Here we are again then folks and yes, this is the big one in terms of changing the dynamic up. Hopefully though, I've done it in such a way that it isn't too heartbreaking but still moves things along. Shall we get into it then?

But before we do, to all those still with me and this little couple, THANK YOU so, so much. These stories are keeping me sane right now and Lauren and Dean in particular, so to know that others love them like I do means the world!

Okay, now let's go!

Bitch Slap

Right from the very first moment I had met them, the guys had been attack dogs and real company men, who had pretty much done what their bosses had ordered and so therefore had never been in the place to make heaps of friends.

It hadn't really bothered me greatly back in the early months since I'd been new to everything and essentially flying high. Because not only had I had a squeaky new boyfriend but I'd also had a squeaky new dad, which had made it feel like I'd had more than I had dreamed of –

I didn't need the wider roster to fall in love with me as well.

I mean, not saying that I wouldn't have liked it but Dean and the guys had never seemed fussed and since I had taken my cue from them in most things, I had never set about bombarding the talent with my charm.

Wow.

Had that been a mistake of epic proportions? Because as it turned out, hanging with other brawlers was fun and something that was evidently open to the boys now, thanks to their new mindset and anti-establishment line of attack. No longer were they out on the cold fringes of the locker room and stalking the halls scattering people left and right. Instead they were pretty much fully accepted, albeit with a hint of caution since they still tended to bite.

Dean especially –

Particularly down there.

I blushed a little and then snorted into the bottle of my condensation-covered beer, which then promptly almost shot the liquid from my nostrils and sent me coughing clumsily. My boyfriend frowned across,

"Princess, you alright?"

I wiped my lips and nodded, still giggling a little because the thought of that had made me bite back a laugh and besides which I kind of liked the thought of him being all dog-like, growling at his reflection and scratching the door to go out.

"You would make a really good puppy."

He blinked at me and his bewildered blue eyes swept up and down, lingering a little on my scorching hot cheekbones and then raised an amused looking brow,

"Are you drunk right now?"

"Noooo."

My protest was far too outrageous however and not helped by the fact that I also waved my hands, in what I hoped would totally prove my sobriety but instead simply managed to slop beer across the seat.

Oops.

Dean grunted back and then blew a short breath out, which lightly ruffled the bangs of his hair, which he had been starting to wear longer and pulled forward over the last months but were still a little damp from the match they had won and from which he was still glassy eyed and vaguely limping.

Not that it surprised me.

He had been hit in the head and not just with a fist or spinning heel kick either, but with the hard metal top of a sledgehammer no less and one which had been wielded by the deeply estranged father that had kidnapped and held me captive nearly three long months back. During which time he had tried to make me give Dean up and his bastard of a prodigy had very nearly –

Nope.

I took another chug from my bottle and fought the memory down, not even realizing that I had said the word out loud until Dean looked across at me with brows knitted in confusion,

"Princess, nope what?"

Damn.

Okay, so perhaps I was a tiny little touch drunk or possibly buzzed was a kinder sort of word, but either way my boyfriend was not giving up easily and so I leaned in towards him and tucked my head against his chin,

"Hello."

He snorted,

"Man you're wasted."

"Not m' not, m' jus' happy."

"Uh huh, that why you're slurrin' your words?"

I frowned in confusion as I drank in his question because to my ears my sentences were well rounded and clipped and so I turned to the other face sitting at our table and stuck my bottom lip out in a petty little huff,

"Roman, tell him m' not, uh – ,"

"Hammered?"

I snapped my fingers in his direction,

"That's the one."

He chuckled,

"Baby girl I think you need water, in fact – that's it – I'm cutting you off."

Reaching across the table he swiped up my bottle which was one of several glasses and containers lying around and I tried to beat him to it but managed to miss completely, alongside being pretty categorically too slow.

"Hey."

"Princess, don't argue with the big dog."

Dean moved his lips and then kissed me on the head and his shower-damp hair tickled in across my temple and made me giggle softly and then heave out a breath. Realistically we weren't in the best place for sleeping, considering that we were camped out at a table in a club and the thumping background music was making my insides churn and we were surrounded by other wrestlers, but I felt happy so who cared? I snuggled myself down a little further into Dean's shoulder and then hummed at him wearily,

"M' glad you won tonight, didn't like you getting all hurt though."

It had been a unrelenting brutal sort of match and designed on the part of my father and his henchmen to pretty much break the three man faction apart, only luckily on that front they had failed completely because my boyfriend and his brothers were better than that.

Dean grunted at me,

"Y' know I did it for you right? For all the fucked up shit that those damn assholes put you through?"

"Mmhmm, I know."

I raised my hand and grazed his cheekbone, laying my palm across it as he again kissed my head. Honestly the two of us could have been anywhere, but it quickly became evident again that we were not because somebody cleared their throat next to our table and drew our collective glances.

Huh?

I blinked up.

Rob Van Dam was standing beside us casting between his two former foes, wearing what looked like an uncertain smile of sorts and which for a moment made me wonder if he was going to talk shit to them in a move of pure suicide.

But he didn't do that.

"Hell of a performance you put in tonight boys."

Roman blinked up at him with laid back and accepting eyes, taking a casual sip from my bottle which he then held in his direction like a silent toast,

"Thanks."

Dean stayed quiet but he wasn't tense or antsy and it made his chest soft as I burrowed inside, laying my head right up against his heartbeat and then shutting my eyes to its metronomic thud. Really it wasn't surprising that I was tired given the alcohol, not to mention the raw flood of relief. Watching my boyfriend and father going at it had been horrible and terrifying and gut-wrenching to say the least. Especially when Dean had fallen down heavily having taken the full force of the hammer to the head. Matty had practically had to physically restrain me from charging out amongst it to check for sure he wasn't dead and it wasn't until Roman had dragged himself over and woken him up that I had even drawn breath.

It had been a very very long evening –

But my boys were okay and they were winners.

"Where's Seth?"

Blinking around suddenly and cutting through the chatter that had been carrying on lightly above my buzzing head, I stiffened in panic as I realized he was absent and then clutched my boyfriend's shirt front because it didn't feel right.

Dean stroked my back,

"He's at the bar orderin',"

"Oh," I frowned, "He's been a long time."

"Lotta people here."

"Maybe I should go and help him."

It wasn't a query so much as a plan and I quickly staggered up in a clumsy lurch of drunkenness that honestly was weird because I so wasn't drunk. I managed to bang my battered boyfriend in the ribs though and he grunted a little which made me wince.

"Princess – ,"

"Oops, sorry."

I stumbled closer and kissed him apologetically in a big sloppy meeting that nearly melted our lips and then became deeper as I cupped his stubbled jawline and moaned against his mouth. He blinked in pleased surprise and then dropped his hand back to rest sweetly against my hip bone until his older brother coughed,

"Other people here."

"Oh, right."

I quickly straightened up again and then giggled pretty childlike at the totally dazed pleasure gracing my man's look. I tossed him a wink and then slid from the table before skipping across the floor in the direction of the bar and grinning even wider as I heard Rob chuckle with a wry sounding smile,

"Your girl's a wild one."

"Sure is."

Me, wild?

In actual fact I kind of liked that and was still lightly giggling as I made it to the bar, weaving between the hovering patrons and chirping my thanks at them as they stood aside to let me pass. Most of the other people clustered around the dance floor knew that a contingent of wrestlers were in and so therefore weren't keen to snub a member of the posse and potentially start a fight that they would never likely win.

Aha, there he is.

Seth was stood at the far end and leant against a concrete column rising up out of the ground. The place we were at was sunken down into a basement and the thick supporting structures were dotted right around, giving the space a modern classic temple vibe that made it all funky and subterranean I supposed. He was peering at his phone and texting someone frantically and since it usually was, I assumed it was his girl, which was why I had no problem interrupting with a little bounce and flung out arms of greeting,

"Ta-da."

"Lauren? Geez – ,"

He fumbled away his cell phone rapidly and then blinked in surprise at my over the top stance, which I tried to hold like I was caught in a freeze frame but failed by wobbling all over the place.

"I came to help you bring all the drinks back."

"Yeah well, no more for you."

"Why not?"

"You're drunk."

I rolled my eyes like a sullen sixteen year old and then even threw my hands up and let loose a heated ugh because why in the world did everyone keep saying that when I was patently as sober as the summer days were long?

"M' not, I promise."

I reached out a pinky as if to make an unbreakable seal and the man stood in front of me quirked a bushy eyebrow then nodded slowly.

"Uh huh, so I see."

Somewhere in front of us the bartender skated over, making his way along the patiently waiting line and Seth fished out his wallet in quick expectation before stepping in closer,

"What can I get you?"

"Three beers my man."

I held my fingers up hopefully behind him and then extended them right out over the bar, watching as the server sort of blinked in bewilderment at my sudden interjection.

"Um, he means four."

Seth slapped the money down and ignored me easily and much like I actually wasn't even there, which I totally was since I was leant on his shoulder, mostly for support since my legs seemed weirdly numb.

"Keep it at three."

I frowned at him darkly,

"You guys are no fun."

"An' you're a pain in the ass."

"You love me really."

He didn't reply to that but I didn't need to hear it since I already knew he did and which he had totally proven by always being there for me and acting like the beloved older brother I'd never had. Roman too, they had both been so good to me and I loved the little family that I had at my side. Dean had a happy trait of picking good comrades and when all three of them were together it was like they ruled the world. As the bottles were put down, Seth quickly scooped up two of them and then pointed at the third one with meaning,

"Come on."

I took a quick sip and he blew a breath out at me but then turned to shoulder us a path through the throng, which he did with relatively unsurprising simplicity until a woman stepped in front of him with her hands on her hips. He stopped sort of dead and I crashed into the back of him, which slopped a puddle of beer across my thumb and I was right in the process of sucking it off hoover-like when high tones all but squealed at him,

"Seth Rollins, is that you?"

"Kaylee?"

"You remember."

It was clear from his reaction that he wasn't as thrilled as the newcomer was and feeling a swirling nosiness begin to take over me, I poked my head around him and then blinked at what I saw. The woman in front of us was not exactly lofty but was made a lot taller by her ginormous wedge heels which made her lightly tanned legs look utterly amazing and were further emphasized by a teeny tiny dress. It clung onto her just but with a split so plunging that it almost revealed the special spot between her legs, thankfully coming back together moments before that but separating dramatically again at her breasts. Her boobs were like beachballs and I gaped at them a little because I wasn't really sure how the purple chiffon was hanging on and that was before I even got to her features which were a totally new part of the story in themselves.

Seth sucked a breath in,

"What are you doing here?"

He was trying to sound friendly but his sentence was clipped, like he had precious little interest in rehashing their old times, from which I sort of guessed that she was maybe an old hit. Not that she seemed to be his type exactly, although her long and beach wave curled black hair was admittedly pretty nice. As were her dark shadowed eyes and flawless make-up although I wasn't too sure about her matching cheek studs.

Um.

Honestly I simply couldn't picture them together, which was probably because it turned out that the two of them never were and which became all apparent not two seconds later as she looked around the place like a dart,

"Is Dean here?"

Kaylee.

I frowned and something tickled across my brainstem as I tried my best to work out how my boyfriend factored in. I couldn't for the life of me fathom what was off with her and so keep mulling her familiar sounding name in my head.

Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee.

How did I know her?

Realisation hit me audibly,

"Oh – ,"

Dean had told me about girl from his training days who he had hooked up with on and off before being called up onto the show. He had said she had wanted to test out intimate sex positions and had tried to push their thing beyond the casual hookup point. He had also told me that she had been the sort of person that he would have pounded bare on the hardwood floor but for me he laid out blankets and sheeting because I was a princess.

Hardwood Kaylee –

Holy hell.

In response to my tiny little gape of understanding, both Seth and my new nemesis spun themselves around and the raven haired woman tipped her head at me mildly and then drank me in scornfully,

"Is this your new girl?"

Her false looking smile didn't quite cut the mustard, which on second thoughts was a pretty weird thing to ever say since mustard was more of a spreadable item and so why would you need or want to cut it at all? Seth cleared his throat and drew me out of that headache at which point I realized that I was meant to be mad and so tightened my fists and tried to look menacing like I had learnt from my boyfriend.

It didn't really work.

"No, no, this is just a friend of mine."

"Oh really?"

Seth nodded again and then took hold of my arm, trying to purposefully steer me back to our table only I blew his whole plan by hotly spinning around. It brought me in closer to Hardwood Kaylee as the falsely grinning harpy would henceforth be known and also slopped even more beer out of the bottle which didn't really matter in the moment.

"Dean loves me."

In hindsight I probably could have been more coherent, or possibly even started by announcing who I was, but in my not-drunken state the words just seemed to fall out of me and were met by a sigh from a disgruntled sounding Seth,

"Great Lauren, that's just perfect."

I blinked at him,

"Thank you."

"No, I wasn't – ," he groaned and stopped short, which then let Hardwood Kaylee interject with a burst of laughter which was harsh, disbelieving and inherently cruel. At once I got the sense that had we been at school together, she would have been the uber bitchy stereotypical queen bee whose seeming life mission would have been making others miserable.

In short I didn't like her.

I didn't like her at all.

"You're Dean's girlfriend? You expect me to buy that?"

"Why not?" I couldn't help sounding a little like a kid, who had made her very own costume for the pageant then been told without flinching that it looked like hot shit. Only in this case the thing that clearly didn't look right wasn't some outfit but just generally me and although I wanted to be pumped by the insult, instead I actually deflated a bit. My best friend Kelly would have straight up sucker punched her, but I had never been violent in the least.

Kaylee snorted,

"You're just so boring – brown hair, a nice dress – there's nothing else going on."

Seth frowned,

"Hey – ,"

But the beer must have been working because instead of shrinking further I suddenly puffed up and let loose a sentence so totally unlike me that for the first time that evening I figured maybe I was buzzed because I didn't even flinch as I leant in towards her and even smirked back a little,

"We have sex lying on our side."

To anyone listening – which I hoped wasn't many – the statement would probably have made very little sense but between us girls it resonated totally and I saw her dark eyes sort of flash and tense up. Back on Halloween when Las Vegas had seen a power cut, Dean had introduced me to a new way to make love, which had included the ridiculously intimate position of doing the deed while we were stretched out and both lying over on our sides. That was the night he had told me about Kaylee and how she had intended for them to do the same thing only Dean had shut it down because he wasn't in love with her.

The implication therefore being that he was in love with me.

I huffed in triumph and then jiggled a little because to me it felt like the ultimate burn and I was really bizarrely proud of having done it and for defending myself instead of taking it lying down.

Seth blinked at me,

"Uh, what the hell does that mean? You know what, on second thoughts I don't want to know."

I opened my mouth like I was going to explain it but at that point my rival came back at me again, pulsating with fury which was totally my doing and poking my chest viciously,

"You think you're clever bitch?"

"Um – ,"

In my short but eventful twenty seven years of living, I couldn't recall having been called a bitch before and in the moment I was so sort of weirdly thrown off by it that I merely gaped back at her in astonishment.

Not smart.

Because as Seth stepped between us to try and back her up a bit and clearly not wanting an actual fight to break out, Kaylee slipped her hands around his arm and shoved me and I stumbled backwards clumsily and dropped the beer bottle with a thud. It clattered to the floor and while it thankfully didn't shatter, the impact did blast the alcohol up and out and suds and liquids splattered right back at me and coated my legs and my dress.

That was it.

Many times in life I had been pushed around and bullied, including by my ex-boyfriend, the Wyatt family and even my dad. I had huddled and cried and then finally found solace in the hunky and burly arms of a man I truly loved. So what I did not need or deserve for that matter, was one of his former hookups trying to make me feel bad and as something in me snapped, I stomped in towards her, reeled back my hand and slapped her ugly face.

Thwack.

Seth gaped,

"Lauren, what the hell did you do that for?"

His tones brought me out of my angry reverie and as the beer buzz cleared I instantly felt pretty damn horrible and massively guilty for having caused someone hurt. Even if that someone was an unpleasant person I had no right to retaliate in any way with my hands and as remorse washed in over me, I covered my mouth up and stepped a little closer all but babbling,

"Oh my god, I am so so sorry, I don't know what came over me, I'll go get you some ice – ,"

It was all I could think of to try to make it up to her, although as it turned out she wasn't keen to make amends and simply pushed Seth to one side with a shoving move before swinging back her arm and closing her fingers into a fist.

Crap.

Pretty evidently she had seen my slapping and was readying to raise me a punch to the head, which I flinched in preparation for but could do little to get out of, besides which maybe I had earned it?

I squeaked.

"Hey, what the fuck is happenin' over here? Whoa, no you don't – ,"

I knew the tones at once and looked up as a body flashed protectively in front of me and caught the flying punch in the palm of one hand. Dean was there and god he smelt amazing which was probably not the right time to be noticing that, seeing as he was suddenly facing off with the old paramour that his idiot new girlfriend had pretty massively ticked off. Roman was there too, hovering right beside him and adding further bulk.

Ugh.

My guys were so good.

Dean blinked,

"Kaylee?"

He sounded blindsided, which wasn't a great surprise since he probably was and likely hadn't really know what he was charging into or who it involved with the exception of me. In return the black haired woman sort of gaped at him and then shook off the bafflement and started to flirt, fluttering her eyes and pushing her lips out to make them look plumped,

"Dean."

Um, hold up –

How in the world did she honestly figure that she could get him on side after attempting to punch me out and how could anyone be so brazen about it and with no hint of shame?

We did it on our sides.

Dean frowned down at her roughly for a second, her wrist still clamped tightly in his right hand but on noticing he dropped it away from him quickly, the heat rising off him,

"What the hell were you gonna do?"

"She slapped me."

"You pushed her, I could see that from the table, I wanna know why."

"Dean – ,"

"Why were you hasslin' my girl?"

He was glaring across at her pretty damn hotly and on being claimed so publicly I grinned a little bit, because even though I had undoubtedly acted like an idiot, there he was still defending my wild crazy ass. Kaylee's eyes swung across to me gravely and Roman responded by pulling me back, edging me off from the volatile situation and behind him just a little, fearing a second attack.

She snorted,

"Bitch didn't like me saying she looked boring."

"Don't call her that."

"Boring?"

Dean responded with a growl, which grumbled right up from his throat in heated warning and drew a little tremor of understanding in response. My boyfriend had been protective of me always right from the first night the two of us had met and when the clerk at the motel in which we had been bunking had tried to take advantage and earned himself a shattered nose. Even when I'd been stupid he was the one thing I could count on, including staring down his former lovers as well.

Kaylee snarled,

"Is this what you're dating now?"

Her manicured hands gestured airily at me, like I was some sort of random museum statue and not a real person who could feel and hear. I wasn't entirely sure what her problem was and why me not having tattoos or piercings was a rub, but clearly she either felt threatened or insulted by having been replaced with a simple country girl. Really it all came from a place of self-loathing and in my beer befuddled state I actually started to feel bad.

I licked my lips,

"You'll find someone eventually."

Kaylee surged towards me,

"You shut your damn mouth – ,"

Luckily however Dean cut her off sharply and Roman moved himself in a tiny shuffle across, which utterly blocked out the rest of what was happening although I could at least still hear how the scene was playing out.

It was my boyfriend who spoke first,

"M' takin' her outta here but if you try that shit again, you'll be dealin' with me."

"You used to be cool Dean, remember our fun times?"

He snorted,

"Not really,"

Then he turned back to me and brushed past Roman to lightly grip my elbow with an expression that I worryingly couldn't quite read. Was he angry at me and if so could I blame him since I had almost fired up an all out brawl at some club? Not to mention I had made him haul up his injured rib cage and likely thumping head in order to stomp across and defend me for what was about the billionth time in only ten months. Roman and Seth fell into step alongside us, pretty much acting as our rear flanking patrol and Kaylee yelled out above the noise of the music in shrill angry tones,

"Well fuck you Dean, I hope you and your dull girlfriend are happy."

I wanted to spin back and tell her that we were –

I wanted to add in that we actually lived together and had adopted a dog who was like our little son. Plus I could have mentioned we had talked about children and Dean had even promised he would propose to me one day. In fact there were a million things I honestly could have mentioned, but thought it better not to as I was swiftly towed along. My feet sort of slapped the floor tiles heavily and as I stumbled just a little I decided I was drunk.

My head spun.

"Dean?"

"Mmhmm."

No words was not a good sign and I faltered a little as we pushed through the club doors. The warm breeze hit me and threw me off briefly as I caught my heel on the kerb outside and almost totally face planted sideways, although my boyfriend pulled me closer and tucked me in beneath his arm.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Um, for slapping your ex-girlfriend?"

He grunted,

"Lauren, she wasn't my girl, I told you, she was just some chick I used to sleep with."

"Hardwood Kaylee."

His lips quirked up a bit, but it was clear that he was trying to pretend like he was mad at me and so rather than laughing he cleared his throat instead and led me along the street like a child with his brothers in tow.

"Come on Princess."

Roman snorted fondly and then chuckled from behind us in the way my boyfriend had admirably held back, gently nudging my spine with his shoulder as he grinned down at me,

"You got some real balls, maybe we'll make you a wrestler after all."

Dean growled at him defiantly.

"Fuck no."

"Seth? You figure baby girl's got it in her? How about we make her a fighting member of this team?"

In response to him the youngest member of their brotherhood snorted very mildly like he didn't really care then continued to walk with his hands in his pockets not saying a word right the way back to the hotel. We didn't know it then, but it should have been red flag.

Things were not okay in our world.

So were back in drunken style then! Hope you liked this one. Next chapter, sexy time!