Chapter Thirty Four: The Confrontation
Joe and I went back to work three weeks after the wedding, a week before Survivor Series. When we returned things seemed almost normal for a while. Joe and I defended our separate titles at Survivor Series and again in December at TLC. At TLC, I vacated the Intercontinental Championship and it was put up for grabs in a ladder match. At the end of the night, surprise entrant Paige came and stole the title from the guys. I knew it was coming, but it still put a smile on my face that my hard work was opening the men's division for the stronger Divas to compete against them.
In January, just as we were all getting ready for Old School Raw, I ran into some very old friends of Dad's who were all like uncles. Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jake the Snake Roberts, Scotty 2 Hotty, Grandmaster Sexxay and others were hanging around backstage. Too Cool and I used to prank Dad and some of the other wrestlers when I was younger, but Rowdy and Jake used to find it funny that even when I was little I was never afraid of them. I hadn't been around for Old School Raw the year before and here I was, the same little girl who used to tease Roddy about his "skirt" and play with Jake's snake, walking around with the World Heavyweight Championship. It was great. We all had a great time and when the show was over, Roddy, Rikishi, Joe, and I went out for drinks with Dad.
The Royal Rumble had me nervous a few weeks later. I knew whoever won the Rumble would face either me or Joe at Wrestlemania. I also knew that Dean Ambrose had been entered in the Rumble. Not to mention that they had brought in Shawn Michaels to referee my steel cage match with Triple H. Joe was fighting John Cena. Ultimately we both retained, but Dean Ambrose literally stole the Rumble. He wasn't supposed to win, but he stole the win anyway. It didn't happen often, but it did happen sometimes. At Raw the day after the Rumble, he called my title as he main event he wanted at Wrestlemania. That meant the winner of the Elimination Chamber would face Joe for the WWE Championship.
I was furious after Dean Ambrose made his announcement and unfortunately for Cesaro, he was my opponent for the night. I annihilated him much like Dad had done to Harper after I had gotten into the issues with The Wyatts the night after Wrestlemania the year before. It barely sated my rage. When my match was over, I showered, changed, and let Joe know that I would see him back at the hotel later. Leaving my gym bag in our rental car, I took only my shoulder bag with me when I left the arena, not sure if I was gonna go to a bar or just go for a walk. I wasn't far from the arena when I ran into the last person I expected to in a dark alley… Jonathan Good.
"Didn't think you went anywhere without your husband, Cassidy," he said to me with a smirk.
"What are you doing out here? I thought you'd still be at the arena."
"I was done for the night, so I left."
"Fine," I said as I turned to go the other way.
He didn't let me get far before he stopped me. Jon grabbed my arm and turned me to face him, but I was so fed up with him, I turned with my right fist and hit him in the jaw, knocking him back.
"What the fuck is your problem?" he shouted at me, holding his jaw.
"You are! You have been torturing me since I was seventeen, Jonathan and I never knew why! What the hell is your issue with me? What did I ever do to you?"
He looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes.
"You have a perfect life and I hate you for it. You have no idea what pain was and I wanted to teach you. All of you legacies, you all have things so good. Your parents give you everything. And then, the one legacy I did trust, you turned him against me!"
"What the hell are you talking about, I had a perfect life? You don't know a damn thing about me. I never had a perfect life! And you turned Joe against you! He hated what you were doing, he knew you were intentionally going off-script to hurt me. That was all you, not me, Jon."
"Of course, you would blame me. You have no idea what it is not to be wanted, you would have no idea how much it would hurt to open up and have that person hurt you!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?! My mother chose my rapists over me! Ivy never wanted me! She got rid of me as soon as she could, leaving me with my father! She'd pop up every once in a while to start shit and run off again with some jerk, but she was never there for me! And now, she's dead! I can never get her back! I can never try to work things out with her and the last thing my mother tried to do to me was kill me to protect someone who raped me! So don't tell me I don't know about not being wanted!"
"You still had your father!"
"My father?! My father tried to control me my entire life. He tried to isolate me from everyone! He was trying to protect me but he went to extremes! I was either on the road with him or isolated down in Texas with him in the house I own. Not to mention all the step-mothers who hate me and don't want me near my siblings or the fact that until I joined the WWE against his wishes he barely paid attention to me since I turned 18! I'm his bastard! When it came down to it, he chose his legitimate children almost every time after I turned 18!
"When you guys put me in the hospital in London two years ago, he flew to London… and left before I was even discharged! So he could run back home to step-mother number three and his legitimate children! I was in the hospital and he couldn't stay long enough for me to get out! You think I have some fairy tale life, Good, but you're fucking delusional!"
"You were surrounded by my idols! You grew up with the legends and on the road, with people who cared! You used to hang around with the Hardys and Lita!"
"Those same people didn't know the real me! They knew me as a troubled freak and not because of my abilities, Jon! Me and the Hardys? And Lita? Jon, Amy is my N.A. sponsor! That's why every time she comes around she's with me! She wants to make sure I haven't slipped back up!"
"Like you've ever done drugs!"
"I did! For a few years. I made six years clean the night before Joe and I got married, I stopped doing drugs right before I met you and Colby. You don't know anything about me! You don't know about everything I've been through before you came along and made it your fucking life's mission to break my 'perfect life' into a million pieces! It was already in a million pieces and I was just starting to pick them back up!"
"Oh boo hoo! What could you have gone through that made you turn to drugs?"
"Fuck you, Jon, I don't have to answer you," I said as I started to walk away.
"I knew you didn't have any real pain in your life!" he called after me.
I turned around and it started down pouring.
"I don't know about pain?! How about having your best friend's, your only real friend's, heart give out on you at the age of twelve? Or the car accident I was in when I was fourteen that nearly killed me and three other people? Or the accident I had at sixteen that nearly killed me because I was absorbing the injuries of people around me? I know pain, Jonathan Good. Between being the throwaway kid, having my best friend die in my arms, everything else I had been through before I met you and then what you put me through when you met me thinking I had a perfect life, I know pain. Don't fucking think you know anything about me!"
His rage softened.
"You're telling me the truth, aren't you?"
"Yes," I said, tears of rage in my eyes. "I know you had a fucked up life. I stayed out of your way figuring if you ever wanted to make friends with anyone that was your choice. But that wasn't an invitation for you to make my life a living hell just so I could be miserable like you. I already was."
He stepped closer to me. I didn't stop him. He put his hand to my face and wiped away the tears of rage.
"Cassie, I'm sorry. I never realized Ivy was as bad a mother to you before I brought her back into your life as my mother was to me. And shit, looking at you and your dad, nobody would think that the two of you have issues. Anyone who didn't know you would think you're happy."
"Exactly, Jon. Anyone who didn't know me. Dad taught me from a very young age to read people, to hide who I am because people don't handle different like me. I could make anyone believe I was the most well-adjusted person in the world if I wanted to, including my father, and go home and slit my wrists at the end of the night.
"I joined the WWE against what he wanted. He didn't even know until I was in the ring that night two years ago. I hadn't figured out what to tell him and I knew he wanted me as far away from Vince McMahon as I could get, but wrestling is all I know. It's in my blood. I was literally raised on the road, at ringside, backstage. How could I not follow his legacy? I barely finished high school. I never even took my SATs. I never went to college. What else did he think I was gonna do with my life at this point?" I said, tears of frustration now flowing.
Jonathan stroked my face.
"I never realized how bad things were for you. I really am sorry. If I had known, I never would have done any of this," he said softly, as he lifted my face to look into his eyes.
"It doesn't make this okay, Jonathan. You raped me. You tried to have me killed."
"I know and I wish I could take it back, but I can't. I thought all the wrong things and I did all the wrong things. I've never been good at playing with others and something about the perfection I saw in your life just made something in me snap. Maybe it was the fact that you have a family. I don't. If anything happens, if I lose my job, I have an empty penthouse in Vegas to return to. No parents, siblings, nobody. I'm alone. I'm sorry. It's not gonna make it okay, but I'll try to stay out of your way Cassidy," he said to me softly.
I let the rain let up a little. Jonathan Good leaned down and kissed me. His lips weren't soft like Joe's, but I wasn't afraid of him anymore. I had finally realized, Jonathan came after me because he wanted me to be like him, not realizing how much like him I already was. I pulled away. I didn't get a chance to tell him that couldn't happen again. What happened next happened very fast.
"YOU WHORE!" a woman's voice called from the end of the alley. "YOU BROKE UP THE SHIELD, MARRIED ROMAN AND NOW YOU'RE KISSING DEAN?!"
Jonathan and I looked up. We both knew that the fangirls could be dangerous. That was part of the reason we were advised not to go anywhere after events unless we were in groups and it was a public place.
The woman got closer and I saw she was holding something in her hand. Jonathan tried pushing me behind him, but there wasn't that much of a height difference. When she was only about ten feet away, I saw clearly what was in her hand, a gun, and she had it pointed right at us.
"Move out of the way, Dean. I don't want you hurt. Morgana was bad and she needs to be punished," she said.
"You don't understand," Jonathan said. "She didn't kiss me. I kissed her."
It was the wrong thing to say to an obviously unstable fan. I saw the look in her eyes change to pity for him to rage towards both of us. I barely had time to pull him behind me before she reacted. She pulled the trigger twice. Three times. Four times. Then she ran.
Jonathan and I fell to the ground. He was bleeding more than I was. We were both hit twice. He was hit in the stomach and the shoulder. I was hit twice in the chest. Jonathan pulled me to him.
"Why the hell did you do that, Cassidy? Nobody would care if I die!" he said as he pulled me into his lap trying to stem the flow of blood in my chest with one hand as he called 911.
He told them where we were, to hurry because I'd been shot in the chest twice and was losing a lot of blood. My head was against his stomach. I think it was putting pressure on his bullet wound. I was losing energy and I could feel myself starting to take on his injuries.
"After everything I've done to you, why would you try to protect me?"
"Everyone like us deserves a chance, Jonathan," I heard the ambulances, but I could see the light in his eyes going out as the darkness was taking over my vision.
Roman's POV:
At the end of Raw I got into the rental and saw Cassie's gym bag. I was debating calling her when my cell phone rang. The phone number was the number to a hospital. My heart dropped into my stomach. I answered the call.
"Hello, is this Joseph Anoa'i?"
"Yes, this is."
"Are you married to Cassidy Anoa'i?"
"Yes, I am."
"Mr. Anoa'i, my name is Marie Hansen and I'm a nurse at University Hospital in downtown. Your wife was involved in a shooting earlier with another man. We need you to come to the hospital immediately and if you can help us with next of kin for the other victim, we need to contact his family, he's in critical condition."
"Who is it?"
"His name is Jonathan Good. Do you know who we can contact?"
"He has nobody. No family. I'm on my way to the hospital. Thank you."
I hung up the phone and called Mark, telling him what happened. Then I called my cousin Jonny.
"What's up, Cuz?" he said when he picked up the phone.
"You still inside?"
"We're all coming out now. Why?"
"I can't drive and I need you to drive me to the hospital."
"I'll be at your car in a minute. I'll have Josh meet us. The one downtown?"
"Yeah. I'll explain later."
"Gotcha, Cuz."
We hung up and a minute later, he got to my car. I gave him the car keys. I got in the passenger seat and he took off.
"Cassie is in the hospital. She left after her match because she was pissed Dean called her out for Wrestlemania. She was shot, Jonny. I don't know what the hell is going on, but she was with him."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. The nurse who called to tell me asked me if I knew anyone who could be called for him. He doesn't have anybody. But I don't know why they would be together."
"I'm sure there's a reason, Cuz. Don't worry about that right now. Worry about her being okay."
"I am, Jon. I already am. I should've asked her to just wait around for me."
"She needed to blow off some steam. This isn't your fault. You can't control what she does. I thought you figured that out already."
"I know, but I wish I could do more to keep her safe."
"I'm sure she'll be fine."
When we got to the hospital, we were led to the surgical waiting room. Cassie and Jonathan were both in surgery already. Both had been shot multiple times, but Cassie somehow had the worse injuries they told me. She had three bullet wounds. When the EMTs found them, Cassie was unconscious already in the lap of Jonathan Good who was cradling her in his lap.
As time wore on and we waited, more of the wrestlers showed up at the hospital. Mark wouldn't be able to get to the hospital until the morning with Michelle, Gunner and the girls. He promised he would bring all of her siblings, in case the worst happened. I didn't want to think about the worst. We'd only been married a few months. It wasn't enough time. I had called my dad. Jonny called his father. They were flying in too with my mom and siblings. Jeff had called Amy and Trish. They were flying in a few hours.
My hair was loose around my shoulders, I had long since pulled the hair tie out. I felt like I had been pacing the waiting room for days when one of the surgeons finally came out.
"I'm looking for the family of Cassidy Anoa'i," the doctor said.
"That's me. I'm her husband," I said going over to him. My cousins, Jeff, Amy and Saraya followed behind me.
"Mr. Anoa'i, your wife suffered serious injuries to the shoulder, abdomen and chest. We removed the bullets in her chest, but couldn't find any cause of the injuries to the shoulder and abdomen. She lost a lot of blood and we had to transfuse multiple units of donated blood into her."
"Is she okay?" I asked.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Anoa'i. She's on bypass right now. She needs a new heart. The bullet wounds tore up her heart and without a new one she won't survive the week. The other victim, he may not survive, and it has it, that he said, in a moment of clarity before he was put under anesthesia, if he doesn't make to donate his organs. We can type and cross him in case he doesn't make it and she would get first access to his heart in that case."
"She'll die without a heart? What are the chances without his heart that she'll get another donor heart? What are the chances he's a match to her?"
"The chances aren't good in either case. We can hope for the best. Right now, she's in the cardiac ICU and two of you can go to see her."
Cassie might die. I didn't even know why she was where she was, and I might never find out. I turned to look at the group of people with me.
"You and Amy should go," Jeff said. "We'll let everyone else know what's going on."
"Thank you," I said to Jeff.
Before we could go in, the surgeon who worked on Jonathan Good came out. We explained that he had no family and since we were his co-workers we were all he had, the surgeon finally gave us the information. I couldn't believe it.
Cassie's POV:
I didn't know how long I was out. What I did know was that I was sore everywhere when I woke up. I also had tubes everywhere. At my side was Joe.
"Where am I?" I croaked out.
He looked like he was gonna cry when he heard me. He pressed the call button.
"University Hospital, downtown Minneapolis," he said. "Cassie, I've been so worried about you."
The doctor came in and checked me. Then they moved me to a private room on another floor.
"What happened?" I asked. "I'm so sore."
"You don't remember?"
"I remember going for a walk, being pissed off, but that's it. How long have I been out?"
"A week, Baby Girl. You don't remember running into Jonathan Good in an alleyway?"
I started thinking, trying to remember. The memories came in flashes. Me cursing at him. The storm. The kiss. The gun. The pain.
"We got shot," I said in shock.
"Why were you there with him?"
"I ran into him. We got into an argument. I finally got pissed off and started yelling at the way he's always treated me… Oh God, Joe, that fangirl. She was crazy and he just made her mad."
"What are you talking about?"
"He kissed me. She had a gun. She saw the whole thing, Joe. She started calling me a whore, saying I broke up the Shield, and I was cheating on you with him. He tried to shield me from the gun. But he pushed the wrong button with her and I pushed him behind me before she started shooting."
"Why, Baby Girl? What do you mean?"
"He told her that he kissed me not the other way around. She started firing and ran. We both fell to the ground and he pulled me closer to him. He called 911. I heard the ambulances, but I blacked out. Where is he, Joe? Is Jon okay?"
"Why do you care, Cassie? After everything he did to you?"
"I finally understand his mind, Joe… And he tried to save my life. Where is he?"
"Cassie…"
I knew then what he wasn't saying. Jonathan Good was dead. I saw him behind Joe. The tears started flowing before I could stop them.
Why are you crying over me?
Just when I finally figure you out, you go and die on me!
Everyone's better without me. I was bad for Colby and Joe. You're better for them. Keep them in line. You be their lunatic fringe now, Cassie.
I'm not you, Jon.
No. You're a better person than me. You don't go around hurting people to make them feel your pain.
Why did you do it?! You grew up on the streets! You knew she'd shoot!
She was gonna shoot regardless. If she was focused on me, you had a chance to live. I didn't expect you to jump in front of me. I took too much from you already Cassie. I almost ruined your relationship once. I didn't want to destroy my boy's heart by getting his wife killed… even if he hates me for what I did to her. Take care of them… and my heart.
Your heart, Jon?
It was too late for me. You still had a chance, so I told them I'd donate my organs before they got me into surgery. It lucked out we were a match, huh? Don't waste that luck, Cass. I'll be here in this hospital forever if you ever need me.
He disappeared and his last words caught up with me. He was stuck in the hospital. Joe was holding me. I pulled back from him a bit.
"What happened to Jon's body? He had nobody."
"He's still in the morgue downstairs, Cassie. After they harvested his organs, nobody was sure what to do with him."
"Harvested his organs? So he saved me after all of this?"
"They transplanted his heart into you. So far, you've taken well to the transplant. You'll be on medication for the rest of your life, but you will be fine."
"Get my doctor. I'm going home to Texas, Joe."
"Cassie, you just woke up from a coma."
"I'm going home. And Jonathan Good is coming with me."
Joe didn't understand why I did it. Not until we were on the plane and I finally explained what happened that night in the alley. We had told Colby that we were having a service for Jon in Texas. He was allowed to invite anyone he thought would want to come pay his respects. He knew Jonathan best.
When I got home to Texas, I had a few rare burgers to finish healing from my wounds and even the heart transplant. I knew that in a few weeks, I'd be able to pass a WWE physical to go back to work. Then, while Joe slept that first night, I went down to the basement, where I let the inferno rage. After all the torment Jonathan Good had put me through, he had laid down his life for me in the end. He had done all of those things from the time he met me because he wanted someone to understand him. I cried and the inferno burned stronger.
His body was being cremated at a crematorium nearby, but he appeared in my basement.
Why?
Why what?
Why did you claim my body?
You didn't deserve to be thrown away like garbage. You saved my life.
I don't deserve this. Especially not from you.
The dead all deserve some kind of respect. Somebody to care that they lived and died. Especially if they died like you did. You may have been an asshole for years, but you finally did the right thing, Jonathan.
You're crying. Over me?
You died for me! Even after I instinctively tried to save you! The doctors found bullet wounds in me without bullets in it, identical to one of your bullet wounds. Joe figured it out. As you cradled me in your lap, I started healing you. As we were both bleeding out in that alley, I automatically started trying to heal you and it wasn't enough! Even with what I took on you still died!
Cassie, don't. This isn't your fault. You would've been in the arena if I hadn't pissed you off. We wouldn't have been in that alley for that crazy fan to do this if I hadn't set things in motion. My actions set off the domino effect. I wasn't gonna let you die for that.
Why did you have to be an asshole?! If you had just talked to me all those years ago, none of this ever would have happened! You never would have thought I had some kind of fairy tale life and thought you had to make me learn to feel pain! I know how to feel pain! And when I forget, I make myself remember! Why couldn't you just talk to me instead of being a jerk?! We could both be alive right now! I wouldn't be in pieces! My mother may not be dead!
You're right. About all of it. If I had just talked to you things may be different for us. Ivy may have lived, but she'd be the same. I'm sorry about all of this. I really am.
It doesn't matter anymore, Jonathan. You're just one more scar on my heart now, or should I say your heart? We could have been close if you had chosen a different path. But you've left your mark and in the end, without that scar, I'd probably be dead.
Cassie, get up and go to bed with your husband. Thank you, for doing what nobody else would do, and giving me a service. For making sure that people remember me.
I left the basement and went upstairs. I sat in the chair by the window. I hadn't slept since I woke up from the coma. I didn't want to. I was afraid of the nightmares that would come.
A few days later, there was a ceremony attended by members of the WWE and independent promotions alike to remember Jonathan Good. His ashes were in an urn on the alter and there were posters of him, candids, in-ring shots, and promo shots from his indy and WWE days. His friends spoke about the good times they had with him. At the end of the ceremony, I told everyone how, even though Jonathan and I were never close, in the end, he died a hero, saving me from a fan who couldn't separate our in-ring personas from our actual lives.
At the end of the day, everyone came back to my house where they were allowed to continue honoring his memory. I disappeared for an hour with the urn into the basement. Dad followed me down.
"Cassie, what are you doing?" he asked coming downstairs carefully.
I was on the floor with the urn focusing on it. It didn't look right to me. It was too plain.
"I don't like the urn. It feels wrong. I wanna fix it."
"Cassie, why does it matter. The man tortured you for years."
"Dad, he understood me better than I thought. In his own way, he was trying to make me like him, not knowing I was like him in some ways already. I was already broken. I just hid it better."
"You're nothing like him."
"But I am Dad. I'm the child nobody wanted. Not my mother. Sometimes not you," I said crying.
"Cassie, I always wanted you," he said pulling me to him.
"Then why did you leave? Why was it always so easy for you to walk away from me for the others? I had nobody else!"
"It wasn't easy, but they needed me too, Cassie."
"I know they did, but even when I really needed you, you left! Like London! Dad, you flew to London to be at my hospital bedside and didn't even bother staying until I was discharged! You could have just had Glenn stay with me and call me for that! You said Michelle and Kaia needed you. But Dad, I needed you! Maybe not all the time, but I do still need you sometimes, and you're not always there! His parents weren't for him. But they were never there. He had a lot of pain and loss in his life. I did too. Just different. We were more alike than I even realized.
"In the end, if he hadn't run his mouth to that fangirl she would have killed me, Dad. He pissed her off and it split her attention, so it gave me a better chance at survival. Then literally he gave me his heart so I could live. I owe my life to him. That's why it matters to me."
Dad just looked at me. I continued focusing on the two pictures I brought down to the basement with me. One was The Shield insignia. The other was is Jon Moxley logo. As I focused them, I used my pyrokinesis to etch them into his urn. On the side with his Moxley logo I signed Jon Moxley underneath. Underneath The Shield insignia I signed Dean Ambrose. On the side was already etched his real name, birth and death dates. When I finished, I looked at the urn and it felt better, almost like he was approving. I showed Dad and he put his hand on my shoulder. I was still crying.
"I'm sorry, Cassie. I never thought about you needing me as much as you do," he said to me.
"Dad, I love Gunner, Chasey, Gracey, and Kaia, but they all have their mothers if you're not here. If you're not there when I need you, until I got married I had friends. I had no mother to depend on. It was only you. So yeah, I was the throwaway kid sometimes, and you didn't realize you were doing it. That you were letting your wives do it."
"You're right, Cassie. I've let all of my wives push you out of everything, but not anymore. I've let Sara know if she keeps trying to fight me letting the girls see you, I'm going to sue for full custody."
I hugged Dad. He was finally seeing the truth. It only took me getting shot and nearly dying for him to get it.
"Come on," he said. "You should get back upstairs. I'm sure Joe is worried by now and he won't come down here after you."
"You're right."
We went upstairs and he left. I went to the living room and put the urn on my mantle, where it would stay. When Joe and I got married we decided we'd both keep our houses and share them when we were in different areas. Jonathan Good was now a resident of Texas.
The gathering continued and Jon's former partner from Switchblade Conspiracy, Sami Callihan, aka Sam Johnston, came over to me when he notice me keeping to myself in the corner. He'd known Jon better than anybody else. He sat down next to me.
"I don't think anybody else would have done this for him," he said.
"I hated him for a long time, Sami. I really did. He made my life a living hell."
"Then why did you do this, Cassie?"
"What I said at the service was true. He saved my life. And before he did, I realized he was a dick to me because he wanted someone to feel pain like he always had."
"He was messed up in the head."
"He made me hate him for all these years, but I was already just as messed up in the head as him," I was playing with the ankh around my throat. I hadn't taken it off since I got out of the hospital.
"What's that?"
"My reminder not to go back to being fucked up in certain ways?"
"Drinking?"
"Drugs. Six years clean as of October 30th."
"You're what, 23?"
"Yeah."
"You really were as fucked up as him, weren't you?"
"More than anyone knew. And I'm clinging to this chain for dear life trying not to slip back."
"Hey, he gave up his life for you, gave you a fresh start, don't go fucking up his heart with that shit."
"His heart will be fine."
"How do you know?"
"Did you know his ex, Ivy?"
"Crazy bitch who could do weird shit like set shit on fire and heal people?"
"That would be her."
"What about her?"
"That was my mother. I can heal and I've already healed his heart. I won't reject it. My body is already running like it was before I got shot. I'm just taking some time off because I need to process this."
"Ivy was your mother? Where is she? Shouldn't she have been with you?"
"We were never close, but Ivy died a few months ago. Ex-boyfriend."
"Sorry to hear that. She always did like the bad boys."
"A little too much. But like I said, Ivy and I were never close. We couldn't be in the same room without fighting. The last few times I saw her I broke her nose."
"Talk about a dysfunctional family. You have the same kind of family dynamic Jon did."
"He told me before that crazy fangirl showed up and shot us," I said before I started crying.
Sami held me closer.
"I know I don't know you that well, but you're gonna be living with my best friend's heart now. Do you mind if we get to know each other? I understood him, maybe I can help you out too."
I looked into his eyes. He looked insane, but he was sincere. I nodded.
"I'm really fucked up, though Sami. Like every aspect of my life is dysfunctional."
"Your marriage seems fine."
I laughed.
"What's wrong with your marriage? Is he an asshole?"
"No. No, it's not that. Joe is amazing. It's me."
"You're an asshole?"
I laughed again.
"Sometimes I wonder."
"Talk to me."
"I don't know you that well."
"Which is why you should talk to me. I'm an impartial party here."
I thought about it. It would be like talking to a shrink.
"Fine, but you can't tell anyone. And I mean it."
"I won't. I know what Ivy could do. I'm afraid to find out what you could, if you're already fine after a heart transplant."
"I have intimacy issues."
"What do you mean? You two haven't fucked yet?"
I flinched.
"To put it that way, no. We've been together for over a year, but I've been through certain things, and I'm afraid to be touched."
"Do you trust him?"
"With everything in me."
"Then you need to stop thinking about the dickhead who hurt you and think about what you want. Do you want to fuck him?"
I stopped to think about it. I was still scared.
"I'm scared."
"That's the dickhead talking. Ignore him. Have you kissed your husband?"
"Yes."
"Does it feel safe? Do you like it?"
"Yes."
"Think about that. See if you can do anything else focusing only on him. Don't let anyone or anything else into your mind but him. You shouldn't be thinking of anyone else when you fuck him anyway otherwise your marriage is fucked."
I laughed.
"You sure have a way with words, Sami."
"I know. The ladies love me for it," he said as he took a piece of paper out. "You know I sometimes do NXT, but mostly I still do the indies. If you need anything, give me a call. I pretty much set my own schedule anyway."
"Thanks, Sami."
"Don't thank me. Get over your fears. Jonny wasn't much for fears, and I never thought a child of The Undertaker would be either. My thanks will be you getting over those fears," he said as he stood up. "I gotta go. My ride is heading out. Thanks for doing this for Jon. The urn is perfect and the service was true to him. You really knew him better than you thought."
"Bye, Sami. I'll keep in touch."
A/N What will happen with Cassie and Roman?