Disclaimer: Any reference to the WWE and it's superstars is used here purely for entertainment purposes only and any similarity to events real or otherwise is purely coincidence. No copyright infringement is intended.

Music Disclaimer: The song used in this story is Strong Enough by Rex Goudie. All rights are reserved to the artist and I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended.

Summary: He has the woman of his dreams by his side and twin babies to keep him busy. Life seems that it can't get any better for John Cena, until he gets the call for a return from the WWE. Will he make a return to the top or will someone from his past come back just in time to turn his life upside down?

Cast: John Cena and Trish Stratus as the main characters. Shawn Michaels as a supporting character.


Oh you're hiding in the corner with your hat
pulled down low

This was something she had seen coming, had known that eventually there would be a confrontation between the two men but she had always wished it would be in a courtroom, not the middle of their living room. The house was so filled with love, why did he have to come here now and turn it dark?

"Can I come in?" was all he asked, his face solemn, seemingly full of regret. Regret that Trish felt was completely deserved. He should damn well regret the last year of his life because he had almost ruined three others.

"Let him in John."

John moved out of the doorway in almost robotic movement. He had no words, just feelings that he had thought were finally dead and buried. The sense of foreboding he had gotten when he thought about the call he was going to make to the WWE had not been because of the end result of the call, but because the person before him now was the only real friend he had once thought he had in the company.

But that was all a charade wasn't it?" A game that he hadn't known he was a part of and yet had come out the loser on. Not something he dealt with well and seeing this man now only made the demons that threatened him that much stronger.

Trish knew from the look that was plastered on his strong features that he hadn't the words to speak so she seemed to want to do it for him. Deep down she had her own questions, or more accusations that she wanted to throw out there, and knew that they were on par with what her future husband was feeling and thinking as well.

"I thought they locked up criminals, to keep them away from the innocents that they might possibly hurt. So why the hell are you in our home, now of all times?"

He finally looked at her then, the broken man that he was and she found that looking at him now she didn't have to steel herself to anything he might say or do because her heart had been frozen to him when she had found out the real truth behind the accident and what this man had hidden for so long. She had never hated anyone in her life but this man was changing that.

"I needed to reach out to you. I know what is going to happen to me in a short period of time. So I am using Michelle's bail money to finally do the right thing. The thing I should have done from the very beginning. I need to make amends for the mess I have created."

"And if we don't want any part of it?" John asked then, finally finding his voice and the strength to stare down his former best friend. Randy Orton. The man who had caused that accident that night without so much as an explanation as to why. What had he been doing there? Was he there to find John or to make him pay for something he hadn't done?

"Then you don't have too. I just think I owe you an explanation. It has been way to long and way to overdue don't you think?"

John nodded, followed then by Trish, who seemed to be softening just a little, maybe for John or maybe because in her heart of hearts, everyone deserved the chance to speak their piece. Sometimes she wished she wasn't this good natured because a part of her wanted to kill Randy Orton for the hell he had put them all through.

"Why were you here in Toronto that night Randy? How did you come to be on the same damn road as me?"

He answered quickly, words he had been wanting to say forever and just never finding the courage or the time to say them until now. "I followed you here, I had been here as long as Trish and you had. I followed you to the AA meeting and then when you took off I followed you. I even drank in the same bar that you did."

He had been in the bar that night I was getting shit faced and he did nothing to stop me? John thought to himself, a feeling of sickness passing through him. He knew that no one, not even his supposed best friend could have stopped his binge that night, the pain of it still fresh as if it had happened only mere minutes ago, but he still should have tried. Instead it had ended badly for all of them.

"Why didn't you stop me then man? You must have saw me get behind the wheel. Why didn't you stop me?"

"Would you have listened to anything I had to say? John I could have stopped you that night but you and I both know that what happened between me and Michelle ruined that chance for the save. I got on the road behind you, not knowing how drunk I was until the accident happened."

"How did you cause it? Did you do it on purpose?"

Randy stopped then and looked away from his old friend and the woman he loved and back down to the flowers on the carpet below him. He knew it had not been intentional but was he ever going to make them believe that?

"I didn't plan it. I saw you speed up and I sped up too, I got in front of you but before I knew it I had slammed into the car head of me and then you hit into my car. You were never a part of the accident John. It was all on me. I saw what might happen that night on the road and in trying to stop it, I ended up making things a whole hell of a lot worse."

John wanted to agree with him but he knew it wouldn't do any of them any good. For all of the wrong that Randy had done, keeping everything hidden the way he had, he had in the end been trying to stop something more serious from happening. It had cost them both everything. It was only now that John was able to get just a little sliver of it back again. The answers might not have meant anything to anyone else but in that moment it had all made sense to John. Randy had been a horrible friend and he wasn't sure he could forgive him, but despite the desire not to want too, he understood him.

"I can't say thank you for what you did. Something ended up happening that night and you were the cause of it. You made me go down for something I had no part of and for that i will never forgive you. But I do understand. I should never have done what I did. I may have been the very catalyst that made this accident take place and I hold those people's deaths close to my heart because of it. But you did the wrong thing in running from it all this time."

John had a point and he knew it but he wasn't running anymore. He made a mistake, watching as John was sent to prison and had almost died because of his mistake but he was doing the right thing now and that was making it right again.

They would never be friends, hell they would never be anything more then just a passing fancy to each other now and Randy was fine with that because in the end, the raising he had gone through in life was now starting to show itself. He was finally admitting his faults and becoming the man he should have been years ago.

Whether or not he believed it, John had himself to thank for that and he always would.