Chapter 37: The Strays

Ten of these ~ is a time change

Four of these • is a pov change

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the wrestlers mentioned in this story, or anything pertaining to WWE and TNA. I am well aware that the ages of the wrestlers in this fic don't match the time period of the fic. (I found it more sympathetic and believable for them to be younger, and that they'd garner more pity with a greater age difference.) I also moved AJ and Punk's marriage up a year. It was necessary to my story. Sue me. Violence, disturbing torture, blood, angst, language, slash, smut, (in earlier chapters) non-con/rape (in earlier chapters, mentions of rape (earlier and later chapters)

SONG: THE STRAYS BY SLEEPING WITH SIRENS

Hubcaps and ashtrays,

••••

DIDJA MISS ME? Well regardless, I'm back again. After all, time didn't freeze after Punk passed out. I'm here once again to bridge the gap. Do you know that people call me crazy? Unstable, even? They write it on t-shirts, and make money off it! How dare they call me unstable! I'm obviously the sanest person Punk could find, otherwise, why would he let me write in his story? Uhm, don't tell Seth I said that… I don't care if my logic is flawed, I'm sticking with it. Well, let's get back to the action.

I was born but wasn't raised.

I've been sitting in the waiting room for hours with Seth. They won't let us in yet but I'll wait as long as it takes. He went off to the cafeteria to sift through the hospital food in hopes of finding something edible. I told him to go without me. I can't eat right now anyway. I'm too high strung. I bounce my knee nervously and stare at the generically colored linoleum floor below me. Too upset to play some mindless game on my phone, which I hardly even understand. Too distracted to walk around. Too worried to leave. Too disturbed to sleep.

The big wheel, the black space.

I hear soft footsteps and I turn in their direction, eager for some kind of reprieve from the crushing reality of this situation and my own thoughts.

Tried my best, but wasn't praised.

As soon as I see Chuck Taylors I jump to my feet. "AJ!" I exclaim, probably too loud but she surprised me. She looks upset. That's an understatement, actually, but I don't blame her in the least.

Hell is so close to Heaven,

She stops in her tracks and looks up at me. I'm over a foot taller than her, but I hardly ever notice. She has a big personality, but it seems small and desperate today. Some people become their gimmicks. Others' gimmicks become them. April and Punk are products of the latter, I'm a victim of the former. Either way, becoming a wrestler changes you.

Hell is so close to Heaven.

"What happened to him?"

Hold on,

"You don't know?"

don't look back,

"No one will tell me."

you know we're better, we're better than that.

I give her the information I know, staring at the ground.

"So you know he went missing on Sunday night. And Vince told us all that he went to visit troops overseas with Paul and Brock after their match, and that Hunter went along as an ambassador. We all thought something was up, cause your average village idiot knew that Punk hated Hunter, and he'd never willingly spend more time with him than was absolutely necessary. We also knew that he'd always tell you about something like that before it happened. Then he wouldn't answer his phone. That's all stuff we knew."

Lost and thrown away,

"But here's where it gets weird. I get this strange phone call from Hunter late on Tuesday night. He said somethin about how I needed to meet him in this alley, alone, and that the fate of WWE has come into question, something weird like that." I continue my staring contest with the hospital floor as I go on with my story.

you know we're better, we're better than that.

"And I automatically think 'isn't Hunter supposed to be overseas?', but I couldn't just say that, so I just said that I would."

We are the strays,

"There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask, but knowing Hunter, I figured he wouldn't answer any of them over the phone anyway."

we are the strays.

"I show up to this alley at the time he wants me to, and he gives me this insane scheme he has about wanting me to rape Punk."

Train tracks to the stage,

"Long story short, after a lot of threats and a very disturbing photograph, he gets me to cave and say that I'll do it. He leaves me with the address of the place and just goes. I have a freak out," I don't say panic attack. Not because I don't trust her, but because she has enough to deal with without concerning herself with my messed up childhood. "So I call Seth, and then I black out. One of the stipulations of the deal Hunter forced me into was that I couldn't tell anyone, especially not Seth."

play that role, the one you made.

"He came to get me out of that alley and we went back to our hotel, but the whole thing was eating me alive. Eventually I came to the conclusion that Hunter had no way of knowing whether I told Seth or not. Around the time I figured that out, I figured out that I didn't really have to do it. I talked it through with Seth, and that's when we came up with our plan. Their first mistake was giving me the address. Using that mistake, we saw that they'd have no way of knowing whether people followed me or not. The second was giving me so much time. We used that time to call all the people we knew who'd help, and get a miniature army together. The third and final mistake was leaving the door open. After I came into the house, they didn't lock it behind me. All I had to do was stall for a couple minutes until Seth came with the cavalry. Luckily, Punk catches on very quickly, and he was very helpful in the effort of wasting time. Unluckily, what I came upon when I got there, it was God awful."

Long nights and the worst days,

"Words can't describe the horrors that house contained. For one thing, it contained Jeff Hardy. They tortured them. Hunter and Paul, and at some point Brock, Randy and Kane. Not Glenn. Kane."

lived it all, but I didn't break.

"They kept him there for five days. I only wish I could've gotten there sooner. The rest, as they say, is history. "

When I look up again, there are tear tracks on her face and it crushes a little part of me. I sit down on a bench chair, one that's like two chairs attached to each other with no arm in the middle. I pat the seat next to me. "C'mere." She sits next to me and I put an arm around her.

Hell is so close to Heaven,

Between quiet sobs she asks me,

"You saved him, didn't you?"

"It wasn't just me."

"But you figured it out, right?"

"Yeah."

Hell is so close to Heaven.

She buries her face in my t-shirt and wraps an arm around my waist.

"Thank you. You saved my baby's life. Thank you." She whispers into me. I rub her back softly. I'd feel bad acting this way with my friend's wife if we were in any other situation. But we're not, and she needs someone who understands how she feels.

"We might be here until morning." She just cries softly. "We got him here around three in the afternoon, and I heard he needs surgery."

"Why?" It comes out muffled.

"The only people who could answer that are him, Jeff and the doctors."

"Is Jeff okay?"

"I don't really know. He's got his own support system here."

Hold on, don't look back,

"Do you know what exactly they," she swallows hard, "did to him?"

"I know what they did, but I really don't think you want to hear it. He can tell you himself if he wants you to know. That's not my place to decide. I do have somewhat of an idea what resulted, that I can tell you. From what the doctors told me, he's got a major concussion, 2nd and 3rd degree burns, a compound fracture of his left arm, he needed 15 staples in his head, some water in his lungs, bruised ribs and one fractured one. They really did a number on him, Ape."

you know we're better, we're better than that.

She nods as I list them off and cracks her knuckles listlessly, but I know she's still crying. I'm silent for a while. How did such shitty stuff happen to such good people?

"There's something you're not telling me. You know something I don't. I'm his wife, Dean. I want to know as much as I can about this." I didn't want to talk about the video with her. I thought it was more than she needed to know. It was more than I needed to know.

Lost and thrown away,

Goosebumps rise up on my skin as I try to figure out the right way to say it.

"We were all upstairs as they were putting Jeff in an ambulance. I came up the stairs with Seth and I saw a computer that everyone else missed. So, of course I check it out, because it's a weird thing in a weird house in a weird situation and I just wanted to get all the information I could. But it…" I trail off remembering that moment. It all happened so fast. I force down my own emotions for her sake.

you know we're better, we're better than that!

"I turned it on and I didn't touch anything else, but the moment it came up I knew it was a mistake." I shake my head and take a deep breath. "Because a sound came out of the speaker… it was him, AJ. Him screaming curses and just flat out screaming in pain. They took video of all the shit they did to him." I try not to get angry. She deserves the whole story, and I need to calm the fuck down and give it to her. "But the image was worse. It was Paul and Brock Lesnar. They had his hands tied up above his head and Brock was," I hesitate when her grip on my arm gets harder.

"Keep going," she says in a small voice.

We are the strays,

She's always been brave. She's a lot like him. It never surprised me that they ended up together.

we are the strays.

"Brock was whipping him with a belt. That's what I didn't mention earlier. I don't know how to put it into words, but his back is messed up. Really messed up. It went on for what seemed like forever. The sound of it was freaking Punk out, and I couldn't get it to turn off. So they get him out of there and into an ambulance, but uh… I had to watch the whole thing. Some more than just that video, too. Because I'm going to help him through what he needs to do as a witness at the trial, so I needed to know the facts. Fuck, I'd do anything to get that out of my head, though." She's in hysterics now, hard sobs wracking her small frame. Part of me says I told her way too much, and the other half says that given the choice, she'd've wanted the truth. I can hardly look at her after hearing those things Paul said about her. Hey, Punk, tell me; what's crazy gonna do when she finds out you like Jeff's pussy better than hers? You're so easy. Oh wait, no, that's AJ, isn't it? Disgusting. I squeeze her tighter to me and do what I can to comfort her. "It's okay, he's out now, he'll be okay, he'll be okay. He'll be real happy to see you when they let us in."

"Why him, Dean?" She whispers into me.

"I've been asking myself the same question." We sit there for a long time without saying a word. This is a lot to take in, and I haven't even processed it all yet.

"Is Brock going to get away with this?" She twists her head to look in my eyes.

"It's up to Punk, really. We have the evidence, it's just a matter of pride." Footsteps come from the opposite direction of where AJ came. I can tell before I look that it's Seth. I turn my head toward him. He's got two bottles of water and stares at his running shoes as he walks quietly over to us. He looks up when he gets close.

"Hey."

"Welcome to hell, Seth. We've been expecting you."

"What's wrong now?"

"AJ's here. She's not taking it so well." I whisper.

"Well, what do you expect?" His sits next to me and leans out to see her.

"How're you holding up?" She sniffs and lays her head on my shoulder.

"I've been better."

"Anything I can do?"

"Not unless you can tell me this is just a nightmare and I'll wake up soon."

My whole life they said I'd be nothing, well I'm something.

He bites his lip and looks down.

"I got you some water." He hands the bottles to me and I give one of them to AJ, taking a drink from the other and offering some back to him. He takes it from my hand and drinks a sip of it before capping it and putting it between us. He reaches for my hand and I take his, squeezing tight. He looks at me with those eyes and man, everything seems okay for a second. But it's not. I have a small conversation with him without saying a word. It expressed how much I wanted to hold him but that AJ needed us right now. He gets it. He usually does. I stare at the doors in front of me unwaveringly until a doctor comes through them that I recognize from before, but I don't remember his name. AJ straightens up when he walks in, and Seth squeezes my hand a little harder. He gives us a tentative smile and raises his eyebrows a little at AJ.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Bailey. Who might you be?" She stands up when he introduces himself, and he holds out his hand.

"I'm his wife." His smile fades a little.

"Well my condolences for what's transpired with your husband, Mrs. Brooks. I just came to tell Mr. Good and Mr. Lopez that I had an update on their friend. I'm sure you'd be interested as well." She sits back down and I put an arm around her. "His blood pressure was spiking out of control, the human body can only handle so much pain. So we had to put him under, and we're administering morphine in an effort to get it back to normal, and make him more comfortable, if we can." She bristles at the word 'morphine'.

"He wouldn't want to be on painkillers."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Brooks, but with the condition he's in there really is no other alternative. We have to perform surgery on his arm, but the earliest you'll be able to see him that he'll be responsive would be tomorrow morning." He gives her an apologetic look before returning through the doors. I rub her shoulder slowly.

"It'll be okay, he'll be okay."

And I would rather be the stray, than be nothing to no one at all.

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