Los Angeles, California was also known as the city of angels. It was a place where dreams could come true. Over a decade before, a young John Cena had traveled across the country from Massachusetts to L.A., hoping the allure and bright lights of Hollywood would forever change his life. They had. Many hard lessons had been learned on his own, including being forced to sleep in his car for a while but in the end, the experience had made a man out of him. It had given him the chance to make a name for himself in bodybuilding competitions and more importantly, it had been the stepping stone for opportunity that had eventually led him to the WWE. Now so many years and so many memories later, he was back.

The whole escapade had gone down like a top secret military mission. He, Ava, and baby Tristan had been flown first class from Tampa to LAX in the middle of the night. An unmarked car had whisked them from the airport to a classic luxury suite at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood. Monday morning and afternoon had been filled with secret meetings. John Cena had attended alone, engrossed in conversations with Vince McMahon as well as various other WWE execs. The whole point was to discuss his return. It was a choice John had not fully decided on but the end result seemed clear and imminent. He had spent long hours talking about it with his wife for weeks and by the time they arrived in L.A., John had been more than prepared to put all his cards on the table. His two demands or rather stipulations were simple…an on air public apology geared towards the recognition of his innocence and cleared name was the first thing. The second was a reduced travel schedule. He would agree to work weekend house shows on Saturdays and Sundays and any pay per views scheduled to occur in addition to the weekly live Monday Night RAW. Immediately after the show, he would be back on a plane to Tampa putting him home Tuesday through Fridays. Promotional appearances would be severely limited. Ava and Tristan would be allowed to travel with him at any time at least once a month and on all overseas tours. He would accept nothing less.

He had gone in the meetings preparing for a dog fight. Before his layoff, the most popular WWE Superstar in history had also been the owner of the most grueling schedule. At the time it had been fine, the nature of the beast but so much had changed since then. More importantly he was a new father and that was his biggest role to date. He was determined not to be an absentee father or husband…Ava and Tristan deserved better than that. Vince and everyone else would just have to understand. And to John's surprise, understand they did. The negotiations lasted all of ten minutes. John's requests were met with quick approvals and in the blink of an eye, it was all over and set in stone. The prodigal Superstar would return.

No one was to know that John Cena was in town. His debut would be one week away, giving the writers and creative team just enough time to piece together the perfect story for the comeback of the century. The city would be Phoenix and the return would be a total surprise. In order to pull that off, it absolutely could not be leaked to the press that Cena had been in touch with his former bosses. Everyone thought it odd that they were required to sign cryptic confidentiality clauses as soon as they showed up to work that afternoon at the Staples Center. A car pulled up in the same secret underground tunnel that had been used to transport Michael Jackson's coffin during his public memorial service. Pretty soon, it became crystal clear to everybody what the huge fuss was all about.

"Are you sure you're ready for all this, babe?" Ava looked up at him.

John sighed as he looked around. PAs running around like chickens with their heads cut off, bad food in catering, tired wrestlers showing up to put together their matches for the broadcast…it was a busy and chaotic scene but it warmed his heart. He was home and he had missed that chaos.

"This is where I'm supposed to be."

She smiled.

"No regrets?"

"No regrets," he answered with conviction. "You?"

"I believe in you, John. I believe in you and I am proud of you. I love you so much. I know this is what you want and standing here in this building in this moment, I know you made the right choice," she winked. "It's going to be okay."

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before they began the walk backstage. The former champ was noticed immediately and that was something that made John's stomach churn. How would they receive him? Did they really want him back or were they still immersed in doubt? Did they still respect him? Was he still one of them?

"Cena?" said the voice of a six foot six inch hulking Irishman, Stephen Farelly, known to the WWE Universe as Sheamus.

John swallowed hard and nodded, walking up to his former peer.

"How's it going, man?"

"So the rumors are true?"

"That depends on what you're hearing."

They were soon joined by the Viper, Randy Orton who just smirked at his friend.

"The word around town we're hearing is that you're back."

"Sounds like you're hearing right, then. It's still a secret but today we made the deal official."

A grin broke across Stephen's face as he extended his large hand.

"About time."

John shook it as Randy slapped him on the back.

"Damn right. Welcome back, man."

John breathed a sigh of relief. And then out of the woodwork, one by one, every WWE employee from production to the Superstars and Divas, walked up and welcomed him back with genuine smiles on their faces. It was a wonderful and comforting moment as he was surrounded by the people who had been like a second family to him. Aftera few seconds it was like he had never left. The minutes ticked on and on and the warm and heartfelt reunion continued for well over an hour. John was just as glad to see them as they were to see him. It was a great feeling again but he felt bad as he looked over in the corner at his wife who had politely stepped out of the way. He mouthed an apology but she just smiled at him. Ava understood. She was happy to be in the background. This was his night, his moment and more than anything she wanted him to enjoy it. Though he hadn't spoken much of it, she knew he had been worried about it. Now everything was okay. He was getting his career, his dream back and everything was going to be just fine.

"Hey Buddy, we missed you," Nattie "Natalya" Neidhart threw her arms around her friend.

Nattie was a third generation Superstar and one of the most formidable female wrestling talents the WWE had to offer. Originally from Canada, she had been living in Florida for years and had trained down at FCW. John Cena had opened up his home gym to the up and coming pros and Nattie had spent many a workout there receiving encouragement and support from John. He was like a big brother to her and she had been devastated when the charges had come about and John had been suspended and the WWE employees had not been allowed to contact or publicly support him.

"How's it going, Nat?" he hugged her back.

Tears filled her eyes.

"I am so sorry," she began. "What happened to you was awful. So many times I wanted to call you but I couldn't…I, we all felt terrible about that but please know, we never ever stopped believing in you, John…"

"It's okay, Nattie. I know."

He ruffled her blonde hair and she smiled, feeling a little better before turning over to John's better half.

"Ava, it is so good to see you."

"You too, Nattie. You look beautiful."

And she did just as she was about to go on for her match.

"I saw the pictures of the baby in Vanity Fair. He is so gorgeous, he is the perfect combination of the both of you. Is he here?"

Ava nodded.

"He's back at the hotel with the nanny. We're flying back to Tampa right away but we'll be with John next week for the RAW debut. Everything will be a lot less hush hush by then so everyone will get to meet our little guy."

"I can't wait," Nattie gushed just as a PA was ushering her to the Gorilla. "Listen guys, that's my cue but I'll talk to you soon. It was great seeing you both and John, welcome back. We really did miss you."

She was kicking off the show with a match against Eve Torres. Safely tucked away backstage John and Ava watched the show. There was an undeniable gleam in John's eye. He had missed that part of his life so much. Now he was back in his element, hanging backstage watching the action from a monitor. The crowd was pumped and ready to go. It took all John had not to run down that ramp right then and there. But he stayed in control the entire two hours or so. He said his good byes to everyone and promised to see them the next week before being whisked away again. In the back of the limosuine, he held his wife close.

"You okay?" she murmured, nuzzling his neck.

"I'm good. In fact, I haven't been this good in a long time. Everything…it's just falling into place."

"How was it tonight, being back?"

"Amazing. That's like the only word I can think to describe it. It's like coming home. I heard the fans tonight and their energy was crazy and it's hard to explain but it's like this light switch comes on inside of me. In one week I get to have that back. I really missed it, Ava…I didn't know how much until tonight. Wrestling is such a huge part of life. You and Tristan are my life and now…I'm just really lucky because I get to have the best of both worlds. It's pretty exciting."

"Yeah, it is. I'm happy for you, John."

They sat in content silence all the way back to the hotel. The limo pulled up to the front entrance of the hotel. John got out first and helped his wife out. It was a quiet night and he was looking forward to a nice evening and a hot shower. Afterwards, he would hang out with his wife and son and just count his many blessings. The serenity however was disturbed by four police cars and flashing lights.

"What the hell?" John mumbled.

"Think everything is okay."

"At a place like this? Yeah. Someone's credit card probably got nabbed or something like that."

He guided his wife into the elevator and up to their top floor penthouse suite. Hand in hand they exited when the doors opened only to be stopped by a uniformed officer.

"No one allowed on or off this floor," he informed them.

"But we have a room here. Our son is inside with the nanny," Ava protested.

Before they could speak any further, John's cell phone rang loudly. He looked at it and instantly noticed that the call was coming from inside the penthouse. He nervously looked at Ava before pushing his way past the guard. Ava followed suit, both shocked and open mouthed as their suite was crawling with law enforcement agents.

"What the hell is going on?" John demanded.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cena," an officer approached them.

"Where is Melanie?" Ava inquired in a panicked and high pitched tone, referring to the hotel nanny who had been hired to care for their son for the few hours they were gone. "Where is our baby?"

As if on cue, Melanie ran towards them. She did not have Tristan and she was white as a ghost, with wide tear streaked eyes.

"Melanie!" John ran towards her. "Where is Tristan?"

Her lips quivered as she spoke.

"I…I was only gone for a minute. I, I just went to the bathroom and when I came back, the baby…he, he was gone. He was just gone."

The words sent pangs of fear, despair, anxiety and sheer panic through the already worried parents. Those words were a mom and dad's worst nightmare. Then it hit John. For months he'd had those crazy dreams, the ones that haunted him because something awful always ended up happening to Ava and Tristan. It was a product of his overactive imagination and the stress had caused his mind to conjure up such atrocities so he knew he had to overcome it. He had although such negative thoughts always lingered in the back of his head. And now on what was supposed to be one of the greatest nights of his life, now he had received the most unbelievable and devastating news. His beloved son was missing. Gone. Dreams, even the bad ones, really did come true.