Mary awoke with a sigh as she turned to look at The Miz fast asleep next to her. Weeks had gone by, and where she and Ted were once close to talking about their feelings, the emergence of Marcus shot that down seemingly completely. As the days turned into weeks, Ted began talking to Mary less and less. He made her feel like the fact that she had sex with someone that wasn't him meant that he couldn't tell her how he felt about her. Which confused her greatly, and made her feel like a cheap slut. Granted, there was a period in her life where she was paid for sex, but that was beside the point. Her life on the run was another life completely, and she wanted Ted to understand that. That is, if only he would give her the chance. She kissed The Miz softly before getting out of bed and walking across the room, completely naked, and made her way into the bathroom to get ready for RAW that night.
An hour later, Mary walked up to Ted's bus, biting her lip. On the nights that she spent with The Miz, she didn't bring Marcus with her, because she didn't give her son the wrong idea. She wasn't dating The Miz, so it would just cause confusion to bring her young son into the equation. When she stepped inside, she saw Ted getting the boys breakfast and smiled softly. It was in that moment that she knew exactly what she was feeling. She loved Ted. In fact, she had never stopped loving him. No matter how much she had tried to get over him over the years, her feelings for him never truly went away.
When Ted heard the door to his bus open and close he visibly cringed. He knew that there was only one person who would be walking in without knocking at that particular hour. He also knew that the reason he hadn't held her in his arms the night before was because she had spent her night having sex with The Miz once again. He hated how she had bonded with another man on such a level, but he also knew that it was his own fault. All he had to do was speak up and tell Mary how he felt and that he forgave her for what she had done, and it would all be over. But he couldn't. Something inside of him kept him from opening up to Mary after all of those times she had rejected him in the past. He knew that things were different now, and that he could let her in once more, but much like when Mary was ready to come out of hiding for all those years, he was now afraid to express himself to her.
"There are my boys," Mary grinned as she walked over to where Marcus and Tate were both sitting, kissing them each on the head. She looked up to Ted, biting her lip. For some reason, the level of regret was higher that morning than any other time that she had returned to him after spending the night with The Miz, and she wasn't quite sure why. As soon as their eyes met, she quickly looked away and made her way back to the bedroom not wanting to face him again the rest of the day.
Ted stood for a moment, taking in the look on Mary's face as he watched her walk away from him. He looked to the boys, biting his lip. "Marcus, can you watch Tate while I go talk to your mom?" He smiled softly as the boy nodded and slipped back to the bedroom. He wanted nothing more than to just wrap his arms around Mary and tell her how he felt right then and there, but he couldn't. Instead he looked to the woman he loved, who's back happened to be to him. "Mare Bear... I think we should talk."
Mary slowly turned to face Ted, her eyes filled with tears. "What's going on, Teddy Bear?"
The look on her face caused Ted's heart to momentarily stop, and where he came close to telling her that he loved her, visions of her in bed with The Miz flooded his mind once more. "I don't think we can keep doing this, Maryanne. It's just confusing the boys."
Mary literally felt her heart break in two in her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words didn't come out. A couple of tears escaped her eyes as she picked up her suitcase and left the room. "Come on, Marcus. Get your things. We're staying with Aunt Nattie for a little while." She walked out of Ted's bus and waited for Marcus to join her before heading off to where Natalya was staying.
…
Mary sighed as she sat on the bed in Natalya's room. Two weeks had gone by and she had thought she had gotten all of her tears out after what had happened with Ted. She was sitting next to her best friend as they watched Marcus play in the corner with his toys. He knew that his mother was upset, but on some level, he knew that he couldn't do anything to help her. "It's not like I somehow knew that Mike would actually get into the WWE and that Ted would as well," she looked down at her lap.
Natalya took her friend's hand. "Of course not, sweetie. We both know that Ted knows that, as well." She bit her lip as her phone rang. She looked to the ID, seeing that it was her boyfriend, Tyson Kidd, whom was currently out with a knee injury. She answered her phone and put it on speaker phone, "hey babe. I've got company."
Mary sniffled a little as she wiped a tear from her eye, "if you guys want a little privacy, it's cool."
"Is that Mary? Is she crying again?" Due to his injury, Mary and Tyson hadn't met face to face yet, but they had talked on the phone a few times.
"Yeah," Natalya nodded, rubbing Mary's shoulder. "She still hasn't heard from Ted."
The girls heard a frustrated groan on the other end of the phone. Much like everyone else, Tyson was annoyed with the fact that Ted hadn't grown a pair of balls and told Mary how he felt yet. "Why would he stay away from you for this long?"
"To be fair, I did sleep with Mike again the night before Ted kicked me out," Mary shrugged with an innocent smile.
Natalya laughed, shaking her head. As Tyson chuckled, "consider me playfully slapping your hand right now, Mary. But honestly, this is more Ted's fault than yours. It's only human to want sex. He knows damn well that he could have gotten it from you at any time, and since he wasn't giving it to you, you went to someone else for it. But it's not like it's a random person. We all know Mike. I know that Ted hasn't been widowed for very long, but he's loved you all along. I've heard it from many people."
"And I love him," Mary nodded. "I haven't told him as much yet, but it's not like he has really given me a chance to."
"I think that you need to make that opportunity, Mary," Tyson's smile could be heard from the other end of the line. "Don't wait for him to make the move. Just grab him by the collar and tell him that you love him."
"Do you really think that something like that would work?" Mary bit her lip with an innocent smile.
"How many boyfriends have you had, Mary?" Natalya laughed.
Mary took a deep breath, "just... Ted."
"Whoa, are you serious?" Tyson gasped.
"Um Mare, how did," Natalya paused, motioning to Marcus, "happen then?"
Mary took a deep breath, looking over to make sure Marcus wasn't paying attention and looked to her best friend once more. "I did the whole prostitution thing for a while."
"You don't know who his father is, do you?" Natalya bit her lip
Mary shrugged, "never cared to find out, either. That's why I initially gave him up."
"In the end, it doesn't matter," Tyson reassured her. "You, Marcus, Ted, and Tate need to become a family. He's obviously not going to make that move, so you have to. Guys love it when a girl takes control every once in a while. At this rate, if you don't do it, it's never going to happen."
Mary sighed, nodding. "You're right."
…
Later that night Mary left Marcus with the Divas as she walked through the halls, searching for Ted to take Tyson's advice. She greeted many of her colleagues along the way until someone told her where they recently saw Ted head in and made her way down the hall, taking a deep breath. Just as she was about to round a corner, she heard Ted's voice, along with the voice of one of the Divas that she wasn't entirely familiar with yet. She peeked around the corner, biting her lip as she saw Ted talking to a Hispanic woman, who definitely wasn't AJ. After thinking on it a moment, Mary remembered that her name was Rosa. AJ was one of the newer Divas that Mary had gotten to know a bit over the course of the past few weeks, and judging by the topic of conversation that Mary was hearing, this wouldn't be AJ with Ted. This woman was obviously trying to get into Ted's pants, and he seemed to be going for it. Just as Mary was about to step up and say something, they started to kiss.
At about the time Ted and Rosa began kissing, Tamina Snuka walked up to Mary's side, making a disgusted grunt. "Make sure to get him tested after that one," she brought her arm around her friend. "C'mon, I know how to handle her. Let's go get your mind off of this."
Mary nodded, fighting back fresh tears as she walked away with Tamina, trying to push the visuals of Ted with another woman out of her mind.
