

"Aside from still only having minimal brains inside it?" He smirked, shrugged. "Physically, she's okay. She asked for a few more weeks to recuperate and, since Teddy thought the stuff she's done lately came off as batshit crazy... He gave it to her. Officially, she's on vacation. From my understanding of it, she won't be back until after the Night of Champions pay per view."

"Night of Champions is in nine days."

"That it is," Ziggler replied with a nod. "And if she isn't back until the SmackDown afterwards... That means two weeks."

"Good to know."

"I thought you might appreciate the information," he said, both of them turning their heads at the sound of someone pushing open the door to the locker room... Melina stopping in the doorway as she saw them, her eyes wide with surprise.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" she demanded to know as she looked at the Ziggler, and the man lifted his hands in the same placating gesture he'd used when he'd first walked in and surprised Eve.

"Not here to cause any problems. I just wanted to apologize to Eve for what happened earlier. I didn't realize she was there when I did the baseball slide on Mysterio," the man said, and Eve lifted a hand as if to wave off her friend's concern.

"It's fine, Mel. He's not causing a problem. He really was just apologizing," she said, then turned to Ziggler. "And it's appreciated, if not entirely necessary. I was at ringside, and accidents happen."

He nodded. "Okay. I just... I'll be going now. And I guess I'll see you tomorrow at the live event or whatever," he said, lifting a hand in a bit of a wave, then heading out of the room, nodding at Melina as he passed. The older woman held her silence until the door had swung shut behind him, the diva then quickly walking over to where Eve stood.

"Are you okay?"

"Melina, he didn't do anything. He really was just checking on me. And he also told me that Maria's supposedly okay, but that she asked Teddy for a few weeks off as 'vacation', and he gave it to her. He said he doesn't think she'll be back until the SmackDown after Night of Champions, which means... Two more weeks without her."

"He doesn't think she'll be back? He doesn't know?"

"I get the feeling things are all that great between the two of them now. He knows how she feels about Jeff, so... He's hurt. Maybe more mad than hurt. I don't know. However he feels, it's understandable."

"Well, as long as he isn't causing any trouble for you."

"I'm good. I mean, my ribs are kind of sore, which is obviously going to be a side effect of getting knocked into the barricade, but I believe him when he said he didn't mean to do it."

Melina made a face, considering. "They showed a replay, and he did look kind of shocked when he saw you on the ground after it happened. So... Benefit of the doubt; he didn't mean it. And I'm figuring it's a good thing they didn't show Punk's reaction to that one."

"He played it cool. He didn't come up to me."

"But I bet he wanted to."

"He knows he can't do that. And we know we shouldn't be talking about this here. We shouldn't have been talking about it earlier, either... I just kind of got carried away," the diva said, and Melina nodded, wincing slightly as she did so.

"Yeah... I wasn't thinking before. This isn't exactly private. Anyway... You sure you don't need the trainers or something?"

"I was knocked into the barricade. My ribs are sore, but I'm fine. What about you? You took a nasty shot from Natalya tonight."

"Yeah, bitch caught me off-guard. And you just know McCool was loving it backstage. You notice she didn't have a tune-up match tonight?"

"But she and Layla have to face both of us the next couple of nights at the live events, so there's that. You can beat her up all weekend."

Melina gave the smallest of smiles at that. "This is true. Also? Definitely something to look forward to," the older woman said, then tilted her head to the side, giving her friend a look. "So... Are you totally ready to get out of here, or what?"

"Definitely ready."

"Good. I know you took a cab here, but you're riding back to the hotel with me," Melina said, reaching out to grab her thing, frowning as she watched Eve grab her stuff. "You okay to carry that?"

"I'm fine. I'm just a little banged up. All I did was get knocked into the barricade-"

"But Rey hit you pretty hard-"

"Which wasn't his fault because he was kicked into me and I don't blame Dolph because he didn't realize I was there in time to stop himself. Also, it's the risk I take by being out there. It happens," the woman said, then shrugged. "And look at it this way... At least the fact that I was knocked over meant I could stay on the floor and deal with my own stuff and not have to look all worried and crap about the fact that Jericho had Jeff in the Walls."

"You have a point. Jeff being in pain is a good thing. Also meant that he wouldn't try to look all worried and help you to the back or something to stay on the fans' good sides or something. Because I'm not sure you could have kept yourself from slapping the bastard if he'd tried to play the worried-about-you card out there," the woman said, then arched a brow. "Not sure a certain someone else would have been able to keep himself from attacking Jeff then, either."

"Yeah, but no one would have thought anything about it if he'd been the one doing the attacking," Eve replied, tugging her purse strap a little higher on her shoulder, making sure the strap for her duffel bag was in place as well. "You ready to go?"

"Definitely. So let's get out of here. Are you going to have... a visitor tonight?"

"I don't know. He knows my room number, so maybe. Maybe not."

"Okay, so if he shows, I'll leave. But until then, we're going to hang out. Maybe we can stop at a Super Wal-Mart or something, grab some ice cream."

"Ice cream?"

"Oh, yeah. It's perfect gossip food. Because we are going to gossip. Or, rather, you are going to tell me a whole lot more about your very special days off."

"And here I thought maybe we'd be strategizing on how to beat Michelle and Layla at the live events this weekend," Eve said, and Melina shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, that's easy. We just make sure that we pin one of them and not the other way around," she said, and Eve rolled her hers.

"Your ability to strategize amazes me."

"It's a gift."