Welcome to Chapter Thirty Seven!

Smackdown: March 7, 2014

Edited: 8/8/19

Chapter Thirty Seven

"Where the hell is he?" Dean growled as he paced back and forth.

Angel sighed as she watched him. They were standing there in the public arena waiting for their theme music to play, so that they could go down to the ring for the 'Shield Summit' that Seth called himself. And yet…Seth wasn't here.

"We can't wait for him any longer." The crew member standing with them told him as he called over the radio that he had attached to his shoulder.

Roman shook his head and adjusted his vest. "He better show."

Pushing herself away from the wall she made her way over to Roman and Dean. As she made her way over her eyes locked onto Dean who was standing right in front of the door waiting for their cue.

Giving a quick look around she reached out and placed a hand on his arm, making him look down at her. Those blue eyes landed on her and almost instantly softened. "I'm alright." He gave a pat on her hand before stepping away.

God. She still wasn't used to this. Four days ago, their relationship changed, and she was still getting used to it. Though in her mind she was at least getting slight bit better. Before she left his room that night, Dean had brought up the idea that since neither of them knew where their relationship was going, that it would be wise for them to keep it a secret. And she agreed.

But because they were keeping it hush hush, on Tuesday she felt so awkward she couldn't even talk him without panicking. On Wednesday, she was able to talk to the man again, but wasn't able to look him in the eye. Thursday, their hands touched while he passed her drink back to her when they stopped at Burger King; and she freaked out and dropped her drink. At least she hoped she was getting better.

Sierra. Hotel. India. Echo. Lima. Delta. Shield.

Their theme song hit and her stomach turned. Here we go.

It was time to head down to the ring to get answers for what Seth did. And part of her no, most of her was nervous.

She looked at both men that she walked with; she was nervous for them. Yes, she was hurt by what Seth did as well. She was part of the team and he had left the team for dead, but it was nothing compared to what happened to Roman and Dean. Their best friend had walked out on them during an important match.

Her eyes traveled to Dean as he tore his way down the steps. She wasn't sure what was going through his head, but she knew that it wasn't good. The man was moments away from possibly losing one of his best friends.

After making their way over the barricade, Dean and Roman walked right up into the ring while she walked over the announcers table.

"…we'll find out next!" Michael called for a commercial. "Hey there Angel." Cole said as he turned towards her.

"Evening Cole, JBL." She sighed as took the two mics that were being handed to her.

"Where's Seth?" JBL asked.

"Your guess is as good as ours." She frowned as she made her way up into the ring.

As she made her way over to Dean and Roman, they both looked at her. Since their them song hit, not one word was said between them. But Dean did nod as he took a mic from her.

They stood there in the ring until one of the crew members gave them the ok that the show was back. She glanced up to see that the titantron was showing a close up on both Dean and Roman with her in the background.

"We can handle getting beat up. We can handle getting hurt. We can handle physical pain that's no problem." Dean spoke up making the crowd quiet down. "I don't know about you two," He gestured between her and Roman. "but there's one thing I can't handle. What I will not tolerate. What will keep me up at night. And that's being lied to by someone that I trust."

Her heart fell slightly. This brought her back to their conversation on Monday, brought her back to the look on his face, when he talked about how hard it was to trust people.

"And I feel like we've been lied to for the last eighteen months." He raised his voice until he was almost yelling into the mic. "See I was under the impression that the Shield had each other's backs." He said as he finally looked away from Roman and turned towards the crowd with almost a cocky smirk on his face.

"Evidently Seth Rollins didn't have our back on Monday Night Raw. He walked out on us in the middle of a war!" He yelled towards the stage.

She knew that he was trying to make sure that wherever Seth was he could hear him.

Not knowing what to do, she watched as both Roman and Dean started to get twitchy, started to lose themselves to the anger that was building. Both men cracked their necks and Dean started to pace. Signs that told her things were going wrong.

She watched as both Roman and Dean started to get twitchy. Started to lose themselves, both men cracked their necks and Dean started to pace again. Signs that things were going wrong.

"Yeah so, we're not much for talking right now, but Seth Rollins we know you're here; since you called this little summit. Alright, so why don't you come out here and say what you're going to say?"

They started to look around at all the different entrances into the arena expecting to see Seth appear from one of them. God, she hoped that he did.

"Huh? Tell me something, tell me a story, tell me a lie, make an excuse, say something. After all the wars we've been through! You better come out here and saw something before this war begins and judging by the look on Roman's face, you got about thirty seconds."

Angel glanced up at the Samoan's face. Dean was right he didn't look happy as he stood there in the middle of the ring, lone ranger style with his hands on his belt.

"He better show." Dean sighed.

Please show.

Serria. Hotel. India. Echo. Lima. Delta. Shield.

The theme music started up once again and this time the arena was filled with boos. "About fucking time." Dean said as he glanced around the arena trying to find Seth. "Where is he?"

Angel walked looked around until she noticed someone coming by the entrance next to the ramp. "There he is." She pointed towards the multicolored haired man that was making his way slowly towards the ring.

As Seth made his way towards the steel steps closest to the ramp, Angel took a deep breath and walked over with the extra mic that she had in her hand. Holding it out through the ropes, she felt a hand on her shoulder pulling her back.

She glanced behind her to see Dean standing there, still glaring at Seth. She looked back and forth at the two men and sighed. She hated the feeling between the two men right now. Slowly she leaned down and placed the mic on the steel stairs before letting herself be pulled back by Dean.

After they were back in the center of the ring, Seth made his way up the steel steps grabbing the mic as he went.

The music cut out and Seth slowly brought the mic up to his mouth, though before he could say anything Roman who now had the mic that Dean was using spoke. "Before you open your mouth, I hope you thought really hard about what you got to say. And it better be good."

"Alright look." Seth started as he put his hand out towards them. "I get it, leaving you two to fight the Wyatts, three on two on Monday night, maybe wasn't the most opportune time to prove a point. But what you don't understand is that the war isn't with the Wyatts. The war is within us, alright. Look there's no secret, the Shield hasn't been the Shield for some time."

The Shield hasn't been the Shield? She blinked. Other than over the weekend and on Monday they seemed to be doing fine.

"But I did what I always do, Monday I sacrificed myself for the greater good so that we can get on the same page!" Seth yelled.

"You sacrificed?" Dean called back. "Oh, Seth sacrificed himself. I didn't realize you were making such a sacrifice when you left us for dead against the Wyatts, when you left Angel defenseless."

Angel's eyes widened when Dean pointed towards her.

"There's a big difference between what you did and what I did. I fought off, you walked off!"

"Look, look, look! Look at you guys, for the first time in month you're standing in the same ring, you're on the same page. You're seeing things eye to eye."

Did I miss something. She looked around. Was Seth saying that Roman and Dean weren't getting alone with each other recently? Because other than a few small fights they again seemed to be fine.

"Don't you get it; I've proven my point, I'm already half way there."

"Proven your point?" Dean said without talking into the mic. "I'll prove you're point." Angel was happy when Roman held Dean back.

Dean stepped away from Roman as Seth made his way into the ring. "Step back." She heard Dean tell her as Seth made his way to the middle of the ring so that he was standing next to Roman.

As all three men met in the middle of the ring, she thought it was best to do what she was told and took a step back. She didn't know what was about to happen. This whole summit went a way she didn't expect.

"Look we can call this right now. We can walk and go our separate ways." Seth told them. "and guess what we'll be fine. We're all talent men, but you know what, what if fine isn't good enough? From the moment we came to WWE we've been kicking down walls and if we stand together united no one can touch us. Not the Wyatts family, not the Undertaker, not John Cena, no one! All three of you know it."

"So, let's do what we do. Let's be the Shield and take this place back!"

The crowd when wild. As the three men looked at each other. From where she was standing, she could see that Roman seemed to come around to what Seth was saying, but Dean…Dean wasn't having it.

"That it?" Dean threw his arm out wide. "That's it?" As Dean stepped backwards, Angel had to move out of the way, or she was going to get plowed into. "OH, that's it. That's your great brilliant explanation by the Architect of the Shield." He quickly made his way up towards Seth and gave him a small push against the chest, making the man stumble backwards.

"Dean." She sighed.

"Come on man." Roman tried to calm him down as well.

"I'm suppose to be ok with that? Yeah I get it. I get it."

Her eyes widened as she watched Dean give Seth another shove, this one knocking him to the mat.

She let out a sigh. Angel really hoped that this wasn't going to go down this path, but she kind of knew it would. Though what really shocked her was the fact that Roman stepped in. He grabbed Dean by the shoulder and threw him backwards.

D.D.D.

What the fuck just happened? Dean asked himself as he looked up at his best friend. He couldn't believe that Roman had practically threw him out of the ring, just for pushing Seth a bit. Yeah it was probably a good thing that Roman intervened, but it didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"Are you ok?" He heard Angel ask as checked over him.

Did she really want to his truthful answer? Because he was far from ok. Giving her a look, he handed off his US title to her before grabbing the mic and getting to his feet, just in time for Seth to start talking.

"Alright, alright you know what? You know what, I know what's going to make this work, I know what's going to make me feel better." Seth turned quickly towards him and without warning a hard hit to the side of the face, knocked him to the ground.

Bring his hand up, he rubbed the side of his face that was now stinging from the hit. Dean's vision turned red as he listened to Seth speak.

"I feel a lot better! That felt great! And you know what I think, now that that's out of my system, I think you need to get something out of your system too."

Taking a deep breath, he played with his jaw, popping it in and out of place. Just when he felt like he couldn't get any more pissed off, his body had to prove him wrong. Dean felt like he was going to start boiling over, like he was ready to explode if didn't release some of the steam that was building up.

"I'm going to take one for the team! Because you know what, we got to get on the same page…."

Shut up! He swung his fist out towards Seth, clocking him right in the jaw; sending him straight down to the mat. Staring down at the man on the mat, he shook out his hand. He was right, that does feel better.

"Why did you have to go and hit him that hard." He heard Roman ask. "We're still a team."

"Hey, he hit me first."

"You pushed him first."

"Only because he was spewing that bullshit about sacrificing himself."

"You know he's right."

"Right my ass."

"Guys please settle down." Angel sighed.

"Are we done here?" Seth's voice came through the loudspeakers again. "Or are we done?" He slowly put of his fist and Dean's chest tightened.

As he looked from the fist held out to them, to the man the fist belonged to, his mind seemed to split into two. He wanted to believe Seth. He wanted to believe that Seth hadn't meant to leave them for dead, that he still cared. That he could still trust him. But there was still part of him that wanted to pound the man's face in for what he did.

Seth left them for dead, up and walked away in the middle of a huge match. But not only that after he let Roman and him get beat up, he let Angel try to take on the Wyatts by herself. Left her defenseless with the Wyatts.

Roman was the first one to make a move. Slowly he walked over towards Seth, still looking less than happy. But without a word, he put his fist in and the two of them turned towards him.

"I can't believe this." Dean thought out loud. "After all this, we just going to kiss and make up?" He looked from Seth to Roman and back. "Is this really happening?" He stepped up closer.

His eyes kept going down to the outstretched arms in front of him. God, he wanted nothing more than to be able to put his fist in and go back to the way things were before all this. But he knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

Giving a glance back towards Angel, who was standing back with her hand clasped in front of her chest; he let out a sigh. Too much has changed recently, he didn't know if he could stand more change.

Rubbing the knuckles of the fist the he hit Seth with he turned back towards his teammate. "If I do this, I don't wanna hear about any of the asshole things I've done. Alright?" He gave them another glance. "I mean it."

He put his fist in and the crowd went nuts. "I hope this works." He scoffed as he looked around. This wasn't sitting right with him, his instincts were telling him that something wasn't right. Was he really supposed to just forget and forgive after what Seth did? Roman seemed to be just fine about it. Was he just paranoid?

He heard clapping coming from behind him, making him glance back to see Angel smiling while clapping her hand. She seemed happy enough with what was going on. Maybe he was just being stupid. Though he wanted to make sure.

"Wait!" He yelled, getting everyone that was in the ring's attention. "Wait. This has to be all or nothing."

"What do you mean?" Seth questioned. "We're all in."

"No, we're not." He turned back towards Angel. "We're missing a member of our team."

Angel's eyes widened. "What?"

"All or nothing. Are you in this?" He gestured down to their hands. If she was in, then he would have his answer. "Are you in?"

Her face grew red as she looked around. Faintly behind him, he could hear the crowd starting up a yes chant. "I'm…." As her face twisted with embarrassment, he felt kind of bad for putting her in this spot. But he needed to know, he needed to see if it was him or everyone else.

He watched as she took a deep breath and slowly made her way over to them. "I'm in." She said as she slowly put her fist into the mix. As soon as her fist hit his, the arena filled with cheers. Although he didn't feel better in the slightest. For some reason it made him feel worse.

A.A.A

A rush of relief rolled off of Angel's shoulders as they got backstage. Today had gone better than she could have hoped. Yeah, there were some rocky parts. Seth and Dean hitting each other and the fact that Dean had put her on the spot suddenly, were just a few. But hey, the Shield was still the Shield.

And they seemed to be in a better mood. Well at least two of them did. She sighed as she looked back at Dean. He was walking slightly farther back behind all of them and his eyes were locked onto the floor. The man almost looked worse than he did going into the summit. Almost.

By the time they got to the locker room, Seth and Roman were talking about this weekend and maybe going out to drink once they got to Salt Lake City. The conversation seemed to lighten up enough that both Roman and Seth were laughing slightly.

"I'll be at the car." Dean sighed as he pushed past both men with his bag.

"Dean." She called after him as Seth and Roman gave sighs.

"He just needs to cool down." Roman said.

She bit her lip and watched as Dean walked out of the locker room. Quickly as she could she packed up her things and got ready to go. She was hoping that he didn't get too far away that she couldn't catch up to him and talk to him.

"Where you going?" Seth asked as she started through the locker room.

"To find Dean." She told him.

"He said he would be at the car."

She shook her head. "You remember what happen the last time we let him wonder away when he was angry?" Without waiting for Seth's answer, she made her way out of the locker room and down the hallway. Keeping a look out for the mouthpiece of the Shield.

Halfway down the hall to the back door where their cars were parked, she caught a glimpse of Dean's luggage sticking out from behind some of the travel cases.

She slowly made her way back behind the cases and saw the man that she was looking for. Dean was leaning against one of the travel cases with his head in his hands. "I thought I'd find you here." She smiled as she walked up towards the man.

Dean looked up slowly. "Hey."

Looking around, making sure that no one was around; she quickly made her way so that she was standing right in front of him. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." He growled out and he pursed his lips together. "Just fine."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"I'm sorry." He huffed. "I'm sorry that I can't just forgive and forget what Seth did. I'm sorry that I can't just smile and skip merrily down the hallway with him and Roman like nothing ever happened." He ran his fingers through his hair. "That ain't me."

"That's fine." She sighed as she stepped slightly closer to Dean, so she could look up into his face. "You're allowed to be mad."

"Am I?" Dean scoffed. "Because it doesn't seem like it."

"Dean." She sighed. "You were hurt by someone you trust, no one in their right mind expects you to act like nothing's happened."

"Are you sure? Because Roman seemed perfectly happy to put his hand in and go back to being a team again." He ran his fingers through his hair again. "How can he just go back to trusting him like that?"

"I'm sure Roman isn't just letting this go." She placed a hand on his leg, trying to get him to look down at her. "But how can you blame him for wanting to go back to the way things were? You, Roman, and Seth built this team together, you foraged a bond that is stronger than just being teammates, you are brothers. Roman probably didn't want to lose that."

Dean's eyes bounced around the small area full of travel cases, until they landed on her. She could see the mix of feeling running through him. Anger, sadness, resentment, confusion, regret; each one flashed for only a second but she could see it.

"And I know that you don't want to lose that either." She smiled at him. "Right."

Dean took a huge breath and slowly nodded his head. "You're right. I don't want to lose my brothers. But I'm not going to be able to let this go…"

"Which is fine." She gave his leg a pat. "Trust me, I feel the same way. I had to stand there and watch as someone I care about betrayed two other people that I care about. You think I'm going to quickly get over Seth doing nothing as you and Roman got beat up? No."

"Careful." A small smirk appeared on Dean's face.

Careful? "What?"

"You're the one working yourself up this time." He told her, using her own words against her. "If you're not careful, I'll have to calm you down the way you calmed me down."

The breath was instantly knocked from her chest as she just stood there and watched Dean stand up from the travel case. She couldn't believe that he just basically said that if she wasn't careful that he would kiss her.

Though what made this worse was the fact her pesky beetterflies filled her stomach at the same time her body started to almost yearn for the warm that Dean's kiss brought.

"Alright, come on." She heard Dean snicker as he walked away from her. "I need to hit the sack."

Dumbfounded, she turned slowly towards him and her mouth feel open. He was messing with her.

"Are you coming?" He turned and looked at her from over his shoulder. Her face heated up by the smirk that was on his face. "I want to get going so that we can get up early, that was I can get you on the bag. And show you how to really punch." He smirked. "So, if this happens again, you'll be able to get a hit in." He winked at her.

Brookeworm3: They're going to take it slow because neither one of them has been in this kind of relationship before, so i thought it made more sense that way. But don't worry, some spiciness is coming up.

Labinnaclove: I'm glad you like it. Remember it's been months for us but only weeks for them.

Skovko: Woop! Woop! Back at you!

Lissa003: Yes their feelings are out in the open now!

Canadice: I'm sorry for affecting your sleep! But I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. Thanks for the feedback!

Bloody-Asphode11: Yes! Moxley Violence is the best! Lol don't worry we're going to be seeing some Moxely here coming up. I promise!
Cisoc-Roman-girl: I'm glad that you're liking the story! And i'm happy to help you have some entertainment on a four hour flight.