Ted threw his head back as he downed another shot of whiskey, wrinkling his nose as the alcohol burned his throat as it went down. "Blech," he groaned. "Shit tastes like shit."

Cody snorted loudly before downing his own shot. "Woooow Teddy. Have you ever considered becoming a philosopher? That was some really deep stuff right there."

Ted glared at him for his sarcasm. "No but I have thought about putting my boot up your ass."

"Boys…" Randy said warningly. He poured them all another round of shots before putting the bottle back on the middle of the table. "Don't make me separate you two."

Cody and Ted exchanged glances. Cody stuck his tongue out immaturely and Ted kicked his shin from under the table. Randy just rolled his eyes and shook his head. This was the first time all three of them had all hung out since the Legacy days yet here they were and nothing really had seemed to change. Randy was acting like the irritated big brother while Cody and Ted alternated between bickering with each other and teaming up to annoy the shit out of Randy. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same…though not really. Not for Ted anyway. He was the one moving backwards while Cody and Randy were moving forward. Randy's inner demons and most of his inner jackass seemed to be in peace now and he was enjoying the success that he could have had even sooner if he could have gotten out his own way. As for Cody, while the "dashing" gimmick had caused quite a bit of heckling from the fans and co-workers alike, the "disfiguring" of his face had done wonders for him. He was rocking the delusional and deranged character to a tee and one couldn't argue with the success. A win over Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania, a so far pretty impressive Intercontinental title reign as opposed to the constantly losing non-title matches or just holding it for the next guy, and now an upcoming feud with Randy himself. Out of all the "futures" of the WWE, he was the one shining the brightest.

And where did that leave Ted? Pretty much nowhere. He was the odd man out at the table. While Cody and Randy were featured all over Raw and Smackdown he was lucky if he got to wrestle in the dark match before the show. There had been brief moments where a spotlight was teased on him, but then it would just get yanked away from him. He wasn't alone in that aspect. Morrison, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne-just some of the names that had gotten screwed by the fical and political minefield that was WWE these days. So many "rising stars" yet so few actually rose to the top. The rest were doomed to be stuck in the mid-card purgatory until they were wished the best in their future endeavors.

"Yo! Ted!" Cody snapped his fingers in front of Ted's face to get his attention. "Snap out of it buddy."

Ted blinked before jerking his head back away from Cody's fingers. "Sorry." He grabbed his shot glass and downed his whiskey once again. "Just thinking."

Cody smirked and patted the top of Ted's head. "We figured that. We saw some smoke coming out of your ears."

Ted's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Are you just trying to piss me off tonight? Is that it?"

"Awww Teeeeeeddddddyyyyy don't be sensitive." The alcohol was already starting to get to Cody so it wasn't exactly surprising to Ted when Cody got out of his chair and climbed into his lap. There were affectionate drunks and then there was Cody, who pretty much just liked to molest anyone within the area. "I'm just teasing you."

"Well knock it off," Ted said as he tried to move his head back away from Cody's fingers, which were in the process of being shoved into his mouth. Not long ago it wasn't something he would have minded. But as it was in the ever lovely process of their on again/off again relationship, they were off again and this was more personal than he wanted to get.

"Cody!" Randy growled. "Fucking stop. I'm NOT watching you pull this shit all night."

"Oooh someone's cranky…maybe you need cheering up." Cody got off Ted and went towards Randy. Before he got three steps though he got the biggest of death glares from Randy. It managed to go through his mind that now was not the time and he reluctantly sat down in his chair and pouted.

"What crawled up your ass and died?" Ted asked. He hadn't exactly been thrilled with Cody's behavior but Randy's reaction hadn't really been necessary.

Randy just shrugged and didn't give a verbal answer. Lovely. He was in one of THOSE moods. Ted shook his head and didn't even bother to try to pry anything more out of him. He just grabbed their bottle of whiskey and took on the pouring duties. They drank in silence, polishing off that bottle and then a bottle of tequila after it. By the time they were done they were all pleasantly wasted. Ted stumbled back up to the bar to try to get more but the bartender refused to give him any. Apparently he thought they had enough.

"Guys we gots…we gots to go somewhere else," he told them after he made his way back to their table. "We've gotta go they won't give us anymore."

"Whaaat?" Cody looked at him with a completely dumbfounded look on his face. "Why not?"

"We've had too much apparently."

"Whaaat?" Cody shook his head in disbelief. "That bastard. How dare he judge us."

Randy stood up and jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go. I've got some stuff back in my tour bus."

"Fucking yesssss…" Cody was all over that shit. He got up and started to follow Randy, only to succeed in tripping over his feet and falling down to the floor. "Owww!"

Ted rolled his eyes and helped Cody back up to his feet, nearly losing his own balance as he bent down. He managed to stay on his feet though and he put Cody's arm over his shoulder and pretty much dragged him out of the bar. Randy was already outside, his eyes slowly gazing across the parking lot. "Where's your bus?" Ted asked. He was struggling to keep both himself and Cody up on his feet. All the booze he had consumed was really starting to hit him now.

"…I don't remember."

"You're joking." The glare Ted got after saying that pointed to him not joking. "What the hell Randy? Doesn't your driver follow you around and shit?"

Randy shook his head. "I got a ride over here from Cena-"

"And where the hell did he run off too?"

"How the fuck should I know? I'm not his babysitter."

"Call the bus man," Cody said, his words slurring so badly it took Randy and Ted a moment to figure out what the hell he had just said. "Tell him to driiiiive and get us."

"…I was going to." No he wasn't. Randy hadn't even thought about that until Cody said that but he wasn't going to admit that. Drunk or not, he wasn't letting Cody know he had said something smart. He reached into his pockets to pull out his phone but quickly discovered there was no phone to be had. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "Fuck fuck fuck." He checked again and no phone magically appeared. "I think I lost it."

Ted groaned. "Well I don't have mine-"

"Why the hell not?"

"I forgot it in my bag!"

"Well give me your keys then."

"Fuck you, you're drunk. I'm not letting you drive and kill us all in a fiery fucking blaze. It's ALWAYS the passengers that get offed. The driver fucking always lives to go to jail."

"Well YOU'RE not driving then either," Randy snapped.

"Then I guess we'll walk." Not the most appealing of ideas but there really wasn't another one to go with. Ted tightened his grip on Cody and took off, groaning as the younger man dragged his feet and made it even more difficult than it should have been. "I meant YOU had to walk too Codes."

"Don't wanna," Cody groaned. "Don't feel good."

"Yeah well don't puke on me please. Help me get your ass back to the hotel and you can go into the bathroom and you can get as sick as you want." Ted forced himself to walk faster and eventually Cody started moving his feet as well, though he was having a hard time walking straight ahead. "Would you mind helping?" Ted asked, casting a glance back at Randy. "Please?"

Randy sighed and reluctantly caught up so he could grab a hold of Cody as well. The three of them slowly made their way back to the hotel, having to stop a couple of times so they could take Cody over to the bushes so he could puke. "Fucking sick," Randy muttered under his breath.

"You were the one who wanted tequila and whiskey," Ted helpfully reminded him.

Randy just grunted and once Cody was done puking they resumed trying to drag him back to the hotel. Ted didn't remember it being this far away. He wasn't even sure if they were going the right way but he didn't say anything about it. He just kept going until the overpowering smell of smoke made him stop and choke.

"What the fuck is THAT?"

"Fire probably," Randy replied. He pointed to the empty church parking lot off to their right, where smoke was rising up from a bed of flowers.

"How do you know it's a fire?"

"Well if there's SMOKE there's generally FIRE." Randy pulled Cody away from Ted and gave him a look that told him how retarded he thought it was. "Now go check it out. See how big it is."

Now that was a dumb order if there ever was one. If Ted had been sober he would have told Randy to go fuck himself. This wasn't the Legacy days anymore. He wasn't Randy's stupid flunky inside and outside of the ring. But the alcohol completely brought down his defenses and independence and he soon found himself making his way across the parking lot, obeying the order like a good little bitch.

The smoke itself wasn't as heavy as it originally thought it was, but the smell of it was just beyond anything he had ever come across. It turned his stomach so badly that he had to stop and put his hand over his mouth. Bile rose up and burned the back of his throat, making it hard to resist the urge to throw up all over the place. Somehow he managed it and he made himself keep going forward. The closer he got, the more his imagination started getting away from him. The stench invading his nostrils couldn't be something as tame as some flowers burning up. It had to be a body. A body was either burning or had been burning and he was about to stumble on to some horrific crime scene. He stopped again and took a deep breath, bracing himself for what he was sure to see.

"What is it?" Randy asked impatiently. He tried to slap Cody awake as Ted peered through the smoke down into the flower bed.

"It's…it's…what the fuck…" Ted shook his head in disbelief.

"It's a what?"

"It's a rock!"

"A fucking what?"

"A fucking ROCK! Fucking deaf son of a bitch…" That last part was muttered under Ted's breath as he knelt down to get an even closer look. The smoke that was coming off the thing made his eyes water and he had to wipe them with the back of his hand before trying to get that closer look again. The rock was about the size of a basketball and it was completely black and charred up from being burned. The fire had gone out by this point and Ted hovered his hand right above it to feel how much heat was radiating off it.

"What kind of rock is it?" Randy was trying to come closer to see for himself, but he was having a hard time because Cody was about half passed out.

"How the fuck should I know? Do I look like-" Ted's voice trailed off as the rock cracked open right in front of his eyes. "Whaaaaat the fuck…."

Something shot out of the newly formed crack faster than he could even blink. It hit him right in his chest, going right through his shirt and piercing his skin. He screamed and fell backwards, hitting the pavement hard with his elbows. He looked at his chest, opening the hole in his shirt and wiping the blood away to see a mark the size of a pin prick on his chest. For a moment he thought whatever had hit him had just fallen off…then he felt something move inside him. Something was actually moving inside of his chest, wiggling it's way upwards inside of him.

Randy's eyes widened as the most blood curdling scream he had ever heard in his life came out of Ted's mouth. "Ted!" He unceremoniously dropped Cody down to the ground and stumbled over to Ted, whose eyes had rolled into the back of his head as his body fell into a nasty looking seizure. "TED!" He grabbed the younger man and tried to hold him still while slapping him across the face. "Ted this is NOT funny!" He slapped him harder to try to get him to snap out of it. He was actually getting angry at Ted for this. He was not the kind of person to take being freaked out that well so it was just coming at as anger. "Fucking STOP it before I fucking kick your ass!"

Ted didn't stop. He couldn't. He couldn't do anything. His screaming had stopped because his lungs had tightened up so much he couldn't even breathe. He could only lay there, his eyes not seeing anything as he felt the thing inside him continue it's journey upwards. The last coherent thought he had was the realization that it was actually heading up towards his brain…and then a blinding pain went through his head and then there was nothing.

"You fucking son of a-" Randy went to smack Ted again but stopped when he saw how still the younger man went. "Ted?" He lowered his hand and swallowed heavily, realizing then how dry his throat was. "Ted?" He shook his head to try to clear the booze fueled fuzziness. "Ted?" He clumsily put his fingers all over Ted's neck, searching for a pulse that wasn't there. "Oh fuck…"