A/N - Just a little one-shot on my version of how the Shield got its name. Takes place around May of 2012, following the Triple Threat match between Seth, Dean and Roman (Leakee) in FCW. The premise here is that after that match the three decided to join forces, determined to be the best faction in WWE. All that they were missing was the perfect name.

Enjoy!

Seth had just gotten back from the gym to find Roman and Dean sitting at one of the tables in catering, playing a game of paper football. He took the seat next to them.

"Hey boys," he smiled, "who's winning?"

Dean, who had been so intently focused on the field goal he was about to kick, glanced up upon hearing the voice.

"Hey," he replied, eyes back on the task at hand.

Dean steadied the ball and flicked it toward the goal posts. He watched as it soared through the air, clipping Roman's hand on the way down.

Roman picked up the football and grinned. "Wide right," he said, "that's game. Roman 29, Dean 27. Try again next time."

Dean pouted as Roman pocketed the football. "No fair," he proclaimed. "Your stupid hands are too big. That totally would have went in otherwise."

Roman shrugged. "Care to go again?"

Dean considered but then he remembered Seth had joined them. "Nah," he said. "Some other time. The three of us have some business to discuss now that we're going to be working together and such."

"Business?" Seth asked curiously. "And what business would that be?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know as well," Roman echoed.

"Well," Dean dragged out. "I'm calling our first official team meeting and first item on the agenda is finding a name."

"A name?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, for our new super-secret group that is going to take over the WWE," Dean explained.

Seth nodded as he looked around the crowded room. "Might want to keep your voice down about that or otherwise it won't be so super-secret."

"Okay whatever," Dean shrugged. "We need a name. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something but,"

Suddenly, Dean paused, something that didn't go unnoticed by his two soon-to-be teammates.

"You alright over there tiger?" Roman asked as he looked around the room. He noticed Seth was doing the same, both completely confused by Dean stopping mid-sentence.

"Shit," Dean muttered under his breath. "Under the table."

"What?" Seth asked confused.

"Get under the table. Now!" Dean instructed. Roman and Dean looked at each other before following Dean's orders.

"What the hell are we doing Dean?" Seth asked.

"See that over there?" Dean said, causing Roman and Seth to look in the direction he was pointing.

"I don't see anything," Roman began before noticing the tattooed man standing in the corner of the room. "Wait you mean Corey?"

"Yes, I mean Corey," Dean said as if it should have been obvious. "He and I have been in the middle of something for months. Look in his pocket. He's totally packing heat."

Seth looked closely at Corey and noticed what Dean was referring to. He couldn't help but laugh.

"Dean, that's a water gun," he said.

Dean looked away from Corey and at Seth for a moment. "No shit Sherlock," he replied. "Of course it's a water gun. Haven't you ever played assassin?"

"No," Roman answered, "what's assassin?"

"Assassin is when," Dean paused as he looked back up, noticing Corey was gone. "Shit, where'd he go?"

As Dean looked around the room, he heard footsteps. He tried to roll out from under the table to be in a position to brandish his own gun but it was too late.

"Tango, tango," Dean shouted as he hid behind Seth.

"You're kidding right?" Seth said as he looked back at Dean. Seth sighed. He was starting to get the feeling that being in a team with Dean was going to involve more crazy antics like this.

"I don't want to shoot you Rollins but I will if I have to," Corey said as he kept Dean in his sights.

"Look man," Seth said. "I don't know what kind of game you are playing but water gun or not, I'm not letting you shoot him."

Corey looked confused. "You're really going to protect Ambrose? I thought you two hated each other. I mean, since when are you even on speaking terms?"

Seth wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question, but he did have a plan so that he didn't have to.

"Since, now Dean now!" Seth screamed as he quickly dropped down allowing Dean a clear shot at Corey. He didn't miss it.

Frustrated, Corey handed his gun to Dean as per the rules. He then looked at Seth, who couldn't wipe the smirk off of his face.

"Don't think this is over Rollins," he said before walking away.

Seth didn't pay him much mind. Instead he just sat back down at the table, joining Roman. Dean took the seat next to him as he twirled his gun in the air.

"If I ever had any doubt that you and I could be teammates before, that's so gone now," he said placing his hand on Seth's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it," Seth replied nonchalantly. "Corey's an ass. It was fun getting to mess with him."

"Totally," Dean nodded. "But seriously, this is so going to work. You, me, Roman. We're gonna be kicking ass and chewing bubble gum and you know me, I'm always out of bubble gum."

Seth laughed as he shook his head. He decided to change the subject.

"So, why were you saying tango back there?" he asked.

"Haven't you ever seen a military movie?" Dean asked incredulously. "They say that stuff all the time. Tango, foxtrot, bravo. It's like a mayday call."

Seth arched his brow as he looked at Dean. "You know they represent letters right?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Dean replied. "How are words actually letters?"

And that's how they got on the topic of the NATO Alphabet, something Seth knew quite a bit about. Roman and Dean on the other hand hadn't even heard of it, but Seth was more than willing to offer the crash course.

"It's like a code thing," he explained. "It's universal so that there is no risk of misunderstanding key communication in dangerous situations. There is a word for each letter. Tango that's T. So if I was spelling cat on the battlefield it would be charlie alfa tango."

"That's stupid. Why not just spell C-A-T?" Dean asked as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Because different countries have different alphabets," Seth explained. "They might not know C-A-T spells cat but everyone, when dealing with foreign communications, knows that charlie alfa tango is cat. Does that make sense?"

"I guess," Dean said, "but I still think it's stupid and that we should do it."

"Wait, what?" Roman responded.

"Yeah, you just said it was stupid," Seth added.

Dean rolled his eyes dramatically. "I know what I said. It is stupid. We're spelling a three letter word with like, a bazillion letters,"

"I mean, that's a bit of an exaggeration," Seth said, earning a sharp glare from Dean.

"Whatever," Dean replied. "It's stupid but it's different and I think we should do it."

"I don't follow," Roman said, still trying to figure out what exactly Dean was suggesting.

"DRS," Dean continued, looking at Seth. "What are those letters in your special alphabet?"

"Delta, romeo, sierra," Seth answered, "but I don't see your point."

Dean sighed. He didn't think this would have required so much of an explanation. He thought it was obvious. He should have known that Seth and Roman's brains worked just a little differently than his own.

"Follow the train of thought," Dean explained. "And don't get all touchy because it's alphabetical, nothing else. D, R, S. Dean, Roman, Seth."

"Oh," Seth said, finally catching on. "So you want our name to be delta, romeo, sierra? That's not exactly catchy. It's just kind of confusing."

"That's the point," Dean replied. "Don't we want a little bit of mystery, a little bit of intrigue surrounding our big entrance?"

"Yeah, but we want it to be something slick, something that when it's sad, people immediately think of how dominating we are," Roman suggested.

"You're right," Dean admitted. "We need something cool, something different, something intimidating. I want people to hear our name, our music, and be afraid that they are about to get their ass smoked. So anything with romeo in it is so out."

"How about the A-Team?" Seth suggested jokingly. "I always considered myself to be the brains to Roman's brawn and your well, wildcard."

Roman chuckled but Dean just glared at Seth, who couldn't help but smirk in return.

"Even if that wasn't already super copyrighted, no," Dean said. "Besides I'm really stuck on this alphabet thing. It would be like an anagram but cooler and people wouldn't get it right away but it would be catchy. Like maybe we come up with a word, something with DRS in it. Like roadhouse or roundhouse or something bad ass like that."

Seth and Roman thought about what Dean said and realized he was right. They needed something that made their opponents fear them. They needed a name that was strong and dangerous sounding. And it would be really awesome if that name was able to include their initials as well.

All in agreement, the trio fell into a comfortable silence as they tried to come up with the right name for their newly formed partnership.

Partners. In a way, that still felt weird. It hadn't been that long ago after all, that they were fighting one on one on one with the FCW title number one contendership on the line. It had been a good match, with moments of greatness even. That match had brought out just this incredible competitiveness in all three men. They all wanted that title.

It also made them realize that they were at a level in the ring with one another which was above anything else in the FCW promotion at the time. So when Seth approached Dean and Roman about teaming up on occasion, the idea quickly grew into something much bigger. It only made sense therefore, that the three top stars would ban together and form this just, unstoppable unit.

But Dean was right. Before they could do that, they needed a killer name.

DX, the Corporation, Legacy, the Nation of Domination, Evolution, the Ministry. They were all dominating groups and they all had great, memorable names. Dean, Seth and Roman wanted their partnership to be the same. They wanted to go down as the greatest faction in WWE history.

The superstars continued to sit in silence before Dean finally looked up. "LSD," he said with a chuckle.

"LSD?" Roman questioned.

"Yeah," Dean replied. "Back when Roman was still Leakee, we totally could have just gone by LSD."

"Let me get this straight," Seth said. "You want our greatest faction of all time name to remind people of a hallucinogenic drug popularized in the 60s?"

"No, I just thought it was funny," Dean replied. "Besides, I don't hear you two coming up with any bright ideas."

With that, the trio once again resumed their silence. The perfect name was out there and they were determined to find it.

But after another 15 minutes of getting nowhere, they decided to call it quits for the night.

"Maybe we should pick this up in the morning," Seth suggested, putting a stop to the brainstorming session.

Roman and Dean both nodded in agreement.

"You guys want to see a movie?" Roman asked.

"Sure," Dean shrugged. "Not like we're getting anywhere with this whole name thing anyway. What did you have in mind?"

"Something action-oriented," Roman said.

"How about Avengers?" Seth suggested. "That just came out like a month ago."

"The battle of good versus evil," Dean replied. "Yeah, I can go for that. Besides, I was always a fan of Loki."

Seth and Roman both looked at Dean a little puzzled.

"Uh Dean, you do know Loki's the villain right?" Seth laughed. "The Avengers, Nick Fury, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., those are the guys you are supposed to be rooting for, you know, the ones that in our business we'd call the faces. You don't root for the heel."

Almost instantly, Dean froze. "What did you just say?"

"That you don't root for the heel?" Seth repeated.

"No before that," Dean said. "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Yeah, what about them?" Roman asked.

"Shield," he repeated, this time both Roman and Seth catching on.

"It's cool and all but there's no R in Shield Dean," Seth reminded him.

"Crap," Dean thought before having a lightbulb moment. He smiled as he looked at Roman. "Yeah, but there is an L, right Leakee?" he said, playfully nudging Roman's arm. The Samoan just rolled his eyes.

"You know I hated that stupid name," Roman responded.

"But," Dean interjected hopefully.

"But," Roman replied, "Shield is a pretty bad ass name."

Dean smiled happily before spinning around to face Seth. They had already decided that majority vote wasn't enough. If they wanted to get started on the right foot, they all had to agree on the name.

"Shield," Seth repeated strongly, letting the word hang in the air for a few seconds. "It has a nice ring to it."

Dean grinned from ear to ear as he extended his fist for both Roman and Seth to bump. "We've got a name."

"Guess we do," Roman said as he put his fist next to Dean's.

"Seth," Dean added as the final member put his fist in the circle. "Do your alphabet thing."

Seth nodded.

"Sierra, hotel, india, echo, lima, delta. Shield."

The three friends looked among themselves unable to stop smiling.

"Yeah," Dean said, "it's perfect."