Sempiternal

Two weeks later, Lucy sat at a table in a little cafe in Knoxville, Tennessee. She had texted Roman and asked if he'd like to get breakfast. This whole time, she hadn't actually spent time with the long haired, gentle giant.

She had kept her distance from The Shield, spending most of her days with Adam Rose on his bus. It wasn't really 'party time, all the time'. It was more like 'down time, all the time'. And Lucy often found it more relaxing than it was cramped up in an S.U.V with three man-children.

She wasn't avoiding Dean, but she wasn't exactly asking him to hang out, either. And as for Seth, they had moved from not speaking, to not seeing each other at all. Seth was never around. He wasn't even car-pooling with Roman and Dean anymore from what she had heard.

The bell hanging over the door to the cafe rang and Lucy looked up to see Roman heading her way. She smiled at him and stood up to give him a hug.

"Lucy, girl." He said softly. "How've you been?"

"I've been good. You?"

"Just getting ready for Payback. This is probably the only time I'll get to take a breather." He replied, flicking his hair over his shoulder.

"I'm so excited for you guys to win."

"Yeah, this is huge for us. You're going to come to the after party right?"

Lucy pursed her lips. The last time she was at a 'party' she was intoxicated and almost kissed Dean. "I don't know, Roman. I have no idea what's going on anymore."

His brows came together. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged and sighed. "I came here with everything figured out, you know? Seth was helping me get back on my feet, and then I was going to get a place of my own, go back to school. And now I'm not sure of anything. I mean, Seth won't even talk to me. And I can't even look at Dean without it being awkward."

"Yeah, what is going on between you two? When we were all at the bar it looked like you guys were in the middle of something?"

She exhaled sharply. "I just, he's such a dick, Roman. He is a genuine asshole."

"And you like him."

"Why is that? I can't figure it out for the life of me. I can't sleep. I'm trying too hard to figure it out. He is probably the worst person in the world for me, and I'm head over heels."

"Why'd you think he's the worst?"

"I know he isn't my biggest fan. I overheard him telling Seth that I was basically the equivalent of a 'spoiled rotten coke whore, who's going to screw over everyone in my path'. Besides that, his reputation isn't exactly squeaky clean."

Roman chuckled. "People change, you should know that better than anyone. I think you need to talk to both of them. One on one. No outside interference."

"Where do I even begin?"

"Just tell them both the truth. Speak from the heart."

Lucy thanked Roman, both of them getting up and exiting the cafe. A few fans stopped Roman in the street for a picture and an autograph. She loved seeing him interact with the fans. He was so sweet to the kids.

When she got to the arena, she immediately took off in search for Seth. She found him in a dressing room with Cesaro. She asked him if they could have some privacy, and the Swiss Superstar looked at Seth to make sure it was okay. After receiving a nod from Seth, the tall man exited the room.

"What do you want, Lucy?"

"For starters, I'd like to know why you're avoiding me." Seth sighed, rolling his eyes. "You haven't said a word to me in weeks. Seth, you're supposed to be my rock."

"Lucy, I brought you here so that I could keep an eye on you. I wanted to make sure that you weren't going to go right back to shooting up as soon as you got out of rehab. You wouldn't have been able to do that if I was around. When you called me out of the blue, and asked if I could come pick you up, I dropped everything that I was doing and made sure I was there for you." A huge knot formed in Lucy's throat. "Because I fuckin' hated myself for leaving you with your dad after Liam passed away. I regretted it every day that I was down in Florida, asking myself if I was making the right decision."

"And when my mom told me that you were running around with Liam's old crowd, I just kind of gave up. I shouldn't have, but I was getting bigger and bigger down in Florida, and I wasn't going to sacrifice my dream for you, Lucy. I'm sorry, I just couldn't. But when you called me, I had a second chance. And I wanted to be there."

Lucy was crying.

"But I didn't bring you here so you could parade around in slutty outfits, throw away your sobriety, and fuck my best friend."

"What?" She said, wiping at her tear stained cheeks. "I haven't fucked anyone."

"Don't give me that bullshit, Lucy. Going out to breakfast and costume shopping, and 'oh Dean, I could listen to you talk for hours' and 'oh Dean, are you okay' and disappearing from the bar. Do you think I'm stupid or blind or what?"

"Seth, there is nothing going on with Dean and I." She halfway lied. "If you don't trust me anymore, fine. But trust that there's nothing between Ambrose and I."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing! Seth, I promise. The guy hates me. He told you himself."

Then what was that at the bar? Her conscious was screaming at her. She blamed it on how much he had to drink, because she was certain that Dean Ambrose wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole, probably from fear that he was going to catch some sort of slimy disease.

But now she knew that nothing could happen between them, because she didn't want her best friend to be disappointed in her. Or she didn't want Seth to be disappointed in Dean. She couldn't figure it out. She didn't want it to cause a rift in their friendship.

Seth dropped his gaze. "I'm really sorry, Lucy. I just assumed."

She knelt down next to him and put her hand on his cheek. "It's okay, I just want my Seth back." He smiled at her and stood up to give her a hug, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "Come on, let's go. I have to get ready for the Exotic Express, and you have to go make up with your other best friends. They miss you, Seth."

The two of them make their way to The Shield's changing room, Roman and Dean are both happy to have Seth back, and are glad that Seth finally pulled his head out of his ass. Lucy met Dean's gaze, but quickly looked away. She needed to talk to him, but she couldn't do it here. As she was in the bathroom changing into her outfit, she quickly pulled out her phone, sending him a short text message asking him if to meet her somewhere later so they could talk.

Her phone vibrated.

Dean Ambrose: "Sure"

She already felt nervous. What was she going to say to him? 'Sorry we can't be friends because Seth thinks we are hooking up and I don't want to cause any problems'. That sounded stupid. Or maybe she would say, 'I know you don't like me, so maybe we should keep it that way and just go back to ignoring each other'. Yeah, she liked that.

There was a small knock on the door followed by, "Hey Lucy, we're going to catering, do you want anything?" She declined and continued getting ready, making sure that every hair was in place and there were no loose sequins hanging off of her one-piece.

As she made her way down the hallway towards Gorilla, she felt a firm hand grab her by the elbow and pull her into an empty storage room.

"What are you doing!? You could have given me a heart attack!" She playfully slapped Dean in the abdomen. "Look, Dean, we really need to ta-"

He placed a finger over her lips, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her slowly. Her heart slammed against her rib cage, she could hear it pounding in her head. She was frozen in place, all she could do was stand there, hands over his, softly kissing him back. Her mind was blank, allowing her to focus solely on what was happening.

A hand fell to her hip, his fingers toying with the hem of her outfit, as her's laced around his subtle curls.

Dean pulled away slowly, leaving a lingering, tingling feeling on the edge of her lips. Their foreheads touched for a moment before he placed a fragile butterfly kiss on the tip of her nose. Before she could process what had just happened he slid out of the room, leaving her in complete shock.

The one thought that stuck out of her brain like a sore thumb, I'm fucked.

After Raw, on their way to the next town for Smackdown, Seth and Lucy were sprawled out in the back seat; sharing headphones, and talking about Seth's family and how they had been doing. Lucy hadn't seen or heard from them in a few years. Her mind was pressuring her to tell Seth what had happened earlier in the arena, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Dean was fast asleep in the passenger seat as Roman drove silently.

"The last time I talked to my mom she asked how you were doing." Seth interrupted her thoughts. "I told her you were good, and that I'd get you to call her soon."

Lucy smiled at Seth. "I'd like that. I miss her." She pulled the earphone from her ear and tried to get more comfortable in the stiff leather seat. She sighed. "I don't miss sleeping in a bus." Roman and Seth both chuckled.

"Imagine how I feel when it's me and Dean or me and Seth in the backseat." Roman chimed in.

Seth laughed lowly. "It's not fun."

Lucy smiled and turned away from Seth, staring at the back of Roman's seat until she fell asleep.