A/N: This was originally supposed to be a one-shot but it kind of just keeps snowballing. MA for eventual explicit content.
Chloe Lockett flashed her backstage pass at the security guard, prompting him to move aside so she could go inside the arena. "Which way to catering?" she asked as she pushed open the door.
"Make the first left, first door there," he told her, moving back into place in front of the door.
Chloe let the door shut behind her, following the man's instructions and turning left. The door to catering was open and the room was teeming with people, but she found her mark almost immediately. 'Messy hair, leather jacket, you don't change much do you Ambrose?'
She ducked down so her mouth was right next to the man's ear. "Long time no see, Dean-o."
"Told you not to call me that," he said sternly, before reaching behind him and pulling her down on the couch into a hug. "Hey squirt."
His hug was crushing and she returned it just as tight, wrapping her arms around his middle. "I missed you, you jerk. You oughta come home more often."
Dean broke the hug to gesture around him. "Why would I do that when I could be here eatin' mediocre food an' gettin' my ass kicked every day?"
A deep voice came from another couch behind Chloe. "You gonna introduce me or what Ambrose?"
Dean turned her around to face the new speaker, who had long black hair and arms covered in tattoos. "This is Chloe Lockett, one of my oldest friends from home-"
"You wouldn't know it by how often he calls, though," she interrupted, earning an elbow in the ribs from Dean.
The man offered his hand to Chloe. "Roman Reigns. Nice to meet you."
"I know," she smiled, shaking his hand. "Who you are, I mean. That sounded bad. It's good to meet you too."
Roman laughed, leaning back into the cushions. "I've never seen you around, what brings you here?"
"Oh, just thought I'd finally visit Dean when he was nearby," she said at the same time that Dean said "She's here for a job."
Chloe turned to look at him. "Say that again?"
He shrugged. "You said you were between jobs, you're good at dealing with people, we're down a production manager. Someone to know the schedule, make sure everyone is where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there, figure out how to accommodate last minute changes in the schedule if someone gets sick or injured. Keep the show from getting fucked up and disappointing thousands of people, basically."
"No pressure then, right?" she sighed, biting her lip. "If you'd told me about this before I would have brought my resume and worn something other than a leather jacket and shorts."
"Don't worry about it," he waved his hand lazily through the air. "I'll take you over to the person in charge of hiring production, talk you up, you'll be fine."
She rolled her eyes. "Well if I got you to vouch for me how can I lose?"
Dean was already standing up, pulling her up with him. "C'mon kiddo, time's a-wastin', I don't have a lot of downtime before I have to go kick ass."
Chloe frowned. "If I can't call you Dean-o you don't get to call me kiddo." She turned to move towards the exit and thudded into someone solid. She looked up and saw dark hair marred by a large blond chunk on one side. "You're-"
"Outta the way, Rollins, we got places to be," Dean said, his voice icier than it had been a minute ago.
Seth Rollins stood his ground, crossing his arms as he looked down at Chloe. "Who's your friend, Ambrose? Didn't think you had many of those left."
"More'n you're gonna have if you don't move," Dean growled, eyeing Seth's security detail. By that point Roman had stood up to join them, and Chloe stood there in silence while the men had a staredown.
Seth didn't seem to like his odds, backing up and clearing the way. "Yeah, sure. Your friends don't concern me anyway. Later, princess."
Chloe glared at him as Dean guided her out of the room, Roman close behind them.
"Prick," Dean spat as they walked towards the management office. "I oughta go back there and wring his neck."
"It's not worth it, man," Roman said solemnly. "We'll get our shot at him later. No point starting more fights than necessary."
"My fists disagree," Dean muttered, cracking his knuckles.
Chloe stayed quiet. She knew about Seth's betrayal of The Shield, turning on his brothers and joining up with the Authority to get ahead. It had worked – he was the WWE Champion now. But she didn't think anything was worth betraying your friends that way.
"Here we are," Dean said, stopping outside of a door marked Management. "C'mon Chlo, let's get you hired. He opened the door and gently pushed her inside, following behind her. "Nate? This is Chloe Lockett, she's here to save the show and wow you as the new production manager."
Nate looked up, smiling at Chloe. He was one of the older people she'd seen that night, his hair graying and his brown eyes kind. "Nice to meet you, Chloe," he said, extending his hand to shake hers and motioning for her to take a seat.
"You too. I pulled up a copy of my resume on my phone – sorry for the unorthodox delivery, the job proposition was kind of sprung on me at the last minute," she told him, passing him her phone. She slid into a less natural speech pattern that she used professionally, proper college-English without swearing that she'd picked up as a communications major, different from the way her and Dean usually spoke.
"No worries, we're not the most orthodox company in the world," Nate smiled at her before glancing at her resume. "This all looks good... lots of project management experience... how are you at dealing with difficult personalities?"
"Are you forgettin' who brought her in here?" Dean asked, leaning against the wall as opposed to sitting next to Chloe.
Chloe looked at him in horror, but Nate just laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's as good an answer to that question as any. Well, we're in a real pickle, our last guy quit at the last minute so that he could go 'find himself' by traveling the world, so we'll give you a trial run tonight. If everything goes well we'll discuss a more permanent contract at the end of the night; sound good?"
"That sounds great," Chloe said happily. "Thank you so much, I appreciate the opportunity."
"Here's a schedule for the night, along with a map of the arena, a temporary employee badge, and a headset so you can contact the rest of the production staff and let them know when you're sending people their way," Nate said, handing a few things to her. "Tonight should be a relatively easy night – just check in with everyone fifteen minutes before they're supposed to go on stage and make sure they're on schedule. Good luck tonight, Ms. Lockett."
"Chloe, please. Thanks again – I won't let you down," she smiled, shaking his hand again and getting up to leave.
"Told you you'd be fine," Dean said as they exited the office, mussing up her hair. "I gotta split, alright? Time for me to go out and do my thing."
Chloe nodded, putting on her headset and looking at her schedule. "I'll catch up with you later. Don't fuck up my first day by being late, yeah?"
He saluted her before heading to the locker room to change. Dean was supposed to be going up against Bray Wyatt, so she went off to find him, hoping that he was in a locker room instead of holed up somewhere weird.
The night was almost over and everything was running smoothly. The last match, between Randy Orton and Seth, was set to start soon. Chloe had already tracked down Randy, who dazzled her with a smile and told her that he would head over shortly. Randy was in catering but Seth wasn't, so she wandered off down the hallway to check the locker rooms.
Around a corner she spotted Seth's security, Joey and Jamie. "Hey, you two! I need to find Rollins, where is he?"
They both looked at her with distaste, and Jamie stepped forward. "What do you need with the Champ? We're not in the business of giving him up to Ambrose's friends."
"Chill out, Frodo, I'm the new production manager," she snapped, flashing her badge. She didn't need their issues getting in the way of her landing the perfect job. "I need to prep him for the match. Don't make me tell Stephanie that you were the ones that screwed up her show."
Joey inspected her badge warily before turning his look of distaste back at her. "Locker room 3. We'll be waiting for him in gorilla."
"I'll be sure to pass the message along," she said, rolling her eyes and pushing past them. She knocked loudly on the door twice before opening it. "Rollins, you need to hurry up and get ready for your entrance, you'll go in after Ran-"
She stopped in her tracks. Seth was sitting alone in the locker room, tugging on his boots, his shirt off and sitting next to him. Chloe forced herself to swallow – she had watched the show plenty of times on tv before but the cameras didn't do his muscles justice. The CrossFit was definitely working for him.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, standing up and tugging his shirt on. Her eyes narrowed; she didn't like the way he said 'you'.
"Production manager quit. I was qualified to take over. I figured you would have known that, being the Authority's favorite pet project," she said darkly, finding her voice after its temporary disappearance.
"I don't tend to bother myself with the underlings. I might make an exception for you though, princess," he drawled, brushing against her as he headed for the exit.
His arm was warm and sent a tingle through her as it touched her. She shook her head and covered up the mouthpiece of the headset. "Get fucked, Rollins. I don't tend to bother myself with traitors."
He was gone before she could see his reaction.
After the show was over Chloe brought the headset and badge back to Nate's office.
"Great job tonight, Chloe – I don't have anything here right now, but if you meet us in Indianapolis next Monday I'll have employment papers for you to sign. Just tell the security at the door who you are, I'll make sure you're on the list," Nate told her, looking pleased.
"Will do. Thank you again, I look forward to working with you," Chloe said, unable to contain her grin as she left the office and headed towards the locker room that she knew Dean and Roman were assigned to.
"I got the job!" she said, crashing into Dean with a violent hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
He returned her hug, ruffling her auburn hair. "Told you you'd be great, darlin'. Congrats."
"Congratulations!" Roman boomed, enveloping them both in a big hug and lifting them off the ground. Chloe laughed, steadying herself on Roman's shoulder when he set them down. "When do you start? Do you want to ride with us?"
"That'd be great! I just need to go home to pack up and take care of a few things so I'm not just up and leaving my roommates without warning. I'll meet you at your hotel tomorrow morning?"
Dean nodded. "Sure thing. I'll have Roman text you the info."
"What beef do you have with phones?" she sighed, shaking her head as she exchanged numbers with Roman.
"Why bother when I've got you two?"
"But we're not... never mind. I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said, waving and leaving the arena to walk back to her apartment for the last time.