"Are you nervous?"

"Nah," Paul said with a shake of his head. "She's ready for this. I'm sure of it."

He was speaking about his daughter who, at the moment, was only a year old, just barely, and it was time to attempt the no bottle, but sippy cup thing. A big step. They'd been working towards it as of late and he was pretty sure they were close to getting rid of the dang bottle all together.

It was a very trying time for his itty-bitty baby. And at the same time that she was trying to learn to walk! First steps soon. Sippy cup sooner. At least he was hoping.

"What?" Stephanie, who wasn't in the kitchen, came to peer in then, frowning over at where her husband and dog both stood before her daughter's highchair. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean what am I doing? I'm doing the sippy cup thing." He frowned over at his wife. "What were you talking about then?"

"Coming back from your injury, Paul."

Oh.

That.

The 'injury' thing.

Sigh.

The time had finally come and, after months of contemplating his return (and spending loads of time with his baby and purebred mutt), the hour was upon them. Tomorrow they'd be traveling out for Summer Slam and he was going to be making his return.

Business as usually. Back to the same old, same old.

Unless you were Stephanie.

"I know you have to be scared."

Then you added all these other stupid emotions to the situation that weren't going on, nope, no way. He was a wrestler. Always had been. Forever. And wrestlers, well, they did a lot of shitty things, but the main one was go spit that shit on the mic and do their thing between the ropes. He'd spent far too long away from it. Had been craving it. It was time for him to get back to himself. His real self.

"Of her refusing to drink out of this dang cup?" he grumbled in response to his wife as their daughter continued to only lift the sippy cup and drop it once more back down. Bluto, the dog, kept waiting for this banging to cause her bowl of cereal to topple over so he could finally have some. "No, she'll get it."

"Would you actually listen to me?" Stephanie disappeared again, out of the kitchen, back to whatever it was she was doing currently. Getting ready to leave, probably. They were about to start life on the road again and it was gonna be, well, an adjustment, to say the least. "If you don't want to talk about-"

"I don't want to talk about it," he cut her off. "There's nothing to talk about. At all. And Aurora, you drink it, baby. Your milks in there. It's like the bottle. Drink it."

No.

And, in her final act of defiance, she tossed it down into the bowl of cereal, sinking Cheerios flying and giving Bluto what he wanted. Not Paul though who only let out a few deep, long sighs.

He couldn't sit around with her forever and debate the ideal way of drinking milk (his baby was still pretty insistent that bottle beat sippy cup, every time) and instead had to go get packed and ready himself. She seemed more content, anyways, when he dropped her with her toys in her playpen in he and Steph's bedroom.

Eventually Bluto followed, coming to press his face against the mesh siding of the playpen, and look in at the little girl. Err, well, her toys in there. And thinking about eating them as well. Or at least chewing on them some. Until the baby cried about it.

She was so loud when she was distressed. He tried hard to avoid that.

"Did you need anything washed?" Stephanie asked him when she came into the room as well, going to lean over the side of the playpen to glance in at their daughter. "Paul?"

"Nope." He was over at the bed, folding things, and didn't even glance over at her. "Believe it or not, I'm completely prepared. All grown up, I'd say, finally. Can get my shit together all on my own."

"Well, you've had how many months to prepare a new bag? So-"

"The woman has jokes, Rora," Paul complained to his daughters who giggled just from the sound of her name. "Ask her when the last time she stepped in the ring was. The last time she had a good match."

"I," Stephanie said as, finished making faces at their daughter (she was far more intrigued by her father's voice anyways), she headed to the bathroom, "have other talents."

"You do?" Then he whistled. "Oh, yeah, you do. Not many people can bitch out an entire roster and still keep their job, but you, being born well and all. Best talent of all. Train hard for that one?"

"Don't use that word in front of the baby." He could almost hear the smile in her voice too as she added, "Asshole."

"Don't use that word in front of the baby," he mocked in a high pitched voice before, finally, he glanced over his shoulder, watching his wife go through her makeup in the bathroom, looking for something it seemed. "And what are you saying anyways, babe? That I don't got any other talents?"

"I mean, other than being in this company? I've yet to see them."

"I single handedly raised a baby, all on my own, these past few months. Me. A man. A man of my stature and attributes. Wasting away as a single father. With no resentment towards you, your work, or my baby. Only love. That's a talent. I'm pretty much the best guy in the entire world, when you think about it."

"You know, so men go into burning buildings and save people they don't even know from certain death."

"Yeah, well, some men can eat shit, is what I say."

"Stop cursing." Then she paused. "And single handedly?"

"While you were out gallivanting across the world, I was home, with your child, Stephanie."

"For one, you weren't. You were rehabbing the majority of the time."

"Lies."

"And she also came with me more often than not, by the way, because you were rehabbing."

"More lies."

"And when she was home with you, it was normally because I was also home or her nanny was here."

"You know, you act like this is all fact-"

"I mean, it is, babe."

"-but Rora knows the truth." He looked over at his baby finally, watching as she very determinedly chewed on her key ring toy. "Or at least the one I'm going to tell her."

"Whatever suits you."

Sleep was easy that night for his girls and dog. Bluto was happy because Stephanie had given him a special bone (to make up for the fact he was about to be left behind with only his dog walker and the housekeeper) and he situated himself on his bed in the living room for the night, where he'd gnaw on the big beef knuckle for a good portion of the night and, hopefully, some of the next day. Aurora just seemed happy to go to sleep that night, going down so easy that it caused he and Steph both some hesitance (fearful that she'd awaken frequently in the night), but it didn't seem to be the case.

Steph just wanted to get the best night sleep before travel that they could. It wasn't a long travel, that first day, just down to New Jersey. About three hours or so. It would be the upcoming week though that would be hectic and crazy.

It was harder to come by for Paul though. It didn't come, even, really, for more than few minutes at a time. He just kept waking back up every time he nearly drifted off. It was with a start, every time, and he tried to toss and turn, glancing at his phone, even got up and got a glass of water (much to the annoyance of Bluto who wanted to enjoy his bone in peace). Nothing. Other than more restlessness.

"Steph," he finally whispered at one point as he rested on his side, facing her. "Baby, are you up?' Steph. Stephanie. Are you awake? I know you're awake." Then he gave up for a bit. "Are you?" Before trying again.

"No," he finally got a long groan out of the woman. "Stop. Shut up."

Now with her at least speaking, he shifted closer to the woman, gently forcing her to rest on her side as well.

"Not tonight."

He agreed. That's not what he wanted. Well, sure, maybe, but it wasn't what he was doing. Eventually Steph caught on though and, when she wrapped an arm over his shoulders, he only bowed his head and shifted lower on the bed so that he could rest it against her chest.

"I'm not nervous," he told her. "I just can't sleep."

Stephanie hummed some, running a hand through his hair before just toying with the strands.

"Why would you be?" she asked with a yawn and he was being an asshole, just like she said that day, but now because he was waking her up when she needed her sleep. But he couldn't help it. He needed her. He'd do the same if the roles were reversed. "Nervous? You shouldn't be. You've been practicing and training and there's no one, in the entire world, that has your skill and talent and prowess and our company would probably sink, without you."

"That's true," he agreed, to all of it, because it wasn't being conceited if she said it and he just agreed. Even if the things she were saying were, you know, flat out lies, if they just kept them between the two of them, was it really hurting anyone? "Steph."

"Of course it is. Who's more important than you? To our company?"

So many people, actually, but when she whispered it in his ear so sweetly, man, he couldn't remember a name of a single other superstar, past or present.

"I mean," she yawned as she brushed her lips against the top of his head, "who do you think of when you think of WWF? E. WWE. I think of Triple H."

It helped, you know, that she was married to him and the majority of her onscreen life had involved fucking around with him, but you know, semantics.

"I am pretty important."

"You're the most important. There is no current wrestling without you, baby. The show sucks so much without you on it. It's our prime months here and we've been missing you." She hummed again. "Only thing to save us from the football drop will be Triple H coming back."

"It is a big name."

"The biggest."

"I'm the biggest in a lot of categories."

"Don't make me stay up all night."

He nuzzled his head against her breaths as he whispered, "Can we just lay like this? For awhile? Please?"

The top of his head got another kiss before, softly, she whispered, "Okay."

Things were a bit hectic, the next day, and Bluto was not one to be duped. If Stephanie was leaving him, he deserved at least another beef knuckle and he was going to get in her way as she tried to get out of the house until she gave it to him.

Paul mostly focused on attempting, once more, to get his daughter to understand that she could drink from a sippy cup just like she could a bottle.

Again, it ended up getting tossed away with a bright laugh that made him irrationally annoyed.

But he couldn't focus on the baby for long. They had to ride down in the bus to New Jersey and then, from there, he had to begin prepping for reentering the ring.

"Daunting, I think, is the word for it," Steph suggested since he'd been so touchy over the word nervous before. "Babe."

Maybe.

He refused to give her the satisfaction of letting on to this though outside of the confines of their bedroom.

It was easy to fall into the motions though. It always had been. If you just keep going through the steps of the day, eventually you arrive at it being finished. Easy. Simple. If he could just put off any thoughts or feelings that he had towards the big moment, well, eventually he'd be fine. Eventually he'd be okay.

Reintegrating into the locker room helped some. He'd missed it. It was hard to be at home for so long, away from the guys. And even the normal, behind the scenes people. Just everything. The atmosphere and environment. He hung around some, during his injury, but it was different when you were suiting up and going out there.

Everything was so much different when you actually were a part of something and not just looking from the outside in.

When the time came, he felt much more at ease and more himself. No, not himself. More Hunter. He'd been Paul for so long, these past few months, that he thought it would be difficult to fall back into that mode, but nope. Hunter was always there, with him. Bubbling under the surface.

There was something to it, anyways. Steph fed his ego more than anyone, but man, if you didn't really think that you were hot shit when you heard people literally lose their shit for you. It could still feel surreal at times. That he was so important to other people. Whether they hated or loved him, that he even mattered to so many people all at once, in a single moment of time…

Life was weird when you broke it down. When you examined it. Maybe that's why it always felt like it was happening so fast, in real time, because if you took awhile to consider it all, you'd never get anything done. Just sit around in shock. If it flew at you fast enough, you had no choice but to adapt.

He still felt a bit off though, maybe, kind of, when the night was over, and Steph was finished with praising him for the night, instead of beginning her typical critiques of the show in general, especially an important PPV. He only settled into the bus, ready for the short drive over to Boston while mostly ignoring his wife and her nonsensical rambling.

Well, it made sense. He just didn't care to hear it.

"How was Rora?" he finally cut the woman off, eventually, because she was on his nerves. "Steph?"

She was snuggled up in her mother's arms at the moment, snoozing, as she had been since he and Steph left the arena, but she hadn't been there the whole time, of course. He hadn't seen her for a few hours and was relieved she was sleeping so easily. He'd been afraid that she'd be upset about not being back at home, in her own crib for the night.

"Her nanny said she was fine, here on the bus." Stephanie glanced down at the girl then. If there was one thing that could stop her from going on and on about work was, thankfully, their child. The only other thing he too could go on and on about. "Oh, guess what?"

He was busy texting and hardly glanced up as they sat on the couch. He was antsy, in the tour bus, and just wanted to get to the next night already. So he could be in the ring again.

All he'd had to have was one taste and once again, it was all he wanted.

Funny how that worked.

"She said that she used that stupid cup you wanted her to drink from so badly."

He frowned at that, glancing up. "Her sippy cup? She did? Really?"

"She did," Steph agreed with a nod. "Really. She said she didn't even take her bottle. She drank from the cup all afternoon."

"Little sneak." He reached over to gently run a finger against her cheek. "That was gonna be our thing."

"That important thing is she did it though," Steph reminded though he still only frowned some. "Don't you think?"

"Well," he sighed some before looking back down at his phone. "She does have to move on now. Without me. I'll be around, of course, but after only having me to nurture and care for her so long-"

"Single handedly, I think it was."

"That's the word." He nodded. "Single handedly. It'll be an adjustment. I'm glad to see that she's really expanding her world now. She has to be strong. Move on. It'll be difficult. Imagine going from having the best father, ever, at all, in the entire world, and losing him to a trashy fake sport."

"Some of us don't have to imagine."

Paul made a face over at her. "You had a father before Vince?"

"Shut up."

"You shuddup."

But he bumped his elbow against hers and she leaned into him and, man, it was just right, wasn't it? All of it? It sure felt that way.

Not daunting at all.

Not with his girls there. Never.

Here's to, hopefully, another great return to the ring eventually (I guess...I'd be content if this was the end for in-ring for awhile, for him health-wise alone). No new midnight workout vids though, I imagine, for awhile… WWE went through with the Saudi shit, but at what cost? At what cost?

Back to requests soon, hopefully. Including any new ones people have asked for recently.