(For Story Info, please see Chapter 1)

Chapter 2: Now What?

"I'm pregnant with your baby."

Stupid things....... Really messed up, freaky things.

How can that be even possible? Men don't have babies, women do. Then again, Jeff is kind of weird so it could be possible. This is a very compromising position he's in. He puts his beliefs out on the line in a fit of anger and lust. Now saying them makes him a hypocrite. How can he live with himself?

Punk is so wrapped up in his thoughts that he doesn't hear his name being called or the fingers snapping in his face. Only when he is almost shoved off the bench that he recognizes Miz.

"Damn dude!" Miz exclaims with a grin. "That must have been a hell of a day dream."

Punk responds with a scowl. Miz selectively decides to ignore it and continues talking.

"Did you hear about Jeff Hardy?"

Punk is attentive now. He hasn't spoken to Jeff since he told him the news. What do you say to that?

"No, not really." He says calmly. "What's going on?"

"Rumor has it that Jeff's on an indefinite leave. Apparently the whole 'attack' on the stairwell was an excuse to set up the leave."

"Did your sources say why?"

Miz scratches his head. 'Uh, no. No one's talking." He leans against the steel lockers across from Punk. "Maybe he fell off the wagon."

A glimmer of anger reaches Punk's brown eyes as he raises them up to his friend. "What are you saying?"

"Come on, man!" Miz says. "Had you seen him lately? He looks like he's been crapped on. His last few matches were so bad that hey were killed before time. Some of the Smackdown guys had seen Triple H rip him a new one more than once. Brass only kept him in the title run just to please the fans. I saw him throwing back drinks at that club that night! It was only a matter of time before his fuckups-"

Miz is surprised when the Straight Edge wrestler jumps up and pins him against the lockers!

"Shut up! You don't know what the hell you're saying!" he spits in Miz's face. "Jeff's not doing drugs. He's pregnant!"

It takes only a second for Punk to regret that coming out of his mouth and a couple of them for Miz to process what had been said to him.

"Fuck."

"Wait…what?"

CM Punk unhooks his fingers from Miz' shirt then back away. He reaches his hand up to push away the dark lock from his eyes. Although nothing is holding him there, Miz is still pinned to the lockers.

"Dude?" he manages to say. "Did…did you just say…Jeff's preggers?"

"Yeah."

Miz takes a seat next to his friend. Seconds tick by with nothing said.

"How did you find out?" Miz asks.

"Jeff told me." Punk answers.

"Why?"

"Because I'm the one that got him that way."

"You? Hmm…didn't know that you were gay."

"I'm not."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said Miz!" Punk sighs. "It was a one time thing. At that club month ago."

Miz cringes when the club is brought up. His regret kicks in. He didn't mean for Punk to get sloppy drunk. He just wanted to loosen him up. He had been so wound up by Randy, he was afraid that he would snap and do something really stupid.

"I'm sorry dude. I shouldn't have screwed up your drink like that."

"Yeah, you shouldn't have." Punk tells him. "We can't change the past now, just have to deal with it."

"At least Hardy ended up with someone decent." Miz says.

Punk chuckles at the statement. 'Yeah I'm decent."

"Seriously!" Miz proclaims. "As screwed up and freaky as this is, he could have ended up with any of those shady characters in the back,"

Both men shudder at the thought.

"I doubt you're going to leave him hanging." At this moment, Miz gets serious. "You're not right?"

"No!" Punk blurts out in disbelief. "It's just…I don't know…I won't okay?"

Just then Morrison steps around the lockers.

"There you are. " He says to Miz. "We gotta go, man." He then notices the serious expressions on his friends' faces. "What's going on?"

Miz glances at Punk and gets a pleading look in return.

"Nothing, dude." Miz tells Morrison as he moves toward him. "Let's go."

Brothers in arms

"You know this is bullshit, right?"

"I know, Matt."

Jeff and Matt are heading to Vickie Guerrero's office. While Matt is in his ring gear and carrying his ECW Championship title, Jeff is wearing street clothes: a red and black 30STM hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers. His hair is head back with a black bandanna.

"This could have been done by phone or e-mail. Hell, by snail mail!" Matt continues to grumble.

"I know, Matt." Jeff sighs tiredly.

"You want me to come in with you?"

"Please?"

Matt smiles as he puts his arm around his little brother's shoulders.

"Okay."

They reach their destination: a blue door marked "Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero". Jeff knocks on the door then waits. Seconds later, the door opens.

"Hello, Jeffery." Vickie says with an accompanying bright smile. That smile soon disappears once she sees Matt. "May I help you?"

Matt doesn't even bother to hide his annoyance with her as he adjusts his title on his shoulder.

"Jeff asked me to be here." He states matter-of-factly.

"Well this is Smackdown business and since you're not on Smackdown, how about you run back to your little 'soft core' show okay?"

Before Matt can protest, Jeff stops him.

"It's okay. I can do this." he says.

"But you said-"

"I know, Matt."

"Ok!" Vickie breaks in. "Let's get this done. I don't have all day."

"Come find me once you're done, alright?" Matt whispers to Jeff.

Jeff nods yes to his brother before he steps into the room. Vickie shuts the door once he is in, right in Matt's face. He glowers at the door, muttering several curse words before walking away.

"What is he doing here?"

Jeff can feel his body bristle when he spots the long legged Canadian blonde.

"He's my husband." Vickie states as she brushes past Jeff. She sits on the couch next to the third person. "I asked him to be here."

Edge smiles when he sees the younger man's facial expression turns to one of frustration.

"Gee, Hardy. You're looking shit-tacular than usual."

"Down sweetie." Vickie says as she pets his hair. "Now Jeff, I got your information from your doctor. He says that you're suffering from a stomach ulcer and that he wants to heal it without doing evasive surgery and that is why he recommends a leave of absence. "

Stomach ulcer. That's the excuse the doctor is giving. What a nice way to describe this.

"Looks like your bad habits finally caught up with-OW!"

Edge rubs at the spot where his hair had been pulled.

"As I was saying," Vickie continues. "I'm going to give you two weeks to get over it."

"Two weeks?" Jeff gasps in shock. "That's not enough time!"

"You're in the middle of a title run. I just can't give you time off."

"I was 'attacked' in the stairwell." Jeff argues. "No one 'knows' how bad. I could be out for a year and no one would know. Hell! Your husband was able to do it."

"My neck was jacked up, dumbass!" Edge growls. "I had a legit excuse!"

"And I don't? I'm …." Jeff catches himself before he told the real reason. "I have a hole in my stomach. A hit or bump could possibly kill me!"

"Enough!" Vickie shouts to get the two men in order. "Jeff, two weeks. That's it! After that you either come back or you're fired. Now get out of my office!"

When Worlds Collide

Matt steps through the curtains, his title still in his possession. He successfully defended his title against Jack Swagger. He walks over to the refreshment table, just as he places his hands on a bottled water, Jimmy Wang Yang comes running up to him.

"Come on! We gotta git. Your brother needs ya!" he says in a rush.

Oh crap! Matt is right behind Jimmy. If Vickie has done something to Jeff, she's gonna pay for it.

"What happened?" Matt asks as they turn a corner.

"Don't know really." Jimmy tells him. "Kozlov musta found him first. When he found Shane and me, he didn't say nothin'. He just grabbed our arms and dragged us to the restroom where Jeff was."

"Aw geez…how bad was he?"

"Jeff was freakin' our something fierce! He kept babblin' about not gonna make it in two weeks. Took us a minute or two to coax him out."

They finally reach their destination: the wrestlers' rest area. Shane is consoling a very distraught looking Jeff while Kozlov leans against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Jeff!" Matt rushes over to his brother. He lets his title drop to the floor as he kneels in front of Jeff. "What happened?"

"She only gave me two weeks, Matty." Is Jeff's weak reply, "If I don't come back, I'm fired."

"That's a cold-hearted bitch, I tell ya." Shane grumbles.

Kozlov grumbles his concurrence in Russian.

"What the fuck? You serious?" Matt exclaims. "What about the doctor's excuse?"

"She said as far as she was concerned, she didn't get one and then she tore it up." A new set of tears streams down Jeff's face. "What am I gonna do? I can't wrestle in my condition! I'm gonna get fired, Matty!"

Matt pulls his sobbing brother into a comforting embrace.

Unknown to the group, Maria had been listening on the sidelines. She covers her mouth to muffle a gasp of shock at hearing what Vickie did to Jeff. Punk told her what Jeff had told him and she had to admit that she was skeptical of it all. Now that she has witnessed it for herself, her heart really went out to Jeff. Maria breaks away from the scene. She takes out her cell phone and calls CM Punk.

"Come on! Answer your phone." She swears softly as the phone continues to ring. Just before she hangs up, he answers.

"Finally!" she sighs in relief. "Hey Sweetie."

"Um, Hey." Punk says.

Maria frowns when she hears how off his voice is.

"Did I call at a bad time?"

"No! Well, not really. What's up?"

"Something's wrong with Jeff."

"What? What happened?"

Maria decides to not tell him. That's not her place. "I don't know. I saw him crying. He looked really scared. Please call him okay?"

"Yeah, I'll do it now."

Maria soon ends her call. She turns around to head back to the Divas' locker room when she literally bumps into Shane Helms.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you."

"But I saw you." Shane says, frowning. "I heard you too. Who were talking to about Jeff?"

Maria takes an uneasy step back. "I was talking to-"

"Jeff's got enough problems as it is right now." Shane literally hisses at her. "He doesn't need a gossiping airhead in his business!"

"Hey!' Maria gets right in his face. "I'm no gossip and I'm sure as hell not an airhead. I was talking to Punk. I told him about Jeff."

Helms laughs cynically. "What is he gonna do?"

"Jeff's already pregnant. What other shenanigans can he get into?"

"Shh! Could you not say it any louder?"

"Sorry." Maria says as her face turns a light shade of pink. "Anyway, I think everyone needs to chill out and stay in the background."

"So you're sayin' stay out of it?" Helms questions. "Good luck telling that to Matt."

"Someone should. Trying to beat up CM Punk isn't going to make everything okay."

"Well if it wasn't for-"

"Excuse me! Don't dump it all on him! Jeff had a big part too. They're both adults and they're going to have to deal with it as adults."

Shane couldn't argue with her on that. Damn, when did she get so smart?

A moment later and they go their separate ways. A few seconds later, Ryder and Hawkins stand up from their hiding place behind a couple of metal crates.

"Did I hear that right?" Hawkins asks his partner. "Did she say that Hardy's….pregnant?'

Ryder scratches his head because he too is confused by what he just heard.

Hawkins takes out his cell phone and makes a call.

"Hey Edge, it's Hawkins. You are not gonna believe what I just heard…."