"I'm too old for this now Jason, it's just plain embarrassing...haven't you seen those comments online? What if they're right?..."

Dean's hand stilled on the door handle. He'd caught an earlier flight back once the SmackDown taping had wrapped hoping to surprise Chris after his first night of Tough Enough. It sounded as though his man was in the middle of a phone call, so not wanting to interrupt, he started to move away to go leave his bag in their bedroom. He was stopped dead in his tracks however by what he overheard next.

"...no of course I haven't told him! That's not the kind of thing you can just say over the phone. He'll be home in a little while, I'll tell him then."

Dean tried to quieten the sense of panic he felt starting to build, not just at Chris's words, but at the slightly frantic tone of voice he said them in. Was he going to break up with him? Was Dean too young? He thought that the age gap wasn't an issue anymore, that they'd worked through it, but maybe not. It wasn't like Chris to let idiots on the internet get to him.

"Shit buddy, is that the time? I gotta go or I'll be late meeting Dean at the airport….yeah...yeah...of course I'll stick to the speed limits, what kind of idiot do you think I am?...ok good point, can't argue with that….uh-huh...I'll call you once we're done."

Dean had been too caught up in Chris's words to register that his voice had been getting closer until suddenly the living room door opened. Running on instinct, he threw his arms round the older man and wrapped him in tight embrace and his words flew out in a tumble.

"I'm not letting you leave me Chris, we have something good here and if those dickheads hiding on the internet can't see that, fuck them! Who gives a shit if you're older than me? I love you. No one gets to have an opinion on us except me and you."

Chris squirmed free of Dean's arms and watched with a confused look as the younger man trudged past him and flung himself down on the couch, burying his head in his hands.

"What are you talking about?"

He crossed the room to sit beside Dean, placing a soothing hand on his lover's back.

"Dean, baby, look at me. No one's leaving anyone, at least I hope not, but we do need to talk."

He took a slow deep breath as Dean lifted his head and turned towards him.

"Did you check Twitter last night? Wait, of course you didn't...did anyone say anything to you about Tough Enough mentions on Twitter last night after the show finished?"

"Ro said Renee tweeted something like 'all the fun happens when the cameras stop rolling' or something along those lines. We figured it was maybe that eliminated dude making a scene."

"Aaaah, no...that would have been me."

"You? What happened?"

"I kinda passed out when we went off air...before you start, the docs were there for the contestants, so they looked after me and it was just a little turn, I'm fine. We're fine. Honestly."

"So what was all that about with Jase…..waddaya mean WE?"

Chris gave Dean a tentative smile.

"We. Me...and the baby."

"BABY?"

He nodded as at the same time Dean dropped to the floor in front of him and placed both hands reverentially on his stomach, whispering almost as if to himself.

"Baby."

"You're not upset?"

"Surprised, but not upset...how could I be upset. This is incredible, you're incredible. I didn't even think…"

His voice tailed off as he failed to find the words to match the look of adoration on his face.

"Neither did I. That's why I called Jay, he's been through all this before with Adam. The twins are nearly fourteen though…..fuuuuuuck, I'm so old! I'll be a laughing stock. Old man Jericho getting caught out like a drunk teenager. I can see the comments now...no wonder he was getting so fat!"

"Hey! Anyone disrespecting you and our lil nugget is going to have me to answer to!"

"Dean, you can't fight the whole world for the next six months."

"Six months?"

"That's what the doc thinks, we'll need to go find out for sure tomorrow."

"So what are we gonna do with the rest of the today? Once you call Jay back and let him know we're fine…"

"Lazy day at home? You, me and the nugget?"

Dean gave Chris's belly a tender kiss.

"Sounds absolutely perfect, doesn't it nugget?"