Chapter 21
Juliana was up bright and early the next morning, feeling a little better than she had in the past few days, deciding to make breakfast. Sure enough, Taker had cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and taken very good care of her pineapple upside cake, deciding that would be dessert for tonight. Right now, she flipped French toast on her special skillet, knowing that would be a nice surprise for Keira. She felt terrible about the fight and planned on going to see John, knowing they had to set things right.
Right on cue, John walked in the back door, really glad he had kept the keys Taker had given him at his house, so Taker hadn't been able to confiscate them after last night. He had only been mildly hung-over, which he had popped Tylenol for and drank about half a gallon of water after, much to Evetta's amusement. He was all grins, though...when he seen Juliana, he hesitated, seeing that she had a very hot skillet in front of her.
"Please don't throw that at me, even though I would totally deserve it."
Juliana smirked when she heard his voice, slowly looking over her shoulder at him. "I'll consider it." She stated, setting the skillet down and walked over to him, after washing her hands and dried them off on a towel. Something was different about John, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Sit down." She ordered, setting a plate in front of him and walked back over to finish cooking the French toast, eggs, bacon and sausage links already done. "Do you want toast?"
"Yes please, hold the arsenic." John watched her intently, making sure she wasn't tampering with his food. He didn't think she would, but...considering they had never actually had a fight like this...he wasn't taking any chances. "I'm sorry, Jules." He apologized, accepting the mug of coffee she set in front of him. Before she could move away, he gently grabbed her hand, holding it and stared up at her. "Forgive me?" He asked, flashing large blue eyes at her.
Juliana smiled and nodded, kissing his forehead softly. "Nothing to forgive, water under the bridge. Now eat your food before it gets cold." She ordered, winking when John sighed with relief and fixed her own plate. Taker and Keira hadn't come down yet and she knew Taker was going to have kinks in every part of his body from sleeping in Keira's small bed, smirking at the thought. She sat down at the table with a cup of coffee. "You seem a bit more cheerful this morning. Where's Evie?"
"She went back to bed." John replied, ignoring the raised eyebrow she gave him over her own forkful of French toast, occupying himself with his food. Eventually, Juliana would find out about him and Evetta, but right now...he wanted to keep it to himself, and avoid the forthcoming teasing he knew he'd be on the receiving end of. "Damn that's good." He sighed, chancing a look at her, somehow not surprises she was still giving him the 'what are you hiding' look. "I promise, I didn't murder her or anything!"
"Uh huh, I think I'll go pay her a visit in a little while to make sure she's still in one piece." Juliana giggled when John turned red, arching a slow eyebrow, the realization dawning on her. "You and her..." She covered her mouth with her hand when John glared, Juliana swallowing down any comments that might upset him. "I'm happy for you, John. She is a really great girl with a big mouth." She groaned when John simply grinned devilishly at her and went back to eating, glad her brother finally got laid.
"I have this thing for women with big mouths." John said without even thinking, wincing when it struck him what he had said and groaned, facepalming himself. "Sorry Jules, I stuck my foot in it." He apologized, quickly looking to make sure she hadn't gone for that skillet. "And yes, you can say it: we were playing the Mambo Number 5 last night." And destroyed the wall, he had rolled out of bed this morning to find a dent where the headboard had banged repeatedly against it.
Juliana smacked him upside the head with her towel, causing him to groan and couldn't stop laughing at the Mambo Number 5 crack. "I don't want to know what you two did, I'm just glad it happened. Maybe now you'll be less prone to kill each other while we're hiding out here." Juliana wondered how long that was going to last because there hadn't been any signs or indication there was danger lurking. She was starting to wonder if maybe it was all just coincidental and if that was the case, they moved for nothing.
"Of course, Taker might be prone to killing us if he sees what we might've done to the wall." John said with a smirk, catching the towel before she could crack him again with it, winding it up in his fist. "Woman, don't make me-"
Taker snatched the towel out of John's hand, rolled it tight, and then flicked him with it. Though the flick was more like a wet smack, smirking when John let out a yelp and rubbed his arm. "Mornin' Cena, where's your better half?" He asked casually, as if he did not just leave a welt on the other man, bending down to drop a kiss on Jule's head while filching a piece of bacon and popping it into his mouth.
"Recovering, I put her through her paces last night."
He nearly choked on the bacon.
"They did the horizontal salsa last night, which is why John can't stop grinning like a goofball." Juliana patted Taker's back when he managed to dislodge the bacon from his throat, trying not to laugh. "Sit down before you hurt yourself, babe. I'll make you a plate." Keira would be up in a little while, she usually slept in longer than the adults. "Did you sleep well with our daughter?"
"Besides the fact that my legs are sore and my back is all fucked up from sleeping on one of her stuffed animals, I slept great." He replied, eyeballing John, just daring the idiot to make another comment.
Smiling innocently, John took a sip from his coffee mug, blue eyes twinkling. "Was it the rabbit?"
"Yeah...so?"
"The purple one?"
"Might be."
"With the big carrot?"
"You son of a..."
"That's your fault for falling asleep in her room while tucking her in." Juliana teased, setting a plate of food down in front of him and kissed his lips soundly, having cut him off from finishing calling John what he wanted. "If you want, I'll give you a back massage later." She had to admit, having that huge king sized by herself was lonely, though Juliana couldn't wake Taker up. He looked too adorable with Keira snuggled up against him and Juliana wished she would've snapped a picture. "Now eat up."
"I'll eat up." He growled, his eyes roaming over her form for a moment before flashing her a smirk, ignoring John's silent gagging motions over the remnants of what had been his breakfast.
"So..." John pushed away from the table and carried his empty plate and mug to the sink, rinsing them off. "I suppose I should go make sure Evetta hasn't succumbed to exhaustion and is ready to get up." He eyeballed the remaining food. "Jules, do you mind if I make her a plate?"
Taker had to arch an eyebrow at that one, wondering who this guy was and where the moron had gone off too.
"I'll make your woman a plate." She smirked when John flushed again, giggling and piled it on because there was plenty left over for second rounds. "Tell her we need to still get together for our liquor night." She stated, kissing his cheek and handed over the covered plate of food, winking. John walked out of the house, still having his keys in hand and Juliana had an extra kick in her step as she began making a plate for Keira while sipping her coffee. She needed caffeine in order to wake up.
"So I'm assuming you and John made up?" He asked casually, taking his time with his food, because unlike John, Taker did not feel the need to rush through everything. Then again, John was probably hauling his cookies back for some more...Ugh, he was going to make himself sick. When Juliana nodded happily, he found himself smiling slightly. "Well, that's good. You two fighting... just don't seem natural."
"That's our first major fight besides when he clocked me on accident." She shook that memory out of her mind, rubbing her jaw absentmindedly and walked over with her coffee, setting a mug down in front of Taker. She was ready to confront Taker about her fears the previous night, but everything was so peaceful she didn't want to ruin it. "Everyone has a fight at least one time in their life, this was ours." She hoped it was their only one, Juliana hated fighting with John almost as much as she hated fighting with Taker.
"I don't think him clocking you counts as a fight, it was accidental." No matter how pissed off John got, Taker was fairly certain the kid would never lay a hand on Juliana, not purposefully anyway. Of course, he had been known to be wrong on occasion before, but... "I've got to go into town today, make sure everything is...okay. You want to leave Keira with John and come with me?" He loved his daughter, but he wouldn't mind some one on one time with Juliana, outside of their bedroom.
"Are you sure?" When he nodded, Juliana decided that it would be nice getting out of the house and actually go somewhere with Taker. Keira would have a gaming fest with John and Evetta, knowing they would love having her. "I'll call him and ask if he can keep her first, I don't want to just dump Keira on them if they're doing...other things." Now she was going to make herself sick.
He pulled a face at that, sincerely hoping that if they did take Keira, they could refrain from destroying her young, impressionable mind. "Let him know that if they do watch her and she sees any...hanky panky, I will gut them both." He informed her coolly.
"What's hanky panky?" Keira yawned, trudging into the kitchen, her purple rabbit that clutched a large carrot between its paws, dangling from her hand.
Taker pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.
Today was going to be one of THOSE days.
"Your father is just being weird." Juliana shot Taker a look before smoothing Keira's hair back, kissing her forehead. "You hungry angel? I made French toast." Keira grinned sleepily and went to sit at the kitchen table while Juliana warmed her plate up. "Keira, would you like to hang out with your Uncle Johnny and Aunt Evie today?" She asked, setting the plate in front of the little girl, who still clutched her purple rabbit with the carrot. Juliana couldn't stop the smirk from forming on her lips. "Dad wants to take me to town with him, but I'll stay if you want me to."
"Why can't I go with you?"
Taker had made a note to get Juliana back later for that smirk with the rabbit, now flashing a grin at his daughter. "Because then you'd see what we're bringing back and that wouldn't be a very fun surprise, now would it, lil darlin'?"
"But what if I pretended to be surprised?" Keira suggested, digging into her French toast.
"That'd be cheating."
Juliana sincerely hoped Taker wasn't just pulling Keira's leg and he actually had some sort of surprise in mind to bring back for her. "You'll have fun with Johnny and Evie, you still have to get Johnny back for leaving your game yesterday. So cream him for me and Daddy okay?" When Keira shrugged, Juliana sighed, feeling guilty for leaving her behind, but Taker insisted that it was just the two of them. "I'll call them now and ask." Whipping her cell phone out, Juliana waited for them to answer
"Mmm hello..." Evetta giggled when John began blowing raspberries on her neck, trying to shove him away. "Oh hey Juliana..."
"Tell her to call back later, we're BUSY!" John said in a voice loud enough to be heard, hearing Juliana's gag and snickered. Letting go of Evetta, John dropped down into a chair, pulling her down onto his lap. "Give me the phone woman...hey, not my ribs, you got pointy elbows!"
Even Taker could hear that loud mouth and he was sitting at the table finishing his meal, rolling his eyes. "We might have to go hire a wild animal to be the babysitter."
"I HEARD THAT!" John groaned again when he got another elbow.
"Jonathan, you will knock it off and watch Keira while we go into town today." Juliana ordered, daring him to argue with her and heard him grumble when Evetta laughed.
"She's got you TRAINED. I wonder if I can do that." She bounded off of his lap, laughing harder when he growled at her. "Bring the munchkin over, Juliana! We'll be happy to watch her!"
Feeling a headache coming on, Juliana hung up and hoped they took care of Keira. "I'm gonna go change and get ready, Keira finish up and do the same." She also hoped those two didn't end up killing her daughter's brain cells.
"They sounded hyper." Keira commented, smiling somewhat.
"I will drug you with Benadryl." He informed her, the corner of his lip twitching when she gave him a 'will he really' sort of look.
When he just folded his massive arms over his chest, Keira apparently decided he was serious and got up to go get dressed, leaving him alone in the kitchen and able to smile freely. Shaking his head, he followed after his family, knowing he needed to change out of the clothes he had slept uncomfortably in. Now that he thought about it, Benadryl for John and Evetta might be in order.
It took an hour for everyone to get ready before they headed to John and Evetta's. Juliana wore a simple pair of dark skinny blue jeans with a long sleeved pale blue top, her hair left down and curled at the ends for style, framing her face. Keira had on jeans and a princess sweatshirt, still carrying her stuffed purple rabbit. Juliana didn't even knock as they walked inside the house, her jaw dropping.
"Oh John!"
She immediately covered her daughter's eyes and shoved her out the door. "Stop fucking like rabbits and get dressed!"
John shoved Evetta off of him, having had her ride him on the couch, cursing.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU KNEW WE WERE BRINGING HER OVER!"
John was a shade of red he had never even known existed, his pants back on and was pulling a shirt over his head. "I... Uh-..."
"AND MY DAUGHTER SEEN YOU TWO!"
"Taker, it... we... I-" John really had no words for this, knowing the only explanation was: Sex is great, and that would get his ass buried six feet deep.