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The hotel lobby was dimly lit this late at night — illuminating the peace and quiet she had finally been given after craving the feeling for days. It had been rough dealing with her anxiety over facing Liv and being in the same building as the people she used to call a family who had caused her pain for the last two months which meant she had gotten little to no sleep in the week leading up to the Bad Blood event tomorrow night. She was fighting sleep on the car ride over to the hotel from the airport, partly due to her nerves but also because a company producer had rode with them to give them the media plan for the following day which luckily meant she could focus on the woman in the backseat talking to distract herself from sleepiness.
Leaning heavily on her suitcase handle and nuzzling into the hood of her oversized hoodie turned over her head, Rhea found herself fighting the urge to fall doze off right then and there as Damian spoke to the desk receptionist.
“You okay?” She feels someone grab her elbow in a soft grip to alert her of his presence. It was enough of a surprise to straighten her back and blink her eyes a few times to awaken as she looks to the man beside her.
Oh right.
Ever since the night he had ran out to save her and Damian from the others, Jey had been by their — most importantly, her — side in the ring and all of their promos for the last month and counting. He had become the other man beside Damian she had grown to trust and although it was scary, it had become easier with time over the last month to accept his affection all because he hadn’t changed from the first moment she saw him two years ago. He hadn’t changed in his desire to be next to her. Not ever. She was still learning to reciprocate — he had made it clear from the beginning of their new partnership that she didn’t need to do or say anything to show she cared when they were on television — but off screen, deep down, it was getting harder to ignore just how much she wanted to hold his hand and embrace him when he’d reach for her.
He cares about her and Rhea surprised even herself with realizing how much she cared about him in moments like these where he’s quick to check on her and make sure she was okay.
She didn’t have that before. Not with them.
Rhea lifts her head to catch Jey’s eye, finding the same concern she tried to ignore earlier in the night. She nods once and tries to smile, “I’m good. Just tired.”
Jey nods in understanding, digging his other hand into his sweatshirt pocket and adjusting a little closer to her. Was that on purpose? She finds that she doesn’t care because the extra warmth feels nice and if he won’t move, she won’t either.
She’ll pretend it means nothing.
“Guys.”
Rhea snaps out of the trance of comfort with a sharp turn to Damian who had turned around to face them. Jey’s hand still hasn’t moved from holding her elbow. She can’t look to see if Damien notices, so she glances down at the two keycards in his grasp.
There’s three of them. Why is he only holding two?
“Don’t we need another one?” Rhea looks to the receptionist for an explanation and gestures to the cards. “Shouldn’t we have a third room?”
“I’m sorry—“
The smirk on Damian’s face is enough to make her blood freeze. He turns his head to the side to hide his grin and Rhea would’ve hit him in the arm if she wasn’t aching to rest her head on a pillow in the next five minutes. She turns back to the woman talking after realizing she had tuned her out in her surprise.
The receptionist frowns, repeating herself.
“I’m sorry ma’am but we hadn’t taken into account the business convention in town before taking reservations for you and the other wrestlers. You’re our last booking for the weekend and we only have two rooms with a double bed and single. It’s all we have.”
Rhea feels like a fish out of water when she finds she can’t find anything to say in response. She doesn’t know why, maybe she does deep down but hides it from herself, but she’s only able to gasp in response once she feels Jey pull away from holding her arm and take a step to the side away from her.
“Let’s go, I’m exhausted.” Damian takes one card for himself and waits for the receptionist to leave them alone. The quiet of the hotel lobby is anything but comforting now. Her heart is beating faster like it knows something her brain doesn’t get and — “Do you guys mind sharing? I wanna unpack but I don’t wanna keep you guys up.”
There it is.
The thing her heart knew was coming.
The inevitable.
Jey is suddenly close to her again but not touching. He’s leaning toward her, ducking his head and rushing words out of his mouth, “I could go to another hotel. I could—“
“No, no—” Rhea rushes the words out and takes the other keycard from Damian’s hand, walking past them with an eagerness to hide her flushed cheeks. She could blame that on being tired. That’s her excuse to agree to this situation. “It’s fine. I’m good with it.”
She reaches the elevators first, suddenly feeling wide awake.
Their first night in the room together was perfect.
As Rhea was getting ready for bed that night after her shower, she had walked back out into the large room to find Jey watching Beetlejuice on the television. She perked up, hiding a genuine smile at the sight — god, this man was surely doing this on purpose right? — of him sat at the edge of the bed with his shoes off, towel hung over his shoulder, and tired eyes blinking up at her as Lydia goes off on a tangent on screen. He was looking right at her. And then up and down, admiring her in a new pair of sweats and oversized band tee.
She took a second to do the same, finding a new and secret admiration to his curls falling against his forehead free of gel and product.
He lingered on her make-up free and freshly washed face, his smile becoming a little wider in awe. His silent admiration makes her heart beat wildly in her chest which makes her want to squirm and move. Ducking her head and clutching her clothes into a ball, Rhea makes her way back to her side of the room to set them aside. She turns her attention over to the television, hoping her blush isn’t too noticeable. “Did you find this on cable?”
She never had such luck back home in finding her favorite movies showing on television and catching them at the right moment — not in California or Australia. She never had the time to look for them either.
Jey stands from the bed while Rhea hopes her heart would calm down enough to talk to him like a normal person. She could withstand the distance closing between them as he walks to the bathroom on her side of the room. She could do it — a mantra she keeps telling herself as he reaches for the outfit he had now grabbed from the top of his suitcase next to the dresser.
He shakes his head, “I always bring a flash drive with me on trips to hook my apps up on the tv. I logged onto Disney and found it.”
Rhea had gone still. Her eyes go wide in surprise. “You found Beetlejuice for me? I told you it was one of my favorite movies a few weeks ago, I—you—“ She stumbled over her words, “You remembered?”
Jey looks at her as if she was the one that did something unbelievable with a tilted head and short nod, “Of course. A favorite movie isn’t something a guy could forget when he’s told by someone he cares about. Plus…” He paused on his walk to the bathroom, gesturing between them. “I hope watching it together could make you feel better about being forced in sharing a room with me.”
His shyness in being honest makes her huff in a gentle laugh. She can’t stop smiling. He wants to watch Beetlejuice with her? Oh she’s gone.
“I don’t feel forced.” Rhea assured him, her cheeks warm in a flush of pink. She closes her suitcase and sets it on the floor just as Lydia and her mother get into an argument. Jey hasn’t looked away from her and she hopes he feels whatever this is between them if the smile he’s trying to hide with a bitten lip is anything to go by. She continues lowly, “I’d never say no to watching it with you.”
“I’ll be quick.” He replied easily and she looked away to avoid his gaze. “Promise.”
His jaw ticked with words he had forced back and she only noticed because of how tough he was gripping onto his towel as he walked away from her.
Having such a great night with Jey meant that the following morning would be terrible. She should’ve known better in believing otherwise.
She hated being proven right.
No.
“Rhea, please!”
No.
“I just wanna talk!”
No.
Rhea turned on her heel, feeling the dizziness immediately hit her as she raced toward the staircase at the end of the corridor. She had been trying to find the press room on the fifth floor and meet up with Damian while Jey finished getting ready for the day and — “Rhea, cmon! You don’t need to run from me. We’re not in the ring, we could be civil!” — she had stumbled upon Dominik and Finn a few doors away from the press conference room.
She thought she had been quick enough in turning away to try and access the elevator again but the second she heard footsteps and her name being called….she knew she had been spotted.
Call her petty or sensitive, she wouldn’t care. Rhea didn’t want to talk to the people that betrayed her for having the power and strength they forced upon her to battle their weaknesses. She didn’t want to talk to the first man she trusted to take care of and protect her, the first man who she did anything for even if it meant berating people she respected or didn’t want to talk down upon. He had forced her into this monster that they called ugly compared to Liv, too strong, independent, and unable to love.
He had broken her inside. Dominik didn’t deserve her time anymore. Forgiveness was long gone off the table since Summerslam.
She feels sick.
“Rhea!”
Her name is what she hears when she throws the staircase door open, hoping on any higher power he wouldn’t be stupid enough to follow.
Rhea took the stairs two at a time, willing to do anything to get to the sixth floor as fast as possible with Dominik following her. He could hear his hurried footsteps in the otherwise empty corridor, at least a whole staircase behind her, and she was starting to breathe heavy.
“I don’t want to talk to you!” Her voice echoed. Take the hint. She wasn’t sure if she was out of breath for trying to get as far away from him as possible or because she was about to start hyperventilating or crying but, she could feel her chest get tight as she rushed up the stairs. “Leave me alone, Dom.”
“You don’t really hate me, do you, Rhea?” Dominik has the nerve to sound like he’s truly concerned about her opinion of him after all this time. “I thought you’d be better without me! You were always the independent one who could handle herself. We didn’t mix. I—“
Rhea pushes the staircase door open on the sixth floor and rushes out. She could feel the tears bubbling stubbornly in her eyes as she tried to get her pounding heartbeat under control. She reached into her front pocket of her jeans for her keycard, blinking heavily to clear her vision and search for her room.
604. 605. 606. 607….
608.
She made it.
“You’re just upset we all left you!” Rhea heard him raise his voice, “You thought you could leave me behind and keep the others. You and Damian thought you had all the power to control us and we—“
“Stop.” Rhea warned through gritted teeth as she tried to swipe the keycard. “You don’t get to say that!”
We had the power because you gave it to us is what she wants to say but if she spoke any more, she would’ve began crying. Using her other hand to wipe at her face, she fought a sob rising in her throat as she tried to steady her shaky hands.
“You’re just upset that you’re alone—“
She tries her best to block him out after that.
The card wasn’t swiping. “Please…” She whispered to herself as she internally begged her shaky hand to still as his footsteps got closer but the card still wouldn’t click into place.
It was in that moment that everything changed. Her hotel room door opened to reveal Jey buttoning the top buttons on his blue polo collared shirt, a hint of a smile across his lips as he reacts to her struggling to open the door. “Hey, is the card working…?“
Her vision blurs again but this time with tears of relief as she reaches for him — words of hello dying on his lips when he looks at her face — and although she can’t see much through stubborn tears, she feels everything he does next after he kicks the door shut.
She feels when he reaches for her hand in a firm grasp and tugs her close to him. She feels the way his fingers clutch onto hers, hoping to calm the shakiness with their softness. She feels when he pulls her into their room and away from the entryway.
”Rhea?” His voice sounds like heaven to her ears after being forced to listen to Dom for the last five minutes. He rushes to cup her face in his hands and she melts into his touch as his thumbs catch fallen tears that escaped as soon as she got away from Dom. “Are you okay? What’d he do?”
“I just can’t—“ Rhea clutches into his forearm to clear her throat of emotion, “I can’t talk to him. I can’t listen to what he’s saying about me. It’s not true.”
The way Jey is holding her to him has to be the softest she’s ever been held. He agrees with her so easily, his thumb moving to caress her cheek before moving away. “I’ll talk to him, I’ll get him to leave.”
Dom’s voice from outside the door interrupts them.
“Rhea, come on.”
She exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding, “Jey….” Now that she isn’t dizzy anymore, she’s able to watch the smile take up his face in her warning. What is she warning him of?
There could be multiple answers but two stick out to her: warning him of how stubborn Dominik is and warning him of how much she feels for him in that moment between them.
Both could be true and she hates how she wants to hide from the second realization rattling her brain.
“I’ve got you.” He tells her softly, “I’ve got you, Rhea.”
She believes him. It’s all he’s ever been for her. He’s been there for her no matter what. She trusts him.
He carefully tried to peel himself away from her but she keeps a strong hold of his hand not wanting to let go of him. After fighting herself for a moment over wanting to stay close to him but avoid looking at Dominik at their door, Rhea stands behind the door as Jey opens it halfway.
In a complete opposite transformation from the gentle savior of a man she had opened the door to, she watched Jey straighten his back and cross his arm over his chest. He looks upset and mean as he stares Dominik up and down.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve chasing Rhea around,” Jey hid the hand holding hers behind the doorknob and squeezed, I got you. She could hear Dominik scoff to act like the bigger man. “I’ll give you one minute to tell me what’s so important to tell her.”
Rhea stood still and leaned against the wall behind her back. She feels grounded with Jey’s hand in hers. It’s the only reason why she hasn’t moved away or hid in the bathroom to avoid hearing what Dom had to say. She was alone before, the other man was right about that.
But, she wasn’t anymore. The people who made her feel alone had left her. For that she’s thankful. She has Damien and Jey who truly care about her and would do anything to fight for her.
She could withstand whatever Dom threw at her because she had Jey right next to her.
“For saying she’s the tough one out of the group, she seems pretty childish to avoid me every time I see her. How are we the immature—“
“One minute.” Jey cuts him off sharply, eyeing him down with a stern look. “You better hope whatever you say won’t make me want to shove you against the wall behind you.”
Rhea sat down at the edge of her bed, curling forward until she could lean her elbows on her knees and cover her face with her hands. After an intense conversation with Dominik that lasted just a few minutes but felt like an eternity, she felt worse than before she had found him.
“Rhea….”
She breathed deeply, trying to calm her racing heart. All of the exhaustion that came along with anxious thoughts and made-up scenarios of what would happen if she saw the group in the hotel had gone out of an imaginary window and was catching up to her fast. She was tired. Tired of being the strong one. Tired of Dominik having control over how she feels about herself. Tired of believing what her old family truly thought about her: how unloveable she was, how much of a threat to their happiness she was, how unnecessary she was to them in hindsight because…..
Her thoughts were suddenly disrupted by a hand rubbing up and down her back. The thin material of her t-shirt made it easier to feel his touch as Jey tried to comfort her. She took a breath every time his hand brushed the top of her spine and tried her best not to hold it when she felt the bed dip with weight to tell her he had now sat beside her.
Rhea forced her eyes shut to stop the last wave of tears she’d allow from falling as she wiped roughly at the corners, sighing at the feeling of Jey’s hand cupping her waist and pulling her to lean into his chest behind her.
She goes willingly and lets him hold her close, embracing the warmth his arm being around her stomach provides. Her head rests against his shoulder and holds on tightly to the hand that isn’t around her waist. Squeezing their fingers together, she feels him exhale at the contact.
She wants to be close to him — she’s not denying it anymore.
“You don’t deserve to be their target,” Rhea whispers to him as she thinks back to what Dom had ended their conversation on. “You heard what he said. They’re gonna come after you during your title match tonight.” She feels a new wave of shame and embarrassment rush through her. Is this what she brings to the people she cares about? Pain?
Jey huffs a small chuckle as if she hadn’t told him he’d have to deal with interference in one of the biggest matches of his entire career. As if what she said was funny.
“I’d love to see them try to make me lose my match,” He brushes off the threat as if he wasn’t scared. A part of her thinks he truly isn’t while he takes a moment to think, “Even if they did cost me, I’d be more than happy to end the night hurting them back for hurting you.”
He surprises her when he rests his head against the top of hers. He’s fully hugging her to him now. Rhea feels like she can’t breathe with how comforted and loved she felt being held and protected like this by him.
It’s so new but a feeling she never wants to let go of.
“You don’t need to do that.” Rhea tells him gently, voice still hoarse from everything that just happened. You don’t need to protect me.”
Jey goes a step further to interlock their fingers together, pressing his lips to the side of her head. Rhea doesn’t move. He’s soft when he speaks to her, “I had just sprayed my cologne in the bathroom when I heard the door reject your key over and over. When it hit me that it was you trying to get in, I thought you needed help figuring out what side of the card to slide in which is why I was getting ready to laugh it off with you once you got inside. So, when I saw how shaky your hands were and the tears in your eyes, I just jumped into action making sure you were okay.” She curls further into him, letting her eyes flutter open to watch how he fiddles with her fingers in his grasp. He continued, “I knew something was wrong and I wanted to fix it. I wanted to keep you from getting hurt.”
“Jey—“
“If you’re gonna talk back to me saying I don’t need to protect someone I care about from pain, I don’t wanna hear it.” Jey warns her warmly, his tone holding no weight. She knows he comes from a place of love. “I wanna protect you from them, Rhea. I don’t want to think that’s wrong to do because deep in my heart, I know that’s right. I want to be a shoulder for you. A barrier, an obstacle for them to get through before they could get to you. If I could stop your pain and stop you from getting hurt—“ He pauses to tilt her head up just slightly enough to place a careful kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to do it.”
Rhea’s breath stutters when she tries to inhale. She moves her hand to hold onto his wrists to keep him still for however long he wants to kiss her skin and once he moves back into their precious position, she wraps an arm around his back to hug him back.
“I don’t deserve you.” She admits in the crook of his neck, “But I do want to keep you. I want you to be there for me. I want….“ Rhea feels him smile on the top of her head which makes her lost her train of thought as if she were that shy girl in high school crushing on a boy all over again. “I want everything you just said for you, too.”
“You wanna be my protector?”
She laughs for the first time that morning.
“I’d be great at it.”
“No talk about what either of us deserve, ok? It’s pointless. We deserve love.” She hopes he couldn’t feel the gasp she tried to hide with a sharp inhale and nuzzle into his shoulder, “ I’ll tell you what,” He suggests, “How about we be that for each other, huh? We be each other’s happy place? We protect each other when needed? How does that sound?”
Rhea wipes under her eyes for a final time to make sure all of her tears are gone when she nods shortly against his skin. She smiles and keeps holding him tight because he won’t let go of her, “I’d love that.”
I think I could love you.