"It wasn't fair," Alicia grouses, her fingers interlaced with Alex's as they walk into Alberto's living room. "That pin was mine, and that pathetic wanna-be Cameron stole it... I had Natalya beat easily!" She falls quiet, abruptly subdued, when she sees Paige sitting gingerly on the couch, still a little grey but looking stronger than she had when she was carted out of the arena Raw was being held in back in London. "Oh, hey, girl. How are you feeling?" They may not get along that well sometimes, but she hates to see anyone hurt.

Ricardo comes in with a glass of water that he holds out to Paige, stroking some of the hair out of her eyes when she takes it from him with a smile. He settles in next to her and wraps an arm around her, Paige clearly appreciating his warmth as she snuggles in closer to him. "I'm feeling alright. Still a little rough, but looking forward to film this movie with Miz while I recover enough to go pay Naomi back for all of this nonsense."

Alicia nods and carefully sits down on the arm of a chair that Alex has claimed, his hand teasing up her knee. "When is that?"

"I leave on Thursday," she sighs, closing her eyes. "And if someone has his way, I'll be in bed until then." Alicia makes a suggestive noise and Ricardo flushes, immediately trying to explain, but Paige pats his arm. "Resting, Foxy," she says with an exasperated laugh. "You know, recovery."

"Sure, hon, however you want to describe it," she says with a smirk as Alex sighs next to her, lips twitching into a laugh as he watches Ricardo flush even hotter.

"What's going on?" Alberto asks, joining them and settling in next to Ricardo while Sofia takes her place next to Paige, examining her face and tsking over her as she brushes her fingers through her silky black hair.

"Nothing," Alicia says with an exaggeratedly innocent look on her face. Alberto seems unconvinced but lets it go when Ricardo gets up to start the movie. All of them busy with their own things over the next few days- Alex has a rematch against Kevin Owens, Ricardo and Alberto have an autograph signing in Chicago on Saturday, and Paige of course with her recovery and the movie- Mike had sent them all copies of Marine 4 and, although the group can't watch it together, they all agree on a general time to watch it to make it seem like they're watching it together. It's not the same, but considering, it's the best they can do.

Ricardo taps his copy of the movie case against the player as it loads, then hits play. Going back over to the couch, he rests his head on top of Paige's and presses buttons on the remote, fast forwarding through what he can. Alberto is getting impatient after the half a dozen ads, but Ricardo succeeds at distracting him with seasoned popcorn, allowing them to enjoy the start of the movie without his low mutters in Spanish. They read mission statements and other descriptions on the screen until finally getting their first sight of Jake Carter. When he starts to shower, Alex hisses and covers Alicia's eyes. "Aw, come on, Mike, no one needs to see that!"

She squeals and swats at him. "We see more than that every week, c'mon, Alex!" He concedes grumpily, removing his hand, and she wraps her arm around him. "Silly." Kisses him as they all roll their eyes and turn their focus back to the movie for the explanation of what Jake Carter is doing, and why.

It's his first day as security, protecting a pretty whistleblower and Alberto laughs. "Can you imagine AJ Lee's face if they hook up?" he asks, which makes Ricardo laugh a little too, partially because "hook up" sounds so ridiculous coming from him, especially with his thick Mexican accent.

"That could be dangerous," Alex mutters. "Hope he has body armor." They still haven't spoken, but he assumes now that the Sandow situation is behind him, he may be more open to Alex's attempts at smoothing things over. Though it probably won't hurt if I wait until he's in Vancouver, he decides. Put plenty of space between us...

The deaths start happening quick and bloody and Ricardo looks worriedly over at Sofia, but she's flinching less than the rest of them. There's one particularly horrible one that has all of them gasping, scattered ay dios mio and holy crap filling the room. The fact that they leave the focus on the corpse makes it even worse, all eyes locked on the ridiculous effect and though they're curious, no one really wants to know how it was done, so they swallow down the unease and release breaths when finally it moves on, returns to a different part of the action. Everything goes quickly from there, Jake successfully keeping the whistleblower alive- and vice versa- until she can testify and then leave. Alberto looks disappointed that nothing had happened between them, until the girl kisses Jake on the cheek. It's not much, but it causes his eyes to light up anyway.

Ricardo laughs, freezing when he feels something heavy shift against his shoulder. He looks down to find Paige has fallen asleep. "Well, I didn't think it was that bad," he comments, shifting her until she's laying more comfortably in his lap. Stroking her hair, he looks up to find the others chuckling quietly, Sofia looking worried. "I'll take her to bed," he tells the housekeeper and she nods as he hands her the remote and settles Paige on the couch, standing and turning to lift her. She's light and he wonders if she's lost more weight since being attacked, vowing to make her eat more before she leaves. "Good night, guys," he tells Alicia and Alex. "Good luck tomorrow, Alex."

"Thanks, man. Night. Hope she feels better," he adds, watching Paige curl in closer to Ricardo's chest.

"Gracias," Ricardo says with a faint smile. "Buenos Noches, Sofia, El Patron."

"Buenos noches," they echo. Alberto glances at Alex and Alicia once they're out of the room and gets up, collecting Ricardo's DVD and putting it back in its case. "Feel free to stay as long as you wish, I have business in my office." Turning, he leaves the room, tapping the DVD case against his knuckles, and none of them are surprised to hear him go into Ricardo's bedroom to return the item to him, the two of them talking lowly for a few minutes, before closing himself up in said office.

"Well, we sure know how to clear a room," Alex says simply.

"Don't take it personally," Sofia tells him, her accent crisp as she wanders around and picks up the popcorn bowl. "Ricardo is worried for Paige, and senor has many irons in the fire at all times now. I barely see him myself most days. It's a fair job just to get him to eat three square meals a day, when he is home. If not for Ricardo, I suppose he'd just hole up in his office and I'd never see him." She smiles wanly at them. "Tonight was nice, however. I have missed it." Alex offers his help with whatever clean up might be left but she waves him off. "I'm fine, but gracias. You both look tired and you have a big day ahead of you, if you need to go, I will be fine."

Alex is loathe to do it, clearly, but she's right. Fighting with Mike had never sat right with him, no matter how annoying he can be sometimes- he had been Alex's NXT mentor, and Alex can't help but feel like he owes him so much- and this feud with Kevin Owens is also weighing on him, the NXT champion dragging him off of commentary just to try to destroy him. A blessing and a curse all at once... He sighs and lifts Alicia's hands to his lips. "Let's go, Foxy. She's right, I'm wiped out."

"Alright." She kisses him and they quickly say their farewells to Sofia, leaving the house dark and quiet behind them.

-x

"I wish I could come with you," Ricardo says regretfully, carrying Paige's suitcases for her since she still tires easily. She leans up and kisses him solidly on the lips, causing him to fumble and nearly drop her luggage as she laughs against him.

"I know, love," she says, running her fingers across his lips and wiping off the lipstick staining them. "But I will be fine and perhaps when your schedule clears, you can come visit." This still doesn't appease him and she runs her fingers through his hair, drawing him back towards her. "You've taken such good care of me the last week, I feel a lot better already, and WWE has found me a doctor in Vancouver who will make sure I do nothing to hinder my recovery. I will call you at least once every day, so you'll hear personally how I'm doing... and Mike and AJ will be there, so absolutely nothing can possibly go wrong. I'll have a fantastic support team. If I come back and the bags under your eyes are darker than my hair, you're going to be the one stuck in bed for ten days."

He smiles wanly at her and she kisses him again. "I promise to eat and sleep as best as I can, no matter what, if you do the same," he tells her.

"Definitely, scout's honor," she vows, lifting her hand.

"You weren't a scout," he laughs.

"Neither were you."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to trust each other, then." He cups her face and stares into her eyes, overwhelmed by a sudden longing. She's right in front of him, so close he can feel her warmth, but already... "I'm going to miss you so much," he mumbles.

Her fingers tangle in his shirt and she draws him closer, sighing. "I'm going to miss you more," she tells him. He smiles, shaking her head, and she tsks. "Don't argue with me, I'm the one that's injured and leaving." He purses his lips at her and she chuckles. "Yes, love, I play dirty."

"I know," he murmurs. His lips twitch up into a smirk. "I love that about you."

"We're both just a couple of naughty heels at heart, love. I guess that's why we fit together so well." She winks at him but, before he can respond, the intercom comes to life with the announcement of her flight. She sighs and kisses him, pulling away. "I love you. Take care of yourself, and have a fantastic time in Chicago. I'll see you before you know it."

His fingers go limp as her warmth leaves him and he swallows, realizing that airport workers had arrived and taken her suitcases away, as he had requested as soon as they'd arrived. He stares at the floor before looking up, a dark look in his eyes. They had been apart before, of course, but not for such a long amount of time. Nor when she was so badly injured. Squaring his shoulders, he leaves the airport and sits in his car, listening to airplanes coming and going. Wonders which one is heralding her departure.

Finding the calendar app on his phone, he looks at his schedule and quickly maps out the free days. When he can fly to Vancover, stay with Paige. Features relaxing as he finally makes sense of the next few weeks in his mind, he turns his car towards home to prepare for the trip to Chicago.