A/N: Hey guys, Mikaela here! Yep, that's right, I'm back. :) I know I haven't been around lately and Mel's been covering for me (you're the best, bud!) but now I'm ready to get back to work! So here's Chapter 38! :D
Chapter 38
"What do you mean, Mel's gone?" CM Punk demanded, springing off of the bed where he'd been laying watching TV.
"I went to take a shower and she was in bed, and when I came out she was gone!" Zack Ryder cried. "I only left her for five minutes...oh god, Punk, I'm such an idiot."
"It's not your fault, Zack," Punk said. "But I do know who's responsible for this. And it's about time he gets his ass handed to him."
Punk grabbed his T-shirt off the bed and strode towards the door, tugging it on as he went. "Let's go, Zack," he called over his shoulder as he opened the door.
"Where are we going?" Zack asked.
"To get my sister back," Punk growled.
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A knock on the door of Mikaela and Randy's shared hotel room woke Mikaela from the deep sleep she'd been in. She lay still, hoping that whoever was there would go away. But instead the knocking continued.
Randy groaned from beside her, and a few seconds later his arms left her waist. The bed shifted, and a wave of cold air hit her shoulders as he threw the comforter back. She whimpered and reached out, her fingers grazing the smooth skin of his forearm.
"Shh," he murmured, kissing her forehead softly and tucking the comforter back around her. "I'll take care of it, baby. Go back to sleep, I'll only be a few minutes."
She watched him pull his shorts on through half-closed eyes. She shivered; the bed felt cold and empty without him in it. "Why do you have to answer it?" she whined, stretching out a hand toward him. "Come back to bed."
"I'm just going to see who it is, and if it's nobody important then I'll come right back, okay?" he said.
"Fine," she pouted. "Go and answer the damn door. I don't need you anyways."
He smirked as she rolled onto her side so that her back was to him. She reminded him so much of himself. A slight frown flitted across his face at that thought. He wouldn't wish his hostile personality on anyone, especially not on Mikaela.
"You need me," he said, bending down and kissing the back of her neck. "You told me so."
"Mmmm," Mikaela grunted. "Just go and answer the door before they kick it down."
Randy frowned. She was right, the knocking was getting louder and more insistent. "I'm coming," he called as he walked towards the door, his irritation evident in his voice.
He scowled as he grabbed the doorknob. This had better be important.
He whipped the door open, and the last thing he saw was a baseball bat in mid-swing.
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Meanwhile, John Cena was with AJ in his hotel room. He was shirtless since he'd just showered, and she was sitting cross-legged in front of him, playing with the dog tags that hung on a delicate chain around his neck.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked him quietly, glancing up at him through her thick eyelashes.
"Everything," John answered, kissing her forehead gently. "Randy, Mikaela, Mel, Zack, Punk, Mike, Cody, us...just everything."
AJ reached up and stroked the side of his face lovingly. "You think too much," she informed him.
John smiled. "I'm thinking you're right," he murmured, resting his forehead against hers.
"I know being a leader is hard, Johnny," AJ said softly, looping her arms loosely around his neck, "but there's no one better suited for the job than you."
John rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. "Thank you, AJ," he whispered.
She just smiled and ran her fingers through his short dark hair. "I love you, John," she said, pressing a kiss to his temple.
"I love you too, AJ," John answered, wrapping his large arms around her tiny frame. "More than you will ever know."
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Mikaela screamed when she saw the bat come in contact with Randy's head. It all happened in the span of a few seconds. One moment Randy was standing there, and the next he was on the floor, holding his head and writhing in pain.
"Randy!" she screamed again, leaping out of bed and running towards him. Before she got there, however, she ran into something solid, and she looked up. Shock ran through her body when she met Zack Ryder's cold blue gaze. "Zack?" she gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Cut the crap," Zack spat, grabbing her arms and tugging her away from Randy. "You know why I'm here."
"What the hell are you–" She stopped talking when she saw CM Punk step into the room, the baseball bat resting lazily on his shoulder. He glared down at Randy, pure rage in his green gaze.
"Well, isn't it refreshing to see the almighty "Viper" down and out," Punk sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "It's surprising, really. I thought you'd have a little bit more fight in you than that."
"Go fuck yourself," Randy snarled, his gray eyes flashing.
"There it is," Punk said, and then he kicked Randy as hard as he could in the side. Randy let out an agonized moan, and Mikaela whimpered from where she was pinned against the wall by Zack.
"Punk, please, stop," she cried, her eyes filling with tears.
"You shut your goddamn mouth!" Punk yelled at her, pointing at her with the bat. "I've had it with your shit! My sister is missing because of you and him!" He gestured wildly at Randy, who glared at him murderously from the floor.
"Don't talk to her like that," Randy growled, trying to push himself up to his hands and knees, "or I swear to God, I'll–"
"You'll what?" Punk cut him off, nailing him with another kick to the side and sending him down to the floor again. "You'll go after my sister to get back at me again? Fuck you, Randy. Why did you have to take it out on her? Why not face me like a man?"
Randy coughed, his whole body shaking, and then he spat out a glob of blood.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Mikaela screamed at Punk. Watching Randy get the shit beat out of him was more than she could take, and seeing the blood had made her lose it completely. "If something happened to Mel, then we had nothing to do with it! We were here all night!"
"No," Randy rasped from the floor. He looked up at Punk, his gray eyes dull. "Mikaela had nothing to do with it," he told the Straight Edge Savior. "She doesn't even know about Mel. I did it all by myself. Do what you want to me, just please...don't hurt Mikaela."
Punk growled low in his throat and crouched down in front of the injured Viper, his face only inches from Randy's. "I won't lay a finger on her," Punk said in a low voice, "if you tell me where my sister is."
Randy clenched his jaw. A war that had nothing to do with Cena was raging inside his head. The voices were all whispering to him not to tell, to let Mikaela get hurt. Who cares? they hissed in his ear. She's nothing to us. Stick to the plan.
Just when he thought that they were going to rip him apart, he found a surge of strength, and his own voice cut through the others. No, he snarled. Mikaela is everything to me.
"She's in the old abandoned house a few blocks from here," Randy told Punk. "She hasn't been there for long, but I'd hurry if I were you."
"Thanks, pal," Punk said, sarcasm dripping from every word. He punched Randy in the side of the face, causing the Viper's head to snap to the side, and stood up. "Let's go get Mel," he said to Zack, who nodded and released Mikaela.
The two of them rushed out of the room, leaving Randy and Mikaela there. Randy slowly sat up, groaning at the wave of pain that washed through his battered body. Mikaela stood by the wall where she'd been pinned by Zack and watched, making no move to help him.
Randy looked up and met her blue-gray gaze. What killed him the most wasn't the fact that she hadn't tried to help him, however; it was the disappointment in those eyes.
They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, staring at each other, and then Mikaela finally spoke:
"What did you do?"
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Mel looked up at the sound of a car door slamming outside of the house. She whimpered into the darkness, thinking that Randy had returned. Her split lip stung, her headache was worse, she was freezing, but most of all she missed Zack. Her heart ached at the thought of him. If only she could see him one last time...
The door to the room flew open, and then she was engulfed in the warmest, most welcome embrace of her life. She gasped as the tears began to flow, and she buried her face into the chest of the man she loved more than anything in the world.
"Mel," Zack moaned. "Oh god, Mel..."
She felt his tears land on her shirt, and she clung to him as best as she could with her hands bound behind her back. "I missed you," she whispered.
"I missed you too, baby," Zack whispered back, his voice cracking. "Come on, let's get you home."
A/N: Well, there's 38! Man, it's great to be back. :D Don't forget to review (we're almost to 250! Holy crap!) and the next chapter should be up later tonight by Mel, so stay tuned! :D