A/N: If Jaxon seems to be waivering between being childish and "grown", it's because he's based off of my son. Croix is an old soul when it comes to relationships, but most other times, he's 9 going on 6. One day, we'll figure it out; but if nothing else, he's entertaining.

And on behalf of TheRealKellyAnne and I, we just want to say thanks for all of the reviews. We're really working hard on this, emailing each other when we should be doing actual work at work...but it's all good. We appreciate the reviews and that you guys are feeling this story. We're having a good time writing and talking about it...it's Randy; what's not to enjoy?


Amanda took a good hard look at herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked like shit. Her eyes were red and puffy, her nose put Rudolph's to shame, her hair looked like a rat's nest…was this what a broken heart looked like? She knew what it felt like, but damn. Did it have to show on her face too? Not even splashing cold water on her face helped. That rosy tint to her cheeks was long gone and so was that sparkle in her intense blue eyes. All that was left was the tired, puffy eyed, haggard looking woman staring back at her in the mirror.

She clicked off the bathroom light and made her way to the hall. She had to pack Jaxon's lunch, iron his school uniform and her work clothes, sign his permission slip, leave him money for liturgy, make sure his dobak was clean and presentable, and take his sparing pads from out of the drier. Then after that was done, she'd check on him, make sure his television was turned off, and then she could finally get some sleep. That is, if she could stop crying.

Being a single parent wasn't easy, especially not when she didn't feel up to doing all the shit that needed to be done. It was times like this that she wished she could just punch Travis in his damn mouth. He didn't have to be responsible, but a few times a year. He had all the time in the world to feel whatever in the hell he was feeling. But Amanda? No…for the most part, she was mother and father to Jaxon. She didn't get a break.

After performing all of her choirs and then some, everything was settled. Jaxon would have a fit about having a pepperoni sandwich on white bread instead of potato bread, but he'd get over it. She forgot to stop by the market on the way home. Big deal. She knew the amount of shit she was dealing with, one missed trip to the grocery store wasn't the end of the world. Yet somehow, she knew that her dear, sweet son wouldn't see it that way.

She grabbed the hanger with his clothes on it and made her way to his bedroom. True to form, Jaxon's bedroom light was still shining from under his door. It wasn't like she didn't remind him every day to make sure to turn out his light. With the electric company raising rates by fifty percent, she didn't have money to be illuminating his bedroom when he was asleep. And sure enough, that damn television was blasting through the door, too. How many times had she told him about using the timer? He was the one that showed her how to use it.

She wasn't going to go in there fussing and wake him up because that would only mean that he would start whining and then eventually end up falling asleep in her bed. No…she'd get into it in the morning, even though he would deny that he had left either on. Just as she turned the handle, she heard his voice. It was going on ten o'clock and Jaxon should have been asleep. And judging by his tone of voice, he wasn't up playing with his action figures.

"You better be so lucky that you're bigger than me because I'd pedigree your ass and then put you in the FU. Then who would be crying, punk?" Jaxon yelled into the receiver. He wasn't listening to anything that Randy said. His only mission was to get Randy to apologize.

"Jaxon, you need to calm down." Randy's voice rang through the phone.

"Well you need to stop being such a jerk and say you're sorry. My mom's been nice to you, loser. She really likes you and I don't know why because you're not half as cool as my dad is. My dad doesn't make her cry." Jaxon adjusted himself on his pillows as he wrote out a list of reasons why his father was better for his mother than Randy Orton was. "And my dad can fight. He doesn't get his ass beat on TV in front of everybody like you do."

Amanda swung open the door and glared at her son. "Jaxon Antonio Williams!" She couldn't even think of anything else to say to him, she was just that pissed.

Jaxon's eyes were huge. He knew he was going to get in trouble for this, but it was worth it. If Randy apologized, then his mom would stop being so sad. But then again, there was that little issue of the few bad words that she might have heard. "What? I'm gonna make him say he's sorry." He waved his hand at her as if to tell her to wait and see.

"Give me the phone." She held her hand out and rolled her eyes at him. "And get your ass in that damn bed."

"Fine." Jaxon's reign of terror was temporarily delayed, but it was far from over. "You're lucky…live in fear." He said to Randy before handing the phone over.

"I'll deal with you in a minute." Amanda took the phone and walked out into the hallway. She took a deep breath before putting it up to her ear. "I'm sorry he called you."

Randy's voice was soft coming across the line and the concern was audible. "Nah…it's fine. He said you've been crying. Are you okay?"

Why was he doing this? He broke her heart. She was crying because of him. "Don't act like you care." She couldn't think of anything else to say. He had said it all when he ended their relationship. He told her how he really felt, so what was the use in talking about it now? "Jaxon won't be calling you again."

"Mandy…"

She hung up the phone and rested her back against the wall. Talking to Randy had never been hard before. Not even from their first real conversation had she stumbled. But now, just hearing his voice was the hardest thing she had ever done.

"Next please." Amanda called the next person on line to her station. Working for the post office had its perks; she could retire by the age of 55, made pretty decent money, and great health benefits. Her bosses were flexible with her schedule when it came to Jaxon and she had been fortunate to make a few friends there through the years. But no matter how much she loved her job, it had its downside. Christmas. During the holidays it was a madhouse. The lines snaked around the building from open to close, people were cranky and downright rude at times, as if they were the only ones that had holiday shit to do. Did anybody care that she still had gifts to buy? Were they concerned that Travis promised Jaxon a PS3 and most likely wouldn't deliver? She doubted that any of the evil asses in line were going to dig up six hundred dollars to make sure that her kid wasn't disappointed on Christmas morning. "You…on the cell phone…are you getting something?"

As Amanda called out yet again for the next person to come up to her register, she could feel the fatigue setting in. She shouldn't have staying out all night with Jaxon and his friends. She could barely keep her eyes open and dealing with the mad Christmas rush wasn't doing much for her current mood. Neither was the fact that when she got home, Jaxon had a football game. There would be no sleep in the near future and it pissed her off.

When the man made his approach she didn't greet him with her normal smile. Instead, she rested her weight on one leg and stared blankly at him. It was at that point that Amanda felt something inside of her snap. Maybe it was the pressure of the holidays. Maybe it was her lack of sleep from last night's adventures at Raw. Amanda wasn't sure what it was, all she knew was that the idiot in front of her waited a good half hour on line for a freaking book of stamps when there was a perfectly good stamp machine by the front door. And what was worse was, she couldn't figure out why she cared.

"I'm going on break." Amanda said abruptly and walked away from the counter. She didn't give a shit about the groans from the line as she stepped out of her station. She was doing this for their own good. If she didn't get the hell away for a few minutes, she was liable to take a hostage.

No sooner did she settle down at the break room table and mange to place her head on her folded arms did her cell phone ring. That's all she needed. All she wanted to do was to take a fifteen minute nap, but of course it wouldn't work out that way. "Hello?"

She could hear the rustling of paper in the background as the person on the other end of the phone answered her. "Yeah… is this Amanda?"

"Who's this?" She could hear the annoyance in her own voice.

"It's Randy." He said it like she should have known exactly who he was.

"Randy, who? Do I know you?" Amanda was tired; damn tired. She didn't have time to play this little guessing game with the person on the phone.

Randy who? What the hell? What did she mean, Randy who? "Randy Orton."

"Okay?" If this was telemarketer, she was going to fuck this guy up. She didn't know anything more about who was on the phone than before she asked his name. But since he wasn't offering anymore conversation, she decided she wouldn't protest. She only had fifteen minutes and she wasn't wasting it telling some guy trying to sell her something exactly what he could do with his product. "I don't know if that's supposed to mean anything to me, but I think you might have the wrong number. And by chance you don't, I'm not interested in whatever you're selling."

Randy had gotten a multitude of reactions from women throughout his career, but never once had he had a woman hang up on him. He sat in his hotel room, looking at his phone for a minute. It actually took some time for it to register to him, but this chick had actually hung up the phone. Shaking his head, he dialed her again. One thing was for sure, Amanda would never forget who he was again, even if he had to bang her until the sun came up. By the time it was all said and done, she would be saying his name repeatedly.

As soon as her phone rang again, Amanda answered it with a vengeance. "Listen, Randy…I told you I'm not interested. Don't call me again."

"You always so hostile?"

"What?" Why was she even talking to this guy? The last time she'd made the mistake of talking to someone who dialed the wrong number, she figured out with the quickness that he was a fucking lunatic. "I don't know which Amanda you're trying to get, but I'm not her."

It was like a game to him. He was annoying her and breaking her down would be the fun part. "Then why'd you give me your number last night?"

"I didn't give you my number." She thought back to what she had done the night before. Cooked dinner, took Jaxon to Raw, waited around for autographs, get chased by some intern…gave her number to this cute guy that Jaxon said was a juice head… "Oh wait. Are you that guy from the Arena?"

That guy from the Arena? What the fuck was that? "I'm not that guy from the Arena, I'm thee guy from the Arena. You really don't know who I am, do you?"

"Oh…" Amanda was less than impressed. Sure he was cute, but so were a lot of other people that didn't call her in the middle of her break. "I don't know. You're the guy that got his friend to get my number like you were in fucking fifth grade or something. How am I doing so far?"

Cute and spunky. He could work with that. "I'll give that to you. It wasn't one of my smoothest approaches."

"Well thank God for that. I thought that was as smooth as you got." Looking up at the clock again, Amanda cursed herself for ever giving him her number to begin with. Her break was damn near over and she still hadn't gotten to take a catnap. "Did you want something? Because I have things to do."

"I thought I could make my lack of smoothness up to you. I want to take you to lunch. I have an autograph signing today around two, so if you could drop by my hotel now that would be great." If Randy had one thing going for him, it would be his balls. They were huge. His intentions were simple; get her to come to the hotel, bang her, and get her to leave. It would kill a couple of hours before the autograph session.

Standing up from the table, Amanda stretched. Her break was officially over and she needed to get back out to enjoy the inner workings of the United States Postal Service. "Ahh…no."

"I'm sorry? Did you just say no?" Not only had she hung up on him, but she had the nerve to turn him down. Didn't this woman know who he was? No…she didn't. That was the problem.

"Yes." Walking slowly toward the front counter, Amanda yawned. "Look, Randy; I've gotta get back to work. Thanks for the phone call."

Damn regular people with their real jobs. "Come on…it's just lunch. You gotta eat, right?" He couldn't believe she was making him chase her. Who did Amanda Wilcox think she was? Had she known who he was, then his reputation would have spoken for him. Now it was his mission to literally charm the pants off of this woman.

"Yeah…I eat, but I don't date. And I really gotta go."

"Come on…one lunch."

Just what she needed, fine and persistent. Why didn't he understand that her life didn't have time to deal with him? "Fine…I get a lunch break at eleven thirty. I'm going to the Hopkins Deli…it's in the Mercantile Building. Ask concierge how to get there. Bye."

Again, Randy found himself looking at the phone. He had invited her out, yet she dominated where they were going to go. That wasn't his plan. Oh, she making him work; she better be worth it. And even though he didn't like the fact that he had to put forth so much effort, he'd be lying if he didn't say he was looking forward to getting know her.

It was just one lunch. She would go there, talk to him, figure out that he wasn't really interested and she could get back to her normal life. She didn't have time to date and really, once he found out about Jaxon, it would be short lived anyway.

"Why did you do that?" She stood at Jaxon's door watching the way he squirmed under her scrutiny. "There was no reason for you to call Randy."

"I just wanted you to stop crying. I was this close to getting him to say he was sorry." He held out his fingers to signal to her just how close he actually was. "He was scared, Mom. I can tell."

Walking over to Jaxon's bed, Amanda sat down. She knew that he didn't understand what happened or why relationships didn't work that way. He meant well, she understood that, but Jaxon needed to be a child and not worry about it. "Jax…it's not the same when make somebody apologize."

"Why not? You make me apologize all the time. Every time I do something wrong in school or if I get in a fight with one of my friends, you always say, 'Jaxon…you better apologize'." He mocked her voice as he explained. "I was just doing the same thing."

How could she argue with that logic? "It's over Jax. Me and Randy are over and I don't think we're gonna be friends. There's nothing left to say." She leaned down and kissed her son, before pulling the covers up over his body. "Now go to sleep…you've got school in the morning. And plenty of things to do around this place tomorrow while you enjoy being grounded."

"You can't be serious." Jaxon sat straight up in the bed. "I was trying to help. You can't ground me…I didn't do anything. You never once said I couldn't call Randy."

"You're not grounded because of that. I've told you before about your mouth. I heard some of the stuff you said. And the word ass? The next time it comes out of your mouth, I'm gonna break your lips." Pushing Jaxon back down on the bed by his forehead, Amanda hovered over him. "Good night. I love you."

"I love you, too, although I don't know why. I wouldn't ground you and your mouth is way worse than mine."

Amanda shook her head and walked to Jaxon's door. "Go to sleep, brat." Turning out the light, she turned back toward his bed. "Thanks, Jax."

He laid his Cena and Hardy action figures on the bed next to him. "Anytime."