Who Do You Love - Dean Ambrose

Chapter 17: Fix You

The car ride back was uncomfortably silent although Hunter's eager driver did his best to cheer us up. Evidently he had grown up in the area and was keen to give us the full tour guide shtick. It meant that as we drove, he pointed out landmarks or offered little stories, although they didn't really help.

"That's where I met my wife when I was seventeen – ,"

"Oh, well that's sweet."

"Divorced her last year. She tried to take me for every cent I own."

It was a blessing when we finally reached the hotel, although not even the prospect of being alone again and away from the arena could pep up Dean's mood.

I had sort of been expecting him to sit down and tell me – to stop my mind racing through what could have gone wrong – but instead he headed into the bathroom to shower and change out of his sweaty ring clothes. It occurred to me only after he'd flipped the jets on that he was still in his wrestling gear. That was a bad sign. It meant that he hadn't wasted time in the locker room which only heightened the fear of a crack in the Shield.

Thank you Michael Cole for keep repeating that one – although if nothing it proved that repetition really worked.

With nothing else to do, I made a few phone calls and replied to the texts that were cluttering up my phone. One was from Kelly and Brent who'd been watching and were desperate to know that I was both safe and sound, another was from Stephanie begging forgiveness for not having reacted when Wyatt had dragged me round the desk and one was from our sweet middle-aged house sitter, who had sent me a picture of our slumbering dog. He was tucked up in his comfortable basket in the kitchen and the image made me smile and desperately miss home.

Home.

It was strange how quickly Las Vegas had become that, especially for me, the quintessential small town girl. The thought of me even visiting the desert would have seemed unlikely, but now I was living there. We had a house – okay, his house technically but that didn't matter because it was totally our home – we had a life and a routine and Boomer.

We were a family.

I adored that.

It was why I felt the tremor in Dean's world so violently – the two of us were joined now, for better or for worse – so it was also what drove me to pick my phone back up and type out a message that I desperately hoped would work.

Are you guys alright? Dean won't say what happened. Please don't be mad. He was trying to keep me safe.

Seth didn't reply although I knew he'd seen it and that made me panic about things even more. Had I somehow managed to make things worse?

Oh god.

I bet I had.

I was a stupid, stupid, totally moronic person who Dean would never forgive in a million years and –

There was a ping and I launched across the bed towards my cell phone, snatching it up as the screen shone bright. Luckily Roman had messaged me back again and I could almost hear his soothing tone.

Don't worry Baby Girl.

How had he known that I would be worrying? It wasn't like I did it all the time, right?