Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone you may or may not be familiar with.
Summary: During a camping trip, Lita has payback on her mind with some help from her friends. Sequel to 'Surprise?'.
John couldn't help but look back at Dawn and Lita who were at least one hundred feet behind him and Chris on the trail they were currently hiking on. The two women had been behind the two men for the duration of the hike which was something John was pretty sure was done on purpose. The man noticed that the duo seemed to slow down or even completely stop walking for a moment when they saw John and Chris waiting for them. Just like all the other times John turned his attention to his fiancé and her best-friend, the two were engrossed in some sort of conversation and seemed to be in their own little world.
"You two okay back there?" John called out to the duo.
"What do you want Cena?" The older of the two women shouted in return as both her and Lita stopped in place when they noticed the two men had stopped walking and the distance between them had shortened.
Either John was seeing things or both Dawn and Lita just took three or four steps back. The brunette was very confused by that action even though it didn't surprise him at this point, but he didn't say anything in regards to that. "Um, I was just checking to see if you two were okay. I mean, you two have been lagging behind ever since we started. Just hang in there-"
Dawn rolled her eyes and scoffed as she cut her friend off. "We are not little kids that you need to check up on us and say crap like 'hang in there, we're almost done.' We're not little kids that we get tired easily. We're no weak. We are grown woman who are fully capable of taking care of ourselves."
John rolled his eyes the words came falling out of Dawn's mouth. He should have known to expect that type of reaction from her. "Fine. I don't care about you and how you're faring in this hike, I only care about my fiancé," he said as he turned his attention to the redheaded woman standing next to the brunette woman. "Lita-"
"I'm great," Lita interjected before John had a chance to say anything. "We're just enjoying nature. That's why we're out here and hiking, right? To enjoy nature? You two are going way too fast for us to take in our surroundings and just enjoy it."
The man didn't believe anything his fiancé said as he glanced between her and the other woman. They were acting a little more weird than usual this whole trip. They were acting very secretive and kept whispering too one another. He had a funny feeling about this. Something was definitely going on. "You're plotting something, aren't you?" John began to ask, focusing his attention on Lita.
"It's fine as long as you're not plotting against me and just stay on John," Chris piped up, only to be ignored as John continued.
"There has to be a reason why you two agreed to the camping trip pretty quickly. It usually takes us day to get you two to agree and you end up complaining the whole trip, but you've been pretty quiet. Well, complaining wise." The redhead shook her head and opened her mouth to say something only for the brunette woman to speak up.
"Yea, we're planning on pushing you off a cliff and obviously making it look like an accident. When we call the cops to report what happened, we just tell them that you slip and fell like a klutz. Whoops, you should have been more careful. You know you deserve that after that present you tried to give her and how you totally ruined the proposal because of that. Everything was going to be perfect, but you just had to ruin it."
"Seriously John," Lita began to say as the events of her birthday began to flood through her mind, "a TV from the junkyard would have been acceptable. That would probably still be in our livingroom and would be a lot more cheaper than what you actually ended up spending." Unfortunately for John, Randy would not take the TV back even after John explained the whole situation. There was no way John was going to take it back to their apartment so he sold it online but wasn't able to get back how much he spent. And then on top of that, he bought a new TV, one that he knew Lita would be fine with. Who knew that a simple TV could be that much trouble? "That bitch is rubbing off on Randy. I'm sure she told him not to take it back."
John didn't say anything right away because he knew how irritated Lita was all over again even though she got over it pretty quickly when it all happened four months ago. Well, she was satisfied after John convinced Randy to let him keep the TV in his house until he was able to get someone to buy it. After Randy came by to pick up the object, John informed Lita that the task was done and just like that, everything was fine. Her mood swings definitely concerned him sometimes, but he was able to forget about it pretty quickly as the celebration for the newly engaged couple commenced. Thankfully, her mood was completely fixed and they were able to enjoy themselves on the cruise. But of course, Lita didn't stop reminding John about his little screw up afterwards.
"Well Li," the brunette man began to say after a moment, "look at it this way, at least now when people asked how I proposed we'll have an entertaining story."
Lita rolled her eyes as she began to walk over where John and Chris were still standing with Dawn following behind. The duo stopped a couple of feet away from the men before the redhead spoke up. "Oh Yea John because telling people how you basically asked me if I wanted to 'do this thing' after pissing me off is so entertaining. Yea, I would love to tell everyone how lame that was."
John shook his head. "That's not what I said. Well, maybe I did, but that was a joke."
"You were being a smartass."
"And you were overreacting. I get that you don't like Maria, but you let how much you dislike her ruin our celebration. Hell, I didn't even want to propose to you in that way, but you-"
"Don't even try to put this on me," Lita cut him off before he could get any further than that.
"All I'm saying is that if you didn't overreact to the TV, then I could've proposed to you like I planned. Instead-"
"I know you're not blaming me-"
John rolled his eyes as he interjected once again. "Look Li, all I'm saying is that you should just be glad you have a ring," he said before gesturing to Dawn. "She's been waiting at least five years and she still doesn't have a ring."
"Why the hell would you say that?" Chris asked as he glared at John with Dawn doing the same. The brunette woman actually looked like she was about to walk over to John and give her a piece of her mind, but the redhead grabbed her and stopped her.
John shrugged. "It's the truth."
"You're an asshole," Dawn began to say as she was being dragged away by Lita. "It took you four years so you're no better than him. You two are idiots. No wonder you guys get along so well."
"Why the hell would you bring that up?" Chris asked once the two women were back to walking about two hundred feet behind the men. "Now she's going to be pissed at me for something we already discussed. You know that's a very sore topic for her."
"Then why don't you just put a ring on it?"
"I don't believe that's any of your business. That's between me and Dawn and, like I said before, we already discussed this many many times."
John rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything in response as he turned his attention back to Dawn and Lita who were now laughing and whispering to one another. That just all but confirmed to him that Dawn and Lita were definitely up to something and that was not a comforting thought to say the least.
The two couples found themselves sitting around a campfire a couple of hours later. Their hike ended about ten minutes after their little conversation on the trail. Everything seemed to be fine and back to normal once the group of four arrived back to the campsite. Luckily for all involved, no one brought up that conversation again throughout the rest of the evening and both Dawn and Lita didn't seem irritated anymore.
At the moment, the four individuals were taking turns telling ghost stories and it was currently Chris' turn. "And then the group found six gravestones with each of their names on it along with that day's date."
The trio waited for Chris to say more, but he didn't. They glanced at one another before looking over at the blonde man who looked pretty pleased with his story. Unfortunately for him, that much couldn't be said for his audience.
"That was so stupid," John was the first one to express what they all were thinking.
Lita nodded in agreement. "He's right. That was supposed to be scary. There was nothing scary about six people just going to the graveyard for the hell of it and then finding their own gravestones out of nowhere."
"Nothing else happened," Dawn added. "There was like nothing in the middle. It was like just their journey to the graveyard and then finding their stones. Nothing really happened. Are you sure you're done?"
"Yea well, I don't see any of you coming up with something better," Chris defended his story. He really didn't think it was that bad. In fact, he thought his story was better than John's and definitely much more better than Lita's.
"Um, did you not just hear John's story?" Lita asked. "It was way better than yours."
"Mhm," Dawn nodded in agreement. "Sure, his had flaws too, but at least it kinda sorta had a creepy factor."
Chris rolled his eyes. "There was nothing creepy about John''s story. A chick stays home alone with her dog as her guard while there's a murderer on the loose. She let her dog lick her hand as a way to comfort her every time she heard the dripping sound coming from somewhere in her house only to find her dog murdered in the tub and 'humans can lick too' written in blood all over the wall. Now that is what I call stupid."
Now it was John's turn to roll his eyes. "It's okay that your story sucked, not everyone can tell a good story."
"Oh yea? Then please tell me how you would make my story better since you're such an expert."
"Easy: If you were going to end the story with the group finding their own gravestones, then you should have had like two or three of them disappearing or dying off randomly during the middle. Adds some mystery to it."
"See Chris, now that would have helped your story out a little," his girlfriend said.
Chris turned his attention to Dawn. "I believe it's your turn. Why don't you just give us an example of how a scary story should be?"
Dawn shook her head as she got up from where she was sitting on the ground. "Nope. It's getting late and I'm really tired. Plus, John already gave you two examples."
"Cop out."
The woman shrugged. "So what? I could just say 'I see dead people' and that would be a much better story than your crap."
"And stuff like that is why you don't have a ring yet," Chris said which earned him a glare from his girlfriend. "That was a joke," he quickly said, but it was too late.
"I would sleep with one eye open if I were you. Actually, I wouldn't sleep at all." With that said, Dawn left and walked to the tent that was supposed to be Dawn and Chris' for the night with the apologetic man following after her, apologizes flying out of this mouth.
Both John and Lita laughed as they watched the duo walk away. "Dawn was right, he really is an asshole," she said as she got up from where she was sitting down next to her fiancé. "We should probably put the fire out before we call it a night," she began to say as she tried to walk over to where they set aside some water for the task she was just about to complete, only for John to stop her as he grabbed her arm.
"Or we could just sit out here for a little longer until the fire dies down some more."
Lita nodded as she took her seat next to John once again. "Good idea." She moved over closer to the man and rested her head on his shoulder as the man placed an arm around her. "I am kind of tired though."
"Well I'll just have to carry you to the tent if you fall asleep out here."
"Don't. You'll just end up dropping me. I'll be better off just sleeping out here."
"And there you go being mean again."
Lita rolled her eyes, she could just imagine the feigned look of hurt on John's face. "Oh stop being a big baby." John smirked and was about to say something, but wasn't able to when the woman could just sense what he was about to say and spoke up. "Don't."
"Don't what?" John asked innocently.
"Don't say anything stupid."
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"Okay," Lita said as it fell quiet between the engaged couple as they continued to watch the fire in front of them.
Lita felt her eyes getting heavy and she was so close to falling asleep right then and there, but then she heard a voice addressing her. "Li, I need to talk to you," Dawn said as she walked over to where the couple was sitting.
"Hm?" Lita asked as she lifted her head away from John and looked up at the other woman standing a few feet away from them. "What's up?"
Dawn shook her head. "Not here, come with me."
Lita glanced over at John who simply shrugged his shoulders. She looked back over at Dawn before speaking. "What's this about? You look upset. Is everything okay?"
"I don't know," the older woman shrugged. "Can you just please come here? I need you. It's important."
The redheaded woman looked over at the brunette man before getting up and walking over to the other woman. "Let's go."
"I'll just put out the fire and I'll probably be in the tent by the time you get back," John called after Lita who nodded before disappearing a few feet away.
"Dawn, what's this about?" Lita began to ask when the duo stopped a few feet away from the campsite where no one, more specifically John, could hear them. "Are you okay? Did you and Chris just get into another fight? I know he's was being an insensitive ass when he made that joke-"
"No," Dawn cut her friend off. "I came to accept the fact that Chris is an idiot a long time ago so I try not to let what he says bother me. I still love that jackass no matter how hard I try. This isn't about him, this is about John." Even though there was barely any light around, Dawn could see how confused Lita looked so she continued. "Our prank," she reminded the younger woman. "Did you forget already."
"Oh right," Lita nodded as she remembered the prank her and Dawn planned a week ago right around the time the trip was planned. "I'm just really tired, I almost fell asleep back there."
"Right well we can't really postpone this until tomorrow night since we're leaving in the afternoon so wake up."
"I'm awake, I'm awake. Is Chris ready?"
"Yup," Dawn nodded. "He's just getting into costume."
"How effective is the costume going to be? I mean, anyone with two eyes will be able to tell it's not a real bear and it's just someone in a costume."
"True, but he'll see like the outline or shadow through the tent and that will make him think it's a real bear. Like, he'll be too scared to think otherwise. Plus, we have the tape with the sounds of a bear growling to help us."
"I cannot wait to hear him scream like a little wuss."
"Let's get Chris next time. He also deserves something like this for being such a bastard like half an hour ago."
Lita nodded. "Agreed." She paused for a moment before continuing. "So should I excuse myself to the bathroom or something in like five minutesminute? That should be enough, right?" Dawn smile nodded before walking back to the campsite and then their separate ways.
Lita walked back towards where her tent was for the night and noticed that the fire was completely out and there was no John in sight so she correctly assumed he was waiting for her inside the tent.
"Everything okay?" John asked as Lita made her way to the sleeping back.
"Yup. She's just really dramatic something."
John snorted. "Tell me something I don't know."
You're going to cry like a little baby pretty soon, Lita thought to herself as she tried not to laugh at the scene she imagined in her mind. This was going to be good. "I'm really tired, I almost fell asleep out there before Dawn came along with her crisis. Good night."
"Good night," John said before leaving over towards his fiancé and placing a kiss on her lips. "I love you."
Lita smiled as she laid back down in the sleeping back. "I love you too."
It was pretty silent other than the crickets chirping and some other random noises of nature as the couple tried to go to sleep. That was until John began to hear something growl. "You hear that?" John asked Lita.
"Hm?" The redhead, who pretended she was half asleep, said.
"You hear that?" John repeated as he sat up in his sleeping bag. "It's like some sort of animal?"
"Yes John, the crickets. Now let me go to sleep and go to sleep yourself as well."
John shook his head as he heard the same noise once again. "No Li, it's not crickets, grasshoppers, or whatever else we're used to hearing. I think... I think it's a bear."
"Are you crazy? The only reason we picked this site was so we don't have any run-ins with bears. Or foxes for that matter."
John opened his mouth to respond to what Lita just said, but closed it when he heard the sound for a third time. "Can you seriously not hear it?"
"John," Lita began to say as she sat up, "you're tired so you're just hearing things. Go to sleep."
The man shook his head. "I heard it like three times."
"And I didn't hear it at all, you're just hearing things. You're just tired and you need to get some rest."
"Maybe you're right-"
"I am," Lita interjected. "I'm always right." John rolled his eyes, but didn't get a chance to say anything as she continued. "Yea, it's practically dark, but I can hear you rolling your eyes at me."
"Good night," John said as he laid back down after convincing himself that he was just hearing things and there were no bears in the surrounding area so it was safe to fall asleep right there. "What are you doing?" He asked his fiancé when he noticed she was getting up and looked like she was about to leave.
"Water," came Lita's simple response.
"Okay, I'll get you a bottle. There-"
Lita shook her head. "No John. I'm fully capable of doing that myself."
"Okay but the noise-"
"Is nothing," Lita finished for him. "I can get my own water. I'll be back," she smirked before adding he next part, "it I don't get eaten by an animal."
"That's not funny," John said as he got up from the ground. "I'm coming with you."
"No you're not John. Sit your ass back down. I'm only going to be like five minutes at the most. There are some water bottles in the cooler in the trunk of the car. I'm sure the doors are unlocked so it'll be quick."
"Li-"
"John, lay back down and go to sleep."
"Lita-"
"John."
The man sighed as he got back into the sleeping bag. He knew he wasn't going to win this battle and didn't think there was any reason to fight it because it wasn't like he heard the animal sound in the last couple of minutes so maybe he was just hearing things. "Fine. Just hurry."
Lita didn't say anything in response as she unzipped the tent and left. Once she was outside, the redhead zipped it up a bit and walked away. The woman headed towards the other tent where Chris was ready to take action in his bear suit and Dawn pressed the tape player once again to play the sounds of a bear. "Let's do this," Lita said before getting into character and letting out a loud scream which definitley got John's attention. "Oh my God! Bear!"
John sat straight up when he heard his fiancé scream. For a moment, he had a feeling the woman was just messing with him after he told her he heard sounds like it was coming from some big animal. After all, Lita did say she didn't hear a thing. "Yea yea, good one Li."
He was just about to lay back down, but then the screams continued and, thanks to some light shining outside, he was able to see the shadow of who he assumed was Lita bouncing off the tent as she ran. "Joke's over Li, you can come inside now." Once those words left his mouth, he saw an ever bigger shadow of something going after his fiancé who he noticed just tripped over something and fell. Her screams getting louder and increasing as the thing got closer to her.
"Oh shit," John said as he saw the animal get closer to Lita who was luckily able to get up on her feet and run away. But for how long would she be able to run away from the damn thing especially since she just fell for a second time.
Without giving it another thought, John got up and walked over to the 'door' of the tent and unzipped the thing before stepping out. He looked over to the right side and saw a screaming Lita lying on the floor. It was like she had just given up trying to get away from what he now saw was a bear which was a couple of hundred feet away from her. He felt his heart pounding fast as he saw the scene unfold in front of him. He didn't know what the animal would do, but he knew he didn't want to find out.
John looked down an the ground besides him and did the only thing he could think of that would be able to divert the animals attention from the woman. He picked up a rock off the floor and hurled it at the 'bear' with it hitting the 'bears' shoulder. That didn't really do much, so John picked up a rock that was a big bigger than the first one and threw it once more, with the head being hit this time.
"What the fuck?" Chris muttered to himself when he felt the second rock hit his head. This rock was bigger than the first one so he was able to feel it more. He felt the first one hit his shoulder, but he decided to ignore it, but he thought maybe it was time to make John scream like a little girl which was the plan all along.
John was just about to pick up another rock and throw it at the 'bear', but that's when the animal turned around and focused bis attention on the man. "Oh shit. Now what?" He said as he looked around him. He definitley didn't plan for this. Yea, he wanted to get the animal away from the woman, but he never really thought that he would now be the main attraction. He just thought he could grab Lita and they could get the hell out of there, but this didn't cross his mind.
"Oh shit oh shit oh shit!" John exclaimed when the animal started to come towards him. He looked over at Lita who was still lying on the ground, her hands holding her ankle, fear in her eyes. "Lita, you have to get out of here!"
Lita shook her head. "I I I can't."
"You have to Li," John said as he looked back over at the bear who was getting closer and closer yo him. The man slowly backed away, not really knowing where he was going, just creating some space between him and the creature. "Just get up and run towards the other side." He looked around them and noticed it was just the two of them and the 'bear' in the area. "How is no one hearing any of this? Oh right, we just had to set up camp far away from where other people woild be. Come to think of it, where the hell are Dawn and Chris?"
"John, I can't," Lita interrupted. "My ankle hurts. I hurt my ankle. I can't even walk on this."
John nodded as he thought about what Lita just said to him. "Okay okay. That's fine. That's fine. This will be fine. We will be fine. I mean, thing isn't that big, right? Aren't they supposed to be bigger? I can I can fight this. Yea I can. I I got this. And bears eat like fish, right? It won't do anything to me. I mean, I'm not a fish and I don't smell like a fish. There's a river like a few miles away from here, maybe I can just lead him to the river and he'll forget all about me? Hey bear, let's let's let's go. Let's let's get you some some fish. I'm I'm your friend, fish is your food, not me. Human equals friend, fish equals food. You can wait for fish, right? Oh God, what am I thinking? This thing will rip me apart even if it doesn't want to eat me. Yea, we're never coming camping here ever again. Oh God, just let me get out of here alive." John looked over to the left side when he heard footsteps that didn't belong to him or the help. "Help! Oh my God, it's help! Finally! Great! If you have a gun, shoot the bear." And with that, the bears growling seemed to get louder like he understood what John just said. "Hey, remember that we're friends and friend joke with each other all the time so relax. I wouldn't let anyone hurt so you shouldn't hurt me."
"Oh God Li!" John heard Dawn, who he soon realized was the owner of the footsteps he just heard, say through laughter as she came into sight, her phone in one hand and a tape recorder in another. "You were right, this just made the whole trip worth it."
John was so confused. Where did Dawn come from? Why, and how, the hell was the 'bear' laughing? And how did Lita, who allegedly hurt her ankle, make her way over to him?
"Thanks Chris," Lita said as the 'bear' took the head off of his own head. "Really couldn't have done this without you."
"You know what John?" Dawn said as she zoomed the camera on her phone in the man's face. "I was hoping you would have screamed more, but you talking to the bear like he could understand you and calling him your friend was hilarious."
"What the hell?"
"John," Lita began to say as she was able to stop laughing, "as Ashton Kutcher would say, you've just been Punk'd."
"You don't need to be famous to be planked like this," Dawn said as she turned her attention to Lita. "We should make this a series of YouTube."
Lita nodded in agreement. "Definitely. Why should we be the only ones being entertained by this. First episode, John. Second one, Chris."
"Hey, why me?" The blonde man questions as he glanced between the two women. "Did I or did I not just help you two pull this off?"
Dawn shrugged as she walked towards her boyfriend. "That doesn't mean you can't be our next victim."
"I helped you," Chris said as he and Dawn walked away and back to their own tent.
John was still pretty shocked by everything that just happened. At first he thought his fiancé's life was in jeaordy, then his own, only for him to find out this was just one big prank. They really got him. He was impressed, but he wasn't going to let them know.
John rolled his eyes when he heard Lita laugh all over again. "Oh yea, it's pretty funny that you could have caused me to get a heart attack."
Lita rolled her eyes as he walked to where John was still standing. "Oh lighten up John. It was just a little payback for how you ruined what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life."
"I thought you were over that."
"I am, but that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun."
"By almost killing me?"
Lita groaned. "Oh my God. Now who's acting a little dramatic? You don't have a heart condition and you're not old, nothing was going to happen to your damn heart."
"You don't know that, I could have some sort of undiagnosed condition." Lita rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything new response as she headed back to the tent with John following after her. "So you really don't care that you could have killed me?"
Lita didn't say anything right away as she got back into the sleeping bag with John doing the same after zipping up the tent. "Are you breathing?"
"Um, yea."
"Does your chest hurt?"
"Uh, no."
"How about your shoulder?"
"No. Um, Lita, why-"
"And is your heart rate back to normal." John nodded. "Great, you're not having a heart attack. And I'm really tired-"
"I'm just saying that I could have-"
"John! Do you really think I would have done this if I thought there was even a slight possibility of something like that happening to you? I might be a bitch, but I'm not always like that. I wouldn't risk someone's health, especially not yours."
"Well, you do have a tendency of being mean to me."
Lita shook her head and took a deep breath. "Seriously. Okay, John? I'm sorry you felt as if I was being mean to you, but I was only having a little fun. You're okay, nothing happened to you. I would never do anything to physically hurt."
John nodded. "I know. But you need to make this up to me now."
Lita snorted as she lay down. "No I don't. This was a prank and if you want to retaliate, by all means, go ahead. Even though I like to think that TV and proposal was a prank and this was my retaliation."
"I'll forgive you if you stop bringing that up all the time."
"But it's my job to remind you of the stupid stuff you have done in the past. And let's not forget fun."
"I thought you were tired."
"I am," Lita replied as she closed her eyes shut so she could finally get some sleep. "Good night."
"We're never going camping together again."
"Great. I guess I accomplished two things now. Kinda like how you tried to do with the TV-"
"Lita-"
"Just a friendly reminder."
John scoffed. He was pretty sure he was going to be getting these 'friendly reminders' for the rest of his life. "Good night."
Thanks for reading. Thanks for the reviews. Hope you liked this part. Let me know what you think, please and thanks. :)
