Punk felt himself go numb all over. He knew of the existence of John's ex's but they were like a nebulous idea, out of sight, out of mind, but it appeared that he was going to have to face the topic head on.
"Who?"
Christian just mumbled something incoherently.
"Christian, just tell me."
"It was Jeff Hardy."
"What! Do you know…"
"I don't know any of the details. Edge somehow figured out they were together. One day they were together and then a couple of months later Jeff left the WWE."
"Damn right he left; I was the one that showed him the door."
"It looks like Laurinaitis is letting him come back in through the out door."
"Thanks for warning me Christian, even though you really didn't want to."
"I probably would have anyway. Jeff is…"
"I know what Jeff is like. It wasn't some spur of the moment decision to cash in on him at Extreme Rules. The second the match was set I knew what I was going to do. If Edge had won I wouldn't have cashed in. I'm just stunned. I mean John and Jeff? I couldn't imagine two people more dissimilar, it you're not counting me and John."
"What are you going to do?"
"Figure out some way to confront John about it without giving away who told me?"
"Thank you for that."
"Just because I have marginally forgiven you doesn't mean that John ever will. If he found out I had gotten the information from you who knows what he would do. Okay, I have to go back to my hotel room and initiate what is going to be a horrific conversation, want to catch a cab back to the hotel."
"Sorry, but no. I don't even want to be seen with you in case John finds out about it. I really don't want to add another John Cena beat down to my day."
Punk caught a cab back to the hotel but he couldn't shake the distress that had overtaken his mind. He couldn't imagine how the John he knew would want anything to do with Jeff Hardy.
Punk arrived at his hotel and took the elevator up to his and John's room. He slid his keycard in, pushed open the door, and walked into his worst nightmare. There, with his arms wrapped around his boyfriend, was Jeff Hardy. Punk just stood there in shock.
"I was just telling John that you wouldn't mind if we switched rooms. John and I have a lot of catching up to do and I thought you would probably appreciate having your own space again."
"I'll leave that up to John. I was just dropping off my luggage. Text me and let me know where I'll be staying," Punk couldn't even look at John; all he could see was Hardy. He turned on his heel and walked right back out the door. Punk could feel the tears forming in his eyes; he needed to get out of there fast. He took the elevator back down and walked toward the hotel exit. He turned his head to the side where the bar was located and he could see Randy there. If anyone could give him the whole story it was Randy. He just didn't know what kind of mood Randy would be in after getting bagged by Rhodes that night.
Punk walked into the bar and took a seat beside Randy.
"I'm warning you Phil. I am so not in the mood for your sarcastic quips."
"Good because neither am I."
"I know why I'm here, but what in the hell are you doing in the bar of all places?"
"My room was occupied by Jeff Hardy."
Randy started choking on the sip he had taken of his drink. Punk patted him on the back a couple of times until Randy was recovered.
"Say that again."
"Jeff Hardy was in my hotel room, with his arms wrapped around John no less."
"I don't care what kind of sexual perversions you need to sink to; you need to get John as far away from Hardy as possible."
"That's gonna prove impossible if John keeps inviting him into our hotel room."
"Do you have any idea what Hardy is even doing here?"
"Yeah, someone overheard Laurinaitis welcoming Hardy back to the WWE."
"Usually I would just turn you around and tell you to confront John yourself, but you need all the information if you're going to have to deal with that toxic asshole Hardy."
"How did they even get together?"
"Hardy had hit on John a couple times but John had always turned him down flat, he knew what kind of reputation Hardy had. John was the WWE's squeaky clean Champion and Hardy was anything but. Then came the Elimination Chamber. John walked in Champion and walked out with nothing, Edge winning the Championship even though he had basically stolen a spot to get into the match. John left the arena really upset that night. I'm not sure how it happened but they ended up spending the night together."
Punk's phone started ringing and he took it out his pocket looking at the screen. He gripped the phone in his hand before canceling the call.
"John?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you answer?"
"Maybe he wants to tell me that he moved my luggage into another room. Finish what you were saying."
"It seemed really casual at first but before long they were sharing a room and were together all the time. Hardy had John out at the bars every night. John started taking bigger and bigger physical risks while fighting over the title with Edge. At one point John ended up having to be carried out on a stretcher. John started drinking like a fish and staying out all hours of the night. He barely made it to the gym and started showing up late to events. If John would have been some mid-card jobber they would have showed him the door, but he was John Cena and they just let it go, I couldn't. I sat John down and tried to convince him that Hardy was destroying him and if he kept letting Hardy influence him he would end up with a ruined career. John wouldn't listen and we fought. We ended up not speaking for over half a year. I don't know what happened after that. One day they were attached at the hip and the next they were avoiding each other like the plague. Eventually Hardy lost that match to you and left the WWE."
Punk's phone started ringing again, he canceled the call immediately.
"Thanks for telling me everything Randy. I know you don't like to get wrapped up in things like this."
Punk walked into the lobby and just stopped. He couldn't bear to go back to their room and find Hardy still there. Even if Hardy was gone he would never be able to get the image of Hardy with his arms wrapped around John out of his head knowing the things he knew now. His luggage was still in that room, he would have to go up there eventually but he couldn't handle it just now.
Punk dropped down onto a sofa and just stared into space. His chest began to feel tight, it felt impossible to breathe and spots started to dance in front of his eyes. He was extremely frightened and then he felt himself being hauled to his feet and guided out the front door to a bench behind a wall of ivy.
"Put your head between your knees, I think you're having a panic attack."
Punk did as the voice told and after a few minutes he began to recover from one of the scariest moments of his life. He looked to his side to see his rescuer, it was Triple H.
"What the hell is going on here? Why are you hanging around the lobby and not in your love nest that the WWE pays for?"
"Do you really want an explanation? I don't think you're the type to sit around and listen to other people's problems."
"As of tonight you're my new tag team partner and if we're going to work together I need to know that your head is in the game. As evidenced by your breakdown in the lobby I think you're probably not in the right headspace to care about, much less win, a match."
"Laurinaitis has hired back another former employee."
"Damn, the guy's Interim GM of Raw for a couple of hours and he has already made two horrible hiring choices, I don't know if the new addition could be any worse."
"It's Jeff Hardy."
"Stop fucking with me."
"It's true. Someone saw Laurinaitis welcoming him back to the WWE, and on a personal note, I found him all over John in our hotel room."
"Vince is going to flip out. No one was particularly sad to see that drug addled spot monkey leave. He jumped to TNA the minute his no compete clause was over and only lasted there six months before his drug problems got out of hand and they had to fire him. I hope Laurinaitis didn't shake the same hand that Hardy used for his drug screen."
"So you see why I'm falling apart. Laurinaitis has made us the most unlikely of tag teams against Miz and Truth who should have remained fired and who have ambushed me countless times. Then he hires Hardy who is my professional nemesis and now Hardy has destroyed my relationship in the couple of hours he's been re-hired. On top of that, all my stuff is in my hotel room which I am too upset to return to. Wait…I know how to get my stuff."
Punk took out his cell phone and dialed, "Melina, I need a huge favor."
"Sure, anything for you Punk."
"Come meet me outside the entrance to the hotel so you can get my room key. I need you to go to room 672 and get my stuff. Bring it to your room and I'll pick it up tomorrow morning."
"Can I at least ask what's going on?"
"I'll tell you everything tomorrow. What time are you checking out?"
"10:30."
"That works out perfectly. Thank you for doing this for me."
"No problem."
Punk hung up his phone and waited for Melina who came straight down and took the key without question.
"So your things are taken care of. I don't think you can stay on this bench until tomorrow."
"I was going to get another room."
"I'm probably going to regret this but I have a suite, you can stay in the other bedroom."
"Thank you. Maybe there's hope for this tag team after all."
"You can't hide out forever. There are house shows and Raw to think about."
"I'm not booked for the Mexico house show. They scheduled me for a bunch of appearances and autograph signings. John is scheduled for some signings too before he has to be in Mexico for the house show. His flight leaves at eight; my flight doesn't leave until noon."
"Come on; let's go up to the room. I'm not great at this emotional stuff. If you were anybody else I would offer you a very large alcoholic beverage and send you to pass out in your room. This straight edge stuff doesn't really allow for emotional crises does it? Here's my room. The bedroom is through there and the bathroom is across the hall. If you decide to go on a crying jag, try to keep it down."
Punk kicked off his shoes and laid down fully clothed on top of the covers. It was pointless to try to even pretend like he was going to sleep. Punk spent the night torturing himself with scenarios of what might be going on in his former hotel room. He tried to convince himself that the hug might only be friendly but Hardy's parting words haunted him. His and John's hotel room was the only place they had where they could be together without any worry about what the world outside their room might think. He had invited Hardy into their private space and god knows what kind of physical contact John might have allowed. John had told him many times that he loved him more than he had ever loved anyone else but that love didn't seem to stop John from being more than friendly with the person he almost hated more than anyone on the planet.
Time passed slowly until the clock finally hit 9:30AM. He went to Melina's room to retrieve his things so he could take a shower and change before he had to leave for the airport. Melina handed over Punk's bag.
"Did you have any trouble?"
"No. John wasn't even in the room when I went to get your stuff. Were you expecting something to happen?"
"Right now I can only say that I'm relieved that there was no one in the room at all. You could have walked in on John entertaining a man that was most certainly not me."
"John's cheating? That can't be true. I've seen the way he looks at you, there's no way he would stray."
"Yeah he wouldn't stray because he didn't have any other options. One of his ex's has appeared from out of the blue and John was definitely in the arms of a man that was not me."
"Who?"
"Jeff Hardy."
"You have to be kidding me. I can't even imagine John dating someone like him."
"Well he did and now Hardy is back. I'm probably on my way to becoming one of John's ex's."
"So you didn't break up?"
"No, I haven't even spoken to him."
"Then how do you know it all wasn't some big mistake."
"Right now all I know is what I saw when I walked in that room and that was enough."
"Don't you think you should at least talk to John? If he's going to replace you with Hardy he at least needs to be a man about it and tell you to your face, not run around with Hardy behind your back. Doesn't John realize how much you hate Hardy?"
"He knows, maybe he just doesn't care."
"Has he tried to contact you?"
"He called a few times but I canceled the calls before they could go to voicemail. Right now I can't even stand to hear the sound of his voice. If he's calling to apologize for putting himself in that position than he doesn't really care about what I think at all, letting Hardy get that close to him, and if he's calling to break up with me, I don't really want to hear that either. I have to catch my flight. I'll see you at Raw. I might need a bodyguard to stop me from pulling all Hardy's rainbow colored hair out."
October 15, 2011
Punk dreaded getting on the flight that would take him to Mexico City. He was barely sleeping these days. In the middle of the night he found himself at a pharmacy and stared at a box of Unisom for thirty minutes before walking out the door empty handed.
He finally boarded the plane and spent the long flight just staring out the window and wishing he was going anywhere but Mexico City. The flight finally ended and Punk took a cab to the hotel. He had called the WWE travel department to request a single room. The department usually grouped all the wrestlers together on one floor, but Punk's last minute request meant that he was in a room far away from his co-worker's.
Punk spent the night forcing himself to eat the room service he ordered and watched random TV except for the three hours of sleep he managed to get. He wasn't going to step foot out of his room until it was time to go to the arena.
AN: Boy did I swerve you guys. I was getting a little bored with writing commentary on Raw without anything exciting happening. And when I say exciting I mean events that cause severe emotional drama between our boys. So I strayed from my usual formula, they'll just be some matches that I make up, but who needs wrestling matches when they'll be so much drama. As far as Jeff goes, his real life will be ignored by me. Only details given about what went on during his hiatus from the WWE will be considered part of the story. I wrote two versions of this chapter. The happy fun one and the oh holy hell one. You got the second. Thank you for the lovely reviews and I hope they don't decrease rapidly by turning Jeff Hardy an antagonist.
