NaNoWriMo Story Snippets

63. Excerpt from ROSE & THORN: RENEE/SETH

By request. I haven't really written much with Renee, so I'm not sure how this will go.

Even though he had travelled the world and wrestled on nearly every continent—Antarctica was ruining his record there—Seth was still a small-town boy at heart and, in his eyes, Jon was the same. He knew Jon had grown up in Cincinnati and the rougher parts at that, but there was a sense of loyalty and low-key comfort to Jon that Seth just didn't find in many city-born wrestlers. Roman was like a brother too, even though The Shield had disbanded long ago—and soon, with Jon's impending departure from WWE, would never be able to reunite again—but hanging out with Jon had always been more Seth's speed.

Living in Las Vegas hadn't seemed like Jon's style until Seth learned it was a tax-free state; he always figured Jon wanted to be closer to more professional fighting and have easier access to Japan. At least it's not a scorcher today, he thought as he sat down in one of the deck chairs and grabbed a drink from the tray Renee had set on the patio table. "I know I've already asked about fifty times by now," Seth began, "but...."

"No." Jon's tone wasn't curt or annoyed, but it was one-hundred percent Jon. All the traces of Dean Ambrose that had bled into his personality—or vice versa, more likely—were fading away. "I need to do something else. I'm not sure what yet, but I know I need to leave. I need to move."

Renee kicked off her shoes and brought her legs up onto the chair, resting her drink on his knee. "You've tried," she told Seth, "Roman's tried... I should have been making a list."

Tipping his head back against the chair, Jon glanced over at his wife. "You didn't."

"Hell no. I have to live with you, remember?" Renee held up her left hand, her wedding ring glinting in the sunset. "And you know I just want you to be happy. If leaving and doing something else will do that, then...."

Jon's eyebrows twitched. "Could make it hard for you backstage," he pointed out. "People might hassle you. I doubt Creative will run with it because they don't like giving any sort of credit to anyone who isn't on the payroll."

Renee rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine. None of the girls are going to make it an issue, and most of the wrestlers understand why you're leaving anyway."

"So that leaves the brass." Jon set his glass down on the table and leaned back to watch a plane pass overhead. "Who can make your life hell if they want to."

"We'll see. You know when my contract's up. We'll see where I'm at then." Renee rubbed at her eyes and shot Seth an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Seth. We really did invite you just to hang out, since we won't be doing that as much anymore because... well, you know."

"Fine. No more trashing WWE. They do a good enough job of that on their own." Jon grabbed his drink again, swirling it so the melting ice cubes crashed against the glass. "What are you doing when your contract's up?" he asked Seth. "You ever think of wrestling elsewhere? Mexico? Japan? Maybe Europe?"

Seth paused to consider it. WWE had always been his dream but, to be fair, it was the biggest wrestling promotion around when he was growing up, so that made sense. Before joining WWE, he had primarily wrestled in the United States. Thanks to WWE, he had now performed all over the world—except that pesky Antarctica—and been places he had only ever dreamed of. The amount of opportunities he had received thanks to WWE had been staggering, but he had given a lot to the company in return. "I don't know," he said honestly, leaning back in his chair and stretching out his legs. A fly buzzed behind his head somewhere, but he was too comfortable to swat at it. "I mean, maybe? I'm not sure. I know I've got Black & Brave, but I'm not ready to teach full time yet. And you've got the whole 'death match' thing you can utilize. A lot of other companies are going to see me as too WWE." He didn't bother listing off the other things that would make him a liability else where—infidelity, nude photo leaks, behaving badly on social media. Anyone who wanted to chart his highs and lows just needed a computer and access to the internet and it was all there.

"Nah. Your ROH stuff was great, man," Jon declared. "You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Said no one ever," Seth laughed. He suffered from many personality flaws, but lack of ego wasn't one of them. "I know I have options. I just honestly don't know what I'd do. I mean, I get why you want to leave. They've dealt you some shitty creative. If I was getting that... yeah, I'd be tempted to leave too. But so far they've treated me pretty well." He knocked on the wooden arm of his chair.

Jon straightened up a bit. "So you plan on sticking around, then?"

There was a shift in Jon's tone that made Seth wary, but he nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I like to keep my options open, but as of right now, I have no plans to leave."

After glancing over at his wife, Jon nodded. "So can I ask you a favour then?"

"Sure, man. Anything. You know that." Seth didn't know how it hinged on his being in WWE, but he was sure Jon would ramble around to his point eventually.

"Cool. Keep an eye on Renee for me after I leave?" Some of Jon's blase bluster ebbed away, leaving him looking strangely young and vulnerable.

Seth glanced over at Renee, expecting her to protest, but she shook her head and motioned at her husband with a Don't look at me, look at me gesture. "Sure, but... we were just saying that she shouldn't have any trouble. The girls will have her back and if WWE doesn't want to give you free publicity, they're not going to mention your name. They'll probably just stop mentioning you at all." He hated saying it, but he knew it was true: mentions of The Shield would dwindle to almost nothing, and when clips were shown, WWE would choose ones that featured Jon as little as possible. When it came to erasing or rewriting history, WWE was eerily successful.

"I know, but... just in case. I'd feel better knowing there's some people there who will have her back." Jon looked over to Renee again and Seth was almost ready to ask if they wanted him to leave. They weren't quite eye-fucking, but they were having some sort of silent conversation and he felt like he was intruding somehow.