A/N: Sorry it has taken so long to update this story. TheRealKellyAnne and I have been crazy busy lately and we were both suffering from a bout of writer's block. But we got this chapter done and chapter 10 is almost complete! Ha! Slow but steady wins the race.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for all of the support you've shown us and this story!


"Mandy…"

Amanda had a temporary moment of weakness. Everything that had transpired that day all came crashing down on her at one time. From the date, to the phone call from Jaxon, to arguing with Travis, to calling Randy…Randy. That's what it really was. Randy. Hearing his voice on the phone, knowing that he still cared, then seeing him hold her son in his arms, making everything better just by being there; that's what fucked her up. It felt right to have him hold her and that kiss – feeling his warm lips on hers, soothing away all of her fears. It felt almost like Randy was home.

No. One moment of weakness was all she was going to afford herself. She wasn't doing this. What right did he have to waltz back into her life and turn it upside down again? All she did was ask him to get her son, in no way did that translate into letting him back in to hurt her again. He made his bed; he decided they were over. She wasn't about to let him renege on that decision, even if she wanted him to. The only way to get over him was to make a clean break. Even if the thought of him walking out of that door and never seeing him again made her tears fall faster, it had to be done. "You need to leave."

Randy felt her step out of his embrace and instantly his hands went back to his pockets. He didn't mean to make her uncomfortable, but this was just as hard for him as it was for her. He loved her. He wanted her back even if he knew it wasn't for the best.

Amanda had never voiced her opinion on his decision to break up, and though she had told him to leave, she had to get a few things off of her chest. "You have a lot of fucking nerve." This was a bad idea. She shouldn't even be entertaining what was on her mind, but she had to. Part of it was to keep him in her sight for just a few minutes longer. Part of it was to finally say all of the things she had been holding in. Part of it was to hurt him as badly as he had hurt her. And of course, there was the part that secretly hoped that he would take her words to heart and try to fix whatever it was that went wrong between them.

Randy sighed and turned around. This was what he had been waiting for. When he ended things he had been hurt that she didn't protest at all. But now, he knew he was going to have to listen to exactly what was on her mind. Remaining silent, he leaned up against the wall and looked at his ex-girlfriend.

"You think because I asked you for help that means things go back to how they were? In case you forgot, Randy, you left me." Wrapping her arms protectively around her body, Amanda found the strength to let him know exactly what he had done to her. She wasn't going to come off as weak, but he had to know that what he did was threatening to tear her apart.

"Amanda…"

"For a month I've been sitting here trying to figure out what went wrong. I've been trying to figure out what I could have done differently." She watched as Randy shook his head as if he was going to interrupt, but she wouldn't let him. Running her hand over the tears on her jaw, Amanda lifted her head and looked in him the eye. "And I can't come up with anything other than you're an asshole. Why in the hell did it take you so long to realize that I was cramping your style? Why did you put us through all of this shit and make all of these damn promises if you didn't intend to keep them? How could you get my hopes up and talk about us having a future, if it was all bullshit?"

"It wasn't bullshit." Randy's voice came deep and cutting across the otherwise quiet room. "At the time, I thought this was what I wanted." He couldn't tell her the truth. He in no way wanted to implicate anyone else in his decision to break it off. If he could make her hate him she wouldn't blame herself. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but it seemed inevitable. "I changed my mind."

"You changed your mind. You changed your mind? What the fuck does that mean? You don't get to change your mind. It doesn't work that way. You hadn't changed it when you told me you loved me the day before you left me. It wasn't changed when we made love that night. Or was that a lie, too?" She had meant it. She meant every one of the promises they made to each other while wrapped up in each others arms. She meant it when she told him she was the happiest she had ever been. She was telling the truth when she told him she loved him. But this asshole suddenly changed his mind about everything. How the fuck did that work, anyway?

But it wasn't a lie for him. He did love her and he meant it when they made love. He had been trying to find a way all week to tell her that it was over but every time she smiled, or snuggled next to him he was convinced that he was making the biggest mistake of his life. And when he finally did tell her, he instantly regretted it. "I don't want a family, Amanda. I'm twenty-eight years old. I'm not ready for this." He watched as Amanda's shoulders shook with a sob that made him feel like he had been punched in the stomach.

Her sad face turned angry and Amanda took a step closer to Randy. "You knew from day one that I had responsibilities and they didn't seem to bother you when you were trying to get laid. I told you over and over again, that I didn't have time to get caught up. I told you that I was fine with this being a casual thing, but you had to pursue it. Was this the plan? Get the single mother to trust you and then watch how fast you could fuck up her world? I was lonely, Randy, not fucking desperate. I wasn't trying to trap you. I wasn't trying to force you to be anything more than my boyfriend. I just wanted you to be with me." Poking herself in the chest, she reiterated just who he was in the relationship with. "Me, Randy! ME! What fucking family are you afraid of?"

His plan of trying to make her angry worked, but more than that, it made him angry because he was blatantly lying to her face. He didn't mind being a part of her family. It actually gave him something to look forward to when he came home from the road. He liked the idea of having Amanda and Jaxon meet him at the airport and having family dinner with them. He wanted that. He missed it.

He wanted a life with Amanda and Jaxon; he loved them. He looked forward to doing laundry and cooking dinner for Amanda when she had to work. He didn't mind getting up to take Jaxon to school. Everything that Amanda had done all of this time by herself, he wanted to do with her…for her. He wanted to be a family man. And the moment that he realized how much he loved them he knew it would be hard to walk away.

"This…" He signaled his hand around the room, indicating that her life was too complicated for him. "I don't want this."

Amanda couldn't believe the shit that she was hearing. What in the hell did Randy mean that he didn't want all that she had? He knew damn well what he was getting himself into from the very beginning. "You selfish bastard! I told you before that I didn't want to get too close or have you around my kid if this was just something for you to do. Jaxon and I are a package deal. You knew that!"

And the words started fly out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Is that what you told the new guy?" The anger flashed across his face, but he wasn't backing down from the hurt look on Amanda's. "For a fucking month I've been dying inside but you can just start dating again? Tell me Amanda, how broken up were you about us? Because it seems to me that you're getting along just fine. Does this new guy make you happy? Is he everything that I'm not? Did you play that disinterested card and make him work harder to get to you? Did you give him the single parent speech so he'd know to be gentle with you? Did you tell him about Travis and get him to wonder how in the hell anyone could walk out on you? Did you fuck him and make him feel like he just wanted to take care of you?" He didn't want to know the answers to any of those questions. He just wanted to know how bad the idea of her dating someone else hurt. "Don't stand there and try to make me the bad guy, like I didn't care. You didn't fucking care. Cause you wouldn't be out whoring around while your kid was being treated like shit, if you did." As soon as he said it he wanted to take it back.

She didn't know when she made it across the room to where he was standing, or how her hand contacted with his cheek. "Get the fuck the out of my house!" She didn't care if she was yelling or if she woke Jaxon up. At that moment, she honestly didn't remember that he was asleep in his bedroom. "Who the fuck do you think you are? Don't you ever question my loyalty to my son?"

"I'm not questioning your loyalty to Jaxon. I'm questioning your loyalty to me. You wanna know why I ended it? Cause you're a fucking liar, that's why. You spent all this time talking about how you just wanted someone to be there for you…That you just wanted a man to share your life with. You let me think that you cared about me, because you were feeling me as much as I was feeling you. But that was fucking bullshit, cause you didn't want me. You just wanted a father for your kid. And you know what? I don't wanna be his fucking father." Being an asshole and making her hate him was the only way to end this. He couldn't stand the idea of her crying over him. If she could hate him, she could move on. But God did it hurt.

The sound of the door made Randy look up from Amanda's face. He didn't mean anything he said, and especially not for Jaxon to hear them. "Kid, I didn't mean that."

Jaxon didn't care if he was crying. Randy's words hurt. Before Amanda could hold him back, he charged at Randy the strength that a ten year old possessed. "You asshole! Get the hell out of my house and stay away from my mom! You're not my friend. I hate you!"

Kicks, elbows and a one strategically placed fist to the gut landed into Randy before Amanda managed to pull Jaxon away. This scene was wrong. Her son was hurt, her heart was broken, and Randy stood there looking like he had just lost his best friend. How could one decision fuck up three people's lives so badly? "Get out of my house." She didn't even look at him as he knelt to pull Jaxon into her arms and soothe her angry son. As soon as she heard the door close behind her, she put on a smile and wiped Jaxon's tears away.

This was what she didn't want to happen. This was exactly why she never wanted to get involved with anyone. It wasn't just her anymore. She was a mother first and foremost and none of her needs, no matter how aware of them she was, came before Jaxon's.

Amanda sat on the couch trying to only concentrate on the feel of Randy's thumb running across her palm and not look at the clock. It was already after two, which meant Travis was two hours late. There was no way in hell she and Randy were going to make it to Ski Liberty by three to keep their reservation. Randy tried his best to convince her that she would love skiing, not that she was completely sold on the idea. Going down the side of a snow covered mountain with two sticks on her feet and sticks in her hand to keep her balance still didn't seem like the smartest thing in the world to do. But she knew she was going to love being with him in their room. She really could care less if they were going bungee jumping, as long as they were going to get to be in the hotel room together, alone.

Looking over at Jaxon's packed bag sitting at the front door, she let out a groan. This was so typical of Travis. Why did she think that just this one time he would actually come through when it came to their son? As soon as the phone rang, she closed her eyes and shook her head. She didn't need to look at the caller-id; she already knew who it was. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." Travis' voice was muffled behind the background noise. "Look, tell Lil' Man I ain't gonna be able to scoop him up. I got Taj and Tyree with me, but tell him we'll get him something from the game."

She could feel her brows knit in frustration at the absurdity of it all. Who takes a two year old to a football game in January when it's ten degrees outside? Who knowingly hypes up a Giants/Patriots game to a kid that's the biggest Patriots fan on the planet and then calls two hours before it starts to say he's not coming? Travis, that's who. "You have got to be kidding. Why do you keep doing this? He has his heart set on this."

"He'll be alright. He can watch it on TV. Just tell him I'll see him in Florida."

Randy's hand moved from Amanda's palm to the back of her neck as he tried to massage away her tension. He tried to keep his anger to himself, but he was sure it was written all over his face. He still didn't know what it was about her that sucked him in, but she was definitely different from the other women he had met in recent history. Normally, he would meet a woman, take her to bed and never think about her again. Not Amanda. For the two weeks that he was on the road, he called her everyday, several times a day, and they would talk for hours. He wanted to know everything about her and he was most impressed that she didn't seem to give a shit about what he did or how money he made. She thought he was interesting for no other reason than he was him. So when he went to Vince and begged for a Monday off to take Amanda away for couple of days, he didn't think anything of it. But now this fuckhead, Travis, was going to ruin the alone time with Amanda that he so desperately wanted.

"I'm not telling him shit. You tell him. You tell him that once again, you pumped his head up and you're gonna a no-show." Suddenly annoyed by the feel of Randy's hand on her neck, Amanda stood up. "Why don't you just not say anything if you know you have no intentions of keeping your promises? You always do this shit."

"Is all this for Ole Boy's benefit?" Travis' volume increased to the point that Amanda knew Randy could hear him through the phone. "I don't give a fuck if you were supposed to have your little date with dude or not. Something else came up. I ain't gonna be able to get him. Point blank."

Jaxon walked by the couch, purposely kicking Randy's ankle as he made his way over to where is mother was standing. "Is that Dad?" Watching his mother nod, Jaxon felt the sinking in his stomach.

Randy couldn't quite describe why or how he felt looking at Jaxon's crestfallen face. Was he feeling sympathy for the kid? Lord knows he didn't like Jaxon and Jaxon didn't like him, but it didn't stop that all of those feelings from coming back to him. No kid deserved that, hoping against hope, knowing that chances were your father wouldn't come through but still hanging on to the fantasy that this time would be different, feeling. Randy hadn't been a kid in a long time, but the feelings were just as fresh as they were when he was nine, looking at Jaxon's face.

Amanda couldn't even be in the room while Jaxon talked to Travis. She was so pissed. How in the hell could he constantly break Jaxon's heart like that? Never mind her disappointment at not going away, Jaxon's face was enough to make her forget that she had other plans. This shit had to stop. She had to put her foot down one day, but she really didn't think that Jaxon could handle knowing just how sorry his father was. Not yet, anyway. Walking back into the living room, she raised her brow at Randy and Jaxon on the couch. They weren't arguing or hitting each other, but just sitting quietly, keeping their hands to themselves. "I'm sorry, Jax."

Shrugging his slumping shoulders, Jaxon let out a sigh. "It's okay. I can watch the game on TV. Besides, Dad's gonna make it up to me. He said after my tournament he's gonna take me to Universal Studios." He turned around on the couch to look his mother in the eye. Mustering up his best excited look, he smiled. "We're gonna have a blast. He said we might even do Disney and Sea World, too."

Amanda couldn't break his heart. She knew that if Travis couldn't drive from Brooklyn to Baltimore to see his son, there was no way in hell he was going to make the trip all the way to Florida to spend two hours at a tournament. But the excitement on Jaxon's face was enough to make her keep her quiet.

"You're gonna need a camera." Randy's voice rang out from nowhere making both Jaxon and Amanda turn to look at him. Feeling suddenly uncomfortable for speaking, Randy stammered for an explanation. "For Universal. You're gonna wanna to take pictures."

Amanda shook her head at Randy so that Jaxon didn't see it. She knew this Universal thing was just more smoke that Travis was blowing up Jaxon's ass and she knew that Randy knew it, too. Why would he feed into it and get Jaxon all excited? Men were fucking idiots. "Jax, you know your dad may not be able to make it to Florida. He may have to work…"

"Yeah, but he'll still need the camera for when he's backstage at Raw." Randy's cocky smile broke out on his face before he could stop it.

"Go get your coat." Amanda watched Jaxon walk out of the room and turned her attention to Randy. "What do you think you're doing? Don't fill his head up with more false promises. He gets enough of that from his father."

With a shrug, Randy walked over to Amanda and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "Look, this is fucked up and I know it. Trust me, my dad use to do this shit to me all the time when I was a kid and my mom made every excuse in the book for him. Your kid isn't stupid; he knows what his dad's doing. But I tell you, if my mom had somebody to help her out so it didn't hurt as much as it did, I probably wouldn't be as bad as I am now." He batted his lashes to make himself look innocent. "We're in Florida the same time you guys will be there. It's nothing for me to get him to come backstage. If his father comes through, then he's just getting one hell of a vacation. If he bails, at least the kid still gets to do something fun."

Watching Jaxon walk in the living room confused, Randy nodded. "And who knows. He may want to take some pictures while he's on the slopes." It wasn't often that Randy was considerate and at that moment he really didn't feel like what he was doing was such a big deal. If he could have gone away with just Amanda, he would have. But why waste a perfectly good hotel room, skiing and a chance to spend time with a woman that he was feeling more than any other that he had ever met? "So Kid? You know how to ski?"

Walking quietly up the hall, Jaxon stopped just outside of his mother's door. It had been well over an hour since his mother kicked that asshole, Randy, out of their house and sent him to his room, but she hadn't come in to talk to him. Was she that disappointed in his behavior that she couldn't stand to be in the same room with him? He was doing his job; he was protecting her. But what if that was their way of getting back together and Jaxon had just ruined it for her? According to Randy they only broke up because of him anyway. He hadn't meant to drive him away twice.

He knocked softly on the door, before poking his head in and the sight made him tear up again. Amanda was sitting on her bed with a wadded balls of tissue scattered over the mattress. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, he cheeks were flushed and her shoulders were shuttering. "Mom?" He made his way over to the bed and straddled her legs so that he could hold her. "I'm sorry he left because of me." Feeling his mother cry on his shoulder forced the tears out of Jaxon's own eyes. "What's wrong with me? Why doesn't anybody want me?"

Amanda pulled back to look at her son. "What are you talking about, Jaxon? I want you, Boopie." With a shrug, he fixed his eyes to the buttons on her shirt. "Dad doesn't want me. If he did, he wouldn't always leave me somewhere and he'd actually show up when says he's going to. Randy doesn't want me, or he would've stayed. I want you to be happy, but you can't because of me."

Fuck Randy Orton, this was a bigger problem than him. "This thing isn't your fault." Wiping away his tears, Amanda tucked her pain away and concentrated on taking away Jaxon's. "We're a team. You can't have one without the other and if no one understands that, that's too damn bad. It's you and me, Jax, just like always."