Angel in the Asylum

by TheRevengersGirl

Angel Miles loves WWE and dreamed about working for the company. But when her dream comes true she gets a little more then she bargained for when she attacked on her first night of work. Soon she finds herself mixed up in the crazy lives of the WWE superstars and Divas. Especially That of the Lunatic Fringe himself. We keeping most Kayfabe. SLOW BURN WARNING! GOING TO BE VERY LONG!

132. Chapter 132

HI! Sorry about the very long wait for this one. I've been in a rough spot with live and it became very hard to write for some reason. BUT I did it! I hope you enjoy this chapter, I put my blood sweat and tears into this thing. Its super long, but I hope it's worth the wait.

Monday Night Raw: August 18th 2014

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No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO!

Angel's mind chanted as her eyes darted around at the wreckage in front of her. It couldn't be real, what she was seeing in front of her couldn't be real, it just couldn't. Dean couldn't be lying among the rubble of the cinderblocks that his head was just Curb Stomped through. Right? If she could just close her eyes, maybe just maybe everything would just go away like a bad dream.

Even if by some magic that would work, she couldn't look away. What happened if he disappeared when she looked away? She couldn't let that happen. Se had to keep an eye on him, that way she knew he was alright.

He was alright, wasn't he?

Panic gripped her tight and suddenly as she became very aware that he wasn't moving. She hadn't expected him to just pop up onto his feet after getting hit like that, but she did expect something, a twitch of his arm, a kick of his leg, something. Anything. Hell from this angle she couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

Oh god. Was he breathing? Her stomach turned.

She needed to check, needed to feel his chest moving under her touch, needed to feel his pulse against her fingers. The need filled every inch of her being until she was shaking with it, and yet she just sat there.

Move! She yelled at herself, thought it did her little good as her knees stayed rooted to the floor. When did she get on the floor? The last thing she remembered was being held back by the official while she cried and pleased to Seth. So, when did she fall to her knees? When did the ref finally let her go?

Giving herself a mental shake, she couldn't would about the lapse of memory right now. She needed to worry about Dean. She needed to go and check on Dean, he needed her. However, even as she begged her own body to move, she didn't. It was like her mind and body were disconnected, and that just worked her up even more.

Please, move. She cried. Please. Move! Move! I need to reach him. Please!

The panic twisted in her stomach and evolved into something stronger and darker that she couldn't name. As that feeling built, the world around her slowly started to fade away; all of the chaos washed away until there was nothing left but a high-pitched ringing in her ears. She couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't hear, all she could do was feel. And what she felt was dread, panic and worry that threatened to drown her. Her lungs burned as she tried to breathe, but she got no relief.

A strange memory shot through her head. One of a book that she read a couple of months ago. It was a thriller that she had picked up at an airport shop while waiting for a flight, she couldn't remember what it was about at this point, but she could remember the torture scene in it, vividly. The main character had gotten mixed up with the wrong people and ended up being put in an isolation chamber. She remembered the curiosity that filled her as she read about the person slowly going insane in the nothingness that wrapped around them.

She no longer wondered if an isolation chamber was an effective form of torture because she knew it was. She now understood why the stoic spy had screamed until they ruined their own vocal cords, she wanted to scream, just to be able to hear something other than the ringing in her ear.

A chill shot down her body. What if she was screaming? The chamber had dampened the spy's screams until he couldn't hear them anymore. What if she couldn't hear her own screams, what if no one could hear her screams? What if no one realized she was drowning in her own mind, in her own mental isolation chamber? What if they couldn't tell she wasn't breathing? What if no one came to check on her or Dean? What if….

A sound broke through the madness. Without a second thought, she seized on it, savored it, as it pushed the ringing down to the back of her mind until it was just a low humming. The reprieve was heavenly, so much so that she couldn't stop her head from turning towards it as if she was raising her face to the warmth of the sun.

She tried to force her eyes to work again, she needed to know what had saved her from the darkness of her own mind. However, when her vision came back online, she couldn't help but draw her brows together. Blinking, she tried to clear the blurry mess out of her eyes, but the clarity didn't change what she was seeing. In front of her was Seth, a smiling, smug looking Seth Rollins.

That's when she realized that the sound that pulled her from her hell was his obnoxiously cocky laugh. It took her a second too long to realize why he was laughing. He was laughing at what he had done to Dean. Laughing at him even though he could have just ended his career. Laughing, even though he could have broken his neck. Laughing, even though he could have killed him.

Seth's laugh was overshadowed quickly by Justin Roberts's voice announcing the end of the match. "The referee has stopped this match," His voice was more somber and timid than she had ever heard it before. "The winner is Seth Rollins."

The winner is Seth Rollins.

Hot anger shot through her, blanketing over the panic and worry, pushing back everything but that damned ringing once again. Though mercifully this time she was left with glimpses of what was happening around her.

The sluggish feeling of her body moving.

The winner is Seth Rollins.

The cold bite of metal resting in her hands.

A loud cheer.

Bone rattling vibrations that shot up from her hand up her arms over and over.

The winner is Seth Rollins.

Then suddenly she felt herself being pushed back, sending her tripping over her own two feet and into something warm and hard behind her. It to her a second to break out of the trance she was in to realize it was another human being.

For just a moment she thought it was Dean catching her like he always did, that was until she felt a hand touch her arm. It was all wrong. Smaller. Colder. And it didn't grip her in the same way, as if he would kill anyone who tried to take her out of his grasp.

"Breathe. Angel." She heard the person behind her say as the wrong hand on her body rubbed up and down her arm, trying to comfort her. No. That wasn't what she needed. She needed them to check on Dean for her, since she couldn't move. Why were they worrying about her? Why?

Suddenly she became acutely aware to the burning in her chest and throat, as well as the foggy lightheadedness that she thought was just from her weird black outs, but now realized was too the lack of air in her body.

"Breathe." This time she tried to listen to the voice behind her. "Deep breathes, we don't want to have to make it three people we needed to cart of here."

Closing her eyes for a moment as she forced her tired lungs to take a deep breath. Three? What did they mean they would have to cart out three people? Dean and she made two, so who was the third.

Opening her eyes, she scanned the arena around her. When her eyes landed on Seth, she thought she was seeing things, again. This time, Seth was lying in a ball on the floor while Kane stood above him, with a chair in his hands. Did Kane betray Seth? No….That wasn't right. The look on the man's face wasn't one of regret or pride, it was the look of disbelief and almost fear. Well as much as fear could register on a man like Kane's face. Even as strange as it was to that look on his face, what really threw her off was that the look was aimed right at her.

Did I? She looked down at her hands as if they would be painted red. Well they weren't stained with red, but they were shaking. Whether that be from the emotions running through her or the feeling of hitting the steel chair against Seth's back a few times, she didn't know.

"Everyone out of the way!" Another voice yelled as something was quickly pushed passed her.

Glancing up from her hands, she saw that the thing had been a stretcher that was stacked with different medical equipment. Her attention was instantly brought to the neck brace that was on top.

"We got to move him."

"Gently. We don't know if something is broken."

Angel's legs almost gave out as she realized they were talking about Dean. The medics were finally here to check on Dean.

"Dean, can you hear us?" Something asked him.

She strained her ears trying to hear if he answered but between the crowd and movement around her, she wasn't able to even catch a glimpse of his voice.

Never moving from where she stood, she watched and waited as they shifted him around, got the brace on him, and moved him so they could lift him up onto the stretcher. All while Dean just laid there.

"Are we ready to move?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, two, three."

They lifted him and quickly placed him up on the stretcher, and for the first time since what happened, she got a good look at him. His eyes were closed, and his mouth was open slightly, just like he was sleeping, but that wasn't what she focused on. Her eyes fell to his chest. She knew in theory that he was breathing, since the EMTs weren't making a bigger deal about everything, but she needed to see it. Needed to see the rise and fall of air leaving and enter his lungs.

Please.

Before she managed to see what she wanted, they started to wheel him away, away from her.

"Dean?" She wasn't sure if she called his name out loud or in her head all she knew was the panic was back, filling her quickly. They were getting farther and farther away. Leaving her behind.

"Angel!" A raspy yell crashed over everything. "Angel! Where's Angel!"

"Whoa, whoa, Dean we need you too…"

"ANGEL!"

As if hearing him call for her broke the spell that had been holding her body hostage. Almost with a dizzying pace, she pushed herself towards the group of WWE officials, medics and EMTs that were trying to settle down the man who was now throwing his arms about.

He needed her.

"Dean!" She gasped as she pushed her way up to the head of the stretcher. "Dean, I'm right here." She said trying to look catch his eyes. She nearly sagged when she saw hazy, but open blue eyes looking towards her.

"Angel…" A whisper of a smile came to his face.

"I'm right…"

"Ma'am we need you to step back." One of the EMTs try to push her away from the stretcher as they carefully maneuvered around the mess of chairs Dean had made.

"NO!" Dean barked as he started to thrash against the bindings. "Angel."

"Dean." She tired again to get closer only to be pushed back once more.

"Ma'am." The EMT gave her a hard look which did have her stepping back for a moment, but only a moment as Dean's thrashing got worse.

"Dean, you're going to hurt yourself even more if you keep moving like that." She heard someone try and calm him down.

"That's not going to work." Joesph, WWE's lead medic sighed as he looked around. "Angel, get over here." He called to her as soon as he noticed her standing a bit behind them.

She immediately did as she was told and shoved past the EMT who kept pushing her away.

Once again they tried to stop her. "I don't think…"

"Listen, if there's one thing I've come to learn about Ambrose here, it's that when he's set his mind to something, he's not going to stop until he gets it. And right now, he wants Angel near him, so if you want him to stop moving about, she has to be here, end of story."

Angel gave him a look of appreciation before slipping into the small gap between him and the next person in front of him. There wasn't much room, but she did manage to reach out and touch Dean's arm.

Almost instantaneously Dean settled down. "Angel?"

"I'm here." She ran her hand over his skin, basking in the warmth of him. "I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere."

Which turned out to be a lie as she was pressed to the side again once they got to the ambulance. As her hand slipped from Dean's she expected him to start back up, surprisingly he didn't. Even more surprisingly, she did.

As soon as the heat of Dean's hand left her, she felt like she had been dunked back into the isolation chamber that apparently had more of a permanent spot in her mind than she would like to admit. However, before she could fall too far into it, a large, warm, familiar hand rested on her shoulder.

Through her blurry vision, she saw Roman standing there, his eyes bouncing from her to where she knew Dean was being loaded up into the ambulance. "You ok?"

She shook head as she pressed back into him.

Without question Roman wrapped his arm around her, almost as if he was protecting her in his best friend's steed. When she grabbed onto his arm, using him as a lifeline, he lent his chin on top of her head. "Are they going to let you ride with him this time?"

Again, she shook her head.

She already knew the answer even thought she hadn't asked this time. After what happened the last time, she looked into the policy about who could ride in the ambulance and she found out that it wasn't the ambulance company's rules, it was WWE's. Apparently in the contract, WWE had stated that only family member could ride in the ambulance as a precaution to stop people from attacking the person in suck a vulnerable state.

Knowing that that was the reason behind the rule, she understood why they would put the rule in place. Though that didn't mean she like it.

"Alright then." She heard him mumble a curse. "Let me get our shit loaded up and then I'll drive us to the hospital."

When he shifted behind her, she had a feeling that he was trying to get her to drop the tight hold she had on him, but she didn't. She couldn't find it in herself to let go. Even though she knew all he was trying to do was get their car loaded up so they could get to the hospital quicker.

"Do you want to come with me?" He asked. "Or wait here?"

When she didn't answer him this time, she felt him draw in a large breath before he tore his arm from her grasp. She felt the sting of rejection, but she didn't let it faze her as she just dropped her arm back to her side.

"I'll be right back Babygirl."

Behind her the sounds of Roman footsteps quickly walking away.

Without the wall that was Roman behind her to lean against, she couldn't sit still. Slowly she started to shift her weight from side to side before hoping on her toes, but the movement did nothing to ease the intense inch that raced around her body. The feeling was scattering her already frazzled mind, making it even harder to focus. Which was only making the panic spike as her eyes bounced around the medics that were trying to get Dean to settle into the ambulance.

NO. She took a deep breath, as she scrubbed her hand against her collarbone. She couldn't let herself fall back into that darkness. Not now. She needed to be strong. Needed to be there if Dean needed her. She couldn't let herself be as weak as she was before.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she tried to steel herself against the panic, tired to calm her racing heart. Which she almost achieved until another hand touched her shoulder. Unlike with Roman, she jumped and spun to face the person who hand was on her. She relaxed slightly as she realized it was Joesph.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He gave her a small smile. "I just wanted to make you sure you're doing alright."

She nodded. "I'm alright."

Joesph gave her a hard look as he looked over her. It was the same look that she had seen him give Dean many times when he was trying to hide an injury. She wondered how Dean didn't crack under the look. It was a very disappointed dad look. "Well even so, I don't want you driving in this state."

"I'm not." She told him. "Roman got me."

"Alright good." He gave her another look over. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm sure, just…" The sound of a loud metal door shutting broke her train of thought. Her eyes shot over to the ambulance, to see that they had finished loading up Dean, and were preparing to take off.

"Joesph, we're heading out." One of the EMTs said as they quickly moved towards the front cabin. "We'll give you an update when we get to the hospital."

Much appreciated." He waved them off.

Her vision blurred as she watched the vehicle start moving, once again taking Dean away from her.

"He'll be fine." Joesph tried to reassure her. "Just him being alert and talking is more than we could have hoped for after a hit such as that."

As the ambulance pulled out a rush of air blew into the loading dock and though it was in the middle of August, Angel shivered.

"You don't need to stand here all by yourself, why don't we go find Roman." He said putting his hand on her lower back, using it to urge her to move.

The walk was a blur of faces. She wasn't sure where they were walking to, just that they were going to meet Roman. She was too focused on the looks of pity that lined the hallway every time she blinked. Pity for her? Or for Dean?

She didn't like it. It was like they knew something she didn't. She didn't like it. Didn't like it at all.

"Roman." She heard Joesph call out. "I think I have another bag you need to load up."

"Uh. Ah thanks." She heard Roman's voice as another warm touch slung around her shoulder.

"I would keep an eye on her, if I were you." The two men talked around her. "She seems to be a little shell-shocked."

"Yeah, I noticed." Roman sighed. "Don't worry about this one, I got her."

"I knew you would." Joesph said. "Oh and if you won't mind, please keep me up to date about what's going on with Dean."

"Will do."

The warmth on her back disappeared, leaving her with just the arm slung over her shoulders. However before her mind processed what that meant, she was being led around once more. This time when she blinked, her vision was filled with the front seat of the rental car that Roman was using why in Vegas. "Alright Babygirl, up you go."

She tired to listen to the command, but her limbs didn't seem to want to cooperate with her, meaning getting into the car was a bit of a struggle. Leaving her almost out of breath by the time she was buckled into the seat. Sinking down into the seat, she heard the driver side door open, and the grunts of mumbles of Roman as he climbed behind the wheel.

When she looked over, she was met with a warm smile and soft eyes. "You ready to go?"

She nodded and looked back towards the windshield. The car started and she felt him slowly pulling out of the parking spot. Suddenly as if triggered by being in a moving car, all her overwhelming feelings broke through the numbness that her brain had tried to protect her with. The rush made her stomach twist until she thought she was going to throw up. She almost asked Roman to pull off so she could do just that when a loud buzzing noise echoed through the car.

She then heard Roman curse as he fumbled with something in the center console. When he finally found what he was looking for, he bought it to in front of his face and sighed. "Um, Babygirl, it's your mom."

"Huh?" She turned to see him holding her phone up so that she could see the screen. In the middle was the word Mom in big bold letters.

"Do you want me to answer it?"

She shook her head before reaching for the phone. "I got it." She pushed the button to answer the call and brought it to her ear. "Hello."

"Angel!" Her mom's panicked voice came through the speaker. "Oh my god, are you ok? We saw what happened. Is Dean ok?"

"Easy, Evelyn." She heard her dad said. "Don't bombard the girl from the get go."

"I'm sorry, I'm just worried."

"I know you are but Angel's probably shaken up and you going a million miles and hour might overwhelm her."

Angel closed her eyes and listened to her parents talking. The initial bombardment of questions was a bit much, but now she couldn't help but find some sort of solace in the sounds of their voices. If she tried hard, she could almost imagine that she was sitting in the living room, while they talked about their day. Familiar, simple but calming.

"Angel?"

The spike of worry in her mom's voice drew her back to the conversation. "Sorry."

"Oh baby, are you ok?"

"I'm…." She sighed, not sure how to answer that question. She didn't really want to lie, but telling her mom she was one step away from breaking down wasn't something she wanted to do. "You know, as good as I can be."

"And Dean?"

"Um, I'm not sure yet." She said as she fought the tears that quickly built up in her eyes. "We're on the way to the hospital."

Her mom gasped. "Chris…"

"Is he not with you." Her dad quickly, covering over the quiet sob in the background.

"No. t-they took hi-m by ambulance." She choked out. "Roman's driving me."

"Oh ok." The slightly catch in his voice almost made her lose control of the tears. "You'll let us know as soon as you find anything out, right."

"Yes, dad I'll let you know."

"Good."

"I can't believe this." She heard her mom. "I can believe that they let Seth do this. I can't believe it. How could they. If I was his mother, I would be having some strong words with the higher ups about this."

"It's part of the job." She said automatically, not even registering what she even said.

If I were his mother. His mother? Did his mom watch the show tonight? Did she see her son get hurt? What if she didn't? What if she didn't know that Dean had been hurt? Should she call her? Surely, she would want to know that her son was hurt, right?

Dean didn't talk much about his family. Angel knew he still talked to his mom, since every now and then he would sneak off to call her. It wasn't really sneaking off. That wasn't right. It wasn't like he was hiding the fact that he was talking to her, it was more like he seemed to like to talk to her alone.

But they still talked. He still cared about his mom. It would only be right to call her. To make sure she knew what was going on.

Her mind was racing so fast that she almost missed her dad sighing. "We should let you go."

Guilt filled her when she realized she wasn't paying any attention to her parent who had called to check if they were ok. "I…"

"No, don't worry about it, we get it." He told her. "You got a lot on your mind and I can tell you're not really up for talking right now. And that's fine. If you feel like talking later you can always call us whenever you want. Whenever you need."

"I know."

"We love you."

"Love you too."

"Bye."

As soon as the phone call was ended, she felt herself starting to spiral now that the familiar sounds of her parents' voice stopped. However, before she could fall too far, a strong pressure on her knee brought her back. She looked down to see that Roman has once again held onto her to help ground her.

"Your mom seems really worried about Dean, huh?"

"Yeah, they both are."

She turned to look at him as his let out a small chuckle. "Sorry." He said squeezing her leg again. "It might sound weird, but it makes me happy to know that your parents care about him that much." He explained. "He needs more people like that in his life."

"Yeah, he does." She agreed before looking back down at the blank screen of her phone. And those who care about him deserve to know that he's been hurt. She sighed. "Do you have Dean's mom's number."

"His mom's number?" Roman questioned. "I mean, yeah, I have it. Why?"

"I wanna call her, to tell her what happened." She glanced up. "Unless you think I shouldn't." Maybe she was overstepping, maybe she should just wait to ask Dean whether or not to call her.

"No, no I think that Denise would really appreciate the call."

Denise? She blinked, comprehending just how little she knew about Dean's family. She didn't even know his mother's first name. She knew Dean kept his home life private but surely, she should know what his mom's name is, right. Did he not want to tell her, or was it that it just never came up?

"Remind me to give it to you when we get to the hospital." He told her. "Although, you could probably just call from Dean's phone. She would be more likely to answer if you do. She tires to never miss a call for him, just in case of something like this."

Another thing that Roman knew that she didn't. She knew it was silly, but she was jealous, jealous that Roman knew more about Dean than she did. Sure, he knew him longer, but she was the man's girlfriend. Shouldn't she know more or at least the same amount about him.

No. She told herself. Roman had known him for years, they have only known each other for a little over half a year. It made sense that he would know more. He had more time to get to know Dean.

I fell in love with someone that I've only known for half a year. She thought. She had a feeling that, that should make her feel a little uneasy, but it didn't. She didn't regret anything.

Which was why she couldn't explain the sting she felt in this moment.

"We're here." Roman said knocking her out of her thoughts. Looking up, she saw the large building that sat in front of them. It wasn't anything special, but it certainly screamed 'hospital'.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed for her door handle, only to stop when she saw an ambulance that looked a lot like the one they used at the show parked in front of the doors marked emergency.

"We can wait out here for a bit if you need."

"No, I'm good."

Trying to push all thoughts from her mind, she got out of the car. After rounding to the front of the car, she paused again. This time Roman threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him.

"I got you."

"Thanks."

They quickly walked across the parking lot, through the doors and up to the front counter. Making the woman behind it look up. "I can I help you?"

"Yes, we're here for Dean Ambrose." Roman told her. "He should have just come in via ambulance."

Angel played with the hem of shirt as she watched the woman type in the computer in front of her. "Ah, yes. He just got here. We're just now getting him settled in, if you want to take a seat, someone will get you whenever there's an update."

"Sure, thank you." Roman said as he led them towards the waiting room. "Alright," he sighed as they claimed two seats in a corner. "Are you going to be good here while I run to the restroom?" He passed her, her bag.

"Yeah."
"Do you want me to pick you up anything from the vending machine?" She shook her head. "Ok, I'll be right back."

As soon as Roman stepped way, she felt the panic starting up again, but she forced it down. Quickly setting herself to do anything to keep herself out of her head. Which at first was doom scrolling through social media, though that quickly became too much as she started to see the post people were making about the show tonight. Well great. She sighed quickly closing her Twitter. Now what.

She tried to play the few games she had on her phone but found herself closing them almost as soon as she opened them. She needed something to do. Anything to keep herself out of her head.

She eyed up her bag that was sitting on the seat next to her, saving it for Roman. Opening it, she rummaged through every pocket. She investigated everything, every gum wrapper, every receipt, every scrap of paper, telling herself it was important to do so. That was until she pulled out Dean's phone, which had seemed to magically made its way into her bag. Roman's doing.

She pushed the button to turn on the screen and was pleasantly surprised when she saw a picture of herself looking back at her. He must have just changed it because she was sure she would have remembered a picture of her cuddling with her stuffed otter, being on his phone.

After making a mental note to ask him about it, she sighed and went to put the phone back in bag.

Those who care about Dean deserve to know that he was hurt. She reminded herself.

Taking a deep breath, she brought his phone up once more. Opening his phone, she quickly found his contacts and eyed the list. There were only seven names on it. Angel, Evelyn(Angel's mom), John, Mom, Renee, Roman, and Seth.

She did raise an eyebrow at Seth's name still being in this phone but then again, she wondered if he even knew how to delete someone's number.

Her eyes landed back on his mother's number and sighed. Her finger hovered over the call button. She knew should call her. Even Roman said that she would appreciate the call but for some reason she couldn't get other the strange inkling that was in the back of her mind. Maybe just maybe there was a reason that Dean didn't bring his mother up. What if his mom didn't like her? What if she was one of those moms who thought that no one was good enough for her son.

Why did that matter right now? She would want to know about her son getting hurt. And if they weren't dating it would still be her job to let his family know.

She pressed the button.

Sitting there, she stared at the screen that showed the outgoing call as if confused by why it was dialing out. However, as soon as she heard the first ring, she shot from her chair and pressed the phone to ear. With each ring, she wondered if she had made the wrong choice. Maybe it was too late to call? Maybe she should have waited until they had more information? Maybe she should have let Roman call instead.

"What is it this time?" A woman's voice spoke up as soon as the third ring finished. "I hope you're calling to tell me you're coming to visit soon."

Angel hesitated. It was strange, she wondered what kind of person Dean's mom would be but never what her voice sounded like, but yet here she was thinking about how it seemed to fit what she was 'expecting'. It was mature but sweet sounding, with an edge that came with hardship and life.

"Hello Dean?" She called before muttering something about butt dialing.

Scared that she would hangup, Angel quickly said. "Um…hello Mrs. Ambrose…" She then swallowed the lump in her throat. "My name is Angel Miles, I'm Dean's manager…"

"I know who you are, darling." She could hear the sigh in her voice. "Dean told me all about you." All about me? "And I've been wondering when Dean was going to let me talk to you," She chuckled. "Though, I have a feeling this isn't a pleasure call…"

"No ma'am."

"Please call me Denise." She said that sweetness leaking out before falling into the more serious tone. "What did my stubborn son do this time? He better not have gotten arrested again."

Angel knew that if she didn't feel like she was seconds away from breaking down in the middle of a waiting room, she would have laughed, but instead tears burned in her eyes. "Dean's been hurt."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone before she heard a long drawn-out sigh. "I'm guessing it's pretty bad too, since you calling me."

Angel nodded even though she knew she couldn't see her. "Um…We're currently at the hospital waiting for them to finish checking him over. He has possible neck and head trauma."

"Fuck."

A watery smile forced its way onto her face as she took note of how much alike Dean and his mom sounded when swearing. "Sadly, we don't know much more than that right now." She said feeling stupid for calling with little to no information. "I just wanted to give you a heads up, so that you're not completely blindsided.

"And I appreciate that." She spoke. "You don't know how upsetting it is to read about my son's injuries on the wrestling news site that I use. I gave him an earful over the shoulder injury that I wasn't told about until I read about his one opponent threating to rip it off."

Guilt filled her. Of course, she should have told his mom about all his injuries... how could she not think about that? "I'm so sorry about that."

"Oh, don't be. I'm guessing that you didn't know."

"Well now that I do, I'm going to make sure to always keep you up to date."

"You know, he never liked to tell me he was hurt." A sad chuckle came through the speaker. "Even when he was a kid, he would hide cuts and bruises from me. I remember this one time, he had fallen out of a tree and hurt his leg. He tried to hide it from me for days but then he ended up hitting his leg off the corner of the table and instantly broke out in tears. I was so mad at him for hiding how hurt he was, I thought he was trying to not get in trouble for climbing the tree but when I asked him why he did it he said, 'he didn't want to bother me', that 'he could handle it' he was eight years old."

It was her turn to chuckle. "Sounds like him."

"And don't get me started on when he started wrestling. Almost every night I came home to find him cleaning some sort of wound in my kitchen." She sighed. "What the hell am I going to do with him?"

"I've been trying to figure that out."

"Oh!" Excitement peaked through the woman's voice. "I forgot, he's your problem now." She chuckled. "I don't take returns."

A small laugh pushed through the tears. "You don't have to worry about that."

"I'm glad to hear that."

The two of them fell into silence, one that was just awkward enough to have Angel clearing her throat. "I should let you go," She said even though held the phone tighter in her gasp, not wanting to end the call. She didn't know why but for some reason talking to his mom helped put her at ease. "I'll let you know as soon as I have more information. I won't let you be in the dark this time."

"Thank you, Darlin'" She could almost hear the smile on the woman's face, and instantly wanted to know if it would be crooked like Dean's. Would she slowly let her tongue slip out between her teeth until she looked like an over excited puppy? Did her eyes light up until they could rival the sun itself. Were her eyes blue like his? Did he get them from her or his father? The woman could probably rule the world if she had matching baby blues.

"Angel."

The sound of her name made her realize she was zoning out. "Yes?"

"Can I ask a favor."

"Anything." She answered quickly. Almost too quickly.

"Tell my hardheaded son to call me as soon as he can." Denise told her. "I wanna yell at him for hiding such a sweet thing from me."

Sweet thing? Angel's eyes widened as she felt her chest swell with warmth. "I'll let him know."

"Oh and one more thing. Take care of yourself, alright."

"I'll try."

"That's all a mom can ask for."

After saying goodbye, Angel removed the phone from her ear and looked down at Dean's phone. She took a deep breath and let herself feel the relief that came with knowing that his mom seemed to already like her, even though they barely talked for twenty minutes.

"You alright, Babygirl?"

She turned to see Roman standing there looking at her with worry in his eyes. "Yeah." She nodded. "I'm alright. Just got off the phone with Dean's mom."

"Oh and how did that go." He said leading her back to their seats. "Denise can be a bit much. Just like her son."

"It went fine." She answered. "Found out that Dean's been keeping his mom in the dark about all his injuries."

"I could have told you that." Roman told her. "Dean doesn't like to worry her too much."

"And finding out that your son got hurt at work though at online news outlet is less worrying for her."

"Hey, you know it's impossible to explain how that man's mind works."

"True." He gestured for her to him to follow him.

Leading her back to their seat, they both fell into them. Without a word the two of them leant into each other as they waited. And waited…and waited.

The panic started back up as time ticked on. What was taking them so long? Why haven't they at least come out to give them an update? It didn't take this long to come get her last time…though last time he hadn't been stomped through cinderblocks.

"Fuck, now long has it been?" Roman said as if reading her mind. "I wonder if they forgot about us out here."

She shrugged. "I hope that's what's happen and not…"

"Wow there, don't even let yourself fall into that line of thought." Roman said getting up from his chair. "Let me go check what's happening."

"Ok."

Roman pulled away with a yawn and started back up to the woman who had greeted them.

Everything is fine. Everything is just fine. They're just running behind. Nothing is wrong. Dean is fine.

"HE WHAT!" Roman's voice bellowed through the waiting room. "How the fuck could you let him do that?"

Angel's heart dropped as she jumped from her chair. She rushed across the room towards the man who was clearly fuming. "Roman?" She saw his already tense body shot even more ridged.

"I'm sorry, sir." The nurse at the front desk said. "He has the right to refuse treatment."

Right to refuse treatment? What did that mean?

"How does someone who might have a head injury have the right to refuse treatment."

"From what we observed he was in sound mind and…."

"Sound mind?" Roman asked. "A man who was just brought here by ambulance for possible head and neck trauma, refusing treatment does not sound like someone in their right mind to me."

"Sir."

"How long ago did he leave."

The nurse sighed. "About forty minutes ago."

"And you didn't tell us?

"I thought he would have told you."

"Well clearly he didn't."

"What's going on?" The words came from Angel without her even acknowledging them.

Roman sighed and glanced over his shoulder. "Dean apparently check himself out, after refusing treatment, which this fucking hospital decided that was an ok thing to do."

"I'm sorry sir, but he has the right to do it."

Ringing filled her ears. He checked himself out? He left? Left without coming to find them? He left them there. Sitting there. Waiting for him. Waiting and worried about him. No, he wouldn't just let them sit there, right? He wouldn't leave without letting them know he was alright, right? He knew that the last time they saw him he was being wheeled away and they had no idea if he could even walk anymore. He must have known that they would be worried sick. How could he not? So why would he just leave them? Why would he just leave her? He left her there to worry and wait. He just left, left her. Didn't he realize she would be waiting for him? Did he even care?

He doesn't care about you. You are nothing but a hot fuck to Dean. He's using you. Eva's words slammed into her head.

No. She shook herself. She was wrong. Angel knew that. Dean did care about her.

Then why did he run away while you sat here trying to stop yourself from having a breakdown from how much you were worrying about him. You watched him get hurt. You saw him just lying there, not moving. You didn't even know if he was breathing. You could have just watched the man you loved die, and he just up and left you without a word. Does that sound like a man who cares about you?

No it doesn't.

R.R.R.

"Thank you very much." Roman said having to bite his tongue to stop himself from yelling at the nurse even more. Which was pretty hard to do, since he was furious about the fact that they just let a man with a head injury check themselves out.

Fuck. He groaned, turning away from the counter. "When we find him, I'm going to wring his neck…" His voice died out as soon as his eyes landed on Angel. He wasn't sure what he expected to see when he looked at her, but this wasn't it. She was just standing there, staring at him, like a statue, her face pale, her eyes dull. "Babygirl?" He stepped towards her. "Don't worry, we'll find him…"

"I'm tired." She said.

"Um, yeah sure. I get that." He rubbed the back of his neck. "You been through a lot today. So, what do you say we make a few phone calls and get some backup so that we can find that idiot faster…."

"I think I'm going to call an Uber and head back to the apartment." She said as if he hadn't just been speaking, as if she was mumbling to herself.

Roman's brows drew. "Ah…" He took in what she said. "If you really want to go back to the apartment, I can drive you."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about me. You should really focus on finding Dean."

"Angel."

"I'll be fine." She turned to walk towards where they were sitting to gather their things.

Roman cursed as he watched her. Her movements were janky like an old animatronic whose computers were slowly dying. Or like her body was fighting what her brain was telling her. He had never seen her like this. This numb.

Fuck Dean, you really did it this time. He rubbed his face before quickly moving to stop her.

"Wow, hold up." He put his hand on her arm. "No reason to waste the money on an Uber." He tried to push her to sit down. "Give me like five minutes and I'll find you a ride." She looked up at him with a cocked head but didn't say anything. The zooned-out look on her face made him sigh. "Five minutes, alright?"

She nodded.

He gave her a quick look over before stepping away, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Trying to ignore his racing mind, he found the number he wanted and brought the phone up to his ear.

It rang once before Renee picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey."

"Oh, hey. I was just about to call you guys." She said quickly. "How is everything? Any update on Dean?"

"Yeah, but not one you're going to like." He said through clenched teeth. "The asshole refused treatment and ran."

"I'm sorry, what?" She sputtered. "What do you mean he ran?"

"I mean he checked himself out of the hospital and left without letting us know." Roman explained. "We've been sitting here for like an hour, while he's galivanting around fucking Las Vegas."

"That motherfucker!" He could practically feel the anger seeping through the phone. "How's Angel?"

"That's why I'm calling." He sighed. "Can you come pick her up and take her back to Dean's place."

"Sure…" He heard the hesitation in her voice.

"She's not doing good." He came straight out. "When she found out that he left, all she said was that she was tired and wanted to go back to the apartment."

Renee sighed. "That's not good."

"No, it's not."

"I'm on my way."

"We'll wait out front for you."

"Yep."

He hung up and shook his head. Of all the stupid things that you've done, Dean, this was at the top. He glanced over his shoulder to where Angel was sitting to see her still just staring out into space. Even as he felt his heart clenched for the woman, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about how similar she was to her boyfriend.

Screaming and swearing? No problem they'll get over it soon and be back to their silly normal selves. Quiet and almost eerily calm? That's when it gets scary, and someone should keep an eye on them. One of them wasn't enough? He looked up as if he was trying to call out to a higher power.

When he didn't get the answer that he was 'looking' for, he pocketed his phone and walked back to Angel who barely even registered that he had returned. "Renee is going to come pick you up."

"Oh?" She hummed. "She doesn't have to do that. I can just…"

"She's already on her way." He stopped her. "Come on, I told her we would wait for her outside."

"Ok."

Keeping his eye on her, he slowly followed her out of the hospital. He noted that her movements had loosened up a little bit, still robotic but looser. He wondered if it was because she was finally processing what was happening.

Once they were outside, Roman looked around before his eyes landed on a small bench near the corner of the building. Quickly he reached out and steered her towards it. "Here, sit down." He said patting the bench, she did so without a word. He then plopped himself down next to her.

Even as they both relaxed against the metal, he could feel the tension that seeped between them. He wanted to reach out to her, but he wasn't sure if that's what she needed right now. Maybe she didn't need someone trying to get her to open up, he knew that, that tended to backfire when it came to Dean, so maybe they were the same in that as well. But he hated seeing her like this. Hated that she could be hurting all by herself in her mind. Hated that his best friend is what brought this on

When I find him. He gritted his teeth. His mind flashed with a picture of punching the man between the eyes, but he quickly pushed that down. Dean was already hurt, and he didn't want to chance making it worse. He would just have to wait until he was cleared but who knew how long that was going to take. Especially since he refused treatment. What if he was never cleared.

For the first time since the whole thing happened, he had let his mind entertain the darker thoughts. What if Dean was never cleared? What if Seth had just ended his career. Intense anger shot through him, one that he had only felt one other time. When Seth betrayed them. He clenched his hands into tight fists, his nails digging into his palms.

The sound of a car whipping into the parking lot next to them brought him out of his head. Looking up he saw Renee basically jumping out of the driver's seat. "I'm here."

"That was quick." He said knowing that she probably broke some speeding laws.

"Surprisingly not that much traffic between the hotel and here."

"Uh huh." He stood before turning to Angel who hadn't moved. "Babygirl, Renee is here."

"Oh?" She glanced at Renee. "You didn't have to come get me."

"Shut up." Renee told her with a chuckle. "You think I was going to let you try and get back to Dean's place all by yourself? Of course not."

"I would have been fine…"

"I know." Renee helped her up to her feet. "But I'm already here, so it doesn't matter now does it."

"I guess not."

When Renee's eyes flashed up to him, Roman shrugged.

Sighing, she turned back to Angel. "Come on, let's get you home."

After getting Angel settled into the car, the two of them turned towards each other and sighed. "You mind staying with her until I can find fuck face? I don't know how long it's going to take to track him down." Why couldn't they be in some run downtown with only one or two bars in it instead of Las fucking Vegas.

"Yeah," Renee nodded. "I've never seen her like this. I mean she shut down a bit the last time Dean when to the hospital but it's what nothing like this."

"I know." He sighed. "Dean has really fucked up this time."

"Yeah, he has." Anger flashed in her eyes.

Another dark thought hit him. What if this fuck up was too much for Angel? "I…I hope they can get past this…" He said in almost a whisper, like if saying it too loud would jinx everything. "Though, I wouldn't blame her if this was the last straw."

He saw Renee visibly flinch as if she was just smacked. "I…I don't think…shit." Renee looked at Angel through the car door window. "I'll try and talk to her, see what's going on in her head. If I'm honest, I don't think she's going to break up with him over this. I think that what happened tonight has just been too much for her, and she's struggling to process it. I mean think about how she looked tonight during the show. It was like she kept shutting down." She took a deep breath. "I'm sure everything will be fine. Just give her a little time and she'll be back to normal."

"I hope so. For Dean's sake."

"Let me get her back to the apartment." She said with a look that told him, she was now thinking about all the possibilities. "Fine our idiot."

"I will."

He waited until they were out of the parking lot and heading down the road before, he took his phone out once again, this time it was to Google the closest bars to the hospital. "And so we begin."

Astonishingly it didn't take him nearly as long as he thought it would take to find him. It only took four stops before he spotted the worn-out wife beater and jeans slumped over at the bar.

With Dean Ambrose in his sights, all the worry drained form him and was quickly replaced with unbridled anger that had him seeing red. Gritting his teeth he b-lined for the man. "What the fuck were you thinking?" He yelled as he reached out and grabbed him by the strap of his shirt, pulling it so hard that he was surpised the thing held. "Huh? Dean?"

Before Dean could react, the bartender was stepping up to them. "Wow, buddy!"

"It's fine." Dean spoke up, his voice small and chopped. Somewhere in the back of Roman's head he knew it was because it hurt the man to talk. "He's my friend."

The bartender eyed them up. "Friend or not, there's no fighting in the bar."

"Don't worry, we're not going to fight." Dean told him.

Roman raised a brow. Speak for yourself.

"He's just yelling at me for being a fucking moron."

"Took the words out of my mouth." Roman said.

The bartender lingered for a moment longer, obviously trying to figure out if he believed Dean's words or not, before shaking his head and walking off to do his job.

Closing his eyes, Roman took a deep breath and let go of the death grip he had on Dean's shirt. Though he knew it wasn't going to work, he tried his hardest to calm down. Even without the bartender's warning he knew that getting into the 'fight' with Dean wasn't the best option. The last thing he needed tonight was to end up spending the night in the slammer because he throttled his best friend.

When he no longer felt like punching Dean in the face, he opened his eyes, and what he saw almost knocked all the anger right out of him. Almost. Dean looked like hell. He looked worn out and sad, sporting two black eyes, a split lip, and a neck brace. The man was the definition of looking like a kicked dog.

"So, you know you were a moron, huh?"

Dean looked down. "Yeah…"

"And yet you still did what you did."

"Yep."

"Why?"

A sigh came from Dean, as he reached forward to tap his fingers against the glass in front of him. "I panicked."

"You panicked?"

He hummed an affirmation. "I guess after the ambulance pulled out of the arena, I must have passed out, because the next thing I know, I'm waking up in a daze, with people poking and prodding me. I didn't even know where was at first or why I was there. Hell, I could even remember what happened. All I knew was that I felt like I had been hit by a fucking truck…" A small flicker of fear flashed on his face. "I freaked out and fled. It wasn't until I was halfway down the street that I realized what I did."

"And instead of coming back to the hospital and owing up to it, you decided make yourself comfy at a bar."

"Yeah." He agreed. "I know it won't help, but I'm not drunk or anything. Apparently when you walk up to a bar with a neck brace on while looking like you've just dug yourself out of a grave, they'll refuse to serve you."

Leaning around him, Roman eyed up the glass of dark liquid on the bar in front of him. "Uh huh?"

"It's Coke."

"Don't take this the wrong way but…" He grabbed the glass and took a sip out of it. From what he could tell it was only Coke. Placing the glass back down, he leaned onto the bar and caught the bartender's attention, which wasn't that hard due to the fact the man was keeping an eye on them, probably to make sure nothing happened.

The man raised his brow in question.

"Wanted to know if this one his telling me the truth when he said he hasn't had anything to drink here."

"All he's had since he got here was water. In fact, he just recently convinced me into giving him a Coke."

Taking in the new information, Roman thanked the bartender before turning back to Dean. "I guess that does make everything a tiny bit better. At least I can say that when you left the hospital, leaving me and your girlfriend worried sick about you, you didn't go off and get shitfaced."

"Thought that wasn't because of a lack of trying." He swished the glass of Coke around.

Roman shook his head as he leaned back against the bar. "I don't know what to do, Dean. You really fucked up this time."

"I know."

"I mean it."

"I know." His voice broke. "Why do you think I'm still sitting here? I'm too scared to go back to face the music."

"After seeing how upset Angel is, I would be as well."

"Fuck…" He cursed. "That bad?"

"Yeah, that bad."

A broken grumbled noise came from Dean's throat and the sound broke Roman's heart. He knew right then that when he said that he was scared to face the music, it wasn't because he was scared to face Angel's 'wrath', it was because the man was worried that coming back meant the end of his relationship.

"Damn, I could really use a drink."

Roman scoffed. "I don't think that would help you're cause."

"No but it would numb some of the pain."

At this point he didn't know if Dean was talking physical or emotional. Looking over his shoulder, he eyed up the bottles lining the back wall of the bar. He could really go for a drink right now, not to numb any pain but to make it easier to look his best friend as he broke down.

"You got some Tylenol back at your place, don't you?"

It was Dean's turn to scoff. "Yeah, but I'm not sure that, that's going to cut it."

"Can't hurt to try." Roman pushed himself away from the bar. "Let's get you home."

Dean nodded the best he could with the brace. "I'm going to guess that she's not out looking for me, right?"

"No."

Taking a long deep inhale, Dean turned himself on the stool. "Alright. Let's go." Roman noted that he looked anywhere then at him while he forced himself onto his feet.

After a bit of struggling, swaying and swatting away Roman's hand when he tired to help, Dean managed to stand on his own.

"You look like shit."

"I fell like it." He groaned.

"Then maybe you should have stayed at the hospital."

"Probably." Without another word, he reached into his pocket, before pulling out a wad of cash and placed way too much money for some waters and a Coke on the bar. He then mumbled a thank you towards the bartender which Roman wasn't sure was heard before he started towards the door, dragging his feet as he walked.

As he followed behind him, Roman watched for any signs that Dean would need his help, even though he knew the bastard would push him away just like he did earlier. And much to his surprise the man only really stumbled once, and that was when he tried to open the door. Luckly, Roman didn't have to step, as someone opened the door from the outside.

"Oh sorry, man. Didn't see you there," The man apologized as he took in Dean's haggard appearance.

"Don't worry about it." Dean said as he caught himself on the door frame. He pushed through the doorway.

"Sorry." Roman mumbled to the guy as he quickly followed suit.

They made it ten feet down the road when Dean stomped and hunched over on a wall of a building. "Oh fuck."

"You ok?"

Dean turned his head slightly towards him. "Ro, tell me that the thoughts pouring through my head are wrong."

He blinked at the demand. "Dean?"

"Tell me that I'm just over thinking things like always and that I didn't just ruin the one fucking good thing in my life."

He glanced down to the ground. "Dean…"

"NO!" His yell ripped from him, sending him into another coughing fit. "Please…" He choked out. "Please." His whole body started to tremble. "God damn it!" He smacked his hands against the wall.

"Hey, easy now."

"I thought I was getting better. I thought…I…Fuck."

"Listen to me." He stepped forward with his hands out like he was trying to calm a rabid animal. "You working yourself up like this, isn't going to help anything, ok."

In fact, knowing him, it's only to make everything worse. Roman figured that given enough time alone in that mind of his he would convince himself that Angel breaking up with him was a done deal and that he could just pull the plug and do it first so that he didn't have to hear the rejection. The self-destructing bastard.

"Renee thinks that she just overwhelmed. That she needs some time to process everything." He said even as his own mind prickled with the same fear.

Dean sniffed. "I…I can't…" He coughed again.

"I know." He said daring to place a hand on the man's back. "I know."

He pushed himself from the wall with more force then he probably should have, making him stumble again. Catching him, he turned around and looked at Roman with a crazed desperate look in his eyes. "I have to talk to her." He said more to himself then anything. "I got to tell her, I'm sorry. I got to…"

"What you got to do is calm down." Roman told him. "You're not going to be able to do anything if you're having a breakdown."

"I got to…I can't let her….I have to."

"Dean, are you listening to me?"

He nodded.

"What did I say?"

"I have to calm down."

"Good. Now how about we talk some deep breaths and just relax for a second."

He could tell that Dean was trying, really trying to calm down. He could also tell that the man was having a battle with his mind, and he could tell that his mind was winning.

"Hey, I want you to count to ten and then look at me in the eyes." Roman said trying to break him out of his head. "Alright?"

He nodded again, and though he didn't count out loud, ten seconds later his eyes flashed up to him.

"What do you say we get you back to your apartment so that you can apologize to Angel." He said as he turned Dean towards the direction of his car. "But I want to give you a head up so that you're not blindsided if it happens. The conversation you want to have with Angel might not go the way you want. As Renee said, she might need some time. So, don't freak out if she's not as respective as you want her to be right away, alright? It might take a while for her to come around."

D.D.D.

Angel's going to leave me. The words played over and over into his head. I fucked up again, and she's going to leave me because of it.

No. He was going to talk to her. He was going to explain everything. Everything. He was going to get on his knees and beg if he had to.

What if she's not there when you get back. The voice in his head questioned. What if she packed her shit and left.

She wasn't that kind of person. Angel is sweet, kind and loving. She wouldn't just up and leave like that. Like I did. God how could he have been so stupid. Panicking or not, he should have known that Angel was waiting for him at the hospital, because of course she would be. He could imagine how she looked sitting in the waiting room, tears in her eyes, biting her lip, playing with the hem of her shirt.

"FUCK!"

A startled noise came from beside him as suddenly he was jerked around in his seat. "Shit, are you ok?" Roman asked.

Blinking, he looked around almost confused on why he was sitting in a passenger seat of a car. After he processed that Roman was driving him home, he turned to see the man glancing at him every now and then. Then he realized that he was waiting for an answer. "Yeah…Yeah I'm ok."

No I'm not. He racked his fingers through his hair as he fought the urge to smash his head against the dashboard. He might of if he didn't think that he was already concussed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Roman draw his brows together, looking a lot like he wanted to say something, but Dean beat him to it. "I'm just lost in my head."

"I figured." Roman sighed. "Just remember what I said earlier."

"Ro, I can't even remember getting into the car."

Another sigh. "I told you that working yourself up isn't going to help you. In fact, it might make things worse, if you go in there guns a blazing."

He knew that. He did.

"I can come up with you."

"What?"

"If you need some support, I can go up with you."

"No." He said quickly through clenched teeth.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

The last thing he wanted was for Roman to be there if Angel actually did break up with him. He didn't want his best friend see him grovel. The man may never see him the same way again if he knew just how low Dean was willing to go for her.

He could tell that Roman was debating in his mind whether or not to come up anyway but thankfully he decided against it. "Alright, I'll be back over in the morning to check on you two."

"Sounds good." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

You can do this Ambrose. You can do this.

You can't do this. You are a coward.

"Dean?"

"Huh?"

"Are you sure you're ok to go up by yourself?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because we've been sitting outside of your apartment building for a while now and you haven't even unbuckled your belt."

Dean slowly opened his eyes and looked out his window to see that Roman wasn't lying and they were indeed in front of his building. "Right."

He unbuckled and reached for the door but he his eyes locked on his shaking hand, and he quickly drew it to his chest as if that would hide from reality.

"Dean, if you're not ready or…"

"I'm fine." He barked. "I'm fine, just…sore." He opened the door as fast as he could before pulling his arms back into him. "Thanks for the ride."

Roman chuckled. "That makes it sound like I'm a fucking taxi for something."

"Shut up. You know what I mean."

"I do." He said. "And you will be seeing a bill from me for this. Now get going before I drag your ass upstairs myself. Oh," Roman said suddenly going through his pockets. "Though I don't think you'll get far without these." He jingled Dean's keys in his face.

Snatching them, Dean pulled himself from the car with a loud long groan.

"Don't worry about the rest of your shit, I'll bring it up tomorrow."

"Thanks." He closed the door and waved the man off before starting for his apartment.

Relief went through him when the front door to the building opened easier than the bar's door did, but then his eyes landed on the stairs…

His legs were threatening to give out by the time he got to his apartment door…damn it. Fumbling with his keys, he opened the door. His eyes darted around the dark living room, trying to find a sign that Angel was still here.

Anything.

A new rush of worry went through him when he came up empty handed.

She left.

She's gone.

He started to freak out when his eyes landed on the little black boots that Angel wore all the time. His body sagged and almost gave out as the realization hit him that because they were sitting next to his door, that meant she was still here. She had stayed.

Teetering forward, he caught himself on the back of his couch and took a deep breath. She was here, he had hope.

However, even as that hope bloomed in his chest, dreed still filled his body as he turned towards the hallway. He needed to see her. Need to physically see her before he could really relax at all.

Pushing himself from the couch, he swayed before starting for the door at the back of the hall. Stumbling forward, he made it halfway down the hall, when his legs just couldn't take it anymore and he was forced to stop and lean against the wall. "Fuck." He mumbled as he tried lean his head back, though the brace stopped him.

Closing his eyes, he ran his hand over the front of the brace and sighed. A wave of embarrassment washed through him; the thing made him feel weak, useless. He didn't want Angel to see him like that. Not when he was about to be the most vulnerable that he's ever been with her, or anyone for that matter.

As if it was burning him, Dean grabbed at the brace and pulled it off. The rush that came with being free was both exhilarating and tortuous as a new shot of pain raced up his spine. Holding back the groan that was sitting in his throat, he looked back at the ajar door in front of him. Suddenly the brace didn't seem so important.

What if this was the end?

What if as soon as he walked through that door, he lost the one good thing in his life?

He thought about trying to avoid Angel for as long as he could, just to prolong what might happen. No! He was already a coward once tonight; he wasn't going to do it again.

Still using the wall to hold himself up, he pushed himself forward. Every step he took felt like he was walking to his own execution. He hated to admit it, but his hand shook as he pushed his open slowly.

He almost thought he was seeing things when he saw the lump under the covers on Angel's side of the bed. She had stayed! It was true. She

That hopeful feeling came back to him. Maybe if she was willing to sleep in his bed, that meant that she was willing to hear him out.

Trying to be as quiet as he could, he tossed the brace that he was still holding. He then took a deep breath before forcing himself to stand as straight as he could. Taking a step forward, he called for her. "Angel?"

God he hated the déjà vu feeling that hew as getting, epically because it meant this wasn't the first time he managed to fuck up this badly. Though this was the first time that he thought she might be so angry that even her love for him wouldn't stop her from leaving him.

Even though she didn't answer him, he knew that she wasn't sleeping. Her breathing was as even as it would be, and she tended to hum in her sleep when he said her name. A habit that he thought was so cute.

"Angel, darlin' I know you're awake."

He heard the exhale. "I'm not in the mood Dean." Her voice sounded raw, like she had been crying. And it pained him because he was pretty sure she had, and it was because of him.

"I know." He sighed. "But I want to apolo…"

"Dean, I don't want to talk about this right now." She shot him down. "I'm tired."

"And I understand that." He nodded. "I really do, but I really want to…"

"Dean!" She barked out before her voice went back to being small and monotoned. "You know what I want? I want to go to bed. Ok. I know you want to come in here and tell me you're sorry, and explain your side of things, but I don't really want to hear it right now. Ok. Because right now I don't care that you're sorry."

Everything he wanted to say slipped away from him. He had never heard her like this. Never heard her so cold… It hurt. Like a knife, right through the chest. "I…I…"

"Dean. Please. I just want to go to bed."

You're losing her.

"No." He said out loud.

"No?" She turned slightly and glared at him over her shoulder.

"That not what…I wasn't…"

You're losing her.

"Please, Angel. I need to…"

She shook her head. "It's always what you need."

He blinked at the sudden tone change in her voice. Gone was the coldness, that had been replaced with a venom that made his stomach twist.

"What about what I need? Huh? What about me? Did you ever stop and think about what I needed tonight? Did you?" She paused like she was waiting for an answer, an answer that Dean couldn't give her. He didn't want to admit that he didn't. "You know... I have always been by your side, no matter what happened. I've watched you get hurt so many times, only to help you pick yourself up off the mat so that you can go and do it all again."

"I know."

"But this time, I didn't get to pick you up. I had to stand there and watch as you got carted out on a stretcher."

"I know."

"Yeah, well did you know that there was a point tonight that I couldn't tell if you were breathing? Did you know that? Did you know that since I watched Seth Curb Stomp you through a pile of cinderblocks that I've been having a full fucking breakdown? And then even then, even when I was losing my mind, I tired to pull myself together to be 'strong' for you."

He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, though he didn't know what. There was nothing he could say. Thankfully she cut him off before something stupid came out.

"I even call your fucking mother to tell her that you've been hurt. That's not how I wanted to introduce myself to your mom."

She called my mom?

"And then I waited, for you. I sat in that waiting room, my mind going a million miles and hour, dreading the worse news. Especially when it seemed like they were taking forever to come and get Roman and I, but then I learned that you checked yourself out of the hospital, and the staff thought you told us." Her voice broke. "You left us... you left me sitting there worried about you."

"Angel."

"You left me sitting there worried about you! When I needed you. I needed to know you were ok, and you left." Her face suddenly grew solemn, and she looked away. "Maybe Eva was right."

Eva? "What?"

Shaking her head, she slowly lowered herself back under the covers. "I'm tired Dean. I'm going to bed."

"But."

"No buts, I'm going to bed."

He didn't want to upset her more, but something about that look on her face felt the last nail in his coffin and he wanted to know what it was about, and what was Eva right about.

"We both need sleep." She said with the same small voice this all started with. "and we can talk tomorrow."

Tomorrow. He could do that, "Yeah, ok. Tomorrow."

"Good night, Dean."

"Good night."

Even though not another word was said, Dean stayed planted in his spot. His body twitched and ached to fall into his side of the bed, but he had a feeling that Angel would appreciate some space right now. So instead, he turned around to head back to the living room. However, before he could take a step forward, his foot caught against something, something soft and fuzzy.

Confused, he slowly looked down, his heart clenched when he saw the little stuffed otter that he had gotten for Angel laying on the floor. Drawing his brows together, he bent down to pick it up, ignoring the pain and lightheadedness that shot through him as he did.

Fathering the otter into his arms, he tried not to think about how the thing got halfway across the room when its place was on the bed. Tiptoeing out of the bedroom, he made his way down the hall and to the couch before falling into the ring with a pained moan.

He then placed the little otter on the couch next to him putting his head in his hands and closing his eyes.

God, he felt like shit; physically, emotionally, mentally, in every other possible way as well. He didn't know if he wanted to scream or cry, and whether it would be from pain or frustration.

Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to try and fix things with Angel tonight, he just wanted to sleep, but he was sure that was more than what he could ask for. Sleep was not going to come easy for him. At least a restful one. Resigning himself to this fact, he leaned back against the couch and took a deep breath.

He looked at the otter next to him. "Just you and me on the couch tonight." He basically flopped onto his side before throwing his arm over the otter. If he had any dignity left, he might have been a little ashamed that he was cuddled a stuffed animal to fall asleep. However, as he pressed the top of the otter under his chin, he caught the whiff of Angel's shampoo and he couldn't stop himself from smiling slightly as he slowed his eyes and let the scent soothe his overworking brain.

…

Shuffling woke him. It was just a small noise really but to him it felt like someone was playing the drums right in his ear. Groaning, he tried to turn over and hide his head under his pillow, only for the rest of his body to complain about that.

"Fuck." He breathed out as he slowly let his eyes open. It took a moment for him to realize that he was lying on his couch in his living room, it took him another reason to remember when.

Even as every muscle in his body cried out for him to stop, he shot up from his spot and turned his head towards the shuffling noise. His eyes landed on Angel, who was trying to slowly ease something out of her bag.

"Angel." He rasped.

He could tell by the small flinch she gave as she turned towards him that he had startled her. "Dean, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

He went to tell her that it was fine, when he realized that she was clenching her keys and phone to her chest, and she was wearing her shoes. "Where you going?"

"Um." She bit her lip. "Renee is taking me out." She said her eyes dropping to the floor, she looked guilty for some reason.

"Out?"

She nodded "To relax."

"Ah." He cleared his throat. The weird almost stranger vibe that was between the two of them was making his skin crawl. "Um, do you know when you're coming…back." His voice cracked.

She rubbed the back of her. "I'm not sure, before dinner I think."

"Ok."

She said she'll be back.

But she also said you would talk today.

"I was wondering… because um, you said we would talk today."

"We will, when I get back."

"Ok."

She didn't say bye, didn't say I love you, didn't say anything as she left.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Dean collapsed against the couch, tears slipping from his eyes. Part of him wasn't sure if it was all his dread finally catching up to him, or if it was because of the pain but he couldn't stop crying.

"Fuck." He rubbed his at his eyes. Each inhale he took came with a new spike of pain that started another new wave of tears. Sitting there he let the vicious cycle wash over him as if it would cleanse his soul.

It won't. Nothing can cleanse that shit.

When his body couldn't produce any more tears, he slowly slid himself back down onto the couch, until he was laying down, his face smashed into the cushions. As he laid there a weight seemed to be placed on his back, making it feel impossible to move. Leaving him with nothing to do then to wait, wait for Angel to come back.

Like a dog.

A lost little mutt who stupidly snapped at the hand that feeds it.

…

"You know your could answer your phone."

A loud curse came from him as he startled when the deep voice woke him from his half sleep. Turning his head way too fast sent intense pain show right now his spine, making his eyes water.

"Fuck." He glared at Roman who was leaning over the back of the couch. "You know you could knock?"

"I did."

"Good to know you'll just walk into someone's house even if they don't answer."

"Only when it's you." He said with a smirk.

"Lucky me."

"You are lucky, lucky that I didn't kick your ass last night." He said with a snicker. "I took pity on you because I thought you were already looking pretty shitty."

"You're one to talk." He gestured the dark bags under Roman's eyes.

"Oh, I'm sure. I didn't get much sleep last night, and who's fault is that?" Roman asked as Dean shifted in his spot.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to mess with your beauty sleep."

"It's fine. I can miss a few hours and still look fine." He said pushing away from the couch. "You on the other hand…"

Taking a deep breath, he moved his aching body around until there was enough room for Roman to sit down. However, the man didn't sit down. "Wh…" Before he could ask what the man was doing, he heard his refrigerator open. "There's nothing in there." He called. "We haven't been able to get to the store yet. We've been a little busy if you hadn't noticed."

"Just a little bit." Roman said back as he shut the fridge.

"There might be a thing of popcorn in the cupboard…AH FUCK." He yelled as something very cold landed on his stomach. Jumping as much as he could, he grabbed at the frozen bag of peas before glaring at Roman who was once again leaning on the back of the couch.

"You really need to buy and ice pack."

"I normally just get a bag of ice and put a handful in a Ziplock bag." He grumbled.

"Of course you do." Roman said as he finally made his way to sit on the couch. "Because why would Dean Ambrose own anything like a basic ice pack, that might be too close to taking care of himself properly."

"I'm sensing a little bit of hidden meaning there." Dean held back a shout as he put the frozen peas against the side of his neck.

"Nope not at all." Roman leaned back the best he could. "Maybe someone should learn to talk care of himself better."

"I'm an old dog."

"You're twenty-eight."

"Old."

"Shut the fuck up."

The two of them sat there for a moment, silence talking over their conversation. Which usually he could handle a nice comfortable silence with Roman, but this one made his skin crawl. He knew what the man wanted to talk about. Knew the question that was on the tip of his tongue.

"Just ask already."

Roman took a deep breath. "How did your talk with Angel go?"

"I'll give you two guesses." He sighed.

"That well?"

He fiddled with the bag of peas. "We really didn't talk." He sighed. "She said she wanted to talk about it today, but then she left before we could."

"Then you'll just have to talk about it when she gets back."

"I know, just sucks having to sit here and wait. It feels like I'm just waiting for my own execution."

"She's not going to break up with you."

"I don't know about that." He said trying to pull himself into more of a ball, maybe if somehow he contorted in his six-foot four body even smaller he could just disappear. "You didn't hear her last night. She was so upset. She sounded pretty done."

"What did she say."
"She said she didn't care that I was sorry. She just wanted to go to bed."

"That it?"

"I mean no."

"Did she ever said that she was done?"

He thought back on the conversation. He could almost replay it as if someone recorded it to the back of his eyelids. "No, she pretty much just gave me a well needed ass whopping. Saying that I left her when she needed me. That she doesn't think I cared at all about how worried she was about me…" An image of Angel's solemn face flashed in his mind. "She also said something about Eva being right."

Roman sat up straight. "She said what?"

Dean's heart stopped at the man's reaction. "She said something about Eva being right."

"Fuck."

"What?"

"It just…"

"Do you know what the fuck she's talking about?"

Roman looked away from him, his eyes running around the blank wall. He did. He knew and he knew that it was something that he didn't want to hear. Seeing the man fight with himself, Dean realized he needed to know what it meant.

"Roman."

"I do, and it's not good." He said confirming his thoughts.

"Tell me." He ordered as he pulled himself up so that he was sitting up. "Ro. Tell me." He said, gritting his teeth as his sore muscles complained and groaned with every movement.

Hesitation filled the other man's face before he finally opened his mouth. "Eva Maire has been saying some really fucked up things about you."

"What kind of things?"

Again Roman hesitated this time, his eyes shot down to his lap. "Like, you don't give two shits about Angel and that you're only using her for her body."

Forget stopping, Dean heart plummeted out of his chest and hit the floor.

"I don't really know first thing what she's been saying about you other then some tweets she posted." Roman shifted so that he could pull his phone out of his pocket. "But Renee's been Fkeeping in the loop a bit." He held out his phone. "These are screen shots of the tweets."

Dean took the phone in his hand, and only realized when his brought the thing to his face that he was shaking. Squinting from the brightness of the screen, he scanned through the tweets.

She's following him like a lost puppy that's scared to get kicked to the curb if she doesn't do as she told.

Maybe Eva was right. No I'm the dog.

Dean didn't even look the slight bit upset that someone just smacked 'his girl'.

Maybe Eva was right. No that's not right, I was so pissed that he smacked my girl. She is my girl.

Girl he doesn't care about you. Why do you care so much about him. Get a clue.

Maybe Eva was right. I do care about her. Angel knows I care about her. Does she?

The crowd is cheering for that abusive piece of shit.

Maybe Eva was right. I would never hurt her. But you did.

He doesn't care about her and never will…

Maybe Eva was right. Oh god. Angel believes that I don't care about her. Bile rose in his throat as he stared at the words on the screen. He tired to tell him that surely Angel knew that he cared, right? Surely she didn't think all this of him.

But why wouldn't she? The voice in his head asked. With the way you have treated her? You only think about what you need, what you want. She said it herself. You couldn't even tell the woman you love, that you love her back because your too fucked up in the head.

A loud desperate sob ripped from his throat. Dropping the phone, he brought his hands up and grabbed two fist full of his own hair and pulled. The pain seemed to ground him enough that he could make out Roman talking to him, but not what he was saying. He could feel the hands on his wrist, trying to stop him from pulling his own hair out, but he couldn't get his own fingers to unlock their hold on his locks.

You're going to lose the only good thing in your live. The only person you ever loved because you were too scared to admit that you have already fallen in love with her the moment she trusted you to fall asleep as you held in her in the back seat of that fucking valet car. She's going to leave you thinking that you never cared about her. She going to walk away from you not knowing that you gave her your heart the moment she looked at him in the eyes with those big hazel eyes.

"NO!" He jumped to his feet, having to catch himself when his legs almost gave out on him

"Dean?"

"Where did Renee take her?"

"What?"

He glared at the man who was know looking at him like he was possessed. "I know you know where Renee took her. I'm not dumb."

"Dean…"
"You either tell me, or I'm going to run around all of Las Vegas until I find her."

Roman's eyes locked on his, and he knew that man was trying to call his bluff. However, there was no bluff to call.

Roman sighed. "Fine," He stood up. "Let's go."

A.A.A.

When they first got to the spa, Angel thought that she this was a mistake, there was no way she was going to be able to relax after leaving things the way she did with Dean. But as she laid there on stomach basking in the afterglow of the wonderful massage that she had just gotten, she did fell herself relax a bit.

However, it wasn't just do to the fact that she felt the best she has in the while, like the massage had managed to somehow erase miles of travel from her. Nope. It was also because of the fact, that when you're lying there wasn't much you can do except think. She didn't know if it was the aromatherapy oils they put in the room, or just because time had passed but she had been able to go through everything and felt ready to talk to Dean.

She was almost looking forward to it. Sure, she was still angry with him, rightfully so, but she also knew that he had been hurt and needed her to be there for him, through whatever was going to happen next.

"You doing good?" The tech asked her with a small back to her arm.

"I am." She managed to mumble, the relaxing haze making it hard to form words.

"That's good." The tech chuckled. "I'm going to go and get everything ready for your facial, alright? Do you need anything?"

She shook her head slightly.

"I'll be right back."

As she heard the door to her room shut, she wondered if she could get Roman and Dean to get a massage here. She had a feeling it would do them good, though she would have to see how 'limited' Dean was going to be first. Wouldn't want to make matters worse.

"Sir, you can't go in there!" She heard someone yell as the door to her room slammed open.

Startled by the loud sound, she jumped up from her spot on the 'bed'. All her relaxed feelings washed from her as she stared wide eyed at the intruder in her room. It took her a moment longer than she would like to admit to realized that she knew this large, scruffy man.

"Dean?"

His eyes ran over her body for a second, reminding her that shew as naked before landing on her face, where they stayed as he walked almost casually over to her. As he got closer to her, she noticed the red puffiness that peaked out through the dark bruises that surrounded his eyes. She also noticed the almost panicked look on his face, which sent up a red-flag in her head.

"Dean, what's…"

He dropped to his knees in front of her before reaching up with both his hands to hold her face, making her look right at him. His eyes pleaded with her, and he leaned forward until she could feel his shaky shallow breaths on her face.

He watched as his mouth opened and closed with silent words before he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, it looked like he was going to try to speak again, only for his eyes to flicker down to her lips before shooting back up to her. Ever so slowly he closed the gap between the two of them and kissed her.

It was a gentle kiss, but she felt like he was pouring everything he had in him. It was his apology. The one she had snubbed the night before. The one she wasn't quite sure she was ready to hear, but as she felt the desperation that he was feeling, she knew she needed to.

In a rush of movement, he broke the kiss, stood up, threw his arms around her and smashed her against his chest. As she felt his heaving breaths and heard his racing heartbeat, she couldn't help but to grab onto him just as tightly as he was her.

"I love you."

Her eyes shot wide as the words were whispered into her hair. They had been so quiet that she thought maybe she missed heard him, but then he said it again, and again and again, like a mantra. Each time also came with a heart breathing sob that had her holding on tighter.

The waterfall of 'I love yous' stopped and were suddenly replaced with 'I'm sorrys.'.

The pain in his voice, made tears build up in her eyes. She wanted nothing more then to pull him into her arms and hold him and sooth away the hurt in any way that she could. But when she went to do just that, he gripped onto her tighter, not letting her budge.

"Dean…"

"I know you pissed at me. I know fuck this whole thing up. I know I should have said it sooner. And I'm sorry that this is what it took for me to do it." He rambled. "But I can't stand the thought of you leaving, thinking that I don't care about you. Thinking that I don't love you because GOD DAMN IT do I love you. I love you so much it fucking hurts. And I need you to know that. Please. Please…"

She tried to listen to Dean's ramblings, trying to let him get everything out, but her mind got stuck on the fact that he thought she was going to leave him. The air froze in her lungs and her heart clenched. "Dean…Hey." She pushed against his chest. "Dean." She tried to sound stern to try and get him to let her go but she couldn't hide the sadness in her voice. "I need you to look at me."

A strangled whine came from him, but he did do as she asked and eased up on his hold, so that she could move herself to be able to look into his tear-stained eyes. The look he was giving her, made her realize that he thought this was it. That she was about to break up with him.

"Where did you get the idea that I think you don't care?" She asked.

"You said it last night."

She drew her brows together as she thought hard about what she had said to him that made him believe that. She knew she wasn't very nice with her words, but she was sure she never said the words 'I don't think you care about me'.

"You said that 'maybe Eva was right'."

A cold chill rushed through her. She had said those exact words, hadn't she. "Oh, I didn't mean that." She said quickly. "I was just so hurt that…" She paused. "Wait? How do you know what that means?"

"Roman told me." He said looking away. "He showed me the tweets."

"Ah." She bit her lip.

"I'm sorry that you thought you had to hide what she was saying from me."

"I just didn't want to bother you with it. I didn't want what she was saying to pressure you into saying that you loved me back…That kind of backfired huh."

He hummed.

He felt his hold on her loosen even more, he was pulling away. Fear gripped her as she quickly reached out for his face. She ever so softly placed her hand on his cheek, using it to force him to turn his head towards her, which she knew he allowed. "I swear, I have never truly believed a word she said. I only said that I did because I stupidly and selfishly wanted to hurt you like I was hurting."

She took a deep breath as his hand found hers.

"I know you care about me."

He leaned into her touch. "Good. Because I do. I fucking love you."

"I love you too." She said with a small smile, her heart and stomach fluttering from the words. "And I'm not leaving you." She added. "I don't know where you got that idea, but you get it out of your head right now Ambrose, because you're stuck with me."

A heavy sigh of relief rushed from Dean as his eyes lit up slightly. She saw tears once again well in his eyes as he turned his face into her palm and kissed it. "Thank you."

Her heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help as the smile on her face grew a little larger.

"I hate to interrupt." A voice came from behind Dean. Leaning around Dean who didn't move an inch, she saw two different techs, one looking like she was melting with happiness, and the other looking extremely pissed off. "As cute at this moment is, he," She pointed at Dean. "needs to leave or else we're going to have to call the cops."

"Oh! Right! He'll be going. Give me one second." She said quickly before looking back at Dean. He didn't seem deterred by the way that law was being brought up. "Go wait for me in the waiting room, I'll be right out."

"No." He shook his head, kissing her hand again. "Don't let me ruin your day or relaxation. Though I probably already did." He told her. "You stay here. Get whatever you want to get done, both you and Renee, put all expenses on my card and we'll talk more when you get home."

"You don't have to do that."

"Yeah I do." He said leaning down to her face. "Enjoy yourself."

Before she could open her mouth to protest, he kissed her and pulled back.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"Sir."

"Coming." He said stepping backwards. His eyes locked on her the whole time as he made his way to the door. Just before he stepped through, he gave her that bright charming smile. "I'll see you when you get home, love."

The two techs escorted Dean out, and as soon as the door shut behind them. Angel fell back on the 'bed' and giggled. HE LOVES ME!

---

Samcoo 12: I'm so glad that you still are like the story. I hope you're still around to read this chapter. Lol sorry about the long wait. Will I be writing movie Dean into my story? YES! I love 12 Round

Lifewithcathair: I hope it was worth it. Sorry about the wait. Thank you so much for the review.

Katmoonchild: I cried when I saw what happened with Dean...but it got us a pretty good movie where i got to see Dean be a hot sexy cop, so...worth it? I hope the wait was worth it as well.

Missdeanambrose: It always amazes me when people say they are rereading the story, we are almost at a million words...that is too long.

Katara Melody Cullen: Thank you for the review as always. I hope you don't hate me for making you wait so long. I don't know if Angel handled it better or worse then I would have.

Sonia: I updated again. Sorry about the wait! I hope you enjoy this chapter.