You rock guys. Thanks for all of the feedback, and keep it coming! This is dedicated to biblicalforte, because I told her it would be posted yesterday, but I lied.
Also, I would just like you all to know, that I'm contemplating starting two new stories based off animes that I'm in love with (Prince Of Tennis&&s-CRY-ed). Drop a comment if you'd be interested in reading them (;
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable character in this story. All rights go to the WWE, with the exception of the characters Neah and Hayley. All original ideas, plots, ect. belong to me.
It took John close to thirty minutes before he was finally calm enough to take Neah from Adam. The little girl was rather hesitant to allow him to hold her though, which nearly made John break down into tears. He'd never had anger problems like Randy did, but he did have a temper. Usually, it wasn't a big deal; he'd accidentally break something and then pay to replace it. But this time, he'd scared his baby so bad she didn't want him to hold her. It was a devastating blow to his fatherly pride.
"Neah," He murmured, pressing her head onto his chest lightly and whispering again her ear, "I'm sorry I scared you baby. I'm so sorry. I would never hurt you, Neah. Absolutely never, and I'll never let anyone else hurt you either. Not anymore."
He couldn't tell if Neah really understood his words, but he knew she got the jist of what he was telling her. She cuddled into his arms, sniffling lightly and gripping his t-shirt as he continued to bounce her lightly. John was still furious, absolutely enraged, but he knew that for the sake of his daughter, he had to pretend everything was alright; at least for a while.
In the hotel's restaurant, the rag-tag group of superstars sat at a booth in the far corner, Neah settled on John's lap. She flat out refused to sit in the booster seat, telling Randy through his signs that she was a big girl. John was slowly beginning to learn her signs from watching her and repeating them. He already knew please, thank you, blanket, tired, love, sorry, and hungry. While Randy didn't want to admit it, for his pride's sake, John was a pretty good father.
"What do you want to eat, Neah?" He questioned, looking down at the little girl in his lap.
She was playing with a couple of crayons and a colouring page that had the kid's menu on it. For a two year old, she was surprisingly good at staying inside of the lines. That and her trees were actually green, instead of red like the little boy's a few tables over. Neah looked up at John for a few seconds before shrugging and changing from yellow to blue, colouring the little bird that was sitting in the biggest tree on the page.
John rolled his eyes, "Do you want a hamburger?"
Neah shook her head again, barely even paying attention. Randy smirked, along with Mike Mizanan, Adam Copeland, and Stephen Farrelly, The Miz, Edge, and Sheamus respectively. The little girl didn't seem very interested with anything John was saying, even though they'd heard her stomach growl after her bath.
"Do you want... a hot dog?"
Neah tilted her head back, looking at her daddy upside down, "No."
The guys all snickered at the disgruntled look on John's face as she once again went back to her colouring. Neah was obviously not impressed. Her stomach growled again and she pouted, dropping her crayons and reaching over her drawing to grab her chocolate milk, taking a sip through the straw. When her stomach grumbled again, she looked down at her tummy and patted it, as if consoling it's hunger with an 'I'm sorry'.
John frowned as well, gently lifting her off his lap and turning her so that she was facing him, "Neah baby, what do you want to eat?"
"No."
Randy raised his eyebrow, motioning for John not to argue with her. The older man furrowed his brow in confusion but did as his friend suggested and slipped her back into his lap. When the waitress came over, the superstars all ordered their food, Randy asking for an extra plate as well. The food came about fifteen minutes later, the empty plate being set just to the side of Neah's colouring page. John was still confused, watching as Randy grabbed a handful of the fries off his plate.
"Man, this is way too much, I'll just put them to the side, encase someone else is still hungry," He stated, his statement obviously carrying a double meaning.
For a moment, the rest of the guys just blinked, extremely confused. Randy could eat a horse and still have room for desert. It wasn't until they noticed Neah eyeing the french fries on the extra plate that they realized what Randy was doing. John made a mental note to thank him, quickly following his lead.
"I know what you mean, dude," He stated, "This is a lot of food."
He grabbed one of the chicken strips on his plate, he'd been planning to try and get Neah to eat them before Randy introduced his ingenious plan, and started ripping it into bite size pieces. Obviously seeing the suspicion on the young girl's face, Adam quickly sent his friend a stern look.
"Stop playing with your food, it's bad manners."
John tried not to grin as he dropped the small pieces of chicken onto the extra plate, "Sorry, sorry."
Adam rolled his eyes and cut off a few pieces of the pancakes he'd ordered, since the restaurant had breakfast all day, and placed them onto the extra plate. Neah's eyes were once again drawn to the plate, which was quickly filling up with some of her favourite foods, namely chicken and pancakes.
"Are you okay, Neah?" Mike teased, placing the tomatoes and a piece of bacon from his burger onto the plate, "You stopped colouring."
The little girl's head instantly snapped down and she picked up a crayon, furiously colouring in the sun. The men all tried to hold back her laughter as she accidentally broke her yellow crayon. Instead of being upset about it, Neah looked genuinely shocked, as if she couldn't believe her darling crayon would break on her. She looked over at Stephen, who was sitting next to her and held it out with a frown on her face.
"I get the broken crayon?" He asked with a suppressed grin, "You're so kind, darling."
Neah had almost instantly taken to Stephen and from what John could tell, it was because of his hair, like Adam. She nodded her head and dropped the crayon into his open hand. When she thought no one was looking, she grabbed a piece of chicken off the plate and popped it in her mouth, chewing and swallowing quickly.
"Hmm," Stephen hummed, stirring his clam chowder absently, "Neah, do you like soup?"
When the little girl looked up and shrugged, Stephen scooped a spoon full of soup and carefully blew on it to cool it down before looking back at her. Neah was eyeing the spoon suspiciously as the rest of the men watched, slowly eating their food.
"Would you try a bite? I'm not sure that I like it, but if you do, you can have it."
Neah once again leaned back, looking at John upside down, as if she felt she needed permission, "Go on and try some."
She nodded and leaned over the table with John's help, allowing Stephen to spoon her some of the chowder. After a few seconds of thought, Neah licked her lips and nodded, signing 'like it'. When Randy relayed the message, the Irishman quickly slid his bowl across the table in front of her and John. She picked up the spoon hesitantly and took another mouthful, humming lowly as she began to sway happily in John's lap.
Whatever had been wrong with her earlier was no longer, as she began to eat and soup and some of the chicken and fries off the other plate. She also ate the tomato slice, giggling when Mike made a face at her. John laughed, tilting Neah's head back and kissing her little cheek.
"Silly goose," He teased, "You were hungry."
Neah shrugged, still giggling as she continued to eat what had been set aside by the guys. They'd settled into a conversation about the House show that night when John's replacement phone began to buzz in his pocket. He groaned, carefully shifting Neah into Adam's lap and sliding out of the booth before heading into the hotel lobby to take the call. There was no name on the caller ID, making John frown. Usually, he didn't take calls from unknown numbers, encase it was a random fan who'd managed to get his number. But because it was a replacement phone, he hadn't been able to put in all of his contacts yet.
"Hello?"
"John.. It's, uhmm, it's Eliza."
Suddenly, John's blood began to boil and his grip on his poor, defenseless cellphone began to tighten, "Care to fucking explain, Eliza?"
He could hear her sudden, sharp intake of breath, "Look, John, it's not like there was anything I could do to stop her... Neah wasn't my kid, I didn't have a say in how Hayley raised her."
"You stupid, ignorant bitch," He hissed darkly, "Nothing you could do? A two year old girl was being abused and you fucking knew it. You could've fucking reported it, you heartless bitch!"
Eliza took her time in formulating a response, knowing that John was absolutely furious, "You've known the kid for a day, you have no idea how much trouble she was for Hayley. You have no idea.. how much that kid meant to Hayley. She gave Neah up because she loved her."/
"What fucking bullshit," John replied sharply, "When I take Hayley to court on abuse charges, you better be prepared to sit right beside her, as an accomplice to child abuse."
He abruptly hung up the phone, not wanting to hear anymore of Eliza's excuses. There was no way Neah had ever been trouble for Hayley, apart from the usual crying, potty training, and feeding. He took a few minutes to calm down before going back into the restaurant, plastering a fake smile over his face for everyone elses sake.
"Who called?" Randy asked, watching as his best friend slid into the bench across from him.
"Wrong number," John stated, rolling his eyes.
The guys all seemed to accept his response and went back to their conversation. John helped Neah back into his lap, turning her to face him when she squirmed. The little girl put her hands on his cheeks and tilted her head to the side with a frown. She could tell her daddy was upset, but she didn't know why.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder, making him really smile. He carefully slipped his arms around her tiny form, gently petting her hair as she yawned. It had already been a long day and it was only two in the afternoon. John figured the next couple of months would all be long, but he would get through it. If not for himself, than for his daughter.