Chapter 20

Doing their best to stay out of the war with the Wyatt Family, Mark Callaway, what was left of the Shield and Phil proved to be a waste of time. They were in it and about to find out the hard way. Phil and Melanie decided to join the Orton's at their St. Louis home for their days off while Jon, Anisa and Krystal went to Pensacola, Florida with Joe and Mia. Phil's penthouse in Chicago had to be fixed due to water damage, so it was either stay with Ryanne and Randy or another hotel. Ryanne needed help baby shopping and Randy planned on having the nursery completed with Phil's help while the girls were gone. 6 almost 7 months pregnant, Ryanne was running out of time to get everything done and had started nesting, wanting everything to be perfect for their baby boy.

Melanie had a sister who recently had a baby and she helped pick out all the décor for her niece's room. She was the one who offered her help, without Phil knowing, until later that night when they were alone in the hotel. Phil wasn't thrilled about going baby shopping, but that was until Melanie told him to help Randy with the nursery while the girls had a shopping day. It'd been a while since Phil and Randy hung out together and Melanie had gotten close to Ryanne due to having baby fever of her own. Phil didn't need to know that though, not this soon into their relationship.

"What color did you want to paint the room, Ry?" Randy asked while they stood in the 4 car garage that held his yellow Hummer and 3 other vehicles. It still had enough room to store a few things…like buckets of paint. "Didn't we decide on lime green?"

Ryanne frowned, shaking her head and rubbed her pregnant belly soothingly. "I don't think so. I wanted to do a jungle theme, but now I'm thinking the walls should be blue."

This was the third time Ryanne had changed her mind in the past month, which explained the 10 buckets of paint in all different colors. "I thought you said blue was too cliché, sweetheart?" He reminded her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I know – I know, but lime green…" Ryanne shuddered, rubbing the back of her neck. "I just don't want it too bright or too dark for him. I'm sorry…" Her hormones had taken Ryanne on a whirlwind of emotions lately, so it was no surprise when tears began falling. "I'm so confused!"

Melanie decided to step in and took over for Randy, holding Ryanne close while looking down at the different paint bucket colors. "It's okay, Ryanne, we'll figure this out. You said you wanted a jungle theme, right?"

Ryanne nodded, sniffling and slowly began calming down, wiping her tears away. "Yeah…"

"So, why not do either a brown or beige? I personally would go with beige because it's light enough to where you can add décor on the walls if you want. Decals or whatever you have in mind, but it's still color as well." Melanie suggested, seeing Ryanne's emerald eyes light up and secretly winked over at a relieved Randy.

"White woodwork and ceiling would look good too." Phil piped in, proud of his girlfriend for calming the insane pregnant one down – or so that's what he referred to Ryanne lately because of her crazy hormones.

Ryanne beamed, doing a complete 180 on her emotions and turned to her husband, leaning up to kiss him softly. "Beige and white sounds perfect." She rubbed her nose gently against his, stroking his slightly scruffy jaw. "Thanks for putting up with me."

Chuckling, Randy slid his hands down her back until he came in contact with her backside, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Always sweetheart, always." He planned on having the beige and white paint while the girls were gone on their shopping trip for the baby's room. "Now go have fun with Mel and enjoy yourself. Leave everything else to me and Phil."

"Okay, but not before I pee first. Your son is being lethal with my bladder." Ryanne rushed into the house as fast as she could, hearing Melanie's giggles follow her.

Phil laughed, shaking his head and grabbed two of the beige paint buckets while Randy grabbed the white, both heading into the house up to the nursery. "Thanks for coming to help us, man. We really appreciate it." Randy popped open the beige paint and poured some in the long bucket for the walls.

"No problem. Melanie was the one who suggested it."

"You really like her, don't you?" Randy had noticed a huge change in his friend ever since he started dating Melanie.

Phil smiled genuinely, dipping the paint roller and began priming the walls with primer so the beige wouldn't crack. "Yeah, she's great. A godsend, really. After Coralie died…" He stopped, clearing his throat because it still hurt to mention her name. Phil hadn't talked about her since the funeral and maybe it was time since he'd moved on with Melanie. "It was almost like she was a resurrection in the version of Coralie I always wanted. Does that make sense?"

"She's definitely a gem compared to Coralie. No offense, but I have no idea what you were thinking being with her."

Phil raised a brow, pausing the priming to look over at his best friend. "I thought you got along with her because of Ryanne…"

"Ry and Coralie were best friends like me and you. I tolerated her because of Ryanne and you when you started dating, but that's it. She had this attitude that always rubbed me the wrong way. Ryanne didn't see it and neither did you, so I didn't feel it was right to point out. When she started cheating on you…"

"We don't know if she did or not." Phil cut him off, wondering how long Randy felt this way about Coralie. "I never realized how much you disliked her. Does Ryanne know how you feel?"

Randy swallowed hard, shaking his head. "I'm afraid she'd divorce me if I told her how I felt about Coralie. The woman is dead. I'm not talking about her dead best friend, especially while she's pregnant." He wasn't that stupid or had a death wish. "Anyway, I like Mel more than Coralie. End of story."

"So do I." Phil murmured, looking up at the ceiling of the baby's nursery and hoped Coralie was the one who sent Melanie into his life. "And I love her."

"Promise me we keep this between us." Randy thrust his fist out toward Phil and he bumped it, both of them deciding to take this conversation with them to the grave. "So, beige or white first?"

~!~

"So, what are we looking for first?" Melanie asked, looping her arm through Ryanne's to keep the woman from falling since she couldn't see her feet anymore.

"We need everything and hopefully they can have it shipped to the house."

Melanie grinned, patting Ryanne's hand. "Leave it to me. I'll make sure everything goes the way you want it. My sister called me an angel when I went shopping with her for my niece, Khloe."

Ryanne had no idea why she was so drawn to Melanie considering her best friend had died only months prior. It was hard not to like Melanie, she was so warm, caring and loving wrapped in the perfect package. How Phil ever managed to meet her was beyond Ryanne, but they'd quickly became close. Ryanne hadn't befriended anyone as fast as Melanie since Coralie and surprisingly, she didn't feel guilty about it. Though if Phil ever gave this wonderful woman up, Ryanne would personally shove her foot up his backside.

"How old is your niece now?"

Melanie had to think about it for a few seconds. "She's about 8 months now. I haven't talked to my sister in a few months, come to think of it. I should call her sometime…"

"Maybe you can do it tonight after we're done shopping. Just to check up on your niece and see if you can go visit them soon." Ryanne suggested, stopping when the baby decided to kick and knocked the wind out of her temporarily. "Damn, this kid is gonna be a football player if he keeps kicking like this."

"Are you alright?" Melanie asked, concern lacing her voice and wondered if going shopping was the smart thing to do. "It's not a contraction, is it?"

"No, I'm fine really. Just give me a minute and we can walk again. The shop is just a little ways down." They were in downtown St. Louis and had to park a few blocks away from the baby shop Ryanne wanted to make all of her purchases for the nursery. "Okay, let's go."

10 minutes later, they were walking through the baby shop that had gorgeous furniture and décor, everything Ryanne wanted for her jungle theme. She was a huge animal lover and so was Randy, so the theme worked in both their favor. Though Randy did want to do a St. Louis Cardinals theme that Ryanne quickly dismissed, not wanting their baby surrounded by sports right out of the womb. They shopped for a few hours and finally decided on a dark brown 4-in-1 crib, matching dresser, changing table, jungle themed décor for the walls along with decals and a border Ryanne wasn't sure if they'd need yet or not. Standing in line to purchase everything they picked out, Ryanne was busy admiring a jungle themed photo frame while Melanie looked around the shop. She felt eyes on them, but couldn't find the culprit, until she heard a little shuffling to the right.

Standing across the way near the exit doors was Luke Harper and Erick Rowan.

"What the hell?" Melanie whispered, moving a few steps closer to the checkout cashier, but kept one eye on Luke and Erick.

What were they supposed to do? Melanie didn't want Ryanne to see them because she would panic. Luke and Erick noticed they'd been spotted, slowly making their way toward them. Melanie had to act fast, running out of the shop was pointless so she had to create some kind of diversion. She just hoped Ryanne was on board and ready to make a run for it. They'd have to come back to purchase everything for the baby's room. Melanie pulled her cell phone out and texted Phil, letting him know where they were and what was happening – more importantly, who was in the baby shop.

"Ryanne, we have to go." She whispered, standing directly behind the pregnant woman. "Don't turn around. Just do what I say, okay?"

Confused, Ryanne felt another kick in her abdomen and groaned softly, just nodding at whatever her friend wanted to do. "Everything okay?" She whispered back, looking over her shoulder and felt every part of her body freeze at the sight of Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. "Oh my god…"

"Relax and look forward, I got my eyes on them if they try to make a move." Melanie assured her, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and stepped forward again as another customer left the shop.

It was now or never. There was a voice command application on her smartphone and Melanie downloaded it to show Phil later that night. It was funny at all the different voice tones it held and there happened to be one that sounded like a monster. The application was already open, so all Melanie had to do was press the 'play' button to create the only diversion she could think of. She supposed they could fake Ryanne's water breaking, but Melanie didn't want to draw that much attention. A little chaos is all they needed to escape the two behemoths currently making their way toward them.

"FIRE!"

The shop was busy and everyone started panicking, including the workers. Melanie grabbed Ryanne's hand and ducked throughout the chaos to another aisle while people made a beeline for the exit. She could hear Luke and Rowan growling over the noise, but the problem was they were too tall to be swallowed up by the crowd in the shop. Somehow miraculously, Ryanne and Melanie made it out of the shop unscathed, running as fast as Ryanne could toward their parked car.

"THERE THEY ARE!"

"SHIT!" Melanie cursed, wondering how the behemoths escaped the shop so quickly and wished Ryanne could run a little faster. "Ryanne!"

Quickly catching up with the women, Luke snatched Melanie from Ryanne while Erick pinned Ryanne to the nearby car. "Let me go!" Ryanne cried out, trembling from head to toe and felt tears slide down her cheeks since Erick had both of her wrists captured above her head pressed to the car window.

"Don't fight me, girl. You won't like what happens if you don't listen." Erick warned, a sick smirk crossing his face and lowered his hand to caress her pregnant belly, groaning in her ear. "So hard…"

Ryanne felt the chunks rising in her throat, not moving an inch and looked over at Luke having his hands on Melanie. He was 3 times her size, but Melanie wasn't going down without a fight. That was until Erick threatened to cut the fetus out of Ryanne's womb. Ryanne sobbed openly while Melanie stopped fighting against Luke, staring up into his dark unforgiving eyes. What did they want with them?

"Please don't hurt her." Melanie murmured pleadingly, not caring what happened to her as long as Ryanne and the baby were safe. "Do what you want with me, but let her go."

"Mmm I don't know about that." Erick growled, enjoying the soft skin against his fingertips.

"Erick will take care of her, don't worry, precious."

Melanie didn't like the sound of that, hoping Phil received her text message or else they would more than likely be taken away by these behemoths. Suddenly, the squeal of a car echoed behind them and jolted Luke and Erick out of their sick euphoria with the women. Randy and Phil jumped out of the yellow Hummer, running toward them and Erick wasn't amused, locking eyes with the pregnant beauty in his arms.

"This isn't over, sluts."

"Definitely not."

They took off down the sidewalk away from the women just as Randy and Phil joined them, each going straight to their loves. Ryanne clung to her husband for dear life, sobbing uncontrollably and felt her knees give out, Randy instantly lifting her against him. Melanie wiped the few tears from her face that fell from her eyes, assuring Phil she was fine. They were just scared and thankfully nothing major happened. Taking them back to the house, Ryanne passed out from exhaustion while Melanie did the same thing against Phil. He stroked her hair while Randy paced back and forth, finally stopping in front of his best friend with determined ice cold eyes.

"I want in the fight. I'm gonna RKO Erick Rowan straight to hell for touching my wife."

Phil could only nod and knew this war had just taken a very interesting turn.