Chapter Three

"Again, Baron, this is not what you think," Hunter said, and Barron wasn't sure if his voice sounded forceful or nervous or both. "Not at all!"

Baron raised his index finger, making a "hush" gesture. "Hold on, Hunter," he said, "let's wait for the beers, okay?" He was trying not to break out laughing, and was succeeding at that, but he wasn't able to keep from grinning. The idea that Hunter was in this mess was just something that amused him. Hunter, who always came across like he was all business, Hunter who presented himself as someone who worked hard, but when he wasn't working, was one hundred percent devoted to his wife and his children. That Hunter, his boss, had clearly made one hell of a mistake. Hunter, proving to the world that he had feet of clay.

Stephanie came back into the room, holding two bottles of beer by their necks with one hand, and a glass of wine in the other. "I knew this would happen," she said, her tone dark. She handed Hunter one of the bottles of beer, and for a moment, Baron thought she would throw the other one at him, then she thrust it out to him instead.

Baron took it, feeling instantly ashamed. Stephanie might play a bitch for the WWE, and play the role well enough that he suspected it wasn't all just acting. She might be stern when it came to business, but she had always been a decent person to her employees. On top of that, Baron had observed Stephanie before, when she thought no one was watching her, times with just Hunter, sometimes with Hunter and their three daughters. Stephanie might be the epitome of the hard nosed business woman, but when she was focused on Hunter or her daughters, she softened. Say what you want about Stephanie, but no one could argue her devotion to her family. Baron wasn't sure about the circumstances that had lead to this woman being pregnant with Hunter's baby, but he knew that it was bothering Stephanie. Baron had no problems teasing Hunter about this, but he didn't want to hurt Stephanie, it wasn't fair. "I'm sorry," he found himself mumbling as he twisted open the bottle. He looked at Hunter, as Stephanie settled down on the sofa next to him, with her glass (actually, a twelve ounce tumbler) of wine.

"I didn't cheat on Stephanie, if that's what you're thinking," Hunter said, looking at Baron through narrowed eyes. "I'd never do that."

"Okay," Baron said. He wanted to make another joke, perhaps ask Hunter that if he didn't cheat, how did it happen? Had this girl fallen to the ground naked and Hunter fell on top of her, also naked? But he fought the urge. "Uh, then, how did she get pregnant, with your baby, Hunter?"

"Artificial insemination," Hunter said.

"Oh." Baron frowned, feeling uncomfortable. "Uhm… okay." He had the feeling there were questions he was supposed to ask, and questions he was not supposed to ask and he wasn't sure which was which. And he had a feeling that if he asked the wrong questions, the discomfort would rise to even worse levels.

Fortunately, it seemed that Hunter anticipated that Baron had questions and decided to answer them before he asked them. "You know I love my daughters," he said, his voice almost soft, his eyes taking on a far away look, just for a moment, "There's nothing I wouldn't do for them. But, I have to confess, I'd love to have a son."

Baron nodded, not wanting to speak, merely wanting to encourage Hunter to continue. But to his surprise, Stephanie spoke up instead. "Hunter and I decided to have one more child." She paused to take a sip of wine. "We were hoping for a boy, but it didn't matter, we figured we'd have one last child, male or female, this was it. So, I did what any woman does, I went off my birth control and we tried. Since it's been awhile since I was pregnant, we weren't sure if I'd be able to get pregnant, or if we'd end up going to a fertility specialist, but as it turns out, my body was working just fine. I got pregnant the second month we were trying."

"Okay, well, you don't look pregnant and you don't have a fourth kid, so what happened?" Baron asked.

"Do you remember the accident?" Hunter asked.

For a moment, Baron thought Hunter meant his own accident with blonde and pink Lexi, of the Hello Kitty Smart car, but then he remembered, about a year ago, Stephanie had been in a car accident of her own. Hunter had been down in Florida, working with NXT and Stephanie had flown in to see him. If Baron remembered correctly, Hunter had offered to pick her up from the airport, but Stephanie had elected to have a car and driver pick her up, that she didn't want to interrupt Hunter's work. She never made it to Full Sail. Instead, Hunter's phone had rung and it had been the hospital, there had been an accident and Stephanie had been hurt.

Baron remembered that day clearly, because Hunter had turned Sheamus white first, then Paige white and finally, Casper The Friendly Ghost white, and ran out of the auditorium. For awhile, nobody knew what was going on, then Billy Gunn called all of them together and told them that Stephanie had been in an accident, and it was serious. Billy hadn't had any details, and now that Baron recalled, he never heard any real details. Stephanie got in an accident, she spent a few days in the hospital, but then she was fine and soon enough, it became yesterday's news. Stephanie had her right arm and her lower left leg in a cast for awhile, but that was it. The WWE, being the WWE had spun a story line about The Shield or some other anti-authority group, Baron wasn't sure of the exact details, going after her to explain to the audience why Stephanie was in a cast. In other words, it soon became business as usual and everyone forgot about it.

Well, maybe that's everyone that could forget about it, did, Baron thought, "I remember it happened," he finally said in answer. "I was never privy to the fine details."

"Nobody was," Stephanie said. "But, needless to say, I lost the baby. We hadn't told anyone yet, we were waiting until the end of the first trimester, when the risk of miscarriage drops significantly." The entire time she spoke, she looked at the tumbler of wine in her hands, refusing to look at either of the two men in the room.

"But it was worse than that," Hunter said. He was alternating his gaze between Stephanie and Baron, but mostly looking at Stephanie, obviously sensing her distress. "They had to perform surgery on her, the accident left her... unable to have children."

It all clicked into place for Baron then. "So, you couldn't try again for a baby, but you guys still wanted one, so you decided to find a woman to donate the egg and the womb."

"Yes," Hunter said, sounding relieved that Baron now understood that he had not cheated on Stephanie. "And we found the perfect woman."

Baron had no doubt that Hunter and Stephanie had found the perfect woman to bear their child. They didn't do anything half-assed, but that still didn't answer why they had this woman in such isolation that they were willing to set him up for the rest of his life just to keep her company. "So, what's the problem?" he asked. "You made an arrangement with this woman, she'll have the baby and turn him or her over to you. Why do you have to hide her on your property?"

"Because we don't want anyone knowing the baby isn't mine," Stephanie said, taking a rather healthy swallow of wine.

"Why not?" Baron asked, brow furrowing. Yeah, sure, there were some folks who might demean or degrade Stephanie for being unable to have another child, some who would think Hunter and Stephanie were wrong, that if they couldn't have a child that biologically belonged to both of them, then they shouldn't bother, it wasn't like they had no children to speak of. But, Baron thought Stephanie and Hunter were strong enough to weather that storm.

"Because-" Stephanie blurted out, then stopped abruptly as if she wasn't sure if she should continue or not.

"Because there are some folks we know who won't approve" Hunter cut in, answering for her.

"Oh, why beat around the bush?" Stephanie said, and now she was looking right at Hunter. "Considering what we're asking, we might as well be honest." She shifted her gaze to Baron. "My father wouldn't like this idea at all," she said firmly. "I love my dad, I think he's a great man in a lot of ways, but he has some strangely old fashioned ideas about bloodlines. If he were to find out this baby technically carries absolutely no McMahone blood? He will never accept him. Oh, he'd think he had, my father isn't a monster. He'd play doting grandfather, come to all the family functions, he and my mother would spoil him at Christmas and on his birthday, but when it came time to make them a part owner in the WWE, or came time to rewrite his will? I think this child would be forgotten."

Interesting, it seems like Stephanie is already counting on this child being a boy, Baron thought. Will she feel the same if this woman is carrying another little girl? Although, to be fair, he wasn't sure, perhaps the pregnancy was already far along enough to know the sex of the child. "You don't want this kid to feel like an outsider in his or her own family," he said.

"Exactly," Stephanie said, nodding and looking pleased that Baron got it so quickly. "And I know my father wouldn't really mean for it to happen, but it would happen. It would be even worse if the child does turn out to be a boy."

Thus answers that question, Baron thought. They don't know, yet. "I guess I can see that," he admitted truthfully. He hadn't spent much time with Vince, the man was not on the road a lot and had little to nothing to do with NXT, but Baron knew that Stephanie was right. Vince probably wouldn't admit to it out loud, but he would treat this kid differently, and the kid would pick up on it. "But, how are you going to pass yourself off as pregnant?" Baron asked, looking Stephanie up and down.

"We've got that covered," Hunter spoke up now. "We're going to take some time off from the business. Vince and Linda have already been told that Stephanie is pregnant and creative is going to find a way to write us out for awhile. We've also told Vince that we are going to have a home birth."

I wonder what he thought of that, Baron mused but didn't say out loud. He couldn't imagine Vince as someone who would approve of midwives and home births. In fact, if Baron had to venture a guess, he would imagine Vince more as the type to dismiss these things as tree hugging, crunchy, hippie bullshit. But, he didn't figure this was his problem to worry about. "Okay, so I still don't see why you have to have this woman on your property. Can't she just stay somewhere, stay with her family until she's just about to give birth?"

"No," Hunter said. "The girl has no family. Her father-" he began, then abruptly stopped. "Never mind, let's just leave it as she has no family."

"No, Hunter, not fair. What about her father?" Baron asked. "C'mon, you're asking me to go and keep this girl company, I have a right to know what's going on with her, besides just being pregnant with your baby. What's up with her father?"

Hunter sighed. He was still holding the bottle of beer, and it looked barely touched, but now he brought it to his lips, taking a healthy swallow. No doubt as a stalling tactic. "I knew her father," he finally said. "He was a wrestler, his real name was Victor McCarthy. We met in the Indies. He eventually did get signed by the WWE, but he never made it further than lower development. He did a few house shows and Pre-shows when we were in the area. I think he had real potential, but he got caught up in the party life. Developed a very real and very serious drug problem, which was too bad. His wife was a wrestler too, Susanna. She wasn't a bad wrestler, but she mostly played valet for Victor." He paused again to take another swallow of beer, his eyes taking on a distant look, obviously caught up in the memory. "They had this thing they did. He was the devil, she was the angel. His ring name was Lou Cypher. She was Angelica."

"Lou Cypher? Lucifer?" Baron snorted. "Are you serious?"

Hunter nodded. "I know, it sounds cheesy, and it really should have been, but Victor played it to the hilt. He never broke character, and always played it seriously. If the drugs hadn't gotten so bad with him, there were plans on bringing him up to WWE and having him work with 'Taker and Kane. It's too bad, I think they could have done well with that."

The fact that it was also part of the nineties era of wrestling probably helped, too, Baron thought, but did not say out loud,those were pretty cheesy times. "Well, obviously something happened to both Dad and Mom, because you said this girl has no family."

Now both Stephanie and Hunter looked at each other for a long time, and Baron wasn't sure what he saw in their expressions, concern? Fear? Both? And something else, as well. Their faces showed an emotional salad to be sure, but if it was salad, the dressing was revulsion. "What happened to her parents?" Baron asked, a little more forceful this time.

"They...died," Hunter finally said.

Baron knew this was barely scratching the surface the situation. "How?" he asked. "Because from yours and Stephanie's reaction, it wasn't typical and it wasn't pretty."

"It wasn't," Stephanie said, biting her lip.

"When the WWE let Vic go, things didn't improve for him," Hunter said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "They tried to get him into rehab, but he wasn't interested. He jumped on the independent circuit for awhile, each time going further downhill. But, Susanne stayed with him. I pretty much lost touch with him then, I only heard stories from others. It seemed that , he did try to straighten himself out for awhile, after his daughter was born, and it worked for awhile, but then he fell again, and fell even harder. Eventually, the drugs drove him crazy..." Again, Hunter's voice trailed off as if he really wanted to leave it at that.

A horrible thought slithered its way into Baron's mind. "Another Benoit?" he asked.

Hunter nodded. "It didn't get the press Benoit did, because Vic was pretty much an unknown. But, he killed his wife, then turned the gun on himself. But, he spared his daughter."

Lucky girl, Baron thought, but then wondered if that was really true. Knowing your dad killed your mom and then himself? That's going to leave a lot of emotional scars. That's an episode of Dr. Phil right there. Possibly Maury too. "How old was she?"

"Six," Stephanie answered, looking down at the ground.

"Wow, that's rough," Baron shook his head. He had a million more questions, but he wasn't sure if he should ask them now.

Apparently, Stephanie thought he'd heard enough as well, because she finished what was left in her glass of wine and put the glass on the coffee table with a bit of a bang, not enough to make Baron or Hunter flinch, but enough that it became a signal. "So, the offer has been made," she said, her tone one of brisk efficiency. "Are you interested?"

"Well, yeah, I'm not stupid," Baron said. "That's a pretty generous offer. And, as you can see..." He motioned to himself, then to the apartment, "I'm not really able to take care of myself. I hope this girl, uhm, what's her name?"

"Rhiannon," Hunter replied.

"Rhiannon," Baron repeated the name, "I hope Rhiannon realizes that should I take this deal, I'm not exactly going to be able to be much help with the housework. Is she ready to play housemaid? Is she able to handle being my nurse, my caretaker?"

"She's not very far along," Hunter said. "She can handle it."

"And, having someone to take care of will be good for her," Stephanie said, sounding slightly annoyed. When Baron fixed her with a sharp gaze, she sighed. "Rhiannon is one of those people who was born to nurture," she explained. "She does a lot of volunteering in her spare time. I think half the problem she's having adjusting, isn't just being alone, it's that she isn't helping someone. Some folks are like that, they are at their best when they can care for others."

Baron understood that, he'd know a few people like that in his life, people who were at their best when they could help another human being. But he wondered about this woman, this Rhiannon. Why would someone who loved to care for others, be so willing to have and then give up a baby? She might be someone who wants to care for others, but she has her price, he thought. I wonder how much Hunter and Stephanie are willing to pay her for what she's doing for them? I'll bet it's more than ninety grand a year. "Can I sleep on this?" Baron asked. "One night, and I promise to give you my answer in the morning."

Hunter and Stephanie exchanged looks again, but Hunter shrugged. "I guess that will be acceptable."

Stephanie looked at him. "We took you in confidence, Baron," she said. "Even if you don't want to come up and keep Rhiannon company, we do expect you to keep quiet about this. Very quiet."

"Oh? What incentive will you offer me for that?" Baron tried not to smirk. "Because I'm pretty sure you're going to try to buy my silence."

"We'll talk about that, tomorrow," Hunter said, rising from the sofa.

By the time he went to bed, Baron still hadn't decided what he was going to do, his brain was split down the middle. He saw the advantage of the offer, it was hard not to see that, but there still seemed to be something odd about it. Baron wasn't someone who made friends easily. Part of the reason why he worked well with the Lone Wolf image he had, was that it was based a lot on the truth. Once he did make a friend, he was loyal, but he needed the time. The idea of just going up to Connecticut, where he had no friends at all, to live with a total stranger, a total stranger who was pregnant with his bosses kid, was about a nine on the discomfort scale. Throw in that they'd be living on the same property as the boss and his other boss, Hunter's wife, and the discomfort shot up to about twelve.

He ended up having pizza and a twelve pack of beer delivered for dinner, which he ate and drank in front of the TV. He had Netflix and he treated himself to binge watching The Walking Dead. And he told himself that watching TV had distracted him from being able to think about the situation and figure out what he wanted. But, oddly, he could barely remember anything he watched.

He went to bed about midnight, slightly drunk. He also took one of his painkillers, which put him to sleep by the time his head hit the pillow, which was nice. But then at four in the morning, he woke up, feeling hung over and pill groggy along with an almost violent urge to pee. For a moment, he completely forgot about the accident and found himself jumping out of bed to get to the bathroom. The moment he was up, his body reminded him by having his knee buckle and his hip gave out and he went falling to the floor in a heap, pain shooting through him. Later, he would feel sorry for the people who lived in the apartments above, below and next to him, because he knew he let out a shriek. But at that moment, he didn't give a crap if he rendered them all deaf with his cry.

He ended up crawling into the bathroom, which hurt too, and unfortunately, the pain did not lessen his urge to pee, in fact it seemed to make it worse. God, I can't stand, he thought. I can't get to my feet! He crawled over to the sink, and struggling, held himself up on one arm and reached up with the other, feeling around until he found the bottle of painkillers he'd left last night. He got two out of the bottle, popping them into his mouth, and chewing on them, grimacing at the bitter taste, but hoping they would work faster that way.

They did work fast, but not fast enough and much to his horror and shame, he pissed himself, soaking his boxers, getting urine all over the title floor. I give up, he thought, feeling tears behind his eyes and fighting to keep them from spilling out. I just give the fuck up.

But he didn't give up. He laid on the floor for a bit, ashamed and horrified at having pissed himself, feeling like a failure for doing something he hadn't done since he was a toddler. For awhile, he allowed himself to wallow in that self pity, then he pulled himself together. He got his boxers off, and ended up using them to mop up the floor, then put them in a sink full of hot water to soak. He managed to get himself into the shower to wash up. Thank god that his ex girlfriend had gotten him a shower chair and one of those shower heads that he could operate sitting down, because he never would have been able to stand in the shower.

By the time he was done and dressed it was well after seven, closer to eight. Deciding it was late enough, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed the number Hunter had given the day before. Hunter answered it on the first ring. "Baron?"

"Yeah, Hunter, it's me," Baron said. "And I'll take the deal. How soon do we leave for Connecticut?"

End Chapter Three.

Author's Notes: Surprise! Update! I know, I know, it's been awhile. I haven't abandoned the story, it's just... well, it's been interesting times lately, and to quote Stephen King, "Writers don't do their best work when times are interesting." Since the accident, it's been one thing after another, some good, some bad. Add it all up, it's interesting.

But, I'm trying to get in the swing of things. This story is slow going, but it is going. And I'll do my best to try to update more regularly, but if I fall behind, well, I'll just have to beg for my reader's forgiveness. My version of Baron can be tough sometimes. He doesn't talk to me as easily as the head version of Dean did.

Speaking of my readers, thank you to all of you who have been reading, favoring, following this story. You don't know what having readers does. When I'm tempted to chuck this and just give it up, I come here and read the comments people have left and that makes me keep going. So, from the bottom of my procrastinating little black heart, I thank you. And I hope I'll be updating a lot sooner the next time.