Chapter X: The Streak-Baby Brooks Issue
"Hello," Mike said, answering his cell phone.
"Uh, Mike, you might want to come home," Beth's voice answered, causing Mike's brow to furrow.
"What," Mike asked, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with Rayleigh? Is something wrong with the baby?" The entire group went silent, as Mike's face grew worried at the thought of something being wrong with Rayleigh and their unborn child.
"Well, John came over and…" Beth trailed off.
"How did she take the news," Mike asked, letting go of the breath that he had been holding. Beth sighed on the other end of the phone.
"She's upset and has locked herself in your room and is refusing to come out," Beth explained, "John and I have both tried to get her to come out and she just yells at him and just sobs when I try and talk to her." Mike ran a hand through his slightly long hair. As much as he knew that John needed to tell her about his possible match at Wrestle Mania, he also knew that he should have tried to warn her about it. Yeah, sure, he mentioned John's name was being thrown around, but him actually being in the match was something else entirely.
"Jon and I will be back soon," Mike said.
"Bring Adam, maybe he can help," Beth offered, before they both hung up the phone. Mike sighed and ran his hands through his hair again.
"Everything okay," Jon asked, taking in Mike's posture and facial expression.
"We got to head back to the house," Mike explained to the man, as he pulled out his wallet to pay to pay for the glass of coke he had, "My wife has locked herself in our room and is probably feeling a little hormonal right now and naturally, I have to go clean up Cena's mess."
"We'll come with you," April said, pulling Phil's arm, so he stood up as well, "I wanna see Beth and maybe, I can get some inside dirt on what she's feeling." Jon groaned and smacked his head against the table in front of him. Phil looked at him sympathetically.
"We'll help you figure it out," he offered, placing his hand on the younger man's shoulder, "If Rayleigh has faith in you, then you have nothing to worry about."
"Sometimes, I wonder about how much faith you have in Rayleigh," Jon said, as he stood from his seat, "It's like you all have this blind faith in her or something."
"Rayleigh has done a lot for all of us since her and Mike got married," Phil explained, "And for some of us even before then. In the beginning of my run on RAW, Rayleigh, along with her brother gave me a very large attitude adjustment. She also got April and I together, she helped Brie plan her wedding to Bryan because she knows how hard it is to plan a wedding and keep a wrestlers schedule, Nikki owes her entire relationship with John to Rayleigh, and as soon as she gets you and Bethany together, I'm fairly sure, she's going to start on Colby and Joe."
"That I would love to see," Jon chuckled, as the large group made their way out of the bar. The group split amongst the few rental cars, as well as Mike's car and made their way to the now familiar Mizanin home.
"God, how could you be so selfish John," Rayleigh snapped, as John once again tried to get her to calm down. She had never been the unreasonable before. Rayleigh always had a good head on her shoulders, she always thought things through and for as long as John could remember, Rayleigh always thought of other people first.
"Come on, Ray, come out, so we can talk about this," he suggested, leaning his head against the wall. Beth had called Mike over twenty minutes ago and the group still hadn't arrived and he was getting desperate. He hated the fact that Rayleigh probably hated him right now and-
"Ray," Mike said, coming to stand beside his wife's best friend shaking him from his thoughts, "Ray, can I come in?" The pair heard a muffled sob as they stood outside the door to the master suite. Mike shook his head and knocked again.
"Ray," he called, "I'm coming in and I want you to talk to me about this nonsense, okay?" Mike opened the door and quickly shut it behind him before John could follow him.
"Wow, she must really hate you right now," the straight edge superstar commented, as he came to stand beside Cena. John looked over at the man he had come to call a friend in the past couple of years.
"Not helping," he answered, looking back towards the shut door, "How's Good doing? Rayleigh giving him the usual couple's treatment?" Phil chuckled, as he thought back to the days where Rayleigh would purposely set up situations where he and April would be alone together. She had even gone as far as to set up a massage session for the both of them without telling them that they would be sharing the session. Rayleigh would definitely have to have a part in the wedding that he was thinking about. John and Phil winced as they heard a long, loud sob come from the master bedroom in front of them.
"That doesn't sound good," Beth commented, as she came to stand in between the two superstars, "I wish I knew what I could do to help."
"You did the best thing you could've, kiddo," Phil said, not taking his eyes off the door, "You called Mike. Mike will know how to make her feel better; I just hope he knows that we're still standing outside the door." John and Beth turned to look at the tattooed superstar wide eyed.
"He wouldn't," Beth asked, shocked.
"He has before," Phil answered, "It was when Rayleigh was pregnant with Sophie. We were all visiting for something, I can't remember what-"
"Her birthday," John cut in.
"Oh, that's right, we were visiting for her birthday and she got really emotional because she was getting older and she thought that Mike wouldn't want her anymore once she was old and fat-"
"She's barely gained weight," Beth commented, "I don't think I've ever heard of a pregnant woman not gaining any weight during the pregnancy."
"Yeah, well Ray was lucky," Phil answered, before he continued the story, "Anyway, once we started singing happy birthday, she just broke into hysterics and none of us could calm her down, so Mike walked her up here, so he could 'talk' to her alone. We really should've known better."
"Yeah," John agreed, causing Beth to look over at him, "Anyways, we thought that Mike would need some help, so after a few minutes we followed them upstairs and just as we were about to open the door-"
"You better not be retelling the story of my thirty-second birthday," Rayleigh snapped, as she opened the door. Her eyes were red and her face was puffy. John immediately felt guilty.
"Nope," Phil denied quickly, "We weren't telling your sweet, new little pet project about the fireworks we heard. Nope, we wouldn't do that." Rayleigh placed her hands on her hips and looked at the WWE superstar with one eyebrow raised.
"You want to try lying to me again, Philip," Rayleigh said, causing Phil to wince at the use of his first full name. If there was one woman, who could strike fear into the very heart of the straight edge superstar, it would be the pregnant brunette standing in front of him.
"No ma'am," he answered, but the glare she was using on him intensified.
"What have I told you about calling me, ma'am," she snapped, smacking Phil's arm as they reached forward to hug her, "No, you don't deserve a hug." Phil pouted at the former WWE Diva.
"That's not going to work, Phil," she answered, "It didn't work when you tried to get out of the wedding photos and it sure is not going to work now, so put that lip away before I go downstairs to convince your girlfriend not to sleep with you until I give birth." Phil, John and Mike looked at the brunette wide eyed.
"You wouldn't dare," Phil asked, trying to call Rayleigh's bluff, but there was no bluff to be had.
"Wanna try me, Phil," Rayleigh asked, "I convinced her to face me in a thirty minute iron woman match for the title at Extreme Rules last year, do you really want me to even try to convince do that?"
"She wouldn't go for it," Phil argued.
"Maybe not until March, but I'm fairly sure that I once I tell, sweet, sweet April that you were teasing one of her WWE role models she'll deny you for the next month or so as punishment," Rayleigh said, a smirk similar to the ones she used during his Nexus' days spread across her face.
"You're evil, you know that," Phil said, before turning around and marching down the stairs. John, Mike and Beth watched in amusement as the smirk was replaced with a slight smile.
"You know, I thought you promised you would stop using April against him," Mike said, as she wrapped his arms around his wife's expanding middle. Rayleigh looked up at her husband an amused look on her face.
"Do you know who I am?" John and Beth laughed as Mike quirked an eyebrow up at his wife.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Really?"
"Really.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Real-"
"Oh dear god," John interrupted, "I knew there was a reason I bought Sophie that t-shirt, but please stop with the really's. I get enough of your husband saying it at work. I don't need it on my days off as well." Rayleigh quirked an eyebrow at the taller man standing in front of her.
"Uh oh, I know that look," John said, "I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Beth and Mike shook their heads as Rayleigh made her way down the stairs, John following behind her begging for her to talk to him, so they could figure 'the streak' issue out.
"She's already forgiven him, hasn't she," Beth asked, looking up at Mike, who was watching the pair with an amused look on her face.
"Yep," Mike answered, "As soon as I agreed that we could induce labor if the baby was more than a week late, she was happy as a clam."
"You also neglected to tell her that there is a very high possibility that she'll be going into the Hall of Fame this year," Beth said, watching as Mike quickly nodded his head.
"That would've set off a whole new wave of tears that will be better dealt with when Stephanie and Paul make the official announcement," Mike answered, as he led his wife's friend down the stairs.
"Okay," Phil said, as he finally got Jon alone, "What's this about Beth possibly being in love with me?" Jon looked at the straightedge superstar for a moment, before looking over to where Beth was sitting in between John and Rayleigh with her hand on Rayleigh's stomach as she felt Baby Mizanin #2 kick.
"I already explained it at the bar," Jon said, sipping his beer. Phil continued to look at him before looking over to Beth, where she was now trading jokes with the former Diva's champion.
"No, you didn't," Phil said, as he sipped the Pepsi in his hand, "You said that Beth felt like she was falling in love with someone else before that idiot Smoak died and that there was an entire group of possibilities-"
"Yeah," Jon said, "And that pretty much explains everything about Beth possibly being in love with you. She doesn't know who she's falling for and to be honest, Punk, I really don't feel like talking about it right now." Phil sighed and looked over to April, who had now joined the group. Rayleigh quickly grabbed the petite Diva's hand and held it against her stomach. Phil watched as April's eyes lit up as she felt the baby kick.
"I think April wants a baby," he said, taking him and Jon off the topic of Beth for the time being. Jon looked over to where April was sitting. Sophie had crawled into the lap of the psychotic Diva and they were making funny faces at one another.
"What do you want," Jon asked, sipping at his beer as he watched Phil shrug.
"I don't know," Phil answered, "I've been thinking about proposing, but getting married is very different to having a baby. She would have to take at least ten months off work and I don't know if I'd be even able to take the time off."
"If you have Rayleigh on your side, you might."
"Yeah, but Rayleigh's already got her hands full," Phil replied, "And I'd go crazy doing nothing for six months. I don't know how Mizanin does it."
"Which one?"
"Both," Phil answered, a slight smile on his face, "Sophie only takes up so much of their time. Mike and Ray are still able to spend time alone, but I don't think I'd be able to sit still, doing nothing while April is pregnant. I need to keep moving or keep busy."
"I'm sure, she'd be able to find things for you to do," Jon said, "Rayleigh finds all sorts of things for Mike to do. Get the nursery ready, make sure the yard work is done."
"We live in a two bedroom apartment in Chicago," Phil said, "There isn't much yard work to be done, compared to this monster property Rayleigh and Mike own, and the nursery wouldn't take me long, especially if I had help."
"Why don't you talk to April about this," Jon said, looking over at his friend, "I'm sure, she'll be able to help a lot more than I would. I can't even tell the girl I like that I like her, let alone ask her out on a date without any help from her friend."
"Rayleigh would have tried to set you up with someone anyway," Phil said, chuckling to himself, "It's her way of saying that she likes you and thinks enough of you that she wants you to be happy."
"So, I should just be glad she likes me enough to try and set me up with-"
"You two look grumpy," Beth said, coming to sit beside Jon, two cold beers in her hands, "You shouldn't be grumpy, it's a party."
"I think you sound drunk," Phil said, looking at Beth as she handed Jon a beer.
"I'm not drunk," Beth said, looking at the older man warily, "You know I don't get drunk."
"No," Phil answered, "I've never seen you get drunk. You always stop yourself before you drink too much."
"You're funny, Phil," Beth said, before looking at Jon, "Why do you look all grumpy? You should be happy, it's a happy, happy day."
"She's drunk," Phil said, before he got up and walked over to his girlfriend, who was sitting and talking animatedly with Rayleigh about her past matches and what it was like working with April's other WWE role model, Lita.
"I'm not grumpy, Beth," Jon answered, watching Phil as he deserted him with a slightly intoxicated Beth, "I'm just thinking."
"What ya thinkin' about?" Jon looked at Beth for a moment, deep in thought. Could this be the moment that he told her what he really felt? Or did he want to wait for a moment when she would actually understand what he was saying and knew how she was feeling?
"Jon," Beth called, dragging out his name, "I think we need to have a serious talk." Jon chuckled as he watched as place her hand on his arm, sending a slight shiver down his spine.
"And makes you think you can carry a serious conversation when you've had one too many beers," Jon said, taking the beer out of Beth's hands.
"I haven't had too many beers," Beth said, "I've just had two. I'm a pretty bad light weight. Rayleigh says I couldn't hold my liquor if my life depended on it. She also said that she would never take me to Vegas, but I'm slowly convincing her to take me after Wrestle Mania." Jon watched Beth as he listened to her talk about some of things that she wanted to do when she got to Vegas.
"You know, if you really want to go to Vegas, I could take you, I live in Vegas after all," Jon said, before he could stop himself. Beth looked at him with wide eyes and before either of them could register what she was doing, Beth leaned forward and kissed Jon on the lips. Both Beth and Jon jumped away from one another before the kiss got to passionate. Beth looked at Jon wide eyed, as he looked down at the floor.
"Jon," she said, trying to get his attention, "I-I-I…"
"No," he said, "It's okay, what's a harmless kiss between two friends right?" Jon made to get up, but was quickly stopped by Beth once again placing her hand in the crook of his elbow. Jon looked down at the short woman sitting in front of him and watched as she got to her feet and grabbed him by the back of his neck and placed another kiss on his lips.
"And what if I don't want it to be a harmless kiss between two friends," she asked, as her lips left his. Jon cradled her face in his hands and brought her lips back to his, giving her a passionate kiss, while a certain brunette looked on from across the room with a few other WWE Divas.
"Well," Rayleigh breathed out, as large smile spreading across her face, "That was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."
A/N: Well, there's chapter ten. Let me know what you all think.
xo