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Rhea looked Cathy dead in her eyes and went to retort some cutting remark when she was interrupted. A rather muscular, curly haired stranger walked towards the trio of Dom, Rhea and Cathy before he stopped short of them. The camera filming the interview couldn't make out his face but Dom's own face sours as he recognised Buddy Matthews. Cathy slipped away from the three, having enough experience to know that these situations normally don't end well for anyone, let alone bystanders.

"What are you doing here Buddy?" Dom spat and an audible gasp was heard from the crowd of fans in the arena, followed by an excited buzz.

"Hey, I don't want any trouble. I just got lost okay? It's been a while since I was here last," Buddy tried to placate, holding his arms up.

"Oh yeah? Well you interrupted Mami while she was speaking. I know it's 'been a while' but you don't do that around here. Around here, the Judgement Day runs the show," Dom argued, clearly fired up. He stepped closer to Buddy, ready to brawl if needed.

Buddy just looked past him to the woman standing behind the two, "I'm sorry Rhea. I didn't mean to interrupt. It truthfully was an accident." Rhea measures Buddy up with her eyes, a little smirk playing on her lips as she went to answer.

"Sorry? It's too late for that Buddy," Dom cut in, before Rhea even had the chance to properly open her mouth. The three wrestlers could hear the boos from the arena audience, they were louder than normal, probably due to Buddy's WWE return.

"Oh yeah?" Buddy said, stepping closer to Dom until the two are barely inches apart, he swore to himself that he'd try to stay out of any drama for a while but Dom had always been able to get under his skin, "what are you going to do about it? After all, you're just poor, little Dom Dom, who can't win without interference."

That seemed to anger Dom more as he pushed his finger into Buddy's chest.

"What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I'll tell you what I'm gonna do-"

"You're going to do nothing," Rhea said, decisively, getting in between the two men. She turned to face Dom (and by doing so, missed the way Buddy stared down at her almost entranced), "he said it was a mistake and he apologised. Let it go Dom." 

Dom saw Buddy's smirk as he backs down and still felt it directed towards him when he looked at Rhea, it would go against his entire nature to disobey Rhea, even if he had been agreeing with her less and less over recent months.

"He is right though. You just used your get out of jail free card and be grateful because not many people get one," Rhea warned, her scathing gaze was then set firmly on Buddy and Buddy nodded before leaving, not wanting to question her in case she changed her mind for any reason.

"Are you okay Dom Dom?" Rhea asked, checking on her boyfriend. Dom nodded but quickly started complaining about how he couldn't believe Buddy was back.

"You two have history, huh?" Rhea asked though she already knows some of the story. Everyone does.

"He dated my sister…"

"You don't like your sister though," Rhea pointed out. She and Aalyah had crossed paths a couple of times by now and it's safe to say Rhea kind of liked her, kind of hated her. She had to admire the guts on the young adult (she hadn't forgotten when Aalyah stepped to her at Rey's anniversary party) but she also hated everything to do with that family.

"Well… Still… When I did get on with her, he broke her heart. Bad enough that it's partially the reason he left for AEW in the first place. Anyways, what was up with you letting him off the hook like that? You've never done that before," Dom questioned and Rhea couldn’t disagree with his assessment. She was known for being a hardass, especially towards people that aren't her Judgement Day fam, but Buddy was a curiosity to her. She knew he was extremely successful over in AEW and couldn't understand why he would come back. And without his House of Black stablemates at that.

“I don't know, he didn’t mean to interrupt and it’s been a while since he was here last. A lot has changed since you last saw him, he might not even be the same person you knew back then,” Rhea rationalised but Dom shook his head.

“You're getting soft Rhea. It’s best that we just avoid him and his stupid hair moving forwards,” Dom wrapped his arm around Rhea and led the two out of the room. While Dom didn’t notice it, the camera caught Rhea looking rather curiously in the direction that Buddy walked away. She wondered what Dom would say if he knew she found Buddy cute.

Meanwhile Buddy had bumped into Triple H on his way back to the locker room.

"Hey Buddy! I got you an interview with Cathy in 5 minutes alright?" Triple H informed him and Buddy thanked him. Before he could walk away, Triple H stopped him again, "Hey what was that earlier with Rhea and Dom? I know you know your way around here, I gave you a tour yesterday on the off chance that you had forgotten. Just like I know you knew they were booked for an interview at that time."

Buddy smirked, "what can I say? Rhea is cute."

Triple H chuckled, "I'm not disagreeing with you son, though don't tell Steph that, but you are barking up the wrong tree. I'd say over half the mens' locker room has tried with her, plus a few of the women, and she only has eyes for Dominik."

Buddy simply shrugged, winked and walked away. He got to his interview location with literally seconds to spare and Cathy had already started her intro bit by the time he slots into place next to her.

"Buddy, it's your first day back. How do you feel?" Cathy asked.

"Y'know Cathy… I feel fantastic. I have been able to talk to some old friends and I'm hoping to make some new ones."

"Well one person it seems like you won't be making friends with is Dominik Mysterio. Obviously you two have a history, what do you make of how he spoke to you earlier today?" Cathy pushed the microphone towards Buddy.

"Well… Dominik is maybe one person I wouldn't mind not being friends with. We have a history, one that I regret and would like to apologise for but as for today… let's just say it's a good thing Rhea was there."

"And speaking of Rhea, she showed a rare sign of mercy to you today. Any thoughts on that?" Cathy rushed through. Buddy might not quite remember how interviews in the WWE go but Cathy knew they only have about a minute before the next match began.

"Rhea was very kind to have let me off that easily, I don't know if somewhere down the line this show of mercy will become an 'i-owe-you' but right now? Rhea seems quite cool. And she's gorgeous, so that's a bonus. I wouldn't mind being her friend if it wasn't for Dominik," Buddy finished off, just in time for the screens in the arena to switch to Otis VS Gunther.

When Buddy finally made it back to the locker room, he was greeted by a lot of wrestlers who hadn't realised he was returning today. Seth, who now seemed a lot more mature and a lot less culty, introduced him to some of the newer guys and reintroduced him to some of the older guys who had forgotten him. However, there was a distinct lack of acknowledgement coming from a corner of the locker room where Dominik, Finn and Damian stood.

Buddy sighed. He may not have liked Dom but he didn't want any issues on his first day back so he politely waved and went back to talking to Matt Riddle. A few minutes later, Damian Priest rocked up beside him.

"Hey man, I wanna let you know that I have no issue with you but Dom Dom doesn't appreciate you talking to him or Rhea like you did earlier when you interrupted them. Now, I know Rhea can handle herself if she wishes to but Dom-"

Buddy interruptted Damian before he finished, "listen I appreciate you talking to me, and I have no beef with you or Finn. Or Rhea for that matter. My issues are with Dominik and they are more complex than you'd imagine so I'll stay out of the Judgement Day's way if that's what you guys want."

Damian nodded and heads back to his boys. Or tried to at least.

"Hey Damian," Buddy called before Priest had even fully turned back in Judgement Day's direction. Damian let out a hum in response before Buddy lowers his voice to a whispering level, "is it true that like half the men's locker room fancies Rhea?"

Clearly that was not the question Damian had been expecting as he burst out laughing afterwards. It garners him some odd looks, especially from Dom and Finn but Damian didn't seem to mind. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye as he finally stopped chuckling, Damian replied, "yeah kind of. I don't know if it'd say half of them but a good portion for sure. I think it's because she just oozes charisma."

"And she's gorgeous so that helps," Buddy tacked onto the end of Damian's response. Damian raised his eyebrow questioningly but conceded after he thought about it. Eventually Damian made it back to Judgement Day and Buddy felt himself smile.

While Buddy still wasn't the Judgement Day's biggest fan (he felt like it no longer served a purpose to any of the members except Dom) he respected Damian and was almost positive that respect was mutual.

Later that Day, in the women's locker room, after most of the women's roster had gone home, Rhea was getting changed. She preferred to wait until it was mostly quiet in order to change as it gave her time to think. That, and the fact she wasn't super popular with the womens' locker room. Though she did have a few friends, one of whom was Dakota Kai.

"I still can't believe you let Buddy off the hook like that," Dakota teased. She was one of the few people who understood why Rhea joined the Judgement Day, and didn't turn against her for it. Truthfully, Rhea had no issue with most of the locker room, despite what RAW made it seem like, but they had an issue with her it seemed like. She would have loved to stay friends with them all, she was even prepared to apologise to Liv, but she realised that a little too late. Edge had already pitted her against them all by that point.

"I felt a little bad for him honestly," Rhea replied. She didn't know exactly what must have gone down between Dom and Buddy but she was smart enough to realise that it didn't all go down on TV. There was definitely more to the story than Dom was letting on.

Dakota looked at her curiously before letting out a gasp, “oh.”

“Oh?”

“You find him cute,” Dakota said confidently. Rhea spun around to glare at her, it was almost painful how well Dakota knew her. Not that she would let Dakota know that.

“I do not,” Rhea sounded undignified even to her own ears and Dakota scoffed, clearly not believing her friend. Why should she? Rhea was lying, which never went well for her because, surprisingly, she had always been a terrible liar. Seriously terrible. In hopes of convincing her Rhea added, “I’m just… considering new Judgement Day members.”

Dakota still didn't believe her but let the issue slide for now, pushing Rhea never ended well, “do you think that’s a good idea considering Buddy and Dom don’t like each other?”

She had a good point. Rhea hadn’t considered that when she blurted out that excuse. Dakota, noticing Rhea’s dilemma, slung her arm over Rhea’s shoulders and steers her out of the locker room, “Oh Rhea. What would Dom say if he knew you had a crush?”

Rhea shoved Dakota and walked away, ignoring the cackling of her friend behind her.

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Rhea tried to respect Dom’s wishes, she really did, but it was impossible. Okay maybe she didn't try that hard. She wasn’t lying about feeling curious about him but even if she had… it would be impossible. Buddy was everywhere. She had an interview? She would almost definitely bump into Buddy on the way there. She had a match? Buddy had a match after her and their paths crossed near the entrance. If Dom knew about it, Rhea was sure he would be very upset. But… she hadn't told him about her semi friendly relationship with Buddy. And she didn't plan on it. In fact she didn't plan on anyone finding out, Dakota didn't need anymore ammunition after the first time Rhea spoke to her and the few other people she could tell, she didn't trust not to tell Dominik.

She couldn't tell you why she didn't want Dom to know. He and Buddy may not like each other but Rhea was sure they could coexist. She just… she wanted this thing to stay between them for now. 

The first time it happened, Rhea had been walking to catering (without Dom for once) in an already bad mood and Buddy had just finished a meeting with Triple H in his office. It was an utter coincidence that Buddy left Hunter's office just as Rhea was walking past it. As was the fact they were both heading for catering.

"Hello Rhea," Buddy smiled at his fellow Australian, he hadn't been lying when he said he wanted to be friends with her. Rhea tried to be polite, even in a bad mood, and nodded back but didn't give a vocal reply, "ah so Dom has warned you off of me. Understandable but don't trust everything he tells you."

Rhea glared at the ginger man before opening her mouth and immediately closing it again because Buddy wasn't wrong per se. Eventually she muttered under her breath (but loud enough for Buddy to hear), "he hasn't told me anything," before she stomped ahead of him. Buddy smiled at the fuming woman, though she couldn't see him.

The second time the two met, Rhea was in a much better mood.

"Hello Rhea," Buddy said as she passed by him in the hallway. Glancing around there was no one else there, not surprising considering there was some weird intergender battle royale going on at the moment. It was one of the things she was most proud of during her time in WWE so far, she was able to pioneer intergender wrestling and got an intergender world title introduced. Rhea, being the current intergender world champion, wasn't permitted to be in the match which annoyed her but she tried to justify it by saying that if she had been in the match, it would have been too easy a win for her. She still couldn’t understand why Buddy wasn’t in it though.

"How come you aren't in the battle royale?" Rhea asked, sounding more harsh than she intended. Buddy just ignored her tone, happy to have a proper conversation with her for probably the first time.

"Oh, I have a match against Seth later tonight. I petitioned to be in the battle royale but they said it wasn't fair on me or the other wrestlers for me to fight twice in one night."

"Why not? You look like you could handle it," Rhea observed, her eyes glued to Buddy's biceps as he subconsciously flexed in his tank top, not yet in his wrestling gear.

"My, my Rhea. Was that a compliment?" Buddy teased. Rhea rolled her eyes but it didn't seem to be disdain or annoyance. Instead it seemed almost… amused. Buddy let the feeling of victory wash over him as he saw Rhea suppress her smile.

"Yeah sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night," Rhea teased right back. The two stayed talking for another few minutes before Rhea heard over the speaker 'Dominik Mysterio has been eliminated'. Rhea cursed under her breath and excused herself.

"Rhea," Buddy called as she walked away. She turned to look at him one last time, "we should work out together some time." Rhea nodded her assent before actually walking away that time.

And so, their weekly gym sessions began. At first Rhea had this fear that they would get caught somehow, despite the fact she wasn't actually doing anything wrong. Eventually after a few weeks, Rhea relaxed and let herself enjoy her time with Buddy. They really are very similar, in a way she isn't with Dom, but they are also different in some ways too. Rhea feels like she finally has an equal in the gym. Dom, bless his heart, needed as much help as he could get in the gym and even though Priest and Finn can both keep up with her, they both preferred a light workout as opposed to Rhea’s more strenuous routine. Buddy pushed as hard as she did which she appreciated. She also appreciated how he looked panting and covered in sweat but that was a different issue that she didn't feel like tackling at that moment.

Eventually though, the topic of Dom was inevitable. There were clearly big issues between Dom and Buddy that by that point everyone had picked up on.

"It truthfully was my fault," Buddy admitted after Rhea broaches the subject. Dom refused to even let her utter Buddy's name without throwing a fit, a very annoying fit Rhea might add, so she decided to go right to the source and ask.

"Why? What did you do? When I first asked Dom he said that you broke Aalyah's heart but he won't answer any further questions on it."

"Okay what you need to know is that… I truly did like Aalyah. Or I thought I did. So I never had any bad intentions," Buddy forewarned her and Rhea noded before urging him to continue. Buddy sighed but relents, "so as you know I had a very… unhealthy friendship with Seth for a while, though he seems to have grown out of that which I am grateful for, and during that time Aalyah became almost a beacon of hope for me. She was just a very comforting presence that I could always rely on. She was the one that helped me break away from that toxic relationship… and afterwards I-"

Buddy cut himself off, still clearly feeling guilty about it after all these years. Despite the two not having a very physically affectionate friendship, Rhea wanted Buddy to know that she was there for him and so she reached out to grab his hand. Immediately afterwards she ducked her head so that her blush isn't visible to Buddy. It was no use trying to deny her attraction to Buddy at this point, he just had a skill of making her feel nervous. Plus it wasnt like she was in love with him, it was just a school girl crush. She had had one on Jey Uso a while ago so she knew this was just a passing phase, unlike Dom who she was positive she loved. Maybe. 

Buddy cleared his throat, "afterwards… I- I was done with her. It sounded terrible then and it still does now but it was like she had served her purpose or something. After I was away from Seth… the feeling I thought I had for her just… disappeared. And eventually I realised I didn't ever actually feel those things for her, I just wanted a stable presence when it felt like my entire life was in turmoil. She was that presence for me."

"So what did you do?" Rhea piped in for the first time since Buddy started the story.

"Nothing at first. At first I tried to ignore it as much as I could. Her and the Mysterios had done so much for me that I didn't want to like… spit it back into their faces I guess. But then that combined with my feelings about me and Aalyah's age gap kind of blew up into a messy break up. I said things I definitely shouldn't have and left her heartbroken. Dom took it the worst out of the Mysterio family but I don't think he had ever truly accepted me like Rey and Angie had so… yeah. That's why Dom hates me so much," Buddy finished explaining. He was scared to look over at Rhea, afraid of her reaction and ultimately the end of the friendship but Rhea's grip of Buddy's hand, which he only just realised she never let go of, tightened.

"Buddy… listen to me when I say this. Some people come into your life for a reason, for a sole purpose. And once they have fulfilled that, they can move on, just as you should. It's obvious the Mysterios don't hold you in any negative light seeing as you and Aalyah are now friends again. And with the age gap stuff… yeah that one was a little weird but you wouldn't date someone younger than you again because you have learnt from this experience. Truthfully I can't believe Dominik hasn't gotten over this when the people it actually affects have," Rhea rants, her speech going from motivational and comforting to exasperation aimed at her boyfriend.

"I would still date someone younger than me. Just not that much younger than me. And also, yeah Dom has never been great at that but maybe with your help he has improved," Buddy ventured but Rhea's raised eyebrow shut him down real fast.

"How much younger are you talking?" Rhea asked, though she doesn't know why she asked (that was a complete lie, she totally knows why, she just doesn't want to admit it.)

"How old are you?" 

"27."

"Then… 27," Buddy answered confidently and Rhea felt her face flush for the hundredth time since the start of their gym session.

Later that day, Rhea made it back to her flat where Damian is sat on the couch waiting for her. She cursed the fact she ever gave him a key to her place but the two had always been close, ever before Judgement Day.

"Hey Priest," she called as she slips off her converse. She sent a silent thanks to God that she had showered at the gym, something she usually tried to avoid at all cost but felt compelled to do that day.

"Hey Rips. Where have you been?" Damian asked, looking up from the TV that she has just noticed was playing South Park.

"I was just at the gym," Rhea answered nonchalantly, going to refill her water bottle and taking a sip.

"Oh? With Buddy?" Damian innocently inquired. And Rhea damn near choked on her water.

"What?" Rhea got out after a lot of coughing and sputtering.

"Did you really think I hadn't noticed? You're my little sister Rips. I noticed that you kept taking longer whenever you had interviews, which isn't like you because the only interviewer you've ever liked was Cathy and that you always had a smile when you came back which really wasn't like you. So… I followed you one day and heard you talking to Buddy about one of your gym sessions. Rhea… what is going on?" Damian pointed out that maybe Rhea and Buddy hadn’t been all that subtle up until then.

Rhea went on the defensive, "nothing! Me and Buddy just realised that we have a lot of similar interests. And it's not like any of you boys ever want to come to the gym with me. I had to make do. Plus he isn't as bad as Dom says- wait… you haven't told Dom have you?" 

Damian shook his head and Rhea let out a sigh of relief. Damian looked at her curiously for a few seconds, "that… explains a lot actually."

Rhea gazed at him confused and a little self conscious which was not a normal feeling for Rhea to experience.

"What?"

"You like him," Damian stated matter-of-factly. There was no room for Rhea to disagree even though she tried to, she honestly had no idea how her friends were figuring it out so fast. One hard stare from Damian stopped that before it could truly start. It really did feel like getting scolded by her big brother when he did that, "why the friendship all of a sudden?"

So Rhea told him everything. From the chance encounters, to their gym sessions and learning everything about one another, all the way down to the gym today where Rhea learnt about Dom and Buddy's past, though she left out all the flirting that she was pretty sure was happening earlier that day. Afterwards, Damian just sighed and though there was no judgement in his voice he did warn her that she needed to "get her shit together." She couldn't help but agree.

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So now two people in Rhea's life knew about her and Buddy's tentative friendship, though Dakota didn't know the extent, and yet it didn't make it feel any less special or any less theirs. Damian dropped the issue but gave Rhea a warning glance every once in a while when she was with Dom and Rhea understands. She may have been getting slowly more irritated with Dom's lack of ring awareness but she still loved him. She didn’t want to break Dom’s heart. Which is exactly what she'd do if she admitted that she has a childish schoolgirl crush on his sworn enemy, though Rhea didn’t think he was that bad. It was a dangerous thought to have, especially because it had implications on everyone else she may have unfairly misjudged over the 2 ½ years she had been in the Judgement Day. 

She already knew how she felt about most of the women’s division but… what if she had been wrong at Rey? AJ? Edge? The list is truthfully endless and Rhea quite regularly felt herself grow nervous at the prospect of confronting them all knowing that she may have been wrong the entire time. But then… then she remembered the effort she put into her tag teams with Raquel and Nikki only for the two to turn their backs on her. She remembered the heartache of losing her NXT title to Charlotte after scratching and clawing her way out of NXT UK. And then losing her RAW title in a similar way. She remembered Bianca getting all the credit and glory at Elimination Chamber 2022 even though Rhea had been the one to last 44 fucking minutes in a gauntlet match. She remembered what it feels like to maybe finally win gold again with Liv only for Liv to be missing at the most critical moment. And she remembered  how easily the other girls turned their backs on her even though she tried her hardest for years to say she felt underappreciated by people she considered her friends. She didn't blame herself for snapping, everyone else in her position was bound to eventually. But still… the thoughts lingered. What if…?

Buddy had been a massive help throughout it all. Rhea didn't dare tell him what was going on but it was like he sensed it and so, he threw himself into distracting her. Their gym sessions increased from once a week to three times a week plus the two would go out for sushi most Saturdays. At work, Buddy would send her at least three cat videos, four memes and a new music video to watch every hour or so. He truly was her saviour.

Damian helped too. He may not really understand Rhea and Buddy's friendship but after confirming that there wasn't, in fact, any cheating going on, he had opened up to the idea and now Buddy was semi friends with Damian too. Neither of them had yet told Dominik.

“What are you doing?” A voice, easily identifiable as Buddy, whispered in her ear as Rhea is standing in a corner backstage, scrolling through social media. Rhea jumped a little and steps back into the chest behind her. Buddy’s hands reach out and grab Rhea’s hips to stabilise her and Rhea felt the breath catch in her throat.

“Jesus Buddy,” Rhea sighed after she managed to shake out of it, “you can’t sneak up on me like that.”

Buddy chuckled and tried to apologise when the two heard a voice call, “RHEA!” The two Aussie wrestlers looked at each other before panic sets in. Rhea was (again) less than popular with the other wrestlers and Buddy on the other hand was super popular with them so anyone else finding the two together would assume the worst. Rhea looked around before quite forcefully shoving the two of them into a closet a few feet away. They held their breaths as they heard feet shuffle past the closet.

“Huh, I thought I heard her,” the voice muttered and Rhea was 90% sure it was Bianca though she couldn’t imagine why Bianca was looking for her. The two hadn’t spoken backstage since Rhea joined the Judgement Day and Bianca took it as a personal betrayal. The two Aussies heard Bianca move away and Rhea let out a breath she didn’t even realise she was holding.

“You okay?” Buddy asked. The two were very very squished together in the tiny closet, to the point that Buddy could feel Rhea nod her response in the crook of his neck. He spoke softly, “you know… it isn’t the end of the world if people know we are friends.”

Rhea pulled away as much as she can and though Buddy wasn't entirely sure, he guesses that Rhea was shaking her head in the darkness of the closet. “No. You don’t get it.”

“Okay. So explain it to me,” Buddy nudged, he knew how hard it was for him to tell Rhea about the Aalyah situation so he knew that patience and comfort were the best ways to get Rhea to open up. Rhea sighed but she thought it might be nice to tell someone about it, it’s not like she could tell any of the Judgement Day crew, not even Damian.

“When I first joined the Judgement Day it was kind of an accumulation of a lot of things. You know, better than anyone else could, the type of sacrifice it takes to move half way around the world to do our job. But I wanted this to work out so badly, so I made that move and that sacrifice. When I got here… it wasn’t what I expected. Everyone was so lovely to me but they didn’t respect me, they barely even looked at me unless they needed someone to use as a punching bag during the match. It became pretty obvious that they hired me as a jobber but I had made so many sacrifices that I couldn’t accept that. I started training and working harder. I would be at the performance centre every single day for hours and then immediately go to the gym afterwards, in hopes that I got good enough for them to notice me.” Rhea leaned back against the shelves in the closet and tried to find her wording.

“Go on,” Buddy encouraged her. Like that day in the gym, Buddy reached out for Rhea’s hand to hopefully give her some comfort.

“And I did. They noticed how much I had improved and they were giving me opportunities. When Hunter created NXT UK he specifically asked for me and that… that meant everything to me. But eventually I outgrew the company. There were really only 8 women on the roster over there and there were only so many times you could have rematches before it got boring. Still… they wouldn’t let me move over to NXT because they didn’t deem me good enough yet, even after I proved myself at the 2019 Royal Rumble. It was Hunter, again, that advocated for me to join NXT. I got there and the crowd were fans of me, it was… nice. I won the championship and that was even nicer. Or at least until they told me I had to drop the title to Charlotte because I wasn’t a ‘big enough draw’. I lost all my confidence after that and it took me a while to get it back. When I finally did… Raquel, who was my best friend in the entire world, turned her back on me. Then I eliminated the most people in the 2021 Royal Rumble and nobody cared.”

Buddy wanted to interrupt because he had cared when it happened. It was the first time he had truly seen Rhea and what she was capable of and he was blown away by it. He had even been rooting for her to win that year. But it was evident that Rhea didn’t need reassurances at that point, she just needed to rant.

“I got called up, won the RAW championship and lost it, yet again, to Charlotte. Won the tag titles, lost the tag titles. Nikki was the first person in a long time that I had truly let in after Raquel and she was a good friend. At first, I didn’t mind doing all the work in our tag team if it meant I could keep her as a friend. When I finally had had enough, she also turned her back on me. She was able to turn some of the locker room against me and I felt like I had to walk on eggshells around everyone. After the Elimination Chamber, Edge approached me… he said he saw potential in me and that it wasn’t fair to me that I didn’t win the gauntlet match earlier that week. Rather selfishly, I agreed at the time. I had lasted 44 minutes in that gauntlet match yet all anyone could talk about was Bianca and her achievements. I ignored Edge as much as I could at first because what he was proposing didn’t sound fair to the other wrestlers. But every time something happened, he was there, reminding me that I deserved better and that he could give me better. Truthfully it got to my head a little so when me and Liv lost our tag team title match… I snapped. It was like a switch flipped and I couldn’t stop myself. After that, none of the girls in the locker room wanted anything to do with me and I was relieved about it at first. That way, there was no one else I needed to look out for, just myself. But when Edge was talking about turning me against Liv… I realised that I didn’t want to turn against anyone, I just didn’t want to look out for them either.” Rhea went quiet at the end of her rant and Buddy pulled her into a hug that she melted into. If Buddy’s shoulder became slightly damp during the hug, neither of them would ever mention it.

“Thank you for telling me but… I still wouldn’t mind if people knew we were friends. I don't think anyone would be against you if you had explained this to them. Why haven’t you?” Buddy asked, softly. Rhea looked dejected.

“I tried. Before and after I turned against them all. I used to joke about how I may as well just go back to Australia because I obviously had no use here, Zelina was really the only one that cared at the time. After we kicked Edge out, I tried to reconcile, I even sent Liv flowers, not that she knew they were from me, but the damage had been done. None of the other women would talk to me and so I grew to rely on Damian, Finn and eventually Dom as well. There were a few women that were called up from NXT that hadn’t been sworn off of me yet, I was able to become friends with a few of them but as a general rule, anyone associated with me just becomes this universally hated figure. I can’t do that to you. I won’t do that to you. You’re too good .”

Buddy again wanted to protest but he sees how broken Rhea looked and decided not to push back. If this was what made Rhea feel comfortable, then he could live with it. He was quick to comfort her, “okay. Okay. We can leave it as it is.” He tightened his hold around Rhea where the two never fully pulled away after the hug earlier.

“We should probably leave. I don’t even know how long we’ve been in here for,” Rhea joked, breaking the tension that had formed between the two Aussies. Buddy nodded his agreement but before either of them could make an exit, Cathy’s voice could be heard introducing someone, “fuck. I think we are stuck in here for a little while longer.” Rhea finally looked at her phone for the first time since entering the closet and curses even more when she saw the time. Rhea had to leave immediately or she was going to be late for her and Damian’s tag match.

“Okay. Here is what we are going to do,” Buddy said after Rhea explains it to him, “I’m going to go out there and distract them while you slip away unnoticed.” Rhea thought it sounded like a terrible idea but she didn’t have time to think of anything better so it would have to make do.

Buddy slipped out of the closet and interrupts Cathy interviewing Cedric Alexander. When Rhea heard Cedric challenge Buddy to a match later that night, after questioning him about why he was chilling in a cleaning closet, she took it as her cue to slip through the door. She saw Cathy Kelley look at her in the corner of her eye but she didn’t hang around for Cathy to question her. Hopefully she will have thought up an excuse by the time Cathy caught up with her.

She made it to guerilla with seconds to spare before her entrance which gave Damian no time to scold her, thank god, and by the time they made it back afterwards, he was too pumped up on their win to question her. Rhea thought she had gotten away with their terrible plan until later that night. 

She was scrolling through twitter when she came across Cedric and Cathy's interview. She saw Buddy come out of the closet and interrupt but when it was her turn to leave, the camera caught a flash of black and purple. They didn't get her face but it was enough for the comments to speculate about who it could be. It didn't take long for the tweet to gain traction and for other superstars to notice it.

Almost simultaneously she got messages from Priest and Cathy, both saying "We need to talk."

Chapter Text

Of the two messages, Rhea decided that Damian was the easier of the two to address. She still needed to think of an excuse to tell Cathy.

“Priest,” was the first thing out of Rhea’s mouth after Damian answered her call. The disappointed sigh through the phone makes Rhea’s heart sink. She could deal with his anger but his disappointment? Less so.

“What is going on Rips? I thought you had this under control. You told me that you had this crush under control. Having a harmless crush is fine but cheatin-”

“I am NOT cheating on Dominik. I wouldn’t do that. I do have this under control. I still love Dominik and that hasn’t changed. I can’t believe you of all people would accuse me of that,” Rhea interrupted, undignified. Damian, of all people, knew of Rhea’s past and her past relationships.

Damian had to admit that he may have been a little harsh, “okay. Maybe you’re right but Rhea… you’re acting like this friendship is an extra marital affair or something. I mean, sneaking out to see him, not telling Dom about it. That doesn’t feel weird to you?”

“Of course it does,” Rhea admitted, “but… I don’t see another way of going about this. I don’t want to hurt Dom.”

“Don’t you think him finding out from twitter detectives and not you is going to hurt more?”

Rhea sighed but Damian had a point. “You’re right. I’ll tell him that I’m friends with Buddy. But if I need to tell him then you also need to tell him you’re friends with Buddy.”

“That’s fair. What about the very obvious chemistry between you two? Are you going to tell Dom about that?”

“There is nothing to tell. It’s a passing fancy. I’ve had them before and they aren’t a big deal,” Rhea assured Damian. He didn’t believe her, he had seen the two together and knew she was falling for Buddy, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself. Damian knew Buddy had fallen already, he could see it in the way Buddy looked at Rhea whenever the three hung out as a trio and he knew Rhea was on the precipice of falling as well. Really the only thing holding her back was Dominik because Damian did know Rhea. He knew that Rhea would never betray her boyfriend like that. 

If he could be truthful, and as much as he loved Dom like a brother, Damian was rooting for Buddy and Rhea, they made a lot more sense as a couple than Rhea and Dom ever would. 

“Okay well, I have plans tonight so I have to go but I wanted to talk to you first,” Damian tells her, going to hang up.

“Love you Priest,” Rhea called out.

“Love you too Rips,” Damian replied before hanging up, leaving Rhea alone in her apartment once more. Now, to deal with Cathy.

“Hey Cathy,” Rhea spoke tentatively into the phone, a lot less confident than a few seconds earlier when she had been speaking to Damian.

“Hey Rhea,” Cathy sounded cheerful, which threw Rhea off slightly. She hadn’t expected Cathy to sound so calm, cheerful but ultimately calm. Though, Rhea didn't know what she expected at all.

“I-”

“I’m sorry,” Cathy said, unwittingly interrupting Rhea.

“Wait what? Why are you sorry?”

“I asked Buddy what you two were doing and I may have accused him of being a homewrecker. He tried to explain that you two were just friends but I didn’t believe him. I said it was weird for ‘just friends’ to sneak around in storage closets. He said it was because you didn’t want him to get any backlash, which I was confused about, so he explained the whole situation. I just wanted to apologise in case I had ever made you feel like you were underappreciated,” Cathy explained, not realising she had just dropped a bombshell on Rhea’s friendship.

“Buddy told you that? He told you that I felt underappreciated?” Rhea asked, not wanting to believe that Buddy broke her trust like that.

“Ummm… yes? Why? Was he not supposed to?” Cathy’s voice was shaky, sensing that she had made a mistake somewhere in her mini rant.

“No. No he was not,” Rhea’s lips hardened into a thin line and it was like she could feel the walls around her heart rapidly get rebuilt.

“Oh god. Now I’ve caused even more problems. I’m sorry Rhea,” Cathy pleaded. Rhea had to take a moment to remind herself that Cathy had done nothing wrong and that none of this was her fault. In fact, most of it probably was Rhea’s own fault for trusting an outsider for once. It had never gone well for her in the past so she didn’t know why she assumed this time would be any different. Still, she had to keep her anger in check because it wasn’t Cathy’s fault, which Rhea told her multiple times before Cathy finally believed her and hung up.

God. How could she be so stupid. Of course this was going to end the same way all of Rhea’s other friendships have. She didn't know why she thought any differently. Maybe it was because Buddy is a guy and she just assumed they had less of a penchant for gossip, maybe it had been a little too long since Rhea had a reminder of why she didn’t make new friends. Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted to think differently about Buddy. She wanted him to be different, to be the exception, but he clearly wasn’t.

Rhea didn’t show up to her and Buddy’s scheduled gym session the day after, or the one scheduled for two days after that. She ignored the numerous messages and voicemails he left, though she couldn’t bring herself to block his number. It was honestly slightly tortuous for Rhea, to cut off someone she had grown to trust so deeply but it was the right thing to do. Especially as it allowed her to refocus her energy towards the Judgement Day. Her boys had been on a bit of a losing streak as of late, only ever seeming to win when Rhea intervened on their behalf, but she couldn’t be there for every match. Not like how she was when Damian first won Se ñor MITB. 

The Judgement Day crew met up on Saturday for lunch to strategise and Rhea pointedly did not think about the fact that she would usually be getting sushi with Buddy at that point. The thought absolutely did not cross her mind, not once. Damian kept dropping hints at Rhea to tell her that she needed to tell Dom about Buddy, she couldn’t find it in herself to tell him that the two were no longer friends. Rhea just shook her head at him every time Damian tried to nudge her in that direction. Damian found an opening to question her about it when Finn and Dom left to use the toilet.

“I thought we agreed on telling Dom,” Damian asked.

“There is nothing to tell,” Rhea replied and the cold way she said it must have shocked Damian because he paused for a second.

“What do you mean there is nothing to tell? We agreed-”

“There is nothing to tell because we are no longer friends,” Rhea interrupted, giving Damian a piercing stare, clearly meant to warn him off of pushing any further. But this was Damian, he was convinced he knows Rhea better than he knows himself half the time.

“What? Why? What happened? Are you okay?” Were Damian’s questions but before Rhea could even open her mouth to reply, Finn came back to the table. Luckily for the faux siblings, he didn’t pick up on the weird tension that had been created in his absence and by the time Dom also comes back, the remains of it have dissipated. Rhea was no fool though, she knew Damian still had questions so she made sure to be the first one to leave the Judgement Day meeting. 

Instead of driving home, like she normally would, Rhea took a stroll past where she and Buddy would usually get sushi. He wasn’t there, Rhea didn’t know whether to be relieved or upset. This way she didn’t need to deal with him and all his questions but she also couldn’t check up on him.

Rhea wasn’t quite sure what compelled her to go into the sushi place but within seconds she was greeted by the owner. She was an old Japanese lady who had absolutely no idea that Rhea and Buddy were minor celebrities. It was part of why the two Aussies loved the place so much, plus the food was amazing.

“Ah Miss Rhea,” the owner, Aiko, exclaimed when she saw who had walked through the door, “you just missed him. But he gave me this for you.” Rhea was dumbfounded as Aiko handed her a note. It had ‘Rhea’ scribbled on top in Buddy’s very recognisable messy scrawl.

“He was here?” Rhea asked, shoving the note into her pocket.

“Yes. He waited for as long as he could but needed to leave about 5 minutes ago. He said to give you the note and tell you he was sorry for whatever he had done,” Aiko told her, Rhea tried to focus on the answer rather than the note burning a hole through her pocket at that moment. 

“Thank you Aiko. If he isn’t here anymore then I better head out as well,” Rhea tried to leave but a warm hand lightly grabbed her forearm before she could walk away.

“A word of advice from an old lady? Don’t let a lovers’ quarrel break the two of you. I see you two sat in here every week and I can see a younger version of me and my husband. A white, Australian version but still, the point stands. We were married over 50 years before he passed away. If we stopped communicating every single time we fought, I would have missed out on the best thing in my life. Now, I know your generation is all young and hip but I have a lot of life experience. If you want a relationship to work, you both have to put the effort in. Meaning, young lady, that the next time you stand up that lovely boyfriend of yours, I won’t be as nice. Now off you go. And I expect to see you and Buddy here next Saturday,” Aiko said in a very maternal way. Truthfully it reminded Rhea of her mum in Australia and despite her scolding words Rhea felt some comfort wash over her.

She thanked Aiko before leaving. It never occurred to her that other people thought she and Buddy were a couple. Damian and Cathy were one thing because they know how close Rhea and Buddy were but other people? Though Rhea supposed it makes sense. Aiko always got this far off look in her eyes when Rhea and Buddy were there, almost like she was lost in the past, which Rhea now knows she kind of was. That train of thought was enough to distract her from the note in her pocket until she made it to her flat and emptied her pockets.

“What do you have to say Buddy,” Rhea spoke aloud, picking up the note with shaky hands. She didn’t know why she was so nervous but eventually she forced herself to unfold the paper.

Rhea,

I’m not entirely sure what went wrong or why but you didn’t show up to our gym sessions this week. As I’m writing this, I’m waiting for you to show up to our sushi place, though I get the distinct impression you won’t. Still, I’ll wait. I’m writing this on the off chance that you show up when I’m no longer here. Please talk to me. Please answer my texts. Please explain to me what I did wrong so that I can fix it. Our friendship is too important to me to let it end like this. I don’t have any matches on Monday but I'll be at RAW nonetheless, hoping to see you

-Buddy

Rhea didn’t know what to make of the note. She felt guilt and sadness but she also felt giddy at the thought of Buddy caring enough to do something like this. She also thought she may have been friendzoned? Can you even be friendzoned if you’re the one in the relationship, not them? Either way, Rhea knew she had to talk to Buddy on Monday.

Chapter Text

Rhea had genuinely planned on talking to Buddy at RAW the following Monday but then she saw Buddy and her anger, that she thought she had gotten over, came back to the surface. Rhea turned to walk in the other direction but she was a little too late, Buddy had seen her.

“Rhea,” he called out, after looking around to make sure no one else was around, “can we talk?”

Rhea took a deep breath. She didn’t want to be angry at Buddy and she definitely didn’t want to lash out or say something she may regret later. She just needed a little more time. “Not right now Buddy.”

She once again moved to walk away but Buddy grabbed her hand before she could. He practically begged when he spoke, “please just- please. Tell me what I did wrong.” Rhea shook her head, her anger had quickly morphed back into hurt and a feeling of betrayal.

“I’m telling you Buddy, I don’t want to do something I will regret so please just let it go. Let me go,” there was desperation in her voice as she spoke but instead of loosening his grip, Buddy held on tighter.

“No. I’m not going to do that. We were fine last week and then you don’t show up for any of our plans? You can’t think I’m just going to be okay with that Rhea. Whatever this is, we can fix it,” Buddy tried to comfort but it had the opposite effect. Rhea yanked her wrist free.

“I trusted you. You were the only person I ever told about my feelings and I thought I could trust you to keep it a secret. I guess not,” Rhea’s voice was ice cold and yet Buddy felt burnt by it anyway.

“...what?” He muttered.

“You told Cathy. You told Cathy everything. I confided in you and you broke my trust,” like a switch the icy tone in her voice was gone and instead her voice sounded shaky, almost watery.

“Rhea… I never meant… I was just trying to help. You said none of the girls would hear you out so I thought if I told them, they might listen.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” Rhea felt like she had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions since the conversation started, she had no energy to feel angry anymore. She just felt tired and dejected, “please Buddy, just leave me alone.”

Buddy could do very little other than watch Rhea walk away.

Rhea didn’t really know where she was going but she definitely didn’t mean to walk in on a backstage brawl. It seemed as though Charlotte, Andrade and Logan had taken issue with Bianca and Montez. Rhea would have left, she knew Bianca and Montez could handle themselves, but Cathy was in the corner, no one seemed to have noticed that she was trapped by the ongoing brawl. Or at least, that’s what Rhea assumed until Charlotte turned her attention to Cathy, purposely cornering her. ‘Oh absolutely not,’ Rhea thought. She had to step in. Cathy was a sweetheart, she always had been. Rhea wouldn’t call them friends, despite her knowing about Buddy, but she had never listened to the gossip surrounding Rhea and had never treated her badly because of it.

Rhea was able to make her way around the still brawling Montez and Andrade though she was sure Logan had clocked her presence. As had Charlotte. She raised her eyebrow at Rhea, clearly unimpressed. Rhea squared her shoulders, she was no longer scared of Charlotte, and hadn’t been for years. She stood in front of Cathy, shielding her, which drew Andrade’s attention to her as well. Rhea wasn’t sure whether Bianca and Montez were still in the room but even if they were, they couldn’t have stopped the boot to the face that Charlotte gave to Rhea, nor could they stop Charlotte from stomping on Rhea. Through the pain, Rhea registered that it wasn’t just Charlotte, though she couldn’t tell whether the other assailant was Andrade or Logan or both. She also saw Cathy run out of the door which gave her a few seconds of comfort. Cathy wasn’t a wrestler, she couldn’t deal this kind of beat down, it’s much better that it’s her instead. 

What Rhea didn’t know was that Cathy had gone on the hunt. Rhea needed the Judgement Day and Cathy was going to find them for her. It was the least she could do after Rhea saved her. 

She didn’t find the Judgement Day, but she did find Buddy who was still moping.

“BUDDY,” Cathy shouted, drawing the attention of a few other wrestlers and the camera crew, “RHEA NEEDS YOU.” That drew even more attention towards Buddy as he hushed Cathy.

“Cathy… me and Rhea aren’t talking right now. She wants nothing to do with me,” he informed Cathy but she just shook her head desperately.

“I DON’T CARE IF YOU AREN’T TALKING! SHE NEEDS YOU! YOU CAN SORT OUT YOUR LOVERS’ SPAT LATER!” Cathy said, and Buddy spared a few seconds to thank god that none of the Judgement Day crew were witnessing this but he could still feel eyes on him from the other wrestlers. Buddy allowed Cathy to drag him away from the other wrestlers but the camera crew, who had decided to start filming now there was drama going on, followed.

“Cathy, what is going on?” Buddy asked as Cathy pulled him towards where Rhea had been getting stomped on by Charlotte, Logan and Andrade.

“Charlotte got her hands on Rhea. As did Andrade and Logan,” Cathy told him. Buddy felt the blood freeze in his veins. He and Andrade had issues back in AEW, he should have known Andrade would cause trouble when he came back to the WWE. 

“What?” His surprise made way for rage, “take me there.”

Cathy nodded and sprinted in the direction of Rhea, knowing Buddy was right behind her. When they got there, Rhea was still on the ground and the trio that were previously attacking her were instead standing around her in a circle. Small mercies. They looked up when they heard the door fly open, expecting it to finally be WWE officials or something. They were not prepared for a jacked Aussie to come flying their way, Cathy didn’t think she had ever seen a room clear out so fast.

“Rhea? Can you hear me?” Buddy’s biggest fear was Rhea being knocked unconscious. He let out a sigh of relief when Rhea let out a groan.

“Buddy?”

“Yeah it’s me. Here, let me help you,” Buddy helped Rhea to her feet before throwing her arm around his shoulder, “let’s get you to medical.” Rhea tried to object but one look at Buddy’s worried expression changed her mind. He pushed past the camera crew and Rhea only spared a thought for the fact that meant this was all being recorded. Buddy burst through the door to the medical room and he made a mental note to apologise to the doctor later because they look like they jumped out of their skin. Buddy made sure to shut the door on the camera crew that were still recording them.

“Is she going to be okay?” Buddy asked the doctor after a few minutes of silence while they looked over Rhea.

“Buddy, thank you for bringing me here but you don’t need to stay-”

“I’m staying. You’re not getting rid of me that easily Rips. Maybe we can actually talk,” Buddy ventured, trying to keep the mood light so that Rhea didn’t shut him down. Rhea’s small smile calmed his nerves a little.

“Okay first, do not call me Rips. That’s what Damian calls me,” Rhea complained, rather adorably scrunching up her nose, “and… I guess I owe you now. So yeah, we can talk.” Before Buddy could start talking, Rhea continued, “I know you didn’t have any bad intentions, I never assumed you did. And I am sorry for missing our plans but… I got your note.”

Buddy’s eyes widened, “you did?”

“Mhm. Did you know Aiko thinks we’re a couple?”

“Did… did you not know that?” Buddy chuckled and Rhea shook her head before also laughing.

“When I first won my championship, there was a lot of criticism about it. People didn’t think I interacted with the women’s division enough and that made the roster hate me even more than they already did. Even though by the time my title reign was over, I had the most title defences of any women’s champion in history, that mindset set that I rely too much on the men in my life… it kind of stuck. So… I know you had good intentions and didn’t mean any harm, and I’m not mad. I’m not. But I can’t let other people think you are doing my work for me. Do you understand?” Rhea asked, it sounded almost trivial when she spoke it out loud but she knew better than anyone that people hold grudges.

“Okay. I won’t do that anymore. You have my word,” Buddy promised. Then a grin overcame his face, “would now be a really bad time to mention the fact Cathy practically called us a couple in front of loads of wrestlers?” Rhea groaned and buried her face in Buddy’s chest from where she was sitting on the examination table.

“Why did she do that?”

“Well… in her defence, she was panicking and I was refusing to go with her because you didn’t want to see me. She kind of just blurted out that we could ‘sort out our lovers’ spat later’ if I remember her words correctly. She was worried about you, so don’t be too hard on her,” Buddy joked.

“She did go and get you so I can’t be too mad at her. But does this mean people think I’m cheating on Dom now? Because I do not need him hearing anything about this from anyone except me. If he hears people calling us a couple, he’ll go ballistic. Though I guess I’ve been trying to find a reason to tell him that us two are friends now,” Rhea rambled and Buddy had to physically put his hand over her mouth before she would stop.

“As long as us two are good, he can be an adult and handle it. Are we good?” Buddy asked and it was the question he has been dreading because if she said no, then what? She doesn't say no, thank god, instead she nodded her head and Buddy was reminded that he still has his hand over her mouth. Just after he removed it, the medical room door bursts open and a very very angry Dominik Mysterio walked through it.

“What the fuck did you do to her Matthews?” Dom demanded, grabbing Buddy by the front of his shirt. Buddy put his hands up in defence, “a little birdy told me that you disappear to look for Rhea and then she ends up in medical. How do you explain that?” Dom was seething, Rhea could see the veins in his neck popping out as Buddy tried to explain, but Dom just kept talking over him. When she saw Damian slip into the room as well, she took that as her cue to finally do something.

“Dom, what the fuck? You can’t just come in here and throw around accusations when you know nothing about the situation to begin with,” Rhea said and a silence fell over the room at the power in her voice.

“Seriously Dom,” a gravelly voice spoke behind them, and Dom turned to stare in betrayal as Damian continued, “if it had been Buddy, why would he have bothered to bring Rhea to the medical room?” Dom paused at that for a few seconds, it was clear he hadn’t thought it through properly.

Rhea moved in between Dom and Buddy much like she had the first day she met Buddy. Rhea cradled Dom’s face in her hands and kissed him on the cheek, “listen, I love the fact you want to help and to protect me but Buddy has done nothing wrong. In fact, he was the one that stopped the attack from happening. So, don’t blame him, okay?” Dom sighed but nodded because it did seem like Buddy had been innocent in the situation.

He rather begrudgingly turned to address Buddy, “thank you. For helping her.” Buddy made a motion to say ‘no worries’ and Rhea felt a smile creep onto her face. Maybe Dom and Buddy could become friends after all.

Chapter Text

By some miracle, the camera crew hadn’t caught Cathy’s little outburst the night before but Buddy estimated that the clip of him “saving” Rhea had been replayed at least a dozen times on WWE. The clip on youtube had also racked up over 1M views in less than 24 hours. It wasn’t ideal but it was better than them airing everything .

“Buddy! Mi hijo!" Rey cheered as Buddy visited the Mysterio household for their weekly dinner. He wasn't lying when he said he was still very good friends with them all.

"Hello Rey," Buddy hugged him, before getting swept into a hug from Angie as well. It had been a while since his last weekly dinner because coming back to WWE had been an adjustment.

"Mijo, I saw what happened yesterday. Are you okay?" Angie asked, concern clear on her face. Buddy nodded.

"I'm okay Ang, I wasn't the one getting beaten up," Buddy reassured her. Rhea had told him that the Judgement Day had become her US family, though she made sure to emphasise Damian over the other two, and Buddy understood her because the Mysterios were his US family.

"Edge! My man," Buddy said when he saw him sitting in the dining room. Buddy moved over to him to give him an elaborate handshake/bro hug. Edge returned his greetings before Angie ushered everyone to sit down. Aalyah was there with her boyfriend, which had been weird at first but Buddy and him got on great nowadays. It's almost like Aalyah had a type.

"What happened yesterday Buddy?" Aalyah's boyfriend, Matt, asked. Matt had been slowly getting more and more into wrestling and Buddy was going to invite him to spar one day just to see how he enjoyed it.

"Rhea got beaten up," Buddy filled in and he heard Edge scoff.

"Good riddance. At least it happened to someone who deserved it," Edge bit out. He had some, well deserved, anger left towards Rhea after what she did to Beth at Extreme Rules but Buddy couldn't just let him talk badly about her.

"She didn't," he stated, firmly. The dining table went deadly silent, no one even daring to set down their cutlery at risk of breaking the tension.

"What?" Rey squeaked out eventually, voice high with disbelief.

"I didn't mean- I just meant- Rhea isn't that bad," Buddy tried to explain. He couldn't outright say he had been hanging out with Rey's tormenter and he suddenly felt more empathy for Rhea wanting to keep their friendship a secret.

"Not that bad? Where is this coming from Buddy?" Angie questioned. Buddy sighed, he really had no choice but to admit it now.

"Me and Rhea have been hanging out recently. We're friends. It's why I saved her yesterday." At the last sentence he shot a look at Edge to let him know his earlier sentiments about Rhea were not appreciated.

"Friends?! Mi hijo, por favore. You must remember what Rhea has done to Dominik. She turned him against all of us. I don't want that same thing to happen to you," Rey pleaded with his pseudo son.

"It's not like that. Rhea isn't like that. At least not anymore," Buddy begged them all to understand but they all seemed heartbroken at the revelation Buddy made. Still, he had to make them understand, "Rhea… isn't happy right now." Edge once again scoffed at that and Buddy felt his patience evaporate in that moment, "and you can't comment Edge, because it is entirely your fault."

"My fault? How is it my fault that karma is getting to your little girlfriend?" Edge sneered, him and Buddy had a good relationship usually but Buddy felt himself tick at that comment.

"Jesus Christ, Edge. You don't even realise what you did, do you? Rhea didn't want to join the Judgement Day at first, and you knew that. But you wore her down, you slowly turned her against the rest of the locker room. Did you know she tried to fix things with Liv after you were kicked out? But you had already turned her against the women's division. And it isn't fair. It isn't fair that you could walk away and have all of your friends still there, waiting for you to figure your shit out. But because of you, Rhea has no one now. She has to rely on the Judgement Day crew because you made it that way. So don't act all high and mighty now Edge. You always call the Judgement Day your problem, but wont actually own up to it." Buddy ended his rant with a sigh and somehow the deadly silence had gotten even quieter. Edge looked away in thought and Angie cleared her throat.

"Be that as it may, Buddy, but Rhea made her decision to join and stay in the Judgement Day. You can't blame that on Edge," she ventured and Buddy really didn't want to upset Angie but it was like she didn't listen to the last part of his rant.

"No one besides the Judgement Day crew will talk to her! How can you expect her to leave when she has no support from anyone?" Buddy defended Rhea.

Rey laughed at that, "you're making it sound like she wants to leave Judgement Day."

Buddy went quiet at that, which didn't go unnoticed by the dinner party.

"Does Rhea want to leave?" Aalyah piped in for the first time in a while.

"Well-... I-..." Buddy tried to find an excuse but he simply couldn't. All other eyes at the table turned to peer at him and it felt like they were looking directly into his soul with their gazes.

"Buddy…" Angie said with a warning in his voice. He sighed. There was no getting out of this. Man, he was a bad liar. Maybe even worse than Rhea.

"I don't know," he said honestly, "she hasn't explicitly told me she wants to leave but she has told me things that heavily imply that she does."

"And you know these things because?" Edge raised his eyebrow at Buddy, clearly still not entirely believing him.

"We're friends."

"Friends?" Rey said, still in disbelief but less so than a few minutes prior when he had asked for the first time.

"Yeah," Buddy replied, honestly quite unsure of himself now, "we work out together. She is my gym buddy."

"I thought I was going to be your gym buddy," Matt joked and Buddy was thankful for him trying to break the tension but it didn't really work.

"And how long have you two been friends?"

"A couple of months," Buddy wanted to be as honest as possible. There was no point in lying anymore, he had already dug his grave when he mentioned Rhea the first time.

"A couple of months and you didn't think to tell us?" Angie stated and Buddy felt his old guilt creep back in. He went to answer but Rey interrupted him.

"That isn't important right now. Buddy you said there is a chance Rhea would be willing to leave the Judgement Day?" Buddy nodded. "That's good enough for me. If we get the chance to help her leave, then we are going to do it. I want to meet with her, no cameras obviously. Can you make that happen?" Buddy, again, nodded but he was in a state of disbelief. This was not where he expected dinner to go.

By the following Monday, Buddy still hadn't worked up the courage to tell Rhea about it, remembering how much she lost her cool last time. He wouldn't get a choice for much longer though.

"Buddy," Rhea called as she walked into guerilla.

"Hey Rhea," he replied, clearly distracted. Then realising who it is, his head snapped towards her. He took a deep breath to pluck up some courage, "come with me quickly?" Rhea nodded and allowed Buddy to lead her towards a secluded area, one that was cut off from prying eyes and the camera crews.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"There are some people who want to talk to you," Buddy tried to gloss over actually telling her.

When Rey and Edge came into view, Rhea's face dropped slightly, "what are we doing here Buddy?"

"Like I said, they want to talk to you." Rhea tried to leave but Buddy caught her arm, "please just go along with this. For me." Rhea sighed but by the way she turned to face the older duo it was clear she had resigned herself to her fate.

"Hola Rhea," Rhea eased into the conversation, Edge just sat stoically next to him.

"Hello Rey," she replied, still unsure how this meeting was going to go. "Edge." Edge nodded at her in greeting but still stayed silent.

"Rhea…" Rey trailed off, clearly not sure how to start the conversation.

"How is Beth?" She started it for them, directing the question at Edge. If it had been any other circumstance, Edge was sure he would have gone on the defensive but now that he knew to look for it, he could hear the genuine concern in her voice. Beth hadn't been seen since the Royal Rumble earlier that year when the two had a less than friendly encounter.

"She's good kiddo. Just focusing on our family right now," Edge reassured her and the way Rhea relaxed at his words makes him wonder if Buddy had been telling the truth at dinner last week.

"Rhea, I just want to tell you about Dominik a little bit," Rey told her and though she looked hesitant, she nodded along. "You were right." That made Rhea stare at him in disbelief. "When Dom told me he wanted to try wrestling, my first reaction was to tell him no. This business is tough and draining and I didn't think he was cut out for it. So I tried to protect him and shield him but I didn't realise his resentment was growing for me that whole time. Now, I don't and probably won't ever agree with what you did to Dominik to get him to join the Judgement Day, but I can say that he is more of a star now than he ever would have been with me and truthfully? That's all a parent ever wants for their child."

Rhea nodded her head slowly, like she was still comprehending it. "Rey, I know you don't approve of me and Dom but I did love him when I recruited him, I still do. You aren't as bad as he makes out." Rey's face contorted into a pained look when he heard that Dom talked bad about him and Rhea seemed like she wanted to say something else when her watch went off to signify that she had a match soon. "Shoot, I have to go or I'm going to be late for my match against Zoey… it was nice talking to you guys. Maybe we can talk again?" Rey and Edge both nodded before Rhea rushed away.

The trio left behind waited about 5 minutes before moving from their hiding spot.

"I don't know if I believe it," Edge was the first one to break the silence. Rey looked like he wanted to argue but the trio was interrupted by Bianca before he could.

"Buddy! I've been looking for you!" Bianca exclaimed when she saw Buddy, and Rey knew it must have been important because she totally bypassed the two hall of famers in favour of the Australian.

"Are you alright Bianca?"

"I wanted to ask you about last week because you were the one that ended up helping Rhea," Bianca explained. Buddy sighed but he should have known he couldn't avoid this conversation forever. Plus considering Bianca was there for part of it, according to Cathy at least, it checked out that she'd want to know.

"Okay sure, what do you want to know?" Buddy replied.

"Why did she decide to get involved?" Bianca almost sounded accusatory when she spoke but Buddy knew she was more than likely just confused.

"She saw someone that needed help, so she helped."

"That doesn't sound like the Rhea I know," Bianca stated and Edge (who, with Rey, had been watching from a few feet away) makes a face like he agreed with that sentiment.

"Maybe that's because the Rhea you thought you knew isn't the actual Rhea. Did you think about that?" Buddy cut back, slightly harsher than intended. 

"Yeah Cathy mentioned something about that. One of the girls said something about Rhea and Cathy lost it a little, said none of us knew why Rhea did what she did and to stop judging because if we were in her position, we probably would have done the same thing. When Raquel asked what she meant Cathy explained what she knew about Rhea's situation. She said you told her about it all." Buddy glanced away at that which practically confirmed that story. "Is it true? Does she truly feel like that?"

"Well Bianca… if you moved halfway across the world and were one of the hardest working, most reliable wrestlers on the roster and never got an ounce of respect from the other wrestlers, whether you were friends or not, what would you do?" Buddy questioned and Bianca's face went blank.

"I probably would have lost my damn mind until someone paid attention to me," she said slowly, like her entire world view was unravelling before her very eyes, and Buddy had to guess that it just might be.

"Exactly." And with that, he walked back to Edge and Rey who were still patiently waiting for him.

Rey looked at Edge and the two had a silent conversation that came from years of close friendship and respect.

Eventually Edge gave in, "fine. I'll admit it. Rhea isn't what I thought. I need her to talk to Beth before I can forgive her but I am willing to try and help her in this situation."

Buddy and Rey both smiled wide at the Canadian after his comment and Rey steered the two closer to the viewing room so that they could watch Rhea's aforementioned match.

Chapter Text

"You better be fucking with me right now," Rhea growled out, glaring at her boyfriend. He was laying on one of the couches in the backstage area, dramatically clutching his foot.

"You can't expect me to wrestle right now. Look at me!" He exclaimed, glaring just as hard back to her.

Rhea took a deep breath to calm down (spoiler alert; it didn't work), "you stubBED YOUR TOE! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU HAD YOUR FOOT AMPUTATED!" Rhea was practically yelling as she spoke and Dom saw a few of the other wrestlers quickly walk away in order to avoid Rhea's wrath.

"I'm not wrestling, end of story," Dom raised his eyebrow at Rhea, daring her to challenge him, and she normally would have, if it wasn't for the fact that they needed to be in the ring in less than 10 minutes from now.

"Dom… please. We agreed to this mixed tag team match weeks ago. You can't just bail now," Rhea pleaded with her boyfriend but he still looked uninterested. 

"Ask Finn or Damian."

"You know I can't. Finn had a match against Shinsuke literally half an hour ago and Damian is up against LA Knight right after what was supposed to be our match," Rhea explained, hoping it would help her boyfriend see sense. She should have known that it wouldn't but she tried anyway. When Dom didn't respond she barged past him, making sure to hit his "injured" leg that was dangling off of the sofa.

She had to find Adam and tell him that she and Dom could no longer do the tag match. She sighed at her boyfriend and cursed him out in her head. She was so distracted she practically ran head first into Buddy. It was only his awareness of their surroundings that allowed him to catch her around the waist before she toppled to the ground.

“Hey, hey. Woah. You okay there Rhea?” He asked her, slowly easing her back into an upright position and letting go of her waist. She found herself blushing but nodding to let him know she was fine.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I have to find Pearce though,” she told him, though she made no move to leave her fellow Aussie.

“How come?”

She looked down at her watch and though she really didn’t have time to explain it to him, she could never resist talking to him. She grabbed his hand and led him so that he was walking with her before she resumed her search for the RAW General Manager. She knew he was one of the people who had fled the scene earlier when she raised her voice, she remembered seeing his unmistakable bald head and glasses amongst the crowd.

“Me and Dom Dom were supposed to have a match against Seth and Becky tonight, we agreed to it weeks ago but now Dom is claiming that he can’t wrestle because he hurt his foot.” By the way Rhea rolled her eyes as she said the last bit, Buddy got the feeling that he wasn’t hearing the whole story but he didn't feel in a prying mood right now. “And I can’t ask Damian or Finn to fill in for him because they both have their own matches tonight-”

“I can do it.”

Rhea looked at Buddy like he had grown a second and third head. “Are you… sure? You don’t have anything else to do?”

Buddy shook his head before responding, “no. I’m only here because Hunter wanted to have a meeting with me. I can fill in if you need me too.” Rhea nodded, a smile gracing her lips and she launched herself into Buddy, giving him a bone crushing hug. The two were getting a lot more physically affectionate with one another but that was still unexpected. Not unwelcome, but definitely unexpected. Still, he hugged her back just as passionately.

In maybe the most out of character thing Buddy had ever seen Rhea do, she squealed her thanks.

“Thank you! Thank you! Oh, we still have to find Adam to let him know,” Rhea thanked him.

“Let me know what?” A voice called from behind the two wrestlers. Rhea detached from Buddy to look at Adam, who gave her a very unimpressed look.

“Buddy is filling in for Dom in the mixed tag match tonight. So, go ahead and tell who you need to tell or change what you need to change but we go out in less than 5 minutes so make it quick,” Rhea demanded and Adam rolled his eyes but complied, sending word to Corey that he needed to announce the change to the audience.

“You two better be magic in that ring or I swear to God Ripley-”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Buddy reassured, using some of his good grace that he had been collecting since rejoining with the WWE, “me and Rhea have been told that we have great chemistry.” He winked at Rhea who snickered behind her hand in an attempt to hide her amusement. Adam shot the two another unimpressed look but Rhea’s theme rings out before he could comment.

They all heard Samantha’s voice boom out as the two make their way down to the ring, “THE NEXT MATCH, SCHEDULED FOR ONE FALL, IS A MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH. INTRODUCING FIRST, THE TEAM OF RHEA RIPLEY AND BUDDY MATTHEWS!”

As Rhea does her poses on the ring apron she could hear Corey and Kevin explain that Dom’s absence was due to an injury and Buddy had graciously offered to step in to even the numbers. She rolled her eyes, yet again, at them describing Dom’s condition as an injury but it did get her thinking about him. He was going to be so mad when he watched this backstage but it was kind of his fault for bailing on her so she didn't feel as bad as she probably should.

The crowd went wild when Rhea and Buddy moved in sync, going to different corners of the ring to pose until Seth and Becky came out. When they got in the ring, they both acknowledged Buddy but barely paid attention to Rhea. This time it was Buddy who rolled his eyes and though he gave respect back, it looked slightly strained to anyone in the audience. Rhea just hoped it didn’t translate that way on TV as well.

The match went well, it started with Seth and Buddy in the ring just trading blows, though Seth soon got an impressive dropkick on Buddy. Rhea tagged herself in after that, forcing Becky into the ring as well. Becky got an early DDT on Rhea but couldn't put her away. Rhea shoulder-blocked her into the corner after the failed pin attempt and chopped away at Becky's chest. Rhea could see Buddy playfully grimacing at the attack from their corner and winked at him.

Becky kneed Rhea in the stomach and was able to tag Seth in before Rhea could stop her. Buddy got into the ring but Rhea didn't leave immediately, despite the referee trying to make her. A little known fact about Rhea was that when she first started wrestling, she was not the powerhouse she is now. In fact, Rhea was a high flyer for a good 4 years before coming to WWE. Now that she was working with a wrestler that could actually carry her weight, she figured she might as well break some of it out. Rhea used Buddy to catapult off of the ropes into a seamless huracanrana, setting Seth up for a brutal looking leg drop. Rhea was positive that if it wasn't for Becky breaking up the pin, her and Buddy would have won right then.

Rhea delivered a swift headbutt to Becky so that she would roll under the ropes to safety while Buddy ran the ropes, setting up for a stunning knee strike that damn near took Seth's head off. Becky had recovered at that point and was stalking Rhea slowly from outside the ring. Rhea didn't back down, she just stared disinterested in Becky. 

Behind her Buddy had Seth in some form of arm bar but again Becky stopped Seth from losing. However, stepping foot back into the ring was a big mistake for Becky as Rhea dives at her. She drove Becky out of the ring, and applied her prism trap submission on the outside before slamming Becky into the ring apron. With the threat of Becky neutralised, Rhea joined her tag partner back in the ring. Rhea hit a riptide before Buddy hit Murphy's law, the first time he has used that move since he left WWE the first time and got rid of that stupid nickname. This time, there was no Becky to help and Seth was too beaten to even attempt a kick out. 

Rhea and Buddy were the winners.

"We did it!" Rhea exclaimed, sounding as giddy as Buddy felt. The two looked at Seth and Becky who were both still breathing heavily from where they were laid out. Seth was clutching his back slightly and Becky went to comfort her husband.

"I'll get a doctor out here for him," Rhea said as Becky walked past. Despite the two having faced off seconds before, Rhea and Becky have never had any personal issues. Becky didn't like her but she wasn't in the minority with that so Rhea didn't hold it against her. Becky smiled at Rhea and her offer before lightly nodding her assent.

Backstage there was a small crowd gathered around one of the big screens showing the match.

"Rhea, Buddy! That was… incredible. Seriously! You two have such good ring chemistry!"  Adam beamed, clearly in a better mood now than he was when the duo had first approached him. That's what a good match will do to someone.

"Thank you Adam. Seth might need a doctor though. I think he hurt his back," Rhea informed him and Adam was quick to scurry off to find one. That left them alone with what felt like half the locker room and a dozen camera-men.

"You two seem to work really well in the ring," Bayley said from where she was standing between Dakota and Iyo. Dakota had a smirk on her face, like she knew something everyone else didn't (which, admittedly, was the case but still). Rhea could make out Cathy, Bianca and several others in the women's locker room but wasn't able to talk to them because Damian went on immediately after. Rhea needed to be prepared to step in if needed.

"I'm going to go find Dom," Rhea told Buddy. He looked slightly deflated at that but nodded. Rhea squeezed him into another hug before almost skipping away, not even noticing the incredulous looks of her fellow superstars. Buddy decided that, to avoid questioning, he would follow in Rhea's footsteps and leave. This left some very confused wrestlers standing around looking at the two Aussies retreating.

Dom wouldn’t talk to Rhea when she made her way back to him and she didn’t try to push him either. Instead, she found herself scrolling through Twitter to distract herself, though she could feel Dom’s eyes on her as she did so.

@Rheass: Okay but… are we going to talk about Rhea and Buddy’s INSANE ring chemistry? Liked by @RheaRipleyWWE

@Rheaspiercings: RHEA AND BUDDY ATE liked by @RheaRipleyWWE

@BuddyMyHubby: New Judgement Day member?!

@WWEconspiracies: Okay guys, remember a few weeks ago when everyone was discussing who Buddy had been in the closet with? What if it was Rhea?

@ripsmiley: quick, someone call dom

@RomanRipley: Can Rhea stop being so hot please. She even has Buddy falling for her

@Wrestlechats: Damn, Buddy is Mr Steal Yo Girl. Dom Dom gotta watch out

@Ripleyoutfits: Okay first, Rhea ate her look tonight. Second, am I the only one that thinks Rhea and Buddy would make a cute couple?

@DomDomRocks23: replying to @Ripleyoutfits that’s actually really disrespectful to Dominik and Rhea’s relationship

@BrollinsRollins: replying to @DomDomRocks23 dude… it’s not that deep

@RipleyMyMami: replying to @Ripleyoutfits no! I was thinking the same thing during the match! Plus they are both Australian which is really cute!

@HouseOfRed: would love to see Buddy Matthews in TJD one day. him and rhea worked super well together retweeted by @RheaRipleyWWE

Rhea kept scrolling through twitter and liking tweets from her fans, doing her best to avoid the more telling ones and trying not to laugh at some of the funnier ones, until Damian came back from his match.

“Do you want to go get some dinner Rips?” Damian asked her. Rhea nodded and gathered up her things in order to leave. Priest offered Dom to come with them but he denied them, saying he was busy tonight. Neither of them fight him on it and leave not realising Dom was squinting his eyes at the duo, looking suspiciously at them as they walked away.

Chapter Text

Rhea and Dom were having issues, it was pretty obvious to everyone around them. After tagging with Buddy the previous week, Dom had practically ignored her. She couldn’t get him to talk to her, even when it was for work related stuff and was having to use Damian as her personal messenger, which he was getting more and more fed up with.

“Seriously Rips, you need to sort this out,” Damian complained for what feels like the fifth time that day, “I didn’t mind helping in the beginning but it’s been four days. FOUR. You two need to like, snog it out or something, preferably before RAW on Monday.”

Rhea sighed but couldn’t deny it. They did need to get it sorted out and Rhea was more than willing. It was Dominik that wouldn't talk to her. She told Damian this even though he was already well aware of the whole story.

He hummed but then a look of realisation came across his face. "Dominik won't talk to you."

Rhea furrowed her eyebrows at just how excited Damian sounded about it all of a sudden, "yeah. That's what I just said."

"But he will talk to me," Damian finished and looked at Rhea like he expected her to get what he was hinting at. She didn't.

"We've established that. Seriously, what are you doing right now?"

"Okay. Meet me tomorrow. 1pm. Our usual cafe. Trust me, I have found a way of fixing this," Damian called as he walked away, but the excited and proud smile didn't leave his face. Rhea sighed, resigning herself to her fate the following day.

When Rhea entered the cafe on that Saturday, it's predictably busy and at first she didn't think Damian was able to get a table. She should have learnt to never underestimate him though.

"Over here Rips," he called from behind her and when she turned around Damian was sitting in a corner booth with Dominik next to him. Damian ignored the daggers that Dominik was shooting his way, clearly having been tricked into being there.

"You look great," Damian complimented her as she sat down. Rhea had been out with a few of her non WWE friends that morning so the long bodycon dress she was wearing to meet the boys is far from her usual taste in clothing, though she also couldn't deny that she looked good in it. Dom silently appraised Rhea, clearly enjoying her look but he still stayed silent.

"Do you know why I have bought you two here?" Damian asked, clearly solidifying his role as the mediator in this interaction. Dom and Rhea both nod. Despite them knowing what Damian wanted from them, it took a while for one of them to break the silence.

“Dom, I know you probably aren’t happy about what I did last week with the tag match and for that I’m sorry but I had no choice. You were refusing to work and Buddy offered, I wasn’t about to turn him down,” Rhea started for the both of them. Damian looked pleased at the fact Rhea was taking the initiative and apologising but Dom furrowed his eyebrows.

“You’re sorry? Rhea that man almost destroyed my family and you’re… what? Friends? He isn’t a good person and the fact you totally ignored my warnings about him shows that you have no regard for me. Seriously Rhea, it’s fucked up,” Dom was furious and Damian could already tell that this meeting wasn’t going to achieve what he wanted it to.

“So… what? You want me to stop being friends with Buddy?” Rhea asked, not believing her ears.

“YES!” Dom burst out, standing up from his chair.

“Well news flash Dom, I’m not going to do that. You don’t get to control who I’m friends with. I know exactly why you don’t like Buddy and it’s the most immature shit I’ve ever heard, if anyone ‘destroyed’ your family it was you,” Rhea pointed her finger at Dom, also standing up from her chair, though she at least made a conscious effort to keep her volume down.

Dom stared at her for a few seconds, “you’ve been talking to my dad, haven’t you?” Dom accused her and Rhea took maybe a second too long to respond because even Damian looked at her in surprise.

“No, I haven’t but that has nothing to do with what we are talking about right now,” Rhea lied and it said a lot that Dom didn’t even call out her terrible lying skills, he just rolled his eyes. Instead he sat back down, Rhea following suit, and Damian let out a breath he had been holding in. “Look… we are not getting anywhere here. Damian it was nice of you to arrange this but Dom and I clearly have some deeper issues that aren’t going to be resolved in one day. I think we should call it quits for the day and Dom, we can talk tomorrow a little more. Because I want to work through this but it’s going to take time.” And with that Rhea stood up, once again, and dropped a kiss on both Dom and Damian’s forehead before she walked away.

“Yeah that’s right, go run to Buddy,” Dom sneered out and Rhea felt her rage come to a boiling point.

“You know what Dom? I just might. He’s a bigger man than you will ever be and at least he can win his matches without anyone helping him,” Rhea bit back and the anger on Dom’s face was replaced very quickly with hurt. Rhea felt her stomach drop, she knew better than anyone else that Dom’s in ring abilities were one of his bigger insecurities. One, that up until then, was an unspoken secret between the couple. “Dom… I didn’t… I…”

“Honestly Rhea, go fuck yourself. Or better yet, have Buddy do it for you,” Dom spat out before he got up and left the cafe, leaving the two pseudo siblings staring at each other. Damian opened his mouth to say something but Rhea raised her hand, effectively cutting him off.

“Don’t start Damian. I know I shouldn’t have said it. I knew that the second the words were out of my mouth. Fuuuuck! This entire thing is such a mess. Could you… could you maybe talk to him for me? I don’t want him to be alone right now,” Rhea said, her own insecurity shining through and honestly, how could Damian say no to that?

“Hey, don’t sweat it Ripples. Couples argue all the time, honestly I’m surprised it’s taken this long for things to explode. I’ll go catch up to him. But word of advice? Maybe don’t tag with Buddy again in the future, no matter what Dom is or isn’t doing. I can’t picture it ending any better than this did.” Rhea nodded and watched as Damian followed where Dom had gone off to. When Damian was gone, she whipped her phone out. She felt guilty when she pulled up her and Buddy’s text messages but she needed a friend at that moment.

Rhea: Hey. Are you free right now? I could use some comfort :(

Buddy: Yeah I’m free! Just come over to my house. We can chat or watch a movie, whatever you feel like doing

Rhea: Thank you :)

Buddy was waiting at his door when Rhea pulled up in her truck. He silently pulled her in for a hug and she just melted into it. Neither knew how long they had stayed like that but it was definitely longer than would be considered a normal length for a hug.

"Hi Buddy," Rhea said, her face still nestled in his neck and her arms wrapped around his waist.

"Hey little lady, what's wrong?" Buddy asked in response, using the nickname that normally got a smile out of Rhea, but not that day. She just nuzzled in further and started crying, at that moment Buddy knew it was serious. "Okay, let's get inside. I'll go make some coffee and we can talk."

Buddy, somewhat clumsily, manoeuvred the two into his house without breaking the hold they were still in. Reluctantly, Rhea pulled always after she heard the front door close and Buddy gently led her to the increasingly familiar couch in his living room (the two may or may not have slacked off a few of their gym sessions in favour of gaming on that very couch, but Rhea figured they deserved it with how hard they worked normally).

She must have been lost in thought because when she zoned back into her surroundings Buddy was holding out a cup of coffee, a kind smile on his face.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" Buddy prompted and truthfully, Rhea wasn't sure. She couldn't exactly rant about the problem to the problem. Not that Rhea considered him a problem but still…

"Maybe not for right now. Can we just play video games instead?" Rhea suggested, her voice wavering slightly but she had a little hope in her eyes, she knew Buddy wouldn't force her to talk about it.

And he didn't. Instead he picked up his controller and handed Rhea the spare controller that in his mind, he had started to consider hers (it was purple and everything).

"What do you want to play?"

Rhea smiled at her friend and felt her stomach flip but unlike when she was fighting with Dom earlier, this time it was a pleasant feeling. It left her feeling warm and comforted. Rhea grinned, "I don't know, but I want to kill some shit."

Buddy laughed but obliged.

Meanwhile, Damian had only had to follow Dom for about half a block before Dom turned around to glare at him. Of course he knew he was being followed. Even if Damian had tried to keep it a secret, which he hadn't, Dom's senses had been heightened in prison and even though that event took place over a year ago, almost 2 at that point, those reflexes and skills never left him. Despite being clearly pissed off at both Rhea AND Damian, Dom had just gestured for the Puerto Rican to follow him. Which is how the duo found themselves standing awkwardly in the kitchen of Dom's flat.

There had never been weird energy between the two of them before but as they stood there, neither could deny it. It became alarmingly obvious that without Rhea there to buffer them, Dom and Damian had very little in common. Spending 5 minutes with someone was much different to spending hours with someone.

"So…" Damian started.

"Let's just get this over with. I know Rhea asked you to follow me Damian. I know you love me but you are much more Rhea's friend than mine," Dom stated and though Damian would have loved to deny it, he wasn't exactly wrong. "So? Why are you here?"

"Listen, I'm not here to defend Rhea but I do feel like you could both use a little bit of perspective. I'm going to go talk to Rhea right after this to try do the same thing with her," Damian started the conversation, pointedly leaving out the fact he had a suspicion Rhea was probably chilling with Buddy (he had seen her leave the cafe and instead of turning towards her flat, she took a left towards Buddy's place).

"Perspective on what? The fact Rhea would rather tag with a random stranger than her boyfriend? Not to mention that said boyfriend has some serious issues with said stranger." Dom, evidently, wasn't in a forgiving mood which was going to make Damian's job a little more challenging but he suspected he could still manage it. He kept any counterproductive thoughts to himself (like maybe the fact he thought it would be better if Dom and Rhea didn't sort it out or the fact he actually liked Rhea and Buddy together.)

"Dom… you and I both know that isn't what happened. You refused to tag with her, what was she supposed to do?"

"SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO FORFEIT!" Dom yelled angrily and Damian had to remind himself that he wasn't the one Dom was mad at, that misfortune went to his best friend.

"Dom, come one man, she's a champion. The first ever holder of the intergender championship. Do you know how bad it would have looked if the intergender champion backed out of a mixed tag match?" Damian reasoned, and he knew Dom was thinking back to the scrutiny Rhea faced as Women's World Champion. Damian noted that logic seemed to be the best way to connect with Dom at that moment in time.

"I would have been fine with it if she had tagged with literally anybody else but it's the fact she tagged with Buddy," Dom grumbled and Damian was struck by just how young Dominik was, how Rhea was as well.

"Right but none of them offered and Buddy did. She wasn't going to turn that down. Plus she had no reason to. I know you don't like Buddy and always think that he is up to something nefarious but Buddy was the one that saved Rhea remember? She trusts him and up until this point, you can't say that trust hasn't been earned." Again, Damian watched as understanding washed over Dominik's face. This entire conversation was going a lot easier than Damian had predicted but he was not about to complain.

"I think I understand that but… it's Buddy," Dom sighed out, "shouldn't my word be enough for her? I've never led her astray before."

"You have to see this from Rhea's point of view Dom. You are asking her to just cut off someone in her life when she has no reason to and who has been nothing but exceptionally kind to her. It makes no sense to her," Damian filled him in and Dom's eyes filled with a quiet understanding, "and not to rock the boat here but… Buddy today does seem very different to the guy you knew 4 years ago."

Dom sighed and hid his face in his arms. “Have I been a dick?” he grumbled and even though he couldn’t see it, Damian was 99% sure Dom was pouting.

“No, I don’t think so anyways. Rhea said some things she shouldn’t have as well. The blame isn’t entirely on you. For what it’s worth, she was very apologetic for what she said at the cafe. And she seemed to really mean it. I think you both just need to chill out a little bit and you need to trust that Rhea knows what she is doing with Buddy. She would never purposely hurt you and you know that, no matter how angry you are at her right now,” Damian told him and Dom conceded.

“”I’ll make it up to her on Monday, let her cool off for another day or two.”

Damian grinned, “very mature of you hermano. Now, where do you keep your Xbox?”

Chapter Text

“Buddy! Glad I caught you. We haven’t been able to talk since you saved Rhea from her attackers a few weeks ago. Now, before that moment, we didn’t really know that you had any form of relationship with Rhea. So… I guess my question is why did you save her?” Cathy asked Buddy on Monday. Even though the WWE branded themselves as truthful and real life, even they had to play things up and fabricate events every now and then. Still… she and Buddy both thought it was a little dumb that she was conducting the interview considering she had been the one to collect him on that fateful day.

“Well Cathy… It wasn’t like Dom was going to save her,” Buddy replied, cheekily. After Rhea had left his house on Saturday, he had kind of figured that her bad mood was down to Dom. His inkling was confirmed when Damian called him, asking him if Rhea had calmed down after her fight with Dom. He knew that bad mouthing Dom might not be a good solution but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

“Those are some less than positive words about the former NXT North American champion, you also had some choice words for him when you first came back a few months ago. Has your relationship improved at all since then? Especially since you seem to have Rhea Ripley in common now,” Cathy questioned and Buddy looked at her in disbelief but he supposed that she was still playing it up for the cameras. Everyone knew that Buddy and Dom’s relationship hadn’t improved, in fact it had probably gotten worse after Rhea became friends with him. 

“Truthfully Cathy? No. It hasn’t. And I don’t see it improving any time soon either. I don’t think Dom thinks all that highly of me which is fine because the feeling is mutual. I think he is a bad wrestler and above all else, a bad person,” Buddy fumed, remembering how heartbroken Rey and Angie had been when Dom betrayed them.

“See now, that is interesting because Rhea Ripley, someone that many people would regard is worse than Dominik, her and yourself seem to be close. How did that come to be and how do you think she’d react if she heard you talk about Dom like you just did?” Once again, Buddy looked at Cathy in disbelief but this time he saw a small smirk play on her lips. He sighed internally, Cathy had been subtly trying to get him to admit to liking Rhea for weeks now. If she just straight up asked him, he would have told her by now but she seems to derive pleasure from slowly torturing him.

“What I say to that is that the people who watch this show don’t know everything that happens behind the scenes. People aren’t always how they are portrayed on TV. Rhea is a lovely person and truthfully Dom doesn’t deserve someone as amazing as her-”

“Woah now Buddy,” Dom interrupted, sliding in beside him and throwing his arm around Buddy in a “friendly” way, “I hope you weren’t about to talk badly about Rhea.”

“On the contrary,” Cathy told Dom, trying to fight the urge to roll her eyes at the man, “Buddy was just heaping praise on her.”

“Really?” Dom wondered, “well I hope he wasn’t too complimentary of my girlfriend.” Dom sneered a little at the end of the sentence and had a condescending smile on his face afterwards. “So what did you say Buddy?”

“The truth. That Rhea is much too good for you and that you're a shit wrestler,” Buddy replied nonchalantly which seemed to anger Dom. ‘Good,’ Buddy thinks, ‘that’s what I was trying to do.’

“Is that what you think?” Dom demanded and Buddy just shrugged. “Well then, let's settle this in the ring later tonight.”

“Fine, I’ll go talk to Adam right now, everyone knows he likes me more than you.” Buddy walked away and Cathy was left wondering how things escalated so quickly.

“Next time, Cathy, if you want to ask someone about Rhea, I’m your guy. Not a has-been that was popular for dating Alexa Bliss 5 years ago.” And Dom stormed off leaving Cathy standing there, dumbfounded.

“Ummm… I dont know-” Cathy cut herself off and quickly ran off in the direction Buddy had gone, silently just hoping the cameras would cut. Which luckily they did but that was more out of necessity than anything. Anyone Cathy spoke to later about it said that that specific cameraman had been muttering about missed opportunities for the rest of the day.

“Buddy! Wait up!” Cathy called out and she saw the silhouette of the Aussie slow down into a halt. “I just wanted to talk to you first.”

“What’s up Cathy?”

It’s just… are you sure this is a good idea. I know you are super close to Rhea and have that weird thing going on but she is still dating Dom. When it comes down to it… I don’t know who she would pick,” Cathy told him honestly but grinned at the end, “but I know who I’m rooting for.”

Buddy chuckled, “I cant very well back out now. I just have to have faith that I think I know Rhea by now. She is absolutely going to come out with Dom tonight, which will hurt my feelings a little, but it'll be more to do with the fact she doesn’t want anyone to think the Judgement Day is weak than anything else.”

Cathy nodded, she understood that. She thinks. She doesn't know if she was ever going to get a handle on the wrestling business and she had been working in it for years at that point. She followed Buddy to go and find Pearce (who readily agreed to sanction the fight).

Meanwhile, Rhea had been looking for Dom for ages. Damian had spoken to her and told her that Dom had realised some things over the weekend and hopefully he’d talk to her on Monday about them. She was beginning to be doubtful of that fact considering it was already an hour into the show and she hadn’t seen him once.

“I cannot believe that asshole!”

‘Found him,’ Rhea thought.

“Are you okay Dom Dom?” Rhea asked, slowly approaching her boyfriend. They may not be on the best terms but he was still her partner and partners took care of eachother.

“Yeah I’m okay. It’s just-” and suddenly he clammed up, refusing to talk at all. Rhea tried prodding for the first minute or two but gave up when she realised it wouldn’t work. So she tried a different strategy.

“How about we talk about what happened on Saturday? You know I never meant to hurt you with that outburst but my emotions were all over the place. I’m sorry for that and for being more distant recently. The truth is, me and Buddy have become very good friends in the time he has been back and though I know it hurts you, I don’t think I could stop and for that I am also sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let my past issues with Buddy interfere in our relationship. I appreciate you being honest with me but I don’t think I could ever approve of your friendship. I’m not going to tell you what to do but could you please consider just keeping interactions to a minimum for my sake.”

“Honestly Dom… I don’t know. I guess I could try but I wouldn’t feel right and you know that. How about we just move on from this and I’ll try to keep you two as separate as possible. That way we can go back to normal,” Rhea negotiated with Dom. Dom smiled softly and gave Rhea a kiss.

“I love you,” Dom said.

“Love you too,” Rhea replied, ignoring the pit in her stomach when she said it.

“Speaking of Buddy…” Dom trailed off and Rhea looked at him in warning, “okay so funny story but I have a match against Buddy tonight.”

“Tonight? I don’t remember that being scheduled,” Rhea pondered, clearly trying to think of all the Judgement Day commitments for the night.

“Right… yeah.. so, and you’re going to laugh at this, I overheard Buddy talking about you in his interview and at first I thought he was talking badly about you but apparently he was talking badly about me. And so I challenged him to a match. Tonight,” Dom told her truthfully. He didn’t want to see what Rhea’s reaction was, especially because they had only just made up from their previous fight.

To his surprise, she wasn’t immediately angry. Instead she just asked, “what did he say exactly?”

“Just that you were too good for me and that I was a shit wrestler,” Dom shrugged as he spoke, truthfully those words wouldn’t have triggered him if it hadn’t been Buddy who was saying them. And Rhea knew that too.

“Dom, I don’t mean to insult you right now, but you hear things like that quite often. You shouldn’t have let this affect you so much.”

“I know, I know. You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to,” Dom offered her but Rhea shook her head.

“Just because I don’t like your response doesn’t mean I wont be there,” Dom almost started smiling at that before Rhea finished her sentence, “on the Judgement Day’s behalf.”

Dom almost scoffed before only just being able to abort the effort. He didn't want to get into another fight so soon after the last one but ouch. He knew she wouldn't approve but he had silently been hoping that her reaction would be better than that. At least she would be out there and purely because of that reason, his chance of winning had increased tenfold as well. Against someone like Buddy, Rhea posed as the perfect distraction.

“All I ask is that you have my back out there,” Dom stated and only after Rhea nodded did he relax a little.

“Dom, what a… pleasant surprise. I was just on my way out to find you but I guess I don't have to now,” Adam Pearce said, hesitantly, “and Rhea! The 2 people I needed to see. How convenient.”

Rhea smiled politely at Adam while Dom just death-glared at the general manager of RAW.

“I know what you're going to ask Adam so yes, I will be Dom's valet tonight,” Rhea replied before Adam could even ask. The general manager nodded at her before leaving, he looked very relieved to be out of the way of the couple. Rhea didn't know if that was because of their reputation or because their issues were slowly becoming better known by the other wrestlers.

“Okay let's get in position. We've got this Dom Dom,” Rhea told him, lightly grazing her hand over his cheek.

Out in the ring, Dom paced around inside the ring while Rhea kept to the side. When Buddy's music hit Rhea couldn't keep the small, almost unnoticeable, smile off of her face. Buddy waved at her and though Rhea tried to do her menace wave back, she thought it fell flat.

When the bell rang, officially starting the match, Buddy wasted no time. He clotheslined Dom twice before bringing Dom to his knees and giving him a dropkick. Dom managed to kick out of a knee strike before rather clumsily reversing another clothesline. With the momentary upper hand, Dom motioned for Rhea's title, attempting to use it as he had done so many other times. She glanced over at Buddy, already getting back to his knees, and shook her head subtly. If Dom was going to win, he would do it by himself for once. Dom looked confused and a little hurt but before he could think about it too heavily, Buddy had grabbed him to deliver a powerbomb. Evidently, the brief time Rhea and Dom had been staring at one another allowed him to recover. It wasn't long before Buddy was hitting a revamped version of Murphy's law and getting the victory in just over 5 minutes.

Rhea almost started clapping when Buddy was announced the winner but managed to school her expression. Instead, she and Dom briskly made their way backstage, avoiding each other like the plague once they reached their target. While Dom made his way to the locker room, Rhea decided to wait in guerilla for Buddy. She passed time by going on Twitter.

@BuddyMyHubby: Okay so… did anyone else pick up on the weird vibes between Dom and Rhea??

@rhearings: replying to @BuddyMyHubby omg I thought it was just me who had noticed. Definitely something odd going on between those two

@RomanRipley: Okay IWC, don't hate me but I kinda ship Rhea and Buddy. Did you see her smile at his music AND when he won the match. You can't hide from us Miss Ripples

@RipleyMyMami: replying to @RomanRipley NO I ABSOLUTELY AGREE!! AND WHEN THEY WAVED AT EACH OTHER?? UGHHH MY HEART

@ripsmiley: replying to RomanRipley I kind of agree! Still love Dom and Rhea together though!

HouseOfRed: just put Buddy in the Judgement Day already Liked by @RheaRipleyWWE

WWFmark: I don't know what's going on between Rhea, Dom and Buddy but it's going to make great TV when it comes to a head

@Rheaspiercings: Rhea and Buddy look like they have the cutest friendship backstage Retweeted by @RheaRipleyWWE

WWEconspiracies: Rhea and Dom are definitely breaking up soon, wouldn't be surprised if we see her with Buddy in the near future

@rheass: replying to @WWEconspiracies can't believe I'm agreeing with this account right now…

Rhea just laughed as she scrolled through her feed  watching her fans lose their mind over her.

“Aww how sweet. Did you wait for me Rips?” Buddy said casually, slinging his arm over her shoulder. She pushed him, teasingly.

“No, you just happened to catch me here,” she lied, “congrats on your win but don't think that you get away with instigating a fight with Dom. I am mad at you for that."

Buddy put his hands up in surrender, he should probably have seen that coming.

“Okay, come on. I’ll buy you a coffee and we can talk.”

She smiled at her fellow Aussie before heading to catering, trusting that he was following her.

Chapter Text

“Damian, I don’t think that is a good idea,” Rhea told her terror twin, when the two were hanging out together at her flat on Sunday afternoon.

“Think about it Rips. All the fans want it, you definitely want it and if we can convince him, then it would just strengthen the Judgement Day, especially after JD left to go to AEW. Buddy would be the perfect fit,” Damian explained and though Rhea agreed with everything he said, he was forgetting one major thing…

“Yeah, he would. Except for the fact Dom and Buddy hate each other's guts! Did you somehow forget that tidbit of information Damo?” Rhea replied, exasperated from the conversation already.

“No I didn’t. And that is where you come in. I think you should be the one to bring it up to Finn and Dom,” he ventured. Rhea shook her head vehemently.

“No. NO. Absolutely not. I promised Dom that I would keep him and Buddy as separate as possible. I can’t just break that promise because you think it would be a good idea to have Buddy join us.”

“Oh, and you don’t want Buddy to join us?” Damian asked with a scoff. Rhea levelled him with a glare. Of course she would want Buddy in the Judgement Day, but she also knew it wasn’t possible. “Look Rips, if I bring it up and then you back me up, the others will think it's just because you two are friends. If you bring it up and I back you up, I think it gives it a little more credibility. If not to Dom then definitely to Finn, you know how he was when he was trying to convince us about JD.”

“Damian, that makes literally no sense,” Rhea argued, but she couldn’t help thinking about how nice it would be to have all her boys on the same page and with her all the time. Damian smirked a little because he knew exactly where Rhea’s thoughts were headed and he knew he had her where he wanted her.

“Come on Rips, it would just be best for business and us two get to spend more time with one of our friends. Plus, being in the same faction might actually help Dom and Buddy get along-”

“Okay. You’ve made your point. Ignoring the fact that not even being in the same family could make those two get along, I doubt Dom and Finn would accept him even if you do back me up.”

“Mmmm, you underestimate me Rips. Trust me, I’ve got a plan.” Damian assured her.

“Christ, this is going to end badly,” Rhea reasoned and yet she still found herself saying, “okay. I’ll talk to the others tomorrow. You better back me up when it comes to it or so help me God, I will drop you Damian.”

Looking rather nervous, Damian nodded in agreement. Rhea’s anger had never truly been aimed at him before and it was not something he wanted to discover.

The next day, Rhea had changed her mind a little bit. This was a terrible idea and she shouldn’t go through with it. She couldn’t even bear to look at Dom and Finn when she saw them earlier in the evening, it was odd to not have all of Judgement Day in the loop.

“Damian, I don’t think I can do it. I don’t know how you convinced me it was a good idea yesterday but it most certainly is not. If by some chance Dom and Finn agree, they will kill Buddy when he does join. If he joins! We still don’t know that Buddy would be down to join if we asked him. Which, by the way, I don't think he would so there is no point in asking in the first place,” Rhea ranted to Damian when she saw him. He looked at her amused.

“Rhea, you’re overthinking this. Here, look at all these posts from fans. They want this and we want this so let's make it happen,” Damian reassured her and that was the crux of it. Rhea would do almost anything for her fans.

Rheass: ngl I would love Buddy in TJD

BuddyMyHubby: Buddy would fit so well in the Judgement Day

JeyReigns: I'm not even a big Buddy fan and even I think he would fit into JD amazingly

WWEconspiracies: OMG IMAGINE BUDDY IN TJD

Naughtygeek49: Buddy and Rhea are obviously friends so I think Rhea should just ask him to join Judgement Day atp

Rheaspiercings: how has Buddy not been added to TJD yet when JD only helped half as much as he has and he somehow got in. (1/2)

|

Rheaspiercings: Rhea, get your boys in line cause we know it isn’t you holding out right now (2/2)

Rhea recognised a lot of the posts as tweets she had liked in the past, further supporting Damian’s reasoning and cementing the idea in her head that this wasn't such a bad plan.

“Okay, fine. You win. I'm in, again.” Damian silently fist pumped at that.

“Let's go find our boys,” Damian told her.

Rather predictably, Finn and Dom were hanging out in the Judgement Day lounge when Damian and Rhea eventually found the two. Finn had had a match earlier that night and was holding an ice pack to his stomach while Dom laid on his back, happily playing with his llama figurine.

“Hey boys, I have an idea that I want to run by you guys,” Rhea announced as she walked in, clocking the camera that was filming almost immediately. It made her want to back out again but Damian pushed her lightly further into the room.

“What is up sister?” Finn replied, much too jolly for a guy who had to have several bruised ribs at that moment.

“Well…” she trailed off and glanced at Damian. He had a smile on his face and silently urged her on with a hand motion, “I have an idea for a new member.”

Finn glanced at her curiously while Dom practically bolted up in his seat, he knew what was coming.

“I think Buddy would be a good fit for us,” she said but before she could explain her reasoning, Dom was loudly protesting.

“NO. NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. NOPE.” Dom just kept repeating over and over again, it was only after Finn threw his now melted ice pack at him that Dom quietened down.

“Okay, explain why you think that Rhea. And Dom, don't even think about interrupting until we have heard her out,” Finn warned the youngest member.

“Okay first off, from a more logical standpoint, another member helps to strengthen our group as whole. And Buddy beat Dom a couple of weeks ago which makes him a threat. By inviting Buddy to join us we also neutralise a threat in the process,” Rhea started explaining, purposefully avoiding Dom's eyes when said match was brought up. The two had never really talked about it, they just went back to normal after the somewhat awkward aftermath.

Finn looked a little more convinced but Dom still looked annoyed.

“And secondly, he has already been an asset to us. On more than one occasion. He saved me from Charlotte, and offered to tag with me when Dom was… otherwise disposed,” Rhea reasoned again but this seemed to tick Dom off.

“BECAUSE HE IS IN LOVE WITH YOU! He is helping you because he is in love with you Rhea, he does not care one bit about the rest of us,” Dom argued.

“That's not necessarily true… he has always been extremely respectful to me and Damian. Plus he helped me get to medical a few weeks ago when I twisted my ankle during a match. It was real sweet of him,” Finn explained to the other 3 members and Rhea felt a little hope that she might have been able to pull this off after all. Except, “however, we cannot ignore the fact that Dom and Buddy would never be able to get on and I don't think I'm willing to risk this dynamic right now.”

Rhea felt her heart sink a little while Damian looked deep in thought, it was him humming that made Rhea realise he had never backed her up. Instead, he had sat there and listened to her make a tit of herself. She scoffed at him before storming out of the room.

“I didn't think she would be that upset by the rejection,” Finn pondered aloud and Dom nodded in agreement. Damian, however, knew the real reason Rhea was mad but he held off his support until she was out of the room. He thought it might sound more legit that way.

“I actually think she has a point,” Damian told the other two and Finn nodded along, it wasn't like he had disagreed with anything Rhea said but he also wanted to take Dom's feelings into account. He told Damian as much.

“Yeah and I understand that, however did we not all agree when Judgement Day formed that we would trust each other. If one vouches, we all vouch. We agreed on that and I might be the only one but I'm going to stick to that promise. I think we should let Rhea ask. He could always say no, in fact he probably will, but she wants to ask him and I don't think we should stop her,” Damian countered and Finn had to pause for a few seconds to truly think about it.

“You're right. You're absolutely right. Rhea obviously trusts him and up to the point he has proven himself trustworthy. He will be a good ally. I think he should join, or at least let Rhea ask him,” Finn decided and even though Dom was still grumbling under his breath, it was 2 against 1 so he was outnumbered.

“I'll go find Rhea and tell her,” Damian informed the other two before he left to find his terror twin. The camera crew quickly following behind, assuming that they had captured all the drama already. 

“This isn’t a good idea,” Dom said immediately after Damian left. When Finn glanced at him he saw that Dom was very much still fuming and Finn couldn’t really blame him. He didn’t understand how Rhea had the nerve to ask Dom if Buddy could join.

“I agree, it’s going to end terribly,” Finn agreed and Dom’s head snapped around to look at the older irishman.

“If you think it’s such a bad idea then why did you support the idea?” Dom asked, incredulous.

“Because Damian made a valid point. You joining us was a massive success and that was entirely Rhea’s idea, truthfully me and Damian were reluctant at first. Anyways, after that me, Damo and Rhea agreed that if one of us vouched for someone then they had an open invitation to join. They allowed JD in even though I know neither liked him so I guess we kind of owe it to them. Plus both seem to want him involved so he has to have some merit,” Finn explained to Dom. Dom smiled at Finn’s obvious attempt to reassure him a little.

“It sounds a lot like you’re trying to convince yourself there Finn,” Dom teased, “even I’ll admit that you just made some valid points so why do you think it’s going to end badly?”

“Well…” Finn started but trailed off, not wanting to hurt Dom’s feelings with what he was about to say.

“Go on.”

“Dom… you are aware that Buddy’s feelings for Rhea aren’t 100% unrequited,” Finn led in softly, almost like he wasn’t trying to startle the younger man.

“...what?” Dom asked, a sorrowful look on his face.

“I don’t want to be the one to tell you this but… Rhea almost definitely has feelings for Buddy as well. I think it’s a bit of an well known secret amongst the wrestlers backstage. I heard Seth and Becky talking about it a couple of weeks ago,” Finn informed him.

“Oh my god… how didn’t I see that? We can't let Buddy join now!” Dom exclaimed.

“Tranquilo brother, I have a plan…” Finn smirked and wiggled his eyebrows but Dom instantly got a bad feeling despite Finn’s teasing nature. Everyone knew that Finn was at his most dangerous when he was in a teasing mood...

Chapter Text

Rhea felt like she was going on a wild goose chase trying to find Buddy. After Damian had told her that Finn changed his mind she wasted no time, she didn't even stop to thank Damian for keeping his word.

She needed to find Buddy, and she needed to do it now . But she couldn't. No matter where she looked, what hiding places she checked or how many nervous looking wrestlers she asked, Buddy was nowhere to be found. Rhea would almost think that Buddy wasn't at RAW that day but she distinctly remembered seeing him talking to Drew earlier in the evening so… where was he?

The only thing Rhea could think of was that Buddy must have left early but Buddy never did that. He liked sticking around until after the show so that he could talk to all the other wrestlers about their matches or to grab a late night dinner with Damian and Rhea.

Almost on cue, Jey approached her.

“Hey Rhea,” Jey started. He seemed nervous, like most people were when talking to Rhea, but not to the same extent. Everyone knew they had a bit of a flirtationship the year prior and even though it was majority one-sided, Rhea never seemed to mind it. It made him a little more confident in approaching her, “I know you're tight with Buddy and I was just wondering if you'd seen him around. We were supposed to talk after my match but now I can't find him anywhere.”

Well now Rhea definitely knew something was up, Buddy doesn't bail on plans. Ever.

“No sorry, I can try to call him for you though,” she offered and Jey looked at her in puzzlement. She understood, it was usually odd for her to offer help but this concerned Buddy. 

“Nah, it's all good Uce. Have a nice night.” And Jey quickly scurried off.

Despite Jey walking away, she still pulled out her phone. It took her a few seconds to get to Buddy’s contact in her phone but when she found it, she didn’t hesitate to press call. Buddy had never denied Rhea’s call before, even when he was in the middle of something. But the phone kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing before eventually Rhea heard Buddy’s voice. At first she was relieved but that was short lived.

“Hi, you’ve reached Buddy’s voicemail. If I didn’t pick up your call, I probably didn’t want to speak to you anyway. Kidding, if I’m busy please feel free to leave a message.”

His voicemail? Rhea got his voicemail? She had never heard Buddy’s voicemail before.

“Um… hey Buddy. I was just wondering where you were? Jey said he wanted to speak to you and I also had something I needed to ask you. Just call me back or message me I guess. Um… okay bye.”

“Rhea!” Cathy called out and Rhea spun around in order to face the interviewer, “hey. I was wondering if you had seen Buddy? We were watching one of the backstage monitors earlier, actually I think we were watching Judgement Day, and he just took off. Didn’t really say anything to anyone. He just left.”

Rhea frowned. What had he watched? Really the only time Judgement Day was featured that episode was… when they talked about recruiting Buddy. 

“I don’t know where he is but I think I know what is going on. I’ll go talk to him. Thanks for letting me know he isn’t here,” Rhea told Cathy, giving the woman a brief, strained smile before leaving.

She got halfway to Buddy’s apartment when she paused for a second. Maybe Buddy didn’t want to see her right now. Maybe he was avoiding her. Either way, showing up at his house wasn’t going to solve the situation. Instead, Rhea pulled her phone out again.

“Hey Buddy. Got your voicemail again. I think we should talk. Cathy mentioned that you might have seen one of the backstage segments earlier and I don’t want you to freak out about it. I don’t want you to feel any pressure but again, we need to talk. I’m gonna leave you be for the rest of the night but maybe if you see this in time, we can get lunch tomorrow. Umm… goodnight Buddy.” Rhea put her phone away and turned towards her apartment.

The next morning, Rhea is woken up by a loud knocking on her apartment door. She almost ignored it but just as she was about to fall asleep again, a much loud thudding started.

“Ugh,” Rhea groaned, dragging herself to the door and opening it, “whoever you are, you better have a good excuse or I will riptide yo- oh. Hi Buddy.”

“Hi Rhea. Can I come in?”

Rhea stepped aside to let Buddy walk in.

“What happened to lunch?” Rhea asked him. Buddy just smiled at her instead of answering.

“You said we needed to talk and I agree.”

Rhea studied him for a few seconds. “You aren’t going to join, are you?” She asked, already knowing the answer. She knew it was a possibility that he turned the offer down but the confirmation was a stab in the heart.

“I'm not,” he confirmed, “but I want to explain my reasoning.”

Rhea nodded, walking towards the small kitchen in her flat. “Coffee? I definitely need some for this conversation.” She didn’t hear Buddy respond but made him a cup anyway.

With coffees in hand, the two situated themselves on the couch in Rhea’s living room to have what was bound to be an uncomfortable conversation.

“First of all,” Buddy started, “you know I care about you right? More than anyone else.” Rhea nodded, she did know that, and she felt the same way. “Good, because what I’m about to say is for your own good, okay?” When Rhea nodded again Buddy told her what had been on his mind for a few months, “I think you should leave the Judgement Day.”

“WHAT?! I can’t do that Buddy. They are my family, my only allies. Without the Judgement Day I’m just the same Rhea Ripley that no one cared about from before.”

“That’s not true! The fans love you Rhea. I mean seriously, you are more popular than almost everyone else on the roster, male or female. And despite what the girls may say in the locker room, they still care about you.” Rhea scoffed at this. “It’s true. Cathy and you get on amazingly, as do you and Dakota. Bianca asked me about you the other day and I’ve seen how Liv still looks at you even 2 years after what happened between you guys. They care .”

“They only care because they are worried i’ll attack them or something.”

Buddy sighed in frustration.

“Rhea, listen to me. Judgement Day has nothing more to offer you. It gave you a release when it first formed and you helped other superstars come out of their shells, even if I do hate Dominik. But that isn’t what it is anymore. Rhea, you have been a champ in WWE consistently for over a year, whether that was as the Smackdown Women’s champion, Women’s World Champion or WWE Intergender Champion. Dom has lost and won championships with your help, as have Priest and Finn, but they have been on a losing streak if you aren’t with them ringside and they are dragging you down.”

“I won’t abandon my family, Buddy. I love Damian like he is my brother, and that isn’t going to change. And Dom is my boyfriend, that would just be awkward if I left.”

“Rhea, look me in the eyes and tell me you are still in love with Dom,” Dom demanded.

“Of course I still love Dom,” Rhea stated, indignified.

“No. I didn’t ask if you loved him, I asked if you were in love with him. I still love Aalyah but I’m not in love with her.” And Rhea found herself unable to answer that question. She knew the answer but saying it out loud felt very final and she didn’t know if she wanted that yet. Maybe it’s why she was clinging onto the Judgement Day so much. Buddy took her silence as the answer it was. “Exactly. Rhea, you still care about them and you might never stop but you have to be selfish for once. Think about yourself and how much you could accomplish without them. You could repair some of your old friendships like I know you want to and you don’t have to worry about anyone else anymore. You’re allowed to want that for yourself Rhea, it doesn’t make you a bad friend or girlfriend and if you truly want to stay with Dom, he is going to have to accept that you can’t always help him.”

Rhea thought about what Buddy had said.

“Here, just think it over for a few days. You don’t need to make a decision today but I think getting away from Judgement Day will help you, and if they truly are your friends, they will respect that. For now though, let's go get brunch together.” Buddy grabbed Rhea’s hand and tried to drag her out of her flat before she reminded him that she was still in her pjs.

“That’s what you get for turning up at my house at stupid o’clock in the morning,” she joked.

“Rhea isn’t almost 11. You’re normally up way earlier than this.” The two laughed as they left Rhea’s flat, she had a lot to think about.

As it turned out, Rhea didn’t have to think about it all that hard after all. She had made her decision by the time her and Buddy’s next gym session rolled around.

“I’m going to leave Judgement Day… but not quite yet.” Were the first words out of Rhea’s mouth when she saw Buddy waiting outside the gym.

“Okay. Can I ask why?"

“Because you are right, I do still care about them all quite a lot. I want to make sure they are prepared for when I leave, I mean Damian doesn’t even know where we keep the clubhouse keys and Dom still hasn’t realised that I purposely stock up on ranch for him, he genuinely thinks that one bottle of ranch has lasted him over a year. Finn might be okay but it’s still going to be an adjustment when I leave so I’m going to ease them into it. I think I’m going to stay for another couple of months, maybe spend a little more time with them to try and teach them the ins and outs that they don’t realise I handle,” Rhea told him and Buddy had to concede that that was a good compromise. He would prefer that the Judgement Day didn’t exist in any capacity but Rhea would never want that so he was willing to negotiate that specific thing in exchange for Rhea out of Judgement Day.

While they were warming up, Buddy turned to Rhea. “You know, Hunter called me earlier. He told me that he needed us to record a segment next week of me turning down the Judgement Day’s offer. He figured we had already talked about it privately but said the fans needed a re-enactment of sorts.”

“Maybe let's not re-enact that conversation again. I was so close to crying during it.”

Buddy chuckled. “So what are your plans when you are officially out of Judgement Day?” He asked her. She thought about it for a few seconds while she had a drink.

“I think I will apologise to Liv. And the other girls, but especially Liv,” Rhea told him.

“You know, I think a few of them might be willing to talk right now if you didn’t want to wait a few months to start making amends. I know Bianca wants to talk to you.”

Rhea nodded, she wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, “maybe they will even be my allies when I do eventually leave Judgement Day.”

The two Aussies laughed at that a little before a man breezed past the two, very fast paced. Rhea paused when she saw him, it looked like…

“JD?” She asked but the man was either already gone or it wasn’t who she thought. It might not have been him. She didn’t quite get a good enough glance at his face but the man was a similar height and build to JD, certainly has the head size of JD.

“Was that JD?” Buddy asked. 

Rhea shrugged, “I don’t know. I didn’t get a good enough look at him.”

“Well the probability of JD being in the same gym as us when he doesn’t even live in Florida anymore is unlikely,” Buddy reasoned and Rhea nodded but she couldn’t keep the queasy feeling out of her stomach.

And for good reason.

“Finn? Hey, it's me. You are not going to believe what I just overheard at the gym,” JD said, walking to his car.

Chapter Text

“Okay, who do you want to talk to first? I spoke to Bianca, Candice and Liv yesterday, all three said they were willing to meet with you at some point today,” Buddy told her at RAW the following week after she decided to leave Judgement Day.

Rhea was dreading it, she could think of countless scenarios of this going wrong. But… if she really wanted to make amends, she would have to deal with a little bit of discomfort and awkwardness. She sighed, “I think I should start with Liv, I owe her that much. I have a match against Bianca later today so I’ll talk to her during that and I might take Candice out for dinner after the show or something.”

Buddy smiled. “Good idea, do you need me to be there?”

Rhea wanted more than anything to say yes to that question but she knew this was something she had to do alone. She shook her head. “No. It’s fine, or it will be fine. Come on, let’s go film this segment Hunter wanted us to do.”

The segment went off without a hitch and Rhea seriously thought she acted her ass off during it, Buddy did too but he just laughed when Rhea tacked that onto her own congratulatory speech.

“Rhea,” a distinct Irish accent called, “me and Dom have that tag match today. Damian said he couldn’t be by ringside so you have to do it.” Finn sidled up to her and barely spared Buddy a glance before focusing on Rhea again. There was something a little maniacal in his eyes that put Rhea on edge but just as soon as she noticed it, it was gone.

“I’ll be there,” Rhea told him.

He smiled. “Good. Counting on you sis.” And just as quickly as he had approached them, he left again. A silence fell over the two Aussies after the Irishman had parted.

“That felt a little odd,” Buddy commented and Rhea nodded her agreement. Still, she shook it off. She had things to do.

She found Liv in a rundown bathroom that clearly no one else was brave enough to go in. It was the perfect spot for a private conversation.

“Hi Liv,” Rhea said, rather awkwardly. She went to lean against the wall but thought better of it when she saw all the graffiti and chewing gum.

“Rhea. I’m surprised Buddy isn’t with you considering he was the one that reached out.” Liv crossed her arms, looking less than amused by the whole situation. Rhea cringed.

“I needed to do this alone, that’s the only way people are going to know I'm serious about this.”

“Why didn’t you reach out to me instead then?"

“Would you have responded?”

“YES! Rhea… I have been holding out hope that you would reach out for the last 2 and a half years. You were my best friend for a while. I just don't understand why you didn't think you could tell me what was going on with you.”

“Because I had told people before and they just ignored me. Liv, I'm sorry. I really, truly am. If I could change things, I would. And you have no reason to want to forgive me. I wouldn't blame you if you ignored my apology, but I wanted you to know that I am sorry,” Rhea apologised and Liv studied her for a few seconds.

“Rhea… I forgave you a long time ago. Why do you think I trusted you last year to write me off of TV after I injured myself?”

“Wait- I thought- wasn't that management's decision?”

“No silly. I asked for you specifically because I knew I could trust you to keep me from getting injured even worse. And you did,” Liv assured her and Rhea was blurting her next sentence out before she could think.

“I sent you flowers, you know? Not last year, though I did, but when I broke up Liv4Brutality. I sent some flowers to you.”

Live sighed, “I know.” At Rhea's confused look, she decided to expand, “Rhea, you are the only person who I've told that tulips are actually my favourite flowers. At first I thought it might be a coincidence but when I asked the lady who delivered them, she said the buyer mentioned they were my favourites. Rhea… you caused a lot of suffering when all you needed to do was reach out to someone.”

Rhea nodded, she knew that now but it felt impossible at the time. “Are we… Are we okay now?”

“That depends. Are you still in Judgement Day?”

“For now but I don't plan on staying forever. Me and Buddy have a plan.”

Liv smiled, “then yes. We are okay now Rhea.” The two newly reunited friends hugged before Rhea needed to get ready for her match. As she was leaving, Liv called for her. “Hey Rhea! What is going on with you and Buddy? You know there are rumours right?” Rhea winked and left without properly answering Liv's questions. Liv shook her head in amused disbelief.

“Ah Rhea, you’re just in time for our match. Was beginning to think you had stood us up,” Finn joked when Rhea joined him and Dom in guerilla.

“I would never,” Rhea bantered back and though the two other wrestlers laughed, it didn’t feel quite as natural as normal.

“Okay so, the game plan is just like normal. We play the numbers game, yes?” Dom asked, pointedly looking at Rhea during it, he clearly hadn’t forgiven her after his and Buddy’s match (though he hadn’t bought it up since either). Finn nodded and though Rhea didn’t really respond, they took her silence as agreement.

The Creed Brothers had already done their entrance so Rhea could see the two standing in the ring. There was hatred in their eyes as they looked upon the trio making their way to the ring and it just reminded Rhea exactly how much damage Judgement Day had managed to inflict in the 2 ½ years it had been together.

Rhea only noticed Ivy when she had left the ring from her entrance, though she wasn't surprised, Ivy went everywhere with the Creeds.

“Ivy,” Rhea greeted as she walked passed.

“Rhea,” Ivy replied, for less cordially than Rhea was. Ivy had never quite forgiven Rhea for injuring her in their match earlier that year, and no matter how much Rhea insisted it was an accident, no one believed her. They all believed that she was threatened that Ivy would actually take her title so purposely took her out. In truth, Rhea had just genuinely botched one of her dropkicks. It caused Ivy a fractured skull and she was forced out of the ring for 3 months.

“Ivy, can we speak soon?” Rhea asked her and she could see a few people in the crowd looking at them curiously, as well as Dominik and Julius (neither of whom were tagged in at that moment).

“About what?”

“I want to apologise,” Rhea told her, sincerely. She could tell that Ivy was surprised but something on Rhea’s face must have shown her honesty because Ivy just nodded subtly.

“Well the boys are rather occupied right now so why don’t we go backstage,” Ivy offered and Rhea looked at the guys in the room. Dom had been tagged in but Julius looked worse for wear in the moment.

“Are you sure you want to do that to your boys right now?”

“Eh, they can handle themselves. Do you wanna leave your guys?”

Just as Rhea went to answer, the bell rings and Samantha announces Dom and Finn as the winners.

“As you say, they can handle themselves.” Rhea grinned at the shorter woman and after Ivy briefly checks on Brutus (neither woman would be able to tell you when he tagged in only to eat the pin) they walk backstage. Dom and Finn trailed behind the women and both were silently fuming. Rhea hadn’t helped while she was out there and at times it felt as if she was actively working against them.

“Okay,” Dom said to Finn, “I’m officially on board.”

Finn smirked at Dom, “I knew you would come around. Now… how does Damian fit into this equation?”

Meanwhile Rhea and Ivy, who had thankfully listened and forgiven Rhea, bumped into Bianca, who was prepping for her and Rhea’s match later on.

“Bianca. Hi,” Rhea rubbed her arm as she walked past and Bianca looked at the two curiously.

“Where are you two gals going? This is a duo I never thought I’d see,” Bianca teased and the two new friends (maybe??) grinned at her.

“We just came back from raiding catering in order to get some cookies to celebrate a newfound friendship,” Ivy told the former RAW women’s champ and Rhea grinned wider at her wording. It felt good to have non Judgment Day friends again.

“Ugh, I would kill for a triple choc chip cookie right now,” Bianca practically moaned and when Rhea whipped out the desired cookie, it was all she could do to restrain from snatching it. “I shouldn’t. I’m already in my ring gear.”

“Come on, you know you want to,” Ivy tempted as Rhea waved it in Bianca’s face. The three laughed when Bianca grabbed it with practically no hesitation. She only needed a slight prod to eat it.

“You just want me out of shape for our match Ripley,” Bianca bantered and Rhea laughed.

“Please, I’ve eaten like 8 of these already. Liv and Cathy were at catering and you know how persuasive they can be. I’m going to be so bloated tomorrow,” Rhea told her, only half joking. Bianca nodded along, Liv had made her do some… questionable things in the past.

“So… you and Liv have talked?” Bianca asked Rhea, she wanted to clear the air before their match but only if Liv had already been taken care of.

“Yeah, we talked. I have a lot to make up for but she is giving me a chance at least. I hope you’ll let me do the same,” Rhea replied and sensing that the conversation had taken a serious note, Ivy gestured that she had to go.

“Rhea, you never actually did anything to me. Sure, there were some bad promos from you,” Bianca joked in order to break some of the tension, “but they never led anywhere, and thank god for it because I don’t know if we could have come back from that. I’ve just missed you, a lot. It’s been almost complete radio silence from you for the last 2 ½ years like we were never friends. Like you weren’t at my wedding or at the 2021 royal rumble, where even though I beat you, you were probably more happy for me than Tez was. I want my best friend back.” By the time Bianca stopped speaking, both women had tears in their eyes.

“I want that too. I’ve missed you Bianca and I’ve thought about reaching out to you so many times over the last few years but I was sure you wouldn’t want to hear from me. And before you say anything, I realise now that that might not be true. Liv kind of gave me an earful earlier,” She half laughed, half sobbed. The two former best friends pulled each other into an almost bone crushing hug and refused to let go for probably around 5 minutes.

“Rhea & Bianca to Adam Pearce’s office in five minutes. I repeat, five minutes,” the speaker above them declared.

“Five minutes, that’s cutting it a little close to our match time isn’t it?” Rhea asked and Bianca agreed. 

“Yeah, it is. What do you think is going on?” Bianca asked but Rhea couldn’t give her an answer.

On the way to Adam’s office, plenty of wrestlers gave them inquisitive looks. Liv, Cathy and Ivy all gave them encouraging smiles and Buddy even stopped the two to ask what was going on.

“We truthfully have no idea,” Rhea told him and he looked even more confused.

“That is odd… well I guess you’re about to find out, good luck ladies,” Buddy gave both a pat on the shoulder and briefly leaned down to give Rhea a hug before releasing them.

After Buddy walked away, Rhea immediately turned to Bianca, “Don’t even-”

“Oooooh. Listen Rhea, we may not have spoken that often recently but I still know you and I still know that look. You, my friend, are in love. Like, you are down criminally bad for Buddy.”

“SHHHHH! I do not need Dominik, my boyfriend, to hear that,” Rhea emphasised and Bianca cringed slightly at the mention of Dominik.

Before Bianca could retort in the way Rhea is sure she wanted to, the two arrived at Adam’s office. They silently looked at one another, Rhea held out her fist and Bianca bumped hers in encouragement before they walked in.

“Ah, thanks for seeing me ladies. Please take a seat,” Adam told them when they walked in.

Chapter Text

“What do you mean our match is cancelled?” Bianca shouted, rather indignant and Rhea can’t blame her, she felt rather the same in that moment.

“I’m sorry girls but something else is going to be run instead,” Adam told them, genuinely looking apologetic. It was the only thing stopping Rhea from snapping.

“What else is there?” At Adam’s hesitation to answer, Rhea pushed further, “Adam, this match has been planned for weeks and you’re just allowed to axe it at the last minute? I think we are at least allowed to know what is replacing us.” Bianca nodded her agreement and both women looked at the general manager expectantly.

He glanced warily at Rhea a couple more times before finally speaking. “Fine,” he sighed, “there is going to be an impromptu Judgement Day segment.”

“...what?” Rhea asked quietly and Bianca looked at her extremely confused. She went to aske Rhea a question but it was answered before she could, “I didn’t know about this. Adam, why didn’t I know about this?”

“It was extremely last minute. Finn stormed into my office 10 minutes ago and demanded some time for a promo. When I told him that there was only your match and a CM Punk promo, he demanded that I cancel them both or he would interrupt and filibuster them,” Adam told the two wrestlers and Rhea was in shock. Why would her own teammate do this to her?

“Um… thanks for telling us Adam, I’m sure you still have to speak to Punk so I’ll see you later. Bianca, we should leave,” and Rhea walked out in a daze, not even waiting for her friend.

“Mami, there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you, we have a segment in like 2 minutes,” Damian told her as he walked up and slung his arm over her shoulders.

“Priest, something is going on. I was supposed to have a match in two minutes but apparently Finn insisted this was more important. Do you know what is going on?”

“You had a match?” Damian asked, looking puzzled, “ohhhh, your match with Bianca was tonight right?” Rhea nodded. “Hm… maybe Finn forgot that, it’s not like him to do that to one of us. Also no, I don’t know what this is about. Finn told me to come and find you.”

“Yeah… maybe Finn just forgot,” she replied, knowing that was categorically not what happened.

“Well come on Rips, don’t want to be late.” And Damian steered the Aussie towards where she assumed the rest of Judgement Day was waiting.

Bianca knew something wasn’t right with this. She could feel it in her gut and so she went to the one person she knew she could.

“Buddy,” she panted after running there the second she got out of Pearce’s office to see Damian talking to Rhea, “Buddy.”

“Hey, woah. Are you okay there Bianca?” Buddy asked her.

“I don’t know. Me and Rhea’s match got cancelled-”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care right now. It was cancelled so that Judgement Day could do a segment. A segment that Rhea had no idea about. I’m not sure what is about to got down but I don’t think it is going to be good,” Bianca told the ginger and she felt relief when he nodded.

“I agree, that does sound a little weird. Let’s go find a TV and see what is going on,” Buddy told her and they soon saw a small huddle of wrestlers (including a pissed CM Punk) all watching the TVs in the lounge area. They were all surprised to see Bianca.

“Bianca, I thought you and Rhea were supposed to have a match right now?” Becky asked from where she and Seth sat with Roux on his lap.

“We were supposed to but it got cancelled. Judgement Day are doing a segment instead,” Bianca announced to everyone. Most tried to offer up condolences but Bianca waved them off. “It’s okay. Honestly, Rhea was more upset than I was.”

“Wait… Rhea didn’t know?” Rey asked as Buddy and Bianca sat down next to him. Buddy shook his head at everyone and a rare silence fell over the superstars. They were clearly just as confused as Rhea and Bianca had been. The only person who wasn’t was Punk but Bianca assumed that was because he had also been told why his segment was axed. Though Raquel also looked rather unbothered at the odd news, no bad blood was lost between those two Bianca presumed.

The first notes of the Other Side started playing and Chelsea excitedly proclaimed, “oh! It’s starting! Everyone who isn't currently looking at a screen! It’s starting!” It got a few chuckles out of some of the wrestlers but most were hyper fixated on the screen. They could all tell something was off.

“Hello, hello, hello,” Finn greeted the fans who, while they were confused to not get the scheduled match, were cheering for the faction currently in the ring. Quite soon a MAMI chant started up. Seeing as Rhea was by far the most popular member this happened practically everywhere they went. ‘Well.’ thought Finn, ‘not after tonight.’

“You all really love Rhea huh?,” Finn asked the crowd and Rhea tried to hide her discomfort at being singled out. “That’s good! Rhea is incredibly talented! Do you know who else is talented? Bianca Belair! Now I know you guys were expecting what was surely going to be a fantastic match but the Judgement Day has a very important announcement that in my opinion, can’t wait.”

Anticipation within the crowd in the stadium and within the wrestlers backstage grew with every sentence that Finn spoke. Even a lot of the WWE higher ups like Hunter and Stephanie had come out of their offices to watch the big screen in the lounge. Bianca saw Raquel slip out of the room but was too entranced by the screen to think about it too hard.

“Finn and I-” Dom tried to say but boos immediately drowned him out. Finn placed his hand on Dom’s chest.

“I got this Dom. So, recently Dom and I have been thinking about Judgement Day’s future and what we think would be best moving forward. The two of us decided that in order for Judgement Day to keep being a dominating faction, there needs to be some changes made. And we don’t mean getting a new clubhouse or even officially naming a leader. No. Me and Dom have recently realised that the current members in Judgement Day need a shake up. And we are going to start… with you,” Finn explained, pointing directly at Rhea when he finished saying his speech.

A collective gasp happened backstage and a distinct Aussie accent was heard swearing rather colourfully under his breath. The same shock was heard around the arena as the fans slowly caught on to what Finn meant.

“...what?” The way Rhea said it, she sounds so small and dejected, made it impossible to not feel bad for her but it didn’t stop Finn from what he did next.

“You’re a great wrestler Rhea, and you definitely have all these peoples’ affection. But that doesn’t change the fact you have been more of a hindrance than help in recent months. I mean, suggesting Buddy as a member of the Judgement Day was just the last straw but you had already been ignoring Dom, had stopped helping us strategise as much even though we know you secretly think of yourself as the leader and the disrespect of talking to Rey Mysterio when you know how Dom feels about it makes you utterly detestable Rhea. You have no place in the Judgement Day anymore. We don’t need you as much as you need us and frankly, we don’t want you anymore.”

Seth and Drew had to physically restrain Buddy from storming onto the stage, saying it would only make the situation worse. Piper was trying to calm Bianca down and Liv was silently seething in the corner at the disrespect. Even some of the wrestlers that were less fond of Rhea, like Maxxine and Chelsea, felt bad for her.

“I- You all feel this way? Dom?” Rhea looked at her boyfriend though she wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do. He couldn’t exactly stick up for her, but it still hurt when she saw the blankness in his eyes. Pure unadulterated hatred would have hurt less but the blank stare she received felt like a thousand knives piercing her heart. Logically she knew it would have made no difference in the end, she was already planning on leaving but for it to play out like this, she was distraught.

“Oh, and Rhea?” Finn spoke one last time, “enjoy losing your championship.” Just as he finished speaking, the unmistakable theme of Raquel Rodriguez hit. The Miss Money In The Bank made her way to the ring with a referee in tow. Rhea geared up to fight but her heart was not in it at all, by the time Raquel had handed her briefcase to the referee, Rhea had already accepted defeat.

“Oh that cantankerous bitch,” Bianca shouted at the screen. If she had known that was what Raquel was planning, she would have stopped her. And Finn’s wording made it sound like Raquel was in on the plan the whole time. Oh, Bianca couldn’t stand her and it seemed a lot of the wrestlers in the room agreed.  She saw Hunter sigh disappointed, he had liked Raquel but Rhea was practically a daughter to him. Liv was even more pissed at that point, she can't believe she ever tagged with someone like Raquel. Her injury was almost a blessing in disguise for getting her away from the latina.  

Despite being completely crushed, Rhea still tried her best. Mostly because she was a performer and that crowd went there to see a show but after a couple of lucky strikes and a dropkick she was actually kind of proud of. Raquel only had to hit a german suplex and it was over. Her body could have gone for longer but her head and her heart were damaged.

“Your winner and the NEW WWE Intergender champion, Raquel Rodriguez,” Samantha announced but she glared up at the latina as she did. Raquel had just made a lot of people her enemy, both men and women.

“And there you have it folks, Rhea Ripley has been pinned and dethroned. A reminder, before tonight, Rhea hadn’t been been pinned in over 2 ½ years, Rhea willingly gave up the Women's World Championship at wrestlemania 40 in order to participate in the battle royale for the title Raquel just won,” Corey said commentary, the disbelief still present in his voice.

“And y’know, we talk a lot about the physical advantage that MITB cash-ins have, but I don’t think the psychological advantage has even been more evident than just now. After that despicable display from the Judgement Day, that I still haven’t quite recovered from, Rhea was nowhere near in the right mindset to defend her title tonight,” Kevin replied to his commentary partner, trying to get back to his job, even despite his shock.

“I agree KP. I have definitely not recovered from that yet. What were Judgement Day thinking?”

“Well, I think that’s pretty obvious. Finn Balor made that quite obvious when he kicked Rhea Ripley out,” Kevin offered up.

“Can you believe it? Rhea lost her championship, had her streak broken and was kicked out of her so-called family all in the same night,” Corey said, sympathetically and Kevin also voiced his sympathy to Rhea, who was still laying the ring. “I think Raquel may have just made a lot of enemies.”

After Raquel and Judgement Day had somewhat safely made it back to their locker rooms, an avalanche of superstars made their way down to the ring. Bianca and Liv entered the ring to try to scrape Rhea’s defeated body off the mat but she was dead weight and it only took them a few seconds to realise why. She had somehow managed to hide it from the cameras but her face was tear stained and her normally unsmudgable makeup was all over her face.

“Buddy! Come get her,” Bianca called and Buddy wasted no time to enter the ring. The wrestlers all made there way up the ramp while Corey did the RAW outro.

“Well, that’s has been Monday Night RAW folks, and I think there is only going to be one thing of note to say, Rhea Ripley is no longer in Judgement Day.”

Chapter Text

The remaining trio of Judgement Day and Raquel made their way backstage after the end of RAW to find nothing but cold shoulders and death glares. It was the most out of place they had ever felt and they weren’t exactly popular with the roster beforehand anyway. It made them realise just how much Rhea had amended things with the other wrestlers and, in a way, reaffirmed that they had done the right thing. The Judgement Day wasn’t about making friends, it was about working towards the common goal of being the best, something which, thanks to Raquel, Rhea no longer was. 

Damian looked at his fellow Judgement Day crew in shock, he had not been told about their plans and if he had, he definitely wouldn’t have approved of them. 

“You know… next time you plan on kicking my best friend out of the group, a heads up would be nice,” Damian told Dom and Finn before walking off to find Rhea.

The second Buddy had let Rhea down after he carried her up the ramp, she shot off. Liv and Bianca followed after her but Buddy knew where she was heading better than the girls did, he was taking a shortcut when he saw Damian.

“Listen Damian, the only reason I haven’t decked you yet is because I know Rhea would never forgive me if I did, but you better believe that if I ever see you try to talk to her again, I won’t hesitate. Delete both our numbers and don’t bother us,” Buddy threatened him and though Damian wanted to fight back, he knew that Rhea probably didn’t want to see him right now.

“Okay. Just tell her I didn’t know about it and that I wouldn’t do that to her.”

“Maybe I can believe that, but you also didn’t do anything when Rhea was being humiliated in front of thousands, no, millions of people. Damian, you are supposed to be her best friend and you let that happen to her,” Buddy angrily explained and Damian shrunk into himself at the truth of his words.

“I’m sorry,” Damian said and Buddy knew he meant it but he was just so angry.

“I know you are and maybe one day you and Rhea can have a discussion about it but she is in no state to see you right now Damian.” Damian nodded his agreement after Buddy spoke and though he looked sad, he walked away without complaining.

“Rhea, where are you?” Buddy called while he walked around the corner he knew Rhea liked to hide in.

“...Buddy?” A small, broken voice whispered into the quiet air. Buddy followed the voice until he found Rhea curled up in a ball, a very concerned looking Bianca and Liv standing close by.

“Hey Rhea,” Buddy spoke softly and silently acknowledged the other women, “how are you going?” Buddy winced when said that and then winced even more when Rhea lifted her head to look at him deadpan with a tear streaked face. “Yeah that was a dumb question.”

“I just- I'm so shocked. I know that in the end it would have made no difference, I was going to leave anyway but they had to embarrass me and they- they took my title. I’m nothing without my title,” Rhea began tearing up at the end of her sentence and though it sounded dramatic to say, all three wrestlers present knew what it felt like to lose their titles and none of them had ever had to experience it in the same way Rhea just had to.

“That’s not true. You’re Rhea Ripley. You are the first ever NXT UK Women’s champ, first ever Women’s World Champ and the first ever WWE Intergender Champ. You’re a history maker ,” Bianca told her, coming to Rhea’s side now that she had stopped rocking back and forth.

“And a record holder. Don’t forget that you kicked my ass in the 2023 Royal Rumble,” Liv added on. Rhea smiled at her friends’ attempts to cheer her up but it didn’t help any.

“But all those things are tied to my championships in one way or another. No one cared about me before that and they aren’t going to care now that I’ve lost it again.”

“You’ll get the championship back. Of course you will, you’re a beast. But even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. You are a superstar. You're my superstar,” Buddy told her and though Rhea wanted to cringe at that line, she felt herself smiling before she could stop herself, “you are so cool that you literally beat everyone up and no one cared. Just being near you makes other people cooler. It definitely made me cooler, you think I could rock a leather jacket before I met you? No.” At that terrible joke, Rhea finally let out a laugh.

“Thank you guys. I feel a little better honestly. I'm just still shocked, especially at Raquel. She hadn't shown any signs of turning bad like I did… maybe Judgement Day got to her too,” Rhea wondered aloud and she began plotting how she could help Raquel back out, just like she herself had.

“I don't think it's a new development honestly. I always just wrote it off when I tagged with her because she was my friend but she was never the nicest towards the other girls. She criticised Candice for her wrestling abilities and made fun of a few of the NXT girls for making botches while in the ring like that isn't the entire point of NXT. She especially hated you Rhea. God I can't believe I ever tagged with that traitor,” Liv vented.

“Oh don't say that Liv. You probably thought the same about me for a while. We just need her to see the light, like I did,” Rhea defended, though she wasn't sure why. Raquel had been similar even back when the two tagged during her NXT UK days, she had made fun of some of the smaller wrestlers like Katana and Zelina. Rhea supposed she just hoped that Raquel had matured over the last few years.

“You are a much better person than me because I never want to see the big bitch again,” Bianca said and though it was clearly a joke, something in all 4 wrestlers knew she was being slightly honest as well.

“Well… what do I do now?” Rhea looked at the other 3, but they all looked a little lost too, “great. Just great.” And the other 3 could visibly see the self doubt creep back into Rhea's face.

“Don't go back there Rhea. You need to remember you're Rhea frickin’ Ripley. If you can't find a way, you'll make one. Raquel won't know what hit her,” Bianca hyped Rhea up and she smiled once again.

“Honestly, yeah I'm mad at Raquel but I'm so much more pissed at the rest of Judgement Day. I really don't think they knew just how much I did for them. They won't last without me. And Damian-” Rhea started tearing up when she went to talk about her terror twin. She supposes she could understand Finn betraying her, they were never that close, and even Dom to a certain degree, they hadn't agreed on anything for a long time, but Damian… she never expected this betrayal from her terror twin.

“He didn't know,” Buddy told her and she snapped around to look at him.

“He didn't?”

“No. He stopped me on the way here to tell me he was sorry and that he didn't know what was going to happen when you all went out there.” Rhea let out a sob of relief at that. She didn't realise how relieving that news would have been. “Honestly, I told him to stay away for the time being. I said you didn't need to see him right now.” Rhea nodded at Buddy's words, it was probably a good idea for now.

“So… our game plan?” Liv asked everyone.

“Well… surely Rhea could ask for a rematch. You would beat Raquel easily if you were at the top of your game. She only won this time because… well… you know…” Bianca wondered aloud.

“That could work right?” Buddy told her, trying to give her hope but Rhea just shook her head.

“No, unfortunately not. A Money In The Bank cash in doesn’t come with a guaranteed rematch like most title matches seem too. Why do you think Seth was so pissed at Damian after he cashed in? Because Seth couldn’t just rematch for his title back,” Rhea explained and even Liv, who had been a former Miss MITB, paused to realise that Rhea was kind of right. None of them could think of a time where the champion had gotten an immediate one-on-one rematch after a cash in.

“But Adam Pearce likes you now doesn’t he? Maybe he’ll make an exception? And if that doesn’t work, go talk to Hunter. You’re his girl,” Liv suggested, wanting to cling onto the only plan the group had currently.

Rhea shrugged. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. I have nothing to lose anymore. And just because Hunter likes me as a wrestler, doesn’t mean he would interfere to help me. I don’t even know if he could if he wanted to.”

“Not officially I can’t,” came Hunter’s voice, rounding the corner and standing near the group.

“How-”

“How did I find your hiding spot?” Hunter interrupted Rhea’s questioning. And it was a good question considering Liv and Bianca had had to run after Rhea to find her little hiding corner it was that well hidden. “This is where I used to hide when I was an active wrestler. Turns out you’re more like me than I thought, and I already knew you were pretty similar.” He shot a playful smirk at Rhea and she remembered why she viewed him as a father figure in NXT. 

“What did you mean that you couldn’t get involved officially ?” Buddy asked the WWE head.

“I mean that technically I have to be as unbiased as possible when dealing with the wrestlers so I can’t get involved, I’m not allowed to show favouritism. However, unofficially, I have been wrestling longer than some of you have been alive so I know a thing or two about rematches. Rhea is right that she is unlikely to get a rematch by just asking for one, especially because Raquel used underhanded ways to win the title meaning she knew she couldn’t win cleanly. But, if Rhea was to win a number one contenders match that I just so happened to schedule for next week… Well, Raquel literally can’t say no then.” Rhea leapt off the floor to hug her mentor, Hunter felt like the air was being squeezed out of him but he hugged her back just as hard.

“Thank you,” Rhea whispered in his ear, for only him to hear.

“Hey, you are practically my daughter. Me and Steph were heartbroken to see what happened out there because we view you as part of our family. You have been since the first Mae Young Classic,” Hunter leant his head against Rhea’s as he comforted her. When the two pulled away, Hunter turned to face the other wrestlers still present, “obviously, this match is for whoever wants to try and I’m not about to ask you to let Rhea win because that wouldn’t be the right way to do this. Rhea needs to earn this opportunity by herself,” Hunter looked pointedly at Buddy at the last part, like he knew Buddy was already plotting how to help Rhea.

“Of course we wouldn’t do that. Plus I get the feeling this match is going to be busy if the reactions from the wrestlers backstage were anything to go by. A lot of them were pissed at Raquel and wanted to take the title from her,” Bianca wagered and Hunter nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, most of the spaces have already gone. There were only 4 spaces left when I came to find you guys but there are probably even less now. Raquel has made an enemy of a lot of people today, I never thought she would do something like that,” and for a second the 4 wrestlers saw a look of sadness on Hunter’s face. It made Rhea remember that Hunter was always supportive of Raquel in the same way he was with Rhea, it can’t have been easy seeing Raquel do what she did. Before anyone could say anything to him though, Hunter plastered a smile back on his face, “well, let’s go find Adam then.”

The wrestlers slowly peeled themselves away from their safe corner and followed Hunter back to the area where a lot of the other wrestlers were milling about. Every instinct in Rhea wanted to shy away from the gazes directed her way but she needed to appear confident. When she felt Buddy slip his hand into hers, the confident façade got much easier to maintain and she was able to march into Adam’s office with her head held high.

“Adam. How many spaces are left for the contenders match next week?” Rhea demanded to know.

“Well… none, but-”

“I need to be in that match next week Adam. I don’t care what I have to do, just get me in that match. Please. Is there anyone I can talk to who would give me their spot?” Rhea practically begged and the RAW general manager was lost. He never thought he would see someone as formidable as Rhea asking for his help, it made him dislike Raquel even more than he previously did and got rid of any guilt he had for what he was about to do.

“I’m sure almost anyone you spoke to would happily give up their spot to you but that won't be necessary,” Adam told her and matching confused expressions landed on the two Aussies’ faces. “When Hunter told me about the match next week, I already secured your spot before I opened it up to the other wrestlers. I’m not technically allowed to do that but I’ve always found cash in rules kind of stupid so I bent the rules a little. Your spot next week is secure.” And much like with Hunter, Rhea hugged the GM at the news. Unlike Hunter though, Pearce didn’t really know what to do at this turn of events and just awkwardly patted her head.

“Come on Buddy,” Rhea addressed the ginger when she pulled away from the hug. She grabbed Buddy’s hand again before dragging him out of the office, “we have training to do. TO THE GYM!”

“TO THE GYM!” Buddy parroted, just happy to see a smile on Rhea’s face once again. He glared at the judgement day lounge as they passed it but was relieved to see that Rhea didn’t spare a glance or pay any attention to the voices inside the room. Maybe she would be okay after all.

Chapter Text

“THIS IS MY BRUTALITY!”

Rhea took a deep breath before walking out onto the top of the ramp. She could see all 29 other wrestlers in the ring, herself being number 30 and the final entrant of the battle royale. Becky nodded at her as she climbed into the ring and Bronson patted her on the shoulder. Rhea wasn't stupid. She knew that all the other wrestlers felt sorry for her after what had happened the previous week but Rhea wasn't going to let it affect her. Or she hoped not anyway. But Raquel was sat on commentary, looking so unbelievably smug that Rhea just wanted to rip her apart. It comforted her slightly to know that Corey and KP did not look happy to be sat with the champion at that moment.

Rhea thought about Buddy, who she knew would be watching with rapt attention backstage (along with Liv and Bianca). The two Aussies had spent a whole week coming up with her gameplay for tonight. She couldn't let him down. She could already hear him in her ear, she could imagine the warm tone in his voice and his arms around her waist as he hugged her in congratulations if she were to win. But she could also hear dejection and a reserved acceptance if she were to lose. He would never blame her outright, she could do no wrong in his eyes, but she would be able to hear it in his voice, see it in the way his eyes drifted from hers and his arms wouldn't wrap around her but rather himself, shielding the truth as to protect her feelings.

Rhea was almost so lost in thought that she didn't hear the bell ring but it didn't take long for the chaos to interrupt. Tiffany Stratton, Mia Yim and Santos Escobar were all chucked out within seconds of the bell ringing but Rhea got her first eliminated after flipping Austin Theory over the top rope. After that, she couldn't be stopped. She drop kicked Dragon Lee as he stood on the apron, she and Seth worked to get Bronson Reed out, almost immediately afterwards Seth tried to double cross her so Rhea gave him a devastating looking knee strike (something she had learnt from Buddy and that she found very satisfying to do) before chucking him out. Lyra had eliminated both herself and Julius Creed when she tackled him on the apron. Becky managed to eliminate Ivy Nile and Dakota Kai before Iyo drove her head first into the ring post and chucked her over the top rope.

With less competitors in the ring by that point, the match slowed down a little. Rey and Xavier Woods were locked up in one corner while Rhea was trying to escape Piper's attempt at a German suplex across the ring. Carmella purposefully got out when she realised Montez was coming at her. Natalya then snuck up on Ford to dump him over the ropes in very quick succession. A loud thud was heard as Xavier finally managed to push Rey into the ring post before Zoey threw him out.

Rhea, who had finally managed to get Piper off, worked with Zoey in order to eliminate the aforementioned Scot, and then Natalya. Pete Dunne eliminated Bayley and Iyo before getting eliminated by Kairi. Jey and Solo eliminated each other when Solo grabbed hold of Jey while slipping off the apron. Zelina seemed to appear out of nowhere mid match but was quickly dealt with by Rhea.

“I heard you spoke to Ivy and some of the other girls last week?” Zoey asked quietly under her breath as she and Rhea had Xavier and Akira in matching head locks.

“Yeah. I mean, as you could tell last week, I hadn't really been getting along with Judgement Day and when I looked at it from an outside perspective, I realised how much we were hurting people. I wanted to apologise to them for it, I have a lot to make up for,” Rhea told her, just before giving Akira a DDT. Akira went limp and Rhea had to drag him to the edge of the ring to lug him over the ropes. Zoey met her there, clearly having done the same move to Xavier if his own limpness was an indicator. The girls lifted Xavier's dead weight between them. And it was suddenly down to the last 5: Rhea, Zoey, Kairi, Brutus Creed and LA Knight.

“Last 2?” Rhea asked and Zoey nodded. They both headed for Brutus, clearly singling him out as the physically biggest competitor left. Rhea clotheslined him and when he fell backwards, it was onto Zoey’s knee in a backbreaker. He grunted in pain as the two girls threw him over the rope. Kairi was on the top rope in the corner, tussling with LA Knight for a few seconds before Rhea went up and pushed both of them out of the ring. It was down to her and Zoey. Rhea puzzled at the other woman, they had only wrestled each other a few times since Zoey’s call up so Rhea hadn’t quite learnt her yet.

The two went for a test of strength in the ring and though it was close, much closer than Rhea thought it would be, Rhea won in the end. She was able to clothesline Zoey and then delivered one of the nasty looking headbutts that Rhea had become known for. Zoey fought back, she even almost hit her finisher but Rhea dragged both of them onto the apron and it only took one superkick to get Zoey out.

She did it. She had won .

A slow, menacing clap filled the air and when Rhea looked, she could see Raquel standing there looking unamused by the whole situation. “Well done Rhea, I mean seriously, well done. I honestly thought you’d be licking your wounds right now so I have to commend you. But, if you think I’m going to let you challenge for this championship right now, you’re dead wrong. You can't just win a single match and think you're suddenly good enough for my title again,” Raquel spat venomously. She had pure hatred in her eyes but also a little surprise. Raquel had, obviously, not been expecting Rhea to even participate in the battle, let alone win it.

“You signed a contract Raquel, you have to give me a match now. And when you do, I'm winning my title back,” Rhea countered.

“You mean… this contract?” Raquel paused for a second to pull on some paper from her back pocket and Rhea almost laughed at the thought of Pearce frantically running around, trying to figure out how Raquel got her hands on the documents. Before Rhea could say anything, Raquel proceeded to rip the contract up into as small pieces as she could. Rhea, KP and Corey all watched in astonishment at Raquel’s actions. “I don’t see a contract. Do you guys see a contract?” She jokingly asked Corey and KP, who stared back at her with disbelief in their eyes. “Sorry Rhea but, it looks like you did all that work for nothing.”

Rhea almost lunged at the latina but Raquel had already made her retreat before Rhea was even fully out of the ring. Coward . Rhea took a few seconds in the ring to recompose herself before going backstage. She had only just started to mend her relationships and she didn’t need to risk that progress by snapping at someone. She did eventually go backstage and all the wrestlers were even more sympathetic but she just beelined straight for Buddy, barrelling into his chest at 100 miles per minute. He simply wrapped his arms around her and didn’t say anything for a few minutes, he didn’t even mention that Rhea was squeezing him so tightly he could barely breathe, “No matter what, I am very proud that you went out there and you beat everyone,” Buddy eventually spoke between the two and just as Rhea predicted, the warmth in his tone soothed her almost instantly.

“I’m so mad right now, I just want to scream at somebody, preferably Raquel, but I’d almost take anybody at this point,” Rhea grumbled and Buddy chuckled a little.

“Hey, you can always shout at me. I can handle it and I’m always up for helping you out,” Buddy joked but Rhea knew he was being truthful which brightened her mood slightly more. Well, until she saw Adam Pearce out of the corner of her eye. He seemed hesitant to approach her so even though she was angry, she tried to squash it as much as possible.

“Adam,” Rhea greeted the General Manager.

“Rhea… I’m so sor-”

“It’s fine,” Rhea interrupted to say, even though it absolutely was not fine, “I’m sure you and I can come to a solution together right?” At the look on Adam’s face, Rhea felt her rage start to bubble but Buddy just slipped his hand into hers and squeezed it as a silent show of support.

“I really, really, wish there was Rhea, obviously I’m going to continue looking for a solution but Raquel signed the contract before the show started so there isn’t even proof of her signing it. She could claim that she never signed it and we would have no way of disproving her anymore. I don’t even know how she got the documents, they were stored in a locked cabinet in my locked office,” Adam admitted. Buddy seemed baffled by that too but Rhea had a new, fresh wave of rage course through her in that second.

“A picklock? I know one of them,” Rhea seethed and Adam looked at her expectantly, “I’m not saying he is the only WWE superstar that can pick a lock but I know for a fact that Dom learnt how to do it off of a guy in prison. He used it to get us into this building once and we-” Rhea glanced at the other two people looking at her expectantly, she could not tell her boss, and whatever Buddy is, this story, “anyways… he used it to get into a building once. End of the story. And he is the only person I can think that would try and help Raquel. No one else has a reason too and most of them actually hate her now so most wouldn't want to anyway.” Adam and Buddy nodded along to her explanation, it did make sense but they still didn’t want to believe that Dom would do that to Rhea, the girl he idolised for close to 2 years.

As if on cue, the aforementioned man walked past the trio and smirked at Rhea, “Sucks what Raquel did out there doesn't it Rhea?” Dom goaded. Buddy almost lunged at the Mexican before Rhea put her hand on his bicep, she could handle herself. It turns out she didn’t have too.

“Yeah, it actually was Dom. I’m trying to figure out how it happened actually because those documents that Raquel ripped were already locked away in my office. You wouldn’t know how she ended up having them, do you Dom?” Adam asked and Dom’s smug look was then directed at the General Manager.

“I don't know Adam, it’s a mystery isn’t it?” Dom feigned worry.

“Don’t you worry Dom. I’ll get to the bottom of this,” Adam told him and felt a small thrill about what he was about to say, “it’s a good job I installed those cameras in my office a few weeks ago. I’m sure whoever helped Raquel will get the punishment they deserve.” The trio watched as Dom’s eyes widened at that piece of information.

“Cameras?”

“Yeah. I installed them after that incident with Shotzi last month. Just as a bit of extra security. There are signs up about it, you might not have noticed them,” Adam explained, still trying to act clueless.

“Yeah, I must have missed them,” Dom agreed before rushing off. The trio left behind almost doubled over laughing the second he was out of earshot.

“Did you see his face? Oh my god,” Rhea howled, almost crying with laughter. Buddy was no better, he couldn’t even reply to her he was laughing that much. Once the three had finally calmed down enough to have a serious conversation, Rhea turned to Adam, “what’s going to happen to Raquel and Dom?”

“Well, Dom is going to be slapped with the biggest fine of his life and hopefully there is something on the video to prove that Raquel did in fact sign the contract. We might even get lucky with the audio. Do you want to come and see?” Adam asked Rhea and though the offer had only really been extended to the woman, he wasn’t surprised to see her dragging Buddy along.

The three scanned the video footage for about 5 minutes before finding the correct time stamp. They heard a lot of clicking before seeing Dom emerge into the room, Raquel closely behind him.

“No, you stay and look out to see if anyone is coming,” Dom told the latina as she tried to follow him.

“Ugh, fine. Just hurry with finding that contract, if I had known Rhea was going to be a part of this battle royale I never would have signed it in the first place-”

“YES!” The trio cheered at Raquel’s admission. Now they had proof. “Oh, I am going to love telling Raquel this. Rhea, you can go prepare for your title match next week.”

After Adam walked away, Rhea threw her arms around Buddy.

“You’ve got this Love, I believe in you,” Buddy whispered into her hair and Rhea turned red at the pet name. Instead of obviously responding to the affection, she nestled her head onto his shoulder.

“Hell yeah I do.”

Chapter Text

The bell rang.

“YOUR WINNER AND NEW INTERGENDER CHAMPION… RHEA RIPLEY!” Samantha cheered her friend as Rhea lifted the title in disbelief. She wanted this so badly but it was almost unbelievable that it actually happened. It was only when Buddy slid into the ring from where he had been watching ringside that it caught up to her. She felt the happy tears stinging her eyes and as Buddy hugged her so hard she couldn’t breathe, she knew it was real. She had won her baby back.

“I’m so proud of you,” Buddy whispered into her ear, only just audible over the cheering of the crowd and Rhea finally let the tears fall. Buddy wiped away the tears and looked at her with such pride in his eyes that Rhea felt something finally burst.  She suddenly didn't care that they were in front of thousands of people, or that her ex boyfriend was probably lurking somewhere out of sight. All she cared about was kissing Buddy, and boy did she do just that. Her lips crashed to his as her newly re-won title slipped out of her hands onto the mat, all the emotions and pining over the last few months had accumulated to this moment, with Buddy’s hands on her waist and her hands gripped in his hair. It didn’t feel like a massive reveal in the way she had pictured it but more like the natural conclusion to the months of buildup. She couldn’t help but smile so widely that the kiss became more teeth than lips and Buddy could only pull away to look at her in wonder, panting slightly and lips a little swollen.

The two were definitely going to have to talk about this and Raquel was definitely death glaring her in the corner but Rhea couldn’t care less at that moment, not when she bent down to pick up her title with one hand and the other was slotted into Buddy’s slightly larger one. Well, until the Judgement Day’s theme hit as she was leaving the ring. She quickly resituated herself in the middle of the squared circle, with Buddy to the left of her.

“Rhea, Rhea, Rhea… I guess we should say congratulations,” Dom spoke, the crowd for once staying silent, they evidently wanted to see what he had to say as much as Rhea did, “but, we aren’t going to do that and frankly we couldn’t care that you won it back. Honestly, this isn’t about you at all. This is about him.” Dom pointed at Buddy and the Aussie rolled his eyes.

“No. Not tonight. You aren’t about to ruin Rhea’s celebration by coming out during her match just to cut a promo on someone else,” Buddy told the Mexican and saw the way Dom furrowed his brow in confusion.

“It’s okay Buddy, I want to hear what Dom Dom has to say,” Rhea said with false cheer, only letting a little venom slip into the words ‘Dom Dom’.

“I wanted to know why you need a guard dog all of a sudden Rhea,” Finn spoke up for the first time, “I mean Buddy was around a lot before anyway but since you left, it’s like you can’t go anywhere without him. But, I guess you made it pretty clear why tonight.” Buddy felt his blood boil at the word ‘left’, and wanted to charge the Irishman right there and then. Rhea released her death grip in Buddy's hand just to put her hand out and stop him, predicting his actions.

“Guard dog? No. Buddy is just a good friend, something you, evidently, know nothing about.” Rhea felt weird calling her and Buddy friends after just kissing but it wasn’t technically incorrect.

Dom scoffed, “Friend, yeah right. How about me vs Buddy, right now.”

“I have a better idea. I talked to Adam before my match because you guys are predictable and I thought this might happen, he said that it’s my guys vs you at Wrestlemania next month,” Rhea informed the men around her. Buddy was practically vibrating at the thought of his first Wrestlemania match but Dom and Finn looked confused at her wording.

“Your guys. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not but there are three of us and one of him, if you want Buddy to lose miserably at mania then I have no objections but really, I almost feel bad for the guy,” Finn gestures wildly, eyes filled with glee and voice filled with mirth.

Rhea looked at the trio in front of her and smiled sweetly, “are you sure about that? Three of you?” Finn and Dom glanced at each other before looking at Damian. The third member of the trio had been silent the entire time they had been out there and for good reason. Damian, still silently, had shed his judgement day jacket at some point during the interaction and was slowly moving from one side of the ring to join Rhea and Buddy on the other side. “Hmm… seems like the numbers are tied now. Though make no mistake, Buddy could have taken all three of you. See you at wrestlemania boys.”

And before Finn or Dom could comment, the new trio of Rhea, Buddy and Damian left the ring.

When they got backstage Buddy left to go talk to Seth about something while Rhea and Damian hung around with the other wrestlers. Rhea watched as Buddy walked away, they really needed to talk. She wasn't nervous about the outcome per se , after all their feelings for eachother were never much of a secret, but she was worried that the longer they left it without addressing the topic the harder it would be to take the next step (whatever that may be).

“I’m glad to see you came to your senses Damo,” R-Truth told the Puerto Rican and Damian chuckled in agreement. 

“Yeah, Rhea will always manage to talk some sense into me,” Damian agreed.

“So, what actually happened? How come you’re now all anti Judgement Day?”

“Well…” Damian began the story.

“I just want to see her Buddy,” Damian told the Australian who was protecting the doorway to the make up trailer.

“And I’ve told you that I’ll give her a message for you, but I still don’t trust you yet Damian. So no, you can’t see her-”

“Buddy,” a voice called from within the trailer, “just let him in. And yes, you can come too.”

Buddy, very begrudgingly, let Damian in through the doorway before following him in.

“Wow, you have him trained at this point Rhea,” Damian tried to joke but he shut up very quickly at the looks the Aussies both shot him, “okay no jokes. Got it.”

“What do you want Damian?” Rhea asked, trying to make herself sound confident but knowing it came out more timid than she was hoping.

“I wanted to wish you luck. And to apologise. And to tell you that I had no part in what happened, I wouldn’t do that to you,” Damian told the woman and Rhea listened attentively.

“I know you didn’t. Buddy already told me that you had no idea and honestly Damian, I’ve already forgiven you. I mean, it was kind of a blessing in disguise. I have my friends back, after tonight I’m going to have my championship and now I can follow my heart, no strings attached anymore,” Rhea told the taller man and though she said the last statement generally, she looked directly at Buddy as she said it. Damian smiled at his pseudo sister and ruffled her hair a little. Rhea swatted him away having only just gotten her hair done.

“I don’t think I want to be in Judgement Day without you Rhea. We started in the Judgement Day together. We're the OGs and you getting kicked out when you’re really the only reason any of us can walk around backstage without getting jumped doesn't fit right with me. It was fucked what the other two did to you,” Damian ranted and Rhea looked a little amused at the Puerto Rican.

“Damian, why don’t you leave? I’m going to be honest with you right now, I had planned on leaving before Finn and Dom kicked me out. I got some good advice that I really think you could do with hearing. The Judgement Day doesn’t serve a purpose anymore, besides making people hate us. It’s okay to be selfish and want your friends back, imagine how happy R-Truth would be to talk to you again. Or Riddle.”

Damian smiled at the thought, he had missed his friends.

“Okay,” he said.

“Really? It’s that easy?” Rhea asked in disbelief.

“It’s that easy. C’mon Rhea, we’re the terror twins, I couldn’t do this without you,” he gave his pseudo sister a soft smile and Rhea launched herself at him, pulling him into a painfully tight hug.

The wrestlers listened to Damian tell the story in silence before R-Truth chucked an Xbox controller at the Puerto Rican. “Well, what are you waiting for? Sit down and let’s game!” Damian chuckled before relenting. 

Rhea smiled at the scene before getting dragged away by some of the other womens wrestlers. 

“Now Rhea,” Live sing-songed, “you know what we are all about to ask.” Rhea looked at the women surrounding her and they all looked at her expectantly. 

“I didn’t plan to kiss him okay! I was just so happy, and he was right there, and y’know my feelings for him aren’t exactly a secret-”

“Yeah, they really aren’t. You actually kind of suck at not looking in love with that man,” Bianca teased and several voices piped in to agree.

“God I know,” Rhea giggled, “I need to talk to him about it but this was a step in the right direction. No matter what happens now, I’m happy.”

“‘ No matter what happens now ’ Girl… you know that man is obsessed with you,” Naomi teased, rolling her eyes fondly.

“She is kind of right,” a voice spoke from behind the group of girls and Buddy smiled as the group parted ways to let him through, “would you lovely ladies be okay with me stealing Rhea for a bit?”

“Of course! Take her! Go, go, go, go, go,” Liv squealed, practically pushing Rhea towards her fellow Aussie.

“Well ouch Liv, I didn’t realise you wanted to get rid of me that much,” Rhea laughed but grabbed Buddy’s outstretched hand anyway.

“Oh hush you,” Ivy huffed in amusement, she waited until Rhea was already walking away with Buddy before shouting, “WE WANT DETAILS LATER! GIRLS NIGHT IN MY ROOM TONIGHT!”

Rhea flipped her off without even turning around to look at her but shouted back nonetheless, “I’LL BE THERE!”

Buddy slid his hand out of hers to throw his arm over her shoulders instead, “are we going to our secret spot?”

“Sure, though it’s not exactly a secret spot anymore,” Rhea reminded him, after all, Bianca, Liv and Triple H had all found their “secret” spot.

“Well, secret or not, it’s still our spot. And it’s the perfect place to have this conversation,” Buddy reasoned and Rhea agreed. Not that it mattered because the two had subconsciously been heading in that direction already.

“Okay,” Buddy said, once the two had settled down in their spot, “we have a lot to discuss.”

“Do we?” Rhea wondered. At Buddy’s confused look, she continued, “I mean, I know how I feel about you and, not to sound conceited, I’m pretty sure I know how you feel about me. Just look back at the last few months, whatever happens next will just feel like a natural progression.” 

Buddy smiled softly at Rhea, he clearly agreed with her assessment, “You’re right.” The two sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds before Buddy piped up again, “so… do you want to go on a date?” Despite what they had literally just talked about, there was still some nervousness in Buddy’s voice as he asked her. Nervousness that Rhea wanted to get rid of as fast as possible.

“Of course I’ll go on a date with you,” she grinned as she spoke. Buddy’s smile impossibly softened more at that and Rhea couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss him again. Even when they needed to pull apart in order to breathe again, it was reluctantly and Rhea tried to prolong it for as long as possible. Buddy ended up being the one to pull away, earning a small whine from Rhea.

“Hey we have forever to kiss, right now I want to take you on our first date,” Buddy joked but Rhea could tell by his eyes that he was dead serious. She let him help her up from the corner and was so happy she didn't even mention the fact they had practically been dating for months already. She and Buddy made their way through the backstage area and she just barely managed to hear some of her fellow wrestlers tease them about their kiss-swollen lips as they walked passed, Rhea flipped them off but she couldn't wipe the grin off of her face, even as they reached Buddy's car.

All Rhea could think about was Buddy’s words.

We have forever to kiss.

We have forever.

Forever.

Rhea quite liked the sound of that.

Chapter Text

“And here to induct Rhea Ripley into the Hall Of Fame is her very own husband, Buddy Matthews!” Triple H announced. The arena erupted when the Australian walked down the ramp towards the ring/hof stage. Buddy and Rhea had become quite a beloved duo throughout the WWE universe, to the point people refused to even entertain the thought of anyone else inducting her.

Buddy got into the ring and shook Hunter's hand. Buddy could see the proud look in his eyes, it was his wrestling daughter after all. Buddy actually has a sneaking suspicion Hunter wanted to be the one to induct her, he wasn't the only one either, but Buddy was honoured nonetheless.

“Hello, hello. My name is Buddy Matthews, some of you may know me as Buddy Murphy, or simply Murphy, and some of you may even know me as Matt Silva. But none of that matters tonight, because tonight the only thing you need to know about me is that I am the proudest husband on Earth right now. I have the honour and the privilege of being married to Rhea Ripley. I get to see her wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, I get to watch her cook for our kids, I get to travel with her. And because of that, I also get to see just how much work she puts into her craft, I spend hours a day in the gym with her and I spar with her when she wants - and no I haven't been able to beat her in a spar yet - but I get to see how hard she works for everything she has, there is really no one in this business who deserves this kind of recognition more than Rhea Ripley,” Buddy choked up a little, he was seriously seriously proud of Rhea, of everything she had accomplished.

He laughed wetly as he said the next bit, “Y'know there is actually a bit of heat on me amongst our friends and a few of the officials,” he sent a playful wink at Hunter and their friends who were sitting in the legends, it was crazy how fast time went, section, “because I was chosen to do this. Rhea has touched so many peoples’ hearts and lives, more than she will ever know, but I did promise that I would read out what some of her fellow wrestlers have said about her. Also, to all of our friends, don't crucify me if I don't read yours, there were just that many of them. Also Sonya's section was way too inappropriate for the Hall Of Fame ceremony,” Buddy made a joke. Partially to keep the mood light but also partially because if he didn't, he might still cry.

“Okay, firstly, we have my wife's terror twin, my birthday brother and honestly the best unofficial brother in law on the planet, Damian Priest. Now, Damian kept his speech short and sweet. He said that he was proud to have seen Rhea grow and that he always believed in her, everyone else just needed a second to catch up. Obviously Damian couldn't not mention the fact they were terror twins or that everyone should rise for them but considering he's said the same thing for years, I think that bit can go unsaid. Next we have a fellow Hall Of Famer in Bianca Belair. She said that there was no bigger honour of her career then being a champion at the same time as Rhea and that being Rhea's friend was the only thing to top that. Liv Morgan's speech is actually pages long so to summarise Liv said she was proud of Rhea, that being her tag partner, even only briefly, was amazing. She also mentioned that Rhea was one if the best people she had ever met, which I can vouch for because the same is true for me, she also threw a joke in there about how she is thankful our kids inherited Rhea's music taste, which I'm not a massive fan of but I can't complain because the world needs a little more Rhea. Okay last one before we get back to my speech, this one is from the man himself, Triple H. And because I know how badly he wanted to be the one to induct her, I'll let him come back in here and read his own speech.” Buddy invited Hunter back into the ring which Hunter did with a little push from Stephanie. Buddy and Hunter hugged briefly before Buddy took a step back and allowed Hunter to speak into the microphone.

“Thank you Buddy. I'll try and keep this short because this isn't supposed to be my job but I do have a lot to say. My job, what I do, is finding people with talent. I find these people and I mould them into superstars. I never had to do that with Rhea. Yes, she had things to learn and room to grow but she was always a star. Even I couldn't have predicted what she would become though. People will hate to admit it but wrestling is a selfish sport, I'll be the first to admit I still sometimes get jealous when I see others lacing up their boots, but I never thought I could care more about someone else's career than my own. Rhea is more than a wrestler, she is more than a co-worker. To me, and I think Steph would agree here, she is family,” Stephanie nodded her head as her husband says it, “Rhea was 20, young and green when I met her and now she has grown up with a wonderful family, she has broken pretty much every record ever set and I have the privilege to work alongside her as she oversees the training for NXT Down Under and helps shape the new crop of wrestlers coming up. As a parent, nothing makes you more happy than your kids being happy and healthy, that's how I feel about Rhea. She is forever my wrestling daughter and I'm so proud of her,” Hunter finished his speech to a massive round of applause and a few teary-eyed wrestlers.

“Very well put Hunter, thank you. Also guys, imagine how intimidating it is to have the Triple H and the Stephanie McMahon as your pseudo parents-in-law. I think I may have actually cried after Hunter finished giving me his version of a shovel talk. It involved actual shovels,” Buddy joked and got a few laughs from the crowd but even more laughs from the wrestlers who knew he wasn't kidding. “I also feel the need to point out that Rhea is only in her late 30s. All this talk Hunter said about helping the next generation made it sound like she was old and senile which she would not be happy about.”

Buddy let them laugh but soon went back into his serious mode. “When Rhea told me that she was pregnant a few years ago  we both decided that we wanted to raise our kids in Australia but it was one of the hardest decisions we had ever made. I had already retired but she was still at the top of the mountain top, by deciding to go home she was also deciding to leave all of that behind. She hated it, and still does to a certain extent, because Rhea is a superstar and her first love will always be wrestling. But Rhea, along with other Aussie wrestlers, pioneered for there to be more support for the Australian wrestling scene which led to NXT Down Under. Rhea is a pioneer of wrestling. She has broken so many records, she has been the first to do so much but she made sure she wouldn't be the last because she cares about wrestling and women's wrestling specifically. That is her legacy, that is her life's work and that is why she is getting inducted into the Hall Of Fame tonight. Everyone please welcome Rhea Ripley.” 

Rhea entered the arena to one of the loudest pops in recent memory while beaming at Buddy with tears glimmering in her eyes. Buddy just stared in disbelief, even years later he couldn't believe this goddess of a woman chose him. Rhea got into the ring and gave Buddy a very non PG kiss before moving towards the microphone. As Buddy climbed down from the ring all he could think was, ‘tonight was definitely one for the history books.’