Disclaimer: All characters (besides the ones that I make up) belong to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the universe that comes along with it.
John stared at Torrie's father, utter shock playing on his face. "You can't do this! Mr. Wilson, this is beyond unfair!"
"Is it now?" Al asked, crossing his arms over his chest, "My daughter has been dejected for ten years now. Coincidence? I think not."
Ten years. Ten years ago, John and Torrie had met for the first time. For ten years, they'd been best friends. For ten years, Torrie had loved John. A decade was a long time, but in John's eyes, definitely not long enough. He should have cherished each moment he'd had with Torrie, laughed at all of her stupid jokes, hugged her more, told her how much she'd really meant to him.
"Me," John whispered.
"Right," Al Wilson replied, "Torrie, for some reason that I can't seem to understand, has had an infatuation with you. You never gave her the time of day and that's fine. But you shouldn't have ever led her on like you did," Al bit his lip, "she cries for you, you know?"
"Cried to you?" John asked, numbly.
Al shook his head. "She never tells me anything. But she's called her brothers multiple occasions. The last time that they went out to see her, she could barely even hide her misery."
John swallowed. Each detail of Torrie's pain was a stab to his heart. "I can't-"
"No, you can't," Al interrupted, "why don't you just leave us be? Let Torrie live her life?"
John tried not to roll his eyes. "I can't leave her alone! Do you know how much that would destroy her? It doesn't matter what's happened, she loves me and she always will!"
Al blinked. "That's true, Cena. But what's also true is that you've caused her enough pain. She's emotionally scarred and there's no way that you can fix it."
Finally, John had enough of Al bashing him. "I'm not the only one who's hurt her!" John exploded, "She was married, remember? Her deadbeat husband cheated on her and then left her, and her ex-boyfriend cheated on her, too. Not to mention you guys!"
Torrie's father frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, 'you guys?'"
"I mean, you and Lana. Not only did you two divorce, but neither of you have even spoken to her for years!" John screamed something that only a select few people knew, with a scowl on his face.
Al eyed John. "How do you know about that?"
John threw his hands up in the air and looked up at the ceiling. "I told you, we're best friends! Do you know how much being separated from you guys upset her? She used to say all the time how much she missed her family. But after that big blowout about her and the WCW, she didn't know what to do?"
Al exhaled. He remembered what John was talking about. When Torrie announced that she was going to become a Nitro Girl on WCW, her parents were furious. They both begged her not to, but she did, anyway. Then, when the WWF bought WCW, they were even more angry. It's no secret that back then, the WWF was bad about exploiting their female employees. Sure, her parents were worried about her, but she was an adult; it was up to her.
But what really pushed Torrie over the edge was the onscreen angle about her dad and Dawn Marie. She and Dawn had never gotten along, onscreen nor off, and her relationship with her parents was already stretched tight, but this made it worse. Al, Torrie, and John all knew that he'd only done the story line to spite Torrie. And she'd never forgave him for it.
"Even so," Al said, "nothing compares to what you've done to her. You destroyed my little girl! When she wakes up-if she wakes up-she's going to be forbidden to see you!"
At Torrie's father's last comment, fire rose in John's stomach. "That's the biggest load of shit I've heard in my entire life!" He drew closer to Mr. Wilson, "and do you know how much shit I've heard. Hell, I'm in the WWE, I hear shit every day of my life! But you've outdone everybody: the Rock, Edge, Batista, Undertaker, Carlito, yada, yada!
"I'll admit it, yeah, I've hurt Torrie. But, if I don't go in there and apologize, she's not going to get better and she'll probably be on the goddamn machines for the rest of her life! If you can even call it that! Shit, Al, just let me talk to her for two minutes. Less, even!" John pleaded with Torrie's father.
"No!" Al snapped
"Please!" John was ready to get down on his knees.
"No. Fucking. Way," Al hissed at John.
John's face crumbled and he turned away so that Al wouldn't see his defeat. He stared at the door to Torrie's room and wished with all of his might that he could go in there. But he knew that thanks to her father, he could not.
Stacy and Randy slowly walked out of the room. John pursed his lips into a line. He tilted his head toward the left, signaling for them to follow him to the waiting room. They obeyed.
"How was she?" John asked, when Al was out of earshot.
Randy shrugged. "It's like she's sleeping. Very, very peacefully."
John noticed that Stacy had yet to say anything. "Are you all right, Stace?" he asked.
Stacy's face fell and she shook her head. Immediately, she began to cry. Randy put his arms around her protectively.
"She's going to be okay," Randy whispered to her.
If only John knew that it was true.
Stacy sniffed. "I'm sorry, John. I know that this is hard enough on you without me blubbering like a pansy."
"S'okay," John replied.
"It's just that...," Stacy trailed off, "it's just that she's still. I mean, Torrie's a jumpy person, always going like the Energizer Bunny. Even when she was sleeping."
John knew all about that.
"I understand," John responded.
By now, they'd reached the waiting room. Randy and Stacy sat down, but John could not. Instead, he paced the floor.
"What did Torrie's dad say?" Randy asked.
John swallowed hard. "He said that I can't see Torrie. I can't see Torrie because I've 'caused her too much pain over the years!' How fucked up is that?" John needed to vent, and now was the time.
"Really fucked up," Randy replied, "but, what can we do about it?"
Stacy giggled. "Lock his ass in a closet."
"Think it could work?" John asked.
Stacy gave him a shocked look. "I was just kidding, John. We can't do that even if we tried."
"Yeah," Randy said, standing up, "we can." He went and stood beside John.
Stacy laughed again, but stopped short when she noticed the seriousness of Randy and John's expressions. "You...you guys are serious?"
John and Randy looked at each other before nodding. Then Randy burst out laughing. "Why don't we just trick him."
"That's probably a better idea," John agreed.
Stacy sighed and stood up. "All right, then. Let's do it."
The three of them stalked down the hallway, toward Torrie's room. They saw that Torrie's brothers had yet to return from the cafeteria. Al wasn't around, either.
"He's probably in there with her," Randy whispered.
"Stace," John murmured, "go tell him that you want to talk to Torrie. He actually likes you a little."
"Okay," she replied.
John and Randy watched as Torrie knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the door swung open and Al stepped out, allowing Stacy to come in.
"Go on," John muttered to Randy, "he doesn't hate your guts."
Randy walked over to Al and said something that John could not comprehend. Al nodded to Randy and they began walking in the opposite direction. John waited until the two of them were out of sight to dash into Torrie's room.
He could see Stacy standing beside the door, staring at Torrie. There were tears in her eyes. "Randy, I think, took Al to the cafeteria. Keep a lookout, okay?"
"Sure," Stacy brushed some of her tears away before leaving the room.
Now, it was only John in the room with Torrie. His heart began to pound as he stared at her. Stacy was right, she looked completely immobile, but not at all peaceful. There was a black leather chair beside Torrie's bed, and John made his way over to it, sitting down so that his knees would not buckle out from under him.
A lump formed in his throat as he gazed lovingly at the Playboy cover girl. Her blond curls were scattered around the pillow, the blanket covering most of her body. Somehow, she still managed to look chilled. Her mouth was in a line, expressionless, and her emerald green eyes were shut tightly.
Drawing out a long breath, John curled his fingers around Torrie's limp hand. Instantly, tears came to his eyes, but he ignored them. "Oh, Torrie," John whispered.
He wasn't totally sure what to say. He wasn't even sure if she could hear him. Yet, he was totally willing to take the chance that she could. "I'm so, so sorry. I never...I never meant for any of this to happen. I'm sorry that you hurt so much over the years, sorry for all of the pain I've caused you, sorry for this. And I'm sorry that I never realized how much I love you. If I hadn't have been blinded by Liz, well, maybe we wouldn't be in this position."
He swallowed hard. Torrie's expression and body stayed exactly the same. "Torrie, I love you so much. I love you so much that it's hurting me right now to even tell you. You're not just my best friend, but you're my soul mate, and my lover, my cheerleader. Torrie, you're my everything. If you don't pull out of this, I'll just be a waste of space, completely useless. There's no way I'll even be able to continue in the WWE. It's incredibly important to me, yes, but nothing, and I mean nothing, means what you do to me. "If you can hear me, please try to wake up. Wake up so that I can tell you all of this face to face. Your dad doesn't even know I'm in here. He didn't want me to talk to you. In fact, he specifically said that I couldn't. So, my time's limited. Actually, I...I should probably go now."
John Cena's eyes soon became a waterfall as he stood up and looked at Torrie's beautiful face once more. He leaned forward and kissed Torrie's forehead. Still crying, he pressed his forehead to hers, his tears falling onto her face. Right before he turned to leave, he leaned down and kissed her lips softly. "Bye, Torrie," he whispered, "I love you."
John paced out of the room and looked at Stacy. She'd stopped crying, but her face was puffy and her eyes were red-rimmed. He was sure that his were, too. "We should probably head back to the waiting room," he advised, "we don't want Al finding out that I went in there."
Stacy nodded in agreement. "Let's go."
The two of them sprinted back to the waiting room, quickly followed by Randy. "Did you see her?" Randy asked, sitting down?
John nodded. "I did. She didn't move at all, just laid there. It was terrible, Randy."
"I know," Randy replied.
Just then, Torrie's brother, Matt walked up to them. "John, do you think that you could run to the hotel that you and Tor were staying at and get her stuff? Dad's been hollering about it."
"Yeah," John replied, "sure."
Matt turned to leave, but before he did, he said, "You know, if it were up to my brothers and I, you would have seen Torrie. Before anyone else."
"Thanks man," John smiled wanly.
Matt returned the smile before spinning on his heels and leaving the waiting room.
John then looked at Randy. "Randy, if I give you the key, will you-"
"Yeah, yeah," Randy replied, "sure, John, I will. I know that you don't want to leave Torrie just yet. Stace, why don't you come with me? You really need to sleep."
"I'm fine," Stacy retorted, "but I'll go with you."
They both stood up and hugged John before leaving to get Torrie's stuff.
An hour or more later, Randy and Stacy returned with Torrie's bags. Randy carried three, Stacy one. John walked up to them and held his hands out to Randy.
"No," Randy said, "I got this, John."
"Sure," John replied, just as Randy dropped the smallest one.
"Dammit!" Randy exclaimed. The contents of Torrie's bag spilled out.
"Did you think to shut it, Randy?" Stacy asked, giggling.
John bent down to pick up the envelopes that had flooded out of the bag. Then, he was totally confused. The envelopes were addressed to him at his Tampa address in Torrie's handwriting, and not one, not two, but all of them had 'return to sender' stickers on them.
What the hell? John asked himself.
Back in Torrie's hospital room, a certain Boise Belle was dreaming. She was dreaming about the ocean, about John. It was Florida, she was certain of that. It was twilight and they were dressed casually, after a day of playing in the ocean, Torrie in a bikini top and khaki shorts, and John in green swimming trunks. Together, they ran down the surf, stopping occasionally to look at the shells. Torrie knew that the two of them were happy, but something was wrong. What was it? Suddenly, John started to cry and apologize. She tried to tell him that she was fine, but she couldn't form the words. Suddenly, he kissed her, told her he loved her and goodbye, and left. "John!" she tried to call out to him, but it didn't work. Torrie fell to her knees and began to cry herself.
The blond's eyes fluttered open. "John?" she whispered.
Sorry, I know it's a little rushed, but I realized today that I only have about six or seven weeks left to finish this. So, I need to get it done so that y'all don't have to wait a whole summer for the conclusion. Another thing I realized today is that this is without a doubt the longest, most emotional and most detailed story that I've ever written. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's different for me. So, I must give special thanks to skittlez3 and piegirl22 for the great songs. They really inspired me for this chapter. Well, I hoped that you enjoyed this! :