Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to any of the people named in this story or of the WWE. I do not make any money from this story nor will I ever.
Summary: John Cena's past comes screeching back into life one day and he has no idea what to do with all the women and drama in his life now! Will his life ever be the same again?
Walk the Line
Chapter One: Unexpected News
John was well into his workout when an intern happened by him while he was working on the weight bench. He was pressing more then his usual weight and was struggling a little with it. Not that that was a bad thing, if it was easy then John knew it wouldn't be helping him at all.
"Mr. Cena? You have an urgent phone call," the small intern said to him.
"Tell them," John grunted as he pushed the bar up, "to call back."
"But Mr. Cena, it's really important," the intern replied.
John gave him a look as he let Ken, his spotter, take the bar and set it onto its holder so John could sit up. "Who is it?" he asked resigned to the fact that this wasn't going to end until he took the phone call. He really hated it when his workouts were interrupted.
The intern gave a glance to Ken, better known as Mr. Kennedy who took the hint and walked off to finish his own workout. "It's from an investigations company Mr. Cena."
"Investigations?" John asked his attention fully on the intern now, "Why are they calling me?"
"I don't know, they wouldn't tell me anything," he said as John followed him out of the hotel's gym and to the elevators, "Sorry," the intern added.
John and the intern were in the elevator alone for the short ride from the basement to the second floor and John silently followed the younger man to his room. As John entered the room he saw it was a mess. Papers were everywhere, all over the two beds and small desk that all the rooms had. There was also a couple laptops strewn about, clothes too and another intern that looked like he needed some sleep, badly, was on the phone.
"Look, I told you I'm not giving any information about anyone from the roster without direct orders from my own boss…No way am I telling you anything," he said frustrated, his hand rubbing over his face.
"He's here," the intern with John said as he plopped himself down at the desk and immediately started typing on it and ignoring everything else in the room.
The new intern turned around and looked at John as he continued speaking on the phone, "He's here, you can talk to him yourself," and he handed the hotel phone to John and started gathering up some papers. John sat on the other side of the bed as he took the phone from the tired intern, "Hey you might not want to say anything and tell the company and get a lawyer first," the tired intern chipped in as John put the receiver to his ear.
"Hello?" John asked.
"Mr. John Felix Anthony Cena?" a cool male voice oozed over the phone.
"Yes?" John answered.
"That is your full name, correct?" the voice on the phone asked him.
"Yea," John answered again.
"Okay, I want you to know that this phone call is not an investigation on you per say," the voice told him.
"Per say?" John asked.
"Well yes, I am checking into your background, but not overly so, only enough to prove another person's claim on their background," the voice answered him.
"What?" John asked, this was going around his head and he couldn't seem to catch hold of it.
"Sorry, I should explain more accurately; what I mean is my company and I was hired by another company to do background checks on hopeful employees of that company. I need to check your authenticity to make sure of one of the applicants' authenticity," the man said.
"Oh, okay then," John said relaxing a little more now. He had had crazy ideas in his head that this was the police calling about some crime he had never heard of before or someone trying to stalk him or who knows what.
"Yes very good then, so you are in face John Felix Anthony Cena and you were born and raised in West Newbury, Massachusetts, moved to California and started a wrestling career and then moved to Louisville, Kentucky to wrestle in the Ohio Valley Wrestling company?" the man asked.
"Yea that's all right," John answered him. This wasn't so bad.
"And since then you have been employed by the World Wrestling Entertainment company and moved your permanent location to Tampa, Florida?" the man asked.
"Yea, yea that's all right," John said wiping the last drops of sweat from his forehead.
"You do know a Miss Rachael Nicole Roark, correct?" the man asked all business now as John heard him typing in the background of the phone noise.
"Rachael Roark?" John asked puzzled and frowning trying to go through all the women he knew, which at this point in his life was an unhealthy amount, but he came up blank.
"Yes, Rachael Roark of Haysi, Virginia, twenty two years of age and formerly of Louisville, Kentucky," the man asked slowly.
John's mind went into a screeching reverse as he thought of back when he lived in Kentucky and then her face bloomed in his memory. Oh yea, long stick straight brown hair, big brown eyes, big smile and goofy and funny as hell. "Oh yea, sorry it's been a really long time since I've seen her, but yea I knew her when I lived in Kentucky," John answered.
"You haven't been in contact with her since you left Kentucky?" the man asked.
"Well she left first actually, at the start of the fall she moved to Virginia. I moved about six months later," John answered him.
The man, what was his name? Oh yea Ashbury, John thought hummed as he typed and then asked, "What was your relationship with Miss Roark?"
"Well we were friends and then we had a little fling, but it wasn't serious and then she moved anyways," John explained; for some reason it sounded bad to hear it out loud. Just some little fling, but it wasn't serious.
Ashbury didn't comment on it though and continued on, "Have you or Miss Roark ever to your knowledge been in trouble for any illegal activity?"
"No!" John said offended.
"We have to ask sir," Ashbury soothed and continued on, "Have you had any contact with Miss Roark since she left Kentucky?"
"No none at all," John answered, still slightly miffed at the anything illegal question.
"How would you describe Miss Roark?" Ashbury asked.
"Umm," John said thinking, remembering this was a background check for a potential employee, meaning Rachael was trying to get a job and for whatever reason had put his name down, "She's really nice, honest, loyal and conservative," John said proud of himself for coming up with some good adjectives.
"Alright then, thank you for your time and we are sorry for bothering you," Ashbury said about to hang up when John stopped him;
"Why did you call me though? Did Rachael put me down as a reference?" John asked wanting to know after five years he had suddenly heard the name Rachael Roark again.
"Well no, Miss Roark didn't have you down as a reference at all, but we had to check all her medical records as well and your name came up there," Ashbury said cautiously.
"Medical records?" John asked confused, "I never took her to the hospital or anything."
"Well no, your name didn't come up in any hospital reports or bills, just a, umm, certificate," Ashbury said.
"Certificate of what?" John asked really wanting to know now.
Ashbury was silent for almost a full minute it seemed and after an impatient noise from John did he actually say something and still he said it quietly, "I am not supposed to tell you that," he said.
"Come on! I haven't heard her name in about five years and then you call asking about her and giving me little hints about hospital certificates and now you won't tell me the last little part?" John growled into the phone making both forgotten interns look at him.
Ashbury gave a frustrated sigh and was silent for a second and then said, "Mr. Cena I am not allowed to tell you anymore then I already have," and interrupted when John started to him, "but I will tell you that your name appeared on a hospital certificate of birth as the father. Now good day to you Mr. Cena," and with that Ashbury cut the connection between them and left John holding a phone with his mouth ajar and no idea of what to do with what he had just heard.
"A birth certificate?" John asked finally putting the phone down on his lap and looking at it unbelievingly.
The first intern, the one that had retrieved John from the gym was looking at him with narrowed eyes, it figured to him that John Cena had had a one night stand and the chick had a baby and now it would probably be all over the news because she was going to cause him a dead beat dad, but he had never known about the kid anyways and it was really just one big mess.
"I told you to get a lawyer," the second intern chipped in as he continued reading the papers he had collected earlier.
John nodded his head dumbly and handed the phone back to the second intern who didn't look stupefied like John felt. He stood up and left the room and walked to the elevator. He pushed the up arrow button and stared at the doors. A birth certificate that had his name written down as the father and he hadn't known about it? How was that even possible? John had always been careful with women and sex, or at least he had thought he had been.
John jumped a little with the ding of the elevators arrival and then hurried on it. He was glad it was early in the morning before most people were up and either checking in or out of the hotel. He went up to his room and fumbled with the key card until he finally made it in.
He heard the shower running and knew that his roommate was just getting up for the day and would probably go downstairs to the gym like all the other wrestlers. John hoped he wouldn't bother him, John didn't know if he could make any sense right now.
John sat on his bed and stared out at nothing. Could it really be true? He had a kid out there somewhere and he hadn't even known this kid existed until five minutes ago? Was that really actually possible? And if it was, why hadn't Rachael told him? Didn't she think it was important for him to know? Didn't she need some help with the kid? All the people he had known before at least paid for their kids even if they didn't see them.
But what if it wasn't true? John knew he was careful and what if Rachael had just put his name down to just put down a name? No, that didn't seem right to John at all. Rachael wasn't a slut. If she said he was the father, then there was a ninety nine percent chance that he was the father of that kid.
"Damn it!" John groaned and threw himself back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How the hell had this happened? One minute he had his life all nice and neat and now there was this weird X-factor that was his kid that was so unknown to him that he didn't know the kid existed, its gender, its name, nothing.
Scratch that, he knew one thing about the kid, its mother's name was Rachael Nicole Roark. John jumped up from the bed and started pacing the room. He wasn't sure of what to do. Should he delve deeper into this or just leave it alone? John shook his head as he continued pacing back and forth, he knew there was no way he could just leave this alone and act like it hadn't happened.
"What's up with you?" Randy Orton asked, fresh out of the shower.
John stopped pacing and looked back at his old friend, "You remember Rachael? Rachael Roark?" he asked him.
"Rachael Roark?" Randy asked and frowned as he watched his friend start to pace again, "No," he answered.
"She was that girl I dated that summer before I joined the company when I was still with OVW," John explained.
Randy frowned more watching John's agitated state, "Okay, I still don't really, but what about her has got you all worked up?" he asked.
"I got a call about her awhile ago and it was really just this background check to see if she was clean for this job, well anyways they said my name came up from a hospital report," John said pacing even more but not saying anything else.
"And?" Randy prompted.
"I finally got it out of him what kind of hospital form it was even though he couldn't say anything else about it," John explained a little more.
"Jesus John, quit pacing already and tell me what's wrong!" Randy said growing frustrated at John's weird behavior.
"It was a birth certificate Randy, with my name as the father!" John exploded and threw his hands up in the air and continued walking around the room.
Oh.
Oh! Shit, Randy thought and now realized why John was so upset; he would be too if he was in the same shoes. "What are you going to do about it?" Randy asked.
"I don't know," John said now sounding defeated and he finally quit moving and sat down on the edge of his bed, "What should I do?"
Randy glanced away and then back at John, "Fuck if I know, go find her and the kid I guess," he said shrugging and getting into his suitcase.
"How?" John asked. All I know is her name and that she used to live in Kentucky with her aunt and uncle for the summers and then she'd go back to some hick little town called Haysi, Virginia.
"Then I would suggest going to those places," Randy said as he changed into some workout clothes and looked at John again, "I know you won't stop until you get this figured out so you might as well book some tickets now," he said and picking up his key card Randy left John alone with his thoughts. Randy thought that maybe it was best for John to think this through alone. He would always be there for John as they were friends and John had stuck with him through a lot of things, but finding out you had a kid five years after the fact was never something anyone ever took too well.
John sighed as he looked at Randy's laptop screen. He let John use it whenever he wanted and right now John was trying to figure out when to buy some airplane tickets. It was Sunday and he had to wrestle tomorrow, but after that he didn't have another commitment until the following Monday. John looked over bookings and decided that a flight to Houston from where he was in Vegas and then hop from there on a plane to Louisville. John was pretty sure he could remember his way to Rachael's aunt and uncle's house. If anything he could ask for some directions. John sighed and booked his tickets. He had no idea how this was going to turn out, but he was going to find out either way.