A/N: Okay, ladies and germs, this is it! This is the final chapter to this short story. I hope it meets your expectations and that you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

Chapter Three – All ends well. Sort of.

The back of Dean's heel hit the crate he currently sat on in an impatient manner. His arms crossed tightly over his chest, he stared intensely at the Divas locker room door.

Roman and Seth had both tried convincing him to let it go and come back to the locker room with them, but he had refused. His teammates knew once he put his mind to something, it was impossible to deter him from his mission. And he needed an explanation.

He needed to know why Emma wouldn't talk to them. He needed to know why the normally bubbly woman was so upset, apparently at him, Seth, and Roman. And mostly, he needed to figure out why she had such an affect on him.

He needed answers, and he wasn't leaving this arena until he talked to Emma. Which explained his current position across from the Diva's locker room.

Each Diva that exited had given him an odd look when they exited the room—he received a particularly dirty look from Nikki Bella. He didn't know what that chick's problem was, but as of right now he didn't much care. He was actually surprised security hadn't been called to get rid of him. A good thing in the end. It would make things exceedingly difficult if he got into a backstage fight.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing in frustration. This made zero sense to him. This whole situation was just as confusing to him as it was to everyone else. No woman—no person—ever had this affect on him. What did it matter that Emma was upset and didn't want to talk to any of them?

He was Dean Ambrose! He's a wild card, he's the lunatic fringe, and he didn't care about anyone's feelings! He's upset plenty of women in his lifetime and never gave a crap about any of them afterwards.

But Emma was—it sounded so cheesy to say that she was different; he's only officially met her a week ago. But there was something different about her. Something that made him feel differently than he did towards other women.

She wasn't afraid of him.

In fact, when she met him, Seth, and Roman she was so excited. And not that type of excited women get when they were around attractive guys—though Emma herself certainly wouldn't deny the fact that they were gorgeous men—but the type of excited to get in the ring with experienced players and learn and be a part of what they were. Even if only for a moment.

Dean's head snapped up suddenly when he heard the Diva's locker room door open again. This time it finally was Emma exiting the room, dressed in a simple pair of jeans, one of her 'Emmalution' t-shirts, her duffle bag slung over her shoulder, and her jacket draped over her arm.

"Emma!" He called out, jumping off the crate.

She nearly jumped out of her skin, holding her jacket closer to her chest at the fright of being caught off guard. Wide eyed, she turned to see Dean walking towards her, still dressed in his ring gear.

If Emma were to expect any members of the Shield to be waiting up for her—which she never in a million years would!—Dean Ambrose was the last of the three men she'd expect.

"Uh, Dean." She began awkwardly as he stood before her, perhaps a little too close for comfort, but the eccentric man hardly ever took comfort zones into consideration. "What're you doing here?"

"We need to talk." He replied shortly, staring her down. "Let's go somewhere private."

Without waiting for her reply or even her approval, he turned on his heel and headed down the hall, motioning for her to follow. Emma's eyes were large with surprise. She supposed the dubious actions of Dean Ambrose should never shock her, but the man was peculiar. Regardless, she followed him.

He opened the door to an empty room and gestured for her to enter. She did so without question. Maybe that was foolish on her part, but how did that saying go? Curiosity killed the cat.

Not that she thought Dean would kill her. She was pretty sure he wouldn't—until she turned around to face him only to find him standing so close to her that her nose bumped into his chest and she had to crane her neck to look up at him.

"Ah," she took a step back, uncomfortable with the proximity.

Which was a bit astonishing to Dean. Like Roman had pointed out earlier, she was always trying to hug one of them after a match. Or get them to dance with her.

It was time to get to the bottom of this.

"Why aren't you talking to us?" Blunt and to the point, as always.

Emma was taken aback by the question. Obviously, they would be curious about her abrupt departure from the ring, but she didn't think any of them would care enough to seek her out.

"Um," came her puzzled reply.

The blonde woman shifted on her feet nervously. Since talking to Nikki, she's calmed down considerably. In fact, it seemed like the Bella twin absorbed her anger and took it out on the Shield on her behalf. Emma had been in the shower during Nikki's encounter with the three men, but Brie Bella had informed her of the situation, not too pleased with her sister's actions. The last thing those women needed was to be on the Shield's bad side when their was the ever present threat of the Authority breathing down their necks already.

Dean noted her continued discomfort and sighed deeply. This wasn't going well. He hadn't expected it to. He wasn't good with women in this aspect.

"Look, you left the ring and you didn't say anything to us. You looked angrier with us, and we've never done anything to harm you. We want to know what we did wrong." He told her in the calmest tone he could muster. He was doing his best not to scare her off.

Emma bit down on her bottom lip, glancing around the empty room. She thinks this might be the most uncomfortable situation she's ever been in since coming up to the main roster—and that included all those segments with Santino.

"Where are Seth and Roman?" She asked suddenly.

"Don't change the subject, Emma." Dean gruffly stated, momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to be nice.

"I'm not trying to, but if you're all so concerned about my actions, then why aren't they here too?"

"Well, we all did try to see you earlier, but a certain twin stopped us." He replied, still bitter about Nikki Bella's interference. "The guys wanted to hit the showers before heading to the hotel."

"And why didn't you do the same? You could have caught up with me tomorrow before the taping of Smackdown. Why did you have to get answers from me right now, Dean?" Emma questioned him seriously.

"I…" Dean trailed off, unsure how to answer her. He could barely answer his own damn questions on this situation. He's reached his boiling point, and he's beyond annoyed now. "I'm an impatient man, Emma. I don't like waiting. I prefer the answers to my questions to come right away. So, if you wouldn't mind…" He made an exaggerated hand gesture, indicating for her to answer him.

Emma gave him a strange look. Everyone knew Dean Ambrose was an eccentric man—a lunatic fringe, as Michael Cole so kindly put. She knew the more she made him wait, the more irate he would become. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair.

"I… I heard you, Seth, and Roman talking." She muttered, looking away from him.

Eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, Dean inquired, "About?"

"About me." Glancing back up at him, Emma's frown was near depressing to look at.

He was used to the brightness of her grin. So bright it could light up a damn room. He thought, almost irritably. "Okay." He spoke, still confused.

She shook her head sadly, and continued. "About how Kane was using me as punishment against you guys. About how… I'm embarrassing." She finally said, and she found it was hard to continue looking at Dean while confessing this. But still, she kept her darker eyes on his. She wouldn't back down.

It all suddenly dawned on Dean. She had overheard their conversation from earlier tonight. She was offended and she was hurt. She indeed hadn't known that Kane was using her. She thought her talent was being utilized, and she had to find out she was being used to embarrass three grown men from overhearing a conversation between said men.

He'd be pissed about that, too.

"Shit, Emma… why didn't you just come talk to us about it?" Dean wanted to know. It would have saved a lot of time and confusion if she had just talked to them about it.

"I—I was too upset!" Emma defended. "I didn't see the point in an immediate approach. You all seemed embarrassed enough to be teaming with me again anyway."

"We weren't embarrassed by you!" Dean argued.

"But you said that you didn't know if Kane was an idiot or genius for teaming me wi—"

"Yeah, that's because it fucking worked, Emma!" Dean snapped, interrupting her. Realizing that could be interpreted the wrong way, he quickly continued. "It didn't work the way he wanted it to. It worked because you were surprisingly a good partner. We liked working with you."

Emma blinked once. Then twice. What?

"You—you did?" She was astonished.

"Yes! Trust me, darlin', if we didn't like working with you then we would have found a way not to." He told her, relieved now that this bullshit was coming to an end.

"But… but you seemed so frustrated that we were having another match together." She said, remembering the obvious vexation in Dean's tone.

"I was frustrated over the fact of why Kane was continuing to team us up. He was hoping for something that was never going to happen—us hurting you."

It was a fools thought to ever think the Shield would physically harm a woman. For someone to think such a thing was a downright offense to Dean Ambrose. Sure, he was known as the lunatic fringe, but he had some morals.

"Oh," was all Emma could say.

There was a long silence between them suddenly, neither one sure how this conversation could continue. It seemed to be over for now, now that everything was out in the open.

Well, sort of everything. There was still the subject of Dean's own actions throughout this situation. Such as the fact that his feelings on this matter with Emma seemed to run deeper than those of his teammates. But that was something for another day. Dean Ambrose was never so open with his feelings.

"So… we good now?" He asked, breaking the silence. "I can go tell the guys that everything's okay now?"

"No," Emma said quickly, head shaking and an unreadable expression on her face, "we're not good."

Dread hit Dean. He had thought with everything out in the open now it meant everything was okay now. Man, I really don't know women.

His confusion only grew tenfold when she suddenly smiled. "We won't be good-until you hug me." She held open her arms, happily waiting for him to come into them.

Dean blinked at her. "Are you fucking serious?"

Emma nodded eagerly. "Yeah. Come on! You know you want to." She said in a sing-song voice.

He let a deep sigh. What the hell have I gotten myself in to? "God, you are so weird. I can't believe I'm doing this." He said before walking into her arms and wrapping his own around her.

A strange feeling rose in Emma's belly, suddenly. Having Dean's large arms around her felt oddly… comforting? Out of all the hugs she's exchanged with Santino or anyone in the WWE, none of them once ever felt like this. What did this mean? Emma might be a bit too afraid to find out and she didn't want to deal with it right now. Right now, she forced herself to concentrate on the fact that she actually got the Dean Ambrose to hug her!

The feelings that arose in Dean were beyond strange. Everything was flipping and flopping around inside him. He almost held Emma closer when he caught a whiff of her aroma. She smelled like bubblegum and soap. Weird, but then again so was Emma. In a good way. God, these feelings are stupid!

Thankfully, there was no one around to witness this. "You tell anyone about this, we're never speaking again, got it, blondie?"

Emma simply nodded, grinning from ear to ear as she embraced him tightly. She ignored the tenseness of his muscles and the smell of stale sweat.

For a moment, everything seemed right in the world again. Well, as right as things could go in the worlds of Emma and Dean Ambrose.

Please, review and let me know how you felt about the final chapter!

I'm hoping to have the sequel to this posted by the end of the month or some time in May. It will be a longer multi-chaptered stories that will explore these feelings between Dean and Emma and how they handle them. Various other pairings will be mentioned/involved.