Welcome to Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen! Woot. I open you guys like this one! I worked hard on it. Like so hard. The hotel in this place is a real place. I spent like hours trying to find one that would work!
Monday Night Raw: July 21, 2014
Angel's eyes widened as she stepped passed Dean who was holding the door to the hotel room open for her. The first thing she saw was a large kitchen. "Umm, Dean I don't think we're at the wrong room."
"I mean our key worked." He said stepping into the room. Whistling, he turned into the bathroom that was right inside of the small foyer. "Well, it's at least a bath and half." He flicked on the light.
Leaning in around him she noticed the smallish bathroom that had only a toilet and a square sink. A powder room in a hotel room? This had to be a trick, this couldn't be where they were staying for the neck couple of days.
"WOW!" A little familiar voice echoed from what sounded like a far-off corner. "I get my own room."
JoJo? Angel questioned as she peaked out of the foyer. Though as her eyes wounded around the 'room', all thoughts of the little girl she heard was washed.
What she thought was going to be a nice hotel room with a king size bed turned into a huge suite. Two her left she saw a dinning room area that had a table that sat eight chairs and passed that was a living room that was surrounded by floor to ceiling windows and a sliding glass door that opened out onto a balcony overlooking the ocean. While to her right, she saw another living room, this one had branching off hallways.
"That motherfucker." Dean chuckled as he placed his bags down and started towards the hallways.
Angel followed behind him and realized that one of the hallways went to a bedroom suit, while the other hallway went to two more bedrooms.
"Ro, you bastard." Dean yelled into the rooms.
"Uncle Dean!" JoJo came running out of the far room with a smile on her face. "How'd you get in."
"The other door."
"The other door?" The little girl questioned as she leant around Dean to see the rest of the suite. "What!"
Chuckling, Roman walked out of the closest room. "Hey you two. What's up."
"What's up?" Dean shook his head. "Why don't you tell me what's up." He gestured around the room.
"I have no idea what you're talking about?" He smirked.
"The fuck?" Another voice entered the room. "Well, that's new."
Angel spun around on her heels to see movement coming from the other office bedroom suite. Walking around the long couch, she saw exactly who she thought she would. "Renee?"
"Angel?" Renee's eyes went as wide as knew hers went when she saw the room. "What the hell…" She stopped as her eyes darted to Angel left.
"Oh, Renee you're here too?" JoJo said as she explored the office.
"I'm sorry, what is going on?"
"I have no idea." Angel answered her.
"Daddy got us a really cool room." JoJo went into the bedroom.
"Daddy?" Renee looked up. "You mean Roman did this?"
"I guess."
Suddenly, Roman, Galina, and Dean joined them in the living room. "Hey Renee." Roman said not sounding the least bit surprised about her being here. "You made it."
"Yeah." She said. "Care to explain?"
"When I found that we had about a week in Florida I realized that it's probably been a long time since any of us really had a vacation, so I talked it over with Galina and decided to surprise you with this." He said putting his arms out.
Turning towards him Angel asked. "But how? How did you change my reservations that I made?"
"And mine?" Renee added.
"I didn't." He said smugly. "I called the hotel and told them my plans and asked them if they could pretend to fake book you rooms when you two called."
"You should have heard the conversation." Galina shook her head. "Him and the manager were so excited about this, they talked for about an hour on the phone just planning."
"Planning?" Dean raised a brow. "There better not be more then this? This is already too much."
Roman shrugged.
"Roman."
"This place is really pretty." JoJo came out from her exploration. "But does this mean I don't get my own room?"
"Why would it mean that?"
"Because there's only three room and like six people?"
"Are you sure there's only three?"
Angel was sure that she shared the same look on her face as JoJo did. She ran through the floorplan that she saw when she came into the room, she didn't see where there would be another room."
"Did you look passed the kitchen?" Roman asked.
"No." JoJo jumped to due just that.
As if everyone as eager to see what she would find, they followed her, through the kitchen and the dinning room, and into the living second living room, where tucked in the corner was a doorway.
"Holy crap, Roman this must have costed you an arm and a leg."
"Eh. Don't worry about it. I got a good deal."
"I can't believe you did this." Renee said walking up to the glass door to the balcony. "This is insane."
After picking room, which ended up with Roman, Galina, and JoJo getting the two room in the far back hallway, Renee getting the room near where she came into, and her and Dean in the room hiding in the corner of the second living room, they each took their time to unpack and get ready for the day.
"This is too much." Angel said as she came out of the living room.
"I know."
"Like way too much."
"Yeah, but it just means we have to do something crazy like this for him."
Angel couldn't even fathom doing something like this. She knew people pitched together to stay in fancy places like this, but to afford it on one's own, that was something.
"Hey, I know you're panicking about the price of this place, but don't." Dean told her as he changed out of his traveling clothes.
"Easier said then done."
"I know, but if Roman does something like this then he can afford it. He's not the kind of guy to just throw money around. Though at this moment it doesn't look like it." He put his shirt on and walked over to the windows. Shit, I wish we could hit up the beach, if looks fucking beautiful out there."
Walking over beside him, she sighed as the same notion went through her. "We could go tomorrow."
"Yeah, well I'm sure Roman has more surprises for us. The bastard looked to proud for this to be the only one."
"He does know that we're only here until Thursday and then we have to go to Orlando, right?"
"I don't know. He's the crazy bastard who booked this place."
"Knock, knock!" She heard Renee say as soft knocks came on the sliding door of their room.
"Come in."
The door opened and Renee was standing there with a smile on her face. "Hey girl, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to brunch with the girls. Nikki said there's this really nice roof top place that John took her to once, she also said it was her treat."
"I'll go on one condition." Angel told her. "You help me cover this up. I don't need Nikki running her mouth out it the whole time."
"Deal." Renee clapped her hands."
"Well then." She turned towards Dean. "I guess I'll meet up with you later."
"Yeah," He nodded. "Oh, Roman said something about getting in a pre-show workout, but I'm not sure if he meant a like a gym or here at the hotel."
"Just text me when you find out."
"Will do." He leant down and kissed her. "Have fun."
Grabbing her wallet and phone off the bedside table, she started out of the room with Renee, who led her back to her room. After gathering up the woman's makeup, they made their way over the desk and Renee had her sit down.
"I don't know how much I can do for you, but I'll do my best." She told her as she poured everything out. "I might be able to cover it for brunch, but you should go to Leslie and see what she can do for you."
"Yeah, I know. I did that last night." She glanced at her reflection in the window. "At least they seem to be lightening up."
"Maybe you should establish a blow the collar type of rule. Jon and I have one. He's not allowed to make any marks on me above the collar, unless I'm going to be off camera for a while."
"I mean I could give that a try, but I don't think that Dean would follow it."
"He really isn't one for rules is he." Renee laughed.
"No, he's not. In fact, I feel like he would do it more if there was a rule about it."
"No, no you're right." She said starting to dab makeup on her.
When they finally got down to the lobby, Renee called for an uber. While they waited Angel started to fidget, she could really feel the makeup on her neck, and she wasn't sure if it was because Renee's stuff was thicker then the stuff that both Galina and Leslie used or if it was because she knew that if Nikki even noticed that's all she would talk about.
"They won't notice." Renee said realizing what was going through her head. "I made sure to blend it in and as long as you don't call any attention to it, then you'll be fine."
"I hope so."
"I know so." She told her. "No quit fretting about it, Paul is here to pick us up."
A few moments later, a car with an uber sticker pulled up in front of them. "Renee?" He asked as he rolled the window down.
"That's me." She smiled at him and opened the back door. "After you."
Arriving at the building that the restaurant was on the top of, Angel's mouth dropped. "We're eating up there?" She asked cranking her head up to try and see the top of the skyscraper.
"Yep." Renee said.
"Shit."
"Scared of heights."
She shook her head. "Not really, but that's really high up there."
"At least we don't have to take the steps all the way up there."
"I would die."
Laughing they made their way into the building and found the elevator, which thankfully did take them all the way up. When the thing stopped, they were greeted with the sounds of people chatting and the smell of wonderful food.
The doors opened and Angel gasped as she looked around the place. It was so expansive, there was white tables and wicker chairs evenly spaced. The floor to ceiling windows gave a great view of both the city and the outside terrace.
"This is fancy."
"Yeah, it is."
"Hello." The hostess greeted them. "Do you have a reservation?"
Renee nodded as she stepped up. "Yeah, part of our party should already be here. Bella."
Running her fingers over the screen in front of her, the hostess said. "There out on the terrace, right this way."
"Renee! Angel!" Nikki called as soon as they stepped outside. "Over here."
"Found them." Renee sighed waving back at the woman.
"Enjoy your meal." The hostess said walking away from them.
Quickly they made their way over to the table, and Angel gasped when she noticed that the other person that was at the table was Brie. "Hey, Brie!" She called as they ran over to give the woman a hug. "What are you doing here."
"Nikki invited me." She said with a chuckle.
"Well, I'm glad for that, because I missed you girl." Renee said getting in her own hug. "Damn it's been too long."
"It has."
"Where's everyone else?"
"It's just us."
"You said brunch with the girls."
"Yeah, meaning me and Brie." Nikki smiled. "Aren't we enough."
"Oh, you are."
"Well, that's good, because it's only us."
Settling into their seats, they looked at the menu. "So, what's good here?"
"Pretty much everything. I've only been here like twice but both times everything was excellent." Nikki said.
Angel's heart leaped in her chest, as she looked at the menu. The prices were so high, it was twenty-three dollars for just scrambled eggs. Why did it seem like everyone wanted to break the bank today?
"So, what's everyone getting?"
"I don't know everything sounds so good." Renee said, seeming not to even bat and eyelash at the prices. "Maybe the salmon tartare."
"I was looking at that too." Brie said. "That or the Stracciatella Di Burrata."
"Oh, I had that last time I was here." Nikki said. "I recommend it, oh I also recommend the truffle risotto, it was so good." She couldn't believe that she was recommending a fifty-nine-dollar meal.
Brie moaned. "That does sound good."
"What about you, Angel? Did something catch your eye?"
Panic filled her, between the prices and the fancy ass food, she really couldn't find anything. "Uh, maybe the French toast or the scramble eggs."
"Oh, I saw them bring out some French toast to another table and the little bento like box you get, is so cute." Nikki said. "If I wasn't looking for something more savory, I might get it too."
When the server showed up, she realized why Nikki was so cool with spending all this money, when she told everyone to order whatever they wanted because "John is paying!"
"Of course, he is." Brie rolled her eyes at her sister.
"Oh, shut up. He also paid for your nails this morning and is going to for our premiere."
"Shit that's right." Renee smirked. "You finished filming that independent movie. How did it come out?"
"Wait, you were in a movie?" Angel asked. "I didn't know that."
"Maybe if you weren't such a stranger, you would know." Nikki said snarky.
"Maybe if I had your number, I could be in the loop?" She shot back.
"You don't have my number."
"I don't."
"Fork over your phone." She said putting out her hands like a toddler.
With a fake sigh, she pulled out her phone and pasted it across the table. "Ok, ok."
"Put mine in too." Brie said.
"So, are you going to tell us about the movie or not?"
"It was so much fun." Nikki said as she typed her number into her phone. "I can't wait to do more movies."
"Oh no, they turned into movie stars."
"They?" Brie asked. "What do you mean 'they'? I had fun but I don't know about be coming a movie star. Too much hassle."
"That's ok, more spotlight for me." Nikki said tossing her phone back.
"Mimosas." Their server came over with a large tray full of mimosas. Quickly each of them had a large glass in front of them.
"Wow, I didn't order a drink." Angel said.
"I know I did." Nikki smirked. "One for each of us. So, you better drink it."
Feeling like she had too, Angel picked up her drink and cheered each of other. "You know we have work later?" She said staring at the orange drink.
"I don't." Brie winked as she took a drink.
"Oh, you better bring this person to Curacao?" Nikki told her. "I want Brie Mode to come out."
"Nikki." Brie elbowed her sister.
Looking around, Angel realized that she was very out of the loop on this one, and it wasn't something as simple as not knowing that Nikki and Brie were in an independent movie.
"Is something wrong?"
"No. No." Nikki quickly said in a tone that was an obvious lie.
"Just tell her." Renee sighed.
"Tell her what?" Nikki played dumb.
"Eva invited us to her bachelorette party." Brie sighed.
"Oh?"
"If you don't want us to go, we won't."
"Why would I not want you to go? Just because I don't get along with Eva doesn't mean you guys have to drop her all together."
A smirk came Nikki's face. "See Renee, you can come with us."
Angel looked at Renee to see her shaking her head. "Eh, I still don't think I want to go. I rather spend a weekend home with Jon."
"Or you could spend a romantic weekend with him in Curacao."
"Jon's not good with cameras, and it will be nice to be away from a WWE production for a little bit."
"Oh, is the party going to be on Total Divas?"
"Yep." Brie nodded. "And that's the only reason why I'm even going. Daniel and I are trying to fix up the house, and I really wanted to be there for the remodel but apparently, they want all the girls to be apart of the trip."
"Wait, you're still on Total Divas?"
"Yeah, apparently quitting WWE doesn't mean all your contracts just magically go away."
"So even though we scheduled this remodel thinking that both of us would be in the clear to be home for it, I have to go film a show for the company that I left."
Rolling her eyes, Nikki sighed. "Can we talk about something else? All she's been doing is talking about this stupid remodel. And it has turned her into a big bitch. I mean last week, her and Daniel were fighting over washers and dryers. Like full on fighting."
"It wasn't a fight. I was just under a lot of pressure, and it came out at Daniel."
"Uh huh."
Knowing better than trying to chime in, Angel sat there and watched as the twins bicker. At least until the food came, then everyone turned into smiling idoits as they admired the presentation of their meals.
"Oh my, everything looks so good."
"Especially Angel's French toast."
Nikki has been right. The thing had come out with this little wooden bento box looking thing that had fresh berries, granola, and a little like gray boat full off maple syrup.
"That is like the cutes thing I've seen."
"It looks like little knick-knack shelf."
"It does." Brie agreed. "Now weird question, what do you think they would look unstained."
"No." Nikki shook her head. "We're not doing this."
"What I'm serious."
"Seriously boring. We're in Miami, live a little."
"Sorry that my life now involves my husband and my house."
"B.O.R.I.N.G."
"First time in a few weeks that we get to see both sisters together and they're already fighting." Renee whispered as she leant over. "It's like she never left."
Angel nodded.
…
"We'll see you at the arena."
They waved the twins off as their uber back to the hotel pulled in.
"Bye Bye!"
"See you."
"See you later."
Climbing into the uber, both her and Renee fell back into her seats. 'That was something." Angel sighed. "Those two are always full of energy."
"I mean sure, but I didn't think they were that energetic." Renee laughed as she pointed at her. "You look exhausted."
"I am. I could barely keep up with that conversation. There were so many up and downs, one minute they were talking about someone's twitter post and then they were arguing over paint."
"If that was too hard to keep up with then, how the fuck to do you deal with Roman and Dean?"
"They never once argued over paint."
"I don't believe that. They totally seem like the kind of dudes that would argue over paint." She shook her hand. "Dude, it's salmon. Nah, it's pink." She said trying to mimic their voices.
"In the whole time I've known them they hadn't."
"Doesn't mean it hasn't happened."
"True, but I can assure you they never gotten in a fight over a suit that John Cena wants to wear at their premiere."
Renee pursed her lip like she was thinking about it. "Ok, you're right with that one."
"See."
"Still, some of their arguments are legendary. I mean the Triple Double Powerbomb. No one could keep up with that."
"But that one is different. One they weren't really arguing, at too it was fun and not off-putting and awkward."
"I guess I can agree to that."
"Oh, and speaking of awkward, I meant to say this before, but I really did mean what I said about Eva's bachelorette party. If you want to go, then go. I'm the one with the bad blood, not you."
"First of all, I got bad blood with her because you have bad blood with her. No one messes with my girl." Renee told her. "And for her to invite me knowing that we're friends, it's kind of like slap in the face to me, and I won't stand for that."
Angel tried to hide the smile that was trying to form on her face. It made her feel special that Renee valued their friendship that much. "I just wanted to make sure, I would have hated to have been the reason that you didn't go."
Patting her on the lap, she said. "Never worry about that, I'm a big girl."
"Are you though?"
"Shut up." She smacked at her. "Dean's humor is rubbing off on you."
"I know it is." Angel sighed. "I don't know if I love or hate that it, but it most certainly is, I've even started to say one liners, like he does."
"Oh girl, you've gone too far."
She nodded. "The problem is, I think it's only going to get worse."
"Oh no."
"Save me."
"It too late. You're gone."
"Say it's not so."
Pulling up to the hotel, they made their way up to their suite. "I still can't believe that Roman did this." Renee said as they waited in the elevator.
"He's such a strange man. When flew into Tampa, she was upset with the fact that we 'wasted' money to rent a car."
"He was worried about you wasting money and then does this."
"Yeah, like I said, strange man."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the small hallway that led to their room. Pressing her wallet on the keycard reader and the door unlocked. When she opened the door, she was once again greeted by the large kitchen. "What kind of hotel room has a kitchen?"
"The ones that people live in for like weeks, not stay in for a few days."
"If you're that rich, are you really cooking for yourself?"
"Who knows." Renee shrugged. "We ain't going to be that rich anytime soon, but maybe you could ask Cena."
"I might. God, I don't even want to know how big that bill was."
"It was over two hundred dollars, for sure."
"My French toast alone was like thirty dollars. Who the hell plays thirty dollars for French toast?"
"Apparently Nikki does, but to be fair most of that money probably goes towards those knick-knack selves that they serve it in."
"Yeah, but you would think that they broke even by now. Unless they just get rid of the box after ever use."
"With a place like that, I wouldn't be surprised if they threw away everything and just bought all new every night."
Chuckling at that notion, Angel pulled out her phone to check the time, and to see if she had any new messages. However other then the one that Dean sent her about him and Roman heading to the gym in the hotel, there was nothing. She then noticed the time and sighed. "Well, I guess playtime it over. Time to get ready to head out for the arena. Do you need a ride?"
Renee shook her head. "No, I'm going to take a shower and get my hair washed up, so that the Lesile can make me all pretty for the show."
"Ok, we won't be leave for a little bit so let me know if you change your mind."
"Will do."
Angel quickly packed her show-time bag and made sure that Dean didn't leave anything behind, before walking back out to the living room. That's when she noticed the two towels that were draped over the island in the kitchen.
"JoJo, make sure you grab your shovel and pail, I'm not coming back just to grab it." She heard Galina call down the hallway towards the 'Reigns' side of the suite.
"Ok!"
Galina shook her head at her daughter as she opened the door to the refrigerator and grabbed out two bottles of water.
"Heading to the beach?"
Galina turned towards her. "Oh hey, when did you get back?"
"A couple of minutes ago."
"Having three entrances into this place is so confusing. I can't figure out when people are coming and going. Before the boys headed for the gym, I asked Roman to pick up waters and he left from our side's door and came in this one. I never jumped so hard in my life."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I didn't even know you were still here at all. Like if I didn't spot the towels before you told JoJo to remember her stuff, you would have scared the shit out of me."
"Who would make a room a with the entrances?"
Angel shrugged.
"Oh, ah to answer your question. Yeah, I'm going to take JoJo to the beach for a little, then we're going to go grab some dinner and come back to catch a bit of the shower on TV while winding down for bedtime."
"You know if you want to watch the show, you could just come with us."
"I know. And as much as JoJo is really good when she goes to the shows, three hours of her just sitting there waiting, isn't really fun for her and she gets a little antsy."
She nodded. "I get that."
"Maybe for Smackdown or something since it's a little shorter."
"You wouldn't think that an hour would make too much of a difference, since two hours is still a long time but it does, doesn't it."
"It really does." Galina agreed. "Oh they told me that I was supposed to send you down to the hotel gym when you got back."
"Yeah, Dean texted me. I'm heading there now."
"Tell them that I said to not do anything too stupid tonight."
"I will, but we both know that's they're not going to listen."
"At least I can say I tried."
"I'm ready to go!" JoJo said excited as she came into the room, holding her shovel and pail in one hand and her sunglasses and sunhat in the other. "Hi Aunt Angel."
"Hi. You look all ready for the beach."
"I am." She smiled proudly. "I'm going to build the biggest sandcastle and collect some seashells."
"Oh man, that sounds fun. Can you find me one?"
"Sure! I'm going to see if I can find a blue one! Grandma has one in her bathroom, and I want to get another one for her. Is there a color that you want me to find? I've seen pink and yellow and green before."
"You pick for me."
"Ok!"
Galina grabbed both towels and walked over to her daughter. "We should get going. We want to get to the beach before all the good seashells are taken."
"Oh yes! Bye Aunt Angel." She waved with the shovel and pail. "Let's go, Mommy."
Shaking her head at the little girl's excitement, she gathered her things and started for the gym, where she found two very sweaty men. She backed away when Dean tried to throw his arm around her.
"Oh no. You two need to take a shower." She frowned.
"Do we really stink that bad?" Dean said smelling his own armpit.
"Yes, yes you do."
"What about call time?"
"Yeah, Babygirl, we need to get to the arena."
"Then as soon as we get there, you two are showering."
Which was precisely what she did as soon as they arrived. She basically pushed them towards the locker room. "I'm going to wait outside."
Making herself at home, she sat on a travel case, right outside of the men's locker room and popped in her headphones to listen to music, while she checked out the schedule for tonight. As soon as she saw that Hunter was coming out to the ring for a promo, she knew she didn't need to worry about Roman tonight. Surly the man was going to want to get in a word or two if the King of Kings was going to talk about the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Which meant she could turn her whole attention towards Dean. There was nothing in the preplanned stuff for him. Seth didn't have a match or promo. Which meant she would have to figure something out. Memo to self, find Hank.
Suddenly a chime echoed through her headphones, interrupting her music. Yawning, she looked at her phone to see that Racheal from wardrobe, which just read 'Emergency, come see me'.
Scared of what ever the hell that meant, she shot a quick text to Dean that hopefully he would see after his shower and started down the hall to find Racheal. When she got to the curtained off area, she noticed that everything seemed calm. No fire, no smoke; so what was the emergency?
"Racheal?" She asked walking up to the woman who was laying out some different materials.
Turning around, Racheal smiled and clapped her hands. "You got my message."
"I did. So what is this emergency that you texted me about."
She put up her hands. "Just don't hate me."
"I won't."
"I'll hold you to that." She told her, before taking a deep breath and saying. "The higher ups want to launch merch for Dean and Roman, next Monday Night Raw."
Angel's jaw hit the floor. "Huh uh." Was all she could get out. Part of her couldn't believe that they wanted to launch merch for the boys, seeing that anytime the higher ups were mentioned it was most likely, Hunter and Stephanie that was being talked about, but the other part wondered what took them so long. Dean and Roman were fan favorites, surly their merch would sell like hotcakes. And then the rest of what Racheal said clicked. They wanted to launch merch next Monday Night Raw.
"They want a design by next week?"
"No. They want a design by Friday, that way they can get it made in time to be sold on Monday."
"Ah." Her mind went a racing. She needed two merch designs thought out by Friday. Simple.
"Don't worry, this isn't just on you. I'm going to mockup some ideas over the week and send them your way. And if you think of anything you can do that same. We'll work on this together."
"Thank you."
"Sorry to spring this on you. I just found out at the meeting today."
"Don't worry about it, like you said you found out, and we all know how the higher ups can be."
"Thanks for being understanding."
"You got my back, I got yours." She smiled. "I guess, I should get to doodling out some ideas."
"Me too."
"I talk to you in a bit then."
"Oh, before you leave, I wanted to know if you wanted to use those logos that you made for the boys? You know the ones that were part of that Shield shirt idea."
Blinking, Angel thought about it for a moment. There was something in her brain that told her not to use the logos, that they were 'tainted' now due to the fact that they originally were for the Shield, but she had worked so hard on them, and both Dean and Roman seemed to like them. "You know what, I do. I do wanna use them."
"I'm glad you said that, because I wasn't really going to give you a choice"
D.D.D.
Dean sniffled as he walked out of the locker room, exercise clothes in hand. He normally didn't like to take a shower at the arena, they were too relaxing, he needed to be up on his A-game for the show, but Angel had complained about him and Roman stinking after their workout. So he did what any good boyfriend would have and showered.
Rubbing the towel that he took from the locker room bathroom, over his face, he looked around for Angel who said she was going to be waiting in the hall, but she was no where to be found. Sighing, he pulled his phone out of his jean's pocket and looked to see that he had missed several texts from her, the first one saying that she was going to talk to Racheal and the second saying that she was heading to catering so she could use one the tables.
Knowing where she was, he put his phone away and headed towards their stash of things, so that he could put his gym clothes away. Putting on deodorant while he was there, then then grabbed out his athletic tape and started back for catering.
Walking into the crowded room, he spotted his little brunette sitting by herself a table across the way. Getting closer, he saw that she was furiously scribbling in a notebook.
"What you doing there?" He asked peeking over her shoulder to see, a bunch of different drawing of what looked like a shirt with a familiar symbol on it, one that he hadn't seen since Seth's betrayal.
Angel jumped in her seat and spun around to look at him. "Racheal just told me that the higher ups want some merch deigns for you and Roman by Friday."
"Friday. That's a bit soon isn't it."
She nodded. "And I have no idea what I'm doing." She scribbled out the drawing that she was just working on and flipped the page in her notebook before setting in once again.
Sighing, Dean pulled the chair out next to her and sat down. "Ok, well use me as a sounding board. What's going on in that mind of yours."
"Nothing."
"Nothing? You have like ten scratched out drawing on the last page."
"That doesn't mean they're good."
"No, but there must be some reason you drew them."
"Ok well my first idea was to make a shirt with the logos I made for you and Roman on the front, but that just seemed too simple."
"Sometimes simple is good."
She shook her head. "It's too simple."
"Ok." He pulled the notebook closer to him and flipped the page back. Through the dark lines that were covering the original pictures, he tried to see what she was going for. "I do like Roman's logo dominating the front like that." He pointed to the drawing he was talking about.
"You don't think it's took plain."
"Nah. But if you do, then put something on the back."
"Ok, like what."
"I have no idea."
"Helpful."
"Too bad he doesn't have a catchphrase."
"That would make my like so much easier."
Flipping the page back to the clean one, he pasted the notebook back. "Well, let's start with putting his logo on the front, and then just fake the back until something comes to you."
Seeming like she didn't trust his method, Angel took a deep breath before she started drawing again. He watched as she sketched out two of the same style shirt. She then started to draw Roman's logo, big and bold on the one of the shirt, before just scribbling a shape on the top half of the other one. "Ok, now what."
"You're the artist. What do you normally do when you're stuck?"
"Step away from it."
"Then do that, and start thinking about the layout of mine."
"I could do the same thing, symbol on the front and some phase or something on the back."
"You could."
"Or I could do the opposite, I could put your symbol on the back and something on the front." She started sketching. "But what to put on the front?"
"Best boyfriend."
"Yes, but no." She said quickly.
"Worlds handsomest man."
"Be serious."
"Seth worse nightmare."
"Dean."
"Ok, ok." He put his hands up. "I don't know, pick something that the fans would like."
She looked up at him. "Are you sure you about that?"
"Yeah? Why?"
"The fans are into the whole you're crazy thing."
"So?"
"I just want to make sure that you would be ok with that."
"It's fine with me." He told her. "If they think that me being me is crazy, then I guess I'm crazy."
"Then there's a bunch of things we could put on it. Unstable, Lunatic Fringe…Oh we could play up the fact that Seth says you should be in an asylum"
"Alright, are those creative juices flowing?"
"A bit."
"Then I did to my job."
"Thank you." She smiled at him.
"Any time, darlin'."
Leaning back into his seat, he watched as Angel jotted down her ideas. She was laser focused on the paper in front of her, so much so, that he knew she didn't notice anything that was going on around her. She probably even forgot that he was sitting next to her. At that, two things popped into his mind, one was he was so proud oh how much she was pouring herself into her work, and the other was that he wanted to break that focus. And he knew just how to do it.
Smirking to himself, he moved his chair as close as he could to hers, wrapped his right arm around her shoulders so that there wasn't a gap between the two of them, and then whispered. "Do you know what this reminds me of?"
"Huh?"
"That fantasy that we talked about over the phone."
"Fantasy?" She repeated absentmindedly.
Realizing that she wasn't paying attention to him, he decided to step it up a notch. Making sure his voice was low, he said. "You know the one where we're sitting in catering just like this, you working on something important, while I ah…" He pulled on the button on her jeans. "have some fun."
He could see the gears in her head start to turn as she glanced down at his hand. "Dean!" She yelled swatting it away.
"Just think about it, the tablecloth would completely block out everything." He ran his hand down her leg.
"Stop it." She glared at him. "I really need to focus."
"Alright, alright." He leant back in his chair again. "I'll behave."
"YOU HAVE TO BE KINDING ME!" A scream echoed from outside of the room. "How in the hell is this fair?"
"Nikki, language."
"Does it look like I care about that right now?"
Nosy as ever, both of them turned towards the entrance to catering to see Nikki standing there with Mark Carrano aka the WWE senior Director of Talent Relations and Hank. Dean quickly caught the camera crew that was standing close by, with a shirt that said 'Total Diva crew' on it.
"Nikki, please." Mark tried to settle down the clearly fuming woman. "There's nothing we can do about this."
"The change cam straight from Stephanie."
"Of course." Nikki nodded as crossed her arms. "I think it's time for a break from the camera."
"That's a good idea."
"Yes." Mark said as he gestured to the crew standing near them. "Why don't we go back to my office and talk think over."
Nikki shook her head. "How about no. What I'm going to do is, I'm going to take a breather and get myself ready for an Authority ordered beatdown." She gave a obviously fake smile before turning away from the men. Huffing, she stopped in front of their table and plopped herself down in one of the chairs.
"That sounded like fun." Dean said earning a glare from Nikki.
"What was that about?" Angel asked her.
"I was supposed to have a match tonight against Foxy today to make up for what happened with that one arm tied behind our back thing, but now because of Stephanie, it's a four on one match with Foxy, Cameron, Rosa, and Eva Marie."
"That's bullshit."
"You think, and it's all because she pissed that Brie quit."
"What was that about?" Angel asked.
Feeling for her, Dean sighed. He knew firsthand what it was like to be on the Authority's shit list, and it doesn't feel good. It was like having to look over your shoulder constantly because you never knew when someone was going to jump you.
"Wait." Angel cocked her head. "Aren't you and Eva friends? Why would she agree to face you in a four on one?"
"Probably because a McMahon told her to." Nikki stated. "She hasn't been here long enough to realize what you are allowed to say no."
"You are?" Dean raised brow. "Shit, I didn't know that?" So they didn't take all our rights away in the blood contract that we sign?"
"Shockingly no."
Glancing over at Angel, he saw that she was biting her lip, and not in the cute sexy way that drove him absolutely crazed for her, but the way that meant she wanted to say something but couldn't.
He was about to call her out when a crew member called into the busy room. "Forty minutes until doors open!"
"Thank you!" Everyone called back.
"Shit, I have to get going." Nikki sighed as she stood up. "I need to go get all dolled up for my beatdown."
"Maybe it won't be that bad." Angel said trying to be positive.
"Yeah, and maybe I'll grow a third arm."
"Make sure you get a few good swings in there." He said.
"Oh, I will."
When Nikki disappeared, Angel started to clean up her mess. "She just reminded me that I can't be wasting time just sitting here." She sighed. "I have to run and talk to Hank about tonight's show. I know it's not exactly what you want, but I'm going to see if we can get a promo spot, so you can talk about what happened last night."
"Sounds good."
"I then have to run down to the hair and makeup to make sure that these lovely bruises aren't going to show up on camera." She fixed her hair to cover the 'healing' hickeys. "Can you take this back and put it in my bag for me?"
"Yeah, sure." He nodded.
"Thanks."
"Real quick." He stopped her. "Is something wrong?"
"What?"
"You were making a weird face, when you were talking to Nikki about her match."
"I made a face?"
"Yeah you seemed like you wanted to say something. Something about Eva maybe."
She glanced away. "Oh that." She sighed. "I just think it's really weird that Eva who is friends with Nikki enough to invite her to her bachelorette party agreed to take part in this four on one handicap match."
"It's not that weird, in this line of work."
"Eh, maybe." She shrugged.
"Even best friends do that kind of stuff. I tried to eliminate Roman at the Royal Rumble, remember."
"I know. Maybe I'm just over thinking it." She said. "I hope I am. I would hate for Nikki to get hurt like that…"
Knowing that she was tiptoeing around the fact that she meant, she didn't want to see Nikki hurt like they were by Seth, he nodded.
"I really should go and find Hank." She said breaking the silence between them. "You sure you're ok with just a promo tonight?"
"Yeah, I'm cool with that."
"Alright, I'll see you in a bit."
"Yeah."
Sighing, Dean gathered up everything to take back, and started back through the crowed hallway. Making sure to stay plastered to the wall, that why he didn't get in anyone's way, he retraced his steps back to their bags.
Turning the corner behind a few travel cases, he saw Roman sitting there, looking fresh from his shower. "Hey, look who's finally squeaky clean."
Roman looked up from brushing his hair. "You know what, I want you to grow you're hair out this long and then tell me that it doesn't take you longer to shower."
"No thank you, I would look like shit with hair that long."
"Yeah, you would." He smirked. "So, what's all that?" He pointed his hairbrush at the stuff in his arms.
"Racheal asked Angel to design some merch for us."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and I'm sure she would be excited about that, if they didn't ask her to have the designs done by Friday."
"Always with the last-minute shit."
"Did you expect anything different?"
Roman shook his head. "Did she come up with anything good?"
"Kinda, we got the concepts down, but the only thing locked in is the fact that she wants to use the logos that she made for us."
"No shit! I really liked those."
"I did too, and I'm glad they're not going to waste. She worked really hard on them"
"Where is our little artist?"
"Talking with Hank."
"Ah. You trying to get a rematch tonight."
"Nah." As he put all of Angel's things away, and by away he put them in her laptop bag and hoped that's where it went. "I already know that, that aint going happen anytime soon. Hell I don't even know if Seth is here tonight."
"He's here." Roman sighed. "I saw him walking into Hunter's office earlier. Head held high like the cocky son of bitch he is."
"Figures." He said plopping himself down on one of the metal folding chairs that they found around the places. He then pulled the roll of athletic tape out of his hoodie pocket and started to wrap his hands. "Though he's not the only one who's been walking around looking cocky." Dean said glancing up at Roman. "You my good sir, have has this smirk on your face ever since your little surprise. Which to that I have to say, what the fuck?"
"Like I said, I wanted to do something special for you guys."
"Then buy me dinner and a beer. Don't spend thousands on a fucking fancy ass hotel room. How much did you pay for it?"
"No way. I'm not telling you that. I'll end up finding half of what I in my suitcase three weeks down the line."
"Fine." Dean said since his plan has been figured out. "At least tell me what else you have planned."
"Nothing." Roman said with a cheesy smile.
"You're lying."
"Yep."
"Fuck you."
"Let's just say that I'm taking my family on a small vacation and I may or may not have factored in a few more people."
"You know I hate this."
"Yeah, but your girlfriend will love it."
He stopped wrapping his left hand just long enough to flick the man off. "I'll get you back for this."
"We'll see."
After grumbling about Roman spending too much money on him, and being too fucking nice, Dean put himself into a little corner, popped in his music, trying to get himself all hyped up for the show.
Three songs into his playlist, something cold and slightly wet touched his arm. Turning his head, he saw Angel standing there holding out a water bottle. "Hey." He said as he took the bottle from her. "How did talking to Hank go?"
"Good."
"So, we got our promo."
"Not exactly. Hank told me that Hunter is going to announce that he's looking for someone to go up against Cena at Summerslam."
"There's no way he would pick me."
"No, but apparently he wants to be impressed, and the way to do that is to take out a loose end that it seems none of his go to guys can."
"Ah, me."
"Yep. So Hank said, there's a ninety nine percent chance that you'll have a match tonight. We just have to wait and see who will step up."
Katmoonchild: Holy shit man! Every time someone says that they just reread the story, I'm blown away. It's so long! I'm so happy you read it once let alone read it over again. Thank you so much.
BrookeWorm3: Angel and Eva's drama is coming towards the 'end' of this arc. Soonish we'll see what happens.. I'm so glad that you still like the story. With him being Sober now it's hard for me to write him drinking because I'm so proud of him.
Katara Melody Cullen: I couldn't believe it either but he really does that. I didn't change that part at all. Protective Dean is so much fun. And about the Eva thing, I just hope that I can give a good conclusion on that.
Sonia: You remembered to write your name! Just picking on you. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I hope I don't disappoint with his confession, it's coming I swear it is.
Missdeanambrose: HERES MORE, MORE, MORE!