"Gunner Keith and Gianna Kendall," Randy repeated as he nodded with a hand thoughtfully rubbing his chin. "I like those names. Let's go with that."

Their one-on-one time was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," Anise said with a smile on her face. The smile was widened even more when she saw who was at her door.

"I'm here to see some babies!" the rambunctious voice said.

"Jess! Gail! Oh, I'm so glad you're here!" She gratefully accepted hugs, as well as the balloons and gifts they had in their hands, from them as they settled into the room. "You guys didn't have to come just to see me."

"We didn't," Jessica noted as she looked towards the bassinets.

"Oh stop it, Jess," Gail told her, lightly tapping her shoulder. She turned towards Anise again as Jessica leaned in to look at the babies. "How are you feeling?"

"Just lovely," Anise said. "A little sore where the staples are."

"Ohh," Gail winced. "How did they cut you? This way?" She motioned with her hand from the left to the right on her lower abdomen.

Anise nodded. "I think that's the only way they do it now."

Randy remained quiet as the three women chatted amongst themselves. Both Gail and Jessica held the two newborns for a bit before they settled back into talking. He sat in the corner of the room, carefully listening to what was being said. His ears perked up as Gail whispered to Anise, Jessica joining in on the quiet talk. Surely they weren't doing it because he was there. Surely his wife didn't have anything to hide from him.

"You think you're going to come visit us on the road again?" Gail asked in a lowered voice.

"I'd like to. Shawn's doing really well. I may join him some time in the future."

"Well," Jessica huffed out. "After James, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't."

Gail hummed out a breath. "Talking about him... You know he asked me about you?"

Anise was shocked by Gail's words. "Did he now? About what?"

"Asked me how you were," she informed Anise. "Where you were."

"If you were coming back," Jessica put in.

Randy looked between the two other women before looking at his wife. If the silence didn't anger him, the look on her face did. James? He was certain that Anise was hiding something from him now. His mind thought back to the question that was still unanswered from Anise. He hadn't forgotten about it. There was no way he'd let that conversation slip from his mind. There had been a man flirting with Anise, and the fact that she refused to tell him who it was had been unacceptable to him.

But now he had some leverage as to who it was. He wasn't completely clueless anymore. Ears perked to their voices, he carefully listened some more. Anise had laughed, and he could see her hand waving around in the air.

"Isn't that just crazy?" she asked rhetorically. "Well, you both can report to him that I'll be way too busy with my babies to deal with anyone."

"Well," Gail sighed. "I'm so glad that you're doing good." She stood, giving Anise a hug. "I'm glad that your babies and healthy and beautiful. Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"You know we love you, girl," Jessica told her, leaning in for a hug as well. "We'll see you soon."

"I can't thank you two enough for coming. It means a lot to me."

Gail smiled at her, patting her arm. "Good luck, new mommy."

Randy was still sitting to Anise's side when the two women left the room. He watched as she grabbed her phone, tapping something out on it. He wondered who she was sending a message to.

"Randy?" he heard her soft voice say. "Can you give me the cards?"

He looked across the room towards the closet in the room. A plethora of flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, cards, and bags of he didn't know what lined the table that sat beside the closet.

"Sure, baby." He stood, briskly walking over and grabbing the cards to bring them back to her.

"Thanks."

Placing them down on the bedside table in front of her, his thoughts jumped from his mouth before he could stop it.

"The Storm guy," he said. She looked up at him, lips parted, cards forgotten for a moment. It wasn't a question. It was almost as if he was sure.

"Yeah," she said, bringing her attention back to her cards. "The James Storm guy."

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Why?" Her eyes looked up at him, a darkness crossing them. "Besides me catching you with a woman in the bed that we're supposed to share as a married couple – "

"I'm sorry about that, Anise."

" – it doesn't matter." She tapped her cards together so they stacked neatly. "I don't care that he asked me out to dinner. It didn't phase me then, and it doesn't now."

"It does matter, Anise. People need to know that you're taken now."

"Does that even matter?" she asked sarcastically. "When you're tossing someone else around our bed when I'm gone. I didn't do that to do. When I was without you, I didn't turn to anyone else."

He sighed. "I admit that I was wrong, but it was something that couldn't be helped."

"Couldn't be helped? Are you completely insane, Randy?" She wanted to get off the bed. To stand up and face him. "You have the same choices to make that I do. You chose wrong."

"What do you mean you have the same choices? Who's been breathing down your neck to get into your pants?"

Rolling her eyes, she waved her hand dismissively at him. "You really think that me ignoring guys means I've never been approached? Come on, Randy, you can't be that ignorant."

He stood straight up, his eyes focusing on his wife. "Who else?"

"It's not who that makes a difference," she told him. "What makes the difference is that I gracefully refuse any advances now. Clearly, you missed the memo on how to refuse getting your dick wet."

Anger set in Randy's jaw. She didn't care though. She was already in the hospital. He wouldn't do anything anyway, not here. She was almost thankful that they would be extremely busy with the babies. But then the reality of the situation hit her. It was sad to her that they would be brought into such a hostile home. Their father being unfaithful to their mother before they were even born. She didn't want to imagine her relationship with Randy becoming any worse.

"Do you want the bags?" he asked her as he moved back over to the table.

"Yeah, you can bring them over." Her golden eyes glanced at him while his back was turned from her. Disgust. Disappointment. Dislike. All these words could describe what she felt about him. However, as he turned around, hands full of frilly bags, those harsh feelings melted away. For a few moments in times like this, she saw the gentle side of him. As he balanced the bags, carefully placing half on the table in front of her and half on the bed next to her legs, he caught her eyes on him.

Those blue eyes would forever do something to her. She didn't know what, and she would never understand how they seemed to make her melt for him. All she knew now was that they landed her two children and a marriage with this man. Forcing herself to break from his stare, she turned her attention to organizing the bags.

"""""

Watching him with their babies felt like the most natural thing in the world to him. It was almost as if he were someone completely different. As if he were made to be a nurturing father and a doting husband. Sitting back in the rocking chair that was a gift from Linda, Anise kept her eyes on his every movement. Everything he did seemed to come so entirely natural to him, it almost made that desire to want to be with him flame up again.

Almost. Though it was refreshing to see the gentle side of him again, she knew it wouldn't last. In fact, nearly all of her family had that feeling. Vivian had offered to stay with her, but she gratefully refused. Anise knew that if Randy didn't treat her right, it was something that she would have to deal with. No one else could fix their cracked relationship. Randy would have to find it within himself to want to change.

"They look so calm when they're sleeping," she heard Randy's soft voice say as he looked over one of the cribs. She focused her eyes on his as he turned around to look at her.

"I still say she looks more like you," Anise whispered. She didn't even realize that he was walking up to her until he took a gentle hold of her hand, pulling her up to press against his body.

"I say she's gorgeous." His voice was low, rumbling, and stirring up her insides as he spoke. "Just like you."

She was quiet for a moment, looking into those near magical blue orbs of his. She wanted this to last forever. Feeling him pick up her hand to place a light kiss to the back of it, she wanted to cherish the tenderness of him. Her breath caught when his lips slowly brushed over hers. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath.

"Don't do this to me."

"Do what?" he questioned, confusion masking his face. He felt as if she didn't want to look at him, but then those golden eyes, with pain that haunted him within them, looked at him. He felt expose by her stare, down to the very core of his soul. He could just about feel the next words that came from her mouth.

"We can't be together."

His blood ran cold at her words, his eyes darting between hers. No way she was really serious, not after all they've been through. Sure she had threatened to leave before, but he knew she was never truly sincere.

"Anise," he said, a smirk crossing his lips. "You're tired, probably a little hungry, and you need to rest. Why don't you go lay in bed, I'll bring you some food, and then we can spend some time together?"

"No," she said, pushing herself out of his arms. "Randy, you're not listening to me."

"I'm listening, Anise. I'm just trying to take care of you."

"It's too late, Randy." Stepping away from him, she feverishly began to pace the room. "It's been way too late. We will never work out."

"Hold on, Anise," he said, attempting to take her hand again. "I promise you that – "

"A promise doesn't matter anymore." She refused him holding her hand.

"Well, what do you want me to do, Anise?" he asked, becoming angered at the way she was dismissing him so quickly. "I can only try my best to make you happy."

She scoffed, tossing him a disgusted look. "Like cheating on me made me happy?"

Before he could say anything, she walked past him and out of the the nursery room where the twins now slept peacefully.

"Anise," he said, exiting the room himself, carefully shutting the door behind him. "Anise, come here. Stop walking away from me."

She didn't stop though. She kept onward until she reached their bedroom. Mentally cursing the thought that maybe they could share a bed together, she shook her head. When she saw that woman with him just last week, he officially made this bed his own again.

"You clearly don't want me, Randy. You just liked the idea of me."

"The idea of you? What are you talking about?"

She spun around to face him, her loose honey-golden hair framing her beautiful face, and the gut-wrenching feeling that he would loose her completely twisted his insides.

"I want to go back to North Carolina," she began, ignoring his questions. "With the kids."

"Wait, hold up, you can't just take them away from me, Anise."

She paused for a second, looking down at the floor as if it would give her some answers. "So, we'll go to court."

"What?" he asked, craning his head towards her. "What was that? Court, Anise? What are you saying? You want a divorce? A divorce for a marriage that none of your family knows about?"

"It's not about them!" she suddenly shouted, moving closer to him. "From day one, you've only cared about what they thought! What am I, some sort of fucking title you can win from Vince McMahon?!"

"Anise, stop it!" He grabbed her wrist, preventing her from walking away from him again. She fought against him though, twisting her arm to escape his hold. "I said stop it!"

"No, Randy! Get off!"

The struggle between them surmounted with Randy pushing Anise down. She cried out as she hit the floor, screaming his name as he grabbed her arm again to pick her up. The rage in him prevailed, ruling over any rationality he had to reason with her. His mind blocked out her screaming... Blocked out her begging for forgiveness.

"You're mine, Anise," he rasped out. "You're not going anywhere. You're not doing anything. You're to do as I say. You're my wife and I'm your husband."

His words seemed so foreign to her. Husbands weren't supposed to treat their wives like this. They weren't supposed to hurt them, batter and bruise them. They weren't supposed to mercilessly beat them down until they remained just a hallow shell of themselves. Husbands were supposed to show love, care, and compassion. She may not have found that in Randy, but she knew it existed somewhere. It existed somewhere that she wasn't meant to go yet. Somewhere away from here, and away from Randy.

A/N: Very long, intensive story for someone on such a low level like myself. I was totally excited to write this though, and I still have some ideas brewing. Once again, and I can't say this enough, thank you to all the readers. You all are very awesome, and I can't wait to put out the third installment to this for you all. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed this. Thank you!