"Daddddddy!" Kaycee complained loudly as she shook her head wildly, trying to rid her hair of some of the water her father just poured on her.
Karmina scooted to the other end of the huge tub, giggling at her twin sister. "You're funny, Daddy!"
Hunter grinned and held his hand out to the eldest girl. She slapped him a high five, which widened his smile. "I sure am, munchkin."
Kaycee pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not fair," she whined.
"It's not fair that you decided to dump your pail out over the tub while I was out, after I asked you two not to wet up the floor. Daddy has to clean that up. So, pouring water on the floor equals me pouring water on your head." The little girl would understand that rationale since she was very smart. Besides, he hadn't literally done what she had. She'd thrown sudsy water onto the floor. He'd poured regular, warm, clear water on her head, so that he wouldn't hurt her in any way.
The full, pink, much smaller pair of lips that she and her sister had inherited from their mother, poked out at him sadly. Her pale blue eyes were wide as she stared at him innocently – almost pitifully. "I'm sorry I made a mess, Daddy."
"Thank you, Sam."
"I can help clean, Daddy," she offered.
God help him when the girls were older. That was a constant thought of his. It was absolutely impossible for him to stay upset with either of them for longer than a moment. Oh sure, their offenses were minor…because they were just four years old. But when they fully came to realize that he was such a damn sucker for them and always ready to forget about their less than desirable behavior, all hell would break loose.
Snapping back to reality for a moment, Hunter realized that the baby was waiting for a response. And looking at her now, he realized that his girls were never disobedient or bratty on purpose. They just simply didn't understand consequences. They were four. That's why it was up to him and Stephanie to explain things to them properly. "I don't want you to slip in the water while you're trying to clean. But you're being such a big girl for making the offer. I'll do the cleaning and you can go talk to Mommy."
"She's on the phone?" Kaycee asked, her eyes lighting up at the mention of her mother.
"She's on the computer, where you can actually see her while she's talking to you."
"Does she want to talk to me too, Daddy?" Karmina asked.
Hunter lightly poked the dent in her chin. "She sure does. Your brother is in there talking to her now." He grabbed the blue, plush towel from the counter and spread it out on the floor to absorb some of the water. Glancing around to make sure there wasn't another puddle nearby, he walked to the towel rack. Shaking his head in amusement, he pulled down Karmina's "Beauty and the Beast" towel and Kaycee's "Sleeping Beauty" towel. Even when the girls picked different things, they were still somehow related. It had to be a twin thing.
Gesturing for them to stand up, he waited for just a moment and then draped Karmina's towel around her shoulders. With Kaycee's towel, he first squeezed her hair a bit, to rid it of the excess water she hadn't gotten out using her tiny fingers. He wrapped the towel around her before reaching down to take the stopper out of the drain. He tucked a twin under each massive arm and carried them down the hall to their room.
As they began to towel off, it was Kaycee who asked, "Are you bringing the 'puter in here?"
That wasn't exactly what Hunter had planned. He figured the twins could just head into his room to use it. But since Jackson already had has alone time with Steph, he figured it would be nice for the girls to have the same amount of alone time. And if they talked to Steph while they were already in bed, they might fall asleep much quicker than they had the night before.
"You girls put your jammies on and I'll go get it. Deal?" He asked them, raising his eyebrows for emphasis.
Both girls eagerly nodded in agreement and ran for their chest of drawers to find what they wanted to wear to bed. Hunter left them to their task, leaving their door open just a sliver as he stepped out.
From down the hall, Hunter could hear Jackson's voice say, "Mommy, I got a gold star today!"
Stephanie laughed a little and said, "I'm so proud of you, son! What did you get the star in?"
Hunter pushed the door open and walked in to see his son sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, with the laptop in front of him.
"Math," Jack answered simply, lifting his head up the slightest bit as his Dad walked into his line of vision.
"You did?" She asked. "That's awesome. Your Daddy's help has been paying off, huh?"
"Yeah! I got all the answers right!"
Hunter plopped down on the bed next to Jack and grabbed him, giving him a light noogie before resorting to tickling his sides.
"Aaaaah! Daddy! Stop! Aaaah!" Jack complained through his hysterical laughter before finally falling to his side on his parents' huge bed. Relentlessly and unmercifully, his father continued to tickle him while he wriggled across the bed trying to get away.
Stephanie watched the scene with a smile on her face. "Hunter!" She chastised, even though she was mostly kidding. "Our son does excellent in school today and you reward him with torment?"
Hunter smiled sheepishly before leaning over to drop a kiss in Jack's now completely unruly hair. "Sorry baby," he said to Stephanie.
"I'd take that seriously if the corners of your mouth weren't still turned up and Jack wasn't still hanging off the edge of the bed, you know."
He laughed and tugged on Jack's arms, yanking the boy into his side. "Okay, okay, I guess that wasn't a proper reward. How about your Mom and I take you out for ice cream?"
"Yeah!" Jackson exclaimed, slapping his tiny hand against Hunter's shoulder. "When?"
"Steph?" Hunter asked, deflecting Jack's question to her, since she was the one out of town and bound to be exhausted when she returned.
"Saturday. Whatever time you guys want is fine with me," she said with a shrug.
"Cool," Hunter said. "You ready for bed, kid?"
"Do I haaaaave to?" Jack asked.
Hunter poked the boy in his side, making him jump in fear of being tickled again. "Yes, you do. You've got school and baseball tomorrow…and you wanna be awake long enough to give your Mom a hug and a kiss, right?"
"Right," Jack confirmed.
"If you don't get enough sleep, you're gonna be too knocked out to do all of that. Besides, it's your sisters' turn to talk to Mommy. So off you go!"
Accepting defeat, Jackson turned to the computer screen again. He waved bye to his mother and said. "Be safe on the plane tomorrow, Mommy. I love you."
Stephanie wouldn't be surprised if her cheeks began to ache, her smile was so wide. "I will, little guy. I love you, too…more than you'll ever know." Stephanie kissed her fingers and then held them up to the screen. She smiled again when Jackson did the same thing before hugging his father and scampering off the bed and towards his room.
"Hang on, Steph," Hunter said as he adjusted the laptop to unplug it. "The girls are in their bed waiting to talk to you."
"No problem," she said with a yawn.
Frowning at her image on the screen, Hunter said, "Baby, you seem exhausted."
"I am. Vince has had me running around all damn day like I'm his personal assistant or something. I set up afternoon meetings for the renewal contracts and got them all signed. I so don't need to be in this arena right now but he's being a complete bastard and making me stay anyway. He was muttering some bullshit about not bothering the busy secretaries with changing the itinerary of the jet. I said I'd pay for my own damn ticket back home if it got me out of doing the show, but then he was bitching about the jet being fueled up specifically for in the morning. I said I'd reimburse him and that's when he basically told me that I couldn't go simply because he said so and had already told people I'd be there. Vince said he wasn't going to let me sour his good reputation by making him break his word on my attendance."
"He's full of shit. None of his reasons make any sense whatsoever," Hunter muttered out.
"I know…Vince is an idiot – he doesn't even have a decent rep within his own family."
Yep, Hunter thought. The old man was definitely on her shit list again. She only called him by his first name when she was pissed off and purposely distancing herself. He'd noticed that about her, years ago, but she'd also revealed that detail to him the last time they were in some sort of spat he'd caused.
Poor Steph…she sounded frustrated and wiped out. It was only a few minutes until eight. And Hunter knew that the show that she was unnecessarily being made to attend didn't start until that time. "And you're not even close to being done yet."
Stephanie raised her eyebrows and lowered them quickly, "I know," she said with a sigh.
"How is it being backstage and in the mix and everything again?"
Stephanie shrugged. To be quite honest, she was too tired to be able to enjoy the electrified atmosphere. She was also too bitter at having to be here in the first place and with the way her father was behaving. "I hope I'll perk up once the show starts. Right now the only thing that can cut through my mood is you and the kids," she answered. Chewing on her lip briefly, her mind calculated at a rapid pace. Hunter had broached the subject of being in the mix of wrestling again. He seemed to more or less be back to his normal self with her. Maybe it was an okay time to test the waters on how he felt about returning to the ring. "Do you miss it? Being a part of the live shows and all?"
"Sometimes," he answered without further elaboration.
"Ever think about returning to that side of things?"
Hunter tilted his head from left to right as he considered, standing up from the bed to walk towards the twins' room. "I don't think about it much. But I've considered wrestling again once the kids are much older. Like pre-teen age, provided I can still go the distance, of course," he said with a laugh.
Jackson was six and the twins were four. For all of them to reach pre-teen age, at least seven or eight more years needed to pass. Hunter will have probably changed his mind by then. Furthermore, they'd eventually have another child, which would tack on eleven or twelve years to Hunter's return timeframe. It wasn't necessary to mention these obvious facts; Hunter would eventually have that epiphany for himself, if he hadn't already. She also didn't want this conversation to get too deep and serious. Hunter didn't want to go back now – it was confirmed and she wasn't about to try to persuade him otherwise. Whatever misguided punishment her father had in store for her, she could take it. Eventually the moron would come to his senses and realize how damn childish and unreasonable he was being.
"Here are the twins," Hunter announced as he walked into their room, turning the computer so that they could see each other.
"Mommy!" They said in unison, with huge smiles.
"I was wondering where my beautiful girls were!" Stephanie said.
Hunter shook his head in amusement. Stephanie basically just complimented herself. That's how much their daughters had taken on her looks. Not that he blamed her; the three of them really were beautiful. If they continued to look so much like her as they got older, he was going to have to invest in some weapons for the boys that would surely come chasing them. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to try returning to the ring when they were practically teenagers. He wouldn't be as intimidating if he was thousands of miles away. He'd have to give that aspect some serious thought a few years down the line.
Both girls giggled wildly, leaning back into their pillows. But it was Karmina that said, "We're right here, Mommy!"
"We miss you, Mommy!" Kaycee said. "When are you coming home?"
"I fly back in tomorrow. I miss you all so much. I'm gonna give you big hugs and kisses when I see you."
"Promise?" They asked.
Stephanie used her arms to make an "x" on her chest. "Cross my heart. Are you two being good for your Daddy?"
"I am!" Karmina said quickly. "Sam put bath water on the floor and Daddy had to clean it up!"
Kaycee swatted at her sister. "Tattle tale!" She accused.
Karmina prepared to swat at her sister in return, but Hunter stuck an arm between the two of them to break it up. "That's enough, you two. No hitting each other."
Catching a movement using his peripheral vision, Hunter turned to the computer to see Stephanie giving him a thumbs up. He'd intervened in the girls' bickering immediately and was firm with them, without being harsh. He really had made so much progress when it came to getting the little charmers to listen.
"Sorry," the two of them apologized in unison.
Hunter gave them a smile. "You two love each other, right?"
Both girls nodded and linked arms, leaning their heads together. It was quite possibly the cutest thing that their parents had ever seen them do in the midst of one of their little fights.
Catching on to where Hunter was going with this, Stephanie added, "It's not nice to try to hurt someone that you love."
The tone of her voice caught his attention. He looked at the video on the computer and could tell that not only was she referring to what just happened with the girls, but with what happened in their marriage as well. He smiled and winked at her to confirm that he understood what she was saying.
"Shoot," Stephanie said, glancing someplace that Hunter couldn't see. "I gotta go. It's eight."
Hunter nodded in understanding. Christ, he hoped that the girls didn't burst into tears because their mother had to go. That was going to put Stephanie in an even worse mood for Smackdown. "Girls, say goodnight to Mommy."
"Goodnight, Mommy," they said, settling down into their bed.
"Goodnight. I love you."
"Love you," they said in return as their heads finally hit the pillows.
Hunter pulled the covers up over their daughters, before turning back to Stephanie. "Call me before you take off in the morning, okay?"
"I will. I love you, Hunter."
A dorky smile crossed his lips for a moment. "I love you, too. Goodnight, Steph."
"Goodnight," she returned before switching off her webcam, sighing heavily.
Stephanie was so drained that she wanted nothing more than to go back to her hotel room and just pass the hell out. She'd have to be up at an ungodly time to make her flight at six. The upside was that if she took a normal plane, she wouldn't get in until nine, at the earliest. Meaning she'd have to spend even more time at the office to have worked at least four hours there before going home. So this was better. And with the hour of downtime she would have, maybe she could grab a nap. She'd certainly need her energy if she was to do everything she'd told her family that she would.
They weren't going to receive less from her simply because Vincent Kennedy McMahon had some idiotic vendetta against his own daughter for no good reason. She could tell Hunter what she was sure was going on with him. But what was the point? He'd just get pissed off, confront Vince and it would lead nowhere. At the office, she mainly tried to just blend in…she did her job well but she certainly didn't behave like she was an heiress – someone poised to become one of the richest women in the entire country. People already thought she probably didn't deserve her position. So she aimed to be treated just like everyone else was.
Unfortunately for her, that meant being barged in on at any given time and apparently being treated like shit if she didn't perform her so-called – yet complete bullshit – "job expectations."
Thanks for all the reviews, guys! And a special thanks to Angela for that flurry of reviews to both "Boomerang" and this one. You rock!
I totally didn't finish this until 2:30 in the morning (and I'm supposed to be up for work in 4 hours...joy lol) so do forgive any grammatical errors. I'm sure I'll catch most of them later. Until I do? Review, review, review! I'm hoping I can finish this fic around ch. 50...possibly 60, depending on how it all plays out!