Note: Longer, more dramatic update. Keep those reviews coming. Thanks much!

Chapter 36

"Cody, I really don't want to do this," Layla whined as they pulled onto the street where his ex-wife lived.

"I know, but you didn't want to stay home by yourself, and if I didn't come out here for Mandy's birthday, Jenna would have killed me," he replied carefully.

"Does Jenna even know I'm coming with?"

Cody was silent for a few seconds before Layla asked again. "Cody. Does your ex-wife know that I'm coming with you this weekend?" she asked with a little bit more force.

"Yeah..."

"And what did she say?"

"Layla, I don't want to talk about it. It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. What did that little bitch say about me?" she started to raise her voice.

"Don't call her that," Cody warned.

"I'll say whatever I want about her."

Cody's jaw clenched as he fought to control his temper right now. "She didn't really say anything. She just asked that since I haven't seen Amanda in a few months, that I take the time to spend some quality time with her." He left out the part where Jenna freaked out and said 'hell no' to the suggestion of bringing Layla with in the first place. Jenna would just have to get over it.

"What the hell does that mean," Layla shot back. She was feeling extremely insecure about her relationship with Cody right now. Blame it on the fact that she was eight months pregnant and her hormones and emotions were out of control, or blame it on her just being jealous of Jenna, but all she knew is that she did not want to be in St. Louis right now.

"Nothing. Just that I haven't seen our kid in a while and that she misses me. Please be nice to Jenna this weekend."

Layla crossed her arms across her chest and stuck out her bottom lip stubbornly. "Fine. But only because you asked. But don't think that I won't hesitate to let her have it if she starts anything."

"All I'm asking is that you be nice, Layla. That's all," Cody said quietly as he pulled up in front of Jenna's house.

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"Jenna Kay...when are we going to meet this new young man," Alice Andrews asked as she sat at Jenna's kitchen table, anxious to hear about the new man in her daughter's life.

Jim Andrews sat down next to Alice and awaited an answer from Jenna. On one hand he was glad that Cody Runnels was finally out of Jenna's life, but on the other hand, he knew how much his only daughter still missed him. He too was anxious to hear about the new fellow who had captured his daughter's attention.

"Later today I think. His flight should have already came in," Jenna said carefully.

"Oh. Was he traveling for work?" Alice asked.

"Yes..." Jenna trailed off. She hadn't told her parents yet that her new...boyfriend...was a wrestler like Cody was. It was still weird for Jenna to refer to Randy as her boyfriend. But for whatever strange reason, she actually found herself liking Randy the way that he liked her. What scared her the most was that Amanda was becoming attached to Randy rather quickly; and that was mostly because Cody hadn't lived up to be the father to her that he had always promised that he would be.

"What does he do?" Jim asked warily.

"Um...he's a wrestler..." Jenna said quietly with her head down, waiting for backlash from her parents. They had despised Cody's career and had hoped that their daughter would have more sense than to start a relationship with another man who had the same career.

"Damn it, Jenna Kay. Another one?" Jim asked as he closed his eyes in frustration. "Why can't you find a nice young doctor to date or even a businessman? What is it about these...wrestlers that you find so appealing?"

"I don't know..."

"Do you honestly think that this new relationship would turn out any better than the one with that Cody?" Jim asked in frustration.

Jenna was about to answer her father when she was saved by the ringing of the doorbell. Before she even made it out of the kitchen, she heard Mandy's little feet racing to see who was waiting on the other side of the door. She caught her daughter before Mandy flung the door open. "Mandy, you do not open the front door without mama..." she said quietly before she peeked behind the curtain. She wanted to scream. Cody was there. With Layla. "It's ok, you can open the door," she said softly as she moved away from the door.

Mandy let out an excited squeal when she opened the door and saw her daddy standing there. "Daddy!" she screamed as she flung herself into Cody's waiting arms. "Hey, pumpkin pie," Cody murmured as he held his daughter close. It had been at least three months since he had last seen her; he had tried to call her once a week when his schedule let him, but talking to his little girl on the phone wasn't nearly the same as holding her in his arms.

Cody picked up the little girl and motioned for Layla to follow him inside. He set Mandy down. "Pumpkin, this is daddy's special friend, Layla. Can you say hello?" he asked quietly while avoiding Jenna. He knew that she was standing off to the side, so to not interrupt the reunion between Mandy and Cody.

Layla tried to bend down to Mandy's eye level, but her huge belly was in the way. "Hi, Mandy. I'm Layla. I'm so happy to meet you! Is tomorrow your birthday?" she asked cheerfully.

Mandy took one look at Layla's pregnant belly and nodded. "Mama?" she asked quietly before she turned around and looked for her mother. Jenna stepped back into the room and held out her hand for Mandy to take.

"Hello, Cody," Jenna said politely. She nodded to Layla. Jenna refused to speak to her. Cody had told Jenna that he was bringing Layla with, because 'she's part of my life now'. Jenna had put up a small fight, but eventually gave up arguing with him.

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Jenna watched Cody and his father argue about something related to the wrestling business while her own father tried to follow the conversation, but was growing frustrated at not being able to understand the appeal of traveling almost every week and being beat up in the ring. Alice was trying to be polite and start a conversation with Layla, who in turn was more interested in her cell phone than anything.

Mandy was trying to get her father's attention, but was failing miserably and ended up coming over and crawling onto Jenna's lap. "What's the matter," Jenna whispered in her ear. They were all sitting in the living room waiting for Ted and Randy to eventually show up. Mandy's birthday party wasn't until tomorrow afternoon, but tonight everyone was going out to dinner for a pre-birthday celebration. Ted had called late yesterday and said that he had managed to rearrange his schedule so he would be able to visit for the weekend. Jenna had not told Mandy that her beloved Uncle Ted was coming; it was going to be a surprise.

A few more minutes of strained conversation went by before the doorbell rang. Mandy looked up at her mother with an excited look on her face. Who was coming to see her now? She got up and ran over to the front door, with her mom close by behind her. Jenna nodded and Mandy struggled to open the door. She barely got the door open before she let out a loud squeal, "Uncle Teddy!" she screamed as she flung herself into Ted's arms. "Well, hey Mandy. Happy to see me?" he asked as he laughed as the little girl wrapped her little chubby arms around Ted's neck. He came further inside the house. "Hey, Jen," he said softly as he walked in and set Mandy down who was happily chattering away to her beloved Uncle Ted.

Jenna found herself smiling as she watched how happy her daughter was right now. The front door opened again and Jenna looked up to see who it was. A small smile started on her face when she saw that it was Randy. "Hey," he said quietly as he shut the door behind him and handed her the bouquet of pink gerber daisies he had picked up for her. Mandy broke away from her happy chatter with Uncle Ted and let out yet another squeal of excitement when she saw that her very good friend Randy was here and that he had something in his hand for her. She threw herself into his arms and gave him a great big hug before she asked, "What did you bring me, Randy?"

"Amanda Sue. It's not polite to ask-" Jenna started to say before she was interrupted with another squeal of excitement from her daughter when Randy handed her a brand new baby doll. "Thank you, Randy!' she screamed as she gave him another big hug. "You're welcome," he mumbled back as she jumped out of his arms and ran into the living room to show Nana her new doll.

"Hey," he said again softly as he took a step closer to Jenna and wrapped his arms around her. "Miss me?" he murmured as he started to nuzzle her neck.

"Stop," she whispered back.

"Jenna Kay. Are you going to introduce us to this young man?" Jim asked as he came over to the embracing couple. Jenna pulled away from Randy and nodded.

"Yes, sorry, dad. Randy, these are my parents, Jim and Alice Andrews. Mom, dad, this is Randy Orton," she said quietly, trying like hell to ignore the death glare that Cody was giving her right now.

"Nice to meet both of you," Randy said politely. "I see where Jenna gets her good looks," he said softly to Alice as he winked at her, causing her to blush.

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Half an hour later, the group was seated at a local pizza parlor. Mandy insisted on being able sit in between both her dad and Randy, and Jenna had to to sit directly across from her. If you haven't noticed yet, Mandy is bossy. "Daddy? When is the new baby coming? Why are you having a baby without mama? Is the new baby going to live with us?" Mandy rattled off her interrogation questions at her father. Jenna watched her ex-husband's reaction carefully; she could tell that this was incredibly uncomfortable for him right now. Good, Jenna thought to herself.

"Um. Well, pumpkin. The new baby will here next month," Cody said quietly, trying hard to ignore the glares from both his own father and Jim Andrews.

"Oh. Where will the baby live?" Mandy asked innocently.

"The baby will live with me and Layla in..." he trailed off as he caught Jenna's eyes who were blazing with anger right now. She was right. Layla was living in her house, her old house she corrected her thoughts.

"Oh. Layla, when did you move in?" Jenna asked politely as she ignored the look Randy was giving her right now to stop before she lost her temper.

"About three months ago," Layla said with a big smile at Cody, who was trying hard to ignore her. "It's such a big house and it's becoming quite the job to redecorate. I mean, this baby is coming next month and there is so much to do!"

"What... rooms are you redecorating?" Jenna practically whispered as she swallowed a lump in her throat and willed the tears that were starting to sting her eyes to not fall.

"Hmm...the master bedroom for sure. And we started to redo the first bedroom on the left when you come up the stairs. And then, oh my God, I absolutely had to have the front porch redone. I just couldn't stand-" The first bedroom on the left was Mandy's bedroom. Jenna had heard enough.

"Cody. Can I see you outside please," Jenna interrupted Layla. Cody knew better than to argue with Jenna when she had that look in her eyes. He nodded and got up to follow Jenna. "Mom, please keep an eye on Amanda. I'll be right back. I need to have some words with Cody."

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"Cody, what the hell are you doing?" Jenna hissed at him as soon as they were outside. "What are you thinking bringing her here?"

"Wait a minute. You said it was fine-"

"No, I said it was fine that you came to our daughter's birthday party-"

"That's right, Jen. Our daughter's birthday party. Don't forget that I'm still that little girl's father!"

"Maybe if you acted liked her father, and actually came to see her, I wouldn't have forgotten that you were her father!" Jenna shot back. This was going to turn into one of their knock down drag out fights.

"What the hell, Jenna? I don't get you. First you don't want me, then you do, then you don't again. So I signed the damned divorce papers and let you go. I tried to be a good father the best I can, but it's kind of hard to do that when you move out of the fucking state!"

"Do you know what I'm most upset about, Cody?" Jenna said as her tone changed from screaming to eerily calm. This sudden change in her demeanor had always terrified Cody. "It's the fact that you're letting her completely take over your life."

"What do you want me to do, Jenna? You don't want me anymore."

"Why are you letting her do that to our house. Our home. The home that we made together?" Jenna asked softly as tears started to fall down her cheeks.

"I...I..." Cody stuttered as it finally hit him why she was so pissed. He was letting Layla destroy all of the memories in that house that him and Jenna and Mandy had built there. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled as he took a step closer to her. "Jen, I never wanted to hurt you. I'm so sorry..." he whispered as he tentatively reached out an arm to bring her close to him. "I'm really sorry for everything," he whispered as he pulled her into his arms and he rested her forehead against his strong chest as she started to sob, letting out all of the hurt and frustration that she had been holding in for the past six months.

"I still love you, Cody...I can't stop," she half mumbled half sobbed into his chest. Cody pulled away a little bit and lifted her chin gently with his fingers; he gazed into her dark brown eyes trying to figure out if she really meant it. Deciding to stop thinking about it, he just gave in to what felt right and kissed her gently on the mouth...