Welcome to chapter One Hundred and Thirty Five! I want you to know I am still working on this story. Just been pretty...low lately.
Sunday: September 21, 2014 / Monday Night Raw: September 22, 2014
"Looks like someone's out." Roman chuckled.
Dean looked away from the TV that hung in the corner of the room. His eyes instantly locked on Angel who was curled up, as much as she could be, in the small hospital guest chair that sat on the far side of Roman's bed.
"I'm not surprised. I don't think she slept in the last twenty-four hours." He said with a groan as he stretched. "She's been running on fumes."
"Well, she's not the only one." Roman stated giving him a look.
"Me?" He shook his head. "Nah, I'm good."
"Sure, that's why I've been watching you fall asleep for the last few episodes of Gilligan's Island."
He paused. "Gilligan's Island was on?" He glanced at the TV for confirmation only to sadly see a Glade Plugin commercial.
"My point exactly." Roman said and he knew that it was accompanied by a roll of the eye without even looking back. "Now, how about instead of fighting me about it, you take little miss sleepy pants here back to the hotel so that the two of you can get some rest before the show tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" He grumbled as he stood up. "I'm not slated for the show tomorrow."
"You're joking right? You think that after what the two of you just pulled, that they're not going to want you to go in for Raw?"
Shrugging, Dean walked around the bed. "Didn't really think about it to be honest."
"Well, I'll give you a hundred bucks, if Hank doesn't reach out to you by the time you show up here tomorrow."
"Don't say that." He warned as he grabbed Angel's bag off the floor and slung it around his shoulder. "I will show up at like five in the morning, just to collect."
"You do that, and I will personally have them kick you out." Roman told him. "The one good thing about this surgery is, that I'm going to milk it for all its worth, and that starts with not having to wake up before the sun rises."
Snickering, Dean reached down to give Angel's shoulder a gentle shake. When the only answer he got was her mumbling as she shifted slightly, he debated just picking her up and carrying her out. And the only think that stopped him from doing just that was all the weird looks he knew he would get.
"Angel." He gave her another shake.
"Huh?" She muttered.
"Wake up, Darlin." He said, his voice soft and low to let her wake up gently. "Time for us to go."
A snicker beside him, made him look up from her to see Roman watching him with an amused grin on his face. When he raised a brow, Roman's grin grew into a full blown smile, before he started to tease him with a kissy face.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Go fuck yourself."
"Dean?" Angel stirred with a whiny yawn.
"Hello sleeping beauty." He turned back to her, ignoring the sickly-sweet look he was getting from his best friend. "You ready to go back to the hotel?"
"Yeah." She nodded, her eyes fluttering as she fought not to fall asleep again.
"Are you going to make it?"
She hummed an answer, before sluggishly getting up from the chair. When she swayed a bit, he went to reach out to help her, but she caught herself on the edge of Roman's hospital bed.
"Damn Babygirl, you're dead on your feet." Roman teased.
She shook her head. "Just a bit tired."
"A bit?" He scoffed. "If you say so."
"Well, Miss 'just a bit tired', let's get you to bed." Dean adjusted her bag on his shoulder.
"Sounds good." She yawned as she leant over the bed to gently hug Roman. "Call us if you need anything."
"I will." He hugged her back. "Get some rest."
"We will." She gave him a sleepy smile. "Night Roman."
"Night."
Dean stepped forward and clapped the man on the shoulder. "We'll be back in the morning."
"After eight, right?" He gave a hard look.
"Of course." He chuckled, as helped Angel away from the bed and towards the door.
"Dean. I'm serious."
"Bye Ro."
"Dean…" The door closing behind them cut off Roman's protests in just the perfect way that it had him chuckling.
A weight pressing against his side, made him look down to see Angel snuggling into his body. "You ok?"
She nodded against him. "Yeah." Her voice broke with a little yawn.
"Let's get you to bed, darlin'." He leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
A.A.A.
Angel woke with a grumble to a buzzing next to her head. Rolling over, she eyed up her phone. Sleep clouding her eyes, she couldn't read the name that was on the phone, but she answered it anyway.
"Hello?" She yawned.
"Morning, Angel." The voice on the other side of the phone said. "Sounds like I woke you?"
"It's fine." She said, rolling onto her back. "What's up."
"I'm calling to talk to you about your little comeback last night. As much as the Authority isn't happy about the 'stunt you pulled', their words not mine; the hire ups loved it and want to talk about you coming in tonight to start your official return."
"Uh, ok sure." She said trying to get her brain back online, as well as not let on that she was falling back to sleep during a work call.
"You think the two of you are up for an in-ring promo?"
"An in ring-promo?" She muttered back as she rubbed her eyes.
"I know it isn't much, but Hunter voted a match as soon as I suggested it." The voice that she suddenly realized was Hank's said.
"Sounds like something he would do."
"Doesn't it." He chuckled. "So, how about it."
"I think we can handle an in-ring promo."
"Good." Hank breathed. "Though I wasn't giving you much of a choice. McMahon wouldn't quit talking about how much traction your return caused and told me to make sure you're at the show tomorrow."
"Well, rest assured we will be."
"You're the best."
"I wouldn't say that." She laughed. "I know we've caused you a lot of trouble, especially with the Authority."
"Can't say you haven't, however, you and Dean are some of my favorites to work with, so that tends to make up for everything else." He told her. "Don't tell anyone that I said that."
"I won't." She promised as the door to the bathroom opened and Dean came waltzing out, freshly showered. "Oh, perfect timing. Hank, hold on one moment, Dean just walked into the room. I'll ask him about tonight." She said, catching Dean's attention. "You good with an in-ring promo tonight?"
"Fuck," He cursed. "Yeah, that's fine."
She frowned. That was not the reaction she had been expecting from him. She was sure that he would prefer a match, but before this they hadn't even been slated to be a part of the show tonight. They were supposed to have another week off. Worried, she went to ask him if everything was alright, when he chuckled and shook his head. "Um, Dean said he's down."
"You seem unsure about that?" Hank questioned.
"He just answered weirdly."
"Weirdly? Anything I should worry about?"
"Nope." She told him. "We'll be there."
"Alright good." He said sounding relieved. "Well, that's all I needed. Now, I have to go get my ass down to the arena to make sure everything is set up for tonight."
"Because the whole thing would fall a part without you."
"Yep." He sighed. "See you later."
"Bye."
As soon as she dropped her phone on the bed, Dean perked up from where he was going through his bag. "Hank?"
"Yeah." She answered, falling back into her pillow. "So, what was the reaction to the promo about?"
"It's stupid."
"Ok? And?"
"Really it's nothing, just," He breathed. "Roman, told me he'd give me a hundred dollars if Hank didn't contact us about tonight before we made it to the hospital."
"Ah." She sighed. "Of course it would be something like that."
"I said it was stupid."
"You did." She covered her eyes with her arms. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine."
"Wow? I'm a little impressed that you didn't head out to see Roman already."
"I thought I would let him rest." He said as she listened to him move around the room.
"That's sweet of you."
"Yeah that, and he told me that he'll kill me if I showed up before eight."
"There it is."
The edge of the bed dipped, and she peeked around her arm to see Dean leaning down to lace up his boots. She watched him for a moment, when her mind seemed to snap out of her sleep induced brain fog. "Wait a minute, please tell me you were joking and that you didn't really bet a man who just had emergency surgery a hundred dollars."
"I mean," A proud smirk came over his face as he glanced back at her. "I didn't bet him anything, he's the one who put the money on the line, not me."
"Not sure that makes it better." She told him. "You know he's hopped up on pain meds, right?"
"Seemed stable enough to me."
She rolled her eyes. "Sometimes…"
"Sometimes, what?" Dean asked, fully turning towards her.
"Nothing."
He raised a brow as he stood up. "Nothing?"
The tone in his voice had her scooting across the bed as she nodded. "Yeah, it was nothing."
She hadn't even managed to get halfway across the bed, when he reached out and grabbed her by the ankle, pulling her back towards him.
"Nah, I think you were definitely going to say something." He said, grabbing for her other leg.
"It wasn't anything important." She tried to kick out of his grasp.
"You sure about that?"
"I'm sure." Those devilish blue eyes dropped from her face to her feet which he was holding up in the air. "Dean, don't…" Her words were cut out by the sudden attack of him tickling her feet. "Dean!" She laughed. "Please."
"You know what you got to do."
"Stop!" She trashed around on the bed.
"Tell me what you were going to say."
Tears brimmed in her eyes as her sides started to hurt from the laughter. "Please!"
"Are you going to tell me?" He paused to let her breathe.
She nodded through her pained laughter. "I…was going to say…." She huffed out a breath. "Sometimes you make wanna smack you."
Dean snorted. "All this, for that."
"I told you it wasn't important."
"That you did."
Sticking out her tongue, she tried to pull her legs from his grasp. "Let me go."
"Nah."
"I would like to get ready for the day."
"Nah." He smirked.
"Dean." She chuckled gently. "I really don't want to be wearing my pjs while we go visit Roman, or on TV."
He took a deep breath as he ran a hand up her bare leg. "Fine." He dropped them making her bonce.
Quickly she pulled her legs close to her, before rolling across the bed. Keeping one eye on him, to make sure he wasn't about to change his mind, she made her way into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
"You know next time." Dean called through the door. "You should just smack me, would had made this a lot easier."
"I'll keep that in mind."
…
"There they are!" Renee called as soon as they made it into the arena. "Welcome back."
Chuckling, Angel placed her bags on the floor before embracing her. "Good to be back."
"You act like we've been gone for years, it was only a month." Dean said behind them.
Renee pulled away and glared at him. "A month is still a very long time, especially in this job."
The two stared each other down, before they laughed and pulled each other in for a hug. Angel couldn't help but to lovingly roll her eyes at the display. "How were things while we were gone?" She asked as they pulled away from each other.
Renee sighed, turning towards her. "Unbearable."
"That bad?" Dean chuckled picking up Angel's bags.
"I'm serious." She told him. "The whole time you've been gone, all of the Authority's lackies have been parading around here like they just won the lottery or something. Every single one of them, even RybAxel. It's been so fucking annoying." She shook her head. "But that's normal around, right? What we really need to talk about is your time in Hollywood."
"There's not much to tell."
"Bullshit. You have to have some set stories."
"Sure, but nothing too crazy." Angel stated.
"Really?" Renee's eyes flickered towards Dean, who just raised a brow at her.
"Ha, ha."
"Low blow?"
"Nah, but certainly uncreative." He sighed.
Renee took a deep breath and sighed as she turned her back towards him. "I don't care if it's not 'crazy' you need to tell me everything."
Angel shook her head at the eager look on Renee's face. "Alright, but can we get settled in first? We're not even two feet into the arena."
"Fine." She let out an exaggerated sigh. "I have to go meet up with Racheal about some outfits she wants me to try on any way, so I'll let you two get all cozied up in whatever dark corner you pick, and I'll meet you at catering afterwards."
"Sounds like a plan." Angel nodded. "Text us when you're done?"
"Will do." Renee said as she pulled her into a side hug. "See you in a bit."
"See you."
Angel watched for a moment as Renee started down the hall, when she felt breath on her neck. "Getting cozied up in a dark corner sound damn fine to me."
Without looking behind her, she watched Dean in the stomach making the man grunt. "Behave."
"I don't want to."
"You never want to." She said turning towards him.
"You know me so well." He smirked.
They did end up finding themselves a dark corner to hang out in. Well, it wasn't really a corner, more of a section of the hallway that was cluttered with road boxes. They put their things away and got out anything they needed for the show.
They then sloughed down into the two metal chairs and Dean stole from somewhere. When she had asked where he got them, he just shrugged, and knowing better, she let it go.
About fifteen minutes later, her phone lit up with a message from Renee saying, 'Catering now!'.
"Looking like we're demanded in catering." She said making Dean look up from his phone.
"Oh?"
"Yeah." She stood. "Best not keep Renee waiting."
He clicked his tongue. "Ah, Renee? I thought it was for something important."
"Shut up." She smacked at him, making him chuckle.
"Nah, that kind of goes against my whole vibe." He said getting up. "Plus, I don't want to."
"You're a child." She said, turning away from him.
"Nope. I'm five years older than you."
"In age, yes." She told him. "In mind, no."
Dean chuckled loudly as they walked towards catering.
…
"Alright, tell me. What's it like being a big movie star?" Renee asked as soon sat down at table that Angel and Dean had already calmed.
"Why are you asking me?" Dean asked, not looking up from his tray of food. "Shouldn't you be asking the Miz?" He glanced up. "Well maybe not Miz, do you happen to have Rock's number? If not, I might be able to get it form Roman."
"You know what…" She sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with you."
"Because I'm dating your best friend."
Another sigh came from Renee, as she turned her gaze to Angel. "Yeah, and I'm also starting to wonder why that is."
"Hey now." Dean said generally sounding offended. "I thought I made up for everything when I got down on my knees and groveled."
"You made it up to her, not to me."
Angel couldn't help but laugh at Dean as he let out a long groan. "And how do you want me to make it up to you, then."
Renee's eyes lit up. "Oh, you're leaving it up to me?" She tapped her chin. "Let me think about it."
"What did I just get myself into?" He slumped back in his chair.
"You just put yourself under her thumb." Angel told him.
"Fuck."
"So, are you going to answer me, or not?" Renee said leaning on the table.
Dean copied her pose and gave her a blank stare. "Answer you about what?"
"Boy! Don't play dumb." She told him. "Tell me about the movie."
"Oh, yeah it was different." He smirked when Renee glared at him. "But like for real. When they asked if I wanted to film a movie, I figured that it wouldn't be that much different from what I already do but let me tell you it was nothing like this." He popped a grape from his fruit cup in his mouth. "I mean, here I'm known for my gift of gab, was the mouthpiece for the Shield because of how well I lay down a promo. But on set, you would have thought that I never spoke in front of people before. It was fucking embarrassing, I stuttered, messed up my lines, I even had to restart scenes because my 'accent' 'clipped off words'. Whatever the fuck that means?"
"It means that you don't finish words sometimes." Angel said as she picked at the food on her plate.
"I don't do that."
"Yes, you do." Both her and Renee said at the same time.
"What?"
Renee rolled her eyes. "Say, darling."
"Darlin'."
"You don't hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Darlin'" Renee said mimicking his voice the best she could. "Darling."
"You tend to drop the 'g' in words ending in 'ing'." Angel explained when he raised a brow at her.
"Darling." He said know pronouncing the 'g' too strong. "Darling. That just sounds wrong."
"That's because you're still saying it wrong." Angel laughed.
"How?" He asked as his brows drew together. "Darling. Darling?"
"You don't have to say the 'g' so hard." Renee told him.
"You just said I wasn't pronouncing the 'g'. Now I am."
"Yeah, but you're doing it wrong."
"How am I pronouncing the 'g' wrong?" He said, his voice dripping with frustration.
"You're emphasizing it too much." Angel explained.
"Darlin'"
"You dropped it again."
Dean threw his hands in the air. "Fuck, I give up. I'm almost thirty, I'm not going to change the way I talk now."
"We weren't asking you to." She sighed. "You asked what they meant when they told you that you tend to clip off words, and the easiest way to explain was to give you an example." She reached for her yogurt parfait. "If it makes you feel better, I like the way you talk, your 'accent' is really cute."
"Well, I'm glad Darlin' because even if you didn't, you weren't going to be able to teach this ol' dog new tricks."
"As much as I love watching the two of you flirt," Renee said. "I would really like to hear more about the movie."
"Alright, alright."
As she listened to Dean's retelling of the story of their first day on set, Angel opened her parfait, only to realize she didn't have a spoon. "Shit." She mumbled under her breath. "Forgot a spoon." She said to the questioning gazes she got. "Be right back."
Getting up, she quickly made her way towards the table that had the trays, plates and silverware on it, only to stop dead in her tracks as a familiar voice called her name.
"Angel!"
Taking a deep breath, she turned around and glared at the bright red-haired woman that was standing behind her. "Eva."
"Aw, don't be like that." Eva sighed. "I came all the way over here to tell you that I missed you while you were gone."
"Uh huh." She crossed her arms.
"No really, as much as I hate to admit it, without the two of you here, everything has been pretty boring." She gave an almost convincing laugh. "Though, I was kind of hoping that your time away, would have knocked you out of that Ambrose infused daze that you've been in."
"There it is." She groaned.
"I'm just saying, I thought that being away from the limelight would take off those rose-tinted glasses of yours."
"Eva, there are no rose-tinted glasses," Angel quickly stated. "I don't know what to do to get that through to you, but let me say this, there is nothing you can do or say, that will knock me out of the Ambrose infused daze that I've been in." She huffed as she pushed past her. A yogurt parfait wasn't worth all this.
Eva's hand shot out and grabbed her arm, making her almost topple over. When she turned to face her, Eva puffed her chest out and said. "I gave Dean my number."
"What?"
"I gave Dean my number." She said again this time pride dripped from her mouth. "I wanted to prove to you that he was unfaithful, so I gave him my number and he took it without hesitation."
A flare of anger hit her so hard, that she could swear she felt her blood boiling under her skin, but instead of unleashing it, like she was dying to do, she just drew in a deep breath through her nose. "That's funny." She let the air out. "Because Dean only had seven contacts saved in his phone. Mine, my mom's, his mom's, John's, as in Renee's boyfriend, Renee's, Roman's, and for some reason Seth's."
Eva blinked in disbelief. "Yeah, right."
"No really, I've seen his contacts. That's it."
"Well then he never saved it…probably because he knew you liked to go through his phone."
"Firstly, I didn't 'go through his phone', I used his phone to call his mom to tell him that he had gotten hurt and secondly, Dean would hand me his phone without hesitation anytime I asked him for it. He's got nothing to hide."
"Men like Dean always have something to hide."
"You know what, fuck this, stay right here." She ordered before walking off towards the table where Renee and Dean were still sitting.
D.D.D
"Hey Dean."
Pausing the story that he was telling Renee about some of the practical effects that were used on set, mainly the glass being shot out in front of him, Dean leant back in his seat to look at Angel. "Hey, what's up? Did they run out of spoons?"
"No." She said with a tense smile on her face. "I just need to borrow your phone."
"My phone?" He cocked his head at her as he reached down to pull the thing out of his pocket. "Is everything ok?" He asked, handing it to her.
"Yeah, everything's fine. I just need it to prove a point." She said taking the phone.
As she spun on her heels and walked off, Dean looked back at Renee, hoping that she had some sort of clue to what the fuck just happened. Judging by the look on her face, she was just as confused as he was.
"Did she just say that she was going to prove a point with your phone?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I think so."
"What the hell does that mean?" She said leaning to the side to get a better view. Her face fell. "Oh, that's what that means."
Dean turned quickly in his chair, his eyes instantly locking on Angel who was marching her way across the room towards none other then Eva Marie.
The world seemed to stop.
In the days after finding out about what Eva had been doing to Angel, he had prepared himself mentally to see the bitch again, that way he would out right murder her, or so he thought. What he hadn't been able to prepare himself was the instant shot of anger that turned his blood into lava. He also didn't prepare himself for the fact that his body seemed to just take control of everything as suddenly he was on his feet and walking towards the two women with their backs towards him.
He was going to put an end to whatever sick game Eva had going on. Now.
"Go ahead." Angel's voice stopped him, as he watched her hand Eva his phone.
"Go ahead and do what?" Eva looked at the phone like it was a bomb.
"Fine the evidence that he's being unfaithful." Angel told her. "Go ahead. Because I guarantee there is nothing to find. He's not texting other women, fuck he barely texts at all. You won't find anyone slipping into his DMs since he doesn't use social media, doesn't even know the password for his Twitter? I was given it by WWE social media team."
Eva's face went almost green as she passed the phone back. "Maybe he has a secret phone, since he knew you would go through this one."
A secret phone? Everyone is lucky that I have this one.
A look of total shock filled Angel's face. "You just can't be wrong with this, can you?"
"Not when I know for sure that I gave him my number?"
"What?" Dean couldn't help but scoff. "What's this about you giving me your number."
Eva's eyes snapped up at him as he stopped behind Angel. "Dean." She gave a fake giggle. "It's good to see you looking so well, after what happened." She said completely avoiding his question.
Humming his response, he turned towards Angel, who looked somewhere between trying not to laugh and wanting to punch something. "Hey Darlin', are you done with my phone?"
"Yeah." She handed it to him. "Thanks."
"No problem." He bent down to kiss the top of her head. Lips still touching her hair, he glared over at Eva who was watching them with scrutiny. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Eva sputtered. "I, uh. What? I mean?"
"Did you?" He stood straight up and jutted his chin up so that he had to look down his nose at her, using his whole height to his advantage. "I'm curious did you fine any proof to support your insane claims that I'm cheating on Angel?"
"I.." Eva paled.
"You didn't, did you?" He asked. "And you won't, because I'm not."
"I…"
"You know that maybe the fact that you can't seem to get that fact through your fucking head is a 'you' problem, and not an Angel and I problem." He said with a shrug. "How's the new marriage by the way?"
Eva's eyes widened. "How dare you!"
"How dare I?" Dean scoffed as he draped his arm around Angel's shoulders. "I'm not the one who's been spreading rumors about someone's relationship for months, now am I."
"I was just trying to protect her." Eva explained. "I know people who knew you as Jon Moxley and they told me all kinds of stories about how you treated girls back then. I didn't want that happening to her."
"Ah, if you heard about all that, you would know that how I treat Angel is a complete one-eighty to how I used to treat them."
Eva crossed her arms. "Sure, but what stops you from falling back into those habits?"
He nodded as if he was really thinking about her question before looking her right in the eyes. "The fact that I love her."
If jaws could hit the floor, Eva's would have, and Dean couldn't help but chuckle at the look on her face. Judging by the shaking under his arm, Angel couldn't help it either.
After a few seconds of Eva not responding, he didn't hesitate to end this conversation. "Well, if you have nothing else to say, Angel and I have to get ready for the show."
They turned back towards the table where he could see Renee watching them intensely, but didn't get three steps away before Eva called out. "But I did give you, my number."
Dean paused and took a deep breath. "Don't take the bait." Angel told him.
He thought about it, he really thought about just walking away, but he couldn't. Glancing over his shoulder, he sighed. "When?"
"A few weeks ago." She told him. "I stopped you in the hall and gave you my number on a piece of paper, which I know for a fact that you took."
A spark of a memory hit him, but it was a memory of him standing in the hallway, staring at Angel ass which looked fantastic in the jeans she was wearing. There was a very hazy part of the memory that was Eva waving a piece of paper in his face.
"Oh shit. I do remember that."
Eva smirked.
"I think I threw it away."
She scoffed. "You threw away my number?"
"Yeah."
"Now, I know you lying."
"Why?" He questioned. "Oh, is it because somehow you got the idea that you're too hot to have a man turn you down?"
"Ouch." He heard Angel laugh.
"You!" Eva fumed, her face becoming as red as her hair. "You won't be laughing when I tell my husband about…"
"About what?" He raised a brow. "About the fact that you gave your number out to me, of you own free will, with hopes that I messaged you, and now your angry because I threw it away without even a second thought?" He snickered. "That doesn't sound very good, on your end at least. So good luck with that."
Not letting her get another word in, he walked away, Angel still under his arm.
"Have I told you I loved you?"
"You have, but I'm always happy to hear you say it." He said smiling down at her.
"I love you."
"I love you too." He kissed the top of her head again.
Renee squealed as soon as they got back to the table. "I couldn't hear everything but what I caught was gold and Eva looks pissed."
"I know." Angel said happily. "Dean really let her have it."
"Damn." Renee whistled. "I should have just walked over so I could have a front row seat."
"I'll record it for you next time." Dean told her.
"Promise."
"Yeah sure."
"Doors opening in thirty minutes." Someone called into the room making everyone groan in thanks.
Renee clicked her tongue. "I guess that mean's play time is over."
"Looks like it."
They all got up, cleaning their trash up, before heading out into the hallway.
"I heard you two are opening the show."
"Huh uh." Angel nodded. "Apparently Hunter vetoed us having a match."
"Of course he did."
"Hey," He looked at both of them. "He vetoed a scheduled match, anything can happen."
Angel groaned. "Why don't I like the sound of that."
"I don't know." He shrugged. "Nothing I do is a bad idea."
"Totally." Both women said at the same time.
He chuckled as he turned down the hall towards their shit.
"Hey Dean!" Renee called, making him turn back towards her. "You don't have to worry about making it up to me anymore."
It took him a second to realize what she was referring to, but as soon as he did, he smiled and nodded his head. "Noted."
…
"We're moving from the video package to live in twenty seconds. Get ready with Ambrose's music." Hank called. "Ten seconds until live."
"Here we go." Angel said with a deep breath, as she looked up at Dean.
Looking up from where he was bouncing back and forth on his feet, he smirked. "Like we never left."
"And we're live!" Hank's voice echoed through the gorilla.
Angel glanced up at the TV above the entrance to the stage and watched as the camera's panned over the audience as Micheal welcome everyone to Mondy Night Raw. Not even a beat later, the oh so familiar sound of Dean's entrance music kicked in and the cheers that she could hear through the curtains grew louder.
"Sounds like they missed us?" Dean patted her on the back.
"Then let's not keep them waiting any longer." She said, stepping back so that Dean could go first.
As soon as the two of them stepped out onto the stage, tears welled in Angel's eyes.
A realization hit her, before this exact moment, she never truly understood the love that the wrestlers held for their sport. Sure, she could understand from the fans' point of view, but not someone like Dean's. In this moment, she now understood. She now knew why he would get upset when he had to miss a show for one reason or another. It was because this was his home.
As she stood there soaking in the warmth from the crowd, one thought raced through her mind. Home. After a month away, she was finally home.
Shaking herself, she quickly followed Dean down the ramp and into the ring. She couldn't help the sigh that came from her at how good the mat felt under her feet. It was almost calming to feel the familiar 'give' of the wood boards. So, calming that she wondered how she didn't notice the feeling last night. Probably because I was too busy worrying about getting the pile of security men off Dean
As the music cut out to allow them to begin, Angel turned towards him and eyed the smirk on his face. "I'm not dead!" He called into the mic. "Far from it. In fact, the WWE's ugly stepchild is back!"
"Ugly?" Angel scoffed at his choice of words, making him pause and look down at her.
"It's just a figure of speech, Darlin'"
"Better be." She said, getting some laughs from the crowd.
Turning away from her, Dean gave the audience a proud look before getting back to what he was saying. "Ever since what happened the last time you saw me, I've been a little messed up in the head." He started tapping on his temple. "I've been a little loopy, and I've been replaying the incident over and over in my mind, again and again. The more I think about it, I can appreciate the creativity of ganging up on me two on one and stomping my head through cinderblocks. It was pretty cool, in fact let's take a look at it again. Let's take a look at it one more time. Just for me"
A cold sweat washed over her as she stared wide-eyed at Dean. Why on earth would he want to watch the clip of what happened? Wasn't it being on auto-loop in both their heads enough?
As the titantron flickered away from the live feed on them in the ring, she turned her back towards the stage. As silly as it was, she couldn't bear to witness it again. Especially not from an outsider's point of view. She didn't need to see herself that way.
However as much as she would have loved to just block the whole thing out, Dean's face gave her a pretty good picture of what was happening behind her. A dark anger filled his face the longer it went on. Even that was enough to have her stomach twisting.
When it was finally over, Dean's eyes dropped from the screen to her, as he reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She knew it was his way of apologizing at the moment. And how could she not forgive him when the deep anger in his eyes softened the moment, he looked at her.
She smiled at him and nodded her head, letting him know that she understood.
He squeezed her shoulder before stepping away to continue the promo. "There it was." He said into the mic. "I got to admit, I'm kind of flattered that the Authority would go to such great lengths to get rid of me, you know, it kind of makes me feel special." He chuckled and stuck out his tongue. "But I'm not dead, I'm not satisfied AND I CAN HOLD A GRUDGE. We both can." He said, making her jump as an arm was suddenly thrown around her shoulder. "And we're sick of the Authority protecting their little golden child Seth Rollins. We're getting kind of sick of the Authority all together. So tonight, we are the Authority, and we're not leaving this ring until I get my hands on Seth. Because I never get tired of punching Seth Rollins in the face."
Angel couldn't stop herself from chuckling as Dean tossed his mic in the air and stomped off.
"As you can see, the 'incident' didn't change Dean in the slightest." She pointed to the man who was now rolling out of the ring behind her, leaving her curious to what he had planned. "In fact, all it did was fire him up even more." She said as she watched him scare a crew member from their seat. "Which if you know Dean, like I do, you know that that was a mistake. A mistake that the Authority would best learn from, but I doubt they will. They seem to love pushing people to their breaking point, I mean look at their track record. But here's the problem, Dean has been way past his breaking point for a long time, a fact that the Authority already knows, it's one of the reasons they call him a lunatic. But him being past his breaking point also means that they can push him all they want but it's not going to go in their favor because," She paused to look into the camera in front of her. "they will never be able to break him."
She felt the mat drip behind her. Turning around, she saw Dean climbing into the ring with the metal chair that he 'procured' from the crew member before. She raised a brow at him as he set it up in the middle of the ring, facing the stage. Without a word, he sat down in the chair, settling in, before looking up at her and patting his lap.
When she just stood there staring at him, he did it again, this time more aggressively, giving off the impression that she couldn't really argue about it. Feeling her face already starting to flush, she slowly made her way over to the man did what he was telling her to and sat down on his lap.
As soon as she touched him, his arms wrapped around her instantly, making her grow even more embarrassed. For some reason this seemed more intimate than anything else they had done on camera before. His large hands found hers and quickly took the mic from her hands, turning it off before he tucked his head against her shoulder and spoke into her ear.
"Well done."
The low rasp on his voice made her shiver. "Thanks."
She felt him chuckle against her back, as he leant back into the chair, taking her with him. When she tensed again him, he said. "Behave."
"I'm not the one who had the idea of having me sit in your lap while we wait for whatever the hell the Authority is going to do." She reminded him.
"I could only find one chair."
"Oh really?" She shifted slightly. "They finally get rid of the pile of metal chairs under the ring?"
"Huh, that didn't even cross my mind."
"Sure, it didn't."
Just as she finally got over the fact that she was indeed sitting in her boyfriend's lap on live TV, the stage in front of them lit up and music started to play through the speakers. The only thing was it wasn't any of the songs they were prepared to hear.
Her mouth dropped as the big bold words 'never give up' appeared on the screens on the stage.
"Shit." Dean grumbled behind her.
John Cena stepped out onto the stage. His demeanor was the opposite of the normal can't stop, won't stop attitude that he was known for. The man was pissed. Pissed to the point that he didn't even attempt to entertain the fans, instead he just made a b-line for the ring.
Once he got about halfway down, she felt Dean tapping her legs, a silent command for her to get up. Hoping that she was able to hide her confusion and fear, she slowly rose from Dean's lap and moved to stand behind him.
Cena stepped into the ring, and Dean instantly stood and grabbed the back of the chair. Angel inhaled at the clear threat, of all the different ways she thought tonight could have played out, John Cena coming to confront them wasn't even on the list.
She glanced from Cena to Dean. Please. Please don't make an enemy of John Cena. She begged. As much as she didn't know where everything stood with Nikki now, with everything that happened with her and Brie, she did still consider the woman a friend and she didn't want to have the awkwardness of their boyfriends feuding to come in between that friendship.
"I'm going to be real honest with you here, John." Dean said folding the metal chair, making Cena stop pacing around them like a shark.
The two men eyed each other up. The tension had her taking tentative steps backwards towards the corner of the ring. An alarm in her head warned her that she should get out of the ring just in case a fight happened to break out. Before she could make it out, Dean suddenly turned around to kick the chair out of the ring. The man was surprising her left and right tonight.
"I really, really am bothered." Dean said stepping back towards Cena. "I really don't like the fac' that you're standing in the ring with me right now. You're flying real close to a flame here, brother." He paused. "John, don't give me a reason to not like you."
Cena smirked as he started to circle the ring again. "Ah, Mr. Ambrose. Mr. Ambrose, what an unfortunate turn of events. You see, you and I, we have a very similar agenda. Seth Rollins did his best to try and take you out, but last night at night of champions, I HAD BROCK LESNAR BEAT! I WAS THE ONE TO BEAT 'THE ONE' UNTIL THAT SELFISH, SLIMY, CLOSED-MINDED RUBBER SUIT-WEARING JACKASS SHOWED UP!"
"Right." Dean agreed again shocking her.
"I SHOULD BE HOLDING THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP RIGHT NOW! But I'm not. So, tonight, I'm cashing in. I'm cashing in my ass kicking in a bank contract ON SETH ROLLINS! And no one is gonna stop me."
Dean chuckled as he placed a hand on Cena's shoulder. A move that had Angel cringing while she waited for Cena to hit him for that. Dean also seemed to realize that a punch in the face was a possibility because he quickly ripped his hand off the man, even so the smirk never left his face. "I warned you once. Don't get in my way."
That's when the hat dropped. Literally, as Cena took off his hat and threw it into the crowd.
Time to get out of the ring. She told herself as she ducked through the ropes. Dropping to the floor, she watched as Cena 'stripped' down to get ready for a fight, all while Dean played with his leather jacket until he finally felt like talking it off.
Behold the king, the king of kings!
"Oh fuck me." She groaned as everyone's attention drifted up to the stage that was now lit up in green.
While she watched the stage fill up with the members of the Authority, she noticed Dean turning around to face her. He met his gaze, to see he was giving her that look that mean 'be good' aka don't get in the way, before he tossed his jacket to her.
"Relax." Hunter started as she picked the jacket up from the floor. "Before you two break into a pinch fight over something that you have no control over. You both want to fight Seth, but that's not gonna happen tonight. Seth Rollins won't be fighting anybody. You two will. So, tonight…."
"No. No. No." Cena said. "Tonight, I'll just go get him myself."
And just like that both Cena and Dean took off out of the ring, towards Randy, Kane, and surprisingly Seth, who were all coming down the ramp.
Putting the jacket on, Angel walked around the ring and watched as the five men brawled on the ramp. Each one got in their own good hits and also got hit pretty good, until Seth broke free from the fight and escaped towards the ring. It took Dean and Cena all but a moment to notice.
"Shit." She heard Seth grumble as both men started for him. Ducking out of the side of the ring, Seth quickly made his way for the barricade and hopped it. He wasn't able to get very far however, as Dean was hot on his trail.
Looking around, she debated what her best move was and seeing that Cena was fighting both Randy and Kane in the ring, while Dean chased Seth through the crowd, her best bet was to follow them.
Trying to get to them, Angel spun around and raced off towards the timekeeper's arena. "Excuse me!" She called as she squeezed through. Getting into the crowd. She quickly ran up the aisle of people, until she caught a glimpse of Dean and Seth fighting in the open area that was set up for the crane camera.
Before she could reach them, the two men took off around the side of the stage, leading backstage. Groaning, she ran as face as she could to catch up with them. When she finally got backstage, she almost ended passing, Seth and Dean who were bashing each other against a travel case.
"Someone gets a camera on them!" She heard someone yell as she skid to a stop. "Hank wants a camera on the fight." Looking around, she watched as a few people started to scramble around before the same voice called. "Closer, you need to get closer to the action."
Across the hall, she saw a couple of crew members looking very panicked as they struggled to get the mounted costume off the tripod.
"They want us to get closer to that?" One of the questioned. "I don't…"
"You have more experience behind a camera." The other said.
"Yeah for things like the Kick Off shows and whatnots..."
"We really need that camera!"
Rolling her eyes, she quickly made her way over the group and held out her hands. "Give it to me."
The two crew members looked at each other before finally obliging her and passing off the camera. Just in time too as the fight started to drift down the hall, closer to where they were standing. Spinning on her heels to face the action, she carefully tried to balance the camera on her shoulder all while keeping up with the fight, something easier said than done as John Cena joined the fray. Watching what was going on through the view finder, she grimaced and promised herself that she would never complain about shaky camera work again after this.
Biting the inside of her cheek, she inwardly cursed as she stumbled backwards, escaping a rolling case that had been sent flying by Seth's body crashing into it. Glancing down for a moment to catch her footing, she was almost caught by a flying elbow when Seth threw a small step ladder at Dean. She knew that she was going to get a stern talk from Dean since this probably wasn't what he meant when he told her to be good.
The fight quickly spiraled into a chase once again as Seth took off down the ramp to the loading dock. Pushing herself, she tried her best to keep up with him. Which was easier than she thought as he stopped behind an SUV that was being loaded up by some random person, only to push him away before hopping in the driver's seat.
Still stunned from what had just happened, she didn't notice Dean and Cena making their way behind her until suddenly Dean was half hanging out of the still open trunk of the car, as it started to drive away.
"Dean!" She gasped as both he and the bag that the poor man Seth had basically threw backwards came crashing onto the cement floor.
Somehow forgetting the large camera on her shoulder, she raced over to him, however before she could make it to him, he got up onto his feet. Grumbling, probably something that shouldn't be picked up by the camera, he threw the bag.
He then turned around, and just for a second, his eyes landed on her before shooting up to Cena.
Suddenly remembering what she was doing, she stepped back to get a good angle of the two of them. Neither one said anything or made a move.
Yelling came from up the ramp. "They went to commercial! They cut that camera, you're good."
Taking a deep breath, Angel lowered the camera and almost groaned as the extra weight was finally off her shoulder.
"You really are crazy, you know that?" Cena said as he tried to catch his breath.
"Been called that a time or two." Dean answered.
Without another word, Cena turned and walked away.
As Dean watched him, Angel stepped closer to him and asked. "Are you ok?"
His head snapped down to her. In his eyes she could see the anger and adrenaline that was slowly dying as he glanced down to the camera in her hands. "Really?" He raised her brow.
"What?"
He shifted in his spot and crossed his arms. "You know damn well what I mean."
She shrugged. "Hank called for a camera on the action."
"And you just had to be the one to do it."
"Yeah, no one else wanted to get close enough."
"That's because they're smart." He sighed as he gently took the camera out of her hands.
"Says the man who jumped into the back of a moving car."
He pursed his lips. "It wasn't moving when I jumped into it."
"That totally makes it better." She shook her head at him.
"Yep."
The two of them started up the ramp to the backstage area. "You never answer me?"
"Answered what?" He asked.
"Are you ok?" She asked again.
"Yeah, why?"
She blinked. "Because you fell out of the back of a moving vehicle, onto concrete."
"Ah, that." He said as if it was no big deal. "It's not the first time that's happened."
She paused and blinked at the man's back. "Do I want to know?"
He stopped and turned to look at her, he hummed, thinking about it. "Probably not. I was drunk and probably a little high…"
"Moxley?"
He snickered. "What gave it away?"
"Angel!"
Cocking her head, she leaned around Dean to see Hank walking down the hall behind them. She suddenly felt a wash of fear go through her as her mind went wild with what ifs. What if she messed up with the filming?
"Hey, Hank." She gave a tentative smile as the man stopped in front of them.
"You two never cease to surprise me." He shook his head, the smile on his face seemed tense, but then again, she wasn't sure when Hank wasn't tense. When his eyes locked on hers, Angel swallowed the lump in her throat and braced herself for whatever scolding she was going to get. "You saved my ass."
"What?"
"Apparently none of my camera crew even considered that the fight would end up backstage, so when I called for a camera to follow the action, there wasn't a single person on the scene." He explained. "I thought we were screwed. I thought that I was going to have to bite the bullet and tell Vince that there wasn't a camera available to cut to, but then, suddenly I hear your voice through one of the camera feeds, and then I magically had a clear, up-close view of the fight."
"I wouldn't say it was 'clear'." She said as she tried to reboot her brain from the sudden one-eighty in the conversation.
Hank chuckled. "Sure, it was a bit shaky, but I mean I don't think anyone's going to care seeing that the alternative was not getting the shot."
She had to stop herself from falling over when the rush of relief hit her body. "Well, I'm glad I could help out."
"I'm glad you were there to help out."
"Always!" She smiled at him.
Katmoonchild: Love his return at Night of Champs it was amazing. Thank you for still reading the fic
Missdeanambrose: Thank you for still enjoying this fic. I'm so happy to have you here. Also I can't believe people read this once let alone multiple times.
BrookeWorm3: Dean is most certainly never boring. Thank you for still really this.
Guest: I'm glad you're still reading! Thank you so much.