Back at his office in the sleepy nearby town, David was still utterly overwhelmed by paperwork for Madness. He had yet to completely fill out the rental agreement for the venue, and the bureaucracy present in the XWF and Administrator's Network was making his life a living hell. He wondered how Paul Heyman dealt with it every week. But then again, Heyman was just a businessman. Yet David was just a journalist turned fighter. He had no idea how all this worked. It was all writing he didn't understand and terms he was not familiar with. Despite his status as an intellectual, he found himself overwhelmed by the mental processes this business took. He was grateful that he was simply the interim GM. There'd be someone new taking over soon. Luckily, David did have some pull in the matter. One of the candidates was a former associate of his...

Turning his attention away from the papers piled on his desk, David glanced out the single window in the loft apartment. Outside, the autumn chill made itself known as the late morning shifted into early afternoon. The leaves were falling from the trees now in an orgy of colour. He had always been fond of fall -- the strange balance of life; how it all died and came back eventually.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

Alexandra had arrived at the address she had received, having left her children with her aunt and uncle for the night, knowing she had to be at the arena in the morning for Shove it. She followed the directions left on the paper for her to the exact letter. She got out of the car and headed to the door, her heart was light and she was happy. Time away from the compound, alone with David.

She walked up and knocked on the door, waiting for him to answer. She wanted to see him more than anyone. Fall had come, the leaves had changed, one tree above the door dropped a few leaves, one of them landed on Alexandra's head and she giggled as the door swung open revealing her with a leaf on her head.

"I see you're enjoying this fine weather," David snickered, brushing the leaf off of Alexandra's head. It was a blight on her wonderfully red hair, at least in his opinion.

Standing aside and beckoning her in, he shut the door behind her and locked it. He had no desire to be disturbed by the public goers who may have confused his new office with that of the law office it had been before the former renter had been evicted. As far as he knew, David was unaware of the circumstances regarding the lawyer's discharge from the building, but the landlady had hinted that it was under some very unpleasant terms.

David leaned back against the door, admiring his significant other as she examined his office, from the desk to the bookcase shoved against one corner, and a rather out of place ivory chest placed directly under the lone window. The bleak light from the afternoon sun shone in through the panes, sending the shadow of the trees' shivering limbs dancing across the walls.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

"I love the fall, it's so beautiful." Alexandra spoke, before she turned around to see David's gaze on her. Setting two cups on his desk.

She blushed brightly, before walking over and wrapping her arms around his neck. She enjoyed the closeness they had in that moment, resting their foreheads together, looking into each other's eyes. David had become the one person she was closest to other than her children. He was hers, the one constant in her life. She knew she would never have another lonely day.

"How are you? Oh I brought you some tea."

She smiled up at him, pointing to the cups on the table.

"Ah, yes," David replied, examining the cups placed upon his desk. "Thank you, dear."

With her arms about him, he felt secure for once. All the stress in the world didn't mean much to him now. The paperwork could wait. He had more important things to focus on now. Her. He secretly wondered if she judged him based upon his office's decor, but he knew better. He hadn't had much time to actually decorate. There wasn't even a calendar up on the wall yet. He had yet to paint the walls with posters and pictures and letters: all the things that defined his personality. But none of those letters or pictures or posters would paint a kind picture. He only had letters informing him of loved ones passing, posters of long-retired musicians, and pictures of absent friends.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

"Speaking of this lovely office. You need something to help keep you grounded, even when I cannot be here."

She smiled softly and produced a framed picture from her purse. It was a picture of the two of them in Paris. She handed to him and smiled softly.

"There was also this. Ashlynn wrote it for you, and I had it framed."

She handed it to him, and smiled remembering what it said. It read as such:

"Hero

A Hero Fights For You
A Hero Stands By Your Side
A Hero Is Willing To Go An Inch Longer

A Hero Knows What It's Like To Lose Someone
A Hero Knows What To Do Right
A Hero Never Leaves Someone Behind

A Hero Has Someone To Make Them Who They Are
A Hero Will Never Risk Someone To Save Himself
A Hero Always Takes The Risk Just For The Last One

A Hero Stood For What's Right
A Hero Stood Up for my Mom
That Hero Is You."

She watched his face, trying to gauge his reaction to Ashlynns gift.

David was taken aback. Not only by the photo, but also by the gift from Alexandra's daughter. He had barely met the child, and yet, she had written him this impactful, deep poem. She was certainly a budding intellectual, and David found himself seeing a bit of himself in her. If only to simply protect her from the difficulties he had faced. To undo the sins of his own father. To save the girl from the pain of the world. He would do it. Anything for her.

"Goodness," he said, running his hands along the framed poem. "That's quite a feat for someone so young. She's turning into quite the young wordsmith."

He gave off a light laugh, and turned his attention to the photograph Alexandra had provided. Even now, she looked just as gorgeous as she had that night in Paris. It was odd how purely the same she looked on this day. The light had never gone from her eyes. The colour in her cheeks remained the same rose red, matching her hair. It was the fire that lit up his life.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

Alexandra watched Davids reaction with a bright smile on her face. He was shocked, but she could also tell he was happy.

"You made an impression on her. She's bright, she picks up on things, she see's things in way no one else can see them."

Alexandra smiled at him, she was happy that they touched him the way they did. It made her happy to see him so happy. Upon seeing David's eyes on her again, she blushed brightly.

"Just a few things to brighten up you office."

Her eyes went to the chest.

"I thank you for the added colour to the room," David responded fondly.

Noticing her eyes wandering to the chest, he quickly tried to get her attention, running his hand along her hip, hoping it would provide adequate distraction. There were things that were really not meant to be opened.

"Dearest, might you join me in a cup of tea?" he asked, motioning to the cups she had provided. The small apartment had a few wall sockets, and David had procured a small heating plate for his frequent Earl Gray cravings. Plugging it in now, he filled the cups with water from the nearby faucet, tucked away in a dark corner of the office.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

Alexandra shook her head and turned back to face David.

"Of course I would."

She shivered a bit out of longing when his hand ran along her hip. She almost wanted to whimper when he moved away to deal with the making of tea. But she watched him, feeling something powerful radiating from the chest across the room, she closed her eyes for a moment and then focused on him as she opened them.

"You are welcome my love. Every office needs a personal touch from home."

She smiled at him.

"Mmm," he confirmed monosyllabically, tossing two satchets of tea into the cups. "Hopefully this office is more temporary than I'd expect. I have a few business ventures coming my way. With the consultation to run Madness, I've been re-invited into the international writing scene. A good friend of mine might actually be in the running for new Gm of Madness after I hand over the reigns. Nice guy. Bit off, though."

He handed her one of the cups, savoring the moment where their hands touched in the exchange. She smelled of fresh fruits, which he could only attribute to some sort of perfume, but she always smelled so pleasant, as though behind her eyes lurked all of his hopes and dreams. As he sipped his tea, his eyes glanced over to the chest. The front latch had been recently replaced with a shiny new lock, though he hoped no one else would notice. It would take an analytic eye much like his own to even notice the subtle change.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

A part of her wondered what was in the box, but she knew better than to pry. The last woman that opened a box, released all of the evils upon mankind. She knew better than to do something like that. She sipped her tea, looking at David over the rim of the cup.

"I'm positive that Madness will be amazing."

Alexandra smiled at the man who stole her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment and the flashes that her daughter had shown her flooded her head. She opened her eyes with a bright smile and placed her cup down.

"I do hope that you will allow me to accompany you, unless you'd rather I wait for you at home."

"If you'd like," David began, placing his tea down on the desk and trading glances between Alexandra and the chest. "I'm sure you could accompany me wherever I may roam on assignment. I know you're familiar with Paris, but would you like to see the world?"

He chuckled.

"I could show you where I grew up outside Liverpool. You could watch the salmon leap from the streams in Washington state. Drink the finest wines of Sicily. Freeze your arse off with me in Siberia. Lurk the opium dens of urban India..."

He listed off potential locales, looking for a spark of interest in her beautiful eyes, hoping to take her to all these places.

"And, I'm sure, Madness should go off without a hitch. But we do have enemies, of course. But they won't be much my problem afterward. They'll be Mor--"

He cut himself off, not wanting to say too much. Yes, he'd been in touch with the Network. They were still in deliberation, but, knowing his associate, he had no doubt of who would take his place the following week.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

Everywhere he mentioned drew her in word by word, place by place. She was practically inches away from falling out of the chair she had taken across the desk from him.

"I would love to see the world, especially if I can see it with you."

She smiled brightly placing her tea cup on the table before she stood and moved over to where he was, placing her arms around him.

"I want to be wherever you are. Wherever you will go I will follow, even to the ends of the earth."

She smiled softly.

"There is one place in Paris I want to visit. We didn't the last time we were there."

She looked into his eyes.

"Oh?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Do tell me it's not a place filled with...well, the French. It's sort of a natural hatred between the French and the English. Though I do speak their language, I don't speak their culture. I think we're still bitter over the Hundred Years' War."

He laughed slightly and sipped his tea again, awaiting to hear her desire.

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

She looked down at her love before speaking.

"It's really not that important I suppose. I'm sure there are other places to have a great showing of your affection for someone."

She looked around at his office again.

"I just want to travel back to Paris. There's this little bridge behind Notre Dame. The Pont de l’Archevêché spans the Seine just behind Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. It's commonly known as Lovers Bridge. It's where couples go together to lock a padlock on the fence, normally they are engraved, the couples names or special dates. Anyways, the couple locks the padlock on the fence and then throws the spare keys into the Seine and it seals their love."

She blushes, always the hopeless romantic.

"And where do the keys go?" asked David. But that was a dumb question. Who cared? Who bloody cared where the keys went? They disappeared; there was no need for them anymore. Once the lock was sealed, there was no need for the keys. They were just symbols. But this symbolic gesture was a sealing. Like wax on a letter, albeit permanent. This everlasting lock on their hearts, forever binding them.

David pondered the idea for a moment. Yes, he had been there before. He'd written a short piece for an independent magazine many years back about the lovers movement. But then, he had been a distant observer. He'd not been the participant. He had been a lonely boy with a broken heart. When he had been finally left alone on the bridge, he had walked up to one of the locks. It had been left blank. Using his company ballpoint pen, he had carved his name in the metal, and beside it, a date. 5/27. The date Emily Cantrell had died. And there, alone, he had cried empty tears into the Seine. And where did they go? It didn't matter. None of it mattered. It was all lost to time. Everything was eventually the victim of time.

David tented his fingers in thought. Then, lowering them, he planted a quick kiss on Alexandra's lips and looked into her eyes, blue as the Seine.

"Yes," he whispered. "Yes, we should go there."

Achievements

• 1x Tag Team Champion
  
• August 2013 Superstar of the Month (Thank you all so much!)
  
• 1x US Champion
  
• 1x X-treme Champion
  

"That is only if you wish to deal with the French one more time. If not there are other ways, other places."

She smiled at him.

"Paris is the first place we kissed. It was magical, as every kiss has been since. I just feel that this right here, us. We were meant to happen. Everything bad in our life, brought us here. It led us to each other. I thought, perhaps we could place a physical showing of how we feel for one another on Lovers Bridge."

She looked at him again, before leaning over to kiss him again, this time, se waited a few moments before she pulled way.