Flames

Summerslam 2018, part 2

Right up until the moment Charlotte whispered in her ear, Becky still wasn't sure. She wanted the moment. She wanted the push, the energy, the spark. It was all there, hers for the taking.

But taking it meant losing other things. As soon as she turned against Charlotte, there would be no more cute pictures on Instagram, no fun quips on Twitter. No more coffee dates with her best friend. They would be able to hang out in private and backstage, but out in the public eye, it would be fierce animosity. Normally Becky didn't have a problem getting in character, but none of her previous characters had threatened to impact her personal life quite like this.

So she did her best to move with the energy, focussing on the moment. When she felt Charlotte hit that last fateful move, she focussed on the rumbles in the crowd—the gasps, the disbelief. Then there was the pinfall, the announcement; the disappointment on her face and the slump to her shoulders didn't have to be faked at all.

And then there was the embrace, the last moment to change the trajectory. But Charlotte just smiled and met her gaze, bending close enough that her lips brushed Becky's ear. "Straight fire," she whispered, her mouth hidden by Becky's hair; they didn't want any keen lip readers to see.

Straight fire.

The initial hit was almost lost in the roar, so loud it was like an avalanche pressing in on all sides. Applause, yelling, raucous joy as the long-suffering Lass Kicker beat down the always-favoured Queen. YES-YES-YES chants. You deserve it! For her or for Charlotte, or both? Becky couldn't let herself stop to think about it. She had to ride the moment, using her pent-up frustration to leave Charlotte beaten while she strode away, head high and spirits higher.

In the back of her mind, she had always hoped that the fans would understand. The frustration of being constantly overlooked certainly wasn't exclusive to the WWE. She even thought she might get a few cheers from the fans who were tired of Charlotte getting endless opportunities, but she hadn't expected the outpouring that was almost like relief. She had to fight the smile tugging at her lips until she was backstage, and even then she knew there would be an interviewer waiting in the wings, primed to pepper her with questions about why she had just betrayed her best friend.

"About time, Irish." Becky almost stumbled as she turned to see Seth and Dean watching one of the backstage monitors, the cameras now focussed on Charlotte's dismayed face. "Good job."

Coming from Seth, it was high praise. His betrayal of the Shield was still talked about four years later; it would be in his retirement package, his Hall of Fame video, any retrospective the WWE ever did on him. If ever there was someone who knew how to navigate the particular waters she was about to find herself in, it was Seth Rollins. "Thanks. I—"

As if on cue, one of the backstage interviewers poked her head around the corner. "Becky! Come on. We're waiting on you."

"Right." Then Becky nodded at Dean and Seth, picking up the pace as she went to follow the interviewer to the backdrop where a camera crew would be waiting. In her head, she was going over what she would say, but it was really Seth's words that kept echoing in her mind.