Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or real people portrayed in this story. The characters belong to the WWE and the real people own themselves. The story contains mild swearing, but it's overall pretty clean, so read ahead!
A/N: So anyways, I was talking with Jodi (StephanieIrvine, go read her stories NOW!) about Dolph and AJ and she gave me a prompt, and this is what came out. It takes place pretty much the night of the Raw anniversary show in January. That's all you need to know to get this.
Hope you enjoy, and reviews would be lovely, be brutal if you want to be! :)
The night wasn't supposed to end like that.
He was not supposed to watch in horror as she fell over ten feet onto the floor. He wasn't supposed to forget he had a match, forget everything and run towards the cage that separated the two of them. The links dug into his skin as he shook the cage, as if it would break under his strain and let him get to her. The arena quieted down and he was still standing there as the referee ran to her side, throwing up the X frantically as medics rushed down. He kept shaking the cage, hoping it would break, hoping that what he was seeing was actually a portal into a nightmare, and that he wasn't seeing her lying there, lifeless, her hair splayed around her like she was Snow White. Her face was too pale, inciting the comparison, and the crimson wasn't from her lips, but the blood seeping out of her nose.
He finally gained his bearings as he felt someone tug on his arm. He looked over his shoulder at Big E, whose concern was palpable. He tugged again and Dolph finally saw the door to the cage, wide open and standing there like a salvation. He rushed towards it, practically throwing himself to the ropes and he ran around the ring to where she was. He stumbled a little, tired from the match, and ended up crawling to her side.
"Dolph, you have to move away!" one of the trainers tried to push him away.
"No!" he yelled to whoever it was, "AJ...AJ!"
"Dolph, really, you have to move!" the trainer pushed away again, and he was about to get into a fistfight when he was pulled away again. It was Big E again and he struggled against him, struggled to get to her, but Big E could toss Kane over his shoulder like he weighed nothing, so Dolph was no match for him.
"You have to let me go, man," Dolph said, biting his lip as he breathed deeply. His breath felt unnatural, wrong, and he just wanted to get back to her. "I have to get to her."
"Let them take care of her," Big E told him, and Dolph could hear his voice shaking. "They'll take care of her."
That was two days ago.
He sat there, the same place he'd sat for the past two days. He ran his hand over his face for the thousandth time, feeling the stubble on his face growing thicker by the day. He'd only left for a couple hours the night before to get showered and change his clothes from whatever he'd thrown on after they'd put her on the gurney. He couldn't even remember what happened after they'd loaded her up. All he could focus on was her. They'd rushed her to the ambulance, and he'd begged them to let him go with her. They wouldn't budge, saying they couldn't have him back there. They simply told him what hospital she'd been at then left.
He'd rushed back to the men's locker room, ignoring the quiet, the looks, the worried murmurings tumbling through the air like a sick game of telephone. He didn't even bother to shower, throwing on some sweats, a v-neck, and his hoodie. His things were packed for him, Zack probably did that, and he would thank him later, but right now, he had to get to AJ.
He was rushing out of the room when he bumped into Stephanie McMahon, who was somber, "Dolph..."
"I have to go," he told her, not wanting to waste one second away from her. She was about to say something, but he sidestepped her, only to find her husband bringing up the rear behind her.
"Dolph, look-" Paul started to talk, but Dolph lost it. He lost it in that moment, and nothing mattered, not who this man was, not what his standing was in the company, not what he could do to Dolph, both personally and professionally. Nothing mattered in that moment but the visage of AJ tumbling, her arms flailing in the air like she was trying to fly but never finding her wings.
"You," Dolph seethed. "You were the one who wanted that spot! You were the one who told her that it would look cool if she climbed the cage, that it would look great if she acted like her old, crazy self and tried to get to me! She weighs like 100 pounds! How could you even suggest that to her! How could you even try and make her want to do that!"
"Dolph," Stephanie put her hand on his arm.
"She didn't want to, you know, she didn't want to, but she didn't want to make it look like she wasn't willing to take chances because this is her goddamn dream!"
"I understand," Stephanie tried to be soothing, but the only thing that could soothe him was not here, her hair was not under his fingertips, and she was lying, lifeless and...God, he could not finish that thought, he wouldn't, not until he knew.
"I can't deal with this right now, I have to get to her!" Dolph said, pushing past Paul and bumping his shoulder. "I hope you're happy with how your show turned out."
He knew he could get fired, blacklisted. He'd have to go back and finish law school or become a comedian, but he didn't care. He didn't care what Paul might do to him, what fines he might incur. All he wanted was for AJ to open her eyes and keep them open. She'd been in and out of consciousness for the past two days, but the conscious parts were few and far between and only ever lasted a few seconds before the nurses would come in and pump her full of whatever it was they used to sedate her.
"She's not ready to come back," the doctor told him, trying to put it in nice terms. "With brain swelling, we want to be cautious, and we don't want her to get too worked up, not just yet, but give her another day or so. She's lucky it wasn't worse."
Lucky. That's what they called it, lucky. He hated that word now because this wasn't lucky. Swelling on her brain wasn't lucky, being constantly watched to make sure she didn't die wasn't lucky. Not knowing what affect this could have on her wasn't lucky. There was a chance, he was told, a chance that she wouldn't be okay. There was also a chance she would, and he chose to try and be lucky and have that be the answer to the question the doctors were going to ask when she finally was able to be awake.
He was the only one there with her. Her mother was trying to get here as fast as she could, but with the weather like it was on the East Coast, she was having trouble getting a flight out. She'd given the hospital permission for Dolph to stay with AJ, which is why he was allowed to be with her, sit by her bedside for the past 48 hours like his own life depended on it.
And in a way it did.
He'd never even told her how he felt about her. So that luck? Yeah, it promptly ran out where he was concerned.
It wasn't like he was planning some big grand gesture for that night two days ago. He might have asked her to dinner (a regular thing now, just to discuss how they wanted to play out their storyline) or he might have offered her a ride home if Kaitlyn wasn't available (they usually traveled together if Kaitlyn was around). That was it, just the chance to be around her. Just the chance to make her laugh so hard she would scrunch up her nose and let her hair fly into her face.
He didn't even know what to tell her, didn't even really know his feelings quite yet, but he knew they were there. They were unexpected, and so he was trying to sift through them, trying to figure out a way to bring them up without scaring her off, without coming across like the weirdo who fell in love with his coworker just because he had to kiss her every week.
But it was in her petite frame, the way she fit so perfectly into his side. It was the way she wanted to make their making out as disgusting as he did. It was the way she would stand backstage and make funny faces to make him laugh right before he was supposed to do something serious. It was the way she would find some comedy special he hadn't heard about and excitedly tell him that he needed to watch it. It was in the way she would grab his hand and tell him big things were on his way when told he would be losing his fourth match in a row.
How do you put that into words that don't come off like you're desperate or weird or begging for her affections? He hadn't figured it out yet, and now he might not ever get the chance. If something was wrong with her, what then? How would they move forward, how would his feelings change or go away? He hated the thought that he could be so vapid as to fall out of whatever it was if she ended up being not okay. He refused to use the words the doctors used, refused to think of it in such specific terms, but not okay was vague enough to where his heart didn't feel tugged and hung up by a string.
He wanted to think he could be the bigger man, feel something for her regardless, and perhaps he was, but it was the uncertainty, all the uncertainty that made his thoughts run so much that his brain would only allow him a few hours sleep. The nurses checked on him too, though they didn't say as much. They would come in, bring him the food that was probably meant for an awake AJ, a coffee to help him stay up even though he didn't drink coffee much. At night, they'd make sure he had a new blanket and pillow so he could sit there in the reclining chair they brought in from the maternity ward. Maybe this was the way to show his feelings without being a weirdo or a creeper.
It was just too bad AJ wasn't awake to see it.
"Hey man," Dolph looked up from where he was sitting to see his friend, Zack Ryder, striding up to him. "How's the girl?"
"As good as someone who is under constant sedation can be," Dolph said, his voice dull and weary. Zack took in his friend as Dolph tried to look away from his piercing look. Zack could read him maybe better than anyone save for AJ. AJ had him pegged from the very beginning, calling him an open book while he tried to laugh her off, but she'd just widened her eyes, made a face and went back to her business. "What are you still doing in Texas?"
"Thought you might want some company, bring you a razor or something? Is that allowed in a hospital?"
"I don't know," Dolph shrugged, running his hands over his face again, "Is it really bad?"
"Define really bad?"
"Hulk Hogan in the nWo bad?" Dolph asked. Zack snickered, probably glad Dolph could still make jokes while the girl in the bed next to them remained oblivious.
"Not that bad," Zack said, "so what have they said?"
"Tomorrow, they're going to let her wake up tomorrow. The swelling is down and there's no bleeding on the brain," Dolph thought back to lucky, this was lucky, no bleeding on her fucking brain. That was lucky.
"That's good then, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, should be," Dolph nodded, "then they'll check her, see if...see if things are...you know."
"Oh, so there's...a chance..."
"Yeah, there's a chance something could be really wrong or not wrong at all," Dolph stared at her face, her pale, beautiful face. He wanted to stand up and run his fingers through her hair.
He'd been doing that since they let him see her. He'd stand there, minutes on end, and he would thread his fingers through his hair, massaging her scalp in a way that he hoped she could feel. Maybe it was for her benefit, maybe it was for his, but either way, he calmed down. One of the nurses once walked in when he was doing it, and he'd pulled his hand away quickly, guiltily, only to be told sweetly that it seemed her heart rate evened out when he did that.
"I'll keep all the positive thoughts," Zack said, "so when she's okay because she will be, when are you going to tell her about...all this?"
"What all this?"
"Come on, bro," Zack shook his head. "You've stayed by her side for two days, two days!"
"Her mom isn't here yet, she can't be alone," Dolph reasoned. He hated being an open book to anyone, let alone over this.
"Yeah, right, come on, don't act like we don't all know...even if we didn't suspect, your face when she went over, the way you were...the way you were trying to get to her, we all know."
"I'll tell her, I guess," Dolph shook it off.
"You better, I mean, come on, doesn't this kind of put things into perspective," Zack shrugged. "She's been through hell and back, but she's here, and you're here, and dude, come on."
"Whatevs," Dolph said, "it's not about me though, it's about her. I just want her better, that's all."
Zack grabbed his friend's shoulder and gave it a supportive squeeze. "Do you want me to stay here with her for a while so you can go shower or change or anything?"
"I really shouldn't..." Dolph was unsure about leaving her. It was the fear. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw her falling, and sometimes the image would turn into a full-blown nightmare, where she was reaching for him, her eyes piercing his, begging, pleading for him to catch her, except the damn cage was always in the way, always in his fucking way, and he'd run at it, but it wouldn't budge, and when he climbed, it seemed to get higher and higher and she would get smaller and smaller. He'd wake up startled, and the only thing that would put him back to sleep was the soft beeping of her heart monitor, reassuring him that even if he didn't catch her, she was still there to keep him from falling.
"Just a thought, bro," Zack told him.
He ultimately decided not to leave. He just couldn't make his feet walk through the doorway and away from her. Zack eventually had to go, but not before he brought Dolph some junk food to break up the monotony of hospital food. Then it was his normal routine, watch TV, tell AJ about what was on the TV, check up on wrestling stuff, snark about it to AJ, watch as they checked her vitals, see her eyes flutter for a moment before they sedated her again, brush his teeth with the toothbrush and toothpaste he'd bought in the gift shop, get his new pillow and blanket, and fall into his nightmares, wake up, see she was still there, and fall asleep again.
But the next morning dawned hopeful. She would be waking up today. The last sedation would wear off in a couple hours, and she'd be invited back into the world. She'd be in pain, they told him, but he didn't care, all he wanted was her, to know she was still among the living and breathing, and he'd decided in that fit of anticipation, that whatever the outcome, it didn't change his feelings for her. They couldn't because even if something was wrong, she was still her, she would always be her, and the her that she was, was the one he wanted to be with, the one he wanted to fall in love with because this was love.
This couldn't be anything but love.
Love had come to him a couple times before, but it was never like this. It was never such an overwhelming feeling of fear, acceptance, warmth, surprise, and utter joy. She made him feel like joy, not joyful, nope, she made him feel the actual word, "joy." That's why this had to be love. The mere thought of her opening her eyes today was enough to make him want to do flips around the hospital.
"She should be waking up soon," the doctor checked her chart. "When she does, push the button, and we'll be here immediately."
He nodded and went back to watching her, waiting for the fluttering of eyelids and hopefully that stupidly beautiful smile of hers. He grabbed one of her hands, then took his other and laced it into her hair.
He would always believe it was that gesture that got her to open her eyes for the first time in two and a half days.
You couldn't make him believe otherwise.
"Hey," he told her, his face lighting up like it always did after he won, and he felt like he'd won something in that moment, maybe felt like he'd won everything in that moment.
"Hey," she breathed, wincing as her hand went to her head.
"Yeah, that's going to hurt for a while," Dolph told her.
"Where?" she wondered, squinting up at him.
"Hospital, after you fell from the cage," he explained to her. "You've been out for a couple days, they were keeping you under sedation because you had swelling on your brain and they wanted it to go down before you woke up."
She turned her head towards him, looking up at him groggily, "Was anyone else hurt, doctor?"
"AJ, it's me," Dolph said, "you know who I am, right?"
"Yeah, you're my doctor," she told him.
Memory loss. That was one of those specifics he wouldn't let himself think about in the not okay category. He wouldn't even let himself imagine it, he wouldn't even let himself think about the idea that she might not know who he was. He'd believed, maybe stupidly, that she could maybe feel something for him, but what if that was all wiped out? That would only leave him and his love and nothing from her. Nothing.
She giggled softly until she winced and grabbed at her head. He touched her head, but pulled back, not wanting to startle her if she didn't know who she was, but...wait...wait a second. "AJ, did you just quote The Vow at me?" Dolph asked her.
"I couldn't think of any appropriate Human Centipede jokes," she told him, "I don't think anything ass-to-mouth is appropriate for the situation."
"I should leave you right now."
He was so relieved that they couldn't drag him out of there. She was looking at him like she wanted to make fun of him, but she was still too groggy to really do so. He laughed because only this girl could come out of what was technically a coma and come at him with a Human Centipede joke. She was going to be okay, she was still his AJ. She was still the girl he loved, right down to the quoting cheesy girl flicks that she pretended to snark about, but really loved.
"You should," she told him, "because you need a shave, what is going on with your face?"
"It's stubble, it's sexy," he joked, running his hand over his face. She tugged lightly on his hand as he bent down to her level. She reached up and touched his face, and her touch had never felt so right.
"No, yuck, this is gross, go shave," she said, "I really want to sleep now, is that okay?"
"Let me get the doctor first, alright," he pushed the button at her bedside.
"Then you'll shave?"
"Anything for you."
"I knew you loved me," she told him, smiling sleepily up at him. "You do love me, right? I mean, if you tell me now, I might really get amnesia so you don't have to be embarrassed, I could forget it all."
"Are you coherent enough for my love?"
"No, but then it wouldn't be love if we were coherent, would it?"
"I guess not, but, yes, I love you, there, you've heard it, happy?"
"I always thought we'd be sitting on top of a dining room table with a birthday cake between us when this happened."
He kissed her forehead, "Next time, when you recover from the amnesia you're going to get when you forget that I love you."
"Oh, okay, do I have beard burn on my forehead?" she asked him.
"I'm marking my territory."
"Don't pee on me," she told him, and he chuckled. "And don't human centipede me either, that's not marking territory, that's just gross."
"Got it," he told her, "no bodily fluids."
"Dolph?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I have short-term memory loss, can you tell me you love me again?" she asked, her eyes already drooping closed as she winced again from moving her head slightly.
"How can you remember I told you I loved you if you have short-term memory loss?"
"Oops, I mean, who are you, strange man with bleached blonde hair and a weird dark beard starting?" she told him, her eyes opening again slightly.
"A man who loves you," he told her.
"Yup, you know that's right, I got me a man," she said, "I love you too, for the record, just so you know, just in case I do forget, you can remind me, do you want to take video of it? Oh wait, tout, we can tout it, they'll be so proud of us."
"I may have gotten myself fired, not sure yet," he told her, and he still didn't care, his AJ was right here, and she loved him, and she was going to be okay, and he was going to take care of her, and they would watch stupid movies, and she would make jokes that made him laugh uproariously, and she'd wake him up with kisses, and she'd do empty stomach cardio with him, and they would prank each other, but then yell, "Jk, jk" when things got too far.
"Fired?"
"Kind of went off on Paul for making you climb that cage," Dolph told her.
"He can be the middle of the human centipede then," AJ told him, right on the verge of sleep.
"You're disgusting."
"You love me, no take-backs!" she told him. He was about to answer her, when he noticed she was back to sleep. The doctors came in there, waking her up to check on her, but he slipped out. He could finally become a part of the world again, a functioning human being, but first things first...
He had to shave.