Chapter 12

After the memorial service and the funeral, both Sara and Randy were given a week off. Instead of moping around her empty apartment in Stamford, Sara flew down to St. Louis with her mother. Randy was relieved to learn that he was also being sent home for some off. Tension was starting to building within the Legacy stable and he was feeling depressed about the whole situation with Sara.

Before he left for St. Louis, the tension that was starting to build over the past few days were beginning to hit the boiling point. According to the creative team, this story line was only supposed to last for a few more weeks. However, the younger members of the stable were beginning to get sick of Randy's attitude as of late. They couldn't understand why their leader's head wasn't in the game lately. How could Randy even begin to explain to Ted and Cody was he was feeling right now?

"So, you're taking off for a week?" Ted asked as he watched Randy pack up his duffel bag.

"Yeah," he replied distractedly.

"Kind of shitty that you're just up and leaving like this."

"Shitty?" Randy growled as he turned around and glared at Ted.

"Well, yeah. I mean, we understand that someone might be upset about losing a kid, but dude, you weren't even sure that Sara was even having your kid—" The glare that Randy shot him after those words left his mouth were enough to shut him up. Ted put his hands up in defense. "I didn't mean anything by it. I was just repeating what you had said about Sara after you dumped her."

Randy grabbed Ted by the collar of his shirt and pushed him against the wall. "You have no idea what I'm going through right now. No idea. Mind your own business," he growled through clenched teeth.

"All right, all right," Ted said quickly, hoping that if he agreed with Randy, he wouldn't kick his ass tonight. With a hard shove against the wall, Randy let go of Ted, grabbed his bag and stormed out of the locker room.

.

.

Sara spent her first afternoon in St. Louis locked away in her childhood bedroom. She was starting to feel a little bit better, not much, but at least she was feeling something instead of just feeling numb all over. Her mom had assured her that feeling at least something was better than not feeling anything at all.

She was looking at some old photos from her high school days, remembering the past, when there was a knock on her bedroom door. "Hi angel," Jean said softly. "How are you doing?" she asked as she came into the room.

"Ok, I guess….just looking at some old pictures."

"Um" Jean began nervously, "Someone is here to see you."

"Who?" Sara asked as a look of panic crossed her face; she wasn't sure if she was really feeling up to company right now.

"Randy is here," Jean practically whispered as she waited for her daughter to start screaming. She was mildly surprised when Sara didn't scream at all, but instead asked quietly if he said why he was stopping by tonight.

"He didn't really say; my guess would be that he wants to talk about Hannah…."

"Should I go down and talk to him? What would you do?" Sara asked her mom.

"I know you're hurting, but I think that you and Randy need to talk—share the grief that your both feeling right now."

Sara nodded and started to follow Jean downstairs. Randy was standing in the living room, trying to avoid the glare that Sara's dad Mike was giving him right now. "Hey," she said softly as she came into the living room. Mike crossed the room to his daughter.

"Angel, you don't have to talk to him; I can make him leave if you want."

"No, daddy, it's all right. We should have talked a long time ago. I guess I was just waiting for him to be ready," Sara said softly as she motioned for Randy to follow her outside to the front steps. They sat in silence, side by side, for a few minutes before she finally blurted out, "So why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you," he said quietly. "You're right; we should have talked a long time ago…."

"Why aren't you on the road? I thought your job was the most important thing in the world to you," she said bluntly, feeling bitter that his career was the reason he had broken up with her in the first place.

"They gave me some time off," he said slowly, waiting for her reaction.

"Why?"

"You know why, Sara," he whispered as he looked down at his feet.

"Say it, Randy," she demanded.

"Sara, don't do this…." he mumbled.

"Say it, Randy! Tell me why they gave you time off. Tell me why-" she shouted before he cut her off.

"Sara, stop—" he began.

"Say her name," she whispered as she forced herself to look at him. After seeing Randy's blank eyes, "I named her Hannah Marie…"

"I'm really sorry about everything. Really, I am."

"I don't want your weak apologies, Randy!"

"Stop being so difficult; I'm apologizing to you. I know it doesn't make up for what happened, but I just wanted to tell you that I'm hurting too—"

"How can you be hurting, Randy? Huh, how? You denied that I was even carrying your baby in the first place. You broke up with me for no reason!"

"I told you why," he growled at her while he stood up; not allowing him to look down on her, she stood up as well and glared at him.

"Telling me that I was a 'distraction' isn't a good reason. We were together for three years!"

He was about to open his mouth to yell back at her when the front opened and Sara's dad came outside. "I think it's time for you to leave. You came here to apologize to Sara and now you can go," Mike said slowly, daring Randy to start an argument with him over this on his own property. "You've put my daughter through enough pain. So go on now," Mike said sternly as he pointed to the street.

Sara and Mike watched Randy leave. As soon as his truck drove away, she let the tears that had been welling up in her eyes begin to fall.

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The Royal Rumble was taking place two weeks later. Sara was back in the Stamford office full time, throwing herself into her work. She had flown down to Tampa early this morning to be on hand for the Royal Rumble. She would be watching it in the backstage area with a few of the other lucky office personnel who got to attend this weekend.

Randy was defending his title against the Miz. Randy dominated Mike early in the match. It looked like this was going to be a clean win for Randy until Ted had made his way down to the ring. Seeing Ted there distracted Randy just enough for Mike to get in a cheap shot. While Randy was trying to recover from the quick punch to the jaw, Cody had also made his way down to the ring. He walked over to Ted and the younger men talked, looking over at Randy occasionally.

When Randy had Mike set up for a DDT, Ted distracted the referee while Cody snaked around the ring apron and hit Randy in the face with a steel chair, causing him to fall to the mat and allowing Mike to take advantage of a stunned Randy. Ted yelled at the referee to turn around.

1…2…3…

And then Mike's music began to play. Sara watched in disbelief with everyone else in the backstage area as Mike was announced the new WWE champion. Randy was stunned; still stinging from the chair shot to the face from Cody. Did this just really happen?

Randy looked around the ring at Mike celebrating his victory; then his gaze landed on a smirking Ted and Cody, who promptly flipped Randy off and started to head towards the back, proud of themselves that they cost Randy his title. The crowd was going insane. Not only did they see Randy Orton lose his title, they were witnessing the beginning of the end for the Legacy.