Disclaimer: I only own Ava and Jackson.

A/N: It's been a while! I'm not gonna lie, I lost motivation for a while, but it's back. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well as the story as a whole so far. Review!


With the baby monitor in hand, Ava headed back to the living room to rejoin Patricia. She had been watching the Fastlane pay-per-view while Ava had gone to put Jackson to sleep.

"Did the triple threat match happen start yet?"

"No, it's two men I think I may know, but I'm not sure," Patricia said as he turned down the volume. "Now, tell more about the wedding being postponed."

Ava looked at the screen to see it was AJ Styles and Chris Jericho wrestling. She couldn't help but smile when thinking about her first meeting with each wrestler. She took her eyes off the television screen and sat down next to Patricia.

"From the time Roman and I decided on the wedding date until we postponed it, I had been having panic attacks. Between planning, taking care of Jackson, and the miscarriage, my mind has been in so many different places I didn't know what to deal with first. It was really starting to take its toll on me. I tried to put on a happy face and brave through it, but I couldn't. I really love Roman and I can't wait for us to spend the rest of our lives together but it just didn't feel right doing it now."

Patricia nodded. "Honey, you two take your time. Neither one of you is going anywhere. You'll have the wedding when it feels right for the both of you, not just one of you."

"It really felt like a distraction, a way to keep me from thinking about the miscarriage."

"Does it still hurt you?"

Ava looked up from her hands and glanced at the television to see that Curtis Axel and R-Truth were in the ring now. She took a deep breath and looked at Patricia, smiling weakly in her direction. Yes, she thought about the miscarriage all the time. Especially now. If she hadn't miscarried, she would be seven months pregnant by now. Her original due date was April twentieth.

"It does." She sighed. "I know that sometimes these things happen. I remind myself every day that unfortunately, it does happen and it isn't the end of the world. But then out of nowhere this feeling of guilt will hit me and I suddenly feel like I failed us, like I failed the baby."

"Aww, honey." Patricia soothed as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged Ava to her. "What you are feeling is normal. Every mother in your position feels this way, but it will get better with time. You're not alone, you have Roman by your side."

"I do." Ava cried. "He's been so patient with me. I don't know why. I haven't exactly been the greatest fiancee to him lately. For the longest time I could hardly look at him without feeling guilty, sometimes I still do feel guilty. It doesn't matter how many times he says he loves me and he's there for me, it just hits me and I can't handle it."

"Have you told Roman about any of this?"

"No, I haven't." Ava wiped her tears away. "He worries about me enough as it is, I can't do this to him. We've talked about this so many times since it happened that I can't bring myself to tell him. I don't want him to think what little progress we have made has been false."

"Sweetie, if you feel this way and don't say anything it is only going to get worse. The two of you have been through so much already that I think you can get through anything now. Don't be afraid to speak up and tell him. I know my son, he won't love you any less. You're human, Ava. You can't carry this all by yourself. Being in a relationship takes a lot of work and the both of you need to work together to keep this going for yourselves, for Jackson, and any other future children you may have."

Ava broke out Patricia's embrace and sat up straight. She wiped away her tears, knowing she probably looked a mess with her eyeliner smeared and her eyes red and puffy. She sniffled in an effort to keep her nose from running. She reached over and grabbed some tissue from the box on the table.

"I know he's hurting too." She blew her nose. "I can't make this all about me."

"You won't. Once you start opening up, he will too." Patricia reassured Ava. "Sometimes I think I have to knock your heads together to give you some sense. Ava, I love you, you are family, but if I can be honest-I'm glad the wedding has been postponed. I don't want either of you to rush into something that may hurt you in the end. If you could tell Roman that you felt the wedding was being rushed, you can tell him what you just told me."

Laughing through a fresh batch of tears, she shook her head. "He caught me throwing up. I had to tell him what was wrong after I dashed his hopes of being pregnant again."

"Have you been trying?"

Ava shook her head. "Maybe we'll try this time, it's been on my mind a lot lately."

"You and Roman have a lot to talk about."

Jackson's cries interrupted their conversation. Both women looked at the monitor and Ava started getting up, only to have Patricia say she'll look in on him.

"Sit. Relax. You've been running around all day." She got up. "Besides, Roman should be coming out soon. Watch his match, I'll take care of Jackson."

She stared at the screen, her eyes following Roman wherever he went in the ring. He had his game face on, he was ready. Nothing in the world could distract him from his professional goal; getting the WWE Championship. She could see it in his eyes. She smiled, knowing at least one area of his life was going well. She sat back and watched the match, looking away any time he took a hard hit.

"How's it going?"

"All three of them are killing each other."

"So it's going well then," Patricia remarked as she sat down. "Jackson fell back asleep."

"Thank you."

They fell silent for a moment, watching the match. Ava nervously fiddled with her ring as she watched Roman wrestle and listen to the crowd boo whenever he got a move in. After talking to Patricia, she was filled with the need to see him as soon as possible. She wanted to fix things between them for real now. She couldn't take things the way they were any longer.

"Patricia, will you be able to look after Jackson for the next few days?" She asked, flinching when Dean was roughly thrown out of the ring by Brock. "I want to go see Roman."

"Do you know where Roman is heading after this show?"

"He always calls me after a show." She smiled, looking forward to hearing his voice. "I'll ask him where he's heading and then book a flight for early morning."

"Take your time, Sika and I will watch Jackson for as long as you need us to."


Roman engulfed her in a hug when she stepped out the gate and walked over to him. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she pressed her cheek to his chest, inhaling the scent of his cologne. She had missed him so much. He gave her a kiss on the lips and then broke the hug, taking her hand in his. With the other, he grabbed her small suitcase and they started out of the airport.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of you joining me on the road this week?"

"I really missed you," Ava said, gently squeezing his hand. "I was watching Fastlane with your mom last night and we got to talking and I realized I really wanted to be with you this week."

"Without the baby?"

"Without the baby. I need our focus to be on each other. We're going to ignore what's going on and only focus on Jackson."

Roman looked down at Ava, trying to keep the panic out of his facial expression. Things had been better between them lately. He thought they had put everything behind them. He stopped walking and turned to face her, still holding her hand.

"Is there something I should be worried about? Are you all right? Is it something with Jackson? I know you, Ava. You wouldn't have impulsively decided to fly out to Columbus to see me."

She closed the space between them, laying a hand on his chest. She cupped the side of his face with her other hand, looking up at him with a soft smile on her lips.

"Jackson is fine. I'm here for us." Ava whispered. "I'm so worried about us. I really want to make this work."

"Baby, we are working. It's going to be day by day."

"We'll talk more at the hotel," Ava responded. "I just want to be alone with you. My god, I've missed you so much this last week."

Roman nodded, picked up her things again and they started walking out of the airport. He kept his eyes straight ahead, hoping nobody would recognize them. The last thing he needed was for someone to hound him while he was on the brink of an anxiety attack.

"I've missed you too."


Ava collapsed on top of Roman in a sweaty, satisfied heap. Not a word was spoken between them until they had caught their breath. Her upper body rose and fell with each breath he took.

"Roman," she gasped between breaths. "I...oh god."

She wasn't sure what had gotten into him. Roman had sped to the hotel from the airport, hardly saying a word the entire ride over. Every now and again he would glance at her, dragging his tongue over his lips and then focus on the road, his foot pressing down on the gas pedal.

Roman was on her as soon as the door was locked behind them. His lips collided with hers as he backed her against the wall, his hands fumbling with her clothes. Before she knew it, they were in bed, clawing at each other as if they were sex starved. His thrusts were different, harder, more possessive. When his hand came down on her ass she moaned, a mix of pleasure and pain. Roman's deep voice growling in her ear as he took her from behind made her plead for more. His hand around her throat, grumbling if he was daddy had turned her on more than she thought it would. She didn't know what this was, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy it.

"Are you all right?" He mumbled, running a finger up and down her spine. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Ava pushed herself up so that she was hovering over Roman, leveling her face with his. She brought her lips to his, kissing him with as much passion as she could muster.

"No," Ava breathed when the kiss was broken.

Roman brought a hand to the back of her neck, holding her face inches away from his. She could feel his warm breath beating against her face as they locked eyes on each other. Her teeth were sinking into her lower lip, while his lips were held in a smirk. His free hand ran down her bare back making her shiver. When he reached her ass, he rubbed his hand against the soft flesh before giving her a hard smack. She moaned at the contact, her body gently writhing against his.

"I'm happy you're here," he whispered. "I missed you. I've missed your voice, your lips, the feel of your skin."

He let go of her, allowing Ava to slide off him and lay next to him on the bed. Roman turned on his side, propping himself up on his elbow. His tongue dragged over his lips again while eying her, appreciating the woman beside to him.

"It's during times like these that I wish you weren't gone so much." Ava finally said. "These next few days waking up beside you are going to be the best days I've had in a while."

"What brought you here?"

She sat up, wrapping the blanket around her. She blew out a breath, then glanced at her fiance, in all his glory next to her, concerned about the next words that are going to come out of her mouth.

"I love you so much, Roman. I don't think I could ever love anyone as much as I love you. We've been having such a difficult time lately. Just when we think we're doing good, I'm over here, stuck in my own head, sending us back a dozen paces."

"What's this about?"

"I know we've talked about it before and maybe after this we won't. Maybe we can finally move on after this." Ava rambled. "I've never told you this, maybe you can sense it, but I feel so guilty about all of this. About the miscarriage, about the distance between us, the wedding, the way I've been treating you, all of it. Not once throughout all of this did I ask how you were, what you were thinking."

Roman sat up straight, blowing out a breath between his lips. He rubbed his lips together, not entirely sure how to answer. Aside from caring about Ava and her health, he didn't give himself much thought. His only concern was getting her better and making their relationship stronger.

"We've both had a hard time and we're working through it."

"How are you feeling though?" She slid closer to him, threading her arm through his and laying her head on his shoulder. "I've been so self-involved lately I've hardly paid any attention to what you're feeling."

"I love you, Ava. Don't ever think for a minute that I blame you for anything; for the miscarriage, the wedding being put to the side. All I care about is us getting back to where we were."

"You haven't said much about anything but that." Ava sighed, her fingernails brushing against his forearm. "Just that you don't fault me. How do you feel? Maybe the reason we can't move on is that I don't know how you are feeling."

Roman turned his head slightly to look down at Ava. Even though she couldn't see him, he smiled down at her. All he wanted was to have her next to him like this. With work becoming more hectic, especially after becoming number one contender the night before, he could feel the pressure on him. When he came to his hotel room at the end of the night he wished Ava and Jackson were there waiting for him.

"The miscarriage did hurt me. Sometimes I wish it hadn't happened. We'd still be getting ready for the baby, maybe moving into a new house if we had continued looking for one." Roman whispered, leaning his head on top of hers. "If it hadn't had happened we wouldn't be here. It happened and here we are. I'll admit at first I was hurt, but now with time, I'm not anymore. My regrets are that I wasn't by your side when it happened and that I couldn't have been more help to you."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were already having a hard time opening up to me. I didn't want to make it worse." Roman admitted. "I opened my mouth and made it worse. I flipped when you said no more kids and I just wanted to pull away. The only way I could pull away from it was to get you into bed. I couldn't deal so I asked about setting a wedding date. Anything to distract us from the shit storm over us."

"You could have told me."

"How?" He asked. "You could barely look at me."

Ava blinked back the tears she felt pricking her eyes. She had been the absolute worst.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I should have thought about you too. I shouldn't have worried about me and how I was feeling. I should have worried about both of us, what it was doing to our family."

"We talked about this before."

"But I was still worried about myself. Jesus, I'm an awful person."

Roman lifted his head up and pulled his arm out from around hers. He turned to face her, sitting on his knees. Leaning in, he cupped the sides of her face and brought it closer to his, their lips touching.

"I never want to hear those words out of your mouth again. We're doing the best we can. I love you. You're the only person for me. You're a wonderful mother to our child. Yes, you're a pain in my ass sometimes, especially when you're right, but I wouldn't have you any other way."

"Roman, how-"

He interrupted her with a kiss. When they pulled apart, he took her left hand in his, holding it up between them. "That ring right there, you see it? We're going to make it. Yes, we started out together as what, at that time, would have been described as the world's worst hangover, but we made it through that. From our problems with Summer and Corey all the way til now, we've made it. This ring is so much more than our promise to be together. I know it and you know it. Don't for one second think otherwise."

Ava pressed her forehead to his, her eyes closed, her lower lip trembling. She had missed this closeness. She had missed these loving, tender moments with Roman. For the first time in a long time, she felt close to him. This was the first time in a few months she was sure about one other thing. She wanted to try to have another baby.

"Please don't think I'm completely insane for asking this."

Roman chuckled. "If you're insane, I'm insane."

"How would you feel if we tried to have another baby?"

He pulled back and looked at her, stunned. As he thought about it a smile spread across his lips as he shook his head from side to side, not believing what he was hearing.

"What?"

"I've been thinking a lot lately and I really want us to try again," Ava paused for a moment. "...if you want to that is."

"You want to try to have a baby? Are you sure?" He asked, still unsure if he heard right. "I thought you said you didn't want to think about more children yet."

"I know, but something about the timing sounds right. Maybe I'm dumb for mentioning it, given the miscarriage and canceling the wedding for now."

He leaned in toward her, cupping the side of her face, his thumb gently tracing her lower lip. He couldn't believe what he was hearing and at the same time, he wanted this too.

"Let's try." He whispered. "I want to do this with you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Roman pulled the blanket away from her, revealing her nude body. He licked his lips as he gently pushed her back on the bed. Crawling between her legs, he lowered his lips to hers.


A/N: Are they making a stupid mistake?