8.

"I heard she was cheating on him."

"Ugh, is she stupid? Who with?"

"Nobody seems to know for sure. It's either the ginger or Wade Barrett."

"Sheamus? Really?"

"He's the one Cody walked in on her with. But she's always around Barrett. He's forever hanging around Hair and Makeup."

"I heard she had something going with Orton..."

The rumor mill was in full swing. Joanna fought to keep her expression impassive, pretending she couldn't hear the whispers between Divas across the room. One glance in the mirror told her that Ted had heard every word.

"Don't pay any attention to them," he murmured.

"Hard to do when I hear it all day," she replied, patting his shoulder to indicate she was finished.

"It's only been a few days. Give it time, something else will come along for them to dig their claws into."

She doubted it. Even after three days off, her broken relationship with Cody was a hot topic. She couldn't enter a room backstage without hearing whispers about why she had turned him down. She was cheating on him, he was cheating on her. Followed by a list of people with whom they'd been cheating. The list included nearly everyone on the roster, half the crew and even staff at local venues.

Joanna wondered how either of them got their jobs done over the past few months, considering how many people they'd allegedly slept with.

"Are you okay?" Ted asked gently as he stood.

She shrugged. Ted had approached her almost as soon as she'd checked into the hotel that morning. He hadn't been surprised that she'd turned down Cody's proposal and had wanted to make sure she was okay. The concern in her eyes was akin to someone offering comfort after the death of a close relative. Then he'd told her what he'd known. She knew she should be mad at him; after all, they were friends, right? But now she was just tired of the whole ordeal. Impossible though it was she wanted to forget the past four years.

"You know you can talk to me, right? My door's always open."

"I know," she murmured. "I'll—"

She stopped, frowning down at the comb in her hand. The room was filled with a new tension now and she couldn't figure out why. Realizing that the whispers across the room had stopped, she glanced up to see Cody had entered. Her teeth bit down on her bottom lip upon seeing him – it was the first time since her last night of work.

His split lip was no longer swollen. The bruise on his chin was gone. The black eye, which had been a spectacular shade of nearly-black and purple when she'd last seen him, was now barely visible. His face was a mask of scrutiny and it was focused on her.

"I'll see you around, Joanna." Ted patted her shoulder before slipping away.

Traitor, she thought as Cody headed straight for her. His gait was steady, measured, bringing to mind a windblown ghost town in an old Western movie. She half-expected a tumbleweed to roll past as he approached.

"I want to talk to you."

Joanna drew in a deep breath and jammed the comb into the jar of antiseptic on the table. "About what?" she asked, keeping her voice low. She was painfully aware of the Divas still lingering across the room.

"Us." He rested his hands on the table, blocking her from escaping. If he noticed that she went rigid at his closeness, he didn't let on. "Come on, babe—"

"There's nothing about 'us' to discuss, Cody," she interrupted, turning to face him. "I cheated. You cheated. It's obvious neither one of us were happy, so why force the issue?"

"Because I love you." Cody looked over his shoulder when he heard the Divas whispering.

She had no idea what expression he gave them, but the whispering and giggling stopped. She was astounded when she heard footsteps and tilted her head in time to see the three women hurry out of the room. Mel and Samantha were right behind them, the latter saying something about grabbing a bite to eat before the rush started. Turning her gaze to Cody's face, she sighed. "If you loved me you wouldn't have cheated on me."

"You cheated too, Joanna."

"With one person. One. 'I fucked a few other people' remember?" she prodded, still able to feel the shock that had swept through her at his blasé statement. "How many was it, Cody?"

"That's not important, Jo," he groaned.

Of course it wasn't. "You're right, it's not," she agreed after a moment. "Because we're through and you can fuck all the other people you want."

"Why, Joanna? Of all people, why him? What does he have that I don't?"

It would have been easier to list their similarities, which were so few she probably could have counted them off on one hand. But she knew Cody. He wouldn't be satisfied with a long, drawn out answer. His main worry was no doubt his libido, or the size of the appendage that made him a man. "A heart," she whispered after several long moments had passed. "He has a heart."

He looked confused, then began to laugh. There was a sarcastic twist to the sound that made it grate on Joanna's nerves. "Oh, I don't have a heart?" he snorted, pushing away from table and giving her space. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I never kid," she sighed. She rubbed her aching temples. "Can you please go now? I have to get ready for work."

"No. Not until you tell me what went wrong between us. How did we get here, Jo?"

She blinked in surprise at the softness in his voice. His eyes conveyed worry, an emotion he rarely showed. Cody was never worried about anything. Even when he was slated for a losing streak, he kept his head held high, knowing his push would come. "If I knew that... I would have tried to fix us." He scoffed, but she shook her head. "I would have. But after months of attempting to think of a way to do that I realized it was impossible. And if you'd cared you wouldn't have just brushed off all my worries about us."

"I didn't brush them off," he groaned.

"Every time I brought them up you got distracted. It was either a new book you just had to read, or your favorite show was about to come on. Or the phone rang and you had to talk to your dad, your brother. Or hell, I don't know, your latest fling."

"I didn't get distracted. Hell after a while all you did was complain. We didn't go out enough. I didn't make enough time for you. Something was always wrong. Put yourself in my shoes for a minute, Jo." He stepped forward and took her hands between his, forcing her to meet his gaze again. "What would you have done if I'd come to you every other day about something that was wrong in our relationship? It got to the point that you never had anything positive to say. And don't dare say there was never any positive, because there was." His thumbs stroked the backs of her hands, a touch so gentle and sweet it brought tears to her eyes. "But I didn't want to deal after a while."

"Then why did you stay, Cody?" she choked out.

"It was comfortable. You were comfortable." With lightning-quick reflexes he reached up to brush the tear from her cheek. "But it wasn't a bad thing. It's like pulling on your favorite pair of jeans or sliding into a worn-in t-shirt. Or when you've been on the road for two weeks straight and you get home and fall into your bed. That's what it was for me, Jo. Something I could wrap myself in and forget everything. Everything but you."

"Cody..." He was going to make her cry. She was already tearing up again.

"Why did you stay?" he whispered.

"Like you said, it was comfortable." She felt her heart lurch when he brushed another tear away. This time he lightly cupped her cheek, his thumb moving back and forth across her skin. "I didn't want to rock the boat. And everyone was always saying how perfect we were together. But we weren't, Cody. We never were."

"I know," he whispered." He released her, one hand moving to scratch the back of his head. She recognized the gesture; it was something he always did when he was confused.

"Then whey push it? What's the point of going through all this?" she asked, breath hitching in her throat when he dragged his hands down his face.

"You tell me, Jo." He reached for her, the tip of his thumb sweeping away yet another tear. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't be crying," he breathed. He took a deep breath and stepped away again. "I wasn't the only one that settled. You did too. Ask yourself why."

Joanna could only watch, a mixture of horror, disbelief, and anxiety twisting inside her stomach and chest, as he left the room.


If you didn't care, you wouldn't be crying.

The words echoed in her brain for hours, drowning out every other thought and worry that tried to creep up as she did her job. She was a mess before she'd finished working on her third person. Samantha took pity on her and suggested she take the rest of the night off to get herself straight.

Now seated in the hotel room she was sharing with Stephen, she chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at the laptop screen. The pointer hovered over the folder of old pictures, which she hadn't looked at in so long she'd all but forgotten what the folder contained. Did she really want to do this?

Click, click. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But the pictures were on her screen now and she double-clicked the first, continuing to chew on her lip as the memories began to flood back.

She and Cody about to go on their first date. She vividly recalled Randy snapping the picture, teasing them both as though they were teenagers leaving to go to prom. A series of photos of Cody followed. Not the professional, studio portraits that his fans drooled over, but candid, random shots that no one but herself would appreciate. Him scowling over a cup of coffee, hair mussed from sleep and the skyline of New York City just visible over his shoulder. Him grinning, standing at the base of the Statue of Liberty. A photo of him asleep on her parents' couch, her mother's cantankerous old cat curled up on his chest.

The early days, she always called them. Nonstop tourist trips at each city they visited, holding hands while a bored-sounding tour guide droned on. Trying out local delicacies in a hurry because they had to be back at the arena within twenty minutes. Staying awake half the night, going from making love to talking in the wee hours of the morning. Falling asleep in each others' arms, only to wake up in a few hours and do it all again.

As she watched the photos scroll across her screen, her heart broke. She missed the couple portrayed. Yes, she had faked a lot of the emotions and smiles at first, but she had grown to love him as time passed. They'd had fun. As he'd said, there had been a lot of positive.

She shook her head, closing the slideshow and the folder. Opening up the next, she felt the sadness wash away as photos from the past year and a half loaded. This, she reminded herself, was what they had become. The couple that rarely smiled unless they felt forced to. The couple that, in the photos sent to her by their friends, usually had at least several inches of space between them. It seemed in each picture that she looked at, his attention was on something else.

Other women.

Her lips formed a thin line as she viewed a picture from the past Christmas season. It was a group of them at a quick party someone had thrown after a taping of Smackdown. Her gaze locked on Stephen, who stood next her in the picture, arm tossed casually over her shoulder as Drew loomed behind them pulling a comical face. Then her attention moved to Cody. She had never noticed before that Cody's arm had been around a particular Diva, nor that said Diva was turned into him as though they were intimate.

"Fuck you, Eve," she breathed, slamming the lid of her laptop down as furious tears filled her eyes. She'd been so blind. So stupid. "And fuck you Layla, Eden, Kelly, and whoever else caught his wandering eye."

If you didn't care, you wouldn't be crying.

"Bullshit," she muttered as the door to the room opened. She looked up as Stephen entered, surprised to see him still wearing his Great White t-shirt. His hair was still spiked and when he saw her his shoulders lifted and fell with a sigh of relief.

"There yeh are. Ah was worried." He dropped his two bags by the door and pushed it shut with one foot. "Stu told me yeh left early. Yeh alright?"

"Yes... No... I don't even know anymore," she sighed, pushing her laptop away and getting to her feet. She had barely taken one step towards him when she was wrapped in his arms. The kiss he pressed to her forehead was chaste but held more meaning than any kiss she'd ever had from another man. Her own shoulders rose and fell with a sigh and she pressed her face to his chest. "You didn't have to rush from the arena."

"Ah wanted to make sure yeh were alright. And yer not. Tell me," he insisted gently.

"Stephen, you're still sweaty from your match. Take a shower and then I'll tell you." She slipped a kiss to his cheek. If anything, perhaps his shower would give her the time needed to make sense of everything. Or at least some of it.

"Ah'll be alright, love." He released her and moved to sit on the bed. Tugging gently on her arm he guided her to sit next to him. "What happened?"

Resting her head on his shoulder as they settled back against the pillows, she took a deep breath and told him. She felt him tense when she spoke of Cody's impromptu visit, and wasn't sure he relaxed at all until she finished speaking.

She knew from his silence that he was trying to control his anger before he spoke. Knowing it would be best to wait until he formulated the words properly, she sighed when the silence was broken by her phone vibrating wildly against the nightstand. Leaning over, she saw Cody's name on the screen and was quick to press Ignore.

"Joanna—" Stephen began a moment later, only to be interrupted by the phone again.

"Ugh," she grumbled, pressing Ignore as quick as possible. "If it happens again, I'll turn it off."

The words had barely left her mouth when the phone vibrated again and Stephen groaned. "Yeh want me to take care of it?"

Joanna sighed, one arm leaving him to grope behind her for the annoying gadget. "No, I've got it." Just as she grasped it the vibrations stopped. She almost tossed it aside again but brought it forward to look at the screen. Seeing that a new message awaited her she brought it up and nearly closed it when she saw it was from Cody. But the words on the screen made her heart plummet. Without a word she pulled away from Stephen, continuing to stare at the screen as though the phone held all the answers to the questions suddenly burning in her mind.

Dad's in the hospital. Heart attack. It's bad. Please call me.

A/N: Why yes, I did end it there. Not sorry.

Thank you all so very much. The reviews, the alerts, the subscriptions. You folks get ALL MY FEELS.

Shout out to my fellow Americans – Happy Independence Day! 'MURICA!