Years in the Making

Chapter 1

I need to find more of the girls to work out with, Becky thought, pushing back the wisps of hair that clung to the sweat on her face. She definitely wasn't the tallest on the women's roster, but she was at least average height. Working out with Cesaro, Sheamus, and Seth made her feel ridiculously tiny. She didn't mind their music choices and she could put up with the gentle ribbing about her mistakes with counting reps, but being eye level with a bunch of sweaty muscular chests was starting to get very distracting.

When it came to relationships, Becky always had two firm rules: don't date a wrestler and don't make a move on someone who was involved with someone else. The first was mostly to avoid drama backstage. She had seen far too many nasty breakups on rosters that made the locker room uncomfortable for everyone; her relationship with Finn had been good and their split mutual and amicable, but they had also been far younger and separated by an ocean. The second rule was more firm. Her parents hadn't split up because of infidelity, but Becky had always vowed that she wasn't going to ruin someone else's life just to make her own more fulfilled.

"Becks?" Bayley's voice snapped Becky out of her reverie and she glanced over to see her friend hitting her arm with a cold bottle of water. "If you're going to daydream," she added, grabbing Becky's shoulders and turning her to face the gym's climbing wall, "maybe don't stare at Seth while you're doing it?" Bayley laughed as she nudged the bottle into Becky's hand. "You were making him all paranoid." Then she raised her voice and added, "It's fine, Lopez! Becks was just zoning out!"

Across the gym, Seth laughed. "Good. I was starting to get worried there for a minute."

Bayley gently herded Becky over to a weightlifting bench and made her sit down; she even took the water bottle and opened it for her, spinning the cap between her thumb and index finger after handing the bottle back. "Drink." Crouching down beside Becky, Bayley watched her intently. "You okay, Becks? You pushed it kinda hard today." Then she pointed over to the large calendar on the wall, each square a different colour to indicate what the workout focus was for the day; that particular day was legs. "You don't normally work out with us on Wednesdays," Bayley noted, lowering her voice even though the guys were on the other side of the gym. "You're normally hanging out with Jeff. Everything okay?"

Becky took another long gulp of water to put off answering. A wrestler's schedule was a gruelling thing and if they got two days off, it tended to be Wednesday and Thursday—but even those could be eaten up by interviews or charity appearances. Jeff, her current boyfriend, always complained about that, and she always replied that he had known what her schedule was like when they started dating. Lately, however, it seemed like he was deliberately scheduling some of his obligations on her only days off just to be petty. "Yes. And no. He's got stuff to do today, so... I was going to work out anyway," she said with a shrug, "and I figured I might as well do it with you guys." Another thought occurred to her and she swore softly. "Unless I'm interrupting. If you guys have a routine and I messed it up—"

Bayley swatted her friend on the knee. "Becks, don't be ridiculous. You know we love having you here. Sheamus can only count to seven in Irish without you!" They both laughed, but Bayley sobered quickly. "Seriously, though... is everything okay?" Her dark gaze started to skim over Becky's arms, undoubtedly looking for suspicious bruises.

"Bayley." Scowling, Becky ruffled her friend's hair, making Bayley rock back on her heels. "It's nothing like that. It's just... I don't know. I thought dating a comedian would be... fun, I guess, but lately I just feel like fodder for his next show."

The expression on Bayley's face was somewhere between anger and disgust. "Has he actually been talking about you during his routines?" she asked, scooting closer. "That would be...."