They parked in front of a restaurant. Anise remained quiet the entire ride, only glancing out of the window every so often. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought she was keeping an eye out for Randy. He knew though, through all the traffic, that Randy couldn't have been entirely successful if he had followed them. Stephen turned off the car, looking her way.

"You okay?"

She nodded, speaking softly. "Yeah." She looked at him, smiling gently. "Thank you for that."

"Not a problem," he said, a soft laugh behind his words. "I'm always such a brave gentleman." He took her hand into his, patting it before letting it down again. "Shall we go eat now?"

"Please," she said in what was almost her normal voice. "I am starving."

"""""

"Where's Anise?" Jay asked the two ladies of Vivian and Stephanie. He threw his bag down onto the leather couch that adorned the room. Vivian was the first to look up at him.

"She went with Stephen to get some lunch."

"Good," Jay said, a nervous shake taking over him. "Good, good."

Vivian placed down her pen, worried. "Baby, what's wrong?"

He looked to her, running a hand over his short, blond hair. "Nothing. I just wanted her to stay with us. I thought she was with Shawn, but he told me he hadn't seen her since earlier."

"Shawn went back down to Florida," Stephanie informed him, not even bothering to look up from her paperwork.

Before Jay could speak again, Randy came barging into the room.

"The fuck are you doing here?" Jay got out, sparing no time in attempting to grab him.

"Jay!" Stephanie shouted as she shot up from her chair. "Paul!"

"You got some fucking nerve showing your face here again." Jay was barely held back by Stephanie. Vivian wrapped her arm around his abdomen, trying to pull him back from where Randy stood in the open doorway.

"Paul, some help please!" Vivian muffled out, her face smashed into Jay's back. When Paul finally came into the room, he pulled Jay back with a strong arm. Vivian stood straight, a flustered breath escaping from her. "Thanks."

"Randy, come on, man," Paul said, turning to face the man in question. "You had the chance to leave here and not come back. Be wise about it."

"Paul, I didn't come back to fight with Jay," Randy began, holding a hand up. "Or any of you, for that matter. I'm just... concerned... with Anise's behavior."

"Her behavior?" Jay yelled. "She was fine without you!"

"Jay," Paul said, swiftly turning to face him. "Go grab a coffee, calm down, and then come back up here to talk."

"Come on, honey," Vivian told him, speaking softly in his ear. "Come with me."

Paul and Stephanie watched the couple leave the room. Stephanie waited for the door to completely shut before crossing her arms over her chest, turning narrowed eyes to Randy.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing to her, Randy?"

Randy let out a heated breath. "I know this must be difficult for you all, but she's carrying my child. Steph, do you blame me for wanting to talk to her?"

"Well, she's not here," Paul told him. "And I think you know that considering you tried to make a scene in the parking lot."

He looked sharply at Paul. "I only wanted to talk to her," he said before he was quickly cut off by Stephanie.

"If you think for one damn second that we're just going to sit back and watch you hurt her, you're wrong." Her voice was oddly calm, but fierce. She pointed a long, manicured finger at him. "Jay may want to kick your ass, and believe me, I'd let him if we weren't on company time, but I promise you that the ass kicking you get from him will be nothing compared to the one you'll receive from me if you hurt her."

Paul stood in shock, keeping his mouth shut. He knew Randy had been burned, scorched even, by his wife's words. But after glaring at him for a quick minute, she too left the room. Paul saw Randy's jaw clench and unclench several times, and he could see the clear frustration that the younger man possessed. He thought for a moment, picking his words carefully as he ran a hand over his goatee.

"Listen," he started out slowly. "I know it seems like we're kind of... ganging up... on you, but you have to understand that she's our baby." He took a deep breath in. "And now, our baby is having a baby. We're just... surprised, to say the least."

"By someone that none of you approve of," Randy added, moving his head from his glare at the doorway to Paul in a snake-like movement.

"It's not necessarily that we don't approve of you," Paul replied, still carefully choosing his words. "It's more of the fact that, with how you've been around for a long time, you'd know better than to do this."

He turned to Paul completely, approaching him. "Than to do what? Paul, I couldn't help it. She captured my heart."

Paul held a hand up to the angry young man. "And believe me, I believe you. We all love her. She's very loveable. But, Rand, you knew that we were going to be protective. You had to know that. It's no secret that we strongly protect our kids."

"What do you think I want to do? I don't want to hurt her. I want to take care of her." He looked away from Paul, not wanting to show any weakness. "She won't let me."

"Give her some time, man. You know, hormones and such."

With that, Paul walked past him, lightly patting his broad shoulder before exiting the room.

"""""

"Are you alright?" Stephen asked from outside of the bathroom door. He heard her retch more before the sound of a flushing toilet filled the area. The bathroom door swung open, Anise stepping out, wiping her mouth with a wet paper towel.

"Yeah," she groaned out. "Just dandy."

"Glad this is a small restaurant, yeah?" He offered her a steady arm to lean on. "Why don't I take you back to the headquarters? I don't want to be the next one getting a beat down."

A light laugh came through, but it was quickly muffled with another strong pull of her stomach. She quickly placed the paper towel to her mouth, disappearing through the bathroom door again. He waited for her another few minutes or so before she emerged from the bathroom once more. This time, she felt more stable because she hooked her arm onto his, holding her head up high as they walked out to the rental car, making him laugh.

"I have no idea what made me so sick," she said once they were on the highway. "Thought I ordered something real simple."

"Might have been the other smells," Stephen said. He ordered the same exact thing she did, a plain hamburger with plain potato wedges, so as to make sure that nothing he ordered would offended her senses.

"Mmm," she simply agreed, her thoughts going to other things as she proceeded to stare out of the window. A part of her didn't want to go back to the headquarters. A part of her wanted to keep driving down the highway. But she wouldn't dare ask Stephen to do so. She knew he was busy, and adding to his plate was not something she wished to do. However, the man to her left that currently concentrated on carefully driving with the traffic, seemed to possess a calmness that she desperately wanted in her life right now.

Without even looking at her once in the few minutes that she was staring at his profile, he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking.

"We could just drive," he said, still not looking over at her. "You know, just cruise on down the highway, right into the next town."

"Not scared of that beat down?" she asked, a smirk twisting her lips.

"Nah," he said, looking at her through the rear view mirror. "I can take it."

"Drive on then," she said, waving a hand out in front of her.

"""""

"Randy, don't you think it would be smart if you left her alone now?" John asked as the packed their bags. "I mean, didn't you get what you wanted from her?"

Randy only glared at his friend. Obviously, Cena didn't know how serious it was. "If by that you mean a baby, then yes."

"A baby? She's pregnant?" John shook his head, whistling out a sigh. "Man, you're in deep now."

"And it's what I want."

"What about what she wants? She's a young lady, with the whole world at her hands. Do you really think she'll want to be tied down to you so early in her life?"

"John, come on," Randy replied casually. "I'm not destroying her life. Having a baby doesn't ruin your life. Do you forget I already have a daughter?"

"No," he answered, shaking his head again. "I haven't forgotten about Alanna, who by the way, is the same age as Anise." He zipped up his bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder. "Have you even told her about anything yet?"

Randy stopped in his tracks, not wanting to look up at John. He knew Alanna would be displeased with the entire situation. "I haven't spoken to her yet."

"Well, you really need to. She's going to have a little brother or sister twenty years younger than she is, I think she'd like to know about it." John continued cleaning up the area before shutting the lockers he'd used. "Anyway, I'll be on my bus if you want to talk about anything."

Randy nodded, somewhat relieved when he heard the locker room door shut. Truth was, he hadn't spoken to Alanna since their last falling out. She'd walked out of his house after seeing Anise there, and hadn't bothered to talk to him since. Although he knew how stubborn she was, he was hoping that she'd get over it enough to offer her support. Not that either him or Anise really needed it, but it would be nice if she cared a little to know her future sibling.

As his eyes ran over the items in his bag, he heard a knock at the door. Thankful for the distraction from his thoughts, he stood to answer it.

"Hey," the woman said. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, let me just grab my bag."

"I saw your little girlfriend leave with Stephen earlier," she told him. "Still having problems with her?"

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"Well, what did you expect," she continued ignoring his warning, "when you try to train a little girl to be a woman?"

Hoisting the bag strap on his shoulder, he approached her at the doorway. "This is where I inform you that you are not my woman," he said to her as he hastily pushed past her.

"What am I to you then, Randy?" she asked him as she continued to hold the door open with her body.

"A thing on the side," he bluntly said. "That will eventually end."

He turned from her, ignoring the gasp and infuriated mumbling from her as he started walking down the corridor.